Marketing research is reaching a new level. Every day we come across new methods that can become a good topic for our paper. Be sure your professor will appreciate your progress in this matter. And we continue to consider new methods.
Computer Simulations
Computer simulation has the same tasks as any laboratory research in the field of marketing. It is about reproducing the conditions for the control of a reliable model of a particular case from life, which a researcher is interested in. At the moment, this is easily accomplished through video monitors and multimedia software. Surely, very soon models will become even more reliable due to the technologies for creating virtual realities.
Computer simulation has several advantages. It makes real the reconstruction of experimental conditions, and the process of measuring the impact on buyers is easy. It is only necessary to customize the software, through which it is possible to demonstrate various images and options of your choice.
Due to computerization of the material demonstration, all participants of an experiment are in the same conditions. In addition, multimedia programs help most reliably recreate conditions of real life, make an experiment as realistic as possible. There is every reason to believe that marketing results obtained outside a research center will be the same.
Contextual Research
Contextual marketing research has its own distinctive feature. Supervision is carried out by product designers, and objects are buyers at their workplaces. Studies can be attributed to a specific nature since there is a visit to a consumer. In contextual marketing research, development experts will learn from consumers what was done at the moment, what happened. The main idea is that a consumer cannot describe verbally all of the experiences, and discussion is not possible before there is an appropriate situation. As a result, it becomes clear: it is necessary to observe a person in conditions of using the goods.
The procedure of the study includes meeting development specialists who are faced with the task of identifying the area of interest. Everything that they are interested in should be reflected in the list of situations that are monitored.
Then you can invite buyers to participate in an experiment. As a rule, two developers, united in a group, spend a couple of hours with a buyer, after which they watch how a person works using a certain product. In the end, this experience is analyzed.
Marketing techniques have their weak side. It consists in that, as a rule, people do not like when their work process is carried out under supervision, and even more so when they are asked questions in the intervals. It is not known whether the activity on which marketing surveillance is conducted is representative.
At the same time, marketing technology is valuable. This is reflected in the opportunity to use the anthropological approach in the study of the behavioral process of consumers. Most of the studies on consumer behavior were of psychological, sociological or socio-psychological nature. Controlled experiments, combined analysis, testing of the use of products have a common basis – the idea of a psychological laboratory measurement, which appeared in the 19th century in Germany. The basis of visits to consumers and focus group of organizations is social and psychological ideas in a qualitative analysis that has become widespread in the first decades of the 20th century.
Studies of the anthropological type have a special methodology. It is that the conditions for conducting research are real, and they are conducted on those who participate in the experiment. There are traditional techniques of studies in the field of marketing, however, none of them can be correlated with such an anthropological model. At the same time, there is an aspiration of sellers to get closer to a consumer, as well as marketing development of adaptations of anthropological models. Remembering examples of such attempts, it is worth mentioning about contextual marketing research.
Problems of Marketing Research
- In the absence of knowledge of the problem correct formulation, customers often ignore a marketing tool. In agencies, most often, people are not sufficiently informed about the specifics of the client's marketing business process. This applies to both sectoral and organizational marketing plans. In this regard, agencies are also not sufficiently aware of how to use research results so that it helps increase the income of customers. But 90% of the success of the entire study depends on the correct goal formulation;
- A good statement of a problem can be considered a marketing specification issued for research. It must undergo detailed and careful coordination. In the technical task, there should be a place for research purposes, a detailed description of each part of it, methods for conducting, the forms of presenting the result. Presence of technical requirements in the study is mandatory even if it is performed not by an external organization, but by the company's own subdivision in marketing. A typical example of a poor formulation of the research task is the situation in which the CEO of the company gives the task to the head of the marketing department, either verbally or in general, with the expectation that marketers already have a guide to studies and they themselves know what and how to do;
- One should not count on the help of marketing research if, when the questionnaire was compiled, a number of mistakes were made, results were interpreted incorrectly, and databases with statistical data were not fully applied.
For example, when interpreting the results of a study, it is often worth concentrating not on the average result used by, as a rule, inexperienced and young marketers, but on the indicator of the difference in answers. So, when estimating a new model of an auto by clients the ten-point scale was used. At the same time, the indicator 1 said that people did not like the model, 10 – that the car causes very good emotions. If we analyze one hundred answers with the prevalence of ratings 4, 5, 6 (not very good, but it also does not cause rejection), the average value is 5. From this, it can be concluded that the car left the respondents indifferent. If at least 30 of all answers (from a hundred) contain marks from 8 to 10, one can say about customer loyalty to the new machine and the probability of its acquisition, despite the same average score as in the previous case – 5
- Even when carrying out the most qualitative and effective study, you cannot rely on results unless they are based on changes related to tariff policy, increasing value for consumers, and targeting advertising policies. In the process of work, a number of companies are engaged in marketing research only because this process is fashionable and modern. Simply put, they are held as a formality. If the results of such studies give reason to talk about "inconvenient" indicators, companies close their eyes to them. For example, the formation of the advertising plan is completed, the level of budget is agreed, the money is allocated, and, lo and behold, there are conclusions about the choice of wrong advertising media. If you are not ready to use the results of research and introduce them into business, it is better to refuse from conducting it.
As a rule, clients and employees of an organization are attracted to such studies, who subsequently expect to see positive changes in company's work. If a consumer says that he or she is dissatisfied with products or the level of services provided by an organization, he or she hopes that his or her opinion will be heard. But if these words are not taken into account, the situation will cause a negative and leave unpleasant impressions.
This is far from all problems, but these points are sufficient for you to put together a general idea. If you are interested in this topic, you can always read about it in more detail. Good luck with your essays!