UNIT 12
Marketing research and channels of marketing
Text A.
Philip Kilter defines marketing as “a social and managerial process
by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through
creating and exchanging products and values with other”. Marketing
research is used to assess the market’s response to the firm’s
marketing
inputs which include promotional activities such as price discounting,
placement of in-store displays, multimedia advertising, and coopering;
expanding distribution; and product development and enhancement. The
goal of marketing research is to assist the firm in determining the most
effective, i.e. most profitable, mix of marketing inputs given knowledge of
the marketplace.
As a formal scientific discipline marketing
research began in the
early twentieth century with most analyses being based on survey data. In
the 1930s, the A.C. Nielsen Company began collecting in-store data using
manual audits. Today, with the advent of scanning technology, the amount
of timely data available from stores and household has grown
exponentially. Coincident with this data explosion, used data delivery
systems and the techniques used to analyze the data have become
increasingly sophisticated. Marketing research is an integral part of
organizations in both the consumer durable and nondurable goods sectors,
and in resent years the use of marketing principles has become increasing
prevalent among nonprofit and government sectors.
Marketing research is interdisciplinary
requiring the knowledge of
economists, operations researchers, psychologists, and statisticians. For
the
economist, the economic theory of consumer behavior and the theory of
the firm provide basic building blocks.
Marketing research can be viewed
as an operational or tactical activity and as a strategic activity. Although
both activities require knowledge of the workings of the marketplace at
both the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels, tactical analysis focus
on monitoring a product’s performance and testing the working
effectiveness of marketing programs relative to competitors. Strategic
research involves selecting and optimizing marketing opportunities.
In order
to understand the marketplace, the researcher must define the
market in terms of both the geographic unit and the product class and
collect data Data on consumer purchases permit an analyst to determine
what was sold and how particular brands performed relative to each other.
In addition to sales and price information, causal data assist the analyst in
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understanding the reason that sales took place. Examples of causal data are
newspaper advertising which indicates the extent of retailer advertising
support source of information for understanding
the source of sales is
television advertising. Measuring the effects of television advertising is
relatively difficult owing to the dynamic effects such advertising has on
consumer behavior, however.
Once the data are collected, the analyst may choose to evaluate the
information by simply looking at the raw series together over time or
compute straightforward measures such as market share in
order to arrive
at a qualitative assessment of market activity. Statistical models might be
estimated in order to address issues such as temporary price reduction,
effectiveness, the extent of cannibalization due to promotion activity, i.
e...the extent to which sales of one specific product decline as a result of
promoting another similar product produced by the same manufacturer, the
competitive effects of promotions,
differences between markets,
competitive pricing points, long-term price elastic ties.
Forecasting is an activity likely to be undertaken by a business economist
working in a marketing research department. Conventionally, business
economists have been responsible for producing forecasts for the
macroeconomic environment or for activity within industry groups. More
recently, forecasting movements in mature product categories, in segments
within categories, and in brands has increased in importance.
Forecasting the success or failure or new product introductions is also
important. New product introductions require a considerable amount a
firms resources, and failure to read the market place correctly and early in
the development process can lead to costly errors.
The development of a
new brand begins with the identification of new market opportunities.
Consumer survey research directed at identifying the market response to
the brand concept and elements of the marketing mix, e.g. , pricing, is
typically conducted. On the basis of the survey a firm may decide to
continue with the development plans for the brand, revise current plans in
response to the survey results, or cancel development plans completely.
Comparisons may also be made between attitudes toward the new concepts
and exiting products.
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