Marketing Research:
Decision Analyst's White Papers
 

Advanced Analytics
 

Applying Advanced Analytics to B-to-B Branding Research
The importance of branding is understood by serious business-to-business marketing researchers, but when it comes to analyzing brand equity, most companies fail to use advanced analytics to its full potential. All too often, branding studies simply track key measures; they fail to quantify causal relationships, and they deliver weak predictive power. The B-to-B Brand Equity Analyzer is a strategic tool for assessing the strength of a company's brand relative to competitors in its market. Through the use of advanced analytics and modeling, it offers insight that executives need to make better strategic decisions that will drive business success.
 

Bullet Holes In Bombers: Operations Research And Management Science Applied to Marketing
Most analysts define Operations Research and Management Science to mean the application of the scientific method and advanced analytics to the solution of business problems. OR/MS almost always involves building a mathematical model of some business process or system. There is an objective function; that is, a mathematical definition of the object or thing to be optimized (to maximize profits or sales revenue, or minimize costs, typically). Mathematical formulae are developed to define the relationships among the variables. Algorithms and heuristics are used to seek optimal solutions. Virtually all OR/MS methods can be characterized as optimization techniques, and many involve simulation methods. The goal is to find optimal solutions, given a set of variables, constraints, and probabilities.
 

Business Segmentation: Emerging Approaches To More Meaningful Clusters
Consumer opinion research has a well-established track record, stretching over the past five or six decades. Conducting opinion research among businesses, however, is much more problematic. This is particularly evident at the simplest level of analysis, customer segmentation. However, segmentation techniques are evolving and techniques that were common practice in the recent past are rapidly being supplanted by newer, more meaningful segmentation techniques.
 

Choice Model Calibration
Calibration of survey-based choice models can make a substantial difference in predicted demand and revenue resulting from price changes. Calibration of brand part-worth utilities based on in-market data (such as that derived from store scanner data) can deliver more accurate measurement of price elasticity and better market predictions of demand response due to price changes.
 

Choice Modeling Analytics—Benefits Of New Methods
An overview of the benefits of several technical advances in choice analysis, including: experimental design algorithms, Latent Class and Hierarchical Bayes models and model calibration. The recent advances discussed in this paper have the potential to reduce survey length for choice modeling research and deliver more accurate market simulators to measure bottom-line revenue impacts.
 

Comparison of Segmentation Approaches
Segmentation approaches can range from throwing darts at the data, to human judgment, to advanced cluster modeling. We will explore four such methods: factor segmentation, k-means clustering, TwoStep cluster analysis, and latent class cluster analysis.
 

Consumer Decision-Making Models, Strategies, And Theories, Oh My!
The focus of this paper is to examine the major decision-making models, strategies, and theories that underlie the decision processes used by consumers and to provide some clarity for marketing executives attempting to find the right mix of variables for their products and services.
 

Eleven Multivariate Analysis Techniques: Key Tools In Your Marketing Research Survival Kit
The purpose of this white paper is to provide an executive understanding of eleven multivariate analysis techniques, resulting in an understanding of the appropriate uses for each of the techniques. This is not a discussion of the underlying statistics of each technique; it is a field guide to understanding the types of research questions that can be formulated and the capabilities and limitations of each technique in answering those questions.
 

Global Segmentation—Dealing with Cross-Cultural Differences In Survey Rating Scale Usage
Developing segmentation solutions that are global in scope requires dealing with cross-cultural differences in scale usage. Given cross-cultural differences in scale usage, marketing research analysts frequently develop ways to adjust survey responses, so that a particular survey response value means the same thing regardless of country of origin.
 

Improving Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty With Time-Series Cross-Sectional Models
Customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys typically track brand perceptions both overall and with respect to specific performance areas. For example, a survey might ask customers to rate brands based on overall satisfaction, likelihood to purchase again, likelihood to recommend, customer service, product performance, and brand image. We report an application of time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) modeling, which incorporates both across-units and across-time variation in data variables. The results from this application illustrate the value of adding the time-series component to the analysis.
 

Market Segmentation
When the term "market segmentation" is used, most of us immediately think of psychographics, lifestyles, values, behaviors, and multivariate cluster analysis routines. Market segmentation is a much broader concept, however, and pervades the practice of business throughout the world.
 

Marketing Mix Modeling
A look at how marketing mix modeling can assist in making specific marketing decisions and tradeoffs, and also create a broad platform of knowledge to guide strategic planning.
 

Modeling Customer Service Segments In The Utilities Industry
The utilities industry has seen a great deal of consolidation, restructuring, and deregulation of late. Any one of these events has the possibility of negatively affecting the level and quality of service that a utility provides to its customers. Customer service ratings in this category have a very strong influence on the overall performance of utility companies, including market growth and stock price. As this paper shows, it is also critical to understand the different customer segments and the level of attention required to maintain satisfaction.
 

New Product Sales Forecasting
The development and introduction of a new product is an inherently risky venture. In an effort to reduce the risks associated with new products, the forecasting of year-one sales has become an established practice within the marketing research industry. The goal of this article is to take a bit of the mystery out of the methods used to derive year-one sales forecasts for new consumer packaged goods.
 

New Statistical Tools For Key Driver Analysis
Key driver analysis is used by businesses to understand which brand, product, or service components or attributes have the greatest influence on the customer’s purchase decision or a physician’s prescribing decision. The analysis can be based on statistical measures of the relationship between each attribute and an overall measure of the market performance of the brand, product, or service. The focus of this paper is to discuss the potential application of a relatively new tool, Ensemble Prediction, which combines thousands of regression models to produce a prediction of the overall market performance based on attributes which influence the purchase decision or physician’s prescribing decision. As it relates to key driver analysis in marketing research studies, Ensemble Prediction delivers an extremely reliable and robust measure of attribute importance.
 

Optimizing Messaging & Positioning With Choice Modeling
Messaging and positioning choice modeling is recommended when the primary research objective is to obtain information that would allow a company to develop the most effective communications message to consumers, maximizing attraction to its specific brand, product line, store, or department within the store.
 

Perceptual Mapping: What do Restaurant Brands Really Mean?
A look at using advanced analytics, including perceptual maps, in determining the brand positioning in the minds of consumers. The article includes a perceptual map of national restaurant chains, this data is from the Health and Nutrition Strategist™ syndicated study.
 

Advertising Research
 

Advertising Effectiveness
The advertising industry, as a whole, has the poorest quality-assurance systems and turns out the most inconsistent product (their ads and commercials) of any industry in the world. Unlike most of the business world, which is governed by numerous feedback loops, the advertising industry receives little objective, reliable feedback on its advertising.
 

Advertising Research
A summary of recent insights about advertising, based on latest research findings.
 

Advertising Tracking
The promise of media advertising is great. It's an opportunity for a brand to tell its story directly to the ultimate consumer. It's an opportunity to build awareness and project a powerful brand image.
 

In Creative Self-Defense
A humorous article about how advertising agencies can defend their advertising from marketing research attack.
 

Oh! We Of Little Faith
An article about the psychological principles that underlie successful advertising.
 

New Product Research
 

The Basics Of Packaging Research
The market is changing, and the time has come to redesign the package of that old established brand.
 

The Case For In-The-Box Innovation
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A groundbreaking international case study proving that a much larger number of relevant, actionable, and original ideas can be generated by using creativity techniques that encourage "in-the-box" thinking as opposed to the "outside the box" creativity techniques more typically used.
 

Creating And Measuring The WOM-Worthiness Of New Products: A Case Study
Most word-of-mouth (WOM) marketers would agree that having a great product is a major key to the success of a word-of-mouth campaign. However, coming up with and developing great product ideas that will be talked about can be a daunting task. Additionally, how can a marketer know that an idea is really “great” and will be talked about by consumers?
 

Enhancing The Open Model Through The Use Of Community
Communities can be a viable open innovation source. This article contains six simple steps to making an innovation community effective.
 

Is There Such A Thing As "Early Adopters Fatigue"?
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This paper uses the “Diffusion of Innovations” model to explore the concept of new technology adoption by consumers, in light of recent reports that the early adopters are becoming fatigued with the fast-paced rate of technological change. By examining early adopters of new technologies from a number of countries, an understanding can be gained of whether fatigue has set in, how, and why. (Presented at the ESOMAR NetEffects Conference in Germany, January 2002)
 

Looking For Ideas In All The Wrong Places
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A look at in-the-box creativity versus outside-the-box creativity techniques in new product/services development.
 

New Products
An examination of the secret to successful development of new products.
 

New Products For Tough Times
Every change in the marketplace creates opportunities for successful new products. Since these changes are amplified during tough times, new product opportunities are actually more numerous during economic turbulence. One way to keep new products flowing to market during tough times is to rely on "hypercreatives" and idea-centric creativity. This is the creativity of innovative individuals with relevant product category experience. Hypercreatives can help generate hundreds of new product ideas to keep companies driving forward through tough economic times.
 

Product Testing
A summary of product testing techniques and guidelines for testing consumer products.
 

Using Consumers To Fuel Your New Product Generation Pipeline: The Role Of Idea-Centric Creativity
This paper discusses the use of consumers and idea-centric creativity in new product concept development. With competitive environments and shorter product lifecycles a company needs to have the various versions and extensions of its current products ready to release quickly by having its next-generation products in the pipeline, while its current successful products are still selling well.
 

Online Research
 

Beyond The Millennium
A look at the future of Online Marketing Research.
 

Brave New World
The strategic implications of the Internet are far reaching—for global commerce, for global marketing, and for global marketing research.
 

A Case For Using The Internet To Track Offline, Organic Word Of Mouth
Capturing offline, organic word-of-mouth episodes via an online word-of-mouth tracking program.
 

The Dot.Com Meltdown
A look at the different research techniques that could help your business avoid the next speculative meltdown. The future belongs to the informed, to the rational, to those who make decisions based on objective, research-based realities.
 

Finding An Internet Research Supplier
Quietly breath the words "research," "survey," or "opinion" in your office. Go ahead, I dare you. Within a few minutes, you'll have calls from market research suppliers wanting to help you find out exactly what your customers think about pretty much anything.
 

Moving Tracking Research From Telephone To Internet Data Collection: To Compare Or Not To Compare?
A rationale for moving telephone tracking studies to the Internet.
 

The Throes Of Revolution
The Internet represents a major paradigm shift that will dramatically change the marketing and advertising landscape, but it has also brought forth new research capabilities to help businesses adapt to and exploit the tectonic changes now underway.
 

www.research.com
Internet research has its skeptics, but continues to grow at a fast pace, providing believers with a valuable alternative to traditional data-collecting sources.
 

Qualitative Research
 

Boxers Or Briefs? Pepsi Or Coke? In-Person Or Online? A New Debate
A comparison between in-person qualitative and online qualitative techniques and methods.
 

Focus Groups And The American Dream
Even though the focus group has become a widely used research technique in the past two decades, a lot of folks still don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.
 

Mock Juries
A look at the role of mock juries in the legal process, along with guidelines for their conduct.
 

Motivational Research
An explanation of motivational research and how it is conducted.
 

Qualitative Analytics
Much has been written about how to conduct qualitative research (that is, the techniques of moderating and interviewing), but comparatively little has been published about the far more important task of analysis and reporting. The purpose of this primer is to share some basic ideas on how to achieve the greatest learning and the most profound insights from qualitative research.
 

Ten Keys To Defusing Political Land Mines In the Back Room
Focus groups are rarely predictable. Sometimes groups know embarrassingly little about a given topic.
 

To Focus Group, Or Not To Focus Group
Guidelines for when its best to conduct a focus group
 

Worth A Thousand Words—Online Ethnography
A look into online ethnography. This article describes what online ethnography is and how to analyze it. Online ethnography provides a snapshot of respondents’ real-life experiences in order to truly understand not just what they report they do, but what they are actually doing and how that behavior drives their decisions.
 

Research Results
 

Health And Nutrition Strategist™ Diabetes Fact Sheet
Diabetics constitute a very large market, with the health and nutritional choices of as many as 20 to 25 million households influenced by one or more members suffering from diabetes. A comparison in the health and nutrition habits of diabetics and nondiabetics aged 45 or over is presented using data from the Health and Nutrition Strategist™.
 

Core Values, Demographics And Home Buying
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As the residential real estate market cools, builders, realtors, and lenders are looking for those who are still in the market. Interestingly, finding who is in the market for a new or preowned home is not always easy. Based on a nationally representative sample of adults in May 2006, only 11.8% expected to buy a preexisting or newly built home in the next 12 months, but there are some clues.
 

Financial Service Consumption Habits Of American Consumers
American consumers utilize financial services from a wide variety of sources. The notion of a bank is dramatically different than it was 50 years ago, and is going to change even more in the near future.
 

Health And Nutrition Insights
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Some interesting data from our Health and Nutrition Strategist™ syndicated study. Contains attitudinal data about eating, nutrition, snacking, nutrition labels, etc.
 

Incorporating An Economic Index As A Guide To Developing A BRIC Strategy
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Using the Decision Analyst Economic Index this article tracks consumer sentiment and predicts the future through the use of forecasting models in developing countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
 

Nutrition And Eating Out: Getting Inside The Consumer's Head
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A look at the difference in health and nutrition attitudes and behaviors between heavy restaurant visitors and light restaurant visitors. The data is from our Health and Nutrition Strategist™ syndicated study.
 

Restaurant Insights from the Health and Nutrition Strategist™
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Some of the data from our syndicated study; Health and Nutrition Strategist™. The data is about nutrition and eating out in restaurants.
 

Teenagers And Brand Engagement In Emerging Markets
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This paper shows how research techniques were applied in an online environment to elicit deeper learning about brand and media engagement among teenagers.
 

Strategy/Marketing
 

Before You Make The Call: How To Hire A Marketing Research Firm
If you need to hire a marketing research firm but have never done so, here are some tips to get you started.
 

Buying Marketing Research Doesn't Have To Be Confusing
Here are some tips for hiring a marketing research firm for those who are not accustomed to marketing research and marketing research firms.
 

Hang The Innocent
So what is marketing research? Marketing research is collecting data in an unbiased manner and translating that data into information, which can help solve marketing problems. Marketing research includes experiments, surveys, product tests, advertising tests, promotion tests, motivational research, strategy research, customer satisfaction monitoring, and many other techniques.
 

It’s Not Always Your Fault…Measuring The Impact Of Economic Factors On Consumer Satisfaction And Pricing Perceptions
While you can control many factors that influence consumer satisfaction and perceptions, other factors are beyond the control of even the most attentive store manager. In this time of rising prices and uncertainty, it is helpful to understand what external market and economic factors are impacting the attitudes and perceptions of consumers.
 

Marketing For HVAC Companies
A summary of the different elements of marketing.
 

Marketing Optimization
Marketing is tricky business and a dangerous career. It’s almost impossible to measure the effects of advertising, packaging, distribution channels, media expenditures, sales organization, etc., on brand share or sales revenue. Without good data and absent any trustworthy feedback loop, marketing managers often turn to the security of marketing myths, pop culture marketing fads, fawning at the feet of consultants, and polishing up their résumés.
 

Positioning
The term "positioning" is often used nowadays as a broad synonym for marketing strategy. However, the terms "positioning" and "marketing strategy" should not be used interchangeably. Rather, positioning should be thought of as an element of strategy, a component of strategy, not as the strategy itself.
 

Positioning—Marketing's Fifth "P"
From the very first introductory marketing class, we were inundated with the 4 Ps of classical marketing theory—Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Place. Positioning has emerged as a significant area of consideration, serving as a marketer's bridge between the levers of the 4 Ps and corporate strategy.
 

Research Defanged
Over the past decade or so, many corporations have renamed and repositioned their research functions. What used to be called the marketing research department is now often called consumer insights. This renaming and repositioning of the marketing research function might well be a great strategic marketing blunder.
 

Six Marketing Silver Bullets
No company or corporation can do much about the financial panic, credit contraction, or recession. But while times of turmoil pose great threats to a business enterprise, turbulence also creates opportunities. If only companies could find a Silver Bullet to solve all their woes. If you are using the Silver Bullets correctly, you improve your odds of success and also position your company for greater gains when the economic crisis draws to an end.
 

Small Business Survival
An article on how small companies can survive and thrive.
 

Strategic Marketing Tracking
A discussion of telephone surveys as a way to monitor marketing performance over time.
 

The Strategy Of Leverage
Some ideas to help underdog companies defeat their larger and better-funded competitors.
 

Survival Of The Fittest
A review of Charles Darwin's theory "Survival of the Fittest" and how it applies in today's business world.
 

Miscellaneous
 

The Art Of Consulting: A Taxonomy Of Experts
The purpose of this paper is to add definition to the field of consultancy, identifying some of the major types of consultants. The conclusion contains a brief checklist to help you decide which type of consultant would work best for your company.
 

Biometric Systems: The Next Big Security Opportunity
There is a rapidly growing realization that the low-cost security measures of the past are not adequate protection against a determined and clever terrorist assault.
 

The Painfully Slow Emergence Of Green Energy
Green, or renewable, energy sources–biothermal, solar, wind, and others–are emerging, but too slowly to as yet make a noticeable impact on U.S. energy use. And therein lies a major problem facing our economy–what if green energy sources aren’t ready to fill the gap when the gasoline runs out, or when the traditional electric power plants run out of fuel?
 

Restaurant Industry Losing Low-Fat War
A look at the growing importance of low-fat foods and restaurants’ failures to develop low-fat menu items.
 

Texas Electric Deregulation Entering With A Bang Or A Whimper?
Electricity deregulation has begun in Texas, not with a bang but a whimper. Despite aggressive promotional campaigns, the average Texas consumer still isn’t convinced there is much value in switching providers. Interest does appear to be higher among commercial and industrial companies, but they aren’t stampeding to change providers either.
 

What Your Customers Want
In-depth research of homeowners verifies the importance of HVAC contractors becoming indoor comfort experts and personal comfort advisors.
 

Who Cares?
Are you consciously aware of the image you project? Is your image geared toward success? Here’s a list of questions to consider.