Understanding your Customer (Part 2)

By Heather C. Conover
Conover + Company Communications

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. - Donald Kendall

In the last issue, I discussed taking a systematic approach to collecting information about markets; customers; competition; and the economic, regulatory, and political environment in order to be equipped to make informed business decisions; deal with potential problems; develop targeted marketing, advertising, and public relations campaigns; minimize risk; and achieve predictable and measurable results for your organization.

If, for example, you are planning to sell a product to other businesses, you may have already broadly defined your primary market and identified other key information, such as industry type, company size, and decision maker of your primary and secondary customers. You will also want to learn as much as possible about buying habits, budgets, purchasing policies, current products and services used, and attitudes toward current vendors and their products and your own company and its products.

There are two types of research to explore: primary and secondary. Primary research provides original information that cannot be found elsewhere. A sample of the target population is taken and conclusions are subsequently made about the entire population. Primary research can be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative research provides statistically valid information and is generally in the form of surveys - in person, telephone, or mail.

Qualitative research - usually personal interviews or focus groups - provides more in depth information about a particular attitude or opinion and feedback on the positioning, marketing, and advertising of a product or service. It can be used prior to quantitative research to help frame the questions for surveys, they can be used after quantitative research to further probe particular opinions and attitudes, or both. Qualitative research is not statistically accurate, but is very valuable in acquiring useful information about and insights into a particular customer group and their opinions on a variety of topics related to your product or service.

Secondary research is information that is already available. This information can be found in publications, trade and business associations, government documents, and the Internet. While a lot of this information can be obtained for free at a local library or via the Internet, some must be bought. Even if paying for the data, the biggest expenditure in secondary research activities is apt to be the time spent to find the many resources and organizing the information.

Whatever method(s) you choose, the research will be well worth the expenditure when based on your research you scrap your plans for a product or service and save many thousands or millions of dollars, see sales rise, and/or your revenues increase well beyond what you spent for research.

Spring 2004 -Volume 14, Number 2

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