Usage & Attitude Testing (U&A Test)

Usage & Attitude Testing (U&A Test)

Marketers always ask such questions like: who use the product?

Marketers always ask such questions like: who use the product? When do they use the product? What are consumers’ attitudes towards the product? Marketing research may answer those questions by applying Usage & Attitude Test (U&A test).

Usage and Attitude surveys (U&A) give marketers an opportunity to thoroughly review product or service within its marketplace so that marketers have well understanding about product’s appeal, strengths, weaknesses and any gaps to enhance business performance. In addition, Usage and Attitude surveys (U&A) gives marketers insights regarding brand perception, then help marketers in evaluating how well the product is known within the market.

Usage and Attitude Test is going to answer such questions from marketers:

·                     Who use the product?

·                     When do they use the product?

·                     What are consumers’ attitudes towards the product?

Surveys and questionnaires are key tools that support marketers in identify characteristics of their target consumers and learn how they consume the product. Based on collected data, marketing researchers identify demographics, psychographic characteristics, category details and brand details that will help marketers in create more effective marketing strategy to target potential consumers. Such U&A study give marketers an objective appraisal of the current situation and may identify specific challenges for the product or brand in the longer term which will need to be addressed strategically. The U&A can then become a base against which progress and trends are tracked over time with future studies so that the results and recommendations can be built into the strategic planning process.

In a Usage and Attitude Test, Marketing researchers ask questions like these:
Demographics: Age, gender, income, education, region, language and household size
Psychographic characteristics: are you the primary grocery shopper, do you like shopping, and are you a bargain hunter.
Category details: how often do you buy this product, how often do you use it, what size of product do you buy
Brand details: what do you like about this brand, what would you change about this brand

 

U&A Test gives marketers opportunities to learn market insights

Benefits:

·                     The who-what-when-where-how dynamics of your category or market

·                     Identify brand loyalty and what drives it

·                     Understand how behavior and usage changes by brand

·                     Why consumers buy specific brands (and what is distinctive about these consumers)

·                     Identify any gaps between needs and performance (opportunities)

·                     The basis for a customer segmentation study

AMR Group is an expert in Vietnam and its markets. The team is local but with international training and experience, operating to global standards. AMR Group helps brands bloom in Vietnam through lean, focused & reliable marketing research from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants; marketing & brand strategy with AMR. VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants provide world class lean, focused and reliable research through deep understanding of the brief, international quality field, professional data handling & decision-orientated analysis, action focused recommendation. AMR use insights from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants to deliver effective marketing & branding consulting, retail consulting & training, seminar & training: Brand War

Compiled by AMR Group (Marketing Research in Vietnam-Nghien Cuu Thi Truong Viet Nam) on 2014

Source: Strategic Initatives

For more articles, like us: www.amr.com.vn

For enquiries, email Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (CEO of AMR Group) research@vinamr.com.vn

AMR Group - Helping Brands Bloom in Vietnam

This article is compiled by AMR Group to provide updated information on markets. AMR Group puts the best effort to obtain the most accurate and timely information available from various reliable sources. The article should be best considered a reference and indicative only. It is not an offer or advice for any actions related to any assets. AMR Group provides no warranty or undertaking of any kind in respect to the information and materials found with, or linked to the report and no obligation to update the information after the report was released. AMR Group does not bear any responsibility for the compiled information, or any consequences arising from its use.

For related articles U&A Test:

Marketing Research – Usage and Attitude Studies - http://amr.com.vn/news-insights.html?id=105

Marketing Research – U&A Testing - http://amr.com.vn/news-insights.html?id=110

Read More

Ethnographic Market research

Ethnographic Market research

Ethnographic market research allows you to observe consumer behaviors in the environments where they occur. This type of research can take place in homes, at stores, in cars, on the beach…anywhere!

Ethnography is the study of human behavior in its most natural and typical context. Research that uses ethnographic methods has long been used in anthropology by scientists that want to understand other cultures. It really isn’t possible to ask people details about their culture because culture is such an ingrained construct.

At the core of everything they do, marketing professionals seek to understand their potential consumers. Successful marketing is based on a solid understanding of why consumers make the decisions they do – how they identify a need or a want, how they gather information about their options, and how they decide what, or what not to buy

In the past, surveys have been the primary tool marketing people use to attempt to gather this information. The argument is simply: “if we want to know what people want, let’s ask.” the weakness in that argument is that sometimes people don’t know what they want or why they make the decisions they do. To understand the real life context of potential consumers, marketing professionals figured out that they needed to live the life of their target consumers

What are benefits?

Learn by seeing, listening, experiencing: see how consumers really shop the aisle where your product is displayed, local cargo into their vehicles, or send a text message with a wireless phone. Uncover latent behaviors and attitudes: sometimes people are unaware of what they are doing and why. For instance, they may wash their face twice: once to remove makeup, a a second time to “really get their skin clean”. Bring to light differences between what people say and do (or report doing): Moms may say they only feed their kids healthy snacks, but their pantry reveals otherwise. Verify (or negate) people’s reproes: we all have a tendency to forget small but valuable pieces of information. Give your team a jolt of reality: this is how real people act in real life, not on paper or behind a one way mirror. They may never turn your box over to read the back panel.

When should you consider it?

• ·                     To uncover new product or packaging opportunities
• ·                     To shape advertising or communication strategy
• ·                     To supplement other qualitative (or quantitative) research

Before you jump in:

Remember that because the team must travel to various locations to conduct this research, it tends to be more time-consuming and costly than traditional qualitative marketing research. For greater efficiency, consider using ethnographic marketing research as one piece of a total research solution.

Methods of Ethnography in Marketing:

To conduct a quality ethnographic study, the researcher needs to be in the same role as the consumer. That means there are two options: take a consumer and teach them how to be an ethnographer or take an ethnographer and make them a consumer. Each method has its benefits and drawbacks, byr both are completely legitimate and used frequently.

take a consumer and teach them how to be an ethnographer

When a company recruits a consumer to take part in an ethnographic study, they need the consumer to not only record observations related to a purchase decision, but also document the thoughts, feelings, and happenings that occur when the consumer identifies a need, considers an option, or decides to make a purchase. Recognizing all the ways we gather and process information can be difficult for the untrained eye. The benefit, however, is that the researcher is an actual consumer, so his or her experience is exactly what we want to study.

take an ethnographer and make them a consumer

On the other hand, professional researcher may have all the skills necessary to conduct ethnographic research, but needs to be pit in the role of the consumer. Often, this just isn’t possible. You can’t tell someone to pretend they are in the market for a new vehicle and have them think and behave like they really would when they are about to make $20,000 purchase.

There is a third method of ethnographic research used in marketing that attempts to combine the benefits of a professional researcher and a real consumer. A research can live, or spend a lot of time, with consumer. The consumer should act like he or she normally does (although since he or she is being watched, he or she might not) and the researcher can focus on gathering the information. The downside of this strategy is simply the cost and the time required.

Final thoughts:

Marketing professionals are responsible for developing strategies that in many ways predict the way consumers will think and react. Predicting how people behave is tough business, so the more information available about how consumers think and act, the better the marketing strategies will be. Ethnographic research has become a valuable tool marketing executives have learned to use and those that do it correctly earn the reward of valuable, pertinent information about their consumers

AMR Group is an expert in Vietnam and its markets. The team is local but with international training and experience, operating to global standards. AMR Group helps brands bloom in Vietnam through lean, focused & reliable marketing research from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants; marketing & brand strategy with AMR. VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants provide world class lean, focused and reliable research through deep understanding of the brief, international quality field, professional data handling & decision-orientated analysis, action focused recommendation. AMR use insights from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants to deliver effective marketing & branding consulting, retail consulting & training, seminar & training: Brand War

Compiled by AMR Group (Marketing Research in Vietnam-Nghien Cuu Thi Truong Viet Nam) on 2014

Source: Strategic Initatives

For more articles, like us: www.amr.com.vn

For enquiries, email Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (CEO of AMR Group) research@vinamr.com.vn

AMR Group-Helping Brands Bloom in Vietnam

This article is compiled by AMR Group to provide updated information on markets. AMR Group puts the best effort to obtain the most accurate and timely information available from various reliable sources. The article should be best considered a reference and indicative only. It is not an offer or advice for any actions related to any assets. AMR Group provides no warranty or undertaking of any kind in respect to the information and materials found with, or linked to the report and no obligation to update the information after the report was released. AMR Group does not bear any responsibility for the compiled information, or any consequences arising from its use.

Read More

Simple (Brand / Price only) Discrete Choice Models

Simple (Brand / Price only) Discrete Choice Models

To consumers, a simple discrete choice exercise that includes only brand and price usually looks identical to a BPTO exercise with the inclusion of a “None of these” option but that comparison limits the power and flexibility even a simple discrete choice model brings to pricing research

Discrete Choice Model offers marketing researcher deeper knowledge of price sensitivity and the impact of competitive action than Brand Price Trade off (BPTO)

To understand the relative strength of the new innovation in the context of existing products and brands, marketing researchers apply excellent tools such as cross-elasticity and brand or product proximities. Some marketing researcher will report these insights in a simple table of numbers, which will show marketers how much the share of brands in rows changes if the brand in the columns changes its price.

show marketers how much the share of brands in rows changes if the brand in the columns changes its price.

Averaged by row and column and presented as clout and vulnerability to determine the strength and weakness of the innovation overall

Averaged by row and column and presented as clout and vulnerability to determine the strength and weakness of the innovation overall

Mapped by frequency of their preference to determine which products are most often considered with the new product

Mapped by frequency of their preference to determine which products are most often considered with the new product

Due to its flexibility, discrete choice has the greatest advantage for competitive price situations. A discrete choice price exercise can look anywhere from a BPTO to a full virtual shelf depending on the competitive context required. An interesting note is that recent research has been inconclusive regarding any accuracy improvement using virtual full shelves compared to the partial set designs (like BOTO) the industry has tended to use. This is contrast to the face validity that full shelf exposure has in the industry, particularly for fast moving consumer packaged goods.

From a modeling standpoint, discrete choice is also generally the best alternative for competitive pricing situations because the stud design can be specified and adjusted from a simple BPTO type estimation to a design that will create interaction estimates for issues like price and product availability. No other pricing approach allows you to change the business issues so dramatically and not change the research methodology.

Discrete Choice Models (DCM) also provides the most comprehensive simulators to understand pricing scenario building. DCM pricing models can be used to create the simplest price-only simulators to full market share tools.

The complexities that discrete choice addresses also form its limitation. Frequently there is not enough external information or time to find the information to allow the researcher to fully inform the ricing scenario. Situations where the competition is poorly defined, where price ranges are loosely defined, where the competitor’s behaviors are not well known, where distribution and channel information is hard to gather are all frequently encountered.

There is also a cost constraint associated with using discrete choice modeling for all pricing research issues. DCM modeling is a specialized skill and does cost more than other pricing methods. It also requires more cognitive cost for the client to properly define the market situations (competitive context, channel, and distribution situations) than individual product approaches.

AMR Group is an expert in Vietnam and its markets. The team is local but with international training and experience, operating to global standards. AMR Group helps brands bloom in Vietnam through lean, focused & reliable marketing research from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants; marketing & brand strategy with AMR. VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants provide world class lean, focused and reliable research through deep understanding of the brief, international quality field, professional data handling & decision-orientated analysis, action focused recommendation. AMR use insights from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants to deliver effective marketing & branding consulting, retail consulting & training, seminar & training: Brand War

Compiled by AMR Group (Marketing Research in Vietnam-Nghien Cuu Thi Truong Viet Nam) on 2014

Source: Strategic Initatives

For more articles, like us: www.amr.com.vn

For enquiries, email Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (CEO of AMR Group) research@vinamr.com.vn

AMR Group - Helping Brands Bloom in Vietnam

This article is compiled by AMR Group to provide updated information on markets. AMR Group puts the best effort to obtain the most accurate and timely information available from various reliable sources. The article should be best considered a reference and indicative only. It is not an offer or advice for any actions related to any assets. AMR Group provides no warranty or undertaking of any kind in respect to the information and materials found with, or linked to the report and no obligation to update the information after the report was released. AMR Group does not bear any responsibility for the compiled information, or any consequences arising from its use.

Read More

Pricing Challenge and How to effective pricing your product

Brand Price Trade Off, marketing researchers allow consumers to choose product/service from a group of products/ services

Pricing strategy is a critical challenge to marketers because it directly affects how consumers’ perception to product or service. If the product / service is priced too high, sales will be slope down rapidly, or worse when consumers will switch to substitutions. Therefore, pricing optimization becomes more vital to marketers.

To overcome pricing challenge, marketing researchers apply research methods to identify the price that satisfy consumers’ expectation: pricing the product competitively and pricing the product individually.

Pricing the product competitively (Brand Price Trade Off – Discrete Choice Models)

Marketers attempt to price product/ service competitively when assessing existing products or when the new product innovation falls outside of their typical new product development testing program. Most frequently new innovations fall outside of the program when:

·                     The decision to introduce the product has been made and specific market decisions such as placement and pricing are left to be determined

·                     Innovations are new enough that competitive context better defines the innovation in terms of price and usage

·                     Price is only one of a number of product features that need to be determined as an optimal offer.

Brand price trade off - BPTO:

In Brand Price Trade Off, marketing researchers allow consumers to choose product/service from a group of products/ services. Then, in the next step, consumers choose product/service from group of products/ services at different price. Marketing researchers repeat this test 5-10 times per consumer to identify the highest price that consumers are willing to pay for that particular product/ service.

BPTO is most effective for competitive situations where the issues are limited to simply price and brand. Applicable in a competitive framework and the simplicity of the task for both consumers and questionnaire developers are some competitive advantage of BPTO to other pricing research method.

(To be continued)

AMR Group is an expert in Vietnam and its markets. The team is local but with international training and experience, operating to global standards. AMR Group helps brands bloom in Vietnam through lean, focused & reliable marketing research from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants; marketing & brand strategy with AMR. VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants provide world class lean, focused and reliable research through deep understanding of the brief, international quality field, professional data handling & decision-orientated analysis, action focused recommendation. AMR use insights from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants to deliver effective marketing & branding consulting, retail consulting & training, seminar & training: Brand War

Compiled by AMR Group (Marketing Research in Vietnam-Nghien Cuu Thi Truong Viet Nam) on 2014

Source: Strategic Initatives

For more articles, like us: www.amr.com.vn

For enquiries, email Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (CEO of AMR Group) research@vinamr.com.vn

AMR Group-Helping Brands Bloom in Vietnam

This article is compiled by AMR Group to provide updated information on markets. AMR Group puts the best effort to obtain the most accurate and timely information available from various reliable sources. The article should be best considered a reference and indicative only. It is not an offer or advice for any actions related to any assets. AMR Group provides no warranty or undertaking of any kind in respect to the information and materials found with, or linked to the report and no obligation to update the information after the report was released. AMR Group does not bear any responsibility for the compiled information, or any consequences arising from its use.

For more details of Brand price trade off:

Brandprice trade off – a perfect measurement for your pricing strategy

Marketingresearch – brand price trade off

Read More

Product testing:

Product Testing helps them in identify customers’ wants, and allow marketer to enhance the product

Product test is essential to marketer because it helps them in identify customers’ wants, and allow marketer to enhance the product to meet customers’ requirements, create real competitive advantage to competitor’s product.

A new product test, in another hand, helps marketer in refine product design and plans before conduct product development, which is much more expensive. With new product test, marketer identifies what customers truly expect from new product, drive innovation and allow them be one step ahead of the competition.

For example, if a new product idea is well analyzed before applying,  the more promising new product idea will be concentrated more than wasting money to unpromising new product idea. Besides that, a new product research helps marketers in identify how much customers might be willing to pay. For a launched product, basically, marketer conducts customer satisfaction research. Sometimes, depends on different industry, a product test may be slightly different. For example, product test will be extremely important in retail industry, because the findings play vital role in decision to stock that product from retailers. In order to be successful in conduct a product test; marketers must and must not do:

Must do:

• ·                     Start testing at the ideas stage.
• ·                     Be objective.
• ·                     Check the technical feasibility of your product – is it fit for purpose?
• ·                     Talk to suppliers and manufacturers – can it be made?
• ·                     Find out exactly how much it would cost to make – will that leave you with a healthy margin.
• ·                     Be prepared to walk away if the figures don’t add up.
• ·                     Use an impartial third party to conduct research and testing.
• ·                     Ask customers what they think of the product and its specification.
• ·                     Ask customers what they would pay for it.
• ·                     Adapt your product to meet the requirements f the market.
• ·                     Talk to retailers or dealers about stocking your product.

Must NOT do:

• ·                     Wait until product launch before you test the feasibility of your product.
• ·                     Conduct poorly planned or insufficiently in-depth research – it will not provide an accurate picture.
• ·                     Assume that everyone feels the same as you about your product.
• ·                     Ignore negative research findings.
• ·                     Let your heart rule your head and personal feelings to cloud your judgment.

AMR Group is an expert in Vietnam and its markets. The team is local but with international training and experience, operating to global standards. AMR Group helps brands bloom in Vietnam through lean, focused & reliable marketing research from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants; marketing & brand strategy with AMR. VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants provide world class lean, focused and reliable research through deep understanding of the brief, international quality field, professional data handling & decision-orientated analysis, action focused recommendation. AMR use insights from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants to deliver effective marketing & branding consulting, retail consulting & training, seminar & training: Brand War

Compiled by AMR Group (Marketing Research in Vietnam-Nghien Cuu Thi Truong Viet Nam) on 2014

Source: Strategic Initatives

For more articles, like us: www.amr.com.vn

For enquiries, email Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (CEO of AMR Group) research@vinamr.com.vn

AMR Group-Helping Brands Bloom in Vietnam

This article is compiled by AMR Group to provide updated information on markets. AMR Group puts the best effort to obtain the most accurate and timely information available from various reliable sources. The article should be best considered a reference and indicative only. It is not an offer or advice for any actions related to any assets. AMR Group provides no warranty or undertaking of any kind in respect to the information and materials found with, or linked to the report and no obligation to update the information after the report was released. AMR Group does not bear any responsibility for the compiled information, or any consequences arising from its use.

Related Articles of Product Testing:

Product testing – when is itmost useful to marketer

Marketingresearch – product testing

Producttesting methodology & How to conduct a product test

Read More

In-depth Interview

In-depth, qualitative interviews, excellent tool to use in planning and evaluating due to open-ended, discovery-oriented method

In-depth, qualitative interviews are excellent tools to use in planning and evaluating Extension programs because they use an open-ended, discovery-oriented method, which allows the interviewer explore the respondent’s feelings and perspectives on a subject. This results in rich background information that can shape further questions relevant to the topic. The key characteristics of in-depth interviews are the following:

Open-ended Questions: Questions need to be worded so that respondents expound on the topic, not just answer “yes” or “no.” Many open-ended questions begin with “why” or “how,” which gives respondents freedom to answer the questions using their own words.

Semi-structured Format: Although it is important to pre-plan the key questions, the interview should also be conversational, with questions flowing from previous responses when possible. For example, if an interviewee remarks that “The elections are approaching,” an appropriate response would be, “How do you feel about the candidates involved?”

Seek Understanding and Interpretation. It is important to use active listening skills to reflect upon what the speaker is saying. The interviewer should try to interpret the conversation and should seek clarity and understanding throughout the interview.

Recording Responses: The responses are typically audio-recorded and complemented with written notes (i.e., field notes) by the interviewer. Written notes include observations of both verbal and non-verbal behaviors as they occur, and immediate personal reflections about the interview.

In sum, in-depth interviews involve not only asking questions, but also systematically recording and documenting the responses to probe for deeper meaning and understanding.

Advantages & Disadvantages:

The primary advantage of iIn-depth Interview – a key tool for marketing research is that they provide much more detailed information than what is available through other data collection methods, such as surveys.  They also may provide a more relaxed atmosphere in which to collect information—  people may feel more comfortable having a conversation with you about their program as opposed to filling out a survey. However, there are a few limitations and pitfalls, each of which is described below:

Prone to bias: Because program or clinic staff might want to “prove” that a program is working, their interview responses might be biased. Responses from community members and program participants could also be biased due to their stake in the program or for a number of other reasons. Every effort should be made to design a data collection effort, create instruments, and conduct interviews to allow for minimal bias.

Can be time-intensive: Interviews can be a time-intensive evaluation activity because of the time it takes to conduct interviews, transcribe them, and analyze the results. In planning your data collection effort, care must be taken to include time for transcription and analysis of this detailed data.

Interviewer must be appropriately trained in interviewing techniques: To provide the most detailed and rich data from an interviewee, the interviewer must make that person comfortable and appear interested in what they are saying. They must also be sure to use effective interview techniques, such as avoiding yes/no and leading questions, using appropriate body language, and keeping their personal opinions in check.

Not generalizable: When in-depth interviews are conducted, generalizations about the results are usually not able to be made because small samples are chosen and random sampling methods are not used. In-depth interviews however, provide valuable information for programs, particularly when supplementing other methods of data collection. It should be noted that the general rule on sample size for interviews is that when the same stories, themes, issues, and topics are emerging from the interviewees, then a sufficient sample size has been reached.

AMR Group is an expert in Vietnam and its markets. The team is local but with international training and experience, operating to global standards. AMR Group helps brands bloom in Vietnam through lean, focused & reliable marketing research from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants; marketing & brand strategy with AMR. VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants provide world class lean, focused and reliable research through deep understanding of the brief, international quality field, professional data handling & decision-orientated analysis, action focused recommendation. AMR use insights from VINAMR Marketing Research & Consultants to deliver effective marketing & branding consulting, retail consulting & training, seminar & training: Brand War

Compiled by AMR Group (Marketing Research in Vietnam-Nghien Cuu Thi Truong Viet Nam) on 2014

Source: Strategic Initatives

For more articles, like us: www.amr.com.vn

For enquiries, email Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (CEO of AMR Group) research@vinamr.com.vn

Helping Brands Bloom in Vietnam

This article is compiled by AMR Group to provide updated information on markets. AMR Group puts the best effort to obtain the most accurate and timely information available from various reliable sources. The article should be best considered a reference and indicative only. It is not an offer or advice for any actions related to any assets. AMR Group provides no warranty or undertaking of any kind in respect to the information and materials found with, or linked to the report and no obligation to update the information after the report was released. AMR Group does not bear any.

Read More