Edited By Patrick Darnell
“Julie Hogan is JavaJoy's National Sales Manager, and is in the process of rolling out JavaJoy's first non-coffee brewing system - a tea brewer. While the sales channels are the same as for the coffee brewing equipment, the end users (tea drinkers) are certainly different. Julie is desperate to know how the new product is being received because she needs to give the manufacturing department a production forecast for the coming quarter - and the forecast is due in two weeks! Assuming some time to work on this project:”
What information can we develop for Julie in the time frame available?
a) Clarifying Research Question
b) Proposing Research
Julie Hogan is a live wire with 500 amps of persuasion at her finger tips, as National Sales Manager. She can weld the project shut with just a little more marketing information. Moreover, if we read ahead in the task list she is headed toward becoming the international sales manager.
The information needed is: How many units TeaJoy Brewers will we produce in production cycles following roll out? For a “congealed” data standard, hurry up method is not the best way to go. But, supply chains in manufacturing wait for no one.
At last measure Julie Hogan is 94% of the way to unleashing the new tea brewer. She is only 1/8 of an inch away from welding the deal closed. However, Mrs. Hogan, without a production estimate is at the farthest point from her marketing goal as a person can be. So she must ask key questions of key persons, soon. Sitting on the production estimate will make the TeaJoy trial a short-run.
Production quantities depends on resources that are hidden in end-users' opinions, and vendors’ inputs who sell the equipment. To contact busy people during their work day is nearly impossible, unless the surveyor has a lure. The actual lure is right under our noses, in the form of the Internet.
Proposing a type of research that is last minute and relates to work schedules we consider the various time frames. The manpower hours needed to find reliable numbers for this last minute decision is more or less 10 days x 8 hrs = 80 hours available in the traditional work-a-day. In contrast, internet is available 24 hours at seven days or a total of 24 hrs x 14 days = 336 hours available. Why not multiply our TeaJoy exposure to the maximum?
Much greater hours, 4 to 1 more, on the internet suggests immediately go to a free web business log site, known as Blog, and write a new, free Tea Sippers’ ‘Blog. On your new TeaJoy web Blog site. Advertise free tea-related prizes for entering preference surveys, or promise a door prize such as the newest Play Station, for how many, how much and when is tea preferred as an end-user or as a reseller. Sounds easy? It is. As national sales manager Mrs. Hogan has a large e-mail list she can invite to visit new TeaJoy Blog site, over and over, 24/7.
Moreover, since production predictions calls for extreme marketing research that exposes benchmark cases correlated to TeaJoy roll out, that is concurrent task to pursue.
For instance, Julie Hogan might have a teenager at home who can type in some keywords to browsers, and activate some secondary sources for starters. That is not because Mrs. Hogan is not comfortable with the net, it is because her own child will work more cheaply than others, and probably has some web technique, and empathy for her mother’s task. This action could enhance the roll out in several ways, to make an educated production turn round: as in "... include the information that could be obtained."
“Customers Seven Steps in the Benchmarking Process” (1-HBR; Nov 06).
A quick visit to Harvard Business Review publishing website revealed some favorable Key words. No doubt clear evidence in secondary research can be gathered from efforts online and from regional business agents, using incremental planning approach:
1 “Functional areas within JavaJoy to be benchmarked
a) partners that will benefit most from benchmarking
b) based upon cost, importance and potential of changes
2 “Identify key factors and variables with which to measure functions
a) financial resources
b) Product strategy.
3 “Select best-in-class companies for each area to be benchmarked
a) lowest cost
b) highest degree of customer satisfaction
c) can be direct competitors, foreign and domestic
d) parallel competitors with replacement or substitute products or services
e) latent competitors which might backwards- or forwards-integrate into your market
f) Out-of-industry firms with whom do not compete such as FedEx or Wal-Mart logistics
4 “Measure performance of best-in-class for each benchmark considered
a) SEC, Government
b) Companies themselves
c) Trade associations, Articles in press or trade journals
d) Analysts in the market
e) Credit reports
f) Clients and vendors
g) Interviews with other organizations willing to share their prior research or ‘swap’..." (2-HBR; Nov 06).
In this comprehensive and helpful outline form HBR Five, Six and Seven headings relate to data analysis.
“...5. Measure [TeaJoy Brewer] performance for each variable; begin comparing the results in an ‘apples-to-apples’ format; determine the gap between your firm and best-in-class examples.
6. Specify those programs and actions to meet and surpass the competition [to enhance] potential areas discovered...
7. Implement these programs”
The last increments of our hurry up tasks include careful analyses leading to descriptions of very speicialized:
• Marketing analysis: A major un-met need among certain groups of customers, or target markets
• Product description: Ideas for a product to meet the need
• Competitor analysis: Major competitors to the product
• Advertising plan: How the target markets will be informed of the new product
Summary
In an ideal world the marketing research could answer all the pertinent questions for a production model and the price structure. Best practices in market research will justify financial resources and product strategy. Learning and understanding can often be used to simplify framework of analysis. Therefore at the end of the promotion sound advice to TeaJoy’s Mrs. Hogan is “...Always feel free to estimate results, as exact measures are usually disproportionately difficult to obtain and often do not significantly add value to the [end result]” (3-HBR; Nov 2006)
References:
1-HBR, Harvard Business Review, (Nov 2006) Various Approaches to Building Products and Services Approaches to Product development, Adapted “Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development” managementhelp org misc product-devapproaches and authenticityconsulting, 11/27/06, Harvard Business School Publishing
2-HBR, Harvard Business Review, (Nov 2006) Approaches to Market Research, managementhelp org mrktng mk_rsrch needs, 11/27/06, Harvard Business School Publishing
3-HBR, Harvard Business Review, (Nov 2006) Approaches to Competitor Market Analysis, managementhelp org mrktng cmpetitr cmpetitr, 11/27/06, Harvard Business School Publishing
4-HBR, Harvard Business Review, (Nov 2006) Approaches to Marketing Intelligence, marketing-intelligence co uk sitemap, 11/27/06, Harvard Business School Publishing
5-HBR, Harvard Business Review, (Nov 2006) the Mechanics of pricing, short term pain for long term gain, Approaches to Marketing Management bullet point com archives market BP3806, 11/27/06, Harvard Business School Publishing
