Market Research Handout PDF

Chapter 1: Why do we even need Marketing Research? What is Marketing Research? The systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision-making related to the identification and solution o...

Chapter 1: Why do we even need Marketing Research? What is Marketing Research? The systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision-making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing. (Objective-based) o An insight is a revelation of a significant tension between consumers' aspirations and what they perceive as available, which can be turned into a business opportunity. Marketing research can be defined by four basic activities and these have to do with the types of knowledge we have and the types of knowledge we don't have (Activities-based): o what we know we don't know (situations we can articulate what it is we don't know) o what we know we know (data and insights that the firm already has (and of which you are aware of but nothing or not enough has been done with it.) o what we don't know we know (related to the previous activity: The firm may have done research or have data that you are not aware of.) o what we don't know we don't know (refers to recognizing that we may not even know what we don't know.) We can define marketing research by its main purpose. For example, we can distinguish between (Purpose-based): o Exploratory research (we have little prior knowledge, we have few if any hypotheses, and we expect there might be a substantial amount of "what we don't know that we don't know.") o Descriptive research (done when we know what we don't know (see Table LI) and in this type of research we merely describe a situation in numerical terms.) o Predictive research (we do have some notion as to how variables are related to each other, and we know what we would like to predict) o The Marketing Research Ecosystem External Suppliers o Full-service marketing research firms o Field agencies o Niche market research firms o Advertising agencies o Consulting firms Client Organizations o Internal marketing researcher o Internal client or clients (the direct internal customer and the person or team whose budget funds the research) o Other stakeholders and decision-makers (including senior executives) 1 The Marketing Research Value Chain A consumer-centric organization Create an organizational structure where marketing insights play at a strategic role in the organization. Make sure the leader of marketing research is a strategic insights partner to the business. Tell a story with each market research engagement and drive impact in the organization. Characteristics for the organization of a company with the most market influence: Transcends organizational walls with company-first mentality to bring disparate teams together to solve problems holistically. Owns and runs strategic research programs for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty. Forms strong, independent allies. ls centrally organized. Market Research Teams Technical issues and problem solving Organization Communication Collaboration and relationship-building skills 2 Market Research Framework Be a reliable partner Form an emotional connection Think bigger Have a strong executive presence A good tool to help you build empathy is this framework. It will help you to think in more detail about the person who will receive the results of your market research. You need to become an equal partner to your client, who thinks beyond research and understands the business implications for the client. Ideally, aim to become a strategic partner. 3 The Five Disruptive Trends in Market Research The Analytics Trend: there has been an increase in the availability of data: o Firms have gotten better at capturing and managing internal data o Online interviewing has lowered the costs of surveys, so firms have a lot more survey data available at hand o Do-it-yourself has added to the availability of data o Firms can scrape the comments and thoughts consumers share on social media The Big Data Trend: Big Data usually is characterized by three v's: o Volume (petabytes, exabytes, zetabytes), “truly big in size” (large n- number of respondents & p- large number of variables) o Variety (more diverse data sets being available) o Velocity (Big Data comes in continuously) Stretching the Marketing Research Budget Trend: o Answering 80% of questions with 20% of the budget o Simplifying KPIs Mobile Technology & Video Trend (allows marketeers to get closer to consumers’ needs, behaviours & motivations): o Mobile (Device-agnostic) Interviewing o Eye Tracking Behavioural Economics and Neuro Marketing Trend: o Neuroscience taps into consumers’ brainwaves, eye movements and skin resistance o Behavioural economics lies in its ability to identify subconscious or irrational influences on consumer choice behaviour. More Advisory Services Trend (with the rise of data, consumer need advice on more than a research report), consumers need advice on: o Databases o Data Analysis o Activating Consumer Insights o Online Insights Dashboard 4  o Building end-to-end platforms How external disruptions affect the industry? An urgent need for insights into this changing consumer behaviour and the effect on brand preferences. Companies need to have consumer insights fast and these insights need to help drive their business immediately Moving away from strategic research to tactical research Moving to online research A reduction in research budgets 5 Chapter 2: The Marketing Research Problem and Process Marketing Research Process 1. Formulate a marketing/business problem, including a feasible decision. 2. Review what you already know and formulate hypotheses. 3. Define the marketing problem. 4. Review what data obtained that can help obtain answers to the research problem, by re-using and re-analysing this data, and then decide what further data is needed 5. Develop a research brief/ request for proposal (RFP) and design the study 6. Commission the data and start the data collection 7. Clean the data, prepare it for analysis and analyse 8. Interpret the data (the “so what) 9. Complete the “now what” step. What specifically is being recommended. 10. Build a presentation for the internal client and work on further dissemination 11. Possibly include a validation 12. Keep an internal marketing researcher or marketing research team an active participant on the deployment or activation of the research of the research results or insights. 6 The business problem and the market research problem Marketing research (and analytics) are support functions; they exist so that they can help with providing data, information, insights, and market knowledge to decision makers in a company so that they in turn can make better decisions. How can you do that: find the right problem and the right marketing research question to ask. There are two ways to go about this: the deductive and the inductive approach o The deductive approach to marketing research resembles the scientific approach one progresses from: ▪ A literature review or determination of what we already know. This may or may not include a theory (we won't dive into what is and isn't a theory, but from a practical point of view let's define a theory as a statement as to how various variables (or concepts) are related to each other (these relationships can be causal or not) ▪ Formulation of hypotheses (these follow usually directly from the theory) ▪ Data collection and analysis to confirm or reject the hypotheses ▪ Sometimes this process is also referred to as the "five why's" approach (Norman, 2013). Repeatedly asking the why question to get at the core of a problem or solution. o Using an inductive approach can be viewed as more data driven. We start with collecting data and making observations, and from these specific instances, we aim to build a theory. Using prior knowledge i.e. “what we already know” is essentially making use of a hypothesis. There are many benefits of using a hypothesis-based approach: o More efficient data collection and analysis by focusing on the more important data (eliminates the “nice to haves”). o Identifies analytical dead-ends and avoids analysis paralysis. o Aligns everyone in the organization around what hypotheses the research is trying to test. o Provides a graphical roadmap of how the problem breaks down and a framework for how the findings get presented. The goal of a hypothesis-based approach is to break down a research problem into logical issues and guide the research. What is a hypothesis? o A preliminary assumption-for example: "Small business customers are more price sensitive" o An assertion about a problem or issue that can be tested by further data collection and analysis. A hypothesis is either true or false and the effective research will help test these. o A declarative sentence that states the solution to an issue based on: Limited available information from syndicated or prior research o Intuition/experience As you come up with your list make sure to write and select hypotheses that do the following: o Describe a (assumed) causal relationship between the issue and the hypothesis; for example, share of wallet is declining because of heightened competition 7  o Aid in evaluating potential strategies/actions so that the outcomes from your research will he actionable; for example, the hypotheses when combined help determine how to combat the competition and reverse the declining trend in revenue but only if tested true o Are testable and specific; for example, we can measure each of the hypotheses to determine if they are true or false o Are comprehensive and exhaustive when taken together with other hypotheses (capture the most important aspects of why share of wallet may be declining [or not]) For issue trees to be effective, they need to follow five basic rules: o Consistently answer a “how” or “why” question o Progress from the key question to the analysis as it moves to the right o Have branches that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) o Use an insightful breakdown (divergent thinking is a critical skill) RFPs and Proposals (from the client side) The objective of the RFP is to make sure that all stakeholders, internally and externally, have a good understanding of the purpose of the research, the business issue that will be addressed, and results and guidelines such as timing and available budget. RFP sections: 1. Some relevant background on the company 2. Background for why research is needed 3. Research objectives, suggested methodology, and recommended sample Start with the research objectives Follow with suggested methodology End with thoughts on sample and geography 4. Some details on expected deliverables 5. Cost estimate and budget 6. Due date/time frame The RFP (the supplier’s side) Upon receiving an RFP, there are seven steps a marketing research supplier will go through seven stages: 1. Reach out to the client 2. Prepare a team 3. Design a research methodology 4. Get the costs and decide on a price 5. Write the proposal 6. Present the proposal 7. Follow up Assembling a team Costing expertise Data collection expertise Analytical/statistical expertise Content expertise Visual design expertise Costs All out-of-pocket costs are identified e.g. renting facilities, sample, any subcontractors 8  Field costs (cost of the interviewing) Analytic team's expected hours (the number of hours) Project management expected hours Overall cost, plus a percentage of profit margin Parts of a proposal Executive summary What we heard Point of view Proposed methodology Example deliverables and case study Timing and investments 9 Chapter 3: Deliverables, Communication and Activation Quality of Deliverables The results of marketing research can be shared through: A PowerPoint (PPT) deck with the factual results, along with several deeper analyses of the data (bivariate and multivariate analyses) o A PPT deck with the results presented is quite often the standard deliverable. Only those results that the team believes contribute to illuminating the business problem or marketing research question will be included in this deck. Whatever the format in which the results are delivered, we need to ensure the following: ▪ That insights are extracted from the raw data, basic data tables, and analyses. ▪ That the internal clients and other stakeholders know that these results and insights exist and understand these results. ▪ That the internal clients perceive the results and insights as credible. 10  ▪ That the data, analyses, and insights are woven into a compelling and inspiring story that can be remembered and inspire the client to act. Insights: these can also be communicated in the slides and major insights are sometimes communicated to a broader audience via e-mail. An Excel File with detailed results An Interactive Decision-Support tool Extracting insights Consumer insights: thoughts, facts, data, or analysis of facts and data that induce meaning and further understanding of a business challenge and create an urgency (tension, added) to act or rethink a business challenge in terms of its problems or solutions. Insight features: They differ in value: some have major financial implications and some are smaller and not worth pursuing. They differ in terms of how specific/broad they are: some insights require a specific type of action and some are broader and there is no single way they should be acted on. They differ in terms of how validated they are: finding an insight does not mean it is immediately valid. Insights are malleable: they can be built on or they can change over time. Quality of Communication The pyramid principle A common problem is overloading the market research reports with data, insights, information and more. When you spend weeks or even months researching something you will have a lot of interesting insights. You have to decide what should be in your report, less is more Your report should be sharp and up to the point. This is where the pyramid comes in place, to help you structure your story And this is an example, of how to use it: 11 Context Contextual insights are insights gained from everything around you that is not the primary study you are conducting for your client. The best way to get context to your research is “live your client’s brand” Inspiration to act Tension. Tension is a powerful element to frame your main insights in a way that demonstrates an evolution or revolution. Relatability. For insights and stories to grab attention, there needs to be an element of relatability. Our brains are conditioned to like things that are familiar, which is an evolutionary trait that helped us survive and make quick decisions such as whether to flee or fight when something that we encountered was foreign. Novelty. Our brains also pay attention to new things that make us excited or scare us. This is part of, again, how we survive, flee or fight, and our brains are very good at detecting what's new. Fluency. The insights and stories need be written in a way that they are easy to understand; write at a fourth-grade reading level. Power Page Recommendations should be kept on a separate page in your PPT report One way of delivering them is via Power Page 12 If you decide to use a power page in your report, it is important to clearly state the hypothesis you made. Executive summary One of the most important parts of your PPT report, most stakeholders do not have time to read your report (sorry that’s the case). 13  Executive summary should provide an essence of your research that everyone should know, see the example in the book. Attention to detail Advisor Credibility There are several factors which will make a marketing researcher seem more credible: Expertise: the more the person is seen as an expert in their field, the more likely their suggestions will be accepted. Confidence: the more confident a person is when delivering their message, the more likely it is their suggestions will be accepted. Similarity: when a person (messenger) is perceived as similar to the receiver, they will be regarded as more trustworthy. Quality of Impact Workshop types “Bringing insights to life” workshop: used in segmentation studies where the research finds several interesting consumer segments. Ideation workshop: where the goal is to develop new product ideas. Activation workshops: the goal is to agree and decide on how to activate recommendations in an organization. Decision Quality There are several factors which affect decision quality: 1. Outcome and insights uncertainty and how it’s managed Outcome uncertainty is defined as the confidence that a decision maker can have in either the statistical results of the data or in the analytic methods used Statistical uncertainty can be caused by low-quality (unreliable) data or by a model being used. Insights uncertainty exists when insights are incomplete. There are still unanswered questions that are needed (e.g., the insight is open to interpretation or the results are not validated). 2. Having “making good decisions” processes Insights may not reach all decision makers and may remain unused. So, in addition to presenting and disseminating the insights, we should also try to use processes (e.g., a process that requires decision makers and executives to follow certain steps leading up to the decision). 14  There can be a process for planning and review. 3. Leveraging decision support tools It will help to have a tool (e.g. an Excel file) that embeds the insights in an interactive Decision Support Tool (DST). Chapter 4: Market Research Data Features of Data: External versus internal o Examples of external data are: ▪ Marketing research reports based on primary market research surveys, focus groups, and observational research and experiments ▪ Syndicated commercial research reports (i.e., you have to pay for this data) ▪ Syndicated free data ▪ Data that can be scraped from the internet ▪ Public data that may give information on demographics, economic and consumer trends, etc. o Internal data is, in most cases, just the byproduct of operating the business Levels of aggregation. An important distinction is the level of aggregation: We distinguish between individual-level and aggregate-level data Cross-sectional versus longitudinal versus time-series. o Cross-sectional data refer to data that is collected in a (somewhat specific) point in time. o If we attempt to interview the samples we consider it longitudinal data. o Time-series data typically has a larger number of data points (e.g. daily sales over the period of a year. Hard data versus soft data. o Hard data pertains to metrics that can in most cases be observed without response-style bias. 15  o Soft data is data that is less readily available and may be subject to bias, such as consumer attitude (may be subject to response bias, perceived strength of a brand, how many units of a given brand a respondent bought over the past 3 months, may be subject to memory effects.) The information value of data: measurement scales. There are four different types of data measurement scales: o Nominal. Nominal scales are labelling variables or simply "labels" and don't have a quantitative value. o Ordinal. With ordinal scales, the order of the values matters, but the differences between each one is not relevant. o Interval. interval scales are numeric scales; we know the order and the exact differences between the values. o Ratio. Ratio scales, on the other hand, allow analysts to perform all mathematical computations available to them. Structured versus unstructured data. o Structured data is anything that has been coded prior to collection. o Unstructured data is usually a completely free format. Observational data. Observational data is any data that we obtain by observation without asking any questions o Scanner data. Scanner data is an important source of hard data and is captured in store when items (SKUs) are being scanned at the checkout counter. o Unstructured online data. Anything that consumers tweet, blog about, comment on, like and so on happens without any questions. o Consumer interest tracking data. Google search data is one example of this type of data. We can extract, from Google, the volume of search queries for certain key words or combinations of key words. o Clickstream data (e.g., Montgomery et al., 2004). This refers to data that captures consumers online "clickstream." Firms operating online sites (usually make use of aggregate-level metrics such as number of (unique) visitors on a given day or week, duration of visits, number of page views, and so on. o Ethnography. This is the art of observing people (consumers) and is a popular methodology. o RFID Data RFID data. Brazeal (2012) provides a summary of what this technology entails and describes the four components of it: o The first component is a (possibly very) small chip radio receiver (a tag) that can be attached to a product or shipment you wish to track. o The second part is a reader (which can also be a chip-sized device). o The third part is the software to analyse and sort through the potentially millions of readings. o The fourth part can be additional sensors on the tag that can observe and capture some part of the condition of whatever is tracked (e.g., if food is it still fresh, the temperature of ice cream, etc.). MtM SIM card data. Machine-to-machine (MtM) SIM is part of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT refers to machines, devices, products, and so on that have chips embedded so they can communicate with other devices, products, and machines Spatial data. These are situations where a concrete spatial aspect (i.e., spatial as in geographic distance) of the data can play a role. Path data. Technology has enabled more granular observations of consumer behaviour, an area now referred to as tracking data. 16  o Using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags (attached to a grocery cart) to observe how shoppers move through a physical store. This may help in optimizing store layouts. o Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to track event participant by asking participants to download o an event app or embed a Bluetooth chip in their badge. o Eye-tracking methodology to capture how consumers view a print advertising, where their attention goes first, and how long their view lingers on certain spots. o Web browsing and clickstream data captures what websites (or website pages) consumers visit prior to coming to a firm's website before going to the checkout page. Big Data. Big Data matters can be described in terms of size or volume, variety, velocity, and veracity. Size refers to data getting too big to be stored or analysed by standard software, though "size" and what is considered too big to be handled by standard software is a somewhat moving target. Quantitative research data Quantitative research includes the use of surveys, scanner data, experiments and consumer- generated data and it includes larger samples compared to qualitative research data. Transactional data Experiments Qualitative research data Place of qualitative research in the market research process A stand-alone project A pre-step to quantitative research e.g. to inspire brand attributes in the survey, or motivations to use category After quantitative research e.g. to deep dive into a segment Focus Groups A focus group also needs the following: A moderator. A person who asks the group questions, has them do certain exercises, and so on. Moderators are market researchers who specialize in running focus groups and this may be all, or mostly, what they do. A discussion guide. A discussion guide is a list of topics that the client who commissioned the research wants to cover. Hence, a focus group is considered a semi-standard interview, meaning the topics and initial questions are determined but the direction in which the focus group evolves is not (e.g., one focus group may end up talking a lot about topic A while another focus group may spend more time discussing topic B). Moderators ensure that the topics on the discussion guide are being covered, but they can be flexible m terms of how much time is spent on each topic. Recording equipment. Focus group discussion are (video) recorded, and after the focus groups are completed the moderator listens back to the discussions or views the video recording, interprets the discussion, and writes a summary of what they think came out of the focus group. Focus groups are great for topics that lend themselves to group discussion and being explorative. Individual Depth Interviews Good for topics that are likely to be influenced by social desirability or stigma. 17 Laddering Interview Technique Is a special interviewing technique which uses the “means-end-chain” framework to find out how people connect with products. A laddering interview has the following steps: o It starts with identifying the product attributes that are important to consumers. o For each attribute we ask what the most attractive level is. o For each attribute we then do a laddering interview. Ethnographic Research The ethnographic approach is a foundational research approach in anthropology. Researchers spend time in a new cultural setting (e.g., a tribe, or a country, and they may live among this culture for an extended period of time). There is no specific set of questions that have been identified beforehand. Instead, the goal is to immerse oneself in the different culture and gain an in-depth understanding of it Social Listening There several online qualitative approaches: o Online focus groups o Online research communities (sometimes referred to as market research online communities [MROC]) o Online consumer-generated data. (Data you can scrape from the internet: reviews, discussions etc.) Chapter 6: Product and Advertising Research Product Research In marketing a commonly used framework for (new) product development is the Ansoff matrix 18  Ansoff argued that products are either extensions of existing products or net new products, he also differentiates between products created for existing markets and new markets. ln a market penetration strategy, the organization tries to grow its existing offerings (products and services) in existing markets and increase its market share. This can be accomplished through: o Reducing its price o Incremental product improvements o Expanding product placements o Increased advertising promotions o Acquiring other companies o 4P Marketin mix is commonly used here In market development strategy, an organization tries to expand into new markets (geographies, countries, etc.) using its existing offerings, often with minimal development. In a product development strategy, a company tries to create new products and services targeted at its existing markets to achieve growth. This involves extending the product range available to the organization's existing markets. In a diversification strategy, an organization tries to grow its market share by introducing new offerings in new markets. It is the riskiest strategy because both investments in product and market development are required. Armed with a deep audience understanding and what the potential size is, we then kick off a new product development project that goes through a number of phases: Idea generation (discovery) Concept development (design) Manufacturing/production (development) Launching the product (delivery) o Followed up by a continuous cycle of measuring success and the impact against set market goals, assessing the product, listening to customers, diagnosing issues early on, 19  iterating future releases/versions of the product, and determining if the product is successful or if it should be abandoned. When companies want to develop new products or improve existing ones, they face the following task, on each stage market research can be helpful. Uncovering Consumer Needs & Wants The discovery phase: finding pain points that the products are not/ poorly addressing & defining the target market. Once all the issues are on the table, teams then decide which ones are worth solving, through a process called convergence, to converge on the one or two that are most plausible or present the biggest opportunity. There are several research approaches typically applied in this phase. Fennel and Allenby (2014) describe different classes of motivational conditions that can give rise to specific needs. Here, we just give a few examples. o Solving or preventing a problem. For example, I want to prevent cavities, or I have a headache and want to get rid of it. o Sensory opportunity. I may ask my friend out to go see a movie hoping for a nice evening that will result in some pleasant conversations. To gain insight into motivational conditions we can use a variety of qualitative research techniques, such as focus groups, individual in-depth interviews, online communities, or user- generated online content. 20  There are other frameworks that can give insight into what motivates a consumer to perceive a need. o For example, the means-end chain framework aims to understand the relationship between product attributes, benefits, and end values. o A third framework that is used in commercial practice is referred to as the outcome- driven innovation approach. This approach is based on two ideas: ▪ One, that a product provides a value for a consumer because the job performs a job for them. ▪ Two, these various jobs may differ in how important they are for the consumer and how satisfied that consumer currently is with how much the existing products in the market can satisfactorily do these jobs. Idea & Concept Generation The generation of new product ideas or new product concepts can come from various sources: o From within the firm o Marketing Research ▪ For both, qualitative and quantitative research is used. Ethnography is a qualitative method where researchers completely immerse themselves in the lives, culture, or situation they are studying for which the goal is to produce a narrative account of that particular culture against a theoretical backdrop, and often this technique is used to try to understand the job that is trying to get done. Online pop-up communities have also been used as a qualitative research method, where people are recruited and experts engage with them. Social Listening amounts to scraping information from the internet. And it works as follows: 1. Define the business challenge/objective/topic to investigate 2. Identify all the data sources where the audience/topic are engaged in: social media forums, blogs etc. 3. Ingest this data into an analytics platform and apply machine learning and natural language processing to identify sentiments, topics of interest, trends etc. 4. Use additional text analytics to identify examples of the specific language the audience is using. 5. Determine the implications of those insights into the business challenge/opportunity. 6. Revisit the conversation on a regular basis. Initial Idea & Concept Screening Many companies create a product spec using the needs and pain points as a starting point to develop the product and deliver benefits against the pain points. o Often, a minimal viable product (MVP) will be created for the team to describe the detailed process of the user flow and the different persona. Concept Development In this stage, many ideas are developed and the concept statement will remain very basic. It is usually done in focus groups (FGs) and individual in-depth interviews (IDIs). Concept evaluation and Testing In some cases, an actual product will be evaluated and consumers may be asked to test this product. At this stage feedback is sought from larger samples. 21  Regarding the concept visualisation we have to choose between using: a basic verbal description (pure idea), a more visual representation, or a verbal/pictorial representation with added persuasive/advertising language. ln a monadic research design, each respondent only evaluates one concept. In a competitive set design, the new product concepts can be evaluated in choice sets with multiple choice alternatives via a methodology referred to as conjoint analysis. (The product can be evaluated in the presence of already existing alternatives and the researcher can get an idea as to how likely the consumers will be to choose their alternative over something which already exists.) Forecasting A complaint with concept tests is that they are not very predictive, however, large marketing firms, have databases which can predict the success of a product based on market trends. Commercial Practice In a B2B setting conducting robust validation research is limited, therefore a qualitative research method is used, with a series of in-depth interviews. Companies may want to do a marketing sizing analysis to determine the total addressable market (TAM)- the total market expressed in revenue that a company could address if no competitors existed and determining what proportion a company can capture within a certain time frame, its serviceable available market based on existing distribution channels and brand. This is an important assessment that determines if a company should proceed to creating the product and often market research helps answer questions around propensity to purchase and conducts the sizing analysis. 22 Advertising research The AIDA model is often used in the context of advertising research. Attention – consumers must first pay attention to a product Interest – then they need to become interested in the product Desire – in the next step they should desire the product Act – to finally take action Each stage of AIDA model can be expressed in different metrics that can be measured: 23 Advertising Research Strategy Pre-testing (ad copy research) Advertising Effectiveness (recall vs recognition) o Control vs experimental group Mareting mix modelling 24 Chapter 7: Foundational Research U&A Research A “usage & attitude study” is done when a company wants to gain a better understanding of their category, or they are looking for new growth opportunities. The results of a U&A study are used to find new opportunities in the market for the brand to grow. The basic questions in a U&A study centre around the five W's: who, what, where, when, and why. After general category usage questions, U&A questions will become more specific, and they can pertain to: o Brand questions (brand funnel) o Brand perceptions o Product Attributes o Category Usage and beverage consumption questions o Category motivations and attitudes o Additional demographic and media usage questions ln summary, U&As are a very important and strategic tool in the researcher's toolkit to help the company make strategic decisions on new product development, portfolio decisions, brand positioning, and much more. 25  It is important that as a marketeer you understand and know how to read U&A study outputs, like these Results vs Diaries The most used is combining a traditional survey with a diary. This reduces the size of the pre- survey. The downside is that some respondents may not complete the diary task. The researcher than ends up with a smaller sample size. We will discuss other behavioural tools later in this chapter. Analysis After completing the fieldwork, the researcher will tabulate the data and try to find interesting facts and insights. ln most cases, the researcher will have to do more analysis than just looking at cross tables. This often includes a needs gap (driver importance vs needs), brand equity analysis (brand funnel), category driver analysis, and brand associations. Again understanding market research outputs like the below is essential for a future marketer: 26 27 Market segmentation studies Active segmentation variables (we do segmentation on these variables, base of segmenation): Consumer needs & wants Consumer attitudes & lifestyles Consumer behaviours Psychographics Demographics/ Firmographics Types of Segmentation Needs-based segment Behaviour-based segments Attitudinal and psychographic “Attribute-importance”-based segments Demographic/Firmographic segments Occasion-based segments 28 The application of segmentation Category Growth Brand Strategy Product Development Pricing Strategy Communications/ Media allocations Channel Optimization 29 30 Features for good segmentation solutions: Measurable: Market segments are usually measured in terms of sales volume or volume (i.e. the number of customers in the segment) Substantial: There is no point in wasting marketing budget on a market segment that is insufficiently large or has negligible spending power. Accessible: When demarcating a market segment, it is important to think how the group might be accessed and whether it falls in the marketing team’s possibilities. Differentiable: An ideal market segment should be internally homogenous (all consumers in the segment have similar preferences and characteristics), but externally heterogenous. Actionable: The market segment must have practical value. Typing tool 31 Chapter 8: Brand Research The theories and concepts that have been proposed and proposed in commercial research include: The law of double jeopardy (Macro theory) o The law of double jeopardy states that a small brand not only has fewer buyers, but that the buyers it attracts also buy the brand less often. So, a small brand has fewer buyers and has less loyal buyers, hence, the name double jeopardy. Memory theory about the brand o Memory is said to consist of declarative and implicit memory. o Declarative is further split out in episodic and semantic memory. ▪ Episodic memory involves personal experiences, things you remember, things you have felt. ▪ Semantic memory is referred more to as things you know, a network of associations. o Implicit memory refers to things that can’t consciously be recalled because the act has become automatic. Spreading activation theory States that the memory is an associative network of nodes and in the context of branding refer to brand associations. Brand theory Terminology Brand equity research is used in marketing to describe the value a company can charge for a product or service, over and above the true value of the true value of the product/service. Brand funnel research measures and tracks how many people are aware of your brand, how many of these “brand-aware consumers” would consider purchasing your brand, how many have purchased your brand, how many have bought it more than once, how many are loyal to your brand, and finally how many of these brand loyalists really love the brand. Brand associations and positioning research measures how the brand is positioned compared to competitors and if the positioning is relevant to its customers. Brand architecture research tracks how a mother-brand supports its sub-brands and vice- versa. Brand tracking research to track the brand performance over time brands use cost-efficient regular research to measure a few key brand metrics for their own brand and their key competitors at regular intervals. Brand Key, developed by Unilever, is an example of how brands are constructed. 32 33 Types of brand architecture: Insight into brand equity Brand equity research aims to answer the question "What is my brand worth?". There are two perspectives on this question: A firm-level asset perspective (i.e., What is the dollar amount that should go on the financial balance sheet so that it adequately represents the brands' value?) A consumer-based perspective (i.e., How much extra would consumers be willing to pay for a product with their preferred brand?). o Consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) research can be addressed in various ways. We discuss the following approaches: ▪ the attitudinal equity approach ▪ the conjoint approach ▪ the brand funnel 34 You need to know how to read and interpret brand funnel data: ▪ an approach based on brand association The equity of brand product X would be defined as the revenue premium of branded product X relative to an unbranded product Y: o Revenue premium = {Volume of the branded product X x Price of branded product X) - {Volume of unbranded product Y x price unbranded product Y}. The means-end chain theory states that consumers value attributes because they derive a benefit from them, and they value benefits because they are tied to certain values that consumers deem important. 35 Brand Positioning Research Mental representation Brand Positioning maps 36