Financehome The appearance and amenities of factory or office, initial product planning, the product itself, the 'face' of the firm which includes advertising and both staff and public relations; all these have design implications and as such must be accepted as a responsibility and interest of top managers. In the smaller organization, and approximately ninety per cent of British businesses employ one hundred employees or less, all aspects of marketing must still be combined in the energy and enthusiasm of one individual or group. There are specialist marketing firms to advise the enterprise, large or small, which seeks objective help. There is a proliferation of advertising agencies ready to help companies where consumer choice is a social aim and, since the Second World War, an increasing number of concerns has been offering valuable specialized services in the fields of market research, public relations, and salesman training. Manufactured consumer goods probably require the fullest application of each marketing function. Therefore the discussion from this point may be regarded as applying especially to them, though most of the principles apply in a general way to industrial goods. Marketing decisions have traditionally been based on the experience, intuition, and personal observations of selling personnel, particularly of sales managers. Business is fortunate in being equipped today with an intelligence service in the shape of market research, which management can utilize for the discovery of the following : 1. Size and value of the market 2. Location and geographical extent of the market 3. Type of customer 4. Motivations and preferences of customers 5. Trends in buying habits 6. Suitable distributive channels 7. Strength of competition 8. Prices within a given trade 9. Effectiveness of advertising 10. Efficiency of salesmen and distributors The highest purpose of market research is to ensure that the consumer can be offered what he or she wants to buy. Management's growing use of market research proves its value, for it yields savings and profits which exceed its cost. A word of caution is, however, needed here. The role of market research has been likened to the use of Radar. It informs the users of the perils which lie ahead and it indicates the route by which mishaps may be avoided. If, before Radar was invented, a fog settled on the Straits of Dover the captain of a ship could only drop anchor until the fog had lifted; to do otherwise would have been to court collision and disaster. Market research provides management with means of obtaining information without the cost of trial and error, and it is like Radar in another respect, for its use can be most dangerous in the hands of inexperienced people. Navigators in R.A.F. Pathfinder Squadrons during the Second World War used to report how easy it was to make a mistake in establishing a Radar 'fix' of their position. to buy a house