This document analyzes the potential for computer aided marketing in the produce industry. It discusses the benefits of computerized marketing such as improved market information, operational efficiency, increased competition, improved market access, and higher grower prices. A survey of industry participants found positive attitudes towards computer aided marketing. The results were used to conceptualize a system that would complement existing marketing practices by facilitating information collection and dissemination.

1. COMPUTER IN
MARKET ANALYSIS
Submitted by
ARNAB DEY
1st M.Pharm
Dept. of Pharmaceutics
PES College Of Pharmacy

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Contents :
 Introduction
 Benefits
 Research Procedure
 Survey Result
 Conceptualizing the Computer Aided Marketing System
 Example
 References
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Introduction
 A market analysis is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of a market.
It looks into the size of the market both in volume and in value, the various
customer segments and buying patterns, the competition, and the economic
environment in terms of barriers to entry and regulation.
 Computer aided marketing of produce was studied because of the potential
it held for contributing to improved marketing industry.
 Computerized marketing facilitates the collection and dissemination of
current market information.
 Computer aided marketing was first used in Agriculture for trading cotton
in Texas and Oklahoma in 1975.
 The objectives of the study were to analyze the potential acceptance of
computerized marketing in the produce industry and then conceptualize
and evaluate the feasibility for successful development of a system.
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Benefits
 Henderson and Holder identified five benefits that almost always
existed in those industries where computer aided marketing programs
have been tested.
 These benefits include :
 These benefits represented potential gains to the produce industry.
 Improved Market Information
 Improved Operational information
 Increased Competition
 Improved Market Access
 Higher Grower Prices
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Improved Market Information
 Computerized marketing facilitates the collection and dissemination of
current market information.
 Most information used in the produce industry today is acquired through
telephone conversations with other traders.
 Computer aided marketing facilitates more efficient dissemination of
current, accurate market information.
Improved Operational Information
 Operational efficiency relates to the cost of getting produce from the
farm to the consumer.
 VanSickle, Adrian and Epperson estimated that 90 percent of the cost of
negotiating the sale could be eliminated with computerized marketing.
 In addition to negotiating costs, other costs should also be lowered by
allowing traders to make more informed marketing decisions with
respect to location, time and quality preferences.
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Increased Competition
 Implementation of computerized marketing should also result in
increased competition.
 Because most produce is traded over the telephone, competition is
limited by the number of conversations traders can effectively carry with
each other.
 Computerized marketing may not (probably will not) result in more
traders, but it should result in more quantity and quality communication
between traders.
Improved Market Access
 Computerized marketing should also ease the problems of accessing
major produce markets.
 Because market access is limited by communication of information,
improvements in communications should make market access easier.
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Higher Grower Prices
 The most consistent benefit measured in previous computerized
marketing systems has been higher grower prices.
 Many of the previous computerized marketing systems tested have been
implemented in thin markets, resulting in a shift in bargaining position to
growers and consequently higher prices.
 Higher grower prices result from at least two factors, increased
competition and improved operational efficiency.
 The impact of increased competition in the produce industry should be
positive for growers, but the impact will probably be less noticeable than
in previous systems since the produce industry is not generally
considered to be a “thin” market.
 Because of improved operational efficiency, grower prices should
increase because it costs less to get produce to market. At least part of
this cost savings should be passed to growers in the form of higher
grower prices.
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Research Procedure
 The potential trader acceptance of computer aided marketing of produce
was determined from a survey of the industry.
 The survey was administered with personal interviews in a “mirror
image” approach.
 The mirror image survey technique asks related questions from the
unique perspective of each individual surveyed so that similarities and
contrasts in the operations of the different participant groups could be
identified.
 The market channel participants were divided into three broad
categories for survey purposes: buyers, dealers and sellers.
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CONTD…
 The buyers category included institutional and retail wholesalers and
integrated retail-wholesalers.
 The dealers category included buying and selling brokers and
consignment merchants.
 The sellers category included growers, packers, cooperative packers and
shippers, and independent shippers.
 The participants were divided into these categories to determine which
points in the marketing channel showed the most interest in computers
and computer aided marketing.
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Survey Results
 The survey was designed to collect demographic information about the
individual surveyed, the present and expected use of computers by the
market participants, and the attitude of the participants about the concept
of computer aided marketing.
 Actual data analysis was done in the contingency table, chi-square
framework, using the Statistical Analysis System.
 The analysis was performed to determine if differences existed in
responses by demographic characteristics of the individuals surveyed.
 The demographic characteristics tested included type of marketing
participant, age group of individual, size of operation and geographic
location.
 The results of the survey indicated a positive potential for development
of a computer aided marketing program for the produce industry.
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Conceptualizing the Computer Aided Marketing
System
 The results of this analysis were used with other information collected in
the survey to draw important conclusions about the potential to develop a
computer aided marketing program for produce.
 Because of the high level of general satisfaction with the present market
system, the committee determined that the computer aided marketing
system should be developed as a tool to complement the present marketing
system.
 The approach used to conceptualize a computer aided marketing system
was to learn as much as possible about the present marketing practices with
emphasis on the methods used to obtain information.
 The case study involved choosing several traders that would allow us to
study every facet of their marketing operation.
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Example:
 Improving Efficiency of Monitoring
 Improved Quality and Timeliness of Data
The monitoring process is being improved in two major ways:
• First, sites are beginning to submit unmonitored data between
monitor visits. This is a major step for the industry.
• The second improvement comes from the potential that computers
have, in conjunction with newer processes, to dramatically reduce the
cost and time required to monitor data.
• A major complaint of clinical sites is the difficulty and time required
for data entry (when they have to enter the data through a keyboard)
and the effort required to resolve queries, which are often returned
weeks or even months after a patient visit.
• Machine-read data, whether collected by optical mark read or
SmartPen , ensure that data are both entered and validated, with
queries returned, in a matter of minutes after they are recorded.
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 Site Performance Tracking
 The Changing role of Clinical Research Associates
• Close tracking of data entry means that performance measures can
be tracked and managed.
• Such measures typically include query rates (which can be tracked
by site, investigator, quesiton, and any comparators), time to
respond to queries, rate of query rejection.
• They provide an opportunity to identify and correct performance
issues.
• The availability of a range of performance measures and the ability
to do many more routine tasks by computer (notably those related
to source verification) mean that the Clinical research associate
(CRA)’s role changes from box-checker to manager.
• The CRA, and a newer layer of submanagers who specialize in
monitoring performance data, can then focus on identifying and
addressing performance issues.
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References
 John J. VanSickle, (1986) “The Development of Computer Aided
Marketing In the Produce Industry-A review” Journal of Food
Distribution Research 86:57-67
 Computer Applications in Pharmaceutical Research and Development,
Sean Ekins, A John Wiley & sons, inc., Publication, Page no. 557-569
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