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Summer Edition 2006
Welcome Welcome to a new edition of eBrain Solutions Trends in the CE Marketplace CE Companies May Find More Satisfied, Loyal Customers Online Research to the Rescue Understanding the Hearts and Minds of Buyers - An Interview with Dr. Thomas J. Reynolds Who Are Your Website Visitors? Solving the Mystery
Welcome
Welcome to a new edition of eBrain Solutions. Some exciting changes have occurred since our last communication with you that will make our service to you even better. Our parent company, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), has selected Rockbridge Associates to be its official custom market research provider and to operate CEA’s eBrain Custom Market Research division. Rockbridge is a full-service market research company specializing in technology-related issues. This partnership offers you a dedicated team of highly skilled researchers focused on your custom research products with access to CEA’s wealth of knowledge of the Consumer Electronics industry and association research expertise. As always, our goal with this newsletter is to give you practical solutions and advice that will help you manage your business more effectively. Please let us know if there are areas of interest you would like to learn more about in future issues. We are thrilled with the opportunity to serve you and look forward to working with you in the future. Best Regards, Gina Woodall Vice President eBrain Market Research
Trends in the CE Marketplace
CE Companies May Find More Satisfied, Loyal Customers Online By Julia Sumner Online shopping continues to gain popularity year after year. And while purchases made in-person still outnumber those made online, research by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) suggests that some consumer electronics products are faring better online than others. In addition, consumers indicate that the online shopping experience may offer advantages for both buyer and seller. On average, 95% of consumer electronics purchases are made offline. However, certain categories of CE products are more frequently bought over the Internet, including personal computing products, digital cameras, wireless home networking devices, and portable music players. According to CEA’s study, “The Demographics of Online vs. In-Person CE Shopping,” over 10% of these products are purchased online. Those who shopped online had a positive experience. CEA Market Research found that consumer electronics shoppers who made purchases online were more satisfied with the purchase process than those who bought CE products in-person. Convenience and order accuracy, as well as product variety, availability, and information were the most important factors that contributed to a satisfying CE shopping experience. Using the Internet to buy consumer electronics is not only advantageous for shoppers; online CE merchants may also benefit in unexpected ways, such as increased loyalty. For example, customers who shopped online were more likely both to shop at that store’s site again and to recommend it to a friend, when compared to those who bought offline. Also, this study revealed that consumers who do any CE shopping online appear to spend much more on average than their counterparts who do not shop online at all. This study reveals important differences in the experiences and habits of those who shop for consumer electronic products online vs. in-person. Exploring these differences can provide new insight into what advantages online shopping has to offer, and how companies can become even more successful online and in the general CE marketplace. "The Demographics of Online vs. In-Person CE Shopping" was designed and formulated by CEA Market Research, the most comprehensive source of sales data, forecasts, consumer research, international research and historical trends for the consumer electronics industry. The complete study is available free to CEA member companies. Non-members may purchase the study at Learn morewww.ce.org/CEAStore.
Research to the Rescue
Understanding the Hearts and Minds of Buyers An Interview with Dr. Thomas J. Reynolds By Charles Colby In the game of marketing, the winner is the one who connects with customers at an emotional level. Whether they market a product or service, or sell to consumers or businesses, marketers must recognize abstract decision factors – consequences, emotions and values – in planning their message. eBrain Market Research conducts “Means-End” research over the internet, working with Dr. Thomas J. Reynolds, a pioneer in this unique and powerful method. We interviewed Dr. Reynolds, who is President of Lifegoals, LLC and consultant to eBrain. Since the 1970s, he has conducted over 250 Means-End studies. He has consulted globally with leaders in the corporate and non-profit arenas on developing winning marketing campaigns. eBrain: You edited a book entitled Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy. Exactly what is a Means-End approach? Tom: We should begin by talking about Strategic Equity, which for any brand is the aggregate of its “equities” and “disequities,” or motivations and disincentives to choose your brand over your competitors’. Traditional market research tends to limit management thinking to attributes, or tangible features of the product or service. As an example, for an overnight shipping brand, the equities might be reliability, convenient pick-up times, and online tracking, while the disequities might be poor value and inaccessible customer service. But if you want to persuade buyers to choose your overnight brand, you need to consider abstract motivations, starting with the more immediate consequences such as saving time and avoiding mistakes. And then considering the deeper motives such as exerting control, avoiding worry, and gaining respect in the organization, and ultimately, life goals such as achieving success or living the good life. Means-End theory associates every tangible attribute with a value chain consisting of a ladder of four levels. These include: a tangible attribute, a functional consequence, a psychosocial consequence, and a value. To give another example, you might drink Starbucks coffee because it has more caffeine. That gives you mental alertness, which makes you more productive at work, which allows you to be successful in your career. In Means-End research, the value chains are depicted visually in a map showing the different linkages and decision paths that drive choice. This becomes the basis for powerful communications and product strategies. eBrain: Can you give me an example of a marketing success using a Means-End approach? Tom: One of the most interesting examples comes from the political arena. In 1984, the Reagan campaign identified some key equities of their candidate and the opponent, and depicted these using a decision map. In one ad, the campaign tapped into key emotions by showing children playing peacefully with the American flag flying in the background, with a cutover to the president making a speech. This was a deliberate strategy, based on Means-End research, to connect the president’s leadership qualities, a key equity, with concerns about defense and patriotic and family values that were important at the time. eBrain: How do you apply Means-End theory in market research? Tom: The basic form of research is what we call “laddering.” In the studies I have worked on with eBrain, we use specially trained interviewers who follow a special protocol in which they identify the important reasons for a decision, probe to construct a complete ladder, and then verify this with the respondent. eBrain: I’ve heard the term “laddering” used a lot in market research, especially focus groups. Is this the same thing? Tom: The term laddering is bandied about by qualitative researchers, but what we are talking about in Means-End research is a highly structured and controlled process that provides input into a quantitative analysis (that I’ll mention shortly.) The Means-End studies at eBrain use my StrEAM® system that allows the laddering interviews to occur one-on-one with respondents over the internet. The interviewer has the assistance of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) to be able to probe effectively, while respondents key in their opinions, which are captured verbatim for coding. eBrain: How do you analyze the data? Tom: There are a lot of steps involved, including coding, producing an implications matrix, and various quality checks. But the most important output is what we call a “Consumer Decision Map” (although I would caution that a “consumer” could be a buyer in a business). The map, or CDM, provides a strategic overview of how decisions occur in the marketplace. It shows the different paths that occur from the immediate and tangible attributes, to the ultimate values that are behind behavior. eBrain: And how does this get put into action? Tom: The eBrain team and I work with your clients to translate the results of the CDM into communications and product development themes. For example, in advertising, we would identify message strategies based on existing decision paths, or identify new paths that take advantage of opportunities to draw mental connections not yet considered in the market. Similarly, for a client in the nutrition field, we showed how a reformulation could tap into new kinds of consumer values related to a long and healthy life that could expand the appeal of the brand. It is key to show the leverage points, or important connections that make tangible features come alive. We also provide suggestions on how to activate the deeper values, which should always be implied in the background and tone of the ad. We may also identify the need for new features. For instance, an e-service client found a major barrier was related to safety and theft concerns, so we suggested a security guarantee. eBrain: Is there anything you’d like to add? Tom: An interesting side note is that the interviewing itself is a powerful experience for respondents because it creates an awareness of their motivations. In a recent study, we found that the overwhelming majority wanted to sign up to do more of these. We also found that many respondents actually experienced a fundamental shift in their preferences as a result of the laddering exercise. I think this says a lot for the power of the Means-End approach to lead to marketing that actually changes buyers’ minds. Who Are Your Website Visitors? Solving the Mystery By Marcia Harrington Who is visiting your organization’s website? Are certain groups and subpopulations using it more than others? The answers to these questions are important since they can boost your online advertising revenues and help you improve the site. Many firms, including ours, use log analysis to track page views, number of visitors, search engine hits, downloaded files, and even visitors’ IP addresses. However, this data typically lacks critical information about who your visitors are, how your site serves their needs, and where it may fall short. Conducting a short online survey can quickly and inexpensively help you establish who your visitors are and get useful feedback on your site. From eBrain’s experience doing online surveys, here are a few things to consider: Whom to Sample Do you want to survey every visitor that comes to your site or only a specific group? Surveying the full gamut of visitors will yield interesting and often unexpected data; on the other hand, some eBrain clients prefer to confine their survey to the specific target group for whom the survey is designed such as members or customers. Survey Recruitment Inviting people to complete the online survey can be accomplished via one of several ways, including pop-up boxes, a link on the home page, interstitial pages or an email invitation. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Pop-up boxes can be set up to intercept every x^th visitor. Formerly very popular as a way to intercept visitors for online surveys, this manner is less used now due to the number of Net users who have pop-up blocking software. A link on your organization’s home page can lure visitors to give their feedback. Although generally noticed by Web users, it takes up possible advertising space and can pose problems of self-selection bias, more so than other methods. Interstitial pages act like pop-up invitations. As visitors click to move through the Web pages of a site, they instead are taken to a new page, the interstitial page, where they are invited participate in the survey. Email invitations can be targeted to a specific audience and are usually used for reaching members or customers when an organization already has the email addresses. Getting Cooperation If there is high loyalty to your organization and/or the survey is short (5 minutes or less), it may be possible to get cooperation for the survey without the use of an incentive. Otherwise, best results come from offering an incentive to thank people for their time completing the survey. eBrain has offered a variety of incentives with success, ranging from a $2 donation to a charity of the respondent’s choice, to a $5-$20 gift certificate to Amazon.com, to a chance at winning a $500 raffle drawing. Another approach can be to offer something the organization already has, such as a free publication or a drawing for free admission to next annual conference. A Well-Designed Survey The attention span of respondents for Web surveys is lower than for other types. To keep respondents engaged, a survey must be credible and assuring (from a security standpoint), interesting, and to the point. eBrain can help make your survey a success by addressing other aspects as well. For example: Survey design: Are the instructions clear? Is there a progress bar so respondents can tell how far along they are in the survey? Browser compatibility: Will the data collect properly if the respondent uses a Netscape, Mozilla, or Firefox browser? Programming: Is the survey programmed to help the respondent if a question is skipped or answered incorrectly (i.e., their answer is outside of a reasonable range)? Security: If any sensitive data is collected, is the survey hosted on a secure server? User feedback: Is there a web page that respondents can go to if they run into technical difficulties or want to communicate with the survey administrator? In Summary The expansion of broadband access to 66% of Internet households* and a majority of businesses provides new opportunities for companies and organizations to both communicate with and take measure of their client populations. Not surprisingly, the constant evolution of the Internet - with developments such as spam filters, pop-up blockers, and fiber optic technology – create both new challenges and new opportunities for online researchers. As the Internet and usage habits change, so too do eBrain’s approaches to stay ahead of the technology curve. * according to the 2006 National Technology Readiness Survey For more information on eBrain products and services, please contact us. Don't miss our next issue! Click here to be added to our newsletter e-mailing list.