PROOF
Product Home Usage Test
Problem
Our client, a leading global manufacturer of innovative consumer products, sought to measure ways in which consumers might make use of a potential product considered for launch. Our client also needed to uncover any product shortcomings resulting, some of which can only be detected in a home use environment.
Solution
FGI Research worked with our client to deploy three independent but related studies.
The first study entailed a straightforward demographic and needs-based segmentation which was designed to collect information from a large sample (over 5,000 respondents) regarding current behaviors associated with products similar to the one considered for launch.
The second study was a home use test, wherein respondents (a subset from the segmentation study) were asked to use prototypes of the new product. Following the use period, the respondents were asked to complete an extensive usage questionnaire about their experiences.
The third and final study was more advanced: it measured how consumers used the available tools directly associated with the new product.
Result
Following the completion of the studies, FGI Research met with our client’s product development team, senior managers, and engineers to review how the physical attributes of the new product were accepted and used by the test group. Furthermore, FGI Research measured the effectiveness of the brand relative to the respondents’ intent to purchase. Insights and recommendations from the studies helped guide final product design and positioning. Our client successfully launched the new product.
Custom Panel Solution and Research
Problem
Our client, a global media company was using a different provider for its custom panel and market research. However, their solution required too much time from the MR staff and it was unable to support the more complex study requirements. As a result, the client selected FGI Research to completely redesign the panel and provide ongoing panel management and turnkey research services. Our client wanted to retain a leading custom panel company with the ability to provide premium-service marketing research.
Solution
FGI Research redesigned the custom panel to support five critical areas: sales and marketing, advertiser performance, editorial direction and content, branding, competition, and marketplace intelligence. Then, we migrated the existing panel from the previous supplier. FGI Research also provided a more experienced and dedicated client service and support team to ease this transition, as well as manage the panel and panelist support. In addition, we delivered significant improvements related to panelist security, engagement and profile data.
Result
With FGI Research’s redesigned custom panel and ongoing support from research experts, our client is successfully executing more studies while reducing turnaround time and overall costs. Our client is able to spend more time analyzing results and working with their internal clients to improve decisions. FGI Research provides robust panel management, expert study design and panel support, and full quality control throughout the entire process. In less than one year, the client trusted FGI Research with three
Communities and Customer Satisfaction Studies
Problem
A national grocery store chain needed to conduct community-based studies quickly and cost-effectively. They wanted the ability to recruit temporary communities from their custom panel (which is managed by FGI Research). The purpose of the community research was to discover new issues/opportunities and to refine upcoming studies and questionnaires.
Solution
FGI Research conducted a series of on-demand communities for the client. Recruited from the client’s custom panel, the online communities included short-term, highly-focused activities that were qualitative and quantitative in nature. FGI Research worked with our client throughout the development process to refine the topics for discussion and create the reporting infrastructure that would allow our client to focus on the most important information gathered from the community. Finally, FGI moderated all online community interactions.
Result
With FGI Research’s help, our client gained tremendous new insights and ideas using the on-demand community approach. The custom panelists eagerly participated in the communities and they provided feedback on a variety of subjects. Moving forward, the client plans to continue using online communities to support important studies including trend identification, concept tests, customer satisfaction and more.
Web Monitoring and Social Media Mining
Problem
A consumer product manufacturing company planned to launch a new and improved version of an existing product. They had some ideas about where to focus their redesign efforts but they wanted to tap into customer and target prospect ideas as part of the process. They considered using various forms of market research to gather information, including: focus groups, online communities, online surveys and social media mining.
Solution
With FGI Research’s help, our client decided to start with a broad scan of social media conversations and mentions related to their brand and their competitors’ brands. The scan included blogs, social media sites, searches, Twitter and online news outlets. The scan was conducted over a two week period in order to gather a solid base of existing information.
Result
Through FGI Research’s social media monitoring, our client discovered four new ideas related to their product redesign, three deficiencies related to their existing product, and two core advantages they had over their largest competitors. Using this information, our client refined their redesign efforts and further validated their concepts using a temporary online community followed by quantitative research. Also, the company began monitoring social media thirty days prior to their new product launch. This monitoring has helped them understand how the market is receiving their new product, what competitors are doing in response, and how best to optimize their marketing, distribution, pricing and customer service.
Recruiting: Custom Panels and Panel Partitions
Problem
A leading health insurance provider wanted to improve the quality, speed and cost effectiveness of their marketing research. Because the conduct a large number of studies which typically require very specific quota cells and rapid fieldwork, using general consumer panels was too costly and time consuming. In addition, general consumer panels could not take advantage of the company’s proprietary segmentation schemes and detailed customer transactional data. As a result, they needed easy access to a large amount of online sample that includes customers, target prospects (customers of their competitors) and detailed respondent data such as segmentation scores and behavioral history.
Solution
FGI Research designed, recruited and continuously manages a large custom panel for an insurance client. Because of the client’s large and diverse sample needs, we deployed multiple recruiting sources and strategies. And, since email addresses were not available for every customer, FGI Research appended email addresses prior to the custom recruiting phase. During the recruiting, we applied three custom segmentation schemes and appended all the important customer transactional data. Finally, we provided even more sample to our client through the use of a panel partition. The panel partition was created by screening our own consumer panel for our client’s customers and target prospects. The custom panel and the panel partition combined to create a very large and high-quality source of online sample for our client.
Result
With instant access to a large, diverse and high quality custom panel, our client immediately realized substantial benefits throughout their marketing research. Using the custom panel and panel partition, they increased research volume, lowered costs, improved sampling and analysis, and cut fieldwork time. Today, our client regularly conducts 4-6 projects per month which may be programmed and hosted by FGI Research or others as required by the study. New study designs, questionnaires, sampling strategies, and back-end insights are possible because the custom panel contains segmentation and behavioral data. The custom panel solution provided by FGI Research continues to be one of the most successful marketing research initiatives for our client.