Exploring Marketing Research Strategy and Management

Question: Discuss about the Exploring Marketing Research Strategy and Management. Answer: Introduction: Each organization who expects to achieve a competitive place in the market shall carry out a research in about the market. The research includes stating about the opportunities and problem with the marketing of the product, evaluating and collecting data regarding the current market for the intended product and finally reporting about the findings and recommends the solution regarding the issues (Armstrong et al. 2014). Market research is not an easy task as various variables are there to be taken into account while researching. For example, if the organization want to introduce any new product and conduct a survey regarding that, it is very tough to figure out that whether the participants are giving honest reply or just replying positive as they feel that the surveyor prefer to get positive reply. It is not that the market research will give exact and accurate data for achieving the success, however, it gives an idea about how to proceed for getting success. Market research can be carried out for any kind of product with the target customers for the intended product (marketing, 2012). The process of marketing research is a four-step procedure that includes defining or stating the problem, developing the plan for research, collection of data and preparing the final report (Babin and Zikmund 2015). Defining the problem Defining the problem states taking the intended product or service in the market and evaluating about how the intended product will fit in the market. Part of the procedure can be van be test market for the new product to evaluate if the target customers for the intended product respond unfavourably or favourably to the product. Defining the issue regarding the intended product includes two steps that is setting the objectives and measuring the goals to be achieved (Hong and Li 2017). The main objective of the business is to increase the sales. The next objective is to set up the specific measures for success and criteria that must be used to find a solution for the issue. Through defining the problem the organization will be able to decide regarding whether they should move forward with their plan or make ant alterations in the plan (Baker 2014). Due to global financial crisis during 2008, the businesses are searching at the bottom line when it goes for financial and banking services. The small businesses who are engaged in importing, generally requires long-term loans for making payments for their import. Further, they want to protect themselves against depreciation of home currency against the country from which the import is made. However, the bank is not always in a position to provide loan for long term period. Further, the issues with most of the borrower are that they are not in a position to pledge any asset with the bank, however, the bank is not a position to provide loan without sufficient pledge as security (Malhotra, Birks and Wills 2013). Developing the research plan The next step in the marketing research is developing the plan for the research. The research plan allows solving the issues regarding the required information that will be needed for marketing decisions. The data is required to be identified for making the marketing decisions. While carrying out the research, lot of irrelevant data are collected, however the researcher must sort out the data for using making the final report. Therefore, the researcher must develop right methods and concepts for collection of data. Under the marketing concept various ideas are formed for intended service or product. Further, this gives the target customers an opportunity for getting an idea regarding the product (Boons and Ldeke-Freund 2013). For planning the research for increasing the market share of the bank, firstly, it is required to obtain the data from the target customers for their preference and requirement. For the small importers the crucial requirement is long-term fund as they have to make payments for their imports over long term period. Further, they need short-term finance for making advance payments to the importers. Another crucial issue is that as the importers are carrying out their business at small level, they do not have sufficient assets to give for pledging the loan. On the other side, the banks are not able to provide loans without security. Moreover, the term of the loan that is asked by the borrower is quite high for the provider. The banks are considering some alternatives to increase the number of borrowers and thereby increase their market shares (Bryman and Bell 2015). Collection of information Once the concepts of research method are clearly identified, the next step is to collect the data through primary data or secondary data. Under the primary research, the data is collected through personal interviews, surveys and providing questionnaires to the target audience. On the other hand, the data is collect under secondary research from various websites, journals thesis papers that are already published in the past (Strauss 2016). Here in the given situations, data is required for the market research of bank to increase their shares for providing services to the importers having sales turnover of 5 to 50 millions. The data is collected from various small importers through personal interviews and surveys. It is identified from the data that greater than 70% of the banking executives are in the view that the customers are most important factor to them. The fact is that the banking and financial sectors are struggling for earning profit from the rapid increased date. However, the banks normally use a small amount of data to improve the customers experience. For example, it is identified from the research that more than 50% of the banks analyse the external data of customers such as online behaviour and only 29% of the banks evaluate the actual requirement of the customer. It is also identified that, the importers want to borrow loans at their own terms such as the term of the loan, interest rate and allowable amo unt. For instance, the bank asks for the business proposal for granting the loan and based on the proposal only the amount of loan is decided. However, most of the times the borrower negotiates on the approved amount and in few cases, they even fail to provide the business proposal with all the details. Some of the borrower again thinks that preparing the business plan for presenting it to the bank is simply wastage of money. Therefore, they are not very keen to prepare the business plan and without the plan it is quite tough for the banks to allocate funds (Neuman 2016). Preparing final report Once the required data are collected data must be analysed and based on that the final report must be prepared. The data must be relevant for the intended purpose and ensure that the data will be related to the intended products and services. The final report simply gives the detail about the research findings and for providing recommendations on the basis of those findings. It will suggest if any alterations are required to be made in the plan or for taking further necessary actions. It is found from the report that the importers are facing the problems regarding the terms of payment and the interest rates. With high rate of interest, the small importers are not able to borrow large amount of loan as it give them more burden of repayment the loan and they will end up with repayment to the banks rather than payment to the exporters. Further, the importers feel that the interest rate offered by the bank for investing money is not satisfactory and they prefer to invest money with other forms like in share market and bonds to derive more income over short-term period and protect themselves from the risk of depreciation of domestic currency and appreciation of foreign currency. Further, some of the importers are not happy with the strict regulations of the banks for investing and withdrawing their money (Berger and Bouwman 2013). Another major issue that is faced by the importers is when they apply to bank for letter of credit and the main problem associated with that is the drafting of the documents that includes airway bills, bill of lading, the cargo type, details of cargo from where it is originating and where it is reaching. The bank requires the exact name of the counter party and the details of the sellers. Moreover, the importers need the name of the bank and account number of the counter party. If any mistake is found in the details, the letter of credit is not approved. Sometimes the importers find it very complex method whereas the bank feels it very important part. It is further found that the customers are more comfortable with the the on-line banking and mobile banking through using the app (Porter and Williams 2016). Conclusion: It is found from the above discussion that, the main issues with the importers are the interest rates, term of repayment, offered interest rate by the banks and strict regulation of the bank. With regard to all the issues, the following can be recommended to the banks for increasing their market share: Banks should make the access system easy and simple, so that more people can use the banking service with less problem and time. They can launch an app whuch will provide all services that are normally required by the customers. The charging and offering interest rate of the banks shall be differentiated based on the requirements and period of investment or borrowings They should introduce lending plan specifically for the importers keeping in mind their unique requirements. The banks should reduce their strict regulations so that more people can be able to use the banking services. One key point of success is that they must listen to the customers. They must arrange a meeting at least semi-annually with the customers where the customers will be free to discuss about their issues and requirements. If the bank can implement all the above things, they will definitely be able to achieve more customers as well as increase their market share. References: Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., and Kotler, P. 2014.Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia. Babin, B. J., and Zikmund, W. G. 2015.Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning. Baker, M. J. 2014.Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan. Berger, A. N., and Bouwman, C. H. 2013. How does capital affect bank performance during financial crises?.Journal of Financial Economics,109(1, 146-176. Boons, F. and Ldeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda.Journal of Cleaner Production,45, pp.9-19. Bryman, A., and Bell, E. 2015.Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. Hong, G. 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