Services Marketing

7 Ps of a Market Research Firm

Submitted To Submitted By

Prof. Ashwini Sovani Deepika Samtani [08BS0000902]

Date: 15th June 2009 Maitri Banerjee[08BS0001598]

Mradul Raj Pachouri [08BS0001794]

 Services Marketing

INDEX

S.NO Topic Page No.

1 Introduction 3
2 Product 5
3 Price 9
4 Place 11
5 Promotion 13
6 People 14
7 Process 16
8 Physical evidence 21
9 Positioning 24
10 Packaging 25
11 Conclusion 26
12 Bibliography 27
13 Remark 27

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 Services Marketing

7 Ps of a Market Research Firm

Any marketing of service / product starts from first knowing the target market, need &
preference.

But besides information about the target market you also need information about your
competitor, your customers, products etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing
effectiveness.

For Products there are only four P’s but as we know there is issues of intangibility, so
for better defining your service 3 more P’s are introduced People, Process & Physical
evidence.

Especially in this recessive market when resources are low, no company wants to invest
its scarce resource without proper study of market. Market research is for discovering
what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once
that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product. It is
a boon for any company, any organization for taking any decisive action because future
earning depends heavily on these strategic moves.

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 Services Marketing

Once you've developed your marketing strategy, there is a "Seven P Formula" you
should use to conti nually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. These seven
are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning and people. As products,
markets, customers and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit these seven
Ps to make sure you're on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in
today's marketplace.

The service marketing mix comprises off the 7’p’s. These include:
•Product
•Price
•Place
•Promotion
•People
•Process
• Physical evidence.

Two extended P’s are:

Positioning
Packaging.

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Product

Potential Market Research Company’s product offering for their clients includes the
following:

Mystery Shopping- Mystery shopping or Mystery Consumer is a tool used

by market research companies to measure quality of retail service or gather
specific information about products and services. Mystery shoppers posing as
normal customers perform specific tasks—such as purchasing a product, asking
questions, registering complaints or behaving in a certain way – and then provide
detailed reports or feedback about their experiences.
Market Share Estimation- In this company wanted to know percentage of total
volume in a market captured by brand, firm or product. For any company Market
share analysis is very much crucial for knowing their performance over the years

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because once knowing that company can decide what strategy they should
formulate for taking a long term advantage.
Simulated Test Marketing- it is a market research technique in which
consumers are exposed to the staged advertisement and purchase decision to
observe their response for any new product.
Competitors’ Brand Equity - brand’s power derived from goodwill and name
recognition competitor has earned over time, which translates into higher sales
and higher profit margins against competitor brand is again a great area of
interest for many firms. By proper knowing the brand analysis of competitor,
company can better equip with the tools by which they can enhance their sales
by enhancing their brand equity.
Trade Studies – By the help of trade cycle and its property company can devise
a proper strategy for profit maximization by improving all the loopholes in way of
trading.
Positioning & Segmentation Studies – Proper positioning as well as
segmentation is again a very critical factor for any brand, Prod uct/Service or
firm’s success. Nowadays many good market research companies are providing
their excellent service in this field also.
Research on Sensitive/ Social Issues – when you are playing in market, there
are many sensitive/social issues which can harm your company and destruct all
your goodwill. For such critical issues companies can bank on these potential
market research firms.
Potential Estimation, Product & Concept Tests – Any New Concept,
Product/Service should be tested properly before hitting the market, so
nowadays market research firms has offering regarding this issue. Where they
can tell whether the product/ Service will be successful or not with a great
precision.
Usage and Attitudinal Surveys, Price Elasticity Analysis- any area or region
has different usage pattern, attitude, purchasing power, perceived value for any
product/ Service. So this is something very serious issue for any Company. Like

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 Services Marketing

earlier Macdonald was unable to understand Chinese market, buying pattern,

taste & preference, so initially Macdonald struggled a lot. But once Macdonald
acquired knowledge about these issues they can devise proper strategy as well
as customized product for Chinese market.
Advertising Research Studies (Pre and Post Research), Perception
Analysis, Corporate Image Study, Advertisement Effectiveness Analysis
- Any good company nowadays before going for any new advertisement goes for
market research about the impact of their advertisement because sometimes
your advertisement can produce a negative impact or zero impact which is a total
wastage of your resources. Like Electrolux tagline ―nothing sucks better than
Electrolux‖ used for Brittan could produced a wrong impression in American
Market because sucks is a derogatory word according to American culture. So
they had changed their advertisement accordingly for better effect.
Industry Analysis - A market assessment tool designed to provide a business
with an idea of the complexity of a particular industry. Industry analysis involves
reviewing the economic, political and market factors that influence the way the
industry develops. Major factors can include the power wielded by
suppliers and buyers, the condition of competitors, and the likelihood of new
market entrants.
Brand Research- Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of
these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it
from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of
credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer's mind. Thus brands help
harried consumers in crowded and complex marketplace, by standing for certain
benefits and value. Legal name for a brand is trademark and, when it identifies
or represents a firm, it is called a brand name. By analysis of brand company can
get real projection about their future earnings.

Consumer Research-Part of market research in which the preferences,

motivations, and buying behavior of the targeted customer are identified through

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direct observation, mail surveys, telephone or face to face interviews, and from
published sources (such as demographic data).
Competitive Environment Analysis- it is the Assessment of the difference
between a firm's performance and that of its competitors, and detection
and examination of the factors that cause the difference.
Applied Economic Research- Basically it is the Investigation of the findings of
'pure' or basic research on issues of economic functioning, to determine if any
company could be used to develop new products or technologies for their
betters. Also, the research conducted to solve specific problems or
to answer specific questions economically.
International Trade Relation Studies – Market research firms can advise any
company that which market is best for expansion by proper analysis of
international trade relationship with other countries.

Large Scale Data Collection-Data gathered from surveys, or input from several
independent or networked locations via data capture, data entry, or data logging.

Physical
Good
Features
Product
Warranties
Lines

Quality
Product
Accessories
Level

Packaging Branding

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 Services Marketing

They also give us error margin in their research work which gives us information
precision of study.
Creation of such powerful Products/Services is always critical for success of any
new venture as well as mammoth companies. Because this is something that not
only gives us measures for better managerial decision capability backed by valid
data but also gi ves us the way by which we can achieve success.

Pricing

Service providers of marketing research firms should price their services right (neither
too high nor too low) to attract customers. Some service providers offer tangibles like
books or gifts to improve their relationship with customers. Service providers also need
to invest on building the corporate brand, which conveys their image. Brand is another
tangible considered by customers before purchasing a service.

Price is one of the seven Ps of the marketing mix. Price is the only revenue
generating element amongst the 7ps, the rest being cost centers for any service
providing organisation and so for a marketing research firm.

In general Pricing is the manual or automatic process of applying prices to purchase

and sales orders, based on factors such as: a fixed amount, quantity break, promotion
or sales campaign, specific vendor quote, price prevailing on entry, shipment or invoice
date, combination of multiple orders or lines, and many others.

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 Services Marketing

Flexibility

Discounts Price Level

Price
Differentiation Terms

What a price should do for a marketing research firm

A well chosen price should do three things:

achieve the financial goals of the research agency/firm (e.g., profitability)

Fit the realities of the marketplace (Will client buy at that price?)
Support a services’ positioning and be consistent with the other variables in the
marketing mix.
o Price is influenced by the type of distribution channel used, the type of
promotions used, and the quality of the services that a marketing research
firm is providing.
Note:
 Price will usually need to be relatively high because the services
provided by the marketing research firms are capital intensive in
nature and so expensive, highly technical resources are used
(manpower), and the services are supported by extensive
advertising and promotional campaigns.

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 Services Marketing

 a low price can be a viable substitute for service quality provided by

the research firm, effective promotions, or an energetic selling effort
by distributors .

From the service marketer's point of view, an efficient price for the marketing
research firm is a price that is very close to the maximum that customers are prepared
to pay.

A good pricing strategy would be the one which could balance between the price floor
(the price below which the organization ends up in losses) and the price ceiling (the
price beyond which the organization experiences a no demand situation).

Example:

Neilson group provides their services customized to their clients at the client’s
acceptable price. Generally they provide flexible pricing & sometimes give some special
concession to their potential clients. Generally clients issue the tenders and every
market research firm quotes their price with offering. Then clients choose the best
offering which shows higher perceived value.

Place/Distribution

Services are produced and consumed simultaneously, which implies that services are
sold directly to the customer. For example, services like repair, medical care, legal
consultation, etc. do not have any intermediateries or distributors. However, there are
also other services like public utilities (electricity, gas, ration, mass transport etc), final
securities, travel and entertainment that require a middleman to distribute these
services to the customer.

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Channel
Type

Managing Intermediar
Channels ies

Place
Outlet
Storage
Locations

Transportation

Christopher Lovelock, in his book Services Marketing, has pointed to that the methods
of service delivery depend on the nature of interaction between the customer and the
service provider. There can be three types of interaction between the customer and the
service provider. There can be three types of interactions between these two parties

(a) The customer must visit the service provider as it is nearly impossible to deliver
these services at the customer’s doorstep e.g. air travel, health and beauty care,
fast food, public transport system, etc.
(b) the service provider goes to the customer’s location and
(c) Neither the customer nor the service provider has a physical interaction for
service delivery to take place, e.g. conducting surveys online through e-
Marketing.

Example. IMRB international, a pioneer in market research extends its footprint across
11 countries- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
Singapore, Malaysia, London.

METRIC a well known market research agency works with in 16 countries by applying
MOSTER as well as other specialized studies. The franchisees or service centers at

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different location consult METRIC for design of the survey, data analysis and
interpretation.

Promotion
Promotion means ―Advancement of a product, idea, or point of view through publicity
and/or advertising‖. Market research firms are involved majorly in B2B Marketing. So
their focus is towards big companies and their needs. They generally use all the Print
media which all are read by Top Executives like Economic Times, The Hindu and many
more. These firms are also involved in e-marketing, in which they use Customised
proposal, blogging, and advertisement on all the sites that are visited by top notch
executives. Sometime they also goes for Annual Report about economic, Market,
particular Industry and publish some critical or alarming facts so that they can draw the
attention of that particular market segment. Discounted scheme for Syndicate Data,
National Economic Indices are published so that they can Mark their strong presence in
the market. Sometimes company promotes that they are very much concerned with
their clients and they are in market to create a win-win situation.

Promotion
Blend

Sales
Promotion /
Publicity
Promotion Sales
People

Advertising

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They also associate themselves with B-schools nowadays so that they can increase the
Brand equity of their company & increase their future prospects. For example IMRB is
associated with IIPM.
Sometimes they also goes for conducting seminars on some critical problem that
market is facing and project that they have the solution to make any company
successful.

People

An essential ingredient to any service provision and so with marketing research firms is
the use of appropriate staff and people. Recruiting the right staff and training them
appropriately in the delivery of their service is essential in a marketing research firm if
the organization wants to obtain a form of competitive advantage.

Consumers make judgments and deliver perceptions of the service based on the
employees they interact with. Staff should have the appropriate interpersonal skills,
attitude, and service knowledge to provide the service that consumers are paying for.

Customers

People

Employees

Employees are an increasingly important part of service delivery for a marketing

research firm as they are involved in the interaction with the clients. Service oriented

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employees can provide a competitive advantage for the research firm. Marketers must
create programmes aimed at ensuring that employee behaviour embodies the brand
promise. The service manager should develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people
inside and outside of the research organization.

It's amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to
think through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then
pay little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out
by a specific person, in a specific way. Ability to select, recruit, hire and retain the
proper people, with the technical and analytical skills (specific to a marketing research
firm) and abilities to do the job you need to have done, is more important than
everything else put together.

Steps to be followed by a marketing research firm:

"Get the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus."

The second step is to

"Get the right people in the right seats on the bus."

To be successful in the field of marketing research, one must develop the habit of
thinking in terms of exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility. In
many cases, it's not possible to move forward until you can attract and put the right
person into the right position. Many of the best business plans ever developed sit on
shelves today because the [people who created them] could not find the key people
who could execute those plans.

Choosing the right customer is always important thing for any market research firm.
Choose only those customers from the same field in which you are master. Involvement
of customer is very necessary because your service should fulfill the needs of that
customer/Company. Once your study is done Sometimes Training or Suggestions for

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betterment is also your duty which should be done in a very careful manner, because
this execution part can either make them your loyal customer or

Process
Channelizing all efforts is very much important and every step should be aligned for
better functioning of any system. A market research firm has to follow certain process
so that they can provide better services. They have to first know the customer’s need
and then planning to provide them consultancy by the help of various tool of research
they are equipped. They choose these tools which suits with customer’s need.

Flow of
Activities

Process
Customer Number of
Involvement Steps

Whether you’re conducting marketing research to test a new market segment, product
or service or whether you’re conducting ongoing research to gather feedback from
customers, marketing research follows a set process.

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 Services Marketing

It’s the process that gets the best data (valid, accurate, reliable, timely and complete)
about your customers that we illustrated in an earlier diagram:

Stages of marketing research process

There are five steps in the marketing research process.

Problem Definition

Development of an
Approach to the Problem

Research Design
Formulation

Data Collection

Data Preparation and

Analysis

Step 1: Problem Definition

The first step in any marketing research project is to define the problem. In defining the
problem, the researcher should take into account the purpose of the study, the relevant
background information, what information is needed, and how it will be used i n decision
making. Problem definition involves discussion with the decision makers, interviews with
industry experts, analysis of secondary data, and, perhaps, some qualitative research,
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such as focus groups. Once the problem has been precisely defined, the research can
be designed and conducted properly.

Step 2: Development of an Approach to the Problem

Development of an approach to the problem includes formulating an objective or

theoretical framework, analytical models, research questions, hypotheses, and
identifying characteristics or factors that can influence the research design. This
process is guided by discussions with management and industry experts, case studies
and simulations, analysis of secondary data, qualitative research and pragmatic
considerations.

'Step 3: Research Design Formulation'

A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research

project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the required information, and
its purpose is to design a study that will test the hypotheses of interest, determine
possible answers to the research questions, and provide the information needed for
decision making. Conducting exploratory research, precisely defining the variables, and
designing appropriate scales to measure them are also a part of the research design.
The issue of how the data should be obtained from the respondents (for example, by
conducting a survey or an experiment) must be addressed. It is also necessary to
design a questionnaire and a sampling plan to select respondents for the study.

More formally, formulating the research design involves the following steps:

1. Secondary data analysis

2. Qualitative research
3. Methods of collecting quantitative data (survey, observation, and
experimentation)
4. Definition of the information needed
5. Measurement and scaling procedures
6. Questionnaire design

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7. Sampling process and sample size

8. Plan of data analysis

Step 4: Field Work or Data Collection

Data collection involves a field force or staff that operates eit her in the field, as in the
case of personal interviewing (in-home, mall intercept, or computer-assisted personal
interviewing), from an office by telephone (telephone or computer-assisted telephone
interviewing), or through mail (traditional mail and mail panel surveys with prerecruited
households). Proper selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the field force
helps minimize data-collection errors.

Step 5: Data Preparation and Analysis

Data preparation includes the editing, coding, transcription, and verification of data.
Each questionnaire or observation form is inspected, or edited, and, if necessary,
corrected. Number or letter codes are assigned to represent each response to each
question in the questionnaire. The data from the questionnaires are transcribed or key-
punched on to magnetic tape, or disks or input directly into the computer. Verification
ensures that the data from the original questionnaires have been accurately transcribed,
while data analysis, guided by the plan of data analysis, gives meaning to the data that
have been collected. Univariate techniques are used for analyzing data when there is a
single measurement of each element or unit in the sample, or, if there are several
measurements of each element, each RCH variable is analyzed in isolation. On the
other hand, multivariate techniques are used for analyzing data when there are two or
[2]
more measurements on each element and the variables are analyzed simultaneously.

Step 6: Report Preparation and Presentation The entire project should be

documented in a written report which addresses the specific research questions
identified, describes the approach, the research design, data collection, and data
analysis procedures adopted, and presents the results and the major findings. The
findings should be presented in a comprehensible format so that they can be readily

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used in the decision making process. In addition, an oral presentation should be made
to management using tables, figures, and graphs to enhance clarity and impact.

For these reasons, interviews with experts are more useful in conducting marketing
research for industrial firms and for products of a technical nature, where it is relatively
easy to identify and approach the experts. This method is also helpful in situations
where little information is available from other sources, as in the case of radically new
products.

Secondary data analysis

Secondary data are data collected for some purpose other than the problem at hand.
Primary data, on the other hand, are originated by the researcher for the specific
purpose of addressing the research problem. Secondary data include information made
available by business and government sources, commercial marketing research firms,
and computerized databases. Secondary data are an economical and quick source of
background information. Analysis of available secondary data is an essential step in the
problem definition process: primary data should not be collected until the available
secondary data have been fully analyzed.

Qualitative research

Information, industry experts, and secondary data may not be sufficient to define the
research problem. Sometimes qualitative research must be undertaken to gain a
qualitative understanding of the problem and its underlying factors. Qualitative research
is unstructured, exploratory in nature, based on small samples, and may utilize popular
qualitative techniques such as focus groups (group interviews), word association
(asking respondents to indicate their first responses to stimulus words), and depth
interviews (one-on-one interviews which probe the respondents' thoughts in detail).
Other exploratory research techniques, such as pilot surveys with small samples of
respondents, may also be undertaken.

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Physical evidence

Customers in the service sector attempt to take cues about the service provider's
capabilities and the quality of service offered from physical evidence. The major
elements of physical evidence include the physical environment, the modes and content
of communication, service personnel, the tangible elements accompanying the service
and the brand.

Facility
Design

Other
Equipment
Tangibles
Physical
Evidence
Employee
Signage
Dress

The layout of the service center, atmosphere and aesthetics constitute physical
environment. A well-designed layout, maintenance of appropriate lighting, music and
visuals, pleasant and attractive ambiance of the outlet ensure that customers enjoy their
service encounter. Placing signboards where needed and displaying the chart of service
charges helps customers serve themselves and improves their experience.

Physical evidence can be categorized into two types – peripheral and essential.
Essential physical evidence is provided by those tangibles, without which the service
cannot be delivered. Peripheral evidence is provided by those tangibles given out by

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service providers as gifts. The important benefits offered by physical evidence are
increased employee productivity, creation of good impression among customers,
increased credibility of the service provider, and differentiation from competitors,
effective management of service quality and repositioning of services.

Any marketing research firm uses Information Technology like powerful blogs, a well
designed portal, careful designed brochures with letters of appreciations from influential
clients, their logos. Marketing Research firm uses their resources in a very judicial
manner to reap the benefits. Every penny they invest is aimed or inclined for better
returns. They invest heavily for their front as well as back office employees and place
them according to their core competencies. They also used customized proposal to hit
their target customers. Generally Market Research firms deals with corporate clients so
they have a very great expertise in Grabbing, opening as well as closing any important
deals. A well formatted offering letter is very essential for winning the faith of customer;
Market Research Firms knows this and use this concept in a very good manner.

Powerful Blogging used by Nielsen group (Top Market Research Firm) for
involving Physical evidence as well as Promotion Factor

FDA Turns to Social Media to Create Transparency

Melissa Davies — Tags: FDA, healthcare, social media — melissadavies June 3, 2009 @ 2:04 pm

The FDA announced yesterday that it is launching a Trans parency Task Force, charged with ―making
useful and understandable information about FDA activities and decision-making more readily
available to the public in a timely manner and in a user -friendly format.‖ The task force will seek
public input on how the FDA can be more transparent, including identifying ―new technologies for
informing the public.‖ To this end, t here will be a public meeting on June 24, 2009, to solicit
recommendations. (more…)Comments (1)

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 Services Marketing

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Positioning

A research firm should develop the habit of thinking continually about how it is
positioned in the hearts and minds of the customers. How do people think and talk
about the company? What positioning it has in the market, in terms of the specific words
people use when they describe the firm and the offerings to others?

For a marketing research firm most customers in terms of a single attribute, either
positive or negative. Sometimes it's "service." Sometimes it's "excellence." Sometimes
it's "quality engineering," as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it's "the ultimate driving
machine," as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched that attribute is in the
minds of your customers and prospective customers determines how readily they'll buy
you service and how much they'll pay.

One should develop the habit of thinking about how he could improve the positioning.

For a marketing research firm:

Positioning means position the firms’ offerings (services) into the mind of the
prospective clients rather than position the offerings into a market place.

The following questions need to be answered first:

If you could create the ideal impression in the hearts and minds of your customers, what
would it be? What would you have to do in every customer interaction to get your
customers to think and talk about in that specific way? What changes do you need to

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make in the way interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best
choice for your customers of tomorrow?

Packaging
We should develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the
packaging of services through the eyes of a critical prospect. A marketing research firm
should Remember, people makes their first impression about you within the first 30
seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the
packaging or external appearance of your service can often lead to completely different
reactions from your customers. With regard to the packaging of the company, the
service, one should think in terms of everything that the customer sees from the first
moment of contact with the company all the way through the purchasing process.

Packaging refers to the way the service appears from the outside. Packaging also refers
to company’s people and how they dress and groom.

It refers to

Your offices,
Your waiting rooms,
Your brochures,
Your correspondence

And every single visual element about your company. Everything counts. Everything
helps or hurts. Everything affects your customer's confidence about dealing with you.

Packaging means how you define your service, any proposal can describe you service
offered, any pamphlet can tell customer about your packaging of service which will
cover all the information of tangible as well as intangible assistance you are providing to
your client. Market firm design their service offering in such a manner that for clients it’s
like revolutionary information which seems very important according to client’s point of
view.

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Conclusion: For any service industry all the P’s should be aligned with each other so
that an overall effective service can be created which should have higher perceived
value. Marketing Research sector is a big boon for any new as well as old mammoth
organization because this form of Business Intelligence can have a great impact on
success story as well as failure. Because as we know success has many fathers but
failure has many analysts, so this recessive market everyone need a good Business
intelligence support and act according to precise Market as well as customer need
rather than going by gut feelings. So this particular segment understands the needs of
customer and acting proactively for healthy and prosperous future.

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Bibliography

1. Marketing Research- David A. Aaker (9th Edition)

2. Service Marketing - Zeithaml
3. WWW.Metricconsultancy.com
4. WWW.Acnielson.com
5. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/

Remarks

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