A report on Marketing Intelligence

A requirement for the BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) in business

Prepared by .. .. Prepared for

Md. Anwarul Hoque .

Date of Submission .

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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Requirement 01 ............................................................................................................................................. 4 1.1: stages of the purchase decision making process ................................................................................ 4 1.2: theories of buyer behavior: ................................................................................................................ 5 Generic Theory of Buying Behavior ..................................................................................................... 5 Cultural Theory of Buying Behavior .................................................................................................... 5 Environmental Theory of Buying Behavior .......................................................................................... 5 Internal Theory of Buying Behavior ..................................................................................................... 5 1.3: factor affecting buyer behavior: ......................................................................................................... 6 1.4: Relationship among brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchase ......................................... 6 Requirement 02 ............................................................................................................................................ 7 2.1 Marketing research techniques: ......................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Sources of secondary data: ................................................................................................................. 8 2.3 Validity and Reliability in marketing research findings: ...................................................................... 8 2.4 Marketing research plan: .................................................................................................................... 9 Requirement 03 ........................................................................................................................................... 10 3.1: market trend size within a given market .......................................................................................... 10 3.2: competitor analysis for nestle in chocolate Market: ........................................................................ 10 3.3: the key opportunities and threats of KitKat brand of Nestle ........................................................... 11 Opportunities: ......................................................................................................................................... 11 Threats: ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Requirement 04: .......................................................................................................................................... 12 4.1: Techniques of assessing customer response .................................................................................... 12 Customer home survey........................................................................................................................ 12 Customer Service Questionnaire ......................................................................................................... 12 Customer Suggestions and expectations ............................................................................................. 12 4.2: Designing of a customer satisfaction survey.................................................................................... 12 4.3: Success of a completed survey: ....................................................................................................... 13 Requirement 05: .......................................................................................................................................... 13 5.1: Example of a problem ...................................................................................................................... 13 5.2: Different product strategies of different companies ........................................................................ 13 2|Page

5.3: Logical and coherent argument ........................................................................................................ 14 Requirement 06: ......................................................................................................................................... 14 6.1 Limitation of Recommended Market Technique: ............................................................................. 14 6.2 & 6.3 Planning a Training Session for Representatives:.................................................................... 15 References ................................................................................................................................................... 17

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Marketing Intelligence system

Introduction
Now-a-days organizations have to compete in a competitive market where creation of customer loyalty base through the continuous service providing is the main factor. First, organization has to develop a research strategy where it tries to identify the hidden needs or motives of the customers which help it to design the desired product of customers, then company has to take pricing decision about the product depending on the results figured by the research execution. Distribution and promotion strategy also help organization to reach product to the doorstep of the customers and to create awareness among the targeted customers. Most of all, strategic designing of the marketing mix helps organization to attract more customers and to create large pool of customers by creating customer loyalty and brand image of the corporation.

Requirement 01
1.1: stages of the purchase decision making process
Buyers take purchase decision by going though the five stages of purchase decision process. These five stages are need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behavior of the customers (Kotler and Armstrong, 2012). But customers do not always follow all the stages of purchase behavior in case of purchase decision. Five stages are shortly described below: In the need recognition stage, customers recognize a need or problem that can be influenced by the internal or external stimuli. In case of internal stimuli, needs rise to the drive by hunger, thirst, or sex. External stimuli are advertisement, influence of friends or peers. Then customers start to search the information necessary to fulfill the needs arouse in the need recognition stage (Bruner and Gordon, 1988). Information can be collected from personal source (family, friends or neighbors), different advertisement, company websites, public sources, or from the experiential sources.
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In evaluation of alternative stage, the customers use the collected information to decide the best brand which will fulfill the demand. Here customers may give priority to sophistication or pricing or quality. Then customers take purchase decision by selecting best alternatives which is able enough to fulfill his needs. And in the post purchase decision, customers take further decision depending on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

1.2: theories of buyer behavior:

Generic Theory of Buying Behavior

In this behavior the buyer will take purchase decision by executing research on product and price. If the performance of the product is good then buyer will take to buy these products in future again. Erasmus et al. (2001) said that buyer evaluates the alternatives, features of the products, its quality and price.
Cultural Theory of Buying Behavior

Culture is the main influential factor in case of taking purchase decision. According to this theory, buyers take purchase decision depending on values and beliefs which stimulate to take purchase decision. Here occupation, income, education, opinion leader influence to take purchase decision.
Environmental Theory of Buying Behavior

According to this theory, buyers take purchase decision without considering the other factors of buying behavior. Buyers take purchase decision without considering the choice or price but this kind of purchase happens when customers look for convenient store or shop without considering the preferable brand (Bagozzi et al., 2000).
Internal Theory of Buying Behavior According to this theory, buyers take purchase decision according to the personal view or personality which motivates them to take purchase decision. The lifestyles, peers behavior also influence the buying behavior of the buyers.

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1.3: factor affecting buyer behavior:

There are many factors which affect the buying behavior of customers. These are cultural, social, personal and psychological. Cultural factors include culture, subculture and social class. Social factors include family, reference group, and role and status of the buyers which stimulate buyer to purchase. Personal factors include age and life, occupation, economic situation, self concept and personality, standard of living (Snoj et al. 2004). Psychological factors are motivation, perception, learning and beliefs and attitudes which psychologically influence the buyers to take purchase decision.

1.4: Relationship among brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchase
Customers make repeat purchase decision only after he/she get satisfied with the products or services of that product which can be created by providing continuous service. Martenson (2007) stated that customer loyalty is the biasness of the customers to the specific products of any company or commitment which created over the supply of continuous supply. If brand loyalty is created then customers will repurchase the product. Corporate image is created with the help of the marketing managers who help to build corporate image by taking promotional activities and other means of promotion to uphold a mental picture of the company which also help to take repurchase decision.

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Requirement 02
2.1 Marketing research techniques:
For collecting different types of information about customers, markets and competitors marketer need to use different types of techniques. For this reason the marketing research techniques is also vary. Methodologically, marketing research uses four types of techniques for collecting information. Those arequalitative research techniques, quantitative research techniques, observational and experimental research techniques.

Source: Own Creation Quantitative research use random sampling techniques, test of hypothesis techniques for obtaining results. On the other hand qualitative research use focus groups, depth interviews, and projective techniques for gathering required information. In the observational research researcher use several observation techniques like product-use analysis and computer cookie traces for observing social phenomenon. In the experimental research, researcher use test marketing technique to obtain necessary information which they want. By experimenting the customers buying behavior researcher find out the desired results. In most of the cases researcher use more than one technique for conducting research properly and obtaining required information.

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2.2 Sources of secondary data:

The form of data, which is already been collected and readily available as well as cheap and quickly obtainable is called secondary data. Such kind of data is used to get a preliminary understanding about market and target population. There are two source of collecting secondary data. Those are:
Internal source: Accounting resources, Sales force forecast, miscellaneous reports. External source: Government publications, Non-government publications, Annual reports.

For obtaining marketing research objective researcher need to analyze market, target customer, competitor and internal and external environment. Collecting information through using primary day is a long process thats why marketer uses secondary data for collecting primary infor mation about market. By using internal source of secondary data researcher can easily predict about future happening and also using external source researcher get primary information which is published in different books and journals and also news available in websites.

2.3 Validity and Reliability in marketing research findings:

Reliability means the expectation of finding the same results each time the measurements are used (Nargundkar, 2003). On the other hand validity is concerned about the expectation of the findings

and the actual findings of the research (Denzin and Lincoln 2000). Validity and reliability is very
important in every research which illustrates the sincerity and dedication of the research and shows how accurately he/she conducted the research (Saunders et al. 2007). Here the researcher tried to keep the research more informative and used diffident valid method of analyzing data which make the research a valid and reliable one. To reduce the biasness, the researcher used different sorting of the questionnaires so that respondents can answers without any biasness. Some questions are executed using strongly agree to the strongly disagree which help to reduce the biasness and to answer by thinking about the questions.

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2.4 Marketing research plan:

For preparing a marketing plan about introducing the watermelon juice in Bangladeshi market first researcher need to define the purpose of research that means why this research is conducted. Then they need to conduct literature reviews for gathering the previous information like the production of watermelon. Then they determine the basic problem of research and select research topics like Problem and prospects of watermelon juice in Bangladeshi market. In the next stage researcher need to design the research and determined related assumption and hypothesis. In this case the hypothesis could be consumer accept the new watermelon juice cordially. On the basis of research design the researcher will start data collection through using several techniques. In the next steps collected data will be processed and analyzed thoroughly. Then the researchers find out a result and interpret it to the firms authority. In the last step researcher evaluate the result sharply and make some recommendation regarding the research.

Source: Knnear and Taylor, 1996, p.17.

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Requirement 03
3.1: market trend size within a given market
This section will discuss about chocolate market trend and Size in UK Market. The current Market Volume of UK chocolate Market is estimated 4500m which is expected to grow at annual rate of 5.5%. The market is experiencing a shift in trend in terms of product and customer. The key trends of the chocolate market observed recently are as follows Seasonality: Chocolate market is quite seasonal and cyclical. But the market becomes more fragile in economic recession. Emergence of alternative makes the chocolate is making the chocolate market more vulnerable. Leverage with Old Product: Due to high failure rate of new product, the chocolate companies have to bet on their old favorite branded chocolate Increased Price: due to increase in price of raw coco, the producers of chocolates are forced to increase price to maintain their margin of safety. Concentrated Market: as demand for luxury chocolate is on the rise, the market is becoming more concentrated in the hand of branded producer. 3.2: competitor analysis for nestle in chocolate Market: The key competitors in the chocolate market for nestle are Cadbury Trebor Basset and Master Food. Cadbury holds 35.3% Market share and Mars holds 30% Market share in UK Market. Main market segment served by Mars and Cadbury are Boxed, Countlines, Moulded Bar, Seasonal Chocolate and Straightline. Cash cow of Cadbury is dairy milk and for Master food is Mars(Br,2004). The billion dollars chocolate brands of Mars are M&MS, SNICKERS,

DOVE/GALAXY, MARS/MILKY WAY and TWIX. The leading brands of Cadbury includesStarbar, Boost , Dairy Milk, Snak and Timeout. The major markets for Mars are Europe, United States, China and Middle East. And Major Markets for Cadbury are North America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Cadburys main strength is its reputation as top brand and key weakness is liquidity crisis within the company. Key strength of Marsh is wide market presence and key weakness is expensive price of the product.

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3.3: the key opportunities and threats of KitKat brand of Nestle Opportunities:
Huge opportunities in the developing Market which are experiencing growth in per capita consumption Growing appetite of consumers for branded food items as consumers are becoming more health conscious. Opportunity to launch new product line with same brand name to make a successful product extension. Acquiring startups specialized in producing substitute product of chocolate The opportunity of sponsorship with world renowned event like mega sports event and festival.
Threats:

Entrance of established food brand in branded chocolate market which will intensify competition Currency manipulation which will put the company in a quandary what pricing policy to be pursued. Competition with many startups which are specialized in serving the niche segment. Rising the price of coco will put the KitKats company in a pressure to maintain its expected margin Consumption Contraction due to economic austerity

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Requirement 04:
4.1: Techniques of assessing customer response
Assessment of customer response helps Company to collect necessary information from the customers and deciding on which suggestions can better be used to satisfy these customers. Company has to introduce, modify, market expansion, market development depending on the feedback of the customers (Gautam and Singh, 2008). Survey, questionnaires and customer suggestions help a company to collect necessary information from the customers.
Customer home survey

Home customer survey is used to collect information to better know the needs and expectations of the customers. This survey is conducted using mail, email, phone survey or home survey which helps company to figure out the feelings of the customers about the products of the company and their opinions about the products after purchasing the products.
Customer Service Questionnaire

This service questionnaire is used to figure out the effectiveness of the company in conducting complicated problems or complaints of customers. This is executed when customers approach to the company with a complaint. Then the employees of the company ask them questions about the store experiences or provide them with a questionnaire to fill in which illustrate the perception of the customers about the company.
Customer Suggestions and expectations

Caceres and Paparoidamis (2007) cited in their articles that customers most of the time gives
constructive suggestions related to the product, price, promotion and distribution which help the company to design its strategies accordingly to better satisfy the needs of the customers. This helps company to understand the preferences of the customers about a product, market and promotion. Many companies use suggestion forms where customers give their suggestion related to the marketing mix.

4.2: Designing of a customer satisfaction survey

For better understanding about the customer satisfaction survey, the writers used a survey questionnaire (see appendix 01) which illustrates the range of different questions to figure out the hidden motives of the customers. Here the writers used the combination of likert scale and open-

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ended questions to understand various responses of customers. Here the writers used sorting of questions to reduce the biasness of the customers.

4.3: Success of a completed survey:

There are many benefits of a completed survey depending on the objectives of the survey. The outcomes of the survey help company to develop different strategies to attract new customers along with serving the existing one. It also helps organization whether organization should new market or not, whether company should enter in the new market with existing product or existing market with new product (Bennett and

Rundle-Thiele, 2002). It also helps company to take decision regarding the pricing strategies; whether
company should change the pricing strategy or not along with the marketing mix, it helps company by providing information about the satisfied pool of customers who are loyal to the organization.

Requirement 05:
5.1: Example of a problem
Ford of America is a classic example of not making target marketing appropriately. Not only ford but also other US car makers also did same blunder. Ford was in a fix which target marketing strategies to pursue. Due to not having appropriate targeting strategies Ford lost market share to Japanese car makers especially to Toyota. Panca (2013) found that Ford became in the trap of stuck in the middle as neither the company have flexible manufacturing which would help them to go with undifferentiated strategy nor the company had enough sophistication in auto products to make a differentiated strategy. They were in the middle of both differentiated and undifferentiated target strategy but this awkward strategy did not work as it was not targeted any specific market segment hence did not create appeal among customers. Ford also could not develop any niche target market to serve which was subject to strong focus on any specific sub segment of customer group which successfully made by other automobile manufacturer.

5.2: Different product strategies of different companies

Dyer (2000) said that Toyota successfully applied product strategy to enter in the luxury car market. Its Lexus series is very renowned in upper layer of automobile market. Adding exceptional feature which is beyond just durability rather more customized with customer needs gives Lexus competitive advantage in the product market (Jarvis and Logue D., 2012). Another Successful product strategy is made by Samsung which transited its smartphone from mass
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market to luxury market. Continuous R &D help the company to make a quantum leap in smartphone market with lunching Galaxy Series. Patel (2012) said that Lux of Unilever can also be symbol of successful product strategy which is continuously performing well in matured beauty soap market by unparalleled diversification strategy. The Toyota strategies become successful due to introduction of its Lean Production System and process innovation. Samsung strategies are becoming success as the company is able to duplicate many features of electronic product for its smartphone and also due to successful imitation of giant brand cost cheaply (Hill and Jones, 2009). Unilevers success in Lux soap is attributed to its marketing team.

5.3: Logical and coherent argument

KitKat should continue in it product strategy which is mainly based on line extension and the company should also go for product extension to leverage success of KitKat. Utterback (2007) observed that as global economy is becoming more and more unified, the chocolate brand should choose uniform pricing policy all over the world which will eliminate smuggled trading due to arbitrage profit opportunity. Br D (2004) opined that Pricing policy is also subject to the rural segment which is still untapped. Anon (2012) suggested that to sustain promotion strategy, Nestle should choose the media which are more interactive with the customer and will help in consumer engagement (Nestle, 2012). Developing a Kitkat community will also help to promote more effectively. In case of placing strategy, as rural market is considered as next frontier, development of extensive distribution network will help the company to reach the ultra-poor people.

Requirement 06:
6.1 Limitation of Recommended Market Technique:
For measuring customer satisfaction one of the most popular technique is survey methods where data is collected through framing questionnaires. Fink and Kosecoff (1985) stated that survey method is a method of gathering data through asking different types of questions to the target respondents for obtaining desired information. Franklin and Osborne (1971), is also agreeing with Fink and Kosecoff (1985) and claimed that, survey method of data collection is more subjective than other methods because data is collected from potential respondents whom are able to provide the desired information. He also added that by applying survey method it is possible to describe the specific aspects of a given population. Any kinds of techniques have both advantages and limitations. Survey method also has some limitations. 14 | P a g e

Mcmillan and Schumacher (1989), states that, the main limitation of survey method is high degree of biasness. He claimed that in the whole survey procedure both respondents and interviewer made self biasness regarding answering the questions. Oppenheim (1992) argued the statement given by Mcmillan and Schumacher (1989) and he raised question that is if survey method is full of biasness so why most of the researcher use this method for collecting primary information. Snaith (1993), states the limitation of survey method from different perspective and he said that sometimes respondents are unable to answer the questions due to lack of knowledge and time. For mitigating those limitations careful framing of questionnaires is played an important role. Proper selection of respondents as well as careful data collection process can mitigate those problems.

6.2 & 6.3 Planning a Training Session for Representatives:

Training is the process of developing employees skills and knowledge for enhancing their ability to perform the work more effectively and efficiently (Kidman and Hanrahan, 1997). Planning is the process of deciding in advance what to be done in the future. Thats why for conducting an effective training session it is most important to plan the whole training program. For planning the program effectively a specific procedure should be followed. Following process can be used for planning the training session effectively:

Source: Own creation In the very first step I will first determine the training needs of representatives. In this step I try to identify the training needs from organizational perspective as well as individual and group perspectives. In the next steps I will try to develop training program where I will decide which kind of techniques and tools I will use in the training session. Here I will also determine the standard against which I will measure the training performance of representatives. The next step will discuss about how to deliver the training program. Here I will deliver the training instruction to the representatives and also guided them to acquire the desired knowledge. In the last step of training process I will evaluate the whole training process and

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give necessary feedback for improving themselves for future programs and also evaluate the costeffectiveness of training session.

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References
Anon (2012), Marketing Mix of KitKat, (Online), Accessed on (April 15, 2013), Available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/29057720/Marketing-Mix-of-Kit-Kat Bagozzi, R., et al., (2000), Cultural and Situational Contingencies and the Theory of Reasoned Action: Application to Fast Food Restaurant Consumption, Journal of Consumer Psychology, vol. 92, (2), pp. 97-106 Br D., Pinheiro S., Ribeiro P., Turpeinen J. (2004), The future in the food markets, Competitive Intelligence, UBI

Bennett, R. and Rundle-Thiele, S. (2002), A comparison of attitudinal loyalty measurement approaches, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 9(3), pp. 193-207 Bruner and Gordon. C (1988), problem recognition style and information source importance: study and replication, Akron business and economic review, vol. 19(1), p. 41 Caceres, R. C. and Paparoidamis, N. G. (2007), Service quality, relationship satisfaction, trust, commitment and business-to-business loyalty, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 41(7/8), pp. 836-867 Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2000), The discipline and practice of qualitative research, Handbook of Qualitative research, 2nd Edition, London: Sage Dyer J. (2000), Creating and Managing a High Performance Knowledge-Sharing Network: The Toyota Case", Strategic Management Journal Erasmus, A. C., et al., (2001), Consumer decision-making models within the discipline of consumer science: a critical approach, Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences, vol. 29, pp. 82-90.
Fink. A. and Kosecoff. J. (1985), How to Conduct Surveys. Newbury Park CA, Sage Publications Inc. Franklin B and Osborne H. (1971), Research Methods: Issues and Insights. Belmont NY, Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc.

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Gautam. N. and Singh. N. (2008), "Lean Product Development: Maximizing the Customer Perceived Value through Design Change (Redesign)", International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 114, Issue 1, pp. 313-332, Hill C. W. L and Jones G. R. (2009), Samsung changes its Business Model Again and Again, (8thed), Theory of Strategic Management with Cases, S0UTH-WEASTERN pp: 183-184 Jarvis W. and Logue D., (2012), Is the Toyota way the only way? online, Available at http://theconversation.com/is-the-toyota-way-the-only-way-6652 (Accessed on May 1, 2013)
Kidman, L. and Hanrahan, S. (1997), The Coaching Process:a Practical Guide to Improving Your Effectiveness. The Dunmore Press Ltd, Palmerston North, Kinnear T.C. and Taylor R. (1996), Marketing Research, an Applied Approach, The Drydeu Press. P. 17.

Kotler. P and Armstrong G. (2012), Principles of Marketing, Prentice Hall, pp. 136-155 Martenson, R. (2007), Corporate brand image, satisfaction and store loyalty, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol.35 (7), pp. 544-555
Mcmillan JH and Schumacher S. (1989), Research in Education- A Conceptual Introduction. Glenview IL, Scott, Foresman & Co.

Nargundkar, R. (2003), Marketing Research, India: Tala McGraw-Hill Education. Nestle (2013), About KitKat, Worldwide Official Website of KitKat, (Accessed on April 15, 2013), Available at http://www.KitKat.com/about.aspx
Oppenheim AN. (1992), Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. London, Pinter Publications.

Panca

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(2013)

Toyota

VS

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Production

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online

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at

http://www.scribd.com/doc/45909866/Toyota-vs-Ford#download (Accessed on May 1, 2013) Patel B. (2012), Analysis of Lux Beauty Soap (online) Available at

http://www.mbaskool.com/business-articles/marketing/1506-an-analysis- (Accessed on May 1, 2013)

Snaith P. (1993), What do depression rating scales measure? British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 163, pp. 293-296. 18 | P a g e

Snoj. B, Korda. A. P. and Mumel. D., (2004), "The Relationships among Perceived Quality, Perceived Risk and Perceived Product Value", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 13, Issue 3, pp. 156 167 Utterback J. et al. (2007), Design Inspire Innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Appendix 01:

Customer satisfaction questionnaire

Name: Email: Contact no:

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Please read the questions carefully and check the answer you find most appropriate & please answer all the questions listed below. Part A Instructions: Please put the tick mark () on the right answer choice (s). 1. Age: 18-30years 2. Sex: Male Part B Instruction: Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each by using the following scale. 1= strongly disagree 4=Agree 2= Disagree 5= strongly agree 3= Neutral Female 30-40 years 40-50 years 50-up years

SI No

Statement

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly agree

4.

The quality of the products of X 1 company is satisfactory

5.

X company provide satisfactory 1 services

experience

and

good

store

6.

The employees of X company 1 are very friendly and polite

7.

Staffs of X company are very 1 informative

Customers are treated fairly in all 1 the times

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Part -C

10. Staffs of X Company are very cooperative which stimulate repeated purchase. 1) Yes 2) No 3) Neutral 3) Neutral

11. X company is successful in creating brand loyalty 1) Yes 2) No

13. Loyalty of X company helps in attracting new customers along with serving existing customers. 1) Yes 2) No 3) Neutral

14. Customer loyalty of X company is higher than any other company providing same service. 1) Yes 2) No 3) Neutral

15. Which one from the following gets your top priority while you think about purchasing products from X comany? 1) quality product 2) price and store experience 3) All of the above 5) None of the above 16. Do you have any suggestions regarding the service quality of X company? Please detail below:

Thank you for your participation

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