Market-research

In The Mirrored Window: Focus Groups From A Moderator's Point Of View, Judith Langer (senior vice president of Langer/Roper Qualitative Research Division) draws upon her more that twenty years of experience and expertise to cogently clearly explain the role and performance of the focus group as an important aspect of the marketing process. With the use of examples drawn from a variety of different industries (including parts of an actual transcript from focus groups for Playboy Enterprises), Langer illustrated the client's role, offers tips for controlling rambunctious groups, and how to energize groups that lag or get distracted from the targeted issue or presentation. The Mirrored Window is essential reading for all aspiring marketing professionals and is a core addition to any Marketing or Business School reference library.

This outstanding book has become my preferred resource as I develop in the practice of qualitative research consulting on Judith Langer's side of the mirror after years in the back room. It provides a comprehensive, intelligent and thoughtful approach to qualitative research that I highly recommend for anyone involved in learning more about consumers. I especially enjoyed discovering her process for writing actionable, meaningful moderator reports. The challenge of conducting analysis and developing implications is demystified, thanks to Ms. Langer.

Whether you're looking at using focus groups for the first time, looking for ways to make your projects more productive, or looking to make your facility the regional star, look no further. Expert moderator JUDITH LANGER guides you to success step-by-step, using real examples, from defining your project to writing the report.

o Compare the advantages of focus group research over quantitative studies.

o Understand the process and timing for selecting a facility, scheduling groups, screening respondents, re-screening respondents, conducting sessions, and reviewing results. Learn which features and services to look for when selecting a facility.

o Find out what you need to know about cheaters, repeaters, and deceivers. Learn how to deal with know-it-alls, people who talk too much, respondents who are rude, and conversations that stray off the topic at hand.

o Review dozens of tips, actual phrases and signals you can use to keep a group on track-how to get the group talking, how to ask questions without biasing responses, how to control group dynamics, when to probe and when to use a firm hand.

Get the most out of your sessions and research dollars. As a client, learn when to speak up and when to let the moderator do her job. As a moderator, learn how to address client concerns and how to deliver the most value to them-Every Time!

A few years ago, I read a New York Times bestseller, The Discipline of the Market Leaders, by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema. Since its publication, I have heard a lot of managers quoting from it. In this bestseller, authors Treacy and Wiersema describe three strategies: product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy. My fellow executives translate these as product, price, and service, and we all generally agree that to compete, "You have to be good at two, and be excellent at the third."

Last week I read ValueSpace by Mittal & Sheth. It changed my interpretation of Treacy and Wiersema's book. I realized how wrong every manager's understanding of Treacy and Wiersema's book had been. The confusion is between the Marketspace and Valuespace. Treacy/Wiersema's book tells us WHAT market to compete in (Marketspace); Mittal/Sheth's book tells us HOW to compete in the chosen market (ValueSpace). Their discussion of this distinction in Chapter 12 was an eye-opener. They also do a great job of tying up the theme of their book with the themes of other business bestsellers, such as Tom Peter's In Search of Excellence and Collins and Porras' Built to Last.

I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned with business strategy. If you have read other bestsellers on business strategy, you can't afford to miss this one. I only wish the authors had made Chapter 12 as their first chapter. . My suggestion would be to read Chapter 12 first. Then the rest of the book would be doubly meaningful.

I read the book purely out of curiosity. I co-manage a high tech company so at first I was disappointed since none of the high tech companies are included in the book. But I started reading it anyway because I wanted to read what some of the famous companies like Caterpillar and UPS are doing to gain market-leadership. Although some of the company stories get to be tedious, most are useful and fun to read. And even though none is from a high tech company, it gave me ideas for my own business. Now whenever I am faced with a customer problem, I would be thinking of one or the other story to come up with my own innovative ways of solving the customer's problem and to meet his or her value requirements. Beyond the stories, what I found useful is the customer value framework the authors offer. At first, it looks deceptively basic and simple; but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed valuable. Its simplicity is a good thing. Authors claim that it is comprehensive - I am not sure yet, but so far every value creation activity I could think I could fit into the framework. And I could apply it to my company. Indeed the framework is applicable to any company in any industry. The book offers nothing in the way of quick-fix. And when you finish reading it, don't expect to run with excitement, eager to implement something. Rather, the book's framework gives you a template to use in long term, cool-headed, planning. It does not matter if you are a small business or a large business, and if you are a established company or a start up, the book's framework will be a handy tool for constantly thinking about various avenues of creating "unusual and complete" customer value.

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ValueSpace? What is it? What does it do for my business?

We are constantly asked these questions since the book's release. They are best answered by us in the preface, excerpted below.

PREFACE

ValueSpace -we hold it in utmost admiration.

ValueSpace-it is to us the be-all and the end-all of all business activity; the only purpose of all businesses. It is the only justifiable goal of all reengineering, organizational renewal, entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. And it is the only path for sustained growth; for winning the battle for market leadership. It is the space where true market value is created. For shareholders; for employees; and, most of all, for customers. We present in this book a blueprint on how companies can build enduring ValueSpace for their customers.

This book is at the intersection of our two long-held obsessions: As university professors, we view ourselves as lifelong learners; and for decades, we have been students of customer behavior on the one hand and business organizations on the other. We have studied theories of customer behavior-indeed created some of them ourselves--, and for decades, we have observed, analyzed, and written about business processes, precepts, and practices. In this book, we bring these two streams together-our knowledge of customers and our knowledge of businesses. This is our ValueSpace for you, the reader: Uniquely in the current sea of business advice books, we combine the customer and business perspectives.

We set out to understand what constitutes value for the customer and how companies can create it. With financial support from the Marketing Science Institute (a Cambridge-based nonprofit research organization), .. we studied 11 Fortune's Most Admired Companies. ... Our framework, comprising the components of ValueSpace and its drivers, is quintessential-no matter what else you do or do not do, you must create these value components. Our framework is enduring-it is not the "project of the month"; long after the current fads have vanished, you must still build the value components we describe. Our framework is universal-it applies to all companies: manufacturing and service; small business or global enterprises, business-to-business or business-to-consumer; physical or digital; dot-com or not-com.

We intend this book to be a blueprint for thought as well as practice. We present conceptual framework to help you plan; we provide a self-audit form that you can use to assess your company's current standing in the ValueSpace; and we present case histories, stories of the most admired companies, and insights from executive interviews that you would find both inspirational and actionable. It is a hands-on guide to launching your journey into the customer ValueSpace.

Our own journey has been fascinating; we have learned a lot-from the Most Admired Companies we studied; from the executive interviews we did specifically for this research; and from thousands of conversations over the years with consumers, mangers, and corporate leaders just like yourselves. It is a pleasure and privilege to share with you our view of Customer ValueSpace, and our total fascination with it.

(End of Preface) * * *

VALUESPACE FOR BUSINESS EXECUTIVES

How You Can Use the Book:

Knowledge is the foundation for all strategy and sound executive action. This book will give you:

a. A Perspective: A framework for thinking about your customers' ValueSpace, and indeed about your business itself.

b. A Strategic Planning Tool. The book contains an Audit self-survey both for nine ValueSpace components and 40 driver processes. You can use this tool to assess your company's current standing and then plan action to move forward in the ValueSpace.

c. As an Account Planning Tool. For each major customer, you can identify the gaps in the ValueSpace you can fill.

d. As an Executive Training Tool. As a platform for Executive Training, the book can inform, guide, and frame the continuing education experiences in corporate universities and in-house Executive training centers.

Once you adopt the ValueSpace thinking, the potential to explore avenues of value creation are limited only by your creativity and vision.

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SELECTED EXCERPTS

Value, not money, is the basic currency of all human interaction. When we meet someone, we try to quickly assess how long would it be worth our while to be talking to that person. If an incoming phone call shows up on our called ID, we promptly decide if we would gain anything by taking the call at that time. If we get 10 letters in the mail, we look through them and choose to open only those that we expect to contain some information of value to us. This is even more true for marketplace exchanges.... ...

Companies that invent new values such as these possess certain traits. They observe customers real close. They dig customer need to its essential core. And they keep their eyes on a singular target: creating far fetched new ValueSpace for the customer. These traits indeed lead a business to mold its own self-concept in the customer's image. Rosenbluth redefines the very nature of its business as "business interaction management." And 3M comes to view itself, instead of being a maker of masking tapes, abrasive papers, and adhesives, as a provider of bonding, protection, and masking solutions.....

This reinvention of oneself as a corporate being, this customer-centered adoption of a new self-identity, the constant contemplation of the customer desires -this is what it takes to invent unparalleled ValueSpace for the customer. This is what it takes to win the battle for market leadership. This is what it takes to thrive.

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IN CONCLUSION

We hope you enjoy the book. We will certainly be grateful for your feedback. You can send it to us at BanMittal@MyValueSpace.com.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

This guide was really helpful in giving me ideas about what I can do in marketing. I was always kind of interested but only had a general sense of what marketing is. I especially liked the real people profiles that describe in detail some of the different career paths that you can take. I give this guide a thumbs up!

I'm one of those lost souls who never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, and have been in the exploratory phase for a long time now. My friends have often suggested marketing as a potential career path because of its combination of creativity and practical analysis, both strengths of mine. I liked this idea and began my search, but found that most of the career books out there were flashy and gimicky, or too specific for what I had in mind. I just wanted somewhere to start that would give me a general picture of what Marketing is all about and what opportunities are to be had in the industry. This WetFeet Insider Guide provided just that--a general view of the different careers in Marketing and a breakdown of the industry itself. The descriptions of different sectors of industry and the profiles of real jobs have given me a lot of ideas as to where I want to go next. And the upbeat writing style got me really charged up. I've gone from being confused and unfocused to really excited and ready to make the next step towards a marketing career. This is a great starting point for lost souls like I was. I highly recommend it.

i really had a good time reading this guide. it's written in a fun, snappy tone, and yet the information included is valuable and serious. i'm definitely interested in getting involved in brand management, and the in-depth day in the life of a brand manager helped me see what i thought was a good role for me and know that my hunch/assumptions were right! of course, now that I've read the day in the life of a creative specialist, i'm tempted to go that way too. thanks for giving me the full range of possibilities in this industry. oh yeah, and i really found the "stealth marketing tips" to be helpful. cheers!

Here's a book that should be on the desk of every person in marketing or advertising any place on the globe. Ms. Moses has penned a fascinating first-person account, describing the burgeoning teen market. The future for all multinationals will be trying to market into the Third World's teen market. Elissa Moses shows you how.

teenagers need to read this to find out just how stupid they are. we all go through this moronic period in life, when market forces prey on our immature and unsuspecting minds. it usually starts at 15, but for some it finishes at 30. we are preyed upon by a constant bombardment of commercials which subliminally discourage us from investing in our future. MTV warps our brains and we forgo our savings on overvalued and hyped up trinkets that help us conform to nonconformity. we end up with racks of CDs and a cuboard full of designer shoes, but no downpayment for our apartment when we realize that life is serious. there aught to be a law against this!

I've been re-reading the book - The Kids Market: Myths and Realities, and once again I'm struck by the insight, and the thoroughness of the research. Dr. James U. McNeal has put together a book that truly is a must have for us in the business of marketing to kids.

I would like to talk a little about chapter 9 - 'Barriers to Understanding the Kids Market'. Dr. McNeal points out two caricatures of marketers targeting kids : The "WIWAKs" and the "Marents". The "WIWAKs" exemplify the "When I Was A Kid" approach to kids market strategy. Marents - on the other hand - base their kids market strategy on the fact that they are both marketers and parents. This supposedly gives them a special insight into the kids market.

Dr. McNeal then goes on to give a real gem of a formula: "C=f(P,E); that is, Children = function of (Parents, Environment). In long form, what children are, how they think and act ,are a function of both parental and environmental forces constantly at work, even before they were born." (pg. 111)

This is why the "Marent" approach to marketing is so potentially misleading. A marketers children are often more likely to reflect their parents' values than a true sense of the kids market.

This formula also points out the implicit need for accurate research and product testing to avoid basic marketing blunders such as: "Targeting all kids aged 2 - 12 with one ad message on one TV program, packaging salty snacks for kids in packages that don't cater to their limited dexterity, concept testing a product only among parents, offering premiums whose use requires adult supervision, and displaying product for kids in stores well above their eye level." (pg. 111)

In conclusion 'The Kids Market: Myths and Realities' is a must read for anyone interested in reaching the kids market. You can test your own knowledge by comparing your understanding of the kids market to the 27 myths and realities as presented by Dr. McNeal in this well researched and wonderfully presented book.

You also get lots of pie chart type marketing data research and charming drawing by children about their perceptions of the shopping experience. Dr. James U McNeal is a Professor of Marketing at Texas A&M University where he teaches courses in marketing and consumer behavior. He is also the author of 'Children as Consumers' and 'Kids as Customers'.

Marketers to the Kids Marketplace will find this book invaluable.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, Judith Judith A. Jewer - KidsMarketing.com

This is a very informative book about the buying behavior of children around the world. This book has given me much insight into this topic. I have also read "Creating Ever Cool." They are two complementary tools for marketers.

Starting out in business is difficult enough without having to then build a full-fledged marketing and advertising department. With buying product and stocking inventory, and running the business, I just didnt have the time or know-how to deal with the positioning, targeting, and awareness campaigns to take my business to the next level. Enter THE MARKETING GLOSSARY (the CD version)in a new and cutting edge form. Just having the disk on my desktop saved me the cost of a marketing manager and the embarassment of not having a formal MBA in marketing. It's lightning fast and real easy to move from term to term and back again. It gave me my basic training within a week. Since then, any time I'm on the phone with a client or vendor and they speak about reach, frequency, semantic differential, or A.B.A. (no not the American Bar Association), I am no longer struggling to keep up. All my employees have a copy on their desktop as well. And the information provided isn't one word quips - these are jargon-free, detailed explanations that allow me to zoom between sections faster than a paper glossary would allow me. This is like a marketing degree in a jewel case. Great tool. I strongly recommend this tool to anyone starting in or attempting to maintain a successful business.

"Let's do a heavy up in the top ten DMAs so we can increase our GRPs."

If that sentence confuses you, you're not alone.

Like any business, the marketing world has its own jargon. Sometimes confusing, occasionally humorous, the vocabulary of the modern marketing professional may often seem confusing -- especially for small business owners, who often wear many hats and whose expertise must cover a broad spectrum of tasks. But with the help of Mark Clemente's excellent reference work, you too can talk the talk just like the corporate pros.

Even those who study marketing, on either a graduate or undergraduate level, will often find that they are woefully unprepared when it comes to the real world. Textbooks are long on theory and short on practical advice. Even more troubling, few of those teaching marketing have had practical experience.
Thus the enterprising young marketing person is often left to sink or swim. Unless they begin their careers with a firm that offers training -- more of a rarity these days -- the novice marketer will usually be expected to "pick it up on the street" just as their elder colleagues did. That can work, but with The Marketing Glossary on their shelf, they will be well ahead of the game.

Among the many appealing aspects of Clemente's book is the lucidity of his prose. When attempting to find out what a GRP is, unsuspecting marketers will often be confronted with a turgid definition written by a media professional, replete with brain-numbing formulae. By contrast, Clemente lays it out nicely:

"Gross rating point (G.R.P.) A measurement of audience size (viewership or listenership) to quantify a medium's ability to reach a target audience. G.R.P.s estimate the number of people a communication will reach, irrespective of audience duplication. G.R.P.s are stated in terms of percentage: each G.R.P. represents 1% of the people or households tuned to a TV program (as compared to the total number of TV sets in the market being studied). G.R.P.s are calculated by multiplying the total reach of the media schedule by its frequency. Thus, the product of reach and frequency expresses the gross duplicated percentage of audience that would be reached by the advertising vehicle."

Where was this book when I started out in the business? (And if you want to know what a "heavy up" is, you'll have to buy the book.)

On occasion, there are some curious omissions. Anyone who works on a consumer packaged goods account will undoubtedly come across the term "slotting fee." Alas, that is nowhere to be found in The Marketing Glossary.

Understandably it would be nearly impossible to include every single bit of cant that might come up in the course of a marketing career, but Clemente does an outstanding job of aggregating the most important words. More importantly, the Glossary is up-to-date and includes the latest online slang. This will undoubtedly appeal to some of the senior marketers who still find the whole "Internet thing" confusing.

Finally, The Marketing Glossary is also available as an e-book. Just buy the PDF and keep it on your laptop. Imagine the points you can score in meetings with all that knowledge at your fingertips.

The reviewer: Jonathan Jackson is an independent consultant based in New York City. He has written extensively on internet advertising and e-mail marketing since the inception of the internet. A frequent guest speaker, Jonathan has addressed global audiences on marketing and advertising topics and also teaches marketing at colleges around the world.

This book pulls together to top scholars in the area of goals and decision making. The lead chapter by the authors really nails down the breadth and the depth of the field. In doing so it helps show why consumers aren't necessarily acting inconsistently when their behavior varies across occasions.

This is a timely topic, and it's tackled by a team of top-notch researchers. One of the first chapters (on goal structures) is a classic in that it really helps in understanding why consumers appear to be inconsistent, but are actually consistent in much that we do.

Many people have written many things on this topic. This book summarizes much of the best thinking in a credible, condensed, interesting manner.

Please help me to find a book that writes about Market Overview

As an avid reader on all things pertaining to business I was amazed at the depth of information in this book. The author gives a complete picture of how psychographics developed, how it is applied, and how it benefits businesses. I often read material from "experts" who have never taken the time to fully understand their subject matter. That is not the case with this book. She gives an honest evaluation on the benefits but also the pitfalls of psychographic analysis. Chapters on gathering information through surveys, focus groups, observation, and psychographic research is extremely helpful to a businessperson who is trying to understand more about marketing. I wish more authors would read her book to understand how material should be explained. If you are looking for information on psychographics....this is the only book you will need.

Kardes' book is by far the best consumer behavior book on the market. Business success is ultimately determined by the decisions of consumers. Accordingly, it is essential for managers to be well grounded in the principles of consumer behavior and decision making. No other book comes close at providing readers with knowledge of CB that can be easily and immediately applied to improve business function. It should be required reading for all MBA students.