Market Research articles by the best and brightest in the field

• Three Essential Market-Research Methods in an Online Communityby John Kembel
  How much do you know about your customers right now, at this moment? A lot of companies can show you composite profiles that describe their target customers, including job titles, needs, obligations, and goals. No doubt about it: It's important to know those things. But relying solely on such information to connect with customers is like trying to strike up a conversation with a cardboard cutout. It just isn't enough. more
• Marketing in a Recession: What Do the Studies Really Tell Us?by Christian Shea
  Have you heard this one? "All the research shows that companies that spend on marketing during a recession come out ahead of the competition as the economy rebounds." It's a catchy buzz phrase—and if people believe it, even better. But here's the thing: What research, exactly? more
• Six Irrational Leaps to Avoid in Marketingby Steve Cuno
  Why do people believe things irrationally, in the face of zero evidence? You already know the answer: People who really, really want to believe, will believe... regardless of where the evidence points. Are you managing your marketing program this way? more
• How to Become 'Their Brand': Engaging Today's Fickle Customersby Manila Austin
  Marketers today understand that consumers think, feel, and react in ways different from June Cleaver some 50 years ago. We use descriptors like fickle, indecisive, and disloyal to describe the modern consumer. Just what do these terms mean? Mainly, they mean that consumers have too many choices—multiple brands, brand extensions, and sub-brands—and too much stimulation, especially online, making it nearly impossible to predict their next move. And yet, marketers continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on segmentation analysis and other research, hoping to understand and predict the behavior of these fickle consumers. It's as though they're still chasing June Cleaver when neither her modern counterparts nor today's consumerism as a whole bear any resemblance to the past. So what can marketers do? They can start by grasping the profound societal and technological changes that define today's new consumerism. more
• Should You Launch a Brand Community?by Nancy Strauss
  On company Web sites everywhere, community sections are popping up—both a cause and an effect of a climate in which more and more marketing directors and brand managers are being asked by their companies, "Why don't we do something 2.0?" Although an online community can bring innumerable benefits to a brand, launching one is a project that should be considered carefully, to ensure that your efforts will have the desired results. more
• How Hyundai Uses Behavioral Segmentation to Take the Bull by the Horns and Send the Bear Packingby Michael Barr
  Hyundai took the bull by the horns in this bear market and scored big. It used behavioral segmentation to identify what was keeping prospects from buying and then developed a strategy that made it easier for customers to part with their hard-earned dollars. What can you learn from its example? In every market change, even a downturn, there is an opportunity to use the power of behavioral segmentation to make your product or service stand out. more
• Your Marketing Stimulus Package: Invest Now in Building Brandby Kevin Randall
  Every day we are bombarded with bad news about the economy: dismal corporate earnings, budget cuts, advertising gone dark, clients and agencies and people coming and going, and a sense of turbulence, malaise, and timidity. What can marketing do? Today's brand leaders should follow these 7 Ps of branding as a guide during the recession, and beyond.... more
• The Top 4 Ways Smart Marketers Use Digital Branding Applications to Operate More Efficientlyby Allen P. Adamson
  As part of the research I did in preparation for my recent book, BrandDigital, I interviewed some of the best and brightest people in the fields of marketing and digital technology, and they provided incredible insight on how digital tools and tactics can be used to not simply increase operating efficiency but also increase customer loyalty. Here I share some of those insights, with specific focus on my conversation with Bob Pearson, Vice-President of Communities and Conversations at Dell. Though Dell is a computer manufacturer, the ideas that Bob discussed can be adopted by any organization, no matter what size, industry, or level of technological acumen. more
• Benchmarking: A Best-Practice for Improving Marketing Performance (Part 1)by Laura Patterson
  CEOs and CMOs are interested in seeing marketing organizations improve their performance in two key areas: effectiveness (the ability to produce the desired result) and efficiency (reducing waste). The economic environment makes these efforts even more top-of-mind. Often the question that remains is how much do we need to improve? Benchmarking is one way to assess your organization's performance and understand what changes to make. more
• Three Reasons Why Print Collateral Remains Relevantby Elaine Fogel
  Digital marketing is hot. And a recent MarketingProfs survey showed that the first items that marketers faced with reduced budgets would cut were print advertising and tradeshows. So, why focus on print collateral at all? Here's a close look at three reasons why print collateral may still be viable and relevant. more
• How Packaging Your Offering Enhances Your Brandby Anthony Cirillo
  Is your company packaging experiences? Are they sought—or are they sold? And, drilling the concept down one more level: have you ever looked at yourself and considered the package that you offer and the experience you provide? In the current downturn, where layoffs loom large, those with the better shot at developing business or finding a job understand that the complete package and the experience contribute to a brand identity that stands out in a crowded marketplace. more
• Four Parts to Valuable Personasby Angela Quail
  Recent buzz about personas has created some confusion. If you've tried to develop and deploy personas, you may have experienced resistance from other departments because they don't grasp the value that personas purportedly provide. The reason may be that personas (in the form of customer profiles) by themselves don't offer all that much. But personas are not just customer profiles; rather, "personas" is the title for a complex tool that has four components. more
• How to Foster 'Workable Wondering' to Harness Consumer Insightsby Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman
  The process of thinking deeply is known as "workable wondering," which involves the use of empirical, rigorous, and relevant information to challenge our assumptions. It means more than collecting information. It requires reading between the lines. more
• Adopting a Web 2.0 Mindset: Walk Before You Wikiby Val Fox
  Companies have been scrambling to figure out how to leverage Web. 2.0 applications, but are they doing so for all the wrong reasons? With all the buzz about blogs, wikis, widgets, and other forms of user-driven Web interactions, the question your business needs to answer is, "Is this what our customers want?" more
• Maximizing Lead Generation Marketing ROI (Part 1): Lead Quality Countsby Jim Lenskold
  Marketers responsible for lead generation are all too familiar with some common challenges—getting closed-loop feedback from the sales organization, measuring marketing effectiveness beyond just lead quantity and cost per lead, and building strong alignment with the sales organization. As presented in the MarketingProfs' research report, "B-to-B Lead Generation: Marketing ROI and Performance Evaluation Study," effective lead-generation marketing is very much tied to overcoming these challenges to prioritize lead quality over lead quantity. more
• Building the New Marketing: Making Marketing Important to the Enterprise (Part 1)by Michael Fischler
  Marketers have become masters of segmentation inside our own organizations. We've segmented ourselves into Lead Generators. Message Makers. Brand Stewards. Useful, of course—in fact, indispensable. But indispensable the way facilities management is indispensable. Or travel management. Or any other organization that an enterprise relies on, but cannot be easily shown to have direct impact on revenue. And if you don't have direct impact on revenue, you don't directly impact profit. And if you don't do that, you're second in line for everything—except maybe workforce reductions. more
• Online Research Traps That Can Derail Your Marketing Strategyby Kevin Horne
  It's hard to believe how different it was, just a mere fifteen years ago, to conduct secondary market research. There was no Internet, no Yahoo!, no Google search, no Web-accessible databases to tap. How times have changed. But, not always for the better. more
• Four Keys to Marketing Operations Successby Gary M. Katz
  What does "best practices" in Marketing Operations look like, and how do industry-leading companies operate and integrate this highly valuable function? Marketing Operations Partners recently polled more than 80 marketing leaders to find out. more
• How to Avoid Six Common Pitfalls of the Launch Processby J. Mark Carr
  Launching new products, services, or segments is the lifeblood of growth for most organizations. Yet, despite its importance, the launch process is often mishandled or assigned inadequate resources. Many of the mistakes that companies make are basic—yet frighteningly frequent and consistent across various types of businesses and industries. Here are six common fault lines in the launch process that very company should look out for. more
• How to Unleash the Power of Brand Repositioning: A Four-Phase Processby Gregory J. Pollack
  Many brands and companies today are constantly reinvigorating their businesses and positioning them for growth. There is a constant need to innovate, reinvigorate, update, recalibrate, or just simply fend off the competition in an effort to better explain "why buy me." To move forward, companies and brands need to first take a look at their current brand positioning. But for a moment, it makes sense to go back to the brand drawing board to answer the question, "Just what is brand positioning, anyway?" more

Market Research: See all 158 marketing articles

Market Research case studies, deconstructing real life examples and illustrating lessons learned

• How a Small Internet Publisher Doubled Its Email Database & Reduced Marketing Spend With Cost-per-LeadTripmela, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: Earlier this year, when online travel publisher Tripmela was in startup mode, CEO Jared Blank determined that he needed to achieve a $1.50 cost per acquisition if he was going to lead this fledgling to profitability. Here's how he did it. more
• How One Whitepaper Generated 500 Leads and Significant PR for a B2B ManufacturerJER Envirotech
  JER Envirotech, a manufacturer of environmentally friendly thermoplastic biocomposite materials, needed to stand out in the green manufacturing industry. Its solution: create a white paper to both explain and build credibility for its offerings. Here's how that led to 500 new leads over 60 days. more
• How a Consumer Electronics Company Leveraged the Power of Community to Uncover Market Preferences and Build Excitement for a New Product LineEastman Kodak Company
  When it chose to enter the saturated inkjet market 20 years late, Eastman Kodak had a few surprises up its sleeve. Still, the company found it also needed a little marketing ingenuity if it was to gain market share. more
• How a University Embraced Social Media and Scored Millions in YouTube ViewsCarnegie Mellon University
  How does a university up its visibility with an increasingly wired target market of both students of alumni? By orchestrating a Web 2.0-focused Web site redesign that set the foundation for an ongoing social media campaign. more
• How a Web-based Company Increased Leads 90%—and Sales 23%—via PPC-Visitor Profiling, Landing Page PersonalizationCompany: Continental Warranty
  Continental Warranty used pay-per-click ads to generate leads by providing free quotes for extended-warranty coverage. But lead volume had plateaued. So it began to profile its web visitors, then direct them to microsites matching their profiles—and nearly doubled leads. more
• How MyFax Upped Customer Engagement, Achieved a 79% NetPromoter ScoreMyFax
  Internt fax service provider MyFax wanted to tap into the power of word-of-mouth referrals by improving the customer experience and maintaining highly personalized customer interactions. But as an online company, it faced the issue of how to individually engage customers to ensure long-term relationships. Here's what it did. more
• How a Small-Business Consultant Leveraged a High-Profile TV Commercial to Generate New Traffic and Win New BusinessLocalZing
  As a tiny Florida player in the field of advertising for small businesses, Karl Long knew he should consider unconventional ways to promote his company. Taking a cue from a competitor, Long launched a campaign that upped traffic to his blog 500%, raised his Google profile, and led to new business. more
• How an Online Software Biz Doubled Its Sales Leads, Increased Site Traffic 75%Makana Solutions
  Makana Solutions needed an inexpensive way to reach the elusive small business market. Rather than chase small businesses, it hired an online "inbound marketing system" to help small businesses find Makana. The results: Web site traffic climbed 75%, and sales leads have doubled. more
• How an Online Business Increased Conversions (Sales) on Landing Pages by Up to 12%AutoAnything.com
  AutoAnything.com, which sells custom-made automotive accessories and performance parts, designed its homepage almost a decade ago. But as e-commerce has become more competitive, the site needed a strategy. After testing different versions of landing pages, AutoAnything.com increased landing-page conversions by up to 12%. more
• How a Marketing Consultant Significantly Increased His Client Base via Social MediaL&G Business Solutions
  Marketing executive and consultant Lewis Green wanted to re-establish his company in January 2004 after moving across the country. With no professional network in place, he figured the best way to promote his business would be a blog. His first attempt failed. But not his second. more
• How a Technology Firm Upped Webinar Attendance, Improved Lead NurturingObjectivity, Inc.
  By hiring an outside expert in lead optimization and leveraging its full range of data, San Francisco-based Objectivity increased turnout for its webinars an average of 10%. The quality of the leads is high as well: More than 30% of the leads typically score high enough to be handed off to sales. more
• How a Viral Campaign Gave OfficeMax Brand Recognition, Drove ShoppersOfficeMax, Inc.
  Office supply chain OfficeMax also sells digital cameras and other products popular as holiday gifts—but its customers didn't think of it as a holiday-shopping destination. What's more, it was often confused with its chief rival. A wildly popularly web-based viral marketing campaign helped OfficeMax distinguish itself and encourage shoppers. more
• How Major League Baseball Doubled Fan Research Without Increasing CostsMajor League Baseball
  Each year, when MLB's postseason culminates with the World Series, all eyes are on baseball—or are they? With most teams out of the running, do those fans continue to watch? Are the resources invested in marketing worthwhile, or in tune with fans' true passions? more
• How a B2C Web Site's Landing-Page Tests Resulted in a 67% Jump in ConversionsBabyCenter
  The landing page for a top Web site's most popular search term converted about 30 percent less frequently than the company's general landing page. By simultaneously testing four new versions of the landing page, the site was able to ensure relevance, increasing conversions 67%—and decreasing abandonment rates. more
• How the Kimpton Hotel Group's Affinity-Based Email Program Boosted Bookings Revenue FivefoldKimpton Hotels
  Kimpton Hotels had successfully created a loyalty program, but its email program was lagging. By implementing an email strategy that focused on segmentation and targeting individual preferences, and by adding a corporate branding strategy, the company increased email bookings fivefold. more
• How a Web-based B2B Niche Service Increased Revenue per Sales Rep by 9.3%ShareBuilder401k
  Online service ShareBuilder 401(k) provides retirement plans exclusively for small businesses. But retirement plans are usually sold in person, not virtually. Here's how ShareBuilder discovered a way to market to this niche that upped its number of sales made via the Internet. more
• How a Niche Web Site's 'Telechats' Increased Credibility, Visibility and Google PageRankTheSpiritedWoman.com
  Here's how a relatively new women's Web site gained attention—and more regular readers—at a low cost. Plus, its "telechats" with authors has helped distinguish it from other sites focused on empowering women. more
• How an Office Furniture Company Tripled Its Sales by Optimizing for SearchPanel Systems Unlimited
  Office furniture dealer Panel Systems Unlimited found its sales lagging during an economic recession, and knew that it had to act quickly to position itself for the inevitable recovery. Partnering with Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing, it focused on upping its search engine exposure. The result: sales tripled. more
• How Garden Fresh Realized a Huge Gain in Web Traffic and Longer-Term Loyalty via EmailGarden Fresh Restaurant Corp.
  Garden Fresh Restaurants sought to increase customer engagement with its "Club Veg" loyalty club, totaling more than half a million opt-in members. Its two interactive email campaigns worked like a charm -- leading to huge increases in site traffic and boosting customer loyalty. more
• How a State Agency's Anti-Smoking Campaign Effectively Reached Teens via the Web, TV and Live EventsColorado State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership (STEPP), a division of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment
  One of the more successful tobacco control programs is the "Own Your C" campaign commissioned by the state of Colorado, which has effectively found ways to resonate with this hard-to-reach demographic. more

Market Research: See all 42 case studies

Market Research online seminar broadcasts from the best minds in marketing

• Segmenting the Hispanic Market: What the Numbers Really MeanAttendee rating:  - Jul 12, 2007
• Small Business Series: Do-It-Yourself Market ResearchAttendee rating:  - Jun 22, 2007
• Demystifying Website Usability: Rapid Research for MarketersAttendee rating:  - Jul 25, 2006
• Conducting Online Research the Right WayAttendee rating:  - Jun 1, 2006
• Marketing Research the Guerrilla WayAttendee rating:  - May 11, 2006
• Make GOOGLE Your Most Powerful Market Research ToolAttendee rating:  - Sep 15, 2004

Market Research: See all 6 seminars

Market Research mini articles distilling bite-sized advice (from our Get to the Point newsletters)

• The Budget-Cutting BluesMarketing Analytics
  "[T]he degree of uncertainty in business and consumer markets has soared," says John Quelch in a post at Harvard Business Online. "Yet, to conserve cash, most firms are reducing spending ...
• Have We Got the Answer for You!Small Business
  If you've never visited the MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange—or if it's been a while—why not stop in to see how the community responds to a host of topics, both in real ...
• Keep in Touch This Summer, OK?Email Marketing
  As summer approaches, and your subscribers begin to go on holidays, you might wonder whether you should scale back your email campaigns. But in a post at the Email Experience ...
• Let the Sun Shine InMarketing in a Downturn
  When hunkering down to face a challenging economic climate, you might become so focused on survival that you don't notice when the storm begins to weaken. In an article at ...
• Just Ask the Man Who Owns OneEmail Marketing
  You've probably made a practice of asking customers to review your products, but are you using their praise to its full advantage? "Recently," says Kelly Lorenz at the Bronto blog, ...
• Survey Says ...Email Marketing
  When you receive an invitation to take a survey, are you more likely to click on a link labeled Take a brief survey, or one that says Take a 5-minute ...
• Conversionary TacticsEmail Marketing
  While most retailers have experienced various degrees of tumult during this recession, the picture isn't entirely gloomy. A recent survey by Internet Retailer, for instance, shows many online-only businesses have ...
• Now That's Good FeedbackSmall Business
  You're having a casual conversation with someone from your customer-service department when he makes an offhand statement: "Oh, you should hear how much customers love [fill in employee name/company product]." ...
• Up, Up, and Away!Search Engine Marketing
  We may be in a recession, but that isn't stopping marketers from spending on search. According to the new 2008 annual survey and forecast from the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization ...
• Monday, Wednesday, Happy DaysEmail Marketing
  Is it better to send an email on Monday or Wednesday? What about Tuesday or Friday? If you wonder about each day's pros and cons, a post at the 60 ...
• You Come Here Often?B2B Marketing
  "Blogs, wikis, podcasts, vodcasts, social networks, mobile[s] … webinars, e-newsletters, print magazines, trade shows, RSS feeds, industry websites …" These are just some of the channels now available for meeting ...
• Put Away Your Unreliable MirrorSmall Business
  If you're looking for good business advice, says Drew McLellan, don't look in the mirror. "I know what you're thinking," he says. "You are the one in a million business ...
• So You Wanna Be a Swan? Small Business
  "We're duped into believing that the pretty, the pristine, and the perfect get all the perks, all the breaks, all the glory," says Vicki Kunkel in her book Instant Appeal. ...
• I Just Came to Hang OutB2B Marketing
  "Social media, like any new marketing channel, is a sticky slope for B2B marketers," says Justin Hitt in a recent blog. "I personally prefer keeping social media 'business social' rather ...
• Get SoberSmall Business
  When you have a great idea—a true light-bulb moment—you don't want to be bothered with pesky marketing research that tells you it won't work. "People who really, really want to ...
• B2B Wisdom for the Hard TimesB2B Marketing
  It happens with every downturn: some companies find ways to thrive. In a recent post at B2B Marketing Confidential, Andy Hasselwander offered some good advice on doing business when the ...
• This is Only a TestEmail Marketing
  "A great way to capitalize on the democratic medium of email is to put your burning questions, late-night hunches, and out-of-the-box ideas to the test with an A/B split test," ...
• No C Left BehindEmail Marketing
  A new whitepaper from ExactTarget—cheekily titled No Executive Left Behind—argues in its subtitle that there are 10 things your C-Suite must know about email. "You cannot assume that your C-Suite ...
• It's Brewing on the HorizonInteractive Marketing
  The possibilities for mobile marketing grow with each new smartphone introduced. For marketers, it's best to keep on top of the latest iterations—to better design mobile campaigns that dazzle. The ...
• You Look Mahvelous!Customer Insight
  Let's face it: as consumers, we're not that good at judging the volume of a product (eg, how much liquid is actually in that bottle or glass of juice). Moreover, ...

Market Research: See all 45 quick reads

Market Research marketing downloads for the busy professional

• Small Biz How-To Guide: Market Research
  Need to learn about your customers without the big price tag of market research firms? This guide on do-it-yourself market research will help you get the information you need to position your business without emptying the corporate coffers.
• Small Biz How-To Guide: Avoiding Key Pitfalls
  Let's face it, more small businesses fail than succeed. Make sure yours is one of the winners with this guide to getting your small business off the ground and solidly on the road to success.
• SWOT Analysis How-To Guide
  This comprehensive, step-by-step how-to guide will help you assess the position in the market of your product or firm, by identifying the product's Strengths and Weaknesses, by considering the potential Opportunities the product has in the marketingplace, and by assessing the potential Threats posed by either the competition or the marketplace.
• Online Research How-To Guide
  Set clear objectives and a realistic scope to online research projects. These are just two of the steps that this comprehensive, step-by-step planning guide will help you to accomplish to insure your online research results in the most relevant and useful information possible.
• Competitive Analysis Template
  A thorough competitive analysis is a critical component of a solid marketing plan. It is an exercise that will provide you with valuable insights to guide the development of your business strategy. This 20-page template will make the project quick and easy, and you can end up with a leg up on your compeition.
• Using Google as a Research Tool
  This in-depth handbook will walk you through the ins and outs of using Google as a powerful resource for market research. In 27 easy-to-follow pages with a dozen screen shots, this PDF is a handy tool you will want to print and keep nearby as you learn to incorporate the new techniques into your search routines.

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Market Research Daily Chirp for the busy professional

• iPhone Tops Blackberry in Smartphone Loyalty
  Nearly 4 in 10 Blackberry and other smartphone users (38%) would switch to Apple's iPhone as their next smartphone purchase, but only 14% of non-Blackberry smartphone users would switch to a Blackberry. more
• Eyes Glued Open: Video on the Internet
  Media—from television to Internet video sites like YouTube and Hulu—consume more and more of our time nowadays. A Nielsen quarterly report gauges the influence of these media in our every daily lives. The findings are eye-opening. more
• 'Mainstream' Is Not a Target Market
  Mainstream is not a target market. In fact, by trying to blandly appeal to everyone, you wind up not really appealing to anyone in particular. Yet, in many companies, "niche" is a dirty word, right up there with "polarizing." more