Market research prepared by: MOHAMMAD MARWAN AL ASHI

1. Market researchprepared by: MOHAMMAD MARWAN AL ASHI feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

2. Market ResearchWhat is Marketing Research? • marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.Every small business owner-manager must ask the following questions to devise effective marketing strategies: feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

3. CONTINUE What is Marketing Research?.... • Who are my customers and potential customers? • What kind of people are they? • Where do they live? • Can and will they buy? • Am I offering the kinds of goods or services they want at the best place, at the best time, and in the right amounts? • Are my prices consistent with what buyers view as the product's value? • Are my promotional programs working? • What do customers think of my business? • How does my business compare with my competitors? feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

4. CONTINUE What is Marketing Research?.... • Marketing research is not a perfect science. It deals with people and their constantly changing feelings and behaviors, which are influenced by countless subjective factors. To conduct marketing research you must gather facts and opinions in an orderly, objective way to find out what people want to buy, not just what you want to sell them. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

5. Why do it? • It is impossible to sell products or services that customers do not want. Learning what customers want and how to present it attractively drives the need for marketing research. Small business has an edge over larger concerns in this regard. Large businesses must hire experts to study the mass market, while small-scale entrepreneurs are close to their customers and can learn much more quickly about their buying habits. Small business owners have a sense their customers' needs from years of experience, but this informal information may not be timely or relevant to the current market. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

6. Continue : Why do it? … • Marketing research focuses and organizes marketing information. It ensures that such information is timely and permits entrepreneurs to: • Reduce business risks • Spot current and upcoming problems in the current market • Identify sales opportunities • Develop plans of action feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

7. How to do it ? • Without being aware of it, most business owners do market research every day. Analyzing returned items, asking former customers why they've switched, and looking at competitor's prices are all examples of such research. Formal marketing research simply makes this familiar process orderly. It provides a framework to organize market information. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

8. Market Research - The Process • Market research, like other components of marketing such as advertising, can be quite simple or very complex. You might conduct simple market research such as including a questionnaire in your customer bills to gather demographic information about your customers. On the more complex side, you might engage a professional market research firm to conduct primary research to aid you in developing a marketing strategy to launch a new product. • Regardless of the simplicity or complexity of your marketing research project, you'll benefit by reviewing the following seven steps in the market research process. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

9. Step One: Define Marketing Problems and Opportunities • The market research process begins with identifying and defining the problems and opportunities that exist for your business, such as: • Launching a new product or service • Low awareness of your company and its products or services • Low utilization of your company's products or services (the market is familiar with your company, but still is not doing business with you) • A poor company image and reputation • Problems with distribution - your goods and services are not reaching the buying public in a timely manner feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

10. Step Two: Set Objectives, Budget, and Timetables • Objective: With a marketing problem or opportunity defined, the next step is to set objectives for your market research operations. Your objective might be to explore the nature of a problem so you may further define it, or perhaps it is to determine how many people will buy your product packaged in a certain way and offered at a certain price. Your objective might even be to test possible cause and effect relationships. For example, if you lower your price by 10 percent, what increased sales volume should you expect? What impact will this strategy have on your profit? feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

11. Step Two: Set Objectives, Budget, and Timetables • Budget:How much money are you willing to invest in your market research? How much can you afford? Your market research budget is a portion of your overall marketing budget. A method popular with small business owners to establish a marketing budget is to allocate a small percentage of gross sales for the most recent year. This usually amounts to about two percent for an existing business. However, if you are planning on launching a new product or business, you may want to increase your budget figure to as much as 10 percent of your expected gross sales. Other methods used by small businesses include analyzing and estimating the competition's budget and calculating your cost of marketing per sale. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

12. Step Two: Set Objectives, Budget, and Timetables • Timetables:Prepare a detailed, realistic time frame to complete all steps of the market research process. If your business operates in cycles, establish target dates that will allow the best accessibility to your market. For example, a holiday greeting card business may want to conduct research before or around the holiday season buying period, when their customers are most likely to be thinking about their purchases. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

13. Step Three: Select Research Types, Methods, and Techniques • There are two types of research: primary research or original information gathered for a specific purpose and secondary research or information that already exists somewhere. Both types of research have a number of activities and methods of conducting associated with them. Secondary research is usually faster and less expensive to obtain that primary research. Gathering secondary research may be as simple as making a trip to your local library or business information center or browsing the Internet. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

14. Step Four: Design Research Instruments • The most common research instrument is the questionnaire. Keep these tips in mind when designing your market research questionnaire. • Keep it simple. Include instructions for answering all questions included on the survey. • Begin the survey with general questions and move towards more specific questions. Keep each question brief. • If the questionnaire is completed by the respondent and not by an interviewer or survey staff member, remember to design a questionnaire that is graphically pleasing and easy to read. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

15. Step Four: Design Research Instruments • Remember to pre-test the questionnaire. Before taking the survey to the printer, ask a few people such as regular customers, colleagues, friends, or employees to complete the survey. Ask them for feedback on the survey's style, simplicity and their perception of its purpose. • Mix the form of the questions. Use scales, rankings, open-ended questions, and closed-ended questions for different sections of the questionnaire. The form or way a question is asked may influence the answer given. Basically, there are two question forms: closed-end questions and open-end questions feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

16. Step Four: Design Research Instruments • Close-end questions- Respondents choose from possible answers included on the questionnaire. Types of close-end questions include: • Multiple choice questions which offer respondents the ability to answer "yes" or "no" or choose from a list of several answer choices. • Scales refer to questions that ask respondents to rank their answers or measure their answer at a particular point on a scale. For example, a respondent may have the choice to rank their feelings towards a particular statement. The scale may range from "Strongly Disagree," "Disagree," and "Indifferent" to "Agree" and "Strongly Agree." feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

17. Step Four: Design Research Instruments • Open-end questions- Respondents answer questions in their own words. Completely unstructured questions allow respondents to answer any way they choose. Types of open-end questions include: • Word association questions ask respondents to state the first word that comes to mind when a particular word is mentioned. • Sentence, story or picture completion questions ask respondents to complete partial sentences, stories, or pictures in their own words. For example, a question for commuters might read: "My daily commute between home and office is _____ miles and takes me an average of ______ minutes. I use the following mode of transportation: _______." feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

18. Step Five: Collect Data • To help you obtain clear, unbiased and reliable results, collect the data under the direction of experienced researchers. Before beginning the collection of data, it is important to train, educate, and supervise your research staff. An untrained staff person conducting primary research will lead to interviewer bias. • Stick to the objectives and rules associated with the methods and techniques you have set in Step Two and Step Three. Try to be as scientific as possible in gathering your information. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

19. Step Six: Organize and Analyze the Data • Once your data has been collected, it needs to be cleaned. Cleaning research data involves editing, coding, and tabulating results. To make this step easier, start with a simply designed research instrument or questionnaire. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

20. Step Six: Organize and Analyze the Data • Some helpful tips for organizing and analyzing your data are listed below. • Look for relevant data that focuses on your immediate market needs. • Rely on subjective information only as support for more general findings of objective research. • Analyze for consistency; compare the results of different methods of your data collection. For example, are the market demographics provided to you from the local media outlet consistent with your survey results? • Quantify your results; look for common opinions that may be counted together. • Read between the lines. For example, combine U.S. Census Bureau statistics on median income levels for a given location and the number of homeowners vs. renters in the area. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

21. Step Seven: Present and Use Market Research Findings • Once marketing information about your target market, competition and environment is collected and analyzed, present it in an organized manner to the decision makers of the business. For example, you may want to report your findings in the market analysis section of your business plan. Also, you may want to familiarize your sales and marketing departments with the data or conduct a company-wide informational training seminar using the information. In summary, the resulting data was created to help guide your business decisions, so it needs to be readily accessible to the decision makers. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

22. Define the Problem or Opportunity • The first step of the research process, defining the problem or opportunity, is often overlooked - but it is crucial. The root cause of the problem is harder to identify than its obvious manifestations; for example, a decline in sales is a problem, but its underlying cause is what must be corrected. To define the problem, list every factor that may have influenced it, then eliminate any that cannot be measured. Examine this list while conducting research to see if any factors ought to be added, but don't let it unduly influence data collection. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

23. Assess Available Information  Assess the information that is immediately available. It may be that current knowledge supports one or more hypotheses, and solutions to the problem may become obvious through the process of defining it. Weigh the cost of gathering more information against its potential usefulness.  feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

24. Gather Additional Information • Before considering surveys or field experiments, look at currently held information: sales records, complaints, receipts, and any other records that can show where customers live and work and how and what they buy. One small business owner found that addresses on cash receipts allowed him to pinpoint customers in his market area. With this kind of information he could cross-reference his customers' addresses and the effproducts they purchased to check the ectiveness of his advertising. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

25. Gather Additional Information • Customers' addresses tell much about them. Lifestyles - and buying habits - are often correlated with neighborhoods. • Credit records are an excellent source of information, giving information about customers' jobs, income levels, and marital status. Offering credit is a multifaceted marketing tool with well-known costs and risks. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

26. Gather Additional Information • Employees may be the best source of information about customer likes and dislikes. They hear customers' minor gripes about the store or service - the ones customers don't think important enough to take to the owner. Employees are aware of the items customers request that you do not stock. They can often supply good customer profiles from their day-to-day contacts. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

27. Outside Data Secondary Research • Secondary research exploits published sources like surveys, books, and magazines and applying or rearranging the information in them to bear on the problem or opportunity at hand. A tire sales business owner might guess that present retail sales of tires is strongly correlated with sales of new cars three years ago. To test this idea, it's easy to compare new car sales records with replacement tire sales three years later. Done over a range of recent years, this should prove or disprove the hypothesis and help marketing efforts tremendously feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

28. Secondary Research… • Localized figures tend to provide better information as local conditions might buck national trends. Newspapers and other local media are often quite helpful.There are many sources of secondary research material. It can be found in libraries, colleges, trade and general business publications, and newspapers. Trade associations and government agencies are rich sources of information . feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

29. Sources of Secondary Research • Trade associations • National and local press Industry magazines • National/international governments • Websites • Informal contacts • Trade directories • Published company accounts • Business libraries • Professional institutes and organizations • Omnibus surveys • Previously gathered marketing research • Census data • Public records feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

30. Primary Research • Primary research can be as simple as asking customers or suppliers how they feel about a business or as complex as surveys conducted by professional marketing research firms. Direct mail questionnaires, telephone surveys, experiments, panel studies, test marketing, and behavior observation are all examples of primary research. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

31. Primary Research • Primary research is often divided into reactive and non-reactive research. Non-reactive primary research observes how real people behave in real market situations without influencing that behavior even accidentally. Reactive research, including surveys, interviews, and questionnaires, is best left to marketing professionals, as they can usually get more objective and sophisticated results.Those who can't afford high-priced marketing research services should consider asking nearby college or university business schools for help. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

32. Sources of primary Research • 1. Interviews • 2. Mystery shopping • 3. Focus groups • 4. Projective techniques • 5. Product tests • 6. Diaries • 7. Omnibus Studies feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

33. 1.0 Interviews. • This is the technique most associated with marketing research. Interviews can be telephone, face-to-face, or over the Internet. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

34. 1.1 Telephone Interview. • Telephone ownership is very common in developed countries. It is ideal for collecting data from a geographically dispersed sample. The interviews tend to be very structured and tend to lack depth. Telephone interviews are cheaper to conduct than face-to-face interviews (on a per person basis). Advantages of telephone interviews • Can be geographically spread • Can be set up and conducted relatively cheaply • Random samples can be selected • Cheaper than face-to-face interviews Disadvantages of telephone interviews • Respondents can simply hang up • Interviews tend to be a lot shorter • Visual aids cannot be used • Researchers cannot behavior or body language feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

35. 1.2 Face-to-face Interviews • Face-to face interviews are conducted between a market researcher and a respondent. Data is collected on a survey. Some surveys are very rigid or 'structured' and use closed questions. Data is easily compared. Other face-to-face interviews are more 'in depth,' and depend upon more open forms of questioning. The research will probe and develop points of interest. Advantages of face-to-face interviews • They allow more 'depth' • Physical prompts such as products and pictures can be used • Body language can emphasize responses • Respondents can be 'observed' at the same time Disadvantages of face-to-face interviews • Interviews can be expensive • It can take a long period of time to arrange and conduct. • Some respondents will give biased responses when face-to-face with a researcher. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

36. 1.3 The Internet • The Internet can be used in a number of ways to collect primary data. Visitors to sites can be asked to complete electronic questionnaires. However responses will increase if an incentive is offered such as a free newsletter, or free membership. Other important data is collected when visitors sign up for membership. Advantages of the Internet • Relatively inexpensive • Uses graphics and visual aids • Random samples can be selected • Visitors tend to be loyal to particular sites and are willing to give up time to complete the forms Disadvantages of the Internet • Only surveys current, not potential customers. • Needs knowledge of software to set up questionnaires and methods of processing data • May deter visitors from your website feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

37. 1.4 Mail Survey • In many countries, the mail survey is the most appropriate way to gather primary data. Lists are collated, or purchased, and a predesigned questionnaire is mailed to a sample of respondents. Mail surveys do not tend to generate more than a 5-10% response rate. However, a second mailing to prompt or remind respondents tends to improve response rates. Mail surveys are less popular with the advent of technologies such as the Internet and telephones, especially call centers. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

38. 2.0 Mystery Shopping • Companies will set up mystery shopping campaigns on an organizations behalf. Often used in banking, retailing, travel, cafes and restaurants, and many other customer focused organizations, mystery shoppers will enter, posing as real customers. They collect data on customer service and the customer experience. Findings are reported back to the commissioning organization. There are many issues surrounding the ethics of such an approach to research. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

39. 3.0 Focus Groups • Focus groups are made up from a number of selected respondents based together in the same room. Highly experienced researchers work with the focus group to gather in depth qualitative feedback. Groups tend to be made up from 10 to 18 participants. Discussion, opinion, and beliefs are encouraged, and the research will probe into specific areas that are of interest to the company commissioning the research. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

40. Focus Groups… Advantages of focus groups • Commissioning marketers often observe the group from behind a one-way screen • Visual aids and tangible products can be circulated and opinions taken • All participants and the research interact • Areas of specific interest can be covered in greater depth Disadvantages of focus groups • Highly experienced researchers are needed. The are rare. • Complex to organize • Can be very expensive in comparison to other methods feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

41. 4.0 Projective techniques • Projective techniques are borrowed from the field of psychology. They will generate highly subjective qualitative data. There are many examples of such approaches including: Inkblot tests - look for images in a series of inkblots Cartoons - complete the 'bubbles' on a cartoon series Sentence or story completion Word association - depends on very quick (subconscious) responses to words Psychodrama - Imagine that you are a product and describe what it is like to be operated, warn, or used. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

42. 5.0 Product tests . Product tests are often completed as part of the 'test' marketing process. Products are displayed in a mall of shopping center. Potential customers are asked to visit the store and their purchase behavior is observed. Observers will contemplate how the product is handled, how the packing is read, how much time the consumer spends with the product, and so on. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

43. 6.0 Diaries • Diaries are used by a number of specially recruited consumers. They are asked to complete a diary that lists and records their purchasing behavior of a period of time (weeks, months, or years). It demands a substantial commitment on the part of the respondent. However, by collecting a series of diaries with a number of entries, the researcher has a reasonable picture of purchasing behavior. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

44. 7.0 Omnibus Studies • An omnibus study is where an organization purchases a single or a few questions on a 'hybrid' interview (either face-to-face or by telephone). The organization will be one of many that simply want to a straightforward answer to a simple question. An omnibus survey could include questions from companies in sectors as diverse as heath care and tobacco. The research is far cheaper, and commit less time and effort than conducting your own research. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)

45. THE END • We have given a general introduction to marketing research. Marketing research is a huge topic area and has many processes, procedures, and terminologies that build upon the points above. feasibility study...prepared by:Mohammad Marwan Al ashi(section2-1)