Why does organisation undertake market research?

1) Why does organisation undertake market research? What methods could they use?

1) The collection, analysis and communication of market to assist decision making in marketing is market research.

Methods of market research:

1) Primary research: primary research includes getting such data that is not already used by any other organisation. It is especially made to get answer of some specific question that an organisation wants to procure.

To get primary data a business should carry out field research:

Face-to-face interview-

Interviewer gets information from people. (Example-by visiting different houses on different streets)

Telephone interviews-

Same question like face-to-face interview are asked although often shortly.

Online survey-

Using internet is prominent way of getting primary data and it is also less expensive than other sources to get primary data.

Questionnaires: Questionnaires are sent in post to get the information.

Advantage of primary search-

A) up to date

B) Specific to the purpose

C) No other business has access to collected data

Secondary data- includes data that is already available. This data has been collected by someone else for another purpose. Secondary research involves exploration of secondary sources of data.

Source of secondary data can come from within the firm itself. This is also known as internal secondary data. External secondary data is data that has been published by other firm.

Advantages of secondary data:

A) Ease of access

B) Low cost of acquire

C) May answer research question

Types of market research:

1) Quantitative research-

1. Statistical basis
2. gathers statistically valid, numerically measurable data
3. Usually related to data on market-size, market shares and growth
4. Sampling plays a key role
5. Data is gathered through surveys
6. Concerned with obtaining hard copy

2) Qualitative research

1. Subjective and personal
2. Concerned with finding out soft information
3. Main purpose is to understand consumer behaviour, perceptions and attitudes
4. Obtained by methods designed to get detailed responses e.g. interview
5. Research topic are usually explored in some depth

There are two main qualitative methods-

A) Depth interviewing:

In most business markets depth interviews are very important form of qualitative research.

B) Depth discussion:

Focus groups are the main stay of consumer research. Here several customers are bought in discussion. These groups encourage creative ideas from participants.

Purpose of market research

1. To gain an understanding of markets
2. To identify changes in the market
3. To improve market answers
4. To gain an understanding of customers’ needs
5. To reduce the risk and uncertainty
6. To forecast market trends
7. To provide a sound basis for marketing decision
8. To support marketing planning

Importance of market research

Research is not only used for learning. It is also used to make good decision. While research is key to Decision

Making. It does not always to be effective. Some time small efforts such as doing research on internet provide

needed information. Marketing research is becoming more important day-by-day by which the firm can get more profits. By market research firm get know about their customer taste what the customer want how much they can pay for the product. By doing market research we get information about other products their pricing and what needs to be done for a good promotion.

Conclusion:

From above discussion we can say that market research is way to get information about the product, customer and market. There are couple of method for market research such as discussed above primary research and secondary research. In primary research data is collected by face-to-face interview, telephone interview, online survey and questionnaires.  Secondary research is data which is already gathered by someone for another purpose. There are two types of market research as discussed above quantitative research and qualitative research. There are two type of qualitative method depth interviewing and depth discussion. With help of market research firm can procure a lot of information about the market, products, promotion, and distribution and so on that can be very helpful in taking marketing

2) What are they major factors affecting the pricing strategy of firms?

What is pricing?

Pricing is a method adopted by firm to set price of their product. It usually depends on average cost of product. Different pricing methods place varying degree of emphasis on selection, estimation and evaluation of costs and market situation.

What is pricing strategy?

Pricing strategy is activities aimed at finding products’ optimum objectives, consumer demand, market, economic trend and product price, typically including overall marketing.

1) Internal factors-

A) Marketing objective-

There are some marketing objective given below-

• To set a price in aim to cover just variable and fixed cost of a product.
• To set such price that cultivates optimum profit.
• To decide the price of product in such a way that they can procure leadership in market share.
• To set high prices in order to get quality leadership in market.

B) Marketing mix

In marketing mix, there are especially two alternatives as given below

1) Price positioning-

In this, an organisation decides the price of any particular product first and then they take other decisions of marketing mix.

2) Non price positioning-

In this process,organstions don’t decide price first they opt different kind of marketing mix tools because they think customers don’t always go for products of low prices. They opt high prices product in aim to get optimum quality and to show prestige and dignity.

2) External factors:

Market and demand factors-

In this, the price of a particular product depends on demand of product in the market. If product’s demand is higher than price can be kept higher but on the other hand if demand is lower than price must be lower to attract a certain range of customers.

Competition:

Almost all marketing decision including pricing will include an evaluation of competitor’s offerings. The impact of this information on actual setting of price will depend on the competitive nature of market.

Government regulations;

There is some governmental regulation that applies in deciding the price of any particular product. Marketers can’t be price dictators they have to follow some rules and regulations made by government. Government have decided a certain level of price limit that can’t be crossed or overcome by any marketer.

Conclusion:-

From the above discussion we can conclude that pricing is method to set a price of product by a firm to get higher profit or to survive in market. Pricing strategy is activities finding product optium, consumer demand and market needs to set a price. There are several factor affect price decision internal and external factor. Internal factor include marketing objective and marketing strategy. External factors include nature of market, demand competition and government regulations. All these factors play a vital role in pricing strategy of firms.

3) What are the main criticisms against marketing? To what extent are these criticisms valid?

Marketing have thousands of benefits but even after that it is criticized due to some reason. There are some common criticisms against marketing.

Marketing encourage people to purchase what they do not need:

Possibly the criticism most frequently made about marketing is that marketers are only concerned with getting customer to buy whether they want the product or not.

As we will discuss, while many marketers are guilty of manipulating customers into making their mind to buy products which they don’t need. The vast majority understand that undertaking such method will not lead to loyal customers and is unlikely to lead to longer term success.

Marketers adorn product claim:

Marketers are often criticized for exaggerating the benefits offered by their product. This is especially the case with part of marketing that engages in customer communication. Such as advertising and sale people. the most serious problems arise when product claim are seen as misleading customers into believing a product can offer a certain level of value but it was not.

But few times there is a fine line between what a rational person should accept as a ‘reasonable exaggeration’ and which is considered as downright deceiving. Fortunately, many countries offer customers some level of protection from misleading claims since such business practise may subject the marketer to legal action. Again using this method is likely to lead to marketing failure as customers don’t like anything and will likely not return the product.

Yes I think criticism is valid in marketing because marketers only wants to sell the their products they don’t want customer to satisfy with the product their mean of selling product is only selfishness they only want profit nothing more than it. In some countries customer can’t claim product if he/she is not satisfied with product this is because in some countries people buy products for occasionally use after that the occasion they claim the product and get money  back due to this marketers don’t want be loss so they kicked claim policy in some countries but by this customers are always think twice before buy product in that country where we can’t claim product so by this some real claim are disclosed due to no claim policy by which customer are dissatisfy so criticism is valid up to  high level in marketing I think so.

Conclusion:-

From the above discussion we can say that market is seen as benefits to firm and society there are a number of criticisms against marketing like to create a need where there is no need, so much exaggeration about products and false promises to the customers in aim to just increase the sale. So up to some extent these criticisms are valid but not all are alike.