It is very important to have the facts about how many potential buyers are in your projected Sales area1 And to know their needs and wishes before you invest. It is better to have the facts than to Merely2 have a feel for how your products will sell. This requires Thorough3 study of the market you propose to serve.

THE TOTAL MARKETING CONCEPT. It involves matching the firm's products or services with the needs and desires of those people who will buy them, whether now or in the future. Marketing planning must include all the ingredients necessary to satisfy customers, including producing the product they want, Picking4 the proper location for your firm, determining the correct promotion and advertising plans, and many other factors that lead to customer satisfaction. Marketing costs5 for small firms can be as much as 50 per cent of total business costs. Planners may employ an outside firm to study their suggested market; advertising firms and market research firms often specialize in such surveys.

OBJECTIVE OF A MARKET SURVEY6 is to determine a reasonably Attainable7 sales volume in a specific market area for a specific type of business. This means finding out how many potential consumers for the planned merchandise or service there are in this market and how many of them can reasonably be expected to become customers of the firm Under consideration8.

WHAT IS A MARKET? The market or trading area for a Particular9 firm is the area that it Seeks10 to serve with its products or services. From the buyer's point of view, it is the area within which the buyer knows he or she can find desired goods and services at desirable prices. Sellers may desire to expand their market beyond the limits that are normally recognized by buyers. Market areas may change with the development of new shopping centers in Adjacent areas11. At any given time, a market has its limits set by the area within which the firm can economically sell its goods or services.

PROCEDURE FOR MAKING A MARKET SURVEY. The procedure will vary from factory to wholesaler to retailer. In all cases, however, it will seek to determine the number of customers in the market area who may become customers for the planned business. For retailing, the steps should include the following:

1. Determine the limits of the market or trading area.

2. Study the population within this area to determine its potential sales characteristics.

3. Determine The purchasing power12 of the area.

4. Determine the present sales volume of the type of goods or services you propose to offer.

5. Estimate what proportion of the total sales volume you can reasonably Obtain13.

"PEOPLE SURVEYS" FOR COLLECTING MARKET INFORMATION. One effective method for gathering market information is the use of "people surveys", which are made by surveying the population in a designated market area. Such surveys can Rarely14 Attempt15 to reach all persons in the area; instead the market researchers select a representative group of persons to be contacted. Even the highly important national television ratings, for example, involve the use of only about 1,200 homes.

Small firm planners may use 3 different types of people interviews. These are: 1. Telephone Surveys16, 2. Mail surveys, 3. Personal interviews. Specific questions that will provide meaningful answers that can then be analyzed should be built into each type of interview questionnaire. Each type of interview has characteristics that can be summarized as follows:

1. Telephone surveys. This type of interview offers the advantage of economy and speed in the collection of desired data. To be effective, telephone surveys demand short, clear, and easily understood questions. A sound Questionnaire17, a truly representative sample group, and courteous telephone interviewers are the only requirements for gathering the key data, which are then analyzed.

2. Mail surveys. Using the mail to gather basic data is more expensive than telephone interviews but still much less expensive than personal interviews, especially when a large market area is being studied. The Rate18 of return is the key to whether or not it is successful. Today a 40 per cent return on such mail survey is considered excellent. Experience has shown that the shorter the interview sheet, the higher the rate of return.

3. Personal Interviews. Personal interviews require much more time than other types and, accordingly, are the most expensive kind of survey to conduct. But when a broad section of opinion is being sought they are usually considered the most Reliable19. They enable the interviewer to interpret questions, to explore the respondents' opinions, and to identify areas of information that although not Anticipated20 may be valuable in the final analysis of data collected.

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Notes: 1. район сбыта; 2. только, просто; 3. основательный, доскональный; тщательный; 4. выбирать, отбирать;

5. маркетинговые затраты; 6. изучение рынка; 7. достижимый; 8. на рассмотрении, рассматриваемый; обсуждаемый;

9. отдельный; конкретный; 10. искать, разыскивать; разузнавать; 11. соседний район; 12. покупательная способность; 13. получать, достигать, добиваться; 14. редко, нечасто; 15. пытаться, пробовать; 16. опрос, исследование;

17. опросный лист; 18. показатель, степень, коэффициент; 19. надёжный; 20. предвидеть, ожидать

WORD STUDY

1. Match the words with their definitions.

MARKET SURVEY, ATTEMPT, COSTS, RARELY, PURCHASING POWER, SURVEY, OBTAIN, RELIABLE, ATTAINABLE, QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Of money, the amount of goods and services that money can buy at a given time. This power varies in the opposite direction to changes in the level of prices, i. e. when prices rise, the purchasing power falls.

2. The work of collecting information about the people's tastes and opinions from a sample of population in order to plan how to advertise, distribute and sell a product.

3. The work of finding out what kind of goods consumers want, what they are willing to spend and how to persuade them to buy.

4. A written list of questions which are answered by a lot of people in order to provide information for a report or a survey.

5. Payments to the factors of production.

6. Something that can be reached or achieved.

7. To get something or achieve.

8. Not very often.

9. To try to do something or achieve it, especially when it is something difficult.

10. Something or someone you can trust them to work hard or well, or always to act, behave, or happen in the way that you want them to.

2. Supply the sentences with the missing words.

UNDER CONSIDERATION, PARTICULAR, SEEK, MARKET SURVEY, MERELY, PICK, THOROUGH, ANTICIPATE, RATE, ADJACENT

1. ... ... are very important to business success.

2. What is your success... ?

3. He took me to the... room.

4. This is not genuine. It's... a reproduction.

5. The commercial agent is... in his work.

6. Just... what suits you and leave the rest.

7. It's impossible to... when failure will happen.

8. The case was still... ... .

9. This is the end of the growth of that... part of the plant.

10. Thousands of people were... food and shelter.

3. Complete each sentence by using the correct form of one of the following verbs. Use each verb once only.

Hold know lose send set up steal tell underwrite

1. A prospectus will be... to all potential investors.

2. Why weren't clients... in advance about this increase in fees?

3. A product can be... by different names in different countries.

4. An extraordinary general meeting will be... next Wednesday.

5. The share offer will be... by a leading merchant bank.

6. 110 working days have been... so far this year as a result of industrial unrest.

7. A network of service centers will be... to take care of installation and maintenance.

8. They claim that plans for the new aircraft were... by a competitor.

4. Combine an adjective from the list on the left with a preposition from the list on the right to complete each sentence. You must use each adjective once only, but each preposition can be used more than once.

Available envious contrary popular for of

Consistent familiar eligible responsible with to

1. I'm sure they must be... ... our products as they're used all over the world.

2. If you pay within seven days you will be... ... a discount.

3. I will be... ... interview at any time.

4. The other salespeople were all... ... her success and so they were pleased when she left.

5. ... ... expectations, our sales figures went down last month.

6. Our new range of toys has proved very... ... children who have watched the television programme.

7. Any decisions made must be... ... the company's overall marketing strategy.

8. The maintenance engineer is... ... checking every machine at least once a week.

5. Select connectors from the list below to complete the sentences.

However moreover despite thus in addition although

1. ... investing nearly $20m in the project, they soon ran out of funds.

2. ... profits are high at the moment, we must expect a downturn next year.

3. They acquired two US companies in 1993. ..., they bought several smaller European enterprises in the same year.

4. The company developed a very good me-too product. ..., they found it impossible to break into the market.

5. There have been many successful revivals. ..., these products have also saved their companies a considerable amount in product development costs.

6. They developed an IBM clone and... broke into the lucrative PC market.