marketing research
Summary of a Marketing Research Project
This is a ninth and final part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
I’ve avoided a detailed inventory of commonly used research methods. A good researcher will help you sort through these and determine which one(s) will best meet your needs. But in closing, let me clear a few misconceptions:
- Online surveys and social media can be valuable research tools for certain target audiences. But they still have sampling issues for more large-0scale consumer surveys.
- Online surveys can be less costly than some other data collection methods in certain circumstances, but not always.
- Focus groups are probably the most misused form of research today. A poorly conceived focus group can turn you off research altogether. A series of well-designed and well-executed focus groups, on the other hand, can provide knowledge and insight that makes possible vast success.
- No matter how many focus groups you do, they’re still not statistically representative. Focus groups are primarily a tool for answering “Why?” questions. They are not the best place to take “How Many?” questions.
- Telephone and mail surveys are not dead. A well-designed telephone survey conducted by an experienced telephone interviewer can still be one of the best research tools there is. A designed and targeted mail survey can still be one of the most cost efficient research tools.
Marketing research is frequently portrayed as a dull, lifeless discipline practiced by dull, lifeless people. This might have been the case at one time, and there are still a few researchers who prefer to burrow into the numbers and produce thick reports rather than interact with real people. Numbers are important. But the modern marketing world doesn’t have much room for researchers who can’t reduce the numbers to meaning. The researcher of today has to be an adept designer, analyst, listener, interpreter and presenter. When you find the researcher who meets these specifications for you, I encourage you to take him or her into your organization’s family of trusted partners.
I wish you well with your marketing research.
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Measuring Success of Your Marketing Research Project
This is an eighth part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
Because most organizations that sponsor research studies are anxious to get on with whatever it was that created the need for research in the first place, there is probably less evaluation of research studies than there should be. You know your research project was successful when:
- Did you learn what you wanted to learn?
- Did you learn what you need to know to be able to proceed on to your next step?
- Was the researcher able to interpret the findings in a way that was clear and included actionable conclusions?
- If the research was conducted to support marketing or other communications, do the findings allow you to talk more confidently and knowingly to your target audience?
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A Market Researcher’s Questions
This is a seventh part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
Just as marketing researchers come in all shapes and sizes, so do questions. A good researcher will propose and help you sort through the kinds of questions that will best meet your needs. But as you think about and look at questions, consider:
- Good questions allow respondents to identify with the question and find themselves in the responses.
- Good questions use the language of the target audience.
- Good questions do not force specific responses. They make “yes” and “no” equally okay.
- Good questions make it easy for respondents to be honest.
- Unanswerable or ambiguously worded questions are a waste of time and money. (They also insult the respondent.)
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Before You Start Talking to Consumers
This is a sixth part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
It would seem that research is as simple as just going out and asking people questions. But it’s really not that simple. There are conditions you need to know about:
- Despite their best intentions, people are often the most inaccurate tellers of their own life stories. Don’t expect them to remember everything, to get the dates right, or to be above “editing” their histories to remove unpleasant episodes.
- Consumers can’t tell you what they’re going to do. (They can only tell you what they think they’re going to do.)
- They can’t tell you what they want because they haven’t seen what can be yet.
- Most people almost always prefer the familiar to the new. This condition is even more prevalent in the current economy.
- Media recall questions are among the most notoriously inaccurate questions of all.
- If you want real understanding, you’ve got to get close to the consumer.
- You’ve got to understand context of their lives.
- You have to listen to what is said and what isn’t being said.
- You have to look “between the lines.”
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Know Your Marketing Researcher
This is a fifth part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
Marketing researchers come in all shapes and sizes. Some look like professors, others like mad scientists. You should look upon your researcher as you might your lawyer or accountant; that is, as someone who’s clearly on your side, but who must be trusted, and expected, to be frankly honest with you.
Think about these as you give thought to the “chemistry” of who you work with.
- Look for curiosity and experience. A good research doesn’t just “take orders,” but rather is proactive and inquiring.
- Look for good, empathetic listeners. A good researcher has to be able to set his or her own biases aside.
- Look for a solid methodological foundation, but also the ability to see “beyond the numbers.” Insight frequently comes not only from the results, but also from what isn’t being said.
- Recognize the difference between academic and commercial researchers*.
- Look for someone who can bring ideas and learning from other categories.
- Look for someone with a good grasp of history, the social sciences and popular culture. A good researcher has to have an understanding of different kinds of people and the different kinds of ways different people live.
Keep in mind:
- Too much concentration in one industry limits the opportunity for fresh ideas, insight or innovation.
- Look for researchers who can tell you something, not just recite or hide behind numbers.
- Be wary of researchers who say there’s only one way to do something.
- If you’re going to buy a packaged research program, make sure it fits your conditions and needs.
* Academic researchers tend to be more focused on the process and can be prone to thinking in semester-long increments of time, while commercial researchers are more focused on getting actionable answers and moving quickly.
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How to Get The Most From Your Marketing Research
This is a fourth part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
The researcher’s ability to do a good job for you is based largely on how well you articulate your goals and expectations. Before you call a researcher in, you need to be able to answer several questions. A good researcher can help you answer them if you’re having a hard time.
- What do you want to learn? (Or what is you don’t know?)
- What do you want to be able to do with what you learn?
- What decisions do you want to be able to make?
- What information do you need to be able to make those decisions?
- Who is your target audience?
After you’ve answered these questions:
- Look for a researcher who understands your situation.
- Be open and honest with the researcher.
- Don’t give the researcher questions or prescribe the methodology. Instead, tell the researcher what you want to learn.
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Getting Started with Marketing Research
This is a third part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
To be an effective and efficient consumer of marketing research, it is important to understand the following:
- The concept of sampling*.
- If you are doing research that involves live interviewers, find the very best interviewers you can. This is not the place to save money.
- Good research is intellectually honest. If executed properly, it provides an honest reflection of reality, not what you want reality to be.
- You marketing research to learn about people, not to convince them. Research is not the place to sell.
- Your researcher is the consumer’s representative in your working process. Don’t shoot the messenger.
- The consumer doesn’t care what your problems are. Research is not the place to be defensive if consumers see things differently than you do.
- Take what consumers say to heart, but don’t take it personally.
- Not all of your customers or prospects are likeable people.
- The marketplace is full of ambiguity, mitigating circumstances and competition. This is the world your customers live in.
* The concept of sampling is theoretically simple, but frequently misinterpreted in practice. The idea is that a properly developed sample—that is, the group of people you choose to interview or otherwise include in your study—can serve as an accurate representation of the larger universe from which it is drawn. To know what a pot of soup tastes like, for example, you don’t have to eat all of it. If you stir the pot and draw a ladle of it out, you can know what the soup tastes like. That’s how sampling works. Your mix up your universe of target audience members and draw from that universe a representative sample. The key to making it all work is that you have to include as many people as you can from the sample in your study or else your “ladle” will not be representatives.
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Roots of Modern Marketing Research
This is a second part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
Marketing research is a marriage of science and art. Its roots are planted in the social sciences, where sociologists, anthropologists, demographers and psychologists developed formal and objective procedures for studying people. These days research is evolving in step with advances in the understanding of neuroscience, physiology and the psychology of emotions.
In many ways, commercial marketing research is still a young discipline. The lessons learned from social scientists transitioned into the commercial marketplace in the 1940s and 1950s when the big American advertising agencies realized they needed a better understanding of consumers and consumer behavior. They created research departments, staffed them with social scientists and used research to direct their advertising campaigns. Their clients, impressed by the success that came from the application of sound marketing research, spread the word around the world.
As commercial marketing research matured as a service category, questions arose about the objectivity and possible conflicts of interests involving in-house research departments. As a result, most of the big ad agencies began to spin off their research operations into independent, freestanding businesses.
Today, research firms come from all shapes and sizes. Some aspire to retain a foot in the academic world. Others are distinctly commercial.
For all of the advances in modern marketing research, though, it’s important to remember that good research is almost always a mix of science and art. As much as we may try at times, the behavior and decision making processes of human beings are far too complex and nuanced to reduce to simple stereotypes and generalizations. The art of marketing research is a function of the experience and the interpersonal, listening, comprehension and analytical skills of the researcher.
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Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research
This is a first part in a series on ‘Getting the Most From Your Marketing Research’ from guest blogger Chris Bonney of Bonney & Company. Bonney & Company is a full-service marketing research firm, providing a full range of custom marketing research services to businesses, government agencies and organizations in the non-profit sector.
I don’t remember jokes easily. But one I recall from my childhood was about a hotel company executive who’d been invited to speak on national television. (In those days, when you were lucky to get three channels of television, being on “national television” was about as big as you could get.)
People wondered what the hotel exec would say. Would he talk about trends in travel, the dynamics of hotel finance or the importance of quality control?
This is what he said:
When you stay at our hotels, please keep the shower curtain inside the tub.
I was reminded of that line when I was recently asked to speak to a group of marketing people about getting the most from their marketing research. I could have talked about “A Control Function Approach to Endogeniety in Consumer Choice Models,” a topic big among researchers at the moment. Instead, like the hotel executive, I wanted to talk about the basics because it’s confusion about the basics that keeps a lot of people from getting the most out of their marketing research.
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