A few examples of how we've helped some of our partners over the last couple of years
luxury sales team assessment
A luxury car manufacturer wanted to conduct a Customer Experience Assessment (Mystery Shopping) across its global dealer network. Their previous programme was failing to gain quality feedback, as it was an ‘off-the-shelf’ product which was not appropriate for this niche market and did not credibly reflect the typical luxury car buyer.
We designed a four-stage programme that ensured we had global stakeholder buy-in from the start, that the programme reflected the cultural and commercial requirements of different markets and that Assessors were credible in their own right - based on their personal background, image and scenario. The four-stage programme comprised:
• Stakeholder workshops across all global regions, interviewing regional leaders and dealership staff
• F2F shopper training in each region, including input from local clients and competitor test shops to practise scenarios
• Four-stage mystery shop (email, call, visit and follow-up) in 74 dealers across the world
• Individual dealer reports and regional action planning workshops to summarise feedback and develop next steps
• Our bespoke programme meant we were able to provide each dealer with detailed, valuable insight, which was tonally and culturally suited for their market and their customers/prospects – whilst being globally comparable
• Our shoppers were credible and rehearsed in appropriate scenarios so that they were not spotted and, thus, the feedback we could provide was based on real-life situations
• Dealers really bought into the findings and used it to help further train staff
• Several requests have been made for follow-up Assessments so that dealers can measure improvement
new product communications targeting
A major automotive brand were launching three new or renewed models over a short space of time. They wanted to ensure they had a unified brand approach but a very specific message for each audience, however the audiences were not defined. They also wanted to ensue that they maximised budget and did not repeat work for each model.
We designed a three-stage programme starting by analysing existing client data, then a Qual phase with consumers and B2B customers and finally a quantitative stage to measure effectiveness of various offers
- In Phase 1 we used our analysts to profile current owners and target conquest buyers for each of the 3 segments the client was launching into. Using 3 separate data sets: NCBS, MOSAIC and clients New Owner Survey we created 3 distinct profiles
- Phase 2 identifying key themes in those segments with desk research, we executed focus groups with each of the three segments splitting out current owners from core conquest targets toinvestigate key motivators, lifestyle and fleet buyer views
- Phase 3 measured reaction to proposed spec bundles, uptake and preferred activation techniques
Ultimately we ensured our client and their agencies we able to really understand the customer for each product, what united them in brand and what would help to make each model stand out.
• This provided the agencies with profiles to anchor and focus planning, strategy and creative.
• It added flavour to the comms plan and factory profiles, ensuring the local market was spoken to in an effective and appropriate manner.
• Ultimately the client launched one award winning product and two others that met or exceeded sales targets
global profiling - digital
A Major US Sports Property wanted to understand their potential customers in five key secondary markets: Brazil, Mexico, Spain, India and Japan. In order to ensure the digital platforms they were developing were as relevant – both functionally and culturally - and practical as possible. They wished to understand a myriad of different aspects of opinion, lifestyle, preferences and price sensitivity in each of those markets
• We designed a 2 stage process comprising an initial market sizing and profiling quantitative piece, followed by an online community to work through some of the proposals they developed as a result of the Quantitative study
• The Quant Study initially segmented respondents into pre-defined interest groups and then asked multiple demographic and attitude questions before moving to a process of defining preferred Product Aspects, the same study with some local tuning was employed in each of the 5 markets:
• The Community was then executed on the same platform by local language moderators all from our office in London, all undertaking the same tasks simultaneously and feeding back in real time to ensure follow ups were checked for cultural variance
• The Client discovered not only what key features to include in their next wave of product development, they also discovered which of those elements were requirements and which were premium opportunities and the projected revenue related to that – thus they could attach finance levels to that attribute, prioritise it and budget for development
• They also found out not only what but why various different stylistic and technical elements worked in each market and how vital each was given the uptake vs revenue opportunity
• Finally they developed and launched a set of widely appreciated and highly popular products that met their uptake expectations
product development clinics
A Major Global Automotive Brand was launching a completely redesigned product into Europe, a market traditionally weak for their brand. They wanted to gain detailed product feedback as well as sufficient choice and pricing data – from qualified respondents - to be able to perform market simulations and thus plan volumes for budget and factory planning purposes. Three key markets were identified: Italy, Germany and France – with the UK avoided due to perceived expense
We pitched to a tightly designed brief, against two European market leaders in Automotive market research.
•The project was to execute a three day clinic in three cities over three consecutive weekends, each location having nearly 300 respondents taking a 2 hour interview with re-invite focus groups across the weekend.
• Each interview was CAPI interviewer led, with a Adaptive Choice Based Conjoint and 2 adjunct rooms.
• Focus groups were 2.5 hours longcovering product, brand and review of proposed communications in local language with simultaneous translation, live 2 camera mixing and big-screen 2 channel live playback to a client viewing room. Reporting out top line data one day after close of fieldwork per location, building to a final presentation development day at the Client factory 1 week after the close of all fieldwork
Utilising our deep sector knowledge, vast European network and agile low-overhead structure, we were able not only to secure the project on financial performance but significantly outperform previous suppliers in terms of project quality, timescales and client satisfaction.
• Significant elements of satisfaction was havingthe same knowledgeable, dedicated and honest team for every element of this non-stop 5 week project. High quality infrastructure provision from one central provider, with the same vehicles, data crew, AV crew and logistics management on every event. Dedicated indefatigable Analyst team demonstrating unremitting commitment to quality, integrity and delivery at every stage.
A UK leg was subsequently commissioned.