Published November 2004

Improve marketing results
through research

Relying on your gut, when it comes to marketing strategy, usually leads to more Rolaids than results. Developing an approach based on customer preferences and perceptions is always a better bet.

This is the second article of a two-part series on conducting “do it yourself” marketing research. October’s column covered the first two steps: planning and designing a research study. This installment addresses the final two steps: collecting and analyzing.

If you missed the first article, go here.

Collect: After planning and designing the research project you’ll be ready to conduct the study. But before you begin customer interviews or e-mailing online survey links, test the instrument and collection process for glitches.

There’s nothing worse than collecting all of the data, reaching your sample goal and finding out there was a problem in the collection process that renders your data useless.

Conduct a short test to make sure the survey design and collection methodology are free of errors. Be sure the wording (and sequence) of your questions don’t bias responses. Interviewers and respondents also can unintentionally cause errors — interviewer fatigue and respondent confusion are common.

Working with an experienced third party can minimize collection errors; however, as the client, you should review test results to make sure everything is in order before burning through your database.

Analyze: You’ll begin this final step by “scrubbing” the data (correcting entry errors). After errors have been omitted, you’ll format, code and tabulate the data.

When possible, it’s best to enter answers directly into a database when conducting interviews. I recommend formatting your research data in a standard spreadsheet such as Excel. Multiple-choice and ranking answers can be coded (using numbers) to speed up entry and tabulation.

By entering question numbers in the column header and responses by row, you can tabulate data by sorting and grouping answers. Calculate response groupings to get percentages for each question. You are looking for data (values) that are statistically relevant.

Example: If 67 percent of your customer base indicates they prefer product attribute “A” over “B,” you can be relatively confident in featuring (or providing) attribute “A,” knowing it has greater consumer appeal.

The most common analysis technique is cross tabulation, which is achieved when you combine two or more sets of data, e.g. compare respondent demographic variables (independent) to how a “value” question was answered (dependent variable).

You gain a much better understanding of the market when cross tabulating independent to dependent variables — income bracket to preferred attribute, respectively.

Start with a simple project — a basic data set is far better than no intelligence at all. It will take some planning and design before you can conduct and analyze a marketing research study, but the up-front investment will pay dividends down the road.

Before making a high-impact business decision, verify the best path to take before embarking on the journey — “test before you invest.”

Andrew Ballard, president of Marketing Solutions Inc. in Edmonds, develops brand leadership strategies for businesses and teaches strategic marketing through Edmonds Community College. He can be reached at 425-672-7218 or by e-mail to andrew@mktg-solutions.com.

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