Before launching a new concept or product, marketing professionals first test it with a selected audience. A new product survey provides a way for marketers to understand when to start, modify existing ideas, how and who to market. Evaluating new products with online questionnaires provides a cost-effective way to obtain valuable information from the the people who matter most, the customer.
Businesses can take advantage of knowledge gain from online marketing surveys such as the new product survey to:
- Understand which benefits are most important to customers
- Which features are essential in delivering the product’s promise
- Identify customer’s needs
- Measure advertising and placement factors
- Understand how incentives, warranties, and bundling change price and value perceptions
If the concept being tested is for a new product, most of the responses are expected to be based on a perception of the product after reading. There are various theories on whether or not to reveal the company and the brand when exposing a concept or not.
New Concept Evaluation Survey
- Overall likeability
- Intention to purchase product after reading concept details
- Intention to recommend
- Credibility
- Uniqueness
- Perceived quality based on concept
- Key message recall
- Perceived benefits of the product or service
In all the studies mentioned above, capturing relevant demographic data is critical. Keeping a track of all the information areas that need to be covered in a survey can get extremely tough. To make sure that you do not falter and lose precious time and money in re-fielding a survey, check out this New Concept Evaluation Survey example from Mineful.
While there are a large number of studies that can be covered in the market research area and each survey will almost always have some unique survey specific questions, there are some areas of information that are common to brand awareness surveys.
The following matrix of information areas allows you to calculate the awareness, penetration, trial ratio and repeat ratio. These parameters can help in assessing the success of a new product launch.
Brand Awareness Survey
- Brand awareness in terms of top of mind, spontaneous and aided recall
- Claimed ad awareness for the brands
- Usage details – current usage, past 3 months, lapsed usage, repeat purchase
- Purchase details – when bought, quantity purchased, store bought from and the like
- Performance of product on specific attributes among users
- Diagnostic evaluation among users
- Reasons for non usage among those who are aware but have not tried the product
See our Brand Awareness Survey example.
Typically current brand ratings in a product evaluation survey are captured before the product is placed for usage. This is true especially if it is a new product or a modified version that is slated to be introduced in the market. The diagnostic ratings can help in tweaking some of the elements of the offering. Key survey questions to have in a product evaluation survey that will bring insight and actionable information to better the product, offering, messaging, and features include:
Product Evaluation Survey – Questions/Topics to Have
- Current brand/product usage details
- Overall evaluation of current brand
- Overall performance rating
- Overall satisfaction
- Likelihood to recommend
- Likelihood to use again
- Purchase intention without a price
- Reasons for the same
- Performance rating on specific product attributes
- Diagnostic rating for specific attributes (too sweet, just right, too salty)
- Comparison with current brand
- Purchase intention at a price
- Open ended questions to understand specific likes and dislikes
See our Product Evaluation Survey example template from our survey library.
In a customer satisfaction survey, typically the overall questions are used to arrive at a customer satisfaction index so that a single number can be used to compare products, stores, brands, or companies. If previous experience is lacking, one may need to arrive at the specific parameters of evaluation after conducting a small qualitative research with experts and customers in the industry. For example, broad areas covered in an employee satisfaction survey include compensation, work environment, policies, relationship with superior, estimate of future growth and the like.
A customer satisfaction survey may include aspects like responsiveness, attendant behavior and demeanor, performance, billing and more. A box plot of claimed importance and derived importance (calculated by regressing the performance of specific attributes with overall satisfaction) along with the performance on each attribute can actually tell you the whole story.
Customer Satisfaction Survey
- Overall satisfaction based on a typical 5 point scale
- Likelihood to recommend on a typical 5 point scale
- Likelihood of repeat purchase on a typical 5 point scale
- Assessment of competitive advantage
- Claimed importance of various parameters on a scale
- Assessment of performance for client brand/company and competition for the same set of attributes used in the importance question above
You can access any of the following customer satisfaction survey from our survey library, check them out:
- Customer Satisfaction Survey
- Customer Service Survey
- Customer Satisfaction Survey – for Service Firm
Over the next two weeks, we will have a series of posts that go in depth about Key Questions to Have in specific survey examples. In this post, we’ll introduce the topic and cover key steps in preparing to do research with a questionnaire.
The analysis that you do on the data collected is as good as the specific questions that you have asked and covered in a survey. It is therefore pertinent that the survey examples be crafted in a manner that covers all details that are required to analyze the data once all the responses are in. Survey examples help, but each research has its unique properties.
There are various newcomers in the area of market research that realize after the survey has been completed and closed that a certain piece of information has not been covered in the questionnaire. With no data on the parameter, certain kinds of analysis may not be possible. Simplistically speaking, if you have not asked the importance of a specific product feature understanding how importance varies by customer segment may not be possible.
It is therefore pertinent that the objective of the study be internalized completely. Most seasoned market research professionals decide on the specific analysis that they will perform to confirm or negate the marketing hypothesis before the launch of the survey. This allows for modifications to me made of required at a stage where no harm has been done. A what-if scenario, therefore, needs to be built in.
Key Steps in Preparing a Survey Questionnaire
- Go through the specific market research objectives
- Understand the broad areas of information that need to be asked like usage behavior, purchase details etc.
- Detail these further and jot down specific information points under each of the areas
- Make a rough analysis plan detailing the kind of analysis that you will want to carry out.
This includes simple univariate analysis of the frequencies and averages of the variable distributions along with the cross tabs and multivariate analysis that you may want to look at.
- Make sure that the format of the data that is being gathered is conducive to the kind of analysis that you envisage. This involves an understanding of the kind of data (ordinal, nominal, interval or ratio) that is required to run some specific analysis.
- Revisit the information areas and ascertain that you have covered everything.
- Move on to devise a questionnaire flowchart to ensure that the right respondent is answering the right question. This can help you in formulating the filters and the skip instructions better.
- Word each question in the questionnaire.
- Test the questionnaire on a dummy respondent and script it for an online study.
- Make sure that you test the link before launching the survey.
Survey Examples and Information Areas for Each
While there are a large number of studies that can be covered in the market research area and each survey will almost always have some unique survey specific questions, there are some areas of information that are common to specific survey examples.
Four of the most common market research studies that are conducted in the industry include a customer satisfaction survey, product evaluation studies, brand awareness studies and new concept evaluation studies. Here again, the questions may differ based on the kind of product test or concept test that one carrying out. For example, a sequential monadic product test will have a different flow to the questions asked as compared to a monadic design.
Stay tuned as we will deep dive into each of these four survey examples and provide you with specific and key questions to have in each of these survey examples.
It has been a difficult decade for the hospitality business. The awful events of September 11, 2001, led to a sharp decline in leisure travel. Just when business was getting back to normal, the economy turned sour, forcing both business and leisure travelers to cut back on their plans.
In an effort to cut costs to cope with the decline in business, some hotels have reduced staff and eliminated some amenities for guests. But at what point do such cutbacks threaten guest satisfaction and lead to even further erosion in business? How can hotels boost customer loyalty by focusing on improving things that guests really care about? Those are the crucial questions that hotels must consider as they try to control costs while at the same time keeping their guests satisfied.
Knowing what to cut
In February 2009, research company TNS conducted a survey of 2,500 adults to determine how cuts in hotel services might affect their choice of hotels (http://www.quirks.com/articles/2009/20090505.aspx). Specifically, the survey asked about five types of reductions in services:
- Reduced entertainment, such as free in-room access to premium movie channels
- Reduced to-door services, such as in-room checkout and delivery of newspapers.
- Reduced personal assistance, such as help with luggage.
- Reduced free amenities, such as hand lotion or mouthwash.
- Reduced hours for service for restaurants, hotel stores, or business centers.
The survey found that guests cared least about door-to-door services and personal assistance. In fact, most respondents said that cutting these items would have no effect at all on their choice of hotels. Since both of these services are staff-intensive, reductions in these areas could lead to significant savings without threatening hotel loyalty.
The survey also found that the biggest area of risk would be cutting free amenities. Over a third of respondents said that cutting amenities would affect their choice of hotels.
The bigger picture
This survey provides valuable information for hotels that are thinking of cutting back on services, but hotel satisfaction surveys can also serve a broader purpose. A well-designed survey can help a hotel boost guest satisfaction by identifying areas where services or amenities need to be improved. This link (http://hotel_satisfaction.nisurvey.com) will take you to a good hotel survey example.
This survey asks about a broad range of things, from ease of check-in to cleanliness of rooms. Many of these things can be improved without significant cost because they involve nothing more than a change in staff behavior. In fact, hotel market research has revealed that “employee performance” is the most important factor guests consider in differentiating one hotel from another (http://www.quirks.com/articles/2007/20071005.aspx). It also has a major impact on customer loyalty and repeat business.
Employee performance includes such things as:
- Efficiency
- Friendliness
- Hospitality
- Courtesy
- Promptness
- Responsiveness
The bad news is that recent hotel satisfaction surveys show a significant decline in these qualities. According to Hospitalitynet.org, “Guests did not feel as welcome, and staff friendliness scores were down. Guests also felt less pampered and less entertained during their stay.” The good news is that hotels can turn this situation around with a greater commitment to customer satisfaction and a relatively small investment in staff training.
Tight budgets are forcing many organizations to take a close look at the meetings and conferences they sponsor. While these events can be highly productive and worthwhile, they can also be expensive. Online surveys can help you plan and evaluate meetings and conferences so that you can make the most of the time and resources you put into these events.
Before, During, and After
If you have enough lead time, you can do a pre-meeting survey to help plan the event. For example, you might ask people what kinds of speakers they would like to hear, or what kinds of demonstrations they would like to see. If you are planning a trade show, you could ask what kinds of products and exhibitors people might be interested in. A pre-meeting survey can also give you an idea of how much time to devote to different topics.
If you have the resources available, you could conduct an online survey during the event itself by setting up kiosks in the exhibit area. The main value of this approach is that it gives you an immediate idea of how people are responding to the event, while the experience is still fresh in their minds. Completing a survey also gives people a break between attending presentations or visiting exhibitors.
Most surveys are conducted after an event. In general, the sooner you do the survey the better. People are more likely respond to a survey immediately after an event, and their responses are more likely to provide useful information. The farther away you get from an event, the more responses will be affected by the filter of memory.
The main purpose of conducting a survey after an event is to do a better job of planning similar events in the future. A survey can tell you which speakers people liked or disliked, which exhibitors they found most relevant, and which meals or social occasions they enjoyed the most. A survey can also give you useful information about the event itself — for example, what people thought about the venue, the registration process, and the schedule.
What to Ask
Unless you already have a good idea of who is attending your event, you will probably want to ask a few questions to create a profile of attendees. For example, you might ask, “Which industry does your company operate in?” or “What was your main reason for attending this conference?”
You will also probably want to ask about the event itself. For example:
• How would you rate the conference facility?
• How would you rate the ease of registration?
• How would you rate the conference publications?
As we have already seen, it is common to ask about the speakers, the program, and the exhibitors. This information is less important as an evaluation of the present conference than as a tool for planning other conferences in the future.
As with any survey, there is no point in asking a question about something that you would never consider changing. For example, if you are committed to holding future meetings at the same site, there is no reason to ask people to suggest a different one.
By the same token, you should try to make people feel that you are actually listening to their responses to your survey. For example, if the great majority of people found one of the speakers boring and uninformative, it would probably be a mistake to invite that person to speak at your next conference.
If you ask the right questions and you pay attention to the responses, surveys can help you plan events that almost everyone — including you — will consider worthwhile.
Whether you’re selling hot dogs or homeowners insurance, keeping your customers satisfied is essential to the survival and success of your business. Fortunately, the latest online survey software simplifies the task of collecting and analyzing data on customer satisfaction. These are powerful tools, but to use them most effectively you need to be careful not to define customer satisfaction too narrowly. Let’s take a broad look at this topic and then consider some specific aspects of customer satisfaction that you should probably be measuring.
Beyond Smiley Faces
Broadly defined,
customer satisfaction is a measurement of how well your product or service meets your customers’ expectations. If you are not meeting your customers’ expectations, they may start to look elsewhere for their hot dogs or homeowners insurance. If you are meeting their expectations fully, they are likely to stick with you, unless they think one of your competitors is offering something better. If you exceed their expectations, not only will they stick with you but they might even recommend you to their friends.
A customer satisfaction survey usually includes a general question like, “Overall, how satisfied are you with Henry’s Hot Dogs?” That’s not a bad question, but the information it provides is not all that useful. What does it mean if a customer gives your product four smiley faces rather than five? How will you use that information?
To get more valuable information out of a customer satisfaction survey, you need to be more specific. People have expectations about all sorts of things. An effective survey about homeowners insurance might ask customers how satisfied they are with your product in terms of:
• Price
• Ease of purchase
• Breadth of coverage
• Helpfulness of customer service personnel
• Explanation of policy terms
You might also ask customers which of those items is most important to them in deciding whose policy to buy. Then you can use a technique called multivariate analysis to determine which areas of customer satisfaction offer the greatest opportunities for improvement. For example, suppose that most customers thought “breadth of coverage” was “very important” but they were only “somewhat satisfied” with the coverage your policies offered. This would obviously be an area that you would want to address. (This is a simplified example. Multivariate analysis can actually produce much more sophisticated measurements of how different aspects of customer service are related.)
Measuring the Intangibles
It’s important to ask customers how they feel about the attributes or benefits of your products, but you can’t stop there. Purchasing decisions involve more than just an objective evaluation of competing products. These decisions are also affected by brand loyalty and other intangibles that can be difficult to measure.
One way to evaluate brand loyalty is to simply ask how long a customer has been using your products. You might also ask how often a customer chooses products from your competitors. A less direct approach is to ask customers to rate your products in terms of overall quality. This type of question will not give you detailed information, but it will tell you how customers feel about your products in general. You can also get a sense of this by asking two crucial questions:
• Do you think you will purchase our product the next time you need hot dogs?
• Would you recommend our products to friends?
Some marketers believe that the second question is essential in any customer satisfaction survey.
Keeping It Current
Markets are constantly changing. New competitors and new products may enter the field, and you may need to adapt to changes in the needs and expectations of customers. To keep up with these developments, you need to review your customer satisfaction surveys frequently to make sure you are asking the right questions.
Advertising effectiveness surveys help a business make the most of its advertising budget.
Advertising decisions have become extremely complicated. Many people — especially young people — spend more time online than watching television. But are online ads as effective as TV ads? And if a business decides to use TV ads, which of the hundreds of cable channels should it focus on? And what about the print media and outdoor advertising? What place do they have in a well-planned marketing campaign?
The answers to all these questions are different for different products and for different segments of the market. Marketers need reliable data to make informed decisions about their advertising budgets. Fortunately, online surveys provide an economical way to gather and analyze this information.
An advertising effectiveness survey can determine how consumers react to an ad, what they remember, how they felt afterwords, how the ad can be improved, and if the ad’s intention was served. A sequence of surveys can measure brand awareness before, during, and after a campaign. As with other types of online surveys, the results can be analyzed by age, gender, income, and other variables to ensure that ads are reaching the correct demographic group.
Some businesses rely on sales performance to gauge the effectiveness of their advertising. They assume that if they are doing better than their competitors, their ads must be working. This approach ignores the fact that sales are determined by a multitude of factors, including price, quality, and competition. A business may be doing well, but more effective ads could make its performance even better.
Savvy business owners know that marketing should begin long before their products hit the stores. Marketing should begin with the product itself, and with an in-depth understanding customer’s needs and preferences.
Powerful new questionnaire software gives businesses a revealing glimpse into the minds of potential customers. Market research surveys can help a business rethink product design, or maybe just fine tune it a bit. In simple terms, these surveys can help a business give people what they want.
New product surveys try to get at the perceived needs of customers. They ask questions like:
- “How much cargo space do you need in your truck?”
- “How many watts does your backup power supply need to generate?”
- “How often do your drive on icy roads?”
Questions like these can help a business decide if its product line meets the needs of potential customers, or if there are gaps in the line that need to be filled. Online survey software allows a business to sort responses by age, gender, location, income and many other variables. This enables a business to target products to the needs of specific market segments.
New product surveys also try to determine the benefits that are most important to customers. Take vitamins as an example. Are customers mainly interested in vitamins that will help them feel better or boost their memory or improve their heart health? Questionnaire software uses sophisticated ranking questions to help isolate the benefits that people care about most.
New product surveys also help a business learn what features are important to customers. If customers show little interest in a particular feature, a business may decide to offer it as an option rather than a standard part of its products. On the other hand, if a feature shows up on a survey as being very popular, a business might decide to include it in all of its products, and emphasize it in its marketing campaign.
