WHAT QUANTIFIABLE MARKETING RESEARCH CAN DO FOR YOU
Marketing research can provide beneficial information for a variety of situations. This guide has been created by Cook Research & Consulting, Inc. to easily explain how quantitative market research can be the most helpful.
Successful marketing programs use marketing research as a tool in designing and implementing marketing plans. The information gathered through marketing research helps marketers with problem identification, solutions and aids in marketing decision-making.
There are numerous instances when marketing research can be useful to an organization.
| •Advertising Effectiveness | •Market Segmentation |
| •Brand Equity | •Product Development |
| •Customer Defection | •Pricing |
| •Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty | •Readership |
| •Database Enhancement | •Strategic Planning |
| •Employee Attitude | •Taste Testing |
| •Healthcare | •Transportation Planning |
| •Image & Awareness | •Web-Site Usability |
In some cases, qualitative research, such as focus groups are most effective, and in some instances, quantitative research like telephone interviewing is the best method.
Advertising Effectiveness
Marketing research can be used to support advertising. From the development of successful ads to tracking how effective those ads really are, research is invaluable to advertising teams.
Brand Equity
Brand research gives you the information necessary to strategically position or re- position your company and/or brand. In a competitive industry, this type of research can help anyone to become either a viable niche player or a market share leader.
Customer Defection
If you cannot understand why customers no longer use your product or service, Cook Research & Consulting can help. Marketing research will put you in touch with "the voice of the customer."
Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty
Having accurate measures of customer satisfaction that can be tracked over time is critical for all types of businesses. Market research can be used to identify exactly what aspects of the customers' relationship with your company will drive their loyalty. Marketing planners can use the information to prioritize improvement initiatives and maximize customer loyalty.
Database Enhancement
When a company attempts to keep current and accurate information on customers there can be concerns if the information is not accurate and complete. Cook Research can use database enhancement to gather and check customer information. The contact also gives the customer an opportunity to communicate any urgent needs.
Employee Attitude
It has been proven that employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction. An employee opinion survey can identify issues that need improvement. The survey can also help recognize areas where employees are excelling and should be congratulated.
Healthcare
Care systems, clinics and consumers all find healthcare research useful to provide reliable, comparative patient and physician satisfaction information. Healthcare research can also enable cross-market comparisons and benchmarking efforts with other organizations and communities. It is especially helpful when used to assist in resource allocation.
Image & Awareness
Awareness of the image of your company, product or brand is paramount. Image and awareness studies can be used to assess perceptions on image factors, such as corporate favorability, believability, value and product quality. An image and awareness study also assesses the overall awareness of your competition that provides similar types of products and services.
Market Segmentation
The marketplace is filled with a variety of different types of consumers. People vary in attitudes, motivations and perspectives. Segmenting the market is an effort to find groups of people whose purchasing and/or trial criteria are similar.
New Product Development and New Uses for Existing Products
Marketing research can provide direction for effective market strategies. From idea generation and review to answering questions about market potential, positioning and pricing, marketing research can smooth entry into the marketplace.
Pricing
What price will the market bear? Research can help you understand pricing of competitive products as well as what consumers are willing to pay and what they will not pay.
Readership
Readership studies are crucial to any type of commercial publication. A readership study has three main goals: gather information for advertising sales, enrich the publication for current readers, and determine what the publication can do to increase their readership.
Strategic Planning
Cook Research & Consulting can provide the information necessary to ensure that decisions are made from a knowledgeable position. Strategic planning research can be combined with image and awareness research and customer satisfaction and loyalty research.
Taste Testing
Is your brand favored 2 to 1 over a competitor? Is a competitor making that claim? Cook Research & Consulting can test that for you and stand behind our findings, including testifying in court. In some cases, a food manufacturer finds a different supplier, or a cheaper ingredient, and needs to make sure that consumers like it the same or better than the original product formulation. There might also be some new product development or extension done in a taste test. We'll tell you what your customers like and dislike about your product, giving your customers a voice.
Transportation Planning
Transportation planning research can be used to aid decision making on issues including: speed setting, roadway construction/expansion, public transportation planning, determining system deficiencies, and examining the feasibility of options. Political, social, demographic and economic concerns can come into consideration in transportation research.
Web-Site Usability
Web-site development tends to be driven by technical requirements and concerns. Cook Research & Consulting can deliver the research that is key in determining what features customers use, what frustrates them at your site, and what will drive them to your site.