In This Issue
On Monday, October 23 at noon, CSR is co-presenting at The Market Research Event in Orlando with Mutual of Omaha about the benefits that our clients realize from the “experiential” panels we establish with “high-value audiences” in a session called “Gaining Knowledge from Experience”. If you plan to be at TMRE, please join us, or stop by our booth (#300) and say hello!
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
— Willy Wonka
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- Vol 12 Issue 7, October 2017
Hello!
Unbelievably, it’s almost Halloween! Yes, this means autumn weather, costumes and trick or treating, but everyone knows it’s really all about the candy! Read on for this edition of Research with a Twist, titled, “The Candy Man (Still) Can.” This month, our newsletter, an updated version of an issue that we published a couple years ago, doubles as a candy checklist for October 31st.— Jennifer
The Candy Man (Still) Can
I recently watched Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with my kids — the original 1971 film with Gene Wilder. While the kids were focused on being completely creeped out and puzzled by the orangey, musical Oompa Loompas, I, of course, was thinking about the parallels between the movie and market research.
In the movie, kids win a lottery (a golden ticket) to get a tour of a mysterious, world-famous chocolate factory, owned by Willie Wonka (the candy man). On the visit to the factory, they learn of wondrous, innovative candy products they’d never dreamed of, invented by Willie Wonka. Mr. Wonka is aided by his industrious workers from Loompaland, who tend to and protect the purity of the candy.
Doesn’t that make everyone think of research?
For me, I’m always like a kid in a candy store when it comes to designing and conducting research. What to pick? What is the right candy in the box for each particular situation? And, when you think about it, research vendors are a lot like the chocolate factory — a mix of innovation and invention in design, and excellent execution by a team that’s dedicated to the “purity” of the end product. We’re kind of like the “Candy Man” of the research world!
So, if CSR is the Candy Man, what are the candies we’re most excited about today, if we were giving a pre-Halloween tour of our factory? Come, bring your golden ticket, and explore our research treats:
- Customer Experience Panels
Want to know what your customer’s experience with your company is really like? Of course you do! That’s why market research exists. Customer Experience panels enable you to capture your customers’ thoughts, feelings, expectations and perceptions over the course of their relationship with your organization. They are the “Everlasting Gobstopper” of research — the long-lasting gift that keeps on giving!
- Wins and Losses Research
Why does your company win sales? Why does it lose them? The answers to these questions are money in your pocket. That’s why “wins and losses” research is the $100,000 (100 Grand) Bar in our bag of treats. Click here for a case study.
- “Day in the Life” studies, a.k.a, “Ethnography Lite”
Another type of study that pays huge dividends is “Day in the Life” research. Get to know your clients’ needs and habits by talking with them at regular intervals about how they spend their day. It’s the “Payday” candy of the market research world. For more info, please click.
- Add Depth to Trackers with “Longitudinal Qualitative”
OK, so maybe Life Savers aren’t the most flashy candies in the basket, but they are reliable, consumed serially, and last a long time. Like a tracking study! Get even greater depth and insight (flavor!) from your tracking studies by adding a qualitative dimension to them — we call this approach Longitudinal Qualitative.
- Thought Leadership Studies
Thought leadership studies are the “Smarties” of the Halloween candies. Conducting these makes your brand and your sales staff look smarter to your clients. For this reason, they are excellent brand and relationship-building tools — it almost “smarts” NOT to do them! Here’s an example.
- Executive Communities
“All for one! One for all!” The Three Musketeers bar is the executive community of the research candy basket. In addition to engaging business decision makers one-to-one, see what happens when they talk with each other! Here’s a deliciously insightful example.
- Positioning, advertising and concept testing
Every year, my daughters ask me if I like candy corn. I always say no, but I always buy them anyway. You can’t have Halloween without them — it just isn’t right. Testing studies are like this. These aren’t the studies you look forward to all year, but you have to have them, or it’s just not the same. Click here for more info.
Here’s the Twist: Let’s admit it. If we are researchers for a living, then designing and conducting studies makes us feel like kids in a candy shop. Taking some time to celebrate that is apropos for this time of year — it’s the season of reveling and treats. Hope you have a great fourth quarter of research, and that you got some “Snickers” from reading this!
— Jennifer
Mixology (Putting Research into Practice)
What would be the best choice the next time you’re in the “candy shop”? Sometimes it’s not clear which research approach is best suited for your current needs. Here are some ideas for addressing the business issues that we typically hear about from our clients:
- Need long-term brand and relationship building: If your company is a new entrant in a market or looking to gain market share, a great way to get your company name out there and to give the sales staff a tool for walking through the door (rather than just knocking on it!) and something to talk about is thought leadership research. Who wouldn’t want to do business with a leader of thoughts?
- Want to learn continuously from a key high value audience: Particularly if you are in the kind of business that relies on intellectual capital as part of its value proposition, you have to stay in tune with trends. What better way to do that then to create a community of executives or other key decision makers (brokers, employee benefits managers, CFOs, CIOs, etc.), to whom you can both talk and listen as they talk amongst themselves?
- Must increase profit in the relatively short term: A great way to increase revenue and realize efficiencies in the sales process is to evaluate “wins” and losses.” Specifically, interviewing customers and prospects about what they thought about participating in a recent sales cycle with your company and comparing responses from both successes and failures will lead to meaningful, actionable insights.
On Monday, October 23 at noon, CSR is co-presenting at The Market Research Event in Orlando with Mutual of Omaha about the benefits that our clients realize from the “experiential” panels we establish with “high-value audiences” in a session called “Gaining Knowledge from Experience”. If you plan to be at TMRE, please join us, or stop by our booth (#300) and say hello!
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
— Willy Wonka
About Us
The Center for Strategy Research, Inc. (CSR) is a research firm. The “Twist” to what we offer is this: We combine open-ended questioning with our proprietary technology to create quantifiable data. As a result our clients gain more actionable and valuable insights from their research efforts.
