Quantitative Primary Research Application PDF

CHAPTER 7 - QUANTITATIVE PRIMARY RESEARCH APPLICATION LEARNING OBJECTIVES Describe the purpose of deploying new product development, brand and community perception, advertising concept, and customer satisfaction studies for the use in developing market strategies. Explain the core components of...

CHAPTER 7 - QUANTITATIVE PRIMARY RESEARCH APPLICATION LEARNING OBJECTIVES Describe the purpose of deploying new product development, brand and community perception, advertising concept, and customer satisfaction studies for the use in developing market strategies. Explain the core components of common types of quantitative market research studies. Design market research studies utilizing experimental design, A/B tests, central location tests, and home use tests. INTRODUCTION This chapter examines four common types of market research studies that employ quantitative primary research. 1. New product development 2. Brand and community perception 3. Advertising concept research 4. Customer satisfaction Each of these studies are likely to include a survey component. Other methods of quantitative primary research will also be introduced: Experimental design A/B testing Central location tests Home use tests. Also examined is how to evaluate efficacy of survey instruments through the concepts of validity and reliability NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT New product development (NPD) research includes studies focusing on a proposed market entry in order to gauge its viability. Optimal features Pricing Potential brand acceptance NPD RESEARCH COMPONENTS Brand Read / Comparison: Assessment of the brand and its competitors. Optimal Features: Reading on potential features of the product or service. Purchase Intent: Consumer likeliness to purchase product/service. Pricing: Gathering information on how much consumers would expect to pay for the product/service. Brand Acceptance: Assessment of the brand relative to the new product idea. Will the market accept this product from this brand? NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SURVEY COMPONENTS SAMPLE NPD SURVEY RESULTS NPD STUDIES AND CONJOINT ANALYSIS A more sophisticated way to gather data on optimal features and pricing is to design an NPD study to facilitate conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis is a statistical analysis that can be used to understand how customers value different combinations of features and price points related to products or services. A conjoint survey is set up to test various mixes of features at different prices to determine which combinations are the most attractive. BRAND AND COMMUNITY PERCEPTION BRAND PERCEPTION OVERVIEW A brand encompasses the identity of all products and services a company provides. Brand perception research is conducted to help an organization answer: How aware of and familiar with that company and its competitors is the company’s consumer market? Which key attributes is the company known for in the marketplace versus its competitors? What makes the company unique in the marketplace versus its competitors? BRAND PERCEPTION SURVEYS A common way to conduct brand perception studies is via surveys. Quantitative perception data can be reliably tracked over time. Due to the importance of unbiased responses, these surveys are almost always kept blind. Commonly conducted every three to five years; on average, it takes that amount of time for consumers to change their perception regarding a brand. BRAND PERCEPTION TERMINOLOGY Unaided awareness: survey question to determine if the brand is “top-of-mind” or not. Aided awareness/familiarity: survey question that uses a predefined list of brands to obtain a definitive read on awareness. Top-of-mind descriptors: qualitative survey question that gathers spontaneous thoughts regarding brand perception. Key brand attributes: Qualities a company or product is known for or would like to be known for. Owned brand attribute: Key attribute a company is well recognized for in its respective industry. Brand attribute ratings: Quantitative scores collected for key brand attributes. BRAND PERCEPTION SURVEY COMPONENTS SAMPLE BRAND PERCEPTION SURVEY RESULTS COMMUNITY PERCEPTION The community for a business can be defined as the general population in the vicinity of a company’s operations. Just as with brand perception, community perception surveys are common instruments used to measure how positively or negatively a community views a company. Another way is to monitor social media posts and local news for a glimpse into the community perspective of a company. ADVERTISING CONCEPT RESEARCH OVERVIEW Advertising concept research (or “message testing”) are studies that gauge the effectiveness of advertisements prior to full development and production. Such studies are typically deployed when: 1. there is a relatively high cost to produce such media, or 2. confirmation is needed that the advertising message in consideration will effectively resonate with the target audience ADVERTISING CONCEPT RESEARCH SURVEYS Advertising concept studies typically use online survey methodology. Throughout a concept test survey, respondents are asked to react to advertising concepts. Common lines of questions included in advertising concept test surveys include: First impressions Favorability indicators Uniqueness and fit Action indicators Fit with brand promise ADVERTISING CONCEPT SURVEY COMPONENTS SAMPLE AD TESTING RESULTS CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OVERVIEW It is typical for a company to deploy one or more studies that collect data on customer satisfaction. These instruments may collect customer feedback on: 1) Current products and services 2) Customer service attributes 3) Communication and engagement from a customer perspective VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER (VoC) RESEARCH Customer satisfaction studies are considered Voice of the Customer (VoC) research. VoC is a term used to describe gathering and analyzing feedback regarding customer experiences with and expectations of a company’s products and services. The term is commonly used in reference to analyzing feedback from multiple customer satisfaction instruments. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY CONSIDERATIONS Distribution Timing: Best to deliver the survey as soon as possible after the point of purchase or service interaction. Length: Longer surveys crafted for respondents with high levels of interaction with a product; short surveys for those with lower levels of product/service interaction. Core lines of questioning: Quality Price Time Satisfaction by area, encounter component Perceptions of strengths/weaknesses Overall measures OVERALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION QUESTIONS Customer satisfaction surveys should include measures that gauge overall satisfaction. These are useful indicators expressed in a single score that can be trended over time. Overall measures from customer satisfaction studies can also be used to calculate a net promoter score (NPS), which is a business metric used to assign a value to the customer experience and help predict growth. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY COMPONENTS SAMPLE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RESULTS COMPARING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RESULTS Trending refers to monitoring data over time and comparing the data points along the trend line. Benchmarking is accomplished by comparing data to peer organizations. Department, unit, and location comparisons are used when customer satisfaction scores are compared between functional areas of an organization. EXPERIMENTS OVERVIEW Experiments are a form of causal research, which examines cause-and-effect relationships (causality) between variables. There is often a control group and a test group. The test group will receive the intervention, while the control group will not. In a pre/post study, data are gathered before an intervention and compared to data gathered after an intervention. Statistical tests are carried out on the results to determine whether or not the intervention had a significant impact on opinion or behavior. EXPERIMENT EXAMPLE Company: Panera Bread Objective: To determine if offering full-service dining would positively impact customer satisfaction and sales. Experiment: A sample of stores offers full service dining (test group) while other stores operate as they currently do (control group). Data sets used: With examining both satisfaction and sales, two different types of data sets would need to be used: (1) customer satisfaction survey ratings and (2) sales data. A/B TESTING OVERVIEW A/B testing is a type of experiment commonly used in digital advertising. Variations of ads are fully produced and promoted for a short time. Analytics are used to determine which variant(s) are most successful. The “winning” concept will move forward—or may be revised based on the results. CENTRAL LOCATION AND HOME USE TESTS CENTRAL LOCATION TESTS In central location testing, participants are recruited in a public space to take part in consumer research studies in controlled environments. Product taste testing is a good use of the central location method; new food products or new recipe formulas of existing products can be tested on site to determine how well they fare with participants. HOME USE TESTS In home use tests, a sample of the target market is given a product to test at home over a specified period. An example is giving a cat owner a new cat food formula to try in the comfort of his/her home. MULTI-METHOD APPROACH Both central location and home use tests require a multi-method approach, which involves recruiting potential participants, allowing participants to experience the product or service, and following up with a feedback instrument. EVALUATING SURVEY INSTRUMENTS PRETESTING SURVEY INSTRUMENTS After surveys are developed, a best practice is testing the instrument with a small sample of those in the target market (known as a field test). This procedure is important if the survey will be administered to a diverse market where respondents may have varying understandings of the language, given social or cultural factors such as their educational background, language of origin, or socio-economic status. FIELD TEST QUESTIONS FOR RESPONDENTS 1. Did the directions make sense to you? Did any questions come to mind as you read them? 1. Were there any words for which the meaning was unclear? 1. Were there any questions that you felt uncomfortable answering or would prefer not to answer? VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY Reliability: an indicator of an instrument's consistency in its ability to measure. If we ran the same survey again, would we get the same or similar results? Validity: notion that an instrument is measuring what it is supposed to measure. Is there agreement among those taking the survey (and the researchers) about the meaning of each question? CONCLUSION New product development (NPD) research includes studies focusing on the optimal features, pricing, and potential brand acceptance of a proposed market entry in order to gauge its viability. Brand perception research is conducted to help organizations understand how they compare to other market players in terms of awareness and familiarity, key attributes, and uniqueness. Advertising concept tests are studies that gauge the effectiveness of advertising campaigns prior to full development and production. Customer satisfaction studies collect customer feedback on current products and services, customer service attributes, and customer communication and engagement. Experiments test whether or not an intervention has had an impact. A/B tests are experiments used to optimize digital advertisements. Central location and home use tests gauge hands-on experiences with products and services How can we be assured survey instruments are “good”? Field testing is a best practice in assuring a survey instrument is understood equally by all respondents before it is widely administered. Reliability is an indicator of an instrument’s consistency in its ability to measure. Validity is the notion that an instrument is measuring what it is supposed to measure.