Today we want to show you how to create a small paper of 1000 words. You will be able to look at the structure, development of thoughts, approximate volumes of different parts and conclusion. So, we begin immediately.
The study of markets is given special significance. These studies serve as a basis for the strategy and tactics developed by a company for performing in the markets, conducting a targeted commodity policy.
The purpose of any market study is to analyze the current situation (conjuncture) and develop a forecast of market development. The program for such a comprehensive study depends on the nature of goods, the nature of an enterprise, the scale of production of exported goods, and a number of other factors.
The study is not an end in itself, but a source of information for making an effective decision. It can relate to any aspect of foreign trade and marketing activities, so it is irrational to limit the cost of such studies due to "cost savings": losses caused by an incorrect decision are usually from 10 to 100 times greater.
These are collection, processing and analysis of data in order to reduce the uncertainty that accompanies decision-making processes. The elements of the external and internal environment of the enterprise are subject to research. Such data allow revealing more deeply the state of separate elements of the market and activity of the enterprise.
Trends of market development, its capacity, actions of competitors, sales dynamics, potentialities and risks are investigated. The study of consumers allows us to determine the motives for their behavior, and commodity research – the competitiveness of enterprise's products. The effectiveness of incentives and advertising, of the channels of determination are also investigated. An important direction is the identification of strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise itself, etc.
Main Principles
When conducting research, you need to be guided by certain principles that will help you not to get lost and act consistently.
- Systematicity – we must ensure consistency, avoiding inadvertent conclusions;
- Globality – we must ensure the study of the whole system in all its institutional manifestations from the smallest to the largest, only this way one can trace the hierarchy of interrelations between them;
- Complexity – we mean comprehensive study of all processes, collection and processing of information, exploration of each particular object;
- Connectedness and purposefulness – direction and scale, depth and detailing of the conducted study should be reasonably justified and consistent with the objectives, reflect a direct need for specific analytical information;
- Multiple information sources – it is advisable to receive information from several sources, which makes it possible to have comprehensive data and clarify and check information, discard something dubious and unconfirmed;
- Universality – the study can be carried out based on any need of the market entity in the data to make a rational decision.
Insufficiently objective, unreasonable research leads to confusion in advice. An incorrectly developed strategy of recovery from crisis can result from irresponsible approach to any of the above points. Each single principle is an important unit, but interacting together, they allow preparing marketing research that can be right foundation for thought-out management decisions.
Methods of Research
Marketing exists in the form of a harmonious combination of theory and practice that arise and develop in the process of expanding and improving the commercial and economic activities of market entities. As in any other science, the most important thing is finding a balance that will allow you to receive information with a uniform distribution.
The importance increases with the expansion of the use of scientific achievements, taking into account the evolution of public consciousness with the strengthening of its socio-economic orientation. Thanks to evolution in many spheres of human thought, it became possible to set new tasks and choose new ways to solve them from a large spectrum that is constantly updated and expanded.
The first task of choosing methods is to get acquainted with certain ways that can be used in collection and analysis of marketing information. Then, taking into account resource capabilities, the most appropriate set of these methods is chosen.
First of all, let us list the main methods.
The most widely used ones are methods of document analysis, consumer survey methods (all of which can be called sociological research tools as they were first developed and used by sociologists), expert assessments, experimental, economic and mathematical methods.
The main difference between the methods of sociological research and expert assessments is that the former are oriented towards mass respondents of very different competencies and qualifications, while expert evaluations are aimed at a limited number of professionals. The fact that in both cases, the same methods of statistics are used to process the collected data, makes these two groups similar.
Mathematical modeling is very difficult in the field of marketing research. This is due to:
- Complexity of the object of study, non-linearity of marketing processes, presence of threshold effects, for example, the minimal level of sales promotion, unpermanent lags (in particular, consumer reaction to advertising is often not immediately shown);
- Effect of interaction of marketing variables, which in most cases depend on each other, for example, output, range, price and quality;
- Complexity of measuring marketing variables. It is hard to predict the reaction of consumers to certain incentives, for example, advertising. Therefore, indirect methods are often used, for example, registration of cases of return of goods for determining the veracity of advertising;
- Instability of relationships caused by changes in tastes, habits, assessments, etc.
As you can see, we can say a lot in 1000 words. The most important thing is to know what exactly you want to say and navigate in the standard structure of paper. Take a note of it and write your essays!