Market Research

 Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about
problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.

 Market research will give you the data you need to identify and reach your target market at a
price customers are willing to pay.

The systematic and objective process of generating information for aid in making marketing decisions

• Marketing research Process of collecting and using

information for marketing decision making.

• Marketers use data from a variety of sources to

understand customers, target customer segments, and
develop long-term customer relationships.

• Research is the primary source of information used to make effective marketing decisions.

Research studies evolve through a series of steps, each representing the answer to a key question.

1. Why should we do research? This establishes the research purpose as seen by the management team that will be
using the
results. This step requires understanding the decisions to be made and the problems or opportunities to be diagnosed.
2. What research should be done? Here the management purpose is translated into objectives that tell the researchers
exactly
what questions need to be answered by the research study or project.
3. Is it worth doing the research? The decision has to be made here about whether the value of the information that
will likely
be obtained is going to be greater than the cost of collecting it.
4. How should the research be designed to achieve the research objectives? Design issues include the choice of
research
approach—reliance on secondary data versus conducting a survey or experiment—and the specifics of how to
collect the
data.
5. What will we do with the research? Once the data have been collected, how will it be analyzed, interpreted, and
used to
The Marketing Research Process

• Define the Problem

• Develop an Approach to the Problem

– Type of Study? Exploratory, Descriptive, Causal?

– Exploratory research - Where the researcher does not know the actual problem and the
ways and means of searching the solution for the problem encountered. You have no
secondary data or literature review or guidance for this research design.

Descriptive research - In this case the researcher exactly knows what has to be studied
and where to look for the solution. Secondary data and literature review are available in
this case.

Causal research - This is undertaken to find out whether any relationship exists between
two variables - one being the cause and the other being the result.

– Mgmt & Research Questions, Hypotheses

• Formulate a Research Design

– Methodology

– Questionnaire Design

• Fieldwork

• Prepare & Analyze the Data

Prepare & Present the Report

Marketing Research Types

Basic research

Applied research
Basic research

• Attempts to expand the limits of knowledge

• Not directly involved in the solution to a pragmatic problem

Applied research
Conducted when a decision must be made about a specific real-life problem.
• Research designed for the purpose of producing results that may be applied to real world
situations.
• Any research which is used to answer a specific question, determine why something failed or
succeeded, solve a specific, pragmatic problem, or to gain better understanding.

• Advantages of Market Research

– Helps focus attention on objectives
– Aids forecasting, planning and strategic development
– May help to reduce risk of new product development
– Communicates image, vision, etc.
– Globalisation makes market information valuable.
• Disadvantages of Market Research
• Information only as good
as the methodology used
• Can be inaccurate or unreliable
• Results may not be what the business wants to hear!
• May stifle initiative and ‘gut feeling’
• Always a problem that we may never know enough to be sure!

Market Analysis –
A Market Analysis summary is usually that section of a business plan, that shades
light on a product or service total market size, market share, market growth rate
and segmentation. It helps to indicate how well a firm is doing compared to its
competitors. New entrepreneurs need to research on market analysis before
entering into business.

• Marketing plans can’t but put together without some form of analysis

• How do I match my company’s assets with good business opportunities?

• Possibilities = markets

• market analysis:

– finding and measuring business opportunities

– targeting and dividing market into niches

– suggesting product placement and position in mind of consumer

• marketing requires a great deal of information about consumer needs

• marketing research gives the marketing manager data needed to make decisions

• required because managers are often hundreds or thousands of miles distant from end users

• market analysis is the only way firms can stay in touch with customers and their needs

Discovering Opportunities

• most large firms are moving away from “mass” marketing to “target” marketing

• mass marketing = production approach of looking at what most consumers want, assumes
actions of all consumers are equal

• mass marketing = mass production (low-cost, effective, easy), disposal of production

• problem: always leaves someone unhappy

• target marketing: consumer needs set the product characteristics and marketing programs

• production efforts change to meet needs of targeted groups of consumers

 • example: you grow grouper, but find out that processers want a variety of different sizes,
species. You then become flexible to meet their needs (same holds true for processors, their
market)

• special needs = more sales, higher sales prices

• target marketing more costs, difficult to manage, but profitable to producer and pleasing to
customer

• goal: market edge because you offer what others can’t

• from the market analysis standpoint, a market is: group of current or possible consumers with
similar unmet needs and buying power

• defined in terms of consumer needs and not the product being sold!

• problem: consumer needs change slowly, products come and go

• example: old-style TV dinners vs microwaveable grouper Florentine

• problem: can’t please everyone on a global basis  think regionally or locally!

• target marketing recognizes differences in needs: for seafood, there are well-defined regional
likes and dislikes

• how can you possibly fill all the different needs in a profitable manner (you can’t)

Consumer Demographics

• within a defined area, the needs of consumers are often found to be similar

• that is, after having divided them into groups according to common descriptions (e.g., age, sex,
household size, level of income, level of education, marriage status)

• demographics: dividing consumers into groups for easy identification

– helps establish more specific consumer needs

– information easily obtain for smaller vs. larger areas

• The previous example indicates that three separate products might be required
 – products must be significantly different

– large enough potential customers in each group

– customers must be reached by promotion

– needs must be long-lasting to make it worthwhile

• This determines your ability to segment a market

Segmentation Marketing

1) select the product and market area

2) determine all the needs that future customers might have in the product and market area

3) form at least three different market segments

4) find out what characteristics of the product of the product affect the “buy” decision of the
consumer

5) give a name to each product market segment

6) describe each segment with demographic and other possible consumer-related information

Estimation of Market Potential

• There are several methods of guessing or estimating possibilities in a market

• market possibilities: total number of sales possible in a target market for all producers

• sales forecast: level of sales expected for a single firm within the target market

• market share: percentage of total sales gained by a single firm (SF/MP)

Competitors' Analysis in Event Planning

Competitive Analysis
Definition: Identifying your competitors and evaluating their strategies
to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your
A competitive analysis is a critical part of your company marketing plan. With this evaluation, you
can establish what makes your product or service unique--and therefore what attributes you play up
in order to attract your target market.
Evaluate your competitors by placing them in strategic groups according to how directly they
compete for a share of the customer's dollar. For each competitor or strategic group, list their
product or service, its profitability, growth pattern, marketing objectives and assumptions, current
and past strategies, organizational and cost structure, strengths and weaknesses, and size (in sales)
of the competitor's business. Answer questions such as:

 Who are your competitors?

 What products or services do they sell?
 What is each competitor's market share?
 What are their past strategies?
 What are their current strategies?
 What type of media are used to market their products or services?
 How many hours per week do they purchase to advertise through the media used in this
market?
 What are each competitor's strengths and weaknesses?
 What potential threats do your competitors pose?
 What potential opportunities do they make available for you?

Research is important whenever you are planning to invest on your events. Mainly for corporate event planning, as

an event planner, you need to know which products and services your client would like to promote through his events.

So, even before you start planning for your corporate event, find out the answers to the following questions:

1. How does your client enterprise promote their product?

2. How does the enterprise wish to enhance their brand image

3. What is the market value of the corporate and its products?

4. Who buys their product?

5. What are the selling points of their products?

6. How they are ahead of behind of their competitors?

These questions may not be directly connected to your event planning for the corporate client, but the answers to

these questions are going to help you tremendously. When and how?
Well, all event planners know that only planning a great event is not enough until you ensure good marketing and

promotion for the event. These answers will help you immensely when you will start promoting your event.

When you use online marketing tools such as Email Marketing, Facebook and Twitter, your online event website,

word of mouth and so on, start analyzing your research findings following SWOT Analysis method.

S for strengths, W for weaknesses, O for opportunities and T means threats. Now you categorically arrange your

findings under suitable headings: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Following this method, you can find out what aspects of your client and their product can be promoted to get a

favorable impact on your prospective attendees.

The same analysis can be followed to find out what are the areas you need to focus more on while planning an event.

Collect brownies on the Strengths of your Event Management Organization:

Examples:

 You have an experienced team with high motivation level

 You use an online event management solution

 You streamline your administrative workload

 You have effective event promotion tools

Areas of Weaknesses you need to overcome or manage:

Examples:

 Lack of funds
 Inexperienced event team

 Lack of media and corporate contacts etc.

 Manual data entry

Factors allowing more Opportunities:

Examples:

 Less competition

 Support from the local authorities,

 Modern infrastructure

Mark your Threats in Red:

Examples:
  Strong competition

 Bad weather

 Backdated infrastructure

After the SWOT analysis, all highly practical information you needed to know before you plan an event will be just in

front of you. Now with the results of your analysis, you develop a strategy to maximize the prospective of your

strength points and opportunities. And on the other hand you make sure that you reduce the negative impact of the

weaknesses and threats. When you have enough time, take a step forward and find out a way to overcome your

weaknesses. Start using cloud based event management solutions which are an amazing way to streamline

administrative workload, ensure attendee satisfaction, and the success of all your events.

Management activities

• Proposal writing

• Project planning and scheduling

• Project costing

• Project monitoring and reviews

• Personnel selection and evaluation

• Report writing and presentations

Project planning

• A plan, drawn up at the start of the project, should be used as the driver for the project

• The initial plan should be the best possible plan given the available information. It must be
regularly revised as new information becomes available

Project planning process

Establish the project constraints

Make initial assessments of the project parameters

Define project milestones and deliverables

while project has not been completed or cancelled loop

Draw up project schedule

Initiate activities according to schedule

 Wait ( for a while )

Review project progress

Revise estimates of project parameters

Update the project schedule

Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables

if ( problems arise ) then

Initiate technical review and possible revision

end if

end loop

The project plan

• The project plan sets out:

– The resources available to the project

– The work breakdown

– A schedule for the work

Project plan structure

• Introduction

– Objectives, constraints (e.g., budget, time, etc…)

• Project organisation

– People involved and their roles in the team

• Risk analysis

– Possible risks, their likelihood and reduction strategies

• Hardware and software resource requirements

• Work breakdown

– Breaks down the project into activities, identifies milestones, deliverables

 • Project schedule

– Activity dependencies, estimated milestone time, people allocation

• Monitoring and reporting mechanisms

Activity organization

• Activities in a project should be organised to produce tangible outputs for management to judge
progress

• Milestones are the end-point of a process activity

• Deliverables are project results delivered to customers

• The waterfall process allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones

Project scheduling

• Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task

• Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce

• Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete

• Important to note that the schedule evolves over time. During early stages of planning, a
macroscopic schedule is developed that identifies all major SE activities. As the project gets
under way, each entry is refined into a detailed schedule where specific tasks required to
accomplish an activity are identified and scheduled