Archive for the ‘Marketing Research’ Category
Thursday, July 11th, 2019
Behavioral economics is the study of how and why consumers do not always act rationally —rational behavior is one of the fundamental assumptions underlying classical economics. Behavioral economics helps explain things like why consumers make impulse purchases and incorrectly value goods and services. Two of my favorite behavioral economists are Dan Ariely and Steven D. Levitt, authors of Predictably Irrational and Freakonomics, respectively–two books I highly recommend.
Nudge marketing is a key form of behavioral economics. It involves providing subtle “nudges” to guide human behavior in ways that serve marketers’ needs. Here we take a look at some interesting examples of how elements of behavioral economics can be put to work in the field of marketing.
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Tags: behavioral economics, influencing consumer behavior, innovations in marketing, Marketing, marketing strategy, nudge marketing
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Thursday, March 2nd, 2017
What event or events would you say have had the greatest impact on the United States during YOUR lifetime? It’s a question put to 2,025 adult survey respondents in a mid-2016 Pew Research Center poll, the results of which were covered by Claudia Deane, Maeve Duggan and Rich Morin. Before looking at the article, try to answer the question yourself. What are the 10 historic events during your lifetime that have had the greatest impact on the country? (more…)
Tags: Customer Communication, historical events, marketing research, shared experiences, understanding your market
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Thursday, March 31st, 2016
Market research is key to any business, big or small. Your market defines the boundaries of your potential sources of revenue. The more you know your market, the more you can craft your products and services to fit that market’s needs. As Shawn O’Connor writes for Forbes, “By doing your homework before starting your business, you can be assured that your product or service is properly priced and positioned and you are offering the most sought after attributes.”
How can you do that homework, especially if budgets are tight? Technology has had a big impact on how market research is conducted, for better and for worse. Here’s what you need to know. (more…)
Tags: competitive intelligence, conducting research online, focus groups, marketing research
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Thursday, March 3rd, 2016
Like most forms of social media, Twitter is largely used by businesses to promote a message, product or service. However, there are a number of uses for Twitter beyond purely promotional activities. Twitter, and other social media tools, can actually provide big benefits to businesses in multiple ways. Some of the ways we have used Twitter outside of traditional marketing include the following: (more…)
Tags: content marketing, Customer Communication, Customer Service, Employee Communication, facebook, linkedin, Social Media, social media marketing, social media research, twitter
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Internet Marketing, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Monday, March 30th, 2015
Marketers are understandably concerned about building and protecting strong brands. An Economist article from last year discusses the power of brands. “Brands account for more than 30% of the stock market value of companies in the S&P 500 index, reckons Millward Brown, a market-research company. Everyone knows that a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt costs more than a polo shirt; Coke without the logo is just cola.”
But, brand-building efforts are sometimes misguided– (more…)
Tags: Advertising, brand audit, brand building, Brand Management, brand measurement, Interbrand, Millward Brown
Posted in Competition, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
Customer surveys are one of the most commonly used arrows in a marketer’s quiver. What better way to get an idea of how your customers think than by asking them directly? While the basic idea is sound, the execution of customer surveys is often lacking. (more…)
Tags: company surveys, Constant Contact, Customer Service, focus groups, Innovation, marketing research, polls, qualitative surveys, quantitative surveys, SurveyMonkey
Posted in Marketing Measurement, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
Surveys and polls are two little tools that are widely used and often incorrectly. They’re tools that look easy enough to create and, after all, with apps like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang and others widely available they are vastly easier to prepare than in days gone by.
Yet, despite the ease and availability of tools to help in the process, far too many surveys and polls contain very easy to avoid errors that can cause the results attained to be of questionable value. I work with both students and clients on the development and use of marketing research instruments, and I often review and provide feedback on survey instruments. Some of the most common errors I see include: (more…)
Tags: conducting research, customer research, focus groups, marketing research, surveying, surveys
Posted in Marketing Measurement, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Thursday, May 8th, 2014
A recent experience I had, contrasted with a similar experience my husband had a few years ago, made me consider how easy it can be to not only gather key marketing research intelligence from customers but also to improve the service experience, generate positive word-of-mouth and, ultimately, increase sales. (more…)
Tags: customer experience, customer satisfaction, Customer Service, marketing research
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Marketing Research | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 25th, 2014
Some of my favorite authors/social economists do a great job of cautioning us to beware of “conventionally held wisdom”–Dan Ariely and Steven Levitt are two that immediately come to mind. It’s so easy to get swept up by conventional wisdom and then, unfortunately, to act based on that wisdom–whether it reflects reality or not. (more…)
Tags: bricks and mortar, internet marketing, online marketing, online presence, Strategy, Technology, web sites, website
Posted in Business Development, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Research, Web Sites | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Can you think of the last time you were engaged in a marketing research project? If you’re like most business people, when you hear that question you’re probably thinking about some long-range, very intensive, data-gathering exercise that involved a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of data analysis. And, yes, that is research. But we’re guessing that you are engaged in research far more frequently than you realize. Importantly, your research efforts don’t have to be full-blown initiatives that involve extensive quantitative research and analysis. Sometimes, yes–but, often, no. The trick is determining when you need to gather more information. And that comes down to two important steps: (more…)
Tags: competition, data, data analysis, focus groups, Marketing, marketing research, qualitative research, quantitative research, secondary research, Strategy, surveys
Posted in Marketing Research | No Comments »