1. Key Idea: Be as informed as possible But… Work with the constraints of time, resources, and uncertainty

2. So… Develop Info Continuously With In-person Interviews Combine this with exploratory/experimental marketing

3. Market Research Process Phase I Determine decisions to be made; research questions to be answered Determine data needs to answer questions Determine population and sample Determine appropriate method

4. Market Research Process Phase II Design/test Instrument Collect data Analyze data; draw conclusions Report results

5. Objectives in Exploratory Research Learn context; get a sense of the business environment Learn what are the right questions to ask –Get past the “stupid questions” stage Learn how to ask the right questions

6. Objectives in designing the exploratory “instrument” Get the respondent to give thoughtful answers Get the respondent to distinguish between ideas or issues that are tightly connected and those that are only loosely connected Get the respondent to talk about the most important things first

7. Tips for Exploratory Interviews Choose people who will explain well and who have insight Choose people who will tolerate naïve questions Ask open ended questions (come prepared); ask them to explain their answers Don’t wear out your welcome When finished, ask permission to ask future questions

8. How to ask the questions Get the respondent to talk about his or her situation –What’s important? Why? –How important is the problem compared to other problems? Ask about both needs and decision process Get the person to tell you a story –Typical day? –Most recent experience? Use a script, at first Update the questions after each interview

9. Objectives for conclusive research Get information that will help make decisions; preferably that “pretests” decisions Build a baseline so that comparisons can be made to post-implementation data

10. Objectives in designing the conclusive instrument Get enough data to work with –high response rate –large enough sample of right respondents Get accurate data –accurate, unbiased answers Get data you can interpret –enough detail –without alternate explanations

11. Tips for questionnaires Ask for exactly what you want Don’t lead; use unbiased language Avoid compound questions Use scaled response, or multiple choice questions as much as possible Ask sensitive questions last Don’t wear out your welcome

12. Three key questions 1.How big is the market? –Use secondary sources to gauge market size Fed govt World Bank or UN Market research companies Trade / industry associations –Use combination of assumptions and conclusive research to determine proportions in addressable market

13. Three key questions 2.Who to target? What segments exist, how big are they, and what are the trends? [Segmentation by analysis] Or What distinguishes our current customers? Who else is like them – for translation? [Segmentation by discovery] This info requires both secondary and primary data.

14. Three key questions 3.How to address the chosen market? Biggest pain Decision process This info requires in depth study of chosen segment

15. What is valuable: features, services, complements? Who has the greatest need? Who are the visionaries, pragmatists? Market Research and the TALC Pre-Chasm Market Research What are the questions? How do you do research? Lots of customer contact Higher levels of abstraction focus: problems

16. Market Research and the TALC Beachhead Market Research What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you do research? Who has the greatest need? What kind of whole product do they need? Still qualitative, exploratory Maybe a survey

17. Market Research and the TALC Bowling Alley Market Research What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you do research? Who else has a similar need? What kind of whole product do they need? Still qualitative, exploratory Surveys start to make more sense

18. Market Research and the TALC Tornado Market Research What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you do research? What is most important? How big is the total market of pragmatists? What are concerns, problems of conservatives? Fast Online survey?

19. Market Research and the TALC Mainstream Market Research What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you do research? +1 needs Response to marketing programs Quick surveys?