Functions of Marketing Research

The various functions of marketing research are as follows:

1. Description:

Marketing research give full description about the consumers. It describes their age, sex, education, income, etc. It also gives a description about the competitors and the market situation. This description is used to take marketing decisions and solve marketing problems.

2. Evaluation:

Marketing research helps to evaluate the company's performance, It helps to evaluate the company's production and marketing policies. It helps to evaluate to the quality of the product, price, packaging. advertising, sales, promotions techniques, etc. If the consumer reactions are bad, then the company must change its policies. It also compares the company's policies with the competitors policies.

3. Explanation:

Marketing research gives explanations (answers) for all the marketing problems, For example, it answers in detail, why are the sales falling, why are the retailers giving negative reaction, etc. It gives all the causes or reasons for the problem. It also tells how to solve the problem.

4. Prediction:

Marketing research also gives predictions. Predictions mean to forecast or guess about the future marketing environment, future consumer behavior, etc. All the prediction may not be correct. However, these predictions help the company to make future plans and policies. It helps to make advantage of future opportunities. It also helps to avoid future risks.

5. Aid in Decision Making:

Marketing research helps the marketing manager to 

Online Marketing

Online Marketing:

Online marketing is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. It ties together creative and technical aspects of the internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Online marketing is the process of promoting an organization using online media, typically with the goals of increasing sales and boosting profits. Internet marketing does not simply mean building or promoting a website nor does requires a comprehensive stategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with their website function & appearance, focusing on their target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Online Marketing Channels:

Online Marketing refers to marketing of your product or service over the internet. Online Marketing allows you to promote your products and services online at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

Online Marketing involves different business models. One is direct selling to buyer, another by generating involves different business models. One is direct selling to buyer, another by generating leads to websites and even a model called affiliate marketing in which product is developed by one person and sold by another with an arrangement for profit sharing.

Objectives of Online Marketing:

Online marketing can serve several purposes:

1. Actual Sales of Products:
Products are ordered , sale and purchase online through internet. Many sites like amazon.com, eBay involve in actual sales of products.

2. Promotion/Advertising:
Customers can be quite effectively targeted in many situations because of the context that they, themselves, have sought out. 

3. Customer Service:
The sites may contain information for those who no longer have their manuals handy and, for electronic products provide updated drivers and software patches.

4. Market Research: 
Data can be collected relatively inexpensively on the Net.
However, the response rates are likely to be very unrepresentative and recent research shows that it is very difficult to get consumers to read instructions. This is one of the reasons why the quality of data collected online is often suspected.

Functions of Marketing Channels

Functions of Marketing Channels:

There are following major distribution or marketing channel functions as given below

1. Information Provider:
Middlemen have a role in providing information about the market to the manufacturer. Developments like changes in customer demography, psychography, media habits and the entry of a new brand and changes in customer preferences are some of the information that all manufacturers want. Since these middlemen are present in the market place and close to the customer they can provide this information at on additional cost.

2. Matching Buyers and Sellers:
The most crucial activity of the marketing channel members is to match the needs of buyers and sellers. Normally, most sellers do not know where they can reach potential sellers. From this perpective, the role of the marketing channel to match the buyers' and sellers' needs becomes very vital. For example, a painter of modern art may not know where he can reach his potential customers, but an art dealer would surely know.

3. Time and Place Utility:
Channels of distribution help the consumers to buy goods at the time and place they need them. They create time and place utilities to the buyer. Thereby reducing the spatial discrepancy in the buying space.

4. Assortment of Products:
This activity leads to the customer convenience because channels of distribution help the consumers to buy goods in convenient units, lots,packs and assorted varieties of the products. in order to use the economies of scale and to minimise  the overall production cost, goods and services are product in bulk. But these goods and services consumed in smaller quantity so there is essentially the need of breaking the bulk. This job is carried out by channel intermediaries. 

5. Price Stability:
Maintaining Price stability in the market is another function a middlemen performs. Man\a time the middlemen absorb an increase in the price of the products and continue to charge the customer the same old price. This is because of the intramiddlemen competition. The middleman also maintains price stability by keeping his overheads low.

6. Promotion:
Promoting the products in his territory is another function that middleman perform. Many of them design their own sales incentive programmes, aimed at building customers traffic at the other outlets. Channels of distribution perform promotional activities like advertising, Personal selling and sales promotion etc. so as to assist the producer in achieving greater market share in sales and market coverage of the product.

7. Financing:
Middlemen finance manufacturers operation by providing the necessary working capital in the form of advance payments for goods and services. The Payment is in advance even though the manufacturer may extend credit, because it has to be made even before the products are bought, consumed and paid for by the  ultimate consumer.

8. Title:
Most middlemen take the title to the goods, services and trade in their own name. This also enables middlemen to be in physical possession of the goods, which in turn enables them to meet customer demand at very moment it arises.

9. Help in Production Function:
The producer can concentrate on the production function leaving the marketing problem to middlemen who specialise  in the profession. Their services can best utilised for selling the product.The finance, required for Organising marketing can profitably be used in production where the rate of return would be greater. 

10. Matching Demand and Supply:
The chief function of intermediaries is to assemble the goods from many producers in such a manner that a customer can affect purchases with ease! The goal of marketing is the matching of segments of supply and demand.

11. Pricing:
In pricing a product, the producer should invite the suggestions from the middlemen who are very close to the ultimate users and know what they can pay for the product.Pricing may be different for different markets or products depending upon the channel of distribution.

12. Standardising Transactions:
Standardising transactions is another function of marketing channels. Taking the example of the milk delivery system, the distribution is standardised throughout the marketing channel so that consumers do not need to negotiate with the sellers an any aspect, whether it is price,quantity, method of payment or location of the product. By standardising transactions, marketing channels automate most of the stages in the flow of products from the manufacturer to the customers.

13. Provide Salesmanship:
Marketing channels also provide salesmanship. In particular, they help in intriducting and establishing new products in the market. In many cases, buyers go by the recommendations of the dealers. The dealers establish the products in the market through their persuasive selling and person to-person communication. They also provide pre-sale and after sale service to the buyers.

14. Assist in Merchandising:
Merchandising is another important function performed by marketing channels. Through merchandising, they help reinforce the awareness about the product among customers. When a customer visits  a retail shop, his attention can be allured by an attractive display of the product/brand increasing his awareness and interest.Merchandising especially display, complements the selling efforts of the company and acts as a silent salesman at the retail outlet.

15. Provide Market Intelligence:
Channels provide market intelligence and feedback to the principal. In the nature of things, channels are in a good position to perform this task, since they are in constant and direct contact with the customers. They feel the pulse pf the market all the time.

Nature /Characteristics of Channel of Distribution

Nature/Characteristics of Channel of Distribution:

1. Route or pathway:
Channel of distribution is a route or pathway through which goods and services flow from the manufactures to consumers.

2. Flow:
The flow of goods and services is smooth and sequential and usually unidirectional.

3. Composition:
It is composed of intermediaries, such as, wholesalers, retailer, agents, distributors etc.,also called middlemen who participate in the flow voluntarily.

4. Functions:
The intermediaries perform such functions which facilitate transfer of ownership, title and possession of goods and services form manufacturers to consumers.

5.Remuneration :
The intermediaries are paid in the form of commission for the 
services rendered by them. The same is compensated by the manufacturer in the form of commission allowed by the manufacturer or added in the price of the goods sold.

6.Time Unity :
As they bring goods to the consumers when needed.

7. Convenience Value:
As they bring goods to the consumers in convenient shape, unit, size, style and package.

8. Possession Value:
As they make it possible for the consumers to obtain goods with ownership title.

9.Marketing Tools:
As they serve as vehicles for viewing the marketing organisation in its external aspects and for bridging the physical and non-physical gaps which exist in moving goods from the producers to the consumers.

10. Supply Demand Linkage:
As they bridge the gap between the producers and consumers by resolving spatial (geographical distance) and temporal (relating to time)discrpancies in supply and demand.

Marketing Channel

Manufacturers normally use intermediaries for taking their products to the users. The inter-mediaries bear a variety of names. Chart 28.3 presents a list of the commonly used names.

All such intermediaries constitute the marketing channel. The manufacturer's branch of-fices, depots, warehouses and showroom too form part of the marketing channel. Where institutional channels like chain stores, super markets, etc., are used by the firm, they too form part of the marketing channel of the firm.

Channels play a pivotal role in marketing, they perform a number of vital distribution functions. Their importance emanates from the functions performed by them.

Firms rely on the marketing channels for generating customer satisfaction and for achieving differentiation over competitors. Channels are thus a vital source of competitive advantage for the firm.

Meaning 

A channel of distribution is a group of individuals and organisations that direct the flow of products from producers to customers. The main function of this element is to find out appropriate ways through which goods are made available to the markets.

Definitions:

According to American Marketing Association,"A channel of distribution or marketing channel is the structure of intra company organization units and extra company agents and dealers, wholesalers and retailers through which a commodity, product or services is marketed.

According to Philip Kotler, "Every producer seeks to link together the set of marketing intermediaries that best fulfil the firm's objectives. This set of marketing intermediaries is called the marketing channel (also trade channel or channel of distribution)".

Direct Marketing and Features

Meaning of Direct Marketing:

Direct marketing is the process by which a firm approaches its customers on one to one basis and markets its products directly to them . In conventional marketing , a firm approaches the customers on a mass basis and sells to them indirectly.

It communicates one-on-one with existing festival or event-goers via mail , the telephone or the internet. It relies on organisers developing a list of people who previously attended the event and obtaining knowledge about their demographic profile and preferences. Incentives for consumers to provide information may include entry in a competition and the receipt of next year's event programme. Organisers can purchase lists of potential event consumers form direct marketing agencies.

Definition:

According to Direct Marketing Association of USA,"Direct marketing is an interactive system of marketing which uses one or more advertising media to affect a measurable response and transaction at any location".

Features of Direct Marketing:

Successful direct marketing is based in four types of characteristics /feature. These are targeting,interaction, control and continuity, or TICC for short,as shown in figure. The figure can be looked at either as four triangles or alternatively as one triangle inside another. These features are discussed below.

1. Targeting:
It refers to the selection of the recipients of the marketer's message, whatever media they may use, be it broadcast media, print advertising, direct mail , or telemarketing of sales calls. They may be targeting our established customers, identified prospects or a much larger audience of suspects.

2. interaction:
It has been placed in the centre. It includes the stimuli marketers produce in the hope of eliciting a response from the people in the target market. Their response is also included in the interaction triangle . In all cases marketers will attempt to attribute a response to the correct stimulus.

3.Control:
It is the management of marketing system .It includes setting objectives, planning at the strategic and operational level, budgeting and assessment of results. The process is cyclical,future planning being informed by past results . The completeness of the data within the interaction triangle will be crucial to the exercise of control.

4.Continuity.
It is about retaining customers, cross-selling other produts and upgrading them. Marketers'painstaking care in recording interaction enables them to coomunicate with customers ,recognising their interest and showing appreciation of their past customs.

Major Tools in Public relation

Major Tools in Public relation :

By using proven public relations tools and activities, you can promote positive attitudes and behaviors towards your business that will help convert interested consumers into customers.

Public relation tools are very cost-effective, and often give you a greater degree of control than more broadly targeted advertising campaigns. Consider using these Public relation tools to build your business's reputation.

1. Media relations:
Media strategies focus on circulating messages through media channels to manage how your business is portrayed by the media tools might include releasing media statements and fact sheets, offering on-site media tours to encourage journalists to report positive messages about your business, and using social media to get the attention of journalists and track journalists who report in your media to:

2. Advertorials:
Advertorials are advertisements in the form of news stories or reviews in newspapers. Advertorials allow you to associate your advertising with the credibility of the newspaper.  

Many businesses employ advertising or marketing professionals to help them develop TV advertorials which are commonly used as a form of advertising and product placement.

3. Social media:
Social media lets you bypass the media and go straight to your customers. Using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allows you to follow and be followed by journalists, drive web traffic, manage issues by responding quickly to criticisms or negative perceptions, and increase exposure for your business brand. Learn more about social media and your business.

4. Brochures and catalogues:
Take home or mail out brochures or catalogues can help keep your customers thinking about your business and its products and services.

Properly designed brochures and catalogues give customers confidence in you and your brand , and help drive customers to your website or store. Information contained in business brochures and catalogues can be effectively reworked for your website, helping you do business online.

5. Business events:
Events are opportunities for business people to gain exposure for their businesses, promote new products or services and make sure accurate information reaches targeted customers.
from a sales point of view, events are a chance to counter customer doubts and build customer confidence. They can also help you research your market and competitors, and build your mailing list. Make sure you go to the event prepared with marketing materials to disseminate and a way to collect information and customer details.

6. Speaking engagements:
Speaking at events where customers are likely to attend helps position you as a leader or innovator in your field. As a business owner or leader, building your reputation as an expert also builds the reputation of your business and draws new customers.

7. Sponsorships or partnerships:
Partnerships and sponsorships  are good for business. Supporting a not-for profit cause can help build feelings of goodwill and loyalty towards your business. Community partnerships may involve an exchange of funds or in-kind benefits to grow a local community organisation in return for benefits that promote your business reputation . Partnerships can help consumers identify your brand with good business practice and good ethics.

8. Employee relations:
Your staff are ambassadors for your business and brand. Many larger businesses conduct employee relations-building their business culture and team relationships by sharing information, promoting involvement and instilling a sense of pride in business achievement. This can improve teamwork, staff retention and productivity, and ensure that staff are representing your business consistently and with the right messages.

9. Community relations;
Building good relationship with members of the community where you do business helps build customer loyalty.Find out where the customers in your community live by collecting postcodes at point of sale.