Market Research

Product research is done to gather information about the individual product. It studies the product from its initital stage to marketing of the product. It studies the size, shape, colour, quality, packaging, brand name and price of the product. It also looks into the product modification, product innovation, product life cycle, etc. As per the need and want of the consumer, the product is modified (changed) as per the needs and wants of the consumers.

Consumer research is done to understand consumer behaviour. It studies the consumer needs, their buying motives, atitutde, age, sex, income, demographic location, etc. This data is used to take decisions about the product, its price, place and promotion.

Packaging research is important part of product research, which is done to attract attention of the target audience towards their product. It looks into the the quality of the product, makes packaging interesting, reduces cost of the packaging by selecting suitable packaging material, etc.

Pricing Research studies the pricing of the product. It fixes the price for the product by comparing the companies price with the competitor’s price. It also fixes the discount and commission and predicts the future price trends by studying the market price trends.

As the shelf life of advertisement is low, so the main objective of the advertising research is to decide on the advertising message, layout, copy, slogan, headline, etc. which is catchy and sets them apart from their competetiors and make the advertisement memorable for the audience. Apart from this it also sets the advertising budget and selects a suitable media for advertising. It also evaluates the effectiveness of advertising and other sales promotion techniques.

Sales research studies the selling activities of the company. It studies the sales outlets, sales territories, sales forecasting, sales trends, sales methods, effectiveness of the sales force, etc.

Distribution research studies the channels of distribution. It selects a suitable channel for the product. It fixes the channel objectives. It identifies the channel functions like storage, grading, etc. It evaluates the competitor’s channel.

It studies the company’s policies and evaluates the effectiveness of the marketing policies, distribution policies, sales policies, pricing policies, inventory policies, etc. and thus makes the necessary changes in it, if required.

Data of international market is collected to help their product entre and sustain in the international market. It collects data about the consumers behaviour, their economy, political sitiation, etc. as well as the data about the foreign competitors which is useful for the exporters.

• Motivation research studies consumers’ buying motives. It studies those factors that motivate consumers to buy a product. It mainly finds out, Why the consumers buy the product? It also finds out the causes of consumer behaviour in the market.

In order to increase the sale, market research is conducted which studies the market competition, market trends, buying habbits, etc. It fixes the sales territories and sales quotas as well as estimates the demand for new products and does the sales forecast.

Media research studies various advertising media. The different advertising media are television (TV), radio, newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. Media research studies the merits and demerits of each media. It selects a suitable medium for advertising. It does media planning. It also studies, media cost. It helps in sales promotion and to avoid wastage in advertising.