|
Research Services
TMC has established itself as an experienced marketing research firm
providing many different kinds of marketing research and planning assistance. Whether your market is located across the planet, or in your backyard, your
firm can benefit from the valuable information that applied research provides.
For further information on each of TMC's market research services, click on the
buttons above.
Marketing/Sales
Back
to top
A variety of research and consulting programs are available at TMC, all of
which are geared to helping organizations maximize their marketing potential.
The base of every good marketing plan is solid information. TMC links
their marketing research with sound professional advice to assist your
organization - regardless of how big, how small or how unique your firm
is.
Each of TMC's programs is a well rounded program based on sound research and
years of professional marketing expertise. Click on one of the buttons
above to find out more about TMC's Sales and Marketing services.
Imagine what it would be like to have all of your prospecting done for
you. Your firm would practically run itself! Research has
shown that it can cost up to $200.00 for a single sales call. This happens
because talented sales people may have to spend days finding qualified
leads.
A qualified lead is a prospective buyer that not only has a need for
your product, they are also motivated to buy. Match making services
are offered by TMC to provide qualified sales leads for your selling
force.
Leads can be obtained from anywhere in the world where your firm does
business. It can also be a great way to open international
markets. TMC has conducted match making services in North American,
European and Asian markets. Contact TMC for more information on how
match making can work for your firm.
Mystery shopping is a specialized research program which uses
professional researchers, disguised as customers, to investigate a firm
and its competition. Many companies and government service providers
employ TMC's mystery shoppers to evaluate customer service.
TMC's shoppers have made travel reservations, shopped in retail stores
and even dined in restaurants. They have evaluated customer service from a
shoppers' point of view all across North America.
TMC keeps a network of consultants across Canada and the United States
to evaluate customer service of many service providers and call centres.
There is no clearer way to get detailed feedback on your customer service
and that of competitors. For more information on how mystery shopping can
work for your organization, contact TMC.
TMC has several programs combining research and professional advice,
all of which are designed to help your organization to increase customer
service, and sales. Customized programs are also
available.
The Customer Service Study:
- This study was especially designed to meet the unique needs of
companies which strive to improve their customer service. This study may
involve the use of customer surveys, mystery shopping or focus groups,
combined with industry data. The ultimate goal of the customer service
study is to enable clients to serve their customers better in the
future. The customer service study delivers up to six different
strategic elements to help you develop an effective customer service
plan.
Customer Service Index:
- Using a numerical rating scale, each customer gives a score for sales
staff, product quality, pricing, invoicing, after sales service, and
product availability. A score is then calculated for the firm. This
score can be used as a benchmark for future studies to measure customer
service improvement. This approach is also used to measure customer
service in a call centre environment, where it can also be linked to
fulfillment measures.
Competition Analysis:
- A review of customers' shopping habits reveals what they buy from the
competition. This study also examines perceived differences that exist
between the client and its competitors in the eyes of customers.
Sales and Service Analysis:
- Using data available from the client's accounting system, along with
client feedback, an analysis is conducted on the percent of purchases
that a customer buys, relative to their total product needs. This
provides immediate feedback on sales that may be going elsewhere. This
approach also provides feedback on the percent of customers which
account for the greatest percent of sales.
Market Development Analysis:
- The percent of market of the client's firm may be compared to the
total market by business sector. Using this information, along with that
generated by trade directories and primary interviews, market
opportunities may be noted for immediate prospecting and development.
Product Development Analysis:
- Customer surveys address the types of products which they must
purchase elsewhere, or feel that they must purchase elsewhere. This
information provides valuable feedback on company image, as well as
immediate opportunities for cross selling existing lines, or obtaining
new lines to sell to new current customers.
Referral Marketing Analysis:
- An important way of developing business is through referral leads, or
word of mouth promotion. The nice thing about word of mouth promotion is
that it presells the business before initial contact is ever made. This
part of the study allows a firm to see how often clients refer them, why
they refer or why they don't, and what incentives would attract them to
refer more often. This way, a firm can grow without having to convert
new customers. The cost of selling to existing customers is much
less than converting new customers. This approach can also be used
to facilitate data mining and relationship marketing.
The Marketing Clinic has access to a network of experienced freelance
associates who have created effective promotions for firms and charitable
organizations (many of them TMC clients). Associates include creative and
design specialists, public relations agents, media buyers and scheduling
agents, award winning journalists and graphic artists. The team also
provides complete television production and promotional video support for
clients with all sizes of promotional budgets.
TMC can provide complete promotional planning, from idea generation
through to production, for organizations of all sizes. TMC can also
provide public relations planning, including press mediation, press
release preparation, desktop publishing and image management.
Detailed company screenings can be used to identify the most efficient
means of moving goods to and from foreign markets. Also, intermediaries
may be granted a preliminary screening to determine their interest in
carrying your products.
Major competitors can be identified through trade research and
background information. This provides sufficient knowledge about products,
prices and market share to facilitate the decision about whether or not to
enter the foreign market
Screening those already in the market (customers and intermediaries),
combined with background research, allows TMC researchers to pinpoint
issues such as tariffs, quotas and other constraints, all of which can
impact the shipment or impede the sale of goods in the host country.
Some foreign nations require partnering with a host company in order to
enter their markets. In other cases, partnerships make sense for firms
considering entering foreign markets. TMC can assist by providing a
shortlist of potential partners for international market
development.
Occasionally, clients wish to identify potential intermediaries in
local, regional, national or international markets. Company screening
interviews can be done by The Marketing Clinic. Or, performance analysis
can be done on a firm's existing distribution system.
TMC has conducted distribution studies across Europe, the Middle East,
North and South America, Oceania, Asia and the Caribbean. For more
information about distribution studies, contact TMC.
- Strategic
Planning Back
to top
If your firm has been in business for awhile it is important to know
how effectively your product or service is competing with others in your
industry. The strategic marketing study provides valuable information
with which to fine tune, or revamp, your marketing plan.
Do not wait until your firm is losing ground before conducting such a
study. The real value in doing this research is to give you the
information you need to keep on top of your game in the marketplace. The
strategic marketing study gives you everything you need to know to
position your firm to maximize its market potential.
Positioning studies provide businesses with detailed information
about their customer base, their competitors' offerings and their own
strengths and weaknesses. This enables firms to design cost-effective
and highly targeted strategies to deflect demand from competitors.
TMC can complete these studies around the world.
This study delivers three critical kinds of information:
Competition Analysis:
- Allows you to learn about your competitors' marketing strategies,
strengths and weaknesses, sales and market information. Following
completion of a competition analysis,you are likely to know more about
your competitors' market than your competitor does!
Market Analysis:
- Allows you to identify the measures used by buyers to determine their
satisfaction, uncover their needs, demographic profiles, and personal
characteristics which impact on sales.
Strategic Marketing Plan:
- This strategic marketing plan provides all of the information needed
for your firm to successfully approach the marketplace with its product
or service. This information allows you to design an effective marketing
strategy plan. This plan includes: target market selection,
product/service design, distribution and pricing decisions, and a
promotion plan. All recommendations are customized to meet the specific
market and financial needs for your organization.
Feasibility studies are conducted when you are considering opening a
new business, or adding a new line to an existing business. The goal
behind such studies is to determine whether or not the business is
"feasible" given current market conditions and the resources you
have to put into your business.
The market feasibility study can be completed for any market around the
world. The study provides detailed information about current service
offerings of competitors and market demand information. This information
is sufficient upon which to base a marketing plan which is geared to the
unique competitive situation facing the client's firm.
The feasibility study also provides:
- A Go/No Go Decision:
- An educated judgment, based upon primary data collection, financial
analysis and overall industry trends, as to whether or not the client
should proceed with the original business plan. Often, the original plan
may not be advisable, but a variation of the plan may provide a viable
business opportunity.
- A Return on Investment Analysis:
- Given sales figures from market research estimates, and whatever cost
figures the client can provide, a two-year financial summary will be
prepared which will estimate the rate of return the client should
receive from the business. This allows the client to evaluate the
business as an investment, relative to other investment opportunities.
- A Marketing Plan:
- A turnkey strategy that includes target market(s), product/service
features, pricing decisions, distribution channels, and a recommended
promotion plan. It is designed with the client's resources in mind to
ensure that start- up requirements fit within the client's budget.
Experiments
Back
to top
Experiments are studies which use scientific controls. Controlled
studies are completed when managers need to know how certain outcomes are
affected by managerial decisions. For example, has the new promotional campaign
increased sales or were sales impacted by something outside of the control of
management?
Controlled studies use experimental designs which are complex sampling
approaches used to control the measurement of different factors. TMC can help
you get more reliable information by designing and executing such a study for
your organization. If you do not know whether or not you need such a study,
contact TMC.
Focus
Groups Back
to top
Focus groups are discussion groups of up to a dozen people who have knowledge
of a particular product or service. The focus group is a "qualitative
method". This means that you cannot estimate results with the precision of
a large random sample. But, focus groups are useful for exploring complex
customer attitudes or opinions, testing advertising, products or customer
feedback.
TMC has conducted over 100 such groups in Atlantic Canada, covering markets
for grocery, day care, insurance, charitable giving, elder care, health care and
television programming. Experienced
moderators use a variety of techniques to draw out unbiased feedback from
respondents.
TMC has also assisted many consultants from across Canada by recruiting and
setting up their focus groups for them in Atlantic Canada. TMC's fees for
setting up focus groups are lower than those charged by other firms.
TMC charges less for focus group research than most of its competitors. TMC
does not charge a recruiting fee for focus groups that are conducted by its
consultants as long as the participants account for more than 5% of the
population. Even when recruiting fees are charged, they are lower than those
charged by other research firms. To learn how focus groups can help your firm, contact TMC.
Data
Processing Back
to top
TMC completes data collection, processing and analysis for its survey
clients, as well as other firms who are not equipped to do their own data
processing. TMC's data processing services include data coding, data entry, data
verification by 100% visual and mechanical audit, and data analysis.
Data analysis includes the statistical analysis of information using various
software programs. Only experienced market researchers complete data analysis
for TMC clients. The company president has over 20 years experience in data
analysis and applied statistics.
Data analysis can provide detailed results and probability information upon
which to base important business decisions. Analyses generally include
descriptive statistics, measures of association, analysis of variance, factor
analysis and various multivariate applications.
Survey
Research Back
to top
TMC has developed a reputation as a top-notch survey research centre. TMC
clients enjoy ready access to telephone surveys, mail surveys, Internet surveys
and intercept surveys in stores and shopping malls. Click on each of the links
above to learn more about survey research and how TMC can help your firm.
The telephone survey is the main survey method used by TMC's clients.
Completing the surveys by phone quickly increases response rates while
decreasing completion time and project cost. TMC's professional staff can design
surveys which are easy to understand and execute, using computer-assisted
surveying as required.
TMC's surveys are geared to collect a lot of information in a very short
period of time. Many large organizations and government departments have used
TMC's services for many years to conduct customer service studies and
feasibility projects.
TMC can complete telephone surveys in any country in the world. TMC currently
conducts thousands of surveys annually, with many involving foreign countries
such as the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, the Middle East,
Caribbean, South America, and Asia.
While mail surveys can be time consuming from start to finish, and response
rates can be low, it is the only way to collect a lot of information quickly. It
is also a useful method to gain personal information because respondents may
complete the survey in the privacy of their own homes. TMC frequently assists
firms by designing and executing mail surveys, or being the receive site for
mail surveys conducted by firms or government departments. Consider using a
professional firm for completing your mail survey. Often, having an objective
third party to receive and process your survey information can result in higher
response rates and more accurate results.
An intercept survey is administered by meeting with people in malls, stores,
or on the street to ask them questions of interest. This approach is most useful
when the respondent is completing an activity that you wish to know something
about. For example, the best place to ask someone about their shopping habits
may be in the supermarket.
TMC has interviewers available across Atlantic Canada and beyond, making it
possible to do intercept studies on a local, regional, national and
international basis
Social
Research Back
to top
TMC regularly collects data and provides complete research projects for
social and government agencies that need informatio to learn about human needs,
or to inform policy decisions. TMC has collected data for studies involving
drinking and driving, drug use, attitudes about climate change, recyling habits,
and issues impacting quality of life. TMC has also has a decade of political
polling experience.
|
