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Meaning and Scope of Marketing Research

According to American Marketing Association, “Marketing Research is the function that links the consumer,
customer and public to the marketer through information-information used to identify and define marketing
opportunities and problems, generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing
performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.”
Marketing Research is systematic problem analysis, model building and fact finding for the purpose of
important decision making and control in the marketing of goods and services.
Marketing Research is a well-planned, systematic process which implies that it needs planning at all the
stages. It uses scientific method. It is an objective process as it attempts to provide accurate authentic
information. Marketing Research is sometimes defined as the application of scientific method in the solution
of marketing problems.
Marketing Research plays a very significant role in identifying the needs of customers and meeting them in
best possible way. The main task of Marketing Research is systematic gathering and analysis of
information.
Before we proceed further, it is essential to clarify the relationship and difference between Marketing
Research and Marketing Information System (MIS). Whatever information are generated by Marketing
Research from internal sources, external sources, marketing intelligence agencies-consist the part of MIS.
MIS is a set of formalized procedures for generating, analyzing, storing and distributing information to
marketing decision makers on an ongoing basis.
1. While Marketing Research is done with a specific purpose in mind with information being
generated when it is conducted, MIS information is generated continuously.
2. MIS is continuous entity while Marketing Research is a ad-hoc system.
3. While in Marketing Research information is for specific purpose, so it is not rigid; in MIS
information is more rigid and structured.
Marketing Research is essential for strategic market planning and decision making. It helps a firm in
identifying what are the market opportunities and constraints, in developing and implementing market
strategies, and in evaluating the effectiveness of marketing plans.
Marketing Research is a growing and widely used business activity as the sellers need to know more about
their final consumers but are generally widely separated from those consumers. Marketing Research is a
necessary link between marketing decision makers and the markets in which they operate.
Marketing Research includes various important principles for generating information which is useful to
managers. These principles relate to the timeliness and importance of data, the significance of defining
objectives cautiously and clearly, and the need to avoid conducting research to support decisions already
made.
Marketing Research is of use to the following:-
1. Producers
a. To know about his product potential in the market vis-à-vis the total product;
b. New Products;
c. Various brands;
d. Pricing;
e. Market Structures and selection of product strategy, etc.
2. Business and Government
Marketing Research helps businesses and government in focusing attention on the complex nature of
problems faced by them. For example:
a. Determination of Gross National Product; Price indices, and per capita income;
b. Expenditure levels and budgeting;
c. Agricultural Pricing;
d. The economic policies of Government; and
e. Operational and planning problems of business and industry.
3. Market Research Agencies
Marketing Research is being used extensively by professionals to help conducting various studies in
Marketing Research. Most prominent agencies being:-
a. Linta India Ltd;
b. British Market Research Bureau (BMRB);
c. Hindustan Thompson Associate Ltd;
d. eSurveysPro.com;
e. MARG

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Limitations of Marketing Research
Following are the main limitations of Marketing Research:
 Marketing Research (MR) is not an exact science though it uses the techniques of science. Thus,
the results and conclusions drawn upon by using MR are not very accurate.
 The results of MR are very vague as MR is carried out on consumers, suppliers, intermediaries,
etc. who are humans. Humans have a tendency to behave artificially when they know that they are being
observed. Thus, the consumers and respondents upon whom the research is carried behave artificially
when they are aware that their attitudes, beliefs, views, etc are being observed.
 MR is not a complete solution to any marketing issue as there are many dominant variables
between research conclusions and market response.
 MR is not free from bias. The research conclusions cannot be verified. The reproduction of the
same project on the same class of respondents give different research results.
 Inappropriate training to researchers can lead to misapprehension of questions to be asked for
data collection.
 Many business executives and researchers have ambiguity about the research problem and it’s
objectives. They have limited experience of the notion of the decision-making process. This leads to
carelessness in research and researchers are not able to do anything real.
 There is less interaction between the MR department and the main research executives. The
research department is in segregation. This all makes research ineffective.
 MR faces time constraint. The firms are required to maintain a balance between the requirement
for having a broader perspective of customer needs and the need for quick decision making so as to have
competitive advantage.
 Huge cost is involved in MR as collection and processing of data can be costly. Many firms do not
have the proficiency to carry wide surveys for collecting primary data, and might not also able to hire
specialized market experts and research agencies to collect primary data. Thus, in that case, they go for
obtaining secondary data that is cheaper to obtain.
 MR is conducted in open marketplace where numerous variables act on research settings.
Market Research
If we want to get technical, market research refers to research that pertains to, well, markets. This is
where you will dig into things like market trends (political, economic, social, technology, etc.), market
players (e.g. direct and indirect competition), target market attributes, customer wants and needs, etc. I
personally view market research to be a broader phrase than marketing research.
Marketing Research
Marketing research, on the other hand, involves research related to marketing. I like to think of
the marketing mix (product, promotion, place, price) and consider the types of research that relate to one
of the four P’s. Examples include advertisement testing, product concept testing (e.g. usability testings),
pricing research, channel research, etc.
7 Stages or Steps Involved in Marketing Research Process
Some of the major steps involved in marketing research process are as follows: 1. Identification and
Defining the Problem 2. Statement of Research Objectives 3. Planning the Research Design or Designing
the Research Study 4. Planning the Sample 5. Data Collection 6. Data Processing and Analysis 7.
Formulating Conclusion, Preparing and Presenting the Report.
Marketing research exercise may take many forms but systematic enquiry is a feature common to all such
forms. Being a systematic enquiry, it requires a careful planning of the orderly investigation process.
Though it is not necessary that all research processes would invariably follow a given sequence, yet
marketing research often follows a generalised pattern which can be broken down and studied as
sequential stages.
The various stages or steps in the marketing research process are discussed below:
1. Identification and Defining the Problem:
The market research process begins with the identification “of a problem faced by the company. The clear-
cut statement of problem may not be possible at the very outset of research process because often only
the symptoms of the problems are apparent at that stage. Then, after some explanatory research, clear
definition of the problem is of crucial importance in marketing research because such research is a costly
process involving time, energy and money.
Clear definition of the problem helps the researcher in all subsequent research efforts including setting of
proper research objectives, the determination of the techniques to be used, and the extent of information
to be collected.

: It may be noted that the methods of explanatory research popularly in use are—survey of secondary
data, experience survey, or pilot studies, i.e., studies of a small initial sample. All this is also known as
‘preliminary investigation’.

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2. Statement of Research Objectives:
After identifying and defining the problem with or without explanatory research, the researcher must take a
formal statement of research objectives. Such objectives may be stated in qualitative or quantitative terms
and expressed as research questions, statement or hypothesis. For example, the research objective, “To
find out the extent to which sales promotion schemes affected the sales volume” is a research objective
expressed as a statement.
On the other hand, a hypothesis is a statement that can be refuted or supported by empirical finding. The
same research objective could be stated as, “To test the proposition that sales are positively affected by
the sales promotion schemes undertaken this winter.”
Example of another hypothesis may be: “The new packaging pattern has resulted in increase in sales and
profits.” Once the objectives or the hypotheses are developed, the researcher is ready to choose the
research design.
3. Planning the Research Design or Designing the Research Study:
After defining the research problem and deciding the objectives, the research design must be developed. A
research design is a master plan specifying the procedure for collecting and analysing the needed
information. It represents a framework for the research plan of action.
The objectives of the study are included in the research design to ensure that data collected are relevant to
the objectives. At this stage, the researcher should also determine the type of sources of information
needed, the data collection method (e.g., survey or interview), the sampling, methodology, and the timing
and possible costs of research.
4. Planning the Sample:
Sampling involves procedures that use a small number of items or parts of the ‘population’ (total items) to
make conclusion regarding the ‘population’. Important questions in this regard are— who is to be sampled
as a rightly representative lot? Which is the target ‘population’? What should be the sample size—how large
or how small? How to select the various units to make up the sample?
5. Data Collection:
The collection of data relates to the gathering of facts to be used in solving the problem. Hence, methods of
market research are essentially methods of data collection. Data can be secondary, i.e., collected from
concerned reports, magazines and other periodicals, especially written articles, government publications,
company publications, books, etc.
Data can be primary, i.e., collected from the original base through empirical research by means of various
tools.
There can be broadly two types of sources
(i) Internal sources—existing within the firm itself, such as accounting data, salesmen’s reports, etc.
(ii) External sources—outside the firm.
6. Data Processing and Analysis:
Once data have been collected, these have to be converted into a format that will suggest answers to the
initially identified and defined problem. Data processing begins with the editing of data and its coding.
Editing involves inspecting the data-collection forms for omission, legibility, and consistency in
classification. Before tabulation, responses need to be classified into meaningful categories.
The rules for categorizing, recording and transferring the data to ‘data storage media’ are called codes. This
coding process facilitates the manual or computer tabulation. If computer analysis is being used, the data
can be key punched and verified.
Analysis of data represents the application of logic to the understanding of data collected about the subject.
In its simplest form analysis may involve determination of consistent patterns and summarising of
appropriate details.
The appropriate analytical techniques chosen would depend upon informational requirements of the
problem, characteristics of the research designs and the nature of the data gathered. The statistical
analysis may range from simple immediate analysis to very complex multivariate analysis.
7. Formulating Conclusion, Preparing and Presenting the Report:
The final stage in the marketing research process is that of interpreting the information and drawing
conclusion for use in managerial decision. The research report should clearly and effectively communicate
the research findings and need not include complicated statement about the technical aspect of the study
and research methods.
Often the management is not interested in details of research design and statistical analysis, but instead, in
the concrete findings of the research. If need be, the researcher may bring out his appropriate
recommendations or suggestions in the matter. Researchers must make the presentation technically
accurate, understandable and useful
6 Methods to Collect Data collection for Your Market Research
Data collection is a systematic method of collecting and measuring data gathered from different sources of
information in order to provide answers to relevant questions. An accurate evaluation of collected data can
help researchers predict future phenomenon and trends.

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Data collection can be classified into two, namely: primary and secondary data. Primary data are raw data
i.e. fresh and are collected for the first time. Secondary data, on the other hand, are data that were
previously collected and tested.
Methods of data collection
The system of data collection is based on the type of study being conducted. Depending on the researcher’s
research plan and design, there are several ways data can be collected.
The most commonly used methods are: published literature sources, surveys (email and mail), interviews
(telephone, face-to-face or focus group), observations, documents and records, and experiments.
1. Literature sources
This involves the collection of data from already published text available in the public domain. Literature
sources can include: textbooks, government or private companies’ reports, newspapers, magazines, online
published papers and articles.
This method of data collection is referred to as secondary data collection. In comparison to primary data
collection, tt is inexpensive and not time consuming.
2. Surveys
Survey is another method of gathering information for research purposes. Information are gathered through
questionnaire, mostly based on individual or group experiences regarding a particular phenomenon.
There are several ways by which this information can be collected. Most notable ways are: web-based
questionnaire and paper-based questionnaire (printed form). The results of this method of data collection
are generally easy to analyse.
3. Interviews
Interview is a qualitative method of data collection whose results are based on intensive engagement with
respondents about a particular study. Usually, interviews are used in order to collect in-depth responses
from the professionals being interviewed.
Interview can be structured (formal), semi-structured or unstructured (informal). In essence, an interview
method of data collection can be conducted through face-to-face meeting with the interviewee(s) or through
telephone.
4. Observations
Observation method of information gathering is used by monitoring participants in a specific situation or
environment at a given time and day. Basically, researchers observe the behaviour of the surrounding
environments or people that are being studied. This type of study can be contriolled, natural or participant.
Controlled observation is when the researcher uses a standardised precedure of observing participants or
the environment. Natural observation is when participants are being observed in their natural conditions.
Participant observation is where the researcher becomes part of the group being studied.
5. Documents and records
This is the process of examining existing documents and records of an organisation for tracking changes
over a period of time. Records can be tracked by examining call logs, email logs, databases, minutes of
meetings, staff reports, information logs, etc.
For instance, an organisation may want to understand why there are lots of negative reviews and complains
from customer about its products or services. In this case, the organisation will look into records of their
products or services and recorded interaction of employees with customers.
6. Experiments
Experiemental research is a research method where the causal relationship between two variables are being
examined. One of the variables can be manipulated, and the other is measured. These two variables are
classified as dependent and independent variables.
In experimental research, data are mostly collected based on the cause and effect of the two variables being
studied. This type of research are common among medical researchers, and it uses quantitative research
approach.
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possible.
Types of Research Designs:
The research design is a broad framework that describes how the entire research project is carried out.
Basically, there can be three types of research designs – exploratory research design, descriptive research
design, and experimental (or causal) research design. Use of particular research design depends upon type
of problem under study.

Let’s have glimpse of each of them:

1. Exploratory Research Design:
This design is followed to discover ideas and insights to generate possible explanations. It helps in
exploring the problem or situation. It is, particularly, emphasized to break a broad vague problem
statement into smaller pieces or sub-problem statements that help forming specific hypothesis.

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The hypothesis is a conjectural (imaginary, speculative, or abstract) statement about the relationship
between two or more variables. Naturally, in initial state of the study, we lack sufficient understanding
about problem to formulate a specific hypothesis. Similarly, we have several competitive explanations of
marketing phenomenon. Exploratory research design is used to establish priorities among those
competitive explanations.
The exploratory research design is used to increase familiarity of the analyst with problem under
investigation. This is particularly true when researcher is new in area, or when problem is of different
type.
This design is followed to realize following purposes:
1. Clarifying concepts and defining problem
2. Formulating problem for more precise investigation
3. Increasing researcher’s familiarity with problem
4. Developing hypotheses
5. Establishing priorities for further investigation
Exploratory research design is characterized by flexibility to gain insights and develop hypotheses. It
does not follow a planned questionnaire or sampling. It is based on literature survey, experimental
survey, and analysis of selected cases. Unstructured interviews are used to offer respondents a great
deal of freedom. No research project is purely and solely based on this design. It is used as
complementary to descriptive design and causal design.
2. Descriptive Research Design:
Descriptive research design is typically concerned with describing problem and its solution. It is more
specific and purposive study. Before rigorous attempts are made for descriptive study, the well-defined
problem must be on hand. Descriptive study rests on one or more hypotheses.

For example, “our brand is not much familiar,” “sales volume is stable,” etc. It is more precise and
specific. Unlike exploratory research, it is not flexible. Descriptive research requires clear specification of
who, why, what, when, where, and how of the research. Descriptive design is directed to answer these
problems.

3. Causal or Experimental Research Design:

Causal research design deals with determining cause and effect relationship. It is typically in form of
experiment. In causal research design, attempt is made to measure impact of manipulation on
independent variables (like price, products, advertising and selling efforts or marketing strategies in
general) on dependent variables (like sales volume, profits, and brand image and brand loyalty). It has
more practical value in resolving marketing problems. We can set and test hypotheses by conducting
experiments.

Test marketing is the most suitable example of experimental marketing in which the independent
variable like price, product, promotional efforts, etc., are manipulated (changed) to measure its impact
on the dependent variables, such as sales, profits, brand loyalty, competitive strengths product
differentiation and so on.

TABULATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

Tabulation
 It is an orderly and systematic preservation of numerical data in a form designed to elucidate
the problem under consideration. The first form of table is preparation of master table. Then a simple
frequency table is prepared for each question by counting frequent tallies for each item.
 Basic idea of tabulation is to put the whole data in concise, precise and logical order. It is
arbitrary arrangement of data in a complete form (in columns and rows) for further analysis. Once the
master table is prepared the researcher need not look into the questionnaire of schedule.
Analysis of data
 Analysis means simplifying the data and arranging it in some purposeful way so that meaningful
interpretation is possible. Analysis can be done in the following ways
 Percentage analysis: Work out the percentages or different items of a simple table.
 Statistical analysis: It is most useful, meaningful, scientific and acceptable method of
analysis. The data is subjected to various statistical techniques depending upon the objectives of the study
and type of data collected.

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 Cross tabulation: An important part of analysis is to find out the relationship between
the different variables. The similarities, differences, correlation, cause and effect, positive and negative
association between different variables should be looked into from the data of small tables.
Interpretation
 Explaining what the findings of the study or research indicate is known as interpretation.
Interpretation of results explains the part played by the factors/variables, which were not included in the
study. Comparison with past studies or reports gives further meaningful information.
Conclusion and Generalization
 The purpose of research is to draw certain conclusions on the basis of the study and pinpoint
generalizations on the basis of past studies or reports.
Definition: Product Research
Product research is the marketing research that provides information on the desired characteristics of a
product or service. Product research helps companies to understand what the customers really want, so
that the product can be tailored to match the needs of the customer. This research can help to refine new
product ideas.
Product research is a very important activity in new product development – it can be carried out at several
stages of new product development. In the initial stages, product research can be carried out to identify
and screen new ideas. This testing will help reduce costs by avoiding product development costs in the
discarded ideas.
In the later stages of product development, product research can help companies to identify which features
are important and hence retain them and which features can be discarded. A newly developed product is
also tested with customers, to identify any changes to be made to packaging etc. Once the product is
launched, consumer satisfaction with the product is tested. Most common techniques used in product
research include focus group discussions, interviews and surveys.
Definition: Advertising Research
A research conducted to improve the efficiency of an advertisement is known as advertising research. The
research could be focused on one particular advertisement or could be conducted in general to know the
impact of advertising on consumer behaviour.
The approach used for this research could be of different forms like sociological, psychological, economic,
emotional etc.

Advertising companies generally offer two types of research- customised and syndicated. Customised
research is, when a company asks the researcher to conduct a research of a particular need. The results of
this research are provided only to that client company. Syndicated research is more of a generic research
conducted by the researcher, the results of which are sold to various clients. Example: If the firm Nielsen is
asked by HUL to conduct a research on the popularity of its shampoo brand Sunsilk, the research that is
thus conducted will be a customised research. But if Nielsen has already conducted a research on ‘The
preferences of Indian youth while buying a shampoo’ and now, if HUL or any other firm buys the results of
this research, it is said to be a syndicated research.

There are various approaches used in advertising research. Amongst all the approaches, copy-testing is the
extensively used one. Copy testing is a method that uses consumer responses, feedback and behaviour to
arrive at some results. Copy testing is done in three dimensions- Cognitive dimension, affective dimension
and conative dimension. In the cognitive dimension, research is conducted to know, what consumers know
about the product, brand, service or what do they recall from the previous ads. This is generally done by
forming focus groups, physiological studies etc. The next dimension is the affective dimension. This
dimension studies what are the changes in the attitude of the consumer, about the product, after being
exposed to a particular advertisement or campaign. This is done by forming focus groups, central location
testing etc. Conative dimension refers to studying the actual consumer behaviour, to know what will they
‘do’ after watching an advertisement. The consumer is asked if they are willing to buy a product, after
being exposed to an ad or the sales of a particular product are tracked down after the release of an ad or
campaign
Motivation Research
Motivation research is a form of consumer research which has gained ground over the recent years.
Motivation Research is the currently popular term used to describe the application of psychiatric and
psychological techniques to obtain a better understanding of why people respond as they do to products,
ads and various other marketing situations.
It concentrates on emotional or hidden stimuli to consumer action.

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Thus, motivation research is an attempt to uncover the consumer’s suppressed (conscious) and repressed
(unconscious) motives. In suppression, the consumer remains aware of his motives but does not care to
admit their existence to others for the fear of ridicule, punishment or being ostracized.
Information about the motivating factor remains in the conscious mind, however. Repression implies a
more serious rejection of knowledge about a motive because; the individual will not admit motive’s
existence even to himself.
What is Sales Control? Importance and Process of Sales Control
Sales control ensures the productivity of the sales force and its mechanism varies from companies to
companies. Control on sales force keep them alert, creative, active and make consistent them in their
actions. An effective and suitable sales control system is essential for both companies as well as
salespeople.
However, a sales control system should be devised with care because the too liberal or too strict system
can be damaging for your sales team’s performance. you should design an appropriate controlling system
only after analyzing the nature of your salespeople, the degree of cooperation, type of work, and other all
relevant variables.
Keep one thing in mind that control is not for finding the faults of others or keeping them down by
punishing them. On the other hand, control is necessary to keep your sales team on the right track and
help them to uplift themselves. You keep an eye on the actions of the team members of your sales team
and prevent them from making unnecessary mistakes and teach them to take corrective actions whenever
required.
Therefore, we can say that the right definition of sales control is to analyzing and measuring the
performance of sales force and comparing it with the standard performance, noticing and pointing deviation
and determine its causes, and taking suitable corrective steps to tackle with different situations. Mostly
time, sales volume, discipline, expenses, and activities, etc. are considered bases for analyzing and
comparing performances of team members.
Why sales control is important?
The control over the activities of salespersons is exercised by the manager through supervision. The
annual target can only be achieved only when all activities are carried out as per plan. Following are the
reasons that show why sales control is important.
i) No matter the salesman works independently or works at longer distances from the manager. In such
scenarios, problems of coordination might arise with a manager or with other salesmen. Therefore, in such
scenarios, control is necessary.
ii) it is important to keep the transparency of all the actions of a salesman with the manager so that
negative deviations can be analyzed and corrected.
iii) it is important to direct the efforts of a salesman to maximize the profitability and ensuring maximum
utilization of men and material.
iv) Customers are most valuable for every business. therefore, it is important to address the problems and
complains made by customers. in this way, the positive image of the organization can be made in the
market. the sales manager should direct salesmen to keep customers on top of their priority and keep
them happy and satisfied.
Sales controlling process is consist of four steps. In this section, you will learn about all of them in detail.
Steps in Sales Control
1) Setting sales Force Standards
A standard is a target against which the performance of a salesperson can be measured. It can be used for
comparison and usually, supervisors insist to follow the standards. It is important that the standard should
be realistic and achievable. A very high standard is of no use as it will be unattainable and will only
demotivate people.
Standards should be designed by keeping in mind the resources of an organization and it is important that
standards must be set in numerical or measurable value. for example, 1 crore standard sales per annum, 5
lakhs standard profit per annum, or minimum 4% reduction in cost. Most of the times, it becomes difficult
to put the standards in numerical terms.
2) Measuring Actual sales Performance
once the standards are set for salespeople to follow their performance is measured on the basis of work
done by them. A performance which can be measured in numbers is usually easy to measure than the
other performances. However, measuring qualitative as well as quantitative performance is equally
important. It should be considered ethical to achieve quantitative standards by ignoring qualitative
standards.
Therefore, it is important to fix certain quality standards so that performance can be measured easily when
the number of rejections sales returns increase. The performance of a manager is measured on the basis of
the overall performance level of the department. It is important to measure the performance in a short
period of times to get an accurate estimation.
3) Comparing actual Performance with Standards

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to measure and analyze the performance of a salesperson, it is important to compare the actual
performance with the standard performance. if both performances match the controlling functions cease
there.
However, in the case of mismatch manager puts efforts to find out the reason behind the deviation in
performance. a minor deviation in performance can be ignored, however, strict actions should be taken
when there is a major deviation between both actual and standard performances.
4) Correcting Deviations and taking Follow-up actions
it is important to take all major deviations in the eyes of top management. The deviation can be divided
into two categories such as critical point control and management by exception.
Methods of Controlling Sales Force
There are different types of sales force controlling methods to control the efforts of the sales force.
However, these methods are not ideal for all organizations and scenarios. Applicability of a controlling
method depends on criteria, areas, and different aspects used for measuring and comparing.
Followings are the widely used sales force controlling methods
1) Establishing sales Territories
Establish sales territories for the members of your sales force. In this way, they will not be competing with
one another and focus entirely on their getting leads and making more and more sale. In addition to this,
when the territory is well-defined to the members of the sales the chances of missing out on potential
customers reduce and it also becomes easy for a salesperson to establish a relationship with customers to
the future business.
2) Allocation of sales Quota
most sales driven businesses define sales quota to each of its employees before one financial year. Sales
quota gives a goal to the salesperson to work on and also help the company to keep the estimation of
revenue generation by the end of a financial year.
The performance of a salesperson can be measured on the basis of sales made by them. However, sales
quota varies from one sales person to another salesperson as depending on the area allotted to them
and products sold by them.
3) Maintaining contact with a salesperson
it is important to keep constant contact with the members of the sales of your sales team. In this way, you
can keep them motivated and also can help them to solve issues that they face in cracking sales deals.
The sales person can be contacted through phone calls or by face-to-face meetings.
4) Determining authorities and rights of salespersons
it is very important to make your sales team members aware of the rights and duties they have. By being
aware they can perform their job better and efficiently.
5) Salesman’s Reporting
Reporting is one of the most famous and used methods to keep track of the performances of salespeople.
You should make clear how and when they should report to their subordinators.
6) Complaints and Objection Notes
it is important to keep track of complaints and objection made by both salespersons as well as customers.
reacting to complaints and objections will eventually help you to improve your work and services provided
by your sales team.
7) Analyzing Sales Expenses
Salespeople are usually allocated limited expenses every day so that they can reach customers without
many difficulties.
However, some salespersons are known to take advantage of this facility. Therefore, expenses submitted
by them should be analyzed properly before approving them.
8) Observation and visits and field trips
Managers usually stay in touch with their team members over phone and emails. However, it is important
that you should go out on field trips with your team members at least once in six months.
This can help you to analyze how your team members are performing and what is their relationship with
your customers. on the other hand, you will come to know about the hardships that your team members
face while working in the field. This can make you more empathetic towards them.
9) Providing sufficient sales tools:
Sales tools are important for salespeople to make sales efficiently. Sales tools include material and
literature like sales manual, sales literature, order forms, visiting cards, and small video clips to teach them
to make sales effectively
emerging fields or Areas of Market Research?
Though the traditional methods of Quantitative and Qualitative research are going strong, the most sought
after methods are now Neuroscience and Gaze tracking.
Both these fields get rid of the middle man and gets data from the consumer directly and without any sort
of bias (in most cases). However they are quite expensive and only a handful of research firms offer them
at present.

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Qualitative Research in Business to business industry is growing whereas the Research executive is having
the responsibility of understanding the need of the market and help the potential customer how their
productcanhelpthemservetheirneed.
This is the growing trend in B2B industry, As researcher are also acting as a marketer or the Business
DeveloperortheSalesInitiator.
This helps company to get direct insights from their employees and take upfront decisions based on their
report and work on the relations and contacts maintained by researcher for further sales.
What is Discriminant Analysis?
History and Definition
Discriminant Analysis is a statistical tool with an objective to assess the adequacy of a classification, given
the group memberships; or to assign objects to one group among a number of groups. For any kind of
Discriminant Analysis, some group assignments should be known beforehand.
Discriminant Analysis is quite close to being a graphical version of MANOVA and often used to complement
the findings of Cluster Analysis and Principal Components Analysis.
When Discriminant Analysis is used to separate two groups, it is called Discriminant Function Analysis
(DFA); while when there are more than two groups – the Canonical Varieties Analysis (CVA) method is
used.
In the 1930's, 3 different people – R.A. Fisher in UK, Hoteling in US and Mahalanob is in India were trying
to solve the same problem via three different approaches. Later their methods of Fisher linear discriminant
function, Hoteling's T2 test and Mahalanobis D2 distance were combined to devise what is today called
Discriminant Analysis.

Benefits and Practical Applications of Discriminant Analysis

Discriminant Analysis has various benefits as a statistical tool and is quite similar to regression analysis. It can be used to
determine which predictor variables are related to the dependant variable and to predict the value of the dependant variable
given certain values of the predictor variables. Discriminant Analysis is also widely used to create Perceptual Mapping by
marketers and has some benefits over other methods that use perceived distances; like the option of using tests of
significance to check for dissimilarities among products and that the distances between two products would not be impacted
by other products included in the study.
Discriminant Analysis has various other practical applications and is often used in combination with cluster analysis. Say, the
loans department of a bank wants to find out the creditworthiness of applicants before disbursing loans. It may use
Discriminant Analysis to find out whether an applicant is a good credit risk or not. This would serve as method of screening
applicants and preventing later bad debts. In another scenario, say a retail chain wants to conduct market segmentation. It
might use a survey to get respondents to rate various desirable service attributes and then use a combination of cluster
analysis and Discriminant Analysis to segment its market and assign customers to different segments. This will help the retailer
get an idea of customer's preferences in each segment and also target them better in their marketing campaigns.

What Is Cluster Analysis?

Cluster analysis can be a powerful data-mining tool for any organization that needs to identify discrete
groups of customers, sales transactions, or other types of behaviors and things. For example, insurance
providers use cluster analysis to detect fraudulent claims, and banks use it for credit scoring.

Cluster analysis, like reduced space analysis (factor analysis), is concerned with data matrices in which the
variables have not been partitioned beforehand into criterion versus predictor subsets.

The objective of cluster analysis is to find similar groups of subjects, where “similarity” between each pair
of subjects means some global measure over the whole set of characteristics. In this article we discuss
various methods of clustering and the key role that distance plays as measures of the proximity of pairs of
points.

Basic Questions in Cluster Analysis

The most common use of cluster analysis is classification. Subjects are separated into groups so that each
subject is more similar to other subjects in its group than to subjects outside the group.
We will initially focus on clustering procedures that result in the assignment of each subject to one, and
only one, class. Subjects within a class are usually assumed to be indistinguishable from one another.
Thus, we assume that the underlying structure of the data involves an unordered set of discrete classes. In
some cases we may also view these classes as hierarchical in nature, with some classes divided into
subclasses. Clustering procedures can be viewed as “pre-classificatory” in the sense that the researcher has
not used prior judgment to partition the subjects (rows of the data matrix). However, it is assumed that
some of the objectives are heterogeneous; that is, that “clusters” exist.

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This presupposition of different groups is based on commonalities within the set of independent variables.
This assumption is different from the one made in the case of discriminant analysis or automatic interaction
detection, where the dependent variable is used to formally define groups of objects and the distinction is
not made on the basis of profile resemblance in the data matrix itself.
Thus, given that no information on group definition is formally evaluated in advance, the major problems of
cluster analysis will be discussed as follows:
1. What measure of inter-subject similarity is to be used and how is each variable to be “weighted”
in the construction of such a summary measure?
2. After inter-subject similarities are obtained, how are the classes to be formed?
3. After the classes have been formed, what summary measures of each cluster are appropriate in
a descriptive sense; that is, how are the clusters to be defined?
4. Assuming that adequate descriptions of the clusters can be obtained, what inferences can be
drawn regarding their statistical significance?
What is a Conjoint Analysis?

Conjoint analysis is the optimal market research approach for measuring the value that consumers place on
features of a product or service. This commonly used approach combines real-life scenarios and statistical
techniques with the modeling of actual market decisions.
Menu-Based Conjoint Analysis
Menu-based conjoint analysis is an analysis technique that is fast gaining momentum in the marketing
world. One reason is that menu-based conjoint analysis allows each respondent to package their own
product or service.
Conjoint can help you determine pricing, product features, product configurations, bundling packages, or all
of the above. Conjoint is helpful because it simulates real-world buying situations that ask respondents to
trade one option for another.
For example, in a survey, the respondent is shown a list of features with associated prices. The respondent
then chooses what they want in their ideal product while keeping price as a factor in their decision. For the
researcher, key information can be gained by analyzing what was selected and what was left out. If feature
A for $100 was included in the menu question but feature B for $100 was not, it can be assumed that this
respondent prefers feature A over feature B.
The outcome of menu-based conjoint analysis is that we can identify the trade-offs consumers are willing
to make. We can discover trends indicating must-have features versus luxury features.
Add in the fact that menu-based conjoint analysis is a more engaging and interactive process for the
survey taker, and one can see why menu-based conjoint analysis is becoming an increasingly popular way
to evaluate the utility of features.
The advanced functionality of Qualtrics allows for the perfect conjoint survey – built with the exact look and
feel needed to provide a reliable, easy to understand experience for the respondent. This means better
quality data for you.
Factor Analysis
Factor Analysis (FA) is an independence technique, in which there is no dependent variable. The motivation
of FA relies on the fact that often there are many variables involved in a research design, and it is usually
helpful to reduce the variables to a smaller set of factors, aiming mainly to understand the underlying
structure of the data matrix. The relationship of each variable to the underlying factor is expressed by the
so-called factor loading. Again, in the parametric approach, the independent variables are usually assumed
to be normal and continuous, with at least three to five variables loading onto a factor. The sample size
should be large (i.e., the number of observations should be greater then 50), with at least five
observations per variable.
We can broadly define two main factor analysis methods: principal component analysis, which extracts
factors based on the total variance of the factors, and common factor analysis, which instead extracts
factors based on the variance shared by the factors. Principal component analysis is used to find the fewest
number of variables that explain the most variance, whereas common factor analysis is used to look for the
latent underlying factors. Usually the first factor extracted explains most of the variance. The factor
loadings express the correlations between the variables and the factor. As rule of the thumb, a factor
loading of at least 0.4 strongly suggests that a specific variable can be attributed to a factor.
What is a research problem?
A research problem is a definite or clear expression [statement] about an area of concern, a condition to be
improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in
theory, or within existing practice that points to a need for meaningful understanding and deliberate
investigation. A research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad proposition,
or present a value question.

5 Ways to Formulate the Research Problem

Step 1. Specify the Research Objectives

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A clear statement defining your objectives will help you develop effective research.
It will help the decision makers evaluate the research questions your project should answer as well as the
research methods your project will use to answer those questions. It’s critical that you have manageable
objectives. (Two or three clear goals will help to keep your research project focused and relevant.)
Step 2. Review the Environment or Context of the Research Problem
As a marketing researcher, you must work closely with your team of researchers in defining and testing
environmental variables. This will help you determine whether the findings of your project will produce
enough information to be worth the cost.
In order to do this, you have to identify the environmental variables that will affect the research project
and begin formulating different methods to control these variables.
Step 3. Explore the Nature of the Problem
Research problems range from simple to complex, depending on the number of variables and the nature
of their relationship. Sometimes the relationship between two variables is directly related to a problem or
questions, and other times the relationship is entirely unimportant.
If you understand the nature of the research problem as a researcher, you will be able to better develop a
solution to the problem.
To help you understand all dimensions, you might want to consider focus groups of consumers,
salespeople, managers, or professionals to provide what is sometimes much-needed insight into a
particular set of questions or problems.
Step 4. Define the Variable Relationships
Marketing plans often focus on creating a sequence of behaviors that occur over time, as in the adoption of
a new package design, or the introduction of a new product.
Such programs create a commitment to follow some behavioral pattern or method in the future.
Studying such a process involves:

 Determining which variables affect the solution to the research problem.

 Determining the degree to which each variable can be controlled and used for the purposes of
the company.
 Determining the functional relationships between the variables and which variables are critical to
the solution of the research problem.
During the problem formulation stage, you will want to generate and consider as many courses of action
and variable relationships as possible.
Step 5. The Consequences of Alternative Courses of Action
There are always consequences to any course of action used in one or more projects. Anticipating and
communicating the possible outcomes of various courses of action is a primary responsibility in
the research process.

Marketing Mix
Professor "Jerome McCarthy" marketing mix early 1960s proposed consisting of four main factors
(product, price, place and promotion) that each of factors contains multiple activities. Marketing mix
can be called "a set of tools intervention in the market” (Horovitz, 2003). Four marketing tool is set in
term of marketing executives. Perhaps the consumer's perspective is different from a marketing
perspective. So 4p from perspective of customers is 4c. 4c include customer value, cost, convenience,
communication. Accordingly, if a marketer be in position of product sales, customers in shopping at
is the "value" or "solution" to the problem. Product price is the cost that the customer pays to solve
the problem. Customers are intended to provide easy and convenient product required and Finally
They demanded for mutual communication for understanding of the product. Marketing managers is
better that first think to view of customer (4CS) and then their view (4PS) (Gholipour, Modabernia,
2009). 4PS and 4CS relationship is shown in the following: Product customer value Price cost Place
convenience Promotion communication Marketing plans various tools for competition And then to
optimize profit function or minimum level of the profitability satisfaction, are them in a "marketing
mix.
Product
A product is anything for attention, acquisition, use or consumption can be marketed and can to
satisfy a need or want. Product is something more tangible goods. Product includes physical objects,
services of persons, places, organizations, manufacturer idea or a combination of these (Kotler &
Armestrang, 2000). About major components of the product can be cited, such as: product variety,

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quality, design, features and facilities of product, brand, packaging, size of product, service,
guarantees, return the product.
Price
The price refers to the amount of money that a person must pay to use a product. A person may
purchase property one or more product or has the right of limited use (such as car rental or home Hire
purchase). Set a price for a product requires a deep understanding of the symbolic role that price plays
a role in determining the product in target market. The price of a product in the customer's mind is not
the costs expended for to produce. Goods costs to the consumer are the one thing that every consumer
should losing for access to the benefits and points of ownership or use of a product. Reducing
nonfinancial cost of ownership or use of goods is one of the things companies are doing to enhance
the value of their goods to the customers. In case of success this strategy reduces the total cost of
product for a consumer and still marketers revenue remains constant or increases.
Promotion
It is all the communication tools that can deliver the message to the intended audience. Basically
promotion is set of activities to inform, persuade and influence that completely linked. Promotion can
be divided into four groups that each group has different dimensions.
Advertising It is strongest tool in the identification of a company, goods, service or idea
and vision. If Advertisement be constructive and impressive, they will create a "picture" In the
audience or even create interested to issue or recognition and to accept brand and product.
Sales promotion efficiency is to further the idea or the human brain but the effect of sales
promotion is on customer behavior. Because when customers will be announced flowing special
sales, the purchase of two units with a unit price, received the award winning gift, they act.
Place
Distribution is delivery the desired product and service to the customer on time and desired place.
There is an overall strategy about distribution. In the first strategy organization direct and in second
strategy by helping distributors provide their goods and services to consumers. Members of
distribution channels are responsible for the following main duties: Market informing: gathering and
distributing news and market research about actors and forces in marketing environment that is
needed planning and assistance on the exchange.
- Promotion and advertise: preparing and distributing information encouraged about the goods.
- Contact: search and communicate with potential buyers.
- Compliance products: shaping and matching goods with the buyer’s needs.
- Negotiate: reaching agreement on price and other conditions of the transaction so that the
transaction can be provided.

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