You’ll be surprised at your “return” on the investment.

Set the framework
The biggest problem companies run into when considering market research is related to organization. There are so many options available when it comes to collecting and analyzing data that marketing managers unfamiliar with research are quickly and easily overwhelmed.

Rather than looking at all of the options and their related costs, I suggest clients start on the other end of the project and identify the questions they have about their clients, markets or competitors and determine the value of knowing the answers. Be as specific as possible.

Once the scope of the research has been determined, clients need to decide how much of this they want to take on themselves and how much they want to delegate to an outside expert. The cost of an expert is relatively easy to determine (they’ll give you an estimate or proposal), but the cost of conducting research with in-house personnel is more difficult. You have to consider not only the actual costs incurred related to your in-house persons’ salary, benefits and overhead but you also need to consider the opportunities lost because of the in-house person’s commitment to the research project.

It’s surprising how, once an honest assessment of costs is done, an outside expert is preferred.

Whether it’s provided by an outside expert or determined by an in-house committee, a framework for the research needs to be determined. This means an action plan has to be set with clear objectives, detailed tactics, deadlines and budgets. Remember, every tactic has a cost associated with it – either in hard dollars or time required or both. Be sure to document this and continue whittling away at the scope of work until you feel comfortable the scope can be met given the cost and time required.

From that point forward, all that’s required is implementation.

Collect the data
This is usually the most expensive part of the process. Data collection can consist of everything from conducting focus groups in remote locations to distributing surveys by e-mail. Secondary research may require site visits or trips to research libraries. We do a lot of phone interviewing, finding the one-on-one interaction with people who fit in our clients’ target to be very helpful.

Data collection typically takes the most time. But if it’s done well (and usually conducted or supervised by the person responsible for the analysis and recommendations), the data collected can often provide additional insights that go far beyond the scope of work.

One thing to keep in mind (and it will help you save money): Data collected for previous/other research projects may hold some of the critical information you require. Make sure you have a complete understanding of what information is readily available from this and similar in-house sources.

Put it into context
Although data collection can be the most expensive part of the process, it’s the analysis (where data is turned into information) that adds the value. Conducting analysis in-house is tough, especially for small and mid-sized companies. Why is that? Because objectivity is paramount.

Research specialists can be retained on a freelance basis to evaluate data and provide insights. But beware, if you’re considering a specialist for this phase of the project, you need to make sure the specialist you select is involved in setting the framework for the data collection and after action. That way, you’ll be able to tap into the entire range of knowledge and expertise offered by the expert.

One of the things we do that helps put everything into context is we review our preliminary findings with media representatives we trust. Trust is meant in both senses: journalists we trust to have their finger on the pulse of the industry and journalists we trust to not blab our findings before we’re ready. (You can find more about partnering with the media in the Media Advisor blog.)

The last step in this analysis phase is to help tie the research and its findings to the day-to-day operations and long-term vision of the company/brand. These recommendations are intended to have a definitive impact on the company and its brand(s). And even if the client doesn’t want to act on all (or any) of the recommendations, they should (in the very least) trigger an informed debate that will help the company improve and the brand increase in value.

Act on your findings
The last, and most important, step in this whole process involves putting knowledge into action.

It’s not enough to just know what’s happening. By creating action plans that leverage that knowledge, a client is able to make informed decisions on business strategy, market development, customer management and a wide range of other issues that have a direct impact on the bottom line.

Action is important. Measurement of that action (and what results) is also important. The results of those actions can become the initial data required for another round of market research and business activity that fosters’ the clients’ agenda and business mission.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Branding, Market Research, Customer Relationships, Vendor Relationships, Employee Training, Sales Training, Informed Decision Making

(c)2006, Brand Central Station – all rights reserved. To learn more about Brand Central Station, please visit our website.

When you start
The key to starting the development of your corporate collateral strategy is “focus.”  You need to build concensus among your managers concerning the following:

• Identify your target audiences, what they believe and how they view your company, product and services.

• Focus in on the things about your brand, your products and services that make a difference to your target audience(s).

• Draft messages that clearly and succinctly present your brand’s key messages to each audience.

Identifying the right pieces for your marketing “kit”
The post continues to provide a great rundown of the types of pieces that might be included in your collateral strategy.  Elements include:

• Pocket folder.  A “toolbox” for all your marketing tools.

• Product and Services List. What seems obvious to you, may not be obvious to your audience.

• Customer Testimonials. Include testimonials from some real-life satisfied customers.

• Case Studies. Case studies are an ideal way to explain to potential customers what kinds of problems you solve.

• Process Description. Show your clients what your model or process looks like.

The blog post goes on to provide additional, out of the box suggestions as well as some tips on producing your own collateral, how to participate in trade shows and more.

As marketers and sales people, we all know that companies now employ increasingly sophisticated means to avoid receiving “Spam”. And, since spam has come to dominate email on the Internet, it’s no wonder.

Internet historians believe that the first spam email was sent on May 1st, 1978, by a DEC marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States. The general reaction was one of annoyance, and it hasn’t abated since. In 2001, only 5% of email on the Net was spam. By 2003 this figure had risen to 50%. Then, by 2004 it was 70%. By 2007, almost 90% of business email was characterized as “Spam”.

One line of defense is to buy your email marketing lists from providers who understand the nuances of spam blocking. One low-tech way that companies use to dodge your email is to frequently alter and/or use multiple syntaxes in email address construction. For example, Jamie.Bloomquist@thelistinc.com is an email syntax that suggests that everyone at The List Inc. has an email address consisting of Firstname.Lastname@thelistinc.com.

But that’s not always – or even often – the case. A study of several thousand major brands in The List Online database, determines that major brands frequently change, mix and multiply the syntaxes of their employee email address, in an effort to stay a few steps ahead of spammers.

For example, in a study by The List Online, it was determined that Proctor & Gamble uses 5 distinctly different email syntaxes. Coca Cola currently uses 7 different formats. Microsoft Corporation also uses 7 different syntaxes. General Motors uses three.  These syntaxes can also vary based on job functionality; for example brand managers will differ from marketing directors who will differ with CMO’s.

What does this mean to you? First, it means that deliverable email is getting increasingly difficult to count on as a marketing vehicle. CAN-SPAM Compliance has limited marketers’ options dramatically. Add to that the increasing proclivity for companies to utilize multiple syntaxes and formats and it means that accuracy in sourcing your email lists is essential.

With B2B opt-in email address lists going for $1 per record to as high as $7 per record, depending on the broker, it’s essential that you ask your list broker about multiple syntaxes and address construction formats. If they don’t know, chances are the email list is both filled with junk addresses and violates CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. You don’t want to spend that kind of money on a list that is both in violation of the Law, and, grossly inaccurate. Make sure you know how often your broker verifies email address lists both for syntax and CAN SPAM.

Visit the Sales Intelligence Solutions website

Localeze provides the standardization of local search listings needed to create a consistent anchor identity for businesses, including name, address and phone number (NAP), on local search and social platforms, including Twitter. Localeze’s process of managing and enhancing listings allows businesses to directly take control of their online identity by providing a new level of access, governance and consistency.

“Local search business listings are one of the foundational pieces of context adding insight to social media interaction as they give users critical information about nearby places,” said Jeff Beard, president, Localeze. “For exploding social platforms like Twitter, it is essential to share where conversations are taking place so that consumers can fully engage with local businesses.”

To access Twitter Places, users need to enable Twitter’s “tweet with your location” feature and click “add your location.” Selecting the location populates a list of nearby Twitter Places offered by Localeze.

Localeze currently provides 14 million local search business listings, including nearly 600,000 verified and managed by local businesses to more than 90 local search platform and application partners.

About Localeze
Localeze is the largest business listings identity management provider for local search.  As a trusted partner, Localeze maintains direct, authorized relationships with local search platforms, national and regional brands, channel partners and local businesses. The company provides businesses essential tools to verify, manage and enhance the identity of their local listings across the Web. Through these relationships and access to authoritative local business information, Localeze is the largest provider of trusted, enhanced online local business listings in the local search industry. Localeze is a privately held company headquartered in Vienna, Virginia. For more information visit www.localeze.com.

Count me among the 11%.

June 15, 2010 -  The online press release has taken on much more significance than the old school 20th Century version. In the old days (say, 5 -10 years ago), PR agencies and in-house staff cranked out paper press releases and dutifully distributed them via regular mail to slightly overwhelmed, slightly interested reporters.

Man, have things changed – for the better!

Today, PR-educated publicity seekers (you), can not only get your fair share of the publicity-pie, you can now take your info directly to the public.

Reality: If you don’t know what you’re doing in writing and distributing your shiny new press release, you can waste a ton of time and effort.

Why reinvent the wheel?

Solution: Here’s a new, state-of-the-art, no-cost whitepaper:

“Writing Great Online News Releases: How to Release Your News Across the Web to Get the Best Results”.

The whitepaper includes the following essential topics:

• Before you write your release – a list of do’s and don’ts;
• Best practices for every element of your release: the headline, lead paragraph, body, boilerplate, contact info;
• How to optimize your online news release for web searches;
• A list of popular press release topics;
• A final checklist for formatting your release

Download it here.

Everyone is talking about the mobile Internet and how more and more consumers are browsing and using lots of apps anywhere they and their mobile phones happen to be. Are cell phone owners also becoming more comfortable buying things with their phones? If not, what would make them more likely to shop with their phones? This Retrevo Pulse Study looked at consumers and mobile commerce and found many willing shoppers ready to make purchases with their phones.

Consumers Are Warming to Mobile Commerce
In February of 2010, a Retrevo Pulse studyfound almost 10% of the respondents indicating they had purchased something with their cell phones. Four months later, with a different sample, that number had doubled to 20%. The bad news is that a little less than half the respondents have never purchased anything with their phone and have no plans to do so in the future. The better news is the 27% that haven’t bought anything yet but indicate they will in the future. That leaves about 20% who purchased something through their phone.

Apps Make Shopping Easier
Apps make everything so much easier and more fun, and that includes shopping. Retrevo found that nearly 42% of those who have shopped with their phones said they have used apps to make purchases. When we looked at gender and smartphone owners we weren’t surprised to see male mobile shoppers outnumbering females and iPhone owners leading the pack.

Credit Cards Might Be Getting in the Way
Note to retailers: if you want more sales from mobile customers, make it easy for them to store their credit card info and while you’re at it, keep your eye on retailers like Amazon with innovations like PayPhrase or Mobile Payments Service that might take some of the friction out of online or mobile transactions.

Visa vs. Verizon
If retailers can’t get the credit card out of the way, how about the carriers? Will we see AT&T or Verizon get into the mobile payment business? The idea seems to be popular in Japan where the dominant carrier, NTT DoCoMo offers a mobile wallet with their handsets. And what about Apple or Google; they’re building huge collections of credit cards. Will we see an Apple Bank spin out of the iTunes Store?

Conclusion
Mobile commerce is here and gaining ground fast as mobile devices and apps make it easier for consumers to press the “buy” button. Despite its growing popularity, we have to wonder if consumers might be apprehensive about transferring credit card info using their phones. If retailers want more business from smartphone toting shoppers they’ll need to improve the process.

About Retrevo Pulse Report
The Retrevo Pulse Report is an ongoing study of people and electronics from the consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo.com. The data for this report came from a study of online individuals (non-Retrevo users) conducted by an independent panel. The sample size was over 1,000 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the United States. Most responses have a confidence interval of 4% at a 95% confidence level.

Shopping On-The-Go?
Coincidentally, Retrevo Has a Mobile Shopping Service called RetrevoQ, Anyone can send a tweet or SMS text message to Retrevo’s mobile shopping service and get back a message telling them whether or not it is a good deal and what would be a fair price to pay.

June 14, 2010 – Oakland, Calif. – Today, any brand can create an engaging, robust Facebook fan page within minutes and at a cost that is less than one tank of gas, with a new, disruptive platform launched by North Social (www.northsocial.com), an offshoot of Oakland-based Incubator North Venture Partners.

The powerfully simple suite of applications for Facebook enables any brand, big or small, to run viral social media-based promotions, upload photo showcases, create a unique landing page, connect to Twitter and Yelp, link to e-commerce sites, offer coupons and sweepstakes, and more. The North Social Facebook platform launches with fifteen applications, which can all be installed with a single user account, starting at only $29/month.

“Facebook has become the most powerful way for brands to reach their audience, but not every brand has the budget or technical expertise to harness its capabilities,” said Alex Bernstein, Partner, North Venture Partners. “We’re pleased to give brands, agencies and consultants simple tools that remove all obstacles to jumping into the social media revolution.”

The easy-to-use North Social Facebook platform allows any brand with a fan page to install all fifteen custom page applications within minutes. Each application comes with a control panel which allows the features and content on the page to be quickly customized by the user. This unique content management interface enables users to create, update, and manage multi-tab promotional pages at a fraction of the cost of what web developers typically charge to create a single static page.

To see the North Social applications in action, visit their website.

About North Venture Partners
North is a brand-centric incubator that builds, launches, and accelerates the growth of innovative brands, products, and spin out companies. To learn more about North and how they identify and capture disruptive growth opportunities, visit their corporate website.

(from The Daily Dog)
Adam Ritchie Brand Direction Named Global Communications Agency for Nuna
Kodak Taps Catalyst to Launch KODAK i4000 Series Scanners
Warschawski Named the “Best Small Agency to Work For” in the U.S.
Westbound Communications Wins a Silver Anvil Award
Young & Rubicam Named Agency Network of the Year by the New York Festivals

Denali Marketing, a fast-growing full-service marketing agency with a focus on loyalty, merged with OLSON, an independent, privately held agency. With the addition of Denali Marketing, OLSON is now one of the top 10 independent full-service marketing agencies in the United States, delivering one of the most comprehensive integrated offerings in the country. The merged companies are forming a new specialty discipline of OLSON called OLSONdenali. In an interview with the Star Tribune, OLSON founder and Chairman John Olson said, “The combined firm expects to do $50 million in revenue this year, up from Olson’s mid 30’s in 2009.” AdMedia advised Denali in this transaction.

Prior to this transaction, AdMedia advised OLSON in its partnership with KRG Capital Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm. This partnership assisted in the recapitalization of OLSON, critical to the management’s plans for continued growth and completion of a successful merger with Denali Marketing. AdMedia advised OLSON in this transaction.

These back-to-back transactions underscore the ongoing growth opportunities for marketing services agencies, which are attracting both strategic and financial buyers, thereby creating attractive valuations for differentiated business models, demonstrated track records and strong financials.

AdMedia Partners is a leading M&A advisor that provides middle market mergers and acquisitions advisory services to digital and traditional media, marketing and information businesses. Founded in 1990 and located in New York City, our firm has completed over 175 transactions worth over $7 billion since 1999.

For more information on AdMedia Partners, look them up on the web at www.admediapartners.com.