Project Report - Doc Lohit

An Analysis Of Consumer Preference On Business Standard In Business Standard Ltd
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelors Degree in Business Administration (BBA) Of Amity University By Lohit Kumar (Registration No - A30306409016) Under the guidance of Prof. N. Nagamani Senior Faculty / Placement In charge (Internal Guide) Amity Global Business School # 372, Koramangala 3rd Block, Hosur Main Road, Bangalore 560 034 Mr. Gangaraju Sales executive (External Guide) Business Standard Ltd Park View #17, Curve Road, Tasker Town, Bangalore 560 051
AMITY GLOBAL BUSINESS SCHOOL, BANGALORE # 372, Koramangala 3rd Block, Hosur Main Road, Bangalore 560 034
DECLARATION I, R.Lohit Kumar hereby declare that the project report entitled AN ANANLYSIS OF CONSUMER PREFERENCE ON BUSINESS STANDARD submitted to Amity global business school is a record of original work done by me during my period of study under the guidance of Prof. N Nagamani and external guide Mr. Gangaraju in Marketing, at Business Standard Limited.
Place: Bangalore Date:
6 Bangalore
Amity Global Business School,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartiest gratitude to all the people who have helped me in this project and in my summer internship, which was a good learning experience.
To start with I would like to express my appreciation first to Mr. Pawan Sharma, Manager, Market Development, Business Standard, Karnataka, for giving me this
opportunity to work on this project. Mr. Gangaraju, Senior Sales Officer- Business Standard for his continuous guidance and support in the two months of my internship. Prof. Nagamani my internal project guide for her continuous guidance and help in making this project a success and helping me growth be the best and got me this opportunity to work with Business Standard.
In the course of working, I have developed a lot of skills that will help me in the long run in a very positive way. I have learnt how to deal with different customers , how to carry out promotional activities, how to distribute work and work in team, and most importantly I have learnt the value of time management which is very important in todays competitive business world.
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Table of contents Executive summary .................... 9 1. Introduction to Marketing 11 Types of marketing...........................13 Marketing research 16 Value of direct marketing in India.34
Industry profile Major players. 37 Why is it done/what is the need/strategies in direct marketing 39 How successfully its been practiced in Business standard.40
2. Company profile History. 42 Vision\mission\future.. 46 Organizational structure.. 49 Distribution n format... 52 3. Research Methodology Primary Research. 55 Questionnaire.. 58 Data collection. 62 4. Analysis and interpretations 63 5. Findings and discussions. 71 Suggestions and Recommendations . 73 Conclusion 74 Bibliography. 75 Annexure.. 76
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This project is prepared to learn about the awareness, acceptance and position of Business Standard among the readers of Financial Newspapers, which is done through questionnaire and presenting the same to the readers.
It is also prepared to know how Business Standard can acquire more market share, which is done through market development by corporate sales and promotional activities in various corporate.
The project includes understanding the newspapers, USP, Subscription module, and distribution network and payment flow, know the competitors in the market and the customer segment that it targets. The objective of the project is to find out how popular Business Standard is in the market, the reputation it holds in the minds of the readers, the reasons why non readers of Business Standard do not prefer reading it and collect feedbacks and opinions about the same.
The latter half of the project includes how to increase the market share through corporate sales, promotional activities in different corporate offices and B-schools.
Business Standard is a well established financial newspaper and is a reputed paper among the readers but due to the absence of any big brand name which other competitors provide the rate of increase in customers is not satisfactory for Business Standard. Keeping this in mind I have prepared this project on the basis of primary research and have come out with important findings which can be helpful for the company in the near future.
The findings the project shows that although Business Standard is a good brand, it has not been successful in making a mark in Bangalore City. Thus on the basis of the findings we 9 Bangalore Amity Global Business School,
can come to the conclusion that Business Standard is high on quality and content yet has some how faltered as far as promotion and distribution is concerned. Business Standard is a financial newspaper which has kept its tradition alive by focusing on its core values.
But with the change in time the focus has shifted from the product to marketing concepts where one can no longer relay on a superior product to capture the market, now the company must try to delight the customers i.e., understand and cater to specific customer needs. Moreover it should communicate the same to its customer so that they appreciate the benefit acquired from the newspaper. Thus Business Standard being superior in content may now focus on developing its other aspects like layout, promotional campaigns, sampling activities, sponsorships and distribution networks so that people are not only attracted to Business Standard but also realize its prime quality and consider it good value for money and information
The project also includes thorough analysis of the questionnaire with necessary charts to make the task easy for further study of the project. During interview with the readers, some readers were not keen to respond properly due to which some questions were remained unanswered by them.
The whole process has taught me how various corporate deals are done to increase the customer base by presenting the business proposals.
The whole process has also taught me lots of important things which will be helpful in the future like convincing customers to share their feelings, convincing corporate to accept the business proposals and also how to carry out promotional activities in the most effective way. I have also faced many problems and have learnt how to effectively deal with it.
10 School, Bangalore
Amity Global Business
Introduction
Marketing
Marketing is a social process which satisfies consumers' wants. The term includes advertising, distribution and selling of a product or service. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, often through market research.
Two Levels of Marketing Strategic Marketing attempts to determine how an organization competes against its competitors in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competitors. Operational Marketing executes marketing functions to attract and keep customers and to maximize the value derived for them, as well as to satisfy the customer with prompt services and meeting the customer expectations. Operational Marketing includes the determination of the marketing mix.
In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes that marketing is customer centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. E. Jerome McCarthy divided marketing into four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally recognized that his four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language.
Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience directly through multiple channels including email, direct mail, social media, catalogs, online advertising, interactive television, etc. Businesses communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such as fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising.
A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods that persons are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going. Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally, there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the market change identification approach and the product innovation approach In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research.
Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The 12 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
rationale for this approach is that there is no reason to spend R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs. Product Solution Price Value Place Access Promotion Information
TYPES OF MARKETING So youve set aside a marketing budget for your business, but have no idea where to spend it. Below is a primer on the most common types of marketing initiatives, and a look at the growing world of online marketing and the impact it is having on more traditional aspects of the business. spacing 1. Print Advertising
Print campaigns include newspaper and magazine advertising. This type of marketing can carry a variety of messages (either brand oriented or direct response) and can be focused on a particular audience based on who reads the publication in question. So for example, if you want to reach people who live in San Diego, put your marketing efforts into the San Diego daily newspapers. If you are selling a new line of cat collars, look into Cat Fancy or other feline-related periodicals. Print advertising must be prepared well in advance to meet the deadlines of the publications especially with monthly magazines, since they are printed months before their release date.
2. Direct Mail
Although many believe Direct Mail marketing has seen its best days already passed, there is still some life in this powerful, traditional form of advertising. Direct Mail refers to postcards, brochures and flyers that are sent through the mail and generally contain a direct response call-to-action. Using direct mail means having to purchase some necessities for the campaign, including printing materials, postage and the address lists of the demographic you wish to target.
3. TV and Radio
Among the most high profile campaigns in the industry, television and radio advertising offer the opportunity to reach the largest number of people in the shortest time frame. Among the disadvantages of these marketing efforts are the potentially high cost and the inability to truly target your demographic with precise accuracy. However, the prestige associated with television advertising can elevate a business in a way no other marketing format can.
4. Online Marketing
The rising star in the world of marketing is online. The web continues to explode and along with it so do the advertising opportunities. Billions and billions more advertising dollars are spent every year online, as business try to find ways to tap into the Internet 15 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
user.
The
most
common
types
of
Online
Marketing
include:
Pay Per Click bidding on search terms and having the business ads appear when the relevant keywords are searched for in Google and Yahoo!
6. Banner Advertising
Creating a graphic advertisement and placing it on relevant websites. The ad then takes customers directly to the advertisers website. 7. Email Marketing Using lists of email addresses to deliver content and promotional offers to potential customers. 8. Organic Search Using search engine optimization (SEO) to rank high on Google and Yahoo! in your given area of business. This is achieved by manipulating the copy on a website and in the HTML code that forms the backbone of the web pages.
Marketing Research
Managers need information in order to introduce products and services that create value in the mind of the customer. But the perception of value is a subjective one, and what customers value this year may be quite different from what they value next year. As such, the attributes that create value cannot simply be deduced from common knowledge. Rather, data must be collected and analyzed. The goal of marketing research is to provide the facts and direction that managers need to make their more important marketing decisions. 16 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
To maximize the benefit of marketing research, those who use it need to understand the research process and its limitations.
Marketing Research vs. Market Research These terms often are used interchangeably, but technically there is a difference. Market research deals specifically with the gathering of information about a market's size and trends. Marketing research covers a wider range of activities. While it may involve market research, marketing research is a more general systematic process that can be applied to a variety of marketing problems.
The Value of Information Information can be useful, but what determines its real value to the organization? In general, the value of information is determined by:

The ability and willingness to act on the information. The accuracy of the information. The level of indecisiveness that would exist without the information. The amount of variation in the possible results. The level of risk aversion. The reaction of competitors to any decision improved by the information. The cost of the information in terms of time and money.
The Marketing Research Process Once the need for marketing research has been established, most marketing research projects involve these steps: 1. Define the problem 2. Determine research design 3. Identify data types and sources 4. Design data collection forms and questionnaires 5. Determine sample plan and size 6. Collect the data 17 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
7. Analyze and interpret the data 8. Prepare the research report
Problem Definition The decision problem faced by management must be translated into a market research problem in the form of questions that define the information that is required to make the decision and how this information can be obtained. Thus, the decision problem is translated into a research problem. For example, a decision problem may be whether to launch a new product. The corresponding research problem might be to assess whether the market would accept the new product.
The objective of the research should be defined clearly. To ensure that the true decision problem is addressed, it is useful for the researcher to outline possible scenarios of the research results and then for the decision maker to formulate plans of action under each scenario. The use of such scenarios can ensure that the purpose of the research is agreed upon before it commences.
Research Design Marketing research can classified in one of three categories:

Exploratory research Descriptive research Causal research
These classifications are made according to the objective of the research. In some cases the research will fall into one of these categories, but in other cases different phases of the same research project will fall into different categories.
Exploratory research has the goal of formulating problems more precisely, clarifying concepts, gathering explanations, gaining insight, eliminating impractical ideas, and forming hypotheses. Exploratory research can be performed using a literature search, surveying certain people about their experiences, focus groups, and case studies. When surveying people, exploratory
research studies would not try to acquire a representative sample, but rather, seek to interview those who are knowledgeable and who might be able to provide insight concerning the relationship among variables. Case studies can include contrasting situations or benchmarking against an organization known for its excellence. Exploratory research may develop hypotheses, but it does not seek to test them. Exploratory research is characterized by its flexibility.
Descriptive research is more rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe users of a product, determine the proportion of the population that uses a product, or predict future demand for a product. As opposed to exploratory research, descriptive research should define questions, people surveyed, and the method of analysis prior to beginning data collection. In other words, the who, what, where, when, why, and how aspects of the research should be defined. Such preparation allows one the opportunity to make any required changes before the costly process of data collection has begun. There are two basic types of descriptive research: longitudinal studies and crosssectional studies. Longitudinal studies are time series analyses that make repeated measurements of the same individuals, thus allowing one to monitor behavior such as brand-switching. However, longitudinal studies are not necessarily representative since many people may refuse to participate because of the commitment required. Cross-sectional studies sample the population to make measurements at a specific point in time. A special type of cross-sectional analysis is a cohort analysis, which tracks an aggregate of individuals who experience the same event within the same time interval over time. Cohort analyses are useful for long-term forecasting of product demand.
Causal research seeks to find cause and effect relationships between variables. It accomplishes this goal through laboratory and field experiments.
Data Types and Sources Secondary Data
Before going through the time and expense of collecting primary data, one should check for secondary data that previously may have been collected for other purposes but that can be used in the immediate study. Secondary data may be internal to the firm, such as sales invoices and warranty cards, or may be external to the firm such as published data or commercially available data. The government census is a valuable source of secondary data.
Secondary data has the advantage of saving time and reducing data gathering costs. The disadvantages are that the data may not fit the problem perfectly and that the accuracy may be more difficult to verify for secondary data than for primary data.
Some secondary data is republished by organizations other than the original source. Because errors can occur and important explanations may be missing in republished data, one should obtain secondary data directly from its source. One also should consider who the source is and whether the results may be biased.
There are several criteria that one should use to evaluate secondary data.

Whether the data is useful in the research study. How current the data is and whether it applies to time period of interest. Errors and accuracy - whether the data is dependable and can be verified. Presence of bias in the data. Specifications and methodologies used, including data collection method, response rate, quality and analysis of the data, sample size and sampling technique, and questionnaire design.
Objective of the original data collection. Nature of the data, including definition of variables, units of measure, categories used, and relationships examined.
Primary Data
Often, secondary data must be supplemented by primary data originated specifically for the study at hand. Some common types of primary data are:

demographic and socioeconomic characteristics psychological and lifestyle characteristics attitudes and opinions awareness and knowledge - for example, brand awareness intentions - for example, purchase intentions. While useful, intentions are not a reliable indication of actual future behavior.
motivation - a person's motives are more stable than his/her behavior, so motive is a better predictor of future behavior than is past behavior.
behavior
Primary data can be obtained by communication or by observation. Communication involves questioning respondents either verbally or in writing. This method is versatile, since one needs only to ask for the information; however, the response may not be accurate. Communication usually is quicker and cheaper than observation. Observation involves the recording of actions and is performed by either a person or some mechanical or electronic device. Observation is less versatile than communication since some attributes of a person may not be readily observable, such as attitudes, awareness, knowledge, intentions, and motivation. Observation also might take longer since observers may have to wait for appropriate events to occur, though observation using scanner data might be quicker and more cost effective. Observation typically is more accurate than communication.
Personal interviews have an interviewer bias that mail-in questionnaires do not have. For example, in a personal interview the respondent's perception of the interviewer may affect the responses.
Questionnaire Design The questionnaire is an important tool for gathering primary data. Poorly constructed questions can result in large errors and invalidate the research data, so significant effort should be put into the questionnaire design. The questionnaire should be tested thoroughly prior to conducting the survey.
Measurement Scales Attributes can be measured on nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales:
Nominal numbers are simply identifiers, with the only permissible mathematical use being for counting. Example: social security numbers.
Ordinal scales are used for ranking. The interval between the numbers conveys no meaning. Median and mode calculations can be performed on ordinal numbers. Example: class ranking
Interval scales maintain an equal interval between numbers. These scales can be used for ranking and for measuring the interval between two numbers. Since the zero point is arbitrary, ratios cannot be taken between numbers on an interval scale; however, mean, median, and mode are all valid. Example: temperature scale
Ratio scales are referenced to an absolute zero values, so ratios between numbers on the scale are meaningful. In addition to mean, median, and mode, geometric averages also are valid. Example: weight
Validity and Reliability The validity of a test is the extent to which differences in scores reflect differences in the measured characteristic. Predictive validity is a measure of the usefulness of a measuring instrument as a predictor. Proof of predictive validity is determined by the correlation between results and actual behavior. Construct validity is the extent to which a measuring instrument measures what it intends to measure. Reliability is the extent to which a measurement is repeatable with the same results. A measurement may be reliable and not valid. However, if a measurement is valid, then it
also is reliable and if it is not reliable, then it cannot be valid. One way to show reliability is to show stability by repeating the test with the same results.
Attitude Measurement Many of the questions in a marketing research survey are designed to measure attitudes. Attitudes are a person's general evaluation of something. Customer attitude is an important factor for the following reasons:

Attitude helps to explain how ready one is to do something. Attitudes do not change much over time. Attitudes produce consistency in behavior. Attitudes can be related to preferences.
Attitudes can be measured using the following procedures:
Self-reporting - subjects are asked directly about their attitudes. Self-reporting is the most common technique used to measure attitude.
Observation of behavior - assuming that one's behavior is a result of one's attitudes, attitudes can be inferred by observing behavior. For example, one's attitude about an issue can be inferred by whether he/she signs a petition related to it.
Indirect techniques - use unstructured stimuli such as word association tests. Performance of objective tasks - assumes that one's performance depends on attitude. For example, the subject can be asked to memorize the arguments of both sides of an issue. He/she is more likely to do a better job on the arguments that favor his/her stance.
Physiological reactions - subject's response to a stimuli is measured using electronic or mechanical means. While the intensity can be measured, it is difficult to know if the attitude is positive or negative.
Multiple measures - a mixture of techniques can be used to validate the findings, especially worthwhile when self-reporting is used.
There are several types of attitude rating scales:
Equal-appearing interval scaling - a set of statements are assembled. These statements are selected according to their position on an interval scale of favorableness. Statements are chosen that has a small degree of dispersion. Respondents then are asked to indicate with which statements they agree.
Likert method of summated ratings - a statement is made and the respondents indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement on a five point scale (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree).
Semantic differential scale - a scale is constructed using phrases describing attributes of the product to anchor each end. For example, the left end may state, "Hours are inconvenient" and the right end may state, "Hours are convenient". The respondent then marks one of the seven blanks between the statements to indicate his/her opinion about the attribute.
Stapel Scale - similar to the semantic differential scale except that 1) points on the scale are identified by numbers, 2) only one statement is used and if the respondent disagrees a negative number should marked, and 3) there are 10 positions instead of seven. This scale does not require that bipolar adjectives be developed and it can be administered by telephone.
Q-sort technique - the respondent if forced to construct a normal distribution by placing a specified number of cards in one of 11 stacks according to how desirable he/she finds the characteristics written on the cards.
Sampling Plan The sampling frame is the pool from which the interviewees are chosen. The telephone book often is used as a sampling frame, but have some shortcomings. Telephone books exclude those households that do not have telephones and those households with unlisted numbers. Since a certain percentage of the numbers listed in a phone book are out of service, there are many people who have just moved who are not sampled. Such sampling biases can be overcome by using random digit dialing. Mall intercepts represent another sampling frame, though there are many people who do not shop at malls and those who shop more often will be over-represented unless their answers are weighted in inverse proportion to their frequency of mall shopping. 24 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
In designing the research study, one should consider the potential errors. Two sources of errors are random sampling error and non-sampling error. Sampling errors are those due to the fact that there is a non-zero confidence interval of the results because of the sample size being less than the population being studied. Non-sampling errors are those caused by faulty coding, untruthful responses, respondent fatigue, etc. There is a tradeoff between sample size and cost. The larger the sample size, the smaller the sampling error but the higher the cost. After a certain point the smaller sampling error cannot be justified by the additional cost. While a larger sample size may reduce sampling error, it actually may increase the total error. There are two reasons for this effect. First, a larger sample size may reduce the ability to follow up on non-responses. Second, even if there is a sufficient number of interviewers for follow-ups, a larger number of interviewers may result in a less uniform interview process.
Data Collection In addition to the intrinsic sampling error, the actual data collection process will introduce additional errors. These errors are called non-sampling errors. Some nonsampling errors may be intentional on the part of the interviewer, who may introduce a bias by leading the respondent to provide a certain response. The interviewer also may introduce unintentional errors, for example, due to not having a clear understanding of the interview process or due to fatigue. Respondents also may introduce errors. A respondent may introduce intentional errors by lying or simply by not responding to a question. A respondent may introduce unintentional errors by not understanding the question, guessing, not paying close attention, and being fatigued or distracted. Such non-sampling errors can be reduced through quality control techniques.
Data Analysis - Preliminary Steps
Before analysis can be performed, raw data must be transformed into the right format. 25 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
First, it must be edited so that errors can be corrected or omitted. The data must then be coded; this procedure converts the edited raw data into numbers or symbols. A codebook is created to document how the data was coded. Finally, the data is tabulated to count the number of samples falling into various categories.Simple tabulations count the occurrences of each variable independently of the other variables. Cross tabulations, also known as contingency tables or cross tabs, treats two or more variables simultaneously. However, since the variables are in a two-dimensional table, cross tabbing more than two variables is difficult to visualize since more than two dimensions would be required. Cross tabulation can be performed for nominal and ordinal variables.
Cross tabulation is the most commonly utilized data analysis method in marketing research. Many studies take the analysis no further than cross tabulation. This technique divides the sample into sub-groups to show how the dependent variable varies from one subgroup to another. A third variable can be introduced to uncover a relationship that initially was not evident.
Conjoint Analysis
The conjoint analysis is a powerful technique for determining consumer preferences for product attributes.
Hypothesis Testing
A basic fact about testing hypotheses is that a hypothesis may be rejected but that the hypothesis never can be unconditionally accepted until all possible evidence is evaluated. In the case of sampled data, the information set cannot be complete. So if a test using such data does not reject a hypothesis, the conclusion is not necessarily that the hypothesis should be accepted.
The null hypothesis in an experiment is the hypothesis that the independent variable has no effect on the dependent variable. The null hypothesis is expressed as H0. This hypothesis is assumed to be true unless proven otherwise. The alternative to the null hypothesis is the hypothesis that the independent variable does have an effect on the dependent variable. This hypothesis is known as the alternative, research, or experimental hypothesis and is expressed as H1. This alternative hypothesis states that the relationship observed between the variables cannot be explained by chance alone.
There are two types of errors in evaluating a hypotheses:
Type I error: occurs when one rejects the null hypothesis and accepts the alternative, when in fact the null hypothesis is true.
Type II error: occurs when one accepts the null hypothesis when in fact the null hypothesis is false.
Because their names are not very descriptive, these types of errors sometimes are confused. Some people jokingly define a Type III error to occur when one confuses Type I and Type II. To illustrate the difference, it is useful to consider a trial by jury in which the null hypothesis is that the defendant is innocent. If the jury convicts a truly innocent defendant, a Type I error has occurred. If, on the other hand, the jury declares a truly guilty defendant to be innocent, a Type II error has occurred.
Hypothesis testing involves the following steps:

Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses. Choose the appropriate test. Choose a level of significance (alpha) - determine the rejection region. Gather the data and calculate the test statistic. Determine the probability of the observed value of the test statistic under the null hypothesis given the sampling distribution that applies to the chosen test.
Compare the value of the test statistic to the rejection threshold. Based on the comparison, reject or do not reject the null hypothesis. Make the marketing research conclusion. Amity Global Business
In order to analyze whether research results are statistically significant or simply by chance, a test of statistical significance can be run.
Tests of Statistical Significance The chi-square ( c2 ) goodness-of-fit test is used to determine whether a set of proportions have specified numerical values. It often is used to analyze bivariate cross-tabulated data. Some examples of situations that are well-suited for this test are:
A manufacturer of packaged products test markets a new product and wants to know if sales of the new product will be in the same relative proportion of package sizes as sales of existing products.
A company's sales revenue comes from Product A (50%), Product B (30%), and Product C (20%). The firm wants to know whether recent fluctuations in these proportions are random or whether they represent a real shift in sales.
The chi-square test is performed by defining k categories and observing the number of cases falling into each category. Knowing the expected number of cases falling in each category, one can define chi-squared as: c2 = ( Oi - Ei )2 / Ei where Oi = Ei = k= the summation the the number number of of observed expected of from i = 1 cases cases in in category i, category i, categories, to i = k.
the number runs
Before calculating the chi-square value, one needs to determine the expected frequency for each cell. This is done by dividing the number of samples by the number of cells in the table.
To use the output of the chi-square function, one uses a chi-square table. To do so, one needs to know the number of degrees of freedom (df). For chi-square applied to crosstabulated data, the number of degrees of freedom is equal to ( number of columns - 1 ) ( number of rows - 1 ) This is equal to the number of categories minus one. The conventional critical level of 0.05 normally is used. If the calculated output value from the function is greater than the chi-square look-up table value, the null hypothesis is rejected.
ANOVA Another test of significance is the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test. The primary purpose of ANOVA is to test for differences between multiple means. Whereas the t-test can be used to compare two means, ANOVA is needed to compare three or more means. If multiple t-tests were applied, the probability of a TYPE I error (rejecting a true null hypothesis) increases as the number of comparisons increases.
One-way ANOVA examines whether multiple means differ. The test is called an F-test. ANOVA calculates the ratio of the variation between groups to the variation within groups (the F ratio). While ANOVA was designed for comparing several means, it also can be used to compare two means. Two-way ANOVA allows for a second independent variable and addresses interaction.
To run a one-way ANOVA, use the following steps: 1. Identify the independent and dependent variables. 2. Describe the variation by breaking it into three parts - the total variation, the portion that is within groups, and the portion that is between groups (or among groups for more than two groups). The total variation is the sum of the squares of the differences between each value and the grand mean of all the values in all the groups. The in-group variation is the sum of the squares of the differences in each element's value and the group mean. The variation between group means is the total variation minus the in-group variation 3. Measure the difference between each group's mean and the grand mean. 29 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
4. Perform a significance test on the differences 5. Interpret the results.
This F-test assumes that the group variances are approximately equal and that the observations are independent. It also assumes normally distributed data; however, since this is a test on means the Central Limit Theorem holds as long as the sample size is not too small.
ANOVA is efficient for analyzing data using relatively few observations and can be used with categorical variables. Note that regression can perform a similar analysis to that of ANOVA.
Discriminant Analysis
Analysis of the difference in means between groups provides information about individual variables, it is not useful for determine their individual impacts when the variables are used in combination. Since some variables will not be independent from one another, one needs a test that can consider them simultaneously in order to take into account their interrelationship. One such test is to construct a linear combination, essentially a weighted sum of the variables. To determine which variables discriminate between two or more naturally occurring groups, discriminant analysis is used. Discriminant analysis can determine which variables are the best predictors of group membership. It determines which groups differ with respect to the mean of a variable, and then uses that variable to predict new cases of group membership. Essentially, the discriminant function problem is a one-way ANOVA problem in that one can determine whether multiple groups are significantly different from one another with respect to the mean of a particular variable.
A discriminant analysis consists of the following steps: 1. Formulate the problem. 30 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
2. Determine the discriminant function coefficients that result in the highest ratio of between-group variation to within-group variation. 3. Test the significance of the discriminant function. 4. Interpret the results. 5. Determine the validity of the analysis.
Discriminant analysis analyzes the dependency relationship, whereas factor analysis and cluster analysis address the interdependency among variables.
Factor Analysis
Factor analysis is a very popular technique to analyze interdependence. Factor analysis studies the entire set of interrelationships without defining variables to be dependent or independent. Factor analysis combines variables to create a smaller set of factors. Mathematically, a factor is a linear combination of variables. A factor is not directly observable; it is inferred from the variables. The technique identifies underlying structure among the variables, reducing the number of variables to a more manageable set. Factor analysis groups variables according to their correlation.
The factor loading can be defined as the correlations between the factors and their underlying variables. A factor loading matrix is a key output of the factor analysis. An example matrix is shown below. Each cell in the matrix represents correlation between the variable and the factor associated with that cell. The square of this correlation represents the proportion of the variation in the variable explained by the factor. The sum of the squares of the factor loadings in each column is called an eigenvalue. An eigenvalue represents the amount of variance in the original variables that is associated with that factor. The communality is the amount of the variable variance explained by common factors.
A rule of thumb for deciding on the number of factors is that each included factor must 31 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
explain at least as much variance as does an average variable. In other words, only factors for which the eigenvalue is greater than one are used. Other criteria for determining the number of factors include the Scree plot criteria and the percentage of variance criteria.
To facilitate interpretation, the axis can be rotated. Rotation of the axis is equivalent to forming linear combinations of the factors. A commonly used rotation strategy is thevarimax rotation. Varimax attempts to force the column entries to be either close to zero or one.
Cluster Analysis
Market segmentation usually is based not on one factor but on multiple factors. Initially, each variable represents its own cluster. The challenge is to find a way to combine variables so that relatively homogenous clusters can be formed. Such clusters should be internally homogenous and externally heterogeneous. Cluster analysis is one way to accomplish this goal. Rather than being a statistical test, it is more of a collection of algorithms for grouping objects, or in the case of marketing research, grouping people. Cluster analysis is useful in the exploratory phase of research when there are no a-priori hypotheses.
Cluster analysis steps: 1. Formulate the problem, collecting data and choosing the variables to analyze. 2. Choose a distance measure. The most common is the Euclidean distance. Other possibilities include the squared Euclidean distance, city-block (Manhattan) distance, Chebychev distance, power distance, and percent disagreement. 3. Choose a clustering procedure (linkage, nodal, or factor procedures). 4. Determine the number of clusters. They should be well separated and ideally they should be distinct enough to give them descriptive names such as professionals, buffs, etc. 5. Profile the clusters. 32 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
6. Assess the validity of the clustering.
Marketing Research Report The format of the marketing research report varies with the needs of the organization. The report often contains the following sections:

Authorization letter for the research Table of Contents List of illustrations Executive summary Research objectives Methodology Results Limitations Conclusions and recommendations Appendices containing copies of the questionnaires, etc.
Concluding Thoughts 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.
VALUE OF DIRECT MARKETING
Direct marketing is more precise and more targeted than mass advertising. DM emphasizes customer experience and enhances customer value to achieve marketing success.
Marketers are constantly searching for ways to increase customer value. They also continually strive to better position their product or service in the market place while creating a worthwhile experience for the customer. Successful brand building takes concerted effort and a keenly focused approach to achieve desired results. This is where direct marketing comes in to play.
Unlike other methods of advertising and promotion, direct marketing is highly costeffective. Instead of blasting emails or paying for airtime on commercial broadcasts efforts which have a greater chance of missing the intended audience and wasting money direct marketing is differentiated and targeted to specific individuals and populations. As such, it is an extremely precise element of integrated marketing communications.
Direct marketing efficiently targets customers by coming into contact with them in their mailbox and in their homes. Within a fully integrated marketing campaign, direct marketing can strengthen and add value to vital business strategies by creating a foundation of hot leads for sales conversion. Such strategies include public relations, lead generation, and brand awareness. 34 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Analyzing direct marketing in India when compared to others
A Comparison between Direct Marketing And Word of Mouth
Which is a better way to do marketing? Using direct-mail advertising or concentrating on word-of-mouth advertising to spread the word? Well, for word-of-mouth advertising to truly work you must first have customers who are completely satisfied with the product or service and believe they were given excellent customer service in the process of their purchasing. Then those happy customers will go tell other people about your great business and service creating the word-of-mouth advertising.
First you need to get customers in the door using direct-mail advertising and then you need to treat them very well so they come back and they go home and tell all their friends. Once you get the ball rolling you can cut back on your direct marketing a little bit and enjoy the word-of-mouth advertising provided you continue to give excellent service.
When entrepreneurs ask what is more important word-of-mouth advertising or direct marketing the answer is typically; Both. First you must get the customers and then you must treat them well if you expect to get word-of-mouth advertising going for you. Please consider all this in 2006.
Social media marketing (SMM) is the latest buzz in internet marketing. The increasing popularity of media websites and the growing number of users on social networking sites has prompted global companies to use the realm of social media for marketing their businesses. While there is a lot of enthusiasm and optimism regarding social media marketing, the process involved in marketing using this platform remains unclear. SMM is a journey and unlike SEO, it involves smart play rather than hard work. Here are some tips that can be used to make your marketing plan a success.
Always keep the client in the center. The client's business niche is most crucial in designing a social media marketing plan .The network built on a website like Facebook or twitter should be related to the business of the client. Though this platform may not give you the typical link benefit, the space itself may become a virtual business networking hub that helps you find potential business partners and clients.
Consumer conversation and engagement are increasing in value as a new era in marketing emerges. Consumers are empowered to be their own Private Eyes-dig deep to find true value via reviews, free reports and blogs. Consumers are turning to word of mouth (via the web) as a valuable resource to make purchasing decisions. Access to communication tools on the web has amplified the importance and influence of word of mouth. Though it's not possible to transition all of your marketing efforts to a viral campaign on You Tube, companies are realizing the power of product / service value and their communication with influencers. 36 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
It's all about "earning" the buzz through great products and experiences. Does your market research, crunch the numbers, do whatever you have to to find a market need. Nothing is more wasteful than creating a generic product with little to no value. Influencers will not respond positively to an average, mundane product / service. If your product has value, it will earn its stripes through word of mouth. Value is essential in generating buzz.
Engaging Buzzing Influencers
When engaging influencers, identify the right target person / group to talk about your product. If your product / service are not relevant or important, it will fall upon deaf ears. Go big then fine-tune your target. Identify the market, then the key players within it
INDUSTRY PROFILE Major players The Economic Times The Financial Express Business line Business Standard
Economic times
Why Consider Direct Mail In Uncertain Economic Times?
Its evident that during uncertain economic times marketing is vulnerable to budget cuts and scaling down. While this is true, it can also mean an opportunity for companies who continue to market, to stand out even morethis certainly holds true in the case of using direct mail. According to B2B online article Dealing with Recession: personalizing direct mail can rekindle delight of finding something special in the mailbox, the simple fact that we are no longer being inundated with direct mail due to cost increases and budgets being cut, means your company has a chance to increase its visibility. Yours may well be the only piece in someones mailbox these daysimagine the interest your mail could garner being the sole focus of someones attention.
Especially with the low cost of emailing, we are all being sent more marketing emails than ever, and while a good, relevant email to a targeted audience can be a highly effective tool, now is the time to consider direct mail, with its usage down so significantlyit just may be well worth the time and investment.
Another argument for using direct mail aside from standing out is the sheer enjoyment people seem to get from receiving a personal piece of mail. B to B states that less than 3.8% of the mail the Post Office delivers is personal. Direct mail is clearly an underused way of connecting directly with people. That said, the most effective direct mail tactic is to customize your piece as much as possible to the recipient. A personal letter that looks, and feels like a personal letter, as opposed to ad in an envelopegives you a shot at genuinely touching and communicating with a customer or prospect.
There is also a host of research that points to most effective tactics to use in terms of the size, look and feel of the creative, that make it even easier to ensure your direct mail piece is the most successful for whom you are trying to reach. For more tips on how to develop appropriate creative, read Marketing Profs article: Five Inexpensive Direct Mail Tools to Generate Sales Leads Fast.
Financial express
Direct Marketing Effective Tool In Rural Foray Mumbai: : Direct Marketing (DM) can be successfully used for effective brand-building initiatives in the rural areas with a population strata of around 10,000, in comparison to urban metros and smaller towns. At least thats what the findings by Association of Direct Marketing co-operatives (ADMC) seem to suggest. Says Mr. Piloo Srivastav, research head, ADMC: In our extensive studies of 40 villages spread across the four national belts, we discovered that consumers of moffussil areas are inquisitive about knowing more on DM tools like coupons and mailers, when compared to audiences in big cities and towns The reason, according to Mr Srivastav, being that DM tools with impactful visuals and designs, appeal to the rural audience due to the visual ease with which it conveys the message. The urban audience lean more on the content than packaging when it comes to accepting a certain brand message. On the contrary, DM tools like catalogues and... Mailers lay emphasis on packaging rather than content. This becomes the reason for DM getting less effective amongst the urban consumer says Mr. Srivastav. According to Mr. Srivastav, in order to arrive at this inference, the agency had taken a sample population that represented the lower and middle income economic strata from 39 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
the rural end and the urban end as the control group. Further, they were simultaneously exposed to mass media campaigns and communication through catalogues and brochures. When asked to jot down the impressions of the messages, most of the control group from the rural territories recorded their impressions more in favour of the brochures and catalogues in comparison to the mass media advertisement;. This, Mr. Srivastav reasons was further collated with an elaboration on how the control group had arrived at this feedback. The market research agency also affirms that increasingly such alternate communication strategies like DM for instance, is going to be a cost-effective way of conveying a singleminded proposition about the brand to the consumers. Sums up Mr. Srivatsav: There is potential for building brands through DM in the rural end. However, it should be tapped with an eye for strategy and a focus on insights
Business Line
Guidelines sought for direct selling in India There is a pressing need for direct selling guidelines in India to protect consumers and legitimate direct selling companies. We are not seeking laws, only mere guidelines. Countries such as the US, UK, Malaysia and Singapore have enacted direct selling laws to protectt consumers, Mr. Pankaj Vassal, Vice-President, Amway South, said.
The Mint
Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner format. The current Editor of the newspaper is Mr. R. Sukumar.
Financial Chronicle
The Indian Express is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in New Delhi by Indian Express Group. After Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking 41 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
the name The New Indian Express, while the old Indian Express name was retained in the northern editions based in Mumbai with a prefix "The".
The Indian Express is owned by the Indian Express Group with Viveck Goenka as the Chairman and Managing Director. The group also owns other newspapers in India such as the Financial Express, a newspaper focused on the Indian economy, stock markets, and fiscal policies. The group has other publications such as Screen weekly focused on entertainment news, the Marathi-language daily Loksatta, and the Hindi daily Jansatta. The Indian Express is published from 8 locations
Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Ahmadab ad. .
Company Profile
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Business Standard, Ltd. publishes a business daily newspaper from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad in India. The company also 42 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
publishes various periodicals and magazines, as well as offers it publications online. Its publications provide information on markets and investing, companies and industry, banking and finance, economy and policies, opinions and analysis, life and leisure, and management and marketing. Business Standard, Ltd. was incorporated in 1970 and is based in New Delhi, India.
HISTORY
Indian print media is one of the largest print media in the world. The history of it started in 1780, with the publication of the Bengal Gazette from Calcutta.
James Augustus Hickey is considered as the "father of Indian press" as he started the first Indian newspaper from Calcutta, the Calcutta General Advertise or the Bengal Gazette in January, 1780. In 1789, the first newspaper from Bombay, the Bombay Herald appeared, followed by the Bombay Courier next year (this newspaper was later amalgamated with the Times of India in 1861).
The first newspaper in an Indian language was the Samachar Darpan in Bengali. The first issue of this daily was published from the Serampore Mission Press on May 23, 1818. In the same year, Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya started publishing another newspaper in Bengali, the Bengal Gazetti. On July 1, 1822 the first Gujarati newspaper the Bombay Samachar was published from Bombay, which is still existent. The first Hindi newspaper, the Oodunt Mart hand began in 1826. Since then, the prominent Indian languages in which papers have grown over the years
are Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese, Urdu and Be ngali.
The Indian language papers have taken over the English press as per the latest NRS survey of newspapers. The main reasons being the marketing strategy followed by the regional papers, beginning with Eenadu, a telugu daily started by Ramoji Rao who
fraudulently pumped in so much money into his media empire which he got for supporting the 2 CM's of Andhra ,NTR and Chandrababu
The second reason being the growing literacy rate. Increase in the literacy rate has direct positive effect on the rise of circulation of the regional papers. The people are first educated in their mother tongue as per their state in which they live for e.g. students in Maharashtra are compulsory taught Marathi language and hence they are educated in their state language and the first thing a literate person does is read papers and gain knowledge and hence higher the literacy rate in a state the sales of the dominating regional paper in that state rises.
The next reason being localization of news, Indian regional papers have several editions for a particular State for complete localization of news for the reader to connect with the paper. Malayala Manorama has about 10 editions in Kerala itself and five outside Kerala and two abroad (Bahrain and Dubai). Thus regional papers aim at providing localized news for their readers. Even Advertisers saw the huge potential of the regional paper market, partly due to their own research and more due to the efforts of the regional papers to make the advertisers aware of the huge market.
Business Standard Ltd Ownership type: Private investors: Stockmarket: Reuters Code: Bloomberg Code: N/A N/A Private equity Yes Key Consumer Newspapers activities: magazines
Remove the box and paste it it clearly shows you have cut &pasted 44 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Summary description
Business Standard Ltd is one of the oldest newspaper publishers in India. It publishes Business Standard, the second largest English business newspaper by circulation. The newspaper is published six days a week and has a strong market presence in India's four major business centres (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad). The company is also involved in magazine publication in the automobile, economy, and management categories. The company has a content sharing agreement with Profit, an NDTV business channel, and provides content for UTVs business news channel.
Activities
Newspaper
Publishing
The company publishes Business Standard newspaper, which has a daily readership of approximately 120,000 and daily circulation of 217,764 (IRS 2007). It has a partnership with the Financial Times for content syndication. In 2007, the newspaper signed a distribution agreement with Aajkaal, a Gujarati evening paper, to enhance market penetration in Saurashtra and Kutch. The newspaper also has a website which offers both free and subscription content. It recently launched a Hindi version of Business Standard in Delhi and Mumbai.
Periodicals
Publishing
Business Standard publishes a variety of periodicals in the automotive, lifestyle and business categories. Titles include Indian and Asian Economy, BS Motoring and Indian Management. BS Motoring has total circulation of 80,000 copies per month (2007). The majority of periodicals are published on a monthly basis.
Online
Activities
Business Standard recently launched a Hindi news website called BShindi.com, which offers business news about stock markets, companies, investment and the economy from Business Standard. It also sources news from agencies such as Reuters, Bloomberg and PTI. The site has a section for regional business news. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Vassal said that Amway had sought the Government's nod on these lines and hoped that something positive would emerge soon. 45 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
An Ernst & Young study shows that the direct selling industry could grow by 24 per cent to Rs 7,120 crore by 2012 13 from Rs 4,120 crore in 2010. The industry is growing fast and this is despite the industrial slow down in 2008-10. We registered a 5 per cent increase in direct sellers during this period, he said Amway's business in India grew 27 per cent in 2010. Mr Vassal conceded that Tamil Nadu was the hottest market for the company in India, registering a 40 per cent growth, higher than the national average. Our turnover in TN crossed Rs 380 crore against Rs 272 crore in 2009. We have, over the past 2-3 years, focused on improving consumer access and awareness and this has paid off. Our present strategies will ensure that the business crosses Rs 2,500 crore in India by 2012,
Mission
For individual freedom and well-being, Business standard newspapers act to promote democracy, freedom of speech and reliable communications as well as to support the well-being of their reference groups. Alma Medias online marketplaces form neutral and efficient meeting points for the buyers and sellers of various goods and services.
Vision
Business standard is the most exciting provider of information, service and experiences. The company sets the stage for the future of media. 46 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Values Freedom and pluralism of journalism Team play
Courage
The core elements of business standard responsible business are reliability, competence, interaction, communality and environment.
BUSINESS STANDARD
offers its employees a renewing and evolving work environment in which continuing and systematic development of professional skills and competencies is an essential part of the work. This is how the company carries its responsibility for maintaining the job market value of its employees and the development of the entire industry.
is in the vanguard of open, interactive and pluralistic media. The newspapers and online services of the Group are cohesive forces in their communities and act as their most important spokesmen. Further, they promote the communities' wellbeing.
organizes its business in a way that causes a minimal environmental and climatic impact. 47 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Relationships
Honesty
Delegation
Learning
Community Education
Connection
Volunteer Work
Education
Fitness
Balance
Spiritual Connection
Financial Literacy
Advice
Creating
Serving
Teaching
Compassion
Financial Security
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Business Standard is a financial daily from Business Standard LTD. It is a serious, respected, top-notch, non-frivolous business daily which is found on the editorial principles of integrity, accuracy and trust. It is regarded as Indias most credible and the second largest business daily.
Started in 1975 by the Ananda Bazaar group in what was then Calcutta, the paper was hived off as a separate company in 1996, and then bought by Mumbai-based financial investors led by the kotak Mahindra bank, after which it began a phase of rapid expansion with the launch of new editions. It is published in two languages (English and Hindi) from 14 centres in India. The main English edition comes out from12 centres- Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore,
Chennai, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Kochi and reaches readers in over 1,000 towns and cities across the country. T.N. Ninan was the editor from 1993 to 2009, after he moved over from the editorship of The Economic Times. In January 2010, he was succeeded as the editor by Sanjay Baru. Ninan became the chairman and editorial director of the company.
Business Standard sells 161,094 copies daily in English, mostly to the business and policy making elite. Its Hindi edition sells 53,000 copies. AC Nielsens survey of the upper middle and rich market in India places Business Standard next to The Economic Times in total readership.
The paper has a reputation for reliable reporting and responsible journalism, as well as for its stimulating page of analysis and editorial comment. It has pioneered the ranking of the wealthiest Indians(In the Billionaire club), and offers along with the paper a free monthly magazine named motoring. In 2006, the paper started its Sunday edition, which is now published in three centres( Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata). The Hindi paper was first launched in February 2008, it comes out from seven centres, stretching from Mumbai in the west and running across the Hindi heartland, to Kolkata in the east. The newspapers website is business-standard.com, through which visitors can also access the business standard e-paper, with a choice of editions. BSL also publishes periodicals, including Bs Motoring, Indian Management and the Asian Management Review.
In January 2010,it launched smartinvestor.in, an information-cum trading website for those interested in stock market. Smart investor. in is the online property of Business Standard Ltd.
Business standard stands for reporting accuracy and credibility, comment that is informed, independent and fair, and journalism that is rooted in ethical conduct and defined by a sacrosanct bond with the reader . All Business Standard Journalists sign on to a code of conduct that is available on this website.
Business Standard has a 200 person editorial team that is led by sanjaya Baru, and includes well known Journalists like AK Bhattacharya, Sunil Jain and Shyamal Mazumdar.
The Kotak Mahindra group is a financial organization established in 1985 in India. It was previously known as the Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited, a non-banking financial company. In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd, the group's flagship company was given the license to carry on banking business by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. is the first company in the Indian banking history to convert to a bank. Today it has more than 20,000 employees and Rs. 10,000 crore in revenue.[2]
Uday Kotak is Executive Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. Dr. Shankar Acharya is the chairman of board of Directors in the company. The Bank has its registered office at Nariman Bhavan, Nariman Point, Mumbai.
The Kotak Mahindra Group was born in 1985 as Kotak Capital Management Finance Limited. This company was promoted by Uday Kotak, Sidney A. A. Pinto and Kotak & Company, the customer base of this group is more than 14 lakh. Industrialists Harish Mahindra and Anand Mahindra took a stake in 1986, and that's when the company changed its name to Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited.
It bought stressed assets from a number of banks, at full loan value of Rs 1,000 crore in 2005.[3] In January 2011, the bank reported a 32% rise in net profit to Rs188 crore for the 51 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
quarter ended December 2010 against Rs. 142 crore the corresponding quarter last year.[4] Kotak Mahindra bank also reached the top 100 most trusted brands of India in The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory in 2011.
DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
This is the most important aspect for any company , as this is ultimate way which makes the promises made by the company to get delivered to the customer as a result this is the means through which the company stands up to the expectations and keeps the customers satisfied. The Distribution Channel is very well managed so that the news paper reaches that the newspaper reaches the right destination at the right time. Following is the network followed by business standard
Printing Press
Transporter
Morning depot
Dealer
Centre In charge
Agents
Hawkers
Printing starts at 9:30 pm at the printing press and goes on till 12 in the midnight. This period is meant for upcountry circulations and this period is known as the dark edition. For circulations in the city in which the printing occurs, printing starts at 12:30 am and ends by 2am.
Newspapers are then packed into separate bundles for different depots and are then transported.
All newspapers reach the morning depots by 4a.m. from where they are distributed to different dealers.
One dealer can handle more than carried away to different centre in the city according to the orders placed by respective centre in charge.
The centre in charge then bonds over the papers to various agents. An agent looks after many areas within a particular centre.
The agent then gives the paper to various hawkers and vendors responsible for particular area. The area limit of a vendor is limited.
The vendors then finally distribute the papers to the readers.
The extent of control that the company has over the distribution channel is only limited to dealers.
Research Methodology
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Primary research (also called field research) involves the collection of data that does not already exist, which is research to collect original data. Primary Research is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by collecting secondary data. This can be through numerous forms, including questionnaires, direct observation and telephone interviews amongst others. This information may be collected in things like questionnaires and interviews.
There are basic approaches to data collections using primary methods:
[Qualitative research] includes interviews, focus groups, participant observations and ethnographies.
[Quantitative research] includes controlled laboratory experiments, field work, questionnaires and surveys.
The term primary research is widely used in academic research, market research and competitive intelligence. 55 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
There are advantages and disadvantages to primary research.
Advantages:
* Addresses specific research issues as the researcher controls the search design to fit their needs * Great control, not only does primary research enable the marketer to focus on specific subjects, it also enables the researcher to have a higher control over how the information is collected. Taking this into account, the researcher can decide on such requirements as size of project, time frame and location of research. * Efficient spending for information, primary data collection focus on issues specific to the researcher, improving the chances that the research funds are spent efficiently. * Proprietary information, primary data collected by the researcher is their own.
Disadvantages:
* Compared to secondary research, primary data may be very expensive in preparing and carrying out the research. * In order to be done properly, primary data collection requires the development and execution of a research plan. It is longer to undertake primary research than to acquire secondary data. * Some research projects, while potentially offering information that could prove quite valuable, may not be within the reach of a researcher. * May be very expensive because many people need to be confronted. * By the time the research is complete it may be out of date. * People may have to be employed or avoid their primary duties for the duration of the research. * People may not reply if emails or letters are used.
Primary marketing research is collected for the first time. It is original and collected for a 56 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
specific purpose, or to solve a specific problem. It is expensive, and time consuming, but is more focused than secondary research. There are many ways to conduct primary research. We consider some of them:
PRIMAARY MARKET REASEARCH:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIMARY RESEACRH IS THE DIRECT MARKETING:
This will help your primary research to give you an idea about the prefernce of the customer and tell us the approximate picture what people actually view or have an idea about the produt.And what ever primary research have done by me with the help of the methods showed in the graphs on the questions i asked by me is shown in the tables and the graph and also the analysis and the interpretation is give according to the data which has been collected. Primary Research was one of the first research companies to assist clients in putting their packages to the test, before they put them in the mail. The firm also developed new research approaches like the Whats Hot, Whats Not program to meet the specific needs of catalog companies.
As database marketing began to gain momentum, Primary Research was again at the forefront helping companies and agencies fine-tune the messages that were created for 57 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
different market segments. Now its the Internet that Primary Research has responded to by modifying research designs in order to assist web designers and marketing managers to better meet the demands of those who turn to the Internet for information and to make purchases.
Definition: Information that comes directly from the sourcethat is, potential customers. You can compile this information yourself or hire someone else to gather it for you via surveys, focus groups and other methods.
When conducting primary market research, you can gather two basic types of information: exploratory or specific. Exploratory research is open-ended, helps you define a specific problem, and usually involves detailed, unstructured interviews in which lengthy answers are solicited from a small group of respondents. Specific research, on the other hand, is precise in scope and is used to solve a problem that exploratory research has identified. Interviews are structured and formal in approach. Of the two, specific research is the more expensive. QUESTIONNAIRE
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are 58 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton. [citation needed]
Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. However, such standardized answers may frustrate users. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups conducting a survey by questionnaire may not be practical.
As a type of survey, questionnaires also have many of the same problems relating to question construction and wording that exist in other types of opinion polls.
A distinction can be made between questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, and questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index. Questionnaires within the former category are commonly part of surveys, whereas questionnaires in the latter category are commonly part of tests.
Questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables could for instance include questions on:
* preferences (e.g. political party) * behaviors (e.g. food consumption) * facts (e.g. gender)
Questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index, include for instance questions that measure:
* latent traits (e.g. personality traits such as extroversion) * attitudes (e.g. towards immigration) * an index (e.g. Social Economic Status) 59 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Usually, a questionnaire consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to answer in a set format. A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions. An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question has the respondent pick an answer from a given number of options. The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished:
A respondent's answer to an open-ended question is coded into a response scale afterwards. An example of an open-ended question is a question where the testee has to complete a sentence
QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTIN:
A questionnaire is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital instrument by which statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire populations.
Questionnaires are frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals, often referred to as respondents. Adequate questionnaire construction is critical to the success of a survey. Inappropriate questions, incorrect ordering of questions, incorrect scaling, or bad questionnaire format can make the survey valueless, as it may not accurately reflect the views and opinions of the participants. A useful method for checking a questionnaire and making sure it is accurately capturing the intended information is to pretest among a smaller subset of target respondents.
Spacing adjust it
TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Contingency questions - A question that is answered only if the respondent gives a particular response to a previous question. This avoids asking questions of people that do not apply to them (for example, asking men if they have ever been pregnant). 2. Matrix questions - Identical response categories are assigned to multiple questions. The questions are placed one under the other, forming a matrix with response categories along the top and a list of questions down the side. This is an efficient use of page space and respondents time. 3. Closed ended questions - Respondents answers are limited to a fixed set of responses. Most scales are closed ended. Other types of closed ended questions include: * Yes/no questions - The respondent answers with a yes or a no. * Multiple choice - The respondent has several option from which to choose. * Scaled questions - Responses are graded on a continuum (example : rate the appearance of the product on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most preferred appearance). Examples of types of scales include the Likert scale, semantic differential scale, and rank-order scale (See scale for a complete list of scaling techniques.). 4. Open ended questions - No options or predefined categories are suggested. The respondent supplies their own answer without being constrained by a fixed set of possible responses. Examples of types of open ended questions include: * Completely unstructured - For example, What is your opinion of questionnaires? * Word association - Words are presented and the respondent mentions the first word that comes to mind. * Sentence completion - Respondents complete an incomplete sentence. For example, The most important consideration in my decision to buy a new house is . . . * Story completion - Respondents complete an incomplete story. * Picture completion - Respondents fill in an empty conversation balloon. * Thematic apperception test - Respondents explain a picture or make up a story 61 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
about what they think is happening in the picture
DATA COLLECTION
Procedure: The type of method used for the collection of data was a Survey which included Personal Interviews based on the questionnaire framed by me.
I framed two questionnaires; one for the internal Sales Team in Sasken Communication Technologies Limited and one for the Customers.
Appointments were fixed with the Sales Team individually and also the customers and thus they were interviewed by me.
ANALYSIS
After the data was collected, I collated all of it to analyze the findings. The analysis part was not tedious as the sample size was pretty less. But this was an added advantage as I got a quality response from each and every individual that I interviewed.
The main Focus areas in the analysis were: 1. Customer Satisfaction Level in Certain Key areas
2. How Sasken Communication Technologies Limited is placed in the minds of customers when compared to the competition.
3. Strong and Weak points of Sasken Communication Technologies Limited.
4. Extract areas which are potential opportunities for more/new business
Data Collection Through Graphs
1. Do you read financial newspapers? Table 3.1
Options Yes No Total
Respondents 30 20 50
Percentage 60% 40% 100%
Read Financial News paper
40%
60%
Yes No
Inference: This graph shows out of 50 people , 30 of them read financial newspaper and 20 dont read. And those who read are mostly investors and if we target them we can sell number of newspaper.
2 .If yes which newspaper you prefer reading?
Table 3.2 Options economic times the mint business standard business line financial daily Total Respondents 12 3 8 1 6 50 Percentage 48% 12% 32% 4% 24% 100%
Inference: Regarding to the question asked in the above it says out of 50 people 30 read financial newspaper. And out of 30,12 prefer reading Economic times, 8 of them read Business line and 6 read the Financial Daily, and people going for The Mint and Business Standard is 3 & 1 respectively.
3 .Have u heard about the business standard? Table 3.3 Options Yes No Total Respondents 5 45 50 Percentage 20% 80% 100%
Inference: This graph shows how many people have heard of Business Standard. The research shows that most of them really dont know about the newspaper exist. Out of 50 only five know about it and 45 doesnt know. And the explanation is in the next graph for the people know about Business Standard. 65 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
4. If yes how did you get to know about you? Table 3.4 Options Friends Internet billboards Others Total Respondents 0 1 3 1 5 Percentage 0% 5% 15% 5% 25%
how did you get to know

0 1 1 friends internet bill boards others 3
Inference: As said in the above graph only 5 know about Business Standard and out of 5, 3 got to know from the billboards, and one each through internet and friends. This shows the awareness of Business Standard is lacking among the public.
5. why do you prefer other newspaper over business standard? Table 3.5 Options lack of awareness price distribution brand Total Respondents 30 0 15 5 50 Percentage 60% 0% 30% 10% 100%
Preference
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Preference
Inference: Lack of awareness is one of the drawbacks of Business Standard. On doing the analysis on the survey we found that most of the customer doesnt even know Business Standard newspaper exists. And the people who know or they have subscribed sometime do not want to go for Business Standard because of the bad distribution channel where newspaper doesnt reach to the customer on time. 67 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
7. What aspect do you look in financial newspaper? Table 3.7 Options Respondents Percentage 20%
Better balance of business 10 and political news. Career information Investment guide International business news Selection on subject interest Total 50 5 17 15
10% 68% 30% 6%
of 3
100%
Inference: This particular graph shows the interest of the consumer who read business newspaper they mainly read on the specific column which is actually needed, like the maximum no. of readers study on the market, trading, investing, international business news. They really dont bother of the political situation because now a day all sort of newspaper provides them with it. Only few readers go for the selected columns of their interests. 68 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
8. On what criteria do you choose the particular newspaper? Table 3.8 Options Price Brand Better coverage of news None Total Respondents 4 16 23 2 50 Percentage 8% 32% 46% 4% 100%
Inference: In this graph the no.of people would like to go for business related news rather than the price of the newspaper. And the second most thing they go for the brand. Because of the trust on the newspaper they subscribe.
10. Would you be interested in subscribing business standard? a) yes Table 3.10 Options Yes No Total Respondents 5 45 50 Percentage 10% 90% 100% b) no
Inference: According to the graph, the response we got from the customer is they dont want to go for Business Standard because of the brand name and also most of the people have not heard of Business Standard.
FINDINGS
We can clearly see that maximum no. people who read financial newspaper are between the age group of 30-40.
90% of people think that criteria for choosing a financial newspaper should be better coverage of news.
90% of people are unaware of Business Standard in market.
We can clearly see that The Economic Times newspaper is preferred by maximum no. of people.
Maximum no. of people do not opt for Business Standard newspaper as they are un aware about it.
Maximum no. of students are not aware of Business Standard.
Maximum no. of people look for better balance of Business and Political news in a financial newspaper.
OBSERVATIONS Business Standard holds third largest market share in Bangalore but is still very less when compared to leader i.e., The Economic Times.
The awareness level among the readers is very less.
There is no big Parent Brand to support Business Standard like The Economic Times is from The Times of India group Business Line is from The Hindu n etc..
The distribution system is not at all satisfactory.
Most number of people opt for any financial newspaper on the basis of the quality of the news, But still BS is not able to capture the market share.
Less number of promotional activities are not helping it to become a powerful brand either.
Subscription module is too long, as it takes 15 days to start the delivery once the customer has subscribed for it.
SUGGESTIONS BS should increase the number of promotional activities so as to spread the awareness.
The company should target towards college students more and more as chart 1 shows.
As the quality of the news is mostly chosen criteria for opting a news paper my suggestion would be they should promote the same as one of the part of their product.
The subscription module time should be minimized so that the customer need not wait for too long.
The distribution channel should be given more importance as there many complaints from the customer regarding the delivery of the newspaper.
A lot of surveys should be carried on so that the company is able to find out the expectations of the customers.
The employee of the organizations should be asked to give their suggestions as they are directly into the market and know what is happening.
Conclusion :
Thus on the basis of the findings we can say that BS may be a product high in quality and content but has failed massively to promote itself in the city as maximum no. of people surveyed are not aware about Business Standard. But with the change in times the focus has shifted from product to marketing concept in order to get maximum market share where no one can rely on a superior product to capture the market, now the company must promote the newspaper in the market in order get more market share which will definitely take some time. It should also take effective measures to control the distribution channel so that the customer is satisfied. During the promotional activities conducted in various colleges and corporate offices it was a very good experience and also a chance to get huge no. of customer at one single place, During the process many questions were raised which helped me to know and learn more about the company and the product. The promotional activities definitely helps in increasing the customer base Thus Business Standard can be said as a superior product but should focus on promoting itself and awaring to get huge no. of customer at one single place. people about it and should definitely improve its distribution channel.
Bibliography
www.google.com www.businessstandard.com www.wikipedia.com
Annexure
1. Do you read financial newspapers? a) yes b)no
2 .If yes which newspaper you prefer reading? a) economic times b) the mint c) business standard d) business line e) financial daily
3 .Have u heard about the business standard? a) yes b) no
4. If yes how did you get to know about you? a) Friends c) billboards b)internet d)none
5. why do you prefer other newspaper over business standard? A) lack of awareness b) price c) distribution d) brand
7. What aspect do you look in financial newspaper? a) Better balance of business and political news. b) Career information c) Investment guide d) International business news e) Selection on subject of interest
8. On what criteria do you choose the particular newspaper? a) Price b) Brand 76 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
c) Better coverage of news d) none
9. What price currently you paying ?
10. Would you be interested in subscribing business standard? a) yes b) no
QuickMBA / Marketing / Marketing Research
Marketing Research
Managers need information in order to introduce products and services that create value in the mind of the customer. But the perception of value is a subjective one, and what customers value this year may be quite different from what they value next year. As such, the attributes that create value cannot simply be deduced from common knowledge. Rather, data must be collected and analyzed. The goal of marketing research is to provide the facts and direction that managers need to make their more important marketing decisions. To maximize the benefit of marketing research, those who use it need to understand the research process and its limitations.
Marketing Research vs. Market Research These terms often are used interchangeably, but technically there is a difference. Market research deals specifically with the gathering of information about a market's size and trends. Marketing research covers a wider range of activities. While it may involve market research, marketing research is a more general systematic process that can be applied to a variety of marketing problems.
The Value of Information Information can be useful, but what determines its real value to the organization? In general, the value of information is determined by:

The ability and willingness to act on the information. The accuracy of the information. The level of indecisiveness that would exist without the information. The amount of variation in the possible results. The level of risk aversion. The reaction of competitors to any decision improved by the information. The cost of the information in terms of time and money.
The Marketing Research Process Once the need for marketing research has been established, most marketing research projects involve these steps: 9. Define the problem 10. Determine research design 11. Identify data types and sources 12. Design data collection forms and questionnaires 13. Determine sample plan and size 14. Collect the data 15. Analyze and interpret the data 16. Prepare the research report
Problem Definition The decision problem faced by management must be translated into a market research problem in the form of questions that define the information that is required to make the decision and how this information can be obtained. Thus, the decision problem is translated into a research problem. For example, a 78 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
decision problem may be whether to launch a new product. The corresponding research problem might be to assess whether the market would accept the new product. The objective of the research should be defined clearly. To ensure that the true decision problem is addressed, it is useful for the researcher to outline possible scenarios of the research results and then for the decision maker to formulate plans of action under each scenario. The use of such scenarios can ensure that the purpose of the research is agreed upon before it commences.
Research Design Marketing research can classified in one of three categories:

Exploratory research Descriptive research Causal research
These classifications are made according to the objective of the research. In some cases the research will fall into one of these categories, but in other cases different phases of the same research project will fall into different categories.
Exploratory research has the goal of formulating problems more precisely, clarifying concepts, gathering explanations, gaining insight, eliminating impractical ideas, and forming hypotheses. Exploratory research can be performed using a literature search, surveying certain people about their experiences, focus groups, and case studies. When surveying people, exploratory research studies would not try to acquire a representative sample, but rather, seek to interview those who are knowledgeable and who might be able to provide insight concerning the relationship among variables. Case studies can include contrasting situations or benchmarking against an organization known for its excellence. Exploratory research may develop hypotheses, but it does not seek to test them. Exploratory research is characterized by its flexibility. Descriptive research is more rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe users of a product, determine the proportion of the population that uses a product, or predict future demand for a product. As opposed to exploratory research, descriptive research should define questions, people surveyed, and the method of analysis prior to beginning data collection. In other words, the who, what, where, when, why, and how aspects of the research should be defined. Such preparation allows one the opportunity to make any required changes before the costly process of data collection has begun.
There are two basic types of descriptive research: longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are time series analyses that make repeated measurements of the same individuals, thus allowing one to monitor behavior such as brand-switching. However, longitudinal studies are not necessarily representative since many people may refuse to participate because of the commitment required. Cross-sectional studies sample the population to make measurements at a specific point in time. A special type of cross-sectional analysis is a cohort analysis, which tracks an aggregate of individuals who experience the same event within the same time interval over time. Cohort analyses are useful for long-term forecasting of product demand.
Causal research seeks to find cause and effect relationships between variables. It accomplishes this goal through laboratory and field experiments.
Data Types and Sources Secondary Data Before going through the time and expense of collecting primary data, one should check for secondary data that previously may have been collected for other purposes but that can be used in the immediate study. Secondary data may be internal to the firm, such as sales invoices and warranty cards, or may be external to the firm such as published data or commercially available data. The government census is a valuable source of secondary data. Secondary data has the advantage of saving time and reducing data gathering costs. The disadvantages are that the data may not fit the problem perfectly and that the accuracy may be more difficult to verify for secondary data than for primary data. Some secondary data is republished by organizations other than the original source. Because errors can occur and important explanations may be missing in republished data, one should obtain secondary data directly from its source. One also should consider who the source is and whether the results may be biased. There are several criteria that one should use to evaluate secondary data.

Whether the data is useful in the research study. How current the data is and whether it applies to time period of interest. Errors and accuracy - whether the data is dependable and can be verified. Presence of bias in the data.
Specifications and methodologies used, including data collection method, response rate, quality and analysis of the data, sample size and sampling technique, and questionnaire design. Objective of the original data collection. Nature of the data, including definition of variables, units of measure, categories used, and relationships examined.
Primary Data Often, secondary data must be supplemented by primary data originated specifically for the study at hand. Some common types of primary data are:

demographic and socioeconomic characteristics psychological and lifestyle characteristics attitudes and opinions awareness and knowledge - for example, brand awareness intentions - for example, purchase intentions. While useful, intentions are not a reliable indication of actual future behavior. motivation - a person's motives are more stable than his/her behavior, so motive is a better predictor of future behavior than is past behavior. behavior
Primary data can be obtained by communication or by observation. Communication involves questioning respondents either verbally or in writing. This method is versatile, since one needs only to ask for the information; however, the response may not be accurate. Communication usually is quicker and cheaper than observation. Observation involves the recording of actions and is performed by either a person or some mechanical or electronic device. Observation is less versatile than communication since some attributes of a person may not be readily observable, such as attitudes, awareness, knowledge, intentions, and motivation. Observation also might take longer since observers may have to wait for appropriate events to occur, though observation using scanner data might be quicker and more cost effective. Observation typically is more accurate than communication. Personal interviews have an interviewer bias that mail-in questionnaires do not have. For example, in a personal interview the respondent's perception of the interviewer may affect the responses.
Questionnaire Design The questionnaire is an important tool for gathering primary data. Poorly constructed questions can result in large errors and invalidate the research data, 81 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
so significant effort should be put into the questionnaire design. The questionnaire should be tested thoroughly prior to conducting the survey.
Measurement Scales Attributes can be measured on nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales:

Nominal numbers are simply identifiers, with the only permissible mathematical use being for counting. Example: social security numbers. Ordinal scales are used for ranking. The interval between the numbers conveys no meaning. Median and mode calculations can be performed on ordinal numbers. Example: class ranking Interval scales maintain an equal interval between numbers. These scales can be used for ranking and for measuring the interval between two numbers. Since the zero point is arbitrary, ratios cannot be taken between numbers on an interval scale; however, mean, median, and mode are all valid. Example: temperature scale Ratio scales are referenced to an absolute zero values, so ratios between numbers on the scale are meaningful. In addition to mean, median, and mode, geometric averages also are valid. Example: weight
Validity and Reliability The validity of a test is the extent to which differences in scores reflect differences in the measured characteristic. Predictive validity is a measure of the usefulness of a measuring instrument as a predictor. Proof of predictive validity is determined by the correlation between results and actual behavior. Construct validity is the extent to which a measuring instrument measures what it intends to measure. Reliability is the extent to which a measurement is repeatable with the same results. A measurement may be reliable and not valid. However, if a measurement is valid, then it also is reliable and if it is not reliable, then it cannot be valid. One way to show reliability is to show stability by repeating the test with the same results.
Attitude Measurement
Many of the questions in a marketing research survey are designed to measure attitudes. Attitudes are a person's general evaluation of something. Customer attitude is an important factor for the following reasons:

Attitude helps to explain how ready one is to do something. Attitudes do not change much over time. Attitudes produce consistency in behavior. Attitudes can be related to preferences.
Attitudes can be measured using the following procedures:

Self-reporting - subjects are asked directly about their attitudes. Selfreporting is the most common technique used to measure attitude. Observation of behavior - assuming that one's behavior is a result of one's attitudes, attitudes can be inferred by observing behavior. For example, one's attitude about an issue can be inferred by whether he/she signs a petition related to it. Indirect techniques - use unstructured stimuli such as word association tests. Performance of objective tasks - assumes that one's performance depends on attitude. For example, the subject can be asked to memorize the arguments of both sides of an issue. He/she is more likely to do a better job on the arguments that favor his/her stance. Physiological reactions - subject's response to a stimuli is measured using electronic or mechanical means. While the intensity can be measured, it is difficult to know if the attitude is positive or negative. Multiple measures - a mixture of techniques can be used to validate the findings, especially worthwhile when self-reporting is used.
There are several types of attitude rating scales:
Equal-appearing interval scaling - a set of statements are assembled. These statements are selected according to their position on an interval scale of favorableness. Statements are chosen that has a small degree of dispersion. Respondents then are asked to indicate with which statements they agree. Likert method of summated ratings - a statement is made and the respondents indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement on a five point scale (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree). Semantic differential scale - a scale is constructed using phrases describing attributes of the product to anchor each end. For example, the left end may state, "Hours are inconvenient" and the right end may state, "Hours are convenient". The respondent then marks one of the seven Amity Global Business
blanks between the statements to indicate his/her opinion about the attribute. Stapel Scale - similar to the semantic differential scale except that 1) points on the scale are identified by numbers, 2) only one statement is used and if the respondent disagrees a negative number should marked, and 3) there are 10 positions instead of seven. This scale does not require that bipolar adjectives be developed and it can be administered by telephone. Q-sort technique - the respondent if forced to construct a normal distribution by placing a specified number of cards in one of 11 stacks according to how desirable he/she finds the characteristics written on the cards.
Sampling Plan The sampling frame is the pool from which the interviewees are chosen. The telephone book often is used as a sampling frame, but have some shortcomings. Telephone books exclude those households that do not have telephones and those households with unlisted numbers. Since a certain percentage of the numbers listed in a phone book are out of service, there are many people who have just moved who are not sampled. Such sampling biases can be overcome by using random digit dialing. Mall intercepts represent another sampling frame, though there are many people who do not shop at malls and those who shop more often will be over-represented unless their answers are weighted in inverse proportion to their frequency of mall shopping. In designing the research study, one should consider the potential errors. Two sources of errors are random sampling error and non-sampling error. Sampling errors are those due to the fact that there is a non-zero confidence interval of the results because of the sample size being less than the population being studied. Non-sampling errors are those caused by faulty coding, untruthful responses, respondent fatigue, etc. There is a tradeoff between sample size and cost. The larger the sample size, the smaller the sampling error but the higher the cost. After a certain point the smaller sampling error cannot be justified by the additional cost. While a larger sample size may reduce sampling error, it actually may increase the total error. There are two reasons for this effect. First, a larger sample size may reduce the ability to follow up on non-responses. Second, even if there is a sufficient number of interviewers for follow-ups, a larger number of interviewers may result in a less uniform interview process.
Data Collection 84 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
In addition to the intrinsic sampling error, the actual data collection process will introduce additional errors. These errors are called non-sampling errors. Some non-sampling errors may be intentional on the part of the interviewer, who may introduce a bias by leading the respondent to provide a certain response. The interviewer also may introduce unintentional errors, for example, due to not having a clear understanding of the interview process or due to fatigue. Respondents also may introduce errors. A respondent may introduce intentional errors by lying or simply by not responding to a question. A respondent may introduce unintentional errors by not understanding the question, guessing, not paying close attention, and being fatigued or distracted. Such non-sampling errors can be reduced through quality control techniques.
Data Analysis - Preliminary Steps Before analysis can be performed, raw data must be transformed into the right format. First, it must be edited so that errors can be corrected or omitted. The data must then be coded; this procedure converts the edited raw data into numbers or symbols. A codebook is created to document how the data was coded. Finally, the data is tabulated to count the number of samples falling into various categories.Simple tabulations count the occurrences of each variable independently of the other variables. Cross tabulations, also known as contingency tables or cross tabs, treats two or more variables simultaneously. However, since the variables are in a two-dimensional table, cross tabbing more than two variables is difficult to visualize since more than two dimensions would be required. Cross tabulation can be performed for nominal and ordinal variables. Cross tabulation is the most commonly utilized data analysis method in marketing research. Many studies take the analysis no further than cross tabulation. This technique divides the sample into sub-groups to show how the dependent variable varies from one subgroup to another. A third variable can be introduced to uncover a relationship that initially was not evident.
Conjoint Analysis The conjoint analysis is a powerful technique for determining consumer preferences for product attributes.
Hypothesis Testing A basic fact about testing hypotheses is that a hypothesis may be rejected but that the hypothesis never can be unconditionally accepted until all possible 85 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
evidence is evaluated. In the case of sampled data, the information set cannot be complete. So if a test using such data does not reject a hypothesis, the conclusion is not necessarily that the hypothesis should be accepted. The null hypothesis in an experiment is the hypothesis that the independent variable has no effect on the dependent variable. The null hypothesis is expressed as H0. This hypothesis is assumed to be true unless proven otherwise. The alternative to the null hypothesis is the hypothesis that the independent variable does have an effect on the dependent variable. This hypothesis is known as the alternative, research, or experimental hypothesis and is expressed as H1. This alternative hypothesis states that the relationship observed between the variables cannot be explained by chance alone. There are two types of errors in evaluating a hypotheses:

Type I error: occurs when one rejects the null hypothesis and accepts the alternative, when in fact the null hypothesis is true. Type II error: occurs when one accepts the null hypothesis when in fact the null hypothesis is false.
Because their names are not very descriptive, these types of errors sometimes are confused. Some people jokingly define a Type III error to occur when one confuses Type I and Type II. To illustrate the difference, it is useful to consider a trial by jury in which the null hypothesis is that the defendant is innocent. If the jury convicts a truly innocent defendant, a Type I error has occurred. If, on the other hand, the jury declares a truly guilty defendant to be innocent, a Type II error has occurred. Hypothesis testing involves the following steps:

Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses. Choose the appropriate test. Choose a level of significance (alpha) - determine the rejection region. Gather the data and calculate the test statistic. Determine the probability of the observed value of the test statistic under the null hypothesis given the sampling distribution that applies to the chosen test. Compare the value of the test statistic to the rejection threshold. Based on the comparison, reject or do not reject the null hypothesis. Make the marketing research conclusion.
In order to analyze whether research results are statistically significant or simply by chance, a test of statistical significance can be run. 86 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Tests of Statistical Significance The chi-square ( ) goodness-of-fit test is used to determine whether a
2
set of proportions have specified numerical values. It often is used to analyze bivariate cross-tabulated data. Some examples of situations that are well-suited for this test are:
A manufacturer of packaged products test markets a new product and wants to know if sales of the new product will be in the same relative proportion of package sizes as sales of existing products. A company's sales revenue comes from Product A (50%), Product B (30%), and Product C (20%). The firm wants to know whether recent fluctuations in these proportions are random or whether they represent a real shift in sales.
The chi-square test is performed by defining k categories and observing the number of cases falling into each category. Knowing the expected number of cases falling in each category, one can define chi-squared as: 2 = ( Oi - Ei )2 / Ei
where Oi = the number of observed cases in category i, Ei = the number of expected cases in category i, k = the number of categories, the summation runs from i = 1 to i = k. Before calculating the chi-square value, one needs to determine the expected frequency for each cell. This is done by dividing the number of samples by the number of cells in the table. To use the output of the chi-square function, one uses a chi-square table. To do so, one needs to know the number of degrees of freedom (df). For chi-square applied to cross-tabulated data, the number of degrees of freedom is equal to ( number of columns - 1 ) ( number of rows - 1 ) This is equal to the number of categories minus one. The conventional critical level of 0.05 normally is used. If the calculated output value from the function is greater than the chi-square look-up table value, the null hypothesis is rejected. 87 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
ANOVA Another test of significance is the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test. The primary purpose of ANOVA is to test for differences between multiple means. Whereas the t-test can be used to compare two means, ANOVA is needed to compare three or more means. If multiple t-tests were applied, the probability of a TYPE I error (rejecting a true null hypothesis) increases as the number of comparisons increases. One-way ANOVA examines whether multiple means differ. The test is called an F-test. ANOVA calculates the ratio of the variation between groups to the variation within groups (the F ratio). While ANOVA was designed for comparing several means, it also can be used to compare two means. Two-way ANOVA allows for a second independent variable and addresses interaction. To run a one-way ANOVA, use the following steps: 6. Identify the independent and dependent variables. 7. Describe the variation by breaking it into three parts - the total variation, the portion that is within groups, and the portion that is between groups (or among groups for more than two groups). The total variation (SS total) is the sum of the squares of the differences between each value and the grand mean of all the values in all the groups. The in-group variation (SSwithin) is the sum of the squares of the differences in each element's value and the group mean. The variation between group means (SS between) is the total variation minus the in-group variation (SStotal - SSwithin). 8. Measure the difference between each group's mean and the grand mean. 9. Perform a significance test on the differences. 10. Interpret the results.
This F-test assumes that the group variances are approximately equal and that the observations are independent. It also assumes normally distributed data; however, since this is a test on means the Central Limit Theorem holds as long as the sample size is not too small. ANOVA is efficient for analyzing data using relatively few observations and can be used with categorical variables. Note that regression can perform a similar analysis to that of ANOVA.
Discriminant Analysis Analysis of the difference in means between groups provides information about individual variables, it is not useful for determine their individual impacts when the variables are used in combination. Since some variables will not be 88 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
independent from one another, one needs a test that can consider them simultaneously in order to take into account their interrelationship. One such test is to construct a linear combination, essentially a weighted sum of the variables. To determine which variables discriminate between two or more naturally occurring groups, discriminant analysis is used. Discriminant analysis can determine which variables are the best predictors of group membership. It determines which groups differ with respect to the mean of a variable, and then uses that variable to predict new cases of group membership. Essentially, the discriminant function problem is a one-way ANOVA problem in that one can determine whether multiple groups are significantly different from one another with respect to the mean of a particular variable. A discriminant analysis consists of the following steps: 6. Formulate the problem. 7. Determine the discriminant function coefficients that result in the highest ratio of between-group variation to within-group variation. 8. Test the significance of the discriminant function. 9. Interpret the results. 10. Determine the validity of the analysis.
Discriminant analysis analyzes the dependency relationship, whereas factor analysis and cluster analysis address the interdependency among variables.
Factor Analysis Factor analysis is a very popular technique to analyze interdependence. Factor analysis studies the entire set of interrelationships without defining variables to be dependent or independent. Factor analysis combines variables to create a smaller set of factors. Mathematically, a factor is a linear combination of variables. A factor is not directly observable; it is inferred from the variables. The technique identifies underlying structure among the variables, reducing the number of variables to a more manageable set. Factor analysis groups variables according to their correlation. The factor loading can be defined as the correlations between the factors and their underlying variables. A factor loading matrix is a key output of the factor analysis. An example matrix is shown below. Each cell in the matrix represents correlation between the variable and the factor associated with that cell. The square of this correlation represents the proportion of the variation in the variable explained by the factor. The sum of the squares of the factor loadings in each column is called an eigenvalue. An eigenvalue represents the amount of variance in the original variables that is associated with 89 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
that factor. Thecommunality is the amount of the variable variance explained by common factors. A rule of thumb for deciding on the number of factors is that each included factor must explain at least as much variance as does an average variable. In other words, only factors for which the eigenvalue is greater than one are used. Other criteria for determining the number of factors include the Scree plot criteria and the percentage of variance criteria. To facilitate interpretation, the axis can be rotated. Rotation of the axis is equivalent to forming linear combinations of the factors. A commonly used rotation strategy is thevarimax rotation. Varimax attempts to force the column entries to be either close to zero or one.
Cluster Analysis Market segmentation usually is based not on one factor but on multiple factors. Initially, each variable represents its own cluster. The challenge is to find a way to combine variables so that relatively homogenous clusters can be formed. Such clusters should be internally homogenous and externally heterogeneous. Cluster analysis is one way to accomplish this goal. Rather than being a statistical test, it is more of a collection of algorithms for grouping objects, or in the case of marketing research, grouping people. Cluster analysis is useful in the exploratory phase of research when there are no a-priori hypotheses. Cluster analysis steps: 7. Formulate the problem, collecting data and choosing the variables to analyze. 8. Choose a distance measure. The most common is the Euclidean distance. Other possibilities include the squared Euclidean distance, city-block (Manhattan) distance, Chebychev distance, power distance, and percent disagreement. 9. Choose a clustering procedure (linkage, nodal, or factor procedures). 10. Determine the number of clusters. They should be well separated and ideally they should be distinct enough to give them descriptive names such as professionals, buffs, etc. 11. Profile the clusters. 12. Assess the validity of the clustering.
Marketing Research Report The format of the marketing research report varies with the needs of the organization. The report often contains the following sections: 90 School, Bangalore Amity Global Business
Authorization letter for the research Table of Contents List of illustrations Executive summary Research objectives Methodology Results Limitations Conclusions and recommendations Appendices containing copies of the questionnaires, etc.
Concluding Thoughts 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.
Recommended Reading
McQuarrie, Edward F., The Market Research Toolbox : A Concise Guide for Beginners
QuickMBA / Marketing / Marketing Research

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An Analysis Of Consumer Preference On Business Standard In Business Standard Ltd

Place: Bangalore Date:

Amity Global Business School,

Amity Global Business School,

Amity Global Business School,

Amity Global Business

Amity Global Business

Amity Global Business

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7. Analyze and interpret the data 8. Prepare the research report

Research Design Marketing research can classified in one of three categories:

Exploratory research Descriptive research Causal research

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Amity Global Business

Data Types and Sources Secondary Data

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Amity Global Business

Amity Global Business

Attitudes can be measured using the following procedures:

There are several types of attitude rating scales:

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Data Analysis - Preliminary Steps

Amity Global Business

There are two types of errors in evaluating a hypotheses:

Hypothesis testing involves the following steps:

the number runs

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4. Perform a significance test on the differences 5. Interpret the results.

6. Assess the validity of the clustering.

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VALUE OF DIRECT MARKETING

Analyzing direct marketing in India when compared to others

A Comparison between Direct Marketing And Word of Mouth

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Engaging Buzzing Influencers

Why Consider Direct Mail In Uncertain Economic Times?

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Values Freedom and pluralism of journalism Team play

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Amity Global Business

Amity Global Business

Amity Global Business

Amity Global Business

The vendors then finally distribute the papers to the readers.

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There are basic approaches to data collections using primary methods:

There are advantages and disadvantages to primary research.

PRIMAARY MARKET REASEARCH:

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIMARY RESEACRH IS THE DIRECT MARKETING:

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about what they think is happening in the picture

3. Strong and Weak points of Sasken Communication Technologies Limited.

4. Extract areas which are potential opportunities for more/new business

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Data Collection Through Graphs

1. Do you read financial newspapers? Table 3.1

Options Yes No Total

Percentage 60% 40% 100%

Read Financial News paper