Marketing Research in Service Industry

Concept of marketing research Benefits of marketing research Influence of Internet on marketing research Developments in marketing research in India Challenges for conducting marketing research Future trends in marketing research Process of marketing research

Oxford University Press 2009. All rights reserved.

Concept of Marketing Research

American Marketing Association defines marketing research as , Marketing research is a function that links the consumer, customer and public to the marketer through informationinformation 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 method of collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process and analyses and communicates the findings and their implications.
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Concept of Marketing Research

Parasuraman(1985)defines marketing research as, Marketing research is defined as a set of techniques and principles for systematically collecting, recording, analysing and interpreting data that can aid decision makers involved in marketing goods, services or ideas.
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Benefits of Marketing Research

Marketing research helps to address questions around various elements of marketing such as
Customer needs, Product features and Pricing challenges Consumer behavior Market dynamics and competition behavior Distribution related challenges Process related issues Promotion strategies and market response Physical evidence and its impact on customers Test marketing of a new service
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Concept of Marketing Research

Helps to avoid expensive mistakes after launching the product/service Helps the marketer to monitor the market and customer dynamics Helps to evolve its strategy on a real time basis

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Influence of Internet on conducting marketing research

Marketer needs to assess the reach and penetration of online channels of communication Deploy new methods of conducting research and communicating with customers Map online behavior of customers Understand communication strategies which marketers need to deploy to reach the markets and customers
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Marketing Research in India

Marketing research in India has grown by 16% and crossed $100 billion in 2007 Out of the $23 billion worldwide, $100 million worth of business in India. There are trends towards outsourcing the MR in India to other companies. The media options have exploded and provides huge challenges for tracking media spend, tracking of consumer preferences.
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Challenges in conducting marketing research

Have to deal with large and heterogeneous population specially in large countries such as India Infrastructure issues around bandwidth and reach Challenges around access to trained manpower, exposure to research methodology and attitude
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Challenges in conducting marketing research

Industry dynamics specially in segments dominated by couple of key players Challenges around budgets and spends by the firms on marketing research Issues around data fabrication Correct identification of issues and problems Lack of adequate information databases
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Trends in marketing research in India

Would have to deal with large numbers Massive market for rural segments Shift in cultural paradigm Change in the decision making system Greater likelihood of consolidation Sharper polarization of market research industry More focus on qualitative research Service firms will be larger spenders on MR.
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Marketing Research Process

Following steps
Identifying the problem Creating the research design Choosing an appropriate research methodology Selecting the sampling procedure Collecting the data Analysing the data Preparing and writing the report Follow up
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Problem Identification
Appropriately designed and formulated Should reflect reality rather than finding evidence to support ones perceptions Scope of the issues to be appropriately defined

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Research Design
Master plan of the research to be undertaken
Exploratory Design (When not much is known about the problem in hand) Descriptive Design (Such studies answer to questions such as who, what, when and where) Quasi-experimental Design(Researcher has control over data collection procedures but lacks control over the scheduling of treatment) Experimental Design( Based on conducting experiments)
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Data Collection
Secondary Data (published sources) Primary Data
Personal Surveys Interviews Telephonic/online surveys Focus Group Discussions Delphi studies Observation techniques Mystery shopping techniques
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Sampling
Probability Sampling(deploying random methods for selecting a sample)
Simple random sampling Systematic sampling Stratified sampling Cluster sampling

Non Probability Sampling

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Sampling
Non Probability Sampling
Convenience sampling Judgemental sampling Quota sampling Snowball sampling

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Questionnaire Design
Should be linked with objectives of the research Format should be appropriate, deploy correct measurement scaling techniques to be able to deploy the appropriate data analysis techniques No biases should be reflected by using words such as low quality Unnecessary jargon should be avoided Layout should be appropriate. Order should be as follows:
Screeners first First few exploratory questions Transition questions Middle half should have difficult questions Last section should have demographics

Questionnaire should be pre-tested before launching it.

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Process of marketing research

Analysing the data: Appropriate techniques should be deployed Report writing Follow up

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