3 Ways To Maximize A Client’s Investment

Your client is getting ready for a new product launch, and you’ve been charged with positioning the product’s message to shape the launch’s advertising campaign. You’re sure that some high-quality market research will provide you and your client with good direction.

Which of the following would you look for in a research partner?

• Industry experience.
• Expertise with a specific tool or methodology (e.g., live focus groups or telephone surveys) which you’re sure would be the best for you to use.
• Ability to identify the demographics and behaviors of your target audience.

Stop.

These requirements don’t maximize your client’s investment. Here’s why and what you can do to really leverage those research dollars.

• “Category expert” is not always synonymous with “research expert.” An agency or consultant working with a client with a highly-technical focus often believes that the researcher should have industry-specific experience.  If your client is a water-filtration company, for example, may want to see a bidder’s background conducting surveys about both charcoal and ceramic filters.  However, this requirement overlooks the experience and lessons that the researcher may learned through knowledge gained in a wide variety of industries. How to maximize your investment: Choose a researcher who can demonstrate how they’ve approached similar issues, and how they’ll apply previous experiences and solutions to the unique needs of your research objective.
• You may choose a hammer when you need a screwdriver. If you determine ahead of time that a certain methodology is the best way to go, you are short-changing yourself of harnessing the most value out of the researcher’s expertise.  This is especially true if you’re not even considering some of the new cutting-edge techniques with which any research agency worth their weight should at least have some level of familiarization.  How to maximize your investment: Ask bidders to recommend the best methods to approach the research project. Even better: Ask the researcher to identify some methods they considered, but ultimately did not recommend and why.
• You know the client’s market, or at least some information about it. Requiring bidders to suggest the characteristics of your ideal buyer is like asking someone to order food without showing them the menu.  How to maximize your investment: You have first-hand knowledge of who the client’s target market is; by being as specific as possible in terms of purchasing dynamics and demographics, you can make sure the researcher gets you the most accurate bid for your project, minimizing surprises down the road.

There are other variables that will most certainly impact the quality of the research project and the data it generates.  But by providing prospective prospective market research consultants with solid customer specifications, asking them to recommend the best research methodology, and insuring they can demonstrate how they’ve solved similar research puzzles in the past, you’ll put yourself one step closer to turning a good investment for your client into a great one.