Marketing research must provide correct information that reflects a real state of affairs. It might be objective and may be conducted impartially. Though analysis is influenced by the researcher’s philosophy, it ought to be free from personal or political biases of the investigator or the management. The investigator ought to never gather and analyze information to please show the opinions of the management. Since the aim of research is to act as an aid to deciding for the management, the more unbiased and accurate such information is, the more correct would the decisions be.
It is also vital to recollect that marketing research can solely act as a tool for aiding the decision-making. It will never give the choice itself. The judgment of the manager, his expertise and other factors would supplement the data gathered from research. Marketing research provides the proper information at the proper time in the right place and to the proper person, which is very important in decision-making. It helps the choice maker in numerous ways. There are two major reasons for this objective: (i) the increased complexity of business environment (ii) the increased complexity of decision makers.
1. The increased complexity of business environment: The study of complexity of business environment can be studied in four parts:
1. Technology changes,
2. Research and development,
3. Product changes,
4. Information Technology changes
The Technological Changes:
The technological changes comprises of factors associated with knowledge applied and also the materials and machined used in the production of products and services. These changes have an impression on the business of an organization. In India, we all know that the state of technological development varies among completely different sectors of the industry.
Research and Development:
The exciting rate of technology changes pacing through all kinds of industry is due in large part to increasing expenditures for research and development. Despite the engagement of few corporations in research and development and that too in a few areas, the impacts of those expenditures are felt by all. Not solely product and supporting operations have become a lot of complicated however the life cycles of products also are being shortened.
Product Changes:
Technological advances ensuing partially from research and development, partially from growing customer sophistication, have resulted in the third reason of complexity – product changes. Whereas the marketing manager of time had bigger probabilities of his or her product ideas changing into marketable, today’s manager must upset the staggeringly high product mortality.
The Information Technology Changes:
The changes in Information Technology (IT) have profound impact upon the quality of management and organizations. The marketing managers apprehend that the power to get, store, process, retrieve, and show the proper information for the right decision is significant.
2. Increased Quality of Decision Maker:
What are the new techniques that built 1990s the era of a systems approach? In the past, marketing managers have cared to solve problems as isolated things, independent of other operations of the corporate.
SCOPE FOR THE MARKETING RESEARCH: Marketing research is the function that links the consumer with the organization through information and involves a systematic and objective search and analysis of information that can be used for evolving some marketing decisions. The function of marketing research is to look at the particular decision area where research results are used.
Sales Analysis: Sales analysis considers types of consumers that constitute the potential market, size and location of the market, growth and concentration of the market over a certain period of time, purchase habits of key market segments, the consumers’ preference to buy some particular brands.
Sales Methods and Polices:Marketing research studies focus their attention to evaluate the effectiveness of the present distribution system likely to be used in establishing or revising sales territory boundary, compensation to sales forces, physical distribution and analysis of cost of distribution cost.
Product Management: Every marketer tries to formally or informally utilize information to manage the existing and new products and examines market feedback about competitive offerings. Marketing research studies have been conducted to monitor the performance of the test brand launched in the selected market.
STRENGTHS OF MARKETING RESEARCH: 1. Marketing research is used to measure market potential, characteristics and share of markets for a particular brand or company. 2. It helps in obtaining information that could lead to the formulation of short ad long-range forecasts.3. Companies can use marketing research to evaluate new product opportunities, its acceptance and to test existing products relative to competitors’ products. 4. Marketing research helps to make better advertising decisions. 5. It also helps to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing activities ad draws attention to a potential problem. 6. Marketing research is helpful in planning questionnaires to test comprehension work norms, the memory factor, etc.
LIMITATIONS OF MARKETING RESEARCH: 1. Not similar to science: Although marketing research uses the techniques of science, it is not an exact science itself. The results obtained are not accurate as compared to physical and chemical sciences. 2. Uncontrollable variables: Political, legal, technological and social variable are uncontrollable from the standpoint of the individual marketing decision maker. The results are affected if these variables change. 3. Human tendencies: Consumers, dealers, wholesalers, retailers, etc., are the basic constituent on which marketing research is carried out. Human beings act artificially when they are targeted for research work. Many aspects of human behaviour affect the results of marketing research. 4. Marketing research is considered to be wasteful activity in India. As a result, organizations do not allocate resources for research purposes. Time and money still remains the main limitation in all types of marketing research and discourages researchers to put in their best efforts. 5. Lack of Technology & computerization: Computers are usually not used in research work as it is costly and there is lack of proper training. If computers are used widely, they will reduce the time taken for analysis and research results can be produced much faster.
It is also vital to recollect that marketing research can solely act as a tool for aiding the decision-making. It will never give the choice itself. The judgment of the manager, his expertise and other factors would supplement the data gathered from research. Marketing research provides the proper information at the proper time in the right place and to the proper person, which is very important in decision-making. It helps the choice maker in numerous ways. There are two major reasons for this objective: (i) the increased complexity of business environment (ii) the increased complexity of decision makers.
1. The increased complexity of business environment: The study of complexity of business environment can be studied in four parts:
1. Technology changes,
2. Research and development,
3. Product changes,
4. Information Technology changes
The Technological Changes:
The technological changes comprises of factors associated with knowledge applied and also the materials and machined used in the production of products and services. These changes have an impression on the business of an organization. In India, we all know that the state of technological development varies among completely different sectors of the industry.
Research and Development:
The exciting rate of technology changes pacing through all kinds of industry is due in large part to increasing expenditures for research and development. Despite the engagement of few corporations in research and development and that too in a few areas, the impacts of those expenditures are felt by all. Not solely product and supporting operations have become a lot of complicated however the life cycles of products also are being shortened.
Product Changes:
Technological advances ensuing partially from research and development, partially from growing customer sophistication, have resulted in the third reason of complexity – product changes. Whereas the marketing manager of time had bigger probabilities of his or her product ideas changing into marketable, today’s manager must upset the staggeringly high product mortality.
The Information Technology Changes:
The changes in Information Technology (IT) have profound impact upon the quality of management and organizations. The marketing managers apprehend that the power to get, store, process, retrieve, and show the proper information for the right decision is significant.
2. Increased Quality of Decision Maker:
What are the new techniques that built 1990s the era of a systems approach? In the past, marketing managers have cared to solve problems as isolated things, independent of other operations of the corporate.
SCOPE FOR THE MARKETING RESEARCH: Marketing research is the function that links the consumer with the organization through information and involves a systematic and objective search and analysis of information that can be used for evolving some marketing decisions. The function of marketing research is to look at the particular decision area where research results are used.
Sales Analysis: Sales analysis considers types of consumers that constitute the potential market, size and location of the market, growth and concentration of the market over a certain period of time, purchase habits of key market segments, the consumers’ preference to buy some particular brands.
Sales Methods and Polices:Marketing research studies focus their attention to evaluate the effectiveness of the present distribution system likely to be used in establishing or revising sales territory boundary, compensation to sales forces, physical distribution and analysis of cost of distribution cost.
Product Management: Every marketer tries to formally or informally utilize information to manage the existing and new products and examines market feedback about competitive offerings. Marketing research studies have been conducted to monitor the performance of the test brand launched in the selected market.
STRENGTHS OF MARKETING RESEARCH: 1. Marketing research is used to measure market potential, characteristics and share of markets for a particular brand or company. 2. It helps in obtaining information that could lead to the formulation of short ad long-range forecasts.3. Companies can use marketing research to evaluate new product opportunities, its acceptance and to test existing products relative to competitors’ products. 4. Marketing research helps to make better advertising decisions. 5. It also helps to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing activities ad draws attention to a potential problem. 6. Marketing research is helpful in planning questionnaires to test comprehension work norms, the memory factor, etc.
LIMITATIONS OF MARKETING RESEARCH: 1. Not similar to science: Although marketing research uses the techniques of science, it is not an exact science itself. The results obtained are not accurate as compared to physical and chemical sciences. 2. Uncontrollable variables: Political, legal, technological and social variable are uncontrollable from the standpoint of the individual marketing decision maker. The results are affected if these variables change. 3. Human tendencies: Consumers, dealers, wholesalers, retailers, etc., are the basic constituent on which marketing research is carried out. Human beings act artificially when they are targeted for research work. Many aspects of human behaviour affect the results of marketing research. 4. Marketing research is considered to be wasteful activity in India. As a result, organizations do not allocate resources for research purposes. Time and money still remains the main limitation in all types of marketing research and discourages researchers to put in their best efforts. 5. Lack of Technology & computerization: Computers are usually not used in research work as it is costly and there is lack of proper training. If computers are used widely, they will reduce the time taken for analysis and research results can be produced much faster.
ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED IN MARKETING RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
The 10 largest marketing research organizations in the world, according to the website swcollege.com/marketing/mcdaniel/mcdaniel_student/research_firms.html are: 1. A.C.Nielsen, 2. Cognizant Corp. 3. Information Resources, Inc. 4. The Arbitron Co. 5. PMSI/Source Informatics6. Westate, Inc. 7. Martiz Marketing Research, Inc. 8. NFO Research Inc. 9. The Kantar Group 10. The NPD Group
The largest and most well-known marketing research organizations in India are:
1. ORG-MARG 2. IMRB 3. T.N. SOFRES MODE 4. GALLUP MBA
There are many more agencies that are into marketing research in addition to these big companies. A full service agency does complete projects including field work, tabulation, analysis and reports / presentation and some agencies may do only field work or only computer data entry and analysis. Most big organizations in this field have formal or informal collaborations with global research agencies.
In addition, many foreign research companies have entered India recently. They usually have an Indian partner to assists them in understanding the special features of the local market and consumers. Then, there are some specialized agencies which do specialized work. For example, J.D. Power and Associates is a global company (no.20 in the world according to the website quoted above) that specializes in customer satisfaction surveys for automobiles. With the recent spate of automobile models being launched in India, there ratings will assume increasing importance. Other types of research companies, which do specialized types of research such as Simulated Test Marketing or Data Mining have also entered India, and could increase their base in times to come. Many of the front line agencies do some specialized work such as retail audits, consumer panels, TV audience research and so on.
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