What a Yankee Legend Can Teach Us About Research - 3rd & 4th Innings

So in the first two “innings”, we covered important questions that need to be answered before any other work should be done. Namely, what are the objectives of said research? What is the client trying to learn? And….when does the client need results?

As you proceed to the next set of questions, you’ll want to get a handle on the decisions to be made from the research you’ll conduct and how important they are to the client.

3rd Inning – What decisions (if any) will you make based on the results of the research?

Having insight into the decisions that will be made from the research will provide the researcher with guidance as to the appropriate methodology. For example, if the goal of a study is to determine the colors a product team should use on a new product then an in-person product test at a local research facility might be in order.

Possible categories for research could be among (but not limited to) the following, which might seek to answer the following questions:

• New product research

  • What are consumers’ unmet needs with the products currently available in the category?

  • Which ideas for new products should or should not be pursued?

• Product improvement/development

  • What improvements have been made by competitive products?

  • How significant are the product improvements in the category?

  • To what degree will we lose consumers if we make changes to our existing product line?

• Pricing research

  • What will be the impact on our sales if we take a price increase or decrease?

  • Is there an optimal price gap between our brand and branded competitors? Between our brand and private label brands?

  • How elastic or inelastic are the prices in our product category?

• Advertising research

  • To what degree does exposure to my brand’s advertising drive key metrics like brand awareness, brand favorability, purchase intent, and sales?

  • To what degree do consumers recall the key messages of my brand’s campaign?

• Consumer segmentation

  • What types of consumers are most interested in our product (based on demographics, psychographics, shopping behavior, etc.)? Least interested?

  • What marketing or promotional strategies will resonate most with our key consumer segments?

  • Where can we find these consumers online? How can we target them?

 4th Inning - How important are the decisions to be made from this research?

Understanding the importance of the decisions to be made from your research study will go a long way to determining how involved your approach will need to be, thereby determining cost and timing.

For example, if your client is undergoing a complete re-branding of a product line (especially if the brand is already well-known and established), your study may include several stages of qualitative research (e.g., 1-on-1 interviews, focus groups, online discussion groups), and a survey that may require several hundred respondents (or more). Such an involved study will take weeks or even months to conduct, necessitate frequent input from your clients, and require a significant budget.

If, however, your client is looking to perhaps add another flavor or color to an already extensive brand line, or making a minor change to a website, a quick and dirty product test or online survey (using a tool like Qualtrics) may be all that’s required to get your client the information needed quickly and inexpensively.