Definitinon of Marketing
'Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer.'http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/what-is-marketing/d...In order to be successful in marketing businesses must identify what customers will they serve and how best can they be served or in marketing speak: what is the target market and what is the value proposition?Target Market refers not just to the target audience but also to the type of market you are attempting to release the product into (competition, similiar products, prices etc.) To establish this you must research. (see below)
The value proposition is the set of benefits or values a company promises to deliver to consumers to satisfy their needs – or, to put it simpler terms, the reasons why consumers should buy the product or service. Establishing the value proposition is tied closely to the brand identity of the company and how they differentiate and position themselves relative to their competition.
Designing your research
The stages of Market Research are as follows:
1. Identify the purpose of the research.
What are you attempting to get from the research? Is it an explanation as to why certain consumer behaviour is occurring? Is it to enable accurate predictions for the future? Is it to monitor current activity and record it accurately? To discover new needs and wants?
2. Design the research
This is far more than just knocking out a questionnaire or an online survey. First you have to ensure that research you are undertaking is valid – that the research really does measure what is it supposed to measure.
Then the research must be reliable – so is the data collected honest, is it a fair recflection of the rest of the chosen group that are being studied.
Then there’s different types of research that can be carried out as depending on the research objective you might need quantitative research or qualitative research. Quantitative research is pursuit of empirical evidence and data using in numerical form.
Qualitative research is finding out the stories behind the facts and figures, trying to understand opinion and motivation of consumers – just what is it about attacking pigs with beaked kamikaze-pilots that is so appealing.
3. Data Collection
The type of data needed has been identified for the purpose of the research, now its about getting the information. This is can be done with collection of original information and data – which is primary research. It can be the gathering and summary of existing research and data – which is secondary research. Typically – for a thorough research project – a combination of primary and secondary is used.
4. Evaluate and analyse the data
Evaluating requires a looking at the raw data and ‘cleansing’ the data in terms of incomplete and unrepresentative responses that might have an affect on the overall outcome.
Analysis can take two forms;
Descriptive analysis – this is a summary of the findings, a description on the data. This could involve pie charts and tables for quantitative research and categorisation of consumers for qualitative.
Inferential analysis – using the data to make inferences, predictions and judgments on the area research.
5. Communicate the results – the final stage is to present your research making clear the purpose of the research, the design, the finding and the conclusions made from it.