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
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.
While we have just read the press release, and not seen the study itself, we're not really sure if the majority of CMO's actually reported in the survey that their brand loyalty was “plummeting” as reported in their bullet point summary. As always is the case, the competitive world is dynamic with some brands gaining strength, others holding dominance, and others, yes, declining.
The real implication of the newsy study is that knowing your brand loyalty position is a vital dashboard indicator of your brand health.
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.
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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
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 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...
- Contemplating a market entry in a new-to-you segment;
- 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;
- Assessing a new product opportunity that a bit out of your usual playing field;
- Relying on no or old marketing research information about the state of buyer motives or behavior;
- Changing the brand identity of a key line.
These are examples that have one thing in common: there's a nagging wondering -- an information void -- about your decision choices and attitudes and opinions in the marketplace.
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.
When you're in the dark of an information void and facing important product design, branding, or advertising decisions, think "qualitative first!"
________
* 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
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
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
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.
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Primary Market Research Types
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Type
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Description
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Strengths
Weaknesses
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Type 1: Qualitative Marketing Research Types -- pros & cons
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Groups of 6 to 12 people
Traditionally, in live group setting with moderator
Online groups conducted via internet
Phone conference w/ web or video
Moderator must know how to engage in non-directive questioning. (If moderator is merely to pepper people with structured questions, do a quant survey instead.)
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Group interaction can stimulate unplanned reactions.
New ideas spawned
Group-think can occur.
Individuals have little time to speak individually; participants may hide or be passive.
Often an artificial "performance mentality" as clients view behind one-way mirror encouraging some participants to 'put on an act'.
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Depth Interviews
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Long, in-depth interviews using open-ended questioning.
Usually one-on-one, however dyads and triads may be used.
A non-directive approach often useful to explore how respondent thinks about category.
Traditionally, in live group setting with moderator
Online groups conducted via internet
Phone conference w/ web or video
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Group interaction can stimulate unplanned reactions.
New ideas spawned
Group-think can occur.
Individuals have little time to speak individually; participants may hide or be passive.
Often an artificial "performance mentality" as clients view behind one-way mirror.
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Observational method; "watching" rather than "asking"
Participants interact with product or solutions in real life.
Participant take video of relevant situations under study, e.g. their pet, their car, etc.
Diary kept, & report behavior and attitudes to interviewer
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Watching user behavior can reveal good insights about their attitudes.
Participants get highly involved in study.
Some researchers do not cal ethnography qualitative research; but rather its own breed of behavior observation.
Unforeseen relationships may be discovered
Somewhat forced environment as people may modify behavior
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Online Forums and Communities
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Time-extended interaction with respondents using either 3-day Forums, or 1-3 month research communities.
Participants log-on to site to receive new questions or topics from research moderator
Wide variety of tasks can be performed.
Longer communities can actually parallel creative campaign or product development by the client.
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Gives both clients and participants time to think, consider, and incubate.
Not constrained by location, traffic, time zones, or schedules. People log on at their convenience.
Generates a high volume of verbatim transcripts.
Some call these methods "focused groups on steroids"
Disadvantage is that people don't interact face to face. This can be minimized by web-cam sessions interspersed.
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Type 2: Quantitative Research Types -- pros & cons
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Phone Surveys
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Random probability samples can be generated from firms such as Survey Sampling, Inc. (SSI)
Best for mostly close-end questioning, when dimensions and ranges of issues are known.
Success depends highly on filtering sample to those consumer or business users who find topic or category relevant.
10-12 minute average interview length is maximum target unless highly specialized population or incentives paid.
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Optimum use is for top-of-mind awareness, branding and brand comparisons, and perception studies.
Refusal and non-contact rates are growing.
Generally, fast implementation.
Skilled interviewer can extract more information than a self-administered method (mail, online)
Critical to monitor response rate to ensure sample is representative of target sampling frame.
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Personal Interviews
and
Central Location Interviews
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Random probability sample -OR- convenience sample, depending upon design. (Central location usually use a convenience sample, i.e. mall traffic)
Used where a face-to-face environment is desired.
In B2B research, personal interviews may be done by appointment where interviewer goes to respondent's office.
Some special consumer studies may be done in-home by appointment.
Often respondents are recruited to come to a central location, or recruited from mall traffic to a nearby office to conduct interview.
Used for complicated or sensitive issues, B2B environments, or where extensive physical or visual display requirements exist along with need for specialized interviewing skills (depth probing, time for evaluation and reaction.)
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High cost.
Can provide good hybrid method combining features of qualitative and quantitative research by asking quant-type questions first, followed by in-depth probing questions and projective techniques.
Skilled interviewer can extract more information than a self-administered method (mail, online)
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Can employ true random probability sampling
Complicated survey questionnaire formats can be used. For example, piping, rating, rankings, constant sum questions, etc.
Easy to display visual information previously available only in a face-to-face interview format. (advertising copy, concept statements, projective stimuli, etc.)
Allows deployment of complicated respondent tasks. (card sorts, conjoint ratings, etc.)
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Low relative cost
Generally, fast implementation.
Sampling control is critical.
Large pre-recruited panels allow quick access to willing respondents, although sampling validity must be carefully assessed.
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Hybrid Survey Methods
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Hybrid methods combine two or more techniques to optimize response or measurement validity.
Examples:Mail or phone invitation to an online survey.
Online survey with phone follow-up to permit depth probing of key market research questions by expert interviewer.
Quantitative survey from which participants are selected based on their answers for a follow-up qualitative phase (focus group, depth)
Panel recruited from a one-time quantitative survey or other recruitment methods.
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Higher cost
More time required for implementation.
Enhances quality through higher response rates, and better response quality or validity.
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Power Decisions Group San Francisco USA 415.339.0498
For more information, go to ...
www.PowerDecisions.comPower Decisions Group
San Francisco USA
website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm
Concept development: The seedbed of advertising & product strategy.
Concept development is the process used for a wide range of product, branding, and advertising efforts:
- Creating new products and improving old products,
- Identifying new markets and fresh opportunities,
- Developing brand positions and platforms,
- Advertising themes, appeals, and core platforms.
At its core, concept development is the process of transforming innovation, visions, and ideas – thoughts and emotions – into tangible things that move the business.
At its core level, then, concept development is what turns ideas into strategy. We can call this process the ‘seedbed of strategy’ for a business enterprise.
It’s where growth starts.
Creative & Analytical Thinking
The crux question is, ‘How do we develop compelling concepts and convert them into winning products, brands and advertising platforms?’
To answer this question, let’s look at how we think, and how the people involved in concept development might be asked to think in a certain way because they play specific roles in the business and in the concept development process. We’ll come up with the best concepts if we do.
In our view, the mandate for decision-makers is this:
Achieve competitive advantage by interweaving creative and analytical thinking.
The process of concept development must employ and interweave two very different types of thinking: creative and analytical.
Incubation everywhere.
Incubation should be built-in at every step of the way. Give yourself and your team adequate time to sleep on it.
Incubation is usually associated with the creative process; that is, idea generation. It’s the ‘quiet time’ of the mind; the rest and relaxation after focused intense work. Advertising and branding agencies know how important it is in the production of great ideas.
Incubation also works elsewhere:
- Determining the goal;
- Designing the research; and
- Uncovering and prioritizing opportunities.
As an example, a client of ours had engaged us to undertake a long-term market and new product feasibility engagement. The engagement involved multiple research stages. The results of our initial landscape research, and the time it took, gave our client both initial insights and some valuable thinking time. This time and fresh data created an incubation window for new thinking and our client change direction regarding the target new product category. Having planned enough time in the engagement schedule, our research team to refocused on the new target and continued with modified later stages. Clearly, the time and incubation it allowed, added immense value.
Put incubation time on the schedule for all players involved in the concept development project.
Use a ‘great idea’ to explore more.
Often, concept exploration starts with a single idea. Use it to take a step back to view the full market opportunity.
Often times a new concept development activity jump starts with the emergence of a ‘great idea’ for a new product or advertising. While one approach is to proceed directly to test and evaluate the one idea, our view is to use the nub of the initial idea as the seed to fully explore the market opportunity it represents.
You may find additional options and greater long term success.
The creative process continues as ideas and new research data come in. Incubation continues. At play too, is a third element − Drivers: the goals, passion and judgment of decision-makers. Some call this ‘gut feeling’. Drivers color the data and ideas under development: the same ideas and data in one organization may be acted upon quite differently in another based on the organization drivers. Understand your drivers.
The Big Picture: A product development and product research example ...
Using product development and product research as an example of one application of marketing concept development, here's how all the elements fit together in a sequence of creative & analytical thinking, using concept testing research data, allowing incubation, and using 'drivers' to filter and evaluate.
Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA
website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm
Linking Brand Evolution with Branding Research and Product Research tools.
I wanted to share with you our presentation, "Brand Evolution and Branding Research." It conveys how we at Power Decisions Group think about brands and employ branding research tools to understand and guide brands to greatness.
It describes how to examine your product, positioning, or advertising development stages and integrate branding research and product research into your assessment and evaluation process. It's sound marketing research and leads to strong marketing strategy decisions.
You may download this presentation. If you want a hardcopy or PDF, please email or call Power Decisions Group. | Marketing Strategy Consultants | Product Research | Branding Research
Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA
website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm
Qualitative Marketing Research: Time-Extended Online Depth Interview Forums Keep Pace with Real-World
Time-extended online focused interviews, as a marketing research methodology, deliver to decision makers and market researchers research information that keeps pace with consumer and B2B buyers’ “research accessibility lifestyle,” and yield a qualitative research process usually far more robust, insightful, and productive than earlier-generation methods.
Time-extended Customer Interviews: Factors and Trends
Here are the factors and trends that make time-extended online interviews so attractive:
Expanding Marketing Research Technology
As marketing research technology expands – we are able to connect with buyer influencers and decision-makers to capture more and better information. Online interviewing is exploding for both quantitative and qualitative research. Online tools surely increase speed and data collection management. Yet, they offer something far more important: simply, we are able to do more by using this technology.
Buyer Accessibility for Real Research
We must use new research technologies because technology itself is changing the way people move through life and transact their work. Part of the change involves privacy, mobility, and communications modes. People are harder to connect with, period: less use of land lines, heavy phone screening, growing perceived value of time, and more. In a word, people are more reachable and open if the marketing research technique fits with their lifestyle. If they participate in a study, they want that connection convenient, flexible, and on their terms. The online time-extended focus group delivers that.
Time-Extended Depth Interviews: Single or Group Discussions for Qualitative Research
The online time-extended discussion methodology essentially is a hybrid between a group discussion and individual depth interviews. That is, the interviews are moderated by presenting questions and topics with participants seeing or not seeing the responses of others as we determine during the moderation of of the group.
We also are able to reveal appropriate visual exhibits for participants to view as they address each topic. As participants respond, the moderator may individually probe answers to retrieve the maximum thoughts and information from each respondent.
As respondents come in and we see and assess the information, this methodology allows us to formulate additional related questions, or probes, that dig deeper into the stream of thoughts and ideas that are surfacing from the initial topic presented.
In this way the time-extended methodology gives respondents to think about the topic over several days. This incubation process is valuable and one unique to the time-extended design.
Traditional focus groups, and online focus groups, are time limited and do not offer this important advantage.
Here are other advantages to this method…
- Time flexibility: participants enter and respond to questions and participate in the discussion at times during the day that are convenient to them
- Participation and the quality of response does not depend on how fast someone can type.
- Allows easy flowing modifications to the original moderation plan responding to the content raised by participants. New issues and questions seamlessly formulated and priorities reset.
- Unlimited display of exhibits and graphics, again, which can be modified according to what we are hearing in the early sessions.
- The problem of dominant participants who influence the views of other participants is eliminated.
Power Decisions Group
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