Low-cost Market Research Articles

Value communication: low-cost marketing initiatives for “Guru Ki Bani 58282”

Subject area Pricing, digital marketing, marketing management and strategic marketing. Study level/applicability The case can be used for pricing or digital marketing courses as well as marketing management courses to MBA students and/or for management development programmes. Case overview Goldfinch Mobile Solutions, a Hong-Kong based value added services (VAS) and gaming platform provider, had an exclusive tie up with Bharti Airtel in India for providing value added voice applications on an interactive voice response system (IVRS) platform. The Goldfinch flagship service is “Guru Ki Bani” which may be subscribed to by dialing the short code 58282. This “58282” service has a repository of all Sikh religion daily prayers, religious songs, teachings, stories from Guru's life and similar information that is derived from the Sikh Holy book Guru Granth Sahib Ji. As per mutual agreement between Goldfinch Mobile Solutions and Bharti Airtel, the telecom operator had the responsibility to promote Goldfinch's Guru Ki Bani service amongst its subscriber base through its below the line (BTL) promotional channels such as short messaging service (SMS), outbound calls, cell information, notification SMS after call and above the line (ATL) activities such as posters, leaflets, print, promoters, regional TV, outdoors, etc. The revenue sharing arrangement between Airtel and Golfinch was in the ratio of 75 percent and 25 percent. However, with recent changes in the policies of Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), promotional marketing used by telecom operators has been constrained. Declining customer share, decreasing profits (after Bharti Airtel halted promotions) and increasing organization cost per customer have made MD and CEO Mr Newton Bubber think of various options including low-cost marketing initiatives besides digital marketing to promote Guru Ki Bani services. Value communication to its huge potential customer base, i.e. 184.19 million Bharti Airtel subscribers was another challenge facing Mr Newton and his marketing team at Goldfinch. Expected learning outcomes The case enables students to learn the concepts and application of value creation, effective value communication, price waterfall analysis, importance of costing parameters in pricing decisions, low-cost marketing strategies and digital marketing. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Use of Social Media Marketing in Healthcare

Social media is an umbrella term that defines online technology and practices used to share opinion, insights, experience and perspectives. Social media are low cost marketing tools that help in facilitating the building of networks, instant dissemination of information and thus encouraging trust and confidence of public. It can take many forms like text, images, audio and video. According to Kaplan and Haenlein, there are six different types of social media: collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia), blogs and micro blogs (e.g., Twitter), content communities (e.g., YouTube, Flicker), social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace), virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft, Whyville), and virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life). Based on this classification, extensive literature search was done from a range of sources like journals, books and internet websites of relevant disciplines, including public health organizations, hospitals and case studies prepared on each type exploring the use of social media in health promotion. The objective of this paper is to explain the use of social media marketing in health promotion and education and discuss various interventions done, using social media marketing tools in promoting public health. Finally, it is discussed like every coin has two sides, social media provides large opportunity for health promotion in the public health community, enabling public health professionals to reach out far and wide and directly to the public on multiple public health issues and at the same time its cautious use is imperative to prevent colossal damage. Social media, a communication boon for the public health community has the potential to promote and change many health-related behaviours and issues particularly in times of crisis.

State distributed PV policies: Can low cost (to government) policies have a market impact?

This analysis examines the use of state policy as a tool to support the development of distributed generation photovoltaic (PV) markets. The focus is on low-cost market opening policies instead of various forms of government subsidies aimed at reducing installation costs. The ideas tested in this work are: (1) low-cost market opening policies can be effective in facilitating PV market growth without subsidizing projects, and (2) policies can be made more effective if states and localities stage their enactment in a particular order. The policies selected for evaluation emerge from a policy stacking theory outlined in Doris (2012), NREL/CP-7A30-54801, Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. A cross-section econometric analysis that takes into account the quality of interconnection standards, net metering standards, Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), RPS set-asides, and a non-policy determinant (population) explains about 70% of the variation in newly installed PV capacity across states and indicates that all of the selected policies are significant. Nonparametric statistical tests confirm the regression results. Qualitative evidence is also presented indicating that effective policy ordering starts with improving interconnection standards, closely followed by improvements in net metering standards, and eventually strengthened by the enactment of an RPS and set-asides.

Elektronische Kreditmarktplätze: Funktionsweise, Gestaltung und Erkenntnisstand bei dieser Form des "Peer-to-Peer Lending„

Summary/Zusammenfassung Elektronische Kreditmarktplatze: Funktionsweise, Gestaltung und Erkenntnisstand bei dieser Form des „Peer-to-Peer Lending“ Durch elektronische Kreditmarktplatze konnen Kredite zwischen privaten Kapitalanlegern und Kreditsuchenden mit geringem Aufwand vermittelt werden. Dies stellt eine wesentliche Neuerung dar, da traditionell von Banken erbrachte Funktionen wie die Losgrosen-Transformation nun von einem Marktplatz und den Kunden selbst erbracht werden. Der vorliegende Artikel beschreibt die Funktionsweise solcher Marktplatze und legt dar, inwiefern die von Kreditgeber und Kreditnehmer benotigten Leistungen dabei dargestellt werden. Anhand von Bewertungskriterien wird eine Evaluierung der Funktion und Entwicklungsmoglichkeiten von Kreditmarktplatzen vorgenommen und ein Uberblick uber den Forschungsstand gegeben. (JEL G10, G29, M31) Electronic Credit Marketplaces: Functionality, Design and State of Knowledge about this Form of „Peer-to-Peer Lending“ Peer-to-peer lending represents a...

Analyst Initiations of Coverage and Stock Return Synchronicity

ABSTRACT We examine how the information produced by analysts when they initiate coverage contributes to the mix of firm-specific, industry-, and market-wide information available about the firm. We hypothesize that the first analyst to initiate coverage provides low-cost market and industry information allowing him/her to follow more stocks, whereas subsequent analysts provide firm-specific information to distinguish themselves from existing analysts. We use stock return synchronicity to measure the mix of information available about a firm, with higher synchronicity indicating more industry and market information. Coverage initiations of firms with no prior analyst coverage increase synchronicity, suggesting that analysts produce industry- and market-wide information. In contrast, analysts initiating coverage on firms with existing coverage appear to focus on producing firm-specific information as these initiations lead to reduced synchronicity. Together, our findings indicate that the type of information that analysts produce at initiation depends on the information provided by other analysts. Data Availability: All data are available from public sources identified in the paper.

Corporate Bond Market in India: Current Scope and Future Challenges

The capital market of an economy is considered to be well developed, only when a parallel development is ensured both in the equity and the debt segment. There is no doubt that the equity market in India is quite well developed and plays a crucial role in the growth of Indian economy. At the same time, Govt. debt market in India has also experienced a tremendous growth in the last decade. But unlike Govt. bonds, the corporate debt segment in India is still in the nascent stage and requires lot of initiatives to bring it to the Global standard. Bonds of different tenors issued by Central or State Governments and other PSUs capture more than 80 percent of the total debt market volume in India. Therefore, it has become very important to have a well run and liquid corporate bond market that can play a critical role in supporting economic development in India, both at the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. Massive future growth in infrastructure, as required to achieve the higher GDP growth, can only be ensured through availability of long-term financing and also at a reasonable cost. Due to several issues, applicable to several market players, bank financing is not the right choice to meet all the financing needs to facilitate such growth. A well developed corporate bond market can be the optimal alternative, not only to support the financing requirement for infrastructural development, but also to relieve banks from all the problems of long-term financing, and spreading out the huge financing risk to a wider investor base to strengthen India’s bank-based financial system, to allow corporate borrowers to tap the low cost market, to enable investors including FIIs to earn fixed but higher returns, and above all to ensure overall growth of the economy. The present study analyze the existing structure of Indian corporate bond market, vis-a-vis the other developed markets, and attempted to explain the movements and changes taken place in Indian debt market during the last decade, may be as a result of several regulatory initiatives. The importance of an well developed corporate bond market for various groups of Indian financial sector, followed by the important factor contributing to the inferior growth of such market, supported by several facts and figures, are discussed in the study. It has been finally observed that, even if some changes have taken place to strengthen Indian corporate debt market, the market has a significant scope to contribute to the overall growth of Indian economy, but obviously subject to some very important and stringent initiatives from the Government and the concerned regulatory bodies.

F4 超小型衛星のための「ほどよし信頼性工学」の検討(設計・開発手法)

Under the current development of mid-to-large size satellites, the high reliability is mandatory to avoid failures and their development cost increases enormously to achieve the high reliability. On the other hand, several universities develop and launch nano-satellites with low cost for the purpose of education from around 2000. To generate new market for satellite utilization, low cost and fast development are key points. The balance of cost and reliability is one of the very important points to realize the markets. The theoretical research toward the balance of cost and reliability is being conducted through the governmental first program "New Space Development and Utilization Paradigm by Nano-satellites Introducing Japan-oriented Reasonable Reliable Systems Engineering". This paper presents the concept of the way to realize the reasonably reliable systems engineering. Current reliability is based on the assumption that there is no miss-design and it only depends on the random failure of parts. However, many of real on-orbit failures were caused by design errors. We propose the new reliability which includes design error and the definition of the reasonably reliable Systems Engineering. The realization concept consists of re-use of design, reduction of complexity, functional redundancy and simple organization to develop nano-satellites.

Review on Methods for Trench MOSFET Gate Oxide Reliability and Switching Speed Improvement

In high density vertical trenched power double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS), the trench width (CD) continually shrinks as driven by market for low cost and longer battery lifetime. Subsequently, this imposes technical challenges to keep high breakdown voltage without affecting other performances such as gate charge and on-state resistance. This paper discusses some of the technical challenges faced and suggested solutions. The various methods to improve the trench oxide uniformity and trench corner profile are also presented through experimental data. Different methods to thicken the trench bottom oxide to reduce gate-to-drain capacitance (Cgd) and eliminate the oxide weak points are introduced. This paper also reviews advanced industrial developments to increase the device switching speed as well as breakdown voltage.

Quels modèles économiques pour les marchés de la photographie à l’heure du numérique ?

The closure of prestigious agencies confronts professional photographers with a serious crisis, creating a rapid decline of their incomes. The lack of respect for traditional business models in the industry, the competition of a low-cost market largely fuelled by the amateur photographs and the fact that financial globalisation puts pressure on agencies and broadcasters all contribute to this resulting situation. The only source of optimism for this occupation seems to be the developing market of photographic prints. However, photography has never been so present, produced in so much volume, and such a source of valuable creation, as today. Where is this value going ? And how to make sure that the people who create these pictures (photographers and agencies) obtain their fair share ?

Marketing During an Economic Downturn

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderFeature1 Aug 2009Marketing During an Economic Downturn Greg Weimann Greg Weimann Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.FTR5.14102009.13 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In In an uncertain economy, those in charge of running a hospital, clinic, or private practice often switch into survival mode, cutting expenses perceived to have little effect on the bottom line. One of the first expenses on the chopping block is often the marketing budget. The speech-language pathology or audiology practice across town, however, is relying on its competition’s reduced public awareness programs. Although economic downturns are a natural part of long-term businesses cycles, clinicians can strengthen their brand, distinguish themselves from the competition, and increase market share by taking advantage of competitors’ decreased marketing activities. Sharpen Your Strategy Sharpening your marketing and public relations efforts may help you and your organization not only ride out the recession, but also to emerge from it even stronger. Keep the following guidelines in mind: Retain high-value clients. New business is important, but don’t lose focus on high-value, existing clients. Losing loyal clients can be costly. Retain these valuable clients by finding ways to offer a special value that rewards existing clients for their loyalty. Change your mindset. View marketing and public relations as strategic assets and investments, not as a drain on profits. Look for low-cost marketing and public relations opportunities, such as outreach to referring physicians. Be visible. Now is the time to be everywhere. Participate in health fairs and speak at AARP meetings, civic organizations, and professional associations. Get yourself on the agenda for an upcoming panel discussion conducted by your local chamber of commerce, Rotary Club, or industry group. Try public relations. PR helps companies build trust and maintain relationships by delivering tailored messages to key publics through a variety of channels. Advertising can be expensive; during economic downturns, consumers rely more on personal recommendations. An effective, low-cost strategy is to reach out to your local community health reporter and pitch a story about the benefits of speech-language pathology and audiology services. Favorable publicity and the unbiased, third-party endorsement of the press lends credibility to your services. Advertise wisely. A fast and effective way to raise awareness is through a small, inexpensive advertisement in your local paper or cable television company. With advertising revenues down, local newspapers and cable television stations may be willing to negotiate prices. In addition, more than 80% of seniors regularly read the newspaper, making print ads an effective medium to reach this market. Use the Internet and social media. More consumers are using the Internet to research health care information. Update your Web site to reflect your services, provide information about insurance options, and offer testimonials. Use social media tools to promote your services. Post information about your company and services on a blog, Twitter, or Facebook. The United States has experienced nine other recessions since World War II, and like with any other economic downturn, a full recovery from the current recession will take time. These tips may help you and your organization get through the days ahead. Marketing Resources Frequently Asked Questions about Business Practices A collection of resources and tips on starting and managing all aspects of a business practice, including marketing. Public Relations Handbook—A Guide to Reaching the Media [PDF] This comprehensive, step-by-step guide offers an overview of the many types of publicity, ideas for garnering publicity, examples of media-generating events, and methods for approaching different types of media. It also provides sample documents and a glossary of terms. Internal Marketing for the Established Audiology Practice This article in the American Journal of Audiology outlines several marketing activities aimed at current clients. Promotional Marketing of Audiology Services This article discusses marketing from the perspective of university audiology clinics. Author Notes Greg Weimann, an ASHA public relations manager, can be reached at [email protected]. Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 14Issue 10August 2009 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Aug 1, 2009 Metrics Downloaded 250 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2009 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

The impact of regulation on the low-cost carrier air transport sector

Deregulation in Europe started in 1987, paving the way for the low-cost model pioneered by Southwest Airlines in the US in a now liberalised European market, where any EU registered airline can fly on any route with any schedule, capacity or fare — subject only to slot availability. The low-cost model differentiated itself by offering low fares through radically reduced costs in every conceivable facet of the business and capitalised on new forms of distribution. Changes in regulation have allowed airports to tap into the low-cost market as well, offering lower airport charges for terminals designed to a reduced specification.

Organic-MISTFT capacitance measurements

Besides silicon semiconductor technologies more and more plastic integrated circuits attracts the attention of the scientific world. Polymer technology is not expected to replace silicon technology but to fill a gap in the low cost and short lifetime market of the semiconductor industry. Reel-to-reel manufacturing, as used in the printing press, with nearly endless substrates of organic foil revolutionizes the time saving and cost efficient processing of organic semiconductor devices at room-temperature. The economical efficiency of these processes can't be reached with silicon technologies. Therefore polymer electronic integrated circuits may be used for controlling products in supermarkets or within any kind of tickets or clothes. In this paper the capacitance voltage behaviour of an organic metal-insulator-semiconductor thin film transistor (oMISTFT), the basis of any polymer-electronic circuit, shall be investigated. Moreover the frequency dependence of the organic insulator polystyrene (PS) and the organic semiconductor polyarylamine (PAA) shall be analyzed

A scheme to increase profitability in entrepreneurial SMEs

PurposeThis article aims to demonstrate how small entrepreneurial firms can employ low cost market research techniques in the area of service evaluation to prioritise the sales effort, increase sales and improve margins.Design/methodology/approach“Triangulation” has been used. Secondary data included academic sources and internal company records. Primary data included exploratory depth interviews and group discussions, a questionnaire‐based survey and the construction of case studies.FindingsIt can be seen from the case study results presented that a customer service appreciation survey can yield useful and actionable information, which can be used creatively by entrepreneurs to bring about significant improvements in business performance in a short space of time.Research limitations/implicationsIt would have been better if more extensive data were available on customers to allow for more sophisticated quota sampling controls.Practical implicationsA model of small firm growth is discussed and the concept of crisis points in the early stages of the life cycle of small entrepreneurial firms is examined. The paper demonstrates how a low risk growth strategy, which minimises the possibility of the firm encountering a “crisis point”, can be chosen.Originality/valueThe content of the article is original in the sense that particular emphasis is placed on the concept of “leveraging.” The study shows that such a “leveraged”‐based scheme is particularly relevant in a customer multiple sourcing purchasing situation.

Targeted Development of Low-Cost 3D Rotary-Steerable Systems

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 87165, "An Operator's Targeted Development of Low-Cost 3D Rotary-Steerable Systems," by J.T. Travis Jr., SPE, J.H. Moss, SPE, and G.M. Browning, SPE, ExxonMobil Development Co., prepared for the 2004 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Dallas, 2-4 March. The many benefits of 3D rotary-steering systems (RSSs) are well documented. ExxonMobil Development Co. (EMDC) Drilling continues to expand its use of 3D RSSs in its daily drilling operations. Its drilling operations include a variety of well architectures in both the high-cost and low-cost markets. Because of the high price of RSSs currently on the market, EMDC is unable to justify use of these systems in lower-cost wells. However, the low-cost market would benefit from the higher rates of penetration (ROPs), reduced risk through improved hole cleaning, reduced wellbore tortuosity, and more-efficient directional control. Introduction Three-dimensional RSSs currently are being deployed in approximately 5% of EMDC’s daily rig operations. Very high spread costs and/or well profiles beyond the capabilities of conventional directional-drilling methods usually justify these applications. Spread costs are defined as the daily operating cost less tangible items such as tubulars, wellheads, and completions equipment. The costs of high-cost floating-drilling, platform, and deep-remote land wells range from U.S. $100,000/day to U.S.$500,000/day. Normal land operations average only U.S. $15,000/day. As experience was gained, it become apparent to the drilling organization that there was a large well inventory in need of the benefits of a 3D RSS that cannot currently justify its application economically. The initial 3D RSS providers’ market was, and in most cases still is, a higher-operating-cost environment that does not fit lower-cost market needs. The high-cost environment needs only a 10% improvement to justify a 3D RSS, whereas the low-cost environment would require approximately 100% improvement to justify a 3D RSS. The high prices charged for these first systems are driven by the following.

Marketing in New Ventures: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Marketing is considered to be of utmost importance for the success of new ventures. Therefore, research on entrepreneurial marketing has increased considerably since the late 1980s. Its findings are varied and vibrant, yet also large and extremely fragmented, and a comprehensive theory of entrepreneurial marketing is still lacking. This situation proves to be a major hurdle for further advances, as the status quo of research cannot be accessed without major efforts. To help researchers and lecturers synthesize the growing body of knowledge, this paper brings together and reviews important research findings in entrepreneurial marketing. Thus, the paper creates a much needed map of the field, making this highly relevant topic readily accessible. Furthermore, the paper provides directions for future research, showing that many key questions of this field (e.g., various strategies and tactics of low-cost marketing) must be explored more thoroughly.

The fuzzy clustering method: Applications in the air transport market in Taiwan

In the air transport market, passengers select different airlines based on service quality, travellers' socioeconomic characteristics and the purpose of the trip. So how does one treat passengers' shopping behaviours in the entire air transport market and, based on these findings, how does one design an optimally customised marketing strategy? The key issue for airlines and their agencies is to develop a niche of new customers and keep the old ones. What is the real market for an airline and how does an airline design an optimum customised marketing strategy? Passengers may belong to different market segments. This paper uses the fuzzy clustering method to analyse the air transport passenger market from Taipei to Vancouver and provide a systematised analytical method for marketing and other uses. The air transport market from Taipei to Vancouver can be divided into three definite clusters and two fuzzy clusters. The research also compares its results with the traditional Ward clustering method. Airlines and/or their agents dealing with marketing can aim at the three definite clusters and two fuzzy clusters when developing fuzzy packages. Using database marketing, airlines can provide the fuzzy packages via the internet to fuzzy travellers who belong to frequent flier programmes. Fuzzy travellers can get preferential treatment and discounts. For the fuzzy market, it is very effective and low-cost marketing. Follow-up research could be applied to other international routes, eg Taipei–Amsterdam.

Research on marketing in emerging firms: key issues and open questions

In many industries, emerging firms derive their initial strength from R&D activities. Though technological capabilities are important for building technologically sound products, they are not sufficient for turning an emerging firm into a viable economic actor, as numerous examples illustrate. Based on a discussion of the specific challenges of marketing in new ventures and a brief overview on past and current research studies, this article focuses on reviewing research findings on four key topics: establishing a market orientation, building credibility and trust with stakeholders, establishing marketing alliances and low-cost marketing. Though previous research has produced important insights into each of these topics, there are still plenty of issues that offer promising opportunities for future studies.

Quantitative and Dynamic Analysis of the Oli Variables Determining Fdi in China

The main determinants of foreign direct investment in China are analyzed quantitatively and dynamically based on Dunning’s eclectic theory and empirical models corresponding to location‐specific advantages, ownership‐specific advantages and internalization advantage. More specifically, the correlation between each OLI variable and FDI is tested and explained in detail. It is concluded that monopolistic advantages of technology and management experience of foreign investors along with China’s low labor cost and great market potential might be important factors attracting FDI in China. In addition, using an internal market to establish a network of international production might also be an important determinant for foreigners to directly invest in China. Others might include searching for attractive yields available in equity investment, devaluation of the Chinese currency, distance, culture and global business strategies.

Performance and applications of a two axes fluxgate magnetic field sensor fabricated by a CMOS process

Fluxgate magnetic field sensors offer a wide field of applications in the nT and μT range. The thin film fabrication of the solenoids in the metalization layers and the core in the intermetal dielectrics of a CMOS process has been successfully developed in recent years. Using these monolithic integrated two axes fluxgate magnetic field sensors a system has been built, that enables sensitivities from 5 to 30 mV/μT, optimized for the detection of the earth’s magnetic field. The operating temperature range from −40 to 125°C and low temperature drifts of typically 100 ppm/K arise applications like electronic compasses, detection of the earth’s magnetic field and its variations (e.g. caused by vehicle traffic) and non-destructive testing in a low-cost market segment.

Marketing Movies on the Internet: How Does Canada Compare to the U.S.?

Canadian filmmakers have had little success competing with Hollywood in the domestic market. Canadian films do not have the marketing budgets needed for the saturation television and newspaper advertising used by the Hollywood majors. But if Canadian film producers and distributors marketed their products as effectively as their Hollywood competitors, they would be expected to be quick to take advantage of a new, relatively low-cost marketing tool that is particularly suited to reaching niche audiences, namely, the Internet. In this paper, we compare the way Canadian, Hollywood major, and U.S. independent producers and distributors use the Internet to communicate with their target audiences.