The goal of market research is to help an organization achieve their business objectives by providing fact-based analyses as to what consumers want and how much money they are willing to spend. It eliminates intuition and emotion from the decision-making process and reduces business risks.

A market research project should always begin with defining the problem or opportunity to be studied. In addition, key objectives and goals for the study need to be outlined. The purpose and goals of the study, guide the techniques used to gather data, and influence the choice of information sources to consult for analyzing the data in relation to market trends.

Methods for Conducting Market Research

There are two methods for conducting market research: primary and secondary. Primary research is used when specific information is needed about the organization’s products or services and client satisfaction. For example, what improvements would clients recommend for the organization’s website? Secondary research is used to collect information from existing sources. For example, Forbes magazine ranks the best websites by industry categories.

Selecting which technique(s) to use depends upon two factors:

1. The amount of time available to conduct the research
2. The amount of money allocated for this purpose

Optimal results are obtained with a combination of primary and secondary data gathering, but market researchers often do not have the time or budget to do both.

Primary Research

Primary research techniques gather data through surveys such as telephone, fax, postal mail, e-mail, and websites; focus groups by conducting one-on-one interviews or group discussions; test marketing, industry special interest groups (SIGs), and client advisory panels. Often professional research firms are used to ensure clients and prospects feel free to openly express their ideas and concerns. Primary research can also be conducted using registration systems via the web, over the phone, on postage-paid printed cards or software monitoring tools. Today, marketers also rely on CRM technology tools to collect data from visitors and to know which sections of the website are most visited and why.

Secondary Research

Secondary research sources are plentiful. The marketer is responsible for filtering through these resources to obtain data that fulfills the study’s purpose and objectives. These sources are available over the Internet, at libraries, government agencies, professional organizations, and colleges and universities. In addition, competitor and supplier websites also yield useful information. Today, suppliers publish well-researched and fact-filled white papers to demonstrate their expertise.

Market researchers need to apply the same creativity to their research as the market communicators apply to the promotions they produce.

Uses of Market Research

Market research results provide the critical data to determine the market strategy. These results help determine the target audience and the opportunities for a product or service. This information becomes the foundation for the market strategy SWOT analysis. From the SWOT analysis, marketing can identify the most profitable target audience for the product or service, determine if their needs will be met, and create promotion plans.

Benchmarking is another market research tool used to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities. Benchmarking includes monitoring and measuring client satisfaction or response to a marketing activity (sponsorships, gift promotions, price increases, website enhancement, and so on). By monitoring marketing activities, a marketer can determine whether changes will enhance client satisfaction or whether new product trends are emerging to pursue proactively.

Today’s technologies render a powerful means of transparency and accountability. If your contracted marketing consultant cannot prove a direct correlation between what they do and how what they do adds to your bottom-line, I say, you are doing nothing more than wasting your marketing dollars and only fooling your stakeholders (spray and pray). I believe it is high time to demand proof for claims promised before ever paying the bill. I say, never enter into a business marketing agreement without precisely knowing what kind of a specific return you will obtain from your organization’s marketing and advertising investment.

If you are pitched by a so-called marketing maven who promises high results, then I would strongly suggest you enter into an agreement that explicitly states you will only pay the invoice once all the numbers add up. If what you are promised by the marketer does not materialize, then you should never be expected to pay the bill for a service that has not been rendered as promised. I call the practice, “Performance-based marketing.” That is, the marketing firm is paid after results have been proven, and not one second before the final tally is in.

Any top-ranked marketing consultant should understand and perform the following strategies on behalf of your organization:

• Business Definition, Mission, and Goals Report
• SWOT Analysis
• Cage Analysis
• Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion, and Place) Strategy
• Marketing Channel Strategy
• Supply Chain and Distribution Analysis
• Advertising Media Plan
• Marketing Risk Assessment
• Financial Marketing Analysis
• Integrated Marketing Communication Management Plan
• Schedule and Completion Time Table
• Metrics and Statistics Analysis Strategy
• Comprehensive Marketing Plan

Let’s see how those fast-talking, over-zealous, and over-promising business marketing consultants run for the hills when they find out you will not cut a hefty retainer check; and that you will only pay for what they can accurately prove once their efforts have been undeniably proven.

The good news is that with a few essential tweaks, you can convert your wasted time into profitable earning’s time.

According to MSNBC (2008), in 2008, advertising marketing powerhouse, Weiden & Kennedy lost a $1.74 billion dollar account over lack of SEO and Digital interaction. Ultimately, this opened the door for Crispin, who won the hefty NIKE account. In the economy of today’s highly competitive advertising cyber sphere, marketers must develop and implement effective advertising media measurement strategies. In other words, marketers must be able to show a direct correlation (follow-the-money) from the moment of prospect capture all the way through to the point of sale. Look at it this way, when you make a television or radio media buy, your results will be highly suspect at best. Common TV and radio audience sampling methods are light-years from accuracy when compared to methods now being deployed across the online digital landscape.

For example, while Neilson samples one out of every 10,000 households, online media experts such as Google and Microsoft are able to identify each prospect demographically, psychographically, and geographically with near pinpoint accuracy. The bottom-line for marketers is to be able to accurately measure “prospect-to-sale” conversion rates in order to attain the highest return on their investment (ROI). In days past, marketing consultants could render results “subjectively” in an effort to keep their clients satisfied (or in the dark). In today’s marketing environment, we, as marketing leaders must be able to prove our value to our clients with 100% certainty. In other words, in order to “honestly” and “ethically” claim victory, we must be able to clearly show our clients the specific connection between our marketing management efforts (advertising media plan) straight through to the point of sale.

We refer to this process as the “marketing chain of evidence.”

Leading marketers of today’s “common era” must be able to systematically present to their valuable clients a clearly defined roadmap that gives credit for the sale where that credit is authentically due. In others words, as marketing consultants, we must present our marketing chain of evidence “objectively” rather than the old school method which is highly subjective at best. In order for our clients to remain confident in our abilities, we must be able to unquestionably prove our worth by allowing our clients to follow-the-money.

References

MSNBC.com (2008). Is the swoosh losing its charm? Retrieved on March 24, 2012 from MSNBC website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14953138/

Author: Tony Marino, Senior Business Marketing Consultant
Trinity Web Works: http://www.TrinityWebWorks.com
Telephone: 213-325-0977

No matter what reason you’re exploring the idea of a Facebook contest or sweepstakes, it’s a marketing tactic that countless companies have leveraged. It’s no surprise: The number of Facebook users has jumped 45% over the past 12 months. Facebook is now the most popular tool among marketers who use social media.

While the payoff can be big, holding a successful contest takes in-depth planning. We’ll outline how to determine if you should do a contest and how to go about planning and executing your promotion.

Facebook Contests for Customer Engagement
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR MARKETERS
Free Download: Click here

The psychological properties of the 11 basic colors:

Source: www.colour-affects.co.uk
Marketing Week, 11 October 2007, pp 28-29.

Quick Tips on Disclosure Requirements

Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guides: What People are Asking
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus71-ftcs-revised-endorsement-guideswhat-people-are-asking

Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
http://business.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/bus41-dot-com-disclosures-information-about-online-advertising.pdf

Certainly, it may be understandable that TV and radio operators need to generate advertising revenues, but how far will they go when it comes to the number of commercial minutes placed within their programming schedule? It has become apparent that with the inception of digital video recording, consumers are indeed skipping past commercial content. Perhaps this is what is causing media operations to ramp up the spot breaks. The big question is, “who wins at the end of the day?” At present, through the magic of digital recording devices and applications, the consumers are the victors. If no one is watching the paid advertising, what benefit does this render to the advertiser? If the advertiser becomes dissatisfied, how will this benefit the media operators in the long run?

It is no secret that Google and other online marketing networks have learned how to more effectively place their advertiser’s products and services strategically before the eyes and ears of a measurably specific target audience. In other words, why place an advertisement for women’s apparel in front of a male consumer. Through the art and science of technology, these online marketing platforms have discovered not only what advertisements to show where, but where to show the advertisement, and to who would be most interested in an advertiser’s specific product or service. On top of smart target market practices, these online marketing networks are able to deliver to their valuable advertisers accurate and timely statistics and metrics (analytics) to help advertiser fine tune their offering with an even greater degree of marketing success.

In our opinion, if TV and radio operators could balance their spot breaks with advertisements that strategically target the program’s specific viewer or listener, perhaps consumers will be far more willing to sit through commercial breaks. We believe terrestrial media organizations are fully aware of their current weaknesses and limitations, but the larger question is, will they be able to beat companies like Google to punch? If online marketing networks, with their powerful and highly-relative consumer behavior databases make their way to the terrestrial airwaves before the old school media operators can figure it out, we just might find these organizations aligning with, or at the very least, being acquiring by their online advertising competition.

Who do you think will win this race?

The moral of this story is that we must fervently consider the wants and needs of the today’s consumer. We must accurately develop products and services that are specifically designed to achieve a consumer goal, solve a consumer problem, or satisfy a consumer need. We must determine where these consumers are and place our targeted messages before their very eyes and their very ears.

Happy Marketing!

This article was written by Trinity Web Works founder, Tony Marino. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

Reinventing the Corporation

Corporate leaders are looking for ways to take advantage of an organization’s capabilities, grow business and stay ahead of the competition. They are looking for more than veiled improvements, quick fixes, and fad programs. In order to succeed in this effort, organizations are actually reinventing themselves. This means that companies are making long range, strategic plans and core changes to the way they do business which requires a systematic approach to organizational development. Organizational development is a long-range effort to improve an organization’s problem-solving and renewal processes. Through instituting changes, companies take on new characteristics in vision, mission and process. This does not, however, always happen seamlessly.

The Challenges of Change

Where there are changes there are challenges. Organizations are systems and when the smallest change is implemented; its effects are felt throughout the organization. Unfortunately, there are numerous external factors that often pressure organizations to change such as; technology, competition, social trends, increasing diversity within the workforce, economic shocks, and unpredictable world politics. The challenge for organizations is keeping up with the pace at which change is occurring without running the risk of destabilization.

The truth is that organizations must be able to maintain equilibrium between stability and innovation. The challenge is to remain balanced enough to give a sense of being grounded without becoming stuck and unable to respond to changes in the environment. Stability should not be such that it eliminates innovation.

While reactive ability is necessary, managers must do more than that, they must also be able to anticipate the changing patterns of people, markets, products and technology. Another challenge, then, is actively creating a climate within the organization that embraces creativity and innovation. Accepting this as an overhead budget condition requires commitment from top level management.

Changing the Corporate Culture

Organizational culture is described as, “The way we do business around here.” Before the early 1980s the issue of culture was restricted to anthropology. Organizational culture, however, became an organizational concern after the publication of Deal and Kennedy’s book, Corporate Cultures; The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life.

Today corporate culture is referred to in terms of norms, shared values and basic assumptions understood and shared by members of the organization. As change is discussed, the impact on corporate culture needs to be taken seriously. In fact, the focus of organizational development is to improve an organization’s self-renewal process so managers can quickly initiate changes to the corporate culture to meet emergent problems. Tomorrow’s leaders are likely to be those who are flexible, innovative, and able to conceptualize both the necessity of change and the impact change will have on all the facets and members of the organization itself.

Reference

Deal, T. & Kennedy, A. (1982). Corporate cultures: The rites and rituals of corporate life. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

Models and Normative Approaches

One outcome of OD is increased learning or capacity of the organization to do for itself. Understanding how to measure both quantitatively and qualitatively its “health” is essential to that goal. One method of diagnosis is to use models to describe “effectiveness.” Competitive analysis approaches to diagnosis compare firms to others in their industry (or to one they aspire to imitate). Another popular approach is to describe the idealized organization, undertaking a comparison between that and its current state. All approaches spotlight or identify “performance gaps” as a prerequisite for creating planned change.

Collaboration in Diagnosis

When diagnosis is a collaborative process, it supports the aims of OD and establishes learning as a key value. Deciding what to measure; who will be involved; and how to collect, analyze, and report on the information should be a collaborative process between the consultant or practitioner and the organization. Understanding how the organization approaches these tasks helps build a picture of how problems are managed. It also helps define what problems exist. Not only does the problem need to be addressed but the entity (whether a person, group, or total system) also needs to learn how to prevent or avoid this situation in the future. In reality, progress is made even when the same problem is repeated but is resolved more quickly and efficiently.

Diagnosis is no guarantee of change. Sometimes “fixes” are too costly or impossible— then palliative measures may be chosen as the best course of action. At other times, the system or people may choose not to proceed from diagnosis to an action stage, allowing “natural evolution” to unfold.

Promoting Positive Change

Principles of valid information, non-judgmental discussion of the information, and allowing free choice to reinforce the positive values of OD are at the core of “action” learning, and they establish conditions that promote effective change. Organizations at all levels exhibit resistance to change. Even when problems arise and are recognized, action is not always taken. Assessing the likelihood of compliance (the willingness and capability to change), therefore, is critical. Involvement by stakeholders during diagnosis helps reduce resistance and provides more information about how to implement change. This participation is critical to clarity, commitment, and effective execution of the change plan. It is one mechanism OD consultants use to help organizations, groups, and individuals learn how to build mutually beneficial relationships. These four factors—clarity, commitment, execution, and mutually beneficial relationships—form the basis for learning, growth, organizational effectiveness, and increased capacity to manage change.

Generating valid information, presenting it in a non-judgmental or non-evaluative manner, and allowing people in the organization the freedom of choice also promote positive change and are critical to upholding inherent OD values. Participation should promote these aims. Planned change can happen without participation but it will not meet the values of OD and will create ethical concerns.