Unit 1 Consumer Behavior

&Marketing Research

 Consumer Behavior http://educationportal.com/academy/lesson/influences-onconsumer-buying-decisions-cultures-valuesmore.html#lesson

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/consum
er-psychology-cognitive-dissonance-post-purchaseprocess.html#lesson

Marketing Research- Unit 1

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2004-0812/news/27384832_1_market-research-tns-indiaoutsourcing-hub
http://educationportal.com/academy/lesson/marketing-researchdefinition-purpose-and-role-in-marketingstrategy.html#lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-q2vwa_n2I

 In 2003, the biscuit market in India was estimated to be

about 0.8 million tons, with a value of about Rs.45 billion.
The share of the organized sector in the biscuit market was
estimated to be about 50%.
Britannia and Parle held more than 80% of the organized
sector share in value terms. The market was growing at a
rate of 5% to 8%.
This was the scenario, when ITC decided to enter with its
Sunfeast range of Glucose, Marie and cream biscuits.
ITCs market research team had shown that urban India
which comprised about 27% of the population, accounted
for almost 44% of the biscuit consumption. Market Research
also revealed that consumers were looking for innovation,
variety and fun in all the biscuit categories.

 ITC therefore decided to enter the branded biscuit market

with products that would reinforce the gratifying aspects of
the brands as well as to offer the great taste and quality to
customers.
A mascot Sunny was chosen to convey these aspects of ITCs
biscuit brands. Initial offerings were Sunfeast glucose biscuits
targeting children and their mothers, Sunfeast Orange Marie
targeting housewives and families, Sunfeast butterscotch
cream and bourbon cream targeting the children in the age
group between 4 and 14 years. In addition, ITC entered the
nutritional biscuit segment with launch of Sunfeast Sachins
fit kit- a range of healthy products co created with the cricket
icon, Sachin Tendulkar. By 2007, Sunfeast had become an Rs
5 million brand and was growing at about 15% per year.

 Marketing Research- It is the systematic gathering,

recording, and analysis
ofqualitativeandquantitativedata about issues
relating tomarketingproducts and services. The
goal of marketing research is to identify and assess
how changing elements of themarketing
miximpactscustomer behavior.
It is an organized effort to gather information
abouttarget marketsor customers.

The Marketing Research Process

Step 1.Define the Problem, the Decision
Alternatives, and the Research ObjectivesProblem should not be defined too broadly or too
narrowly. Clarity on the following helps define the
problem appropriately :
What is to be researched ( the content, the scope)?
Why is it to be researched
Step 2: Develop the Research Plan- this stage
requires developing the most efficient plan for gathering
the required information. This involves decisions on
data sources, research approaches, research
instruments, sampling plans and contact methods.

 Data Sources- the researcher can gather secondary

data, primary data or both. Secondary.
Primary researchconsists of a collection of original
primary data collected by the researcher. It can be
accomplished throughvarious methods,
includingquestionnairesand telephone interviews
inmarket research, orexperimentsand
directobservations.
Secondary research(also known asdesk research)
involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of
existing research rather thanprimary research, where
data is collected from, for example, research subjects
or experiments

 Research Approaches- primary data can be collected in five

ways: through observation, focus groups, surveys, behavioral
data and experiments.
Ethnographic Research - Ethnographic research usually

involves observing target users in their natural, real-world

setting, rather than in the artificial environment of a lab
or focus group. The aim is to gather insight into how
people live; what they do; how they use things; or what
they need in their everyday or professional lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tHgNXzS2EY
After observing that older female siblings and/ or grandmothers
looked after infants and small kids in migrant construction
worker families in South Asia, researchers on child health and
nutrition included these groups as respondents.

 Focus Group Research- is a gathering of six to ten

people who are invited to spend few hours with a skilled
moderator in order to discuss a product or service,
organization or any other marketing entity. Participants are
offered incentives/ gifts for attending the meeting.
Survey Research-Companies undertake surveys to learn
about peoples knowledge, beliefs, preferences and
satisfaction.
Behavioral data- Customers actual purchases reflect
preferences and are normally more reliable than memory
based statements in surveys. Observations have shown
that many high income group customers do not buy
expensive consumer goods, while some low income
consumers end up buying expensive products, contrary to
their stated preferences in their surveys.

 Step 3 Collect the information- the data collection

phase of marketing research is generally the most
expensive and prone to errors. Four major problems arises
in surveys, some respondents will not be at home and
must be contacted again or replaced. Other respondents
will refuse to cooperate.
Still others will give biased or dishonest answers. Finally
some interviewers will be biased or dishonest. Data
Collection methods are rapidly improving thanks to
computers and telecommunication.
Some research firms have set up interactive terminals in
shopping centers, where respondents sit at a terminal,
read questions from the monitor and type in their answers.

 Step 4 Analyze the information- the researchers now

compute averages and measures of dispersion for the
major variables, apply some statistical techniques. They
may test different hypothesis and theory.
Step 5 Present the Findings- as the last step, the
researcher presents findings relevant to the major
marketing decisions facing management. The researchers
are asked to play a more proactive role, consulting role in
translating into insights and recommendations.
Researchers should also consider ways to present research
findings in an understandable way.
Step 6- Make the decision- research findings only
provide additional information and insight to the managers.
Depending on their confidence in the findings, managers
decide to use it, discard it or carry out more research.

Barriers to Marketing Research

A narrow conception of research- many managers
see marketing research as a fact finding operations.
They expect the researcher to design a questionnaire,
choose a sample, conduct interviews and report results
without carefully defining the problem.
Uneven caliber of researchers- Managers hire less
competent marketing researchers whose weak training
and low creativity lead to unimpressive results.
Poor framing of the problem
Managers are disappointed when marketing research
costs too much or takes too much time.
Differences between the styles of the line managers and
the marketing researchers often got in the way of
productive relationships.

Marketing Information
System
An MIS may be defined as a set of procedures and
methods for the regular, planned collection,
analysis, and presentation of information for use
in makingmarketingdecisions.
Marketing Information System, abbreviated
asMIS, means to collect, analyze and supply
marketing information to the marketing
managers. The marketing managers use this
information to take marketing decisions. MIS is a
continuous process.

Components of Marketing
Information System
The role of MIS is to identify (find out) what sort of
information is required by the marketing managers. It
then collects and analyzes the information. It supplies
this information to the marketing manager at the right
time. MIS collects the information through its
subsystems. These subsystems are calledcomponents.
The four main components of Marketing Information
System (MIS) are:
Internal Records,
Marketing Intelligence,
Marketing Research(MR), and
Marketing Decision Support System.

Main Components of Marketing Information

System

 Internal records: The first component of MIS is Internal

Record. Marketing managers get lots of information from
the internal-records of the company. These records provide
current information about sales, costs, inventories, cash
flows and account receivable and payable. Many companies
maintain their computerized internal records. Inside records
help marketing managers to gain faster access to reliable
information.
Marketing intelligence:The second component of MIS is
Marketing Intelligence. It collects information from external
sources. It provides information about current marketingenvironment and changing conditions in themarket. This
information can be easily gathered from external sources
like; magazines,tradejournals, commercial press, so on.

 The information which is collected from the

external sources cannot be used directly. It must
be first evaluated and arranged in a proper order.
It can be then used by the marketing manager for
taking decisions and making policies about
marketing.

 Marketing research: The third important

component of MIS is Marketing Research. MR is
conducted to solve specific marketing problems of the
company. It collects data about the problem. This data
is tabulated, analyzed and conclusions are drawn.
Then the recommendations are given for solving the
problem. Marketing research also provides information
to the marketing managers. However, this information
is specific information. It can be used only for a
particular purpose. MIS and MR are not substitutes of
each other. The scope of MIS is very wide. It includes
MR. However, the scope of MR is very narrow.

 Marketing decision support system: The fourth

component of MIS is Marketing Decision Support
System. These are the tools which help the marketing
managers to analyze data and to take better
marketing decisions. They include hardware, i.e.
computer and software programs. Computer helps the
marketing manager to analyze the marketing
information. It also helps them to take better
decisions. In fact, today marketing managers cannot
work without computers. There are many software
programs, which help the marketing manager to do
market segmentation, price
fixing,advertisingbudgets, etc.

The essentials of a good Marketing

Information System (MIS)

MIS must be unified and centralized.

It must facilitatedecision making.
It must provide quick and accurate information.
It must be economical.
It must be selective.
It must be future oriented.
It must supply information regularly.
It must use new techniques.

Marketing Information System

A Marketing Information System- consists of people,
equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze,
evaluate and distribute needed, timely and accurate
information to marketing decision makers.
A Marketing Information System relies on internal
company records, marketing intelligence activities and
marketing research.