Research is expensive. Whether you’re in the lab (measuring the properties of your new polymer, for example, or the selectivity of the catalyst you just invented) or out in the marketplace (testing consumers’ reaction to your new product prototype or measuring customers’ level of satisfaction with you and your competitors), you’re spending precious time and dollar$.
Here are 5 Rules of Research Strategy that will assure you get a handsome ROI from your research investment, whether you’re in the lab or out in the marketplace.
1. Precisely define the business problem you need to solve or the business opportunity you’re trying to capture. Is solving this problem sufficiently important and valuable to justify the resources you’ll need to solve it?
2. Specify the information – technical, market, competitive, etc – that you must gain to be able to resolve the problem or realize the opportunity. What are the key questions your research must answer?
3. Identify key information sources. What resources and which people are most likely to have the information you’ll need? How will you know that the information you’re getting is objective, reliable, and complete?
4. Develop a detailed ‘experimental design’. What methodologies – what experimental plan – will most effectively extract, organize, and make sense of the information you need? How will you actually execute your ‘experimental design’?
5. Organize and present your research results in a way that maximizes their impact on solving the problem or realizing the opportunity. How can you work with the rest of the team to make sure your results are most effectively integrated into the solution?
An independent consultant – like Marketing Intelligence & Strategy Assoc – can bring you the specialized expertise you need to optimize your Research Strategy, design and execution.
Tags: consultant, research, ROI
A Reader on a Linked-In group posed a question about the ‘external factors’ which have such decisive effect on the business success. Here’s how I answered ….
Understanding and creating a plan to manage these external factors is the chief reason (in the business world, at least) for doing research.
Research – whether it’s in the lab or in the marketplace – is intended to make your business more successful and profitable, by:
– Increasing your understanding about the relevant external factors and the ways they can impact your business.
– Providing insights and wisdom for strategies which effectively deal with the most threatening external factors – and to take full advantage of the most favorable trends.
Following the 5 steps outlined in my original post assures that you will derive the greatest benefit from the time, money and effort you invest in research, by making sure that you focus squarely on …
– The issues that make a real difference to the success of your business
– The sources, data, and analyses most critical to solving your business problem or capturing the business opportunity
– Results and recommendations that clearly illuminate the key decisions that your business leaders must make.