AMRP Report

AMRP Presentation

Pilot Survey Analysis

Marketing research Process

Marketing research Process

Marketing process for this project can be divided into 6 steps:

Step 1: Problem Definition

 The first and the most important step is to ‘define’ the problem. While defining the problem following things were taken into account:  purpose of study, the relevant background information, the information needed and how to use it in decision making. Problem definition involves:

·         Analysis of secondary data

·         Interviews with industry experts

·         Qualitative research ( Focus groups)

·         Pilot survey

Once the problem has been precisely defined, the research can be designed and conducted properly

 Step 2: Development of an Approach to the problem

Development of the approach to the problem includes formulating an objective or theoretical framework, analytic models, research questions, and hypothesis and identifying the information needed. This process is guided by discussion with industry experts, analysis of secondary data, qualitative research, and pragmatic considerations

Step 3: Research design formulation

A research design is a framework for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedure necessary for obtaining the required information, and its purpose is to design a study that will test the hypothesis of interest, determine possible answers to the research questions, and provide the information needed for decision making .Design of questionnaire and a sampling plan is also done. Broadly formulating the research design involves the following steps:

·         Definition of the information needed

·         Secondary data analysis

·         Qualitative research

·         Methods of collecting qualitative data( survey, observation, and experimentation)

·         Measurement and scaling procedures

·         Questionnaire design

·         Sampling process and sample size

·         Plan of data analysis

Step 4: Fieldwork or data collection

Our data collection involves following steps:

               ·         Questionnaire  and survey

               ·         Direct, mail intercept and computer assisted personal interviews

               ·         Telephonic interviews

               ·         E-mails Q n A

Step 5: Data preparation and analysis

Data preparation includes the editing, coding, transcription and verification of data. Each questionnaire form is inspected or edited. The data are analyzed to derive information related to the components of the marketing research problem and thus, to provide input into the given research problem

Step 6: Report preparation and presentation

The entire project is documented in a written report that addresses:

·         The specific research questions identified,

·          Describe the approach,

·         The research design,

·         Data collection, and

·         Data analysis procedures adopted, and

·         Finally present the results and major findings.

In addition to it, oral presentation will be made using tables, graphs to enhance clarity and impact. 

This post is exclusively for students who are at the initial phase of their research projects but don’t know how to start!

                                            A good start is half the battle won – Anonymous

How to start!! This is the question which haunts majority of students. They waste considerable amount of their time just because they don’t have answer for this question. Here is the systematic guide to decide your research project:

Step 1: Choose the area of research: 

This is probably the easiest part as after the first year of MBA, majority of students knows their area of expertise. Some broadly classified streams can be:

                      1.       Marketing

             2.       Finance

             3.       Operations

             4.       Human Resource

             5.       Information Technology

             6.       Business Strategy

             7.       Statistics/Econometrics

             8.       Economics

             9.       Business Analytics

Step 2: Where to look for the information: Okay I know my area of research, then what?

This is the step where almost all the students spend 15-20 days or more as they simply don’t know where to get the required information. Here are some of the sources which can help:

1.       Project reports of seniors: You can easily find the list of topics on which your seniors had  done their projects .This is very useful source as they have worked on these projects for almost a year and thus can easily provide the seed for thought.

2.        Research papers and journals: Another valuable source to get the idea for your research  topic. Some of the sources for this can be-

·         IIT kgp digital library: http://www.library.iitkgp.ernet.in/

·         MIT Press: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/

·         Oxford Journals: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/#J

·         ACM digital library: http://dl.acm.org/dl.cfm?CFID=124754103&CFTOKEN=73365922

·         Palgrave Journals: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/index.html

·         EBSCO Databases: http://web.ebscohost.com

·         ACM Digital library: http://dl.acm.org/

3.       Current trends and topics: Current economic trends and general topics which are in the news recently.

4.       Live Projects: Make a list of the companies in your domain of expertise and try to get a live project from them. Live project is a very good source of learning industry standards and market environment.

Step 3: Research Question: 

Once you have narrowed down your domain of expertise, try to formulate the research question. Research question can take several forms but try to write it in the form of null hypothesis (For details of null hypothesis explore the chapter on Hypothesis testing-Statistics for Management by Levin Rubin).This adds objectivity to your research.

Step 4: Do the primary researches and feasibility analysis: 

Once you have written the research question do the primary researches on the topic. Do the feasibility analysis of the same; you don’t want to change your research topic after 1 month or so.

Step 5: Project design and planning: 

After finalizing the research question make a detailed project design i.e. how you will proceed, what is the scope of your research, methodology you will follow etc. Also Project Planning needs to be done at this stage, this will include questions like: What are the timelines, deliverables etc.

At this stage you can start with all heads up on your research project. Cheers!

  

Evolution of Mobile VAS Services and Future Growth Strategies

Updated Topic for AMRP:

Evolution of Mobile VAS Services and Future Growth Strategies

Scope of the project will include: 

1. The primary research on Current Value Added Services (VAS).

2. Followed by detailed analysis of all the VAS providers in the country( via secondary research).

3. Study of Strategies deployed by Operators for various current VAS services and come up with an environmental analysis on Products, Promotion etc. Come up with new ways of promotions (may involve STP crudely where have to devise a Psycho graphic Or some other segmentation of mobile user and devise products and promotions narrowed to them)

5. Especially on Data, detailed bench marking and analysis on strategies and way forward as Data is expected to be the single largest contributor to VAS in coming times. Focus on consumer behavior and current and expected usage trend.

Weekly update :
The topic of my research project is  
"Will 2013 be the beginning of the end for SAS and SPSS softwares ? "

With the advent of R tool, which is a open source statistical tool, expensive tools such as SAS, SPSS are feeling the heat as the same task\analysis can be done at lesser cost.R tool as it is a free software is used extensively for academic purposes, thus gaining popularity among new crop of data analysts and BI consultants.

Primary research suggests that SAS is the market leader in this category and although R can perform same task as SAS, SAS still is the preferred choice among analysts world wide.

Below is the presentation of this week's work:

Presentation1: http://bit.ly/ThdghV