Marketing Research

1. Marketing Research Options for Gathering Marketing Intelligence

2. What We Will Cover • What is Marketing Research? • Why is it Important? • Marketing Research Methodologies • Marketing Research 2.0 • Research Resources • Caveats and Conclusions • Next Steps • Closing Thoughts

3. What is it? “Research is formalized curiosity, its poking and prying with a purpose.”—Zora Neal Hurston, writer

4. Marketing Research Helps to inform you about… External Factors Competitors Industry Opportunities/Challenges Environmental Factors • Internal Factors • Customers • What is working/what's not • Marketplace • Unique selling proposition

5. The Importance of Research • Provides competitive intelligence • Informs marketing effectiveness • Determines target market • Can be the difference between failing or succeeding in business • Affects the bottom line • Identifies opportunities • Minimizes risk • Creates benchmarks and helps to measure progress • Product and service innovation

6. How would you rate your current research efforts on a scale of 1 to 7, with “1” being not very good and “7” being excellent (ex: we collect and use research on an on-gong basis) What would help you to improve that rating?

7. Qualitative Research Qualitative - Seeks to understand the “Why?” Used to gain insight into people's attitudes, behaviors, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspirations, culture or lifestyles. Inform business decisions, policy formation and communication. Format: Open-ended questions gathered by focus group and in person/telephone or virtual interviews

8. Quantitative Research Quantitative – Measures “how” many people feel, think or act in a particular way”. larger sample size, over 50. The most common are on-street, telephone interviews and online Format: Structured questionnaires used incorporating mainly closed questions - questions with set responses.

9. What business question do you have that requires more information (data) to resolve?

10. Changing Marketing Environment People now have the ability to connect with one another over distances like never before. Customers are now stakeholders. Organizations need to engage and prove, rather than convince and sell. Thinking needs to shift from top-down to bottom-up.

11. Embracing…. the new! Learn new approaches to research provides a richer arsenal by which one can problem solve. Provides approaches that range in cost. Provides some do-it-yourself options.

12. It’s a new day……Implications! Traditional research is being supplemented with newer forms of gathering data. There is a new opportunity to gather information instantly. The industry is accepting more technology driven methods. RESEARCH 2.0

13. Marketing Research Using Technology to Leverage Research

14. Online Qualitative Research Replace in-person qualitative research with research conducted over the internet. Uses webcam technology and streaming video to provide real time “face-to-face” research. Conducted with assistance from third party or with conferencing service/webcam. Ideas for using online research: ENDLESS exploratory, evaluate concepts, communication testing, programming offerings, membership evaluations.

15. Online Quantitative Research • Increase in popularity due to lower cost (vs. focus groups), no travel, convenient, cash for opinions (heavily marketed) • Collect and disseminate measurement data online • Questions are constructed and participants can answer online

16. Online Quantitative Research: (Cont’d) • Do-it-yourself (DIY) options suitable for small studies (limited questions and scope - FREE) as well as more complex features • All the sources below offer such services: • Surveymonkey.com • Constantcontact.com • Zoomerang.com • Ideas for using online research: employee surveys, performance assessment, process improvement feedback, pricing research, service quality measurement, market data-size and share etc.

17. Articles and Blogs • Write, Write, Write • Be interesting—write about trends, your ideas, the industry, provide feedback on others’ ideas, provide case studies, tips. • Show yourself as the expert. • Sites such as wordpress.com, blogger.com and typepad.com • Ideas for using articles/blogs: • Capture demographic information by setting up sign-up forms or newsletter forms. • Ask questions of your audience • Test ideas on your audience and gain feedback

18. Mobile Research • More and more content is being accessed and viewed on mobile phones. • Provides a way to collect real-time data. • Participants are engaged over a period of time (days or weeks) using predetermined questions. (3rd party software often necessary • Ideas for using mobile research: Studies on habits, activities or behavior, consumer preferences.

19. Online Communities One of the newest methods used to capture today’s social interactions. Made up of customer groups or target consumers, interact similar to other social media sites. The discussions are purposed around gaining insights and addressing research objectives. Members can be profiled and invited to participate in private, more controlled (research-driven) discussions. Ideas for using online communities: product/program development, observation of member’s interaction, go/no go decisions, gathering information, showing creative stimulus material.

20. The Mini Insider …Online Community • 75% of Mini owners in the USA are members of the community. • Improves brand and increases chances that another Mini will be bought. • About 50% of all sales leads are actually generated by the site.

21. Social Media • You must first be social • Become a part of the discussion and then integrate marketing research efforts • Implement tactics along with other marketing strategies. (Not a stand alone effort) • Many options—See where your customers socialize

22. Social Media: Facebook • Facebook has many rich options for insights. • Options Include: • Developing a page for your organization • Participating in the dialog • Creating a page for questions • Joining a group – some require a “request to join”

23. Social Media: Facebook (Cont’d) • Setting up a page for reviews • Creating a poll—also link poll in an email • Creating unique and specific page, relevant for your organization, program or offerings • Creating a newsletter—collect demographic information (email address, age, city and state, and one pertinent fact)

24. Example: Nike’s Facebook

25. Example: Tesco Supermarket • New feature: Questions • There is an option to pay for Facebook advertising for your Questions (via the URL), providing targeted response for market research efforts. • Share questions with friends, potential clients, existing customers. • Find people with similar mindsets.

26. Social Media: YouTube • A source for sharing and viewing video communication. • Amateur, advertisers, media producers and media giants provide content. • Post video content or learn from videos posted.

27. Social Media: YouTube Search Content Poster of Content YouTube “Suggest” feature (key terms) Use Insight and Analytics tool (free) Find out who is watching, when, where they are located, impact of promotion or news, viewer ship and more • Sort By • Relevancy to query • View Count • Ratings

28. Social Media: Twitter • Twitter is loaded with market intelligence for its users. • Users who are talking about what makes them happy and what makes them angry – products, brands and market insights are all being discussed.

29. Social Media: Twitter Start conversations with users (participate and dialogue). Ask questions that may be answered quickly. Direct users to surveys or websites as a way to engage. Follow those that share your audience, or are tweeting about topics of interest to you or your clients. Become interesting to others by providing tweets that show you as the expert. Use hashtags (#) when tweeting to be searchable. (example ISOM #market #research tips).

30. Twitter-based Resources

31. Twitter-based Resources (Cont’d)

32. Example: Twitter • With Twitter you can potentially reach anyone in the world with a single 140 character tweet. • Tweet messages can be broad or focused on a small select audience. • Virgin America used Promoted Tweets toward their in-flight Wi-Fi customers. • On launch, they put out three distinct tweets then promoted with carefully crafted keywords. Two of the tweets were meant to engage just their passengers at 35,000 feet.

33. Social Media: LinkedIn • The most professional site of those spoken about today, where professionals share and seek information. • Good source of information on industry, companies, and individuals • Ways to use for research: • Join groups to be a part of conversations or start conversations • Ask questions and seek answers

34. Social Media: LinkedIn (Cont.) • Follow discussions • Use “Companies” tab—statistics on specific company and employees • Use “News” tab to view trends, stories and topics in several industries (mktg, internet, IT, PR etc.) • Utilize group membership to network and learn about topics, services or needs. • Employee recruitment

35. Social Media: LinkedIn • Use “Polls” found under the more tab to canvas those topics you would like to know more about • Example: Do you think a persons culture can add to their desirability when applying for a job? James Linton • 1 vote • 12 days left Yes No Potentially N/A Vote or View Results

36. An integrated example • Tropicana rolled out repackaging using findings from their social media tactics. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wCG3ZjkwTY

37. More… Additional Resources

38. Social Media Monitoring • There are several search engines that comb the internet, including blogs, tweets and Facebook, for topics that may be of interest to you or your stakeholders. • Here are some sources: • BoardRreader.com • Google.com/alerts • Socialmention.com • Icerocket.com • Radian 6 • Trackur

39. Social Media Monitoring (Cont’d) NutshellMail will send an email to your inbox with all your company’s social media activity. Google Alerts allows you to sign up with an email address and receive emails based on chosen key terms. Google Trends – reflects the keywords that are being searched on a daily basis by city or part of world.

40. Make a list of key terms that you would like to set up searches for? (Ex: can include your company/agency, industry, issues, topics, people or competitors)

41. Recruiting Research Participants • Use social network to find people of interest for more formal discussions. These people can be seen as potential: • Opinion leaders • Industry experts • Audience capturers (have a following you want to talk to) • Early Adopters • Influencers

42. Personal Websites • Use personal website to collect and report findings. • Post blogs, articles, and white papers, and ask for comments. • Require readers to answer pre-determined questions before providing access to content. • Add a polling feature to your website that allows you to ask visitors questions. • Information from the blogs and/or polling feature can be used in a newsletter and for content on the site—you end up being a sponsor of your own research findings.

43. Check List Online blogs and written articles are good habits to cultivate for on-going interaction and engagement with targeted audience.

44. Who or what are you trying to find out more about? (Ex: customers, potential clients, products, services, competitors) What research method do you believe would best inform you about them? Why? (Ex: the online forums such as online qualitative because my product is in the early stage of development and I need exploratory information)

45. Caveat and Conclusions… Putting It All in Context

46. Caveats and Conclusions Do-it-yourself (DIY) surveys can compromise objectivity of questioning and impartial interpretation. The internet is a limited medium from which to draw a truly representative sample. There is still limited guidance governing the practice of internet research.

47. Caveats and Conclusions (Cont’d) Social media content does not always authentically reflect the views of the people who posted it. Hidden intent or misdirected intent can lead to misleading content. Social media is not representative, only directional. Social media is best used early

48. What strategy will you implement to initiate research goals? (Ex: I will form a team to canvas Facebook and start by listening to conversations about computer frustrations) • What will you do with the information once you find it? (Ex: create a brochure, create a campaign, develop a product)

49. Next steps……. • Identify next steps to include the following: • Determine if you can do it yourself, or if you need the help of a marketing research professional and/or technological assistance? • Determine how often you will engage in research and plan efforts into yearly plans and budgets. • Understand how social media, blogs/articles and other research designs will be integrated with existing efforts to reach marketing objectives. • Be clear about what you will do with the information learned.

50. Next steps……. • Determine if your findings need further validation and or further refinement by conducting more research using other forms of research.