Others

White Paper: The Impact of Behavioural Economics on Market Research

Market researchers are dogged by nagging doubts. We ask someone why they bought their red Porsche and they tell us that it was because they value reliability. What can we make of that? ...

White Paper: Implementing Organisational Service Excellence

For service to make a worthwhile difference, service excellence must become a part of everyone’s daily activities.  But that’s easier said than done.  Good implementation of service...

White Paper: Rehearsing The Future - Making Better Strategic Decisions

Before developing a strategy, organisations need to analyse and understand their environment, both as it is now and as it will be. The major focus of strategic decision-making is how best to ensure a fit ...

Book: The Growing Business Handbook (13th Edition) [eBook]

The Growing Business Handbook is a practical source of advice and reference for companies with dynamic growth potential.  Aimed at senior managers in growing companies, this new edition highlights the latest ideas, techniques and solutions for maximizing growth, exploiting and protecting your best ideas and inventions, and controlling risks.  Combining the knowledge and expertise of...

White Paper: Measuring & Maximising The Return On Investment Of Market Research

All commercial organizations exist to make a return on their investment (ROI).  Organizations that are not commercial, such as government departments and charities, still have to justify their...

White Paper: Differentiation - Are Product, Brand and Service Still Enough?

Marketers are constantly searching for differentiation. Unless a company has a genuine scientific or technological advantage, preferably one that can be protected by a patent,...

B2B Marketing: What Makes It Special?

Around the time of B2B International’s inception in the 1990s, a key challenge we faced was explaining to potential customers that our skills as business-to-business market researchers and marketers were unique. ...

Article: Whole Company Innovation

Innovation is becoming a group sport, says Garrick Jones, a research fellow at the London School of Economics and a partner at the Ludic Group The collective knowledge in any commercial organization contains a wealth of contextual information – a vital source of ideas for innovation. Nobody knows more about the market, customers, issues, trends and opportunities than those who are working with these realities on a daily basis. The question is how to best get at that knowledge in a way that takes maximum advantage of it and leads to real...

Article: Winning New Business

In a downturn, you have to adopt the right state of mind, says Renne Botham at Touchstone Growth Running a business is a challenge, like no other. Chances are you spend more time at work than you do at home; you can at times be more in touch with your colleagues than with your friends; and with modern technology, a need to know what is going on when you are not at work, may give you little space for ‘you’ time! Who said it would be easy? And to compound it there is the ‘R’ word! Recession is very real; however, it can also be a mantra for...

Article: Market Research In China – Recruiting And Retaining The Best Employees

As demand for market research services in and about China continues to grow, attracting and retaining good quality industry professionals has become one of the most significant challenges facing agencies with operations in the Greater China region. Despite having a population of 1.3bn, hiring and motivating Chinese research executives and managers is a significant challenge for many companies operating in the region. The country’s rapid transition from the planned economy of thirty years ago to the liberalized economic environment that exists today h...

Article: The Growth Opportunity

Manufacturing enterprises have long experience of turning adversity to their advantage. David Baggaley at Locate in Leeds picks up some lessons on how to seize the moment and overcome the risks. Manufacturers know all about survival. Despite a steady decline in numbers employed over the last 30 years, the UK remains the world’s sixth largest manufacturer by value. How have enterprises kept themselves in the game when conventional wisdom suggests that they will continue to struggle against low-cost c...

Article: Top Tips For Business Growth

The capacity to focus on what matters is fundamental to securing business growth. It is worth pointing out that understanding where not to focus your attention can be just as critical as recognizing the importance of concentrating your focus on areas with the highest return. The following article highlights five of the areas which are key drivers of business success. 1. The core value proposition (CVP) All companies have their own USPs - or unique selling propositions. These are aspects of their offering which are truly valued...

Article: Dispelling Market Research Myths

This article aims to look at some of the myths surrounding the discipline of market research and set the record straight on some common misconceptions. Market Research Is An Exact Science There is no denying that techniques used in market research are drawn from science. There should, for example, always be a number of objectives to the project, and often also a hypothesis to be either proved or disproved. Research comprises the collection and analysis of primary data, from which results and conclusions are drawn. However, market research...