Impacts of Market Research on the Organization-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Impacts of Market Reseach on the Organizational Growth and Success. Answer: Abstract The report mentions the impacts of market research on the organizational growth and success. Market research is extremely useful in understanding the needs and demands of the target customers and remaining ahead of the competitors. Market research helps the organizations to determine their pricing policy, products and other important strategies. The report states how Reliance Jio utilizes market research process and how a more effective market research process might impact the future of its products and services. Introduction: Market research refers to the systematic collection and detailed analysis of the data in order to understand a particular market, competitor or environment. Market research involves collection of primary data from the respondents or analysis of the secondary data easily available to the researcher. It is the scientific collection and study of the data, which enables the organizations to understand the market trends, tastes and preferences of the customers and take appropriate commercial decisions. Market research is extremely useful in understanding the needs and demands of the target customers and remaining ahead of the competitors. Market research helps the organizations to determine their pricing policy, products and other important strategies (McQuarrie 2015). Market research is useful in adapting a particular strategy and forecast the future demand and profitability. It enables the organizations to decide their target audience, location, price range and type of products. For ins tance, launching a highly priced product for the rural population would be a wrong decision while a specific portion of the urban population might be interested in buying a highly priced product. Market research helps the organizations to determine the locations wherein the products launched shall be successful. Background of the company: Reliance Jio was founded by Mukesh Ambani in the year 2010 as a subsidiary company of Reliance Industries Limited. Reliance Jio is an LTE mobile network operator in India. Jio offers wireless 4G service and is the only VoLTE operator In India. The company has effectively used market research processes which enabled the company to acquire 50 million subscribers within 83 days of its launch (Jio.com 2017). For the purpose of branding and marketing, the company appointed Shah Rukh Khan as the brand ambassador of Jio. The company also collaborated with the internationally famous game Pokemon Go as a result of which several Jio stores and Reliance marts became PokeStops and Gyms. Reliance Jio has efficiently utilized market research techniques and processes to know the requirements of the Indian customers and formulating its pricing strategies, which has resulted in the massive success of the company within a short span of time. Jio is an entire ecosystem that enables the Indians to live proper digital life. It aims at providing powerful broadband networks, best services, useful apps and smart devices all across India. The company targeted both rural and urban sections of the nation for providing affordable and high quality products and services (Jio.com 2017). Market research process of Reliance Jio: Reliance Jio aims at creating a digital ecosystem in India by offering broadband services, smart phones and several useful applications. The services provided by Jio involves television shows, movies, live music, Jio money, Jio play and many more. The market research process of Reliance Jio involved the following steps: Identification and defining problem: The major problem identified by the organization is the need of digitalization in India. The growth of a country is highly dependent upon digitalization. The company found that a large number of Indians did not have an access to internet as they could not afford data charges (Sarstedt and Mooi 2014). The Government of India also aims at making India digital and the company took the advantage of the opportunity. The Government of India believes that digitalization shall give an opportunity to transform the lives of the people in a positive manner. India has more than 684 million mobile users and the Government aims at establishing 100 smart cities in India through digitalization. Reliance Jio identified the issue of digitalization and the opportunity it shall provide to earn revenues (Malhotra, Birks and Wills 2013). Statement of research objectives: After the identification of problem, the researcher is required to form a statement of research objectives. The research objective of Jio was to find out the extent to which free unlimited calls and internet facilities would affect the sales volume. It also involves setting up a hypothesis statement, which can be supported by empirical findings. After finalizing the research objectives and the hypothesis statement, the researcher is able to select the research design (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). Planning the research design: Research design specifies the process of data collection and the method of analyzing the data. Research design is the framework for the research plan of action. Research design ensures that the data collected have proper links with the objectives (Bryman and Bell 2015). At this stage, the researchers determine the sources from which the data shall be collected, the method of data collection, sampling methods and the costs to be incurred in the process. Planning the sample: Sampling refers to the part of the population that is selected to derive conclusions regarding the entire population. In case of Jio, the sample population was the employees of Reliance Industries Limited. These employees were provided with Jio sim cards and Lyf mobiles much before the company commercially launched its services in the market (Jio.com 2017). The company gathered the response of these employees to determine the pros and cons of the services. Data collection: Data collection refers to collecting facts that can be used to find a solution to a problem. In case of Jio, the data was initially collected from the employees of Reliance Industries limited to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the services. The company also gathered data regarding the quality of services and the pricing strategies of the competing firms such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. After the commercial launch of Jio free services, the company took feedback from the customers and their expectations from the company according to which the company devised its pricing policy. Data analysis: After the collection of the data, the company analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the services. The company analyzed the number of customers, who shall be interested in availing the free services of Jio. After one year of free services, the company again did a market research to determine the number of subscribers, who would continue the services when the services become paid services (Patra, Mahapatra and Patnaik 2016). Take action: Finally, the company formulated its pricing policy in accordance with the analyzed data. Initially the company offered free services till December 2016 however; considering the market analysis results, it extended its free services till March 2017 in order to increase the number of prime members. The company has come up with several plans so that people can choose according to their financial condition. The plans started from Rs. 150 and ended up to Rs. 9999. An unique service provided by the company involved free home delivery of the sim cards and instant activation of the sims by booking appointments. The company still conducts market surveys to identify the trends and wants of the customers in order to further improve its products and services (Gochhait and Tripathy 2016). Impact of market research process on Jio: An efficient market research process has enabled the company to remain ahead of the competitors. The other telecom companies had to suffer losses due to the attractive pricing policy of Jio. The company was able to revolutionize the telecom industry in India. Proper market research enabled the company to determine the need of the Indian population. The company found opportunity in the digitalization process of the nation. Initially the company had decided a certain number of smart phones that would be compatible with Jio simcards however; later on with the help of market research, the company realized that the sales would improve if its sims become compatible with all the 4G smart phones (Mahalaxmi and Kumar 2017). Initially, the population faced several issues with Jio network, but the company kept on improving its services in order to increase the level of customer satisfaction. The company has also recently launched its own bar phones at a minimal price of Rs. 1500, which shall be refundable after three years of use. The company has undergone detailed market research in rural areas and low- income group members. The research has enabled the company to come up with the bar phone so that every person in India shall have access to internet and free voice calls. The company also has its own range of smart phones known as Lyf ranging between Rs. 4000 and Rs. 19000. All these strategies have enabled the company to earn huge sales volume. The company has been able to create affordable mobile phones and high quality services. The company had appointed 50 customer acquisition and retention managers, who were involved in hiring teams that had the target of acquiring one million users each in the first two months of its commercial launch. Jio aimed at acquiring 100 million customers in 100 days (Jio.com 2017). The total number of telecom subscribers in India increased from 1198.9 million at the end of April 2017 to 1204.98 million at the end of May 2017. At present, Re liance Jio has the largest number of subscribers in India. Reliance Jio contributes more than 75% of overall net subscriber addition in the telecom industry. Bharti Airtel is the second highest in terms of number of subscribers. The user base of Jio has exceeded 130 million and is still growing at a fast pace (Haq 2017). Figure 1: Net additions in wireless subscribers of access service providers in the month of May, 2017) (Source: Haq 2017) Scope and impact of future use of market research on Jio: A more effective and efficient use of market research process can have much more positive implications on the growth of the company. The other telecom companies have also launched new plans in order to compete with Jio. Therefore, the company is required to use the market research process more efficiently and effectively in order to remain ahead of the customers (Chinthala, Madhuri and Kumar 2017). Market research is extremely useful in understanding the needs and demands of the target customers and remaining ahead of the competitors. Market research helps the organizations to determine their pricing policy, products and other important strategies. Market research is useful in adapting a particular strategy and forecast the future demand and profitability. Conclusion: The competition level in the telecom industry in India has become intense and in order to sustain in the market and to remain profitable, Jio shall have to be continuously involved in the market research process to maintain its position. An effective market research process shall enable the company to further increase its customer base and retain the existing customers. This would ultimately increase the profitability of the organization and shall increase the level of satisfaction among the customers. References: Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. Chinthala, G., Madhuri, H. and Kumar, K., 2017. Customer Satisfaction Towards Telcommunication Service Provider-A Study on Reliance JIO. 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