Marketing Research
Marketing Research
Marketing Research
Avoid ambiguity
Problem Definition Be specific but not too rigid
can be researched
5.4
SOURCES OF DATA
1. Primary Data
2. Secondary Data
5.5
Sources of Secondary Data
1. Organizations, journals and newspapers
2. Company’s Internal Database
The most common source of internal database is the sales call report,
sales territory information system and brand score cards.
The fastest growing usage of an internal database is database marketing.
database marketing can assist in:
1. Identification of most and least profitable customers.
2. Identification of attractive market segments and target efforts with
greater efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Evaluation of sales territories
4. Identification of new market opportunities.
5.6
Data Collection
A Researcher needs to be more clear on
Procedure of Data Collection
Tools for Data Collection
Data can be collected through any or combinations of
following techniques :
Observation – Observing what a customer is buying and
doing in the store.Involves how he behaves in the shopping
area,how he or she dresses up, & what the customer says
when he or she sees the product.
Experimentation- Experimenting with new product
ideas,advertising copies and campaigns, sales promotion
ideas,pricing and distribution strategies with the target
segment.
Uncontrolled Experimentation- Test Marketing the new
product and market strategy in the market environment with
all uncontrollable elements playing the role.
Data Collection
Controlled & Simulated Experimentation- Here the external
environment variables (specially competition) are controlled and
customer feedback monitored. Pre testing advertising campaigns or
with a select customer groups by showing the product & competition
advertisements of together are examples of controlled
experimentation.
Survey – Carrying out opinion polls involving customers, sales
persons, dealers, traders and experts. Customer and trade surveys are
also very common.
Focus Groups – This helps researchers to understand the
subconscious self of the customer
Tools of data collection
The tools are –
Questionnaire- used for the survey method
Interview Schedule – used mainly for exploratory research
Association Tests – primarily used in qualitative research.
Steps in Questionnaire Design
Preliminary issues like research objectives, target response, etc.
Conditions of questions
5.7
MARKETING INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM
Marketing Research provides information at a
specific time on customers, trade.competition
and future trends in each of these segments.
Components of Intelligence systems-
a) Customer Intelligence- Provides useful
information on a customers business,preferences
or loyalties,personal demographics details etc.
b) Competitor Intelligence – Gives information
on strengths/weaknesses of each territory, the
strategy/tactics used by them and how the
customer procures competitor brands.
5.8
MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Order generation, processing, delivery and
payment cycle.
Sales management information giving details
on firm’s sales, market share, profitability and
trends in each market.
Payment history
Orders Lost/Won
Brand Monitors
Distribution Audit Reports
Service Monitor Reports
Product Performance Reports
5.
Typically any such system provides a
perspective at three different levels.
Transaction processing / level
Transaction level information system is useful at the
sales person level
Managerial and operational level
Reports on performance branch, region and product,
sundry debtors status etc. form a part of managerial
and operation level information system.
Strategic level
National sales data, relative market, share, shifts in
customer preferences, competition in different
product / markets, receivables etc are information
used at the strategic level i.e. at the top management
level.
Decision making is a five step
sequence.
Source
Data
Predictions/
Inferences/
Generalizations Action
Values &
Choice
Warehousing
Data warehouse is an I.T architecture aimed
at storing and organising information in a
meaningful manner.
Consists of a set of programmes that extract
data from the operational environment like
reports on sales call, branch and regional
performance, product/brand customer
complaints, service call etc.
The strategy of data warehousing involves
providing data to the users in meaningful
manner which can help them to take an
operational and strategic decision.
Successful data warehousing involves
the following:
Providing information both to the operational and
strategic decision-maker
Data warehouse often supports analysis of
trends overtime and comparisons of current and
historical data.