If you've got questions, Marketing Research is your key to getting the answers you need to run your business and focus your marketing. Marketing Research is not a cookie-cutter approach and is so flexible, in fact, that small businesses with limited budgets can certainly get the information and insight they need at very affordable costs. Many years ago I was handed a tremendous project my first day on a new job in the credit card marketing department of a bank. My task was to try to help stem the tide of cardholders canceling their accounts. This was in the late 1980's when credit was abundant and many folks had 10+ credit cards in their wallets. We were losing ground to our competitors. So, in a nutshell we hired an outside marketing research firm to help us.
First, we mailed a sampling of 100,000 cardholders from our database. Those that didn't return the survey were called. In all, we anticipated a 2% response rate and were shocked when we got almost 10%.
The marketing research firm helped us do all sorts of statistical analysis and in the end what we found out was that cardholders wanted more control over their own accounts. This information led me and my team to develop a 'build your own' concept whereby we allowed cardholders to select from a list of terms, annual fees, due dates, and the like. We then created a 'credit card took kit' complete with graphics resembling tools. We went back to those same 100,000 with this new offer and they ate it up. It was a huge success. That then became our control offer that we used in acquisition for quite a while.
It seems people like to tell you what they think and what they want, and so small business owners should ask.
You don't need an outside research firm to conduct your own research. There are so many options both on and offline now, that this once burdensome and very expensive task is simpler than ever for small business owners to do themselves.
Here's how:
First, let's begin with an overview. There are two basic types of research: secondary and primary.
Secondary research is research that already exists. A good example of this is the US Census. While this isn't custom to your situation it can be a good place to begin. For example, you wouldn't want to open a retail store in a town whose population is declining 10% per year. Strategic industry research can also be very helpful to you. Many associations conduct research on behalf of their members. For example, many years ago in a new product development role I was tasked with creating new products that would best our competitors. At the time, pet clubs were very popular and so I found a published survey (that cost $700) that was tremendously helpful to me in creating a relevant product that pet owners would prefer over our competition's. It was another great success and was profitable over forecast (which is always good!)
Primary research is research that is created by/for you and is custom to your needs. For example, if you began with Census information and found that your city has had 15% growth in small businesses, you may be encouraged to finally open your consulting firm. If however, you specialize in family-owned businesses and succession plans, you would need to know of that growth, how many were family-owned. Most likely, the only way you could get this information would be to design your own research and begin asking around.
The next difference within these two basic types of marketing research is quantitative vs. qualitative. Quantitative research is numbers-based. For example, how many people purchase a certain product. Qualitative research focuses on the back story and will tell you why. Qualitative research tends to be more issues-based to explore consumer behavior in depth. Focus groups are a good example of qualitative research.
Choosing the method will depend on what it is you're trying to achieve. Without a clear goal, your research is worthless. So, keep the following in mind:
1. What do you want to know? Be specific and be clear so that you can create questions that will yield useful answers. For example, if you get price resistance and lose business to your competitors, you may want to know specifically if your pricing is too high.
2. What kind of question should you use? Closed ended questions look like this:
Where do you usually purchase your groceries?
___ Supermarket
___ Specialty store
___ Farmer's market
___ Online
Open ended questions look like this:
What is your favorite supermarket? _____________________
Be aware that tallying open-ended questions is more difficult but can yield better answers because that you may not have even thought of yourself.
3. Don't force people over the edge. I personally don't like it when I'm asked to fill out a survey that doesn't have a midpoint. By this I mean there are usually only positive or negative options. A good survey question has a neutral point, usually a 5-point scale that runs from Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree or Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. If the "neither" option wasn't there you are forcing an answer that may not be accurate and losing the ability to get higher quality information that you can use.
Ways that you can put primary Marketing Research to work for your business include:
1. Feedback Forms - These are so flexible and can be used both on and offline. For example when you have finished a project, you can either send a thank you letter with a short survey, or if you have their email, can do this online. You'd be surprised at the information you can gather. The key here is to do it quickly while the experience is still fresh in the consumer's mind. Feedback forms can help you gather suggestions as well as get information about how your company performed for them.
2. Telephone Research - I don't advocate blind polling to a list of phone numbers (vis-a-vis political polling), but you can do this by calling former clients, current leads and asking them what you need to know. Be sure that you keep it short and tell them up front that their answers will be kept confidential. Always ask if this a good time to talk, and if not, ask when you can call back.
3. Mystery Shoppers - Many years ago I ran a shopper program for one of the largest banks in NYC. I had a few dozen hired 'customers' that were given money to open accounts and test the tellers. Then over time they were given scripts and asked to do various things such as close an account, request a service we didn't have, act in a certain way, etc. Each week they turned in a report so that we could gauge the effectiveness of teller training. It was very, very helpful. And, lest you think this was all negative and we were looking to fire employees, we often did something wonderful for a branch employee who went above and beyond.
4. General Surveys - Used for everything from customer service measurement to product satisfaction. A survey like this could be used to ask employees their opinion, members of an organization can be encouraged to give feedback, banks use these to rate their services - the list is endless.
5. In-store Service - It seems wherever I purchase something lately the cashier uses a highlighter and eagerly circles the "Take our Survey" portion on the receipt and then explains that the consumer can win a prize for their input. This is also done in restaurants frequently too.
6. Launch of a new Product or Service - Before you invest in the creation and launch of a new product or service, it may behoove you to ask your target audience for initial feedback of the idea. Those of you old enough to remember this, think "New Coke" and you'll get the idea.
Some good sources you can use:
-www.mra-net.org - Marketing Research Association's website
-US Census Bureau
-Bureau of Labor Statistics
-American Marketing Association - Demographic Statistics
-Internet Public Library
-Forrester Research
-Constant Contact.com - just added this new service
-SurveyMonkey.com
-Zoomerang.com
-Netreflector.com
To increase your chances of success, consider offering a small token of appreciation to get more feedback. No matter how you choose to go about your marketing research be sure to say "thanks" to those who took the time to participate and do your best to loop back to them so they know their feedback was received and appreciated. So, if you've got questions you now know how to easily get answers.
This blog uses CopyScape.com to protect against plagiarism
Copyright 2014 Affordable Marketing Solutions LLC
No comments:
Post a Comment