There are plenty of perfectly legal ways to get below-the-radar competitive information. Here are some time-tested methods that predate the Internet, as well as newer techniques to mine the wealth of information readily accessible online.

1. Read the local papers
2. Tap your vendors
3. Go to trade shows
4. Take a plant tour
5. Hire a secret shopper
6. Browse public documents
7. Google your competitor’s website
8. Explore LinkedIn
9. Monitor Twitter and Facebook chatter
10. Find competitors’ job ads
11. See Who’s on Quora
12. Check Slideshare

View the full list here: Entrepreneur.com

Samra

The 32nd annual SAMRA convention is being held at the Riverside Lifestyle Resort on the banks of the Vaal River this week.

Besides the two Esomar workshops which will be presented in South Africa for the first time on 30 and 31 May, the conference boasts a number esteemed international as well as South African keynote speakers.

From the UK, Space Doctors Founding Partner Malcolm Evans will address the issue of Sustainability: Cultural and Semiotic Perspectives, while Neil McPhee, MD of Nuance Research in the UK, will examine the topic Putting the (He) Art back into Qualitative Research in a keynote address. In another keynote address, Esomar President Dr Dieter Korczak will provide international perspectives on consumer protection legislation.

South African keynote speakers are Millward Brown non-executive chairman Erik du Plessis on the topic 1979 to Neurobullshitting, Neil Higgs, senior advisor and head: Innovation at TNS Research Surveys, on Understanding People’s Lives: People and the Revolution in Research, Nigel Hollis on How Doing Good Builds Strong Brands and Sharon Olivier on Self-care – 4 Keys to Emotional Well-Being.

You can find out what has been going on here:

Bizcommunity
Twitter

(source: Bizcommunity)

Designed by Shane Snow (@shanesnow) for Mashable.com, FarmVille vs. Real Farms takes a creative view on the FarmVille craze on Facebook compared to real life farming.

With all those millions of Facebook and iPhone users tending to virtual crops and sharing them with friends, have you ever wondered how their toils stack up against actual real-life farmers?

How does our output of digital (and decidedly less tasty) tomatoes compare with our worldwide production of real tomatoes? And perhaps most importantly, who are these casual croppers, and are they anything like their plow-toting counterparts?

We broke it down by the numbers and put some of these FarmVille trends in perspective for you.

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.

Source

]]> http://www.clandestine.co.za/blog/marketing-research-and-its-importance-in-advertising/feed/ 0 http://www.clandestine.co.za/blog/marketing-and-research-roundup/ http://www.clandestine.co.za/blog/marketing-and-research-roundup/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:44:28 +0000 Clandestine http://www.clandestine.co.za/?p=524 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

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.

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 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

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.