Summer 2012

Master of Business Administration - MBA Semester 3

MK0013 Marketing Research - 4 Credits
Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks)
Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.
Q.1 Distinguish between product research and new product research.
Explain with examples.
Answer : New Product Research

Successful new products are essential to a company's growth and survival. We

believe new products to be one of the most important applications of marketing
research, but one of the most difficult to execute in practice. New products can
be concept-driven or product-driven. The implicit model that underlies the
following paragraphs is concept-driven (i.e., concept followed by product), but
keep in mind that you can also start with a product and work "backward" to build
a concept and positioning.

New product development must have focal points to have any chance of success.
Focal points include definition of the target market, determination of the product
category, and/or definition of the problem to solve or opportunity to exploit.
These focal points are largely managerial judgments. Once some of the basic
focal points are identified, then Decision Analyst can help make the effort
successful.

Qualitative Explorations

Once the target audience is identified (even if not totally precise), and some
notion of the product category (or human need) is established, then qualitative
research is the first step. The purpose is to develop in-depth understanding of
the target consumertheir motivations, perceptions, fears, and preferences.
Perceptions of competitive products can be explored. Unmet needs can be
identified. New product ideas can be sought. The qualitative exploration serves
to identify new product possibilities as well as refine the target-market definition
for those possibilities. Qualitative research is also useful in determining the
starting points for ideation.

Innovation Services

Building on the foundation of understanding provided by the qualitative research,

Decision Analyst uses its Imaginations panel of 2,000 exceptionally creative
individuals to help generate new product ideas. These ideation sessions can be
conducted online or offline, following creative processes developed by Decision
Analyst. A typical all-day ideation session of eight Imaginations produces from
400 to 600 unique new-product ideas or idea fragments. Decision Analysts
Insights & Innovation Team then translates this raw ideation material into new
product concepts. These concepts can then be refined with qualitative research
before going into quantitative testing.

Concept Testing

Concept testing identifies potentially successful new products early on, so that
you can focus limited research and development resources (and limited
marketing resources) on the new product concepts with the greatest probability
of consumer acceptance. Decision Analyst provides a suite of concept testing
systems and services.

Brand Name Research

Selecting a name for a new product is an important step in new product

development. Name Screen is our online system to identify the best names for
final evaluation. Typically, final names are tested in the context of package,
concept, or product testing, so that all variables are implicitly incorporated into
the name test.

Packaging Research

Package graphics and copy are critical to new product success. Decision Analyst
offers a suite of package-testing services to help develop a winning package that
can help generate trial of the new product and project the appropriate brand
image.

Product TestingOptima

New products must be optimal to have a reasonable chance for success. Product
testing is an essential step (or series of steps) in the development of a new
product. Decision Analyst offers a range of product-testing services to help
ensure that the new product will be successful.

Concept or Volumetric Forecasting

With our Concept or simulation models, year-one sales of a new product can be
forecast, based on concept-testing scores, product-testing results, marketingplan inputs, and media spending plans.

Test Market Evaluation

Real-world testing of new products is always recommended, if time and budgets

permit. Actual store tests and/or actual test markets provide the most reliable
evaluation of a new product. Decision Analyst is expert at designing and
executing test markets for new products.

Product Clinics

Our automotive research group conducts static clinics, dynamic clinics, and 3D
projection digital imaging clinics. These clinics range in size from small single city
evaluations in the U.S. to large-scale multi-country clinics. Each clinic is
conducted by a dedicated team, led by a senior researcher experienced in all
aspects of conducting clinics. Data is captured using handheld devices to assure
fast delivery of data tabulations. Presentations of clinic results can be provided
within 24 hours of the conclusion of the clinic in-person or via Web-based
meeting.

New Product Research Services

Decision Analyst is a leading global marketing research and analytical consulting

firm, with over 3 decades of experience in new products research and consulting.
Our staff has worked on hundreds of successful new products. With our
worldwide online panels and interactive systems, targeted innovation processes,

and analytical systems, we can bring transformational change and acceleration

of pace to your new product development efforts.

Additional Resources from Decision Analyst

New Product Research Services

Brand Name Research

Concept Testing
Innovation Services
Packaging Research
Product Testing
Qualitative Research

New Product Research Brochures

Concept or Brochure (opens a puff file)

Innovation Services Brochure (opens a puff file)
New Product Metamorphosis Brochure (opens a puff file)
Optima Product Testing Brochure (opens a puff file)
Package Optimization Brochure (opens a puff file)
Complete List of Decision Analyst Brochures
New Product Research Case Histories

Concept Testing

Games People Play

Hotel Services Innovation Program
Look Before Leaping
Never Trust an Engineer (Qualitative Research)
Positioning Test with Segmentation
Time-Extended Online Qualitative
Using Exploratory Research to Formulate Quantitative Research and a
Discrete Choice Modelling Design

Volumetric Concept Testing

New Product Research White Papers

Choice Modelling for New Product Sales Forecasting

Concept Testing (And the Uniqueness Paradox)
Hang the Innocent

New Product Sales Forecasting

New Products
New Products for Tough Times

Product Testing

Quality Promise ProgramEmpowering Consumers as Your Quality-Control

Agents
Using Consumers to Fuel Your New Product Generation Pipeline: The Role
of Idea-Centric Creativity

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Q.2 How to write a marketing report and what quality is to be ensured?

Q.3 Which are the various types of scales in marketing research and its
applications?

Q.4 Explain the types of hypothesis and the steps involved in

hypothesis testing.

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Q.5 What are the limitations of sampling? What are the indicators for an
ideal sample?
Q.6 Considering Indian consumers and Indian market trends, mention
the ways through which a marketing researcher can carry out research?
If you were to research a market segment, how would you go about it?
Summer 2012
Master of Business Administration - MBA Semester 3
MK0013 Marketing Research - 4 Credits
Assignment Set- 2 (60 Marks)

Note: Each question carries 10 Marks. Answer all the questions.

Q.1 What are the nature, scope and features of Marketing Research?
Answer : The Role of Marketing Research in Strategic Planning and
Decision Making

Our primary focus is on the role of marketing research in marketing strategy

decisions.

A. Identifying Marketing Opportunities and Constraints

Identifying marketing opportunities and constraints is a logical starting point for
developing marketing strategies.

1. Embracing the Marketing Concept

Conducting marketing research to understand customers is becoming
widespread as an increasing number of firms embrace the marketing concept
(the philosophy of customer orientation urging firms to uncover customer needs
first and then coordinate all their activities to satisfy those needs).

2. Understanding the Competitive Environment

Marketing research is vital to maintaining and improving a company's overall
Competitiveness.

Unless managers understand the external environment, they cannot

intelligently plan for the future.
Many organizations continually collect and evaluate environmental
information to identify future market opportunities and threats.

B. Developing and Implementing Marketing Strategies

To benefit fully from the opportunities uncovered in the marketplace, a firm must
develop an effective marketing strategy with an effective marketing mix:

the nature of its product

ways to promote the product
the price charged to potential customers
the means used to make the product available to them

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Good marketing research will identify whether the marketing mix is effective
enough to maximize the benefits to the firm from available opportunities (sales,
profits, customer satisfaction, and value.

Some of the most successful new-product introductions have been preceded by

extensive marketing research that helped develop one or more elements of their
marketing mixes.

C. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Marketing Plans

Getting feedback from the marketplace and taking corrective action for elements
of products or services that need fixing is often referred to as controlling or the
control function. Controlling is an important component of the planning and
decision-making process and another area in which marketing research provides
solutions.

To succeed in the marketplace, a firm must at least periodically monitor market

conditions, usually by obtaining feedback from customers, and answer controlrelated questions such as:

What is the market share of our product?

Is its share increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?
Who are its users?
Are the nature of the users and the volume of their purchases consistent
with our expectations (goals)? If not, why not?

Only marketing research, not marketers' intuition, can yield accurate answers to
such questions.

Nature of Marketing Research

Marketing research is systematic and objective collection of data, its analysis and
evaluation, and decision making in respect of specific aspects of a marketing
problem.

Marketing Research and Market Research:- The nature of marketing

research cannot be properly understood without knowing the meaning of market
research. Market research is the gathering, recording and analyzing of market
data to identify the present and potential customers and their motives and
buying habits. It is the discovery of the capacity of the market to absorb the
products of a firm. It is a part of the marketing research. It is worthwhile to
quote Richard D.Crips to identify clearly the scope of Marketing research and
market research. Marketing research is the systematic, objective and
exhaustive search for the study of the facts relevant to any problem in the field
of marketing. Market research is restricted to the study of actual and potential
buyers, their location, their actual and potential value of purchases and their
motives and habits.

Market research may be conducted for the following reasons:

1. To identify the present and potential customers and their needs.

2. To forecast the demand of a product.
3. To determine customers preferences with regard to packaging, design,
size, price and other features of a product.
4. To locate the demand for products with regard to time and place, such as
festival demand.

5. To explore new markets for existing products.

Scope of Marketing Research

Marketing research covers different aspects of marketing of goods, services and
ideas. There are many areas of marketing management where marketing
research has special branches.
Product Research:- Product research is associated with the conversion of
customer needs into tangible product offer. This includes development and
testing of new products, improving the existing products, and a tab on the
changing customer preferences, habits, tastes, etc. Packaging design, branding,
and labelling decisions are also included here.
Customer Research:- This research type includes investigation into the
customer buying behaviour the economic, social, cultural, personal and
psychological influences.
Sales Research:- Sales research involves decisions concerning selection of
store location, channels, territories, sales force motivation and compensation,
etc. The purpose is to reach the target customer more effectively, efficiently and
timely. .
Promotion Research:- Promotion research encompasses all efforts by the
marketers to communicate the companys offer. This includes advertising,
publicity, public relations, sales promotion, etc.

Marketing Research (MR) is the systematic problem analysis, model building and
fact finding method for the purpose of improved decision-making, with a view to
control the marketing of goods and services.

The American Marketing Association defined MR as the function which links the
consumer, customer and public to the marketer through information used to
identify and define marketing opportunities and problems, refine and evaluate
marketing actions, monitor marketing performance and improve understanding
of marketing as a process.

Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues,

design the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data
collection process, analyses the result and communicates the findings and their
implications.

All the above definitions of marketing research emphasize the need for
evaluating the problem and information in a more comprehensive and
exhaustive manner. You can say that marketing research is a systematic and
objective process of identifying and formulating the marketing problems, setting
research objectives and methods for collecting, editing, coding, tabulating,
evaluating, analyzing, interpreting the data in order to find justified solutions for
these problems.

Nature of Marketing Research

Apart from being systematic and objective in nature, the main

characteristic features that characterize the nature of MR are:
Applied/Problem solving research
Often based on cost-benefit analysis
Vital for implementation of marketing concept
Value of information declines with time
Dynamic (ongoing)

Marketing research is one of the principal tools for answering questions because
it:

Links the consumer, customer, and public to the market through

information used to identify and define marketing.
Generates, refines, and evaluates marketing actions
Monitors marketing performance
Underlines the understanding of marketing as a process

Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs, either
by target market:
1. Consumer marketing research, and
2. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research

Or, alternatively, by methodological approach:

1. Qualitative marketing research, and
2. Quantitative marketing research

Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on

understanding the preferences, attitudes, and behaviours of consumers in a
market-based economy, and it aims to understand the effects and comparative
success of marketing campaigns. The field of consumer marketing research as a
statistical science was pioneered by Arthur Nielsen with the founding of the
ACNielsen Company in 1923.

Thus, marketing research may also be described as the systematic and objective
identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information for the
purpose of assisting management in decision making related to the identification
and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing.

Q.2 What are client ethics and field service ethics? Explain with
example.

Q.3 Discuss different types of information applicable in market research

and mention their uses.

Q.4 What is SPSS? How does SPSS help in marketing research?

Q.5 Give a note on marketing audit.

Q.6 What do you mean by sales forecasting? Explain the steps involved
in it.

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