Capabilities

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Voice of the Customer/Needs Assessment

MARKETING ISSUES/OBJECTIVES

To identify the needs, occasions and triggers that influence the purchasing decision
To prioritize which needs are most critical to address in the product/service offering and brand communications

WHEN TO USE

VOC is especially helpful when the firm must select purchasing drivers from a broad array of possibilities.

This methodology can provide direction for new product development based on the needs articulated by respondents that are not currently addressed by category products.

VOC also can be used to prioritize next steps for marketers to compete more effectively. Which needs are most important to address and which ones should be lower priorities?

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

VOC experience in a multitude of categories – enables creative application of solutions from one category to another
Uses a compilation of approaches and measurements to determine the critical needs that influence the purchase decision
Identifies the underlying needs which might not be real apparent to participants
Ability to use the information to identify new product ideas

Concept Screening/Testing
MARKETING ISSUES/OBJECTIVES

Identifying the customer’s product or service ideas/descriptions with the most potential that should be pursued for further development.

WHEN TO USE

Screen out packaging or product forms
Identify the winners and losers in a portfolio
Generate and launch a growth pipeline of successful new products
Assess the impact of various pricing strategies

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

Adept at rigorous testing that can include analysis of trial motivation hurdles for more accurately assessing the potential for a concept
Ability to better predict success by developing norms and establishing database of ratings
Extensive experience across several consumer and business-to-business categories

Concept Building/Optimization
OBJECTIVES

To identify the features and services that are critical to include in the creation of a product (and which ones have limited opportunity)
To identify the most appealing combination of features and price for optimizing products and alternative combinations that might be considered
To determine how effective proposed features would fare against competitive products

WHEN TO USE

Quantify relative importance of product/service factors
Optimize components of new products or re-positionings
Determine the impact of strategic moves versus competitors
Simulate strategic moves on market share
May be used to optimize the combination of advertising messages that would be most effective

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

Our firm has significant experience in a variety of consumer and business-to-business sectors
Experience with variety of methodologies including Max-Diff analysis, Choice Modeling and Conjoint Analysis

Product Guidance Testing

OBJECTIVES

Assess potential for new products and concepts
Identify areas of critical improvement for building product acceptance
Test viability of alternative product uses

WHEN TO USE

When the firm wishes to categorize the critical modifications of a product, and/or to de-emphasize those changes which are unlikely to impact product acceptance.

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

SRP has extensive experience in this research, including consumer services and products in the packaged goods, telecommunications, and technology industries.

Product Optimization

OBJECTIVES

To optimize ‘content’ levels for key product ingredients for purposes of maximizing consumer acceptance and reducing product production costs.

WHEN TO USE

This research is especially helpful when the client wishes to:

Build higher appeal for products by optimizing key ingredients or components
Explore ways to reduce costs by reducing ingredient levels while maintaining the same high level of acceptance
Launch the reformulated/redesigned products while minimizing negative market share impact
Better comply with new regulatory requirements

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

SRP principals have conducted this research for a range of products, including frozen desserts, gravy, pourable and spoonable salad dressing categories.

Copy testing

OBJECTIVE

Assess the communication impact of potential advertising
Provide a tool for improving advertising effectiveness

WHEN TO USE

Identify whether communications objectives have been met
Determine strongest contender in a pool of choices

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

“Agency” and “client” side experience enables SRP to identify most important measures that have been proven to correlate to in-market performance. Principals have conducted numerous copy tests on broadcast, print, and outdoor campaigns for consumer and B2B clients.

Price Testing

OBJECTIVES

Help the client organization develop competitive pricing strategies and tactics that address objectives of maximizing revenue or penetration.

WHEN TO USE

Ability to assess pricing for a totally new type of product, a product in a competitive context or as a tradeoff with different product features
Approach used varies depending on product life cycle

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

Extensive experience with sophisticated quantitative modeling approaches.

Packaging Research

OBJECTIVES

Determine the optimal type of packaging
Identify types of graphics, logos, messages that should be displayed on packages
Identify packages that stand out

WHEN TO USE

To identify optimal package design, color, graphics, and positioning most likely to build penetration
In order to identify the most effective outer envelope for a direct mail campaign

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

We have conducted packaging research in categories as diverse as ice cream, nutritional supplements, and banking.

Name testing

OBJECTIVES

To identify the strongest name (brand or product) among a group of name candidates.

WHEN TO USE

When name and/or brand selection is needed.

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

We have conducted numerous name tests for consumer and B2B brands, products, and corporate identities. We also have considerable experience in telecommunications, retail, foodservice, packaged goods, and durables categories.

Segmentation Studies

OBJECTIVES

To customize products, services, or advertising messages/promotions specifically to meet the needs of prospective customers.

WHEN TO USE

Clients utilize segmentation studies in order to enter new markets, develop competitive positioning strategies, identify new users for existing products, and determine customer groups with pricing differential opportunity.

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

SRP has considerable experience in this area for both consumer and B2B categories. This type of study has been used successfully for targeting prospects with tailored products and messages.

Customer Satisfaction

OBJECTIVES

To develop deeper understanding of customer “delighters” and dissatisfiers
To build best in class service and products against market specific benchmarks
To determine the driving factors of satisfaction
To identify the priority areas critical to address in future positioning
To assess perceptions of performance in relation to key competitors

WHEN TO USE

Assess market satisfaction with current products and new entrants
Determine drivers of satisfaction for the category and specific products
Identify competitive threats and formulate responses
Help develop more ways to nurture customer relationships and increase loyalty
Assess potential brand advantages

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

Our firm has conducted many customer satisfaction studies and tracking programs for telecommunications service providers, technology manufacturers, B2B companies, and others.

Awareness and Usage

OBJECTIVES

To measure levels of brand and product awareness for client’s brands and those of competition
To identify the drivers of brand and product purchase behavior
To assess purchase behavior patterns
To measure perceptions of category brands
To identify demographic and attitudinal profiles of brand users

WHEN TO USE

Used to develop effective sales strategies
Used to identify positioning opportunities with the most potential
Used to identify priorities for product improvement

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

Our firm has conducted A&U studies for numerous consumer and B2B clients to assess brand strengths and weaknesses. We have also utilized this methodology to help customers prioritize product improvements and positioning opportunities.

Brand/Ad tracking

OBJECTIVES

To monitor and assess movement of a client’s advertising and brand awareness
To monitor and assess competitor advertising and brand awareness
To monitor and assess changes in a client’s and competitor’s brand perceptions
To assess overall brand health, purchase preference, and competitive position

WHEN TO USE

When the client wishes to monitor the introduction of new advertising to determine campaign effectiveness
When it is necessary to assess different media weight plans and their effectiveness

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

With extensive agency experience as well as deep marketing research expertise, SRP has fielded numerous brand/ad tracking programs for clients large and small.

Brand Equity/Brand Repositioning

OBJECTIVES

Assess the value of the overall company brand as well as drivers and barriers impacting the equity of the brand.

WHEN TO USE

This is a very flexible tool that has applicability in numerous situations such as determining the company divisions/units that are key to influencing perceptions of the corporate name or may be used to assist in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) situations by assessing the real value of a potential takeover target
Also useful when deciding to enter new product categories and branch expansion

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

The company has conducted this research across a number of service and product categories, including financial service institutions and telecommunications.

Brand Extendibility

OBJECTIVES

To assess the reaction of extending a brand beyond its core category into other categories/revenue producing channels
To assess co-brand opportunities

WHEN TO USE

To identify other viable product areas to extend a brand name
To make go/no-go decisions for a variety of products and/or product features

THE SRP DIFFERENCE

SRP has utilized this research across a number of service and product categories, including consumer goods, sporting goods equipment, and pharmaceutical products.