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Archive for the ‘Segmentation’ Category« Previous Entries Next Entries »Using Market Research For Product DevelopmentWednesday, March 18th, 2009
A new B2B International white paper – Using Market Research For Product Development – is now available online. In it, Julia Cupman assesses the importance of product development to a company’s growth prospects, focusing in particular on the vital role(s) that market research plays throughout all the different stages of the product life cycle, from initial concept through to product maturity. Product development research serves a host of purposes, such as establishing (unmet) needs, estimating likely demand, setting prices, shaping the specification of the product or determining optimal price points, to give but a few examples. Of course, product development research does not just examine the product alone; packaging, advertising, pricing, service, brand and company reputation are some of the other factors which together make up the complete customer value proposition. Indeed, improvements to packaging, delivery, or any aspect of service support could have just as big an impact as improvements to the physical product itself. Whether establishing potential opportunities for brand new products or trying to breathe life into a former favorite seemingly on its last legs, market research provides insight into the needs of the market, and reduces the risk associated with any form of product development. To read the white paper in full, please click here For further details on B2B International’s product development research services, please click here Bowled Over by Super Adverts?Friday, February 6th, 2009
As the furore surrounding this week’s Super Bowl commercials begins to subside, Caroline Harrison reflects on the advertising world’s most important annual ‘event’. Where would we be without a blog article on advertising this week? After all, Super Bowl Sunday is, for some people, more about the ads than the game. According to one recent poll, 21 percent of those who expected to tune in last Sunday said they would watch "exclusively or predominantly for the commercials." A further 34 percent said they would be as interested in the commercials as in the game itself. The Super Bowl, the year’s most watched television event with an audience of 90 million viewers, is America’s premier ad showcase. Not surprisingly, advertising spots are highly sought after. A record $206 million of advertising revenue was generated by broadcaster NBC this year for its 69 Super Bowl spots. After a thrilling game in which the Pittsburgh Steelers snatched a late victory over the Arizona Cardinals, I fully expected to be seeing re-run after re-run of the game’s highlights for days afterwards. Yet, to my surprise, breakfast TV on Monday morning seemed oblivious to the previous day’s sporting achievements, and instead had panels of ‘experts’ analyzing the Super Bowl’s commercials. Indeed, in the days leading up to the game, before the much-anticipated commercials were even aired, the viewing public was being treated to sneak previews of the adverts on television shows and news broadcasts, and many of the advertisers were using pre-game website efforts to generate anticipatory interest in their commercials. Advertising Age has very kindly given us a link to all the Super Bowl ads so we can watch and re-watch them at our leisure. I guess the point is that nowadays, if you fork out to be one of the big Super Bowl advertisers, you’re not just paying for the advertising slot alone. For one thing, any commercial usually forms part of a wider integrated campaign, and is not just a one-off. In addition to appearing in other media, you are guaranteed to benefit from all the hype and publicity this high-profile position generates; your advert is seen around the world, discussed on TV shows, dissected in newspapers, posted on blogs and discussed in online forums… All of which must make the outlay – of up to $3 million per 30-second slot – a little easier to swallow. After all, even if your ad isn’t deemed ‘the best’, they do say that no publicity is bad publicity. Of course, you would hope that no commercial is deemed a total disaster, as no advertising campaign should ever be launched without thorough pre-testing to check it’s suitable and hits the mark. Even after launch, post-campaign research should be used to monitor awareness of a campaign and track its effectiveness over time. The other thing to bear in mind is that everyone has their own opinion on which commercials they do or don’t like; which would inspire them to make a purchase or otherwise. I came across this online review of all the adverts, which I read with interest. Personally, Sunday’s most memorable adverts, those which had stood out for making me laugh or smile, were not particularly well received by this blogger. Yet the debates that are raging just serve to highlight that one man’s meat is another man’s poison; what some people will love, others will hate, or at the very least may be indifferent to. To some extent this doesn’t matter. Companies can never satisfy everyone, nor do they try. Through customer profiling and careful segmentation, they try to identify groups of like-minded individuals who have similar characteristics or needs, and who they can satisfy in a profitable way. So, for example, if I don’t like a beer commercial, it’s of no particular consequence to the beer manufacturer. I don’t drink beer, don’t buy beer, and I don’t even influence anyone else’s purchase of beer; I am, therefore, not the brewer’s target market and I was not front of mind when the campaign was conceived. As time goes by, it will probably become clearer which companies are adjudged to have been the biggest winners and biggest losers of this latest bout of advertising. But no amount of debating or criticism will deter companies from snapping up advertising spots at next year’s Super Bowl, nor will it stop the general public’s intense anticipation and subsequent examination all over again. Only 360 more days to go! Words of Wisdom When the Going Gets ToughMonday, January 26th, 2009
The lead article in last week’s BtoB – the magazine for marketing strategists – encouraged organizations to concentrate their spend on areas where there is a real ROI. Focused, frugal and relentless – not just with marketing, but in all operations – are the buzzwords being bandied about by various industry experts, who all have some words of wisdom to offer. Whilst some degree of cost-cutting may be necessary to improve organizational efficiency, what will really differentiate between the companies that are merely good and those that are really great, will be how smart and how strategic their marketers are. Segmentation of your customers has long been known to be a critical way of ensuring you are best serving your key customer groups, and one expert encourages the use of market research in creating value for your segments. Don’t forget that your customers are also likely to be feeling the economic pinch. Help them by creating innovative products that will enable them to save money and be more efficient during a recession. You must continue to market yourself, but do so by managing budgets effectively – be smart about spending money but do not disappear from view altogether. By focusing on opportunities for growth now, companies will be in a much stronger position for recovery and growth when the economy starts to improve. The positive result of intelligent marketing in tricky times is, of course, that organizations will emerge on the other side much leaner, much more relevant and much more customer-savvy. To read the BtoB article in full, click here. Realize The Full Potential Of Your CustomersThursday, January 22nd, 2009  Yesterday’s blog entry entitled Getting More From Your Existing Customers is clearly a hot topic at present. What’s more, less than half (46.5%) of the 650 marketing professionals who took part in the online and in-person survey feel they have good insights into retention rates, customer profitability and lifetime value. However, among those strategies cited for extracting greater revenue/profitability from existing customers are:
• making communications more personal, relevant, targeted and timely A much broader set of strategies are employed for acquiring new business, including:
• testing and launching new products aimed at specific market segments And, according to nearly 60% of survey respondents, introducing better segmentation, profiling and targeting strategies is the principal way in which they are aiming to better engage core audiences. The Biggest Survey On The PlanetFriday, November 7th, 2008
In a topical Thursday Night Insight blog post, Caroline Harrison reflects on why this week’s American elections have resonance for marketers and market researchers everywhere. It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that the U.S. presidential elections took place earlier this week. Throughout Tuesday evening and into the early hours of Wednesday morning, the results from all 50 states, from the east coast of America to the west, trickled in to news networks and media broadcasting stations across the U.S.A. As I watched the drama unfold live on TV, it got me thinking. The election in the United States is arguably one of the biggest, most important, and eagerly anticipated ‘surveys’ on the planet. Yet there are certainly some parallels to be drawn between this kind of poll and the surveys we carry out for our clients. The first thing that struck me was the amount of detailed statistics available for analysis. Just a quick look at the exit polls conducted by CNN for New York state show the predicted voting behavior of so many different segments of society: you can study the trends by sex, race, age, income, education, political persuasion, or indeed any combination of these factors. Of course, similar statistics – and more besides – can be analyzed for every American state. Obviously it’s no secret that businesses – whatever their size and whatever their industry – are continually looking to understand buyer behavior; that is to say, what motivates consumers in their choices and their actions. Most organizations aim to segment the whole potential market into groups of like-minded individuals, one or more of which will form their core customer base. Only by doing this can they develop a clear strategy to meet the needs of the target market(s) they decide to serve. In much the same way, politicians know that they will never be able to appeal to all the different sections of society, many of which will have diverging or even conflicting values and opinions. Yet political parties recognize that they must try to understand how these groups differ, and assess the value they place on different aspects of a politician’s ‘offering’. Like companies, they can then try to satisfy needs and/or improve their current offering. With this in mind, a phenomenal amount of time, effort and money has been spent by the candidates over recent months and years to find out what their ‘customers’ want. Even more time, effort and money has then been spent in communicating and promoting how they will be able to provide better solutions than their competitors. Yet the same rules apply to politicians as corporations. By all means find out what people want so you can serve them better. Just beware of making promises you can’t keep. « Previous Entries Next Entries » |
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