The Need for Market Research in Contemporary Business Environment Essay

The Need for Market Research in Contemporary Business Environment - Essay Example Today the customers demand the best worth out of each penny that they spend and this is because of the growing globalization and the increasing competition. Today customers have as many alternatives for a single product as they never have had in the past. This phenomenon has empowered the customers to a great extent and has given rise to the need for research. Companies spend major chunks of their budgets on research today. Research does not only reveal facts about customer psyche but also guide the researchers and the sponsors to the gaps and unidentified niches in the market, thus opening new horizons of opportunities and profitability to be taken advantage of (Stearns, 2006). Research outcomes serve as guidelines to the researchers in order to lay down a road map for future decision making of the business/organization. In today’s’ world businesses cannot afford to base their decisions on gut feeling and guesses. It’s time to be precise and accurate. The cause and effect relationship needs to be studied while making even the smallest of decisions. Research provides the decision makers to base their decision making on solid basis and rational grounds. The outcomes of researches help businesses build strategies and also monitor the anticipated performance by comparing it with the actual and studying the lapses incurred and the probable corrective measures that can be adopted before it’s too late (Sekaran, 2010). Dependable and solid outcomes do not come voluntarily in fact research is a whole world of technical analysis and execution and thus it is required to be conducted in great depth with a predetermined plan and objective in mind. Research is a delicate and sensitive art, because the outcomes of research are used for future... This essay discusses that with the advancement of technology and emergence of the concept of consumerism to the surface, customers have become ever more dominant and powerful in the marketplace. Nowadays all the companies shed off myopic ideas and try to incorporate consumer’s will in the decision making process. This is particularly important because customer satisfaction is the ultimate objective that leads to profitability and endurance in organizations. To attain stability, organizations spend millions of dollars today on their Research and Development departments to get the best and most accurate knowledge regarding consumer behaviour and expectations. This knowledge and information is utilized by organizations in improving their processes to meet the demands and requirements of the customers and thus deliver a â€Å"wow experience† every time the customer interacts with the offering. In other words, this shall not be exaggeration to state that, research is one of the key pillars to success of an organization, in the contemporary market dimensions. Any idea or tactic backed up by research findinngs is more durable and dependable then something that is implemented out of the blue. Research does not only assist organizations in deciding which route to success shall be adopted, in fact contingency measures and sporadic adjustments to deviations and evaluation of the implementation are some of the broad areas that are addressed at length by researches

Mills and Boons Collaboration with the RFU Case Study

Mills and Boons Collaboration with the RFU - Case Study Example There are various ways of segmenting the market. There are mainly four bases on which a consumer market can be segmented. The geographical segmentation is based on the area and the population's characteristics of the segment. Then there are demographical factors that include the age, gender, income and status of family and other related factors (Stanton, Etzel, 2003). Psychographic factors are the attitudes of the people in the market segment, whereas behavioral segmentation is the price, brand loyalty and price of the product. Demographic factors are a useful indicator because the marketer would need to see that what age group reads the novels of Mills and Boon. Normally the age bracket of its novel readers is between 18 to 34 years of age. Age is an important characteristic because the demands of an individual changes with time and therefore it is necessary for the product to fulfill the desires of each one of the changing demands. The novel should have something for everyone. Their target is females who are more inclined towards romantic novels. The idea behind this deal between Mills and Boons and RFU is to increase the female readership of Boons and Mills novels. By including the rugby players as the heroes of these novels, it will make them more attractive and appealing for young women who are educated and who would love to see the energetic, glamorized players as the romantic heroes. This is expected to boost the demand for the novels as those who already read them will get an extra flavor to it, wh ereas even the sports fans might just go ahead and buy these novels. The marketer will have to access the psychographic factors in the market because only those will be willing to buy these novels who either love to read romantic fiction or are a sports freak. People who are not into reading and sports will not care to pay attention to it at all. Moreover who are risk takers would like to try to read something different and look forward to the new subject. Also the buying of the romantic novels depends on the mind set of an individual, the lifestyle and the culture altogether. Behavioral factors can also be utilized to segment the market for readers. For this the kind of people to be targeted will have extensive knowledge related to the subject therefore while marketing the novel to them the marketer will need to satisfy them. The there are habitual buyers who have a passion for romantic novels. There will be some people for whom the price will be a consideration and can affect their decision making, while there will be some who would buy it out of brand loyalty (Kotler, Armstrong, 2003). These factors can be utilized by Mills and Boons and RFU in order to divide the market into segments and then come up with an appropriate marketing strategy for each one of them. This will help to allocate resources effectively and make work easier. Question - 2 Mills and Boon was founded in the year 1908. Over the period of time it has