Blog posts tagged ethnography

Market research – what the big players do

The beginning of the story for the organisations with the big money budgets is that they take ideas from the innovation teams and then want to test them out.  They either use in-company market research teams or more probably they set up a project brief with external market research agencies. 

The researchers look at the product or service and put together a solid market research brief for their client that could include surveys, focus groups, interviews or questionnaires (online and offline).  Sometimes, new methodologies such as ethnography are used.  This is where you spend extended time with consumers – sometimes staying with them and sharing their lives – a fascinating, if not a rather strange qualitative experience – especially when you are looking through people’s bathroom cupboards!

Research with a large budget is very powerful – research can be done globally using thousands and thousands of people for thousands and thousands of pounds.  Once the results are in – the agency can analyse the data and information and comments in depth.  Once the agency has completed the analysis they put together a huge de-brief document and present this to the client – this can sometimes take a couple of days! If the results are promising, a product could be born.  But then the hard work starts – the full marketing, finance and project management process starts over what could be a year or more up until the launch of the product.  You then have to look at the whole marketing mix – watch the competition and analyse their offering, gaps in their offering and of primary importance, look at the return on investment potential.

Article originally appeared at Real Eyes Marketing Blog