MARKET RESEARCH
Surveys
Surveys are the most basic form of quantitative research in which I design a survey using a survey platform like Survey Monkey. The most important part of a survey is to think in terms of the final questions you’d like to see answered and then design the survey to give you the data that will answer the questions.
I spend more time on the design of the survey than on summarizing the results. That’s because if you get the design right, then the desired results will simply ‘pop out’ from the data.
I always recommend that a client do quantitative research before doing qualitative research like focus groups because it is good to have some data from which to ask the questions.
Often, the results of the survey should be presented in the most revealing manner. This takes some skill that may require someone else to create so it can be matched with my analysis and recommendations.
Forecasts
Generating a market forecast takes a combination of art and science. Often, a market may be experiencing a dramatic shift due to a major new technology or product such as the change in the market adoption of smartphones when after the iPhone was introduced in 2007.
When creating a forecast, you have to think about what you think will be the most reasonable slope of adoption making sure that if it is reasonable from both production as well as consumption.
Some market forecasts may demonstrate that the demand is greater than the vendor can manufacture the product. This may take some careful messaging of asking excited customers to be patient. If manufacturing can produce more then the market demand, then the challenge is for marketing to find ways to use price and specials (Buy one, get one or BOGO) to help move the product faster than originally forecast.
The art of a market forecast is a balancing of capability to produce versus demand. Thus, it helps if you have some indication of demand by doing a survey of prospective buyers before you actually prepare the forecast.
I’ve prepared many forecasts that have included a significant number of variables so that it took some tweaking over many generations of the forecast in order to make the final result seem correct or at least reasonable.
I always caution against any forecast that breaks all previous records. White it is possible such in the case of the introduction of the iPhone, that only happens once in a lifetime.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is a lot of quantitative work – comparing one company’s capabilities against another but also some art in being able to do some interviews that provides more qualitative input.
In the mobile world, competitive analysis is usually presented in two ways:
Tote Sheet – here the product or service of each company represents the columns and the different features represents the rows. The result is a table which shows the different capabilities for each feature – if the respective product or service has that capability or not. Sometimes the feature being tested has one of a few distinct capabilities (such as 25%, 50% etc.).
Magic Quadrant – this term was created by Gartner for a stylized version of the way to display different products in different boxes. Typically, the axis are x & y but in some cases a quadrant can be represented but measures: up & down and left & right. The critical factor in generating a magic quadrant is choosing the variables being measured and compared.
Strategy
Strategy work entails trying to figure out which direction a company should take or in a larger company, the direction a new product should take. This definitely takes a combination of artistic and quantitative skills as well doing some market research.
The first step is to get a handle on what result is desired. Then, the strategy process is then managed by doing various market research exercises that will help give clarity about the direction that should be taken.
The results of a strategy exercise can result in a number of charts and graphs that show the market research and the alternative directions with, perhaps, simulations or market forecasts that support moving in one direction versus another.