Starter guidelines for generating marketing ideas.

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Generating marketing ideas is an important component of marketing intelligence.  Call it brainstorming, ideation, idea-generation, or think tank; idea generation can help drive a differentiating strategy.

Here's a starter idea generation and brainstorming guideline we use when helping companies generate positioning, new product, market opportunity, and brand naming ideas.

1. There must first be a list of goals to serve as idea generation targets. We start with a generic list of goals for idea generation, and then add to it. Client management participates in creating the target goals. This step may be repeated several times throughout a project.
    
2. Recruit a broad and diverse spectrum of people into the idea generation and brainstorming process. Include customers, suppliers, sales people, and front line employees. When group ideation in underway, not all participants need to be involved at once. We've found that for live group sessions the ideal number is 15 or less.  With online tools or  electronic meeting rooms, a larger ideation team is feasible.
    
3. A set of creativity tools must be deployed and made available. The trick is to provide a number of idea generation tools that individual participants can use as desired. 
    
4. Use both group interaction and solo idea generation work . Group interaction has limits. 
   
   
5. Individual ideation work is often more valuable, as it allows team members to think independently.  Think about borrowing a few qualitative marketing research tools such as depth interviews -- one on one or in small 2-3 person groups -- as a way to dig deeper.
    
6. Plan incubation cycles. Formal idea generation is a strong mental stimulant. Yet, some of the best ideas hatch in the off hours, the times in between formal group meetings or depth interviews. 
    
7. Provide idea-capturing formats to all participants. Some form of an 'idea notepad' keeps the idea-generation agenda in front of team members, and is ready to capture ideas in the middle of the night.
   
   
8. As for ideation tools, there's a broad range of thinking tools from idea card decks*, group idea management software, journaling, and well facilitated white board sessions using mind mapping. 

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Marketing Research Process - Part 2 - Linking Decisions to Research

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Marketing Decision Stages.

In Part 1 on the marketing research process, I discussed the big picture of types of marketing intelligence, and previewed the idea of decision stages, and knowing where your firm sits in the decision path or cycle.  These are important starter concepts for having a sound marketing research process that for your company delivers a positive ROI and increases the probability of making the best decision.

For this article, I cover the notion of using your firm or organization's decision stages as a guide to the marketing research intelligence and analysis that might be most appropriate and useful for a particular stage.

Here are the classic stages of a decision:

• Stage 1: Opportunity Scanning
• Stage 2: Option Generation 
• Stage 3: Refining Options
• Stage 4: Decision and Execution

Stage Goals

For each decision stage there is an implied goal.  These goals drive research objectives, and research method selection. 

Marketing Research Objectives.

While examples of types of marketing research studies are given in the matrix below, each situation is unique according to the style, experience, and culture of your firm.  Some companies, for example, regularly use specific market research methods, e.g. focus groups or depth interviews, while other firms might be given to conduct scheduled quantitative research surveys.  There may be no identiifed decision on the table right now.

Yet, anytime a company makes use of market research, a decision is implied.  Why else would you make an investment in marketing intelligence?    It may not seem like every marketing research objective is tied to a decision, but in fact it is.  For example, your company might have a buyer attitude and usage tracking study in place.  You just want to keep up with how your brand is doing in the marketplace, no specific decision in mind.  In fact, implied decisions are these:

• Are there other opportunities in the market that we should address?
• Should changes be made to our brand advertising or positioning?
• Should we keep doing what we're doing, or not?
• Is there a more favorable pricing structure given the competition?

So, firms are always in the mode of making marketing decisions.  So, it's useful to think about linking marketing research objectives and tools to each decision stage in those decisions.

This matrix is designed as a starting point.  It takes each of the four basic decisions I discussed in "Marketing Research Process #1" and suggests overaching marketing goals, and related possible research goals.

Conclusion:  For a marketing research process that returns a hefty payoff, break down your decision stages, and let the goals of each drive your market research objectives.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Marketing Research Process - Part 1 - A big foundation.

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Get a big foundation for your marketing research process  to drive useable research results.

This is the first of a series of articles on the marketing research process.  Here, I discuss the big picture of research process, the thinking about what is information or intelligence and how is it used.

1.  Start with a broad view of "marketing research"... think of strategic intelligence.

Often when one hears the phrase "marketing research" the words "market survey" or "focus groups" come to mind.  Indeed, these are core tools of marketing research, yet they are in a class -- primary marketing research data -- that is but one component of a robust marketing research process.

I suggest that you expand your thinking to that of all forms of strategic intelligence.  By doing so, it broadens the scope of information, or intelligence, that is available and useful in decision making for marketing strategy.  Its one key to building a powerful marketing research process.

We view strategic marketing intelligence with three very different components. It includes data, ideas, and drivers.  There are a number of tools and techniques for mining and understanding each of these intelligence components.  The concept of a Marketing Intelligence Platform is helpful. 

The Intelligence Platform is a way of thinking about who we are, what we know, and what we think about our company and the competitive marketplace. When we begin an assignment, the Intelligence Platform is examined as it is.

• What do we know? What do we need to know?
• What concepts and ideas have been or can be generated? 
• What are the drivers that give the business its unique personality?

Here's a brief look at each component:

Data:

Intelligence "data" useful for the decision making process, and in your overall marketing research process, come in several forms:

• Primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative research, either acquired, or generated through custom designed research studies;
• Internal data such as customer and prospect database analysis and modeling, sales data, and financial  profitability data by product line and market segment.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Ten marketing tools and tips for executive decision makers.

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Do you want to increase sales, launch a product, refine pricing, or boost your brand name awareness or branding position in a target audience? 

If so, there are some fundamental first steps to use core strategic thinking and marketing research tools to achieve that singular goal. Here's a basic pathway:

1. Clarify the marketing strategy decisions you must make. Before you start, make sure you are clear about the marketing strategy and tactical decisions you face. Market research for decision-making won't pay unless you take this important first step.

2. Think first about your marketing decisions.

 Think creatively; key decisions are at play. List the possible decisions, problems, and opportunities. These could involve pricing, product development, advertising, branding, brand image, or channels. Work with each. Hold off on the filters and judgments. In the beginning, put all ideas on the table. Allow incubation time.

3. Target the right problem or opportunity.
 
Take time to explode the marketing problem or opportunity. Reframe. Take a fresh view. Rarely is the surface problem the real marketing strategy issue or opportunity. For example, if you’re losing market share, it might be only a symptom. It could mean creeping product lag, a weak sales engine, undifferentiated branding or positioning, uncompetitive advertising copy or ad reach, or something even worse.

4. Begin now with a simple process that moves toward enhanced decisions, and eventually to market share growth.


 Opportunity scanning is the first of four classical decision stages. Start there.

5. Ask four key questions.


 Start with what you know right now. Use these simple questions:

• What do we know now about our markets, our market opportunities, and our own strategic and marketing goals?

• What are the best marketing and operational opportunities as we understand them now?

• How can we frame our marketing and strategic options based on what we know now?

• What do we need to know that we do not know now -- about strengths, weaknesses, our products, our markets, and our customers?

6. Adopt a broad view of Marketing Intelligence.
 At Power Decisions Group, we use the Intelligence Platform with three components: data, ideas, and management drivers. Harvest each.

7. Pinpoint your decision-making stage to drive market research objectives and design.

 At each stage, ask, "Do we have solid marketing information, or is more market research needed?" Use the Decision-Research Matrix. This matrix links likely research tools to each of the four stages in the Decision Pathway.

8. Don't fall in love with any one marketing research tool or technique, e.g. focus groups, or  online surveys.

 A strong method for one decision stage or issue may be wrong for another.

9. Build deep knowledge about your customer. Know the attitudes, behaviors, and product or service use system of your target market. 


The key to building loyalty is deep knowledge of your audience and their drivers of brand choice.

10. Use a Decision Agenda that is updated weekly: this will force you to surface, address, and clarify problems and opportunities as part of your regular management routine.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Brand Loyalty : a must-have marketing metric.

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The buzz about 'brand loyalty'... 

There's been discussion in the media lately about brand loyalty.  It's worth talking about because, of all marketing metrics, brand loyalty is one of the most telling and diagnostic of your brand health.

According to an internal study recently sent out on the PR wires by IBM ...

• Building and sustaining brand loyalty is the top concern for today's midmarket CMOs, yet 72 percent do not feel sufficiently prepared to effectively build this loyalty;
• 61 percent of midmarket CMOs are struggling with how to manage the impact of social media will have on their marketing function;
• 72 percent of CMOs are underprepared to manage the "plummeting" level of brand loyalty.
• Big factor affecting brand loyalty: Online sites and the spread of social media  give buyers ready tools for discovering, evaluating, and experiencing brands. 

Will the real 'brand loyalty' stand up?

In our world of prolific online chatter and cloudy vocabulary, 'brand loyalty' as a  term and a concept can lose its meaning.  

Primary Definition

 In brief, brand loyalty an indicator  of the rate of repurchase of your brand among customers who have bought in the past.     If, when customers face a requirement to buy again, do they choose to repeat with your brand, or do they choose a competitor, or do they migrate to a different solution or category altogether?  

Alternate Definition

For some product categories, the primary definition doesn't apply.   This is the case for product categories where the need to “repurchase” is infrequent or non-existent altogether.   Purchase of major capital goods, e.g. plant  machinery, or selection of a senior living facility for an elderly person are examples.   In these cases, it's usually preferable to use an alternate definition of brand loyalty: purchase intention.   

Measuring Brand Loyalty

 Once brand loyalty is clearly defined, the measurements and research  approach become fairly obvious:

• Quantitative research is required.   Brand loyalty requires precise measurement, that which is delivered by high-quality quantitative research.
    
• The usual data source is  survey research. In some cases, however, accurate internal data might be available, e.g.  software sales licensed on a renewal basis.
   
• Survey questions required to calculate repeat purchase are straight forward: 
• brand purchased last two purchase occasions,
• reported brand switch, 
• reasons for switch (price, performance, deal, support).
   
• Measuring purchase intention requires a question design innovation:
• Intention is an "attitude", not a behavior; therefore,
• Asking additional questions to verify the 'intention' in critical for a quality study. 
   
•  Maximize value with defined tracking intervals.
• While knowing the absolute level of brand loyalty is useful, knowing the direction of change provides immediate feedback. 
• Tracking allows statistical tests of changes between each survey wave.
• To execute survey research to compare repeated samplings (monthly, quarterly, yearly), advanced sampling and execution procedures must be employed.
• If internal customer data is used,  the tracking can be done frequently at a relatively low cost.  Some companies have a brand loyalty data point on executive marketing dashboards.
   
• Sampling validity is critical.
• Since 'tracking' is involved over spaced intervals, sampling procedures and execution must be the same, time after time.
• The 'sampling frame' must be inclusive without systematic elimination. Ideally, all customers must have an equal chance of selection.   This  may rule out purchased panels that are not exhaustive in their recruiting from all possible people in the defined universe of customers.
• Response rate must be maximized:  this means call backs, appointment interviews, incentives as needed, and other methods to insure the highest possible response rate.  
• If internal customer data is used, be sure that you precisely define the customer 'bucket' for extracting the sampled customers from your database.
  
  
• Capture diagnostic measurements.
• Parallel to the quantitative brand loyalty metrics, include qualitative diagnostic questions in your survey measurements.  
• Knowing the 'reasons why' provide guidance for finding and fixing problems.
• These diagnostic questions can be easily included in your tracking brand loyalty survey. 
• If you use internal sales renewal type data, periodically conduct a diagnostic 'lost sales' survey among those who have migrated to a competitive product.  

A must-have metric.

In allocating your marketing information spend, be sure to have 'brand loyalty' measurement at the top of your list.  It will deliver a sensitive, forward looking metic to drive actions for competitive advantage.

*******

About Power Decisions Group...

With on-target marketing research, we help firms make decisions: branding, marketing, advertising, product strategy, and pricing decisions. We're consulting pros in guiding executive marketing decision makers with expertise and hands-on insight about building brand share and margins.  

See our Brand Research capabilities.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

How to conduct stellar brand research.

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Practical tips for brand research 

When confronting the very basic question of "How to do we best conduct brand research?",
here are some useful ideas and approaches.  Really, it's the basics of branding research, and brand understand in general.  Yet, it is by covering the "basics" that can lead to stellar brand research results and insights.

1. Have a brand model in mind for your product category.

Having a brand model in mind means developing some assumptions and understanding of the role of brands.  What is a brand?  What makes a great brand?   What are the components of brand.   The idea of a model is not merely for academics or MBA students at Harvard or Berkeley to ponder and write papers about.  Instead, a brand model is a simple way to represent your thinking and that of your colleagues in your company.

A brand model has these benefits:

• It gives you a checklist with which to monitor the health of your brand, and to build marketing plans.
• Provides a common language within your company
• A brand model facilitates collaboration among product and brand managers, and communication with CEO's and senior management.
• The components of your brand model -- the 'constructs' of how your customers perceive your brand -- deliver very specific guidance on the attributes that should be measured in research.

2  If you don't yet have a brand model, start with ours.

We've discussed our Great Brands Model elsewhere, but here's a summary.

There are five qualities that all great brands seem to have.  They are:

1. Focus -- do a few things exceptionally well.

2. Contact -- maintain contact in multiple channels

3. Consistency -- Dependable, time after time.

4. Connection -- Connect with customers in a memorable way creating fans and advocates.

5. Leadership -- On some front or aspect, be known as the leader.

You might want to change these somewhat or wholesale, but after years of observing brands that are successful, and those that are not, these qualities continue to show up.

The final step in brand model building is to think about the parts or components of brand. The Power Decisions Group brand model has these components or levels of brand structure.

1. Value bundle : the tangible benefits delivered to customers;

2. Brand promise: this is the promise the brand makes to customers; it is how it connects to what customers need;

3. Brand picture: things we see such as products, logos, and ads

 So, that's it, our Great Brands model.  When we then look at the five qualites by the three components, we get a matrix of qualities -- and research attributes -- within each of the components.   It is visualized like this...

3.  Use your brand model to drive attributes for brand health measurement and tracking.

As you design brand research, or have your branding research firm do the design, then, use your brand model as a  guidpost or checklist.   The research design should translate the constructs of the model your company is on board with into research measurements.  Using our Great Brands Model(tm), as an example, you might measure consistency of your Brand Picture (ads, marketing communications) in absolute terms in a survey, or over time in a tracking study, and use the same measurements both for your brand and your top competitiors.

You can see from this rather simple example, the power that a brand model has in driving research design.  If you have a model in mind, your brand health (brand equity) research itself will be consistent, and your team will see the logic of the design because its based on a model that's had buy-in before you started.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

The marketing research 'first step': online forums or IDIs

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The first step when experiencing a 'nagging wondering' about a marketing decision: qualitative  research  ...

When is it one needs to take a 'first step' with marketing research?  You'll recognize the situations.  It's when you or your management team are...

1. Contemplating a market entry in a new-to-you segment;
2. Getting conflicting or possibly biased reports from your field sales team as to why a product isn't selling, or a program is not working;
3. Assessing a new product opportunity that a bit out of your usual playing field; 
4. Relying on no or old marketing research information about the state of buyer motives or behavior;
5. Changing the brand identity of a key line.

Why qualitative first?

 When you have little or no information about preferences and attitudes of current or potential customers, employ the open-ended, exploratory interview approach available in such qualitative methods* as 1-to-1 depth interviews (IDIs) or online forums.  

• Fast time-to-completion. These methods can be executed relatively quickly.
   
• Dynamic:  The direction of qualitative interviews can be easily modified during the course of the project, and during the individual interview itself. Of course this requires highly knowledgeable, fast-thinking and conversant interviewers and forum moderators.  Making online  forum  especially dynamic is the advantage of inviting clients to login to the project daily to view the results in-progress.
   
• Design Flexibility:   In contrast to quantitative surveys,  where questionnaires are precisely authored and organized, we have with these qualitative research methods a great deal of flexibility to go off-script of the predesigned starter questions and projective exercises.   The advantage is  that these methods allow us to, with astute interviewing, get “answers to unasked questions". Plainly put, we l can start out without the pressure of knowing exactly to ask. Process and method will guide us.
   
• Stimulate ideas:  Due to their dynamic nature, the qualitative methods suggested are a very good vehicle for stimulating ideas and  generating decision options.
   
• Guide Quantitative Design:   What qualitative research does not do is  allow us to formally estimate percentages  or the magnitude of the insights obtained.  it affords us however,  valuable guidance for knowing what to measure and subsequent quantitative studies.  

________

* Footnote:  I have emphasized IDIs and online forums as the best 'go-to' methods.  Focus groups are perhaps the most visible of qualitative methods, yet they are best used when there are specific research needs to have respondents interact face to face, examine a product, or to capture discussion on video.  At Power Decisions Group, we tend to gravitate to IDIs and online forums for their cost efficiency, speed, and the unfettered latitude respondents have to contribute their views and insights.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Use all ingredients of marketing intelligence for decision-making.

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This blog article is about marketing intelligence broadly defined, and how blending ALL the ingredients of intelligence – not just marketing research data -- makes for better decisions.  It’s like getting a better cake out of the oven if we use the entire recipe. 

Dwelling on this seems, at first, oh-so basic.  Yet, some decision-makers lose sight of the other ingredients in the marketing intelligence recipe.  “Ok, we’ve dumped in three pounds of research data; now let’s stir, mix in some water maybe, and knead, then bake this baby until we’ve got a decision.”  

Three Ingredients 

In this case, I call the recipe the Marketing Intelligence Platform.  It’s for making better marketing, product, and advertising decisions.   As with a cake, the ingredients interact with the others, play a crucial role, and are vitally necessary for the successful outcome. 

I call it a ‘platform’ because it is the foundation of the decision-making process. 

The recipe for robust and complete marketing intelligence includes the three components: Data, Ideas, and Drivers.  

Data: 

Marketing intelligence data is everywhere inside and outside company walls…

• Formal marketing research studies commissions by your company,
• Outside published reports from anywhere
• Internal analysis of customer, sales, and production databases
• Other internal company data analysis of all kinds

Yes, DATA are intelligence.

Ideas:    

Ideas are the concepts, thoughts, strategies that develop over time or in an instant ‘ah-ha’ in the minds of individuals working alone, or collectively in groups.   For marketing, they take the form of …

• Creative ad campaign themes,
• New product ideas,
• Insights by a sales person on how to sell more product in the field,
• Suggestions by employees or customers

Yes, IDEAS are intelligence.

Key points: Many ideas surface and fade away.  Smart companies keep their ideas inventoried and in a vault.    Generating strong ideas is equally important as other forms of intelligence.    Just like a research data report, they make up a unique intelligence asset.

Drivers:

Drivers make up the unique DNA of a company.  It is what makes them different and unique.   In its most basic form, drivers are the viewpoints, affect, and experience of decision-making players and stakeholders.  Examples look like this…

• Company history;
• Management viewpoints;
• Management passion and energy;
• Dominant management style of executive management;
• Company culture; e.g. risk appetite, inviting divergent views; and
• Experience of team members in past similar circumstances.

 Yes, DRIVERS are intelligence.

Key point:   

Two companies might have the exact same list of ideas, and data.  It is the unique DRIVERS, however, that affect how those ideas and that data are viewed and used.  Understanding company drivers is a vital marketing intelligence component.

Key Questions to Ask...

The Intelligence Platform is a way of thinking for a management team.   Discussions might include…

• What do we know now?
• What data do we need?
• Are strong ideas on the table now, or do we need to generate more?
• How do we view our decision options?  Are they clear?
• What do we, as a company, want to do?
• What are the drivers that give the business its unique personality?

 Wrap:

Use all of your marketing intelligence assets in your decision recipe.

Attend to each of the three components interactively during the process.

No one ingredient provides sufficient "marketing intelligence" to make the strongest possible decision.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Crafting Marketing Strategy

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 Question:  "I've heard the the term 'crafting strategy'. What does it mean exactly and how can I use it in a mid-sized company?"

This term came from a Harvard Business Review article by Henry Mintzberg. His view is that the most productive and real-world way to build strategy for a company management is not the strategic planning model, but rather, one that continually merges and blends  the formulation of strategy with it's implementation.

He uses the example of a potter at a wheel molding a lump of clay: the potter likely doesn't know at the start what it will be exactly.    Rather, as she interacts and works the clay, she observes patterns and formations emerge in the clay and then proceeds to work and develop them.

In an enterprise, we work and get results or not, then try other initiatives. We keep what works, and slough off the rest, just like the potter at a wheel. In a sense, the crafting strategy idea is one I like, and is consistent with an approach I call "small victories" which is the pilot small scale testing of ideas, products, and executions in the field.

Think about the idea of 'crafting strategy' on the move and in the flow of work and experience instead of solely planning and creating strategies on a cognitive level.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm

Qualitative versus Quantitative Marketing Research Methods

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Choosing between qualitative versus quantitative research methods 

All primary market research methods -- where original data is created -- are either qualitative or quantitative . Online surveys, phone surveys, focus groups, forums, communities, survey panels, depth interviews, and ethnographic studies all fall within one of these two types.

The question is:  how to choose.   Here are some thoughts to consider.

Type 1: Qualitative Market Research 

Qualitative: Its called qualitative because we look at the content, not the numbers. Qualitative research methods are designed to talk to a relatively few people in the target audience of interest to primarily plumb the depths and range of buyer attitudes and beliefs. We're not here to measure incidence, or forecast quantity. (If you've led or used qualitative research, you know how tempting it is to 'count heads'.)

Popular qualitative market research methods include online forums, online communities, focused groups, depth interview triads and dyads and observational techniques such as ethnography with its many variations using mobile devices, digital photography and video.

The level of professional quality and validity of results in Type 1 market surveys is driven by the design, interviewing experience of the moderator or principal interviewer, and the interpretation of results by the market research consultant or marketing analyst.

Type 2: Quantitative Market Research 

Quantitative market research methods attempt to gauge quantity.  Using a range of sampling strategies, quantitative market research methods seek to project results of a quantitative market survey to the entire marketplace.  Popular quantitative market survey methods include online surveys, phone IVR (interactive voice response) personal quantitative interviews, mail surveys, and telephone surveys. Combinations of these marketing research survey tools are referred to as "hybrid" research methods.  

At Power Decisions Group, we recommend the data collection technique according to the marketing research objective, time requirements, and quality control issues at play.

Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA

website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm