Market research

Market research is a systematic objective, collection and analysis of data about a target market, environment or competition. It is a process by it incorporates some form of data from the secondary source i.e. from desk research and primary research i.e. direct from a respondent. Market research is for discovering what customer need, want or believe or how they act on the product or service. After doing market research the organisation determines how to market specific product or service. The organisation undertake a market research for to 1. Product generation 2. Product improvement and embellishment 3. Product testing and refinement 4. Customer Targeting 5. Sales forecasting 6. Packaging and advertising design 7. Point-of-sales display displays and procedure

To get a various information organisation undertake market research Information about market Information about product Information about pricing in the product Information about promotion in the market Information about distribution in market.

By the help of market research the organisation can get an answer of the following question. Customer will buy or nor or how often? How much the customer is willing to pay? What types of customer are interested? Where/ which place should the product or service be sold?

Organisation will get information on Market segmentation Market trends Target market

Market research is a fundamental element to do a marketing decision. Company shouldnt make a big decision without information about customers, competitors and channels. If a company is developing a new product or service the company should use various data to help to know the size of the market. After launching a product or service a company should need a data on a characteristic of the earlier buyers and their post use altitude. This market on research information will help the organisation to know its market target and the programme of the marketing. (page no 97-98 on FAQs on marketing, Philip Kotler) Market research indicated opportunities for the product and market development. Company can identified the opportunities. The organisation can get information to reduce uncertainty. In the process of research product ideas is obtained without expenses of launching in the market. The main thing is that market research provides objectives explanation for success and failure in the market. The strength and weakness of the product and threats analysis result is gain by which company can make a future decision.

The methods used by organisation are Existing internal data Surveys Focus group or group discussion Experiments are used in frequently (http://www.atheuk.com/resources ) (Ref 4) To do market research organisation first may have to decide the objective. They can do by themself or they may choose a commission through the marketer agency or consultaing. After considering a objective market researchers used many type of research technique and methodologist that they required. They will collect quantitative and qualitative data. When they combined this two data they will get a best research.

Quantitative research It is numerically oriented. The various type of quantitative market research is Face to face interview Telephone interview Postal & self completion market research Omnibus market research survey Online/ Internet survey

Qualitative research The research on the market group discussion (or focus group) it is usually made up 6 to 8 targeted people. The various type of qualitative research is Market research depth interview Market research paired interview Triads Market research mini group Focus group or group discussion Market research observation Workshop

Data collection methods 1. Observation technique

This technique is limited to descriptions of behaviour. Some example of observation techniques are as fallows

How customer interact with product. Observing how and in what order an individual read advertisement How many individuals visit the web page? How long did they spend in web page etc Many firms routinely monitor their competitor marketing program for this other technique may be used.

Observation technique may be good at describing phenomena, but they dont provide explanation.

Survey based research method Face to face interviewing It is a traditional methods of carrying outs surveys. It can achieve high rate of respond Telephone survey Alternative to face to face interview is the telephone survey, which is cheaper also. The refusal rate telephone survey can be up to three times higher than personal interview. Self- completion surveys Respondents obviously self select, the response rate may be lower than 10% particularly when a postal survey is done. . Focus group discussion It is frequently used, were normally consist of 8 people plus a trained moderator who lead the discussion.

Using market research data After getting the data, Market research evaluate it and make conclusion and presented to the organisation management. From this information organisation can make decision on the promotion, design and pricing of the product and service. Government imposed price restraints Regulated Industries

Pricing strategies are usually based on four major principal 1. Product/ corporate based pricing strategy a. Cost plus pricing b. Transportation/ delivery Pricing c. Price leadership d. List pricing 2. Market based pricing strategies a. Competitive pricing b. Customer- derived pricing c. Price point/ reference pricing d. Auction pricing e. Barter pricing f. Trial and error pricing 3. Low- price based pricing strategies a. Penetration b. Discount c. Everyday low pricing d. Periodic sale e. Bundling pricing f. Odd- number pricing 4. High price based pricing strategy a. Prestige pricing b. Skimming pricing c. Even number pricing