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.
Craft An Irresistible Price By Focusing On Your Users
Price influences behavior. In order to craft an excellent user experience, the price — and how your users interact with that price — must be central to the development of the product, especially applications. No user will welcome an application if the cost is prohibitive. This makes price every bit as important as design, information architecture and wireframing, and it goes deeper than just getting people to click “Buy.” By focusing on users in setting and maintaining a price, you will increase revenue, lower overhead and, most importantly, significantly improve the user’s (read customer’s) experience. Read More
Google Wave is Dead
Google Wave, the revolutionary product, platform and protocol for distributed, real time, app-augmented collaboration will no longer be actively developed and may be shuttered after the end of the year, Google announced this afternoon. Read More
Vanity Purchases Are All About Image Even in a Recession
Vanity purchases occur when a customer buys a product with the intention of using it to enhance or support their perceived personality or, as we call it in the Consumer Buying Behavior tutorial, their self concept. Read More
Train your customers
Yes, you can train them. By rewarding some behaviors over others, by keeping some promises not others, by having some expectations instead of others, you get the audience you deserve. Some things you can train customers to do… Continue Reading
Turn More Visitors into Buyers with Adwords Ad Sitelinks
Ad Sitelinks is a new Adwords targeting feature for sponsored search ads that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing targeted and specific links for searchers whose keyword triggered your ad. Read More
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.
The latest iPhone concept was leaked to the world after a staff member of Apple supposedly left it behind at a bar after having a few beers.
The amount of press received from all the tech blogs and newspapers has considerably upped the curiosity of iPhone fans, while major features or secrets were ‘leaked’.
With something so secretive, it makes you wonder whether this was maybe done on purpose as a type of market research to see the initial response from the public.
It seems like more than a coincidence that both Engadget and Gizmodo ended up with “proof” of the iPhone 4G within days of each other.
There was a huge response from the public and could provide some insight into how well their new features and design will be received without holding focus groups.
Crowdsourcing is the new age technique of outsourcing the idea generation process to large groups of people through an open invitation.
Crowdsourcing
Who uses Crowdsourcing?
Companies use crowdsourcing to generate content and products like Wikipedia and Threadless or to come up with marketing concepts for companies in return for a reward or payment, which is done well by Idea Bounty.
Why is it so Popular?
When you crowdsource your campaign results you bypass a single team of experts and open your company to the many talented individuals all over the world. The ideas submitted are often much more fresh and innovative than ones you would receive internally. The individual reward or payment is often quite valuable for the person with the idea and much more cost effective for the company, as they are paying one person… rather than a whole team.
How do you run a Campaign?
If you have a large subscriber base, such as through a facebook fan page, newsletter list or blog base, then you can submit the idea to them and offer a prize for the idea that is chosen. Alternatively there are many agencies who offer crowdsourcing services and have databases of thousands of registered creatives and professionals who are eager to scratch their heads.
The future success of your business depends on your ability to perform meaningful market research. Does this come as a surprise? It shouldn’t.
Market research allows you to:
Measure customer satisfaction
Make your marketing more efficient
Find new customers
Develop a customer-centric product development cycle
Assuming that you are selling a useful good or service, knowing any or all of the bullet points above would be considered useful by most business people.
A study done by an Australian research group discovered that firms that had strong market research capabilities had greater sales growth, profitability, customer satisfaction, and new product success rates were firms that had significantly greater market research abilities (Vorhies, Harker, Rao 1999).
Market research is a complicated thing. This is because the research revolves around people. However, here are some things you might want to know when trying to improve you market research abilities:
Be Brave – When you start digging for information, sometimes you find stuff that will shock you. Think of Domino’s Pizza and their new advertising campaign.
Use statistical analysis – In the book Meaningful Marketing, Doug Hall says, “Statistics are required if you are to make decisions that are reliable and reproducible. Research without statistics is about as reliable as your horoscope.” Statistics are not fun to do, but an understanding of what data are saying is imperative to improving your marketing research ability.
Use many research methods – From the Domino’s video above, it appears that they are making a very wide set of assumptions based on some focus groups. I’m sure that Domino’s would not try to overhaul their pizza operations based on a few focus groups. I’m sure they had more data, but regression analysis outputs are not very exciting to look at in commercials. When trying to improve your market research abilities it is important to become familiar with many research techniques and each technique’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, focus groups provide a lot of depth to your research, however, focus groups are small and should not stand alone as representative of your target market or customer base.
Think like a scientist – Back in school I took a lot of science classes. These classes taught me, through example and practice, that nearly all major scientific discoveries have come about via the use of the scientific method. This means that a scientist made an observation, asked a question, proposed a hypothesis, designed an experiment, collected data, analysed the data, made a conclusion, and in many cases asked another question based on the conclusion – which started the process all over again.
This article was sourced from serfwerks.com – click here to read the whole article.
This week’s market research roundup covers topics on social media, customer service and a case study on the outcomes of mystery shopping.
5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page
If you’ve already searched for some Fan Page inspiration and undertaken the task of building a custom landing page for your business’s Facebook presence, you may now be in the market for some features that will further engage your fans. Read more
Innovative stores and enhanced customer services key to Jackys Electronics success
Enhancing customer services, innovative store designs and new outlets in different Emirates proved to be successful 2009 platforms for Jacky’s Electronics, the UAE’s number one multi-brand consumer electronics retailer, which cemented its win as the Retail Company of the Year by ITP’s Channel Middle East Awards 2010. Read more
Mercedes-Benz UK Appoints New Managing Director Customer Services Group
MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – March 29, 2010: Mercedes-Benz UK has announced the appointment of Simon Oldfield to the position of Managing Director Customer Services Group, with effect from 1 April 2010. Oldfield has been promoted to this role after 12 years with the company, most recently as Sales Director Mercedes-Benz Cars and before that as Marketing Director. Read more
Outcomes of Mystery Shopping
During December 2009, tenants trained by the Society, posing as mystery shoppers, took part in an exercise to help improve the services we provide.
The shoppers contact staff in a variety of ways (by letter, telephone, in person at our offices any by email), and asked various questions relating to typical questions asked by tenants, such as repair reporting, paying rent, advice about anti-social behaviour, how to get a home and so on.
Each response was scored to check that our staff met the standards that we have set out. This is what the mystery shopping exercise revealed. Read more
In current marketing nomenclature there is a real focus on ‘engagement’. I am all for being engaging but many people seem to misinterpret the notion of interactivity for engagement. given a brief for engagement they jump to digital and interactivity immediately. Read More
Good Customer Service Doesn’t Win Referrals
Many entrepreneurs are under the impression that if they provide good customer service, people will refer business to them. Just like that. However, that’s only part of the picture. Sure, customer service is important. But good customer service is just a prerequisite–a minimum expectation. Read More
What Is Website Usability?
Website usability is an important concept in web design which is occasionally overlooked in the rush to launch a website or brand. Put in simple terms, website usability involves building a site which is easy, fun, and logical for users, so that they can enjoy using the site and they can utilize it to find what they need.
This consideration is critically important for companies that want to build brand loyalty and attract customers, as people are turned off by websites which they have trouble using. Read More
5 Ways To Show Your Customers You Care
Everyone feels warm and fuzzy around Valentine’s Day. That includes entrepreneurs, many of whom use the opportunity to put a heartfelt spin on their e-mail marketing communications.
You probably received e-mails earlier this month from businesses and organizations running promotions tied to Valentine’s Day. Others might simply have sent a colorful, light-hearted greeting as a way to tell their customers and members they care.
So what happens now, after the chocolates have been eaten and the roses have withered away? Are you showing customers you appreciate their business all year-round? Read More
