Market Research•
on August 25th, 2010•
Market research should forecast the impact of an eventual advertising campaign. It is a preliminary strategy providing various indicators regarding the most efficient way to approach the advertising process and to consider selling and developing strategies within private or public companies. Regardless of the quality and creativity standards in advertising, a TV commercial or an online campaign cannot be truly efficient if the audience has no interest in the advertised product or service.
Market research values a wide spectrum of indicators which gradually narrow a targeted audience. The process has its starting point in generalized information such as demographic information and can identify and interpret even financial data for a particular category of prospective consumers.
Market research is definitely a laborious process because it involves complex procedures such as collecting information, analysis and interpretation. However, an adequate completion of the entire path results in valid and effective information which enables advertisers and managers to reduce the failure risks and to prioritize lucratively the major assets of a business in a particular context.
Market research comprises 2 fundamental components, primary and secondary research. Primary research is considered a very dynamic process because marketers are required to collect information which, should later lead professionals to identify consumers’ behavior and profile. Secondary research interprets data which has already been gathered such as statistics on demographic indicators or authorities’ financial reports. We can easily notice that primary research focuses on prediction, whereas, secondary research focuses on interpretation.
Depending on the outcomes of market research, advertisers will be able to create proficient advertising concepts and to develop them in outstanding ad campaigns.
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Business, Management•
on August 6th, 2010•
In our latest article, Do ‘excellent companies to work for’ provide better quality customer service?, we introduced the concept of a holistic approach to customer service. The article demonstrated that there is a link between staff satisfaction with their roles in the companies they work for and quality of customer service, based on results from the getclosure Customer Centricity Ratings and the latest Job Crystal Happiness Indicator.
To have top quality customer service and retain your customers, you need to ensure that your staff are happy and motivated. Here are a couple of suggestions of how to do this:
Engage with your employees
Build a corporate culture that requires employees to be an integral part of the company – talk to your employees about the overall mission and values of the company and about how their efforts contribute to achieving it. Work out what method of communication works best, and use it to give your employees regular feedback, suggestions and tips. Remember to ask them for their suggestions and feedback too.
Empower your staff to make decisions
“Job dissatisfaction usually boils down to not feeling recognised, or not seeing how you are making a difference,” said Kevin Laithwaite, managing director of JobCrystal, the only interactive talent management portal in South Africa. “Combine this with the trend, started in the IT world, that you work on a project, rather than for a company, for a set period of time and then move on.
“Typically employees expect these project groups to be fairly autonomous, with significant decision making powers. So as an employer, if you want keep your staff happy and hang on to your top talent you need to supply them with the tools and information they need to do their jobs, and then let them get on with it.”
Offer a work schedule with as much flexibility as possible
Staff satisfaction and productivity are almost guaranteed to improve if you give your employees the opportunity to avoid the worst of the traffic, squeeze in a doctors appointment or watch their son’s first rugby match. This doesn’t mean they should work fewer hours, just that they should be able to start or finish early, or work some of the day from home. With smart phones and increasingly affordable broadband, this is more and more possible in a number of industries – you just need to make the mind shift and embrace this way of working.
Article by: Emma Donovan, Content Manager of www.getclosure.co.za. getclosure is South Africa’s leading independent complaints management and consumer affairs portal. The getclosure service is fast, free and effective for consumers. All suppliers have the opportunity to respond to complaints on the getclosure site, free of charge. getclosure also makes a host of consumer rights news and information available to South Africans.
Design, Quality•
on August 5th, 2010•
Lovely Package is a showcase website for the very best that package design has to offer.
Soy Mamelle
Designed by KIAN | Country: Russia
“The KIAN brand agency took on the process of naming, formulating a creative brand concept, and creating the package shape. Soy milk “Soy mamelle” is a 100% vegetative product. It is a source of high grade fiber and calcium, containing no cholesterol and a proven ability to actually lower cholesterol levels in the human body.
Student Work – Phurbu Dolma
Designed by Phurbu Dolma | Country: United States
“This was a branding and packaging project for a luxury food line which carried exotic extracts. This particular line focused on floral extracts, (Rose and Lavender) which can be used in foods such as baking. Exotiqué emphasizes on quality, style, authenticity and needed a distinctive visual and structural style to evoke the brands personality and tone. The lasting message of the brand is to portray cooking as an art form and the fine ingredients you use to cook as the medium in which you create your artwork.”
Moure
Designed by Catalina Olavarria | Country: Chile
“Development of a new line of cosmetics under the concept of desserts & wellness. Each product represents a flavour of a dessert, and a sensation associated.”
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Train your customers
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Turn More Visitors into Buyers with Adwords Ad Sitelinks
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Correlations between the getclosure customer centricity ratings and the latest Job Crystal Happiness Indicator suggest that there is a link between companies rated highly by their employees and the quality of customer service experienced by customers.
Over the past six months, Sanlam and Pick n Pay have made a consistent appearance in the top five rated companies in the getclosure customer centricity ratings, and are also listed in the top five companies to work for in the Job Crystal Happiness Indicator:
The getclosure ratings incorporate three important measures: Did the company respond to the customer’s complaint promptly? Did the business treat the customer’s concerns with courtesy and respect? Is the customer left satisfied with the resolution reached?
Nine out of ten of Pick n Pay’s customers who have used the getclosure service are happy with the outcome of their complaints and with the way their complaints were handled. For Sanlam, nine out of ten of their customers are happy with the outcome of their complaints and every single one is happy with the way their complaints were handled. Both companies also have great track records when it comes to responding to complaints on getclosure promptly.
In the Job Crystal Happiness Indicator, Sanlam and Pick n Pay came in as the second and third best companies to work for respectively, with over two thirds of participating employees voting for them as “excellent to work for”.
These statistics demonstrate that staff satisfaction with the companies they work for and customer retention may well be two sides of the same coin. By adopting a holistic approach to customer service you will in effect be keeping all your stakeholders happy, which is arguably an end in itself.
To get you thinking about ways in which you can implement this strategy, read through our tips on how to effectively deal with and resolve your customers’ complaints. Look out for the next article in this series for suggestions on how to boost staff morale and increase productivity.
Article by: Emma Donovan, Content Manager of www.getclosure.co.za. getclosure is South Africa’s leading independent complaints management and consumer affairs portal. The getclosure service is fast, free and effective for consumers. All suppliers have the opportunity to respond to complaints on the getclosure site, free of charge. getclosure also makes a host of consumer rights news and information available to South Africans.
% employees registered on JobCrystal rating the company “best”/”excellent” to work for
A survey recently by ForSeewent out called the American Customer Satisfaction Idex, which added a few social media website this time, provided some interesting feedback on what people think of Facebook.
The feedback was primarily of dislike for Facebook, which is surprising when looking at its gigantic exponential growth, while closing in on 500 Million users.
It is also quite obvious that due to it’s size and lack of competition, users simply don’t have anywhere else to go. It’s a monopoly.
Google is planning to launch Google Me, a Facebook-like service and it will be interesting to see the impact on Facebook if Google manages to launch a service that people love. It could be the MySpace/Facebook war all over again.
Around 90% of teenagers are reported to use at least on social network, but 20% of this group are now no longer visiting the websites or are just using them much less.
Reasons for the drop in numbers from the users have to do with the increased activity, ads, too much information and that their friends were no longer really using the social networks.
Business, Design, UX•
on July 2nd, 2010•
Live Labs, an image/tech/data contingent of Microsoft has launched PivotView, which is visualisaton data tool that takes large chunks of data and presents it in a usable and visual way.
PivotView makes comparing a topic easy by placing everthing on one page with images which can lead to furthur information, rather than having a whole bunch of pages open and having to sift through them all.
The project is an ongoing development and can be downloaded here.
Business, Online•
on July 1st, 2010•
The Vuvuzela has always been popular in South Africa, but quickly gained worldwide interest during the 2010 World Cup.
It became a trending topic on twitter, it was seen in the hands of the Google Street View man and it was added as a special feature on YouTube.
Here are some facts and figures on the Vuvuzela.
Marketing, Online, UX•
on June 30th, 2010•
UX Myths collects the most frequent user experience design misconceptions and explains why they don’t hold true. And you don’t have to take our word for it, we’ll show you lots of researches and articles from design and usability gurus.
Find all the answers here
- Myth #21: People can tell you what they want
- Myth #20: If it works for Amazon, it will work for you
- Myth #19: You don’t need the content to design a website
- Myth #18: Flash is evil
- Myth #17: The homepage is your most important page
- Myth #16: Search will solve a website’s navigation problems
- Myth #15: Users make optimal choices
- Myth #14: You are like your users
- Myth #13: Icons enhance usability
- Myth #12: More choices and features result in higher satisfaction
- Myth #11: You need to redesign your website periodically
- Myth #10: If your design is good, small details don’t matter
- Myth #9: Design has to be original
- Myth #8: Ornamental graphics improves the users’ experience
- Myth #7: Graphics will make a page element more visible
- Myth #6: Accessible sites are ugly
- Myth #5: Accessibility is expensive and difficult
- Myth #4: Design is about making a website look good
- Myth #3: People don’t scroll
- Myth #2: All pages should be accessible in 3 clicks
- Myth #1: People read on the web