Smartwear’s Marketing Research Proposal: NAC’s Dilemma
Newton Advertising and Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (NAC), is an advertising and PR agency which offered advertising solutions & services along with PR. The company’s major revenue source had been advertising services. With a long history of 25 years, NAC became a popular and well-known advertising agency in India. Having created some of the most defining advertisements (prints & TVCs) for Indian companies, NAC had been focusing on SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) during the last 4 years. Although the ticket size was comparatively less, with the growing entrepreneurial culture in India, SMEs and MSMEs are poised for a meteoric rise in the years to come. One of the biggest bottlenecks for an SME/MSME (especially in B2C segment) was to reach out to the target customers in an effective and efficient way.
On May 11th 2015, NAC received a business proposal to undertake a marketing research from an MSME, Smartwear. Anand Tripathi (Anand), Director, Operations, having forwarded the proposal (the mail) to John Mathews (John), the Director (Client Engagement and Strategy), was not sure what should be NAC’s reply. During lunch time, Anand confabulated with John regarding the mail sent. John said, “I wish I could tell you right now.” “We need to communicate within a week, though”, said Anand.
Smartwear, setup in 2001, was a manufacturer and supplier of Knitted & Woven Garments (T-Shirt), for men and women. It was one of the major suppliers to many popular Indian and Global brands like Nike, Puma, UCB, Evolution, Anora, Levi’s, etc. Although the company was making decent profits (with 28% margins), the Founder, G. Kumar (Kumar), had aggressive growth plans up his sleeves. He wanted to launch his own brand and make it bigger. To start with, he decided to launch a new product – occasional/festive ethnic wear for men. As he had been operating in a B2B market, as a supplier to Indian and global brands, neither did he know about any product launch nor did he know anything about GTM (Go To Market) strategies for a new product..................
Assignment Questions
I. What do you understand by Marketing Research? Is there any difference between Marketing Research and Market Research? What is the process of conducting a Marketing Research?
II. What is the importance of Marketing Research:
a) For Companies/Organizations/Institutions
b) For an MBA Program
c) For Marketing specialization student/participant
III. .........................
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Six Steps of Marketing Research Process
Exhibit II: Smartwear’s Marketing Research Brief
Exhibit III: Marketing Research Logic and Marketing Research Magic
Exhibit IV: Classification of Marketing Research
Exhibit V: Examples of Marketing Research
Exhibit VI: Top Marketing Research Companies and Marketing Research Associations
Exhibit VII: Marketing Research – Strategic Framework