Nomad Marketing Blog

Ever wondered what your customers really think?  It’s easier than ever to find out.  A number of new and not-so-new online survey tools are making customer research accessible to everyone.  But while the tools exist, the art of questionnaire design and the science of research methodology are still critical to successful surveys.Several for-profit and open-source organizations have created affordable, user-friendly online survey tools.  The most common are Zoomerang, Survey Monkey and LimeSurvey.  Each of these providers offers free basic service and a variety of paid premium services.  Each has basic tools for survey design and reporting.  With some variations, each allows marketers to build, conduct and analyze surveys.  Here’s a little tour of each one, with some pros and cons.ZoomerangZoomerang has lots of options for question types, but data analysis features leave a little bit to be desired.  One great feature that Zoomerang offers is the ability to embed images into questions, allowing researchers to gather data on visual responses as well as written questions.  Zoomerang’s annual contract pricing may scare some noobs away and may prohibit some low-volume researchers from using the service.www.zoomerang.comSurvey MonkeyFormatting/question type options are not quite as robust as in Zoomerang, but data analysis options are a little more sophisticated.  Survey Monkey is very easy to use and has an affordable monthly rate.  One thing I really like about Survey Monkey is their tie-in with Mail Chimp – an online e-newsletter tool.www.surveymonkey.comLimeSurveyDisclaimer:  I haven’t used this service yet, but in taking the tour, I’ve discovered a few very interesting things.  Before I jump in, I’d like to thank Guy Hagen @ Innovation Insight for turning me on to this open source tool.LimeSurvey offers an online, hosted version, called LimeService, and a customizable download version that allows sophisticated web programmers a very robust tool.  The download version can be a powerful tool for more advanced researchers.  LimeService has an interesting band-width-based pricing model.  The more questions you ask and the more respondents you have, the more you pay.  This is a great feature for low-volume researchers and makes it easy for newbies to kick the tires.  LimeSurvey appears to have some limitations in question/survey formatting, based on the demo survey on the site.  In particular, it doesn’t appear that LimeSurvey allows for skip-pattern survey design.  This is a big deal, especially if you have a highly heterogeneous respondent pool.www.limesurvey.orgOnline survey tools are making market research much more accessible for small businesses.  Short learning curves, low pricing and relatively robust survey and analysis capabilities make the leading services great options for entry-level researchers.But with great power, comes great responsibility.  Sound research strategy and solid survey design practices are critical to getting the most out of these tools.  It’s easier than ever to ask bad questions and gather misleading data. Just because a tool is easy to use, doesn’t mean it will generate worthwhile data.  Researchers must be sure their results are reliable to avoid making bad decisions later on.

marketing,Nomad Marketing,market research,zoomerang,survey monkey,limesurvey,web,internet

There’s an old sales adage that says, “Bad news early is good news.”  Knowing a deal won’t happen early keeps a salesperson from wasting time.That saying applies to new product ideas too.  A good product development process has hurdles at several stages.  The most important hurdles are the ones at the front end – before the big investments are made.  Saying no (and yes) to the right projects at the right times makes product development a more profitable endeavor.Some studies estimate that more than $100 billion is spent on R&D every year in the US alone.  Many (most) of the products will never see the light of day – or worse, will fail in the market.  When that happens, billions in money and thousands of person-hours have been wasted on futile, unproductive efforts.  Corporate profitability takes a hit.  Market opportunities are squandered.  Morale suffers.Management has a responsibility to make hard decisions on new product concepts early in the process.  Without applying early scrutiny, managers put major dollars and human capital at risk.  Of course, there are no crystal balls, but investing in due diligence at the front end of the development process will improve the success rate of R&D efforts.Key elements of early stage due diligence include:

• Dedicated and engaged management – rubber stamping project plans invites trouble
• Willingness to invest in market research – knowing customer needs improves project success rates
• A full concept funnel – saying no demands more project ideas to evaluate
• A strong product management staff – sound decision-making and good data are essential to early-stage evaluation

None of this means that managers should never say, “Yes.”  By weeding out less viable concepts, managers allow the more promising projects to flourish.  These projects should be supported with extra resources and corporate support.  A great way to kill a good project is to starve it in its infancy.  Diverting resources from less viable projects to the “winners” improves the good projects’ chances for success.Saying no to new product concepts early improves new product success, reduces R&D waste and improves profitability.  If a project makes it past the first hurdle, shower it with love AND money.  The up-front investments will be well spent and the rewards will be great.

Nomad Marketing,marketing,product management,product development,R&D,innovation

Getting inside the minds of consumers is a real challenge for marketers.  Consumer research is a huge industry.  Focus groups, online surveys, consumer panels.  You name it, marketers have tried it.  All of these research methods can help marketers segment their customers into ever-smaller groups.  A big challenge remains, even after this level of dissection:  finding the personality – the soul – of the consumer.That’s where segment personas come in.  A consumer persona combines the demographic, psychographic and qualitative characteristics of a segment into one fictional composite personality.  Putting a face on the cold hard numbers can help marketers gain a richer understanding of a segment and it’s preferences.  The mere exercise of building a segment persona can be enlightening, generating new and interesting insights.Building a segment persona is a relatively simple process.  Clear and concise segmentation is critical.  If the segment isn’t reasonably homogeneous, the persona can’t speak for the whole group.  Using the demographic information as a start, assign a gender, age, income level and family to the persona.  The persona should have a name.  That way he or she will acquire a personality of her own.Once you’ve assigned your persona a name and vital statistics, reach into your psychographic data and give her preferences.  Where does she shop?  What magazines does she read?  Where does she browse online?  To what groups does she belong?  To what other brands is she loyal?  Where did she and her family go for their last vacation?  What model car does she drive?The more questions like these that you ask, the richer will be your picture of her.  If you can imagine her driving her car (mini-van, SUV, etc.) to the grocery store (convenience store, farmers market) and changing the music on her radio (iPod, cellphone, satellite radio), you can imagine her interacting with your brand.Marketers today are awash in data.  But the soul of the consumer doesn’t live in the cells of an Excel spreadsheet.  With a little imagination, marketers can create rich, robust pictures of their consumers using segment personas.

Nomad Marketing,marketing,market research,personas,demographics,psychographics,consumers