Market Research Facts

When Consumers Tweet Complaints, Should Brands Respond?

The Challenges Of Realising A True Multichannel Vision

Written by eDigital Research

This document is for information purposes only. eDigitalResearch, Portaltech and IMRG make no warrenited, expressed or implied, in this document.

Overview
With the introduction of fCommece, the increasing popularity of smartphones, and the continued rise of online shopping, multichannel strategies are becoming more and more important for retailers across the industry.

For the first time ever, eDigitalResearch, Portaltech and IMRG are now surveying retailers in an effort to better understand the demands and issues that they are facing as they attempt to make their channels coherent to customers.

With the results, we will be able to gain a true picture of multichannel operations as they currently stand and fully understand what suppliers and partners across the board need to be doing to help retailers improve their services across customer touch points.

Research Objectives
• To gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges that retailers feel they are facing in trying to achieve a true multichannel vision

• To gain insight into how the retail industry expects to change and evolve over the next two years

• To understand what partners and suppliers need to be doing to help retailers make all their channels coherent to customers.

Background
Retailers of all sizes and sectors were asked to complete an online survey between August 18th and September 16th 2011. The survey was available on various websites (including through an external panel provider) as well as
being emailed to retail contacts throughout the three organisations involved in the study (eDigitalResearch, Portaltech and IMRG). 152 responses were collected in total.

Key Findings
• 86.1% of retailers surveyed are already multichannel, operating a multitude of customer touchpoints and channels, from stores and websites to mobile and social media.

• 29.6% of retailers already have 5 or more channels in place. Read the rest of this entry »

Coca-Cola Research Boss Bets On Passive Listening Over Response, Social Media Over Surveys

Stan Sthanunathan believes market research—both as a profession and as an industry—may be on a collision course of potentially Titanic proportions with an iceberg called change, and he’s urging all hands on deck to help turn the ship around.
“We all must accept one truth in life: Change is not optional, but acting or not acting is a choice we make…We either act or we will become irrelevant and maybe even perish,” Sthanunathan said.
Coca-Cola’s global head of marketing strategy and insights has never been one to mince words or shy away from controversy, and his views may be unsettling in some research quarters.

In this exclusive podcast interview for “The Research Insighter” series, Sthanunathan argues the industry urgently “needs to reinvent who we are, what we stand for and how we add value to business” or risk losing out to a rising class of non-traditional competitors that will include the Facebooks and Googles of the world.

He predicts conventional response-based research will “probably be irrelevant in the next decade” and that “social media services could potentially become the biggest insights generators in the industry.”
And, Sthanunathan pointed out, these emerging competitors have an advantage over traditional research providers and most client-side departments when it comes to attracting talent: They’re willing to pay more for a more diverse range of skill sets within a culture that encourages experimentation and provides the freedom to fail forward.
How can researchers compete in this environment?  Sthanunathan insists the time has come to focus on next practices—not best practices. “No driver has reached their destination by looking through the rearview mirror in a car,” he observed.
“If you focus on consumer insights, you will develop consumerist strategies,” Sthanunathan said. “But if you focus on understanding the human condition, then you will understand people’s lives in totality and, therefore, probably have a much better chance of coming up with breakthrough ideas.”

Compliments of the season

Compliments of the new season. Heres wishing you all a fruitful, prosperous and fun-filled 2011. It is my hope and conviction that all your dreams, goals and aspirations come to pass in Jesus mighty name.

It has been a while since i wrote on this blog. My sincere apologies for the long unannounced absence, this was due to heavy work loads and some pressing matters that resulted in my failure to contribute on this blog. This is all water under the bridge now, this year i will be available 24/7 to contribute articles and useful lessons in market research.

As the main contributor on this blog, I am introducing a different dimension to the types of articles you will be reading on this blog. Keep watching this space for the new developments. There will also be visiting expert bloggers this year.

In 2010 I lost some very close relatives and friends, this made me realize how precious and short life is. So this year please, learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savoured.

God bless you all.

Research finding – Top 20 most loved brands

The Leap Index is an annual ranking of brands by NewMediaMetrics based on consumers’ emotional attachment to brands; in other words, what brands consumers love the most. To compile this year’s index, NewMediaMetrics surveyed a representative sample of the U.S. population — 3,500 people ages 13 through 54, with annual income of at least $35,000.

The findings interestingly reveal that top 20 most loved brands, fourteen are companies that offer digital and virtual experiences. Four of those are Apple brands. Only one, Disney Parks, offers real world entertainment experiences. And even Disney augments many of their experiences with electronics Welcome to the digital consumer world.

The top 20 brands:

1. Ipod
2. Iphone
3. Disney Parks
4. Xbox
5. Microsoft Office Suite
6. Nitendo Wii
7. Sony Playstation
8. Honda
9. Ipad
10. Lexus
11. Google serach
12. Google
13. Apple
14. Blackberry
15. US Postal Service
16. Microsoft windows 7
17. Microsoft Windows
18. Always
19. Mercedes Benz
20. Microsoft

Surprisingly Nokia did not feature in the top 20 brands list . Is Nokia loosing its grip on the mobile market? Time will tell.

Low Brand Loyalty Among BlackBerry Users

According to results released by crowd Science a California based company on Smartphone brand loyalty, companies that force employees to use Black Berries may be indirectly hurting the brand by fomenting low user loyalty.

Only 35% of respondents whose Smartphone choices were foisted on them by corporate mandate said they were “very satisfied” with their brand, compared with about 60% of users who exercised at least some choice in their Smartphone purchases.

BlackBerries were much more likely – in 2 out of 3 cases – to be the Smartphone brand chosen by companies for their employees, the study found. About one-fifth (19%) of BlackBerry users had their phone chosen for them, compared with just 4% each of Android or iPhone users. In a related finding, Crowd Science found that one-third of BlackBerry owners use their phones mostly or only for business purposes, compared with just 20% of all Smartphone users.

“Combine the low satisfaction levels of users of corporate-mandated smartphones with the fact that there is a high proportion of these among BlackBerry owners, and you’ve got a key factor in the low overall loyalty we’ve seen in BlackBerry users for the past year,” noted Sandra Marshall, Crowd Science VP of Research.

Consistent with the findings of the earlier Crowd Science smartphone studies, only 45% of all BlackBerry users said they were “very satisfied” with their phones – compared with 71% of iPhone users and 70% of Android users. Only 30% of all BlackBerry users would buy another BlackBerry for their next phone, while 70% of iPhone and Android users would stick with their current brands, Crowd Science found.

In a further blow to BlackBerry, of the overall sample – more than half of whom still use a regular cell phone – 30% said their next phone would be an iPhone, 20% an Android, 20% a regular cell phone, and just 10% a BlackBerry. Only a sparse minority of iPhone users (6%) and Android users (3%) would buy a BlackBerry the next time around, while significantly larger proportions of BlackBerry users would defect to an iPhone (31%) or an Android (23%).

In addition to the greater use of BlackBerries for business, Crowd Science found that BlackBerry users skew somewhat older than iPhone uses, but all smartphone brands break down similarly along gender lines.

These most recent survey findings from Crowd Science were gathered from a random sample of 2,423 online visitors between August 25-September 7, 2010, and are the first in a new online opinion research program called Just Ask! “We’re excited to launch Just Ask!,” said Corey Leibow, Crowd Science CEO. “We think more online market research benefits everyone, and Just Ask! showcases the fact that in spite of all the technological advances in web analytics and behavioral analysis, the added dimension of survey-based research is essential to really understanding people’s attitudes and opinions.”

Source: www.crowdscience.com

Retail Audit – Effective way of measuring market share

Do you know your customers intimately?

There are two main marketing strategies businesses can use to reach their customers effectively. There is mass marketing which refers to treatment of the entire market as a homogeneous group and offering the same marketing mix to all the customers. It allows economies of scale to be realized through mass production, mass distribution and mass communication. The disadvantage of this marketing approach is that customer needs and preferences differ and the uniform offering is unlikely to be viewed as optimal by all customers.

Given the above scenario, if a business needs to fully understand and know their customers, they must adopt the market segmentation approach. It is important to know who your customers are, why they purchase from you and what keeps them buying from you rather than your competitors. Please note that this doesn’t mean you have to know each customer personally, rather you need to know what types of people buy from your business. By types of people, I mean you need to know your customers’ demographic profiles.

Knowing your customers’ profile is known as “market segmentation “by marketers. This mean dividing your customers or entire market into segments or smaller groups that have similar demographic, psychographic and or product usage characteristics. A market segment is a sub-set of a market made up of people or organizations sharing with one or more characteristics that cause them to demand similar products and/or services based on qualities of those products such as price or function. This is very important as it will help you in understanding each segment of your customers better.

Please note that a proper market segment meets all of the following areas: it is distinct from other segments (different segments have different needs), it is homogeneous within the segment (exhibits common needs); it responds similarly to a market stimulus, and it can be reached by a market intervention. Businesses worldwide have adopted market segmentation as a corporate strategy, creating and maintaining detailed customer profiles for each product or service. This information serves as input in strategic decisions and tactical marketing activities, sales, product development, and customer support.

In order to get the best out of market segmentation, it is prudent to engage a professional marketing research company. There are many market segmentation products on the market. You have to select the one you think will best give you the information you are looking for. Please bear in mind that market segmentation is a purely a scientific market research process.

To your success!!!

Will you ever be Rich?

In a recent survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Americans believe its harder to get rich than it used to be. But when asked about the likelihood of getting rich personally, about one-third say it’s very or somewhat likely that they will attain wealth because of their work, investments, inheritance or good luck.

On the other hand, 63% say it’s not too likely or not at all likely they’ll get rich. Just 2% volunteered that they’re already rich. Bankrate.com commissioned Princeton Survey Research Associates International to explore how people feel about their chances for prosperity, as well as how they define wealth and their motivations for pursuing it.

Hope springs eternal –for the young. More than half (54%) of those 18 to 29 believe they will become rich. Meanwhile, reality sets in with the passage of time. Only 34% of respondents in the 30-to-49 age range believe they will be rich, while 21% in the 50-plus age group think so.

culled from Msn.

Methods of getting information from customers

Many business managers think they know what their customers think and want. This feeling is derived from their gut feel which often times is contrary to what is obtainable in the market place. Businesses can not survive and excel  if they don’t meet the needs of their customers. Thats a fact of life.  In order to be relevant and competitive in the modern day market place businesses need to continually look for information which gives them direction with regards to the ever changing consumer needs.

The advent of modern technology brought about a different type of consumer who is sophisticated with many choices at his disposal. This scenario poses a great challenge to any business, as concerted effort is required  to keep in touch with such a hyperactive consumer’s general behavior.

Many companies frown at the mention of information gathering as they think market research budget is a sheer waste of resources. There are several ways companies can use to gather information without spending so much money. Important information about your customers can be gathered from the following sources:

Employees

Your employees interface with your customer on a daily basis. Ask them about products and services that customers are asking for. Also ask them about what the customers complain about. Is it service related or product related. This information will provide a vital platform on which you can start re-engineering your service/product offering.

Customers – Comment Cards

Provide brief, half-page comment cards on which your customers can answer basic questions such as: Were you satisfied with our services? How can we improve on our service offering? Are there any services you would like to see which we are not offering at the moment? Make the comment card very SIMPLE in order to get more responses from customers. You can have maximum 10 questions on the score card, the response should be close-end with the comment are left open in order to solicit qualitative feedback

Analyze internal Records

You can mine data in your sales records to see what customers are buying most across your business. This will provide you with monthly, weekly or bi-monthly trend analysis. With this information you will be able to see where your customers are spending most of their money.

Telephone Surveys

Hire summer students or part-time people for a few days every six months to do telephone surveys with your customers. This provides you with an opportunity to get information about your business from your customers. This information will help you in mitigating service short falls before they become catastrophic.

So there you are. Before you think about spending top dollar in conducting market research, you can start by collecting information internally before engaging an external research agency. It is however, important to note that the above information gathering methods DO NOT SUBSTITUTE an independent survey which can be commission with an external market research agency. It is advisable to do a robust market survey every six months in order to keep abreast with market trends and consumer behaviour.

To your success!!!!