Internet Coaching Library > Site Links > Internet Market
Research
Great Market
Research on a Budget
by Enrique De
Argaez, MBA, P.E., webmaster
Every day thousands of marketing
research studies and surveys are conducted asking hundreds of
thousands of questions. However, much of the information
collected is not put into use because it is irrelevant. In other
words: garbage in, garbage out. There are no bad questions, only
irrelevant ones. In other words, the majority of questions asked
are irrelevant. That is, they don't result in answers that lead
to actions.
The purpose of marketing
research is to provide marketers with information that leads to
actions that, in turn, lead to making more money. While
interesting information might be food for the intellect, it is
usually a waste of money unless it leads to action.
The challenge to any marketer is getting the absolute most out of
his or her marketing research investment, therefore, it is in
asking questions relating to areas where action is possible that
great research starts. The trick, of course, is knowing what
questions to ask.
To put you on the right track
to finding the right survey questions here are six
tips:
1. Don't be
lazy.
Marketers are amazingly lazy
when it comes to marketing research. They find it less
mind-numbing to ask lots and lots of questions, in the hope that
at least some will be the right ones, than to struggle through a
winnowing process to determine which ones are pivotal. Long,
rambling, expensive questionnaires feed the common wisdom that
asking every possible question means asking at least some that
are relevant.
Getting lots of answers isn't
itself the problem. Rather, the trick is knowing the ones on
which to hang your marketing dollars—and maybe even your
job. A little bit of anticipation when planning your research
projects will produce far fewer and far more meaningful
questions.
2. Understand
leverage.
Leverage speaks to the essence
of meaningful research. Is your greatest opportunity for growth
in selling more to current customers? Trying to recapture lost
customers? Attracting new ones? Is it in energizing your current
sales people or enlarging the sales force? Is it in adding new
products or services?
Many marketers will cop out by
saying all these leverage points are important. And they are. But
unless you have a Microsoft or General Foods research budget,
it's likely you don't have the funds available to address them
all at once and achieve results that are meaningful for any one
of them. The most actionable research should focus on the one or
two leverage points that will produce the most immediate sales
results.
3. KISS (keep it simple,
stupid).
Asking the right questions only
happens when you know where action is possible. It's pointless to
ask questions about customer service if you are not ready to make
improvements to the service that you provide. It's pointless to
know that your product no longer meets the needs of the
marketplace, unless you're willing to change it.
Many marketers think that
knowing such things might let them face the future on a more
informed basis. Maybe so—but so what? They have simply
uncovered information that they can't use now to improve their
business.
When you get the answer to just
one question where you can and will immediately take action to
improve your business, all you need to do is ask that one
question. If there are two or more questions with results that
will move you to action, ask those.
If you want to cloud the issue
by asking a bunch of other questions just in case you don't like
the answers you get to the relevant ones, you always have that
choice. But it's a cowardly way out. Keep this in mind: One of
the biggest reasons companies fail to get everything they can
from marketing research is because they are frozen into inaction
by too much information.
4. Anticipate answers,
anticipate actions.
It takes time and often
mind-numbing work to anticipate the actions you'd take as a
result of research. For example:
* If your intention is that
your advertising communicates your product as high quality, and
research shows that 33% of your prospects feel that is in fact
what is being communicated—is that good enough? If not,
what would you do?
* If you find out that 80% of
your prospects buy from your main competitor because they have
after-the-sale support that you don't offer, are you happy with
the 20% share you are getting or are you willing to offer the
same services to meet your competitor head on? If not, what would
you do?
* If your research shows that
20% of your customers rate your sales or customer service people
as excellent, but 50% rate them only as good, what do you do with
that information? If you are not willing to take action that
moves customers from a very good to an excellent rating, what
would you do instead?
In each of these examples, you
will have likely wasted your research dollars if you fail to
anticipate action steps before the research results are
available. It's far too easy to rationalize your to way inaction
when you haven't set predetermined action steps.
5. Anticipate economic
realities.
Over and over again, companies
collect research data under the false assumption that data will
dictate action. Think about the marketing director who says, "How
can I know what I'll do with the information until I see it? Once
the data is available, then I'll know how much I can afford spend
to address the situation."
That mindset is self-defeating.
There is simply no point in collecting data without a nod to at
least minimal economic realities. The company that learns it
loses customers because its telephone sales operation is too
slow, but can't afford to hire additional salespeople, has wasted
its research dollars. The food company that can't afford to
extend its product line to address consumer flavor preferences
has wasted its money by learning that the current product lineup
is limiting its growth. And, clearly, the examples are
limitless.
6. Asking the right
questions.
Here is where the rubber meets
the road. At the outset, the more you know about your customers
and prospects, the better sense you'll have where that
information could lead to action. When there is little
information to help frame the questions, it is doubly important
to anticipate possible actions. Whether you are swimming in past
research or starting from scratch, try the following exercise
when planning your next research project:
1. If you had the answer to one
question that would grow your business in the next six months,
what would that be?
2. What are the potential
answers that you might get from research into question
1.
3. Write down three actions
that you could afford to take for each answer you listed in
question 2.
4. Show what you have written
for points 1, 2 and 3 to a business associate and ask that person
to rephrase your question. That is, ask how to state your
question in another way, from another point of view, using
different wording.
5. Have your associate write
down the potential answers that he or she might get from research
into question 4.
6. Then, referring to point 5,
write down three actions that you could afford to take based on
the questions and answers your associate created.
7. Repeat this process with
other associates until you are crystal clear about which
questions being asked are the right ones, what the potential
answers might be and in what areas you can afford to take
action.
This simple process will allow
you to view your question from various points of view and look at
action steps from various questioning perspectives. Realize that
it is normal to ask a series of questions to generate information
that will lead to action. The point is, you should be narrowing
your questions to the point where the answers do, in fact, lead
to clear actions that you are willing to take.
Generally, answers to one set
of questions will lead to another set of questions. Information
sometimes creates the need for more information. Even if the
questions asked are the right ones, know that there is the
terrible tendency for marketers NOT to take actions that they had
planned beforehand.
Instead, they are tempted into
conducting additional research to address the new questions that
are raised. This is called research for the sake of research, and
the research suppliers are the only ones that make any money from
it.
Conducting research and then
not using what you learned is a waste of time and money, as well
as a self-defeating proposition. Be prepared to take action from
the results you get, otherwise save the money you've invested in
market research.
Enrique De Argaez
About the Author:
Enrique De Argaez is the webmaster of the
"Internet World Stats" website.
Since 2000 he has been collecting Internet Usage Statistics, and
publishing the data for over 233 countries and regions of the
world for free use by the academia, the global business community
and the general public. For more information on Internet World
Usage, visit his web site at: http://www.InternetWorldStats.com
