The better you know your market, the easier it will be to create customers. Fortunately, most people are willing to introduce themselves.
The Internet has given companies unprecedented opportunities.
One of the best, without a doubt, is ecommerce personalization. The more you can treat consumers like individuals, the more customers you’ll have. The more loyal they’ll be, too.
This is why getting to know the consumers in your market should be one of your company’s top priorities. Treat it as seriously as you would any sales target, and you’ll quickly find that those sales targets become much easier to hit.
Consumers Want to Give Your Company Information
Too often, companies act as though finding out about the consumers within their markets is some herculean challenge. They may even invest in shady tactics to extract their personal information.
Yet, according to Accenture,…
Chart of the day: Customers trust traditional channels more than digital channels
Customers indicated they trusted traditional channels such as TV, print, radio and outdoor ads, over digital channels such as search engines, sponsored blog posts and ads on mobile.
The research by MarketingSherpa found that digital channels were trusted less than traditional methods when compared.
Satisfied customers are more prepared to engage with a brands digital marketing campaigns
The research also found that satisfied customers engage more with digital channels, they skip fewer pre-roll ads. When compared to unsatisfied customers, they are also less likely to unfollow companies on social media.
What causes dissatisfaction?
The study also looked at what causes users become unsatisfied, finding that bad customer service is one of the biggest reasons.
Users expect to receive quality…
IKEA isn't just innovating in their design process, they are innovating in their customer research approach too
Global home furnishings and meatball brand (IKEA sell 150 million meatballs a year), IKEA of Sweden already innovate in their democratic design approach when producing new products, but now they're taking a leading approach with their customer insights: chatbot surveys.
The IKEA concept already works to make their products attractive, functional, sustainable, accessible and affordable. IKEA are the masters of efficiency and it seems that they are working with their research agencies, to take this approach to customer insight.
The world of market research and insight has somewhat an obsession with innovation, researchers are always looking for new ways to gain insights, hence big data, online communities, shorter surveys (though I question whether many are actually getting shorter). But in the day to day, researchers tend to stick…
Chart of the day: Market research budgets have been cut whilst marketing budgets are being sustained
Market research (increasingly referred to as "insight") budgets are taking another cut this year, according to research by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, whilst marketing budgets overall have not grown. As few as 8% of respondents signaled growth in their insight budget whilst just over 26% of respondents indicated marketing budget growth. The analysis shows it's the worst prediction for market research in over four years of data collection.
One reason for the fall in budget could be that businesses are using non-traditional research methods, doing fewer large-scale annual research projects and instead focusing on more cheaper, innovative techniques, such as the use of research communities, online focus groups and cheaper providers such as Survey Monkey Audience, Ask You Target Market and Toluna Quick Surveys, rather than using…
Use these 'Voice of the Customer' Tools to gather qualitative data on your customers
Web analytics can provide the what, the when and the how, but struggle to deliver the why and the rationale which explains the numbers from your analytics tool. 'Voice of the Customer' tools can run continuously in the background, be focused on specific pages or be time-based, gathering detailed feedback on barriers to conversion, design issues, user confusion – all useful and actionable insight for marketers.
These tools allow you to go beyond the quantitative insight of analytics tools and provide a deeper layer of site visitor feedback. Tools in this category are growing in popularity and include general website feedback, crowd sourced product opinions and exit survey functionality.
Key things to consider before purchasing and using these tools:
Be careful not to request too much data. Just like us, users are put off by surveys that are pages…
The latest GRIT report reveals that marketers and market researchers are embracing social media analytics more than ever.
Greenbook Research Industry Trends Report (GRIT) is conducted with market research buyers (clients) as well as market research consultants and agencies (researchers); it aims to track the research methods being used and how those methods are changing over time.
They found that whilst mobile surveys and insight communities are now mainstream, there is a wide range of techniques that are gaining widespread adoption, highlighted in the chart below.
A few years ago insight communities were new and exciting, they were threatening the use of research panels but now they really are mainstream. Brands are turning to their own research communities to conduct surveys, online/offline qualitative research, mobile surveys and qualitative projects. Social media analytics and text analytics are gaining widespread use whilst mobile for qualitative research is…
38% of our interactions with all media and communications still occurs in front of a TV. But what else do we do with our devices?
Ofcom has just released their yearly Communications Market Report, where they analyse the UK communications sector.
The report sheds light on many aspects of how we use digital media and technology today, but one chart that stood out to me (not just because of the colours) was Fig 1.12 which showcases the proportion of time attributed to activity types, by device.
One thing to point out about this chart: is that it is an average across all age ranges. So these will vary within different age groups. As a reference point, Ofcom have researched behaviour for each of the sections in Fig 1.4.4 if you're curious to delve a little deeper.
The first point…
These tools will help you deliver better market research
Nowadays there is a great variety of different useful tools for market researchers that are free to use. Today you can use such instruments to enhance your business and significantly improve effectiveness of your work. But the wide selection means it is possible to waste your precious time for searching the best instrument among the abundance of useful online tools. To save you time, we have already made a list of the top 10 market research tools. These tools were chosen because of their free access, ease of use and comprehensive capabilities.
1. Google Alerts
Google Alerts is the most popular monitoring tool, and its interface is quite intuitive and easy. All you need is to enter the keywords for monitoring and indicate the sources (News, Blogs, Videos, and Discussions),…
Optimise your customer analytics by getting the models right
Customer analytical models can deliver huge value for companies that invest in them to improve their sales and marketing activities. But even well-known big brands can get it wrong when designing, implementing and operating these models. From Barclays to John Lewis, Cineworld to Pizza Express, businesses across all sectors are benefiting from the use of customer analytics. These days, it is unusual to find a company that does not analyse customer data, even in its simplest form. Customer analytics may fall under business intelligence, marketing operations, finance or even customer support, but wherever it lies it will have the potential to improve the optimisation of sales and marketing functions.
Companies often want to know which products or services specific customers are most likely to purchase, which customers need a nudge to help…
Using customer insight to improve product/market fit?
Building a brand from scratch...
I have worked on over 20 branding projects – from start-ups to government institutions.
And in every case, we needed to know the environment of the brand, the shareholders, the stakeholders, the key influencers and key beneficiaries. I needed to know who will be affected by change and what change in selected part of environment I want to achieve.
With brand building at the beginning - there is nothing.
I have a piece of paper and a pen.
For past couple of years I strived to work in 3 steps.
Target (aim of the action)
Tool (defining and choosing the best tool)
Action (don't think - act)
So if my aim is to:
Achieve product/market fit with my brand I have to:
Know my product and know the target market
and then implement that knowledge.
So everything starts with blank piece of paper on which we have to organize the knowledge that we have…
