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1.Marketing/Promotional decision. A leading family style restaurant that competes with Denny’s, Bob Evans and Perkins, wanted to offer a take-home drinking glass promotion featuring Pittsburgh Steelers football players. For a nominal fee consumers could purchase a series of four drinking glasses. The chain was planning on imprinting 100, 000, 00 glasses and didn’t want to be left over with a large inventory that it couldn’t sell. Internally a strong debate was being waged about whether to include current stars or the Hall of Fame players. Only 115 telephone interviews were conducted with consumers to find which players they wanted to see on the glasses and how likely they were to make a purchase. The results overwhelmingly showed that the Hall of Fame players were favored. So that’s what the chain had imprinted. The promotion was very successful and sold out in just a few days, exceeding everyone’s expectations.
2.Customer Satisfaction and brand-reputation assessment.A small manufacturer who makes programmable stampers to mark pipes, steel and other metal products wanted to find out what customers and prospects though about the company, its products and its service performance. The manufacturer had been noticing that some prospects and customers were not aware of its new products and services. The company wanted to figure how it should focus its marketing and communication efforts. A total of 50 telephone interviews were completed, half with current customers and half with prospective customers. The interviews were blind and did not reveal the sponsor of the survey. Questions focused on who respondents thought were leaders within the industry and what they thought of each of the manufacturers who produced similar equipment. The company found out that it was the “Cadillac” of the industry, primarily because it had machines built 20 or 30 years ago that were still working well. The problem was it didn’t want to be a Cadillac it wanted to be Mercedes. And thus used the snapshot survey results to create a plan to rebrand its image.
3.Creating a Strategy to launch a product. A large manufacturer of gas-detection equipment primarily used in HVAC settings wanted to enter the automotive air-conditioning repair market, but didn’t know the best approach or what to charge for its product. Historically air-conditioner repair technicians used dye testing to find the leaks, because the electronic equipment is unreliable. The manufacturer was convinced that their sensors were superior and could perform than those of its competitors. The manufacturer was initially planning to offer this electronic device through automotive parts stores and distributorships and package the product with add-ons such as a flashlight, a rubber boot to hold the tool and a hard plastic carrying case. In two days, 25 air-condition repair technicians were interviewed. The results showed that mechanics prefer (1) to buy from tool trucks that come to their locations (not automotive distributorships) and (2) have strong opinions concerning the packaging of the instruments. The findings were used not only to package the product but to create a marketing plan and launch the product.
4.Gathering feedback from a senior advisory panel. To convince business leaders to relocate to Pennsylvania, former governor Tom Ridge, who later became the head of homeland security, created and economic advisory panel of about 30 business leaders from major companies across the state, calling the group and program TeamPA. The idea was that if the state made itself more business-friendly and would help bring companies, jobs and more prosperity to Pennsylvania. The executives served as the sounding board for many of the program’s ideas, strategies and marketing materials but getting them together frequently in a central location was a significant challenge. So the snapshot survey was used many times to gather their feedback, which helped to transform the image of the Commonwealth and convince more businesses and workers to relocate to the state.
5.Persuading Millionaires to purchase financial investments. One of the nation’s largest banks used a snapshot survey to interview a 100 high-net –worth individuals about what they look for and want from private banking services. What are their hot buttons? What they are not getting from their current bankers and what they would like to be getting? Answers to questions like these helped the bank create marketing strategies for reaching these wealthy individuals, as well as find ways to describe how the bank’s services are substantially better than those of its competitors. Incidentally you cannot buy a list of millionaires but you can purchase list of people who have bought expensive products or services such as yachts, European sports cars, mega-homes and other big-ticket items. By merging multiple databases, you can find individuals who have made several significant purchases and, naturally needed to be a millionaire to do so.
6.Creating marketing messages. The snapshot survey can help you create marketing messages. When pitching to a large trucking manufacturer, a major jet manufacturer and many other companies to try and win their advertising business, five to ten interviews were enough to get an initial idea of what the target audience cared about. For example, buyers who purchase truck fleets were asked about how their trucks stacked up against other brand such as International and Freight Liner. Jet purchasers were asked about how their planes compared to other players. The results provide clues about the kinds of messages that made an impact of these audiences.
7.Gathering distributor, dealer and sales representative perspectives. Many businesses sell their products and services through distributors, dealers, independent sales reps, agents and others.One leading property and casualty insurance company used the snapshot survey to talk regularly with its agents about marketing, territory, promotions and other issues. The snapshot survey helped include their perspectives and ensured that a cross section of agents were the ones giving feedback not just those who were disgruntled or who had an axe to grind.
8.Listening to employees. The snapshot survey can help you listen more closely to your employees, especially if you have ten or more. A national non-profit organization used a snapshot survey to ask 40 of its employees in one of its regional offices how they thought things were going. Included were about assorted issues, for instance, the amount of communication, the direction of the company, management effectiveness, and training needs. The results were used to help identify where improvements could be made to help everyone do their jobs more effectively and to understand the overall direction of the organization.
9.Developing a new product or service. The snapshot survey can help you asses whether your ideas about a new product or service will fly with the people that you want to buy those products or services. A university used the snapshot survey to test the viability of offering three new majors- one each in the sciences, performing arts and professional services. Interviews with potential students, industry professionals and possible employers were completed to learn what they thought of each major and what potential each major may have. As it turned out in this case, one of three majors looked very strong, one looked like a bomb and the other one was a risk , but doable. Simply deciding to move ahead with all three without testing them would have brought a lot of angst and frustration, not to mention financial difficulty when not enough students could be recruited or couldn’t be placed once they received their degrees.
10.Refining a product or service offering. When customers have a lot of options to choose from, what is it going to take to get them to choose your product or service over someone else’s? A leading engineering association used the snap shot survey to plan specific programs within some of its major conferences. By asking members what they’d like to see covered and where they wanted the conference to be focused, the association was able to better design those conferences and attract the right people. Without it, members and industry professionals would have been tempted to go to a competing show or not at all.
Lloyd Corder is a brilliant market research mind. His book “The Snapshot Survey” is a great source of inspiration and underpins the right mindset an organization needs to have, when conducting any aspect of marketing.
“The Snapshot Survey” is Lloyds’ tried and tested approach to conducting market research that has a huge sucess rate since its application.
Pure Survey frequently adopts his sound research methodologies when conduction our campaigns.
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