Regardless of the purpose of the marketing survey, firstly is conducted a preliminary general research of the market factors which has the task to define the baseline situation at the time the study is undertaken.
The indicators used to examine the market factors could be conditionally divided into four large groups:
- Consumers
Gender, age, occupation, education, standard of living, consumption per capita, structure of income distribution within the family, volume of consumption of similar products on the market (substitutes), end-user requirements regarding product quality and its packaging and idea of the perfect product, place of consumption - at home, on a trip, in a public place, frequency of consumption, time of consumption and seasonal fluctuations in the demand, main reasons behind the decision for purchase, members of the family who take the decision for the purchase, and members who execute the purchase.
- Intermediaries
The most commonly used forms of mediation during the sale of the respective product, main negotiation methods applied, terms and conditions of payment, type and amount of remuneration, reputation of the competitors’ intermediaries, total value of the orders, motives influencing the decision of the intermediaries in the selection process of their suppliers and buyers, attitude of the intermediaries towards different brands and suppliers.
- Competition
Market share of competitors, characteristics of the market segment taken by competitors, main advantages of competitors - geographical proximity, state of production facilities and application of scientific and technological progress and innovation, trade and production relationships, benefits from local authorities, major disadvantages of the competitors, end-users’ opinion of competitors’ products, advantage in the quality and packaging of competitors’ products, reasons why consumers prefer competitors’ products, amount of discounts provided by competitors to local intermediaries, main objective of a policy pursued by competitors: expansion, retention or restriction of the market share.
- Legal requirements
Tariff and non-tariff barriers (import and export) - quotas, licenses, customs’ fees, other fees, taxes, requirements regarding packaging, branding, quality, origin of goods, restrictions and provisions regarding the used sales channels, governments’ attitude to price agreements, eligible means of conducting marketing incentive policies, registration regulation concerning trademarks and brands.
The more information on the above indicators is collected by the farmer, the higher credibility in the marketing survey.
(Source : „Agromarketing“, authors: Rangel Trendafilov and Antoaneta Simova, Institute of Agricultural Economics - Sofia)