Article S6.11 Research Issues in Marketing Seminar Leader: Joy Mukhopadhyay Independent Trainer and Consultant, Bengaluru, India joymukh[at]gmail.com The two expressions, “marketing research” and “research in marketing,” were compared. While the former refers to the kind of research being conducted by marketing consultancy and research firms, the latter has academic connotations and refers to the research pursued by doctoral scholars. The seminar focused on the former. Marketing research data are usually based on perceptions. Any quantitative analysis in marketing research must take this into account. The seminar was based on a study on the challenges of modern organised retailers in supply-chain management of vegetables and grocery items. Retailing is a sunrise industry in India with many challenges, such as the exclusion of small farms and the management of processing and distribution chains. With the evolution of fast-food chains and supermarkets stocking up vegetables and fruits, the management of the distribution chain assumes importance. The study was undertaken in Bengaluru to gain an understanding of how different major players were handling this challenge in business. The research was exploratory. Primary data were collected from Bengaluru through questionnaires and interviews. Separate questionnaires were used for customers and company officials, as the challenge would be perceived differently by them. A convenience sampling approach was adopted, based on the time that customers or company officials could spare. One possible error could arise in the data from the reluctance of respondents to reveal their income. This could either get inflated or deflated. One way of circumventing this was through the collection of data on socio-economic classes (SEC), which would represent the income status of the respondent. The study showed that customers still prefer to buy vegetables on a daily basis because of the freshness factor and the traditional preference for the unorganised retailer. Still, the number of customers preferring organised retailers is growing because of the convenience, variety, and ambience associated with shopping, and also as it becomes a part of their lifestyle. The availability of cold chain becomes critical for the maintenance of perishable products like fruits and vegetables. Therefore the study concludes that transformation of the supply chain is likely, as most organised players have begun to establish mechanisms to track consumer purchases, using customer relationship management (CRM) systems. With differentiating strategies, such as value for money, shopping experience, variety, quality, discounts, back-end technological support, and a thorough understanding of consumer behaviour, future scenarios for organised retailers will be brighter. Therefore the study recommended the implementation of proper supply-chain management, which includes the establishment of cold chain, automation in inventory control, and efficient logistics operations for moving materials from places of origin to the stores. The seminar presented a different perspective on research from the standpoint of a marketing professional. In this perspective, research becomes a support system for decision making or problem solving. Nevertheless, some of the traditional features of research are also found relevant here, such as systematic collection of data, structuring the data so as to arrive at a meaningful synthesis, and interpreting the result in light of the problem at hand. Neither practical problems nor research problems stay solved for long--research tends to reveal newer problems to be addressed. Reported by Mousumi Padhi and D. P. Dash. [March 11, 2009] Copyleft Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Bhubaneswar 751013, India Research World (ISSN 0974-2379) http://www1.ximb.ac.in/RW.nsf/pages/Home |
