Uncategorized
May
How A Market Research Company Can Help a Consulting Firm
jerry9789 0 comments Burning Questions, Uncategorized
You’re familiar with this scenario: a business organization runs into a problem they can’t solve in-house, so they turn to your consulting firm to help figure out the solution. The problem turns out to be more complicated than anyone could imagine but thanks to your experience and expertise, you were able to come up with a strategy to solve it for good. Here’s the twist: given the complexity of the problem, the business wants you to back up your solution with something other than your experience and expertise, something that would help them understand what caused the issue and why your strategy is effective in solving it. This way, they can replicate the solution in-house, while also leaving the door open to work with your consulting firm again in the future on another problem.
Photo courtesy of geralt
Why Use Market Research For A Consultancy Project?
If you haven’t yet, this would be the perfect opportunity to partner with a market research company. Your strategies and solutions are mostly born from your experience and expertise, but market research provides you with the data and insights to back up your advice. Sure, you can simply explain that your recommendations work because you’ve seen this happen before with the solutions you provided in the past and therefore it should work this time as well; market research achieves the same effect, except that it does the job with nuanced or layered explanations formed from case studies, working hypotheses, documented observations, referential works, and more.
In some cases where experience and expertise fall short, market research can serve as the foundation from which you develop your strategies and solutions by gaining a deeper understanding of not only the issue at hand but also other relevant factors such as the company, the competition, the customer base, trends, as well as the industry and the market itself, through quantitative and qualitative analysis. Market research goes beyond helping solve company problems; it can also help consulting firms guide their clients’ growth and business, increase brand awareness, and reach sales goals by resonating with their target audience through a data-driven and context-based approach.
Market research can also be key in helping you compete with or stand out from other firms. It can help determine key points in your competitors’ strategies to help differentiate your marketing approach or discover and tap into marketing space or niche audiences that they haven’t targeted. Sure, your competitors can utilize market research just as well, but if they’re only using it to support their existing business solutions and strategies while you leverage it to uncover new answers or innovate specific or contextual tactics for your clients, that can help get you a leg up over them.
Photo courtesy of geralt
How To Conduct Market Research for a Consulting Project
The process for conducting market research for a consulting project can be broken down into a few steps, starting with determining the focus of the research by defining the problem we want to solve or the goal we plan to achieve. In most cases, the focus may already be informed by the client and the project theme itself. From there we’ll shape the primary question we’re looking to answer, then form secondary and tertiary questions out of it, deriving the data types and sources we’re going to need along with the criteria and metrics from which we’ll measure the progress and success of our research.
Next, we’ll pick the research method we’ll be employing, which will be based on the type and sources of data we need and will use. Are you doing primary market research to gather firsthand data from your target audience or the market itself? Are you planning to complement your primary research findings with existing data from external sources through secondary market research?
Interviews, focus groups, and surveys are commonly used when gathering data directly ourselves, but if they fit our needs we can also utilize the top-down or bottom-up approaches. The former approach sees our research start with smaller elements to gain data for insights leading to a larger picture, while the latter has us researching first on a broader level with the resulting data used to learn specifics. We can also refer to previous but similar projects which can help save time and resources, but bear in mind that we might need data specific to the present context to arrive at the ideal solution for that project.
We’ll next proceed to data collection and analysis wherein we’ll observe and record the research process, taking note of any difficulties and divergences, while checking the quality and validity of our data through testing, cross-validation, and the like. We’ll be looking out for patterns, trends, correlations, and even differences, along with their implications and insights. We’ll also use statistical tests, confidence intervals, or error margins to evaluate the reliability and significance of our results.
When presenting our findings, it’s best to deliver what we discovered in a clear and concise yet engaging manner using language and visuals appropriate for our audience. For example, a somber, businesslike tone and straightforward visuals used when presenting to a room of executives and higher-ups might not work as well with a group of creatives. Perhaps communicating your findings in a story-like fashion to the latter might inspire their interest more and get your points across better by stirring their imagination. Visual tools can include reports, presentations, dashboards, or infographics, with highlights focusing not only on key takeaways and recommendations but also on any limitations we encountered or assumptions we made.
Photo courtesy of geralt
How To Find The Right Market Research Group For Your Consulting Firm
Not all market research companies are the same, of course. You’ll find large MR firms that employ different teams for every phase of your consulting project as well as smaller groups with one unit dedicated to overseeing the entire process from start to finish. You would want to go with a market research group that not only has some experience working with consulting firms but also does a regular volume of business with consultancies in the current day. Their experience would most likely translate to a higher understanding of the nature and challenges of your consultancy business in addition to adapting and aligning more easily with your goals and the way you do consulting work.
When interviewing market research teams you’re considering working with, you might want to ask them for any instance or past case history they can share wherein despite limited time, resources, and funds, they were still able to deliver outstanding insights and results. This will indicate how they perform under pressure as well as gauge their competitive drive.
But just because they rose above past difficulties and limitations doesn’t mean you’ll be short with them. On the contrary, you need to ensure your chosen market research team not only has the proper tools and resources but also enough time, room, and funding to help them perform their job well. Their success is, after all, your success. Allow them the freedom to use their discretion to take risks, experiment, or innovate, since the breakthroughs they find can make the difference in the quality and ingenuity of your business strategies compared to that of your competitors.
Let your consulting firm stand out from the rest of the competition with data-driven strategies and insights-based solutions for your clients that high-quality and high-level market research can achieve. Partner with Cascade Strategies and back up your consultancy with groundbreaking methodologies and over three decades of market research experience that other leading US and international companies have benefited from. Contact Cascade Strategies today and find out how we can help your consulting firm solve problems and achieve your goals.
Photo courtesy of 089photoshootings
Apr
Market research has proven itself to be an indispensable and critical tool in helping companies identify their audiences and achieve their marketing goals. As with any tech company, market research groups can come from small or large firms. You might be inclined to go with a larger market research firm because of the common adage “Bigger is better,” but you just might be surprised by what a smaller market research group can accomplish for you and your big tech company.
What makes smaller market research firms different from their larger counterparts? What are the advantages of working with a small market research group? Off the top of your head, you might think that cost-effectiveness is the main reason. But it goes well beyond that. Here are three good reasons why partnering with a small market research firm benefits your big tech company:
Copyright: geralt
One Team from Start to Finish
From the initial sales meeting to the project’s conclusion and implementation of recommendations, you’ll be interacting with the same team throughout. With a larger company, you might need to work with different teams for every phase of the project, and you might find yourself having to repeat yourself now and then, especially with the nuances of what you want or what the project needs. There’s also a risk that certain details and preferences might be overlooked or don’t get passed on as you switch from one team to another as you move through the phases.
Not only is there a seamless transition between stages of the projects with one team, but Cascade Strategies also employs veterans of the industry who bring to the table a potent combination of well-rounded skillsets and experience. Not only are they able to effectively understand your preferences and ideas no matter which phase of the project you’re in, but they also can oversee and recognize the effects of those concepts in the grand scheme of things or when they would come into play.
Copyright: ar130405
Better Communication and Responsiveness
With a smaller but experienced team, communication lines are much more open with members empowered to act or resolve issues when the opportunity arises. A project might encounter delays with a larger firm of multiple teams due to miscommunication (“I wasn’t informed”) or hindrances resulting from the division and distribution of roles and responsibilities (“Not my job”). Thus, a smaller team might also be more available and receptive when it comes to assisting a client whenever they raise a question or concern.
One team alone holding a meeting might slow down the overall progress of others working on the project, so just think of the impact if multiple groups need to take time off for discussions and calibrations. The time multiple teams take for meetings can be time used by a smaller team for revisiting ideas and scenarios until a “breakthrough” is achieved.
You might also find a smaller team is more invested in the project, hence the clearer communication and quicker responses. Multiple teams might be handicapped with multiple projects going on at the same time and the need to meet deadlines. A smaller team might handle more than one case study at once, but given that they’re overseeing the whole thing from start to finish, there exists a passion to get everything done right, and seeing the client and team’s visions come true no matter how big or small a project is.
Copyright: geralt
Culture
Speaking of passion, you might find a smaller market research firm having a more “can do” attitude and approach to your project. Not only that but at Cascade Strategies, we continually push the limits of what can be done and achieved with a project to reach that “breakthrough” that you might not have otherwise found had you gone with a different market research firm. A larger market research company on the other hand might be hustling to come up with conventional or simplistic ideas for you just to meet deadlines and deliverables.
Copyright: Kindel Media
Big Tech Company Case History
Take for example an academic software transformation project Cascade Strategies completed for a large global producer of industrial software. We conducted depth interviews with worldwide universities to develop a working hypothesis that would help formulate an implementation roadmap. We recruited academic decision-makers as respondents from a list provided by the project’s Software as a Service (SaaS) project director and supplemented by our panel. The interviews lasted roughly 45 minutes, with four in each of 16 countries for a total of 64 in-person depth interviews.
The study resulted in a working hypothesis with not one, not two, but three important premises, chief of which revealed that the respondents can be divided into the following two groups: the Elite and the Rank & File. The former are respondents from universities with a sophisticated preference towards the software provided to the students and typically have greater-than-average resources as well as uniform policies regarding software acquisition. The latter came from academic institutions demonstrating a pragmatic and single-task-focused approach to providing software to the students, and they often don’t have the full resources or uniform policies for software acquisition.
The second premise was that industry partnerships create pressure for constant advancement and higher sophistication of the software used for teaching, especially in the pursuit of true industrial replication. The third premise was that the pace of change is overwhelming for the Rank & File — too much for them to manage without guidance and assistance from the industry itself. Software makers who showed themselves willing to support academic institutions in this way we called “Industry Guides.”
Based on these three premises, our working hypothesis was that the software providers should clearly and publicly demonstrate equal concern for the Elite and the Rank & File when it comes to SaaS products and programs. This can be achieved with the re-introduction of product tiers, offering rudimentary beginner-level products such as simple tutorials and help functions as part of efforts to nurture at a basic level and push for industry partnerships, helping drive the Rank and File towards gradual sophistication in the software they use for teaching. Additional research into the needs and wants of the Rank & File could also lead to the creation of broad-based communications programs as well as specific single-university special programs aligned with these efforts.
This case history is one of many examples showing how our market research firm has consistently helped big tech companies for over three decades. From dramatically increased sales to award-winning marketing campaigns, we help big tech companies accomplish their goals and resonate with their target audiences with the valuable and actionable insights produced by the high-level and quality market research we provide. It’s not only our passion but also the high level of human intelligence and imagination we apply that adds a deeper value to the insights we derive for your project outcome.
If you would like your brand to break past ordinary bounds and achieve true excellence in its next campaign, contact Cascade Strategies today and find out how we can help you.
Jul
What To Make Of ChatGPT’s User Growth Decline
jerry9789 0 comments artificial intelligence, Burning Questions, Uncategorized
The Beginning Of The End?
More than six months after launching on November 2022, ChatGPT recorded its first decline in user growth and traffic in June 2023. Spiceworks reported that the Washington Post surmised quality issues and summer breaks from schools could have been factors in the decline, aside from multiple companies banning employees from using ChatGPT professionally.
Brad Rudisail, another Spiceworks writer, opined that a subset of curious visitors driven by the hype over ChatGPT could’ve also boosted the numbers of early visits, the dwindling user growth resulting from the said group moving on to the next talk of the town.
The same article also brings up open-source AI gaining ground on OpenAI’s territory as a possible factor, thanks to customizable, faster, and more useful models on top of being more transparent and the decreased likelihood of cognitive biases.
Don’t Buy Into The Hype
But perhaps the best takeaway is Mr. Rudisail’s point that we’re still in the early stages of AI and it’s premature to herald ChatGPT’s downfall with a weak signal like decreased user growth. For all we know, this is what could be considered normal numbers, with earlier figures inflated by the excitement surrounding its launch. Don’t buy into the hype is a position we at Cascade Strategies advocate when it comes to matters of AI.
The advent of AI has taken productivity and efficiency to levels never seen before, so the initial hoopla over it is understandable. However, we believe people are now starting to become a little more settled in their appraisal of AI. They’re starting to see that AI is pretty good at “middle functions” requiring intelligence, whether that be human or machine-based. But when it comes to “higher function” tasks which involve discernment, abstraction and creativity, AI output falls short of excellence. Sometimes mediocrity is acceptable, but for most pursuits excellence is needed.
Excellence Achieved Through High Level Human Thinking
To illustrate just how AI would come out lacking in certain activities, let’s consider our case study for the Gargoyles brand of sunglasses. ChatGPT can produce a large number of ads for sunglasses at little or no cost, but most of those ads won’t bring anything new to the table or resonate with the audience.
However, when researchers spent time with the most loyal customers of Gargoyles to come up with a new ad, they discovered a commonality that AI simply did not have the power to discern. They found a unique quality of indomitability among these brand loyalists: many of them had been struck down somewhere in their upward striving, and they found the strength and resolve to keep going while the odds were clearly against them. They kept going and prevailed. The researchers were tireless in their pursuit of this rare trait, and they stretched the interpretive, intuitive, and synthesis-building capacities of their right brains to find it. Stretching further, they inspired creative teams to produce the award-winning “storyline of life” campaign for the Gargoyles brand.
All told, this is a story of seeking excellence, where hard-working humans press the ordinary capacities of their intellects to higher layers of understanding of a subject matter, not settling for simply a summarization of the aggregate human experience on the topic. This is what excellence is all about, and AI is not prepared to do it. To achieve it, humans have to have a strong desire to go beyond the mediocre. They have to believe that stretching their brains to this level results in something good.
How To Make “Appropriate Use” of AI
But that is not to say that AI and high level human thinking can’t mix. The key is to recognize where AI would best fit in your process and methodologies, then decide where human intervention comes in. This is what we call “Appropriate Use” of AI.
Take for example our case study for Expedia Group and how they engage with millions of hospitality partners. Expedia offers their partner “advice” which helps them receive a booking over their competitors. With thousands of pieces of advice to give their partners, they utilize AI to filter through all those recommendations and present only the best ones to optimize revenue. Cascade Strategies has helped them further by creating a tool called Scenario Analyzer, which uses the underlying AI model to automate the selection of these most revenue-optimal pieces of advice.
Either way, the end decision on which advice to go with (or whether they accept any advice at all) ultimately still comes from Expedia’s partner, not the AI.
Copyright ClaudeAI.uk
A Double-edged Sword
As you can see with ChatGPT, it’s easy to get carried away with all the hype surrounding AI. At launch, it was acclaimed for the exciting possibilities it represented, but now that it has hit a bump in the road, some people and outlets act as if ChatGPT is on its last leg. Hype is good when it’s necessary to draw attention; unfortunately in most cases, it sets up the loftiest of expectations when good sense gets overridden.
This is why we think a sensible mindset is the best way to approach and think about AI — to see it for what it really is. It’s a tool for increasing productivity and efficiency, not the end-all and be-all, as there is still much room for excellent human thinking backed by experience and values to come into play. Our concerns for now may not be as profound and dire as those expressed by James Cameron, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and others, but we’d like to believe that “appropriate use” of AI is the key towards better understanding and responsible stewardship of this emerging new technology.
Feb
Eye tracking technology has evolved to the point that even different types of shopping styles have now been identified. The eye track gaze of respondents in a recent study was submitted to sequential pattern analysis; the same type of computer analysis done to map the human genome or in a fictional sense to populate Jurassic Park.
Jan
Link to HP Case Study
jerry9789 0 comments Uncategorized
In a recent case study, HP wished to explore which paper package would be most successful at retail. By utilizing our innovative Nimbus Virtual Shopping System, Cascade Strategies has once again proven the power of market research.
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