Our service to the retail organizations is largely directed by two priorities - their need for constant change in products and promotion and their never ending emphasis on service quality.

Consumers expect new products, new services, new promotions and presentation of products in store layouts. With so many competitive choices, they are drawn to convenience but they also readily respond to new offerings and will try what’s new and will stick with it until something better is offered elsewhere. Whatever works today will need to be improved and replaced tomorrow.

Likewise, expectations for service are a moving target. High quality service is difficult to achieve — but consumers will move their business if service is better elsewhere.

To address changing product, promotion and in-store presentation needs, Market Decisions customarily conducts focus groups —with customers and customers of competitors. Through the use of story telling and projective techniques we help our client understand true behaviors and motivations. We even employ creative processes that allow customers to actually design products and advertising — often identifying breakthrough ideas.

In store customer intercepts are often done to more quantifiably understand the findings in groups or to test products and promotions among a larger group of customers.

We use advanced statistical methods including cluster analysis to segment customers into groups to properly tailor marketing programs. In fact, Market Decisions has been using psychographics (segmenting customers by attitudes, beliefs, interests, and values) to profile groups of customers since the late 1980’s. An example of this approach can be seen in Market Decisions’ report, The People of Maine, where segmentation was used to help leaders understand the basis for public opinion on various issues.

Our use of a specially designed survey instrument and a sophisticated analytical tool called perceptual mapping with multidimensional scaling allows clients to visually see the competitive map as consumers see it. In this approach, respondents make comparisons, evaluating similarities and differences in a series of paired questions. The responses are then mapped and the position of competitors are descriptive of perceived differences. For an example of such a map, click here.

We also find that tracking of customer service quality through telephone surveys is a good way to reinforce management priorities on the issue at hand. Routine sampling of recent transactions is typically the best approach.

To understand the competitive environment, we often conduct telephone surveys. With this tool we can test awareness, consumer preferences and perceptions of market position.