Market research firms

1. Market Research Firms
Table Of Content
Introduction___________________________________________01
Background___________________________________________04
Business issues_________________________________________05
Kinds of services_______________________________________07
Products and services___________________________________10
Steps in marketing research______________________________20
Why outsource MR_____________________________________21
Teams involved in market research________________________22
Errors faced by MR_____________________________________24
Case Studies___________________________________________25
Coolhunting___________________________________________28

2. 1
Introduction
Market research is the process of systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data
about customers, competitors and the market. Market research can help create a business
plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, expand
into new markets etc. It can be used to determine which portion of the population will
purchase the product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income
level. It can be found out what market characteristics your target market has. With market
research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers.
The purpose of market research is to help companies make better business decisions
about the development and marketing of new products. Market research represents the
voice of the consumer in a company.
A list of questions that can be answered through market research:
What is happening in the market? What are the trends? Who are the competitors?
How do consumers talk about the products in the market?
Which needs are important? Are the needs being met by current products?
With market research you can get some kind of confirmation that there is a market for
your idea, and that a successful launch and growth are possible.
Relevance of marketing research
Market research is a link between the consumer needs and what the manufacturer or the
service provider can incorporate within the product. Times today have changed unlike in
the 70’s or 80’s where the same product would run successfully in the market for decades
at a time. Today with globalization, the product life cycles have reduced because of new
and new products coming into the market in very short periods. Hence, innovation is a
necessity for companies today. Here, marketing research comes into play.
Anytime when the product is not selling well, the researcher conducts the research and
finds out what the problems for the low acceptability are, what the consumer wants, the
loopholes in the services provided and then informs this to the respective company to
help increase their sales by bringing about different changes like changes in the product,
design, features, value added services, variants etc.
Example: Tata Indica Flopped

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Few years ago, Tata launched its B segment car Indica. It was very similar to the other
cars already available in the market but still lacked some of the qualities that the
competitors’ cars had in them. Hence, its sales were being affected as customers wanted
something new.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand the needs of the customers and
accordingly the manufacturer must try to incorporate the needs within the product so as to
satisfy the consumer. These needs keep on changing so the manufacturer has to keep on
innovating the products so as to increase their sales and their respective market share.
Hence marketing research helps identify these needs so that the company can launch its
product with the least amount of errors and wrong information about the market.
Research Literate and Illiterate companies
Research literate companies are those which understand the importance of research for an
organisation with respect to its markets. MNC’s conduct market research because they
understand its relevance. They take research as an asset because it has long term benefits
but not short term monetary gains.
Research illiterate companies are those traditional companies who do not believe in
continuous modernisation and overall development. These companies do not invest in
any type of research and go on with pre-provided information which may be irrelevant in
the current market scenario. They take research as a liability and hence do not undertake
them in any circumstances.
Advantages of Marketing research:
Helps give more accurate view of current marketing initiatives
Identifies new marketing opportunities
Helps Gain competitive insight
Helps identify Customer needs, usage capacities and attitudes
Helps figure out which distribution channels are optimal
Gives knowledge on competitor activity, strategy and performance
Helps learn who your customers are and what they want.
Helps learn how to reach your customer and how frequently you should try to
communicate with them.

4. 3
Helps understand which appeals are most effective and which ones aren't.
Helps reduce business risks
spots problems and potential problems in the current market
helps in decision making and helps create an appropriate plan of action.
Disadvantages
Market research is often a costly and time-consuming process. There may be biases that
distort information, ignores answers or lets arrogance or hostility cut off communications
at some point in the marketing process. The advantages, however, outweigh the
disadvantages. Don't forego this process or stop halfway because you are not getting the
desired results. This may be an indication that you are going with the wrong invention or
that there isn't a market for your product. Don't be discouraged. You simply may need to
modify your original marketing plan.
Leads to faulty marketing decisions based on improperly analyzed data.
creates unrealistic financial projections if information is interpreted incorrectly.

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BACKGROUND
TNS: TNS is world’s second largest market research company. It operates in 70
countries. It has its head office in UK and Indian operations in Hyderabad. There are 5
major offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkota. There are 16
operational offices across major state operators like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya
Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad. The company originated as a joint
venture of a UK firm and a France firm. The company does not cater to a specific sector.
It caters to each and every industry, each and every issue. Some of the core sectors that
the company caters to are pharmaceuticals, automobiles, consumer products, retail sales,
financial services and information technology. The company’s clients include 80% of top
corporates. In Indian companies, some of the clients are Tata Motors, Maruti Hyundai,
Idea, Hutch, pharma companies. The main clients include Colgate-Palmolive, Dabur and
Cadbury.
INDICA RESEARCH CONSULTANCY PVT LTD: It was set up in 1994. The
company specializes into consumer research especially FMCG sector. Though the
company was started in 1994, the promoters (executive director) of the company are well
experienced and have spent more than 30 years in market research field. One of the main
clients of the company is HLL (Particularly research of home and personal care products
which includes skin care products like fair & lovely, ponds, oral care products like
pepsodent, close up and hair care products like sun silk, clinic). Also, this company
conducts diagnostic research (looking into consumer’s mind).

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BUSINESS ISSUES:
Market Research is done by these companies to solve the following business issues:
Advertising and communications evaluation: Advertising is a very important
and expensive element of marketing strategy. It is therefore important to have the
right message; a creative execution which effectively translates this message and
will motivate the audience to purchase; and the media plan to ensure it receives
the right exposure. And once it’s in the market, the companies need to track its
performance to ensure it’s having the desired effect with the right people. Market
research is conducted to know about media coverage, reach and effectiveness.
Brand performance: It’s essential to measure and manage brand performance
and everything that contributes to it in terms of strategy, quality, price, marketing
activities, positioning and brand equity. Market research is done to have a clear
understanding of customer appeal, to get the knowledge about where you stand
amongst your competitors and helps you to capitalise on any opportunities and
respond to any threats in the market.
Consumption behaviour: The companies ensure that they remain ahead of the
competition by anticipating consumer demand. Market research is done to
understand the environment in which the brand is consumed – the occasion, the
location, as well as the end user and the need fulfilled.
Market understanding and segmentation: Brands and services do not operate
in a vacuum. In order to maintain or launch a successful brand companies need to
fully understand their market. Gathering market intelligence on their competitors;
segmenting their market based on customer needs; studying the structure of the
market – market research is done to get all this vital analysis to enable the
companies to develop the most appropriate positioning for their brands.
New product development: Creating and developing a brand - turning the
concept into a real market winner is a complex challenge. All the elements such

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as the product, packaging, price and marketing strategies must be exactly right.
Market research is done to ensure that company’s brand is on target for success
from the earliest stages - ensuring their basic value proposition is appealing to the
target audience; translating this into the key messages in terms of product features
and benefits; and ensuring that they have a winning concept before they invest
further in its development.
Purchasing behaviour: Once a product has been launched into the market it’s
essential to track its sales. In other words, it is important to know the consumer’s
reaction to the product. Research is conducted to have an understanding of who
are the purchasers, where they shop, whether they are attracted more by product
or promotion, how your product is being bought, whether your product has more
opportunity in developing initial trial or in encouraging repeat purchasing and of
where to focus efforts in directions where there is realistic room for improvement.
Opinions on different issues: Million of surveys are conducted for clients to
understand how the public is thinking or reacting to major issues on a national or
international scale. Polls are conducted to track public opinion on political
campaigns, as well as legislative and policy issues. It helps to know about the
major trends; how the public is feeling about its elected leaders and predict what
the outcomes of any up coming elections are likely to be.
Stakeholder Management: A company will only succeed if it has successful
relationships and knows how to capitalise on these relationships for greatest
effect. From a business perspective, company’s most natural focus will be on
customer retention, but they also consider their relationship with their employees
and all their other stakeholders such as dealers, journalists, shareholders etc – all
of whom can have a significant impact on their business performance. Research is
done to measure, manage and monitor these relationships thereby offering
actionable results so that companies can prioritise their actions to achieve the
greatest success.

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KINDS OF SERVICES:
Two kinds of services are provided by these MR firms. They are:
CUSTOM RESEARCH SERVICES
SYNDICATE RESEARCH SERVICES
CUSTOM RESEARCH SERVICES: It is seen that no single solution fits every given
business situation. Therefore research is conducted to develop or adapt individual,
tailored, or customized solutions to address precisely the questions and issues that are
unique to each and every client. It includes:
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
INTERNET RESEARCH: As internet research continues to grow, both
consumer and business research has now become possible easily. Also it has
various benefits of using internet technology to conduct research like speed, wider
coverage. There are even separate business units for internet research like in TNS, we have TNS
Interactive for internet research. Here, internet technology is used to provide clients with all kinds of
information like market analysis, insight, and innovative business solutions.
AREAS OF CUSTOM RESEARCH EXPERTISE: Research is conducted to
help the clients better understand their brand, their markets, relationships and
opportunities and their customers, including issues such as: advertising and
communications evaluation, brand performance, segmentation and positioning,
new product development, stakeholder management.
CUSTOM TRACKING STUDIES: Here, research is conducted to track on a
continuous basis, brand performance & advertising effectiveness and satisfaction
or loyalty of a company’s customers, employees and other stakeholders.

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Monitoring is the only way to ensure continued success for your brand or service.
It helps to monitor the brand relationship and how all marketing activity really
impacts the brand. It also recognises the importance of the way people think and
feel about the brand and how committed they are to it. By analysing commitment
levels amongst your users and non-users, you can establish different strategies for
the different segments you are targeting.
CUSTOM MARKET SECTORS: These companies also specialise in key
industry sectors with a global presence and highly developed sector expertise:
Automotive – Offering a complete range of services for this specialised market, from
brand and advertising tracking, to car clinics, dealer satisfaction research and vehicle
quality studies.
Consumer – They have consumer industry specialists in all regions of the world with an
in-depth knowledge of the global packaged goods environment and a long track record
providing research-based insight to many of the most well-known marketers and
manufacturers of food and beverages, health and personal care and household products.
Finance - providing research-based insights and consultation to financial services
companies around the world.
Healthcare – Offering a range of customised services across the product lifecycles of the
world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
Polling & Social –Tracking public opinion on major national and international issues.
Technology – Offering a total approach for all their technology needs, from fieldwork to
business solutions and advisory services.

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Syndicated research system: Syndicated research is where research information is
collected on a regular basis, and sold to multiple clients. This research is is used by
numerous clients. Below are some of Syndicated research services:
PANELS: Different kinds of panels like household and individual panels are used
by MR firms depending on the product/service of which information is collected.
MARKET SECTORS: These MR firms specialize in key industry sectors and
offer syndicated services for these sectors. Besides Automotive, financial
services, Healthcare, consumer, Polling & Social, Technology, other key
sectors for which these firms provide services are: FMCG, Media intelligence,
TV and radio audience measurement (measuring TV viewing and radio listening
habits on a continuous basis.

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Products and services (tools and techniques)_
MR companies’ offer their clientele information. This information is the key that will
help companies to decide on how they want conduct their various projects. Information is
the most important element in the mix of things that companies want. Thus those MR
companies those are able to provide accurate information that represents a true scenario
of current events, are going to be successful.
MR companies have different methods or tools or products of availing this information.
They use a combination of such tools or products in order to satisfy their clientele
requirement. This is subjective in nature as it purely depends on the quality of
information required.
When we visited TNS and Indica Research Private Limited, we found that these MR
companies commonly used the following.
1. Panel Research
2. RAWI ( Random Web Interviewing )
3. Face to Face
4. Focus Groups
5. Survey Programming
6. Internal Database Research
1. Panel Research
MR companies have their set of respondents that are located all over the country. Thus
when a MR company wants to find out views of consumers towards a particular FMCG
or any other kind of product they can immediately contact these respondents and get their
opinions or feedback. At this moment in time, Indica Research has about 60,000
respondents across India. By the end o the year they want to increase this base to
100,000.

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Respondents or panelists come from different walks of life. Some are students, some are
IT professionals while some are lawyers and a few also are CTOs and CIOs. Thus Indica
Research currently has a well rounded base of respondents. Getting a feedback from
almost 60,000 consumers is no easy task.
Indica Research has tie ups with other MR companies in Europe, Australia and U.S.A so
that as and when needed they can get an international outlook of consumers. Currently
they are planning to extend this base into the Far East. Such tie ups are beneficial as MR
companies can strategically combine their strengths in order to gain a competitive
advantage in their industry.
Example –
An automotive lubricant company wanted to find out from the people about their opinion
of an advertisement on lubricant before launching it into the market.
Indica Research got this information in a mere 3 days from all car owners that belong to
the panel of the company. This information proved to be vital for the automotive
lubricant company and molded their advert to the liking of the panelists.
2. RAWI ( Random Web Interviewing )
This method is used quite regularly in order to know consumer preferences. Companies
tie up with Rediff, Yahoo and other such websites. Pop ups appear each time a person
decides to view such sites.
Every time the pop up gets clicked, the viewer gets connected to a survey which on
answering provides information that MR companies are looking for. MR companies
analyze the results produced and then based on that they consult their clientele.

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3. Face to Face Interview
Information is also gathered using this tool. The general public by default always thinks
of this as the methods used when it comes to market research. Extensive research is done
by having a strong network of field associates. MR companies like Indica Research has
good relations with field partners that provide the man power. These partners have agents
in more than 50 locations across India.
Example –
Companies like DNA conducted extensive market research in order to find out newspaper
preferences of Mumbai. Teams were dispatched across the city and they would make the
general public fill out surveys and conduct an interview in order to find out their likes and
dislikes.
2,000 people were recruited for the on-field job.
It took 6 months to finish the research and launch the news paper.
100 Crores were spent as expenses for market research and advertising.
DNA is giving other leading newspaper companies a run for their money.
4. Focus Groups
The objective of a focus group is to generate new ideas and solve and potential marketing
problems that may arise. A group of 10 to 12 people are invited to talk about a particular
topic; it could be based on absolutely anything. Through conversation, the group dishes
out various ideas, tastes, likes and dislikes and other information related to the topic.
There is a moderator who starts the conversation and he/she must ensure that the
conversation never goes off-topic.
Various elements have to be taken care of like the physical setting, technology ( for an
audio-visual focus group) in order to make effective use of the candidates and time.

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The major advantage of this is that loads of information is gathered over a short span of
time. There is spontaneity in the conversation, thus candidates’ true preferences will
become known. In a personal interview there is a tendency for the candidates to become
more conscious about what they may say.
The major disadvantage of this is to recruit the right kind of people in order to ensure that
the focus group is effective.
5. Survey Programming
Survey Programming uses specific software like QuestionPro, Perseus, and ConfirmIT
etc in providing solutions to customers. This technique is based on the collection and
dissemination of survey data in software for storing and reporting responses.
One can use the software to produce specific surveys which then fed back into the same.
The software then churns that information to produce results that help research
companies in providing the correct consulting to clientele.
Example –
US Bancorp is the 6th
largest financial services company in USA with assets up to USD
204 Billion. They wanted to know how their internal customers feel about the various
products and services offered by their team. This way there were able to know the level
of satisfaction and participation of the end user.
US Bancorp used QuestionPro and found out that their internal customers were pre-
dominantly happy with the products and services offered. They arrived at such a
conclusion because their internal customers had mentioned in the survey that the level of
participation and satisfaction was quite high of the end user.
Certain changes were recommended by the employees of the company in order to make it
more worthy and US Bancorp are analyzing the same.

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6. Internal Database Research
This method is quite special and different from the rest. All the above methods are doing
pretty much the same thing, gathering information from a set of people that act as a base
of MR companies or from general public.
This method however uses the already existing database of a company that hires the
services of MR companies. MR companies however have to ensure total confidentiality
of their clientele’s existing database at the same time MR companies have to sign a bond
stating that at no times will they use their clientele’s database unless otherwise
authorized.
The client’s database is uploaded into the MR company’s website and simultaneously
surveys are created. Then a “Unique Survey Link” is e-mailed to all the members of the
database. The members participate in the survey by accessing this unique link.
Once the surveys are filled and the results tabulated. The MR company prepares their
findings in order to develop a conclusion that will help their clientele.
This method proves to be useful when companies want to measure the level of customer
satisfaction or why has a dip in sales occurred. When there is a dip in sales, lesser people
are using a product, thus companies can find out from those who have stopped
consuming the same why they stopped. MR companies have the expertise in doing so and
therefore producing results that will provide reasoning for the dip.
Example –
eFunds Corporation is a major BPO company whose revenues in 2007 are touching USD
600 Million. Most of their processes have been outsourced to developing nations like
India. While they still have a presence in U.S.A in terms of voice operations.
In early 2003, they wanted to measure customer satisfaction of one of their processes
called Chex Systems. Chex Systems has a clientele of 9,000 banks across U.S.A. This is
because they had received a lot of complaints of not being able to understand the
company’s Indian employees even though eFunds put their employees in India through
accent training programs.

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PolarisMR a leading market research firm in U.S.A on conduction research came to a
conclusion that their customers preferred Indian employees speaking in their natural
accents rather than a false one. Simply because no one can speak like an American in a
period as long as 2 weeks as that is how long these accent training programs are held.
eFunds gladly obliged to this and at the end of the year they found out that customer
satisfaction levels had improved considerably.
7. Quantitative Method
Quantitative method means conducting a survey over a large no of people across the
society. It is basically meetinf thousands of people randomly without looking into
particular characteristic. This is majorly used when going on for exploratory research .
Techniques use :
 Web interwiews
 Telephone interviews
 Face to face interviews
It is very essential to know which interview should be conducted when
Eg: if you want to interview a housewife staying at dharavi than in that case a face to face
interview would be better as u would probably have to explain her the relevance of the
interview and may be she also has time in hand.
Whereas if you have to interview a MD of a company than a telephone interview would
be a better option.
The main objective of conducting a quantitative research is to get an overview of the
market conditions, likes and dislikes, needs and wants as a whole. As quantitative
research need to meet and interact with a lot of people the folling places are appropriate.
 Railway station
 Malls
 Theatres
 Commercial areas

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Eg. During elections a set up is created outside the voting centre and people who vote and
come are expected to vote again and put it into the box provided by the MR companies.
This helps in knowing the ongoing trend in voting and a faint idea of the final results are
known before they are declared.
During the 1996 elections this survey was conducted but what happened was that people
did not trust the survey and felt that there would no anonymity and hence voted wrongly
and ultimate result was that the idea given by the Market research firms and the final
results were completely different. From this the firms understood that its very essential to
educate the people about the research and build confidence in them about the anonymity
and the relevance of the research.
8. Qualitative Method
In this method a set of people or sample is selected out of the entire population with
regards to certain parameters and characteristics .
The most important rule to be followed in sampling is
“THE SAMPLE SELECTED SHOULD BE AN EXACT REPLICA OF THE
ENTIRE POPULATION “
Sampling
Sampling plays a very important role. This is because sampling affects the final result.it
differs from research to research, product to product.
There are various techniques to conduct sampling . its extremely important that the
sample selected should be appropriate or else the entire survey would go for a toss.
Eg. Product: coke, No of people consuming coke : 2,50,000
Sample size :500
Now if 2 people out of these 500 people go wrong than that would mean that there is a
failure of 1000 people as 2 out 500 would represent 1000 out of 2,50,000.
There could be a possibility of false recommendation which would prove fatal for the
company.

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Eg
Consider tea brand. There are about 1.25 crore people in Mumbai. About 93 to 94% are
tea consumers and about 74 to 75 tea brands. Its practically not possible to interview
everyone hence there is a need for sampling.
Steps in sampling :
Segment the population on basis of Sec ( socio
- economic class)
Name them as A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 and so
on
If there are about 25 lakh households and
about 5 people per house then we take. We
consider 250 such households
We divide entire Mumbai into grids. For eg,
andheri, malad, churchgate, colaba etc. and
divide the no of household by the no of grids
We avoid the immediate neighbours and the
best would be to move to the next bldg so as to
avoid any kind of bias to one product
We got to a particular household in that
locality and interview them

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Eg.
Sampling is also done on basis of certain parameters like age, sex and so on.
A survey has to be conducted on the smokers. In that case we need to consider a common
parameter among them and take a sample that exactly represents those parameters.
For instance in this case we consider age as the parameter and we want to survey people
within the age group on 18 – 45
Population = 2,00,000 people
Age groups 18-25 25 – 30 30 – 35 35 – 40 40 - 45
Actual
population %
15% 20% 25% 30% 10%
Actual
population in
nos
30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 20,000
Sample= 200
No. of people
in each class
30 40 50 60 20
This kind of sampling would me more accurate as it would be an actual replica of the
original population
Eg.
Incase of TRPs that calculated to know the best rated serial an electronic meter is set in
the television system of the sample selected. Once this is done whenever a person
switches on a channel it gets recorded in the meter which get stored directly into the
companies computer system. It records everything as to which channel is being viewed
and for how long and are people watching the advertisements and so on.
This helps to know the channels if a particular serial is doing good, it helps them to
decided prices for advertisement for every serial break, it also helps the advertisers to
select the best suitable slot.

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Problem and its solution for sampling
Even though there are various ways in which sampling can be done the problem is that of
biased and unnatural behavior from the respondents. They get into the pressure of being
watched and get conscious of what they do which ultimately results into a behavior that’s
not them. And the final result thus found is not appropriate.
In order to solve such problems these market research firms conduct and induction
program wherein they educate the respondents about the entire process and its relevance.
They make them understand the ill effects of not being natural and the loss that the
company would occur because of such behavior.
At times even after such induction programs are done people still behave biased and
unnatural and hence to overcome this problem the beginning behavior of people should
be avoided as a person cant be unnatural for oo long.
Eg. Incase of TRPs the reading for first three months is ignored.
Another way to remove this biased behavior is to keep changing the sample and also do
not put to people for same product type.

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STEPS IN MARKETING RESEARCH
3 main departments are involved:
1. Research Coordinator
2. Field
3. Data Processing & Analysis
Research Coordinator
- Understand the client’s needs
- Transform needs into research programme & conceptualizing it
- Develops instruments for running the programme ( CATI , CAPI , Palm Talk )
Field
- Where maximum work happens i.e. high operations field
- Almost 80 % of manpower & time is spent in field
- Field staff collects the data by conducting surveys, experiments or personal
discussions with the sample
Data Processing & Analysis
- Data collected on paper is not ready for analysis & has to be decoded
- Editing
- Coding
- Tabulating & analysis
- Interpretation
- Recommendations
Preparation of Research Report & Presenting the findings to the client

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Why Outsource MR?
- Flexibility
- Added value
- Access to innovation
- Cost Advantage
- Impartiality
- Confidentiality
- Infrastructure
- Quality of Deliverables
- Domain Knowledge
- Cultural issues
- Target audience may be scattered
- Professional Approach

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TEAM INVOLVED IN MARKETING RESEARCH:
The Research organization will require a team for conducting the research project. The
organization set-up as given below-
Research project In-charge:
He is overall responsible for Research project. He is directly involved with sponsor and
research team. He will do costing preparation of time schedule and report writing.
Research Organization
Research Project In-charge
Research Officers
Research Assistants
Field Staff

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Research officer:
He will select the samples, design the questionnaire, and provide the necessary training to
assistant and field staff. He is also involved in the analysis data collected, arriving at
conclusions and preparing draft of the report.
Research Assistants:
The main job would be the supervision over the field staff. They will also help in
competition of all the data in a systematic manner, properly segmented and in tabular
forms for easy analysis.
Field staff:
They will carry out the actual field work for data collection and will conduct personal
discussion with sample.

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ERROR FACED BY MR
There are three types of Errors occurred while conducting the research. The following are
the errors-
Sampling Error:
Sampling error is the difference between a measure obtained from sample representing
the population and the true measure that can be obtained only from the entire population.
This error occurs because no sample is a perfect representation of a given population,
unless the sample size equals the population. The market is not selected properly.
Field Error:
The error which occurred while conducting the research such as a questionnaire not
frame well, data not recorded properly, listening error, incomplete response etc.
Data Analysis Error:
The MR analyzes or interprets the data which they have collected. If analysis goes wrong
the company or client may suffer.
Field work Error
Data Analysis
Error
Sampling Error
ERROR

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Case Studies
How post research error in analyzing the survey affected the company?
The tobacco market in India is quite large. Various products are available which contain
tobacco, like Pan Parag, Cigarettes, Tambako, etc but all these products are harmful and
injurious to health which can lead to mouth cancer.
Looking at the potential in India market a MNC launches a product called CLICK and
position it that this product is not going to give rise to any diseases and it is and it is more
hygienic product.
But the product fail miserably even though the have conducted a survey, they failed in
analyzing the result as a result they has to suffer huge losses.
Before launching the product they go for survey. They develop the product and it with the
people regarding taste, cost, and intention to purchase.
They use 5 point scale to test the market.
Definitely buy Probably buy Might buy Probably not
buy
Definitely not
buy
56% of the respondent either quoted Definitely buy or Probably buy which was
considered very good response by these foreigners. But after the product fail they went
backward to see what has happened
It was than they relies that the interpretation was wrong and
only 4% said definitely purchase
and 52% said probably purchase
In abroad top 2 boxes Definitely buy and probably buy is considered as good but in India
is not the case. So it is need to understand Indian population.

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How Marketing Research has helped the companies
Case 1: Nestle Milk Maid
Long way back Nestle launch Milk Maid a condensed milk. The product has every
ingredient for successful product. Pricing was proper, Distribution was proper and even
product was proper.
But yet the product failed in the market. So company appointed Marketing Research firm
and extensive research was carried on to target market. Lot of Qualitative and
Quantitative research were done. The decide to go for Diagnostic research(where
company wants to understand customer mind).
After research it was realized that Positioning of the product was wrong. Company has
positioned it as a substitute of milk. Milk has natural value and nothing can substitute it.
People were not emotionally ready to accept it as a substitute of milk. So the product
failed.
So MR firm told them to withdraw the entire marketing campaign which has spoiled the
product.
They RE- Position the product as it can be used to make Gulab Jamun, Kher, Gajar ka
Halwa.

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Case 2: HLL vs Nirma
In 1980 Nirma use to deliver everything that surf use to deliver. Surf use to price at 2.5
times less than Nirma.
So consumer started substituting Nirma for Surf. In starting HLL felt that this Nirma can
do nothing to them as they are huge MNC. But when they started loosing market share
they started realizing, and they came up with the advertisement campaign that
½ kg of Surf is = 1 kg of Nirma.
But still they were not successful because you cannot fool your customer.
At last they conducted Research because of which HLL launch Wheel which was priced
equal to Nirma.
Marketing Research is all about collecting the data in raw form, interpertating
Analyzing and processing it to take the decision.

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Coolhunting
Coolhunting is a term coined in the early 1990s referring to a new breed of marketing
professionals, called coolhunters. It is their job to make observations and predictions in
the changes of new or existing cultural trends.
Coolhunters operate most notably in the world of street fashion and design, but their
work also blurs into that of futurists. Webloggers now serve as online coolhunters, in a
variety of cultural and technological areas.
Coolhunting Firms
A coolhunting firm is a marketing agency whose exclusive purpose is to conduct research
of the youth demographic in the areas listed above. They then compile their data and
produce reports detailing emerging and declining trends in youth culture as well as
predictions for future trends. These reports are then sold to various companies whose
products targets the youth. They also offer consulting services. Coolhunting firms often
provide services for some of the largest corporations in the world. An example of a
leading coolhunting firm is Look Look.
In-House Coolhunting
Rather than outsourcing their market research, some companies opt for in-house youth
culture marketing divisions. These divisions act in much the same way as a coolhunting
firm but the reports and data collected remain within the company and are used solely to
promote its products. A company will often prefer this form of coolhunting as a way to
gain an advantage in the valuable youth market since the research conducted by
coolhunting firms is available to anyone willing to pay for it. A prime example of a
company that employs in-house coolhunting is Viacom's MTV television network.
Open-Source Coolhunting
Coolhunting turned into a global online project when trendguide.com was launched in
December 1998 to be the first open-source lifestyle trend database with rankings based
on users' votes, uploads and comments. The global project was started by a Swiss
research team led by Michael Hänni, creating a global virtual network of coolhunters.

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The concept of trendguide.com (democratization of trends: give free access to trends
reports and base trend reports on inputs from all around the world) changed the former
trend business field where reports, which are created by few individuals, are sold at high
prices.