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Survey Research
At Millennium
Marketing Research®, we have the experience and ability necessary to
conduct a tremendous variety of research efforts. Here, we simply briefly discuss a
sampling of the kinds of survey research we frequently are called upon to implement. Our
experience and capabilities, though, go far beyond this brief sampling. Saying that,
however, should you come to us and ask that we undertake a study which we are ill-equipped
to do, we'll tell you exactly that. Without exception, we will do what's in the best
interests of our clients (and perspective clients). We, like you, know that doing what's
best for one's clients will ultimately be what's best for one's own business.
Brand Image Studies
- The image one has about a brand clearly drives the individual's behavior in regard to
that brand. Suppose that you are driving through Ohio toward Washington, D.C. As you're
coming into Columbus, you know that the time has come to stop for the night. The advisory
sign indicates that at the next exit there is one motel: Tom & Mike's Motel. You've
never heard of Tom & Mike' Motel but like most travelers, you will have beliefs about
the "bundle of attributes" that constitutes the image of Tom & Mike's Motel.
For example, without even seeing the motel, you would have some belief about how much it
would cost, whether the toilet seat would be wrapped with a strip of paper and what the
bedspread would look like. Those and other beliefs which constitute your image of Tom
& Mike's Motel will determine whether or not you will spend the night there, or even
consider doing so. Clearly, then, a brand's image is of utmost importance.
In our lives before Millennium
Marketing Research®, we often saw image studies conducted with a
major flaw, viz., having customers and potential customers evaluate the brand on
characteristics which the company had not the faintest idea as to how beliefs on those
characteristics might be changed. Not too productive. Image does drive behavior, but if
you can't change image on characteristics that are detrimental to your brand's share,
you've gained nothing. We'll help you to avoid such pitfalls.
Awareness Studies
- Let's suppose that, within your target market, you have 5 share points. Furthermore,
your customers tell you that your product is simply tremendous and seldom switch to a
competitor's product. Perhaps you think that 5 share points is tremendous. If awareness of
your brand is only 20%, it would be true that 5 share points is tremendous. But, if
awareness doubled, there is a good chance that share would double as well. A simple
awareness study, conducted by Millennium
Marketing Research®, would give you the facts. Of course
if you were to find your awareness to be 100% within your target market, but your share
position only 5%, you'd have to ask yourself what's wrong with either your product or the
manner in which you deliver your product.
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Customer Service
- It certainly is a noble thing for a business to ask customers for feedback about the
kind of customer service they're providing. Often times, without even inquiring about
their relative importance, we've seen studies asking customers to indicate how a given
organization is performing on dozens of "customer service" attributes. The
simple fact of the matter is, though, that all attributes are not equally important to
customers. An organization trying to "focus" on dozen of attributes
simultaneously will have no chance whatsoever of being truly successful. Instead, they
need to determine what two or three attributes are the prime drivers of consumer buying
behavior and focus all their energies on those attributes, not on dozens as do many
organizations.
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Product Testing
- Many of the statistical procedures that are routinely used by statisticians were
developed in conjunction with agricultural research. Even the names that are associated
with some procedures attest to their agricultural origins, e.g., split-plot designs.
Unfortunately, we've not seen the same sort of statistical procedural developments within
the world of those responsible for developing and marketing consumer products, or even a
rational usage of existing statistical procedures.
- Let's suppose that you, as an established packaged cake mix producer, have a brand
which, in a given category, has 50 share points and, within the category, your brand has
two competitors, each with 25 share points. You're always looking for ways to replace some
of the product's ingredients with less expensive ingredients, since doing so has the
potential of greatly increasing product profitability, provided that such changes wouldn't
be noticeable to current and prospective customers.
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- You ask your research people to test the existing version of your product against an
"altered," less expensive version. The research people may conduct a
preference test to determine whether or not one version is preferred over the other. When
your research people report that they had found no statistically significance differences
between the two products, you are most pleased and immediately change the existing
product's ingredients to the less expensive ingredients.
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- Confidently expecting to bask in your product's increased profitability, you are
flabbergasted to discover the product's profitability has actually decreased! Digging
into it, you quickly discover that your product's share has dropped from 50 share points
to 40 share points? What's going on?
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- Quite frankly you may have adulterated your product. When your research people reported
"no statistically significant difference," this only meant that the observed
differences in preference could have occurred, by chance, more than 5 times out of a
hundred. In other words, your test for differences between the two products was seemingly
very conservative, while in fact it was just the opposite. It put you at needless risk, of
which you weren't even aware.
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- At Millennium
Marketing Research®, we know product testing! Test us out!
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