Regardless of your size, if you are a consumer-oriented company, you need to constantly evaluate the relevance of your product and brand in an evolving marketplace.
The Pert Group uses several metrics to benchmark return on investments, including consumer response to advertising and how they buy and use products.
Doug Guion, senior vice president of operations and client service administration at The Pert Group, said before hiring a marketing consultant, a firm must ascertain whether the provider asks the right questions necessary to solve a problem.
The biggest challenge is wading through data, and you can get lost in the bulk and volume of information available.
“Some of the questions to ask are how does one use data (about your product), what to look for in the data, what to listen to and what really matters?” he said.
Guion and Dale Lersch, CEO and principal at The Pert Group, offer the following tips to build an integrated market insights strategy:
• Set the foundation for your insight framework with the bigger business challenge/opportunity in mind — not just the information needs. In other words, look beyond numbers to ascertain whether the insight you seek is aligned with your firm’s overall objective. A tree does not make a forest.
• Use the insights framework to identify and assess the information you need to gain comprehensive answers and actionable results.
• Evaluate the benefits of data versus dialogue in fulfilling your critical information needs. There are times you need numbers, and times you need qualitative insight.
• Identify the tools and techniques to synthesize the data down to actionable insights. Don’t forget that the purpose to gathering information is to implement a sound strategy.
• Build a culture that understands and values an integrated market insights strategy by engaging key stakeholders from across the organization early and often.