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Archive for the ‘ROI’ Category« Previous EntriesThe ROI of Market ResearchWednesday, August 10th, 2011  Cristin Malone this week ponders the return on investment of market research As prospective clients inquire about our capabilities to conduct market research on their behalf, one of the most frequent questions they ask is how successful our research contributions and action recommendations have been to our previous clients’ growth and business success. Essentially, they are trying to gauge the return or value that they will receive by investing in market research. As this happens quite frequently and as my intrigue on this matter continued to grow, I read an interesting article by Dawn Lesh and Diane Schmalensee entitled, “Measuring Returns On Research.” While the authors focused more on internal market research departments or groups, I found that their conclusions and suggestions are also applicable to a research supplier. In my own experience with prospective clients, I found the authors’ following statement to be dead on:
I found this to be particularly true, as many of the clients that request examples of return are often those that are the most skeptical of market research and its value. In many cases, this skepticism is not undeserved as some prospective clients are conducting a research project for the first time or have conducted market research projects that have failed in the past, among other reasons. Despite what may cause this disbelief in market research, it is important to help clients understand its value. The two authors detail three approaches that can be utilized by market research providers to demonstrate and increase the return on investment to their clients, as summarized in the figure below. (Please click to enlarge)  To get further details on the approaches provided above, check out the article in full: http://www.schmalensee.com/files/articles_measuring_returns_on_research.pdf While the ROI (Return on Investment) of market research is important to measure, the return that clients receive from the market research rests on the quality of that research and the provider and how well the actions and recommendations derived from the research are implemented. What good is measuring ROI, if it is not maximized by quality? The value that the supplier can provide is of the most importance as that is what has the most impact on ROI. Therefore, if you are considering market research, think: how can the expertise, quality, and specialization of this supplier help me get the most return for my investment? We pride ourselves on being able to provide quality data and service to our clients, consult our clients with actionable recommendations and findings, and help our clients implement these recommendations to reach their objectives and maximize ROI. One tool that we use to help our clients achieve the maximum return on investment is an implementation workshop, which rests on our proprietary, action-oriented MOSIAC model shown below:  For more information on B2B International and how it can help you maximize the return on your potential research investment, visit http://www.b2binternationalusa.com/ You can also check out our white paper, Measuring & Maximizing The Return On Investment Of Market Research Information, Intelligence and WikileaksFriday, December 3rd, 2010
With the Wikileaks website hitting headlines around the world, Matthew Harrison this week ponders the true value of turning information into intelligence Plumbing the murkiest depths of my mind in search of a topic that would put the ‘Insight’ into my Thursday Night, I decided to leaf through a couple of UK and US newspapers for inspiration. The modern news press offers a heady mix of current affairs, insightful analysis and entertainment, making it an invaluable last-chance saloon for the writer whose imagination has run dry. My search for insight did not start promisingly, as I misguidedly began my search by clicking on the website of the Daily Mail, regarded as the crack cocaine of UK journalism for its Class A addictiveness and the ongoing despair of its readers. In an uncharacteristic display of optimism, the aforementioned rag misinformed me that the English Football Association would imminently ‘bring the World Cup Beck home’, before going on to declare – more accurately and no less intriguingly – that a Scottish dietician had been evicted from a jungle-based game show having refused to wrestle with a bear. My strategic decision to head for the website of the Wall Street Journal was rather more successful, as the front page led with the ongoing outrage surrounding Wikileaks, without doubt the world’s most famous information provider at the time of writing. This website’s decision to release thousands of wires of classified information had provoked calls for its founder to be arrested and charged on terrorist offences. Intrigued by this, I clicked through to the Wikileaks website to see what all the fuss was about. As a researcher and analyst of the views of businesses and industry experts, I was left agog at the quality of Wikileaks’ sources and the granularity of its information. Foreign diplomats and heads of state led the way on Wikileaks’ Who did we interview? list, making my pride at having once secured an interview with the regional manager of an industrial pump company seem no less than pitiful. And the (alleged) detail that followed this A-List of international diplomacy was something to behold – interview transcripts detailing Russian money laundering, American espionage plots and Asian nuclear secrets. Quickly, however, my admiration turned to impatience. For every morsel of war-provoking intelligence there were another 100 paragraphs of inconsequential drivel, ranging from the blindingly obvious (Breitling-wearing, supermodel-marrying French president Nicolas Sarkozy is a little on the vain side) to the ridiculous (Prince Andrew once used a swear-word during a lunch in Kyrgyzstan). We at B2B International recognise that obtaining good quality information is only the start of a long intelligence process. What distinguishes The Wall Street Journal from Wikileaks, and B2B International from many of its competitors, is the ability to sift through large amounts of information rapidly and thoroughly, before presenting and interpreting that data in a way that makes that information valuable to our clients. In short, our focus is on delivering intelligence that enables our clients to deliver a strong return on investment by making more informed decisions. As the matrix below shows, this does make us more expensive than Wikileaks. But weigh that up against the benefits – improved decision making across the whole of your business. And, with the exception of this article, a guarantee that we will never regale you with anecdotes about Prince Andrew. Estimated ROI Of Market Intelligence Projects
HR Certification Offers a 253% Return On InvestmentFriday, July 30th, 2010  Research by market research specialists B2B International on the value of HR certification around the world reveals an average ROI of gaining the credentials of over 250% The message seems to be ‘get certified’! An online survey for the HR Certification Institute, of more than 1,500 HR professionals in 37 countries worldwide, has shown that human resources employees and employers value HR certification at more than two-and-a-half times the initial certification outlay. From an employer’s perspective, having employees gain professional HR certification brings numerous advantages to the organisation, including an increase in employee engagement, satisfaction and productivity, as well as a reduction in staff turnover, all leading to an increase in customer satisfaction. Employers also comment that certification increases employees’ HR knowledge and ensures that they keep up-to-date; it demonstrates employees’ commitment to HR and to learning, as well as increasing confidence in their ability to do their job; and having employees with certification is good for the organisation’s reputation and demonstrates that it takes HR seriously. For individuals, the biggest incentives toward pursuing HR certification stem from the belief that the credentials will increase their HR knowledge and thus strengthen their CV. 94% of HR employee respondents and 97% of HR employers believe that certification is important for those working in human resources, more than 60% of whom stated it is ‘very important’. An even greater number of employers expect certification to be of importance in five years’ time. Ninety-six percent feel that an HR certified candidate applying for a job would have an advantage over a non-HR certified candidate, with more than 50% believing this to be a ‘very significant’ advantage. This is borne out by employers: more than two-thirds state that an HR certified person being considered as an independent consultant for an HR department would have a ‘very significant’ advantage over a non-certified individual. HR certification was highlighted as particularly advantageous for HR professionals going for a promotion or facing redundancy. HR Certification Institute’s global business development director Alexandre Bouché, who commissioned B2B International to conduct the study, remarked on how highly valued the survey showed certification to be. “Of the four types of credential that an HR professional might hold, that is to say an undergraduate degree, a graduate degree, a certificate or a certification, the certification was felt to be by far the most beneficial. Its advantages include it offering the most value for money and return on investment; being highly flexible and customisable; being the most practically and professionally oriented of the choices; being the most experience based; and that choosing to work toward a certification provides the best networking opportunities.” B2B International’s Matthew Harrison, in charge of the study, noted differences between continents. He said: “Finding the time to study for certification was not a key issue for Europeans or Asians and yet was a key unmet need for Americans. Indeed, the survey conveyed a general sense that US employers were less actively involved in professional certification than their foreign counterparts, with only 8% deciding which certification their staff obtained, against 22% in other countries.” What, No More Football?Friday, July 16th, 2010  Reflecting on a month of non-stop football coverage, Alex Clements this week mulls over the effectiveness of high profile advertising and sponsorship. The World Cup is now over and things are, once again, returning to normal. Wives get their husbands back, kids get the right to watch TV back and the men are in recovery for another four years until the next World Cup. I will confess, I’m not a huge fan of grown men kicking a ball around a pitch (I’d rather watch grown men beat the life out of each other in a cage!). I did, however, watch a few games of the World Cup, including the England vs. Germany game, which was an interesting one to watch with Vanessa, my fiancée who, just to make things more interesting, comes from Wuppertal in Germany! Despite not really caring who won the World Cup, I found myself subconsciously supporting Spain in the final. The only reason I can think of for this is that I quite like visiting Spain on my holidays. The least I can do is support their football team in return for their hospitality. I’m quite easily distracted at times and my mind can wander to a vast array of weird and wonderful things. The example I’m going to share with you on this occasion came to me during this football (or “soccer” for those of you in the US) match between Spain and the Netherlands. As I watched the ball go back and forth between opposing players – and on occasion directly from one goalie to the other – my mind wandered as I noticed the multitude of banners advertising different companies around the pitch. There were banners for Adidas, Sony, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Budweiser to name a few. I sat there and wondered to myself, “How effective are these adverts?” I decided that some of these adverts must be more effective than others when using this platform to reach their target market. I praise the strategic placement by Adidas because it is a company that manufactures sports clothing, which is likely to be of interest to a considerable percentage of football fans who will be watching. Similarly, people watching the game on TV at home or in a public bar could see the banners for Budweiser or Coca-Cola and as a result think “I could really do with a Budweiser!” – just as I did! Unfortunately, however, I was sitting at home with no access to any Budweiser… Of course, this is the aim of the banner and I’m sure it works quite effectively. In my mind, I compared the effectiveness of the ‘drinks’ banners to that of ‘electrical goods’ banners which have used the exact same method to reach their target market. Let’s first think about the platform for advertising here: The World Cup final. A quick search on the internet suggests there were over 18 million viewers in the UK watching the game on British television. Before the game took place, FIFA expected an audience of 700 million worldwide to watch the final. Even if viewers turned out to be significantly fewer than this prediction, it would undoubtedly still reach a considerable number of potential customers. As a means of embedding your brand in the minds of your target market, I say this is a very effective way to reach millions globally. Maybe the decision to advertise in this way would be more straight-forward for companies such as Coca-Cola as they are presumably targeting anyone who drinks liquid – which I shouldn’t need tell you is a pretty high percentage of the world’s population! However, for companies that specialise in electrical goods – which are not necessities of life (don’t tell my fiancée I said that) – as high value and infrequent purchases, from a consumer point of view there is more at stake and a bigger purchase decision to be made. Such companies must assess who they are targeting and who they would reach by each method of advertising before deciding on a platform. At first, I questioned whether electrical goods companies would see as much return on investment as drinks companies would. Will people see these banners and think, “I could really do with a new TV”? My guess would be that the need for a beer would come before the need for a new TV, but then again, I was watching the game in high-definition on a 40-inch screen! Despite this, this approach still does the job of raising awareness and embeds the brand in the minds of millions. Not bad for something as simple as a banner with your logo on, is it? Not that a pitch-side banner at the final of the World Cup will be within every company’s budget, mind! I’ll leave you now with one final example, which truly shows how effective advertising and sponsorship can be. Domino’s Pizza sponsored television coverage of the World Cup and Britain’s Got Talent, and it has been reported that the company has seen sales rise to 237.1 million – an increase of 21% in the last half year leading up to June 27, making a £17.5m pre-tax profit. Even more impressive, sales were said to have been up 65% on the day of England’s only World Cup win, increasing by a whopping 333% during the hours the match was shown! To find out more about Domino’s recent successes, click here to read Domino’s Pizza Plc Half Yearly Report.
Marketers and the ROI ConundrumTuesday, June 8th, 2010  Return on investment – or ROI – has taken on increasing importance over the last few years. The recession, in particular, has forced marketing departments – among others – to monitor and measure the success of their marketing spend, sometimes relying on ROI to justify their outlay. However, a new study by Omniture has found that more than half (55%) of marketers claim they cannot effectively measure their marketing ROI. The online survey, conducted between January and April this year, sought the views of more than 600 marketers. The survey found that, while 69% are using social media for marketing purposes, 41% of those do not have a way to measure social media conversion. A further 43% of marketers said that online videos formed part of their strategy, but more than two-thirds (70%) were also unable to measure post-video conversion. Why not read our white paper on Measuring and Maximising the Return on Investment of Market Research? – click here to read it. « Previous Entries |
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