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MMS PROJECT

Introduction

What is Consumer Behavior?


How many times throughout the day do people make product decisions? If you stop to think about it, many product decisions are made every day, some without much thought. What should I wear? What should I eat? What am I going to do today? Many product decisions are answered routinely every day and they help move the economy of cities, countries and ultimately the world. Product decisions also shape life for the consumer. How can simple decisions be so important? Why do marketers spend millions of dollars to uncover the reasons behind these decisions? To define consumer behavior: it is the study of consumers and the processes they use to choose, use (consume), and dispose of products and services. A more in depth definition will also include how that process impacts the world. Consumer behavior incorporates ideas from several sciences including psychology, biology, chemistry and economics. "All marketing decisions are based on assumptions and knowledge of consumer behavior," (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2007). Researching consumer behavior is a complex process, but understanding consumer behavior is critical to marketers-they can use it to:

Provide value and customer satisfaction. Effectively target customers. Enhance the value of the company. Improve products and services. Create a competitive advantage 1

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Understand how customers view their products versus their competitors' products. Expand the knowledge base in the field of marketing, Apply marketing strategies toward a positive affect on society (encourage people to support charities, promote healthy habits, reduce drug use etc.)

Marketing Research
"Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information - information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications." Marketing Research is concerned with all those factors which have a direct impact upon the marketing of products and services. It is the study of any part of total marketing process. In concentrates on the study of product planning and development, pricing, policies, effectiveness of personal selling, advertisement and sales promotion, competition and the entire area of buyer behavior and attitudes in the market place.

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Brand awareness
Brand awareness is the probability that consumers are familiar about the life and availability of the product. It is the degree to which consumers precisely associate the brand with the specific product. It is measured as ratio of niche market that has former knowledge of brand. Brand awareness includes both brand recognition as well as brand recall. Brand recognition is the ability of consumer to recognize prior knowledge of brand when they are asked questions about that brand or when they are shown that specific brand, i.e., the consumers can clearly differentiate the brand as having being earlier noticed or heard. While brand recall is the potential of customer to recover a brand from his memory when given the product class/category, needs satisfied by that category or buying scenario as a signal. In other words, it refers that consumers should correctly recover brand from the memory when given a clue or he can recall the specific brand when the product category is mentioned. It is generally easier to recognize a brand rather than recall it from the memory.

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Industry Profile
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market

research is concerned specifically with market. Market Research is a key factor to get advantage over competitors. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition. Market research for business/planning Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product. Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market research. For starting up a business, there are some important things: Market information - Through Market information one can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources, varieties and formats, as well as the sources and varieties that have to be obtained to make the business work.

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MMS PROJECT Market segmentation - Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences, technographic differences, use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences. For B2B segmentation firmographics is commonly used. Market trends - Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if one is starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments. Besides information about the target market, one also needs information about one's competitors, customers, products, etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing effectiveness. A few techniques are:

Customer analysis Competitor analysis Risk analysis Product research Advertising the research Marketing mix modeling

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Marketing Research Association


Founded in 1957, the Marketing Research Association, Inc. is one of the largest trade associations of market research and polling professionals. MRA has more than 3,000 members worldwide, representing all segments of the research industry. MRA advances, protects and promotes knowledge, standards, excellence, ethics, professional development and innovation for the global market and opinion research profession. MRA activities MRA is in the information business, providing members with information through:

Educational Programs: Webinars, Education-on-Demand, and a comprehensive Research Library

Training Networking Opportunities Publications: Alert! magazine (monthly) and bi-weekly e-newsletter eNews Conferences: MRA's Annual Conference and MRA's First Outlook Conference

MRA publishes the annual Blue Book Research Services Directory, which is used extensively by market research and opinion polling firms. The Blue Book is the market research industrys most comprehensive and easy-to-use reference guide, listing thousands of experienced professionals in marketing research and related fields. The Blue Book comes out annually in February, so the information it contains is always current. MRA also offers researchers the Professional Research Certification (PRC). PRC was developed as a powerful tool for researchers of all levels of work experience and education. Researchers who earn the prestigious PRC designation have established an objective measure of their knowledge and proficiency. Additionally, professionals with PRC are expected to increase consumer understanding of research and foster exceptional professional standards in the market research industry.

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Global - Company Profile


Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) is the world's largest Custom Market Research specialists. They provide quality marketing information delivered by Global Industry Sector expert consultants, innovative Market Research Expertise across the product life-cycle, in 80 countries. TNS Worldwide With market research operations spanning over 80 countries, TNS boasts a powerful global network. In each country we combine the benefits of industry specialization & research expertise, to deliver powerful insights.

North America As the largest custom global market research provider in the US and Canada, TNS brings a long tradition of value-added insight to clients in North America.

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MMS PROJECT Latin America TNS also brings a long tradition of value-added worldwide market research insight to clients in Latin America. From offices in: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, they service the whole of Latin America. Europe As the leading global market research and insight provider in Europe, TNS Global expertise and in-depth industry sector understanding stretch across 33 countries. Asia and Pacific (APAC) From Australia to Malaysia, China to New Zealand, TNS has created the strongest worldwide custom market research network in the region with over 30 years global market research experience in more than 15 countries. Africa and Middle East (AME) Established in 1980, TNS worldwide market research and insight services provide global specialist knowledge in more than 17 countries in the Arabian Gulf, surrounding Arab markets and East, Central, West, North and South Africa.

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Types of Methods for conducting research

Opinion Polling

Innovation & Product Development

Online Research

Brand & Communication

Retail & Shopper

Opinion Polling TNS leads the world in opinion polling, providing insights into public opinion, covering elections and analyzing other political, social and economic issues worldwide They track public opinion on political campaigns, as well as legislative and policy issues. From qualitative or quantitative techniques to new technology data collection, analysis and reporting, TNS has a range of standard and bespoke solutions, for project-based and ongoing requirements. UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 9

MMS PROJECT Each year TNS conducts millions of surveys for clients to understand how the public is thinking or reacting to major issues on a national or international scale. They tell their clients about the major trends; how the public is feeling about its elected leaders; and predict what the outcomes of any up and coming elections are likely to be.

Online Research TNS is the Global leader in online market research. They offer our clients a unique combination of genuine interactive research expertise, innovative solutions/tools and superior online panels

Retail & Shopper TNS is leading the way in helping its retailer and manufacturer clients outsmart the competition by understanding and positively influencing shopper behavior and decisions that result in improved performance of a brand, category or store. TNS delivers unrivalled shopper insights that help manufacturers and retailers understand instore behavior, motivations and decisions. They explore shopper behavior around the key in-store touch points including store layout, category layout, packaging, promotions and in-store communications and provide competitive advantage in these areas. By converting the resulting shopper insights into action TNS enables their clients to build brand equity, stimulate purchase or trial, improve loyalty and customer retention and increase sales.

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Brand & Communication TNS helps clients create enduring brand relationships through the development of relevant strategies brought to life through every aspect of the brand experience. Innovation & Product Development TNS is a leading provider of innovation and product development research, offering clients a complete innovation journey, from opportunity identification through concept/product development, and ultimately product launch. Launching winning new products is a crucial route to business growth. However, failure rates are higher than ever and big ideas are hard to come by. Spotting obvious winners isnt hard, but throwing away more genuinely innovative ideas is easy too. Innovation success comes from knowing what to look for in a successful idea, knowing where to look for it in the first place, and ensuring strategic continuity throughout the process.

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A history of success
TNS in the 60s The 1960s saw the creation of five of the market research companies that formed the heart of the Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) group:

Intersearch in the USA in 1960 AGB in UK in 1962 Sofres in France in 1963 Frank Small Associates in Australia in 1963 Taylor Nelson in UK in 1965

TNS in the 70s & 80s In the 1970s and 1980s, TNS grew significantly, introducing a wide and increasingly sophisticated range of market research solutions and using the latest technological developments. And as they and their clients grew, they started to create their international networks: Sofres opened offices in six European countries, the US and 12 countries in Asia Pacific.

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TNS in the 90s & Beyond NFO made a series of acquisitions around the world, and the companies that now form TNS responded to the changing market by joining forces, enabling them to deliver consistently high quality services to customers around the world.

Taylor Nelson joined with AGB (1992) Sofres combined with FSA (1995) Sofres acquired Intersearch (1997) Taylor Nelson AGB and Sofres merged (1997) TNS acquired NFO (2003) TNS was acquired by WPP/Kantar (2008)

The merger of TNS and Research Information means the coming together of two companies with a rich and diverse history. RI in the 90s & Beyond Research International established itself as a core business within Kantar, WPPs research, insight and consultancy network, giving RI TNS Market Research an access to an even greater wealth of marketing expertise. TNS & RI in 2009 TNS and Research International merge (2009), to form the worlds largest custom market research company, together shaping the future of the research industry.

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India Pvt. Ltd.


TNS India offers a range of comprehensive market research services catering for local and international clients that want to get a deep understanding of both urban and rural India life. Market Research Expertise TNS India offers clients a wide range of customized quantitative and qualitative market research techniques and solutions, including proprietary market feedback models covering areas of brand, health, tracking, segmentation and advertising effectiveness. The strength lies in their approach to service TNS is the only Indian market research organization to receive ISO certification for our operations.

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Vision

TNS shares and supports the global vision of TNS. As the market leader in most of our

countries we have the largest network of professional resources with the scale to deliver to the needs of Global Accounts and Local Clients . Market research services and solutions TNS India has 4 full client service offices, as well as 21 field centres. This gives us comprehensive coverage of both urban and rural India. Our sister company, TNS Lanka offers professional market research services and consultancy on the Sri Lankan market. We operate as sector specialists in the Indian market covering FMCG, Automotive, Technology, Finance, B to B as well as the Social sector. Our researchers use state of the art methodologies and deep understanding of the sector domain to provide timely and accurate recommendations to our clients business. Additionally, our Proprietary Business Solutions give a leading edge to our clients in their marketing decisions.

TNS Indias Social Research Unit The Social Research Unit (SRU) of TNS India is one of the largest social research agencies in India covering 16 locations across the country. The Social Research team includes multi disciplinary team of experts drawn from relevant fields of social sciences as well as applied sciences like demography and statistics. Social Research Unit of TNS-India has vast experience with a number of national and international organizations and completed about 400 research assignments in social / development sector. The social research team has conducted studies for prestigious clients including all the major multilateral and bilateral donor agencies operating in India and their parastatals, various key ministries of the Government of India and many State governments.

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Industry Focus
At TNS, world-leading industry market research experts focus exclusively on researching specific industry sector issues and understand inside out the challenges their clients face.

FMCG

Health

Technology

Media

Finance

Political and Social

Automotive

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Global and local clients


TNS is the right business research partner for every research need, large or small, global or local.

Leading globally, leading locally


All over the world they run projects with local clients, commissioning specific local research. And all over the world they run major global projects for blue-chip multinational clients and the worlds leading brands.

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Group Companies
TNS, WPP, Kantar - building the future of insight together
In October 2008, TNS became part of WPPs information, insight and consultancy division, Kantar. About Kantar Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The groups services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

About WPP WPP is the worlds largest communications services group. Through its operating companies, the Group provides a comprehensive range of advertising and marketing services including advertising; media

investment management; consumer insight; public relations and public affairs; branding and identity; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing and specialist communications. The company employs over 141,000 people (including associates) in 2,400 offices in 107 countries.

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Corporate and Social Responsibility


TNS has a partnership with UNICEF, which for 60 years has been the worlds leading children charity, working on the ground in 156 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.

Partnering with UNICEF The global partnership approach that is such a key driver of their service to clients also extends into their community involvement. TNS' and UNICEF's partnership began in 2005, when the group made a donation to UNICEF in response to the tsunami disaster. TNS then embarked on Imagine program, in Cambodia and Malawi.

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Objective of the study


To study the brand awareness of customers towards Celio. To study the buying pattern of branded readymade garments. To understand which communication medium is more preferable for the consumers in branded readymade garments.

Need for the study


To understand the customer reaction towards the upcoming branded clothes like Celio. To understand whether customer preference is based on fashion, pricing, promotion or any other factors.

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Literature Review
Market Research
The market research process involves a round of separate stages of data interpretation, organization and collection. These stages could be considered as a benchmark of market research, but it depends on an organization how they have encapsulated their strategies to follow this process. Hence some of the interlinked stages could be conducted repeatedly and some of the stages can also be omitted. Given below is a typical market research process which is depicted stage-wise: 1. Defining the Problem or Need- The starting phase is always identifying the reason or problem for which research is to be conducted. This includes collecting of relevant initial information and how this information will affect decision making process. It also includes defining problems after discussing with decision makers of the organization. Once the problem is defined precisely and the need of research is discussed, the further process could be conducted in an efficient manner. 2. Determining who will do the research- Once the initial stage of defining the problem and the need of research is done, it is important to determine who will do the research and what will be the approaches to resolve these problems. This involves creating a problem solving framework and analytical models after discussing it organization experts. In this sample case studies are created according to the defined framework by enforcing the relevant information and secondary data. 3. Picking out the appropriate methodology- A specific methodology is entailed by the research professional after identifying the specific needs and exploring the case studies. It may include a combination of specific approaches like telephone survey, web or email survey, one-to-one interviews, secondary research etc. This methodology acts as a blueprint of research process and following basic steps:

Methods for collecting and preparing quantitative information. Determining the need of this information. 21

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Scaling and measuring procedures. Designing sample Questionnaire. Formulating case studies and sampling process. Planning information analysis.

4. Data Collection Process- This process includes field work and desk work for collecting all relevant data and information. Field work includes interviewing the personals by interacting them face to face by visiting them in home or offices or arranging group meetings at any preferred place. Desk work includes contacting personals over telephone or via series of emails and web meetings. This could take comparatively more time as compared to the field work. Involving experienced and trained executive for this helps in reducing data collection errors. 5. Data Preparation, tabulation and analysis of results- After the data collecting stage the collected data is edited, corrected if required and validated. This process is the most important process in the research as the results are generated on the basis of data preparation. So it is required for an organization to verify the authenticity of the collected data and edit or correct it if needed. The final data is then segmented according to the business standards and inserted into the CRM database in a more tabulated form so that search or combination could be made easily. 6. Presentation and report generation- The entire process is properly documented with respect to organizational standards so that it can be referred in future for decision making process or to change or modify any specific process or module. This document contains overall architecture of the project depicting all the processes with the help of tables, graphs and figures to provoke impact and clarity. Market Research undeniably plays a vital role in exploring the business. The above process if conducted in an efficient manner could help predicting and correlating customer needs and then modeling or modifying the business strategies accordingly.

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Market Street Research has had substantial, positive experiences in conducting in-depth marketing research interviews with many different groups at all levels of society, ranging from homeless adults to hospital patients, people receiving outpatient mental health care, teachers, clerical and administrative workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, manufacturers, members of school boards, users of a specific technology or application, government officials, owners of retail and service establishments, members of boards of directors, politicians, legislators, and even very young children - who delight in giving their opinions about all kinds of topics, as long as they are asked appropriately and listened to with respect.

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Field Research
Field Research deals with creation and collection of actual and authentic information by field of operation in any organization. The process involves determining what precise data is necessary and from where this information needs to be obtained. After determining this information the data is actually gathered. Thus this research technique is treated as the primary research approach because the determined data is specific to the purpose of gathering that data. Field research is generally performed in person, telephonic or by electronic media like teleconferencing, web - meetings and emails. Many of the big organizations involve outside vendors or companies to perform this task which they usually refer as outsourcing, but small organizations or new companies do this by themselves by involving their internal resources. The outsourcing depends on the type and amount of information to be gathered in the research. If the required data is less and limited to some small and specific modules then big organization also prefer to do this task in-house. Field research is expensive and involves more and experienced resources as compared to desk research which is not as accurate as field research. Being expensive it is required to perform the research in efficient manner and obtain or determine only specific information and answer only particular questions as irrelevant data is a waste and will be of no use for further research processes. The following are the importance sources for field research: 1. Customers: These can be existing customer or prospect customers. Customers are the most important and efficient sources for field research process and can provide following useful information: a. Useful information regarding competitors and new strategies they are going to implement. b. Present market trend. c. Actual and innovative market requirement. d. Market distribution channels. e. Production and consumption channels and product usefulness.

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MMS PROJECT 2. Competitors: It is difficult to fetch out information from own competitors but if this is possible then competitors are the basic and useful source of information and provide information regarding: a. Newer and upcoming technologies and software. b. Types of product which prominent and mostly preferred by customers. c. Efficient and affordable pricing strategies. d. Promotional efforts that could turn around the marketing strategies. e. Information of other ruling competitors. 3. Industrialists or marketing experts: These are the most knowledgeable personals who could provide in depth information regarding: a. The future trend of market. b. Economical imbalances regarding particular segments of products. c. New range of raw materials available in the market. d. New research and marketing methodologies and application of vibrant technologies. 4. Distributors and Suppliers: Distributors and suppliers are also very good source of information. They can provide information like: a. Availability of raw materials in market. b. Pricing details and negotiation techniques. c. Best distributing channels. d. New marketing processes. e. How to deal with compliance issues. There are many other less prominent sources like interviews, trade shows, and promotional programs etc. and much of the relevant information could be gathered from these sources as well. All the information gathered from the above sources is then manipulated and segmented. As in field research most of the information is relevant as it is actually gathered for a particular purpose, so regular round of work around on the data is not required. After validating the information it is then fetched into the CRM system and is converted into intelligent data which can be accessed on real time.

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Desk Research - Methodology and Techniques


As depicted by name Desk Research is the research technique which is mainly acquired by sitting at a desk. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executives time, telephone charges and directories. However, it could also be a complete waste of time and money if the researcher does not have the proper knowledge of how the research in performed. Desk research is very effective and can be conducted in starting phase of market research as it is quite quick and cheap and most of the basic information could be easily fetched which can be used as benchmark in the research process. There are basically two types of desk research techniques: 1. Internal Desk Research - Internal desk research can be treated as the most reasonable starting point of research for any organization. Much Information could be generated internally within the organization as a course of normal process. Account related information which indicates what type of products are sold, in how much quantity and at what cost, sold to which type of customers including their geographical location and so on. The main advantage here in performing internal desk research is that it involves internal and existing organizational resources to organize the collected data in such a way that it is not only efficient but also usable. Internal desk research is comparatively very cheap and effective as internal recourses are deputed and the expenditure in getting data from outside is less. 2. External Desk Research - External Desk Research involves research done outside the organizational boundaries and collecting relevant information. These outside resources are described below:

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MMS PROJECT a. Online Desk Research - There is incredible amount of data available online on internet. Its important for organization to be information specific while fetching out this information as there are billions of pages available on internet. There could be two approaches for digging out the relevant information from internet, one is directly browsing the specific information from industrial, marketing or business sites and extracting the information out of these sites. Secondly, using the various search engines like www.google.com, www.yahoo.com,

www.infoseek.go.com, www.altavista.com etc, for modulated searching. The important aspect here is to refine the searching techniques in such a way that results are promising and relevant. For this it is necessary that the researcher should know the importance of the research and follow the guideline intellectually to reduce the efforts made and time consumed in searching. b. Government published data - Government usually publishes a great extent of data online that can be used in the research process. This data is related to social, financial and economical aspects. The government websites are mostly free to access and contains most prominent information. Thus, this could be the cheapest medium of gathering the information. 3. Customer desk research - One of the best and most prominent ways of extracting information for research is directly communicating with existing or prospect customer. Customers are the one who are considered the most informed as they are actually using products and services and are aware of the current market trends more than any other. Hence the feedback and information provided by customers is the most accurate and useful data which can be used most effectively in the further process of research.

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Questionnaire Layout
A questionnaire should have a clear consistent layout, leave adequate space to answer, bear a large font size and appropriate page breaks. Experimental layouts, fancy logos and disturbing features such as "printed on recycled paper/is an equal opportunity employer" should be avoided. In some cases, using color or printing the questionnaire on colored paper may help to increase the response. This depends again on the targeted audience and should be discreet and tasteful. Filter questions may be of use if some questions or a group of questions are targeted to a subgroup of the respondents. This will enable interviewers a smooth flow through the questionnaire and shorten the time to fill in the questionnaire in selfadministrated questionnaires. Similarly, it is important to give clear instructions to interviewers or respondents. This will reduce misunderstandings. Questionnaire Coding Closed questions on a paper questionnaire can be pre-coded. This means that a number is assigned in advance to each possible answer. Coding will enable a quicker and easier data entry. The ideal code numbers depend on the software which will be used for data analysis. Some software packages only accept 0/1 codes for dichotomous variables. In order to avoid time-consuming data cleaning, be careful to choose appropriate and consistent codes for all variables in advance.

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Example: Below is the coding to find out the customers lifestyle. This is a format made as per the norms of TNS. Chief Earner : Education No. of Durables Illiterate Literate but no formal schooling / School up to 4 yrs 1 None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9+ E3 E2 E1 D2 D1 C2 C1 C1 B1 B1 2 E2 E1 E1 D2 C2 C1 B2 B1 A3 A3 3 E2 E1 D2 D1 C2 C1 B2 B1 A3 A3 4 E2 E1 D2 D1 C1 B2 B1 A3 A3 A2 5 E2 D2 D1 C2 C1 B1 A3 A3 A2 A2 6 E1 D2 D1 C2 B2 B1 A3 A2 A2 A1 7 D2 D2 D1 C2 B2 B1 A3 A2 A2 A1 School 5 SSC / 9 yrs HSC Some college (include Diploma but not graduate) Graduate Graduate / / Post Post

Graduate Graduate _ General Professional

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Define your

research

question

and study

population

It is important to define your research question, study population, and the objectives of your study at the beginning of your study. You should continually refer back to these during the study design process. This is particularly important in questionnaire studies where there is a temptation to be nosey and delve into a wide range of issues, which although interesting to you, the researcher, are not relevant to your study. You should also consider the associations that you wish to test at the design stage, so that the relevant data, for example, social class indicators, can be collected as part of your questionnaire. Previous studies have shown that people are more likely to respond to questionnaires that cover issues that are relevant to them. Qualitative methods, including focus groups and unstructured interviews, are increasingly being used to identify issues of importance to patients as a first stage in questionnaire studies. The selection of participants for qualitative research is quite different from quantitative studies. Rather than selecting subjects at random from a representative group, participants are chosen to take part in qualitative studies on the basis of their particular demographic or treatment characteristics, or because they are known to hold particular views. This technique is called purposive sampling and is useful because a range of possible views can be identified. It is important to appreciate, however, that data collected in this way, although interesting, is not representative of the whole study population. Focus group meetings are a useful way of identifying issues because the views of a range of subjects can be examined at the same time. Furthermore, interaction between participants can lead to new issues being identified. Running a focus group is a special skill, however, and you will need to use a trained facilitator to ensure that the views of all the participants are included. Unstructured interviews are another method that can be used to identify issues. These are particularly valuable for examining peoples attitudes and beliefs in-depth, and can give insight into some of the reasons behind their behavior. Again, you will need to employ a trained interviewer for this part of your study to avoid biasing your data.

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MMS PROJECT You should not under-estimate the amount of work and time involved in collecting and analyzing qualitative data. The interviews and focus groups need to be tape-recorded (with the participants permission) and you should also take careful written notes to back up the tapes. The tape recordings are then transcribed into scripts with the participants identified by code names only to ensure confidentiality. This can be quite a difficult process for tapes of focus group meetings, since a number of participants may be talking all at once! There are a number of techniques for analyzing qualitative data that are beyond the scope of this paper. Put simply, the scripts should be examined by at least two researchers who record new issues as they arise and then produce a list of their relative importance. The main issues identified from the interviews and/or focus groups can then be used to form the basis of your questionnaire. The subjective nature of qualitative data means that it is very easy to bias your analysis and so it is important to seek advice from an experienced researcher at this stage.

Decide

how

the questionnaire

will

be

administered

Questionnaires can be used either as the basis of a structured interview, which is administered by a trained interviewer, or completed by the subject by themselves. When you decide how a questionnaire should be administered you need to achieve a balance between practical considerations, such as the time-frame and funding available for the study, and the issues you wish to examine. Structured interviews can be undertaken face-to-face, or may be conducted over the telephone or the Internet. Interviewer-administered questionnaires have the advantage that unclear questions can be clarified to the respondent and open-ended questions can be used to collect a range of possible responses. Importantly, the interviewer can also ensure that all the questions are answered by the intended subject. These surveys are, however, expensive because trained interviewers are needed and a large amount of time is needed for each interview. There are some disadvantages. For example, there is a risk that the interviewer may bias the responses given. Response rates may also be reduced because some people may be unwilling to give up their time to be interviewed. Others may not take part because they prefer the anonymity of a self-complete questionnaire. Finally, response rates to telephone surveys are particularly low UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 31

MMS PROJECT because subjects tend to assume that an unfamiliar voice is trying to sell them double-glazing and they therefore hang up before you have had a chance to explain the purpose of your call! When we consider self-complete questionnaires, these are cheaper to administer and a larger sample can be collected. Respondents can either complete the questionnaire in the research setting or, more commonly, are sent the questionnaire by post or e-mail to complete at home. The alternative option of inviting subjects to complete a questionnaire in the clinic, for example, has the advantage that you can ensure that your target subject completes the questionnaire. You can also clarify any ambiguous questions and make sure that the respondent answers all the questions. These advantages need to be offset against the difficulties of taking up peoples time (your sample will be biased towards people with time to waste!) and disrupting busy clinics. A researcher also needs to be present throughout the data collection process, which increases the cost of the study and limits the geographical catchment area of the sample that can be studied. There is also a tendency for subjects to feel intimidated by the clinical setting and, as such, they will tend to give responses to please the clinicians and/or researchers, rather than their own opinions. Most questionnaire studies are based on postal self-complete questionnaires. This study design has the advantage that a large population can be sampled at a relatively low cost over a wide geographical area. The main disadvantages of postal questionnaires are that you have no control over who actually completes the questionnaire. The responses given are often the collective view of a whole household. It is also difficult to ensure that the respondent completes all the questions before returning the questionnaire and there may be problems with literacy or language that are difficult to identify. Good response rates are therefore difficult to achieve with postal surveys and samples tends to be biased towards more educated and non-immigrant populations.

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Formulate your questions


Once youve decided how you are going to administer your questionnaire, you can go on to formulate your questions. Questions can be divided into those directly related to the research question; filter questions that explore the characteristics of the different study groups and filler questions that, although not part of the research question, aid the flow of the questionnaire. Wherever possible, you should incorporate questions from existing questionnaires (with the permission of the author). This not only prevents reinventing the wheel, but will also allow direct comparison of your data with previous studies. It is important to appreciate, however, that such questions need to be reproduced verbatim to be valid. If you have to change the wording of a question, for example, to suit a British sample, rather than an American one, then, strictly speaking, you will need to retest the reliability and validity of the question. Studies have shown that the wording of questions has an important influence on the responses that are given. In general, questions should be short (less than 20 words is recommended), simple and specific. More difficult questions will either produce an inaccurate response or, more likely, the respondent will give up and fail to complete the questionnaire at all. There is a facility in Microsoft Word that you can use to calculate the readability of your questions. Alternatively, you can use the Gunning Fog Index to calculate the reading age for each question. It is also important that you avoid making assumptions in your questions. For example, How often do you visit the dentist? assumes that the respondent attends the dentist regularly. You should break this question down into two parts, i.e. Do you visit the dentist for checkups? and If yes, how often do you go for a check-up? Another potential problem is time-memory bias. People find it particularly difficult to recall events that have happened some time ago and so it is unwise to ask about things that have happened more than 6 months in the past. If this is unavoidable then you should either use wide time scales, for example 612 months, or put the event in question into some sort of context. For example, the question When did you first meet the surgeon?, in a survey of orthognathic patients, could be rewritten Did you meet the surgeon before your braces were fitted? UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 33

MMS PROJECT The order of your questions is another important issue in questionnaire design. Studies have shown that a better response rate is achieved if general questions precede specific questions. It is better to start with easy, factual non-personal questions to relax the respondent. Questions that involve some research from the respondent, for example, looking up clinic dates, should come towards the end of the questionnaire. This has the advantage that your respondent will have hopefully developed an interest in the subject and feel some ownership of the questionnaire by this stage. If not, then at least they will have completed the rest of the questions and you will be able to collect some data. It is also better to ask personal questions towards the end of the questionnaire when again the respondent is more relaxed.

Formulate your responses


Questions can be divided into open-ended questions, where the subject is free to give their own response to a question, or closed questions, where a choice of predetermined answers is given. Open-ended questions are useful for identifying a range of possible responses where no previous data exist. Open-ended questions also give the people an opportunity to state their own views about a topic. The main disadvantage of open-ended questions is that they take longer to complete, particularly for less articulate subjects, and this may mean that they are left unanswered. It is also more difficult to code the responses for your analysis than closed questions. Closed questions are quicker to complete and easier to code. Responses can be presented as simple yes/no choices; multiple tick boxes or, alternatively, subjects may be invited to rank choices by order of preference or to complete a Likert scale. In a Likert scale, the subject is asked the extent to which they agree or disagree about an issue. The responses may be given in the form of a (usually 5-point) scale, for example: Strongly agree - Agree Undecided Disagree - Strongly disagree

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MMS PROJECT Alternatively, subjects may be invited to place a mark on a 10cm visual analogue scale, to indicate their level of agreement with a statement. Visual analogue scales are particularly useful when asking respondents to describe their symptoms. For example, How bothered are you about the appearance of your jeans? Conscious all the time Not bothered It is important to appreciate that the more complicated the response to a question is the less likely it is to be completed. You will also find it more difficult to code the data. Although closed questions tend to yield better response rates, there is a risk that some subjects will be led to give a response that they may not otherwise have given simply because it is on the list. You will need to spend some time piloting your questionnaire to ensure that the whole range of responses is included for each question. It is also a good idea to include an other tick box, to cover all eventualities, in answers to questions where there is a list of possible responses. There is some debate about whether a dont know option should be included with yes/no type questions. Some studies suggest that people would rather guess the answer than leave an answer blank. Others have shown that including a dont know category can lead to lots of noncommittal answers. Whichever method you choose, it is good practice in a questionnaire based on closed questions to include an opportunity, for example, at the end of each section, for respondents to give their comments and add any further explanation about their responses. You can then either code these comments and include them in the analysis or quote them verbatim in your study report.

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MMS PROJECT

Design

the

layout

The layout of your questionnaire is important not only for ensuring that all the questions are answered, but also for facilitating data coding and analysis. Its important that you capture peoples attention and make them interested in completing the questionnaire. Its also a good idea to use at least a size 14 font size for the questions and to avoid cramming too many questions onto a page in an effort to save paper! If there are a lot of questions, its less daunting for the reader if the questionnaire is divided into sections and the questions numbered per section, e.g. A110, B112, etc. Separating each question from the next with a black line will also help to make the questionnaire easier to read. You should print the questionnaire on good quality paper (at least 100 g). This has two advantages: first, this stops people being able to read the next question through the paper that might influence their answers and, second, using good quality paper gives the impression of an important and well-funded study. Its also a good idea to use brightly colored paper for the front and back covers of your questionnaire to grab the respondents attention. The questions, however, should be written on white paper because this is less tiring on the eyes. Its very important that you give clear instructions at the beginning and throughout the questionnaire so that people can navigate their way through the questions. Its a good idea to use a different font type or to type the navigation instructions in bold script on each page so that they stand out from the questions. The navigation method should be thoroughly tested at the pre-pilot and piloting stages.

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MMS PROJECT

Pre-pilot

the

questions

and layout

It is essential that you pre-pilot your questionnaire to identify any ambiguities in your questions and to identify the range of possible responses for each question. The pre-pilot is not a formal procedure, more an information-gathering exercise. You should sit down with a few suitable subjects, who may be friends or colleagues, and go through the questions together to identify potential problems. After each session, you should amend the questionnaire before re-piloting with another group of testers. This process needs to continue until you are confident that your questions are unambiguous, appropriate and acceptable to respondents. You can also test the layout at this stage to ensure that people can navigate their way easily through the questionnaire.

Pilot study

to

test

the

questionnaire

As with other forms of science, you need to be able to show that the data collected from your questionnaire are valid and reliable. Ideally, every questionnaire should undergo a formal pilot during which the acceptability, validity, and reliability of the measure is tested. You should also pilot the data collection process and covering letters to participants. The pilot should be based on subjects from a similar population to that being examined in your survey. Since patients will be involved, you will need to obtain ethical approval for this part of your study. Testing a questionnaire can be a very time-consuming process and this stage of questionnaire design has often been overlooked in the past in researchers eagerness to start collecting the data. Unfortunately, this then casts doubt over the robustness of the data that are collected. 1. Testing validity

A questionnaire can be said to be valid if it examines the full scope of the research question in a balanced way, i.e. it measures what it aims to measure. There are several aspects of validity that need to be tested. Criterion validity is assessed by comparing a new measure with an existing gold standard scale. If such a scale exists, however, one would question the need to develop a new questionnaire. The factual validity of a questionnaire can be assessed by comparing responses about clinical events with information recorded from the clinical notes. The face validity of a questionnaire can be examined by interviewing people, either face-to-face or over the telephone, after they

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MMS PROJECT have completed the questionnaire to find out whether the responses they have given in the questionnaire agree with their real opinions. When testing face validity, its important to word your questions in the interview differently from those in the questionnaire otherwise all you will be testing is the reliability of your questions. 2. Testing reliability

Reliability is defined as an assessment of the reproducibility and consistency of an instrument. For self-complete questionnaires, two aspects of reliability should be examined. You can assess testretest reliability by asking people to complete the questionnaire on two separate occasions approximately 2 to 3 weeks apart, assuming that their circumstances will not have changed in the interim. You can determine the internal consistency of your questionnaire by asking a question or questions in more than one way during the questionnaire. The responses given can then be compared as before. 3. Testing acceptability

Qualitative methods can be used to assess the acceptability of a questionnaire. You can either ask the subjects included in your pilot study to write their comments about the questionnaire on a separate sheet or you can ask them over the telephone how they found answering the questionnaire during the validity testing. Its also a good idea to ask people in the pilot study how long it took them to complete the questionnaire. You can then include this information in the cover letter that you use to accompany the questionnaire in your main survey.

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MMS PROJECT

Design

your coding

scheme

Coding is the process of converting questionnaire data into meaningful categories to facilitate analysis. You need to think about your coding scheme at the beginning of your study and, wherever possible, build it into your questionnaire, for example by numbering the response tick boxes for each question. This will allow you to enter data directly from the questionnaire into your database for analysis. The numbers within the boxes should correspond to the variables in the database where the responses will be stored. The alternative is to code the questionnaire responses onto a separate coding sheet and then to enter the data from the coding sheet into the database. This process is not only laborious, but also doubles the margin for error and observer bias. Its a good idea to test your coding scheme and data entry process during the pilot study, so that problems can be rectified before the main study starts. Its also prudent to discuss the coding scheme for your questionnaire with a statistician at this stage so that any mistakes can be rectified before you go to the printers. Increasing your response rate

Achieving a good response rate is a particular problem for postal questionnaire surveys. Studies suggest that the response rate may be reduced by up to 20% compared to an interviewer-based survey. A response rate of 75% for a postal questionnaire survey is considered to be extremely good. Poor response rates can lead to bias because people from higher social groups and nonethnic minorities are more likely to complete questionnaires than other groups. Its unethical to offer people financial incentives to take part in healthcare surveys and so researchers need to develop other ways of encouraging subjects to take part. Figure 3 lists the methods that are commonly used to increase response rates in postal questionnaire studies. Everyone is bombarded by junk mail these days, much of which ends up in the dustbin unopened. Therefore, its a good idea to use white stamped envelopes, which look more personal, to send out initial contact letters, rather than brown franked envelopes. Most ethics committees insist that you send subjects information in advance about a study and that you ask them to indicate whether they wish to take part in a survey, rather than simply sending them a questionnaire through the post with a cover letter asking them to complete it. This stage of a questionnaire survey not only increases the cost of your study, but also tends to reduce response rates. UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 39

MMS PROJECT All the letters that you send to potential participants need to be approved by the ethics committee before you begin your study. Each letter should state the aim of the study, the sponsor and emphasize that the information given will be confidential. Its also important that you state in your initial contact letter that if a subject chooses not to participate in the study then their future healthcare will not be affected. Postal questionnaires should be sent out with a pre-paid envelope for their return. All contact letters should be written on official headed paper and signed in blue ink by the researcher. Its expensive to employ interpreters solely for questionnaire surveys. One way around this, if you expect a significant proportion of your sample to come from a non-English speaking group, is to include a cover letter that has been translated into common languages for your target population. A contact number for an interpreter who people can telephone to help them complete the questionnaire should be included in the letter. Its difficult to control for bias if a subject asks an interpreter to help them complete the questionnaire, but the advantages of increasing the response rate by providing an interpreter usually out way the disadvantages. Sending out reminders has also been shown to improve response rates in questionnaire surveys. Each questionnaire should be labeled with a unique ID number so that reminders are only sent to non-respondents. Its quite possible that a subject may have lost their original questionnaire and so every reminder should be accompanied by another questionnaire and another pre-paid envelope. Its a good idea to label the reminder questionnaires with the ID number and prefix, for example, a, b or i, ii, etc. This will allow you to identify those instances where the first questionnaire that was completed has been delayed or lost in the post, and the subject has then been kind enough to complete a repeat questionnaire for you. Its important to remember that people have given up their time to complete your questionnaire and so its only considerate to send each participant a letter thanking for them for taking part in your study. Recent Government Standards for Research state that the results of studies involving NHS patients should be fed back to participants. Some of the information youve collected could be distressing to some patients, however, and you should therefore seek advice about which information should be disseminated.

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MMS PROJECT

Data Analysis and Compilation


After gathering the information from desk and field research the raw data must be compiled so that the taxonomic analysis can be performed and data can be broken up into respective parts and segments. Data analysis and compilation also includes data cleaning strategy before the further analysis is performed. This cleaning is basically validating the data for any error or irrelevant data. Its a separate process for data cleaning performed before the analysis which is very important to fetch desirable results. This process also includes determining the missing values and inputting the most appropriate values in place. It is also important to maintain the quality of the analysis and compilation for which the ideal key is use reliable measurement techniques. Data sampling is also one more distinguished approach to decrease probability of repetitive data elements. It includes creating subsets of information according to a specific variable value and managing them as a whole. More the data is relevant the more accurate the results are. An organization must define all the objectives in accordance to market requirement. The results from the compilation and analysis of data and information are very important and significant for the organization and shows success factors. The result of the process also depicts the trend of the organization by determining weak and strong points and how they stand stood in the market. Hence, every organization should have an organized and sophisticated way of compiling and analyzing the information.

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MMS PROJECT

There will be a large number of paper questionnaires. To make it easier to interpret and store the responses, it is best to transfer data on to a single grid, which should comprise of no more than two or three sheets depending on the number of questions and student respondents. A typical grid looks like this:

Questions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Respondent 1 Respondent 2 Respondent 3 Respondent 4 Respondent 5

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Data coding
It is good practice to check through each completed questionnaire when you receive it to check for missing data. If there are any factual gaps in peoples responses, for example, the number of visits made to a clinic, and then it may then be possible to enter these data from other sources. Subjects who have failed to follow the filters and answered every single question can also be identified at this stage, and if necessary, contacted to verify information. Two approaches can be used when analyzing the responses to open-ended questions. You may choose to examine all the responses to a question, devise categories for the answers and then code the data in the same way as a closed response question. Alternatively, interesting responses can be quoted verbatim in the final report. The choice depends on the nature of the question and the range of answers given. Once you have coded as many of the open-ended questions as possible you can enter your data directly from the completed questionnaires into a computer programme for analysis. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) is a useful software package for questionnaire surveys because it is flexible and easy to use. Optical scanners are often used to enter data from large surveys. These are only suitable for single coded responses however, and there is a high error rate.

Data cleaning
Once youve entered all your questionnaire responses into the database it is necessary to spend some time cleaning the data to identify inconsistencies and outliers. This is a laborious process and there is a strong temptation to leave this stage out, particularly if there is a scientific conference looming at which youve promised to present the results of your study! This is a false economy, however, since you may then have the embarrassment of having to amend your abstract or even withdraw your paper when you discover that your exciting finding is merely the result of a data entry error! The quickest way to clean your data is to produce frequency figures for each question and examine the outliers. Simple cross-tabulations can then be used to identify nonsensical responses. UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 43

MMS PROJECT

Examination

of

the

data for

selection

bias

It is difficult to avoid the tendency for postal questionnaire surveys, in particular, to be biased towards educated, English-speaking populations. The extent to which this applies to your survey should be stated in your report to enable the reader to judge for themselves how valid your results are for a given population. Its also important to record as many demographic and treatment details as possible about non-respondents. Simple cross-tabulations can then be used to compare the characteristics of respondents and non-respondents. If you have undertaken an interviewerbased survey involving more than one interviewer, then it will be necessary to compare the responses given to each interviewer to identify observer bias.

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MMS PROJECT

Report Preparation - Characteristics of a Good Report


The market research is normally outsourced to third party agencies by organizations and in turn they create a professional report to the organization. These reports are preferably provided to senior officials who are the critical decision makers of the organization. Hence these reports need to be exclusively efficient and well formatted and the matter should be limpid, analytical and directive.

The actual facts must be depicted clearly and it is desirable that the data and results are furnished in graphical or tabular format which could create a substantially good impression and is unambiguous to understand. The reports must be essentially capable to compare related information in the report so that conclusions can be derived potentially and easily. It is necessary for a report to contain following details to be called a good report: 1. Information collected in the report must be relevant and focused to derive desired results. Pictorial and graphical presentation of data and related information help to understand the details easily. There is a possibility that the collected data in the report needs to be represented at many places in different formats to fulfill the report goals. The ultimate goal is to determine all the issue and make suitable strategies to cope up with these issue or problems. 2. Report should follow the exact predefined goals and objectives. If there is any sort of divergence of related information which does not match the goals then the results are of

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MMS PROJECT no use. In fact there is a probability of landing up in making negative or out of focus strategies, which will be very dangerous. 3. The report should always contain the executive summary of the work. This is generally kept before the actual report starts as it shows the summary of the desired business plan. 4. Apart from the actual analysis the report should also depict the reasons of making this report and what advantages and profit it can provide after successful implementation of business plans described inside the report. It should also contain the methodology of the research which shows the overall process adopted to create the report. 5. It is important that the report contains the possibility of errors in any of the module or process so that immediate measures could be taken to cope up with these errors. 6. The report should contain the description of the questionnaires used in analysis and the way it has been prepared. 7. The methodology used in the interviews should also be elaborated and what was achieved in this should also be described. 8. If the information show that some aspects needs to predict the future trends then the reports should depict that prediction. This prediction should have scale of success so that the accuracy could be judged efficaciously. The report should also define each and every variable and element used in creating these predictive analyses. 9. The report should be flexible enough to be changed accordingly. The analytical information described inside the report should be maintained in such a way that there is no extra effort labored if any strategy or process it to be changed in future. It should necessarily mould the changes without changing the structure of the report. The analytical report creation is very important phase of market research which acts as a blueprint of the business plan which is to be executed. By following the above guidelines while report generation process can be efficiently taken care of.

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MMS PROJECT

Action Plan in Report Preparation Process


Describing the action plan in the report preparation process is very important as it concludes the report by defining the final actions to be taken care of. An ideal action plan consists of all abnormal behavior in findings to motivate the organization to focus on these aspects and determine desirable strategies tackle these situations. Typically an action plan should show the following aspects in the report: 1. Positive aspects - It should describe the fields in which organization is doing better than expectation of customers and competitors. The actual report contains description of questionnaire and interviews and the respective responses are scaled accordingly. The responses are analyzed with respect to market benchmarks. If the figures are above expectation it means the organization is doing good in those aspects and strategies could be determined to continue to serve in the same manner or enhance them more. Action plan depicts this information to give straightforward outcomes to show the leadership aspects of the organization. 2. Negative Aspects - It should also describe the fields in which organization is not doing so well as compared to other competitors and is not meeting the customer expectations. It also shows the areas where organization is meeting customer expectations but is not catching up with competitors and is lagging behind them. This information will help the organization to define enhanced strategies to improve related processes and try to do better in these aspects and remain competitive for others. 3. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty - Action plan shows the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty according to the analyzed report. This describes in which fields the organization needs improvement and how, what are the reasons for the downfall and what strategies to follow to cope up with this to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Apart from the above aspects there are many other information that is provided by action plans like providing analyzed information regarding what type of products are being preferred by customers in the current market scenario, what technologies basically are used in implementing these products so that they serve in more efficient way. The action plans also give other useful UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 47

MMS PROJECT information. The entire process is properly documented with respect to organizational standards so that it can be referred in future for decision making process or to change or modify any specific process or module. This report contains overall architecture of the project depicting all the processes with the help of tables, graphs and figures to provoke impact and clarity.

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MMS PROJECT

Research Methodology
Exploratory Research
The exploratory approach attempts to discover general information about a topic that is not well understood by the marketer. For instance, a marketer has heard news reports about a new Internet technology that is helping competitors but the marketer is not familiar with the technology and needs to do research to learn more. When gaining insight (i.e., discovery) on an issue is the primary goal, exploratory research is used. The basic difference between exploratory and descriptive research is the research design. Exploratory research follows a format that is less structured and more flexible than descriptive research. This approach works well when the marketer doesnt have an understanding of the topic or the topic is new and it is hard to pinpoint the research direction. The downside, however, is that results may not be as useful in aiding a marketing decision. So why use this method? In addition to offering the marketer basic information on a topic, exploratory research may also provide direction for a more formal research effort. For instance, exploratory research may indicate who the key decision makers are in a particular market thus enabling a more structured descriptive study targeted to this group.

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MMS PROJECT

Descriptive Research
The focus of descriptive research is to provide an accurate description for something that is occurring. For example, what age group is buying a particular brand, a products market share within a certain industry, how many competitors a company faces, etc. This type of research is by far the most popular form of market research. It is used extensively when the research purpose is to explain, monitor and test hypotheses, and can also be used to a lesser extent to help make predictions and for discovery. Marketers routinely conduct basic descriptive research using informal means. For instance, the head of marketing for a clothing company may email a retailer to see how the products are selling. But informal descriptive research, while widely undertaken, often fails to meet the tests of research validity and reliability and, consequently, the information should not be used as an important component in marketing decisions. Rather, to be useful, descriptive research must be conducted in a way that adheres to a strict set of research requirements to capture relevant results. This often means that care must be taken to develop a structured research plan. Under most circumstances this requires researchers have a good grasp of research methods including knowledge of data analysis.

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MMS PROJECT

Method of Data Collection


This project report gives the information about functional department area of Company. It also provides information about history and current working of the company. The theoretical framework is constructed in which the data is analyzed and interpreted. To receive the data in appropriate and sequential manner following methodology were use by the research study in TNS India Pvt. Ltd. Primary data collection Discussion with the field executives and researchers of a company Discussion with responsible persons of various Department Direct observation of working Interviews on field

Secondary Data collection Secondary data nothing but ready-made data this data is referred as data collected and analyzed by someone and made available to the other. The two types of secondary data one is the published and another one is unpublished data. The research methodology followed was the questionnaire method. The questionnaire mainly mixes all the branded garments so that the customer identifies Celio. This is done so that the company identity is not disclosed.

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MMS PROJECT

Celio
Casual collections define the all day modern elegance in city wear. Different styles are being mixed and matched in fashion-statement combinations providing unique looks. Sport collections suggest fashion in action. Modern designs are applied in quality fabrics resulting in comfortable, yet stylish clothes for active men. In a CELIO store you can find a wide range of knitwear, shirts, jackets, trousers, knee-trousers, tshirts, accessories in order to cover your all day clothing needs in the most fashionable way.

Founded in 1978, by Marc and Laurent Grossman, today Celio is a market leader in men's ready to wear clothing in France. Its flag ship store, located in Pariss Champs Elysee, is spread over three levels.

In addition it also has a presence in Europe, Russia, UAE, Singapore and now in India through a joint venture with the Future Group.

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MMS PROJECT Specialists in mens ready-to-wear, Celio offers its customers trousers, shirts, sweaters, tshirts, polo-shirts, suits, jackets, belts, ties and boxer shorts.

A fashion collection, reinterpreted every season in order to remain the most innovative, structured around our three categories - Sportswear, Casual and Business.

The brand is retailed through exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) and select stores Pantaloons Central. Celio offers a space dedicated to men, with a Latininspired fashion that is virile, relaxed and sensual. Celio style means quality, a variety of colours and cuts, sophistication and discretion. It is a strong value that encompasses respect for others, well being, manners, altruism, sharing and
dialogue. It is an accessible,

of and

affordable, borderless, urban, honest brand offering good value for money. Celio supports men, helps them to find direction and gives them the keys to fashion.

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MMS PROJECT

Sampling Methods Cluster Sample


First, the researcher selects groups or clusters, and then from each cluster, the researcher selects the individual subjects by either simple random or systematic random sampling. The researcher can even opt to include the entire cluster and not just a subset from it. The most common cluster used in research is a geographical cluster. For example, a researcher wants to survey academic performance of high school students in Spain. 1. He can divide the entire population (population of Spain) into different clusters (cities). 2. Then the researcher selects a number of clusters depending on his research through simple or systematic random sampling. 3. Then, from the selected clusters (randomly selected cities) the researcher can either include all the high school students as subjects or he can select a number of subjects from each cluster through simple or systematic random sampling. The important thing to remember about this sampling technique is to give all the clusters equal chances of being selected. Types of Cluster Sample One-stage Cluster Sample Recall the example given above; one-stage cluster sample occurs when the researcher includes all the high school students from all the randomly selected clusters as sample.

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MMS PROJECT Two-stage Cluster Sample From the same example above, two-stage cluster sample is obtained when the researcher only selects a number of students from each cluster by using simple or systematic random sampling.

Difference between Cluster sampling and Stratified Sampling The main difference between cluster sampling and stratified sampling lies with the inclusion of the cluster or strata. In stratified random sampling, all the strata of the population is sampled while in cluster sampling, the researcher only randomly selects a number of clusters from the collection of clusters of the entire population. Therefore, only a number of clusters are sampled, all the other clusters are left unrepresented. Advantages and Disadvantages

This sampling technique is cheap, quick and easy. Instead of sampling an entire country when using simple random sampling, the researcher can allocate his limited resources to the few randomly selected clusters or areas when using cluster samples.

Related to the first advantage, the researcher can also increase his sample size with this technique. Considering that the researcher will only have to take the sample from a number of areas or clusters, he can then select more subjects since they are more accessible.

From all the different type of probability sampling, this technique is the least representative of the population. The tendency of individuals within a cluster is to have similar characteristics and with a cluster sample, there is a chance that the researcher can have an overrepresented or underrepresented cluster which can skew the results of the study.

This is also a probability sampling technique with a possibility of high sampling error. This is brought by the limited clusters included in the sample leaving off a significant proportion of the population unsampled.

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MMS PROJECT

Sample Size
For any sample design deciding upon the appropriate sample size will depend on several key factors 1. No estimate taken from a sample is expected to be exact: Any assumptions about the overall population based on the results of a sample will have an attached margin of error. 2. To lower the margin of error usually requires a larger sample size: The amount of variability in the population (i.e. the range of values or opinions) will also affect accuracy and therefore the size of sample. 3. The confidence level is the likelihood that the results obtained from the sample lie within a required precision. The higher the

confidence level that is the more certain you wish to be that the results are not atypical. Statisticians often use a 95 per cent confidence level to provide strong conclusions. 4. Population size does not normally affect sample size: In fact the larger the populations size the lower the proportion of that population that needs to be sampled to be representative. It is only when the proposed sample size is more than 5 per cent of the population that the population size becomes part of the formulae to calculate the sample size. In this study on branded clothes, the sample size is taken to be 50 respondents. Out of the total 50 respondents, 40 of them are males and remaining 10 are females. This study mainly concentrates on the respondents who fall in A1, A2 and A3 class, as they are the ones who are more aware of the branded readymade garments and upcoming brands. They are the trend setters in this case.

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Data Analysis
1. What is the Standard of Living of the people? Class A1 A2 A3 Total Respondents 10 32 8 50 Percentage 20 64 36 100

Standard of living
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 A1 A2 A3 Standard of living

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2. Which type of Readymade Garments have you purchased? Here, multiple coding was allowed because respondents wear trousers, shirts and Tshirts as well. Type Trousers/Jeans/Track Pants Shirts T-Shirts Respondents 30 34 36 Percentage 60 68 72

Type of Readymade garments

36%

30%

Trousers/Jeans/Track Pants

Shirts
34%

T-shirts

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MMS PROJECT 3. What is the average price you have paid for the garments? Price Less than Rs. 600 Rs. 600-1500 Rs. 1501-2500 Rs. 2501-3500 Above Rs. 3500 Total Respondents 3 39 6 2 0 50 Percentage 6 78 12 4 0 100

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Less than 600 600-1500 1501-2500 2501-3500 Above 3500

Price Factor

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MMS PROJECT 4. Which is the brand that that hits your mind at the first place? Here, multiple coding was allowed because many respondents had repeated answers. Brands Celio Calvin Klein / CK Diesel Ed Hardy Energie Espirit Flying Machine FCUK GANT GAP GAS Giordano Guess Jack & Jones Lacoste Lee Levis Mufti Only Pepe Provogue Spykar Tommy Hilfiger UCB U.S. Polo Zara Respondents 6 26 37 8 30 38 19 32 10 38 40 11 26 18 27 41 44 10 12 38 42 45 36 33 36 26 Percentage 12 52 74 16 60 76 38 64 20 76 80 22 52 36 54 82 88 20 24 76 84 90 72 66 72 52

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45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Brand Awareness Celio Energie GANT Guess Levis Provogue U.S.Polo CK Espirit GAP Jack & Jones Mufti Spykar Zara Diesel Flying Machine GAS Lacoste Only Ed Hardy FCUK Giordano Lee Pepe

Tommy Hilfiger UCB

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5. When it comes to Branded Readymade Garments, which communication medium do you prefer? Here, multiple coding was allowed because respondents refer to multiple advertisements. Medium Online Ads Promotional activity Television Print Ads Outdoor Hoardings Word of mouth Respondents 5 40 42 43 30 25 Percentage 10 80 84 86 60 50

Means of Communication
50 40 30 20 10 0 Means of Communication

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MMS PROJECT 6. Which brand have you ever purchased? Also please indicate which brands you purchased in past 1 year and which will be your next brand? Here, multiple coding was allowed because many respondents had repeated answers. Brands Celio Calvin Klein / CK Diesel Ed Hardy Energie Espirit Flying Machine FCUK GANT GAP GAS Giordano Guess Jack & Jones Lacoste Lee Levis Mufti Only Pepe Provogue Spykar Tommy Hilfiger UCB U.S. Polo Zara UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI Respondents 4 26 37 9 30 38 19 32 9 38 40 7 26 18 27 41 44 10 12 38 42 45 36 33 36 26 Percentage 8 52 74 18 60 76 38 64 18 76 80 14 52 36 54 82 88 20 24 76 84 90 72 66 72 52 63

MMS PROJECT

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Ever Purchased
Celio Espirit GAS Lee Provogue Zara CK Flying Machine Giordano Levis Spykar Diesel FCUK Guess Mufti Tommy Hilfiger Ed Hardy GANT Jack & Jones Only UCB Energie GAP Lacoste Pepe U.S.Polo

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MMS PROJECT 7. How often do you purchase branded readymade garments? Here, multiple coding was allowed because many respondents had repeated answers. Purchase Frequency Once in 3 months Once in every 4 6 months Less than once in 6 months Total Respondents 32 12 6 50 Percentage 64 24 12 100

Purchase Frequency

12% 24% Once in 3 months Once in every 4 6 months Less than once in 6 months 64%

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MMS PROJECT

8. From where do you purchase them? Purchase outlet Branded outlet Malls Departmental Store Factory Outlet Others Total Respondents 15 25 10 0 0 50 Percentage 30 50 20 0 0 100

Purchase outlet
0% 20% 30% 0%

Branded outlet Malls Departmental Store Factory Outlet

50%

Others

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MMS PROJECT

9. Based on the following statements, which brand do you prefer?

Celio CK Variety For teens Worth money Casual Wear Quality Fashion Stock Recommend to friends 2 1 2 3 4 3

Diesel 4 5 6

Espirit FCUK 5 3 4 7 6 5

Lee Levis 6 7 8 10 12 9

Provogue Spykar 6 5 7 7 7 6

3 2 1 1 2

2 5 2 1 1

5 6 4 8 5

7 4 2 2 2

6 7 5 7 9

8 10 10 9 7

8 8 11 12 11

5 4 9 8 6

6 4 6 2 7

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MMS PROJECT

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Spykar Provogue Levis Lee FCUK Espirit Diesel CK Celio

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10. Advertisement Awareness Awareness Yes No Total Respondents 13 37 50 Percentage 26 74 100

Advertisement

26%

Yes No
74%

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Findings
1. The respondents are the people who are middle class families. They are the one who prefer wearing branded readymade garments. 2. Most of the respondents prefer a price range form Rs. 600 to 1500. Rs. 1501 to 2500 is also acceptable, but very few. 3. Celio is a brand launched in India 6 months prior. Very few customers are aware of the brand. Customers who have very high purchase frequency keep a track of it. 4. Customers are more prone to television, Print Ads and also they come across many promotional activities in stores and malls. They also come across outdoor hoardings while going on long drives. 5. As the respondents were middle class people, they maintain a purchase frequency once in 3 months and 4 to 6 months frequency. 6. Most of the respondents prefer to buy branded clothes from malls as they get variety and different brands to compare with. 7. Most of the customers are fond of Levis, Lee, Diesel, Provogue and Spykar. As Celio is a new brand, very few of them are aware of it but customers like to try out new brands and varieties.

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MMS PROJECT

Recommendations
1. As Celio is a new and upcoming brand, hence many promotions need to be done so that customers are aware of the brand. 2. When brand awareness takes place, slowly and steadily customers would give a try to the brand. 3. Celio needs to come up with many Television Ads and Print Ads as customers gather information from these sources. 4. Outdoor hoarding are also very effective in creating a brand and differentiating from the competitors. 5. Customers prefer variety based on the changing fashion and reasonable price. 6. The brand needs to concentrate more on customers whose purchase frequency is very high. 7. Also young generation needs to be focused as they are the trend setters for Branded Readymade Garment Companies.

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Limitations of the study


The study is restricted only in Mumbai The respondents were reluctant to give interviews

Future Scope of the study


This survey will help Celio brand to come up with new ideas and varieties. This will help them focus on specific customers like young people. Targeting the competitors will be easy.

Conclusion
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.

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References
Bibliography
William d Perreault, Jr; E Jerome McCarthy; Basic Marketing: A Global- Managerial Approach / Fifteenth Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Edition 2006

Websites
www.tnsglobal.com www.wpp.com/wpp/companies/companypreview http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-defining-consumerbehavior.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_Research_Association www.tnsglobal.com http://www.managementstudyguide.com/desk-research.htm http://www.femwiki.com/fem/w/fem/questionnaire-layout-and-coding.aspx http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/research_sampling.asp http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/questionnaires/23 http://www.pantaloonretail.in/fashion-celio.asp http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/planning-for-marketingresearch/descriptive-market-research/ http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/planning-for-marketingresearch/exploratory-market-research/

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Annexure
Questionnaire

Name of the respondent:_______________________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________________________ Profession: ( ) Business ( ) Employee ( ) Student ( ) Others

Contact No.: ____________________________ Age group: ( ) Below 25 Gender: ( ) Male ( ) Female ( ) 25 35

Email id: ___________________________ ( ) 36 50 ( ) Above 50

1. What is the main earners education and occupation? Education ____________________ Occupation _______________________

Items owned / have access at home Electricity connection Ceiling Fan LPG Stove Two Wheeler Color TV Refrigerator Washing Machine Personal computer / Laptop Four Wheeler Air Conditioner

Circle 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

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Chief Earner : Education No. of Durable s Illiterat e Literate but no formal schoolin g/ School up to 4 yrs 1 None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9+ E3 E2 E1 D2 D1 C2 C1 C1 B1 B1 2 E2 E1 E1 D2 C2 C1 B2 B1 A3 A3 3 E2 E1 D2 D1 C2 C1 B2 B1 A3 A3 4 E2 E1 D2 D1 C1 B2 B1 A3 A3 A2 5 E2 D2 D1 C2 C1 B1 A3 A3 A2 A2 6 E1 D2 D1 C2 B2 B1 A3 A2 A2 A1 7 D2 D2 D1 C2 B2 B1 A3 A2 A2 A1 Schoo l59 yrs SSC / HS C Some college (include Diploma but not graduate ) Graduat e / Post Graduat e_ General Graduate / Post Graduate Professiona l

2. Which type of Readymade Garments have you purchased? ( ) Trousers/Jeans/Track Pants ( ) Shirts ( ) T-Shirts

3. What is the average price you have paid for the garments? ( ) Less than Rs.600 ( ) Rs. 2501 3500 ( ) Rs. 600 1500 ( ) Above Rs. 3500 ( ) Rs. 1501 2500

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MMS PROJECT 4. Which is the brand that that hits your mind at the first place? Brands Celio Calvin Klein / CK Diesel Ed Hardy Energie Espirit Flying Machine FCUK GANT GAP GAS Giordano Guess Jack & Jones Lacoste Lee Levis Mufti Only Pepe Provogue Spykar Tommy Hilfiger Unitted Colors of Bennetton U.S. Polo Zara Top of the mind 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Spontaneous 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

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MMS PROJECT 5. When it comes to Branded Readymade Garments, which communication medium do you prefer? ( ) Online Advertisements ( ) Television ( ) Outdoor Hoarding ( ) Promotional activity in store / mall ( ) Print Ads ( ) Word of Mouth

6. Which brand have you ever purchased? Also please indicate which brands you purchased in past 1 year and which will be your next brand? Brands Celio Calvin Klein / CK Diesel Ed Hardy Energie Espirit Flying Machine FCUK GANT GAP GAS Giordano Guess Jack & Jones Lacoste Lee Levis Mufti Only Pepe UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI Ever purchased 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Purchased recently 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next Purchase 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 77

MMS PROJECT Provogue Spykar Tommy Hilfiger Unitted Colors of Bennetton U.S. Polo Zara 25 26 25 26 25 26 21 22 23 24 21 22 23 24 21 22 23 24

7. How often do you purchase branded readymade garments? ( ) Once in 3 months ( ) Less than once in 6 months 8. From where do you purchase them? ( ) Branded outlet ( ) Factory outlet ( ) Malls ( ) Others ( ) Departmental store ( ) Once in every 4 6 months

9. Based on the following statements, which brand do you prefer? Statements Good range of garments Brand for younger people Good value for money Best for casual wear Best quality as compared 01 02 03 06 08 16 17 21 22 01 02 03 06 08 16 17 21 22 Celio CK 01 02 Diesel 03 Espirit FCUK 06 08 Lee Levis 16 17 Provogue Spykar 21 22

01

02

03

06

08

16

17

21

22

01

02

03

06

08

16

17

21

22

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MMS PROJECT to others Keen sense of fashion Well stocked at outlets Will recommend to friends 01 02 03 06 08 16 17 21 22 01 02 03 06 08 16 17 21 22

01

02

03

06

08

16

17

21

22

10. Have you seen any of these advertisements? ( ) Yes - _____

( ) No

11. What are your expectations towards any branded readymade garments? ________________________________________________________________________ UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 79

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