Introduction

In today’s competitive business environment, understanding your audience is paramount. But how can you get a grasp on what your consumers or potential clients are thinking? Enter the market survey, a powerful tool that is more than just a means to collect data. For businesses, especially those keen on scaling and growing, a market survey can provide insights that could be game-changing. In this article, we’ll delve into how market surveys, such as those conducted by Sapio Research, can add immense value to your business.

1. Unveiling the Mindset of Your Audience

Every business wants to penetrate the mind of its target audience, to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. With a market survey, this isn’t just a wishful thought but a reality. A well-executed market survey provides actionable insights into what your audience wants, helping businesses like yours create tailored products, services, and marketing strategies.

2. Guiding Vital Business Decisions

Whether it’s launching a new product or venturing into a new market segment, businesses are often faced with tough decisions. Sapio Research, through its ABC process, provides companies with the evidence they need. By understanding the market’s pulse, you can make decisions that resonate with your brand’s ethos and are relevant to your market, drastically reducing the chances of costly mistakes.

3. Creating Headlines That Resonate

In an age of information overload, getting your message to stand out is crucial. Sapio Research not only helps businesses understand their audience but also assists them in crafting extraordinary headlines and content. With data from market surveys, brands can position themselves effectively, creating messages that resonate deeply with their target audience.

4. Driving Growth through Evidence-Based Strategies

Evidence-based decision-making is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. Sapio Research, which saw a staggering 72% revenue growth and was even shortlisted for the Lloyds Bank British Business Scale Up Excellence Awards in 2021, is a testament to the power of market research. Companies can leverage insights from market surveys to drive growth and scalability.

5. Partnering with Award-Winning Expertise

Choosing the right partner for market research is crucial. Sapio Research, a UK-based firm, boasts an international client list that includes top PR & Marketing agencies and household name brands. Launched in 2016 by three visionary co-founders, Sapio has grown to a robust team of nearly 20 passionate professionals. Their fast, friendly, flexible, and forthright approach ensures that clients not only get data but valuable insights that can be acted upon. The company’s recognition with the UKBA Gold Professional Services award in 2020 further attests to its excellence in the field.

In Conclusion

Incorporating market surveys into your business strategy is not just about collecting data; it’s about creating a roadmap to success. With the right approach and partnering with renowned market research firms like Sapio Research, businesses can gain a competitive edge, make informed decisions, and set themselves up for sustainable growth. If understanding your market is key, then a market survey is the lockpick you need. Don’t underestimate its power in transforming your business landscape.

Ready to Unlock the Power of Market Research? Don’t navigate the business landscape blindfolded. Partner with Sapio Research and let market surveys be the guiding light for your business’s next big move. Contact Sapio Research Today and take the first step towards evidence-based success!

In the intricate dance of Public Relations, intuition alone won’t make the cut. Market Research bridges the gap between guesswork and data-driven insights. Dive deep into how specialised market research is not just an added bonus, but a necessity, for PR agencies aspiring to craft influential campaigns, pitch their stories to the media, and ultimately champion their clients’ brand’s narrative.

In the fast-paced realm of Public Relations (PR), staying ahead of the competition requires more than just intuition. You have to create the opportunities.

Market research has emerged as an indispensable tool for PR agencies seeking to drive business growth by crafting original and compelling campaigns.

Unlocking Audience Insights:

• Understanding Audience Motivation: Market research goes beyond demographics, delving into the motivations that drive audience behaviour. Research specialists help PR professionals uncover the underlying factors that guide their target audience’s decision-making process.
• Defining Characteristics: With the assistance of market research, PR teams can gain a comprehensive understanding of the unique characteristics that differentiate their audience segments. This insight paves the way for more personalised and effective communication strategies.
• Spotting Behaviours: Effective PR campaigns are built on a solid understanding of audience behaviours. Adequate research aids PR professionals in identifying patterns and trends, facilitating the creation of campaigns that resonate.
• Appreciating Perceptions: Perception shapes reality, especially in the world of PR. Specialised research empowers PR agencies to grasp how their target audience perceives a brand or message, allowing for informed adjustments and refinements.
• Discovering What’s of Interest:  deep-dive analysis helps PR teams uncover the topics and subjects that captivate their audience. This knowledge enables the creation of content that genuinely engages and resonates.
• Comparing Against the Competition: Staying ahead requires benchmarking against the competition. Great research equips PR agencies with the tools to gain a competitive edge by assessing their clients’ market positioning and identifying areas for differentiation.

Fuelling Content Excellence:

• Stress Testing a Point of View: Strong opinions and unique perspectives capture attention. With content research expertise, PR professionals can validate their point of view with robust data, establishing thought leadership in the process.
• Providing Evidence for an Opinion: Backing opinions with credible data adds weight to PR messages. Conducting market research assists PR agencies in sourcing data-driven evidence that strengthens their client’s narrative and fosters credibility.
• Recognising Market Significance: In a rapidly evolving market, staying attuned to significant trends is crucial. Content research enables PR agencies to identify emerging trends and to integrate them into their campaigns.
• Discovering New Angles: Fresh angles and innovative approaches drive PR success. With the help of Market Research experts, PR professionals can uncover new angles and perspectives that captivate their audience’s attention.
• Highlighting Trends: Successful PR agencies remain at the forefront of trends and know how to successfully position their clients as industry leaders. The right insights will enable PR teams to highlight relevant trends, capturing the interest of both clients and target audiences.

In the dynamic landscape of PR and Communications, the role of market research has never been more pivotal. Expert research guidance equips PR agencies with the tools to craft unique, compelling stories and extraordinary headlines, to create award-winning campaigns and to generate great media coverage.

For PR agencies, the benefits of market research and providing the right insights to their clients does not just mean meeting and exceeding their expectations or retaining a happy customer base.

Accumulating precise knowledge around what makes their customers successful also means that PR agencies can build and market their own competitive advantage, showing that they’re more than one step ahead of the game, resulting in long-term business growth

In the dynamic landscape of PR and Communications, the role of market research has never been more pivotal. Sapio Research helps equip PR agencies with the tools to craft strategic campaigns and compelling content that resonate with audiences, enhance brand perception, and drive business growth. Contact us today to learn more.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, businesses find themselves facing immense challenges and opportunities. To remain competitive and make well-informed decisions, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of the tech market. This is where tech market research plays a pivotal role. In this article, we delve into the significance of tech market research and how it empowers businesses to navigate the dynamic tech industry effectively.

What is Tech Market Research?

Tech market research is a systematic process of gathering, analysing, and interpreting data related to the technology sector. It involves studying market trends, consumer behaviours, emerging technologies, competitors, and other factors that impact the technology market. The primary goal of tech market research is to provide tech businesses with valuable insights and intelligence that help them make strategic decisions, drive innovation, and achieve sustainable growth.

Why is Tech Market Research Important?

• Keeping with Trends and Identifying Market Opportunities in Tech Markets The tech sector witnesses change at an unparalleled pace. To stay ahead, businesses must consistently monitor these shifts. Market research is instrumental in detecting and reacting timely to these emerging opportunities and threats. With the unpredictable nature of technological advancements, market research offers a lens into potential future scenarios.

By analysing market trends and consumer demands, businesses can also pinpoint areas ripe for innovation.

• Tailoring Product Offerings Understanding their market enables businesses to tailor their products and services more effectively, ensuring the right pricing and features not just align with customer needs, but offer a real solution that solves their problems. A customer-centric approach, backed by solid market research, ensures that products resonate with the target audience, providing companies a significant competitive edge.

• Making Informed Business Decisions In the dynamic tech industry, hasty decisions can hinder a company’s growth. Reliable data from market research ensures businesses make decisions grounded in solid insights from market dynamics, customer preferences, and industry trends.

• Testing and Reducing Risks Tech market research not only provides insights but also allows businesses to test assumptions, especially during economic downturns. The importance of optimising marketing efforts and investing in the right initiatives  becomes more evident as companies strive to maintain a strong market position and maximise their ROI..

• Securing Funding and Facilitating Growth Research-backed insights can provide businesses, especially startups, with the leverage they need when seeking funding. Investors and stakeholders are more likely to trust and invest in companies that demonstrate a deep understanding of their market, and can back ambitious deals with data.

• Assessing Market Competition Knowing one’s competitors is crucial in any industry, and technology is no exception. Tech market research allows businesses to gain a comprehensive understanding of their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and market positioning. Armed with this knowledge, companies can develop effective competitive strategies and stay ahead of the game.

• Predicting Market Trends The technology sector is constantly evolving, with new innovations and trends emerging frequently. Tech market research helps in identifying and predicting these trends, giving companies a competitive advantage by being early adopters of new technologies and adapting their strategies accordingly.

• Understanding B2B Audiences in Tech Market Research Tech market research isn’t just about the product but also about understanding the audience. B2B tech audiences can include IT managers, tech executives, end-users, and even procurement teams. Each group has its concerns, priorities, and criteria for decision-making. For tech vendors, understanding these nuances can mean the difference between a product’s success and failure.

Key Components of Tech Market Research

• Market Analysis

Market analysis involves examining the size, potential, and growth of the tech market. This includes analysing historical data, current trends, and future projections to understand the market’s dynamics.

• Behaviour Research

Understanding behaviour is essential for developing products that cater to the needs and preferences of the target audience, whether B2B, B2C or B2B2C. Consumer or customer behaviour research helps identify factors that influence buying decisions, such as price sensitivity, brand loyalty, and product features.

• Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis involves evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of key competitors in the tech market. This analysis aids in benchmarking a company’s performance against its rivals and devising strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

• Technology Adoption Trends

Tech market research examines the adoption rates of new technologies by consumers and businesses. This information is valuable for companies looking to invest in or develop cutting-edge technologies that align with market demands.

• Regulatory and Policy Analysis

The tech industry is subject to various regulations and policies that can impact business operations. Tech market research includes monitoring and analysing relevant laws and policies to ensure compliance and anticipate potential changes in the regulatory landscape.

• Industry Expert Insights

Expert insights and thought leadership play a vital role in understanding the tech market thoroughly. Gathering insights from industry experts and influential voices helps in shaping a holistic view of the market’s trajectory.

• Industry Insights Publication

Research findings can be disseminated through industry-specific publications, whitepapers, reports, and articles. Sharing these insights showcases the company’s dedication to staying informed and contributes to the broader conversation in the tech sector.

• Interactive Data Visualisation

Transforming research data into interactive visualisations enhances engagement and comprehension. Interactive dashboards, infographics, and charts provide a dynamic way for audiences to explore complex information.

Best Practices for Conducting Tech Market Research

• Define Clear Research Objectives

Before embarking on tech market research, businesses must define clear research objectives. These objectives will serve as a roadmap for data collection and analysis, ensuring that the research aligns with the company’s strategic goals.

• Utilise a Mix of Data Sources

To ensure comprehensive research, businesses should utilise a mix of data sources. This may include primary research such as surveys and interviews, as well as secondary research using industry reports, market data, and academic studies.

• Leverage Technology and Tools

In the digital age, numerous tech tools and platforms facilitate data collection and analysis. Leveraging technology can streamline the research process and enhance the accuracy of findings.

• Stay Updated with Industry Trends

Tech market research is an ongoing process, and industry trends can change rapidly. Businesses must stay up-to-date with the latest developments to maintain a competitive advantage.

The Uniqueness of Technology Market Research

Tech market research stands apart from its counterparts in other sectors, owing to several unique considerations:

1. Rapid Evolution: The tech landscape witnesses frequent paradigm shifts. In order to constantly stay ahead of the curve, research in this domain demands a proactive approach.
2. Complex Decision-making Frameworks: The tech purchasing process in businesses, especially for B2B, is multifaceted. Understanding each stakeholder’s perspective and influence in the buying process is crucial.
3. Shorter Product Lifecycles: Unlike other sectors, tech products can become obsolete rapidly. Market research enables businesses to capture real-time insights to predict future trends to strategically build agile frameworks.
4. Diverse Audience Segments: From a CTO to an end-user, each B2B audience has a different relationship with technology. Tailored research methodologies are essential to understand and capture their different needs and challenges.

Collaborate with Experts

Tech vendors and startups, given their unique position in the market, benefit immensely from collaborating with seasoned market research experts. These professionals are adept at deciphering complex data, drawing actionable insights, and foreseeing tech trends. For any tech company, partnering with research experts  means they’ll build  a sound understanding of their market, and make well-informed decisions that drive growth and innovation.

Understanding the B2B Audiences in Tech Market Research

In the realm of tech market research, B2B audiences hold a distinct significance. Let’s delve into the varied B2B segments and understand their relevance when conducting a survey:

1. Tech Executives: Decision-makers who look at strategic investments. Tech vendors need insights into the broader vision and strategic goals of these individuals to offer solutions that fit into long-term business objectives.
2. IT Managers: Responsible for the day-to-day tech operations, IT managers are often the first touchpoint for new software and technology tools. Understanding their challenges and requirements helps in tailoring tech products that cater to operational efficiency.
3. End-users: The individuals who will be using the technology daily. Their feedback and preferences are invaluable for creating user-friendly products.
4. Procurement Teams: This group evaluates the cost-effectiveness and ROI of tech tools. Understanding their evaluation criteria can guide the development of cost-competitive tech solutions.
5. The channel: Tech vendors often distribute their products via a network of partners. Understanding their needs, challenges and what enables them to efficiently resell their product is crucial to build successful partner programs, unlock co-marketing activities and drive both businesses’ growth.

Why It’s Crucial for Tech Vendors to Understand These Groups Every B2B audience segment has a unique perspective on technology adoption. For a tech product to sell and succeed, it must satisfy the varied criteria set by these diverse groups. A holistic approach, informed by in-depth market research, ensures tech vendors develop products that cater to each segment effectively.

Do I need Market Research?

By now, we hope you understand the importance of market research for your business in the technology sector. Embracing market research as an integral part of your business strategy will empower you to make informed decisions that can steer your company towards success and sustainable growth.

The evergreen need

It goes without saying that the world has changed dramatically in recent years with a pandemic and the rise in social justice movements. The way people think, and feel has changed. To that end, when we’re tasked with conducting research for clients, but a question that we’re regularly asked is ‘how can we be more sensitive in our campaigns?’.

1. How should I be?

Social sensitivity is essential. Success depends as much upon EQ (Emotional Quotient) as it does IQ and we don’t envisage this changing anytime soon. In fact, quite the opposite. We believe that companies will want to know the specific areas and topics of sensitivity so that their campaigns can be reflective of and sensitive to the contemporary world. Armed with this information, companies can create the best possible campaigns.

2. What is the most important thing to do?

Having socially sensitive campaigns helps to tackle another common query: ‘how do we keep the audience interested in what we have to say?’. To put it simply, without audience engagement, how can a campaign be successful?

3. How do I deliver it?

Luckily, we think we’ve got an answer. In our research, we’ve found that video is consumers’ preferred medium for receiving content. Looking forward, we anticipate researching exactly how video should be used to optimise audience engagement.

Creating the best possible video, along with social media, can optimise your campaigns. It is not just a question of targeting audiences but targeting the right audience in the right way.

4. How do I prepare for the future?

Last, but by no means least, in our list revolves around the continual problem of managing risk: ‘how do mitigate risk when launching a campaign?’. Everyone wants their fresh campaign to succeed but you can’t know that it will before you launch. Often, you just have to hold your breath and jump.

This can be a scary step. Months of hard work are being released and there is no guarantee that it will land the way that it was envisaged. This trepidation has led to an increased desire to conduct a test run on campaigns before a full launch.

We happened across this detail in a study on AI and Marketing where 79% of respondents stated that they wanted to be able to test campaigns before launching them. Accordingly, we’re anticipating the companies will be looking into the possibility of piloting campaigns to achieve the best possible ROI. After all, that’s the name of the game.

4 key themes in marketing surveys*

1. Social sensitivity is integral to any campaign
2. Audience engagement is a perpetual problem
3. Video is the best medium to maintain engagement
4. Mitigating risk is always a consideration

This information does come with a caveat. Whilst we may know the questions and some of the answers, we aren’t omniscient. What we can promise, however, is that we are always learning about markets and looking for patterns.

If you choose to come to us, we will not only help you answer these questions, but also the questions that follow. Whatever the challenge, we’re confident that we can help you find the answer. It’s our job to make you look good and that’s exactly what we will do.

* These findings have been created by reviewing a series of Sapio Research recent B2B research projects conducted among marketers. Details and specific statistics have been omitted due to the confidential nature of the information therein. Nevertheless, the takeaways analysed here were found across multiple projects and have been rigorously checked to ensure that we have provided accurate analysis.

Looking to get more out of your marketing spend? Are you struggling with the inspiration needed to produce that new, award-winning, paradigm-shifting viral campaign? In both cases, I cannot overstate the importance of marketing research – and, sure, that sounds a tad biased coming from a market researcher 😉. There’s no need to take my word for it, though. These case studies speak for themselves.

What Is the Purpose of Marketing Research?

You might wonder why it is important to conduct market research in the first place – or whether it’s even necessary at all.

For a small business, hit-and-miss marketing is not only demotivating but also costly (and possibly quite damaging to your reputation). The solution to this is to switch to informed marketing.

Research provides intelligence to guide informed, enhanced decisions. Ultimately, helping you to:

• hit the bull’s eye with your target audience,
• increase your campaign success,
• and make every penny spent yield greater returns.

Good data saves time, money—and gives you a competitive edge.

Why Market Research Works. 

You can liken the importance of marketing research to military reconnaissance. Observing the landscape enables you to identify strategic features, locate your targets and formulate a winning battle plan.

David Ogilvy, arguably the most prolific publicist of our time, thought the same way. He said, “Advertisers who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore the signs of the enemy.”

Ogilvy understood the business value of keeping your messaging on point.

“Write great headlines, and you’ll have successfully invested 80% of your money.”—David Ogilvy.

He advocated the importance of marketing research, knowing that accurate data is a sure-fire way to find those golden nuggets of inspiration.

Research uncovers your market’s thoughts, questions, propensity towards specific behaviour.  It provides key insights needed to craft compelling headlines and content that converts

It works because you’re not creating content on a hunch and hoping it will resonate. You’re developing content, campaigns or products that speak to the consumer’s heart based on facts.

Learn from the Big Brands: 3 Case Studies that Illustrate the Impact of Marketing Research.

It makes sense then that international brands invest heavily in market research. Learning from a few case studies, see how multinationals relied on sound research to inform product decisions, to-market strategies, elevate business, and seriously level-up advertising.  

First Direct Used Marketing Research to Regain Market Share

The problem:  

First Direct (established in 1989 as a telephone bank) expanded into online banking as technology changed with the turn of the century. Despite evolving in line with market trends, the bank struggled to make ground against stronger market competition.

The research:             

The market research consultancy used various methodologies similar to ours. These included case study personas <ink to https://sapioresearch.com/persona-research-for-marketing>, user profiles and quantitative research methods like collating stats to indicate customer brand perception. Qualitative research like focus groups and in-depth interviews revealed how customers felt about First Direct’s move to online banking.

The findings:             

Customer brand perception research pinpointed weaknesses in customer service as the cause and identified which areas required focus. The research results enabled the bank to make changes that their customer base genuinely appreciated.

 The results:      

Nowadays, they consistently rank as a top customer service provider. In January of 2021, First Direct was named Britain’s best brand for customer service delivery in the latest Customer Satisfaction Index.

Lego’s Love of Research Lead the Brand to Parity

The problem:    

Market research is frequently credited with LEGO’s continued success. Throughout the 20th century, the LEGO market lay firmly with young boys. Commissioned market research revealed that only 9% of their customer base comprised females.

The research:             

LEGO made the high-profile decision to rely on qualitative and quantitative research. Lengthy focus groups, case studies and trials lasted over four years and involved research into the habits of 3,500 young girls and their mothers. Data analysis helped quantify consumer interest in female-orientated LEGO

The findings:     

Further investigation was commissioned to guide decisions around product development that targeted young girls’ interests.

The results:       

LEGO’s ‘Friends’ was launched in 2012. The company confirmed in a press conference that the share of girls among LEGO players had increased sharply since its release.

Mitsubishi Pajero’s Research Failure Folly

There are countless examples of brand wins underpinned by research, but what happens when a brand skips this step?

Mitsubishi found out the hard way, losing significant sales in Spanish-speaking regions. This happened when the Japanese car manufacturer launched the “Pajero”, unaware that this is a derogatory term in Spanish. Their failure to conduct international research before entering the market resulted in a highly costly exercise, ending with the model’s name eventually being changed to “Moderno” in Spain and other Spanish-speaking territories.

Key Take-Away: Research Is the Catalyst for Creativity

Research provides deep insights that encourage product innovations and compelling copy. Nothing quite inspires creativity like a juicy finding that the world needs to know. The right statistic can create an exciting headline that entices readers.

I’d argue that research is as vital for content creation as top-notch copywriters and designers are. But then, of course, I would. I’m a researcher! What do you say? Leave a comment.

When it comes to better understanding your organisation’s market potential through a persona segmentation survey the old maxim that there is more than one way to skin a cat very much holds true. 

At Sapio we are real advocates for data-driven personas. We use advanced mathematical techniques to segment a survey audience and build our personas based on the shared characteristics unique to each segment.  

Whilst the full breadth of data gathered in a persona segmentation survey is used to build the personas, such as information on demographics, goals, challenges and pain points, there are a few select questions that are used specifically as the data points to drive the segmentation. It is these questions that form the shared characteristics we use to build the personas.  

Choosing what data points to use is a question of specificity

How we decide what data is chosen to put behind the wheel to drive our personas starts with a consultation with you. Is there a central, highly specific question to be asked of your audience that will dictate the next steps in your marketing or sales strategy? For example, is there a key customer behaviour that needs to change to facilitate the adoption of a new product or service, perhaps a new technology you need your customers to adopt.  

In this case creating personas that are distinct from each other specifically on this question will help deliver content and sales approaches that are most useful and relevant to each persona on this key issue. 

Alternatively, if you are seeking to identify your key, highest opportunity customers and to understand how they make buying decisions towards your company we will collect data within our persona surveys which groups your audience based on the principles of human decision making. For example, what values do they hold, how risk-averse are they, are they a quick starter or do they prefer to try things out before they decide.   

Specific, single-issue personas

When there is an important specific question in a marketing strategy the first step is to compile a long list of the different pull and push factors that are impacting audience behaviour on this issue, for example cost, safety, availability etc.  

We use data from a technique, MaxDiff, in the survey which would be employed in the survey to segment your audience based on the prevailing influencing factors within the different subsets. We wrote a piece on this technique a little while age.  

The key with this approach is we can test upwards of 20 different factors to understand and segment your audience so that we generate deep insights around this important issue.  

These kind of personas are great in guiding the conversation or conversion messaging for two opposing audiences such as users and nonusers of a service.

Principles of decision-making personas or how do they make a change

When the purpose of the persona segmentation is less specific, we employ questions developed from the KOLBE framework of change. In other words, once we frame a buying decision as a change, or a new solution to an existing problem, we can segment our audience based on the different complexions in the change making process that exist within different groups. For example, how do they make a change, how quick are they to change or how much do they need to know before they make a change.         

In addition to this, we will also look to bring in characteristics that are specific to your organisation and its customers, for example, we would measure pro-environment values for a renewable product, or how well money is managed for a financial product.   

Preparing for a persona consultation with us

Building personas for your audience can help improve content, marketing and sales strategies and the process of creating data-driven personas will sift through your audience and reveal the useful, effective insight that will help you understand your market better and to target the prime opportunities you might otherwise not have discovered.  

When I suggested the above title for our most recent Marketing Club event I was thinking about  “The Focusing Question: What’s the ONE THING I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” – from the “The One Thing” by Gary Keller 

It turns out that, that’s not necessarily where everyone else’s head was at.

My thought was that the one big thing should be listening harder to the sentiment of the market.

So, understanding how your old or long-established values resonate in a changing marketplace. 

Kindness has been the watchword of 2020, so hitting a bum note when nerves are frayed reduces brand value.

Additionally, listening to those who you trust or seek to obtain brand loyalty can give you the courage to take a stand for something you believe in. It links to the brand purpose we hear so much about. 

How in tune with their brand do you think the ice cream rebels, Ben and Jerry are? They had that courage last year. – The CEO consulted black activist organisations, publishing a 700-word statement condemning not only the murder of George Floyd but also other acts of brutality against the black community. It was praised as the most powerful message from any corporate organisation seeking to comment on the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ok we’re not all large corporates, but we still face judgment by the court of public opinion. They decide the brand winners and losers, so it’s useful to listen to them on social media and through surveys. 

My idea was that doing the ONE THING will make everything else easier or unnecessary as Ben & Jerry did.

But it turned out that the attendees weren’t thinking quite so big. The quick fixes of LinkedIn productivity tips and Google My Business hacks were far more popular.  Not to worry though, attendees got out of the event what they wanted and it’s given me food for thought.

I do like Christmas. In its clumsy way, it does approach peace and goodwill. But it is clumsier every year – E. M. Foster

This is (nearly) the period of mulled wine, snow, mince pies, and marketing. Christmas time is hot for companies and their communications team – it’s a great moment to get in touch with customers, make them feel appreciated for the business they have done in the past, and prepare the terrain for the new year.

I, however, was skeptical that the logistics of gifting was worth it this year. Do people really appreciate corporate gifts? Isn’t a card or a festive email better? All good questions that we didn’t know the answers to. To settle it, we just did what we do best; we ran our own survey amongst 500 UK Business Decision Makers.

I have to admit the results changed my bah humbug approach regarding corporate gifting. Not only did we discover the impact of presents from a company, but also what kinds of gifts are most popular and why.  

It also provided some great context for a chat with fellow marketers Stefan Buzz and Lorrain Nugent who had ideas for Christmas gifting and promotion tips relevant to the situation this year.

Click on the link below to hear their ideas, or simply enjoy the infographic.

WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY

In this informal discussion and sharing of ideas, we will certainly give you new ways of looking at what to do for Christmas for your team, prospects and clients. We will discuss the following:

• Corporate Christmas gift trends for 2020
• Digital ideas to captivate your team and clients online
• Using PR to build your profile at Christmas

If in doubt, ask your audience, that’s what we say. 🙂

If you’d like a copy of the report so that you can get a head of the game for next year, drop us an email team@sapioresearch.com

Asking the right questions in the best way

As researchers we are frequently tasked with asking the right questions in the best way to ensure the data we return to a client, helps them make the best decisions for their organisation.

Often a right decision is dependent upon understanding the priorities that exist within a market and different types of market research. However, we know buying decisions involve a long list of different influencing factors. What we need to know is how important are each of these factors, and which are the factors that are most prioritised within the audience.  This is as important in content marketing research as for traditional research briefs.

Issues with standard approaches

There are several ways to approach questions of importance or priorities in research, many of which you might be familiar with. You can ask survey takers to tell us their strength of feeling of each item on a given list, or to select out of a list which items are most important to them, or even to rank the whole list, from high to low.

However, each of these methods runs into difficulty when it comes to asking customers to make trade-offs which we need to do if we’re to understand priorities, especially when we are looking into the full range of potential buying influences on a customer journey where there are a long list of items to consider.

What is MaxDiff and how can it help?

MaxDiff is a questioning technique that can be included in any survey where we need to understand how individuals in a market make a buying decision. This could be if we want to understand which features to include when developing a new product or service, if we want to understand how behavioral attitudes are impacting a buying journey; or even if we want to know which pizza’s to include on a menu. We’ve also used this marketing research method successfully in campaign planning, really getting to the crux of the message components that will have the largest impact.

Say a client gives us a long list of answer options to one such question, MaxDiff allows us to split this list into a series of questions, each with a varying combination of just 4 or 5 items each time. Survey takers then go through this series of questions, selecting the most and least influential to them on the list each time.

Why should you consider MaxDiff?

This technique has enormous advantages, firstly we can test many more factors whilst maintaining the quality of responses as respondents are only considering 4 or 5 factors at a time, not a lengthy list that is much more difficult to process. Secondly, by forcing respondents to make trade-offs we can much more clearly discern how our audience truly prioritises in decision making. It further eliminates the scale bias that can emerge in scale questions where respondents simply select every factor as important to them, leaving us as researchers with limited power to distinguish between factors and respondents.

How to use MaxDiff

When using MaxDiff we will take the long list of items you want to test and return data in terms of scores that can either by percentages or indexes that tell you both the how the factors rank in importance and how much more important each factor is to each other in the list, for example a factor with a score of 10 is twice as important as one with a score of 5. 

You can also take MaxDiff a step further and use the data in a persona analysis where we segment your audience based on similarities in the preferences and priorities determined through MaxDiff.

So, thinking of using MaxDiff….

All in all, MaxDiff is the perfect research tool in a crowded high-noise market when incremental insights are needed to set you apart.  It allows us to drill down on any number of buying triggers for our clients whilst returning detailed and strategically relevant insights. Once the priorities in your market are known you can really improve your conversion by communicating what your audience most needs to hear.

Click here to see where it’s used and how it’s done.

In this new world of ‘normal’, the emphasis to attract attention and generate leads is being placed more and more online, be it in search, on your website or with social media. This webinar brings together 3 of our Marketing Club experts to discuss actionable tips you can use to improve your online visibility and generate more leads, in a time when we all need them more than ever before!

WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY:

• The advantages of paid search opportunities
• How to increase the amount of visitors finding you on Google
• Tips to attracting attention on LinkedIn

Next event takes place on Friday 4th September. Register here.

Topics to be announced for the panel discussion and if you have any special requests, do let jane.hales@sapioresearch.com know.

Links to our previous webinars here:

• Accelerating your sales and marketing out of lockdown
• Elevating your brand an building your business