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An in-depth understanding
of
your
consumers and market
The aim of "Usage & Attitude" studies is
to enrich marketing team's knowledge of consumers' behaviours
and the attitudes that underlie them, and to reveal met and
unmet needs.
This
data and the trends in it over time are capital, for they
enable us to identify the opportunities in a market
and guide marketing strategy, from Research & Development
through to advertising.
A "Usage & Attitude" study involves establishing
an exhaustive panorama of consumers' attitudes
(what they want, what they think) and their usages
(what they do).
Our approach:
• Reflection prior to the project about the issues
in hand and the hierarchy of the priorities to investigate.
• Several methodologies conducted in synergy: Ethology,
qualitative exploration, quantification of attitudes and behaviours.
An in-depth exploration of attitudes and behaviours
Qualitative exploration (groups or individual interviews)
is often necessary in order to obtain an understanding of
all perceptions, attitudes, behaviours and expectations
in relation to a product category, and then in order to
design the optimal questionnaire for quantifying this information.
.
To identify key behaviours and reveal needs and insufficiencies
as yet unconscious, the following techniques can be
used:
Point of sale observation, pantry checks,
observation in consumption situations…
(ethology and / or qualitative approaches).
A reliable and precise quantification
of attitudes and behaviours
It is fundamental to guarantee
the reliability and precision of the data. In order
to do this:
• The interviews need to be "contextualised".
The fieldwork of "Usage & Attitude" studies
therefore often takes place at the respondent's home
(face-to-face or on-line interviews).
• When the frequency of consumption or type of product
justifies it, it is very useful to give respondents - in
addition to the evaluation questionnaire - a consumption
or usage diary. This gives access to more reliable recording
of behaviour than from declared recall. It also enables
respondents to become aware of their behaviours and usages,
which is particularly important since most of the products
studied in "Usage & Attitude" studies are
products of average, indeed minimal, implication. Consumers
therefore only have a clear perception of them when using
them.
Other than greater reliability, the main benefit of a usage
diary is to provide information in terms of "share
of usage" or "share of choice", that
is to say obtain a volume approach.
Example: Penetration and "share of usage" by
meal occasion
In this example, the penetration data is misleading
for it does not reflect how great the difference is between
the two consumption occasions, whereas the consumption act
data clearly shows that the two segments do not have the
same importance in terms of share of usage.
Customised
analysis
Marketing
teams need rich, accessible and operational information.
With this in mind, Repères can conduct several analyses,
of which::
• A "Canonical Cluster Analysis" that
takes into account attitudes and motivations (explanatory
variables) as well as behaviours (variables to explain).
The clusters identified are described precisely in terms
of attitudes, expectations and behaviours, enriched by descriptive
data and any other relevant information (data from the whole
questionnaire is cross-tabulated with the clusters).
Canonical Cluster Analyses enable us to identify homogenous
groups, not only in terms of attitudes, but also in
terms of behaviours...
It is therefore possible to undertake specific marketing
actions or develop products, that are specifically aimed
at certain targets.
• Other multi-variant analyses to provide answers
to clients' specific questions:
- Analysis of similarities to understand
the perceived architecture of the market
- Factor analysis to understand the perceptual
structure of products
- Variance analysis to establish a hierarchy of
expectations…
By building in the learnings from the different approaches
- Qualitative, Ethology, Quantitative - the presentation of
the results and report highlight the main conclusions in a
clear, user-friendly and operational manner,
taking into account the issues specific to each brand.
Ongoing
help with exploitation of the results
We strongly feel that a Usage &
Attitude study lives on in a company after the presentation
of the results, and that it is used by all and becomes a
source of inspiration.
• This is why we organise seminars with the marketing,
advertising and R&D teams to familiarise them with
the results and help them take away learnings.
• Software is also provided that enables all the
results to be consulted and complementary cross-tabulations
obtained.
• Finally, a technique for identifying typological
groups means that research can be conducted amongst
typological groups identified as priority targets: E.g.
testing a new concept developed for a particular target.
Contact
reperes@reperes.net
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