Geoff Benjamin - e-Strategist

WORK SAMPLES:   ResearchStrategy   |   Industry Analysis: eConsulting   |   Market Analysis: Market Makers   |   Prototype Business Design

your company’s modern research program

March 29, 2000

5 Basic Principles

I. Remove Barriers between Your Company and the customer

  • Sense and respond strategy – we must monitor the activity on oursite. Using cookies we should track behavior and what factors determine that behavior. Personalizationis anoutgrowth, a response, to our sensing of customer patterns and interests.
  • Continuous dialogue with customers – We must engage our customers in a continuous dialogue,notjust in of annual or semi-annual surveys. We must give areas for feedback throughout the site and inevery"moment of truth," i.e. customer interaction. We must solicit information from the customer in everyinteraction.

II. Move Fast and Forward

  • We don't have time to wait for large surveys with 6 months ofanalysisand planning
  • Sniff trends - Monthly scans of analyst opinions, existing database, customer relationship managers,small-scale quick surveys.
  • Monitoring of key site metrics - On weekly basis collect metrics and chart trends, identify causeandeffect.

III. Open Book Approach – share, share, share!

  • Shared research – Information should be shared throughout the companythrough a central repository on the company Intranet. In the knowledge economy the sharing ofinformation isa competitive advantage. But the information should not just sit there, it needs to be pushed throughouttheorganization.

IV. For Continuous Improvement we must feed it with ContinuousResearch

  • Research is not event based, it is continuous. Your Company willmakedecisions based on a combination of art and science, i.e. intuition. The intuition comes from adisciplinedapproach to capturing customer thoughts and attitudes, and reviewing this data continuously. Only thencandecisions be made in the rapid fire pace of the Internet economy. In addition, trends can only beidentifiedfrom a series of snapshot perspectives.

V. To exceed needs we must intuit the future and pull thecustomer with us.

  • To exceed needs we must have a bifocal vision in everything we do. Theresearch program will simultaneously look at trends of the past, trends of the present through currentactions of customers and potential customers, and ahead at industry trends and evolving customer needs.

 

 

Research Principles In Action

Implementing a modern research program has many challenges. Your Company musthave a schizophrenic view of the world, looking back, present and forward all at the same time. Researchcanhelp clarify strategy, marketing messages, positioning, and relationship building, but information isnotthe end goal. All of this work is but just a building block of business. It is the life blood ofstrategicthinking. The list below gives a categorized list of tasks by focus. Within this time continuum view ofresearch the program needs to have three areas of focus: Customers, Competitors, and Evolving trends.Although different areas may serve different corporate needs, such as strategy or marketing, it is vitalthat all research be shared throughout the organization. No research should be done without defining howitwill be used, but this does not mean that this is the only way it can be used. When knowledge is sharedittake son a life of its own and can create wonderful improvements and synergies for a business.

What can not be completed internally should be developed with a vendor Your Company trusts. It isimportant that when outsourcing research it be sent to one market research firm. Much oftheresearch program builds on itself. Your Company will find enormous benefit from leveraging arelationshipwith one research firm that can learn the Your Company way, customer and selling cycle. This vendorshouldbe viewed as an intimate strategic partner. They should be brought in and involved in the development ofresearch needs.

Below is a framework of action items to serve the above stated principles

I. Current User/Customer – Sense and respond to needs, desires,wants…

  1. Monitor traffic metrics of key pages segmented by purchasers andcompany size.
  2. Monthly Pulse Survey - Survey 100 customers online monthly with four key questions (besidesdemographics, and allow for up to four new questions.
  3. Mine customer database for tends and missed opportunities.
  4. Monthly or quarterly focus group with frontline customer relationship staff.
  5. Monthly or quarterly focus group with Customer Panels.
  6. Surveys in the moment. We will solicit information from customers when a transaction is in processorcompleted, staying close to their immediate feelings.

II. Competitors moves – Monitor every step

  1. Collect and review analyst reports
  2. Weekly assessment of key competitor moves.
  3. Annual or semi-annual Multidimensional Scaling, conjoint analysis, and analysis of industryposition.

II. Eye on the future – Bifocal vision

  • Look to current and future business needs simultaneously
  1. Analyst reports
  2. Conferences
  3. Alternative questions on Monthly Pulse Survey
(c) 1999-2002 by Geoffrey I. Benjamin, all rights reserved. Please report any problems to the webmaster. Last updated on January 14, 2002.