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Essay: Marketing research

23 July 202414 June 2012 by Essay Sauce

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MARKETING RESEARCH:

It is defined as the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of the data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company. .(Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller).

The marketing research process:

* Define the problem and research objectives.

* Develop the research plan.

* Collect the information.

* Analyze the information.

* Present the findings.

* Make the decision.(Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller).

This research can be divided into primary research and the secondary research.

The primary data is collected for a exact purpose and the particular objective. It is completely focuses on current research problem.

Secondary data is gathered from the published or non published sources in the form of periodicals, newspapers, magazines, journals, company reports, etc. It is collected earlier for some purpose other than the purpose of the present research study. It fulfil the needs of the primary data and saves valuable time, money, manpower, effort and other resources of the researcher required for the collection of (primary)data.

Secondary data is original in the practical nature as it is collected by someone for the other research(institute, research agency or individual).

A company can obtain marketing research in a number of ways. Most large companies have their own marketing departments, which often play crucial role in an organisation.(1994 survey of market research, edited by Thomas Kinnear and Ann Root)

VALUES OF THE SECONDARY RESEARCH:

* It saves lot of time, money and energy needed for primary data collection. It is always advisable to undertake secondary marketing research, to start with and if at all, findings of secondary marketing research are falling short of the practical requirements of the research, then alone primary marketing research should strictly be restored to.

* It acts as a reference for present research study.

* It also acts as a standard or a benchmark against which result on the present research study are happily compared.

* Level of consumer satisfaction.

* Impact of sales promotional measures.

* It provides a wide range of information irrespective of the research, hence it helps in finding the answers to the research questions. The report for the case study given has wide range of research in the UK market.

PROBLEMS OF THE SECONDARY RESEARCH:

� Does not meet our exact needs, it should be reliable or dependable in the sense that the sources from which it is drawn are proper and trust worthy in practical and nature, because based up on data standard references or conclusions are finally arrived at.

� The data provided by the secondary research sometimes is outdated, it fails to provide up to date information. It is said that knowledge becomes outdated every three months , and ideas and technology becomes old-fashioned everyday(Dr. Choradiya S.B., Avasarikar D.P., 2007). During the research of the case study provided the information given is up to 2008. However the current recession made world globally weaker in the market.

� Maybe the data provided by the secondary research is incomplete or inaccurate information, this leads to the failure in the organisation growth.

PRIMARY RESEARCH METHODS:

It involves the study of the purposely planned and focussed to fulfil the requirement of data for specific research problem. It is original in practical character and it is generated through a survey. ex: data collected in a population census by the office of the registrar general and census commissioner.

It focus on the current research problem, consuming of the primary data is basically a time taking task and it is relatively expensive activity. Various primary research methods are used in order to get meet the qualitative and quantitative primary data.

1.FOCUS GROUPS:

A focus group is a gathering of six to ten people who are carefully selected based on the certain demographic, or other thought and brought together to discuss at the length various topics of interest. Participants are normally paid a small sum for attending. Focus group allows the marketers to observe how and why customers accept or reject concepts, ideas, or any specific notion. The key to using the focus groups successfully is to listen.

Alsports can discover new segments in the coming London Olympics 2012 in order to increase its productivity.

2.IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS:

Depth interview is the most versatile method. The interviewer can ask more questions and trace additional remarks about the respondent, such as dress and the body language. In case of Alsports the depth interviews are not suitable for the market research why because it’s an expensive kind of research and requires more administrative planning and the supervision.

3.OBSERVATION:

Observational research takes market researchers close to the customers than ever before, we will learn the way they buy and live with our products in their daily lives. You will make decisions founded on realities.

�Building great brands means constantly fishing for new ideas with the power to move consumers”(Elizabeth Eller`s, Director, Brand Planning and Research, Grey Advertising).

Alsports can use the observation research to identify the customer desires with respect to their aspects.

4.SURVEY:

Companies undertake surveys to know about the peoples knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and happiness, and to calculate these magnitudes in the population. (Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller).

These surveys include face to face interviews, telephone surveys, postal surveys. Telephone interview is the best ,method for gathering information quickly; the interviewer is also able to clarify questions if customers do not understand them. It gets useful information for the research. But survey can miss some important information useful for the research, a survey conducted by the Alsports for the football wears can give a deep insight of this research.(Stokes D; 2000).

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND PRIMARY RESEARCH:

As of above discussed i will prefer the research objectives as the

* Focus groups

* Observations

* Surveys

Focus groups helps the marketer to identify the customer satisfactions and their desires on ideas. It includes the In-depth discussion on one topic. As mentioned earlier Alsports can project in to new approach like London Olympics which are going to commence in 2012. They can conduct the focus groups on the UK market strategies and the games which have got interest in the people. This will give them the deep insight of the customer concepts and their ideas. Then the company can look at the specific game they are going to choose. In UK, Rugby has got tremendous craze among the population, this allows the company to make the requirements to the game and what the players expect about the clothing and the footwear trends.

Observational research takes the marketers close to the customers than ever before, we will learn the way they buy and they live with our products in their daily life. It enables us to make decision founded on realities. Observational research helps us to find the position of their product in the market, research consisting of the survey stating the worth of the product, cost, elasticity etc. Alsports can begin a research about the customer feedback about their products available in the market. It enhances the company to improve further. Alsports can use the research in a way that getting feedback from the customers walk-in in the stores and shopping malls, getting accessed to the sales data’s.

Survey is the standard set of questions to a representative sample of the target group. This include face to face interviews, telephone surveys, mail surveys, postal surveys etc. We can analyse the outcome of the product in the minds of the customers through the survey research, mail survey is the best way to reach people who would not give personal interviews or whose responses might be unfair or misshapen by the interviews. Alsports can concentrate on the Fifa world cup and understand the demand for the football game in the UK market and analyse the needs of the players and the customers and what are their interests . Alsports can begin a research about the customer feedback about their products available in the market. It enhances the company to improve further.

REFERENCES:

* Dr. Choradiya S.B., Avasarikar D.P., 2007, Nirali Prakashan, Pune

* Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller(2006), Marketing Management; 12th edition; Published by Pearson Education, Inc.

* Stokes D., 2000, Marketing : A case study approach, Continuum, London

* Lecture slides by Prof. Paul Buckley, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.

* Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis, Adrian Thorn hill (2003), Research Methods for Business Students;3rd edition; published by Pearson Education Limited.