Archive for September, 2007

Sep 7th 2007 Scorecard for evaluating research

  • What were the key findings of the research?
  • What were the key implications of the findings?
  • What new insights did the research produce?
  • How were the research results disseminated?
  • Who actually ended up using the research?
  • What decisions did the research impact?
  • What was the estimated business value of the research?
  • What did you learn from this research about doing future research projects differently or better?

Source:
From Market Research to Customer Insight
by Mohanbir Sawhney
ManyWorlds, 12/08/2003

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Sep 6th 2007 Checklist for research projects

  • How does this project fit into the global business priorities of our business?
  • How does this project relate to other research projects?
  • Is there something new or creative about the problem, the methods, or the anticipated learning?
  • What do we already know about the problem?
  • What stakeholders will benefit from this research?
  • What is the “business case” for this research?
  • Are we using the right research methods for the problem?
  • Should we outsource this research? How important is it for us to be personally involved in the field work?
  • How will we involve the customers of this research in the process?
  • What is our plan for disseminating the findings and insights?
  • How will we capture the learning and insights so that they are easily accessible in the future?

Source:
From Market Research to Customer Insight
by Mohanbir Sawhney
ManyWorlds, 12/08/2003

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Market Research Questions

Sep 5th 2007 Measuring the Value of Research

Decision value: What decisions did the research cause to be:

  • Different
  • Not taken
  • Improved

Learning value: What new understanding did the research provide us about our customers and markets that:

  • We did not know before
  • Customers could not have told us
  • We would have guessed differently

Business value: What implications does the research have for:

  • Identifying new opportunities
  • Developing new products
  • Differentiating us from competitors
  • Seeing the market differently

Option value: How can the insights from this research be leveraged:

  • Across business groups
  • Across functional areas
  • Across research projects

Source:
From Market Research to Customer Insight
by Mohanbir Sawhney
ManyWorlds, 12/08/2003

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Sep 4th 2007 Marketing Event Planning Questions

The continuum begins with the development of a detailed plan. The plan should answer the following questions: 

  • Who will manage the various aspects of the event?
  • What are its objectives (qualitative and quantitative)?
  • Who is/are the target audience(s)?
  • What is the theme?
  • Which marketing messages do you want the audience(s) to walk away with?
  • In which cities will you hold the event (you will need specific locations before you can get very far into promotion)?
  • Who will the speaker(s) be?
  • How will you promote the event?
  • What tools will you use to generate and capture qualified leads?
  • What on-site personnel will you require at the event?
  • How — in detail — will you follow-through after the event to ensure that it fulfills its objectives?
  • Who will be responsible for the follow-through?
  • How will you track the follow through to ensure it is done?

Source:
Successful Marketing Events
by Joel Klebanoff
Klebanoff Associates Inc.

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Sep 3rd 2007 Market-Driving Checklist

Market-Driving Mind-Set

  • Does our top management continuously reinforce the need for market-driving ideas?
  • Do we actively seek to cannibalize our own products?
  • Is the pursuit of competing emerging technologies permitted?
  • Are new ideas routinely imported from the outside?
  • Are time and resources allocated for curiosity-driven explorations?

Market-Driving Culture

  • Do we tolerate failures when people are attempting something really new?
  • Are processes in place to capture learning from failures?
  • Are people encouraged to share their failures publicly?
  • Do we constrain innovation through too much respect for hierarchy?
  • Are organizational rules and norms enforced too rigidly?
  • Do we tolerate mavericks and allow space for champions to flourish?

Market-Driving People

  • Do we hire people who will increase the genetic pool of our company?
  • Do we mix people on teams to generate creative abrasion?
  • Are novices included on important projects to question assumptions?
  • Do we think our people are entrepreneurial?
  • Are exceptional innovation achievements and efforts recognized and rewarded?

Market-Driving Processes

  • Do we allow for long payback horizons for innovation projects?
  • Do we accept alternative routes to obtain funding and approval for market-driving ideas?
  • Do we have processes that move ideas from the bottom to the top without obstruction?
  • Do we run competitions to generate radical new concepts?
  • Do we ensure that radical ideas do not lose resources to incremental ideas?

Source:
The Strategic Role of Marketing
by Manda Salls
HBS Working Knowledge, May 31, 2004
Note: From the book Marketing as Strategy by Nirmalya Kumar

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Sep 2nd 2007 Lead Management Questions

  • Is there a consensus from sales and marketing to what a “qualified” lead is?
  • Does Sales complain about (or neglect) the leads it receives?
  • Can you confirm that Sales has followed up with each lead it has received?
  • Is there a process in place for Sales to provide feedback to Marketing?
  • Can you differentiate between what type of leads close the fastest, and for the highest amount of revenue and profit?
  • What combination of touches provides the most effective leads for Sales?
  • Is there a mechanism for Sales to pass leads back to marketing for further nurturing, or do they simply get dropped?

Source:
Five Ways to Improve Your Lead Management
by Robert J. Moreau
MarketingProfs.com, November 14, 2006

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Sep 1st 2007 Formulating a Marketing Strategy

Here are a few of the questions Susan Hewitt, the founder of Blythe Hewitt Associates in San Francisco, tells her startups they must be prepared to answer when they are formulating a marketing strategy:

  • How far are you along in product development?
  • What’s your category? Is it a new category, or a crowded category?
  • What are your current marketing goals? Introducing the product? Adding the product to an existing category? Branding? Enhancing an already established brand awareness?
  • What is the target market? Business? Consumer? And who, precisely, is the target within those categories?
  • What are the trends within the market?
  • What are the business challenges that this product solves?
  • What are the IT headaches the product alleviates?
  • Who’s your competition? Direct? Indirect?
  • What are the key differentiators between this product and the competitor’s?
  • Within your target market, who are the decision makers who buy the product? Who are the influencers who affect them?
  • Are there any gurus known for their market savvy in this product space you are in?

Source:
Where to Begin?
by Jane Hodges
Business 2.0, June 2000

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