SMU Marketing Research Ch-15

7/29/2019 SMU Marketing Research Ch-15

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UNIT 15 RECENT TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN

MARKETING RESEARCH

Structure

15.1 Introduction

Objectives

15.2 Marketing Information System and research

15.3 Virtual marketing

15.4 E- Marketing/Online research and their features

15.5 Recent trends in marketing research

15.6 Research in lifestyle retail

15.7 Role of social media in marketing research

15.8 Marketing research and social marketing

15.9 Research in rural marketing research

15.10 Trends in services marketing research

15.11 Consumer based brand equity research

15.12 International marketing research

15.13 International branding research

15.14 Summary

15.15 Glossary

15.16 Terminal Questions

15.17 Answers

15.18 Case Study

15.1 INTRODUCTION

In the previous unit you have learnt the various concepts of marketingresearch applications. You have studied advertising research, their need;media research; and copy testing. You must have learnt the detailed

Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 1

Marketing Management Unit 1


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description of sales analysis and forecasting; market potential etc. you havegained knowledge of how to estimate the current demand and forecasting,what are the methods of forecasting etc. you have also studied the conceptof data mining, their procedure and role in marketing research and themethod of market basket analysis by using the association and sequencingmethod. Now you will study the recent trends and developments inmarketing research.There are various trends and developments in marketing research whichincludes MIS, virtual marketing, online marketing and lot more. MIS is thesystem which helps in identifying the marketing issue and then helps indeveloping the marketing strategies of the organisation. Virtual marketinghelps in innovating new technologies and programmes for the development

of the business. Online survey is a term which means analyzing the latesttrends and collecting the related facts and figures for a particular research.Similarly there are lot more research developments you will study in thischapter.You will learn the relationship of social marketing and marketing research,role of social media in marketing research, concept of rural marketingresearch, consumer based brand equity research and role of internationalmarketing and branding in marketing research.

Objectives

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

describe the concept of MIS, Virtual marketing and online marketing

research

learn about the various trends in marketing research

explain the role of social media and social marketing in marketing

research

know about the concept of rural marketing and lifestyle retail

research

discuss the concept of international marketing and branding

research

CASELET

The most accurate research is done for pet food companies

because it is not possible to ask pets what they think, only observe

what they do. Such an approach is just as feasible with humans!

Economies of scale may be driving some research companies to




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harmonise their methodologies when conducting internationalmarketing research, but Nestl decided it needed more than just

traditional focus groups to understand why its products were not

thriving in Russia. It needed an ethnographic study of culinary habits

to help develop a unified marketing approach. Incorporating video

observation into a study of cooking habits by Russian housewives

enabled Nestl to sift out how people see themselves versus how

they really are. Nestls study, using a range of different techniques,

unmasked the myth of the creative cook interested in exotic recipes.

The food giant reviewed its product portfolio accordingly.

Source: Marketing Research An Applied Approach, updated Second

European Edition, by Naresh K Malhotra, David F. Birks, Prentice

Hall, Financial Times

Source:http://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e0a.htm

Activity

Divide the class into 6 groups of 6-8 students to each group. Give them asituation on which they can prepare a marketing plan. Like make a plan to

set up a new institute. Each froup select one of the following situations: Acting institute

Coaching students preparing for IAS examination

Fashion institute

Coaching institute for students preparing for IIT JEE

Karate and martial arts institute

Coaching Institute for GRE and TOFEL examination

Coaching institute for Common Admission Test of IIMs and othermanagement institutes

Discuss the needs of marketing of the proposed institute on the basis of :a) Before the set up of instituteb) After two years of set up of institute

How can the proposed institute collect the required information at bothphases? Describe in detail.Each group may discuss for 50 minutes. Subsequently, each group willmake a presentation to the class.

Note: Discussion time= 50 minutesPresentation time = 15 minutes for each groupQuestion time = 15 minutes for each group


http://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e0a.htmhttp://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e0a.htmhttp://www.fao.org/docrep/W3241E/w3241e0a.htm


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15.2 MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM AND RESEARCHMarketing research is the process of identifying a marketing problem,collecting and analyzing the information, suggesting remedial actions todevelop marketing activities of the organisation. It creates a link between theconsumer and the public to the marketer through information.

MIS consists of people, equipments and procedures which help to collect,analyse, identify and evaluate the accurate information to the marketingdecision makers. There are three components of MIS:

a) Internal Record Systemb) A marketing intelligence systemc) A marketing research system

Figure 15.1 T he marketing information systems and its subsystems

Figure 15.1 illustrates the major components of an MIS, the environmentalfactors identified by the system and the types of marketing decision whichthe marketer seeks for.

1. Internal record systemThis system provides the result databases of the network of the firm.These databases can be accessed more quickly but they may havesome shortcomings too such as incompleteness or may be wronginformation. The database includes the following information:




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Order to payment cycle of sales executives, dealers,representatives and consumers

Reports of inventory stock and current sales

databases of products details, personal information of customersand sales person

For example: invoices, inventory, consumer databases etc.

2. Marketing intelligence systemThese systems provide details of happening database competitors andalso keep track on the market development. The main objective of thissystem is to help the business firm in making strategic decision making.It helps in identifying the actions and strategies of competitors and givesa alarm of threat or opportunity to the business firm. The data in thissystem can be collected from:

Newspapers, magazines, articles, trade publications

Customers, dealers, suppliers and distributors

Internet via email addresses, blogs, social networking websites

Managers of the other companies

3. Marketing research systemMarketing research system is a process of designing, collecting,analyzing and reporting of data systematically and finding the relevantresults for marketing activities. It depends on the structure of firm how

to utilize this system. Large companies have their own R & Ddepartments to collect the information but the small firms have topurchase the data collected from outside the firms.

4. Marketing modelsMarketing models are the means of interpreting and analyzing theinformation in order to give direction to the decision. The various toolsused in the marketing tools are:

Elasticity models ( price, demand, income etc.)

ANOVA model

Discounting cash flow model

Sensitivity analysis model Time series related to sales model

Correlation and regression analysis modelThe above said models are those analytical tools of MIS that helps ininterpreting the results from the collected data. Some of the modelscontain probabilistic element whereas some models are deterministic innature where there is no chance plays any part.




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In todays world, geographic information system (GIS) is becoming astandard for the business marketing research. GIS is software of decisionsupport system. It is the process of storing, and analyzing the geographicalinformation. It allows the users to interact with the information on or from amap. This process is applied either on desktop or web based.

For instance, Tele Atlas (formerly GDT) gives information on street locationsand traffic, and Acxiom (www.acxiom.com) gives information on competitorsales and store locations.

Geographical information system is considered as the best analytical tool for

the business marketing research. Generally many firms use this system toidentify their existing and new potential markets, to keep track ofcompetitors strategies and to identify the various opportunities related tobusiness expansion and consolidation. The functions of GIS are:

Helps in creating interactive maps

Assists in integrating multiple sources of data

Helps in running powerful analyses

Self assessment questions

1. ______ creates a link between the consumer and the public to themarketer through information.

2. Geographical information system is considered as the best analyticaltool for the business marketing research. (True/False)

15.3 VIRTUAL MARKETING

Virtual marketing is used to define the services of various internet marketing

professionals. These services are the optimization of social marketing, web

design, development and optimization of the search engines. Recently many

ecommerce firms are innovating new technologies and programs for

development of their business. These firms design the professional websites

by using latest technology. They design every page of the website and add

more multimedia features also which gives a sophisticated look to the

professional website.

Depending on the demand of the customer, these ecommerce firms can

also add the audio videos to the websites. There is an ample space in the




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website for adding easy and quick words and phrases. These phrases help

the customer further to search for their content in your website. Some

special features related to downloading are also added in the website.

This procedure further helps the customers in creating and updating the

profile on regular basis. In initial stage for your assistance, expert will give

you all usernames and passwords.

These virtual marketing or e-marketing firms will also assist the business

firm in designing and developing their various marketing plans. Further

these plans will create efficient and effective business prospects for them.

Additional applications

There are many more applications of virtual marketing as follows:

Virtual marketing creates collaboration between retail partners and

the manufacturers.

Virtual marketing acts as an aid in terms of visualization for

professional sales force.

It also helps in creating the collaboration between suppliers and

manufacturers for designing and development of package and

product.

Virtual marketing helps the business firm in doing virtual store

displays to showcase products at different exhibitions, trade shows

or outside partners.


3. The ______ marketing expert designs your website in such a way so

that it becomes more interactive with the visitors of the website.




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4. Virtual marketing or e-marketing firms will also assist the businessfirm in designing and developing their various personal plans.

(True/False)

15.4 E-MARKETING/ONLINE MARKETING RESEARCH AND THEIR

FEATURES

A survey is a term which means analyzing the latest trends and collecting

the related facts and figures for a particular research. Online survey is one

of the latest survey styles. Online survey is conducted by using various

software and websites. This method is the best and easy option for

collecting information for the research study. Internet is the key factor that

helps in conducting online surveys. They help in providing the information as

well as crucial facts and figures.

In this competitive world, every business firm search for cheaper options to

reach their target customers. For this online survey is the best suitable

option for them as the marketing research overheads are very less. By using

online research survey, firms can reach the correct type of people andcollect the right response from them.

People should keep in mind that there are lots of fake websites in the

market who are only interested to shell out money from them. Thus only

legitimate online surveys should be opted by them.

Features of online marketing research

1 Low costs: The overheads of online marketing research are

comparatively lower than other traditional marketing research.

2 Automation: In this type of research, the process of collecting

information from respondents is very easy and simple. As when

respondents input their own data in the system, automatically it will




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be stored electronically. In this way, researchers can analysis the

data very quickly.

3 Flexibility: In online marketing research, any kind of survey can be

programmed even if they are very complex in nature. Design should

created in such a way that respondents may give only one answer

for single choice question which further helps in cutting down on

error.

4 Time saving: with online surveys, rapid deployment of online survey

is possible that can not be achieved by traditional surveys.

5 More convenient: Respondents can give their answers on their

schedule, at their own pace as they are not under pressure.

6 Limited sampling and respondent availability: certain population has

less accessibility to internet. Thus it becomes harder to draw

probability samples based on email addresses or website visitations.


5. Online survey is conducted by using various software and websites.

(True/False)

6. In this competitive world, every business firm search for ______

options to reach their target customers.

15.5 RECENT TRENDS IN MARKETING RESEARCH

Following are the recent trends in marketing research:

1. Personal Selling Research

This type of research involved direct selling by sales person bycommunicating the sales message through direct sales. This type ofresearch technique provides direct interaction between the customer andthe sales person. Communication through direct interaction with the




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customers can be more influential and adequate. This type of researchhelps improve the personal selling effectiveness.

2. Pricing Research

This type of research involve forecast for the:

demand of quantity of goods at various prices

competitors behavior and

Prediction of external and other variables.

Pricing research method gives us an idea about the competitors behaviour,market share, attitude of the dealers, etc.

3. Distribution Research

This type of research involves the physical movement of goods from themanufacturers to the ultimate consumers. Various channels like can beused for distribution of the goods.

4. Brand Image Research

The type of research may involve topography, color, package, design, etc.Stimulated demand is created by an image feature. Brand research shouldbe done keeping in mind that how the brand image can have a positiveimpact on the sales volume.

5. Computer Aided Research

To have more accurate and reliable data, a user friendly information tool /

software can be used for data analysis and decision making. Let us discuss

some of the software that can help us in marketing research:

. SPSS

SPSS( Statistical Package for Social Science) is the most predictive

software used globally. It is used by various researchers to improve the

business analysis decision making and data analysis.

. WINKSWinKS is an statistical package that helps in analyzing research data. Itcome in two versions, WINKS BASIC and WINKS Professional.


7. This type of research involves the physical movement of goods from

the manufacturers to the ultimate consumers. Name the research




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a) Distribution research

b) Brand image research

c) Pricing research

d) Personal research

8. To have more accurate and reliable data, a _______ information tool

/ software can be used for data analysis and decision making.

15.6 RESEARCH IN LIFESTYLE RETAIL

Lifestyle retail research acts as a wall between a numbers of traditionalacademic disciplines and social sciences in areas as different as retailing,marketing, consumer awareness, their health and social care.

The differences in the fields and disciplines with concern to lifestyleresearch create complexity in an already fast changing research area.Lifestyle retail research uses various multifaceted approaches keeping inconsideration of variety of business and academic conventions. Thisresearch mainly focuses on various subgroups of general population interms of age, sex, occupation, religion, behaviour etc.

In business research, this market segmentation of the consumer market

becomes the basis for lifestyle research. As the role of consumer indetermining the success of business becomes clear to the businesses,significance of lifestyle based market segmentation has also increased. Withthe help of consumer market segmentation, ongoing change in culture hasalso been identified. These changes created by lifestyle research act as akey source of information for strategic planning for the development ofsuccessful business strategy.

Key factors that affect the lifestyle retail research are:

Consumer attitudes

Consumer values

Individual versus group

Group coherence

Group interaction

Consumer choice




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In terms of business, lifestyle retail research is used to make classificationamong the consumers in terms of their pattern of purchasing, theirbehaviour, their choice of interest etc. Consumers also pay their attention atthe key factors of lifestyle retail research used to generate new product orservices.There is one important distinction point lies between research of causalrelationship between a lifestyle and their developing pattern of behaviourand health and changes in the lifestyle research by using an alternativepattern. Both these methods have fruitful implications for the businesswhether they directly influence the development or enhance the promotionof goods and services.

For example: Analyse the relationship between processed ready meal andshortage of time for cooking. A researcher search the answer for thequestion: does the shortage of time increase the demand for ready meals?Or does the ready meal availability facilitates some changes in the lifestylethat tend to mitigate against the "ring fencing" of time to devote tocooking?This example explains the relationship of cause, effect and othercontributing factors related to the retail lifestyle.


9. In _______, market segmentation of the consumer market becomesthe basis for lifestyle retail research.

10. Consumers pay their attention at the key factors of lifestyle retailresearch used to generate new product or services. (True/False)

15.7 ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING RESEARCH

Social Media plays a very important role in Marketing Research. It alsoprovides valuable leads about what your target market is thinking currently.With the help of Social Media large amount of useful and important data canbe available.

There are six reasons to enforce the social media in marketing research as:

Infinite Panel:Social Media allows a clear picture about the feelings, demands,expectations and conducts of 10 million persons in the whole consumersegments. Apart from forums and Panels there are no restrictions on size.Furthermore, information points out that more and more people are showingthemselves in social Media.




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According to a survey conducted by Nielsen, nowadays out of five internetusers four are busy in social Media, but they are very easy in expressingtheir feelings over a large number of issues.

The Infinite Survey:Social Media makes its very easy and simple for marketers to know theirtarget segments and the customer expectations from a marketer. In this weare having no limit on a particular topic and the type of survey questions onwhich we are conducting survey and the range of questions, topics andideas are not in limits.

Real Time:

Now a days it is very easy to understand markets and consumer needs inreal time than conducting the lengthy questionnaires or the traditionalmarket surveys. Beyond the new consumer perceptions, the real timebehaviour of social media makes it easy for marketers to get new insightsfaster

Revealing Hidden Insights:Surveys are having inbuilt limitations. You should know what to ask andwhen. Social Media makes it very easy for marketers to uncover concealedpreferences and the needs which are not met. The needs which are not methelp marketers to make product enhancements.

For Example, a car company may define the problem of a car in technicalpoints but at the same time a consumer will express the problems of a carlike its interior design, the quality of seats, the interior dcor etc. So thewider customer centric definition of a point is more effective forcompetitiveness.


11. ______ plays a very important role in Marketing Research.

12. Social Media helps marketers to listen to ______ who express

themselves in their own words.

15.8 MARKETING RESEARCH AND SOCIAL MARKETING

To make social marketing more effective, a research program must specify

its target audience and use very specific methods to become approachable

to those people. Further, social marketing does not believe upon the issue




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of educating people but uses convincing messages created through

research with the target audience members.

A social marketing research program fulfills the needs and wants of the

consumers. This can be done with the help of various marketing research

methods which further helps in collecting information about the target

audience. The methods included in this program are quantitative research

like consumer attitude, their knowledge, attitude and behaviour related

survey (KAB survey) and qualitative research like focus groups and

individual interviews.

The process of developing a social marketing program involves following

stages:

1. Planning

The first stage of this program becomes the foundation for other

stages. Identify the problem first that you are facing, measure the

target audience and assess the environment in which the program

will operate. To analyze all these factors and to apply the strategy for

effective change in behaviour, research method should be used. The

research can be quantitative or qualitative in nature.




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2. The message and materials development phase

In this stage information collected in planning stage are used to

design the messages to be conveyed. It also uses the resources and

materials that will transfer the messages to the targeted audience.

3. Pretesting phase

This phase use various methods to test the messages and proposed

tactics with the target audience members. These pretests help in

determining the best option to accomplish the objectives of the

program.

4. Implementation phase

In this stage, program is implemented to the targeted audience. The

program must be well prepared in order to get success and

implementation must be checked timely to ensure that every element

is working as planned.

5. Evaluation and feedback stage

In this stage, the whole program is reviewed to assess their effects

on society. In the end, feedback is used to improve the program for

the future.


13. Social marketing believe upon the issue of educating people but uses

convincing messages created through research with the target audience

members. (True/False)

15.9 RESEARCH IN RURAL MARKETING RESEARCH

Rural consumers are totally different from the urban consumers. Due to lowliteracy rate and very limited exposure of rural consumers to the newproducts and services, rural marketing research becomes more importantfor them.




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In most of the consumer research study you must understand the consumerin context of his environment and society. The Research in Rural Marketmust remove the shortcomings of respondent with low exposure and literacylevels. And the villagers will not comprehend the conventional marketingtools. A Specialist organization which is known as mart is having innovatedtechniques to conduct Rural Consumer Research.

Innovative Approaches to Research Tools:

If you talk about social research Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), this isa very successful technique. This tool is being used to know the consumerperceptions and social behavior.PRA is a type of approach which helps and

makes it easier for the rural community to enhance, analyse and share theirknowledge of their life and environment.

Some of the PRA applications are discussed below:

Social and Resource Map: This is a type of map which identifies

different community profiles of the rural India and their Social

Behavior.

A seasonality Diagram: This diagram is helpful or used to take

insights or information of the income and the spending pattern of

Rural consumers. This is also helpful in knowing the income andconsumption pattern of a particular group in rural India.

A Need Assessment Map: It can be developed for any introductory

or new product which is going to be launched and also helps us to

know about the issues associated with it.

A daily Activity Clock: It helps us to record social and Economic

activities in daily life.

More accurate visual tool was also created to record rating and responses

from the less literate. Large number of traditional rural practices has been amatter of approximate values because rural people find it difficult tounderstand numeric value and comprehend them clearly. In a studyconducted by MART many facts were revealed, such as more than 5become almost impossible for them to administer.

Finally to simplify all this MART has created a very simple tool to rate on ascale of 5 and those too using human expressions.




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For E.g. a Very Happy Face is used to denote 5 rating and a very sad faceis used to denote 0 rating.


14. The Research in Rural Market must remove the shortcomings of

respondent with low exposure and literacy levels. (True/False)

15.10 TRENDS IN SERVICES MARKETING RESEARCH

The following are the emerging trends in services marketing research as:

1. Data Streams Will Shift Researcher Focus

With the increase in availability of data streams that shows the behaviour of

the consumer, it is becoming increasingly important to understand such

sources. Real consumer activities can be easily tracked by the use of

various technologies which may lead to better marketing research.

2. Mobile Devices Will Shape New techniques and insights

With the growing need and use of tablets and smart phones, it will be

necessary for the researcher to know that how the customers use such

devices. Such awareness can help improve inconvenience levels and

maximize quality of data.

3. Information From shapeless Text will become more accurate

There are more new technologies that are yet to be made available so as to

analyse blogs, online chats, and updates at face book. Such technologies

will help availing real time insight data to the researchers that will be more

reliable as compare to the historical or collected data.

4. Completion Rates for Online Surveys Will Continue to grow

Surveys that are of larger duration (may be of more than five minutes) will

fall thereby reducing the quality and reliability of data due to random input

method.

5. Brands Will pace up Direct contact to Their Customers




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It is expected that larger brands will invest more on companies like as Facebook, Smartphone/tablet apps, so as to drive maximum sales from their

customers. This will in turn improve product innovation by way of taking

feedback from the customers.

6. New skills need to be developed

It will become increasingly important for the research professional to

manage large data base for which they may need to learn SQL and

SAS/SPSS at least.

7. New job opportunities will be available for the skilled MRprofessional

With the changing trends there will also be a great demand and new

opportunity for the market researchers that are seeking challenges. Also a

good compensation will be offered to the qualified and skilled market

researcher.


15. There are more new technologies that are yet to be made available so

as to analyse blogs, online chats, and updates at face book. (True/False)

16. It is expected that larger brands will invest more on companies like as

Face book, Smartphone/tablet apps, so as to drive maximum sales from

their customers. (True/False)

15.11 CONSUMER BASED BRAND EQUITY RESEARCH

Brands create value for their equity. In the marketing profession everyoneknows the importance of brand. In some cases brand can become a burdenalso. This is true to say that sometimes brand can be a value generator andsometimes it can be a value decreaser also. It helps the customers in

collecting, interpreting and storing the information of products and services.Brand acts as a key factor to enhance the confidence of the customers whiletaking purchase decision.

It is also important to know the level of customers knowledge in context with

brand. Everything related to the brand name is a key determinant of

consumer behaviour. The determinants are:




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1. Qualitative research is the main key factor or determinant for brandextension in consumer behaviour. This research helps in expanding

brand channels, usage limits between main and extended products

and enhances usage of similar or complementary products like shoe

polish and polish brush, tooth paste and tooth brush. This research

innovate new approaches to the marketing strategies like extending

brand pricing, promotion and brand equity extension.

2. The results of qualitative research should be quantified by

quantitative research.

3. Secondary analysis should be done to shortlist the number of

products and their categories that should be permissible per brandbeyond which extension would adversely affect the consumer

behaviour.

A weak brand can not survive in the market. There can be any cause for aweak brand; it can be lack of awareness, negative word of mouth marketingor lack of resources. Thus brand equity plays a significant role intransforming a weak brand into a reputed brand.

For example: in history, Toyota done a mistake and brought muchunwanted and negative publicity to their brands.


17. Brands do not create value for their equity. (True/False)

18. ______research is the main key factor or determinant for brand

extension in consumer behaviour.

15.12 INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AND BRANDING RESEARCH

15.12.1 International Marketing Research

In the 21st

century, the business in order to compete is facing the role ofmaking strategies that forecast and respond to the rapid change in

international markets. Consequently, the requirements of information

needed are changing and becoming ever more complex and diverse. More

firms are expanding their operations in new geographic areas to take first

mover advantage of growing opportunities. But for this they need to collect

information from a broader and more diverse range of markets. This

involves conducting research in unfamiliar and distant markets.




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Now let us discuss the basic steps in planning international marketingresearch:

1. Defining the objective of research: The clear and state definitionof objectives facilitates the researcher to identify the appropriatesources of information and select the suitable methodologies forcollection of information.

2. Finding out the information required: Determining the informationnecessary to solve the research problem. For example, if one of theobjectives is to find out the market preference for a new product, it isnecessary to work on specific kinds of information that will indicatemarket preference for product offered, so that research can beplanned to collect the required information.

3. Planning for methodologies and collection of information:different methodologies are used in marketing research for collectingdifferent kinds of information from various sources.

4. Actual collection of information from predetermined sources:Actual collection of data means planning of fieldwork for contractingrespondents or other sources appropriate for the survey.Respondent contact can be made either personally or via mail or

telephone or online, depending on the nature of research.

5. Analysis and interpretation of information: The field datacollected via various sources and methods are to be properly edited,analysed and interpreted in the context of the research objectives setout in first step.

6. Report preparation: After analysis, the information and datacollected through market research is summarized and presented inthe form of a report. The report generally contains findings of theresearch and comments and recommendations of the researcher.

15.12.2 International Branding ResearchBrands have an important role in a firm's international expansion. With theinternational expansion of markets and the increase in competition on aglobal scale, companies are progressively more expanding the geographicscope of their operations by setting up or acquiring companies in othercountries, or by entering into alliances across the national boundaries. Aninternational brand research is an important component of the firm's overallinternational marketing strategy. It gives a structure to leverage strong




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brands into other global markets and rationalize the firm's internationalbranding strategy.

Branding can help to establish a distinctive personality for the goods andservice and, thus significantly contribute to sales. Branding strategiesentails to be formulated in manner that they increase the sale. There arevarious branding strategies which should be decided considering therequirement of the international market. Companies from developingcountries like India have problems in marketing their goods and servicesunder their own brand because of reasons like resource scarcity andinformation gap. But there is scope for using Indian brands in internationalmarketing.

Some brands have become so popular all over the world that they areregarded as global, international or universal brand like Coca Cola, Pepsi,McDonalds, etc. Such expansion gives advantage in gaining share of theinternational market. For a brand to be international, it must have acommonly understood set of characteristics, benefits and appeal in all themarkets where it is intended to be marketed.For example lux marketed in India is different from the goods in other

countries. It is known that the alcoholic content, ofCoca Cola varies fromcountry to country depending on the local preferences and laws.


19. In _______ research, the marketer is facing a dilemma of having surplus

data but small information.

20. _______ can help to establish a distinctive personality for the goods and

service and, thus significantly contribute to sales.

15.14 SUMMARY

Let us recapitulate the important concepts discussed in this unit:

MIS consists of people, equipments and procedures which help to

collect, analyse, identify and evaluate the accurate information to themarketing decision makers.

Virtual marketing is used to define the services of various internet

marketing professionals.

Online survey is the best and easy option for collecting information

for the research study.




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WinKS is an statistical package that helps in analyzing researchdata.

In terms of business, lifestyle retail research is used to make

classification among the consumers in terms of their pattern of

purchasing, their behaviour, their choice of interest etc.

Brand acts as a key factor to enhance the confidence of the

customers while taking purchase decision.

In international marketing research, the marketer is facing a dilemma

of having surplus data but small information.

15.15 GLOSSARY

Infinite Survey: Social Media makes its very easy and simple for marketers

to know their target segments and the customer expectations from a

marketer.

Daily Activity Clock: It helps us to record social and Economic activities in

daily life.

Social and Resource Map: This is a type of map which identifies different

community profiles of the rural India and their Social Behavior.

Seasonality Diagram: This diagram is helpful or used to take insights or

information of the income and the spending pattern of Rural consumers.

Participatory Rural Appraisal: PRA is a type of approach which helps and

makes it east for the rural community to enhance, analyze and share their

knowledge of their life and environment.

15.16 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1. Describe about Marketing Information system and Research?

2. What do you mean by virtual marketing?

3. Discuss about E Marketing and their features?

4. Describe about Research in Lifestyle Retail?

5. Explain about the Research in Rural Marketing Research?

6. Discuss about the International Branding Research?




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7. Explain about Recent Trends in Marketing Research?

15.17 ANSWERS

Self-Assessment Questions

1. Marketing research

2. True

3. Virtual

4. False

5. True

6. Cheaper

7. A) Distribution research

8. User friendly

9. Business

10. True

11. Social media

12. Consumer

13. False

14. True

15. True

16. True

17. False

18. Qualitative




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19. International marketing

20. Branding

Terminal questions

1. Marketing research is the process of identifying a marketing

problem, collecting and analyzing the information,,refer 15.1

2. Virtual marketing is used to define the services of various internet

marketing professionalsrefer 15.2

3. A survey is a term which means analyzing the latest trends andcollecting the related facts and figures for a particular

research.refer 15.3

4. Lifestyle retail research acts as a wall between a numbers of

traditional academic disciplinesrefer 15.5

5. Rural consumers are totally different from the urban consumers

refer 15.8

6. Brands have an important role in a firm's international expansion

refer 15.12

7. Following are the recent trends in marketing research:refer 15.4

15.18 CASE STUDY

E-Marketing of TMS Refrigeration Ltd.

TMS Refrigeration Ltd, an existing Virtual Viewing customer, approached

the company early in 2007 for advice as to ways by which website traffic

could be increased to generate a higher number of sales leads and

opportunities for the company, which specializes in mobile refrigeration.

Virtual Viewing, mindful to work with the companys promotional budget,proposed a two-pronged approach:

instigating a Google AdWords campaign to give the site visibility in

search engine results listings




25/26

modifications to the sites Home Page to increase the sites relevancescores against Googles weighting criteria to further increase the sites

search engine visibility.

Virtual Viewing were able to work with the customer to identify the most

appropriate keywords and phrases for consideration, which we then

researched for cost effectiveness within Googles AdWords online

advertising mechanism.

We then incorporated the chosen keywords and phrases into the Home

Page design, wrote advertising copy and set up an initial AdWords

campaign on our clients behalf.

Results were immediate and impressive. In just four months:

the AdWords campaigns were seen by 87,696 Google users

1,395 of these clicked through to the website as a result.

two of the campaigns prepared by Virtual Viewing achieved response

rates of 6.06% and a staggering 17.67% in an advertising arena where 2%

is an above average performance.

Within three weeks of the campaign going live, Steve Smith of TMS

Refrigeration could already see a significant impact; I have not had a

chance to analyse the enquiries we have had since "going live" but my gut

reaction is that we have had a lot more enquiries and, subsequently,

bookings!

Source: http://www.virtualviewing.co.uk/case-studies/e-marketing/tms.html

Questions;

1. Analyse and Discuss about the case facts.

2. Describe about the E- Marketing Policies in TMS Refrigeration.

REFERENCES

Andreasen AR (1995). Marketing Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-

Bass Publishers.




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Prochaska JO, DiClemente CC (1983). "Stages and Processes of Self-

Change in Smoking: Toward an Integrative Model of Change." Journal of

Consulting Clinical Psychology, 5:390-5.

E-References

http://www.martrural.com/docs/knseries/Rural%20Market

%20Research.pdf

http://onlinesurvey.surveyshack.com/blog/bid/34826/Online-Market-

Research-The-Pros-and-Cons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Store_Research

http://nmincite.com/6-ways-social-media-is-revolutionizing-

marketing-research/


http://www.martrural.com/docs/knseries/Rural%20Market%20Research.pdfhttp://www.martrural.com/docs/knseries/Rural%20Market%20Research.pdfhttp://onlinesurvey.surveyshack.com/blog/bid/34826/Online-Market-Research-The-Pros-and-Conshttp://onlinesurvey.surveyshack.com/blog/bid/34826/Online-Market-Research-The-Pros-and-Conshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Store_Researchhttp://nmincite.com/6-ways-social-media-is-revolutionizing-marketing-research/http://nmincite.com/6-ways-social-media-is-revolutionizing-marketing-research/http://www.martrural.com/docs/knseries/Rural%20Market%20Research.pdfhttp://www.martrural.com/docs/knseries/Rural%20Market%20Research.pdfhttp://onlinesurvey.surveyshack.com/blog/bid/34826/Online-Market-Research-The-Pros-and-Conshttp://onlinesurvey.surveyshack.com/blog/bid/34826/Online-Market-Research-The-Pros-and-Conshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Store_Researchhttp://nmincite.com/6-ways-social-media-is-revolutionizing-marketing-research/http://nmincite.com/6-ways-social-media-is-revolutionizing-marketing-research/

Documents

SMU Marketing Research Ch-15