MEANING OF MARKET

The term Marketing is derived from the word ‘Market’.

Here, Market refers to the place or geographical area
where buyers and sellers gather and enter into
transactions involving transfer of ownership of goods.
A market is a place where two parties can gather to
facilitate the exchange of goods and services. The parties
involved are usually buyers and sellers. The market may
be physical like a retail outlet, where people meet face-to-
face, or virtual like an online market, where there is no
direct physical contact between buyers and sellers.
D V
C T
C P

VALUE
COMMUNICATE
TARGET MARKET
DELIVER PROFIT
CREATE

MARKETING BY PHILIP KOTLER

MARKETING
According to American Marketing association
(AMA) Board of Directors, ”Marketing is the
activity, set of institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and
art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to
satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.
Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It
defines, measures and quantifies the size of the
identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints
which segments the company is capable of serving best
and it designs and promotes the appropriate products
and services.”
MARKETING MANAGEMENT
According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing
Management is the process of planning and executing
the conception, pricing and promotion and distribution
of goods, services and ideas to create exchanges with
target groups that satisfy customer and organizational
objectives
NATURE OF MARKETING
The Nature of Marketing (or Modern marketing)
Marketing is an Economic Function
Marketing is a legal process by Ownership Transfers
Marketing is a system of Interacting Business Activities
Marketing is a Managerial Function
Marketing is a Social process
Marketing is philosophy based on a Consumer Orientation and
Satisfaction
Marketing has a dual Objectives- Profit making and Consumer
Satisfaction
1. Marketing is an Economic Function: Marketing embraces all the business activities
involved in getting goods and services , from the hands of producers into the hands of final
consumers.
2. Marketing is a legal process by Ownership Transfers: Marketing is a Legal Process by
which Ownership Transfers In the process of marketing the ownership of goods transfers
from seller to the purchaser or from producer to the end user.
3. Marketing is a system of Interacting Business Activities :Marketing is that process through
which a business enterprise, institution, or organisation interacts with the customers and
stakeholders with the objective to earn profit, satisfy customers, and manage relationship.
4. Marketing is a Managerial Function; According to managerial or systems approach
- "Marketing is the combination of activities designed to produce profit through ascertaining,
creating, stimulating, and satisfying the needs and/or wants of a selected segment of the
market.“
5. Marketing is a Social process:Marketing is the delivery of a standard of living to society.
According to Cunningham and Cunningham (1981) societal marketing performs three
essential functions:-1) Knowing and understanding the consumer's changing needs and wants,
2) Efficiently and effectively managing the supply and demand of products and services; and
3) Efficient provision of distribution and payment processing systems.
6. Marketing is philosophy based on a Consumer Orientation and Satisfaction: Starts with
customers and ends with customers
7. Marketing has a dual Objectives- Profit making and Consumer Satisfaction
SCOPE OF MAREKTING
Scope of Marketing has a very wide scope it covers all the activities from generation of ideas to
achieving of profits. Some of them are discussed as below:
1) Study of Consumer Wants and Needs
2) Study of Consumer behavior
3) Product Planning and development
4) Branding
5) Packaging
6) Channels of Distribution
7) Pricing Policies
8) Sales Management
9) Promotion
10) Finance
11) After Sales services
SCOPE OF MAREKTING
1 Goods are produced to satisfy consumer wants. Therefore study is done to
identify consumer needs and wants. These needs and wants motivates consumer
to purchase
2 Marketers performs study of consumer behavior. Analysis of buyer behavior
helps marketer in market segmentation and targeting
3 Product Planning and development : It includes the activities of product research,
marketing research, market segmentation, product development, determination of
the attributes, quantity and quality of the products
4 Branding of products is adopted by many reputed enterprises to make their
products popular among their customer and for many other benefits. Marketing
manager has to take decision regarding the branding policy, procedures and
implementation programs
5 Packaging: Packaging is to provide a container or wrapper to the product for
safety, attraction and ease of use and transportation of the product
SCOPE OF MAREKTING
6 Decision regarding selection of most appropriate channel of distribution like
wholesaling, distribution and retailing is taken by the marketing manager and sales
manager
7 Pricing Policies: Marketer has to determine pricing policies for their products. Pricing
policies differs form product to product. It depends on the level of competition,
product life cycle, marketing goals and objectives, etc
8 Sales Management: Selling is a part of marketing. Marketing is concerned about all
the selling activities like customer identification, finding customer needs, persuading
customer to buy products, customer service, etc.
9 Promotion includes personal selling, sales promotion, and advertising. Right
promotion mix is crucial in accomplishment of marketing goals.
10 Finance: Marketing is also concerned about the finance, as for every marketing
activity be it packaging, advertising, sales force budget is fixed and all the activities
have to be completed with in the limit of that budget
11 Marketing covers after sales services given to customers, maintaining good
relationships with customers, attending their queries and solving their problems
IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING

• Creating Employment Opportunities

• Improving Standard Of Living
• Progress
• Higher Sales
• Satisfaction of Needs
• Process Of Exchange
• Protecting product
• Storage Of goods
• Complete Information
• Support services
Importance of Marketing: The importance of marketing can be explained with the help of the
following points.
i ) Helps in creating employment opportunities: Marketing helps in creating employment opportunities.
Marketing involves a lot of activities such as transportation, warehousing, packaging, branding, sales promotion,
advertisement etc. Thus, there is a lot of scope of employment created by marketing activities. Hence, we can say
marketing is an important instrument of employment.

ii) Improving standard of living: Marketing makes a continous attempt to create innovative or superior quality
products at low cost. Thus, this helps in improving the standard of living of the people.

iii) Progress: Marketing helps an economy to progress and to bring advancements.

iv) Higher sales: It helps a company to make higher sales by using the techniques such as advertising, sales
promotion, personal selling etc.

v) Satisfying consumer wants: Marketing identifies the needs and wants of the consumers and then produces
goods and services as per the consumer's need. Thus, marketing provides consumers with the goods and services
that they need and which will satisfy their want.

vi) Helps in process of exchange: Marketing helps in the process of exchange of products and services between the
buyers and sellers.
vii) Protecting the product: Marketing helps in protecting the product with the help of packaging. Packaging
protects the product from natural environment such as humidity, warmth, rain etc.
• viii) Storage of goods: It also helps in storage of goods by providing the facilities of
warehouses. The produced goods are stored at warehouses so that they can be used as and when
required by customers
• ix) Complete information: Marketing also helps the customers to get complete information about
the products. Complete information about the product is provided with the help of labelling. The
information provided on label includes maximum retail price, manufacturing and expiry date,
features of product, direction of use etc. It is by looking at the label, customers make a decision to
purchase or not purchase the product.

x) Support services: Support services such as handling complaints and feedback of the customers
also comes under marketing which provide a great satisfaction to customers and also help the
producers to improve their product by getting the feedback from customers.

xi) Economic Stability: Marketing helps in maintaining the balance between production and
consumption. The demand for goods and services in the economy is anticipated and the goods
services are produced in accordance with that demand. Thus, stability is established between
demand and supply by producing goods demanded by consumer.

xii) Creates utility: Utility refers to the want satisfying power of a commodity. Marketing creates
time, place and ownership utility. It means it makes goods and services available where and when
required and transfers the ownership from seller to buyer.
CORE MARKETING CONCEPTS
CORE MARKETING CONCEPTS
Human Needs: It is a state of felt deprivation of some basic satisfaction.
Wants: These are desires for specific satisfiers of these deeper needs.
Demands: These are wants for specific products that are backed by an
ability & willingness to buy them.
Products: These are anything that can be offered to satisfy a need or a
want.
Services: any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is
essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything
Customer Value: Customer Value is the difference
between the values the customer gains from owning
and using the product and the cost of obtaining the
product
Costs: Costs are everything the customer “Sacrifices” in
order to obtain the product-Money, Time, Social
Aspects.
Satisfaction: Customer Satisfaction depends on
product’s Perceived Performance in delivering the
Value Relating to a buyer’s Expectations
Exchange :Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired object from some
one by offering something in return.
Transaction: Transaction is the Trade between two parties that involves at
least two things of value. Transaction is the Marketing’s Unit of
Measurement.
Relationship Marketing: is the process of creating maintaining and
enhancing a strong relationships with customers and other stake holders.
Market: is the set of all actual and potential buyers of the product.
MARKETING HISTORY
• Marketing had a longer history than most people actually realize.
• The history of marketing practice refers to an investigation into the ways
that marketing has been practiced; and how those practices have evolved
over time as they respond to changing socio-economic conditions
• In the past 30 years, marketing’s history has accelerated at a very rapid
pace with all of the digital marketing opportunities.
1450
The beginning of print marketing – Gutenberg invents moveable type,
making mass printing possible.
1730
Magazines emerge for a new type of print marketing. The first magazine created
was published in 1731, in London. It was called The
Gentleman’s Magazine and is considered to be the first general-interest
magazine.
1839
Posters become extremely popular and were banned in London because they
were advertising on private property. In turn, London began using humans as
billboards by wearing sandwich boards with their advertisement on them.
1867
This was the year that billboards were starting to be leased.
1922
On February 1922, AT&T announced that they would be selling advertising spots
on the radio. WEAF of New York aired the first paid
radio commercial.
1941
The first recorded television advertisement was broadcasted in the United States
on July 1, 1941. The watchmaker Bulova paid $9 for a placement on WNBT, a
New York station before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and
Philadelphia Phillies.
1946
The first telephone calls from marketers were made from automobiles. The Bell
System’s – Mobile Telephone Service – inaugural call was made on June 17th in
St. Louis.
1973
While at Motorola, Dr. Martin Cooper makes the first hand-held
mobile phone call. He is responsible for the development of the
cellular phone and brought it to the market.
1984
Guerrilla marketing is used to generate buzz and in 1984 guerrilla
marketing become popular through a book called Guerrilla Marketing,
written by Jay Conrad Levinson, who coined the term.
1985
Desktop publishing makes print advertising even easier by launching
an Apple LaserWriter printer, and later would introduce PageMaker
software from Aldus.
1994
The first automated, large-scale commercial use of spam was created, which
was advertising their service of enrolling people in a green card lottery. The
U.S. government allocated a limited quantity of green cards to certain noncitizens, so
these lawyers offered to do the necessary paperwork for free.
1995
Yahoo! was launched as a search engine on March 1st. Alta Vista search was
launched as an internet search engine on December 15th by Yahoo!.
1996
First recorded use of the term search engine optimization (SEO). Webmasters began
optimizing sites for search engines. Initially, all a webmaster had to do was submit the
URL to the search engines to have them crawl it.
1998
Google was launched as a search engine. MSN search engine was launched
2003
MySpace was founded in August. LinkedIn was launched on May 5th. Can-
Spam Act was signed on December 16th. This act was the first national
standard for the sending of commercial emails.
2004
Facebook founded in February. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg
with his college roommates. Facebook was initially created for
connecting between college students.
2005
Google begins personalized search results. When a user is logged into
a Google Account, all of his or her searches on Google Search are
recorded for their web history and will help for a better user
experience by personalizing searches
2006
Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey. The original
name before twitter was twtter.
2009
Google Instant is a feature that displays suggested results while the user
is typing in their search query and launched in 2009.
2011
Google+ is a social network and identity service and launched on June
28th. Google Panda was a change in Google’s search results ranking
algorithm that was first released in February 2011.
Snapchat was introduced
EVOLUTION OF MARKETING
INTRODUCTION
Evolution of marketing means slow and gradual development of marketing
over the years.
Marketing has changed over the centuries, decades and years. The
production centered system systematically changed into relationship era of
today.
The overall evolution of marketing has given rise to the concept of business
development. Marketing has taken the modern shape after going through
various stages since the end of 19th century
EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

1 Production Concept/Orientation

2 Product Concept/Orientation

3 Sales Concept/Orientation

4 Marketing Concept/Orientation

5 Social Marketing and Holistic Concept/Orientation

• Emphasis On
Production
Concept
Producing
Goods Heading
Product
• Producing Towards The
Quality Goods
Concept
Market Place
• Aggressive
Selling Selling &
Concept Promotion

Marketing • Right products

Concept for Customers
Holistic •Do
Marketing
Concept everything
possible
PRODUCTION CONCEPT/ORIENTATION

The evolution of marketing theory starts with production concept.

Production concept thinks that the route to corporate success lies in
production efficiency, getting production costs as low as possible. This
concept focuses on manufacturing in very large volume in order to reduce
costs and prices.
OLDEST CONCEPT
BELIEVED THAT CONSUMERS PREFER
AVAILABLE GOODS
FOCUS IS ON EFFICIENT PRODUCTION AND MASS
DISTRIBUTION

EFFORTS ON REDUCING COSTS TO PROVIDE

INEXPENSIVE GOODS

NO PRODUCT VARITIES AVAILABLE

PRODUCT CONCEPT/ORIENTATION
The second stage in the evolution of marketing theory is product
concept
Product concept thinks that an ideal product can be produced that will
have all the features any potential customer might want.
FOCUS IS ON MAKING SUPERIOR GOODS

BELIEVED THAT CONSUMERS PREFER GOODS WITH

BEST QUALITY & INNOVATIVE FEATURES

IMPORTANCE IS GIVEN TO IMPROVISING THE

PRODUCT

LESS FOCUS ON CONSUMERS NEED

GOODS SELL THEMSELVES

SALES CONCEPT/ORIENTATION
Moving on, we can identify the next stage in the evolution of
marketing theory as sales concept. This concept is based on the idea
that manufacturing companies can produce far more goods than the
market can accept. Sales-oriented companies assume that people do
not want to buy goods, unless they are influenced to buy. such
companies concentrate on the needs of the seller rather than the needs
of the buyer.
AGGRESSIVE SELLING AND PROMOTION EFFORT

SELL MORE STUFF TO MORE PEOPLE AND MORE

OFTEN
USED WITH GOODS WHICH BUYERS USUALLY DON’T THINK
OF BUYING (UNSOUGHT GOODS)SUCH AS INSURANCE

SELL WHAT IS MADE NOT WHAT MARKET WANTS

CARRIES HIGH RISK AS CAN RESULT INTO

NEGATIVE WORD OF MOUTH
MARKETING
CONCEPT/ORIENTATION
The most common view today in marketing theory is marketing
concept.
Marketing concept means being driven by customer needs, this is also
called as customer orientation. Companies that are truly marketing
oriented will always start with the customer’s needs, wants and
desires. Customers can be grouped according to their different needs,
and a slightly different product offered to each group.
EMERGED IN MID 1950S

FIND RIGHT PRODUCT FOR THE CUSTOMERS

FOCUS IS ON CREATING, COMMUNICATING AND

DELIVERING SUPERIOR CUSTOMER VALUE

BUILD PROFIT THROUGH CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

AND LOYALTY

BEGINS WITH WELL DEFINED MARKET AND ENDS

WITH LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP
SOCIAL MARKETING
CONCEPT/ORIENTATION
The very last and most recent stage in the evolution of marketing
theory is societal marketing. Societal marketing includes the concept
that companies have a responsibility for the needs of society, and they
should include environmental impact and the impact of their products
on non-users.
HOLISTIC MARKETING CONCEPT
ACKNOWLEDGES THAT EVERYTHING MATTERS IN
MARKETING

Relationship
Marketing

Social Integrated
Responsibility Components Marketing
Marketing

Internal
marketing
Relationship
Marketing

1. Build Mutually Satisfying Long Term

Relationship .
2. Key Parties Being Customers, Suppliers,
Distributors And Marketing Partners.
3. Focus is On Developing A Market Network Of
Customers, Employees, Suppliers, Retailers, Ad
Agencies, Etc.
4. Objective Is To Built Mutually Profitable Business
Relationship ,Which Will Make Profits In Long
Term
Integrated
Marketing
1. Marketing Activities Are Employed To Communicate & Deliver
Value In A Co-ordinated Manner
2. Use of Marketing Mix – The 4 Ps
3. Influence Trade Channels As Well Final Consumers Using Offering
Mix and Communication Mix
4. Offering Mix – Product, Price and Services
5. Communication Mix – Advertising, Sales
Promotion,PR, Events & Experiences, Direct Marketing
and Personal Selling
Internal
Marketing
1. Ensuring that everyone in the organisation
embraces appropriate marketing principles
2. Task of hiring, training and motivating
employees who want to serve customers well
3. No sense in promising excellent services
unless the employees are ready for it
4. Works at different levels – Marketing Research
and Marketing functions like advertising,
customer service, and product management
5. Marketing functions must be co- ordinated
from the point of view of the customer
Social
Responsibility
Marketing
1. Focus is on enhancing social welfare

2. Marketers consider the role that they are playing

and could play in terms of social welfare

3. Understanding broader concepts and ethical,

environmental, legal and social context of
marketing activities
INTRODUCTION TI MARKETING
ENVIRONMENT
The Marketing Environment includes the Internal factors (employees,
customers, shareholders, retailers & distributors, etc.) and the External
factors( political, legal, social, technological, economic) that surround the
business and influence its marketing operations. Some of these factors are
controllable while some are uncontrollable and require business operations
to change accordingly. Firms must be well aware of its marketing
environment in which it is operating to overcome the negative impact that
the environment factors are imposing on firm’s marketing activities.
DEFINATIONS OF MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

According to the modern marketing tycoon Philip Kotler,

“The marketing environment consists of the internal and
external factors and forces which affect the company’s ability
to create and maintain successful relationships and
transactions with the companies target consumers “.
According to pride and Ferrell, “The marketing environment
consists of internal and external factors and forces that
directly or indirectly affect an organization acquisition of
inputs and generations of outputs “.
The marketing environment has two different components
Internal Environment
External Environment
The internal marketing environment includes different factors like men or
Human resources, money, products quality corporative culture, etc.
The external marketing environment has divided into two parts
(a) Micro Environment
(b) Macro Environment
1. The microenvironment includes factors like customers, employees, suppliers,
marketing intermediaries, competitors, shareholders, government.
2. The macro-environment has consisted of demographic environment,
economic environment, physical environment, political-legal environment,
social-cultural environment, technological environment.
The factors and forces which are controlled by the company are called the
internal marketing environment. The internal marketing environment may
change with time with the external marketing environment.
The components of internal marketing environment are the 5MS of a
busses which are
• Men
• Money
• Material,
• Machinery and
• Market’s
THE INTERNAL MARKETING ENVIRONMENT:
INTERNAL MARKETING ENVIRONMANT

The internal marketing environment is as important in business as

the external marketing environment. There are lots of factors that
affects the internal environment. Some of the most important
factors are,
1. Corporative objects
2. Finance or money
3. Human resources or man
4. Business culture
5. Products quality
6. Innovation
CORPORATIVE OBJECTS:
Coming to the marketing environment corporative objectives is one of the most
important factors of the internal marketing environment.
It is very essential to set marketing ideas to fulfil your corporate goals. If you
focus on the selling of your product and the promotion and advertisements are
good it will automatically attract people to your products like a magnet. By this it
will automatically fulfil its corporation objects.
FINANCE OR MONEY:
Finance or money takes a vital part in the 5MS of a business.
If The financial condition of a business is not proper, it directly affects the
business (especially its sales and other marketing activities) The sale of any
product hugely depends on its promotions, advertisements, and public campaigns.
HUMAN RESOURCES OR MAN:
The success of any type of business depends on its workmen’s. For promoting and
advertising any type of product in the market your workmen play a very important
role. In the marketing field to beat your competitors you need a group of well
trained and well-educated men. Only such a team can give can grow the profit of a
business.
BUSINESS CULTURE:
The business culture of a company is an important factor in the internal marketing
environment.
It can build or break your business. In a customer oriented business, marketer tried
their best to satisfy their customers and tries to understand their needs and demands.
PRODUCTS QUALITY:
To earn more profit the development of a product is very necessary. Due to the change
in customer’s tastes and requirements, the marketers have to develop their products to
beat the competition in the market. So it is very important to develop products from
time to time in the marketing field.
INNOVATION:
Innovation is the key factor in the internal marketing environment. In the marketing
field innovation is very important. Innovation New technologies and tools are the key
to market success.
STAKEHOLDER’S GOALS:
In the marketing field, we need to understand the goals of marketing shareholders or
owners: What they’re trying to achieve? Sometime this could be very profitable, so
this is an one of important factor.
EXTERNAL MARKETING ENVIRONMANT
As discussed a marketer has no control or has very little control over the
external factors and forces. As we know the external marketing
environment has two components (1) Micro Environment (2) Macro
Environment.
MICRO ENVIRONMENT
The microenvironment or the task environment possesses the factors
and forces which are directly related to business. The factors are
MICRO ENVIRONMENT FACTORS
• SUPPLIERS
• MARKETING INTERMEDIARIES
• YOUR COMPETITORS
• SHAREHOLDERS/PARTNERS
• CUSTOMERS OR GENERAL PUBLIC
• THE GOVERNMENT
Suppliers :The suppliers to a firm provide resources that are needed by
that firm and thereby alter its competitive position and marketing
capabilities. There are raw material suppliers, energy suppliers, suppliers
of labour and capital etc.
Intermediaries: Market intermediaries are business houses or
individuals who come to the aid of the company. They are middlemen
(wholesalers, retailers), distributing agencies etc.
PRODUCER CONSUMER

PRODUCER WHOLESALER CONSUMER

PRODUCE WHOLESAL RETAIL CONSUME

R ER ER R
• Customers are people who buy an organization’s
products/services. In simple words, an organization cannot survive
without customers. A consumer, on the other hand, is the ultimate
user of the product/service.
• For example, a husband might purchase a product for his wife. In
this case, the husband is the customer and the wife is the
consumer.
• A successful business keeps a close watch on both customers and
consumers of its products/services. It must monitor and track any
changes in tastes and preferences of the consumer along with
changes in the buying habits of the customer.
Competitors: Competitors are those who sell the goods and services of
similar description in the same market. Identification of competitors is
of utmost importance. Therefore it is essential to build an efficient
system of marketing.
Public: A public is defined as “any group that has an actual or potential
interest in or impact on a company’s ability to achieve its objectives”. To
build goodwill and to seek favourable response, it is very crucial for a
company to satisfy its general public as well.
Macro environment
Macro environment refers to those factors which are external forces in
the company’s activities and do not concern the immediate
environment. These are uncontrollable factors which indirectly affect
the concern’s ability to operate in the market effectively
MACRO ENVIRONMENT FACTORS
• DEMOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT
• ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
• NATURAL AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
• POLITICAL AND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT
• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
• TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
Demographic factors
Demography is the study of population in terms of size, density,
location, age, gender, occupation etc. These factors have a huge impact
on the marketing decisions of the company. For example, a growth in
population means increasing human needs which results in the
expansion of product markets, if there is sufficient purchasing power
Economic factors
It consists of factors related to the means of production and
distribution of wealth that have an impact on the functioning of an
organisation. It affects the spending power of people. Further
economic development and growth affects the product choice of
the customers. For example- per capita income, Balance of
payment position, Gross national product, inflation, deflation etc.
Natural and Physical factors
Components of physical forces are the earth’s natural renewable and
non renewable resources. Natural renewable resources are forests,
food products from agriculture or sea. Non renewable resources are
finite such as oil, coal, minerals etc. both these components often
change the level and type of resources available to a marketer for his
production.
Political and legal factors
These factors include the policies related to public sector, small scale
industries, sick industries, import and export, licensing, development
of backward areas etc. the vast governmental network of laws and
regulations have varied impact on marketing activities.
Socio- Cultural factors
It comprises of society and culture. A society is a set
of relations among people including their social
status and roles. Culture consists of attitudes,
customs, beliefs and values of a society.
Socio -
culture

society Culture
Importance of Marketing Environment

Every marketer should have the knowledge of marketing environment

it will help him in different ways like,
• Tapping trends
• Opportunities
• Identifying threats
• Identifying competitors
• Making marketing strategies
Conclusion
A marketer must be aware of the internal and external factors and
forces of the marketing environment. It will help him to set up his
business.
This describes the important role of marketing environment to identify
marketing threats and opportunities.
OVERVIEW OF MARKETING
RESEARCH
The environment for marketing has become extremely dynamic.
Without adequate preparation, it is difficult for organizations to survive
in such an environment. Marketing research is one of the most
effective tools that help organizations excel in the marketplace.
Obtaining necessary information about customers’ tastes and
preferences is the key to business success.

Marketing research provides information about consumers and their

reactions to various products, prices, distribution, and promotion
strategies. Marketers who collect accurate and relevant information
quickly and design their strategies quicker than their competitors are
more likely to be successful.
Marketing research helps in effective planning and implementation of
business decisions by providing accurate, relevant, and timely
information. The process of marketing research involves a series of
steps that systematically investigate a problem or an opportunity facing
the organization.
This investigation starts with problem or opportunity recognition and
definition, development of objectives for the research, development of
hypothesis, planning the research design, selecting a research method,
analyzing the research designs, selecting a sampling procedure, data
collection, evaluating and analyzing the data and finally preparing and
presenting the research report.
MARKETING RESEARCH
Market research is the process of determining the viability of a new
service or product through research conducted directly with potential
customers. Market research allows a company to discover the target
market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their
interest in the product or service.
This type of research can be conducted in-house, by the company itself,
or by a third-party company that specializes in market research. It can be
done through surveys, product testing, and focus groups.
MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

Marketing research exercise may take many forms but systematic

inquiry is feature common to all such forms. Being a systematic
inquiry it requires careful planning of the orderly investigation
process. Though it is an over simplification to assume that all research
processes would necessarily follow a given sequence marketing
research often follows a generalized pattern which can be broken
down and studied as sequential stages.
As shown in the diagram research process begins with the
identification. The research task may clarify a problem or define an
opportunity. The clear cut statement of problem may not be possible at
the very outset of research process as often only the symptoms of the
problem are apparent at that point. Thus the problem statement may be
made only in general terms to be made specific later after some
exploratory research has been done to clarify the problem situation.
DEFINING THE PROBLEM

Clear problem definition is of crucial importance in marketing

research as in terms of both time and money research is a costly
process. Careful attention to problem definition allows the researcher
to set the proper research objectives which in turn facilitate relevant
and economic data collection.
Problem definition in specific terms must precede the determination of
the purpose of the research.
In order to define the problem more precisely, some sort of
exploratory research may also be undertaken. The methods popularly
in use are survey of secondary data, experience survey or pilot studies.
The foremost decision that every firm has to undertake is to find out the
problem for which the research is to be conducted. The problem must be
defined adequately because if it is too vague, then it may result in the
wastage of scarce resources and if it is too narrow, then the exact
conclusion cannot be drawn. In order to define the problem
appropriately, each firm must have a clear answer to the questions viz.
What is to be researched (content and the scope)? And Why the research
is to be done (decisions that are to be made)
For example, if the organization is planning to launch a new product,
then it may conduct some exploratory research in form of customer
interviews, review of market trends for the particular product category,
etc.
STATEMENT OF RESEARCH
OBJECTIVES
After clarifying and identifying the research problem with or without
exploratory research, the researcher must make a formal statement of
research objectives. Research objectives may be state in qualitative or
quantitative terms and expressed as research question statements or
hypothesis. For example, the research objective “To find out the extent
to which the sales promotion programs affected sales” is a research
objective expressed as a statement.
A hypothesis on the other hand is a statement that can be refuted or
supported by empirical findings. The same research objective could be
stated as: “To test the hypothesis that sales are -positively affected by
the sales promotion program undertaken this summer.” Example of
another hypothesis may be “Concentrating advertising efforts in
monthly waves (rather than advertising continuously) would cause an
increase in sales and profits.” Once the objectives or the hypothesis are
developed the researcher is ready to choose the research design.
PLANNING THE RESEARCH DESIGN

Once the research problem has been defined and the objectives
decided, the research design must be developed. A research design is a
piaster plan specifying the procedure for collecting and analyzing the
needed information. It represents framework for the research plan of
action. The objectives of the study discussed in the preceding step are
included in the research design to ensure that data collected are
relevant to the objectives.
One of the following three marketing research approaches may be selected:
(a) Exploratory Research:
This approach is selected when there is little information available regarding the
problem. In such a situation it is imperative that such information be explored
and found out.
(b) Descriptive Research:
If the researcher is aware of the availability of relevant information then all that
is required of him is to assimilate and compile the information and then
describe the relationship between the marketing problem and the available
information.
(c) Causal Research:
Such a research attempts to establish a cause-effect relationship among
variables being explored. If the marketing researcher gets signal from the top
management that there should be clearly defined effect from the proposed
solution then causal research must be undertaken.
It basically deals with the following issues:
(i) What type of data is to be gathered (primary or secondary)?
(ii) What are the sources from which data is to be gathered?
(iii) Hypotheses formulation and testing.
(iv) Evaluating the quality of secondary data and secondary data analysis.
(v) What type of research design is to be used (exploratory, descriptive or
causal/experimental research design)?
(vi) Methods of collecting primary data (survey, observation and
experiments).
(vii) Measurement and scaling procedures.
(viii) Questionnaire design and testing the questionnaire.
(ix) Sampling plan and sample size.
(x) Data analysis.
PLANNING THE SAMPLE
Although the sample plan is included in the research design, the actual
sampling is a separate and important stage in the research process,
Sampling involves procedures that use a small number of items or
parts of the population to make conclusion regarding the whole
population. The first sampling question that needs to be asked is who
is to be sampled, which follow from what is the target population.
Defining the population may not be as simple as it seems. For
example, if you are interested in finding the association between
savings and loans, you may survey the people who already have
accounts and the selected sample will not represent potential
customers.
The next important issue is regarding sample size. How large or how
small should a sample be? Generally speaking, larger samples give
more reliable information then smaller ones but if probability sampling
is used, a small proportion of the population may give a reliable
measure of the universe. Unit 5 on `sampling’ gives a detailed account
of determination of sample size as well as different sampling methods
used. The researcher is also required to know how to select the various
unit to make up the sample.
Some common sampling techniques:
(i) Simple random sampling
(ii) Convenience sampling
(iii) Stratified sampling
(iv) Systematic sampling
(v) Cluster sampling
(vi) Sequential sampling
(vii) Disproportional sampling
(viii) Judgmental sampling
(ix) Snowball sampling
(x) Quota sampling
DATA COLLECTION
The data collection process follows the formulation of research design
including the sampling plan. Data which can be secondary or primary,
can be collected using variety of tools. These tools are classified into
two broad categories, the observation methods and the communication
methods, all of which have their inherent advantages and
disadvantages.
Data can be primary, meaning collected from the unique base by
experimental research through various tools.
The two extensive kinds of sources:
(i) Internal sources are one that exists within the firm itself, like
accounting data, salesmen or employee statements, etc.
(ii) External sources—external to the firm.

Data can be secondary, meaning they are collected from concerned

reports, magazines in addition to other journals, particularly
written articles, government magazines, company journals, books,
etc.
DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
Once the data has been collected it has to be converted to a format that
will suggest answers to the problem identified in the first step, Data
processing begins with the editing of data and coding. Editing
involved inspecting the data collection forms for omission, legibility
and consistency in classification.
ANALYSIS
Analysis represents the application of logic to the understanding of
data collected about the subject. In its simplest forms, analysis may
involve determination of consistent patterns and summarizing 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 univariate
analysis to very complex multivariate analysis.
FORMULATING CONCLUSION, PREPARING &
PRESENTING THE REPORT
The final sate in the research process is that of interpreting the
information mid drawing conclusions for use in managerial decisions.
The research report should effectively communicate the research
findings and need not necessarily include complicated statements
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 in the concrete findings of the research. If
executives are to act on these findings they must be convinced of the
value of the findings. Researchers, therefore, must make the
presentation technically accurate, understandable and useful.
PRESENTATION
Frequently, the researchers are required to make both an oral and a
written presentation. Since each project is different, the presentation in
each case requires originality. However, the better the earlier steps in
the research process have been executed, the more likely it is that a
good presentation would result, While the oral presentation depends a
great deal on the personal style of the presenter and the management
expectation.
Normally, the given format is used while preparing reports:
(i) Title Page.
(ii) Table of Contents.
(iii) List of Illustrations.
(iv) Executive Summary.
(v) Research Objectives.
(vi) Methodology and Limitations.
(vii) Findings.
(viii) Recommendations.
(ix) Appendices containing copies of questionnaires, etc.
According to Philip Kotler, the marketing research process with five
distinct steps can be described in the following logistics
STEP 1
This step is the most important one and emphasis is laid to
identification of marketing and research problems with respect to the
elements of industry, competition and customers of marketing aspects
and to the situation analysis of product-market scope.
Step 2
This step is self-explanatory. It involves the formal research or study
to develop relevant information sources like company records, govt.,
statistics, and private reports
Step 3
This step involves observation and surveys so as to collect data and
information relevant to the problem.
Step 4
In this step, raw data and information are analysed and evalu­ated to
find out significant ones. Statistical and other techniques are applied
for the purpose of analysis and interpretation.
Step 5
This final step involves the preparation of the research report, on the
basis of findings and significant results, to be presented to the
marketing management. Such report must highlight the basic problem,
alternative approaches to solution, and recommendations for action.
Conclusion
In the end, I would like to conclude that, Marketing research by
itself does not arrive at marketing decisions, nor does it guarantee
that the organization will be successful in marketing its products.
However, when conducted in a systematic, analytical, and
objective manner, marketing research can reduce the uncertainty in
the decision-making process and increase the probability and
magnitude of success.
MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM
• Interpretation, storage and dissemination of the market information, from both the
internal and external sources, to the marketers on a regular, continuous basis.

• The marketing information system distributes the relevant information to the

marketers who can make the efficient decisions related to the marketing
operations viz. Pricing, packaging, new product development, distribution, media,
promotion, etc.

• Every marketing operation works in unison with the conditions prevailing both
inside and outside the organization, and, therefore, there are several sources ( viz.
Internal, Marketing Intelligence, Marketing Research) through which the relevant
information about the market can be obtained.
COMPONENTS OF MARKETING
INFORMATION SYSTEM
• Internal Records: The Company can collect information through its internal records
comprising of sales data, customer database, product database, financial data,
operations data, etc. The detailed explanation of the internal sources of data is given
below:
 The information can be collected from the documents such as invoices, transmit
copies, billing documents prepared by the firms once they receive the order for the
goods and services from the customers, dealers or the sales representatives.
 The current sales data should be maintained on a regular basis that serves as an aide to
a the Marketing Information System. The reports on current sales and the inventory
levels help the management to decide on its objectives, and the marketers can make
use of this information to design their future sales strategy.
 The Companies maintain several databases such as*Customer Database- wherein the
complete information about the customer’s name, address, phone number, the
frequency of purchase, financial position, etc. is saved.
• *Product Database- wherein the complete information about the product’s price,
features, variants, is stored.

• *Salesperson database, wherein the complete information about the salesperson, his
name, address, phone number, sales target, etc. is saved.

 The companies store their data in the data warehouse from where the data can be
retrieved anytime the need arises. Once the data is stored, the statistical experts mine it
by applying several computer software and techniques to convert it into meaningful
information that gives facts and figures.
2. Marketing Intelligence System: The marketing intelligence system provides the data about
the happenings in the market, i.e. data related to the marketing environment which is
external to the organization. It includes the information about the changing market trends,
competitor’s pricing strategy, change in the customer’s tastes and preferences, new products
launched in the market, promotion strategy of the competitor, etc.
• In order to have an efficient marketing Information System, the companies should work
aggressively to improve the marketing intelligence system by taking the following steps:

 Providing the proper training and motivating the sales force to keep a check on the market
trends, i.e. the change in the tastes and preferences of customers and give suggestions on the
improvements, if any.
 Motivating the channel partners viz. Dealer, distributors, retailers who are in the actual
market to provide the relevant and necessary information about the customers and the
competitors.
 The companies can also improve their marketing intelligence system by getting more and more
information about the competitors. This can be done either by purchasing the competitor’s
product, attending the trade shows, reading the competitor’s published articles in magazines,
journals, financial reports.

 The companies can have an efficient marketing information system by involving the loyal
customers in the customer advisory panel who can share their experiences and give advice to the
new potential customers.

 The companies can make use of the government data to improve its marketing Information
system. The data can be related to the population trends, demographic characteristics,
agricultural production, etc. that help an organization to plan its marketing operations
accordingly.

 Also, the companies can purchase the information about the marketing environment from the
research companies who carry out the researches on all the players in the market.

 The Marketing Intelligence system can be further improved by asking the customers directly
3. Marketing Research: The Marketing Research is the systematic collection, organization,
analysis and interpretation of the primary or the secondary data to find out the solutions to
the marketing problems.Several Companies conduct marketing research to analyze the
marketing environment comprising of changes in the customer’s tastes and preferences,
competitor’s strategies, the scope of new product launch, etc. by applying several statistical
tools. In order to conduct the market research, the data is to be collected that can be either
primary data (the first hand data) or the secondary data (second-hand data, available in
books, magazines, research reports, journals, etc.)
• The secondary data are publicly available, but the primary data is to be collected by the
researcher through certain methods such as questionnaires, personal interviews, surveys,
seminars, etc.

• A marketing research contributes a lot in the marketing information system as it provides the
factual data that has been tested several times by the researchers.
4. Marketing Decision Support System: It includes several software programs
that can be used by the marketers to analyze the data, collected so far, to take
better marketing decisions.With the use of computers, the marking managers
can save the huge data in a tabular form and can apply statistical programs to
analyze the data and make the decisions in line with the findings.
• Thus, the marketers need to keep a check on the marketing environment, i.e.
both the internal (within the organization) and the external (outside the
organization, so that marketing policies, procedures, strategies can be designed
accordingly.
MARKETING INTELLIGENCE
• Market intelligence is collected data that provides a broad view of the company’s
existing market. This view includes information and insights about customers,
competitors, problems, regulatory authorities, the potential for new products and
any other market information you can guess.
• Furthermore, in our new era of innovations, market intelligence has expanded to
incorporate data analysis methods that can help you improve your business
modeling.
• The meaning of market intelligence consists of answering actual questions about your
customers and competitors and thus help the company perform successful data-driven
decision making.
• Examples of questions that market intelligence can include:

 What are the key strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?

 What is the optimal price for a concrete product?
 Who is currently purchasing your products?
 What are the key reasons for not buying your products?
 What updates or changes could be made to your products to make it better?
 Into what marketing segments can you push new or existing products?
 What sets you apart from competitors?
 What benefits do your customers want?
• The answers to questions like above ones can help you manage your customers, develop
pricing strategies, create marketing plans, boost upselling opportunities, predict
competitors’ moves, identify gaps and etc.
TYPES OF MARKETING
INTELLIGENCE
• Marketing intelligence covers a whole world of data and information. As we mentioned
above, it includes information and insights about customers, competitors, problems,
prices, and etc.
• Depending on the sources of the data to be gathered and analyzed and on the nature of
your industry and market, there are many types of marketing intelligence. Here we will
see the main of them.
Competitor intelligence
• Nowadays, competitor intelligence is a critical instrument for effective marketing and
business success.
• As you already guess, competitor intelligence is the process of collecting and
analyzing information about competitors.
• However, competitor intelligence isn’t the act of spying on the competition. It’s
based on the ethical gathering of different types of information, including government
records (that are openly available).
• The Society of Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) even
provides a code of ethics for its members.
• Typically, competitor intelligence activities help you form a picture of the competitive
environment in which your business works, as well as build comprehensive competitor
profiles.
• Examples of topics, areas, and key points that your competitor profile should contain:
 Competitors contact information (such as emails, website, addresses, phone numbers
and etc.)
 The company structure – is your competitor individually owned, incorporated, etc?
 Mission statement – what are your competitor’s philosophies and beliefs?
 Are they direct or indirect competitors?
 What are their products/services?
 How high is their quality? How do customers perceive their quality? Are their customers
satisfied?
 How loyal are your competitor’s customers?
 What is the competitor news? Following your competitors on social media is a must-do
thing.
 How does their product development process work?
 What are their available resources (both internal and external)?
 What are their sales? What is the revenue? What is their sales team like?
 What are their current and potential target market?
 How do competitors distribute their products and services?
 What are their current and potential target market?
 How do competitors distribute their products and services?
 What are their customer service level and skills?
• When it comes to collectinCustomer intelligence
• In today world, only a deep customer understanding can drive your sales and revenue.

• Customer intelligence is the process of gathering and analyzing information about your
customers. The goal of it is to understand customer motivations, beliefs, intentions,
preferences, and perceptions.
Customer intelligence is all about gaining insight into customers that is both valuable and
smart.
• It’s the understanding of why customers buy (or not buy) particular products that allow
you to meet customer demands and expectations.
• Customer intelligence helps you create your customers’ profile which includes
geographic, demographic, psychographic, and socioeconomic characteristics. Also, it
consists of creditworthiness and buying patterns.
• Examples of topics and points that your customer profile should contain:

 What is the age group of your customers?

 What is their level of education?
 What is their occupation?
 What is their annual income?
 Where do they live?
 What is their marital status?
 What are your customers’ hobbies and interests?
 What problem are they solving by using your product?
 What are the concerns that may customers have about your company and business?
 What can make your customers recommend your products to other people?
 How much are they willing to spend on your types of products?
 What are the best channels to reach your customers? (emails, social media, TV, in-store
promotions, etc.)
• Customer Intelligence is a must-needed approach that provides actionable business
insight.
• To succeed, you must know the various sources of customer intelligence and the clear
answers to questions like above ones. They will help you get closer and closer to your
customers.
• g information about your competitors, it a best practice to uncover as much as you can.
This will not only show you their profile but it will also help you learn how to be greater
than them.
• Geopolitical Intelligence
• The business environment is complex and globally interconnected.

• Geopolitical intelligence is a process of collecting and analyzing information about the

regional and/or global geopolitical aspects such as languages, culture, history, law, trade
policies, and business practices typical for a country (or countries).
• Geopolitical intelligence is more common for multinational and global enterprises that
operate on several countries and need data and insights into different markets and
locations.
• To perform this type of market intelligence, large global companies may create an in-
house team that performs geopolitical intelligence functions. Smaller companies often use
outside services.
• Examples of topics and points that your geopolitical intelligence should contain:

 What is the risk of a major movement in the exchange rate in a country?

 What are the political stability and the overall political system?
 What are commercial laws and business regulations?
 What is the domestic security environment? Is there encompassing war, crime, terrorism,
or other security issues?
 What are the business environment and the influence of societal and structural factors?
 What is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP, Nominal) of the country?
 What are the major International and regional organizations in the country?
 Who are some of the country’s leaders?
 What are the country’s major exports and imports?
• Geopolitical intelligence helps businesses to understand the dimensions of global markets
and environments so that they can identify opportunities and avoid risks.
• Business leaders realize that understanding the complex geopolitical picture is an
important element, requiring interpreting the impact of changing economic conditions on
business success
• Social Media Intelligence
• Social media has transformed the way people communicate and interact with each
other. Now, when people go looking for more information about a company or a product,
they go to check the social media profiles.
• These are good reasons why social media intelligence is becoming one of the key types of
marketing intelligence.
• Social media intelligence (SMI) represents the process of monitoring social media
including social conversations. The information is then analyzed and used to make
business decisions and take actions.
• Social media intelligence goes far beyond just looking at and monitoring conversations
that go online (including ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’). SMI gives you deep insights into how
your consumers perceive your company, products or brands.
• Examples of topics and questions that your social media intelligence can help you answer:

 What are your competitors doing?

 What are your customers biggest problems and pain points?
 What content is getting the most engagement?
 What business opportunities are you missing? Is there something you hadn’t considered
about your customers?
 Which customers are not happy with your products and why?
 What are your customers’ interests?
 Which audiences love your products and why?
 How can you gain new ideas?
 Who are the key influencers in your industry?
 How can you offer a better customer experience?
 Who is talking about your company?
• SMI is a powerful weapon in your hands. A successful social media intelligence strategy
allows you to reach the right people at the right time with a great and insightful content
and offers.
• It opens many doors to marketing, research, and sales professionals. In so many ways,
social media makes market intelligence more relevant and vigorous. You just need to
know how to integrate it rightly.
• Technology Intelligence
• Leading companies have a very comprehensive structure of different types of marketing
intelligence (including not only competitive, customer, and social media intelligence but
also technology intelligence) to gather and analyze deeper information on environmental
changes in order to improve their decision-making quality.
• Technology Intelligence (TI) is the process of identifying and analyzing the technological
opportunities and threats that could affect your business development.
TI involves a specific type of information and insights into the technology environment.
In other words, TI helps you explore what’s going on in the technology world and how
this information can be applied in your company.
• With the new technologies coming faster than ever before, you need to know which ones
can give you the most competitive advantage. You not only have to know what the new
technologies are but how effective they can be.
• Examples of questions that technology intelligence can help you answer:

 What are the technology trends in your industry?

 When is the best time to deploy new technologies?
 What new technology skills need your employees to learn?
 What are your competitors doing in technical aspect?
 How innovative are your products and services in comparison with your competitors?
 What are the biggest technology providers (such as universities, research institutes,
national labs, etc) in your industry?
 What are the current technical requirements and expectations of your customers?
 What are the upcoming technology solutions that will dominate the market over the next
years?
 What are the key challenges of the innovation cycle of a product?
• Technology intelligence allows you to identify and evaluate trends, perform historical
analysis, estimate market demands, understand specific regulations, and even make
technology predictions.
• The good technology intelligence can provide you with a solid knowledge and support to
plan and create your innovation path. Moreover, it can connect you to partners and project
ideas beyond your geographical boundaries.
• Product Intelligence
• Product intelligence is gaining a strong popularity among marketers and sales
professionals, especially those who are involved in the retail industry today.
• Product intelligence is a process of collecting and analyzing information about your
company’s products and those of your competitors. The goal is to provide data-driven
insights to your management team for product development decisions and innovation
activities.
• Although it covers areas from competitor and customer intelligence, product intelligence
is considered as a separate type of marketing intelligence due to its primary focus – the
product.
• Product Intelligence is about a deep understanding of product features such as prices,
ratings, promotions, attributes, distributions, availability, and etc.
• Product Intelligence helps you sell more to existing customers, provide better customer
service, support your other departments, testing concepts, tracking success, and more.
• Examples of questions that product intelligence can help you answer:

 What features are attracting users to your product at most?

 How do customers like your product relative to competing ones?
 What products are trending down?
 What products are bought the most and why?
 What stores are struggling and why?
 What is the best price range for a particular product?
 What are the best distribution channels for a product?
 What are the best suppliers?
• There are cutting-edge software solutions for product intelligence that combine data from
different company’s systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer
relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle management (PLM) and other data
resources into one data place for analytics and insights.
• Sales is the machine that drives your business growth and optimizing your product
understandings can lead to a great effectiveness and revenue results.
• Conclusion
• If your company can’t adapt to the ever-changing market dynamics, there are real risks of
getting out of the market.
• One of the key reasons the leading businesses (such as Amazon) are so successful is their
collection, analysis, insights, and right use of data for the decision making.
• The above types of market intelligence can provide you with a broad view of customer
needs and behaviors, competitor’s threats, potential markets, technology solutions,
suppliers, prices, and many other critical market aspects.
• Big data and marketing intelligence play a variety of roles in the modern business world,
for all levels of management and for all types of organizations.
• When used effectively, the different types of market intelligence reveal crucial
information, such as the hidden patterns, latent correlations, and trends. This undoubtedly
leads to increased business productivity and revenue.
INTRODUCTION
• Today the environment in the modern business arena is highly uncertain and
rapidly changing. Advances in communications and information systems
technology are further accelerating the pace of change. Expansion of
business operations from home country toward other countries is making the
uncertainty more prominent and stronger. This may be due to cultural,
political, and legal differences. This makes it increasingly critical for
management to keep abreast of changes and to collect timely and pertinent
information to adapt strategy and market tactics in expanding local markets.
As a consequence, international marketing research becomes essential for
effective decision-making when organizations start to internationalize
toward foreign markets.
• In this post, we're going to explain - what exactly international marketing
research is. Process of international marketing research.
DEFINITION OF MARKETING
RESEARCH
• According to American Marketing Association - "Marketing Research is the
systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about problems relating to
the marketing of goods and services".
• According to Philip Kotler - “Marketing research is a systematic problem
analysis, model building and fact finding for the purpose of improved decision-
making and control in the marketing of goods and services".

• According to Paul Green and Donald Tull - "Marketing research is the

systematic and objective search for, and analysis of, information relevant to the
identification and solution of any problem in the field of marketing".
• According to David Luck, Donald Taylor, and Hugh Wales - "Marketing
Research is the application of scientific methods in the solution of marketing
DEFINITION OF INTERNATIONAL
MARKETING RESEARCH
• International marketing research is the systematic design, collection,
recording, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of information
pertinent to a particular marketing decision facing a company
operating internationally.
• International Market Research is a particular discipline of Market
Research, focusing on certain geographical areas.
• International Market Research is concerned with consumer goods, but
also with any resource or service within a value chain which will be
commercially utilized or further processed – which is the area of
industrial goods and B2B-Marketing.
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
RESEARCH PROCESS
• Conduct preliminary research - Do some preliminary research on your
topic of interest. For this, you can go online and search existing survey
reports related to your topic of interest. The searched reports may not
be too specific to your requirement, but they might give you some
ideas on how to go about your primary research.
• Develop a Research Brief
• Research Brief is a statement setting out the objectives and
background to the case in sufficient detail to enable the researcher to
plan an appropriate study. A good research brief must include - a
background to the problem, a description of the product or service to
be researched, a description of the market to be researched, a
statement of the objectives, timing, and budget constraints.
• Identify the Right Marketing Research Agency
• Using a professional market research agency can ensure that you get the information you
need so that you can make strategic decisions based on reliable evidence.
• First, find some marketing research agencies with the help of trade associations, business
contacts, market research society, business intelligence groups, independent consultant
groups, local or online directories, etc.
• Draw up a market research agency shortlist - As long as you understand your own research
needs, a quick check of what each agency offers will allow you to eliminate unsuitable
ones. Smaller businesses tend to find that smaller agencies know how to get useful insights
from a tight budget.
• Unless you know what type of research you need, you may prefer to work with a company
that offers a wide range of market research services, rather than a specialist who only offers
one particular type of research.
• Choosing a market research agency - Ask each market research agency to provide a brief
proposal, setting out what kind of research they would suggest, their timelines and costs,
and enclosing examples of past projects. Choose an agency that understands what you need
to know, and has shown that they know how to get the right information within your
budget.
• Determine Data Collection Mode
• The data collection mode you use will impact both the type of data you collect and how it is collected. Data is
generally grouped into two categories, qualitative and quantitative.
• Qualitative data is unstructured and is often exploratory by nature. When analyzed, responses may be grouped
into similar categories but they cannot be ranked in the same way quantitative data can.
• Quantitative research is the mathematical approach to collecting data, which can more clearly be measured
and structured. Quantitative data includes survey data where respondents have a clear choice of answers, and
quantitative questions often appear with radio buttons, checkboxes, and Likert scales which are easy to
measure and compare.
• Focus groups, unstructured interviews, and open-ended questions are typically collecting qualitative data,
while surveys with answer choices collect quantitative data. Understanding the different modes and what type
of data they can collect is important: Text message surveys can collect some qualitative data, but perform
better with quantitative questions that are easily answered from a list of choices.
• You also need to consider how robust and agile the different modes of data collection are. Can your selected
mode work across multiple countries and languages? How much data are you looking to collect and in what
time frame? The level of scalability of the mode is important, especially if your project will entail a multi-
country survey. In addition, some modes will collect data more slowly than others.
• Some examples of different modes of data collection include:
• • Face-to-face
• • Text message (SMS) survey
• • Online survey
• Conduct Data Analysis
• The most important aspect of market research is being able to analyze the data
once it has been collected. A thorough analysis should guide you on how to act on
the insights you have gathered. It is therefore crucial that the research agency,
through its insights report, address the questions you had set out at the start of
your survey.
• Complete a Post Project Review
• Having a session with the research team after completion of your project to share
feedback and discuss the project execution is sometimes overlooked. Such an
undertaking involves various departments but is important to understand why a
project did or did not go as smoothly as planned. A post-project review session
helps both parties knowing what areas worked and which ones the agency or the
client will need to improve for their next project.
Research ethics provides guidelines for the responsible conduct of research. In addition, it
educates and monitors scientists conducting research to ensure a high ethical standard. The
following is a general summary of some ethical principles:
• Honesty:
• Honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Do not
fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data.
• Objectivity:
• Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review,
personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research.
• Integrity:
• Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought
and action.
• Carefulness:
• Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own work and
the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities.
• Openness:
• Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas.
• Respect for Intellectual Property:
• Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use
unpublished data, methods, or results without permission. Give credit where credit is due.
Never plagiarize.
• Confidentiality:
• Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for publication,
personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient records.
• Responsible Publication:
• Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career.
Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication.
• Responsible Mentoring:
• Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote their welfare and allow them to
make their own decisions.
• Respect for Colleagues:
• Respect your colleagues and treat them fairly.
• Social Responsibility:
• Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research,
public education, and advocacy.
• Non-Discrimination:
• Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or
other factors that are not related to their scientific competence and integrity.
• Competence:
• Maintain and improve your own professional competence and expertise through lifelong
education and learning; take steps to promote competence in science as a whole.
• Legality:
• Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental policies.
• Animal Care:
• Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. Do not conduct
unnecessary or poorly designed animal experiments.
• Human Subjects Protection:
• When conducting research on human subjects, minimize harms and risks and maximize
benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy.