Your Business Decisions

To be valuable, market research must address your business issues. Below are examples of business issues and projects we have conducted to address those issues.

Improve Customer Retention and Reduce Churn

A major Internet services provider used qualitative research with customers to identify critical elements of customer satisfaction and loyalty and then designed a quantitative tracking study that measures performance and identifies the drivers of customer loyalty twice a year. Companion projects survey new customers and customers who recently discontinued their service to identify critical performance issues in the early stages of the customer relationship. Changes implemented by the company have resulted in improved ratings on key performance elements.

Develop and Launch New Products

A provider of medical information systems was developing an information base on complementary and alternative medicine therapies. Its established market consisted of practitioners who were thought to be skeptical of such therapies. Qualitative research with physicians, RNs and pharmacists revealed an urgent need for reliable information on herbal medicine and gave direction for content and sources.

A major cable company planning to offer interactive video services used transcripts of focus groups conducted by the company over several years to identify customer needs and then took these needs through an ideation process with employees and consumers. The resulting ideas were filtered for feasibility and narrowed to a small number through qualitative research with consumers. Prototypes were developed to obtain feedback on customer requirements. Finally, refined prototypes were used in quantitative central location research to estimate demand and build revenue models for the company. Test launch of one of the products confirmed that it would only be successful if configured to address the identified customer needs.

Identify a Company Position that Differentiates You From the Competition

A major cable company used in-depth interviews with key corporate executives to identify the company’s strengths and differentiating capabilities. Qualitative research with potential customers uncovered the most important customer requirements for products like those offered by the company. The point of match between customer needs and company strengths became the company’s unique position in the marketplace. Positioning statements, taglines, and commercial copy developed from the basic position were tested iteratively with consumers and the resulting campaign was immediately successful.

A major Internet services company was developing its positioning in new business markets. Qualitative, then quantitative research helped identify key needs, which in turn lead the company to choose Operational Excellence (Treacy and Wiersema) as its operating model. Following from that decision, we worked with the advertising agency and internal marcom staff to test positions and evaluate whether the benefits were communicated.

Target Your Most Valuable Customers

A large cellular phone company wished to identify customer segments and target its resources to the most valuable segments. To calculate the value of each segment, the segments were developed using survey-based behavioral variables, some of which simulated data available in the customer database. Survey-based attitudinal and behavioral variables were used to develop value propositions and optimize the product line for the targeted segments.

Improve Partnerships with Suppliers

A global division of a F100 company wanted to work more effectively with its suppliers. On-site interviews with key suppliers in the U.S. and Europe helped uncover points of friction and identify opportunities for reducing costs and accelerating the introduction of new products.