Marketing Research6

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Classification of Marketing Research

Product Research Pricing Research

Advertising Research

Motivation Research

Sales Research


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Product Research

Component of market research whereby the characteristic of a good or service,

that will satisfy a recognized need or want, are identified. Developing anddesigning great products are keys to success in business. Anything less than an

excellent product strategy can be destructive to a firm. Top companies' focus on

few products and concentrate on maintaining a high level of quality for those

products to maximize the potential for success. For instance Honda's focus is

engines. Virtually all of Honda's sales e.g. autos, motorcycles, generators, lawn

mowers, are based on its excellent engine technology. Likewise, Intel's focus ison computer chips, while Microsoft's is on PC software.

However, most products have a limited and even predictable life cycle and

companies must be constantly looking for new products to design, develop and

take to market. Good operations managers insist upon strong communication

between customer, product, processes, and suppliers that results in a high

success rate for their new products. One product strategy is to build particularcompetence in customizing goods or services. This approach allows the

customer to choose product variations while reinforcing the organization'sstrength.


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Dell Computers, for example, has built a huge market by delivering computers with

the exact hardware and software desires by the end user. And Dell does it fast - it

understands that speed to market is imperative to gain a competitive edge. Many

service firms also refer their offerings as products. So while the term products mayoften refer to tangible goods, it also refers to offerings by service organizations. An

effective product strategy links product decisions with investment, market share,

product life cycle, and breadth of the product line.

The objective of the product decision is to develop and implement a product strategy

that meets the demands of the market place with a competitive advantage.

Goods and services selection is very important. How management selects those?

Marketers see product research as the first stage in Product Life Cycle Management.

Product research is a business and engineering term which describes the complete

process of bringing a new product to market. There are two parallel aspects to this

process:

1. Product engineering.2. Marketing analysis.

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Many organizations have product research methodologies that provide a standard framework

for planning and managing development efforts. If your organization doesn't have one, you

should consider using something like this one.

There are several stages in the product research process: -

Idea GenerationThe ideas for new products obtained from customers, R&D department, competitors, focus

groups, employees, or trade shows. The formal idea generating techniques include attribute

listing, forced relationships, brainstorming, morphological analysis, problem analysis and early,

rapid prototyping.

Idea Screening

This involves eliminating unsound concepts. One must ask three questions:1. Will the target market benefit from the product ?

2. Is it technically feasible to manufacture the product?

3. Will the product be profitable ?

Concept Development and Testing

This step includes developing the marketing and engineering details:1. Who is the target market ?

2. What benefits will the product provide ?

3. How will consumers react to the product ?

4. How will the product be produced ?

5. What will it cost to produce it ?

One should also test the concept by asking a sample of prospective customers what they think

of the idea.


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Pricing ResearchPricing research has been proven to be highly valuable in helping many

companies determine when the price is right. And when the price is

right, profit soars. Virtually all pricing research designs fall into one ofessentially three types: monadic measurement, comparativemeasurement, and declarative measurement.

Monadic Measurement- Each respondent reacts to one, and only one,

price point.

Comparative Measurement- Each respondent reacts to two or more

price points

Declarative Measurement- Each respondent volunteers a maximum (or

acceptable)price.

Pricing research will help you understand what your customers are

willing to pay up front, and you can make more profit table design

decisions.


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Monadic measurement is, however, a statistical luxury. It requires a larger sample

and thus, a larger budget. And where the universe of decision-

makers is relatively small, monadic designs are, frankly, not an option, even where

money is no object. Because monadic samples tend to be smaller, the result is an

increase in the sampling error around our estimates and reduction in statistical

reliability. In fact, monadic designs can produce what look like irrational price

curves because of slight response variations across groups that are attributable to

sampling error.

In monadic designs, each respondent is exposed to one, and only one, price point

for any given product. In comparative designs, each respondent is asked to react totwo or more prices. And in declarative designs, each respondent is asked (for one or

more than one product) to volunteer his or her own price --one that is maximum

and/or reasonable, acceptable, etc. Note that comparative testing is not to be

confused with a design that asks customers to choose between Product A at one

price and Product B at another.

The following are the price testing techniques to cater to the specific needs.

Gabor Granger

Customers are asked if they would buy a product at a particular price. The

respondents are exposed to the price in a randomized manner and are again asked

if they would buy or not. The technique helps understand the price elasticity for the

product by working out what levels of demand would be expected at each pricepoint price .


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Sensitivity Monitor (PSM)This technique helps one identify the acceptable range

of prices in the minds of the consumer and determine whether the price is set too

low (creating suspicion about quality) or too high (offering poor value for money).

Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint Analysis is a technique that allows one to understand how people make

trade-offs between different products and services and the values they place on

different features. By understanding precisely how people make decisions and

what they value in a product or service, one can work out the optimum level of

features (including price) and services that balance value to the customer against

cost to the company.

Brand Price Trade-Off (BPTO)

BPTO is a variation of the Conjoint Technique, where several brands are shown atonce and the customer chooses the preferred option. The BPTO determines the

impact of price increases and decreases on the sales of the brand. It is also

capable of providing the response to competitors' changes in price and provides

an analysis of gains and losses. The BPTO technique also helps in understanding

how much premium a brand can charge.


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Motivation Research

Motivational research is a type of marketing research that attempts to explain why

consumers behave as they do. The application of the knowledge and techniques

of the social sciences, especially psychology and sociology, to understandingconsumer attitudes and behavior: used as a guide in advertising and marketing.Motivational research seeks to discover and comprehend what consumers do not

fully understand about themselves. Implicitly, motivational research assumes the

existence of underlying or unconscious motives that influence consumer behavior.

Motivational research attempts to identify forces and influences that consumers

may not be aware of (e.g., cultural factors, sociological forces).

Typically, these unconscious motives (or beyond-awareness reasons) are

intertwined with and complicated by conscious motives, cultural biases, economic

variables, and fashion trends (broadly defined).

Motivational research attempts to sift through all of these influences and factors to

unravel the mystery of consumer behavior as it relates to a specific product orservice, so that the marketer better understands the target audience and how to

influence that audience.

Motivational research is most valuable when powerful underlying motives are

suspected of exerting influence upon consumer behavior. Products and services

that relate, or might relate, to attraction of the opposite sex, to personal adornment,

to status or self-esteem, to power, to death, to fears, or to social taboos are alllikely candidates for motivational research.


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For example, why do women tend to increase their expenditures on clothing and

personal adornment products as they approach the age of 50 to 55? The

reasons relate to the loss ofyouths beauty and the loss of fertility, and to related

fears of losing their husbands' love. It is also a time of life when discretionary

incomes are rising (the children are leaving the nest).

Other motives are at work as well (women are complicated creatures), but a

standard marketing research survey would never reveal these motives, because

most women are not really aware of why their interest in expensive adornments

increases at this particular point in their lives.

Even benign, or low-involvement, product categories can often benefit from the

insights provided by motivational research. Typically, in low-involvement product

categories, perception variables and cultural influences are most important. Our

culture is a system of rules and regulations that simplify and optimize our

existence.

Cultural rules govern how we squeeze a tube of toothpaste, how we open

packages, how we use a bath towel, who does what work, etc. Most of us are

relatively unaware of these cultural rules. Understanding how these cultural rules

influence a particular product can be extremely valuable information for the

marketer.


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The three major motivational research techniques are observation, focus groups,

and depth interviews. Observation can be a fruitful method of deriving

hypotheses about human motives. Anthropologists have pioneered the

development of this technique. All of us are familiar with anthropologists living

with the natives to understand their behavior. This same systematic observationcan produce equally insightful results about consumer behavior.

Observation can be accomplished in-person or sometimes through the

convenience of video. Usually, personal observation is simply too expensive, and

most consumers dont want an anthropologist living in their household for a

month or two.It is easier to observe consumers in buying situations than in their homes, and

here the observation can be in-person or by video cameras. Generally, video

cameras are less intrusive than an in-person observer.

Finding a representative set of cooperative stores, however, is not an easy task,

and the installation and maintenance of video cameras is not without its

difficulties. In-store observers can be used as well, so long as they have somecover that makes their presence less obvious. But, observation by video or

human eye cannot answer every question. Generally, observation must be

supplemented by focus groups or depth interviews to fully understand why

consumers are doing what they do.

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The Focus Group

The focus group in the hands of a skilled moderator can be a valuable

motivational research technique. To reach its full motivational potential, the

group interview must be largely nondirective in style, and the group must

achieve spontaneous interaction. It is the mutual reinforcement within the group

(the group excitement and spontaneity) that produces the revelations and

behaviors that reveal underlying motives. A focus group discussion dominated by

the moderator will rarely produce any motivational insights. A focus group

actively led by the moderator with much direct questioning of respondents willseldom yield motivational understanding. But the focus group is a legitimate

motivational technique.

The Depth Interview

The heart and soul of motivational research is the depth interview, a lengthy (oneto two hours), one-on-one, personal interview, conducted directly by the

motivational researcher. Much of the power of the depth interview is dependent

upon the insight, sensitivity, and skill of the motivational researcher. The

interviewing task cannot be delegated to traditional marketing research

interviewerswho have no training in motivational techniques


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Advertising Research

This type of research allows companies and advertising agencies to evaluate

many advertising creative concepts at different stages before production in order

to identify a winning concept and prevent the investment of many man-hours andproduction resources in ineffective advertisements.

This kind of research can also be used at the early stages of Web site

development when the concept of the graphic design for the home page is

emerging.

Benefits of Advertising Research

Asses an ads ability to create awareness, generate leads, and increase

conversion

Measure how effective different ads are at drawing attention, build brand image,

elicit emotion, communicate a message, etc.

Pinpoint weak elements within an ad and how to improve its performance

Identify elements that can be part of an integrated ad campaign using differentmedia

Provide a framework for the creative/design team, allowing them to create

effective ads

Allow to explore different creative concepts before production

Indicate which creative elements and content appeal to different target segments


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Need for Advertising Research

The role of research in advertising can be seen in various stages of

advertising planning. First what should be the objectives of advertising.

Research would enable the company to be clear in its objectives of

advertising. Second advertising research should be used for developing

a strategy for marketing the product in question.

The selection of the target audience can be facilitated by advertising

research. Another aspect where research can be useful is the selection

of message that an advertisement should carry and through what media

it should be conveyed.

Research has to concern itself with the evaluation of advertising in order

to find out whether the expenditure on advertising has been justified or

not.


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We combine qualitative and quantitative research methods to capture

brand awareness, advertising awareness, brand recognition, slogan

recognition, brand image, unaided and aided message recall, brand

purchase behavior, media usage, and the impact of design and graphic

elements when appropriate.

When several creative concepts are tested we can identify not only the

most preferred ad, but also the one with the greatest potential to capture

the audiences attention in a crowded media environment. It is called an

adsshock value.

An advertising research study dealing with Santoor a brand of toilet soap

was done by Ravi Menon and Ashotosh Sinha. Simulated Test Marketing

(STM) methods were used to choose between two alternative advertising .

Santoor was launched in 1986. In early 1989 a relaunch of the brand was

being contemplated.


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The advertising agency Ulka came up with two alternative appeals for

advertising:

Young Skin: to have youthful skin. Three alternative ads the were developed for

the youngskin concept. Of the three alternative ads foryoungskin, one ad(i.e.

bookshop) was found most appealing.


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Sales Research

Analysis of actual sales results. Sales research enables a company to

identify the areas where its sales performance has been good ormediocre, customers who have bought in bulk, products with high and

low sales volume etc. A systematic comprehensive periodic sales

analysis will be helpful to a company to reinforce its sales effort where it

is most needed.

Sales Research by Product

Sales Research by Customers

Sales Research by size of Order


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Future of Market Research in India

The market research industry is 35 years old and its turnover is

about Rs 325 crore. In the last few years, the market has beengrowing at about 10%. However, with the liberalization of more

industry sectors, this growth rate will accelerate. Market

research in India has been focused more on fast movingconsumer goods (FMCG) and consumer behavior. There has

been growth beyond the traditional FMCG research (though it stillaccounts for the big chunk of research expenditure). In my view,

outside of the traditional packaged-goods business, the most

significant growth area for the market research industry in India

in the last few years is the media measurement business. Next

would be auto, telecom and healthcare sectors that have started

spending much more on market research in recent times. The

durable industry is also increasing spend. Lastly, customer

satisfaction in all industry sectors is a growing segment for

market research.


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India is falling behind is in the area of use of technology for data

collection. That is because most of the technologies used for data

collection in the advanced world today are internet and telephone

based. With low internet penetration and teledensity we have no choicebut to continue to do face-to-face interviewing along with paper and

pencil method of data collection.

The market research in India is having a bright prospect because of the

competition among the marketers and manufacturers. There are a lot of

companies coming in India to establish a business because of the huge

potential in Indian market due to its consumption theory. So there are

more requirements of Healthcare Research Services in India in coming

days. But the future of the market research could restrict on the

databases and social media. Most of the companies are today

demanding for the databases of the target customers so that they

directly approach them.Growth rate of Smart phones and Tablets Smart phones and Tablets

will be used in greater proportion than desktop devices by consumers

in 2013.


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Direct consumer communications and advertising via mobile devices will

continue to grow rapidly and will often utilize social media and location-based

services. High-margin revenue generation will occur in this segment of themarketing industry because of huge demand upon consumer engagement, and

for market research.

Growth rate in market research industry in India - Quantitative Research in India

and Secondary Research Services in India can witness a growth rate of more

than 12% in 2013, irrespective of global recession.

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Marketing Research6