MARKET RESEARCH CLIENTS
Communication is always much easier when you speak the same language. When communicating with your customers, fluency in their language is a must.
But how do you learn their language with all its subtle dialects and keywords? And how do you make sure that all your communications, verbal and visual, resonate so completely that your customers feel bonded to you like no other brand?
We can help you with that, just like we helped these brands to talk fluently with their customers...
“Before Kardia Social was launched, Di ran her own market research business and the clients she worked with and the kind of work we now offer is highlighted in the case studies below"...
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WOMEN & SHOES!
Brantano wanted to be seen as the company that understood women and their shoes and wanted a good PR story to prove
it. So we set out to define that relationship and find a PR worthy
nugget of insight.
JUST TWO OF OUR NUGGETS...
Women. Collect. Shoes.
Difference is the primary driver as to whether the shoe has a place in the collection or not.
Regardless of how similar it might be to another pair already in the collection, the slightest difference (heel height, toe shape, a button or a bow) is enough to warrant its inclusion.
BEAUTIFUL SHOES MAKES THE HEART LEAP - LITERALLY!
We monitored the heart rates of all our interviewees when
showing them different styles of shoes and without exception
their heart rate leapt up when they saw shoes they liked.
So if you ever doubted that the way to a woman’s heart is
through a shoe shop, doubt no more!
THE RESULT...
Superb PR coverage in national magazines and on ITV’s Loose
Women. Some of the nuggets also found their way into the
Brantano advertising campaign.
“The suggestion of monitoring heart rates along with getting right to the soul of women and their shoe collections was pure genius. I can always trust Di and Tina to come up with some new twist, or unconventional method, to get me the insights I need to drive my marketing strategy.” Carol McNiven Young
Marketing Director (at the time of the study)
BOOTS OPTICIANS
RECALL MAILING
Boots Opticians wanted to know how to improve their eye
examination recall mailings so that more people would come
back to Boots for their regular eye exam.
OUR OUTPUT...
We discovered what was really important to customers in
returning for their eye examination and the language to use
in that recall letter that would prompt them to make the appointment
THE RESULT...
A 30% increase in the numbers of people taking up their eye exam after receiving the recall mailing.
“Thanks for your help… you’ve helped us develop a campaign that might make a real difference.” Anthony Draper,
Direct Marketing Manager
BOOTS RETAIL
STUDYING ANOMOLIES IN TRANSACTION VALUES...
Boots wanted to understand why there was a differential in transaction values for most of their customers. The largest percentage of their customers had a small transaction value but a
small percentage bought more. How could they increase the transaction value of the larger group of customers?
OUR DISCOVERY...
Customer behaviour did not match Boots communication patterns. Their customers largely knew what they wanted and roughly where it was in the store so they went straight to it (following their procedure).
They were also focused on moving towards their aim, so they would discount anything along the way (like browsing) that stopped them from achieving their goal (find product and buy it).
They needed to see and touch other products to feel compelled to buy them and the store layout, gondola heights and signage (in words) didn’t facilitate their procedure for browsing.
SUGGESTED ACTIONS WERE...
Add pictures with directions (to help the procedure) to instore signage; lower the gondola heights so that customers could see more of the store (and therefore the products available) and see the signage more easily.
THE RESULT...
A pilot store was refurbished for approximately one tenth of the usual spend, taking into account these patterns. Customers started to expand their procedure to include buying more products, because they could now see and go towards more items that they wanted to buy.
This was one of many such projects conducted for Boots.
At the time (1992), the entire Southern (tourist) seacoast of England was depressed economically, so the trial was a real litmus test. The findings were applied specifically to store layout and design, linked to service improvements. Applying ‘Cues’ at critical points made a
major difference. While turnover in comparable Boots shops in the same area remained flat at best, Worthing’s turnover was consistently 4-6% above the previous 12 month period.
"This study provided cost effective changes through refitting that yielded significant bottom line gains, without any of the traditional disruption that refitting incurs" Nick Stokes, Head of Research
Boots The Chemists
ALLIED LYONS RETAILING
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PUB GOERS
Allied Lyons wanted to increase retail sales by identifying how their pubs could be perceived as a better value leisure activity.
WE DISCOVERED...
Customers mentally and physically want a pub that is clean, modern and orderly BUT at an emotional level they yearn for pubs run by warm friendly gregarious characters rather than bottom-line oriented employer/managers.
Pub goers (frequent or infrequent) are highly auditory. What they hear in a pub is critical to how they assess whether it has a good atmosphere and whether they're having a good time. Pub goers are also people-oriented, like to have activities to do, and prefer to know the pub ‘rules’.
THE KEY TO A GOOD PUB IS A GOOD LANDLORD/LADY...
Someone who is focused on the enjoyment of others, able to help others express themselves and join in the fun, and of course such a person is usually a good conversationalist too - very auditory!
OUR SUGGESTED ACTIONS...
Bring in good people-oriented, verbally adept staff who are focused on the enjoyment of their customers not just the ding of the till.
Make the pubs both relaxing and stimulating with activities that are challenging and fun (like pub quizzes).
Create a great atmosphere by paying attention to what customers are hearing in the pub.
"I worked with Di on a ‘cue framing’ project for UK pubs when I was head of research for what was then Allied Lyons’ retail division. This was well over ten years ago and it remains one of those projects that still resonates with me today, as it gave us that rare thing - genuinely new insight into customers’ psyche, and their mode of behaviour in
our pubs. It wasn’t run of the mill research, in fact it was pretty different throughout, but I guess the best testament is that I still think about it and quote it to colleagues today!"
David Martin
OLD EL PASO DINNER KITS
AD CAMPAIGNS FOR FAJITAS, TACOS & BURRITOS
OEP’S QUESTIONS...
What is important to our customers buying Old El Paso dinner kits and how do we communicate with them in their words rather than ours?
What are our customers focusing on?
What are their buying ‘levers’ that we aren’t yet pulling for them?
OUR ANSWER...
They want time to focus on the people enjoying the meal with them, plenty of variety so the friends and familya round the table can dig in and make up their own combinations, and the fact that it can be eaten with fingers and be messy adds to the fun of the whole occasion.
THE RESULT...
A very successful advertising campaign focused on ‘Share the Fun’ and the product started flying off the supermarket shelves, with sales uplifts of up to 155%.
"Our advice to retailers is to stock up now on Old El Paso Dinner Kits and a variety of accompaniments – the previous airing of this campaign showed an increase in demand and sales during air-time"
Andy Foweather, Sales Director of General Mills, Talking Retail.com 26 February 2008
“Working with The Best Organisation enables us to develop a dialogue with our customers, becoming fluent in the language that is bespoke to the OEP brand. They always give us rich insights above and beyond the brief and get us much closer to actual execution than most other methods of qualitative research.”
Simon Worne, Senior Marketing Manager
POWERGEN (NOW EON)
CUSTOMER RETENTION IN A NEWLY OPEN ENERGY MARKET
PowerGen had a long, long track record of supplying electricity and when new entrants came into the market, they wanted to understand how to retain customers.
The new entrants were trying to compete on price and so PowerGen joined in that game believing that their customers valued price above all else.
WE DISCOVERED...
That price was third on their customers’ priority list. What the customers valued most was reliability of supply and service. The new entrants into the electricity supply market did not have a track record for comparison.
PowerGen learned that what seemed to be a given for them – reliability of supply – was not a given for their customers and it was the biggest lever they could pull to keep customers loyal and to attract new ones.
What greater leverage is there than your decades of reliable supply versus new entrants with no track record at all?
When you have that, why compete on price?*
* The situation in today’s market may be different...
ASTRA ZENECA
EMOTIVE DRIVERS OF HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS
Astra Zeneca wanted to understand what drives health care professionals in their work, in their prescribing patterns and in their interaction with Astra Zeneca reps.
Ultimately the study was to enable the Astra Zeneca reps to better serve their customers by creating dialogue with them in their own language for in the context they were in. Prescribing nurses for example might be writing out prescriptions but in a different context to hospital doctors or GPs.
OUR DISCOVERIES...
A number of drivers and language patterns emerged from this substantial study. For example all professionals were motivated towards patient health and away from drug side effects, towards gaining knowledge and away from wasting precious time. When prescribing drugs hospital doctors, nurses and psychiatrists were more people-focused than pharmacists or GPs. Patient care and compliance was important to all.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS...
To focus on relationship building with the health care professionals (HCPs) but with a clear outcome in mind for AZ.
To focus on helping HCPs prescribe rather than just selling them relevant drugs.
To support the personal development of the HCP’s and help HCP’s to fill their knowledge gaps
To establish a ‘role’ in the HCP team (i.e. becomepart of the team not an intruder from outside)
To support the HCP’s in improving patient compliance (helping them to ensure their patients were actually taking the prescribed drug)
To focus on the HCP doing their best for the patient
Our project partners, Excel Communications, followed up our study with a major training programme for
Astra Zeneca.
A LARGE PHARMA COMPANY...
This company had launched new drug into an existing market with one very established player and two more recent entrants.
The formulation offered some marginal benefits over the competition in terms of efficacy but was introduced primarily on a price platform
Whilst the brand had been showing steady growth, the company were concerned that progress had been much slower than had been anticipated and that sales appeared to be starting to plateau.
Given the level of investment to date the company are keen to accelerate return on this investment by ensuring that the advertising support is as effective as possible
A press advertising campaign was developed to support the launch and the company needed guidance on whether the message being communicated was appropriate and being delivered in an effective way.
A LAB study was commissioned to conduct interviews amongst GP’s and establish their motivational and behavioural patterns when prescribing drugs in this therapeutic category.
Patterns were identified in a number of different key contexts on which the company concerned could have an influence, in addition to exposure to advertising e.g. interactions with reps, and attending presentations.
On the basis of the results, the company established that the advertising communication was not in line with GP’s patterns. For example, it positioned the drug as new and different when it was important to the GP’s for there to be a significant element of familiarity with some ‘improvement’.
Consequently the advertising strategy has been reviewed, the ad agency fully briefed on the key patterns that need to be ‘matched’ in the executions and a new campaign has been developed
This has just been launched and results are waited with confidence.
With information on the GP patterns operating in the context of interacting with reps, the company is also reviewing it sales strategy and developing new guidelines for the reps when promoting the drug.
Further work is planned within the organisation to ensure that all communications with GP’s are aligned with their motivational and behavioural patterns to ensure that so hat maximum benefit can be obtained from the opportunity
A MAJOR HIGH STREET RETAILER...
For half a century, consumer research could not explain why some customers spend large amounts in this company’s stores and others spend very little. As a last resort, a LAB study was commissioned to see if the reason for this difference could be identified.
A LAB study was conducted that identified a number of issues relating to store layout and service that were significantly interfering with customer comfort and desire to stay longer in the store.
It also revealed a number of customer requirements in terms of staff and service both in self-service and personal areas
Both of the above were clearly resulting in lost sakes opportunities.
The findings were applied to a test store on the south coast and the patterns identified were used in both store layout and sales training. The geographical location relies quite heavily on summer tourism, which had been down for some years at the time of the study, consequently sales for all stores along the southern coast had been either down or flat from the previous year.
Six weeks after refitting the store and training the sales assistants, sales were up between 5-7% over the following six weeks.
Meanwhile, comparative stores dropped in sales or remained flat.
This very positive outcome (along with a small number of additional pilots) resulted in the company introducing a new store refit and staff training programmes nationwide
The management were so impressed that they went on to do other LAB projects in other areas including: TV advertising, packaging design, shop frontage, motivating customers to go 'upstairs' in two floor stores, etc. Sales improved countrywide as more and more patterns were taken into consideration and applied.
