What can a B2C marketing study tell in document?
1. Regarding Consumers
- Number of consumers (target audience size)
- Consumer characteristics (who they are, where they are from, what they do, etc.)
- Specific behavior patterns
- Consumer media preferences
- Evaluation of consumers’ satisfaction level, product quality, level of service
2. Regarding Products/Brands
- Brand/product consumption level
- Brand image
- Brand loyalty
- Developing strategic brand platform (mission, USP, brand individuality/personality, target audience, positioning)
- Testing elements of the strategic platform and brand attributes
- Product/brand competitiveness
- Product/brand positioning (developing positioning maps, including perceptual maps)
- Perception of a product’s value and its functional and performance characteristics
- Evaluating a product/product portfolio using the Kano method
- Consumers’ readiness to pay for added value
- Determining directions for production improvement
- Analyzing how balanced a company’s product portfolio is
- Level of demand and price demand elasticity
3. Regarding Marketing Communications
- Ascertaining the most effective channels, media and means for communicating with target contact audiences; profiling target contact audiences (determining the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of advertising campaign objects)
- Expert analysis of a promotion campaign’s communications and creative platforms (pre-testing, post-testing)
- Evaluating the target contact audience’s information needs
- Testing specific advertising formats; evaluating the communications effectiveness of promotion campaigns (brand recognition aspects, attribute retention, message comprehension, motivation potential, image, etc.
Methods Used for Studies
- Desk study
- Personal structured interviews (street/home surveys, surveys at sales locations)
- Structured telephone interviews
- Hall-tests
- Home-tests
- Focus groups (may include demonstrations, taste tests)
- Projective techniques (brand personification, collage technique, associative tests, etc.)
- In-depth interviews (at the respondents’ home/work)
- Mystery Shopping
- Market observations (evaluating vehicle and foot traffic; observing competing retail locations).
Mystery shopping/ macro observation
With competition at an all-time high, companies selling goods and services must literally fight for each customer. In order to be successful, you have to offer the consumer the best quality.
How to find out whether customers are satisfied or not?
Mystery shopping is one of the most effective ways you can assess how your organization is performing on the ground. Our mystery shoppers are trained to blend in seamlessly while evaluating specific parameters at your or your competitor’s organization, such as sales personnel behavior, executive performance and the effectiveness of the retail or service market strategy. Mystery shopping is equally effective in the В2С and В2В markets and is also widely used to evaluate internet stores.
When is mystery shopping appropriate?
How is mystery shopping set up?
We offer mystery shopping with clients’ observation in: Services and manufacturing industries of any sorts:
- Travel agencies and airline ticket sales premises
- Manpower agencies
- Car dealerships & Night clubs
- Banking services for individual accounts
- Transportation companies
- Packaging and other manufacturing industries
- Telecommunications industries
- Metallurgy companies
- Fast food restaurants
- Wholesale trade
- Retail trade
- Distributorship trade
- Import and Export trades
Sociological studies
With fast-paced changes taking place in many spheres of economic and social life today, local government and political leaders have to keep abreast of shifts in public opinion. After all, it’s better to predict events than to deal with the unpredictable outcomes of volatile social transformations. In order to adjust policy at the local level, leaders need access to systematic analysis from professional researchers and consultants.
Here are some examples of the type of sociological research the Market Agency’s specialists can perform
Research methods used
Our resources
Some examples of the type of sociological research the Market Agency’s specialists can perform
- Analysis of a region’s overall social situation; assessment of the level of social tension and its causes
- Ascertain what regional and local social problems are most significant to local residents and find out how local residents want these problems solved
- Evaluate residents’ satisfaction with quality-of-life indicators: health care, infrastructure, public safety, public transportation, living conditions, education, employment, healthy lifestyles, free time, family, raising children
- Evaluate residents’ attitude toward local government; evaluate the performance of the current local administration or specific agencies
- Evaluate the level and quality of information residents receive about the performance of the local government, specific agencies, and/or programs
- Evaluate residents’ responses to federal and regional reforms
- Evaluate the image of specific officials; ascertain and analyze the positive and negative elements (traits) of their image; ascertain what motivations form that image
- Study issues relating to young people, inter-racial relations and other social problems (corruption, alcoholism and drug addiction), the entrepreneurial climate, etc.
- Our specialists can also utilize powerful, proprietary methods for providing research support during election campaigns (local legislative elections, mayoral elections). We offer the following research services for effective election campaigns:
- Forecast possible outcomes
- Political segmentation of the electorate; ascertaining who each candidate’s target voters are
- Ascertain what regional and local social problems are most significant to local residents (significant topics for election messages to address)
- Determine which prominent individuals are trusted by the electorate (in order to bring these people into the campaign)
- Determine the electorate’s political orientation in order to choose which parties and movements to utilize in the campaign
- Ascertain the most effective channels and media for political messages
- Evaluate the quality of information about candidates (positive, negative), ascertain the sources of positive and negative information about representatives who are known to the public
- Ascertain the image of each representative who is known to the public; determine and analyze positive and negative image elements (traits)
- Ascertain voters’ readiness to vote for specific candidates, including during runoffs
- Evaluate the effect of a candidate’s political orientation or his/her membership in a party (movement) on voters’ choices
Business planning
Business planning is the process of creating a document that provides the foundation for all of an organization’s business management decisions.
A business plan clearly presents information about a business to all interested parties, including potential partners, local government, investors, experts, etc.
Business plan format and structure is guided by the expertise experiences and clients’ needs
The Market Agency offers its client’s turnkey solutions for feasibility studies and business plans.
We offer the following additional services for global clients:
- Locate site for the planned business
- Adapt business plan to the selected site
Business plan
It will cover the following titles of the specific business areas of the clients: Project overview, Background on the project’s initiator, Description of the product or service, Description of the industry and market, Marketing plan, Production plan, Organizational plan, Financial plan, Analysis of project risks and Appendices
Marketing Audit
A marketing system audit provides an objective assessment of a company’s external and internal marketing environments so that it can improve the performance of its entire marketing system.
What does a marketing audit involve?
A marketing system audit can be all-inclusive (auditing everything related in any way to marketing) or limited. A limited audit can assess the marketing elements you choose or those elements our consultants feel need the most work:
- Marketing strategy
- Specific marketing plan
- Marketing subsystem (marketing studies and information, new product development, marketing planning and monitoring, etc.)
- Specific marketing functions or business processes (for example, promotion campaign planning)
- Product (brand) portfolio or a specific product or brand
- Separate marketing division (by product, line or function)
- Marketing management organizational charts
- Marketing and sales personnel
When is a marketing audit appropriate?
An independent marketing system audit is beneficial in the following circumstances:
- You are not satisfied with sales volumes and profitability, but you don’t know how to fix things
- You want to review your company’s business strategy
- Your competitors are advancing while your company is running in place (and you suspect that marketing is at fault)
- Your top managers can’t agree on a development plan for your marketing system
- You are ready to invest in a sizeable marketing project and want to reduce the market and organizational risks.
- What can an independent marketing audit do for you?
- Opportunity for an objective review of your business
- Find holes in your marketing system that can be fixed without significant investment (such as improvements to your system for managing existing sales personnel)
- Develop an optimized organizational plan for managing your company’s marketing services
- Find strategically significant opportunities for your business (for example, market segments where there is unsatisfied solvent demand)
- Adjust vital business processes in the sphere of marketing, such as marketing planning
- Compare your company with successful competitors and apply their marketing experience;
- Evaluate the actual returns on investments in advertising, branding, market research, create CRM systems, etc.
- Create a schedule of logically linked steps to adapt your business (to a new strategy, entry into a new market, etc.)
How does MARKETING audit work?
An all-inclusive marketing audit has three phases.
Phase 1: Preparation
- Consultants familiarize themselves with the company’s market and production processes;
- Preparation and collection of internal information requested by consultants;
- Preliminary overview of the marketing situation in the market and at the company
- Development and approval of a detailed work schedule
Phase 2: Audit of external marketing environment
- Market conditions and potential
- Macro environment factors that affect the market’s structure and volume
- Analysis and prognosis of market volume
- Key causalities in the marketing environment and the dominant market trends
- Existing market distribution system
- Study of the competition and competitors
- Weaknesses and strengths of the market’s key players; determine the client’s core competency profile
Phase 3: Audit of internal marketing environment
3.1. Marketing strategy audit.
3.2. Analysis of how the company organizes marketing:
- How marketing divisions are managed
- Functionality of marketing divisions and the effectiveness of communication between marketing divisions and other company divisions
- Effectiveness of marketing personnel in the context of the market and the company’s goals and strategies
3.3. Marketing subsystem audit:
- Informational audit of marketing, evaluation of how marketing information is used to develop and implement strategic solutions
- Marketing planning system
- Marketing control system
- System for developing new services
3.4. Analysis of the effectiveness of spending on marketing:
- Effectiveness of the company’s budgeting system and procedures for marketing;
- Ability of the existing size and structure of the marketing budget to meet the company’s strategic marketing goals
- ROMI (return on marketing investment)
3.5. Analysis of the effectiveness of core marketing business processes and functions:
- Core marketing and sales business processes (including benchmarking techniques)
- Effectiveness of key product management functions
- Effectiveness of distribution channels; evaluation of dealers’ contribution to promoting the company’s products
- Effectiveness of marketing communications, including branding, advertising and stimulus campaigns
- Effectiveness of the sales personnel management system
3.6. Analysis of the effectiveness of the company’s product/brand portfolio
Where do auditors get the information for the audit?
Three types of sources are used during an audit:
- Internal information from the client (prepared documents, results of consultations, surveys, internal employee focus groups).
- Ready-to-use (secondary) information on the market (results of marketing studies, industry press, the internet, official information, etc.).
- Field information (results of studies with consumers, market experts and competitors (mystery shopping, observations, and blind interviews), retail and wholesale audit, etc.).
How long does a marketing system audit take?
An express marketing system audit can take from one week up to a month if staff is 4 involved otherwise one researcher takes 3 to 4 months tentatively, depending on the size of the company and the object of the audit. An inclusive marketing audit of a large company usually takes three to four months. But the company’s staff should cooperate our research staff to declare the data required.
What do you receive at the end of a marketing system audit?
- A detailed report on the condition of your marketing system containing specific recommendations on what needs to be changed and the best ways to do so.
- A set of ready-to-use internal documents as requested by client (marketing strategy, marketing department mission, detailed job descriptions for marketing personnel, organizational management charts, etc.) and instructions for implementing them.
- Online assistance from the auditors on implementing the suggested recommendations.
Marketing feasibility for your brand
Companies are often prepared to invest millions of dollars in purchasing technology, hiring and training personnel and organizing distribution for a new brand without any thought to the most important element – a market feasibility study for the project. As a result, the investor can end up with a shiny new shopping center that remains empty, products collecting dust on store shelves and dealers and distributors who are not willing to promote the new brand.
A market feasibility study targeted at minimizing marketing risks involves an objective marketing study to evaluate the market potential and find a niche for a new branded product. The study also includes developing a set of marketing tools to establish and position the new brand and help it reach projected sales volumes.
Unfortunately, advertising and branding agencies tend to skip over this phase or provide superficial information without performing any serious marketing studies, and the creative ideas they present to investors frequently lack any real grounding in the market. By commissioning a market feasibility study for your brand, you gain an independent look at the market situation and your clients’ needs.
When is a market feasibility study appropriate?
- You want to develop and bring to market and new brand that has the potential to be strong
- Sizeable investment in a new brand
- You need a solid business plan, not just a visualization of your brand
- You want to re-brand your company’s key brand (including your corporate brand)
- You are planning to bring a new brand into a complex market where you will have strong competitors
What do you receive at the end of the project? [Project Outputs]
You get a two-part document that includes:
1. Feasibility study for the new product/brand:
- Evaluation of market volume and potential sales forecast for the new brand
- Market segmentation and supported selection of target market segment(s)
- Evaluation of consumer numbers and patterns in the target market segments
- Explanation of the consumption behavior of target consumers (motivational basis, factors influencing choice, ideal brand image, most effective marketing stimuli, etc.);
- Analysis of target consumers’ price expectations
- Analysis of the competition in target market segments (positioning of competing brands, their image, weaknesses and strengths), ways to create competitive advantages for the new brand
- Description of existing distribution systems, selling forms and procedures
2. Strategic platform for the new brand:
- Brand mission (main idea) and development goals
- Detailed description of the target audience for the new brand, including psychological and behavioral specifics
- Unique Sales Proposal (USP) – what sets the new brand apart and determines its unique competitive advantages
- Brand individuality (value) – the brand’s ability to correspond with those key personality traits of the target consumer that he/she sees as defining him/her as an individual
- Brand positioning strategy – the brand’s specific position in the market and its desired image with consumers, as well as the tools for attaining that image
- Recommendations on developing brand attributes (name, trademark, color and style identity, etc.)
- Recommendations on a strategic set of marketing tools (the product’s functional and consumer properties, recommended price, distribution channels, selling forms, service level, etc.)
- Concept for integrated marketing communications – consumer relationship strategy, means of promoting the brand
How does MARKET feasibility study work?
A market feasibility study for a brand is based on the results of a market study and consultations with the client. This type of project involves working with three kinds of information sources:
- Corporate information from the client (completed marketing studies, internal employee focus groups, internal expertise)
- Ready-to-use (secondary) information on the market (results of marketing studies, industry press, the internet, official information, etc.)
- Field information (consumer survey results, focus groups or in-depth consumer interviews, market expert surveys, competition studies (mystery shopping, observations, blind interviews), retail or wholesale audits, etc.)
How long does MARKET feasibility study take?
The specific list of steps for a market feasibility study for a brand is defined for each project individually in its technical specification. On average, the process takes 20 to 30 weeks; depending the nature of organization and product varieties.
The project usually has two phases:
Phase 1: Marketing study and development of marketing feasibility study for the new product/brand.
Phase 2: Developing strategic platform for new brand.
Phase 3 (optional): Testing the strategic brand platform and the concepts of its attributes.
Business plan feasibility study
Industry and market overviews and a marketing plan are all critical pieces of a business plan. They must provide relevant information and interpret it properly in order for you to correctly assess your project’s potential and prospects.
Services that we offer to the demanded company, targeted at:
1. Collecting original data for an industry and market overview.
2. Verifying the Client’s existing market information
3. Developing the company’s marketing plan
4. Analyzing how well all aspects of the marketing plan fit the current market situation and the company’s objectives over a specific recomended period.
What can a business plan feasibility study focus on?
What methods do we use to carry out a business plan feasibility study?
- Marketing study methods for the B2B [BUSINESS TO BUSINESS] and В2С [BUSINESS TO CUSTOMERS] markets
- Elements of the corporate marketing system audit
|
