Market Research Firms

Table Of Content

Introduction___________________________________________01

Background___________________________________________04

Business issues_________________________________________05

Kinds of services_______________________________________07

Products and services___________________________________10

Steps in marketing research______________________________20

Why outsource MR_____________________________________21

Teams involved in market research________________________22

Errors faced by MR_____________________________________24

Case Studies___________________________________________25

Coolhunting___________________________________________28

Introduction

Market research is the process of systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data

about customers, competitors and the market. Market research can help create a business

plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, expand

into new markets etc. It can be used to determine which portion of the population will

purchase the product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income

level. It can be found out what market characteristics your target market has. With market

research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers.

The purpose of market research is to help companies make better business decisions

about the development and marketing of new products. Market research represents the

voice of the consumer in a company.

A list of questions that can be answered through market research:

What is happening in the market? What are the trends? Who are the competitors?

How do consumers talk about the products in the market?

Which needs are important? Are the needs being met by current products?

With market research you can get some kind of confirmation that there is a market for

your idea, and that a successful launch and growth are possible.

Relevance of marketing research

Market research is a link between the consumer needs and what the manufacturer or the

service provider can incorporate within the product. Times today have changed unlike in

the 70’s or 80’s where the same product would run successfully in the market for decades

at a time. Today with globalization, the product life cycles have reduced because of new

and new products coming into the market in very short periods. Hence, innovation is a

necessity for companies today. Here, marketing research comes into play.

Anytime when the product is not selling well, the researcher conducts the research and

finds out what the problems for the low acceptability are, what the consumer wants, the

loopholes in the services provided and then informs this to the respective company to

help increase their sales by bringing about different changes like changes in the product,

design, features, value added services, variants etc.

Example: Tata Indica Flopped

1

Few years ago, Tata launched its B segment car Indica. It was very similar to the other

cars already available in the market but still lacked some of the qualities that the

competitors’ cars had in them. Hence, its sales were being affected as customers wanted

something new.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand the needs of the customers and

accordingly the manufacturer must try to incorporate the needs within the product so as to

satisfy the consumer. These needs keep on changing so the manufacturer has to keep on

innovating the products so as to increase their sales and their respective market share.

Hence marketing research helps identify these needs so that the company can launch its

product with the least amount of errors and wrong information about the market.

Research Literate and Illiterate companies

Research literate companies are those which understand the importance of research for an

organisation with respect to its markets. MNC’s conduct market research because they

understand its relevance. They take research as an asset because it has long term benefits

but not short term monetary gains.

Research illiterate companies are those traditional companies who do not believe in

continuous modernisation and overall development. These companies do not invest in

any type of research and go on with pre-provided information which may be irrelevant in

the current market scenario. They take research as a liability and hence do not undertake

them in any circumstances.

Advantages of Marketing research:

Helps give more accurate view of current marketing initiatives

Identifies new marketing opportunities

Helps Gain competitive insight

Helps identify Customer needs, usage capacities and attitudes

Helps figure out which distribution channels are optimal

Gives knowledge on competitor activity, strategy and performance

Helps learn who your customers are and what they want.

Helps learn how to reach your customer and how frequently you should try to

communicate with them.

2

Helps understand which appeals are most effective and which ones aren't.

Helps reduce business risks

spots problems and potential problems in the current market

helps in decision making and helps create an appropriate plan of action.

Disadvantages

Market research is often a costly and time-consuming process. There may be biases that

distort information, ignores answers or lets arrogance or hostility cut off communications

at some point in the marketing process. The advantages, however, outweigh the

disadvantages. Don't forego this process or stop halfway because you are not getting the

desired results. This may be an indication that you are going with the wrong invention or

that there isn't a market for your product. Don't be discouraged. You simply may need to

modify your original marketing plan.

Leads to faulty marketing decisions based on improperly analyzed data.

creates unrealistic financial projections if information is interpreted incorrectly.

3

BACKGROUND

TNS: TNS is world’s second largest market research company. It operates in 70

countries. It has its head office in UK and Indian operations in Hyderabad. There are 5

major offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkota. There are 16

operational offices across major state operators like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya

Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad. The company originated as a joint

venture of a UK firm and a France firm. The company does not cater to a specific sector.

It caters to each and every industry, each and every issue. Some of the core sectors that

the company caters to are pharmaceuticals, automobiles, consumer products, retail sales,

financial services and information technology. The company’s clients include 80% of top

corporates. In Indian companies, some of the clients are Tata Motors, Maruti Hyundai,

Idea, Hutch, pharma companies. The main clients include Colgate-Palmolive, Dabur and

Cadbury.

INDICA RESEARCH CONSULTANCY PVT LTD: It was set up in 1994. The

company specializes into consumer research especially FMCG sector. Though the

company was started in 1994, the promoters (executive director) of the company are well

experienced and have spent more than 30 years in market research field. One of the main

clients of the company is HLL (Particularly research of home and personal care products

which includes skin care products like fair & lovely, ponds, oral care products like

pepsodent, close up and hair care products like sun silk, clinic). Also, this company

conducts diagnostic research (looking into consumer’s mind).

4

BUSINESS ISSUES:

Market Research is done by these companies to solve the following business issues:

Advertising and communications evaluation: Advertising is a very important

and expensive element of marketing strategy. It is therefore important to have the

right message; a creative execution which effectively translates this message and

will motivate the audience to purchase; and the media plan to ensure it receives

the right exposure.   And once it’s in the market, the companies need to track its

performance to ensure it’s having the desired effect with the right people.  Market

research is conducted to know about media coverage, reach and effectiveness.

Brand performance: It’s essential to measure and manage brand performance

and everything that contributes to it in terms of strategy, quality, price, marketing

activities, positioning and brand equity.  Market research is done to have a clear

understanding of customer appeal, to get the knowledge about where you stand

amongst your competitors and helps you to capitalise on any opportunities and

respond to any threats in the market.

Consumption behaviour: The companies ensure that they remain ahead of the

competition by anticipating consumer demand. Market research is done to

understand the environment in which the brand is consumed – the occasion, the

location, as well as the end user and the need fulfilled. 

Market understanding and segmentation: Brands and services do not operate

in a vacuum.  In order to maintain or launch a successful brand companies need to

fully understand their market. Gathering market intelligence on their competitors;

segmenting their market based on customer needs; studying the structure of the

market – market research is done to get all this vital analysis to enable the

companies to develop the most appropriate positioning for their brands.

New product development: Creating and developing a brand - turning the

concept into a real market winner is a complex challenge.  All the elements such

5

as the product, packaging, price and marketing strategies must be exactly right. 

Market research is done to ensure that company’s brand is on target for success

from the earliest stages - ensuring their basic value proposition is appealing to the

target audience; translating this into the key messages in terms of product features

and benefits; and ensuring that they have a winning concept before they invest

further in its development. 

Purchasing behaviour: Once a product has been launched into the market it’s

essential to track its sales.  In other words, it is important to know the consumer’s

reaction to the product. Research is conducted to have an understanding of who

are the purchasers, where they shop, whether they are attracted more by product

or promotion, how your product is being bought, whether your product has more

opportunity in developing initial trial or in encouraging repeat purchasing and of

where to focus efforts in directions where there is realistic room for improvement.

Opinions on different issues: Million of surveys are conducted for clients to

understand how the public is thinking or reacting to major issues on a national or

international scale. Polls are conducted to track public opinion on political

campaigns, as well as legislative and policy issues. It helps to know about the

major trends; how the public is feeling about its elected leaders and predict what

the outcomes of any up coming elections are likely to be.

Stakeholder Management: A company will only succeed if it has successful

relationships and knows how to capitalise on these relationships for greatest

effect.  From a business perspective, company’s most natural focus will be on

customer retention, but they also consider their relationship with their employees

and all their other stakeholders such as dealers, journalists, shareholders etc – all

of whom can have a significant impact on their business performance. Research is

done to measure, manage and monitor these relationships thereby offering

actionable results so that companies can prioritise their actions to achieve the

greatest success.

6

KINDS OF SERVICES:

Two kinds of services are provided by these MR firms. They are:

CUSTOM RESEARCH SERVICES

SYNDICATE RESEARCH SERVICES

CUSTOM RESEARCH SERVICES: It is seen that no single solution fits every given

business situation.  Therefore research is conducted to develop or adapt individual,

tailored, or customized solutions to address precisely the questions and issues that are

unique to each and every client.  It includes:

 

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

INTERNET RESEARCH: As internet research continues to grow, both

consumer and business research has now become possible easily. Also it has

various benefits of using internet technology to conduct research like speed, wider

coverage. There are even separate business units for internet research like in TNS, we have TNS

Interactive for internet research. Here, internet technology is used to provide clients with all kinds of

information like market analysis, insight, and innovative business solutions.

AREAS OF CUSTOM RESEARCH EXPERTISE: Research is conducted to

help the clients better understand their brand, their markets, relationships and

opportunities and their customers, including issues such as: advertising and

communications evaluation, brand performance, segmentation and positioning,

new product development, stakeholder management.

CUSTOM TRACKING STUDIES: Here, research is conducted to track on a

continuous basis, brand performance & advertising effectiveness and satisfaction or loyalty of a

company’s customers, employees and other stakeholders. Monitoring is the only way to ensure

continued success for your brand or service. It helps to monitor the brand

7

relationship and how all marketing activity really impacts the brand. It also

recognises the importance of the way people think and feel about the brand and

how committed they are to it. By analysing commitment levels amongst your

users and non-users, you can establish different strategies for the different

segments you are targeting.

CUSTOM MARKET SECTORS: These companies also specialise in key

industry sectors with a global presence and highly developed sector expertise: 

 

Automotive – Offering a complete range of services for this specialised market, from

brand and advertising tracking, to car clinics, dealer satisfaction research and vehicle

quality studies.

Consumer – They have consumer industry specialists in all regions of the world with an

in-depth knowledge of the global packaged goods environment and a long track record

providing research-based insight to many of the most well-known marketers and

manufacturers of food and beverages, health and personal care and household products.

Finance - providing research-based insights and consultation to financial services

companies around the world.

Healthcare – Offering a range of customised services across the product lifecycles of the

world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

Polling & Social –Tracking public opinion on major national and international issues.

Technology – Offering a total approach for all their technology needs, from fieldwork to

business solutions and advisory services.

8

Syndicated research system: Syndicated research is where research information is

collected on a regular basis, and sold to multiple clients. This research is is used by

numerous clients. Below are some of Syndicated research services:

PANELS: Different kinds of panels like household and individual panels are used

by MR firms depending on the product/service of which information is collected.

MARKET SECTORS: These MR firms specialize in key industry sectors and

offer syndicated services for these sectors. Besides Automotive, financial services,

Healthcare, consumer, Polling & Social, Technology, other key sectors for which

these firms provide services are: FMCG, Media intelligence, TV and radio

audience measurement (measuring TV viewing and radio listening habits on a

continuous basis.

9

Products and services (tools and techniques)_

MR companies’ offer their clientele information. This information is the key that will

help companies to decide on how they want conduct their various projects. Information is

the most important element in the mix of things that companies want. Thus those MR

companies those are able to provide accurate information that represents a true scenario

of current events, are going to be successful.

MR companies have different methods or tools or products of availing this information.

They use a combination of such tools or products in order to satisfy their clientele

requirement. This is subjective in nature as it purely depends on the quality of

information required.

When we visited TNS and Indica Research Private Limited, we found that these MR

companies commonly used the following.

1. Panel Research

2. RAWI ( Random Web Interviewing )

3. Face to Face

4. Focus Groups

5. Survey Programming

6. Internal Database Research

1. Panel Research

MR companies have their set of respondents that are located all over the country. Thus

when a MR company wants to find out views of consumers towards a particular FMCG

or any other kind of product they can immediately contact these respondents and get their

opinions or feedback. At this moment in time, Indica Research has about 60,000

respondents across India. By the end o the year they want to increase this base to

100,000.

10

Respondents or panelists come from different walks of life. Some are students, some are

IT professionals while some are lawyers and a few also are CTOs and CIOs. Thus Indica

Research currently has a well rounded base of respondents. Getting a feedback from

almost 60,000 consumers is no easy task.

Indica Research has tie ups with other MR companies in Europe, Australia and U.S.A so

that as and when needed they can get an international outlook of consumers. Currently

they are planning to extend this base into the Far East. Such tie ups are beneficial as MR

companies can strategically combine their strengths in order to gain a competitive

advantage in their industry.

Example –

An automotive lubricant company wanted to find out from the people about their opinion

of an advertisement on lubricant before launching it into the market.

Indica Research got this information in a mere 3 days from all car owners that belong to

the panel of the company. This information proved to be vital for the automotive

lubricant company and molded their advert to the liking of the panelists.

2. RAWI ( Random Web Interviewing )

This method is used quite regularly in order to know consumer preferences. Companies

tie up with Rediff, Yahoo and other such websites. Pop ups appear each time a person

decides to view such sites.

Every time the pop up gets clicked, the viewer gets connected to a survey which on

answering provides information that MR companies are looking for. MR companies

analyze the results produced and then based on that they consult their clientele.

11

3. Face to Face Interview

Information is also gathered using this tool. The general public by default always thinks

of this as the methods used when it comes to market research. Extensive research is done

by having a strong network of field associates. MR companies like Indica Research has

good relations with field partners that provide the man power. These partners have agents

in more than 50 locations across India.

Example –

Companies like DNA conducted extensive market research in order to find out newspaper

preferences of Mumbai. Teams were dispatched across the city and they would make the

general public fill out surveys and conduct an interview in order to find out their likes and

dislikes.

2,000 people were recruited for the on-field job.

It took 6 months to finish the research and launch the news paper.

100 Crores were spent as expenses for market research and advertising.

DNA is giving other leading newspaper companies a run for their money.

4. Focus Groups

The objective of a focus group is to generate new ideas and solve and potential marketing

problems that may arise. A group of 10 to 12 people are invited to talk about a particular

topic; it could be based on absolutely anything. Through conversation, the group dishes

out various ideas, tastes, likes and dislikes and other information related to the topic.

There is a moderator who starts the conversation and he/she must ensure that the

conversation never goes off-topic.

Various elements have to be taken care of like the physical setting, technology ( for an

audio-visual focus group) in order to make effective use of the candidates and time.

12

The major advantage of this is that loads of information is gathered over a short span of

time. There is spontaneity in the conversation, thus candidates’ true preferences will

become known. In a personal interview there is a tendency for the candidates to become

more conscious about what they may say.

The major disadvantage of this is to recruit the right kind of people in order to ensure that

the focus group is effective.

5. Survey Programming

Survey Programming uses specific software like QuestionPro, Perseus, and ConfirmIT

etc in providing solutions to customers. This technique is based on the collection and

dissemination of survey data in software for storing and reporting responses.

One can use the software to produce specific surveys which then fed back into the same.

The software then churns that information to produce results that help research

companies in providing the correct consulting to clientele.

Example –

US Bancorp is the 6th largest financial services company in USA with assets up to USD

204 Billion. They wanted to know how their internal customers feel about the various

products and services offered by their team. This way there were able to know the level

of satisfaction and participation of the end user.

US Bancorp used QuestionPro and found out that their internal customers were pre-

dominantly happy with the products and services offered. They arrived at such a

conclusion because their internal customers had mentioned in the survey that the level of

participation and satisfaction was quite high of the end user.

Certain changes were recommended by the employees of the company in order to make it

more worthy and US Bancorp are analyzing the same.

13

6. Internal Database Research

This method is quite special and different from the rest. All the above methods are doing

pretty much the same thing, gathering information from a set of people that act as a base

of MR companies or from general public.

This method however uses the already existing database of a company that hires the

services of MR companies. MR companies however have to ensure total confidentiality

of their clientele’s existing database at the same time MR companies have to sign a bond

stating that at no times will they use their clientele’s database unless otherwise

authorized.

The client’s database is uploaded into the MR company’s website and simultaneously

surveys are created. Then a “Unique Survey Link” is e-mailed to all the members of the

database. The members participate in the survey by accessing this unique link.

Once the surveys are filled and the results tabulated. The MR company prepares their

findings in order to develop a conclusion that will help their clientele.

This method proves to be useful when companies want to measure the level of customer

satisfaction or why has a dip in sales occurred. When there is a dip in sales, lesser people

are using a product, thus companies can find out from those who have stopped

consuming the same why they stopped. MR companies have the expertise in doing so and

therefore producing results that will provide reasoning for the dip.

Example –

eFunds Corporation is a major BPO company whose revenues in 2007 are touching USD

600 Million. Most of their processes have been outsourced to developing nations like

India. While they still have a presence in U.S.A in terms of voice operations.

In early 2003, they wanted to measure customer satisfaction of one of their processes

called Chex Systems. Chex Systems has a clientele of 9,000 banks across U.S.A. This is

because they had received a lot of complaints of not being able to understand the

company’s Indian employees even though eFunds put their employees in India through

accent training programs.

14

PolarisMR a leading market research firm in U.S.A on conduction research came to a

conclusion that their customers preferred Indian employees speaking in their natural

accents rather than a false one. Simply because no one can speak like an American in a

period as long as 2 weeks as that is how long these accent training programs are held.

eFunds gladly obliged to this and at the end of the year they found out that customer

satisfaction levels had improved considerably.

7. Quantitative Method

Quantitative method means conducting a survey over a large no of people across the

society. It is basically meetinf thousands of people randomly without looking into

particular characteristic. This is majorly used when going on for exploratory research .

Techniques use :

Web interwiews

Telephone interviews

Face to face interviews

It is very essential to know which interview should be conducted when

Eg: if you want to interview a housewife staying at dharavi than in that case a face to face

interview would be better as u would probably have to explain her the relevance of the

interview and may be she also has time in hand.

Whereas if you have to interview a MD of a company than a telephone interview would

be a better option.

The main objective of conducting a quantitative research is to get an overview of the

market conditions, likes and dislikes, needs and wants as a whole. As quantitative

research need to meet and interact with a lot of people the folling places are appropriate.

Railway station

Malls

Theatres

Commercial areas

15

Eg. During elections a set up is created outside the voting centre and people who vote and

come are expected to vote again and put it into the box provided by the MR companies.

This helps in knowing the ongoing trend in voting and a faint idea of the final results are

known before they are declared.

During the 1996 elections this survey was conducted but what happened was that people

did not trust the survey and felt that there would no anonymity and hence voted wrongly

and ultimate result was that the idea given by the Market research firms and the final

results were completely different. From this the firms understood that its very essential to

educate the people about the research and build confidence in them about the anonymity

and the relevance of the research.

8. Qualitative Method

In this method a set of people or sample is selected out of the entire population with

regards to certain parameters and characteristics .

The most important rule to be followed in sampling is

“THE SAMPLE SELECTED SHOULD BE AN EXACT REPLICA OF THE

ENTIRE POPULATION “

Sampling

Sampling plays a very important role. This is because sampling affects the final result.it

differs from research to research, product to product.

There are various techniques to conduct sampling . its extremely important that the

sample selected should be appropriate or else the entire survey would go for a toss.

Eg. Product: coke, No of people consuming coke : 2,50,000

Sample size :500

Now if 2 people out of these 500 people go wrong than that would mean that there is a

failure of 1000 people as 2 out 500 would represent 1000 out of 2,50,000.

There could be a possibility of false recommendation which would prove fatal for the

company.

16

Eg

Consider tea brand. There are about 1.25 crore people in Mumbai. About 93 to 94% are

tea consumers and about 74 to 75 tea brands. Its practically not possible to interview

everyone hence there is a need for sampling.

Steps in sampling :

Segment the population on basis of Sec ( socio - economic class)

Name them as A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 and so on

If there are about 25 lakh households and about 5 people per house then we take. We consider 250 such households

We divide entire Mumbai into grids. For eg, andheri, malad, churchgate, colaba etc. and divide the no of household by the no of grids

We avoid the immediate neighbours and the best would be to move to the next bldg so as to avoid any kind of bias to one product

We got to a particular household in that locality and interview them

17

Eg.

Sampling is also done on basis of certain parameters like age, sex and so on.

A survey has to be conducted on the smokers. In that case we need to consider a common

parameter among them and take a sample that exactly represents those parameters.

For instance in this case we consider age as the parameter and we want to survey people

within the age group on 18 – 45

Population = 2,00,000 people

Age groups 18-25 25 – 30 30 – 35 35 – 40 40 - 45Actual population %

15% 20% 25% 30% 10%

Actual population in nos

30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 20,000

Sample= 200No. of people in each class

30 40 50 60 20

This kind of sampling would me more accurate as it would be an actual replica of the

original population

Eg.

Incase of TRPs that calculated to know the best rated serial an electronic meter is set in

the television system of the sample selected. Once this is done whenever a person

switches on a channel it gets recorded in the meter which get stored directly into the

companies computer system. It records everything as to which channel is being viewed

and for how long and are people watching the advertisements and so on.

This helps to know the channels if a particular serial is doing good, it helps them to

decided prices for advertisement for every serial break, it also helps the advertisers to

select the best suitable slot.

18

Problem and its solution for sampling

Even though there are various ways in which sampling can be done the problem is that of

biased and unnatural behavior from the respondents. They get into the pressure of being

watched and get conscious of what they do which ultimately results into a behavior that’s

not them. And the final result thus found is not appropriate.

In order to solve such problems these market research firms conduct and induction

program wherein they educate the respondents about the entire process and its relevance.

They make them understand the ill effects of not being natural and the loss that the

company would occur because of such behavior.

At times even after such induction programs are done people still behave biased and

unnatural and hence to overcome this problem the beginning behavior of people should

be avoided as a person cant be unnatural for oo long.

Eg. Incase of TRPs the reading for first three months is ignored.

Another way to remove this biased behavior is to keep changing the sample and also do

not put to people for same product type.

19

STEPS IN MARKETING RESEARCH

3 main departments are involved:

1. Research Coordinator2. Field3. Data Processing & Analysis

Research Coordinator

- Understand the client’s needs- Transform needs into research programme & conceptualizing it- Develops instruments for running the programme ( CATI , CAPI , Palm Talk )

Field

- Where maximum work happens i.e. high operations field- Almost 80 % of manpower & time is spent in field- Field staff collects the data by conducting surveys, experiments or personal

discussions with the sample

Data Processing & Analysis

- Data collected on paper is not ready for analysis & has to be decoded- Editing- Coding- Tabulating & analysis- Interpretation- Recommendations

Preparation of Research Report & Presenting the findings to the client

20

Why Outsource MR?

- Flexibility

- Added value

- Access to innovation

- Cost Advantage

- Impartiality

- Confidentiality

- Infrastructure

- Quality of Deliverables

- Domain Knowledge

- Cultural issues

- Target audience may be scattered

- Professional Approach

21

TEAM INVOLVED IN MARKETING RESEARCH:

The Research organization will require a team for conducting the research project. The

organization set-up as given below-

Research project In-charge:

He is overall responsible for Research project. He is directly involved with sponsor and

research team. He will do costing preparation of time schedule and report writing.

22

Research Organization

Research Project In-charge

Research Officers

Research Assistants

Field Staff

Research officer:

He will select the samples, design the questionnaire, and provide the necessary training to

assistant and field staff. He is also involved in the analysis data collected, arriving at

conclusions and preparing draft of the report.

Research Assistants:

The main job would be the supervision over the field staff. They will also help in

competition of all the data in a systematic manner, properly segmented and in tabular

forms for easy analysis.

Field staff:

They will carry out the actual field work for data collection and will conduct personal

discussion with sample.

23

ERROR FACED BY MR

There are three types of Errors occurred while conducting the research. The following are

the errors-

Sampling Error:

Sampling error is the difference between a measure obtained from sample representing

the population and the true measure that can be obtained only from the entire population.

This error occurs because no sample is a perfect representation of a given population,

unless the sample size equals the population. The market is not selected properly.

Field Error:

The error which occurred while conducting the research such as a questionnaire not

frame well, data not recorded properly, listening error, incomplete response etc.

Data Analysis Error:

The MR analyzes or interprets the data which they have collected. If analysis goes wrong

the company or client may suffer.

24

Field work Error

Data Analysis Error

Sampling Error

ERROR

Case Studies

How post research error in analyzing the survey affected the company?

The tobacco market in India is quite large. Various products are available which contain

tobacco, like Pan Parag, Cigarettes, Tambako, etc but all these products are harmful and

injurious to health which can lead to mouth cancer.

Looking at the potential in India market a MNC launches a product called CLICK and

position it that this product is not going to give rise to any diseases and it is and it is more

hygienic product.

But the product fail miserably even though the have conducted a survey, they failed in

analyzing the result as a result they has to suffer huge losses.

Before launching the product they go for survey. They develop the product and it with the

people regarding taste, cost, and intention to purchase.

They use 5 point scale to test the market.

Definitely buy Probably buy Might buy Probably not

buy

Definitely not

buy

56% of the respondent either quoted Definitely buy or Probably buy which was

considered very good response by these foreigners. But after the product fail they went

backward to see what has happened

It was than they relies that the interpretation was wrong and

only 4% said definitely purchase

and 52% said probably purchase

In abroad top 2 boxes Definitely buy and probably buy is considered as good but in India

is not the case. So it is need to understand Indian population.

25

How Marketing Research has helped the companies

Case 1: Nestle Milk Maid

Long way back Nestle launch Milk Maid a condensed milk. The product has every

ingredient for successful product. Pricing was proper, Distribution was proper and even

product was proper.

But yet the product failed in the market. So company appointed Marketing Research firm

and extensive research was carried on to target market. Lot of Qualitative and

Quantitative research were done. The decide to go for Diagnostic research(where

company wants to understand customer mind).

After research it was realized that Positioning of the product was wrong. Company has

positioned it as a substitute of milk. Milk has natural value and nothing can substitute it.

People were not emotionally ready to accept it as a substitute of milk. So the product

failed.

So MR firm told them to withdraw the entire marketing campaign which has spoiled the

product.

They RE- Position the product as it can be used to make Gulab Jamun, Kher, Gajar ka

Halwa.

26

Case 2: HLL vs Nirma

In 1980 Nirma use to deliver everything that surf use to deliver. Surf use to price at 2.5

times less than Nirma.

So consumer started substituting Nirma for Surf. In starting HLL felt that this Nirma can

do nothing to them as they are huge MNC. But when they started loosing market share

they started realizing, and they came up with the advertisement campaign that

½ kg of Surf is = 1 kg of Nirma.

But still they were not successful because you cannot fool your customer.

At last they conducted Research because of which HLL launch Wheel which was priced

equal to Nirma.

Marketing Research is all about collecting the data in raw form, interpertating

Analyzing and processing it to take the decision.

27

Coolhunting

Coolhunting is a term coined in the early 1990s referring to a new breed of marketing

professionals, called coolhunters. It is their job to make observations and predictions in

the changes of new or existing cultural trends.

Coolhunters operate most notably in the world of street fashion and design, but their

work also blurs into that of futurists. Webloggers now serve as online coolhunters, in a

variety of cultural and technological areas.

Coolhunting Firms

A coolhunting firm is a marketing agency whose exclusive purpose is to conduct research

of the youth demographic in the areas listed above. They then compile their data and

produce reports detailing emerging and declining trends in youth culture as well as

predictions for future trends. These reports are then sold to various companies whose

products targets the youth. They also offer consulting services. Coolhunting firms often

provide services for some of the largest corporations in the world. An example of a

leading coolhunting firm is Look Look.

In-House Coolhunting

Rather than outsourcing their market research, some companies opt for in-house youth

culture marketing divisions. These divisions act in much the same way as a coolhunting

firm but the reports and data collected remain within the company and are used solely to

promote its products. A company will often prefer this form of coolhunting as a way to

gain an advantage in the valuable youth market since the research conducted by

coolhunting firms is available to anyone willing to pay for it. A prime example of a

company that employs in-house coolhunting is Viacom's MTV television network.

Open-Source Coolhunting

Coolhunting turned into a global online project when trendguide.com was launched in

December 1998 to be the first open-source lifestyle trend database with rankings based

on users' votes, uploads and comments. The global project was started by a Swiss

research team led by Michael Hänni, creating a global virtual network of coolhunters.

28

The concept of trendguide.com (democratization of trends: give free access to trends

reports and base trend reports on inputs from all around the world) changed the former

trend business field where reports, which are created by few individuals, are sold at high

prices.

29