Marketing Research Blog with Academic Rigor

Exploratory surveys are often conducted in the discovery phase. They aim to: Identify unsolved problems Formulate the problem in accurate and detailed terms Identify alternative, viable solutions to the problem Usually of a qualitative nature, these kinds of studies interview (or/and observe) small groups of experts (persons knowledgeable about the...

Interest in the concept of measuring customer satisfaction is growing. More and more companies want to know how satisfied their customers are. At the same time an increasing number of decision-makers are realizing that measuring overall satisfaction alone isn’t enough. They want to know how much overall satisfaction increases when...

Shame on YouGov! Did their market research survey really miss the outcome of the Brexit consultation? Not quite. If you hit your finger while hammering a nail into the wall, do not blame the hammer. The media circuit is responsible for having broadcasted inaccurate information. I must confirm that I...

The overall objective of the Usage and Attitude (U&A) marketing research study is to understand consumer behavior in order to influence it. The U&A is a flexible marketing research method that enables you to both explore market environments and describe how the market actors behave. AA&U, Awareness Attitude & Usage,...

Descriptive surveys are traditionally used to measure the intensity of the problem object of the study. This is by far the most common kind of marketing research study. Typically of a quantitative nature, descriptive research can help in making predictions and estimates. However, only when we know exactly what we...

What market research do I need? This is a question frequently asked by modern decision-makers, especially less-expert marketing research users. A useful way to find an answer is to begin with the stage of the lifecycle your product or idea is in. Each stage of the lifecycle points to certain...

What is the difference between Digital Marketing and Strategic Marketing? Don’t let them fool you with terms like online marketing, Internet marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, and you name it. There are no such things. They do NOT exist. There is only one marketing and it is called Strategic Marketing. Granted, the...

Today we discuss how to handle big data with Excel. This article is for marketers such as brand builders, marketing officers, business analysts and the like, who want to be hands-on with data, even when it is a lot of data.   Why bother dealing with big data? If you...

The good thing of online surveys sites like SurveyMonkey and others is that they make it easy to gather survey data. The bad news is that important surveys should never be analyzed with the standard reporting tools these sites offer. Important surveys deserve professional survey reports. What survey sample size? How large should be...

Copy test is the marketing research method used to identify the preferred advertisement by a sample of the target population the ad speaks to. Every advertisement, be it a video, radio, online, billboard, or other kind of ad, relies on copy intended to convince the audience to take action in...

To analyze markets we rely on at least three key measures: Dimension, tendency, and segments. Typically, useful market segments do not exceed 2 to 4. A market segment is a part of a whole market and can be defined according to three criteria. It is: Large enough (in volume, value, number of customers, or other...

On insight discovery - Recently I spoke with a Brand Director about how to find market space he can win and defend in the long run. The discussion shifted on the meaning of information and insights and, after an interesting debate on what’s insight at all[1], we found agreement by...

The strategy plan is about how companies doing real marketing make choices and create sharp strategies meant to win in the marketplace. This article on the strategy plan discusses the relevant strategic elements of a brand and introduces ways to think about strategies for brand building.   Strategy plan: Where...

The Concept test is marketing research conducted to assess the acceptance of a concept. The acceptance is one of the three pillars of the Product Strategy. Therefore, we understand the Concept test as an early marketing research activity that aims to verify the end-user acceptance, hence preference, of a product...

The execution of a product advertisement is governed by the Copy Strategy. Whether we create it ourselves or we work with an agency, how can we confirm the quality of the ad beyond “I like it” and gut-driven judgment? Three main elements help us with this endeavor: (more…)

Causal marketing research studies apply to the experimental phase. They help to identify the cause of what we are predicting and the effect it exerts. For instance, a question that can be addressed by means of a causal study reads: Did the price cut cause the increase in sales? Experimentation...

The Price test confirms that it is not the price that sells the product. It is the value that makes the customer willing to pay. Therefore, marketing research for pricing purposes should help to identify the price range that guarantees a level of margin and market share that maximizes long-term...

Human behavior can be investigated with habit studies to identify and describe routines, processes and procedures people follow when doing what they do. The overall objective of the study of human behavior and people’s habits is to discover automated, repetitive behaviors that, when modified, could extend brand success. Habits are...

The Price Strategy defines the criteria to set the price level. It must be measurable without mentioning the price itself. For instance, the price strategy of an iconic brand we all know was: [BRAND X] should deliver superior profitability at a price on parity with competitors with comparable product performance and marketing support. The...

With a Product test we verify that the product meets the expectations of the customer. Although the core measure of a Product test is the acceptance level (preference) judged by product users, there is not one single way of designing a Product test and there are different ways to measure...

Satisfaction surveys monitor the level of satisfaction of customers, employees, or other group of people concerning selected activities executed by a company, brand or other entity. Trying to relate satisfaction to sales levels, market share, brand loyalty or other metric is wrong because these measures result from the nested effect...

The A/B test is used to confirm that a given outcome was caused by a certain stimulus. The A/B test is the modern version of the Split-Run test (SRT), an experimental framework used for over a century. Originally used to test the performance of two variations of the same advertisement,...

There are three kinds of products: Those with a benefit (the brand promise), with a support to the promise, and with tonality of communication – cosmetics, detergents, and most B2B products are of this kind. Those without a benefit, but with a support to the promise, and tonality of communication – for instance certain biscuits, candies, etc. And products with tonality only – like...

Pragmatically speaking, marketing research follows a three-phase looping cycle: Discovery of the problem Measurement of the intensity of the problem Experimentation to change the effect relatable to the problem Following on the scientific method, each phase of the marketing research cycle relies on a peculiar research approach. It must be...

Marketing is about creating and executing strategies, and there are several, connected strategies in a strategic plan. The marketing strategy helps make sense of all the strands of a brand’s strategic plan, but it is also the strategy many marketers (and instructors) struggle with. In this article, we discuss two...

The communication strategy governs all of a brand’s communication activities. There are two parts: Copy strategy. The Copy defines what motivates customers to prefer your brand over a competitor’s brand. Media strategy. This determines how to bring the copy to the customer. This post discusses marketing research studies for the...

Segmentation and differentiation are perhaps the most powerful weapons in the marketing arsenal. Yet they are also the least understood. Why? Because way too often marketers do not understand customers. They can talk products, but features don’t make products different. This article aims to shed some light on how to create...

Brands communicate in three main ways: Mass advertising, Promotions, and Public Relations. The weight, in terms of budget allocation, placed on each way depends on the industry the brand competes in. In all cases brand communication must be ruled strategically, choosing different strategies. What is the Communication Strategy? The Communication...

Marketing is about creating and executing strategies.  If you are not doing that chances are you are doing something else than marketing. To create strategies marketers should begin from the company Statement of Purpose. The relevant strategies in marketing can be found in our post 10 key elements of brand strategy. How to set...

A product survey can test the elements of the Product Strategy, both in the lab and on the field. Do you remember those “Before and After” ads for laundry detergents, or the absorbance test for paper towels? In order to show those lab results on TV they had to demonstrate...

The creation of the Product Strategy is led by the question "What makes a successful product?" The Product Strategy has three elements: Technical performance. How the product works Design. How the product looks Acceptance. The preference of customers A successful product is one that customers prefer for its performance and...

On strategic marketing and strategy Michael Porter wrote [1]: …many strategic plans are lists of action steps without a clear articulation of what competitive advantage the firm has or seeks to achieve and how. Over 30 years later not much improvement has happened. Why? Because the concepts of Differentiation, Segmentation, and Value...

The Pricing Strategy defines the criteria to set a proper price. It doesn’t set the price itself, because the price is an operating value and does not belong to a strategic document. An example may help to explain the concept. The Pricing Strategy of an iconic brand most of us...

Chances are your company isn’t ready to profit from the alluring promises of data analytics. You need to learn how to make and test hypotheses at scale before you can earn the title of Analytical Company. Read further. I am going to tell you how to develop analytical skills to...

Creating an advertising strategy that delivers what it promises is a long process built on coherence. First off you need the magic ingredient that makes your product truly different and better. Then you think profit. And only then comes the advertising and copy strategy. Keep reading. Using a real case...

Defining customer satisfaction with a single value, like the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), Net Promoter Score (NPS®), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), or other index, may prove ineffective and expensive. (more…)