How To Leverage Online Qualitative Research, Part II

An Opportunity for Market Segmentation

In a recent post, we described how online qualitative research can lower the cost of some respondent incentives.  Below, we discuss how this same methodology can lead marketers and consultants to a better understanding of market segments.

Segment identification

Many marketers are not sure how to segment their customer base, or potential customers.  Online research allows the moderator to break out respondents into separate rooms.  If there’s a point in a discussion where it appears that respondents are going in different directions, they can be separated into these rooms, where discussion can be conducted that is more relevant to their needs.

Access to Multiple Segments

Other times, marketers and consultants know that there are segments that exist, but can’t find a way to affordably reach each segment.  Online qualitative research often allows more respondents into a group than face-to-face research, facilitating more participation and also the ability to reach multiple segments at one time.  The discussion guide can be set up to allow groups to break off into separate rooms at the most optimal times in the conversation.

In-Depth Need Exploration

Because online qualitative research can span several days or more, the methodology can often yield a more comprehensive understanding of each segment’s needs. It can also result in more clearly defined messages that will appeal to each segment’s motivators and behavioral drivers.

If at all feasible, any qualitative study that explores segmentation opportunities should be followed up with a quantitative survey to confirm the presence of these segments, measure their size, and confirm differences that may exist.  However, an online qualitative study can provide a strong foundation for market segmentation efforts.

Three Reasons Why Outsourcing Employee Surveys Makes Sense

Investment in retaining employees has a higher payoff than hiring new individuals, so current economic conditions dictate that it is now critically important to monitor employee satisfaction. Management consultants can deliver higher ROI for their clients when they know if gathering data to reflect this sentiment can be conducted by the company itself (or by the management consultant), or when their needs are best served by getting outside help from an employee research expert.  Here are some key variables that can make this decision (doing it all internally versus finding a research consultant) easier and smarter.

• Support from management – Using an outside resource can automatically add legitimacy to this type of project.  Consultants skilled in employee research can answer management questions, backed by other experiences and real-world lessons.

• Results reporting – Does the organization or management consultant truly have the internal resources to devote to reporting the results?  Not only do research experts provide a time-savings, but the efficiency they’ve gained in doing similar projects for other clients can provide an ultimate cost-savings benefit as well.

• Objectivity – Research experts provide objectivity in both designing questions and interpreting results, major hurdles that often face others who are close to the company.  Often, internal subjectivity isn’t even exposed until the data has been collected, resulting in a research effort that can only deliver sub-optimal insights.

By carefully evaluating when an outside research expert should be used versus a DIY-approach, management consultants can provide their clients with insights that can increase employee satisfaction, ultimately impacting their customers and improving their bottom line.

Five Rules For Employee Surveys that Sing

When a client is facing organizational change or an internal assessment, the best consultants look to employee satisfaction surveys to provide guidance and direction in their efforts.  By following the following five guidelines, these consultants can achieve the best results for their clients:

• Carefully define the objectives of the study, and what you want to learn from employees.  Sometimes consultants will approach these surveys with broad goals, which lead to results that are either impractical to act upon, or don’t yield information that can provide solid direction.  By working with staff to clearly define the purpose and what actions might be implemented, you improve your chances that the survey results will be meaningful and that any indicated actions will help the organization to achieve its bottom line goals.

• Make sure that leadership staff supports the goals of the study and communicates them to employees.  Employees take notice when they receive a personalized email from organizational leaders letting them know that a survey is coming their way.  They are more likely to respond to a survey when they know it has “teeth” behind it, and you’ll get a broader base of responses rather than hearing from those who are very happy (or unhappy). The responses you get will often be more thoughtful, allowing you to make recommendations that will have a greater impact.

• Limit the survey so that it takes no more than 10 minutes to complete.  While employees want to provide their feedback, longer surveys create fatigue among respondents, and diminish the quality of the data. By keeping the purposes of the study in mind when designing the survey, it will make it easier for you to achieve the study’s goal.

• Work with organizational leadership on a plan to communicate the results. By letting employees know that they have a voice and that their voice was heard, you add value to the survey, and enable them to feel that they are part of the process.

• Most importantly, the survey must be anonymous.  Completely.  No employee should know who else responded or didn’t respond, let alone the specific feedback that was provided.  Assuring employees that any and all responses will be kept confidential will assure you of getting the best data that reflects true employee opinion. This is why many consultants use a different research consultant for the survey – it provides employees with greater confidence that their opinions will be respected and that personal information will not be divulged.

Follow these guidelines, and not only will employees provide great feedback and insight, but your client will be singing your praises about the value-add that you provide.

Four Ways To Find Profitable Client Relationships

In an earlier post, we revealed why it is important to evaluate RFPs before bidding.  Some readers asked for more indicators by which to judge whether or not their firm or agency should bid on projects:

• Fit for other prospects: This is where it makes sense to look ahead.  Will this project or client position you favorably with other potential clients?  It may be the brand name, client need you can solve, or similarity to a key target group, but is there something in this project or client that will increase your ability to attract other prospects?  This is a key indicator that a project would be a good fit and worth the investment of your time to pursue.

• Fit for sought-after employees: You always want great talent, and potential projects and clients may position you more favorably with prospective employees or potential partners.  While many consultants and agencies currently have the luxury of being choosy in terms of new employees or partners, good clients can make you more attractive to the best talent out there.

• Provide case study material:  A project or client that is a good fit is likely to generate a great case study when you’re shopping around for other clients.  It might highlight some of your firm’s most desired capabilities or those in-house solutions which are particularly profitable.  In either case, if this project will provide your firm or agency with a powerful way to demonstrate your experience to others, it’s a good sign the project is worth pursuing.

• Potential for new testimonial: This goes back to brand name, possibly, or other connections the client may have.  If a testimonial from this client would be a great value to your website or other marketing efforts, it can be a great investment to submit a proposal for the new business.

We’ve included these criteria on our FREE RFP scorecard – a great and easy-to-use tool which can be used to uncover great RFP opportunities.  Feel free to download it from the right sidebar.  It can help you to find situations in which you can become a marketing hero!

How You Can Create Value For Your Clients

By now, most people have heard that Netflix has decided to abandon its newly-formed Qwikster division.  Given the negative feedback to the creation of Qwikster all over the blogosphere, it’s hard to imagine that Netflix asked any of its customers what they wanted.  In fact, an article in the Christian Science Monitor analyzing the situation points out that the company assumed customers would support this move, believing that customers would just go along with what the company decided was in its own best interest.

The big lesson here, of course, is to conduct primary market research before making such a move.  A simple survey could have:

• Alerted Netflix to how and why this division would not be well-received.
• Saved the company money in product development and marketing spending.
• Engendered customer loyalty by demonstrating that the company truly cared about what its customers thought and wanted.
• Provided feedback on other ideas Netflix could have pursued which could have created high customer satisfaction
• Spared the company bad publicity
• Avoided the time and effort required to develop other marketing mix elements to support an untenable idea

As a marketing consultant or advertising agency, you face opportunities all the time to guide your clients to making good marketing decisions.

Be their marketing hero – demonstrate how market research can help them avoid making this type of mistake and how they can use customer feedback data to create greater company value and make generate higher returns on marketing investments.

Don’t Try To Be A Round Peg In A Square Hole

Most marketing consultants and advertising agencies believe they can help any client. Every RFP is viewed as an opportunity for not only another project, but one in which your expertise will be valued.

However, consultants and agencies should carefully evaluate each RFP along several criteria. While you want to maximize your chance of winning the project, you also need a sense of how well the project ‘fits’ with your firm, and whether your involvement will pay off into a truly great partnership with that client.

There are several elements to consider- here are a few:

Previous experience with client situation:  This is a great indicator of ‘fit” – if you have experience solving similar problems for other clients, showcase how you approached the issue and how your specific method benefited the client.

Budget size: If you know the budget for the project, and it is much smaller than that which you have previously worked, you’ll want to honestly decide if you are prepared to scale down your efforts to meet that requirement.  If it’s much larger, you’ll want to make sure you have resources in place to deliver the same high quality you’ve provided before for smaller clients.

Comparison with competition: Consider who might also be competing for the bid – can you demonstrate a competitive advantage over other potential providers?  If you anticipate that they will have a leg up over you, what can you assert about your firm or agency to illustrate that you are uniquely qualified as the right choice for the project?

Project partnerships: This is where many small firms and agencies can compete with bigger players – reach out to others with whom you can partner that have strengths to address project requirements.  Demonstrate that while you may not have the staff full-time staff, or in-house expertise, that you have contacts who can work with you to exceed client expectations.

These are just a few of the criteria you’ll find included in our FREE RFP scorecard – a tool that can provide guidance on which RFPs make the most sense for your firm.  You can download it from the right sidebar. Try it out when evaluating your next RFP and let us know how well it works for you in becoming a marketing hero!

Become A Marketing Hero, Part 2

4 Ways to Maximize the Profits of a New Product Rollout

How can you guide your client to maximize success in a new product rollout? How should they target their product; which group of customers represents the “lowest hanging fruit”? How can you be sure that they use the best strategy and leverage their marketing budget?

The best way to work with your client to achieve these goals is to do some research before the product or marketing strategy is fully developed.  Ideally, you should conduct some qualitative research first (e.g., focus groups or interviews), and quantitative research (e.g., a survey) as a follow-up.

However, many clients simply don’t have the resources for both and choose to jump to quantitative research.  There are risks involved in jumping to that step, but there are ways to minimize these risks:

1. Develop some different positioning statements that each fulfills a creative brief. Make sure that each statement clearly communicates the product or service ultimate benefit.
2. Determine who the overall target audience will be.  For example, is there a minimum income level or business size that will be able to afford he product?
3. Work with a sample provider to make sure that you have a sufficient sample size to test out each concept in a statistically reliable way.  The sample should also include enough respondents so that you will be able to observe differences of opinion within sub-segments.  For example, will business above a certain revenue level react differently than those below?
4. Structure the questionnaire so that you get the customer’s thoughts regarding existing competitive products. Then test each positioning statement against roughly the same sample size.

In many cases, there will be a clear winner among the statements you test.  However, there are other situations in which each statement performs about as well as the others.  In that case, illustrate the strengths of each concept performed the best, and how they might be tweaked to generate more favorable purchase levels.

By conducting this thorough research though, the real winner is your client. 

Increase Your RFP Success Rate

In these hyper-competitive times, agencies and marketing consultants need to maximize the efforts they expend upon winning new business.

An article today in AdAge’s Agency News discusses a rise in client-led reviews and the frustrations experienced by agencies in pursuing RFPs/RFIs that are often characterized by unreasonable timelines, uncompensated spec work, and ambiguous budgets.

And if you’re awarded the business, does it truly represent a win for your agency/marketing consultancy? Or have you wasted your time in pursuing business that does not really position you for future success, or involves work that is unprofitable?

Our free RFP scorecard was designed to maximize your success rate in bidding for opportunities that can achieve both long and short-term goals for your own business. It will help you determine if the RFP is really worth pursuing or if you might want to invest your time on other efforts.  Not every opportunity is worth pursuing – in fact, some can be detrimental to your business. Our scorecard helps agencies and consultancies decide when to pursue bids, and when it might make sense to hold off.

To download our free scorecard, just subscribe on the right hand side of our page. Then use the scorecard to increase your success rate in pursuing RFPs that best position your agency/consulting skills and talents.