The Marketing Research is the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data pertaining to the marketing conditions. The basic reason for carrying out the marketing research is to find out the change in the consumer behavior due to the change in the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion).It plays an important role in marketing management. The marketing information has utility in marketing planning, marketing implementation and marketing control.
Marketers especially business-to-business markets and service marketers like hotels, banks and airlines- normally try to know their customers individually. They develop a list of their prospects or customers and gather all essential details about them- their profiles, lifestyles, requirements and buying habits. They call this a customer database.
World over, the hotel industry is a large user of database marketing. The Hyaat Regency Hotel in Delhi is one example. Through its customer database, the Hyatt has been able to reach specific categories of people such as administration executives and travel managers of large organizations, who normally play a key role in hotel reservation. The Hyatt customer database contains lists of patrons classified suitably depending on the context and the season; Hyatt picks relevant lists and sends the patrons a special communication. For example, during the Indian general elections, Hyatt sent communications to all foreign journalists who were likely to come over to India to cover the elections. Hyatt warmly invited them to stay at the hotel and reminded them that the hotel had all the facilities that they might need.
Market Research provides the answers to these questions as well.
- Products that are in alignment with the cultural shift that is taking place in many Indian homes are experiencing high growth.
- There is a new acceleration in the trend of switchover from commodities to branded products. Consumers are moving away from loose commodities to branded and packaged products. Packaged groceries – atta, salt and rice are growing at the high rate of 20%. Also, packaged puree ghee, vermicelli and refined edible oils are growing 15%/ Moreover, in these cases, the organized sector players have been able to add value.
- For some categories, the high growth is an offshoot of low market penetration. Low penetration categories like deodorants are bound to grow faster than categories like washing soap bars, which have already attained mature penetration levels.
Before entering the Indian passenger car market, Toyota conducted a research study on the dealer networks of the various passenger car manufactures operating in India. The study investigated the dealership conditions in details.
- Whether there was a clear definition of a dealer’s territory or not.
- Timing and frequency of orders by declares.
- Delivery time and lead time for the arrival of the vehicle.
- Dealer margins and incentives offered by the manufacturer.
- Payment condition and mode of sale.
Through the study, Toyota also obtained some useful data on certain other aspects of the passenger car business, such as the demand pattern, the likely volumes that could be generated in the next few years and the acceptability of various models.
