UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

IVTH SEMESTER BCOMLLB(Hons.) PROJECT REPORT

ON
“DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES AND METHODS OF
MARKETING RESEARCH”
FOR THE SUBJECT OF FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT
2020-21
SUBMITTED TO:
Ms. SHAFALI
U.I.L.S
PANJAB UNIVERSITY
SUBMITTED BY:
NIRUPAM KAUR
ROLL NO- 292/19
BCOM LLB (Hons.)
SECTION– E
SEMESTER 4
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this presentation required a lot of guidance,
assistance and supervision and I am extremely privileged to have got this, all
along the completion of my presentation. All that I have done is only due to
such direction and assistance.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to almighty who provided me such a
fortunate opportunity to study this respective course in UILS, PU. I thank my
professor Ms. Shafali Ma’am for providing me with an opportunity to do this
project report and presentation on “Different Techniques and Methods of
Marketing Research”.
Secondly, I would thank my parents who provided me with the resources
required to complete this project report I will also thank my sibling and friends
who helped me in completing the said project on time.

NIRUPAM KAUR
 INTRODUCTION
Market research is defined as the process of evaluating the feasibility of a new product
or service, through research conducted directly with potential consumers. This method
allows organizations or businesses to discover their target market, collect and
document opinions and make informed decisions. Market research can be conducted
directly by organizations or companies or can be outsourced to agencies which have
expertise in this process.
Primary purpose of conducting market research is to understand or examine the
market associated with a particular product or service, to decide how the audience will
react to a product or service. The information obtained from conducting market
research can be used to tailor marketing/ advertising activities or to determine what
are the feature priorities/service requirement (if any) of consumers.
Marketers contemplating a research project must decide exactly what they are looking
for. A formal statement of the problem and the research objective will help in deciding
the methods to be selected or conducting marketing research. The research undertaken
in marketing field may be quantitative or qualitative.
The quantitative research attempts to observe the behaviour of various marketing
components in a statistic manner using data, the effort is to find out What? How?
Where? and when? a consumer buys a product or service. On the other hand, the
Qualitative marketing research tries to find out the answers as to why a consumer
behaves in a particular way. It tries to understand the sub-conscious and unconscious
mind of the consumer. An effort is to find out the cause and motives for a specific
consumer behaviour.
Objectives of Marketing Research
A market research project may usually have 3 different types of objectives.
1. Administrative: Help a company or business development, through proper planning,
organization, and both human and material resources control, and thus satisfy all
specific needs within the market, at the right time.
2. Social: Satisfy customer’s specific needs through a required product or service. The
product or service should comply with the requirements and preferences of a customer
when it’s consumed.
3. Economical: Determine the economical degree of success or failure a company can
have while being new to the market, or otherwise introducing new products or
services, and thus providing certainty to all actions to be implemented.
 TECHNIQUES OF MARKETTING RESEARCH
Quantitative research relies more on direct questioning, quantitative data
collection and, therefore, mathematical analysis. Contrary to this, qualitative
research believes in psychological methods and techniques of measuring the
consumer behaviour. Marketing research can be undertaken through the
following techniques:
MARKETING RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

1.SURVEY 2. OBSERVATION
TECHNIQUE TECHNIQUE

3. 4. DEPTH
EXPERIMENT INTERVIEW
TECHNIQUE
5.
PROJECTIVE
TECHNIQUE

1. SURVEY TECHNIQUE
Survey methods refer to all methods of obtaining the needed information through
asking the questions to the respondents. This method is, therefore, known as the
‘questionnaire’ method.
Professors Tull D.S. and Hawkins D.I. define survey method as “the systematic
gathering of information from the respondents for the purpose of understanding
and/or predicting some aspects of behaviour of the population of interest”.
Two significant factors affect the effectiveness of a survey method:
1. Wording of questionnaire must be such that desired information can be obtained
accurately and unbiasedly.
2. Ability and willingness of the respondent to give accurate and unbiased
information. There are three major methods of conducting a survey the ways to reach
the respondents for getting the desired research information.
A. Personal Interview: Personal interview is the process of communication where
face to face contact between the investigator and the respondent is established. It is the
conversation arranged for the purpose of obtaining views of the respondent on the
topic of interest to the interviewer. Under this method, the investigator presents the
questionnaire in person either at the residence or at the office of the respondent. Being
active participant, he establishes a close rapport with the respondent and motivates
him or her to answer all the questions satisfactorily.

Merits:
It is a superior method:
1.Personal interview method is superior to mail and telephone interview methods
because, it has two special features of its own. Answer is not only on asking and
Personal observation can easily be made by the interviewer.
2.Maximum information is sought: Maximum and accurate information can be elicited
by the investigator because, he can explain each question in person and this enables
the respondent to answer the questions only after understanding. So, no question is left
unanswered.
Demerits:
1. It is expensive: This method works out costly because of varieties of expenses
incurred on sampling. Above all the time lost is too much. That is 35 per cent
to 45 per cent extra time.
2. More administrative problems: Personal interview method involves more
administrative problems because of wider organizational paraphernalia. The
greatest problem is that of chasing of widely scattered investigating staff.
B. Mail Interview Method: As the title suggests, the respondents are contacted
through post. There is no face-to-face contact between the investigator and the
respondent. The questionnaire is sent to the mailing address of the respondent with a
request to fill in and return back. Much care is to be taken while designing the
questionnaire as there is no face-to-face contact. The questions asked must be
answerable quick in terms ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The covering letter must be carefully
couched to induce, convince and motivate the respondent to answer all the questions
and return the questionnaire duly filled back to the investigator.
Merits:
1. Detailed and accurate information: The information given is likely to be
unbiased, detailed and accurate as answers are given at the convenience of the
respondent.
2. It is economical: Though there are unavoidable costs, the -heavy expenses on
travelling and personnel are totally eliminated unlike personal interview.
Demerits:
1. Possibility of poor response: The greatest draw-back of this method is poor
response to the questions asked and the persons responding. There is no
guarantee that all the respondents will answer all the questions.
2. It is time consuming: The researcher will not be able to keep the time schedule
for completing his research programme. Though he puts the dead-line for
answering the questions, his bitter experience is that questionnaires reach him
only after the due date.
C. Telephone Interview: Under telephone interview method, the researcher
establishes a contact through telephone. The investigator will have to be selective and
careful while designing the questionnaire for it cannot be a lengthy type as in case of
earlier two methods. It must be brief, simple, to the point and non--confidential. The
special problem of telephone interview is that of building close rapport with the
respondents so that he can be induced and persuaded to reply satisfactorily.
Merits:
1. It is economical: It is the speediest method of data collection where up-to-date
information is got a telephone call without waste of time just sitting in the
office.
2. Unbiased Data: Normally respondents are franker on telephone than in person.
Demerits: 1.It is of limited use: Telephone interview is limited to the extent of its
contacts with the respondents. Though, telephone interview is gaining ground in
western countries because of wide coverage, it is quite discouraging in country like
ours where coverage is as low as 15 per cent of total population as against 85 per cent
in advanced nations.
2.Possibility of no reply: Thinking that the respondent has the telephone facility, still
there is no guarantee that the interviewer gets the reply. Many a times the respondent
may simply hang up and deny any useful information.
D. Online Interview: Internet has created another opportunity for marketing
researchers to collect data through online interview. The company can place the
questionnaire on its website and may offer incentives to those who provide
 answers to the questions. The questionnaire may also be put on frequently visited
websites such as yahoo, Gmail, etc. marketers can also sponsor a chat room or
bulletin board and introduce questions from time to time or host a relative virtual
focus group. nowadays, it is very convenient in pandemic times to use google
meet, zoom meet or skype for such research purposes.
Merits:
1. Quick: online interviews take much less time as compared to other methods.
The reactions may be received within days after putting the questionnaire on
websites.
2. Inexpensive: this method of collecting data is less expensive in comparison to
other methods. It is more convenient for the respondents to answer at any time.
Demerits:
1. Less Accessibility: internet facility might not be available to must people.
2. technical problems: the respondents may face technical problems while
answering.

2. Observation Method:
Observation implies viewing or noting the act or occurrence. Observation is the
method that places an observer human or machine to watch and record as to what is
taking place. Here, the observer does not ask the questions to the respondent but
observes his or her actions or behaviour with or without telling the respondent that he
or she is being observed. Many a times the investigator will not get answers for his
questions under other methods; but he gets here without asking the questions.
Thus, observation method works well in lieu of communication. Such an observation
is to be scientific and casual. For instance, if you are to get answer for question say
“What brand of shampoo does a lady use?” Instead of asking the question, the
observer can note her behaviour at the sales counter and determine her choice.
Further, it may be a question of determining the efficiency and the devotion of a
salesman in a store. An observer can measure the same in disguise of a customer. This
method is more objective and accurate than survey method as it eliminates human
element uncontrolled.
The limitations of observation method are:
1. The information that is sought by the observer may not be sufficient as he can
observe only the overt behaviour.
2. It is much costlier than the survey method itself. Further, the experts have not
been able to develop alternative method of observation nor they have been fully
utilized. The techniques developed so far need further refinement for their
perfect and fuller use.
3. Experimental Method:
Professor Tull D.S. and Hawkin D.I. have defined this method as “the deliberate
manipulation of one or more variables by the experimenter in such a way that its
effect upon one or other variables can be measured.”
In marketing area, an experimenter may be interested in measuring the effect of
change in the brand name, price, product design, colour, package, copy of the
advertisement and the like on the sale of a product. Such an exercise is known as test-
marketing. Test-marketing establishes the cause-and-effect relations and its findings
may be the basis for bringing about change in the product-mix. Let us take the case of
colour. If the experimenter wants to know the best colour of the two proposed toilet
soaps, he has to say, pink and yellow with same-coloured packages. The strength of
experimentation lies in the fact that it helps not only in building a theory but also
solving marketing problems as it resembles practical setting. In fact, decision makers
rely on it to a very great extent as it helps them in detecting the real causes of
impediments or troubles for taking marketing actions to plug the gaps.
its limitations are:
(a) It is costlier method both for researchers and non- researchers.
(b) The findings may not remain for a very long time because, the
researcher will not be able to control the dynamics of changing
consumer needs.

4.Depth Interview:
Depth interview is a technique of getting the replies from the respondents in an
atmosphere of freedom and relaxation. It is a form of unstructured research or
interview. It is non-directive interview where the respondent is being urged to talk
than mere saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for a specific question. The respondents are kept in
dark that they are being interviewed and, therefore, they express or expose themselves
without any kind of fear or disapproval, dispute or admonition.
It is beneath line or beneath the consumer surface interviewing to ask leading
questions to stimulate free and frank discussion of the subject on hand without asking
a standardized list of questions. It is called as depth interview because, the researcher
proves through probing the unconscious mind, feelings, needs, conflicts, fears,
motives, attitudes, habits and taboos. The standard size of the group varies between 5
to 45 persons. The interview may be or may not be tape-recorded. It normally lasts for
one to three hours. The brighter side of depth interview is that it helps in uncovering
the human pre-dispositions having far reaching impact on his research problem.
the limitations are:
(a) Neither it is possible to get really competent interviewers at least did not
cost nor the information collected by them is unbiased.
 (b) It is a time-consuming affair so much so that it is really difficult to hold
on respondent hours together.

5. Projective techniques:
Projective tests are the tests conducted wherein the respondents are encouraged to
project their feelings, attitudes, impressions, motives, reactions and the like to a third
person or an object. It is that technique which involves stimulating the interviewee to
project himself or herself in an artificial or ambiguous situation. Here, the inner
feelings are made to reveal. If you ask a respondent as to why he has not yet bought a
colour television set, he may say that he is waiting for a particular latest model.
However, the real reason may be his financial difficulty. This hidden feeling or cause
is unearthed by the projective techniques. The most commonly administered tests of
this kind are:
1. Word Association Test
2. Sentence Completion Test
3. Thematic Appreciation Test and
4. Paired Picture Test.
A CASE STUDY OF MARKETING RESEARCH ON THE COCA-COLA
CO.

Product Positioning. Coca-Cola synthesizes the different opinion of different level

human beings and it finds its beverage products belong to cool and refreshing type,
the scale of suitable space and time is big. It belongs to excited type and suitable for
each age, every occupational group and various social life occasions. People first want
to buy the Coca-Cola is belongs to compulsive purchase. If this left a good habit
people will repeat purchase it.
Marketing survey
1. Walk into the community: Branch Coca-Cola sales company or office is built,
company will hire students or professional investigation company to do
investigation work, then the business representatives will take over this work.
They went to supermarkets, hotels, small stores, little hotels, even the school,
authorities, hospitals, stations and entertainments, they go to all possible places
that can be sales Coca-Cola products and point investigate object and survey
results, mark the questionnaires records and submit this to company.
2. Questionnaire Design: Yin (2003) take a research that the contents of
questionnaire design include name of point-of-scale, address, scale,
characteristic, number of visitors and marketing method, it also includes
several sales methods that includes several small projects.
3. Collect data. First the company asks civil affairs or planning government
department to help collect some large-scale map as a basic reference
implementation. Second some analysis (Hedstrom, 1998) that company must
collect some data about the density of some community and the incomes of
each person from the government statistics department before the questionnaire
begin.
4. Market analysis: George and Mckeown (1985) introduce a method that each
time the company will division the market level and selects a key point. They
analysis the collect data and decided the key point through the purchasing
power, marketing ability, market potential composite index. For example, if a
branch company finds over 8000 beverage point of sales, they analyse and
decided 2500 of them as a key point, the executor ask all the marketing
workers conquered this place. Determine a suitable goods face up a define
place. According to different areas, different sales place and different consumer
groups, the company provide large bottle or small bottle, glass or plastic bottle
or canned, use tuning machine or equipped frozen, etc.
Company’s marketing research is set up on the foundation of the marketing theory
naturally. Manage an important branch studies as company in marketing theory,
have already formed a serious of theory frameworks.
CONCLUSION
The strength of these tests lies in the fact they are of great assistance to the
researcher in discovering the latent and factual consumer behaviour. However, the
crucial and delicate tasks involved in testing are conducting the tests to collect the
data on one hand, and analysis and interpretation of the data on the other. These
warrant high degree of calibre, proven skill and candid diligence on the part of
researcher. Really it is very difficult to get the services of such personnel at the
minimum costs.