Zebra UK ConsultingMD

Paul Cooper

How to Research your Market SeminarCREA/SLDCThu 18th

November 2010

Personal Introduction

• MD of Zebra UK Consulting Ltd which was established in January 2010

• Previously CEO and Executive Chairman of HiS (NW) Ltd

• Significant experience in PR, Branding, Strategic and Organisational Development

• Holder of four degrees and postgraduate qualifications and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing

Case Study – Portakabin

The benefits for YOU?1) Will help you better communicate.

Learn about your potential clients — who they are and what they want the most. Nothing improves communication skills better than a little person to person contact.

2) Will help identify opportunities.Check the competition. Are they missing something you can capitalize on? What can you do better than they can? Are your clients in need of something nobody else is offering?

3) Will minimize risk.Just like any situation, if you come prepared you will be lesslikely to lose and more likely to win.

4) Will create benchmarks to help you measure progress.How well are you doing? By setting the standard high from the start, you will be in a better position for sustained growth.

Market Research helps to identify what?

• Is there a market for your business idea?• What is the value and volume of demand for your products?• What trends are currently affecting the your market sector, and what

likely future developments (i.e. Legislation or technology changes) may affect your ability to trade?

• Specific information about your target customer: who they are, where they live, how old they are etc?

• Who are you competing against, and what are their strengths & weaknesses?

• Are there potential business partners you could collaborate with?

Whatever the exact purpose, thorough market research will help you confirm and refine your initial assumptions about your market and

business proposition

Information about your market sector• Does your knowledge of the market and the research

you have carried out suggest that there is sufficient demand for your product or service?

• Are these markets expanding or declining?

• What are the current trends?

• What are the forecasts for the next 2 – 3 years?

• What Political, Ecomonic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal changes are impacting on your marketplace and the way that your company operates?

Tesco; Case Study• Political – tax policies, trade restrictions, tariffs

Governing monopolies Laws• Economic – economic growth, interest rates, inflation rates

More unemployed means Tesco can help unemployment rates• Sociological – culture, health consciousness, age distribution

Immigration of more Europeans = demand for different products• Technological – ecological aspects, research and development, rate of

technological changeGrowth of online shopping - capitalised on the use of online shopping and provide a delivery service

• Environmental – recycling policies, pollutionCreated a £100 million Sustainable Technology Fund for the purpose of carbon reductions.They also encourage their customers to makelow carbon choices

• Legal – health and safety laws, consumer laws and regulationsPlanning Permission Laws

Information about your customers

Who are they?Why do they WANT our product/service?When do they WANT it?How can we make sure it is available at the crucial stage of decision making and how can it match needs at that point?How much are your customers prepared to pay in relation to perceived quality?

Nivea Sun Care Case Study; Understanding User Attitudes

• Nivea used questionnaires with a national representative sample and intensive focus groups to discuss individual skin protection habits and preferences

• Results revealed;Consumers often fail to apply sun screen 20-30 min’s before sun exposure; Women are the main purchasersMen are less inclined to use sun protection;Children do not enjoy the process of putting on sun protectionThere is not enough education about sun protection

• Strategy; Advertising communications targeted a female audience Educating children from a young age communicates a key message so they sent out a “Sun Sense” primary school resource pack Spray products appeal to the male target marketColoured formation for children’s sun products making it more fun Reformulation of products to offer immediate protection

Information about your competitorsResearch helps you to understand your competitors business activities, performance, successes, failures, marketing campaigns, etc

• Who are your competitors, and how many do you have?• Where are they located?• What do your competitors sell, and how?• How can your strengths differentiate you from their

weaknesses?• If other competitors will enter your market in the near

future

Kelloggs Case Study

Research revealed the cereal bar market had grown by over 15% and competitors’ market share had increased whilst Nutri-Grain sales in 2003 had declined.

• Using focus groups, attitudinal surveys and market research reports it was identified that the brand message wasn’t strong enough for consumer to choose their product over competitors

• Sales reports showed that sales were mainly from discounted products

• Consumers preferred packaging of competitors brands to Kellogg's due to Kellogg's not reflecting the healthy image that reflects the consumer trend for health conscious snack products

• A key consumer group they were missing was termed “realistic snackers”

Kelloggs Case Study

Strategic Response

• Target realistic snackers with a re-investment in core products of soft bake bars and elevenses as this satisfied the need for a great tasting snack alongside health benefits

• New packaging was designed to focus on the 2 core benefits of soft bake bars

• A new pricing structure was put in place making the Kelloggs products preferable to competitors whilst still maintaining the reputation of a quality product

Using this information effectivelyOnce all this information has been gathered how do you use it to design a

marketing strategy that fits your budget, strengths and capabilities?

• Strengths – the internal elements of the business that contribute to improvement and growth

• Weaknesses – the attributes that will hinder a business or make it vulnerable to failure

• Opportunities – the external conditions that could enable future growth

• Threats – the external factors which could negatively affect the business.

Skoda SWOTStrengthsAsked Customers directly for their opinionUsed reliable independent surveys & Top Gear’s 2007 customer satisfaction survey –resulted in number 1 car maker- This clearly quantifiable data allowed

Skoda to use focus its marketing communications and design campaigns based on these strengths

WeaknessesSkoda only had a 1.7% market share within the UK – a big problem considering the strengthsDue to out-dated perceptions of Skoda-image of poor vehicle quality, design, assembly, and materials- Changed marketing communications focus

onto how happy and contented that Skoda owners were with their car – what Skoda does stand for rather than doesn’t

OpportunitiesThrough competitor analysis Skoda found that competitors marketing approaches focused on the product itselfThis allowed Skoda to differentiate through focussing on the customer experience and this became their USP

ThreatsQuantitative research revealed the market place is incredible saturated with over 2,000 different models being sold in the UK- designed 7 different car each with the same strong branding message and pricing that suited a range of segmentsLegally EU environmental regulation coming into place led to Skoda ensuring a range of environmentally friendly activities at all stages of the life cycle

B2B Market ResearchIf you operate in a b2b manner then it is often more difficult to get attitudes of businesses

and often a multi-faceted approach is needed to meet objectives

• Looking at industry specific market research to identify what is happening within those markets and where there may be emerging needs or external environmental

• Attending Networking, exhibitions and social business events and talking to your target industry representatives in order to find out what PESTEL factors are affecting their business specifically

• Business networking sites such as LinkedIn can provide an insight into opinions and needs of your target businesses

• Considering the whole supply chain that relates to the businesses that you target and seeing what environmental factors could be affecting them and assessing what impact that has on your target business and how you can adapt to changing needs

Market Research on a small budget

• Larger organisations are able to spend many thousands of pounds on market research each year – either buying in reports or conducting the research themselves

• However shifts in technology allow you to get insights into your market place for free

• Social networking sights, forums and blogs can provide you withinformation in regard to common problems, changing needs and attitudes towards brands

• Start up a blog about your product and see what response you get – try to make sure you find out some demographics about these consumers for segmentation purposes

• Interact with the responses to get in-depth views on what you provide or what you could be providing

Market Research Trends• Because of the rapid increase in home solicitations market research

is becoming more difficult to gather. There is increasing use ofrelational research where a customer agrees to be paid to be a long-term research subject.

• Market researchers are also focusing more on micro-issues like do our customers really want restaurants to be in certain colour schemes?

• There is an increase in anthropology being used within market research to uncover myths in focus groups and bring an understanding of civilization and culture to product management efforts

Market Research Trends• The use of data warehouses to better meet customer needs is

exploding. Databases and marketing messages easily meld on the web and create enormous opportunities for the web-savvy.

• Data is much more easily accessed through on-line data bases. The ability to scan information, drill down for detail and identify relevance is a skill in the work of today's product manager.

• Market trends are happening on a global level because social media platforms like Facebook, blogs, or YouTube have blurred territorial delineations, allowing consumers to influence each other independent of location. On top of that, we see a growing interest at companies to expand into other regions, like for example the BRIC markets. This means an increased interest in globally comparabledata and a need to build a unified view of the global consumer

Conclusion• The use of market research is an essential

component to help you to make the right decision – yet so many businesses neglect this at their cost!

• At Zebra, we specialise in undertaking such research and helping businesses to understand how best to apply it

• However, we also recognise that sometimes companies have very limited budgets, especially in the early stages of business formation

Conclusion• So for this reason, we’ve put together a very

comprehensive list of data sources that you can use to build up your own market knowledge

• If you would like us to email you a copy of this invaluable information please either leave us with your business card, or email me:

• paul@zebraukconsulting.com

• Thank you – any questions???