| During the
normal course of business, we all conduct informal
marketing research (even though we may not
realize it at the time!). We ask questions of our
sales people and we solicit the opinions of our
customers. We gather together in conference rooms
discussing our ideas, often bringing in anecdotes
from the field. We snoop around our competitors'
booths at trade shows. Sometimes we even buy our
competitors' products and tinker with them. All of these activities help us
to form opinions and hypotheses, but sometimes
this just isn't enough. When your company has
critical, strategic and expensive decisions at
stake, it is usually time to consider conducting
a formal research project with a marketing
research company.
Qualitative research can
help you answer questions like these:
- Will our new
product fly in today's market?
- How do we best
position our products to maximize
penetration and profitability?
- What other products
or services do our customers need?
- What other markets
should we target?
- What do our
customers, suppliers or distributors
really think about us?
- How can we best
implement our marketing programs?
Here are some examples
of situations that often lead a company to
undertake a qualitative research study:
Your new product
team has just developed a new recipe, a cool widget, or a better
mousetrap. They're sure they've gotten
it just right and that it is exactly what
your customers or prospects are looking
for.
Is anybody out there really
likely to buy it? How do you position the
product, package it, price it and bring
it to market? |
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You have been
successfully selling your products to
market X. Your sales department suggests
that, with a few tweaks, you could also
be selling to market Y. Does your product
truly have potential to sell to market Y?
What do you need to do to tap that
market? |
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| Your advertising agency
or marketing department has just created
a new advertising campaign. They think it
is really hot and will get your prospects
interested in your product. Are they
right? |
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You've got a direct mail
campaign ready to go. You're expecting
your phones to ring off the hook. Will
your prospects bite? |
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| Your company has several
different brand names for similar
products, and you'd like to consolidate
everything under a single brand umbrella.
How do you implement a branding strategy?
Which brand name has the most equity with
your customer base? |
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Your company has been
losing sales to the competition. Is there
a problem with your products, service or
pricing, or are there other developments
on the competitive front? How do your
customers make their purchase decisions? |
These are
just a few of the circumstances in which it might
be appropriate to undertake a formal, qualitative
research project. Qualitative research will
enable you to uncover tremendous information
about your customers, your image, the changing
market and how customers and prospects react to
your information and materials.
Qualitative research is
not a panacea for all of your problems, nor is it
statistically projectable. You won't come away
from a focus group or interview project knowing
that 68.3% of your customers prefer the package
with the blue background or the kiwi-lime
flavored fruit spread. You will, however, come
away with new and valuable insights that will
guide you toward making the best decisions for
your business.
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When
to do Qualitative Research
