The conclusions of the marketing research projects planned and executed in Stage 1 are presented on the 3 specific objectives of this phase:

Conclusions for Step 1

The conclusions of the marketing research projects planned and executed in Stage 1 are

presented on the 3 specific objectives of this phase:

Regarding the research of similar international methods and instruments from a

technical and methodological perspective

Focusing on the goal of INFOMARK, which is the development of a complex integrated

and interactive marketing tool for the strategic planning of the Romanian organizations,

the starting point must be the technical projection of this application and the planning of

its fields.

The application will be projected and managed on three main parts:

1.

part one- in this part information about marketing, marketing policy, marketing

plan and strategic criteria will be displayed

2.

part two- this part will comprise a complex database with information gathered

form qualitative and quantitative marketing research projects.

3.

part three- this part will include a search engine which will filter the available

information through multiple selections.

At international level there are some significant examples of complex databases with

marketing research projects or articles in the large sphere of marketing. Also there are

web sites with general information about the marketing concept, marketing research

concept or the marketing policy one. Anyway, an unrestricted application, such as the one

After surveying more than 500 worldwide marketing references which comprise at least

one aspect relevant to our project, we concluded that the following sources are the most

significant: Market Research Portal, International Market Research Information, Global

Technology Forum, Economic and Social Data Service, Research Papers in Economics,

Mintel International Group, MarketResearch.com, Euromonitor International, Market

Publisher and KnowThis.com.

Regarding the other side of this research objective- the surveying of similar international

instruments from a methodological perspective, we were able to identify and analyze 14

portals. These portals are: Gartner, International Data Corporation, Hoover’s,

International Social Survey Programme, Secondary Data, Factiva, One Source Global

Business Browser, Global Insight, Country Watch, Market Research Portal, Global

Technology Forum, Economic and Social Data Service, Alibaba.com, Biz-Lib.com.

These web sites display a big diversity of research and consultancy data offering mainly

non-free specialized services to businesses.

Through the analysis of these portals we were able to conclude upon the form and content

of the INFOMARK application.

Regarding the identification of the information needs of the Romanian

organizations

Based on the content analysis of these marketing research studies we were able to

identify the current situation of marketing data collection by the Romanian organizations,

the demand of such data and the opening of these organizations toward market analysis as

a starting point of their marketing activity and also the opinion regarding the utility of a

portal like INFOMARK.

We were able to identify peculiarities at regional level (according to the dominant

industries in the respective area), differences in relation to the company’s size, in relation

to the field of activity, in relation to the degree of the marketing integration within the

organization or in relation to the manager’s education.

Most of the organizations declared their interest toward our project, amongst their

requirements for the content were those related to the presentation of some theoretical

aspects of the marketing activity, news in the field, consumer purchase and consumption

behaviour studies of some products and services, presentation of some methodologies for

the study of competition or consumer loyalty.

One of the conclusions of the in-depth interviews was that every manager had different

perceptions about the environment in close connection to the industry in which the

company activated.

The current indicators used for the evaluation of the marketing performances take into

account mainly the sales of previous years and the ones of the current year.

Indicators such as market share, production/sale ratio, the number of contracts concluded

with new clients, the traffic on the web site, the number of contacts made through the

web site, and monitoring of public image. One indicator, that appeared frequently, is the

client satisfaction.

The performance indicators are determined on the basis of experience and the company

does not compare with other indicators of industry.

In terms of information needed, managers said usefulness of knowledge and potential

market trends through the prism of purchasing intentions for the next 3-5 years, for local

and regional level, demographic indicators, consumption, consumer money allocation for

related to the participation at fairs and exhibitions (the way we choose the fair, the

number of presentation stands, the presentation pavilion etc.), the method of elaboration

of the manual of visual identity, (the method) through which the export strategy is built,

the distribution way. The studies of the domains of interest such as statistics about

industry import or export and studies of the advertising audience profile are very

important also.

The marketing objectives take shape mainly on the performances of the company and on the

market’s tendencies more than on the industrial accomplishments.

Regarding marketing decisions the managers use the following sources of information: previous

experience, internet, the company’s web site (contact, number of visitors), professional

associations, market studies, market and competition observation, statistics (INSSE), the

company’s partners (customers, distributors and suppliers), internal reports procedures, Monitorul

Oficial, the web site of the Ministry of Finance, the web sites of the Chambers of Commerce,

Golden Pages, Yellow pages, e-licitatii.ro, exhibitions and fairs, specialized books.

The majority of the subjects say that the information they have is not enough. The information

from the written press is gathered from the following sources: Saptamana Financiara, Capital,

Ziarul Financiar, Wall Street, on-line press, local press. The web sites of government institutions

and annual statistics are little used because they are vague and hard to be interpreted.

The information regarding the competitors is obtained from the customers (in one case, to obtain

this kind of information the company offers discounts), from internet (mentioning that the internet

consumes time and energy because of non selectivity) or directly from competitors.

The information about customers and suppliers can be obtained from the Golden Pages, internet,

search engines, car advertisements.

The majority of the interviewed firms do not perform market studies. In case they do them these

ones are rudimentary and made on their own. Only the big companies make this kind of study in a

professional manner. Anyway, all companies consider the market studies to be necessary.

The information needed to make predictions is obtained from the press or from the internal

sources (sales evolution). It’s well known the need and usefulness of sales predictions and

consumer behaviour.

The information about the latest technology is obtained from the internet, from domestic and

international fairs and exhibitions, from the foreign partner/supplier.

It is considered necessary to have industry databases, databases about the European

funding, databases in the financial field and in the legislative domain.

Most of the companies, usually the small ones, do not have a strategy or a marketing

plan, do not have a budget dedicated to obtaining this kind of information, but they are

willing to invest 3-5% of the sales in this.(only if this increases their next sales).

The respondents consider that the portal (Infomark) should be structured on domains and

sub-domains of activity linked through a search engine. It would be advisable that the

companies could present offers on the portal and the customers could have the possibility

to upload information concerning their needs. Information about suppliers, competitors,

distributors and legislation trends would also be an objective of the portal. It is expected

information about certain macroeconomic indicators at the level of the sector of activity

and on geographic areas, as well as theoretical information about general strategies and

practice of marketing, news, tendencies.

The possibility of subscribing to newsletters so that the managers will be up to date with

the most recent changes and

novelties about the competition, distribution, the firm’s activity

field (domain) as well as with all the changes within the structure and the potential of the market

in which the company deals..

It’s a widely accepted fact that the portal will be more effective if the access in the database is

based on a subscription, because the maintenance staff would be in this way financially

motivated, and the information would be better. In most cases, and especially in the small firms,

dissatisfactory. A good thing is that the majority of the firms have understood the need of a

marketing activity and are interested in a more accurate market study, have started various forms

of collaboration with specialized firms and are willing to dedicate financial resources (sometimes

very large) in order to develop their own organization marketing level.

The companies are interested, especially in the future tendencies of the market they act in,

dedicating funds to evaluate it, and to evaluate the consume behaviour and also the factors that

determines it.

Regarding the idea of a portal, the need of building this portal is revealed from the interviews

taken. If the things are not very clear concerning the way the marketing activity will be organized

in the future at the level of the analyzed entities- it will probably come to help of the professional

firms well known in this area of activity – for all the questioned firms has become obvious that

the more information they have the easier is to make the right decision in developing their

business.

The big companies perform their own investigations and buy the conclusions of general studies.

Small and medium companies do not spend money on direct research; they stick to official

statistics and especially with their own information (sales, reports, analyses of sales).

Another source of information is the feedback received from customers- information obtained

from the customer service department (if there is one), from the sales agents, from the service or

from the analysis of the users’ forum, of various blogs, etc.

Interesting information is considered:

-

the company’s image

-

the consumption behaviour

-

needs, motivations, attitudes

-

trends in consumption

-

the life style

Big companies would be willing to pay a monthly subscription in order to have access to a portal

such as INFOMARK, and would participate in research projects related to the market.

However, the big companies are more reluctant about using a free portal. They are afraid of the

free information (considered less good) and of intoxications meant to scare, placed by the

competition.

It is considered useful to have information about some company failures, things that didn’t go so

well in the past, in order to be avoided in the future.

In terms of identifying domestic and international public sources of marketing

According to content and degree of coverage the secondary sources of data used in investigations

of international marketing can be grouped in:

-

statistical data from international official sources

-

publications of national institutions of statistics, publications of central banks, chambers

of commerce, governments etc.

-

economic publications of large agencies and prestigious daily press

-

scientific publications

-

publications of companies, institutes and professional associations of marketing and

marketing research

-

on-line data banks

-

annual international marketing conference reports

Of utmost importance are the internal sources of the companies recording the practical experience

gained by the marketing departments in the activity on various international markets. In this

situation, the information is extracted from internal reports of companies and refers to the

relationship with distributors, suppliers, public authorities and consumers in different places of

the world where the company operates.

In Romania there are no very complex databases with marketing information, such as those from

abroad, but can be identified the following secondary data sources which could be included in the

project:

official statistics at national level

publications of professional associations

publications of NGOs

information from syndicated research and studies performed by

marketing research companies

In conclusion we can say that the use of secondary sources of data in marketing research

represents an extremely important component for a business.

Of course, secondary sources of

data will be used in relation to their degree of relevance to the investigated issue. Insufficient

data, the inadequate quality, their irrelevancy and high costs of obtaining are the real problems

with which the person who must make decisions in the international marketing area is faced every

day, but these issues may not result in a limitation in the use of such categories of information

which are extremely useful for a company.