Brand Awareness Survey

Telephone and Online Research

Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

Brand Awareness Survey

Understanding customer perceptions of your business and products stands at the heart of brand
awareness. Protecting, redefining, and building your brand can pose a daunting task to even the
savviest marketers. Our market research surveys provide valuable intelligence as to your
company’s marketing presence and the strength of your brand recognition--information that is
critical to the success of your business.

Why Conduct a Brand Awareness Research Survey

After spending months or even years developing and introducing products and services to the
marketplace, it is tempting to declare "mission accomplished." Corporate inaction at this juncture
is misguided and can potentially threaten the time and resources invested in your project. A
brand awareness survey can reveal much about the strengths and weaknesses of your products,
services, and your company itself, including:

 What is the "top of mind" brand in the market?

 What attributes do you "own" versus the attributes competitors own?
 What are customer perceptions regarding your brand versus the competition?
 Who are your prospects working with, and why?

The result of an effective brand awareness survey sheds light on these questions, and results in
information that can be used to leverage brand strengths against competitors' weaknesses,
allowing successful launch and or re-launch of products.

The concept of brand awareness goes beyond a customer’s ability to recognize your brand and
correctly associate it with a particular product. Brand awareness also spans the range of emotions
or perceptions associated with a company or product. These intangibles are difficult to gauge,
requiring an effective methodology to ensure accurate results.

How to Conduct a Brand Awareness Survey

An effective brand awareness survey needs to go beyond determining if customers recognize

your brand and associate it with the correct product. To uncover emotions and customer
perceptions requires establishing a dialogue with your customers. While brand awareness
surveys are often conducted using online surveys, e-mail questionnaires, or direct mail, the
nuanced answers captured during a brand awareness survey lend themselves to telephone based
interviews. Our interviewers have years of real world business experience, and are trained to
engage your audience in meaningful conversations designed to elicit detailed, comprehensive,
actionable information.

Contact the Brand Awareness Survey Leaders

Your company's brand is a valuable business asset. Developing, growing, and protecting brand
awareness as market conditions change can be a daunting task. Do you see the value of a brand
awareness survey, but remain confused as to how, or where to start? Since 1983, Direct Opinions
has provided business owners and marketing professionals with custom tailored brand awareness
surveys designed to achieve their business goals. Contact the experts at Direct Opinions to
discuss your brand awareness survey today!

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Telephone and Online Research
Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

The Role of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Knowing what your customers truly think is critical to retaining your customers – and keeping
your profits. While companies invest heavily in sales and customer service, too often they cut
corners and leave the very important task of understanding what will create loyal, happy
customers to an insufficient or informal information collection process. By identifying the needs,
wants, and expectations of your customers, your business is able to maximize customer
satisfaction and retention. Most importantly, a well done customer satisfaction survey will arm
your company with valuable information needed to ensure your hard-earned customers do not go
elsewhere.

Why Conduct a Survey to Measure Customer Satisfaction?

Is your company facing a sudden drop in revenue or profits? Is a once solid customer base
mysteriously eroding? Do certain business groups or sales teams lag behind company averages?
Does the lack of a formal methodology to measure and track the effectiveness of your sales and
service staff give cause for concern? Companies facing one or more of these issues may benefit
from a customer satisfaction survey. When considering the merits of a customer satisfaction
survey, consider the following:

 Acquiring new customers is 10 times more difficult and expensive than retaining existing
clients.
 A 10% increase in customer retention typically increases profits by 30%.
 The average business does not hear from 96% of their unsatisfied customers.
 US companies lose 50% of their customers every 5 years
Customer Satisfaction Survey Methodologies

Most sales and marketing professionals appreciate that customer satisfaction is essential to the
survival of their businesses but ponder the best means to find out whether customers are
satisfied. There are many ways to ask your customers whether or not they are satisfied with your
company, your products, and the service they received. Customer satisfaction studies are
commonly conducted using face-to-face interviews, or via phone, mail, or online surveys.
Knowing which strategy works best given your unique situation, as well as what questions to ask
determines the success or failure of surveying customers. The customer satisfaction survey
professionals at Direct Opinions have the real world business experience to recommend the right
survey for your company's unique situation.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys Utilizing Telephone Interviews Provides a One-To-One

Relationship

Although there are many ways to evaluate CSI (customer satisfaction index), we believe that the
telephone gets directly to the voice of your customer. It’s a personal interaction that generates the
highest level of quantitative and qualitative customer relationship information in a timely
manner. Telephone surveys allow us to proactively reach out to your customer base to gather
information, providing the opportunity to have a conversation with people versus simply
conducting a survey.

At Direct Opinions, we recruit professionals with a business background--individuals who know

how to navigate through the business world and obtain the market research results you are
looking for.

Contact The Customer Satisfaction Survey Experts

At Direct Opinions, each customer satisfaction survey is tailored to your specific information
objectives. We will develop an appropriate mix of custom telephone, and online surveys based
upon what you want to know and how this information will be used within your company.
Regardless of survey methodology, the results will provide actionable data that will help your
business grow. Ready to get started? Contact Direct Opinions today for a quote on a customer
satisfaction survey today!

Net Promoter Score ™

Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

Net Promoter Score ™ – NPS® Measurement

While many companies claim to have a good idea of

overall customer loyalty, most only employ very basic
and informal tactics, such as evaluating unsolicited
customer feedback. Businesses relying solely on
unsolicited feedback to assess customers’ loyalty, likely are not getting information they need.

Our customer loyalty phone surveys often use the concept of Net Promoter Score as a baseline
measurement of overall customer loyalty. The concept of a Net Promoter Score– or NPS - was
developed by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company, and Satmetrix. The NPS metric helps your
organization do a better job building a more customer-centric company.

Net Promoter Scoring is based upon the answer to a single question asked of current customers.
Naturally, even in a simple questionnaire, other questions (besides the ultimate one) are used to
get at underlying reasons for particular responses. Follow-up phone conversations delve deeper
into individual clients’ motivations.

The Net Promoter question asks customers: “How likely would you be to recommend this
company to a friend or colleague?” Answers to this question allow your company to track
promoters and detractors. Your resulting Net Promoter Score produces a clear measure of your
organization's performance as seen through your customers' or clients’ eyes.

How Net Promoter Scores ™ are Measured

Promoters are your customers who are so enthusiastic about your firm or brand that they not only
increase their own purchases, but also refer their colleagues or peers. These are customers that
give a rating of 9 or 10.

Customers who give you a rating of 7 or 8 are considered neutral and do not factor into the NPS
Score.

Detractors are customers who feel so badly treated that they cut back on purchases, switch to
your competition, and warn others to stay away from your company. Detractors are customers
giving ratings of 6 or lower.

You determine your organization’s Net Promoter Score by subtracting the percentage of
“detractors” from promoters to get an overall NPS number as shown below:

% of Promoters - % of Detractors = Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Because results (scores) are tied back to specific individuals, your company can also focus
closely on the NPS® results of individual customers.

If your organization is waiting for clients to complain, rather than soliciting their positive or
negative opinion of your brand or company, you may not get the feedback until it is too late.
Market Research Surveys indicate that the majority of your clients are very unlikely to volunteer
negative information - they are much more likely just to go to a competitor.

Ready to get started? Contact Direct Opinions today for a quote on developing a Net Promoter
Score for your organization today! For more detailed reading on NPS, visit:
http://www.netpromoter.com .
Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain &
Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

New Customer Welcome Survey

Telephone and Online Research
Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

New Customer Welcome Survey

Your marketing campaign has done the job, and your team has closed yet another sale. Despite
this success, nagging questions remain. Perhaps your company invests heavily in effective
marketing and advertising strategies to attract new customers but neglects the importance of
formal, consistent follow-up after the sale. As a sales and marketing director, you appreciate how
hard new business is to acquire, and you realize it is easier and less expensive to retain existing
customers rather than to develop new business relationships. At the same time, with so many
available options, it is often difficult to sort through which customer retention strategies work
best. If this story sounds familiar, your company may need a new customer welcome survey.

Why Conduct a New Customer Welcome Survey

In today's challenging business environment, a premium is placed on developing and retaining

new business. Positive first experiences are critical to retaining new customers. A new customer
welcome survey can measure satisfaction at time of sale so that your company can resolves
issues without delay and build customer relationships on strong foundations.

A new customer welcome survey can provide a wealth of information, offering insight into a
number of areas that are vital to the continued success of your company. New customer welcome
surveys can reveal what is required to gain the loyalty of new customers and identify and resolve
issues leading to dissatisfaction. Studies show that 70% of dissatisfied customers are likely to
return if their issues are addressed and resolved in a timely manner. New customer welcome
surveys also increase positive, word-of-mouth marketing. Conversely, if a new customer has a
poor first experience, they are unlikely to return. Disgruntled customers typically share their
negative experience with nine or ten colleagues or friends. This too, is word-of-mouth
advertising--it undermines all the hard work that went into the sale--and it can have a detrimental
effect on your company's bottom line.

How To Conduct a New Customer Welcome Survey

Customer satisfaction levels are gauged in a number of ways, including e-mail, direct mail, and
online surveys, but at Direct Opinions, we believe that there is no substitute for the telephone
when performing new customer welcome surveys. The phone provides greater depth for
understanding customer needs and defining attributes that comprise overall value and customer
satisfaction. New customer welcome surveys conducted via telephone are more effective for
gathering qualitative data and in-depth insights than direct mail, e-mail, and online surveys.
Telephone interviews are more flexible, allowing interaction and exchange between interviewer
and respondents. In addition, a telephone based new customer welcome survey provides a
personal touch that is sure to gain the attention of the customers you have worked so hard to
acquire.

Contact The New Customer Welcome Survey Experts

An effective new customer welcome survey is more than compiling a group of questions and
soliciting client feedback. The core of the research is the analysis and interpretation of results.
No software can do this job, and without the benefit of neutral, third party analysis, there is
always the risk that the research will be skewed to what you want to see rather than the current
situation as it exists in the field. At Direct Opinions, each new customer welcome survey is
tailored to your specific information objectives. We will develop and recommend an appropriate
approach based upon your company's information needs and project budget, and provide expert
analysis. The results of your new customer welcome survey will provide actionable data that will
help your business grow. Ready to get started? Contact Direct Opinions today for a quote on a
customer feedback survey today!

Competitive Analysis
Telephone and Online Research
Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

Competitive Analysis Survey

In order to understand how an organization or business is performing, it is necessary to consider

its position in relation to other organizations in its industry. At Direct Opinions we can help
identify the critical factors that impact customer satisfaction. Our studies can determine the key
drivers of customer satisfaction and their importance on a regional, national or international
level. Areas of strength and weakness for each company are identified including attitudes,
customer experiences and behavioral characteristics, and perceived images. Once these
organizational traits are identified, valuable comparisons can be made with other competitors in
the market.

Why Conduct a Competitive Analysis Survey

Identifying customer expectations that impact satisfaction such as product quality, price,
customer experience, and level of technical support can result in new marketing strategies and
tactics to capitalize on organizational strengths and improve standing in the market. Data from
our studies can provide the tools necessary to leverage information into a blueprint for success,
resulting in direct action that improves satisfaction levels of your customers. A competitive
analysis survey is likely to address some of the following:

 Who is the competition?

 What are the products or services that compete with our offering?
 What is the competition's market share?
 Why do customers buy from our competition instead of us?
 What do customers like and dislike about the competition versus our products and
services?

While most business owners and product managers agree this type of information is valuable,
they lack the time and resources to conduct an effective competitive analysis survey.

How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis Survey

Success or failure of your competitive analysis hinges on the convergence of three basic factors.
If any element of the survey's design, implementation, or analysis is faulty, the validity of results
will be questionable. First, the survey needs to be written in a manner that elicits useful
information. The competitive analysis survey must also poll a statistically valid sample. If the
sample group is too small, chances are good you will not uncover the true voice of your
customers. Finally, well constructed survey questions reaching appropriate audiences are only as
good as the methodology used to implement your study. While direct mail, online surveys, and
focus groups are often utilized to conduct competitive analysis surveys, we rely most heavily on
a telephone based approach. A telephone approach is economical, efficient, and tends to provide
a depth of quality response not typically found in other survey methodologies.

Contact The Competitive Analysis Survey Experts

At Direct Opinions we have over 30 years of experience crafting competitive analysis surveys
for a wide range of companies serving diverse markets. All of our interviewers have years of
real-world business experience, possess the proper skill sets needed to implement your survey,
and understand your company, products, services and market research objectives. Do you
appreciate the value of a thorough competitive analysis survey but lack the time or resources to
start? Have you been down this road before, but just want to make sure this time you "get it
right"? If learning more about how your company and products compare with those offered by
the competition is important to your continued success, look no further. Contact the experts at
Direct Opinions to discuss your competitive analysis survey today.

Product Evaluation
Telephone and Online Research
Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

Product Evaluation

Whether you have spent months or years preparing to launch a new product, or are simply
looking to refine and improve an established offering, a product evaluation survey can test
consumer reaction to your product, and yield actionable data to help achieve sales objectives.
Developing a better understanding of customer experiences with your products is the key to
improved quality and greater customer satisfaction.

Why Conduct A Product Evaluation Survey

Teams responsible for the development, sale, or promotion of a product often have different
understandings of value propositions than actual customers. Proximity to, and familiarity with a
product line can cloud objective thinking. Discovering the voice of the customer, including
needs, wants, and desires, can radically alter the course of product development. Do customers
want your new product? Will they see it as an alternative to a competitor's offering? Might
listening to customer feedback lead to refinements that improve product performance and market
penetration? A product evaluation survey can provide answers to these questions, informing
decision making with actionable data throughout every step of your product's life-cycle.

How To Conduct a Product Evaluation Survey

Many marketing professionals rely almost exclusively on focus groups to perform product
evaluation surveys without recognizing this collection process can easily produce flawed data.
While a focus group can provide more detailed feedback than the information obtained using an
online or printed survey, the validity of the results is always in doubt because sampling a large
group of respondents is time and cost prohibitive. Without a statistically valid sample, major
strategic business decisions regarding product development are made in a vacuum. Although
focus groups can represent a valid, initial starting point in the discovery process, the use of a
telephone based product evaluation survey offers the best methodology to produce actionable
data needed to inform the decision making process.

Contact The Product Evaluation Survey Leaders

Whether your company is developing a new product or looking to boost sales and market
presence of an existing offering, a telephone based product survey represents the best
methodology to uncover actionable information needed to obtain your goals. Best of all, with a
statistically valid sample, your sales and marketing team can rest assured that strategic business
decisions are made on sound information rather than anecdotal evidence or skewed data. If you
see value in a product evaluation survey, but remain confused as to how, or where to start,
contact the experts at Direct Opinions. Since 1983, we have provided business owners and
marketing professionals with custom tailored product evaluation surveys designed to achieve
their specific goals. Contact the experts at Direct Opinions to discuss your product evaluation
survey today!
Advertising Awareness Survey
Telephone and Online Research
Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

Advertising Awarness Survey

Measurement drives efficiency and improvement in any business exchange; especially in

advertising. As a marketing director, you need to measure the effectiveness of your
organization's planned or ongoing advertising campaign. Perhaps you need to evaluate awareness
of specific promotions. Or your goal may be to generate awareness of your ads and brand across
a subset of industry insiders. You may have noticed rivals are beginning to reallocate media
dollars and need to understand why.

Objectives of an Advertising Awareness Study

To improve the return on your advertising dollars spent, trust Direct Opinions to partner with
your company. Our proven methods for creating ad awareness surveys can help your business in
three key areas:

Competitive Ad Analysis -- Assess how your product or service offerings are perceived as
compared to your competition. Identify customer expectations that impact satisfaction such as
product quality, price, customer experience or technical support.

Creative Testing -- What headlines, value propositions, and call-to-actions have the greatest
marketing impact in your advertising? Awareness surveys can help uncover your most influential
messaging in print ads, direct mailers, and collateral.

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness and ROI -- You can use ad awareness measurement to
determine which advertisements will cut through the clutter and leave a lasting impression.

With expertise in telephone and online research methodologies, we are well equipped to design
the most effective survey instrument to provide you with insights and information, not just data.
We have developed proprietary best practices for each methodology – and are leaders in
providing a mixed telephone and online methodology to ensure maximized response rates. Our
interviewers are trained to engage your audience in real conversations to garner the most
comprehensive information possible.

Interviewers who will be assigned to complete these interviews are trained and qualified in
telephone research techniques, specifically in obtaining information from respondents where no
prior relationship exists. Direct Opinions uses The Survey System™ Statistical and Interviewing
Software, one of the most highly regarded and commonly used software tools in the survey
industry. This software guides the interviewers through the questions and ensures consistency of
question delivery, and provides the tools necessary for survey design and analysis.

We provide in-depth market research to support each and every step of the customer lifecycle –
from identifying new potential opportunities, to assessing current customer relationships and
developing new marketing strategies.

Contact the Advertising Awareness Survey Leaders

Whether your company is developing a new product or looking to boost sales and market
presence of an existing offering, a telephone based ad survey represents one of the best
methodologies to uncover actionable information needed to obtain your goals. Best of all, with a
statistically valid sample, your sales and marketing team can rest assured that strategic business
decisions are made on sound information rather than anecdotal evidence or skewed data. If you
see value in an advertising awareness survey, but are confused as to how, or where to start,
contact the experts at Direct Opinions. Since 1983, we have provided business owners and
marketing professionals with custom tailored advertising awareness surveys designed to achieve
their specific goals. Contact the experts at Direct Opinions to discuss your advertising awareness
survey today!

Market Intelligence
Telephone and Online Research
Uncovering information that has the power
.....to connect corporations with their customers.

Market Intelligence Telephone Survey

As a marketing director, developing critical marketing intelligence requires looking at survey

results from a 30,000 foot overview perspective. Sometimes, market research needs to make
broad strategic changes in how your organization goes to market. Are your customers in need of
a new service to complement a product that you or competitors offer? Can you better understand
who in the marketplace you truly compete with? If you could talk directly with engineers using
your products would they offer feedback that could create market opportunities for you? These
are the kinds of questions that market intelligence surveys can answer.

Analyzing your Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats through Critical Market
Intelligence Research.

SWOT analysis is critical in planning out new marketing strategies. Developing market
intelligence allows you to thoroughly understand your marketplace:
  How do your prospects use your products or services and/or competitor’s products or
services in their business?
 Which companies are your prospects and customers currently working with?
 What is their satisfaction level with products, process and services currently offered?
 What would they improve or change if they could?
 Where do your customers place the highest value - service, product quality, etc.?
 What media do they use to inform their decision making (magazines, internet, trade
conferences, etc.)?

Without the ability to understand the role your organization plays in the mind of prospective –
and existing – customers, you can’t successfully develop and position products to gain market
share.

Be Sure your Market Intelligence Survey is Statistically Valid

A survey of market intelligence must be constructed in a manner that provides you with useful
information. To do so, your market intelligence study must also poll a statistically valid sample.
If the sample group is too small, chances are good you will not uncover the true voice of your
customers. While direct mail, online surveys, and focus groups can be utilized to conduct
competitive analysis surveys, we rely most heavily on a telephone based approach. A telephone
survey approach is economical, efficient, and tends to provide a depth of quality response not
typically found in other survey methodologies.

How Direct Opinions Conducts Telephone-based Market Intelligence Studies

Well constructed survey questions reaching appropriate audiences are only as good as the
methodology used to implement your study. We believe that market intelligence studies are most
successfully conducted by phone. The telephone survey method for obtaining deep market
intelligence offers the most control over the order of questions and how those questions are
presented in the survey. Market intelligence interviewers can often connect with hard-to-reach
survey participants like CEOs and engineers.

Our interviewers have years of real world business experience, and are trained to engage your
audience in meaningful conversations designed to elicit detailed, comprehensive, actionable
information. Direct Opinions telephone interviewers are experienced at keeping questions from
being avoided and are adept at moving past reluctance to respond to sensitive topics.

Customer Relationship Surveys

In today’s challenging business environment, companies are struggling to maintain a competitive

advantage. Much emphasis is placed on developing better products and services, which are vital
to continued success. At the same time, a “company centric” approach often overlooks those who
buy your products and services—your customers. Successful business owners realize excellent
products and services are only part of an effective business model. Maintaining and improving
customer relationships is vital to continued growth. For this reason, more and more companies
are turning to companies specializing in customer relationship surveys to achieve their sales
objectives.

Why Customer Relationship Surveys are Important

Acquiring new customers is more difficult and expensive than maintaining existing ones. If sales
revenue is declining, or if your company is facing the prospect of losing a vital customer,
consider the following:

 A 10% increase in customer retention typically increases profits by 30%.

 It costs five times more to acquire a customer than keep an existing one.
 The average business does not hear from 96% of their unsatisfied customers.

Most business owners recognize the need to develop formal customer retention strategies, but are
confused on their implementation. Is an in-house program better than calling in a team of
“experts?” What questions should be used in the survey? Should the survey be conducted with an
online tool, or with a more traditional offline approach? If you are asking one or more of these
vital questions, then consider a consultation with the survey experts at Direct Opinions.

Aligning the Type of Survey with the Customer Lifecycle

Obviously, depending upon where in the client life-cycle your customers are will determine what
kind of survey is required. For existing customers, we often develop a strategic customer
satisfaction survey to measure the ongoing relationships you have. This type of survey best gives
insight into areas for improvement in how your organization handles interactions with your
existing customers.

Developing a survey to assess your Net Promoter Score™ will in some cases, provide the
benchmark to measure ongoing success and identify areas that need improvement. NPS – Net
Promoter Scoring gives your organization a dashboard view of how likely it is that current
clients will recommend your firm to others.

For newly-won customers, a new customer welcome survey may be a way to ensure your firm is
perceived as getting off to a solid start at the beginning of the relationship. Despite your best
intentions, customers can and will be lost. Direct Opinions has pioneered the concept of Re-
Winning lost, inactive or former customers. In fact, we have developed expertise specifically
around surveying past customers.

Net Promoter is a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's customer
relationships. It serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research.

Net Promoter is a customer loyalty metric developed by (and a registered trademark of) Fred
Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix. It was introduced by Reichheld in his 2003
Harvard Business Review article "The One Number You Need to Grow"[1]. The most important
proposed benefits of this method derive from simplifying and communicating the objective of
creating more "Promoters" and fewer "Detractors" -- a concept claimed to be far simpler for
employees to understand and act on than more complicated, obscure or hard-to-understand
satisfaction metrics or indices. In addition, proponents claim the Net Promoter method can
reduce the complexity of implementation and analysis frequently associated with measures of
customer satisfaction, providing a stable measure of business performance that can be compared
across business units and even across industries, and increasing interpretability of changes in
customer satisfaction trends over time.

Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score by asking customers a single question on a 0 to 10
rating scale: "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?"
Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters (9-
10 rating), Passives (7-8 rating), and Detractors (0-6 rating). The percentage of Detractors is then
subtracted from the percentage of Promoters to obtain a Net Promoter score. A score of 75% or
above is considered quite high. At some companies like Apple Inc (AAPL), scores from
detractors or promoters generate alert emails either alerting management to the promoter or
alerting them to the detractor who they are to call back within 24 hours to resolve the issue.
Companies are encouraged to follow this question with an open-ended request for elaboration,
soliciting the reasons for a customer's rating of that company or product. These reasons can then
be provided to front-line employees and management teams for follow-up action.[2][3].

Proponents of the Net Promoter approach claim the score can be used to motivate an
organization to become more focused on improving products and services for customers. They
further claim that a company's Net Promoter Score correlates with revenue growth. Discussed at
length in The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth by Fred Reichheld, and
"Answering the Ultimate Question" by Richard Owen and Laura Brooks, the Net Promoter
approach has been adopted by several companies, including Philips, GE[4], Allianz[5], P&G[6],
Intuit[7], American Express, [8] and Westpac Banking Corporation.

Criticism of NPS
Despite its popularity among business executives, the Net Promoter concept is controversial in
academic and market research circles. Research co-authored by loyalty consulting competitor
IPSOS Loyalty disputes the claims of Reichheld concerning Net Promoter.[9] Furthermore, Hayes
(2008) found no scientific evidence that the "likelihood to recommend" question is a better
predictor of business growth compared to other customer loyalty questions (e.g., overall
satisfaction, likelihood to purchase again). Specifically, Hayes found that the "likelihood to
recommend" question, does not measure anything different than other conventional loyalty-
related questions. [10]

Environmental factors may exert an influence on customers' response to the "recommend"

question—making comparisons across business units or industries difficult in certain cases.
Examples include comparing businesses with an associated social stigma (e.g., cigarettes or
online dating) and businesses with different levels of service fulfillment (e.g., delivery services
as compared to gyms). Moreover, determining when the survey should be delivered may be more
obvious in some cases than in others (such as in the case of a gym), where customer attitudes
may be likely to change over time.
Daniel Schneider, Jon Krosnick, et al. found that out of four scales tested, the 11-point scale
advocated by Reicheld had the lowest predictive validity of the scales tested.[11] Others have
taken issue with the calculation methodology, claiming that by collapsing an 11-point scale to
three components (e.g., Promoters, Passives, Detractors), significant information is lost and
statistical variability of the result increases.[8] The validity of NPS scale cut-off points across
industries and cultures has also been questioned.[12]

On the other hand, other independent research confirms the fundamental claim of a relationship
between relative competitive Net Promoter Scores and competitive growth rates.[13] Proponents
of the Net Promoter approach point out that the statistical analyses presented prove only that the
"recommend" question is similar in predictive power to other metrics, but fail to address the
practical benefits of the approach, which are at the heart of the argument Reichheld and
SatMetrix put forth.

Proponents of the approach also counter that analyses based on third-party data are inferior to
analyses conducted by companies on their own customer sets, and that the practical benefits of
the approach (short survey, simple concept to communicate) outweigh any statistical inferiority
of the approach.[8]

Industry examples
General Electric uses NPS to evaluate process excellence for its customers, and plans to use NPS
as a metric to decide the compensation of its leaders;[14] Procter and Gamble uses NPS to
measure consumer reactions to its brands;[6] Allianz uses NPS to maintain what it calls
"customer-centricity";[5] and Verizon Wireless uses NPS in all business channels including their
call centers and retail stores.[15] Other companies using NPS include American Express,
BearingPoint, and Intuit

Brand awareness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Brand awareness is a marketing concept that measures consumers' knowledge of a brand's

existence. At the aggregate (brand) level, it refers to the proportion of consumers who know of
the brand.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Measurement driven conceptualization

  2 Research on metrics
 3 Stability of responses
 4 References

Measurement driven conceptualization

Brand awareness, In general, means the extent to which a brand associated with a particular
product is documented by potential and existing customers either positively or negatively.
Creation of brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising at the beginning of any product's
life cycle in target markets. In fact, brand awareness has influence on buying behaviour of a
buyer. Brand awareness can be measured by showing a consumer the brand and asking whether
or not they knew of it beforehand. However, in common market research practice a variety of
recognition and recall measures of brand awareness are employed all of which test the brand
name's association to a product category cue, this came about because most market research in
the 20th Century was conducted by post or telephone, actually showing the brand to consumers
usually required more expensive face-to-face interviews (until web-based interviews became
possible). This has led many textbooks to conceptualise brand awareness simply as its measures,
that is, knowledge that the brand is a member of a particular product category, e.g. soft-drinks.
Examples of such measures include:

 Brand recognition - Either the brand name or both the brand name and category name are
presented to respondents.
 Brand recall - the product category name is given to respondents who are asked to recall as
many brands as possible that are members of the category.
 Top of mind awareness - as above, but only the first brand recalled is recorded (also known as
spontaneous brand recall).

Research on metrics
There has been discussion in industry and practice about the meaning and value of various brand
awareness metrics. Recently, an empirical study appeared to put this debate to rest by suggesting
that all awareness metrics were systematically related, simply reflecting their difficulty, in the
same way that certain questions are more difficult in academic exams [1].

Brand recall

Brand Recall is the extent to which a brand name is recalled as a member of a brand, product or
service class, as distinct from brand recognition.

Common market research usage is that pure brand recall requires "unaided recall". For example a
respondent may be asked to recall the names of any cars he may know, or any whisky brands he
may know.
Some researchers divide recall into both "unaided" and "aided" recall. "Aided recall" measures
the extent to which a brand name is remembered when the actual brand name is prompted. An
example of such a question is "Do you know of the "Honda" brand?"

In terms of brand exposure, companies want to look for high levels of unaided recall in relation
to their competitors. The first recalled brand name (often called "top of mind") has a distinct
competitive advantage in brand space, as it has the first chance of evaluation for purchase.

Brand Recognition

Brand Recognition is the extent to which a brand is recognized for stated brand attributes or
communications

In some cases brand recognition is defined as aided recall - and as a subset of brand recall. In the
case, brand recognition is the extent to which a brand name is recognized when prompted with
the actual name.

A broader view of brand recognition is the extent to which a brand is recognized within a
product class for certain attributes. Logo and tagline testing can be seen as a form of brand
recognition testing. For example, if a product name can be associated with a certain tagline, logo
or attribute (safety and Volvo; "Just do it" - Nike) a certain level of brand recognition is present.

Stability of responses
While brand awareness scores tend to be quite stable at aggregate (level) level, individual
consumers show considerable propensity to change their responses to recall based brand
awareness measures. For top of mind recall measures, consumers give the same answer in two
interviews typically only 50% the time [2]. Similar low levels of consistency in response have
been recorded for other cues to elicit brand name responses

Competitor analysis
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Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths

and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive
and defensive strategic context through which to identify opportunities and threats. Competitor
profiling coalesces all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the
support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and
adjustment.[1]
Given that competitor analysis is an essential component of corporate strategy, it is argued that
most firms do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough. Instead, many enterprises
operate on what is called “informal impressions, conjectures, and intuition gained through the
tidbits of information about competitors every manager continually receives.” As a result,
traditional environmental scanning places many firms at risk of dangerous competitive
blindspots due to a lack of robust competitor analysis.[2]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Competitor array
 2 Competitor profiling
 3 Media scanning
 4 New competitors
 5 See also
 6 References
 7 External Links

Competitor array
One common and useful technique is constructing a competitor array. The steps include:

 Define your industry - scope and nature of the industry

 Determine who your competitors are
 Determine who your customers are and what benefits they expect
 Determine what the key success factors are in your industry
 Rank the key success factors by giving each one a weighting - The sum of all the weightings must
add up to one.
 Rate each competitor on each of the key success factors
 Multiply each cell in the matrix by the factor weighting.

This can best be displayed on a two dimensional matrix - competitors along the top and key
success factors down the side. An example of a competitor array follows:[3]

Key Industry Competitor Competitor Competitor Competitor

Weighting
Success Factors #1 rating #1 weighted #2 rating #2 weighted

1 - Extensive distribution .4 6 2.4 3 1.2

2 - Customer focus .3 4 1.2 5 1.5

3 - Economies of scale .2 3 .6 3 .6
4 - Product innovation .1 7 .7 4 .4

Totals 1.0 20 4.9 15 3.7

In this example competitor #1 is rated higher than competitor #2 on product innovation ability (7
out of 10, compared to 4 out of 10) and distribution networks (6 out of 10), but competitor #2 is
rated higher on customer focus (5 out of 10). Overall, competitor #1 is rated slightly higher than
competitor #2 (20 out of 40 compared to 15 out of 40). When the success factors are weighted
according to their importance, competitor #1 gets a far better rating (4.9 compared to 3.7).

Two additional columns can be added. In one column you can rate your own company on each of
the key success factors (try to be objective and honest). In another column you can list
benchmarks. They are the ideal standards of comparisons on each of the factors. They reflect the
workings of a company using all the industry's best practices.

Competitor profiling
The strategic rationale of competitor profiling is powerfully simple. Superior knowledge of rivals
offers a legitimate source of competitive advantage. The raw material of competitive advantage
consists of offering superior customer value in the firm’s chosen market. The definitive
characteristic of customer value is the adjective, superior. Customer value is defined relative to
rival offerings making competitor knowledge an intrinsic component of corporate strategy.
Profiling facilitates this strategic objective in three important ways. First, profiling can reveal
strategic weaknesses in rivals that the firm may exploit. Second, the proactive stance of
competitor profiling will allow the firm to anticipate the strategic response of their rivals to the
firm’s planned strategies, the strategies of other competing firms, and changes in the
environment. Third, this proactive knowledge will give the firms strategic agility. Offensive
strategy can be implemented more quickly in order to exploit opportunities and capitalize on
strengths. Similarly, defensive strategy can be employed more deftly in order to counter the
threat of rival firms from exploiting the firm’s own weaknesses.[2]

Clearly, those firms practicing systematic and advanced competitor profiling have a significant
advantage. As such, a comprehensive profiling capability is rapidly becoming a core competence
required for successful competition. An appropriate analogy is to consider this advantage as akin
to having a good idea of the next move that your opponent in a chess match will make. By
staying one move ahead, checkmate is one step closer. Indeed, as in chess, a good offense is the
best defense in the game of business as well.[2]

A common technique is to create detailed profiles on each of your major competitors. These
profiles give an in-depth description of the competitor's background, finances, products, markets,
facilities, personnel, and strategies. This involves:

 Background
 o location of offices, plants, and online presences
o history - key personalities, dates, events, and trends
o ownership, corporate governance, and organizational structure
 Financials
o P-E ratios, dividend policy, and profitability
o various financial ratios, liquidity, and cash flow
o Profit growth profile; method of growth (organic or acquisitive)
 Products.
o products offered, depth and breadth of product line, and product portfolio balance
o new products developed, new product success rate, and R&D strengths
o brands, strength of brand portfolio, brand loyalty and brand awareness
o patents and licenses
o quality control conformance
o reverse engineering
 Marketing
o segments served, market shares, customer base, growth rate, and customer loyalty
o promotional mix, promotional budgets, advertising themes, ad agency used, sales force
success rate, online promotional strategy
o distribution channels used (direct & indirect), exclusivity agreements, alliances, and
geographical coverage
o pricing, discounts, and allowances
 Facilities
o plant capacity, capacity utilization rate, age of plant, plant efficiency, capital investment
o location, shipping logistics, and product mix by plant
 Personnel
o number of employees, key employees, and skill sets
o strength of management, and management style
o compensation, benefits, and employee morale & retention rates
 Corporate and marketing strategies
o objectives, mission statement, growth plans, acquisitions, and divestitures
o marketing strategies

Media scanning
Scanning competitor's ads can reveal much about what that competitor believes about marketing
and their target market. Changes in a competitor's advertising message can reveal new product
offerings, new production processes, a new branding strategy, a new positioning strategy, a new
segmentation strategy, line extensions and contractions, problems with previous positions,
insights from recent marketing or product research, a new strategic direction, a new source of
sustainable competitive advantage, or value migrations within the industry. It might also indicate
a new pricing strategy such as penetration, price discrimination, price skimming, product
bundling, joint product pricing, discounts, or loss leaders. It may also indicate a new promotion
strategy such as push, pull, balanced, short term sales generation, long term image creation,
informational, comparative, affective, reminder, new creative objectives, new unique selling
proposition, new creative concepts, appeals, tone, and themes, or a new advertising agency. It
might also indicate a new distribution strategy, new distribution partners, more extensive
distribution, more intensive distribution, a change in geographical focus, or exclusive
distribution. Little of this intelligence is definitive : additional information is needed before
conclusions should be drawn.

A competitor's media strategy reveals budget allocation, segmentation and targeting strategy, and
selectivity and focus. From a tactical perspective, it can also be used to help a manager
implement his own media plan. By knowing the competitor's media buy, media selection,
frequency, reach, continuity, schedules, and flights, the manager can arrange his own media plan
so that they do not coincide.

Other sources of corporate intelligence include trade shows, patent filings, mutual customers,
annual reports, and trade associations.

Some firms hire competitor intelligence professionals to obtain this information. The Society of
Competitive Intelligence Professionals [1] maintains a listing of individuals who provide these
services.

New competitors
In addition to analyzing current competitors, it is necessary to estimate future competitive
threats. The most common sources of new competitors are ==

 Companies competing in a related product/market

 Companies using related technologies
 Companies already targeting your prime market segment but with unrelated products
 Companies from other geographical areas and with similar products
 New start-up companies organized by former employees and/or managers of existing
companies

The entrance of new competitors is likely when:

 There are high profit margins in the industry

 There is unmet demand (insufficient supply) in the industry
 There are no major barriers to entry
 There is future growth potential
 Competitive rivalry is not intense
 Gaining a competitive advantage over existing firms is feasible
Market research
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Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is
a very important component of business strategy.[1] The term is commonly interchanged with
marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that
marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is
concerned specifically with markets.[2]

Market research,as defined by the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market and Social
Research, includes social and opinion research, [and] is the systematic gathering and
interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical
methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making.
[3]

Contents
 1 History
 2 Market research for business/planning
 3 Financial performance
o 3.1 Top 9 of the Market Research Sector 2009
 4 See also
 5 References
 6 External links

History
Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal practice during the 1920s,[4] as
an offshoot of the advertising boom of the Golden Age of radio in the United States. Advertisers
began to realize the significance of demographics revealed by sponsorship of different radio
programs,

Market research for business/planning

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve
discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to
market your product.
Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market
research.

For starting up a business, there are some important things:

 Market information

Through Market information one can know the prices of the different commodities in the market,
as well as the supply and demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from
different sources, varieties and formats, as well as the sources and varieties that have to be
obtained to make the business work.

 Market segmentation

Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar
motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences,
demographic differences, technographic differences, use of product differences, psychographic
differences and gender differences.

 Market trends

Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. The
market size is more difficult to estimate if one is starting with something completely new. In this
case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer
segments. [Ilar 1998]

Besides information about the target market, one also needs information about one's competitors,
customers, products, etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing effectiveness. A few techniques
are:

 Customer analysis
 Choice Modelling
 Competitor analysis
 Risk analysis
 Product research
 Advertising the research
 Marketing mix modeling

Financial performance
Top 9 of the Market Research Sector 2009
Sales in
2009 Growth
Rank Company
(million in %
USD)
1 Nielsen Company 5,000.0 2.6

WPP Group - Kantar Group, TNS, Millward Brown, BMRB, IMRB

2 2,000 2.5
International and Ziment Group

3 IMS Health Inc. 1,958.6 8.9

4 GfK AG 1,397.3 5.4

5 Ipsos 1,077.0 6.5

6 Synovate 739.6 9.5

7 IRI 665.0 6.6

8 Westat 425.8 0.8

9 Arbitron 400.0 5.9