Discuss Product Development Strategies

 Developing new products or modifying existing products so they appear new, and offering those products to current or new markets is the definition of product development strategy. There is nothing simple about the process. It requires keen attention to competitors and customer needs now and in the future, the ability to finance prototypes and manufacturing processes, and a creative marketing and communications plan.

This strategy is employed when a company's existing market is saturated, and revenues and profits are stagnant or falling. There is little or no opportunity for growth. A product development diversification strategy takes a company outside its existing business and a new product is developed for a new market. An example of this strategy is a company that has sold insurance products and decides to develop a financial education program aimed at college students. The new product is not revolutionary as there are other companies producing similar products, but it is new to the company producing it.

Product modification strategies are generally aimed at existing markets, although a side benefit may be the capturing of new users for the new product. An example of this strategy is toothpaste. Toothpastes that promote whitening ability or anti-cavity attributes are built on existing plain toothpastes that only promise clean teeth.

There are several subsets of product development strategy

1.      Technology/Market mix

2.      Market width

3.      Degree of innovation/Limitation

4.      Price/quality ranges

5.      Particular Promotional Requirements

6.      Inside Vs Outside Facilities

7.      Competitive Situations to be sought or avoided

8.      Production Requirements

9.      Patent requirements

10.  Speeds

11.  Pay Back Conditions

12.  Risk/failure Factors

13.  Minimum sales

14.  Need for basic research

15.  Product /service Relatedness

16. The knock opportunities

What is Marketing, Marketing Utilities, the Marketing Management Concepts, The Marketing Mix - The Four P's

 "Marketing consists of all the activities of individuals and organizations designed to identify, anticipate, and mutually satisfy the needs of all parties involved in the exchange."

Marketing cannot take place unless some sort of exchange occurs. One party must exchange a product or service with another party for some form of payment. This is the exchange process and is the central focus for all marketing activities.

Marketing Utilities

Four marketing utilities, which are the capacities of the product offering to satisfy the needs of a customer, are enhanced when exchange occurs.

These include:

1. Form Utility - The product is produced, or modified for the customer. An example of this might be a car manufacturer designing their car so that a driver will be able to plug in his I-pod or other devices.
2. Time Utility - The consumers ability to buy the product when he or she wants to buy the product. A grocer may store certain amounts of certain foods until the prime season they are bought. It is ensuring customers will have access to the food when they most desire them.
3. Place Utility - This describes when a consumer is able to buy the product at a location that is convenient to him or her. The best example of this is online sales. Home is the most convenient location for a consumer.
4. Possession Utility - Ownership of the product is transferred from the marketer to the buyer. An example is a getting a loan and then buying a car. This is concerned with the ease of transferability for the consumer.

The Marketing Management Concepts

There are four marketing management concepts that companies will utilize in their marketing objectives. All of these aim to achieve profits and objectives, but the focus and means by which they do so will differ. They will typically follow one of these four major concepts:

1. Product Concept - This management orientation says that if you build a quality product and set a reasonable price, very little marketing effort is needed to sell it. The product generates the demand "build it, and they will come"
2. Selling Concept - This management orientation says that consumers will not normally buy enough of a product unless it is aggressively promoted to them.
3. Marketing Concept - This management orientation says the major purpose of an organization is to identify consumer needs and then adapt the organization in a way that will satisfy the customers needs more effectively and efficiently than competition. (i.e. Chain restaurants may alter their menu in different countries)
4. Societal Concept - This management orientation focuses on satisfying consumers needs and demonstrating long run concern for societal welfare in order to achieve company objectives and attend to its responsibilities for society. The idea is to find a balance between social welfare, consumer needs, and company profits.

Concept	Focus	Means	Ends
1. Product	Products	Quality product, reasonable price, little marketing effort	Achieve profits or objectives by products generating consumer demand
2. Selling	Products	Aggressive advertising and selling efforts	Achieve profits or objectives by generating sales volume
3. Marketing	Customer needs	Integrated marketing	Achieve profits or objectives through customer satisfaction
4. Societal-Marketing	Customer satisfaction and long run public welfare	Constant search for better products in terms of appeal and benefit	Satisfy organizational goals and responsibilities for society

Traditional vs. Integrated Marketing

To understand the fundamentals of marketing, it is important to understand two different approaches used when a company chooses to introduce a new product. Here we see traditional and integrated marketing.

There are typically 5 different departments directly involved with the product during creation and launch: Development, Engineering, Production, Marketing, and Distribution.

If a company opts to use a traditional approach, all of these departments work as separate entities. For example, development will draw up a product and then pass it along to engineering to create it. Engineering will then pass it along to production mass produce it. They will afterwards pass it to marketing, who will eventually move the product to distribution for a product launch.

If a firm opts to utilize an integrated marketing approach, all of the departments work together as a single unit. Engineering will not begin a product without ensuring that production has the capabilities to produce it. Development will check with marketing to ensure the product is line with the company image and approach. Basically, every department will at some point integrate their work with all other departments in the process.

Clearly, integrated marketing is the better approach. While it may take longer to launch a product, the likelihood of success is greater. The traditional approach leaves much room for interdepartmental conflicting interest and is therefore regarded as an outdated approach in marketing. It all too often ignores the consumers needs. The integrated marketing approach helps a business work collectively as one unit.

Perceived Value and Satisfaction

A customers perceived value is equal to the benefits derived divided by the costs.

Value = Benefits/Costs

Further, benefits can include functional and emotional benefits. Costs may include monetary costs, time costs, energy costs, and psychic costs.

So,

Value =

Functional benefits + emotional benefits / monetary cost + time cost + energy cost + psychic costs

Satisfaction is a person's feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products performance in relation to the person's expectations of performance.

Most expectations are derived from past buying experiences, friends, the marketer, peers, competitors, and promises of performance.

It is also important to keep in mind that a person is twice as likely to tell others about a negative product or experience than they are about a good product or positive experience. Dissatisfied customers can also have a negative impact on employee morale.

The Marketing Mix - The Four P's

There are four marketing mix variables that are associated with a product. These must be taken into consideration when making any decisions regarding marketing activities. These are often known as the "Four P's" in marketing. Note that these should only be identified after a target market is selected. All marketing mix variables are controllable, internal factors. These include:

1. Product - This variable described all factors relating to the actual product visible to the consumer. These may include things such as quality, features, options, style, packaging, brand, sizes, labels, variety, and warranties.
2. Price - The price variable includes not only the list price, but all other pricing factors associated with a product. These may include discounts, allowances, payment options and periods, and credit terms. All of these are related to the final, whole price of the product.
3. Place - Place deals with all distribution and location aspects of a product. How and what are the products available to consumers? These may include assortments, channels, coverage areas, locations, and inventories.
4. Promotion - Promotion is any and all efforts by a company to make publicize a product and make the consumer aware of it. Efforts might include advertising, personal selling, sales, public relations, or internet activities.

The marketing mix should only be determined after a target market is determined.

Target market = The group or groups of customers for which the marketer will direct attention. This group is determined after thorough segmentation and analysis of the market. (more on segmentation in part 2)

External Factors

While the marketing mix consists of factors that are controllable by a company, there are numerous external factors that must be taken into consideration when scanning the environment the product or service is marketed in. The company can do nothing about these in the long run, but can react to them in the short run. They will certainly impact what the marketer can do.

External Factors (Uncontrollable)

• Demographic environment - The features of a country that can be statistically described
• Economic environment - The financial and economic conditions in a country will determine demand for any and all products.
• Competitive environment - The intensity of competition in the market the business is in cannot be controlled.
• Physical environment - Availability, use, and disposal of natural resources
• Technological environment - Determines how the marketing should be done. What medium should be used?
• Political and legal environment - Laws and restrictions may be set by various government agencies in regard to competition, consumer protection, or societal welfare.
• Social/Cultural environment - What is acceptable in what culture may not be acceptable in another.
• Company related environment - Goals and objectives of top Gethsemane and company as a whole

Challenges of bank marketing:

 1) Technology: Marketing by private sector banks and foreign banks is more effective than public sector banks because these banks are IT oriented. Private sector banks and foreign banks are attracting more customers by providing e-services. Thus, technology has become a challenge before the public sector banks.

2) Untrained Staff: Often it happens that when a prospective customer approaches the branch, the employees seem to have very little knowledge about the scheme. This reflects an ugly picture of our bank’s image. Banks are not losing one prospective customer but 10 more customers who would be touch of this man. Attitude of the employees towards customers is also not very well. Thus, it is a need of time to reorient the staff.

3) Rural Marketing: This is a big challenge before the commercial banks to enhance rural marketing to increase their customers. Banks should open their branches not only in the urban and semi-urban areas but also in the rural areas.

4) Trust of Customers: Marketing can be enhanced only by increasing the customers. Customers can be increased or attracted only by winning the trust of the customers.

5) Customer Awareness: Customer awareness is also a challenge before the banks. Bank can market their products and services by giving the proper knowledge about the product to customer or by awarding the customer about the products. Bank should literate the customers.

Explain the factors to be considered in determining the advertising media

 FOLLOWING   ARE   THE   FACTORS   THAT  ARE  CONSIDERED IN DETERMINING THE ADVERTISING

 1)  Corporate objectives:

Using the  objective  task  method,  linkage  between advertising  expenditure  and corporate   objective   will   be   established.   The   advertising   expenditure   varies depending upon  corporate philosophy and priorities. For example in  India, we find  that  public sector corporations such as  BEST  or the  Mahanagar Telephone Nigam  Ltd  spend  less  on  advertising  than  private  sector  companies  such  as Reliance Industries or Tata Industries.

 2)  The product Life Cycle:

This has a very important influence on the ad budget and companies use the brand history method for deciding how to spend on the product.

 3)  The budgeting  period:

Usually  companies  have  a  yearly  budget  but  some  may  prepare  long  term budget that match the long-term objectives.

 4)  The competitors  strategies:

Product categories, which  have stiff competition,  witness  a  greater expenditure on  advertising. For example, in India television  manufacturers  spend more than the  manufacturer  of  ear  buds.(manufactured  mainly  by  Johnson  &  Johnson  ). When  competitors  increase  their  advertising  expenditure  others  are  forced  to follow them.

 5)  Affordability:

While the affordability level depends upon the advertisers priorities ceilings on how much to spend is fixed by the advertisers in order to avoid overspending.

 6)  Crisis management:

Even  the  best-laid  plans  can  be  affected  by  the  changes  in  the  marketplace. Advertisers  have  to  keep  aside  contingency  funds  that  can  be  used  to  tackle unexpected market challenges.

Discuss Product Development Strategies

 Developing new products or modifying existing products so they appear new, and offering those products to current or new markets is the definition of product development strategy. There is nothing simple about the process. It requires keen attention to competitors and customer needs now and in the future, the ability to finance prototypes and manufacturing processes, and a creative marketing and communications plan.

This strategy is employed when a company's existing market is saturated, and revenues and profits are stagnant or falling. There is little or no opportunity for growth. A product development diversification strategy takes a company outside its existing business and a new product is developed for a new market. An example of this strategy is a company that has sold insurance products and decides to develop a financial education program aimed at college students. The new product is not revolutionary as there are other companies producing similar products, but it is new to the company producing it.

Product modification strategies are generally aimed at existing markets, although a side benefit may be the capturing of new users for the new product. An example of this strategy is toothpaste. Toothpastes that promote whitening ability or anti-cavity attributes are built on existing plain toothpastes that only promise clean teeth.

There are several subsets of product development strategy

1.      Technology/Market mix

2.      Market width

3.      Degree of innovation/Limitation

4.      Price/quality ranges

5.      Particular Promotional Requirements

6.      Inside Vs Outside Facilities

7.      Competitive Situations to be sought or avoided

8.      Production Requirements

9.      Patent requirements

10.  Speeds

11.  Pay Back Conditions

12.  Risk/failure Factors

13.  Minimum sales

14.  Need for basic research

15.  Product /service Relatedness

16.  The knock opportunities

Product Development aims are reducing costs. Justify this arguments

 Principles of cost reduction are well established. These begin with a classification of costs: 

Manufacturing costs, total costs and lifecycle costs. We then proceed with the methods of cost Reduction in each of the areas. Cost management is necessary in the development of innovative and high performance products - products about which customers would be enthusiastic, and which fulfil the market requirements. It makes more sense to lower the costs right at the beginning of product development, rather than afterwards by the usual steps of personnel reduction when the costs are found too high.

Management's primary goal in cost reduction is to lower the fixed costs. On one hand, their goal is to improve the company's earning power, since a considerable part of a company's reserves are in its fixed costs (frequently more than 50% of its total costs). Concurrently, the breakeven quantity with which the company can generate profits is lowered, so there is more flexibility. By doing so, the company gains product development freedom in the market and becomes more resistant to market fluctuations. 

Product development has an influence on cost generation in a series of other company processes that should not be underestimated. First, there is the production process. The logistics and service processes in the company are also cost-relevant, the costs of which also depend considerably on decisions during product development.

 2.1 Reducing product development costs

The costs of product development consist of a number of different components. Whatever the models for assigning costs might be, personnel costs are the decisive portion of the product development costs, depending on the company's strengths in design and development.

Therefore, personnel performance is a defining factor. These costs must be seen as fixed costs in the company because in the short run it is hardly feasible to reduce personnel simply in response to market changes. Besides the pure cost considerations, the strategic importance of innovative in-house product development is also to be taken into account when thinking about product development costs.

It is necessary to carefully select projects and tasks to be worked on and to focus on projects important for the company.

 2.2 Establishing focal points of product development activities

In many companies, too many tasks and too many projects are regarded as urgent and necessary, and are pursued more or less simultaneously. The results thus do not satisfy expectations because the company's capacities are overwhelmed by too many projects; high priority problems dominate the daily agenda. The company needs to develop a system for prioritizing projects, bearing in mind the requirements of the market as well as questions of profit and return on investment.

The company's strategic direction should be the primary criterion in decisions about prioritizing projects. Therefore, integrated considerations are called for, not just the isolated viewpoints of product development, marketing, or customer service. The profit orientation of project work must not be considered a constraint but, rather, as the condition that creates the necessary room for basic product development and innovations. The entire company, not only the product developers, must consider setting and prioritizing the goals for product development.

What are the Process of Product Development

 The creation of products with new or different characteristics that offer new or additional benefits to the customer.

Product development may involve modification of an existing product or its presentation, or formulation of an entirely new product that satisfies a newly defined customer want or market niche.

In business and engineering,  product development (PD) is the complete process of bringing a  product to market. Product development is described in the literature as the transformation of a market opportunity into a product available for sale^[1] and it can be tangible (that is, something physical you can touch) or intangible (like a service, experience, or belief). A good understanding of customer needs and wants, the competitive environment and the nature of the market represent the top required factors for the success of a  product.^[2] Cost, time and quality are the main variables that drive the customer needs. Aimed at these three variables, companies develop continuous practices and strategies to better satisfy the customer requirements and increase their market share by a regulate development of new products. There are many uncertainties and challenges throughout the process which companies must face. The use of best practices and the elimination of barriers to communication are the main concerns for the management of PD process.

8 STAGES OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

It is important to understand that there is no one generic product development process and that each rendition of such a process will vary depending on the depth and detail that each explanation covers. This article explains 8 stages of the product development process and these are listed below.

1. Idea Generation: The first stage in the product development process is idea generation. In this stage, the company comes up with many different and unique ideas based on both internal and external sources. Internal idea sources more often than not refer to the in-house research and development teams of the company and external sources refer to competitor innovations, the customer wants, distributors and suppliers, and so on. The company thereby focuses on coming up with as many feasible ideas as possible. 
2. Idea Screening: The next stage involves the screening of this often-large set of ideas. The primary objective of this stage is to focus on ideas that are in line with the company’s customer value and financial goals. The stage focuses on the filtering out of ideas that are poor or are not feasible and retain those that have good potential. This is to ensure that the company does not face losses by moving ahead with fickle ideas that do not promise adequate returns.
3. Concept Development and Testing: The third of the product development process steps is concept development and testing. In this stage, the good product ideas must be developed into detailed product concepts that are conveyed in consumer-oriented terms. The concept must be made in order to project the product in terms of how it is perceived by consumers and how it will potentially be received in the market and by which set of potential customers. This concept must then be tested by presenting it to the target consumers and their response must be taken into account.
4. Development of Marketing Strategy: The new product development process in marketing is covered in stage four. In this step, the company tries to come up with strategies to introduce a promising product into the market. The company must therefore come up with the price, potential revenue figures as well as advertising and distributing channels in this step.
5. Business Analysis: The product concept is put through a vigorous business analysis or test in order to ascertain projected sales and revenue and also assess risk and whether the production of the product is financially feasible. The company’s objectives are considered and if these are satisfied, the product is moved on to the next step.
6. Product Development: This is the step that comes after the management of a company declares a product concept to be in line with the goals of the company and issues green light for development. The research and development wing of the company then works on the product concept for many months and even years in some cases, to come up with a working and functional prototype of the product concept.
7. Test Marketing: This is the penultimate stage of the new product development process and involves the testing of the product and its suggested marketing program in realistic market settings. This stage provides an insight into how the product will be introduced into the market, advertised, produced, packaged, distributed, and eventually sold to the customers, and therefore any optimizations if required can be made by the company. 
8. Commercialization: The final step of the product development process is that of commercialization. Based on the information gathered during the test marketing process, the business management may either decide to go ahead with the launch of the product or put it on the backburner. In case the go-ahead is given, the product is finally introduced into the market and this process is called commercialization. This stage often leads to massive costs in terms of initial infrastructural investments as well as sales promotions and advertisements. 

CONCLUSION

The primary focus of the entire product development process is to generate superior customer value and ensure that the product is well received in the market. More importantly, every company needs to properly evaluate the kind of commitment that the product production calls for and whether or not such a commitment can be undertaken by it based on the financial and administrative resources available at its disposal. This 8-stage product development process is by no means an absolute structure that makes or breaks a product but it certainly offers an excellent starting point for all businesses that are looking to launch a product into the market.

Interested to learn all about Product Management from the best minds in the industry? Check out our Product Management Course. This 6-month-long program takes place online through live instructor-led sessions. It is the only program in India that offers the ‘Bring Your Own Product (BYOP)’ feature so that learners can build their product idea into a full-blown product, and go through an entire Product Development lifecycle. Not only this, but this is the only program in India with a curriculum that conforms to the 5i Framework. Post completion, learners receive a joint certification from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, and Jigsaw Academy.

 

Describe the three categories into which the marketing strategic projects fall

 Most research can be divided into three different categories; exploratory, descriptive and causal. Each serves a different end purpose and can only be used in certain ways. In the online survey world, mastery of all three can lead to sounder insights and greater quality information. Over the next couple weeks we’ll be taking a look into all these forms of research and how you can incorporate each in your organization’s strategies for improvement and growth as well as measuring your company’s level of success. Today, let’s do a quick overview of all three types of research, and how they fit in a research plan.

Exploratory Research

Exploratory research is an important part of any marketing or business strategy. Its focus is on the discovery of ideas and insights as opposed to collecting statistically accurate data. That is why exploratory research is best suited as the beginning of your total research plan. It is most commonly used for further defining company issues, areas for potential growth, alternative courses of action, and prioritizing areas that require statistical research.

When it comes to online surveys, the most common example of exploratory research takes place in the form of open-ended questions. Think of the exploratory questions in your survey as expanding your understanding of the people you are surveying. Text responses may not be statistically measurable, but they will give you richer quality information that can lead to the discovery of new initiatives or problems that should be addressed.

Descriptive Research

Descriptive research takes up the bulk of online surveying and is considered conclusive in nature due to its quantitative nature. Unlike exploratory research, descriptive research is preplanned and structured in design so the information collected can be statistically inferred on a population.

The main idea behind using this type of research is to better define an opinion, attitude, or behavior held by a group of people on a given subject. Consider your everyday multiple choice question. Since there are predefined categories a respondent must choose from, it is considered descriptive research. These questions will not give the unique insights on the issues like exploratory research would. Instead, grouping the responses into predetermined choices will provide statistically inferable data. This allows you to measure the significance of your results on the overall population you are studying, as well as the changes of your respondent’s opinions, attitudes, and behaviors over time.

Causal Research

Like descriptive research, causal research is quantitative in nature as well as preplanned and structured in design. For this reason, it is also considered conclusive research. Causal research differs in its attempt to explain the cause and effect relationship between variables. This is opposed to the observational style of descriptive research, because it attempts to decipher whether a relationship is causal through experimentation. In the end, causal research will have two objectives: 1) To understand which variables are the cause and which variables are the effect, and 2) to determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables and the effect to be predicted.

For example, a cereal brand owner wants to learn if they will receive more sales with their new cereal box design. Instead of conducting descriptive research by asking people whether they would be more likely to buy their cereal in its new box, they would set up an experiment in two separate stores. One will sell the cereal in only its original box and the other with the new box. Taking care to avoid any outside sources of bias, they would then measure the difference between sales based on the cereal packaging. Did the new packaging have any effect on the cereal sales? What was that effect?

Steps of Marketing research Process

 Some of the major steps involved in marketing research process are as follows: 

1. Identification and Defining the Problem 

2. Statement of Research Objectives 

3. Planning the Research Design or Designing the Research Study 

4. Planning the Sample 

5. Data Collection

 6. Data Processing and Analysis 

7. Formulating Conclusion, Preparing and Presenting the Report.

Marketing research exercise may take many forms but systematic enquiry is a feature common to all such forms. Being a systematic enquiry, it requires a careful planning of the orderly investigation process.

Though it is not necessary that all research processes would invariably follow a given sequence, yet marketing research often follows a generalized pattern which can be broken down and studied as sequential stages.

The various stages or steps in the marketing research process are discussed below:

1. Identification and Defining the Problem:

The market research process begins with the identification “of a problem faced by the company. The clear-cut statement of problem may not be possible at the very outset of research process because often only the symptoms of the problems are apparent at that stage. Then, after some explanatory research, clear definition of the problem is of crucial importance in marketing research because such research is a costly process involving time, energy and money.

Clear definition of the problem helps the researcher in all subsequent research efforts including setting of proper research objectives, the determination of the techniques to be used, and the extent of information to be collected.

It may be noted that the methods of explanatory research popularly in use are—survey of secondary data, experience survey, or pilot studies, i.e., studies of a small initial sample. All this is also known as ‘preliminary investigation’.

2. Statement of Research Objectives:

After identifying and defining the problem with or without explanatory research, the researcher must take a formal statement of research objectives. Such objectives may be stated in qualitative or quantitative terms and expressed as research questions, statement or hypothesis. For example, the research objective, “To find out the extent to which sales promotion schemes affected the sales volume” is a research objective expressed as a statement.

On the other hand, a hypothesis is a statement that can be refuted or supported by empirical finding. The same research objective could be stated as, “To test the proposition that sales are positively affected by the sales promotion schemes undertaken this winter.”

Example of another hypothesis may be: “The new packaging pattern has resulted in increase in sales and profits.” Once the objectives or the hypotheses are developed, the researcher is ready to choose the research design.

3. Planning the Research Design or Designing the Research Study:

After defining the research problem and deciding the objectives, the research design must be developed. A research design is a master plan specifying the procedure for collecting and analyzing the needed information. It represents a framework for the research plan of action.

The objectives of the study are included in the research design to ensure that data collected are relevant to the objectives. At this stage, the researcher should also determine the type of sources of information needed, the data collection method (e.g., survey or interview), the sampling, methodology, and the timing and possible costs of research.

4. Planning the Sample:

Sampling involves procedures that use a small number of items or parts of the ‘population’ (total items) to make conclusion regarding the ‘population’. Important questions in this regard are— who is to be sampled as a rightly representative lot? Which is the target ‘population’? What should be the sample size—how large or how small? How to select the various units to make up the sample?

5. Data Collection:

The collection of data relates to the gathering of facts to be used in solving the problem. Hence, methods of market research are essentially methods of data collection. Data can be secondary, i.e., collected from concerned reports, magazines and other periodicals, especially written articles, government publications, company publications, books, etc.

Data can be primary, i.e., collected from the original base through empirical research by means of various tools.

There can be broadly two types of sources

(i) Internal sources—existing within the firm itself, such as accounting data, salesmen’s reports, etc.

(ii) External sources—outside the firm.

6. Data Processing and Analysis:

Once data have been collected, these have to be converted into a format that will suggest answers to the initially identified and defined problem. Data processing begins with the editing of data and its coding. Editing involves inspecting the data-collection forms for omission, legibility, and consistency in classification. Before tabulation, responses need to be classified into meaningful categories.

The rules for categorizing, recording and transferring the data to ‘data storage media’ are called codes. This coding process facilitates the manual or computer tabulation. If computer analysis is being used, the data can be key punched and verified.

Analysis of data represents the application of logic to the understanding of data collected about the subject. In its simplest form analysis may involve determination of consistent patterns and summarizing of appropriate details.

The appropriate analytical techniques chosen would depend upon informational requirements of the problem, characteristics of the research designs and the nature of the data gathered. The statistical analysis may range from simple immediate analysis to very complex multivariate analysis.

7. Formulating Conclusion, Preparing and Presenting the Report:

The final stage in the marketing research process is that of interpreting the information and drawing conclusion for use in managerial decision. The research report should clearly and effectively communicate the research findings and need not include complicated statement about the technical aspect of the study and research methods.

Often the management is not interested in details of research design and statistical analysis, but instead, in the concrete findings of the research. If need be, the researcher may bring out his appropriate recommendations or suggestions in the matter. Researchers must make the presentation technically accurate, understandable and useful.

How Can you Define Marketing Research

 Marketing research is "the process or set of processes that links the consumers, customers, and end users to the marketer through information — information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications."^[1]

It is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal of marketing research is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior. The term is commonly interchanged with market research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that market research is concerned specifically with markets, while marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes.^[2]

Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs, either by target market:

• Consumer marketing research, and
• Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research

Or, alternatively, by methodological approach:

• Qualitative marketing research, and
• Quantitative marketing research

Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding the preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in a market-based economy, and it aims to understand the effects and comparative success of marketing campaigns. The field of consumer marketing research as a statistical science was pioneered by Arthur Nielsen with the founding of the ACNielsen Company in 1923.^[3]

Thus, marketing research may also be described as the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing

How do typically bank in Bangladesh segments their market? Judge the Effectiveness in terms of standard requirements for effective segmentation

 Market segmentation is a common marketing practice that means breaking down a larger target market into smaller, more manageable market segments to improve marketing efficiency, sales and service. Several common segmentation strategies exist. While small banks often service local geographic areas and demographics segmentation is often sensible, banks can often best define market segments based on product benefits when they offer multiple types of products.

Standard Banking

One of the largest common benefit segments offered by a bank is for its standard checking and savings banking products. Many banks promote these basic products on their website home pages. Historically, standard checking and standard savings accounts were sold separately. However, many banks have attempted to bolster relationships with their standard banking customers by developing packages whereby customers get added value by combining a checking and savings account and often better interest rates with automatic checking-to-savings transfers. Banks often target consumers in this segment through traditional media like radio, television, newspapers and magazines.

High-end Savings

High-end savings is typically a step up from the standard checking and savings customer. High-end savings products may include higher dollar value money market and savings accounts, certificates of deposits and other long-term savings products intended to derive great monetary value from customers. These products are sometimes marketed through traditional means, but they are also often marketed to existing standard customers who may have interest in moving up in savings value at some point.

Loans

For many banks, loans are a huge segment of banking operations. Home loans and auto loans make up a significant portion of bank lending, but equity loans, student loans and personal loans are also common. Loan products are typically advertised separately from the bank's other products. Banks may promote home loans through local real estate publications or resources. Auto loan offers make sense in car-related media. Banks also cross promote by marketing loan products to existing banking customers and even offering better rates with bundled products.

Investment

A fast-growing segment in traditional banks is in the investment product sector. Traditionally, individual investors have had to set up separate investment accounts with niche investment banks. With the evolution of the Internet in the early 21st century and many more people managing their own stock, bond and other investments, traditional banks have expanded significantly into this sector. Again, banks can market investment solutions to existing customers with bundled benefits. They can also advertise through local media, but they may deliver more targeted messages through investment-related publications.

Commercial Products

Banks segment customers into two general categories before breaking down those markets into product benefits: consumers and businesses. Some companies focus entirely on consumer products; others do only commercial banking. However, many traditional banks market to both types and offer products in similar areas for businesses because of their normally larger size and scope regarding money management.

Judgment its effectiveness for standard requirements for effective segmentation

Marketing Strategy : Improving marketing effectiveness can be achieved by employing a superior marketing strategy. By positioning the product or brand correctly, the product/brand will be more successful in the market than competitors’ products/brands. Even with the best strategy, marketers must execute their programs properly to achieve extraordinary results.

• Marketing Creative : Even without a change in strategy, better creative can improve results. Without a change in strategy, AFLAC was able to achieve stunning results with its introduction of the Duck (AFLAC) campaign. With the introduction of this new creative concept, the company growth rate soared from 12% prior to the campaign to 28% following it. (See references below, Bang)
• Marketing Execution : By improving how marketers go to market, they can achieve significantly greater results without changing their strategy or their creative execution. At the marketing mix level, marketers can improve their execution by making small changes in any or all of the 4-Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) (Marketing) without making changes to the strategic position or the creative execution marketers can improve their effectiveness and deliver increased revenue. At the program level marketers can improve their effectiveness by managing and executing each of their marketing campaigns better. It's commonly known that consistency of a Marketing Creative strategy across various media (e.g. TV, Radio, Print and Online), not just within each individual media message, can amplify and enhance impact of the overall marketing campaign effort. Additional examples would be improving direct mail through a better call-to-action or editing web site content to improve its organic search results, marketers can improve their marketing effectiveness for each type of program. A growing area of interest within (Marketing Strategy) and Execution are the more recent interaction dynamics of traditional marketing (e.g. TV or Events) with online consumer activity (e.g. Social Media). (See references below, Brand Ecosystems) Not only direct product experience, but also any stimulus provided by traditional marketing, can become a catalyst for a consumer brand "groundswell" online as outlined in the book Groundswell.
• Marketing Infrastructure (also known as Marketing Management) : Improving the business of marketing can lead to significant gains for the company. Management of agencies, budgeting, motivation and coordination of marketing activities can lead to improved competitiveness and improved results. The overall accountability for brand leadership and business results is often reflected in an organization under a title within a (Brand management) department.
• Exogenous Factors : Generally out of the control of marketers, external or exogenous factors also influence how marketers can improve their results. Taking advantage of seasonality, interests or the regulatory environment can help marketers improve their marketing effectiveness.

What are its contribution in service marketing

 • Almost every company has a customer base that consists of a minority group who is responsible for its majority of profits. It is imperative to recognize this minority. In a study carried out by Joint Market Research, it was discovered by Procter & Gamble that 56% of its total revenue came from regular shoppers who constituted a minor 14%. The occasional shoppers group, which formed a major 86%, contributed only 44% of revenues. Further, many of the occasional shoppers did not exhibit any loyalty for P&G products.

• It is 5-10 times costlier to get a new customer than to retain an existing one. Even more, companies on an average lose 20% customers, annually, despite best efforts. Studies indicate that increasing customer retention by 50% results in a profit increase of at least 25%. Therefore, more focus should be on growing business by retaining existing customers that bring in real value.

Customer differentiation should be based on a judicious balance of the value the company creates for the customer and the value the customer brings in for the company. But, how do you evaluate the value of your customer? You do it by calculating his/her contribution to the company throughout the customer life-cycle.

While the contributions of your customer to the firm in the past are significant, these statistics alone should not form the basis for calculating the customer’s lifetime value. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a reliable metric employed by organizations to evaluate the future worth of a customer.

Customer Lifetime Value is the total of all the financial profit a customer brings in for the firm, calculated from the existing period to the future (revenues – costs incurred). Employing CLV, managers can derive actionable information that enables them to design strategies for customers that really matter in the long-run rather than focusing solely on increasing short-term profits. CLV is significant as it provides the following crucial insights:

• Any company has only limited resources and it is natural to want to use it for customers that bring them maximum profits. To allow such investment, you need to exactly know the cumulative cash flow a particular customer would give you throughout his/her life-term. CLV equips you with such information using you can know how much would go into retaining a customer to maximize ROI.

• Once you recognize your most profitable customers using CLV, you can optimize the allocation of your resources for maximum profits. You can also customize your future marketing strategies for a specific audience.

Relationships begin to fragment and cease to grow when there are no mutual benefits for the parties involved. Therefore it is important that you make your ‘most important’ customer relationships valuable through effective retention while achieving your financial objectives.

What do you mean by concept life time value of a customer

 In marketing, customer lifetime value (CLV) (or often CLTV), lifetime customer value (LCV), or user lifetime value (LTV) is a prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. The prediction model can have varying levels of sophistication and accuracy, ranging from a crude heuristic to the use of complex predictive analytics techniques.

Customer lifetime value (CLV) can also be defined as the dollar value of a customer relationship, based on the present value of the projected future cash flows from the customer relationship. ^[1] Customer lifetime value is an important concept in that it encourages firms to shift their focus from quarterly profits to the long-term health of their customer relationships. Customer lifetime value is an important number because it represents an upper limit on spending to acquire new customers.^[2] For this reason it is an important element in calculating payback of advertising spent in marketing mix modeling.

One of the first accounts of the term Customer Lifetime Value is in the 1988 book Database Marketing, which includes detailed worked examples.^[3] Early adopters of Customer Lifetime Value models in the 1990s include Edge Consulting and Brand Science.