what makes your customers tick?

You can easily ask customers you know what drives them, but it pays to invest in research to reach the ones you haven't yet met. Most research techniques entail the objective collection and analysis of data about your target market, competitors and/or environment.

Quantitative research involves gathering numbers and statistics via market research surveys using postal questionnaires, face-to-face or telephone interviews or email or web techniques. We measure market phenomena in your business arena by asking lots of people the same questions and analysing the results. For instance, we could ask customers to rate your service as excellent, good, average, unsatisfactory or very poor. Or we could ask the same question about your products, attitude or website. You get the picture.

Qualitative research helps you to understand purchasing choices, and is usually done face-to-face. By asking the right questions the researcher encourages discussion and draws out answers. Sometimes it's one-to-one, but it often involves hiring several people to form a focus group, perhaps with a hidden observation area or video and/or audio taping facilities to record responses. Alternatively, your researcher might question consumers about why they chose a particular brand, or bought a particular type of product, with the discussion led by the respondent's own opinions.

But first you have to define your objectives. What are you trying to achieve? And to do that, what do you need to know? After helping you to answer these questions and compiling data for you, our market researchers will analyse and evaluate the information and make recommendations to help you to make key decisions on the promotion, distribution, design and pricing of your products or services.