Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Perhaps posting this as a project on the project area of this board. There are many experts who you could 'partner up' with to do this job.

It sounds like you have a client who wouldn't mind investing in his business to find a competitive advantage, and bringing in a specialist to help you would be very good for you, your client, and the expert you hire. Think of how much you could learn 'on the job', and then build on that knowledge later.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

Getting your customers to tell you what their "REAL" problems are may be difficult if they know you are from someone in the industry. The best thing for you to do if your company has funds to invest in marketing research per Darcy's recommendation is to partner with a professional marketing researcher to do some qualitative research initially.

If funds are limited and you are willing to tackle the interviewing yourself, you could set up informal interviews with each of your customers over lunch or something (your treat).

Being that you are asking the questions directly of your customers, you could preface the discussion by saying that you want to know more about their business processes and are very interested in their opinions of their suppliers. Tell them this is for markeitng research purposes and you are not trying to sell or promote anything (and then make sure you don't).

For the specific question topics you would want to include everything you mentioned and more. Developing a discussion guide that outlines the questions you want to ask helps keep your questions organized and on topic.
Use the funnel approach in writing your guide - start with broader open-ended (not yes/no) questions in the beginning and then move to more open-ended specific questions.

Prior to these interviews, it may be helpful to brainstorm with your co-workers potential positioning statements for your company. Toward the end of the discussion with your customers, ask for their reactions (both positive and negative) to those statements you developed about your company. For each statement ask 'to what extent does this statement reflect your experience of our company? What makes you say that?.

There is a lot more to "positioning" than what can be described here. You may want to check out this link for more background
https://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_trout_positioning.html

Good luck!

Doreen

Hi ozdesign,

First a point of clarity. A unique selling proposition is different from a positioning claim. For example, 7-Up was the number one lemon lime soda in America, and lemon lime soda’s USP is they are refreshing to drink. But a refreshing to drink campaign might have limited power. In contrast, 7-Up’s “Uncola campaign” was designed to reposition the entire lemon lime soda segment perceptively into the cola segment along with Coke and Pepsi. If the lemon lime segment gains sales, 7-Up as the leader will proportionately gain the most in sales from this repositioning strategy. (This is very brief explanation and therefore most likely inadequate. Google “positioning strategies” for more info)

With that said, I have some experience with the situation you have described. Here is one possible scenario:

Company X (your clients sheet metal fabrication and engineering shop) claims to be a pure sheet metal fabrication and engineering shop at level higher than a typical large signage fabricator or other fabricator servicing the smaller sign companies. Since Company X has not focused on sign concept and design, it will not be a competitor to professional design firms such as these small sign company clients, graphic designers, architects and the like. So Company X positions itself as a pure fab partner with design professionals, and executes their professional creative solutions with great engineering and service support. This scenario is loosely based on a real case study in the Los Angeles marketplace. Of course, the research you will be conducting will help determine how valid it might be. As for the research, Frank gave you some good starting questions. Sometimes this kind of research takes on a life of its own, you just have to get the ball rolling and then make adjustments as the project grows organically based on early responses. Or as also suggested, you could post this as a project.

Hope this helps,

Steve

Further to what Steve provided, the position statement is a part of the strategy and communicates to those inside the company the any and all of the following:

• Placement within the market (which segments do you target?)


• Placement of the product relative to other products categories and application


• Placement versus competitors' products


• Placement of the product in terms of features and benefits

The position statement is critical to have in place before the marketing "production" work is completed because it ties everything together.

If you are trying to reposition, then your questions should be related to uncovering where you are in the minds of the customers first with respect to these points. Also as Steve points out, customers (or anyone, for that matter) aren't always good at telling you what they think. Sometimes it's because they don't trust you and believe if they give you information, you will use it against them as a bargaining agent. Sometimes it's because they don't even know how to express what they are thinking. This is why companies hire third parties to gather information independently most times.

In most cases, the questions are asked indirectly. For instance, if you want to know what market segment you are associated with for sheet metal, you might ask, "If our sheet metal was a color, what color would it be?" Just kidding :) The question would be written like, when I say Yabba Dabba Sheet Metal Formery Company, what do you think about: Automobiles, panels, instruments, consumer goods, signage.... Versus the competition, have logos of the key competitors and have them put the logos in order of best to least for quality, service/delivery, price, value, ease of doing business, etc. You video tape or observe and take copeous notes for the results.

Once the qualitative research is in, then you look at the position you are versus where you want to be. You put together your position statement for the new position. You repositioning strategy involves brand strategy (name, logos, colors, etc) to support the repositioning. And you have a plan of activities to roll it out like press releases, ads, direct mail, etc.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Oh, I forgot...another methodology for qualitative research is to ask a question like, "What would other people say about Yabba Dabba Sheet Metal Formery Company's quality?"

Wayde