Learn all about market research tools and techniques in this handy book, from our ebook collection. The tools you need range from data mining to statistical research methodologies, from survey questions to focus groups.
This guide is dedicated to marketers who want to learn everything about mini marketing research examples. It provides the most important market research tools and techniques, introduces how to identify consumer needs. Market research guide will teach you how to find the information that meets your needs the most accurately.
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One-on-One Interviews
One-on-one interviews are conducted in a similar manner to focus groups, but with one person. One-on-one interviews go a step beyond typical personal interviews. Company managers use these interviews to watch someone actually use their product.
For example, a computer software firm may want to test a new program, so they set up a computer and watch as individuals use the software. Like focus groups, managers observe behind one-way mirrors. Moderators then sit in the room with each person and ask them questions, including how they like the software, or how easy it is to use. Companies then determine whether they need to make changes to the software, based on actual consumer usage.
Questionnaires
Some companies choose to perform market research by sending questionnaires to their existing customers or users who have shown interest in their product or service. A company may ask the customer or person to fill out a survey while in the store or they may send out a survey via mail or email. Examples of questions that a questionnaire may ask include:
- What benefits do you get from this product?
- How does this product compare to other products like it that you’ve used?
- What would you change about this product?
- What would make you a perfect company or brand?
- What is your primary method of communication (for future questionnaires or marketing efforts)?
- What made you purchase this product from our company?
- What features are the most valuable to you?
- Where do you typically do your shopping?
- What income range are you in?
- How old you are?
- What gender do you identify with?
Conducting Phone Surveys
Companies use phone surveys to further validate information obtained from focus groups and one-on-one interviews. Marketers conduct phone surveys among higher numbers of consumers and customers. Consequently, data obtained from the higher number of phone surveys are more indicative of what the average consumer thinks about a particular product or service.
For example, a bank may conduct 300 phone surveys to measure how satisfied customers are with its customer service. Marketers would develop a questionnaire from which to ask the questions. This may include key measurable elements like friendliness, timeliness and accuracy in the questionnaire, and then ask customers to rate those elements on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest rating. The bank may ask customers to elaborate on their responses, which the bank manager could then use to make improvements in customer service.
Observation
Watching how customers use your products or services is a quick way to spot potential problems, such as how difficult it is for customers to navigate your online store. Observation spans a huge range of applications – from browsing habits on a website to watching the flow of traffic into and out of a car park.
How does observation work?
Observation is a type of qualitative market research, where you gather insights and information by watching people go through a series of activities. Observation is usually hidden – for example using online customer monitoring software such as LuckyOrange or through security cameras – though some might be overt, such as walking with a customer around a store. They don’t have to take place in special rooms or labs; observing customers in shops, restaurants or even out-and-about are all valid approaches.
Advantages of observation – While you always need permission and full consent from a subject, if you’re able to watch them covertly subjects often behave more naturally and show their true actions, rather than their ‘ideal selves’ that they typically show to strangers.
Disadvantages of observation – Observation is time-consuming and expensive. Researchers have little control over the situations and environments typically used in observational research, and sometimes the act of observing can bias results or influence the situation. Someone who knows they’re being observed may act less naturally.
Using Test Marketing
Companies often take marketing research one step further with test marketing. For example, the restaurant company may actually roll its chicken meal out into five of its 10 local restaurants, advertising the meal on local television and radio and through coupon magazine ads. Corporate marketing managers may then track sales and profits to validate the success of the new meal. The restaurant would then know if its marketing research was an accurate indicator of success.
Testing
Testing focuses on learning about people’s experiences. Often used in later stages of product development, it’s a chance for potential customers to test out your product or service. It can be used to ensure a product is fit for market – such as being robust enough when handled – to getting feedback on how a product works.
Any time that your customers try a new product or service is technically a test – for example, a restaurant chain may place a new dish on the menu, advertising the dish with discounts and money-off coupons. Sales of the new dish can then be tracked to validate its success, and feedback sought from customers as to whether they liked it.
Advantages of testing – Testing can result in specific feedback that can help hone a product. By letting customers test a product, any rough edges can be refined before rolling it out on a larger scale. Testing also puts the product in a real-world environment, which can throw up usability issues that otherwise wouldn’t have been spotted.
Disadvantages of testing – It can sometimes be expensive and time-consuming, and some companies can often overlook this stage because it happens quite far into the development cycle.
The Use of Focus Groups
Focus groups are usually conducted at focus group facilities. These facilities have one-way mirrors so managers can listen to consumers’ feedback about their products and services. A moderator, or special interviewer, usually runs the focus group. She develops a discussion guide of five to 10 questions related to the product. She then asks participants various questions about the product. The ideal size for a focus group is six to 10 people.
A moderator may speak to customers about a small restaurant’s new chicken sandwich meal. She may ask them if they like the idea of a new chicken sandwich, how much they would pay for it and whether or not they would purchase it. Companies often use focus groups to narrow several versions of a product down to the best offering.
Mini Case Study #1: Looking beyond average customers led to 40% increase in website conversion for tourism company
“We continually review our sales and marketing data. However, there are occasionally surprises that are so significant that they force us to reevaluate tenets of our industry, according to Casey Halloran, Co-Founder & CEO of Costa Rican Vacations.
The issue with average data is that it is average, according to an old proverb that I may be misquoting. We discovered this the difficult way,” he remarked.
The business routinely looked at average client spend, average stay length, and average number of travelers. However, one day the group decided to examine the data using standard deviations and clusters. They discovered that their earlier dependence on average statistics was giving them a false picture of actual client behavior.
“Our over reliance on the average kept us from understanding how radically different the outliers were from this norm. In reality, there weren’t many actual clients who resembled this “typical client” at all! said Halloran.
As a result of this revelation, the website’s search and product selection have changed to better serve the bell curve’s outliers rather than what Halloran refers to as the “mythical typical consumer.” The website’s conversion rate increased by 40% as a result of these adjustments.
For instance, the slider for the site’s finder tool’s total budget was raised to a maximum of $20,000.
Creative Sample #1: New homepage search
“Sometimes you gotta slice the data differently and, ideally, by third parties who don’t care about your old assumptions,” Halloran advised.
Mini Case Study #2: Segmenting CLTV helps technology research firm make smarter investments
Here’s another illustration of how to go beyond average figures and delve deeper into the data to gain insights regarding your customers.
Customer lifetime value (CLTV), according to SoftwarePundit, was estimated to be roughly $200. Based on the average of the total client base, this amount was computed. Average order value (AOV), order frequency, gross margin, and turnover were significant factors into the equation.
When analyzing our churn data, we discovered that a significant portion of our customers were one-time buyers, and if a customer made a few purchases in the first few months, they essentially never left. We chose to segment and recalculate our CLTV because turnover is a significant factor, said Bruce Hogan, CEO of SoftwarePundit.
The team found that a significant portion of its client base had a CLTV of $20 or less and a significant portion had a CLTV of $1,000 or more.
Hogan stated that “this understanding had two important effects on our marketing.” Assuming the team could determine the consumers weren’t one-time buyers, it first boosted the amount of money they could spend on gaining customers.
Second, they conducted a number of lifecycle marketing trials with the goal of encouraging first-time buyers to make repeat purchases early in their lifecycles. They discovered a few strategies through A/B testing that encouraged customers to make additional purchases, and for a tiny percentage of them, this became a habit that raised CLTV.
For instance, they send emails with coupons for discounts of between 10% and 20% off future orders. The coupons produced the greatest absolute gain in recurring customers out of all the strategies they evaluated. However, the majority of consumers who used the coupons did not continue to shop regularly after they were no longer being given.
Product recommendations were a further beneficial strategy. The data science team at the business determined which items consumers most frequently ordered in their second and third orders. In addition to email promotions and social network targeting, first-time consumers would see advertisements for these products when they returned to the website. Compared to the coupons, this strategy had a better ROI, but it did not have as much of an overall impact.
Segmenting CLTV is essential. Having an exact average CLTV is preferable to not having a reliable number. However, there’s a significant likelihood that this number doesn’t accurately reflect the CLTV of any one segment. You may free up additional funds for acquisition marketing and find experiments that will raise CLTV by segmenting your CLTV, according to Hogan.
Mini Case Study #3: Thanks to targeted SEO marketing, the reviews website received 178 high-quality links in just two months.
In order to establish a solid SEO for his website, Trond Nyland, the founder and CEO of Mattress Review, used tried-and-true SEO strategies like guest posting and blogger outreach to acquire a ton of links from high-quality websites.
Nyland targeted this outreach using a data-driven strategy. “We used Ahrefs to gather information on which top-notch websites distribute a lot of backlinks. We intentionally targeted these websites because we believed they would be the most likely to link to us, Nyland said.
These high-potential websites were where his team concentrated 80% of its efforts. After two months, they had only received eight links from all other websites and roughly 170 links from high-potential websites. By focusing on websites that statistically distribute a lot of connections, efficiency has increased by more than 400%. “Data is still alive! Nyland remarked.
Using this focused strategy, the team was able to achieve a Domain Rating of 51 in around four to five months.
Conclusion:
The Mini Marketing Research Example is a simple tool with an unbelievable number of marketing research applications. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, telephone interviews are just some of the ways data can be collected. The Mini Marketing Research example is also great for getting feedback from all age brackets.