Editor's Note

MR Perspectives is a newsletter providing perspectives on market research topics of interest, best practices tips, emerging trends, quick case studies, and other useful information. 

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March 17-19, 2004 

New Orleans 
Comparative Performance Assessment

The Institute for International Research -- USA is sponsoring a seminar on identifying the drivers of new product development success. The conference is at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.

March 30, 2004 Atlanta 
The Brand-Centered Customer Experience

The American Marketing Association is hosting a program intended to demonstrate how a unique brand experience can create loyal customers. The conference will be held at The Westin Buckhead Atlanta, formerly the Swissotel.

New Hire At Polaris

Brian Backer, formerly a programmer analyst at Allison Research Technologies, Inc., has joined Polaris as a project manager. 

In his previous position, Backer developed software to aid in data collection for marketing research. He also worked in website development during internships with Merial Limited and Averick New Media. 

He holds a bachelor's degree in management information systems from the University of Georgia and is currently working on an MBA in marketing at Georgia State University.

Looking for Secondary Research?

Even though Polaris is a primary marketing research company, we are often contacted by clients and prospects looking for secondary research information, such as financial reports, prospectuses, articles, market share reports, competitive intelligence analysis, etc. Ten years ago, access to this information was limited to exclusive paid search services that were sold to companies as well as community and university libraries. With the Internet and its capability to catalogue and distribute information 24/7, more information resources than ever are available to those looking. Some resources are free and some is not, but the most common information resources include:
· Free: Search Engines (i.e., AOL, Yahoo, Google & Ask Jeeves)
· Free: U.S. Government (Census, Edgar)
· Free: News Services 
· Free & paid: Subscription Services (i.e., local newspaper)
· Free & paid: Associations & Industry Trade Organizations
· Paid Information Services that catalogue and sell information (Lexis-Nexis, DIALOG, Dun & Bradstreet, Hoovers, Factiva, OneSource, Investext, Mergerstat, SDC, Moody's, Standard & Poors, etc.)

As with all marketing research, the most important factor is that the information you gather is accurate, as comprehensive as needed and up-to-date. If you are very familiar with the type of information you are looking for, you should be able to find good bits of information on the Internet. The risk is that you will overlook potentially beneficial information that exists off-line, which would have been critical to your cause. Additionally, searching on your own may not be the best use of your time resources. 

If you are not familiar with the type of information you are looking for, however, consider hiring a paid service with professionals trained in using the most common information search techniques and tools mentioned above. As an example, a great Atlanta firm by the name of Cadence Group specializes in providing on-demand research--a convenient service that provides access to professional researchers skilled at finding reliable resources. They can often find information you can't, and even for the information you can find on your own, they can often find it in half the time. Larger published reports that are found can range in price from $2,000 to $7,000, but you may be able to purchase relevant sections for $50 to $300. Cadence Group charges either $385 for a search or about $80/hour depending on the request. The investment may be very well worth it depending on your time and budget resources!

All Customers Aren't Created Equal

As companies move toward better understand their customers by collecting and utilizing transactional sales and survey research data, they often have to take a step back and ask themselves if they are collecting the right information from the right customers at the right times. Recently, many larger companies are moving toward surveying customers throughout the customer lifecycle. Rather than spending all of their resources on current customers, many companies are starting to focus on various customer segments at different points in their lifecycle, such as: 

· Prospective Customers (new market or competitive customers) 
· New Customers (early life customers)
· Current Customers (traditionally surveyed, i.e. customer satisfaction)
· Vulnerable Customers (customers at risk of leaving)
· Lost Customers (where did they go and why)
· Internal Customers (employees being your most important customers)
· Shareholders (making sure their interests are being served)

Depending on your business environment and business strategy, all customers are definitely NOT created equal when it comes to marketing research. Prevent any potential oversights by always completely thinking and rethinking your project strategy and be sure to take your project through the Six Steps of Market Research. Ask plenty of questions and get as many high-level managers involved in the process as you can. While time consuming and sometimes painful, the payoff can come in the form of higher productivity and profits.

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