Marketing Research Process - Part 1 - A big foundation.
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.
Ideas:
Yes, ideas are strategic intelligence. They often comprise the unique DNA of your company.
Ideas must be harvested and inventoried like any asset. They are produced from several sources and methods.
- Internal idea management systems of internal and external ideas;
- Unsolicited ideas from external and internal sources; and
- Purposeful ideation or idea generation from internal or external audiences (customers, prospects, employees, special internal teams)
Drivers:
This will be a stretch for some readers: the third component of strategic intelligence is the unique culture and mindset DNA of a company. They are a part of strategic intelligence, and thus, the marketing research process, because Drivers are the filter through which other intelligence sources -- data and ideas -- are viewed, perceived, and valued.
So, what are drivers, exactly?
- The melting pot of management experience.
- Management judgement, and points of view.
- Company history and culture.
- Risk appetitite and style: willingness to venture beyond traditonal boundaries, or tendency to 'stick to the knitting' of doing the core business the way its always been done.
2. Make decision making the primary research process framework.
The next ingredient to having a robust research process, is decision making. Keep decision making as the primary focus and foundation of research you undertake.
Here's how:
Know where you are in the stages of decision making.
I use four stages as depicted in this graphic...
Most any recognized need for market intelligence is fundamentally focused on one or more of the decision making stages. The point is: recognize where you are in the process.
Do you have a set of product concept choices clearly refined and defined, and the next step is to proceed to making the decision itself? Or, are you in the realm of wanting to discover new product or new market opportunities, in which case you are squarely in stage one, opportunity scanning.
Select marketing research and intelligence generating techniques that are appropriate for your identified decision stage.
We use a Decision-Research Matrix to help review possible research techniques intelligence generating tools to select the most appropriate. I'll discuss this in more detail in a future article in the series on marketing research process.
Conclusion: The first real world steps to create a workable marketing research process is understanding the types of 'intelligence' available, and knowing where you stand in the decision cycle.
Power Decisions Group
San Francisco USA
website: http://www.powerdecisions.com/inquire.cfm