Research

Research is an essential step in understanding what your customers or clients think about and want from you. By using an independent market research agency the feedback you receive will be both candid and unbiased, allowing you to make informed decisions about your business, product or service.

Our process begins by meeting with you to gain a comprehensive understanding of your objectives and what you hope to achieve from the research. We will then develop a research proposal detailing the approach which we believe will best match your needs.

Once our research has been completed, you will be invited to a full verbal debrief of the findings. This will also include strategic insights into what these results actually mean for your business or organisation.

These insights are designed to provide you with the perfect starting point to either develop your own activity or to work with us on marketing strategy and communications planning.

• Behavioural and attitudinal research (quantitative)
• Advertising campaign awareness surveys (quantitative)
• Public consultation (quantitative & qualitative)
• Customer, employee and charity donor satisfaction surveys (quantitative)
• Creative and brand development (qualitative)
• Product and service development (quantitative & qualitative)
• Stakeholder feedback (quantitative)
• Web site usability testing (qualitative)
• Customer segmentation (quantitative)
• Desk research
• Mystery shopping (qualitative)

Research approaches & methodologies

Behavioural and attitudinal research (quantitative) Top

Research which increases your understanding of people's behaviours (i.e. usage) and attitudes towards products, services and organisations - as well as 'intangibles' such as brands, concepts and ideas.

Advertising campaign awareness surveys (quantitative)Top

Conducting pre- and post-campaign awareness research amongst a pre-defined audience to understand who (and by which media) saw the particular advertising campaign - and the effect this has on their attitudes or behaviours going forward.

Public consultation (quantitative & qualitative)Top

An important part of service delivery and policy development, primarily for public sector organisations - public consultations are used to inform, plan, develop and review services, policies or standards of practice.

Customer, employee and charity donor satisfaction surveys (quantitative)Top

Ideal when looking to gain first hand feedback on whether a company or organisation is fulfilling customers, staff's or charity donor's expectations. In particular, employee satisfaction surveys are a powerful tool for staff to feel that they have a direct input into their and their organisation's future.

Creative and brand development (qualitative)Top

Designed to test advertising or marketing concepts and to provide insight into brand awareness, perceptions and values to ensure effective communications and brands that engage their target markets.

Product and service development (quantitative & qualitative)Top

Used to gain insight into what motivates a customer to choose a particular product or service, what their expectations are and how well the designated product or service meets these expectations. Often used to refine a product or service prior to market launch.

Stakeholder feedback (quantitative)Top

Stakeholder feedback takes a comprehensive approach to reviewing an organisation or company. It can involve employees, senior management, suppliers and key customers both past and present in order to build a detailed picture of a client's current position and future direction.

Web site usability testing (qualitative)Top

Usability testing is a two part process. The first involves an experienced consultant evaluating your web site and will typically look at navigation, ease of access, contact and search options, consistency, ease of learning and accessibility of usage. This will identify 70-80% of a site's usability problems.

The remaining problems can be most comprehensibly identified via 'customer usability depth interviews'. An experienced moderator takes individuals through a number of site-based tasks (e.g. ordering a brochure, purchasing, finding out product information or contact details), asking probing questions designed to uncover any problems the user has faced navigating the site.

Customer segmentation (quantitative)Top

Using recognised geo-socio-demographic tools such as ACORN or MOSAIC, customers can be segmented in order to plan more effective marketing and business development activities.

Desk researchTop

Whether as a starting point for a strategy or communications project or as a stand-alone exercise, desk research involves the study of pre-existing information sources in order to gain insight and understanding on a particular subject or issue.

Mystery shopping (qualitative)Top

A very direct approach which assesses customer experience at the point of usage and - if done regularly - allows a business or organisation to continually review and improve its staff training and delivery of services.