Here are a few practical tips about what you should see in a market segmentation proposal. If you see these things, it tells you that this proposal is from an experienced market research firm that understands how to mitigate the risks specific to segmentation projects.
Best Speaker: Dawn Lacallade from ComBlu. For content, delivery style and just being so refreshingly honest.
Most (delightfully) unexpected content: Kelley Styring’s presentation on the One-armed Dove Hunt, which is a core piece of research for her current project, “The One-handed World.”
Most amusing: This award goes to the Shopping Track. Apparently, research on shoppers is a rather slippery topic; I heard contradictory data from 3 Shopper Track speakers. I won’t name names. But I sat in on 3 sessions…
They used an “a priori” segmentation model. Yup, that’s right. They went into the study with a hypothesized set of segments in mind. The segments were based on behavioral data from their existing customer database. During the presentation, this confused me. We were, after all, in a session on conducting segmentation. The process was defined as qual, leading to quant. But the speaker occasionally referred to the segments they started with…
This week, I have the honor of being a guest blogger at The Market Research Event (TMRE), one of the top US conferences for market research professionals. On each of the 3 days of conference sessions, I’ll be posting an article on the event’s blog. Time permitting, I will post additional articles here, at www.ResearchRockstar.com/blog.
Bottom line? Some primary research can be simplified through select investments in secondary sources. Here are a few places to look:
If you really want to get the most from your market research investments, the first step is to do a brutally honest audit of your current research resources. Yes, it takes time. But with a structured approach, I have seen it completed in as little as ten business days.