Final Report Tiji

8/2/2019 Final Report Tiji

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UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI 1

Introduction

What is Consumer Behavior?

How many times throughout the day do people make product decisions? If you stop to think

about it, many product decisions are made every day,

some without much thought. What should I wear?

What should I eat? What am I going to do today?

Many product decisions are answered routinely every

day and they help move the economy of cities,countries and ultimately the world.

Product decisions also shape life for the consumer.

How can simple decisions be so important? Why do

marketers spend millions of dollars to uncover the

reasons behind these decisions?

To define consumer behavior: it is the study of consumers and the processes they use to choose,use (consume), and dispose of products and services. A more in depth definition will also include

how that process impacts the world. Consumer behavior incorporates ideas from several sciences

including psychology, biology, chemistry and economics.

"All marketing decisions are based on assumptions and knowledge of consumer behavior,"

(Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2007). Researching consumer behavior is a complex process, but

understanding consumer behavior is critical to marketers-they can use it to:

Provide value and customer satisfaction. Effectively target customers. Enhance the value of the company. Improve products and services. Create a competitive advantage


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Understand how customers view their products versus their competitors' products. Expand the knowledge base in the field of marketing, Apply marketing strategies toward a positive affect on society (encourage people to

support charities, promote healthy habits, reduce drug use etc.)

Marketing Research

"Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer

through information - information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and

problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and

improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information

required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and

implements the data collection process, analyzes, and communicates the findings and their

implications."

Marketing Research is concerned with all those factors which have a direct impact upon the

marketing of products and services. It is the study of any part of total marketing process. In

concentrates on the study of product planning and development, pricing, policies, effectiveness

of personal selling, advertisement and sales promotion, competition and the entire area of buyer

behavior and attitudes in the market place.


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Brand awareness

Brand awareness is the probability thatconsumers are familiar about the life and

availability of the product. It is the

degree to which consumers precisely

associate the brand with the specific

product. It is measured as ratio of niche

market that has former knowledge of

brand. Brand awareness includes both

brand recognition as well as brand recall.

Brand recognition is the ability of consumer to recognize prior knowledge of brand when they

are asked questions about that brand or when they are shown that specific brand, i.e., the

consumers can clearly differentiate the brand as having being earlier noticed or heard. While

brand recall is the potential of customer to recover a brand from his memory when given the

product class/category, needs satisfied by that category or buying scenario as a signal. In other

words, it refers that consumers should correctly recover brand from the memory when given a

clue or he can recall the specific brand when the product category is mentioned. It is generally

easier to recognize a brand rather than recall it from the memory.


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Industry Profile

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a

very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with

marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that

marketing research is concerned specifically

about marketing processes, while market

research is concerned specifically with market.

Market Research is a key factor to get advantage

over competitors. Market research provides

important information to identify and analyze the

market need, market size and competition.

Market research for business/planning

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve

discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to

market your product.

Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market

research.

For starting up a business, there are some important things:

Market information - Through Market information one can know the prices of thedifferent commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation.

Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources, varieties and

formats, as well as the sources and varieties that have to be obtained to make the business

work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_strategyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_information_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_information_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_strategyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markets


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Market segmentation - Market segmentation is the division of the market or populationinto subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic

differences, personality differences, demographic differences, technographic differences,

use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences. For B2B

segmentation firmographics is commonly used.

Market trends - Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market,during a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if one is starting

with something completely new. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the

number of potential customers, or customer segments.

Besides information about the target market, one also needs information about one's competitors,

customers, products, etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing effectiveness. A few techniquesare:

Customer analysis Competitor analysis Risk analysis Product research Advertising the research Marketing mix modeling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technographichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmographicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_trendshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_effectivenesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitor_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitor_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_effectivenesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_trendshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmographicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technographic


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Marketing Research Association

Founded in 1957, the Marketing Research Association, Inc. is one of the largest trade

associations ofmarket research and polling professionals. MRA has more than 3,000 members

worldwide, representing all segments of the research industry. MRA advances, protects and

promotes knowledge, standards, excellence, ethics, professional development and innovation for

the global market and opinion research profession.

MRA activities

MRA is in the information business, providing members with information through:

Educational Programs: Webinars, Education-on-Demand, and a comprehensive ResearchLibrary

Training Networking Opportunities Publications: Alert! magazine (monthly) and bi-weekly e-newsletter eNews Conferences: MRA's Annual Conference and MRA's First Outlook Conference

MRA publishes the annual Blue Book Research Services Directory, which is used extensively by

market research and opinion polling firms.

The Blue Book is the market research industrys most comprehensive and easy-to-use reference

guide, listing thousands of experienced professionals in marketing research and related fields.

The Blue Book comes out annually in February, so the information it contains is always current.

MRA also offers researchers the Professional Research Certification (PRC). PRC was developed

as a powerful tool for researchers of all levels of work experience and education. Researchers

who earn the prestigious PRC designation have established an objective measure of theirknowledge and proficiency. Additionally, professionals with PRC are expected to increase

consumer understanding of research and foster exceptional professional standards in the market

research industry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_trade_grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_trade_grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_pollhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_pollhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_trade_grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_trade_group


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Global - Company Profile

Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) is the world's largest Custom Market Research specialists. They

provide quality marketing information delivered by Global Industry Sector expert consultants,

innovative Market Research Expertise across the product life-cycle, in 80 countries.

TNS Worldwide

With market research operations spanning over 80 countries, TNS boasts a powerful global

network. In each country we combine the benefits of industry specialization & research

expertise, to deliver powerful insights.

North America

As the largest custom global market research provider in the US and Canada, TNS brings a long

tradition of value-added insight to clients in North America.


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Latin America

TNS also brings a long tradition of value-added worldwide market research insight to clients in

Latin America. From offices in: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, they service the whole of

Latin America.

Europe

As the leading global market research and insight provider in Europe, TNS Global expertise and

in-depth industry sector understanding stretch across 33 countries.

Asia and Pacific (APAC)

From Australia to Malaysia, China to New Zealand, TNS has created the strongest worldwide

custom market research network in the region with over 30 years global market research

experience in more than 15 countries.

Africa and Middle East (AME)

Established in 1980, TNS worldwide market research and insight services provide global

specialist knowledge in more than 17 countries in the Arabian Gulf, surrounding Arab markets

and East, Central, West, North and South Africa.


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Types of Methods for conducting research

Opinion Polling

TNS leads the world in opinion polling, providing insights into public opinion, coveringelections and analyzing other political, social and economic issues worldwide

They track public opinion on political campaigns, as well as legislative and policy issues. From

qualitative or quantitative techniques to new technology data collection, analysis and reporting,

TNS has a range of standard and bespoke solutions, for project-based and ongoing requirements.

Opinion

Polling

Online Research

Retail

&

Shopper

Brand &Communication

Innovation &

ProductDevelopment


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Each year TNS conducts millions of surveys for clients to understand how the public is thinking

or reacting to major issues on a national or international scale. They tell their clients about the

major trends; how the public is feeling about its elected leaders; and predict what the outcomes

of any up and coming elections are likely to be.

Online Research

TNS is the Global leader in online market research. They offer our clients a unique combination

of genuine interactive research expertise, innovative solutions/tools and superior online panels

Retail & Shopper

TNS is leading the way in helping its retailer and manufacturer clients outsmart the competition

by understanding and positively influencing shopper behavior and decisions that result in

improved performance of a brand, category or store.

TNS delivers unrivalled shopper insights that help manufacturers and retailers understand in-

store behavior, motivations and decisions.

They explore shopper behavior around the key in-store touch points including store layout,

category layout, packaging, promotions and in-store communications and provide competitive

advantage in these areas.

By converting the resulting shopper insights into action TNS enables their clients to build brand

equity, stimulate purchase or trial, improve loyalty and customer retention and increase sales.


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Brand & Communication

TNS helps clients create enduring brand relationships through the development of relevantstrategies brought to life through every aspect of the brand experience.

Innovation & Product Development

TNS is a leading provider of innovation and product development research, offering clients a

complete innovation journey, from opportunity identification through concept/product

development, and ultimately product launch.

Launching winning new products is a crucial route to business growth. However, failure rates are

higher than ever and big ideas are hard to come by. Spotting obvious winners isnt hard, but

throwing away more genuinely innovative ideas is easy too.

Innovation success comes from knowing what to look for in a successful idea, knowing where to

look for it in the first place, and ensuring strategic continuity throughout the process.


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A history of success

TNS in the 60s

The 1960s saw the creation of five of the market research companies that formed the heart of the

Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) group:

Intersearch in the USA in 1960 AGB in UK in 1962 Sofres in France in 1963 Frank Small Associates in Australia in 1963 Taylor Nelson in UK in 1965TNS in the 70s & 80s

In the 1970s and 1980s, TNS grew significantly, introducing a wide and increasingly

sophisticated range of market research solutions and using the latest technological developments.

And as they and their clients grew, they started to create their international networks:

Sofres opened offices in six European countries, the US and 12 countries in Asia Pacific.


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TNS in the 90s & Beyond

NFO made a series of acquisitions around the world, and the companies that now form TNS

responded to the changing market by joining forces, enabling them to deliver consistently high

quality services to customers around the world.

Taylor Nelson joined with AGB (1992) Sofres combined with FSA (1995) Sofres acquired Intersearch (1997) Taylor Nelson AGB and Sofres merged (1997) TNS acquired NFO (2003) TNS was acquired by WPP/Kantar (2008)

The merger of TNS and Research Information means the coming together of two companies with

a rich and diverse history.

RI in the 90s & Beyond

Research International established itself as a core business within Kantar, WPPs research,

insight and consultancy network, giving RI TNS Market Research an access to an even greater

wealth of marketing expertise.

TNS & RI in 2009

TNS and Research International merge (2009), to form the worlds largest custom market

research company, together shaping the future of the research industry.


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India Pvt. Ltd.

TNS India offers a range of comprehensive market research services catering for local and

international clients that want to get a deep understanding of both urban and rural India life.

Market Research Expertise

TNS India offers clients a wide range of customized quantitative and qualitative market research

techniques and solutions, including proprietary market feedback models covering areas of brand,

health, tracking, segmentation and advertising effectiveness.

The strength lies in their approach to service TNS is the only Indian market research

organization to receive ISO certification for our operations.


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Vision

TNS shares and supports the global vision of TNS. As the market leader in most of ourcountries we have the largest network of professional resources with the scale to deliver to the

needs of Global Accounts and Local Clients .

Market research services and solutions

TNS India has 4 full client service offices, as well as 21 field centres. This gives us

comprehensive coverage of both urban and rural India.

Our sister company, TNS Lanka offers professional market research services and consultancy on

the Sri Lankan market.

We operate as sector specialists in the Indian market covering FMCG, Automotive, Technology,

Finance, B to B as well as the Social sector. Our researchers use state of the art methodologies

and deep understanding of the sector domain to provide timely and accurate recommendations to

our clients business. Additionally, our Proprietary Business Solutions give a leading edge to our

clients in their marketing decisions.

TNS Indias Social Research Unit

The Social Research Unit (SRU) of TNS India is one of the largest social research agencies in

India covering 16 locations across the country. The Social Research team includes multi

disciplinary team of experts drawn from relevant fields of social sciences as well as applied

sciences like demography and statistics.

Social Research Unit of TNS-India has vast experience with a number of national and

international organizations and completed about 400 research assignments in social /

development sector. The social research team has conducted studies for prestigious clients

including all the major multilateral and bilateral donor agencies operating in India and their

parastatals, various key ministries of the Government of India and many State governments.


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Industry Focus

At TNS, world-leading industry market research experts focus exclusively on researching

specific industry sector issues and understand inside out the challenges their clients face.

FMCG

Technology

Finance

AutomotivePolitical

and

Social

Media

Health


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Global and local clients

TNS is the right business research partner for every research need, large or small, global or local.

Leading globally, leading locally

All over the world they run projects with local clients, commissioning specific local research.

And all over the world they run major global projects for blue-chip multinational clients and the

worlds leading brands.


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Group Companies

TNS, WPP, Kantar - building the future of insight together

In October 2008, TNS became part of WPPs information, insight and consultancy division,

Kantar.

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information

and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents

of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become

the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational

insights for the global business community.

Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and

consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every

point of the consumer cycle. The groups services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top

500 companies.

About WPP

WPP is the worlds largest communications services

group. Through its operating companies, the Group

provides a comprehensive range of advertising and

marketing services including advertising; media

investment management; consumer insight; public relations and public affairs; branding and

identity; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing and

specialist communications. The company employs over 141,000 people (including associates) in

2,400 offices in 107 countries.


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Corporate and Social Responsibility

TNS has a partnership with UNICEF, which for 60 years has been the worlds leading children

charity, working on the ground in 156 countries and territories to help children survive and

thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.

Partnering with UNICEF

The global partnership approach that is such a key driver of their service to clients also extends

into their community involvement. TNS' and UNICEF's partnership began in 2005, when the

group made a donation to UNICEF in response to the tsunami disaster. TNS then embarked on

Imagine program, inCambodia and Malawi.
http://www.tnsglobal.com/tns/csr/imagine-in-cambodia.aspxhttp://www.tnsglobal.com/tns/csr/imagine-in-cambodia.aspxhttp://www.tnsglobal.com/tns/csr/imagine-in-malawi.aspxhttp://www.tnsglobal.com/tns/csr/imagine-in-malawi.aspxhttp://www.tnsglobal.com/tns/csr/imagine-in-cambodia.aspx


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Objective of the study

To study the brand awareness of customers towards Celio. To study the buying pattern of branded readymade garments. To understand which communication medium is more preferable for the consumers in

branded readymade garments.

Need for the study

To understand the customer reaction towards the upcoming branded clothes like Celio. To understand whether customer preference is based on fashion, pricing, promotion or

any other factors.


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Literature Review

Market Research

The market research process involves a round of separate stages of data interpretation,

organization and collection. These stages could be considered as a benchmark of market

research, but it depends on an organization how they have encapsulated their strategies to follow

this process. Hence some of the interlinked stages could be conducted repeatedly and some of the

stages can also be omitted. Given below is a typical market research process which is depicted

stage-wise:

1. Defining the Problem or Need- The starting phase is always identifying the reason orproblem for which research is to be conducted. This includes collecting of relevant initial

information and how this information will affect decision making process. It also

includes defining problems after discussing with decision makers of the organization.

Once the problem is defined precisely and the need of research is discussed, the further

process could be conducted in an efficient manner.

2.

Determining who will do the research- Once the initial stage of defining the problemand the need of research is done, it is important to determine who will do the research and

what will be the approaches to resolve these problems. This involves creating a problem

solving framework and analytical models after discussing it organization experts. In this

sample case studies are created according to the defined framework by enforcing the

relevant information and secondary data.

3. Picking out the appropriate methodology- A specific methodology is entailed by theresearch professional after identifying the specific needs and exploring the case studies. It

may include a combination of specific approaches like telephone survey, web or email

survey, one-to-one interviews, secondary research etc. This methodology acts as a

blueprint of research process and following basic steps:

Methods for collecting and preparing quantitative information. Determining the need of this information.


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Scaling and measuring procedures. Designing sample Questionnaire. Formulating case studies and sampling process. Planning information analysis.

4. Data Collection Process- This process includes field work and desk work for collectingall relevant data and information. Field work includes interviewing the personals by

interacting them face to face by visiting them in home or offices or arranging group

meetings at any preferred place. Desk work includes contacting personals over telephone

or via series of emails and web meetings. This could take comparatively more time as

compared to the field work. Involving experienced and trained executive for this helps in

reducing data collection errors.5. Data Preparation, tabulation and analysis of results- After the data collecting stage

the collected data is edited, corrected if required and validated. This process is the most

important process in the research as the results are generated on the basis of data

preparation. So it is required for an organization to verify the authenticity of the collected

data and edit or correct it if needed. The final data is then segmented according to the

business standards and inserted into the CRM database in a more tabulated form so that

search or combination could be made easily.

6. Presentation and report generation- The entire process is properly documented withrespect to organizational standards so that it can be referred in future for decision making

process or to change or modify any specific process or module. This document contains

overall architecture of the project depicting all the processes with the help of tables,

graphs and figures to provoke impact and clarity.

Market Research undeniably plays a vital role in exploring the business. The above process if

conducted in an efficient manner could help predicting and correlating customer needs and then

modeling or modifying the business strategies accordingly.


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Market Street Research has had substantial, positive experiences in conducting in-depth

marketing research interviews with many different groups at all levels of society, ranging from

homeless adults to hospital patients, people receiving outpatient mental health care, teachers,

clerical and administrative workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, manufacturers, members of school

boards, users of a specific technology or application, government officials, owners of retail and

service establishments, members of boards of directors, politicians, legislators, and even very

young children - who delight in giving their opinions about all kinds of topics, as long as they are

asked appropriately and listened to with respect.


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Field Research

Field Research deals with creation and collection of actual and authentic information by field of

operation in any organization. The process involves determining what precise data is necessary

and from where this information needs to be obtained. After determining this information the

data is actually gathered. Thus this research technique is treated as the primary research approach

because the determined data is specific to the purpose of gathering that data.

Field research is generally performed in person, telephonic or by electronic media like

teleconferencing, web - meetings and emails. Many of the big organizations involve outside

vendors or companies to perform this task which they usually refer as outsourcing, but small

organizations or new companies do this by themselves by involving their internal resources. The

outsourcing depends on the type and amount of information to be gathered in the research. If the

required data is less and limited to some small and specific modules then big organization also

prefer to do this task in-house. Field research is expensive and involves more and experienced

resources as compared to desk research which is not as accurate as field research. Being

expensive it is required to perform the research in efficient manner and obtain or determine only

specific information and answer only particular questions as irrelevant data is a waste and will be

of no use for further research processes. The following are the importance sources for field

research:

1. Customers: These can be existing customer or prospect customers. Customers are themost important and efficient sources for field research process and can provide following

useful information:

a. Useful information regarding competitors and new strategies they are going toimplement.

b. Present market trend.c. Actual and innovative market requirement.d. Market distribution channels.e. Production and consumption channels and product usefulness.


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2. Competitors: It is difficult to fetch out information from own competitors but if this ispossible then competitors are the basic and useful source of information and provide

information regarding:

a. Newer and upcoming technologies and software.b. Types of product which prominent and mostly preferred by customers.c. Efficient and affordable pricing strategies.d. Promotional efforts that could turn around the marketing strategies.e. Information of other ruling competitors.

3. Industrialists or marketing experts: These are the most knowledgeable personals whocould provide in depth information regarding:

a. The future trend of market.b. Economical imbalances regarding particular segments of products.c. New range of raw materials available in the market.d. New research and marketing methodologies and application of vibrant

technologies.

4. Distributors and Suppliers: Distributors and suppliers are also very good source ofinformation. They can provide information like:

a. Availability of raw materials in market.b. Pricing details and negotiation techniques.c. Best distributing channels.d. New marketing processes.e. How to deal with compliance issues.

There are many other less prominent sources like interviews, trade shows, and promotional

programs etc. and much of the relevant information could be gathered from these sources as

well. All the information gathered from the above sources is then manipulated and segmented.

As in field research most of the information is relevant as it is actually gathered for a particular

purpose, so regular round of work around on the data is not required. After validating the

information it is then fetched into the CRM system and is converted into intelligent data which

can be accessed on real time.


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Desk Research - Methodology and Techniques

As depicted by name Desk Research is the research technique which is mainly acquired by

sitting at a desk. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources

hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost

is involved in executives time, telephone charges

and directories. However, it could also be a

complete waste of time and money if the

researcher does not have the proper knowledge of

how the research in performed.

Desk research is very effective and can be

conducted in starting phase of market research as

it is quite quick and cheap and most of the basic

information could be easily fetched which can be used as benchmark in the research process.

There are basically two types of desk research techniques:

1. Internal Desk Research - Internal desk research can be treated as the most reasonablestarting point of research for any organization. Much Information could be generated

internally within the organization as a course of normal process. Account related

information which indicates what type of products are sold, in how much quantity and at

what cost, sold to which type of customers including their geographical location and so

on. The main advantage here in performing internal desk research is that it involves

internal and existing organizational resources to organize the collected data in such a way

that it is not only efficient but also usable. Internal desk research is comparatively very

cheap and effective as internal recourses are deputed and the expenditure in getting data

from outside is less.

2. External Desk Research - External Desk Research involves research done outside theorganizational boundaries and collecting relevant information. These outside resources

are described below:


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a. Online Desk Research - There is incredible amount of data available online oninternet. Its important for organization to be information specific while fetching

out this information as there are billions of pages available on internet. There

could be two approaches for digging out the relevant information from internet,

one is directly browsing the specific information from industrial, marketing or

business sites and extracting the information out of these sites. Secondly, using

the various search engines like www.google.com, www.yahoo.com,

www.infoseek.go.com, www.altavista.com etc, for modulated searching. The

important aspect here is to refine the searching techniques in such a way that

results are promising and relevant. For this it is necessary that the researcher

should know the importance of the research and follow the guideline intellectually

to reduce the efforts made and time consumed in searching.

b. Government published data - Government usually publishes a great extent ofdata online that can be used in the research process. This data is related to social,

financial and economical aspects. The government websites are mostly free to

access and contains most prominent information. Thus, this could be the cheapest

medium of gathering the information.

3. Customer desk research - One of the best and most prominent ways of extractinginformation for research is directly communicating with existing or prospect customer.

Customers are the one who are considered the most informed as they are actually using

products and services and are aware of the current market trends more than any other.

Hence the feedback and information provided by customers is the most accurate and

useful data which can be used most effectively in the further process of research.


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Questionnaire Layout

A questionnaire should have a clear consistent layout, leave adequate space to answer, bear a

large font size and appropriate page breaks. Experimental layouts, fancy logos and disturbing

features such as "printed on recycled paper/is an equal opportunity employer" should be avoided.

In some cases, using color or printing the questionnaire on colored paper may help to increase

the response. This depends again on the targeted

audience and should be discreet and tasteful.

Filter questions may be of use if some questions or

a group of questions are targeted to a subgroup of

the respondents. This will enable interviewers a

smooth flow through the questionnaire and shorten

the time to fill in the questionnaire in self-

administrated questionnaires. Similarly, it is important to give clear instructions to interviewers

or respondents. This will reduce misunderstandings.

Questionnaire Coding

Closed questions on a paper questionnaire can be pre-coded. This means that a number is

assigned in advance to each possible answer. Coding will enable a quicker and easier data

entry. The ideal code numbers depend on the software which will be used for data analysis.

Some software packages only accept 0/1 codes for dichotomous variables. In order to avoid

time-consuming data cleaning, be careful to choose appropriate and consistent codes for all

variables in advance.


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Example: Below is the coding to find out the customers lifestyle. This is a format made as perthe norms of TNS.

Chief Earner : Education

No. of

Durables

Illiterate Literate

but no

formal

schooling

/ School

up to 4

yrs

School 5

9 yrs

SSC /

HSC

Some

college

(include

Diploma

but not

graduate)

Graduate

/ Post

Graduate

_

General

Graduate /

Post

Graduate -

Professional

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

None E3 E2 E2 E2 E2 E1 D2

1 E2 E1 E1 E1 D2 D2 D2

2 E1 E1 D2 D2 D1 D1 D1

3 D2 D2 D1 D1 C2 C2 C2

4 D1 C2 C2 C1 C1 B2 B2

5 C2 C1 C1 B2 B1 B1 B1

6 C1 B2 B2 B1 A3 A3 A3

7 C1 B1 B1 A3 A3 A2 A2

8 B1 A3 A3 A3 A2 A2 A2

9+ B1 A3 A3 A2 A2 A1 A1


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Define your research question and study population

It is important to define your research question, study population,and the objectives of your

study at the beginning of your study. You should continually refer back to these during the study

design process. This is particularly important in questionnairestudies where there is a temptation

to be noseyand delve into a wide range of issues, which although interesting

to you, the

researcher, are not relevant to your study. You should also consider the associations that you

wish to testat the design stage, so that the relevant data, for example, social class indicators, can

be collected as part of your questionnaire.

Previous studies have shown that people are more likely torespond to questionnaires that cover

issues that are relevantto them. Qualitative methods, including focus groups and unstructured

interviews, are increasingly being used to identify issues ofimportance to patients as a first stage

in questionnaire studies. The selection of participants for qualitative research is quite different

from quantitative studies. Rather than selecting subjectsat random from a representative group,

participants are chosen to take part in qualitative studies on the basis of their particular

demographic or treatment characteristics, or because they are known to hold particular views.

This technique is called purposivesampling and is useful because a range of possible views

can

be identified. It is important to appreciate, however, that data collected in this way, although

interesting, is not representativeof the whole study population.

Focus group meetings are a useful way of identifying issuesbecause the views of a range of

subjects can be examined at the same time. Furthermore, interaction between participants can

lead to new issues being identified. Running a focus group is a special skill, however, and you

will need to use a trainedfacilitator to ensure that the views of all the participantsare included.

Unstructured interviews are another method that can be used to identify issues. These are

particularly valuablefor examining peoples attitudes and beliefs in-depth,and can give insight

into some of the reasons behind their behavior.Again, you will need to employ a trained

interviewer for thispart of your study to avoid biasing your data.


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You should not under-estimate the amount of work and time involvedin collecting and analyzing

qualitative data. The interviewsand focus groups need to be tape-recorded (with the participants

permission) and you should also take careful written notes toback up the tapes. The tape

recordings are then transcribedinto scripts with the participants identified by code names

only to

ensure confidentiality. This can be quite a difficultprocess for tapes of focus group meetings,

since a number ofparticipants may be talking all at once! There are a number of techniques for

analyzing qualitative data that are beyondthe scope of this paper. Put simply, the scripts should

be examinedby at least two researchers who record new issues as they arise and then produce a

list of their relative importance. The main issues identified from the interviews and/or focus

groups canthen be used to form the basis of your questionnaire. The subjective

nature of

qualitative data means that it is very easy to biasyour analysis and so it is important to seek

advice from anexperienced researcher at this stage.

Decide how the questionnaire will be administered

Questionnaires can be used either as the basis of a structuredinterview, which is administered by

a trained interviewer, orcompleted by the subject by themselves. When you decide how

a

questionnaire should be administered you need to achieve a balance between practical

considerations, such as the time-frame and funding available for the study, and the issues you

wishto examine.

Structured interviews can be undertaken face-to-face, or maybe conducted over the telephone or

the Internet. Interviewer-administeredquestionnaires have the advantage that unclear questions

canbe clarified to the respondent and open-ended questions can

be used to collect a range of

possible responses. Importantly,the interviewer can also ensure that all the questions are

answeredby the intended subject. These surveys are, however, expensive

because trained

interviewers are needed and a large amount of

time is needed for each interview.

There are some disadvantages. For example, there is a risk thatthe interviewer may bias the

responses given. Response ratesmay also be reduced because some people may be unwilling to

give up their time to be interviewed. Others may not take partbecause they prefer the anonymity

of a self-complete questionnaire.Finally, response rates to telephone surveys are particularly

low


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because subjects tend to assume that an unfamiliar voiceis trying to sell them double-glazing and

they therefore hangup before you have had a chance to explain the purpose of your

call!

When we consider self-complete questionnaires, these are cheaper to administer and a larger

sample can be collected. Respondents can either complete the questionnaire in the research

settingor, more commonly, are sent the questionnaire by post or e-mail to complete at home. The

alternative option of inviting subjectsto complete a questionnaire in the clinic, for example, has

the advantage that you can ensure that your target subject completesthe questionnaire. You can

also clarify any ambiguous questionsand make sure that the respondent answers all the

questions.These advantages need to be offset against the difficulties

of taking up peoples time

(your sample will be biasedtowards people with time to waste!) and disrupting busy clinics.

A

researcher also needs to be present throughout the data collection

process, which increases thecost of the study and limits the

geographical catchment area of the sample that can be studied.

There is also a tendency for subjects to feel intimidated bythe clinical setting and, as such, they

will tend to give responses to please the clinicians and/or researchers, rather than their own

opinions.

Most questionnaire studies are based on postal self-completequestionnaires. This study design

has the advantage that a largepopulation can be sampled at a relatively low cost over a wide

geographical area. The main disadvantages of postal questionnaires are that you have no control

over who actually completes thequestionnaire. The responses given are often the collective

view

of a whole household. It is also difficult to ensure thatthe respondent completes all the questions

before returningthe questionnaire and there may be problems with literacy or language that are

difficult to identify. Good response ratesare therefore difficult to achieve with postal surveys and

samplestends to be biased towards more educated and non-immigrant populations.


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Formulate your questions

Once youve decided how you are going to administer your questionnaire, you can go on to

formulate your questions. Questions can be divided into those directly related to the research

question;filter questions that explore the characteristics of the different study groups and filler

questions that, although not part of the research question, aid the flow of the questionnaire.

Wherever possible, you should incorporate questions from existing questionnaires (with the

permission of the author). This not only prevents reinventing the wheel, but will also allow

direct comparison of your data with previous studies.It is important to appreciate, however, that

such questionsneed to be reproduced verbatim to be valid. If you have to change

the wording of

a question, for example, to suit a British sample,

rather than an American one, then, strictly

speaking, you willneed to retest the reliability and validity of the question.

Studies have shown that the wording of questions has an important influence on the responses

that are given. In general, questionsshould be short (less than 20 words is recommended), simple

and specific. More difficult questions willeither produce an inaccurate response or, more likely,

the respondentwill give up and fail to complete the questionnaire at all.

There is a facility in

Microsoft Word that you can useto calculate the readability of your questions. Alternatively,

you

can use the Gunning Fog Index to calculate the reading age for each question.

It is also important that you avoid making assumptions in your questions. For example, How

often do you visit the dentist? assumes that the respondent attends the dentist regularly. You

should break this question down into two parts, i.e. Doyou visit the dentist for checkups? and

If yes,how often do you go for a check-up?

Another potential problem is time-memory bias. People find it particularly difficult to recall

events that have happened some time ago and so it is unwise to ask about things that have

happenedmore than 6 months in the past. If this is unavoidable thenyou should either use wide

time scales, for example 612months, or put the event in question into some sort of context.For

example, the question When did you first meet thesurgeon?, in a survey of orthognathic

patients, couldbe rewritten Did you meet the surgeon before your braceswere fitted?


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The order of your questions is another important issue in questionnairedesign. Studies have

shown that a better response rate is achievedif general questions precede specific questions.

It is

betterto start with easy, factual non-personal questions to relax

the respondent. Questions that

involve some research from therespondent, for example, looking up clinic dates, should come

towards the end of the questionnaire. This has the advantagethat your respondent will have

hopefully developed an interest in the subject and feel some ownership of the questionnaireby

this stage. If not, then at least they will have completed the rest of the questions and you will be

able to collect some data. It is also better to ask personal questions towards the end of the

questionnaire when again the respondent is more relaxed.

Formulate your responses

Questions can be divided into open-ended questions, where thesubject is free to give their own

response to a question, orclosed questions, where a choice of predetermined answers isgiven.

Open-ended questions are useful for identifying a range of possible responses where no previous

data exist. Open-ended questions also give the people an opportunity to state their own views

about a topic. The main disadvantage of open-endedquestions is that they take longer to

complete, particularly

for less articulate subjects, and this may mean that they are

left

unanswered. It is also more difficult to code the responses for your analysis than closed

questions.

Closed questions are quicker to complete and easier to code. Responses can be presented as

simple yes/no choices; multiple tick boxes or, alternatively, subjects may be invited to rank

choices by order of preference or to complete a Likert scale. In a Likert scale, the subject is asked

the extent to whichthey agree or disagree about an issue. The responses may be given in the form

of a (usually 5-point) scale, for example:

Strongly agree - AgreeUndecidedDisagree - Strongly disagree


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Alternatively, subjects may be invited to place a mark on a10cm visual analogue scale, to

indicate their level of agreementwith a statement. Visual analogue scales are particularly useful

when asking respondents to describe their symptoms. For example,

How bothered are you about the appearance of your jeans?

Conscious all the time Not bothered

It is important to appreciate that the more complicated theresponse to a question is the less likely

it is to be completed.You will also find it more difficult to code the data. Although

closed

questions tend to yield better response rates, thereis a risk that some subjects will be led to give a

responsethat they may not otherwise have given simply because it is

on the list. You will need to

spend some time piloting your questionnaire to ensure that the whole range of responses is

included for each question. It is also a good idea to includean other tick box, to cover all

eventualities, in answers to questions where there is a list of possible responses.

There is some debate about whether a dont knowoption should be included with yes/no type

questions.Some studies

suggest that people would rather guess the answer

than leave an answer

blank. Othershave shown that including

a dont know category can lead to lots of

non-

committal answers. Whichever method you choose, it is goodpractice in a questionnaire based

on closed questions to includean opportunity, for example, at the end of each section, for

respondents to give their comments and add any further explanationabout their responses. You

can then either code these commentsand include them in the analysis or quote them verbatim in

yourstudy report.


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Design the layout

The layout of your questionnaire is important not only for ensuringthat all the questions are

answered, but also for facilitatingdata coding and analysis. Its important that you capture

peoples attention and make them interested in completingthe questionnaire. Its also a good idea

to use at leasta size 14 font size for the questions and to avoid cramming

too many questions

onto a page in an effort to save paper! Ifthere are a lot of questions, its less daunting for the

reader if the questionnaire is divided into sections and thequestions numbered per section, e.g.

A110, B112,etc. Separating each question from the next with a black line

will also help to

make the questionnaire easier to read.

You should print the questionnaire on good quality paper (atleast 100 g). This has two

advantages: first, this stops people

being able to read the next question through the paper that

might influence their answers and, second, using good qualitypaper gives the impression of an

important and well-funded study.Its also a good idea to use brightly colored paper for

the front

and back covers of your questionnaire to grab therespondents attention. The questions,

however, shouldbe written on white paper because this is less tiring on the

eyes.

Its very important that you give clear instructions at

the beginning and throughout the

questionnaire so that peoplecan navigate their way through the questions. Its a good

idea to use

a different font type or to type the navigationinstructions in bold script on each page so that they

standout from the questions. The navigation method should be thoroughly

tested at the pre-pilot

and piloting stages.


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Pre-pilot the questions and layout

It is essential that you pre-pilot your questionnaire to identifyany ambiguities in your questions

and to identify the rangeof possible responses for each question. The pre-pilot is not

a formal

procedure, more an information-gathering exercise.You should sit down with a few suitable

subjects, who may befriends or colleagues, and go through the questions together

to identify

potential problems. After each session, you shouldamend the questionnaire before re-piloting

with another groupof testers. This process needs to continue until you are confident

that your

questions are unambiguous, appropriate and acceptableto respondents. You can also test the

layout at this stage toensure that people can navigate their way easily through the

questionnaire.

Pilot study to test the questionnaire

As with other forms of science, you need to be able to show that the data collected from your

questionnaire are valid and reliable. Ideally, every questionnaire should undergo a formal pilot

during which the acceptability, validity, and reliabilityof the measure is tested. You should also

pilot the data collectionprocess and covering letters to participants. The pilot should

be based on

subjects from a similar population to that beingexamined in your survey. Since patients will be

involved, youwill need to obtain ethical approval for this part of your study.

Testing a

questionnaire can be a very time-consuming processand this stage of questionnaire design has

often been overlooked

in the past in researchers eagerness to start collecting

the data.

Unfortunately, this then casts doubt over the robustnessof the data that are collected.

1. Testing validityA questionnaire can be said to be valid if it

examines the full scope of the research

question in a balancedway, i.e. it measures what it aims to measure. There are several

aspects of validity that need to be tested. Criterion validityis assessed by comparing a

new measure with an existing gold

standard scale. If such a scale exists, however, one

would question the need to develop a new questionnaire. Thefactual validity of a

questionnaire can be assessed by comparing

responses about clinical events with

information recorded fromthe clinical notes. The face validity of a questionnaire can

be

examined by interviewing people, either face-to-face or over the telephone, after they


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have completed the questionnaire tofind out whether the responses they have given in the

questionnaireagree with their real opinions. When testing face validity,

its important to

word your questions in the interviewdifferently from those in the questionnaire otherwise

all youwill be testing is the reliability of your questions.

2. Testing reliabilityReliability is defined as an assessment of the reproducibility and consistency of an

instrument. For self-complete questionnaires, two aspects of reliability should be

examined. You can assess testretest reliability by asking people to complete the

questionnaire on two separate occasions approximately 2 to 3weeks apart, assuming that

their circumstances will not havechanged in the interim. You can determine the internal

consistency of your questionnaireby asking a question or questions in more than one way

duringthe questionnaire. The responses given can then be comparedas before.

3. Testing acceptabilityQualitative methods can be used to assess the acceptability

of a questionnaire. You can

either ask the subjects includedin your pilot study to write their comments about the

questionnaireon a separate sheet or you can ask them over the telephone how

they found

answering the questionnaire during the validity testing.Its also a good idea to ask people

in the pilot studyhow long it took them to complete the questionnaire. You can

then

include this information in the cover letter that you useto accompany the questionnaire in

your main survey.


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Design your coding scheme

Coding is the process of converting questionnaire data intomeaningful categories to facilitate

analysis. You need to thinkabout your coding scheme at the beginning of your study and,

wherever possible, build it into your questionnaire, for exampleby numbering the response tick

boxes for each question. Thiswill allow you to enter data directly from the questionnaire

into

your database for analysis. The numbers within the boxesshould correspond to the variables in

the database where theresponses will be stored. The alternative is to code the questionnaire

responses onto a separate coding sheet and then to enter thedata from the coding sheet into the

database. This process isnot only laborious, but also doubles the margin for error and

observer

bias. Its a good idea to test your coding schemeand data entry process during the pilot study, so

that problemscan be rectified before the main study starts. Its also prudent to discuss the coding

scheme for your questionnairewith a statistician at this stage so that any mistakes can berectified

before you go to the printers.

Increasing your response rateAchieving a good response rate is a particular problem for postal

questionnaire surveys. Studies

suggest that the response ratemay be reduced by up to 20% compared to an interviewer-based

survey. A response rate of 75% for a postal questionnaire surveyis considered to be extremely

good. Poor response rates can lead to bias because people from higher social groups and non-

ethnicminorities are more likely to complete questionnaires than othergroups.

Its unethical to offer people financial incentives totake part in healthcare surveys and so

researchers need to developother ways of encouraging subjects to take part. Figure 3 lists

the

methods that are commonly used to increase response ratesin postal questionnaire studies.

Everyone is bombarded by junkmail these days, much of which ends up in the dustbin

unopened.Therefore, its a good idea to use white stamped envelopes,

which look more personal,

to send out initial contact letters,

rather than brown franked envelopes. Most ethics committees

insist that you send subjects information in advance about a study and that you ask them to

indicate whether they wish to take part in a survey, rather than simply sending them a

questionnaire through the post with a cover letter asking them to complete it. This stage of a

questionnaire survey not only increasesthe cost of your study, but also tends to reduce response

rates.


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All the letters that you send to potential participants needto be approved by the ethics committee

before you begin yourstudy. Each letter should state the aim of the study, the sponsor

and

emphasize that the information given will be confidential.Its also important that you state in

your initial contactletter that if a subject chooses not to participate in the study

then their future

healthcare will not be affected. Postal questionnairesshould be sent out with a pre-paid envelope

for their return.All contact letters should be written on official headed paper and signed in blue

ink by the researcher.

Its expensive to employ interpreters solely for questionnairesurveys. One way around this, if

you expect a significant proportionof your sample to come from a non-English speaking group,

isto include a cover letter that has been translated into common

languages for your target

population. A contact number for an

interpreter who people can telephone to help them completethe

questionnaire should be included in the letter. Its difficult

to control for bias if a subject asks

an interpreter to help them complete the questionnaire, but the advantages of increasing the

response rate by providing an interpreter usually out waythe disadvantages.

Sending out reminders has also been shown to improve responserates in questionnaire surveys.

Each questionnaire should belabeled with a unique ID number so that reminders are only

sent to

non-respondents. Its quite possible that a subjectmay have lost their original questionnaire and

so every reminder should be accompanied by another questionnaire and another pre-paid

envelope. Its a good idea to label the reminder questionnaireswith the ID number and prefix, for

example, a,b or i, ii, etc. This

will allow you to identify those instances where the first

questionnaire that was completed has been delayed or lost in the post, and the subject has then

been kind enough to complete a repeat questionnaire for you.

Its important to remember that people have given up theirtime to complete your questionnaire

and so its only considerateto send each participant a letter thanking for them for taking

part in

your study. Recent Government Standards for Research state that the results of studies involving

NHS patients shouldbe fed back to participants. Some of the information youvecollected could

be distressing to some patients, however, andyou should therefore seek advice about which

information shouldbe disseminated.


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Data Analysis and Compilation

After gathering the information from desk and field research the raw data must be compiled so

that the taxonomic analysis can be performed and data can be broken up into respective parts and

segments. Data analysis and compilation also includes data cleaning strategy before the further

analysis is performed. This cleaning is basically validating the data for any error or irrelevant

data. Its a separate process for data cleaning performed before the analysis which is very

important to fetch desirable results. This process also includes determining the missing values

and inputting the most appropriate values in place. It is also important to maintain the quality of

the analysis and compilation for which the ideal key is use reliable measurement techniques.

Data sampling is also one more distinguished approach to decrease probability of repetitive data

elements. It includes creating subsets of information according to a specific variable value and

managing them as a whole. More the data is relevant the more accurate the results are.

An organization must define all the objectives in accordance to market requirement. The results

from the compilation and analysis of data and information are very important and significant for

the organization and shows success factors. The result of the process also depicts the trend of the

organization by determining weak and strong points and how they stand stood in the market.

Hence, every organization should have an organized and sophisticated way of compiling and

analyzing the information.


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There will be a large number of paper questionnaires. To make it easier to interpret and store the

responses, it is best to transfer data on to a single grid, which should comprise of no more than

two or three sheets depending on the number of questions and student respondents. A typical grid

looks like this:

Questions

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Respondent 1

Respondent 2

Respondent 3

Respondent 4

Respondent 5


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Data coding

It is good practice to check through each completed questionnairewhen you receive it to check

for missing data. If there areany factual gaps in peoples responses, for example, the number of

visits made to a clinic, and then it may then be possible to enter these data from other sources.

Subjects who have failed to follow the filters and answered every single question can also be

identified at this stage, and if necessary, contactedto verify information.

Two approaches can be used when analyzing the responses to open-endedquestions. You may

choose to examine all the responses to a question, devise categories for the answers and then

code thedata in the same way as a closed response question. Alternatively, interesting responses

can be quoted verbatim in the final report.The choice depends on the nature of the question and

the rangeof answers given.

Once you have coded as many of the open-ended questions as possibleyou can enter your data

directly from the completed questionnairesinto a computer programme for analysis. The

Statistical Packagefor Social Sciences (SPSS) is a useful software package for

questionnaire

surveys because it is flexible and easy to use.Optical scanners are often used to enter

data from

large surveys. These are only suitable for single

coded responses however, and there is a higherror rate.

Data cleaning

Once youve entered all your questionnaire responses intothe database it is necessary to spend

some time cleaning thedata to identify inconsistencies and outliers. This is a laboriousprocess

and there is a strong temptation to leave this stageout, particularly if there is a scientific

conference loomingat which youve promised to present the results of your

study! This is a false

economy, however, since you may then have the embarrassment of having to amend your

abstract or evenwithdraw your paper when you discover that your exciting

finding is merely

the result of a data entry error!The quickest way to clean your data is to produce frequency

figures for each question and examine the outliers. Simple cross-tabulationscan then be used to

identify nonsensical responses.


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Examination of the data for selection bias

It is difficult to avoid the tendency for postal questionnaire surveys, in particular, to be biased

towards educated, English-speakingpopulations. The extent to which this applies to your survey

should be stated in your report to enable the reader to judge for themselves how valid your results

are for a given population. Its also important to record as many demographic and treatment

details as possible about non-respondents. Simplecross-tabulations can then be used to compare

the characteristics of respondents and non-respondents. If you have undertaken an interviewer-

based survey involving more than one interviewer,then it will be necessary to compare the

responses given toeach interviewer to identify observer bias.


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Report Preparation - Characteristics of a Good Report

The market research is normally outsourced to third party agencies by organizations and in turn

they create a professional report to the organization. These reports are preferably provided to

senior officials who are the critical decision makers of the organization. Hence these reports need

to be exclusively efficient and well formatted and the matter should be limpid, analytical and

directive.

The actual facts must be depicted clearly and it is desirable that the data and results are furnished

in graphical or tabular format which could create a substantially good impression and is

unambiguous to understand. The reports must be essentially capable to compare related

information in the report so that conclusions can be derived potentially and easily.

It is necessary for a report to contain following details to be called a good report:

1. Information collected in the report must be relevant and focused to derive desiredresults. Pictorial and graphical presentation of data and related information help to

understand the details easily. There is a possibility that the collected data in the report

needs to be represented at many places in different formats to fulfill the report goals. The

ultimate goal is to determine all the issue and make suitable strategies to cope up with

these issue or problems.

2. Report should follow the exact predefined goals and objectives. If there is any sort ofdivergence of related information which does not match the goals then the results are of


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no use. In fact there is a probability of landing up in making negative or out of focus

strategies, which will be very dangerous.

3. The report should always contain the executive summary of the work. This is generallykept before the actual report starts as it shows the summary of the desired business plan.

4. Apart from the actual analysis the report should also depict the reasons of making thisreport and what advantages and profit it can provide after successful implementation of

business plans described inside the report. It should also contain the methodology of the

research which shows the overall process adopted to create the report.

5. It is important that the report contains the possibility of errors in any of the module orprocess so that immediate measures could be taken to cope up with these errors.

6. The report should contain the description of the questionnaires used in analysis and theway it has been prepared.

7. The methodology used in the interviews should also be elaborated and what was achievedin this should also be described.

8. If the information show that some aspects needs to predict the future trends then thereports should depict that prediction. This prediction should have scale of success so that

the accuracy could be judged efficaciously. The report should also define each and every

variable and element used in creating these predictive analyses.

9. The report should be flexible enough to be changed accordingly. The analyticalinformation described inside the report should be maintained in such a way that there is

no extra effort labored if any strategy or process it to be changed in future. It should

necessarily mould the changes without changing the structure of the report.

The analytical report creation is very important phase of market research which acts as a

blueprint of the business plan which is to be executed. By following the above guidelines while

report generation process can be efficiently taken care of.


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Action Plan in Report Preparation Process

Describing the action plan in the report preparation process is very important as it concludes the

report by defining the final actions to be taken care of. An ideal action plan consists of all

abnormal behavior in findings to motivate the organization to focus on these aspects and

determine desirable strategies tackle these situations. Typically an action plan should show the

following aspects in the report:

1. Positive aspects - It should describe the fields in which organization is doing better thanexpectation of customers and competitors. The actual report contains description of

questionnaire and interviews and the respective responses are scaled accordingly. The

responses are analyzed with respect to market benchmarks. If the figures are above

expectation it means the organization is doing good in those aspects and strategies could

be determined to continue to serve in the same manner or enhance them more. Action

plan depicts this information to give straightforward outcomes to show the leadership

aspects of the organization.

2. Negative Aspects - It should also describe the fields in which organization is not doingso well as compared to other competitors and is not meeting the customer expectations. It

also shows the areas where organization is meeting customer expectations but is not

catching up with competitors and is lagging behind them. This information will help the

organization to define enhanced strategies to improve related processes and try to do

better in these aspects and remain competitive for others.

3. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty - Action plan shows the level of customersatisfaction and loyalty according to the analyzed report. This describes in which fields

the organization needs improvement and how, what are the reasons for the downfall and

what strategies to follow to cope up with this to improve customer satisfaction and

loyalty.

Apart from the above aspects there are many other information that is provided by action plans

like providing analyzed information regarding what type of products are being preferred by

customers in the current market scenario, what technologies basically are used in implementing

these products so that they serve in more efficient way. The action plans also give other useful


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information. The entire process is properly documented with respect to organizational standards

so that it can be referred in future for decision making process or to change or modify any

specific process or module. This report contains overall architecture of the project depicting all

the processes with the help of tables, graphs and figures to provoke impact and clarity.


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Research Methodology

Exploratory Research

The exploratory approach attempts to discover general information about a topic that is not well

understood by the marketer. For instance, a marketer has heard news reports about a new Internet

technology that is helping competitors but the marketer is not familiar with the technology and

needs to do research to learn more. When gaining insight (i.e., discovery) on an issue is the

primary goal, exploratory research is used.

The basic difference between exploratory and descriptive research is the research design.

Exploratory research follows a format that is less structured and more flexible than descriptive

research. This approach works well when the marketer doesnt have an understanding of the

topic or the topic is new and it is hard to pinpoint the research direction. The downside, however,

is that results may not be as useful in aiding a marketing decision. So why use this method? In

addition to offering the marketer basic information on a topic, exploratory research may also

provide direction for a more formal research effort. For instance, exploratory research may

indicate who the key decision makers are in a particular market thus enabling a more structured

descriptive study targeted to this group.


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Descriptive Research

The focus of descriptive research is to provide an accurate description for something that is

occurring. For example, what age group is buying a particular brand, a products market share

within a certain industry, how many competitors a company faces, etc. This type of research is

by far the most popular form of market research. It is used extensively when the research

purpose is to explain, monitor and test hypotheses, and can also be used to a lesser extent to help

make predictions and for discovery.

Marketers routinely conduct basic descriptive research using informal means. For instance, the

head of marketing for a clothing company may email a retailer to see how the products are

selling. But informal descriptive research, while widely undertaken, often fails to meet the tests

of research validity and reliability and, consequently, the information should not be used as an

important component in marketing decisions. Rather, to be useful, descriptive research must be

conducted in a way that adheres to a strict set of research requirements to capture relevant

results. This often means that care must be taken to develop a structured research plan. Under

most circumstances this requires researchers have a good grasp of research methods including

knowledge of data analysis.


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Method of Data Collection

This project report gives the information about functional department area of Company. It also

provides information about history and current working of the company. The theoretical

framework is constructed in which the data is analyzed and interpreted.

To receive the data in appropriate and sequential manner following methodology were use by the

research study in TNS India Pvt. Ltd.

Primary data collection

Discussion with the field executives and researchers of a company Discussion with responsible persons of various Department Direct observation of working Interviews on field

Secondary Data collection

Secondary data nothing but ready-made data this data is referred as data collected and analyzed

by someone and made available to the other. The two types of secondary data one is the

published and another one is unpublished data.

The research methodology followed was the questionnaire method. The questionnaire mainly

mixes all the branded garments so that the customer identifies Celio. This is done so that the

company identity is not disclosed.


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Celio

Casual collections define the all day modern elegance in city wear. Different styles are being

mixed and matched in fashion-statement combinations providing unique looks. Sport collections

suggest fashion in action. Modern designs are applied in quality fabrics resulting in comfortable,

yet stylish clothes for active men.

In a CELIO store you can find a wide range of knitwear, shirts, jackets, trousers, knee-trousers, t-

shirts, accessories in order to cover your all day clothing needs in the most fashionable way.

Founded in 1978, by Marc and Laurent Grossman, today Celio is a market leader in men's

ready to wear clothing in France. Its flag ship store, located in Pariss Champs Elyse e, is

spread over three levels.

In addition it also has a presence in Europe, Russia, UAE, Singapore and now in India

through a joint venture with the Future Group.


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Specialists in mens ready-to-wear, Celio offers its customers trousers, shirts, sweaters, t-

shirts, polo-shirts, suits, jackets, belts, ties and boxer

shorts.

A fashion collection, reinterpreted every season in order

to remain the most innovative, structured around our

three categories - Sportswear, Casual and Business.

The brand is retailed through exclusive brand outlets

(EBOs) and select

stores of

Pantaloons and

Central.

Celio offers a space dedicated to men, with a Latin-

inspired fashion that is virile, relaxed and sensual. Celio

style means quality, a variety of colours and cuts,

sophistication and discretion. It is a strong value that

encompasses respect for others, well being, manners,

altruism, sharing and dialogue. It is an accessible,

affordable, borderless, urban, honest brand offering

good value for money. Celio supports men, helps them

to find direction and gives them the keys to fashion.
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Sampling Methods

Cluster Sample

First, the researcher selects groups or clusters, and then from each cluster, the researcher selects

the individual subjects by either simple random

or systematic random sampling. The researcher

can even opt to include the entire cluster and

not just a subset from it.

The most common cluster used in research is a

geographical cluster. For example, a researcher

wants to survey academic performance of high

school students in Spain.

1. He can divide the entire population(population of Spain) into different clusters (cities).

2. Then the researcher selects a number of clusters depending on his research throughsimple or systematic random sampling.

3.

Then, from the selected clusters (randomly selected cities) the researcher can eitherinclude all the high school students as subjects or he can select a number of subjects from

each cluster through simple or systematic random sampling.

The important thing to remember about this sampling technique is to give all the clusters equal

chances of being selected.

Types of Cluster Sample

One-stage Cluster Sample

Recall the example given above; one-stage cluster sample occurs when the researcher includes

all the high school students from all the randomly selected clusters as sample.
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Two-stage Cluster Sample

From the same example above, two-stage cluster sample is obtained when the researcher only

selects a number of students from each cluster by using simple or systematic random sampling.

Difference between Cluster sampling and Stratified Sampling

The main difference between cluster sampling and stratified sampling lies with the inclusion of

the cluster or strata.

In stratified random sampling, all the strata of the population is sampled while in cluster

sampling, the researcher only randomly selects a number of clusters from the collection of

clusters of the entire population. Therefore, only a number of clusters are sampled, all the otherclusters are left unrepresented.

Advantages and Disadvantages

This sampling technique is cheap, quick and easy. Instead of sampling an entire countrywhen using simple random sampling, the researcher can allocate his limited resources to

the few randomly selected clusters or areas when using cluster samples.

Related to the first advantage, the researcher can also increase his sample size with thistechnique. Considering that the researcher will only have to take the sample from a

number of areas or clust

Final Report Tiji

Documents

Transcript of Final Report Tiji