Some "tricks of the trade" based upon my 25 years of experience in market research... ... by Joe Kalinowski of Trilogy Associates

1. Hi. This is Joe Kalinowski of Trilogy Associates, a management consulting firm based
in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina. I founded the firm in 1989 in the
Boston area.
This guide will be useful to you if you foresee a need to conduct or sponsor some
market research (MR) in the near future. Although I would welcome your business,
this is not a sales pitch. Rather, it came about owing to my interest in sharing some
of the “tricks of the trade” that I’ve learned – sometimes painfully so – over the last
25 years. I hope some of these suggestions will help put you on the right path to a
successful research project.
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2. My early career as a product developer (eventually) convinced me that fully
understanding market and customer needs before developing a new product is
absolutely required for commercial success. It’s not negotiable!
Several decades of my later career have been dedicated to (mostly) successful market
research that favorably influenced our clients’ financial success.
Our work at Trilogy has often yielded significant benefits to our clients, including
some very important new-product introductions and avoidance of some major
missteps. Great market research matters! Here’s my take on it.
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3. These suggestions can be applied whether you conduct research in-house or contract
with a research partner. In other words, your “client” may be internal or external.
My bias is toward business-to-business research because that’s primarily what we do.
The markets I personally know best are medical and life science markets and the
products that serve them.
Nevertheless, many of my suggestions are applicable to all kinds of market research.
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4. Here are the most common situations we face at the start of an engagement:
Case #1: The client is not convinced that market research is needed. This turns out to
be rarely true, perhaps only for the most minor product tweaks. Otherwise, some
convincing on our part is necessary.
Case #2: The client recognizes the need for research but doesn’t know where to
begin. This situation is favorable because we can start with a clean slate and devise
an optimal research program – subject to budget and schedule constraints of course.
Case #3: The client knows that research is needed and knows exactly how to proceed.
They just need a research provider to execute their plan. OK, they may be right;
sometimes they are not. Some adjustments may be necessary to yield the best
result.
Case #4: The client knows that research is needed, knows exactly how to proceed,
and is fully equipped to execute. OK. I’m not sure why they called; perhaps we can
help at some point in the future.
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5. Ah, the first – and most important – question! What do you need to find out? The
answer is essential, otherwise there’s no reason to move on.
The answer can be known to various degrees. The more precision the better. Getting
at the answer may require some serious soul-searching. Or it may require meetings
of the affected functions of the client company – often the chief executive,
marketing, R&D, program management, clinical affairs, regulatory affairs, maybe
finance – to put a fine point on this issue.
Teasing out the answer requires time and resources that are very well spent!
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6. These are the second-most important questions. They are often overlooked, yet their
answers can be incredibly important to researchers.
If you know precisely why you need the information, you can do a much better job
customizing the research to your needs.
We always ask these questions and, after a bit of thought, clients can usually answer
them. Often the answers are quite revealing. Occasionally there’s a mismatch
between the hoped-for benefits and what we hope to learn, so we re-think the whole
issue.
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7. Here are the key issues to consider when assembling an internal MR team or
engaging an outside MR resource. All are important, but assessing your need for an
MR specialist and the potential need for a content expert are especially critical.
The right team will get you more than halfway to success.
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8. An overall project plan is important, and client expectations must be appropriately
managed. But be prepared for mid-course corrections in response to your interim
findings.
Identifying the most appropriate respondents, then effectively recruiting them are
pivotal tasks. Be prepared to allocate sufficient time to those key steps.
All that remains are details: Getting the research done, compiling the findings, sorting
out what the findings mean to your client, and delivering messages that will matter.
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9. Properly executing these two critical steps will get you started on the right path. They
amount to (1) choosing the methods and (2) designing the inquiry.
Formulating the questions is especially important when a dialog is not possible. The
questions must be precise and not subject to multiple interpretations.
Multiple reviews, ideally by multiple parties, will help to insure that the questions are
precise, readily understood, and presented in logical order.
Keep the respondent in mind as you design the inquiry. Adjust your language to the
respondent’s background, subject knowledge, and time pressure. Choose the most
appropriate level of formality – for example, consumer versus CEO.
There is always a great temptation to gain as much information as you can. Resist it!
Stay on point. Otherwise, you risk glancing over truly important topics and possibly
antagonizing the respondent.
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10. In-person interviews are excellent for gathering qualitative data and opinions in great depth,
but they can be expensive if geographically diverse. Can a live, personal interaction really
make a difference? Is the prospect more likely to respond in that setting? If not, forget that
method.
Telephone interviews share the same advantages but are less expensive and require
somewhat less interviewer skill. Are prospects willing to engage with you on the phone, or
would they prefer a less invasive online interaction?
Search and review of published works is usually quick and inexpensive, but sources are hard
to validate and pointed questions cannot be asked. The quantity of information available
online is now huge, so this method should often be considered, at least to start. But
managing that information and separating wheat from chaff can be challenging.
Online surveys can reach large numbers of respondents in little time for quantitative
research, but recruiting can be a nightmare if an existing panel cannot be engaged. Survey
design is an art. Prospects who are not part of a permission-based panel will be difficult to
recruit; many are now overwhelmed with such invitations. So engaging a “panel partner” can
be important.
Focus groups are intimate and highly interactive if the moderator is highly skilled, but
recruiting and scheduling qualified in-person groups can be challenging. If respondent
interaction will add real value, or if product characteristics need to be exhibited in person,
consider this method.
Observational research is a unique tool for watching product usage and work flow in real
time, but it requires permissions and the avoidance of “presence bias”. Researchers require
special skills and background knowledge to execute this method successfully.
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11. Now I’ll address a few of the most important execution details of a market research
project.
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12. The sources of information that you tap – whether published or personal – are
obviously key to the success of your inquiry. Knowing how to find the right published
and personal sources will add greatly to your success.
For large online surveys, assembled panels of compensated, permission-based
individuals in the target space are essential.
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13. Depending upon your goals, either so-called key opinion leaders (KOLs) or routine
users of products or services will be your targets. KOLs tend to help you set
directions, while routine users help you get the details right.
And, speaking of details, be sure to test your new-product concepts with both
opinion leaders and people who will actually use your planned offering.
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14. You should never assume that every respondent is anxious to share their views with
you. (How many payment-free survey requests do you receive every day?) Provide
compensation in some form for the informational value that you receive!
On the other hand, I’ve found that KOLs active in the space you define often are quite
interested in sharing their “expert” views. But those same prospects are likely to be
offended by a lack of appropriate promised compensation and are quite likely to
“tune you out” for that reason.
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15. Data interpretation and reporting are important, artful steps. These steps can greatly
influence the perceived quality – and usefulness -- of any research investigation.
I’m not a fan of fancy analytics, perhaps because we don’t conduct large studies of
consumer behavior, where sophisticated analytics are often called for. Regardless of
the application, I suggest limiting your analytical complexity to the techniques that
are absolutely essential.
Reporting methods are equally important. Everyone knows that reporting methods
should fit the audience. If you are reporting to a mix of senior executives and geeky
specialists, whether in person or online, I suggest targeting the executives. One way
or another, they are probably gatekeepers of your future opportunities!
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16. Delivering your study’s findings requires a whole different mindset. You need to pivot
from analyst to presenter of relevant fact. Frankly, it’s more like showmanship than
brain surgery.
The delivery vehicle and method should match your client’s preferences, not your
own. And it’s not unusual to need interim updates to keep your client and yourself
on track in satisfying and possibly adjusting the objectives.
Plodding through a slide deck uninterrupted is – and should be – a rare event. If that
happens your findings are not being absorbed, or maybe they’re not being well
received. Detours in the discussion are important. They sharpen the conclusions and
often lead to unanticipated responses.
Finally, in the best case your reporting morphs into real-time action planning.
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17. Your work may not be done. Here are a few potential follow-on steps.
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18. Once may not be enough. A program consisting of at least 2 methods executed in
sequence is the norm. Such a multistep program may be planned or unplanned.
It’s not unusual for one finding (often an unexpected one) to yield the need for
another study of limited scope.
And, if a study’s purpose is to track a market’s demand or a product’s adoption, that
study most likely should be repeated on a quarterly or annual basis.
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19. This is a real conundrum. Market research is most useful when its findings lead to an
action of some kind. Easier said than done!
Significant actions are often triggered by senior management, but researchers rarely
have direct influence on executive initiatives. Here’s my suggestion: Try to assure, up
front, that your study has an executive champion. If necessary, convince your
sponsor to engage such a champion before you get underway.
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20. If I’ve whetted your appetite for more information about research methods, here are
links to a few of my earlier articles dealing with research and new-product
assessment and to a large archive of market research articles from the Quirk’s
organization.
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21. If these thoughts have been helpful – or if you think any of my suggestions are off the
mark – please let me know. Thanks for your interest. And, happy fact-finding!
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