While many companies only think of conducting market research at single points in the product development cycle, we believe it has a home throughout the entire process. Here are four opportunities for research throughout the product development cycle:
1. During Idea Generation: In the initial stage of idea generation, taking a multi-method, multi source approach helps to understand the issues people are facing surrounding your offering(s), not just the offerings themselves. There’s an opportunity to listen to customers and prospects as they talk with each other and directly to you. Combining methods from traditional (e.g., survey research, focus groups, bulletin boards) and non- traditional methods (e.g., social media listening) will give you a much clearer picture as you gather and evaluate ideas.
2. During the Concept Testing Phase: Concepts need to be evaluated based on customer and business goals, not simply on appeal. Using trade-off techniques at this stage can help you understand which concepts best speak to both the customer and business needs. It can also help you see how well this new offering fits within your brand. As a way to measure concept appeal, trade-off techniques are especially useful because they derive the preferences of respondents rather than asking directly, eliminates halo effects, and it can handle a large number of features.
3. During the Product Configuration Phase: Many times companies use their best guess so they can get to a test market or rely on slight changes to a competitive product that is already seeing success. Conducting primary research using Discrete Choice or Adaptive Choice, however, can more accurately predict market share under competitive situations, identify dollar value of product features and identify a price and demand curve. And this approach can serve as the data for a market simulator that lets you run scenarios of different product configurations to evaluate relative market acceptance.
4. During the Message Development Phase: Doing the substantive research during this final stage of the product development cycle ensures the product messaging is likely to drive action, accurately presents the product, is differentiating , and is not in conflict with your over arching brand message.
Want More Tips and Best Practices for Product development? 
Check out CMB’s Rich Schreuer and Amy Modini as they share best practices and case studies from their years of conducting product and service development research across verticals. Watch here.
Pizza is one of my most favorite foods and a staple in my household. I have my favorite places from local spots to the chains, but Domino’s was never on my list for a number of reasons. Mostly, I just never liked their pizza, but I thought I should reconsider after reading Josh Mendelsohn’s blog post a while back about their new ads…
“Coming off of last year's social media disaster, that painted them as unknowing and unhealthy, Domino's ads are sending a message that says, "We hear what people have been saying and we've dealt with it. Now give us a try, you might like us more than you think." I know that they have at least re-entered my consideration set, the first step to becoming a customer and potentially (with some free bread sticks, perhaps) an advocate.”
While it took five months, a couple of weeks ago I had a house full of hungry kids and I took the leap and gave the “new” Domino's a try. I was not disappointed, however it wasn’t the pizza that will keep me coming back, it was the customer experience.
To start the process, I went online and was easily able to navigate through the various sauces and crusts as well as special offers to add to my order. With just a few clicks, dinner was ordered. But what came next not only surprised me, it won me over and put Domino's at the top of my pizza list.
It’s called the Domino's Tracker and it updates your pizza status as your order moves through the production line. I knew exactly where my pizza was at all times from my order being received to what time “Megan” put my pizza in the oven, it even told me that “Corey” left to deliver my pizza at 5:27. It was very cool and I have to admit I kept checking to see where my pizza was and being able to answer the timing questions of hungry children made it even better and highly differentiated from the standard “it’ll be there in 30-45 minutes” I get from the local pizza shop. Not only did we know when the pizza was coming, we were engaged the entire time (cross-messaging/up-selling time, anyone?)
Certainly, the pizza was pretty good but it was the entire customer experience that won us over. Kudos to Domino’s for taking advantage of new technology; easy online ordering and the very cool Domino’s Tracker took a run of the mill and often frustrating process and made it an informative, engaging and personalized experience that will keep us coming back.
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two,and loves a veggie pizza and a cold Sam Adams Light.
Are you scared when 
you see teens (or anyone) texting while driving? I just read a recent Marketing Daily article that talks about Allstate’s latest education initiative “X the TXT” that encourages teens to stop texting while driving. Allstate’s campaign leverages the marketing power of Jordin Sparks and the Jonas Brothers. Last year Jordin held her ‘Battlefield’ tour with a 29 city ‘X the TXT’ event/messaging and this year, the Jonas Brothers just began their 12 city "Road Dogs X the TXT" softball tour. I like this campaign for 3 reasons:
1. The Initiative- Allstate takes a leadership position on one of deadliest trends facing teens (and facing all of us who share lanes with them).
2. The Tools- Sure it’s a campaign that benefits Allstate, but it is one with purpose and one that offers parents the tools to facilitate a conversation. It's is a valuable influence on our nation. Rather than unleashing their inner preacher, Allstate has also created a delightful 32 second ‘mayhem’ parody to enlist teens to make good choices. From concerts to YouTube, Allstate is communicating with teens on their turf and in their language (and in a pink car).
3. The Approach- Allstate is using a multi channel approach to modify teen behavior using a variety of relevant media platforms. Allstate understands that it really is a ‘battlefield’ (go Jordin) out there to captivate, enlist, and modify behavior of the mighty teen, and that messaging needs to play ‘softball’ (Go JoBros) NOT ‘hardball.’ According to 85,000 teens who already took the Allstate ‘X the TXT’ pledge… it’s fun, interactive and teens get to hear people like Jordin Sparks tell them directly ‘I’ll be supporting you’. With half of driving teens admitting to being extremely distracted by texting and instant messaging while driving, per an Allstate Foundation study, I’m glad that our nation’s teens are ‘in good hands’.
Posted by Julie Kurd. Julie is a Director on CMB's Financial Services/Insurance and Healthcare Practice who loves ski racing, Tuckerman’s Ravine, sailing and bananagrams. You can follow her @julie1research
We recently conducted a webinar that featured Chris James, AMD’s social media strategist. Chris talked about using market research to develop a social media strategy and some common barriers to investing in social media. This blog post is inspired by his words along with some of my own perspective…
When it comes to brands engaging in social media there can be a lot of internal barriers to making this investment of both time and money. It is a big investment (especially in time) and should not be made without a clear strategy and commitment behind it. And it’s really not worth doing unless you are prepared to give it 110%.
Communication: One of the biggest barriers Chris talks about is evolving people who are not “natural” communicators. Many times a social media strategy may involve people (individuals and brands) who are hesitant to actually put themselves out there. It’s important to guide them along in the process and invest in the training to help them succeed and become more comfortable. In the end, participation in social media will not be for everyone and it’s best not “forced” on anyone, but many times people find they enjoy sharing their expertise and opinions.
Fear: For many larger companies there are legal and investor relations hurdles to cross. There is a common fear that too much information can create a competitive disadvantage or the wrong information will leak out. This is why having contributor policies and guidelines in place are so important. Intel is a great example of a company that has done a good job outlining their social media guidelines.
Budget: Money is one of life’s constant barriers, there never seems to be enough. Chris stresses the importance of being judicious of the time, people and tools that are used to not only develop, but to sustain a social media strategy. It’s important to take a step back and figure out where you can make the biggest impact. For one, not all social media outlets are created equal. (Watch our social media webinar with AMD to hear how they developed an efficient and streamlined social media strategy delivering on their objectives.) It is essential to align your resources around what’s important first, rather than letting the hype or constant articles professing social media love drive your social media strategy.
Content: Social media is all about contributing good content regularly. Often there is a fear of not knowing what to say or having enough to say. This is why it is so important to not “go it alone” and have a team of people who are willing to contribute content on a fairly regular basis. Here at CMB we have regular contributors to our blog, each add their own style and expertise, and each adds their own flavor keeping the blog fresh.
It’s important to understand who you are targeting, where those people live online, the best way to reach them and who within your organization will be best at speaking with them (virtually).
In the end, as with any new tactic or investment there are always barriers, but having a clear strategy helps to break many of those down and move forward.
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two, and is a regular contributor to the CMB blog.
Want to learn more about social media research? Watch our webinar featuring Georgeanna Liu and Chris James from AMD as they present a case study of h ow CMB conducted market research to support key social media strategy decisions and how AMD is using it today. Watch here.
A MetLife Mature Market Institute study conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey finds “Meaning” is critical to The Good Life and the young and old have similar priorities. The study finds meaning, particularly the importance of family and friends, is a primary component to living The Good Life for all age groups. Plus, the study found that most adults want deep relationships and to feel that they belong, in addition to a sense of purpose, financial freedom and good physical and mental health.
Still, while family and friends are of relatively equal importance across all ages and most adults want deep relationships and to feel they belong, one has to wonder how those aspects of “meaning” and the “The Good Life” manifest themselves by age, especially in this day of social media, virtual relationships and friendships with those one has never met face-to-face.
Personally, as the father of a 22-year old Facebook user I have to feel they’re different. And, the MetLife study supports the premise of “different strokes for different folks,” or, in this case, age groups, revealing that older adults (45-74 years of age) are more likely to belong to at least one (offline) community organization, attend a community organization function, socialize with neighbors, engage in volunteer activities and donate money or goods to charitable causes than are younger adults (25-34 years of age). Plus, Facebook, which “helps you connect and share with the people in your life” still hasn’t caught on with older adults as it has with those younger (9.8M users 55 years-of-age and older vs. 25.6M users 25-34 years-of-age) per istrategy labs.
So, what are the implications for marketers?
To begin with, it’s important to recognize that pursuit of meaning, purpose and The Good Life are pretty universal and span generations – and would make for a great resonating headline/tagline. Secondly, it’s critical to understand that how those goals are defined and pursued is generational, or perhaps more accurately, lifestage-driven. Younger adults are more likely to pursue “The Good Life” by generating a salary and “using their abilities to accomplish things that matter” while older adults are more likely to “smell the roses” and enjoy their surroundings and personal interests. So, one headline/tagline…different executions!
Posted by Dan Gersten, an Account Director/Consultant in CMB's Financial Services, Healthcare, and Insurance Practice. Dan is a published author and former reality TV contestant on American Inventor. You never know what Dan will come up with next!
There has been lots of talk in the industry about cloud computing for some time now. At the end of 09’ we checked in with our IT decision maker panel to get their perspective on cloud computing and where it fits into their IT plans. At that time, two-thirds of them were already using “cloud computing” in some capacity to lower costs or increase scale and flexibility. Deployment seemed to be more horizontally focused on non-core application workloads. But we saw signs that 2010 would be the year cloud computing would gain some serious momentum—many just needed some proof of concept and now Microsoft and eBay are teaming up to deliver just that.
Microsoft is claiming their stake in the cloud by announcing at last week’s developer conference that their long anticipated Windows Azure appliance was ready, making good on their promise to offer preconfigured datacenter containers directed at large enterprises who can’t have their data hosted off site.
Microsoft also announced that eBay will be one of the first customers to put Azure to the test as they announced a joint cloud computing agreement. This agreement comes on the heels of a successful deployment program which allows eBay the flexibility to put some applications on the pubic cloud. For example http://ipad.ebay.com— is hosted on the public Windows Azure platform.
Where there was once a lot of confusion there now seems to be more traction—particularly for private cloud computing. In a space that has a lot of competition, Microsoft is working hard to get a head start out of the gate. And this agreement with eBay is certainly a big feather in their cap.
Stay tuned as we are going back to our IT decision maker panel this month to gain new insights on what enterprise end-users require of vendors offering cloud computing solutions.
We would love to hear from you. Does this agreement between Microsoft and eBay give you the proof of concept you need?
Chris Neal leads CMB’s Tech Practice. He enjoys spending time with his two kids and rock climbing.
A recent article on Boston.com, “How facts backfire: Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains” caught my attention for several reasons – some intellectual and some, well, personal.
As an employee of a company who used to have a tag line “Information for Decision-Making,” I believe in the value of facts in reducing risk and guiding strategic decisions, I love data and weaving a story from information gathered in our custom market research studies. I make my living from sharing facts! However, true confession here, as the liberal wife of a man who considers
Fox’s reporting “fair and balanced,” I recognize
my reluctance to accept political information presented as facts,
particularly from certain sources.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789: “Whenever people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” It is one of the primary underlying assumptions of modern democracy: people, furnished with facts, will be clearer thinkers and better citizens. However, recent political science studies by researchers at the University of Michigan have found that facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, they found the opposite. When misinformed people (particularly political partisans) were presented with corrected information, they rarely changed their mind. Some became more strongly set in their unfounded beliefs.
While more research is being done to understand why when we have things wrong – we can be so sure that we’re right – and why we’re unwilling to “admit we were wrong,” researchers believe part of the answer is in the way our brains are wired. People, generally, seek consistency; we accept and interpret information with an eye toward reinforcing our preexisting views (…anyone want to debate the presence of WMD in Iraq? You get the drift…).
While poli-sci researchers are working on the young field of “political mis-perception,” several points of interest were noted: (1) One avenue may involve self-esteem…if you feel good about yourself you’ll listen. If you feel threatened and agitated, you are less likely to listen to dissenting opinions; (2) Hitting people between the eyes with objective facts that contradict current beliefs – particularly if it can be done in an interactive way - seems to force many to adjust their opinions.
With that as background, then, as market researchers it is essential to be conscious of not just the facts we are presenting, but how they are presented. Three ways to make sure the facts don’t fall on deaf ears
- Make sure to go beyond gathering “information you want” and towards “what decisions you will make” as a result of the information. This means gathering input from key managers or executives about their beliefs and hypothesis and building them into the research plan. This approach helps on two fronts: (1) by hypothesis gathering, you can confirm managers’ beliefs on some factors while presenting new information on others… “you were right;” and (2) by focusing on the business decision (not a single fact), you get past the “I don’t believe that fact” problem and support forward movement of the business.
- Engage information users in positive interactive and engaging meetings at key points in the project – planning/kick-off, analysis review, presentations. And do this in a way that welcomes contrarian points of view and respects all participants. This avoids people questioning the “facts” at the end, when it is too late to make changes and makes it easier for non-believers to dismiss the information completely.
- Know your audience and share with them in a way that is comfortable. It sounds simplistic, but some people want pictures and stories, others want facts and data. Some want to be hands on the whole way through and others want a final summary. By knowing the audience, you can build a report that tells a story and makes “facts” relevant, interesting, and easy to act on.
Posted by Judy Melanson. Judy leads the Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty. She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC
I spent most of this week at the 2010 Shopper Insights in Action Conference, which is always one of my favorite events of the year because unlike many market research related conferences the attendees are eager to push the edges and try new and different ways to understand consumers. Even though they employ traditional techniques, they are hardly wed to them and epitomize the concept of multi-method, multi-source research (using multiple types of data and data sources to answer a question.)
We’ve been talking about multi-source, multi-method for years at CMB, but it is pretty amazing how much the landscape has changed even in just the last four years. Searching through the article archives I found a 2006 article that laid out many of the available qualitative tools, and it feels (how do I say this nicely?) a bit outdated.
While a quick perusal of today’s list is a bit overwhelming, I am certain there are plenty of options that I failed to include. There is both a challenge and an opportunity in the fact that consumers are smarter than ever and willing to provide more robust and useful insights than ever before. Between technology that simulates real world experiences and improvements in our ability to listen to consumers in their own environment, there is no shortage of ways to give and receive feedback. The hard part is choosing the right technique or set of techniques for a given situation and making sure that information users understand the biases and limitations of each.
With all of the available options, what new tools have you added to the tool box in the last 4 years?
Posted by Josh Mendelsohn. Josh is our VP of Marketing and loves live music, tv, great food, market research, New Orleans, marketing, his family, Boston and sports. You can follow him on Twitter @mendelj2.
The mobile computing market is abuzz with
Apple announcing yesterday they have sold 3 million iPads in just 80 days, Google's press conference today on
Droid X and the shipment of the iPhone 4. With each release devices are getting smaller (well maybe not the Droid X), faster and smarter. Prices are also dropping as the competition continues to heat up. Smartphones, which were once just used by the business traveler are much more mainstream and now marketed to consumers thanks to the iPhone and
Verizon's buy one get one free promotions.
So with all these changes to the mobile landscape we thought we would ask both consumers and our own IT decision maker panel to find out if they plan to swap one device for another. (See today's press release on the findings)
What we found was that businesses were more open to swapping out one computing platform for another than consumers. The biggest drivers for making the switch were not surprisingly cost and form factor, but what was a bit surprising was that close to twice as many IT decision makers than consumers are willing to ditch the notebook for a netbook the next time around. The netbook, which started out as a low cost computer targeted at consumers is seeing new life and new opportunity in the B2B market.
There has been a lot of hype around the iPad killing the netbook, but netbooks will see new life in the B2B market as long as manufactures research, recognize and capitalize on these shifts in the mobile market.
Posted by Don Ryan. Don is a senior consultant for CMB's technology practice. Don is an avid tennis player and enjoys reading political commentary and spy novels.
There is a lot of hype around the iPad, as with any new Apple product entering the market. There are some that say the iPad will kill the netbook market. Recent articles in InfoWorld and PC World both make the case that netbooks have just been given their death sentence or as Galen Gruman says in his article, "Apple has just fired the death shot at the netbook". I say not so fast....
Our recent CMB tech Pulse research paints a very different picture. In April we asked over 1200 consumers about their device preferences, which we will be talking more about in a press release next week. But it is worth noting that we saw 23% of netbooks users will replace their netbook with a tablet and 22% of tablet users will replace their tablet with a netbook. So at this point I say that's more hype, the reality of the entire netbook market going away is just not happening. Yet the iPad is threat, something to be careful of something to take note of in the consumer market. After all, netbooks entered the market as a consumer product and the iPad has certainly put a damper on the consumer netbook hype, but netbooks are making inroads to the B2B market. So I don't think the iPad or any tablet for that matter will kill the netbook market all together, but maybe it's time for netbook manufacturers to shift their focus the B2B market.
Personally, I think the iPad is more likely to kill the Kindle and other eBook readers and smartphones will have more of an impact on netbooks than the iPad. There's no doubt that the mobile computing landscape is changing, and we can always count on Apple to drive innovation and to shake things up.
Posted by Don Ryan. Don is a senior consultant for CMB's technology practice. Don is an avid tennis player and enjoys reading political commentary and spy novels.