FPi Concept Tester
In helping you design, develop
or test product or service ideas we begin with the following questions:
1. What individual features
would most motivate consumer behavior?
2. What feature combinations
most motivate behavior?
3. What feature combinations motivate the behavior of different subgroups?
4. What optimal combination
of features maximizes profit?
The search for answers
starts with a discussion of your product ideas, operational constraints,
budgetary issues, and the category in which you will compete. Through these
discussions we identify the entire range of product or service attributers and features
and possible pricing strategies that need to be tested.
We then take all the individual
attributes, features and pricing strategies and build a computer program that
randomly creates different product or service options from these attitudes,
features and price points. These full-profile options are presented to consumers
in a market research project which simulates the actual shopping experience. In
this, consumers are forced to make trade-offs between full-feature
concepts, just like they do in real life.
At the end of the study
you receive demand (trial) estimates for every feature (i.e. product
attribute) and every possible combination of features tested in the study. We
also pinpoint the most appealing product concept -- the one that will
generate the most revenue -- and rank it against all other concepts. And, we profile adopters and rejecters of the most appealing concept.
And, taking this one step further,
we create
a mathematical model that finds the "optimal concept," meaning the one set of
product or service features that maximizes demand and profits. We have learned that the
most appealing concept -- the one that might appear to generate the most revenue
-- is often not the most profitable when costs of building and supplying this
concept are factored into the equation. To find the optimal concept, we
incorporate your operations and budget estimates for each product or service
attribute and feature into the equation. In this way, we identify the
one concept -- the one set of attributes, features and price points -- that maximizes demand and profit.
You will also receive an Internet-based computer
simulator that allows you to test the ability of every possible product feature
combination to simulate trial, revenue and profit right on your office PC. Every
simulator comes on a CD-ROM, with a user-interface that is designed to your
exact specifications.
Positioning Research
How do you position your
product or service against the competition? What is the best "sales
proposition" that can be used to generate the most sales, market share or
profits? FPi Positioning Research is uniquely designed to determine the
optimal positioning, one that will drive consumer behavior toward your offering
and away from the competition.
Products and services can
be positioned through several strategies, including positioning by product
or service attributes, by benefits and consequences of product or service use,
or by the particular application of the product or service. The search for the
optimal market position begins with the identification of a number of concepts
that are relevant to your business, can be controlled and modified by
management, and covers the full range of opportunities. We employ a
collaborative approach at the outset of a positioning study, which may include
internal "ideation" sessions and focus groups with consumers, which
then guide us in the development of the positioning concepts to be tested in the
study.
Once all potential positioning
concepts have been created, we need to develop a consumer behavior measurement
that is consistent with your corporate mission. This behavioral measurement will
be used to test the value of each positioning concept.
Once we have identified
the full range of positioning concepts and the key behavioral outcome, we
conduct a consumer research study to assess the viability of each positioning
concept in driving consumer behavior toward your product or service and away
from the competition. Our behaviorally based approach tests the
viability of every possible positioning idea relative to its importance in
stimulating profitable consumer behavior. We also assess the value of each
concept relative to the competition, to ensure that you understand key
weaknesses that you need to fix, and positioning concepts that are the cost of
entering in your category or industry. All of this is summarized in a set of
easy to use graphic charts which pinpoint the optimal positioning and sales
proposition; one that drives behavior and distinguishes
you from the competition.
Segmentation and Targeting Research
A single product or service will not appeal to all
consumers. Instead, companies adapt products and services to appeal to specific
consumer groups. The optimal group or groups of consumers who are best served by
a product or service offering are those most likely to buy, and are of
sufficient size to generate a profit. The research for identifying optimal
consumer groups for your product or service is called targeting or segmentation
research.
There may be hundreds of ways to divide
the marketplace. Some typical ways include segmentation based on benefits or
consequences of product or service use, lifestyle, psychographic or social value
segmentation, usage segmentation (i.e. heavy medium and light users), and
demographic segmentation.
The search
for the optimal basis for segmentation involves identifying options that are 1) unique to your
business; 2) can be controlled and manipulated; and 3) cover the full range of opportunities. We employ a
collaborative approach at the outset of a targeting study, which may include
internal "ideation" sessions and focus groups with consumers, which
then guide us in the development of the segmentation options to be tested in the
study.
To analyze the data, we test every possible combination of segment options
against a behaviorally-based profit goal. This might include category-spending,
the probability to buy your product or service, and/or receptivity to your sales
proposition. This process yields the optimal way to divide or segment the
market.
We then sort through the
possible combinations and identify and rank segments based on their
behavioral and financial appeal to your organization. The yields a set of
primary, secondary and non-targets.
At the end of the process,
a complete description of primary, secondary and non-targets targets is offered, including demographic and media profiles and revenue based outcomes for
each subgroup so that you can easily and efficiently contact key targets.
FPi
Persuasion
Monitor™--Assessing MarCom Performance and ROI Analysis
Persuasion is the process of moving
consumers through a sequence of stages that results in profitable behavior.
Stages along the way to profitable behavior include ad and brand awareness,
positive image, trial, loyalty and willingness to return. In most cases a well
designed MarCom program pushes consumers through this sequence of events.
Persuasion Monitor is
designed to help answer critical performance based questions and offer
recommendations for fixing problems.
-
Are you hitting
your persuasion goals in terms of brand and ad awareness, consideration, trial
and share?
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Are you competitive in all stages of persuasion?
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Which MarCom tactics
are most efficient in converting prospects?
-
What corrective actions can you take
to maximize your MarCom efforts?
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What is the return on your MarCom investment?
-
How can you use knowledge of past MarCom efforts to build the optimal marketing
plan?
We measure each stage in the
persuasion process; we define and identify strengths; we recommend action to help correct problems associated with each
stage. For instance, a lack of positive consumer behaviors, such as trial, may
be due to low brand awareness. This is typically caused by a deficiency in share
of voice or inappropriate targeting. If there is awareness, but a poor image is
inhibiting behavior, than a more effective sales proposition may be needed. If
there is sufficient awareness and a positive image, but trial is lacking, then
promotional incentives may be needed. If all prior factors are high, but share is
low, than there may be operational problems that are turning customers off and
driving them away. As can be seen, Persuasion Monitor diagnoses each stage in
the persuasion process, and offers strategic and tactical recommendations drawn
to help stimulate more profitable behaviors.
FPi takes this analysis even one
step further developing a
Return on Investment (ROI) analysis of your MarCom performance. We do this by combining
Persuasion Monitor results with your media spending and other MarCom budget items. This will help
you understand the overall value of your MarCom spending. Using this information
we can create forecasting models and computer simulations to help you
develop the optimal marketing plan.
FPi
Behavior Sequence Modeling™
A behavioral sequence model
(or script) describes the logical
succession of behavioral steps that a consumer must go through in order to make
a purchase. For instance, before buying a product, consumers must obtain
information about the product. Once they have acquired information, the consumer
must come into contact with the outlet that offers the product or otherwise be
able to locate and obtain the product. Once found, the consumer must
engage in a transaction, in which he or she exchanges funds in return for the
product. After purchase, the consumer consumes the product and may then want
more depending on how positive the experiences were with the product and
purchase sequence.
In this marketing research project,
we identify the barriers in the sequence or script that are preventing consumers
from moving though each successive step toward the final purchase of your
product or service. One identified, you can take action to remove the barrier
and get more consumers moving toward a successful financial outcome.
We identify the proper behavior sequences
in your industry and category. We conduct consumer research to identify and
diagnose places in the behavioral sequence that may be inhibiting consumers
from moving along to the next stage. We assess the financial outcomes that your
organization would derive from fixing the problem. From this diagnosis, we recommend
intervention strategies to increase the probability of positive behaviors at
each stage in the behavioral sequence.
FPi
Events- Based Customer
Satisfaction Measurement
System™
The goal of FPi Events-Based
Customer Satisfaction research is
to identify and prioritize all customer experiences that are under the control
of management and which will stimulate repeat business and more profitable
consumer behavior. To do this we adopt an event-based perspective. We begin
with internal discussions with management and focus groups with consumers.
We develop a list of particular events that a consumer experiences when
interacting with your product or service. These typically range from how they
acquire information about the product or service on through consumption of
the product or service.
We then assess whether a
customer experienced an event or not, rather than assessing how a consumer
feels about an experience. This events-based assessment of consumer experiences
produces a set of "yes and no" answers for each operational event.
We then build a satisfaction model that simultaneously relations each event and
it's contribution to customer satisfaction. This statistical analysis prioritize
each event. At the end of the study, managers are given a map of the
relationships and a ranked order list
of events based on the frequencies with which consumers experience a positive event or
negative event, and how important that event is in driving satisfaction.
Important events that drive satisfaction and which have more than an average
number of problems become operational priorities.
We feel the events-based approach and
analysis is more useful to managers than a traditional measurement of attitudes
and evaluations of experiences. The events-based gives managers clear direction
because it is focused not on how people feel, but on the frequency of concrete and measurable consumer experiences and
correctly prioritizing these experiences in terms of the degree to which they
impact past behavior and willingness to repeat behavior.
Because we are dealing with
concrete, measurable events, and not attitudes, we can more easily quantify the
dollar impact of managing the frequency of positive and negative consumer event
experiences. Thus, FPi- Events Based Satisfaction Measurement offers the extra
advantage of a financial payback model. This is critically important because the
cost of fixing a problem may be more than the return. In the financial payback
model, we take the costs of fixing an operational deficiency, set the level of
success desired, and produce scores that show the amount of positive consumer
behavior that would result and the ultimate return on the investment. This helps
managers prioritize actions based on their financial payback to the
organization.
