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Vision Critical’s Chief Panel Officer to Help Clients Generate Superior Panel Results

Posted on October 14, 2008
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AMD and Bloomingdales Share Panel Best Practices at MRE

Posted on October 14, 2008
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The Value of Panels and Communities in a Market Downturn

Custom panels and private communities provide a number of advantages you can leverage during these tough economic times. The big ones are saving money, retaining customers and generating revenue.  We’ve assembled a list from our experience to highlight some of the key benefits.

Save Money
Clients have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. A national ISP saved between $200k and $300k by conducting research with their online panel.  In the first six months a National Grocery Chain was able to field roughly $200K worth of customer research at a cost savings of $115K.

Retain Customers
In a downturn, companies will focus more on their customers than on their prospects for the simple reason that it's easier to make money from existing customers than to spend money acquiring new ones. What better than to use your panel or community to find out what they want.

Generate Revenue
One of our clients, a large bookstore experienced a 400% sales lift by changing from employee to panel/reader recommended titles.  The company also experienced an average promotional lift between 8% and 26% through one quarter. Key findings from a fast food restaurant’s panel show that new menu designs with more photos would increase sales by two to three percent.

Gain Efficiencies
Many companies begin looking at cutting expenses and becoming more cautious. Your panel or community can help with evaluating options to decisions that need to be made right.  Gut-check your ideas before making the investment to go to market.

Future Proofing
Invest today and, even if we are doing the survey programming for you, know that if your budget is reduced, you can take it on yourself to and save some money.

Flexibility
Panels and community provide the vehicle to generate both qualitative and quantitative research.  They provide the platform to conduct an incredible amount of research during like attitudes and usage, ideation, ad testing, customer satisfaction, and share of wallet studies.

If you’d like to speak with one of our industry experts on how a custom panel of private community can help during a downturn, contact Caroline Hickton.

Posted on October 10, 2008
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Seven Ways to Recession-Proof Market Research WIth Panel

Way back in March of this year, but very relevant today, Ted Schadler from Forrester identified 10 ways that consumer and business-to-business (B2B) market research professionals can beef up their practices within a recession.

Seven of those recommendations can be tied directly or indirectly to a panel or private community.

1.    The first one being if you haven’t already got a panel or community, then get one.  

2.    Reduce your sample sizes based on the level of confidence needed in the results. Again for those with their own panel this is a non issue because you own the sample.

3.    In a downturn companies will focus more on existing customers because it’s easier to make money. This is perfect for those with a panel or community of their customers to study.

4.    Use your panel or community to test questions and hypothesis before fielding a study. The payoff is that you can lower your costs and minimize your risks of fielding a custom study.

5.    The best way to increase the value of a study is to get it into the hands of more people within the company. Harness Web 2.0 technology like panels and communities for research distribution.  

6.    Every product marketer or channel manager knows they can field her own survey online. Rather than fight this trend, be a center of excellence through the panel or community.

7.    Utilize omnibus survey space where it's available. Turn your panel into an omnibus that the entire company can use to conduct surveys to save money on multiple independent studies.

If you’d like to speak with one of our industry experts on how a custom panel of private community can help during a downturn, contact Caroline Hickton.

Posted on October 8, 2008
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Staying Connected with Consumers in Tough Economic Times

A recent article by Burt Helm in Business Week (“Best Global Brands” Sept 29, 2008) outlined how consumers change so much during a recession that they are often unrecognizable.  Consumers are more conscious about spending their hard earned money. When times get tough, people re-examine old habits and brand loyalties. Their tastes shift dramatically as they cut back.  

Panels and private communities show their real strength in an economic downturn by providing that instant insight into how customers are changing. They also provide a great resource to test new marketing, product or ad direction that would appeal to this new customer.

In Business Week’s annual ranking of the 100 Best Global Brands, several companies are keeping their US marketing budgets steady, relative to revenue. Some companies see the recession as the perfect moment to get a leg up on a weakened rival while others strengthen their brand to ward off discount competitors.  

If you’d like to speak with one of our industry experts on how a custom panel of private community can help during a downturn, contact Caroline Hickton.

Posted on October 2, 2008
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