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The Art Of The Brief – Part 2 of 2


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PRODUCT DETAILS

What are the important products (or services) in the range (by size, capacity, shape, material, etc)?
What proportion of the total turnover does each of the above groups account for?
To what extent are the products standard/custom built?
What proportion of an assembled product is made in-house or bought out?
How important are spares in terms of revenue v profit?
Are any of the products built under licence?

PRICING

What are the prices for each of the important products (are these prices trade or retail)?
How do prices compare with those of the competition?
Is there a published price list?
What is the discount policy?
What power does the salesman have to alter prices?
How price-sensitive is the product?

SALES FORCE

Number of representatives
Are they a general or a specialised sales force – in what way are they specialised?
How many calls a day do they make?
Does the salesforce bring back orders or are they sent in independently?

MARKETS

What are the major user markets for the products?
What proportion of total sales are to each of these markets?
Are any markets known for the product where the company currently does not/cannot sell?
Which markets are believed to offer the greatest scope for expansion of sales?

DECISION MAKERS

Who are the key decision makers who specify and buy this type of product? What roles do they play?
What do decision makers look for from suppliers? PROBE price, quality, delivery, sales service?

COMPETITION

Who are the most important competitors? Where are they based?
What is their rank order/market share?
What are each company’s (including the client’s) perceived strengths and weaknesses?
To what extent do competitors rely upon this market for their turnover and profit?

QUALITY

Where does the product fit against the competition in its quality?
What are the special features of its quality?
Where is it weak on quality?
How long will the product last?
When it finally fails, why will it do so?

DELIVERIES

What is the current delivery period?
What is the competition’s delivery?
What is the ideal delivery?

DISTRIBUTION

How is the product distributed?
What proportion goes direct/indirect? What is the policy which leads to this split (eg size of account – OEM v replacement etc)?
What are distributors’ margins?
What other products do distributors sell?
Do distributors actively sell or just take orders?
Who are the major distributors:

(a) used by the company?
(b) not used by the company?

What is the average size of a direct account and a distributor account?

PROMOTION

How big is the promotional budget?
How does this break down between:

(a) media
(b) exhibitions
(c) PR
(d) print
(e) direct mail
(f) web sites?

Which media are used? Which are most successful?
What proportion of sales leads come from promotion? How many? What is their quality?
Which exhibitions are attended? What is their perceived value?
What opportunities exist for e-commerce?

OTHER DATA

Full details of names (initials as well) of persons present at briefing; date of briefing; address of company; address to which proposals should be sent
How many copies of the proposal are required – to be sent separately or en bloc?

PREPARING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Having received the brief the researcher, whether in-house or from an agency, must submit a written proposal to the sponsor which states an appreciation of the problem, the objectives, the research method and the timing. If an agency is preparing the proposal, a statement of cost must be given. An in-house job may omit this but many managers still like to see an estimate as a benchmark to compare with other surveys and as a perspective which they can use to relate to the size of any decision which may be taken.

If the proposal is accepted it becomes the contract between researcher and sponsor. The nature of business to business market research is such that it is seldom possible to know in advance whether the objectives or research method will remain fixed. Invariably slight modifications need to be made. These should always be documented and copied to all parties so they can react to them and in the event of any later argument, refer back to whatever was agreed.


This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 10:17 am and is filed under Articles, International Market Research, Market Research, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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