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Doing Research
on
Marketing |
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Doing Research on
Marketing
Research on marketing is essential to
understand the pattern of marketing. This is possible by
searching existing knowledge related to business marketing. It
is a form of business research, business-to-business marketing
research and business marketing research. Marketing research
is done in many forms and all these forms are known as
problem-identification research.
Research in advertising is done to
determine the copy testing of advertisements. It is also used
to know the efficiency of ads placed in any medium, the
customer attention it gets, the message it delivers and how it
motivates the customers to buy the product. Commercial eye
tracking is done to understand the visual behavior of the
customer. Ads, websites, etc., are analyzed for this. Before
an advertisement is released in the market, its performance
can be forecasted with the help of copy testing which takes
consumer’s level of attention, motivation, brand liking, and
entertainment into consideration.
When a customer buys something online he
analyses it in order to make the decision, this one of the
criteria on which consumer decision research is done.
Interviews and surveys can be done to understand consumer’s
level of satisfaction, which is known as customer satisfaction
studies. The demographic and psychology of the people of a
particular geographical region can be studied with the help of
segmentation research.
When analyzing is to be done about brand
recognition, brand performance, brand preference and
awareness, ad tracking is done. A favorite brand can be
recognized with the help of brand equity research. Tests are
conducted so as to determine what customer thinks about a
brand or a product and it is specifically known as brand name
testing. The demand of a product can be understood by demand
estimation. After the demand of the product is taken care of,
the quality should be checked from time to time. Appointing
mystery shoppers who is usually an employee of the market
research firm does this. He buys goods through a salesperson
and notes down the whole experience. This procedure can be
used to do research about rival companies’
products.
Before practical application of a
concept, concept testing should be done which tells whether
the targeted audience will like the idea or not. Test
marketing is done by introducing a product in small numbers in
the market and observing the sales, after which the product is
launched on a large-scale. After the initial phase, when the
company thinks of increasing the price of the product, price
elasticity testing should be carried out which shows customer
reaction to price fluctuations. Distribution channel audits
are conducted to understand the attitudes of retailers and
distributors towards specific products and brands.
The more tech savvy form of marketing
research is Internet strategic intelligence. The likes and
dislikes of the customers can be directly known with the help
of chats, blogs and forums. Online panels are a group of
experts who accept the marketing research done online.
All the researches that are carried out
can be classified as primary research, which gathers original
research, and secondary research, which is based on a primary
research and information published by other resources.
Secondary research costs less as research is done on already
researched data, but the result isn’t
efficient.
The research designs used by marketing
research are either based on questioning or are based on
observations. Quantitative marketing research and qualitative
marketing research are based on questioning. Quantitative
marketing research is done to derive conclusions like
questionnaires forms and survey. The number of respondents
involved is high. Qualitative marketing research is done to
understand something like in-depth interviews and projective
techniques.
Marketing research based on observations
is called experimental technique and ethnographic studies.
Test markets and purchase laboratories are examples of
experimental techniques. The quantity measured is determined
by understanding the factors that are responsible for the
success of a product and then one or some of the factors are
changed and the result is observed. In ethnographic
studies observations are done longitudinally or done at
several instances of time or cross-sectional, or done at only
a particular time.
Research on marketing is similar to exit
polling in politics. The market is studied from different
angles, at different time, and under different
circumstances.
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