Market Research is recognized by business experts as being fundamental to successful business planning and strategy – so if you’re overlooking research perhaps it’s time to have a rethink.

Whilst ‘Agile’ thinking and product development might suggest there would be an increasing number of new products hitting the supermarkets… the reality is somewhat different. Indeed, the number of new products being launched by manufacturers into UK retail stores is falling significantly according to an IRI study in August 2016.

The retail research shows that whilst major retailers like Tesco cut their ranges to remove slower selling items, resulting in 1,000 fewer packaged grocery items on shelves (a drop of 6.3%), the study also shows that 13% fewer new branded items were launched in 2015 compared with 2013. These figures suggest that brands must be thorough in their NPD and ensure failure is not an option.

In today’s affluent society people are no longer driven by needs and necessities, they are driven by desires and whims – a world where ‘emotions’ are dominant. So how do you fulfill customers’ demands, maintain customer loyalty and grow your customer base in the fast-moving world we live in today? Ultimately understanding the customer and what influences them is essential to brand survival in the modern world full of so much choice.

Getting the best customer insights is the domain of market research and insight agencies. These professional market research agencies can help brand owners improve their business by listening to their customers. Their expert insights are invaluable and provide the cornerstone for any strategic decisions critical for a company’s long-term survival and success.

 

 

The Wisdom of Crowds

Research is extremely powerful and has been shown to be more powerful than any expert individual. One reason for this is that research builds on the proven notion of Crowdology and the wisdom of the crowd. As Marcus du Sautoy proved in his BBC documentary “The Code”, the crowd know far more than individuals.

Du Soutoy, repeated previous studies by taking a large jar of jellybeans and asking 160 people to guess the number of jellybeans in the jar. There were 4510 jellybeans in the jar and answers varied from 400 to 50,000, yet the average of the 160 answers was 4515, amazingly only 0.1% off the correct answer. This goes to show the importance of listening to customers.

Customer Centricity Breeds Success

Analysis of the world’s most successful companies has demonstrated that they have one thing in common, they all have a customer centric approach to their brand, product development and marketing. Whether you’re Apple, Coca-Cola or just starting up – it’s clear that strategic decisions need to be customer led. Whilst research often comes up with the unexpected, the benefit is that a good insight agency will always have the knowledge and ideas to help build a better future.

 

How Research Helps Build Strategy

Research and insight have many uses, but overall some of the Key Benefits of market research, is to help:

 

1. Identify market opportunities

Awareness enables gaps in the market to be spotted and capitalized upon.

 

2. Guide and improve your communication

Knowing the best way to interact with customers will ensure your brand makes an impact.

 

3. Minimize risks and avoid costly mistakes

With detailed knowledge of what customers are looking for there is less risk of going in the wrong direction.

 

4. Measure satisfaction and your reputation

The importance of listening to your customers so you can plan and react accordingly cannot be underestimated.

 

5. Measure Brand Equity and market positioning

Pinpoint where you stand in the market and determine the potential for growth in market share and the market as a whole.

 

6. Discover customer typologies and segments

Age, gender or hobbies can all influence spending habits. Recognize factors that affect purchasing decisions.

 

7. Better understand your competitors

Keep a close eye on them. Learn from what they do well and what they do badly.

 

8. Make informed decisions

Quality data will provide the tools to create a strategy for a successful future.

 

Professional researchers know other people’s hearts and minds at a level that most of us can only aspire to. It is easy to see why as these researchers spend their lives talking to people delving into their conscious and subconscious minds – investigating anything and everything from religion to the internet.

Good researchers will find you the most fitting method of data collection relevant for the job in hand, be it quantitative or qualitative research, or a combination of the two. Quantitative research provides facts and figures while qualitative research is more subjective but provides deeper thoughts and ideas that are ideal for discovering new solutions that can transform your business and marketing.

‘Research is an Investment’

Market research is an investment and minimizes risk.  Successful management of a brand or product involves deep knowledge of customers and competitors while looking forward.

 

For more information on Vision One and its creative insight services please visit www.visionone.co.uk or email us at [email protected]

 

Google has long dominated the search engine market, with its global share standing at an impressive 77.82% as of December 2016. Accounting for a huge slice of the search engine pie, it’s little surprise that Google AdWords is usually the go-to network for businesses eager to bolster rankings and boost their online visibility.

But bigger doesn’t always mean better and for smaller businesses, AdWords may not offer the most valuable solution. Its popularity means competition is red hot, with big brands (and big budgets) driving up costs and putting increased pressure on the smaller guys.

Your Google AdWords campaign is ticking along, but it’s possible that you could be enjoying even higher traffic and greater conversions through other PPC solutions. I’ll use a case in point: Bing Ads, AKA Microsoft’s answer to AdWords.

The thing with Bing

It may be large, but Google’s shadow is now slowly shrinking, especially in the UK. Research from last year by Net Imperative showed that Bing is outpacing the search giant in terms of growth, and now powers over one in five of all UK searches. Bing’s raking in 840 million monthly searches, so it’s bigger than you might think.

With its growing popularity in the UK, Bing presents a great opportunity for businesses with a local or national reach. Here’s some other benefits:

Less competition means lower costs 

Bing Ads uses a similar auction-based system to AdWords, but less competition, means better ad positions and cheaper Cost Per Clicks (CPCs). Search Engine Watch carried out a 45-day trial in 2016, running campaigns across both networks that were identical in set-up, bidding strategy and landing page experience. Bing came out overall as the more economical network – 63.23% cheaper to gain a conversion, and more consistent in performance. Google campaigns delivered an average conversion rate of 5.96%, while Bing’s campaigns returned an impressive rate of 8.78%.

More flexibility

If you’re running an international targeting campaign, Bing Ads offers greater flexibility in terms of time zones and locations. Unlike AdWords, you can assign different time zones to each campaign, as well as amend network, location, language and ad-scheduling at the ad group level.

Valuable insights

Bing’s Intelligence tool provides a wealth of useful information to allow marketers to closely monitor the status and impact of ads. One of its key features is the Auction Insights report, which shows marketers how they compare against similar businesses so they can sharpen their competitive edge.

Measuring campaign performance is made simple through Bing’s reporting capability, which helps businesses track budget and spend, evaluate ad and keyword performance, and create valuable insights for enhancing campaigns.

If you want to streamline your PPC efforts, Bing Ad performance can be tracked via Google Analytics, but this requires careful set-up. The issue is that Google Analytics views organic and PPC traffic from Bing as a single entity, skewing results. However, this can be remedied by tagging up your Bing PPC campaigns using Google’s handy URL builder.

Control search demographics

Though AdWords enables users to regularly view and manage demographic targeting on the Google Display Network, it currently doesn’t provide any kind of demographic-based targeting. Bing Ads, on the other hand, enables businesses to control which gender and age demographics view their search ads, resulting in highly-targeted campaigns.

The Bing all and end all?

Bing Ads has proven itself a worthy PPC solution and I believe it offers a huge range of benefits for businesses. It accounts for a smaller market share, but has the potential to earn you similar, or even better campaign results than its big brother.

Of course, there are many other ad networks out there, each with their own niches and advantages. Just a few of these include:

Facebook ads: A great starting point if your target audience are regular social media users, Facebook ads allows you to target specific demographics and trial different versions of each ad.

BuySellAds: For businesses interested in traditional banner advertising, BuySellAds is one of the largest networks out there in terms of distribution.

Nuffnang: More suited to businesses with niche markets, Nuffnang calls itself the world’s leading blog advertising community.

Ultimately, what works best for you will depend on a range of factors, from your campaign goals to your budget and target audience. If you need some guidance creating an effective, highly-targeted PPC campaign, call Mark at ID³ today on 01225 866416!

idcubed.co.uk

In this brave new Digital World, everybody talks about the importance of “content”. If you are reading this piece, the content will very quickly influence your decision about whether to continue! That may be stating the obvious, but it is easy to ignore the basic stuff in favour of the sexy bits in any plan or project. So rule number 1 is simple:

Step 1. Make sure you are booking the best venue for the event.

The criteria may vary but should always include:
• The right image, style and atmosphere to complement your brand and message
• The right environment for communicating and engaging with the participants
• The right location for optimum access, with an appropriate background setting
• The right quality at the right price, to make a positive impression

The next consideration concerns the balance of content during the event and the impact you want to make on participants.

Step 2. Design the event to reflect your objectives

Too often the venue, event format and features – such as entertainment – are chosen to please the event “sponsor”, who for example may be the company sales director or CEO. The core elements must be decided “scientifically” not emotionally which means you should:
• Design the event to influence your audience not the sponsor
• Decide in advance what changes in behaviour you want to achieve
• Agree how you will measure success
• Consult with or research your target audience for their expectations
• Ensure your service providers (venue etc) understand your event objectives

In many cases, events are part of a calendar and are repeated regularly. This situation poses twin but opposite dangers to guard against, complacency and insecurity. So a vital action to take is to review the event specification and the outline plan with the sponsor (client) at the provisional stage, before binding commitments are made.

Step 3. Get the event specification right

When a decision is made to arrange an event, the initial burst of activity usually starts with a venue search so that a date can be set and approved. From that moment forward, every suggestion will be judged by:
• how it compares with previous events
• whether it conforms with tradition or an established reputation for the event
• if it will impress the participants
• if it will impress the sponsors
• if it will make the required impression

All of these are emotional reactions and are much more likely to arise because the envisaged event is being compared with previous ones. It is important to maintain standards but it is much more important to be objective about what event content will produce the desired change in behaviour.

So, another set of questions must also be asked when deciding the specification. For this purpose, our agency believes in the power of Return on Investment Methodology. Dr Elling Hamso has helped us to appreciate the value of this approach. Event ROI planning is based on a pyramid concept which defines the event objectives as follows:
• Target audience: How do we ensure that the right people are attending?
• Learning environment: How can we design a learning environment which will make cognitive change most effective? “Atmosphere” makes a lasting impression.
• Learning objectives: What cognitive change (ie learning) is required for the participants to change their behaviour? The cognitive change might be subconscious, but something always has to change in the mind before behaviour changes.
• Behaviour objectives: What do the guests or participants at meetings and events need to do, during and after the event, to create value for the stakeholders? There will be different answers according to the target audience.
• Impact objectives: The Impact, or Business Impact, is the ultimate value contribution of the event to its stakeholders. For a customer (or channel partner) event, the Impact is usually sales. For an internal event it is typically organisational effectiveness.
• R O I objectives: Expressed in the simplest terms, ROI is the net value created by the event minus the costs. ROI can be described as a percentage of the cost of the event. Events have a value to stakeholders, who can include the event owner and funder, sponsors and participants.

Having thoroughly examined the event specification, the planning can continue until all the pieces of the puzzle are in place and the picture is complete. The next big challenge is to operate the event itself, co-ordinating disparate elements to produce an experience that delivers the desired results.

Step 4. Orchestrate the event

An event manager behaves like the conductor of an orchestra. The talents and contributions of a team of specialists are directed and controlled to achieve a collective performance that hits all the right notes! So, what in real terms does this mean for an event manager? The skills and disciplines needed to successfully orchestrate the performance include:
• Tact, patience, trust and respect for other members of the immediate team and especially for service partners contributing to the event
• Clear communication, briefing and updating on requirements at all stages
• Providing precise product quality definitions and service standard descriptions
• Consulting with the sponsor and other stakeholders at key times during the event
• Sharing a detailed working document with all team members
• Ensuring every team member knows their part and is fully equipped to perform it
• Having a contingency plan that has been approved by the sponsor and can be implemented in agreed circumstances without delay and with minimum disruption

After the event, there is one critical step remaining. If lessons are to be learned and every possibility for further improvement is to be identified, then a proper debriefing process must be conducted. Once again we turn to Dr Elling Hamso and the Event ROI Institute for guidance.

Step 5. Measure Event ROI Value

Converting Impacts to Monetary Values:
• Some business impacts are monetary, such as sales, but others need converting into money for the ROI calculation. A team building event may for example reduce absenteeism and staff turnover, improving productivity and quality control as well as saving on recruitment costs.
• Impacts which lead to time savings can be measured using a standard hourly value, which could relate to an intra-company billing rate, salary cost or opportunity cost of staff time.

Intangible Values:
• It may not be practical or economical to attempt to convert all business impacts into monetary values. Those which are not converted are referred to as “intangibles”.
• A promotional event may result in new orders or prospects, while at the same time also motivating staff and improving team relations.
• A sales value may be applied to the new orders, but the motivational effect may be left as an intangible which is not converted into money for the ROI calculation.

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CONCLUSION – THE ROI ON ROI

Irrespective of what ROI you get and how far you go in turning intangibles into money values, the benefits of applying the ROI Methodology will always outweigh the costs. The methodology forces you to identify the precise event objectives at different levels. Armed with these objectives you set about planning the event.

Because your objectives are detailed, clear and measurable, the event programme will be more focused on achieving them. Because you decide to measure, the event produces better results.

 

Performance & Event Management Ltd has developed its own contribution to event planning for clients and prospective clients, which we call the PA£M ROI T£ST©.    This test is based on the principles of Event ROI Methodology and provides a relatively quick “sense check” at the event briefing and specification stage, before the client makes financial commitments and confirms the decision to proceed.

How often do you visit a site, hoping that it will offer what you are seeking, only to find that you can’t get it there?

Or it’s too complicated to find what you’re looking for?

Or that the site fails to instil confidence in you, so you don’t trust the content?

In nearly every case it’s the failure of the planning of the site and the way the content is presented, rather than the coding, which causes the problems.

So follow these three simple rules and build a site that really works for you and brings dividends.

• Know what visitors are looking for.

Understand what your market wants from you, then design and build your site to deliver those things. I see too many sites which are designed from the inside out, rather than from the outside in: ie they are written by the organisation about the organisation, so you get a worthy overview which satisfies the boss, but adds nothing to the bottom line. Websites have to engage visitors, which means they have to say what’s in it for them.

• Understand your stats.

There will be the user journey, bounce rates, multiple visits, traffic share etc. This will give you insight into how your current visitors behave, so you can plan a perfect user experience. Without this information you can only guess.

• Design a beautiful website.

It sounds obvious, doesn’t it, but too often the sites we visit are dull, or look old fashioned or cheap. However we’re human – we like lovely things, so it’s only normal to be drawn to sites which visually excite us and reject those that don’t fulfil our personal criteria.

Effectively I am advising you to put maximum effort in to planning and designing the site and its content, less into the coding.

It’s an exercise in marketing, not web development, which is just a hygiene factor: of course it’s going to be coded well, work perfectly and not break down – you’d expect nothing less. But for it to underpin your marketing, it has to be properly planned and designed.

Anything less and you’re not being as effective as you could be.

provided by www.mar-com.net