Marketing Research – Definition, Importance and Process

Definition of Marketing Research Marketing research is a key to the evolution of successful marketing strategies and programmes. It is an important tool to study buyer behavior, changes in consumer lifestyles and consumption patterns, brand loyalty and forecast market changes. Research is also used to study competition and analyze the competitor product’s positioning and how to gain competitive advantage. Recently, marketing research is being used to help create and enhance brand equity. According to Philip Kotler, Marketing research is systematic problem analysis, model building and fact finding for the purposes of important decision making and control in the marketing of goods and services. The important decision making related to market strategy and other tasks related to marketing depends on findings or marketing research. Marketing research process reduces the chances of errors, miss conceptions and uncertainty from decision making process. It is therefore very important to conduct marketing research to identify Continue reading

Introduction to Managerial Economics

Managerial economics is a discipline which deals with the application of economic theory to business management. It deals with the use of economic concepts and principles of business decision making. Formerly it was known as “Business Economics” but the term has now been discarded in favor of Managerial Economics. Managerial Economics may be defined as the study of economic theories, logic and methodology which are generally applied to seek solution to the practical problems of business. Managerial Economics is thus constituted of that part of economic knowledge or economic theories which is used as a tool of analyzing business problems for rational business decisions. Managerial Economics is often called as Business Economics or Economic for Firms. Definition of Managerial Economics: “Managerial Economics is economics applied in decision making. It is a special branch of economics bridging the gap between abstract theory and managerial practice.” — Haynes, Mote and Paul. “Business Continue reading

Brand Case Study: Virgin Atlantic, Adidas, Xerox, Ikea and Accenture

VIRGIN ATLANTIC Virgin Atlantic was born in the 1980s. Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur, had already created a successful brand with Virgin Group, particularly in the music business. He had founded the group when he was 20 as a mail-order record company and shortly after opened a music shop in London’s main shopping thoroughfare, Oxford Street. The original brand slogan of these stores was ‘Cheap and nasty’. A music studio was built in Oxfordshire in 1972, where one Mike Oldfield recorded his massively successful album Tabular Bells for the Virgin Records label. This album sold 5 million copies and was the catalyst for Virgin Records, which signed a range of successful artists, including The Rolling Stones, Culture Club, Janet Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds and The Human League. Virgin was to become one of the six biggest record companies in the world. By the early 80s Virgin Group was well Continue reading

Ethical Issues in the Banking Industry

Over the years, banks have undergone tremendous growth in many aspects of their operations, starting with the type of customers they deal with to the manner in which information is received, recorded, transformed, and finally used. Ultimately, banks have unraveled the whole mystery of discrimination as to what customers to offer services to or not by categorizing their clients in terms of their income structure. This classifying of customers is meant to assist in the decision making process as to what customer receives what treatment, but it is also meant to assist the banks in understanding the type of customers to offer better services to. Therefore, regulated by their policy of information non-disclosure, banks would obtain very crucial information about various customers (their age, sex, race, employment status, as well as income level) with a notion that they are adhering to the Know Your Customer policy. This information is supposed Continue reading

Modern Methods of Performance Appraisal

Most traditional methods of performance appraisal emphasize either on  the task or the worker’s personality, while making an appraisal. In order to bring  about a balance between these two, modern methods have been developed. The modern methods of performance appraisal place more  emphasis on the evaluation of work results, i.e. job achievements than the  personal traits. Modern methods tend to be more objective and worthwhile.  These methods are briefly discussed below. 1. Behavioral Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) The problem of judgmental  evaluation inherent in the traditional methods of performance evaluation led to  some organisations to go for objective evaluation by developing a technique  know as BARS around 1960s. It is an approach that has received greater  attention in recent years. It combines major elements of the ‘Critical Incident’  and ‘Graphic Ratings Scale’ approaches. The appraiser rates the employee on  specific job behaviors derived from specific performance dimensions (on a  given Continue reading

Portfolio Construction Phase in Investment Portfolio Management

Investment portfolio construction refers to the allocation of funds among a variety of financial assets open for investment. Portfolio theory concerns itself with the principles governing such allocation. The objective of the theory is to elaborate the principles in which the risk can be minimized subject to desired level of return on the portfolio or maximize the return, subject to the constraint of a tolerate level of risk. Thus, the basic objective of portfolio management is to maximize yield and minimize risk. The other ancillary objectives are as per the needs of investors, namely: Safety of the investment Stable current returns Appreciation in the value of capital Marketability and Liquidity Minimizing of tax liability. In pursuit of these objectives, the portfolio manager has to set out all the various alternative investment along with their projected return and risk and choose investment with safety the requirement of the individual investor and Continue reading