PRODUCT RESEARCH.
Product research is considered important by most successful marketing organisations. This is because products marketed by organisations represents the backbone of their marketing efforts. A product that is acceptable to consumers is an absolute essential component of any marketing program, without which the organisation will simply not succeed or survive. It is possible that other elements of marketing mix can be working satisfactorily, but if customers find the products to be unacceptable, they will resort to buying competitors products. Businesses operating in a competitive marketplace simply cannot sell a bad product more than once. Most consumers switch to another product or brand if they encounter a product which does not meet their expectations. It is obvious that keeping on top of the competitive marketplace is not possible without products research. The competition faced by most organisations today makes it essential that new products are launched and product lines monitored and modified based on sound research information. In this section, i will talk about the types of research necessary to support the introduction of new products.
1. New product development research : marketing research is a critical variable in the introduction of new products. The types of research carried out here include the following :
a. Research to collect new product ideas : in order to develop a new product, the marketer is expected to carry out research in order to collect useful ideas. The research methods used to collect such ideas includes observation of product in use ; research may be designed to observe consumers actually using a product or service. Subjects may be invited into a test kitchen to prepare a meal using the company's food product as an ingredient. By observing how the product is used, the company representatives may develop ideas concerning how it might be improved.
Market gap analysis ; research, either qualitative research or informed observation of the marketplace might also point up the consumers needs which are not being met by present offerings.
Research carried out to test product concepts ; in the process of developing a new product, the marketer will also have to develop and test product concept. A product concept refers to the description of the product and the benefits it will give to the consumers. In a concept test, feedback is obtained from members of the consumer's target segments concerning the acceptability of the concept.
The major objectives of concept testing are : to get the reaction of consumers view or the new product idea.
To give direction regarding the development of the product.
To choose the most promising concept for development.
To ascertain whether the product in question has adequate potential for its commercialization.
Generally, concepts test will be conducted with group of consumers who have been selected to the representative of the target segments to whom the new product might be directed written or pictorial description of the product concept. In testing product concept focus group sessions are widely used. In such sessions, participants are asked to provide their reactions to the basic idea or dislike about it, and asked to suggest how it might be improved. They might they are often asked to suggest how the product will satisfy consumers, and what existing product or brand it would most likely compete against. The researcher in such an exercise is attempting to determine not only the acceptability of the concept, but also where it might be positioned in the marketplace.
C. Business analysis : another form of marketing research conducted during new product development is known as business analysis. After selecting the appropriate product concepts, business analysis should be conducted to ascertain the viability of the project.
Before approval is given to proceed with the development of prototypes, a full business analysis is conducted which will examine competitive activities in the product category, market size, forecasted growth, manufacturing and distribution costs, channels to be used, and promotional expenditure needed to support the new market entrants. The objective of conducting the business analysis is to determine whether there are grounds or rationale to proceed further in the new product development. if signs point towards a marketing opportunity and it appears at a cost that will allow a profitable market entry, the decision will be made to proceed to the development of products for testing.
D. Use testing the products (or prototype) : After the prototype has been developed, research will be carried out to use-test test the product. 11 may or may not decide two markets test a new product, it is almost a new product, it is almost always desirable to use it use test it. A use test consist of having uses of product class use the product for a period of time and provide evaluation of it.
E. Sales testing the product or conducting market test : Market test or sales test involves obtaining a measure of the sales of the product when it is offered under experimental conditions in the laboratory or in a portion of the actual market. There are several research methods or approaches used in conducting sales or market tests, including laboratory tests market, sales wave with tests experiments, controlled market tests and standard market tests or test marketing.
2. Research carried out on existing or old product.
After developing a new product, it is commercialized or introduced in the market. Once the product has been introduced into the market place, where it must compete with other brands and products, there begins another process of information gathering which is of considerable importance to the marketer.
the market announces his attention to Ensuring that the product continues to be successful. This entails constant examination of the progress being made by the product and of the various elements of the marketing program, so as to ensure that appropriate decisions are made to guide against the new product becoming one of them many failures which organisations experience.
Types of marketing research carried out on existing or old products including the following : research to ascertain brand image and positioning : Through various forms of tracking research, a marketer keeps up-to-date on how a brand is perceived whether its image is consistent with its target segment and whether its position in the market is appropriate considering new brand entrants and repositioning of existing brands.
B. Product attributes research : effective marketers will from time to time wish to determine the relative importance of various attributes in the minds of target consumers. Attributes research is therefore, an important aspect of ongoing products refinement. As consumer tastes and preferences change, the marketer must be in a position to change his product offerings accordingly. The relative importance of various products attributes it is constantly changing. This means that marketers must keep up with consumers by learning how the perception by the target segments of various factors is changing and making appropriate changes in their product offerings. It is the organisation that best anticipate the change importance level consumers attached to various attributes that will gain a competitive advantage.
C. Periodic products test : from time to time, marketers are expected to conduct tests of existing products to ensure that they still have the characteristics they had when they were first introduced or last reform dated or whether they are any problems which have cropped up in the physical product. This type of test may be conducted on a continuous or ongoing basis by food technology and in test kitchens former or may involve taste tests with a large number of consumers.
D. Research aimed at repositioning a product : just as a company will conduct research to initially position a particular product in the market, so2 will research often be done to determine how the product will be repositioned. this may or may not involve any changes to the physical product itself, but it may require modifications to packaging or various elements of the promotional program. In such cases the marketer will want to carry out research on the proposed changes before implementation to determine whether they will have the desired effect on consumers perception and objective of the repositioning.
E. research to help in the modification of product characteristics : from time to time, in response to competitive activity to effect cost savings in manufacturing as a response to problems identified through consumer research or for a number of other reasons, marketers will wish to test whether certain changes should be made to existing products. The research required to determine whether the proposed changes will be acceptable to consumers is very similar to that which is generally associated with new product introductions.
F. Research to effect package and label modifications : generally, the package and label design for a new product will be tested as the product is being designed. However, few products remain in a competitive marketplace for very long without some modifications being made to the form or design of their packages. When a marketer decides on a packaging change Comma research is usually carried out to ensure that the proposed design will be consistent with the brand and will be acceptable to consumers. Marketing researchers often use focus group interviews to conduct concepts tests of package and label designs in much the same way they are used to test product concepts.
MARKET RESEARCH :
marketers must have good understanding of their market. For example, they would like to ascertain the market segments interested in their products. They would like to know the size of their market or the forecasted behaviour. Therefore, to acquire or collect the pertinent information on their market, a number of studies are carried out by marketers. Here we will examine the following types of market research, which are vital to marketers.
A. research carried out to estimate market size or potential : many organisations operate without any information concerning the total size of the market for their products or services. As a result, such organisations are unable to make very accurate estimate of their own success within their market or too know whether the market is growing from one year to the next.
it is particularly important in the introduction of new products that the marketers have a good estimate of the size of the total market. Admittedly a sufficiently large potential market is necessary, but this is not a sufficient condition to warrant market entry. an appropriate marketing program must must of necessity be developed to tap the potential. In order to achieve this, the marketer should be interested in determining the size of the various segments of the market through research. Information on market size is vital, to allow companies to assess how well they are doing in terms of market share, to determine what marketing effort is warranted, to establish sales quotas, allocate promotional budgets, to design sales and distribution system, to set levels of sales commissions, to deal with product additions and deletion, and basically to determine whether changes in the market program are warranted.
B. Research conducted to help forecast market size :
the development of accurate market forecast is critical to effective marketing plan and decision making. If a marketer has a good indication of what is likely to happen to the size of the total market over the next one year, two or five years, he is in a much better position to plan. Accurate forecast allow for the most efficient utilisation of corporate resources through effective allocation of sales staff and production scheduling, the settings of inventory levels, allocation of promotional and sales expenses, expansion of production and distribution systems, assessment of effectiveness of the market efforts, and so on. Enter segmentation research :
Market segmentation research may be carried out for any one of the following reasons, or a combination of them.
To determine how well a company is doing in appealing to a specific segments in the market. Such as research studies make it possible for the marketer to validate the segmentation decision and to determine whether the market program is reaching the type of consumer it was intended to reach. To develop profile of certain market segments and to estimate their size and buying power. A marketing manager in today's competitive marketplace is expected to pay particular attention to the consumers who are buying his brand or shopping at the company store and should carefully compare them with consumers customers who are going to the competition. segmentation research allows a marketer to identify differences across segments so that the company can improve its marketing efforts by using appeals and techniques that are appropriate for each segment.
To identify new and emerging segments which may represent targets for marketing efforts in the future and which may allow the company to determine where gaps in the market exists, representing segments which are not now being served.
Market segmentation studies generally involves the collection of large volume of data from large samples of consumers. The result of findings of segmentation research provide the marketer with a thorough understanding of the market and of the various segments, which exists. Depending on the approach or method used, segmentation research may be designed to provide characteristics of already identified segments or exist naturally in the marketplace which have not been identified by the marketer. The first of this approach is known as a The result of findings of segmentation research provide the marketer with a thorough understanding of the market and of the various segments, which exists. Depending on the approach or method used, segmentation research may be designed to provide characteristics of already identified segments or exist naturally in the marketplace which have not been identified by the marketer. The first of this approach is known as " a priori segmentation research", because, it involves the marketer deciding, before the research is begun, the segments which are of particular interest.
often, however, the market will be interested in carrying out more explanation type of segmentation which may not be obvious in the marketplace segment which are formed on the basis of a combination of characteristics. This type of research has been labled Post hoc segmentation research because the segments are revealed through the process of data analysis and are not specified in advance by the researcher.
D. Sales analysis : the term sales analysis refers the analysis of actual sales results. Sales analysis should be conducted periodically because it enables a company to identify the area where its sales performance has been satisfactory or unsatisfactory. It also helps to know consumer customers who have brought both in bulk, products with high and low sales volume,. Analysis of sales is a necessary part of performance research. If sales targets are to be set for territories and quotas established for the sales force, measurement of actual sales must be made to determine how well these standards were met.
E.Surveillance of competition : this is another type of market research. Every marketing manager needs current information on his competitors as a part of the analysis of demand for his own products. For instance, when changes in the marketing mix of competitors are found, the effects can be assessed and appropriate retaliatory actions can be taken. enter it is advert aight or recommended that organisations should setup intelligence system for obtaining information on the activities of the computers. When this is done it usually falls to the responsibility of the marketing research department to operate the system. Such intelligence gathering, if conducted properly, can be both highly useful and completely ethical.
ADVERTISING RESEARCH.
The preparation of an advertising program involves a series of decisions on the part of the advertiser or marketer. First, decisions must be made relating to the advertising objectives. In this case, we will ask the question : what do we want the advertising to do?, then aspect of the message and the target audience must be addressed to whom will we be directing the advertising? What message do we want to communicate to them? And how will we reach them?
They are both stages in the preparation of an advertising program and decisions involved at these various stages should be supported by research. Research should be used throughout the process of developing the advertising, from concept identification to testing the effectiveness once it is running in the media. Specifically we have the following types of advertising research :
research to determine advertising objectives and set advertising budget : before work can begin on the preparation of an advertising program, or even a single advertisement, the advertiser and the agency if there is one involved must agree on what they are advertising is designed to accomplish. The objectives to be set may be driven from current or previous marketing research which has identified factors important to consumers in selecting a particular product, or has reviewed an emerging market segment or a weakness in a competitive market program.
B. Research used to generate advertising concepts: research is used to identify and refine advertising concepts. Promising concepts or ideas are refined and may be tested in rough form.
C. Copy research. this is one of the most important and interesting areas of research in advertising. Copy is defined in this contest as the entire advertising, including the message, pictures, and dramatizations, as it appears in any media print, electronic, outdoor, or others. Copy testing or research Involves test run on any of the elements or an entire advertisements to determine their effectiveness.
as the advertising company or message is being developed, the advertiser or marketer will wish to obtain feedback from consumers to ensure that the creative team at the agency is executing the strategy in a way that consumers will find appealing. The process of testing advertising creative materials is known as copy testing.
copy testing may be done at a number of different stages in the development of advertising materials, as concepts are being developed, at the stage of rough execution in the form of storyboards or drawings when the advertisement are in semi finished form or when they are in finished form.
Match of copy testing is done before any medium naira has been spent. This is known as advertising protesting. Its objective is to identify problems or to provide redirection to the creative team before any large amount of money are committed to production on media placement. protesting allows the advertiser and creative people to explore a number of different approaches to the execution of the creative strategy. To carry out any protest of advertising materials as they are being developed, a researcher can choose from several Methodologies. The most widely used approach to advertising protesting involves focus group interviews. the focus group interview allows the researcher to test a number of different forms of advertising, television commercial, video ads, magazines ads or posters.
advertising post testing takes place after the advertising material or copy has been prepared and then placed with the appropriate media. At this stage, the question which occupied the minds of advertisers and their advertising agency change. They know more asked what can we do to make this advertising as effective as possible?, but how good a job did we do Comma and what should we do differently next time. depending on the type of advertisement and the media used, some feedbacks concerning the effectiveness of advertising which is already running will come in the form of noticeable changes in sales, coupon returns, telephone enquiries, and unsolicited feedback from customers and staff. However in the most cases the advertiser must undertake a plant post testing to obtain realistic information on the effects which the advertising has had on the target segment.
Media research.
Once the advertising objectives have been decided on and budget established Comma decisions have to be made concerning the medium or media to be used prior to the advertising messages being prepared. enter in order to select the most appropriate media, the advertiser uses information collected through marketing research. The information needed to construct a sound media plan consists of at least four categories of data. These are :
i. media audience, that is people exposed to each respective medium
ii. advertising exposure, that is average exposure of numbers of the audience to advertising units.
iii. Media effectiveness, that is the effectiveness per exposure of advertising by medium and buy vehicles within medium.
iv. The cost per exposure, or as commonly used the cost per thousand exposures for each perspective medium.
DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH : every organisation that market goods and services must install its distribution system. In order to achieve this, relevant information is required and these have to be collected through research. The following categories of marketing research are carried out in order to help an organisation set up an effective and efficient distribution system.
A. Distribution channel research. enter decisions as to how the products of a company should be distributed and made to the requisite information. The important variables involved in the choice of a distribution channel includes :
Nature of the producer : Size, financial strength, desire for control.
Nature of the products. Length of line, unit value, seasonality of production, requirements for technical advice, perishability. Nature of the market :
Number of segments, the market potential of each geographical geographic concentration, average order size, distances from plants of producer. one of these first two sets of variables, that is nature of the producer and the nature of the product, we'll be known without research, but understand of the firm's market, research has to be carried out.
B. research to help design sales territories and allocate sales representatives : once the choice of a channel is made, decisions have to be made concerning how many sales representatives to have and where they should be located. If middle men are to be used, again decisions are necessary as to how many and as to how many and their location. it is essential to know how many sales rep a firm Should have. There are two general research methods for determining the proper number of sales rep for a given territory. The first method known as the sales effort approach is applicable when the product line is first introduced and there is no operating history to provide sales data. The second method involves the statistical analysis of sales data and can be used after the sales program is already in progress.
C. Warehouse location research :
warehouse location decision are important because they have substantial effects On both coasts and on the time required for delivery of products to customers. The essential questions to be answered before a location decision is made; what costs and Delivery times should result if we choose location A?, location B? And
so on through the list of potential locations being considered.
The research, the variables of time and cost associated with each location and known. When using the cost and time figures and performing the necessary simulations and competitions, the right warehouse location can be determined.
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