Marketing research as a tool for promotion and selling

When my friend told me to join his group for promoting his event I was very happy. There was somebody who thought that I can help him, I can make a difference.

First, let me tell you what the problem was. My friend is organizing a Video- game competition in our college and though there are many people who love playing games the registration for the contests were very less and the reasons were unknown.

When I thought about this I was really confused as I could understand only one reason for people not registering, the lack personalized approach. Now what is that; well that means that they were not contacting any one, they had their posters, e- mails and a small counter in the mess, which led to the big mess that they were in.

So, I had only one conclusion in mind, they needed a personalized approach but were there any other problems or not, I had no idea.

And this is when the idea clicked; a survey for promotion and selling.

The initial idea was of a survey to identify what types of games people wanted and the reasons why people were not interested. There were 2 possible approaches i.e. online research i.e. online form and Personalized research. The latter seemed costly and more time consuming initially but gradually the advantages were clear.

Personalized research gave the advantage of contacting more people and getting their attention while in online research there was a chance that many wont even look at the content of mail.

Hence a personalized approach was necessary. Also this approach would help in generating curiosity in mind of respondent. Now this can be understood by need for closure.

According to the theory of consumer behavior every person has a need for closure i.e. they want to see the ending. Do you remember when u started a book and you wanted to know what happens in the end of story or climax of a movie. Similarly we all have the need for closure.

So, when someone knows about an event that is going to happen they would like to know more about it. when they know more about it they will talk more about it and this gives you a good word of mouth. Which might help in getting more registrations.

A good way to generate a positive word-of-mouth.

And I always thought the sole reason that products with a prior research done, perform well coz they know what people want.

May be the reason is just that people want to know what the product is all about.