Appropriate Marketing Research Methodology for the Organization - Essay Example

Introduction What is marketing? Marketing is one of the terms in academia that does not have one commonly agreed upon definition. Even after a betterpart of a century the debate continues. In a nutshell it consists of the social and managerial processes by which products (goods or services) and value are exchanged in order to fulfill the needs and wants of individuals or groups. Although many people seem to think that "marketing" and "advertising" are synonymous, they are not. Advertising is simply one of the many processes that together constitute marketing. In general, marketing activities are all those associated with identifying the particular wants and needs of a target market of customers, and then going about satisfying those customers better than the competitors. This involves doing market research on customers, analyzing their needs, and then making strategic decisions about product design, pricing, promotion and distribution. As the world becomes a global village organizations are expanding their business from their country to all over the world. Marketing not only provides a strong base to any product but it also creates the image of the organization that the product belongs to. Marketing is not an old concept but the various ways in which it is done have evolved over a time period with the help of extreme research. Marketing is done according to the tastes and preferences of the consumers and the culture to which they belong. To find out the tastes, preferences and other factors that effect consumers buying decision different research methodologies are applied by any organization before launching its product. By doing this an organization can estimate the success rate of its product or how much sales will be generated by the product, this helps them in deciding whether to launch a product or not. Our organization has faced a major boost in sales and profits since the last few years, the reason being our effective marketing strategy. Proving that our current marketing strategy is prefect for the time being. Reasons for Research After the success of organization’s product in the domestic market due to an effective marketing strategy. The executive management team has decided that the organization will market its top selling product in the international market as well. Highly professional people have carefully selected the international market that will host the organizations top-selling product. The international market would be of Germany. In order to make an effective marketing strategy, different research methodologies would be used on the consumers of the product living in the premises of Germany. Research Objectives The main objective of the research would be to select appropriate marketing research methodology for the organization’s top-selling product in order to formulate the marketing strategy of the product. Other objectives include the study of the research methodologies that are available at hand and to study the entire research methodologies in order to compare there advantages and disadvantages. Research Methodologies Available Surveys Survey is one of the research methodologies that have been successfully used by people for many years. There are both advantages and disadvantages of a survey. First of all survey is a quick method to get to know what people think about a certain product. Survey needs two or more people to conduct it successfully. A survey is an ordered series of questions or statements assessing attitudes, behaviors, or personal characteristics that is administered to individuals in a systematic manner. Surveys may be administered in a variety of mediums (e.g., paper, oral, electronic) using various delivery methods (e.g., face-to-face, telephone, mail, Internet. With the growth of the Internet and e-mail, electronic surveys are becoming more widely used. They can be distributed as e-mail messages and posted as forms on the Internet. Focus Groups Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. Basically, focus groups are interviews, but of 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. It’s a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session. Interviews An interview is also one of the oldest methods of collecting information. It’s a conversation between two or more people (The interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. Interviews can be divided into two rough types, interviews of assessment and interviews for information. Secondary Data Secondary data is basically that information which has been collected during researches done previously or the information that has been collected by another agency. Secondary data is the data that has been collected by individuals or agencies for purposes other than those of our particular research study. For example, if a government department has conducted a survey of, say, family food expenditures, then a food manufacturer might use this data in the organization’s evaluations of the total potential market for a new product. Similarly, statistics prepared by a ministry on agricultural production will prove useful to a whole host of people and organizations, including those marketing agricultural supplies. Questionnaires Questions may be closed-ended (answerable by checking one of several predetermined answers) or open-ended (requiring participants to answer in their own words). The answers to open-ended questionnaires are much more difficult to tabulate and analyze but provide more information than the researcher might otherwise collect. Questionnaires are a good research methodology technique, because the cost (printing, distribution, collection, analysis) is low relative to that of other methods such as personal interviews, because participants can respond at their own convenience, because no interviewer bias is introduced, and because responses can be kept completely confidential. The disadvantages are that the results may be biased toward the opinions of those who chose to respond to the questionnaire versus all those who had been asked to respond, and the results may be distorted if the questions were misunderstood. Research Methodologies Used After studying all the research methodologies that are available to the organization, the appropriate ones that can be used in the market of Germany was selected. The selection was made on the basis of the culture that prevails in Germany. The selected methodologies are as following: Interviews Questionnaires The reason for selecting these two are presented below: Interviews The term interview is very common among people of any country. The interviewer, can probe for deeper answers, ask for elaboration and examples, discover new relationships, and modify questions as time goes on. Interviewers can get detailed information on what causes problems or benefits. In addition, they are immersed in social systems and cultures, and gain a much better grasp of the organization than they would by simply reading survey results. Questionnaires Questionnaires are also an old research methodology like interviews. The responses are gathered in a standardized way, so questionnaires are more objective. Generally it is relatively quick to collect information using a questionnaire. Potentially information can be collected from a large portion of a group. Questionnaires are familiar to most people. Nearly everyone has had some experience completing questionnaires and they generally do not make people worried. Questionnaires reduce bias. There is uniform question presentation and no middleman bias. The researcher’s own opinion will not influence the respondent to answer questions in a certain manner. There are no verbal or visual clues to influence the respondent. Questionnaires are less intrusive than telephone or face-to-face surveys. When a respondent receives a questionnaire in the mail, he is free to complete the questionnaire on his own timetable. Unlike other research methods, the research instrument does not interrupt the respondent. The advantages of the two research methodologies selected had more concreteness as compared to the advantages of the other research methodologies. Apart from this a general emphasize was on the fact that a careful approach should be taken in order to penetrate the German market. Hence the two most old and common research methods were selected. Conclusion A successful organization always moves with proper contingency plans along with their normal routine plans. Apart from this a research before entering a foreign market is very important in this modern era. The reason being the fact that there is a lot of competition, people have become more brand loyal and the danger that your product might fail. Although international markets always present very favorable conditions for foreign investors, and people say there is a great demand of imported goods but the situation has changed drastically in the past few years. As local companies put greater emphasize on quality while reducing the price it’s not always as easy as it seems. To counter of all these problems successful marketing strategy is very important and for that a research is important that presents the true face of the situation. For this research to be successful a researcher needs to select the best possible research methodology from the ones that are available to him. Bibliography Geoffrey R. Marczyk, David DeMatteo, David Festinger. (March 2, 2005). Essentials of Research Design and Methodology (Essentials of Behavioral Science). Wiley. Franklin R. Root. (October 16, 1998). Entry Strategies for International Markets. Jossey-Bass; Rep Sub edition. Stephen L. Schensul. (August 19, 1999). Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews, and Questionnaires: Observations, Interviews, and Questionnaires. AltaMira Press. Read More