Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Some government contractors mistakenly assume that their winning go-to-market strategy in one sector will perform equally well in another. For example, a prospect recently shared his company would soon launch a new set of solutions for defense agencies – an audience they had never really served. Based on their success in federal civilian and commercial sector markets, management felt they knew which strengths to leverage when they targeted the defense market.
That’s certainly understandable. After all, a cardinal rule of selling is to know and lead with your strengths. However, it’s important to not overlook another adage – know and provide what your customer wants. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Lisa Dezzutti in Government, Market Research, Research Methods 
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Effectively marketing products or services can sometimes be tricky. Of course, it starts by developing a compelling message. But even a slight change in the message phrasing, emphasis, or even alignment with the company’s brand can make a big difference in how the product or service is perceived.
Research can reveal if the market understands your product or service and if the messaging is effective. For example, last year one of our clients launched a completely new service to its traditional core audience. After sales for the service languished, they came to us to learn why. It was indeed perplexing, as our client was one of the top market leaders.
Our strategy was to conduct focus groups with members of the target audience. Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments Posted by Dave Glantz in Research Methods
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Conducting in-depth, open-ended discussions with your target audience can give great insight,?? including the “whys” behind their thinking and decisions,?? that just aren’t possible with large quantitative surveys. Such qualitative research is used for testing branding and marketing campaigns before they’re launched, assessing product features and benefits, uncovering the market’s unmet needs, better understanding the impact of various factors on buying behaviors, and more.
The most common qualitative methods are in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus groups. IDIs are certainly effective, especially if the targeted titles are senior-level executives who aren’t willing to leave their offices to participate in a group discussion. However, they lack the interactive dynamic of focus groups, where participants often build upon each other’s ideas.
Yet, focus groups can be a challenging and expensive undertaking for companies that serve geographically dispersed markets. In such cases, Market Connections often recommends conducting focus groups during industry conferences.
Click here to learn some tips for success:
No Comments Posted by John Kagia in Research Methods
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Don’t fret. You’re not alone. Over the past few years, frustration has grown over declining response rates to online survey recruitment emails. Some of that decline can be blamed on emails being intercepted by spam or virus filters, which block them from reaching the in-box. And, for a variety of reasons, recipients don’t open and read many of the emails that do make it through the filters.
But we all know that online surveys have become more and more important for market research. So if you are looking for some tips on how to boost the open and response rates for your next online study recruitment… Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment Posted by Lisa Dezzutti in Research Methods
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
While most of us commonly use the word “evaluation” in our day-to-day business vocabulary, in the world of research it’s used more precisely to categorize different means of assessing both proposed and existing programs, policies, personnel, products, and so forth. (In fact, believe it or not, there is even an American Association of Evaluation.)
Of course, these assessments then drive more intelligent decision-making and performance improvements. Generally speaking, evaluations fall into two main categories: formative and summative.
Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments Posted by Karen Quesenberry in Research Methods
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Most B2G and B2B marketers concur that advertising is an investment and often plays an important if not leading role in many campaigns. Yet, with print ads, knowing which creative approach will resonate most effectively can be a challenge for even the most experienced marketers.
Pre-testing creative options prior to the start of the campaign can reveal important insights, thereby removing much of the guesswork from the creative development process. Based on the results, you can make informed decisions on how to best evolve or enhance the most promising creative option.
You (or your ad agency) might wish to conduct ad pre-testing research at the creative concept stage and/or the copy and layout stage. The creative concept stage, the very important first step in the development of new advertising, focuses on identifying the optimal approach for conveying the strategic message behind the ad. Typically agencies or marketing departments create several different concepts for consideration, and each one should clearly represent the idea for the ad. Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments Posted by Lisa Dezzutti in Research Methods
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
1. Focus groups are all about understanding your customers, really digging deep into their needs, wants, and emotional reactions. This information can be very useful to business planning; however, it should always be remembered that focus groups are qualitative researchââ?¬â?there is no statistical significance associated with it, and it cannot be applied to the general population.
2. Recruiting is a key aspect of focus group success. It isn’t a numbers gameââ?¬â?rather, more importance should be placed on finding the right people for your groups. A conversation with six very qualified participants will likely yield more fruitful results than a session with ten unqualified participants. Participants should be screened to ensure they are qualified and knowledgeable in the topic at hand. Also, incentives are generally offered to encourage participants to attend.
3. Make sure you thoroughly review and understand the moderator’s guide. This is the tool that your moderator will be using to keep the group on track, encourage feedback useful to your research project, and lead conversation. Make sure you are comfortable with everything included in the guide.
4. A good moderator is vital to focus group success. Your research firm will likely have skilled, qualified moderators available for any focus groups you are conducting. Depend on these moderators to keep conversation flowing, and to evoke the “intimate strangers“ feeling among the group.
5. Always plan to attend your own focus groups. There is usually a room available for viewing focus groups. Viewing the participants in real time allows you to hear and see useful insights that may not get captured in the written report, and you’ll be able to request clarification or additional information if something a participant says is unexpected or unclear. However, do be sure to watch quietly, and wait to ask your moderator questions until s/he comes to the back room at specified times. These times should be outlined in your moderator’s guideââ?¬â?if they are not, request that at least one moderator visit to the backroom be added in.
If you are interested in learning more, please go to the Market Connections website and sign up for our free e-course about focus groups.
1 Comment Posted by Karen Quesenberry in Research Methods
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
As it becomes more and more difficult to generate acceptable participation rates with online surveys and focus groups, panels are gaining widespread popularity. Online panels are pre-screened and selected communities of people that have applied to take surveys on an ongoing basis in return for some form of compensation.
Many large companies, such as Microsoft and Disney, build and maintain their own custom online panels of pre-qualified research participants. Other companies and private research firms turn to vendors that market online panels. Some offer access to consumer panels, while others offer B2B panels for targeting professionals, including CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, managers, directors, and other business decision makers.
Accessing your online research audience via pre-selected panels offers some significant advantages. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment Posted by MarketConnections in Research Methods
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
I recently attended a webcast hosted by the American Marketing Association entitled Assessing the Accuracy of Online Panel Research.
Overall, online panels may seem ideal since they typically give you access to a large list of people from your target market. However, some panels often have a large number of “professional respondents” (those who participate in panels or surveys for the purpose of financial gain or rewards). Since these people usually care very little (if at all) about answering questions truthfully and completely, this could strongly affect the accuracy of your survey data.
To avoid this common pitfall, the next time you’re conducting panel research, make sure to ask your research partner how people were selected for the panel you’re using, how often the panel list is cleaned, and what safeguards they have to protect their lists from professional respondents.
No Comments Posted by MarketConnections in Market Research, Research Methods
It is likely that when you conduct your next research study, you’ll need to survey more than one population segment in order to meet your market intelligence needs. In this case, you’ll want to set the same survey quotas for each of them in order to achieve a balanced analysis. However, segment quotas are sometimes difficult to achieve. In this situation, professional researchers would likely weight the survey data during the analysis phase of the study to compensate for over or under representation in the sample, thereby balancing the samples to be more representative of the real world. 