Application of marketing research can be divided into two broad areas

 Strategic
 Tactical

Among the strategic areas, marketing research applications would be demand

forecasting, sales forecasting, segmentation studies, identification of target markets
for a given product, and positioning strategies identification.

In tactical application, we would have applications such as product testing, pricing

research, advertising research, promotional research, distribution and logistics
related research. In other words, it would be include research related to all the P’s
of marketing: how much to price the product, how to distribute it, whether to
package it in one way or another, what time to offer a service, consumer
satisfaction with respect to the different element of the marketing mix (product,
price, promotion, distribution), and so on. In general, we would find more tactical
application than strategic applications because these areas can be fine-tuned more
easily based on the marketing research findings. Obviously, strategic changes are
likely to be fewer than tactical changes. Therefore, the need for information would
be in proportion to the frequency of changes

The following list is a snapshot of the kind of studies that have actually been done
in India.

 A study of consumer buying habits for detergents-frequency, pack size,

effect of promotion, brand loyalty and so forth.
 To find out the potential demand for ready-to-eat chapattis in Mumbai City.
 To determine which of the three proposed ingredients- tulsi, coconut oil or
neem, the consumer would like to have in toilet soap.
 To find the effectiveness of the advertising campaign for a car brand.
 To determine brand awareness and brand loyalty for a branded PC.
 To find the customer satisfaction level among consumers in choosing a
brand cellular phone handset.

As the list shows, marketing research tackles a wide variety of subjects. The list is
only indicative, and the applications of marketing research in reality can be useful
for almost any major decision related to marketing.

Some Other Application of Marketing Research

Concept Research: During a new product launch, there would be several stages-
for example, concept development, concept testing, prototype development and
testing, test marketing in a designated city or region, estimation of total market size
based on the test marketing, and a national rollout or withdrawal of the product
based on the results.

The first stage is the development of a concept and its testing. The concept for a
new product may come from several sources

The idea may be from a brain-storming session consisting of company employees,

a focus group conducted among consumers, so the brainwave of a top executive.
Whatever may be its source; it is generally researched further through what is
termed as concept testing.

A concept test takes the form of developing a description of the product, its
benefits, how to use it, and so on, in about a paragraph, and then asking potential
consumers to rate how much they like the concept, how much they would be
wiling to pay for the product if introduced, and similar questions.

Product Research: Apart from product concept, research helps to identify which

alternative packaging is most preferred, or what drives a consumer to buy a brand
or product category itself, and specifics of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with
elements of a product. These days, service elements are as important product
features, because competition is bringing most products par with each other.

An example of product research would be to find out the reactions of consumers to

manual cameras versus automatic cameras. In addition to specific likes or dislikes
for each product category, brand preference within the category could form a part
of the research. The objective may be to find out what type of camera to launch
and how strong the brand salience for the sponsor’s brand is.

The scope of product research is immense, and includes products or brands at

various stages of the product life cycle – introduction, growth, maturity and
decline. One particularly interesting category of research is into the subject of
brand positioning. The most commonly used technique for brand- positioning
studies (though not the only one) is called Multidimensional Scaling.

Pricing Research: Pricing is an important part of the marketing plan. In the late

nineties in India, some interesting changes have been tried by marketers of various
goods and services. Newer varieties of discounting practices including buy-backs,
exchange offers, and straight discounts have been offered by many consumer
durable manufacturers. Most FMCG manufacturers/ marketers of toothpaste,
toothbrush, toilet soap, and talcum powder have offered a variety of price-offs or
premium-based offers which affect the effective consumer price of a product.

Price research can delve into questions such as appropriate pricing levels from the
customers’ point of view, or the dealer’s point of view. It could try to find out how
the current price of a product is perceived, whether it is a barrier for purchase, how
a brand is perceived with respect to its price and relative to other brands’ prices
(price positioning). An interesting area of research into pricing has been
determining price elasticity at various price points for a given brand through
experiments or simulations.

Distribution Research: Most marketing research focuses on consumers or buyers.

Sometimes this extends to potential buyers or those who were buyers but have
switched to other brands. But right now there is a renewed interest in the entire
area of logistics, supply chain and customer service at dealer locations. There is
also increasing standardization from the point of view of brand building, in
displays at the retail level, promotions done at the distribution of products
including service levels provided by current channels, Frequency of salespeople
visits to distribution points, routing/ transport related issues for deliveries to and
from distribution points throughout the channel, testing of new channels, channel
displays, linkages between displays and sales performance.

Advertising Research

The two major categories of research in advertising are:

 Copy
 Media

Copy Testing: It include research into all aspects of advertising-brand awareness,

brand recall, copy recall (at various time periods such as say after recall, week after
recall), recall of different parts of the advertisement such as the headline for prints
ads, slogan for TV ads, the star in an endorsement and so on. Other application
include testing alternative ad copies (copy is the name given to text or words used
in the advertisement, and the person in the advertising agency responsible for
writing the words is known as the copy writer) for a single ad, alternative layouts
( a layout is the way all the element of the advertisement are laid out in a print
advertisement) with the same copy, testing of concepts or storyboards ( a
storyboards is a scene-by-scene drawing of a TV commercial which is like a rough
version before the ad is actually shot on film) of TV commercials to test for
positive /negative reactions, and many others.

A particular class of advertising research is known as Tracking Studies. When

advertising campaign is running, periodic sample surveys known as tracking
studies can be conducted to evaluate the effect of the campaign over a long period
of time such as six month or one year, or even longer. This may allow marketers to
alter the advertising theme, content, media selection or even longer. This may
allow marketers to alter the advertising theme, content, media selection or
frequency of siring /releasing advertisement and evaluate the effects. As opposed
to a snapshot provided by a one-time survey, tracking studies may provide a
continuous or near continuous mechanism. But here, one should be careful in
assessing the impact of the advertising on sales, because other factors could change
along with time.

Media Research: The major category under this category is research into

viewership of specific television programmes on various TV channels. There are
specialize agencies like A.C. Nielsen worldwide which offer viewer ship data on a
syndicated basis (i.e., to anyone who wants to buy the data). In India, both ORG-
MARG and IMRB offer this service. Research could also focus on print media and
their readership. Here again, readership surveys such as the National Readership
Survey (NRS) and Indian Readership survey (IRS) provided syndicated readership
data.

Media research can also focus on demographic details of people reached by each
medium, and also attempt to correlate consumption habits of these groups with
their media preference. Advertising research is used at all stages of advertising,
from conception to release of ads, and thereafter to measure advertising
effectiveness based on various parameters.

Limitation of Marketing Research

Now let’s have a look on the limitation of marketing research. You would be
surprised that how a helping hand has limitations. As marketing research can be
extremely rewarding to a firm, it is wise to know that it is subject to certain
limitations. One must be aware of these limitations in advance so that one is clear
about what marketing research can and cannot do.

 Marketing research tends to be fragmentary in its approach as a result of

which it becomes difficult to have an overall perspective in which a
marketing problem is to be viewed and studied.
  Marketing research is criticized on the ground that it becomes too superficial
and faculty in industry. While the principles of marketing research are good
and based on scientific lines, in industry, marketing research is very often
used by those who have had no formal training in the subject. Such person
avoids using detailed investigations and sophisticated techniques which
require both time and patience on the part of marketing researchers.
 There is an absence of a meaningful dialogue between the marketing
management and the marketing research team. As a result, marketing
researchers get divorced form the main stream of marketing. This denies
them any opportunity to test their finding in the practical marketing
situation.
 Marketing research is not an exact science. There are several imponderables
which come in the way of getting accurate results. For example, consumer
behaviour is an area which is rather elusive and the theory does not go very
far in disclosing it very precisely. Analytical tools of marketing research are
still deficient and cannot give us a precise idea, especially on the behavioural
aspects.

Demand Forecasting
Marketing research helps business in estimating the demands of customers. It
through various forecasting techniques help business in predicting the right
quantity of goods needed and then accordingly producing it.
Sales Analysis
Marketing research enables business in analyzing their sales through examining the
sales report. It tells which goods are sold well, whether the sales force is working
effectively or not, which inventory should be stock more and what should be the
production capacity.

Advertising Research
Marketing research has an efficient role in determining an effective and
appropriate advertising medium. It analyses various aspects of advertising like
themes, appeals, headlines, communication clarity, attention value etc. according
to the advertising goals of business.
Positioning Research
Marketing research enables in developing the optimal position of a brand or
service in the market. It collects and supplies all relevant information about
potential customers to business and this way helps in positioning the products
among customers in better way.
Market Segmentation
This process collects and communicates all facts about market to companies. It is
the medium through which business is able to acquire key attributes about their
potential customers which helps them in creating different target market groups.

Product Research
Marketing research is a significant tool for planning and developing of products. It
enables business in designing the right product by providing all information
regarding new ideas in market, testing the new product and evaluating the current
product mix to find out the changes that need to be brought in it.
Pricing Research
It helps business in framing proper price strategies for setting right price of its
products. Marketing research collects all information regarding competitors pricing
strategies, customer’s price expectations and various factors affecting the pricing
decisions.

Distribution Research
This research aims at choosing the most appropriate distribution channel to deliver
the products to customers in less time. Marketing research analyses and identifies
the potential distribution channel, chooses efficient market intermediaries, reduces
the distribution cost and evaluates the performance of the distribution channels.

Customer Satisfaction Research

It means interacting with customers and taking information about their shopping
experience with brand. Marketing research takes customers feedback and focuses
on their perception regarding the company products.