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Basics of Marketing - Kotler Philip

Ways of communicating with the audience

How to contact the members of the sample? By phone, by mail or through a personal interview.

Interview by phone ? The best method of prompt collection of information, In the course of his interviewer has the opportunity to clarify questions that are unclear to the interviewee. The two main drawbacks of telephone interviews are that you can interview only those who have a phone and the conversation should be short in time and not be too personal.

A questionnaire sent by mail may be the best way to get in touch with people who either do not agree to a personal interview, or their responses may be affected by the interviewer's influence. However, the postal questionnaire requires simple, clearly formulated questions, and the percentage and / or speed of return of such questionnaires is usually low.

A personal interview ? The most universal of the three methods of conducting a survey. The interviewer can not only ask more questions, but also supplement the results of the conversation with his personal observations. A personal interview? The most expensive of the three methods and requires more thorough administrative planning and control.

Personal interviews are of two kinds? Individual and group.

Individual interviews involve visiting people at home or at work or meeting them on the street. The interviewer must obtain their cooperation, and the conversation itself can last from several minutes to several hours. In some cases, as compensation for the time spent, the interviewee is given a small sum of money or a small gift.

Group interview consists of inviting 6-10 people for several hours to talk with a specially trained interviewer about a product, service, organization or some other marketing problem. The facilitator must have high qualification, objectivity, knowledge of the topic and branch of activity, which will be discussed, and the ability to understand the specifics of the dynamics of group and consumer behavior. Otherwise, the results of the conversation may be useless or misleading. For participation in a conversation, the respondents are usually paid a small monetary reward. The conversation, as a rule, takes place in a pleasant atmosphere (for example, in an apartment), and in order to further emphasize its ease, the guests are served refreshments. The facilitator begins a conversation with general questions such as "How do you feel before flying on an airplane?". Subsequent questions concern how people perceive preflight, flight, and post-flight service, and finally, what feelings they feel for Allegheny and each of the competing airlines. The facilitator encourages a free and easy exchange of opinions between interview participants in the expectation that the dynamics of group behavior will reveal their true feelings and thoughts. Statements are recorded manually or using a tape recorder and then studied, trying to figure out how consumers make purchasing decisions. Group interviews are becoming one of the main research tools of marketing, allowing deeper understanding of the thoughts and feelings of consumers12.

Collection of information

Having developed the research project, it is necessary to collect information. As a rule, this is the most expensive and the most fraught phase of research. Four major problems arise during the surveys. Some respondents may not be at home or at work, and the attempt to contact them will have to be repeated. Others may refuse to participate in the survey. Still others may respond biased or insincere. And finally, the presenter can be biased and insincere.

During the experiments, researchers need to closely monitor the compliance of the experimental and control groups with each other, do not exert influence on the participants of their presence, give instructions in a completely uniform manner and monitor compliance with all other conditions.

Analysis of collected information

The next stage of marketing research? Extract the most important information and results from the set of data obtained. The researcher brings the obtained data into tables. On the basis of these tables, indicators such as frequency distribution, mean levels, and degree of dispersion are derived or calculated. Then the researcher, in the hope of obtaining additional information, processes the obtained data using modern statistical techniques and decision-making models used in the marketing information analysis system.

Presentation of the results

The researcher should not stun the marketing managers with the quantity and sophistication of the statistical methods used by him. This will only confuse the managers. It is necessary to present the main results necessary for the company's management to make major, vital marketing decisions. The study is useful when it helps reduce the uncertainty faced by marketing professionals. Here, by the way, what happened in the case of Allegheny.

Researchers found that most people continue to consider this airline a very small company, despite the fact that on a countrywide scale it ranked sixth among the largest air carriers. The worst thing was that passengers preferred large airlines to small ones, being sure that it was safer to fly by large companies, that they had more experienced pilots and that in general large companies were more reliable. Based on the results obtained, Allegheny responded in the form of an advertising campaign designed to convince people that they have the same "big" firm as Pan American, Transworld Airlines and American Airlines. In advertising on television, in newspapers and magazines there were statements of such, for example, of the type:

• The airline must be large to carry more than a million more passengers per year than the Pan Amerikan.

• The airline must be large to make daily flights more than Transworld Airlines.

• The airline must be large to serve more American cities than American Airlines.

The researchers also found out the fact that part of the firm's problems are related to its name. While being a local company, Allegheny received the nickname of "airlines of suffering" for the fact that its small planes were flying through the bad weather and not over it like big jet liners. As a result, in the flight passengers often felt like driving a bumpy road, and the aircraft were often late. In addition, the name tied the company to a small region of the United States, although it already flew to many parts of the country. The solution to this problem was the replacement of the name with "Yu.S. Air. " The new name sounded like the name of a "big" airline and reminded travelers of the nationwide routes of the company.

Since then, the firm "Yu. S. Air "continues to grow. After the advertising campaign, not only the number of business people increased, but also the number of families and holidaymakers using its airplanes. The marketing research and advertising campaign on its results were crowned with success. The airline has become more famous, its services have been used by more passengers13.