Recap of Lecture 1(Introductory Session)

Consumer Behaviour and Market Research

Faculty: Dr. S.M. Dhume

                   Dr. Ankush Sharma

Recap of Lecture 1(Introductory Session)

Part1: Dr. S.M. Dhume

Consumer Behaviour (CB) and Market Research (MR) together influence managerial marketing decisions. MR gives quantitative insight on ‘How it happens?’ where as CB provides qualitative insight on ‘Why it happens?’

The subject focuses on the integration of the two, which will meet the knowing- doing gap and thus, would enable us learn the subject from practical perspective.

Decisions are made to meet the gap the prevailing situation and the desired situation.

Steps in decision making:-

1.      Identify objective

2.      Compare and contrast different alternatives

3.      Select the best alternative

4.      Take action which is directed towards the desired state.

Success of decision making depends on:-

            1.      Quality of Information received

            2.      Capability of the decision maker in taking decision and implementing it.

Marketing Research is about understanding the process of marketing

vs

Market Research Includes understanding consumer (consumer research). Thus, market researchers should be thorough with CB.

Every company wants a) Growth and b) Survival.

Thus, it has to i) Attract customers and ii) Retain customers.  

Earlier, when Demand> Supply, the market was Seller’s market. However, post economic reforms of 1991, Supply>Demand therefore market is dominated by Buyers. Thus, attracting and retaining customers is a challenge in the present scenario.

Dealing with the Buyer’s market, two types of principles are:-

1)                 General management principles- include vision, mission, objectives, strategy, and goals.

2)                Marketing principles-

a.    Consumer perceived values(CPV)

  

 CPV= Consumer Perceived Benefits(CPB)/ Consumer Perceived Cost(CPC)

Where,

CPB includes:-

     -functional benefits: associated with products

     -subjective benefits: associated with Brand value (in customer’s mind)

CPC includes:-

     -financial costs

     -non-financial costs

                        The principle says:-                 

i)                    CPB>CPC

ii)                  Product/service should meet competition by overall high CPV(improve CPB,CPC or both)

b.     STP, Differentiation/USP

Mass marketing- economies of scale, associated risk is that everyone thinks it’s for others

One to One marketing- customer feels special, associated risk is high cost

Thus, Segmentation-Targeting- Positioning is done to reap out the benefits of the two.

Segmentation- divides the market-> do the profiling

Targeting- evaluate the segments-> Choose the segments

      Positioning-Identify USP

 i. It should be a distinguishing difference

                                     ii. USP should be important to the customer

                                     iii. Customer should be ready to pay for it

                      -Communicate USP

c.   Branding- Building name, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers

      d.  Marketing Mix – 4P’s- Product, Place, Price, Promotion

      7P’s- also include Packaging, Physical Distribution and People

Marketing Information System has three parts:-

a)      Internal- through historical data

b)     Market Intelligence System- through published data/ blogs

c)      Market Research System

Part2: Dr. Ankush Sharma

Following assignments were discussed:-

1.             Blog(http://nitie1113cbmr.blogspot.com/)         

a)      Each one needs to join the blog

b)     All students have to write the Recap of lecture in the class at least once.

c)      Blog will be used for uploading articles, posts and discussions

2.            Consumer Journal(15marks)

a)      Each one has to prepare a log of everything we buy (provided it’s worth keeping log) in a word documents with the following fields:-

1)     Serial number

2)     Item purchased

3)     Rationale

b)     We need to dissect only one purchase every week. This includes mentioning the need of the item and the rationale behind the purchase.

c)      In the session, a few of us will be called to read out the dissection done. So, we need to be prepared with the laptop or pen drive in the session.

d)     The CJ will have to be submitted in the end. It will be evaluated on the basis of presentation, innovation and the number of behavioural parameters included.

3.            Positioning Study(15 marks)

a)      We need to form groups of 10 each and select a category and get it register before session2.

b)     Templates of questionnaire, coding sheet, data sheet will be sent by Sir.

c)      We need to send the draft questionnaire(100 questions/group) before session2

d)     Questionnaire will be discussed by sir in session2

e)      We’ll have to do the market research and prepare perception map.

f)       Positioning Study will be done using tools like XLSTAT, SPSS

g)      Presentation, Viva will be in the end of course.

Note: Each member will have to work which will be evaluated by peer review where each team member will have to evaluate all other team members and ambiguities in marking will call for Viva.