Download Best Practices Approach to Marketing Research and Competitive

Best Practices Approach to Marketing
Research and Competitive Intelligence
Department Management
Agenda
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Questions that need answers
Once you have the answers, what do you do
Determine the business need
Considerations
Determine Services Provided
Put together the team
Get the proper tools
Some final thoughts
Questions that need answers
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Who
What
Why
Where
When
How (are you going to do all of this)
How much
Who
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Who is asking you to set it up
Who will be your support
Who will be out to make sure you do not succeed
Who is your client; Who do you support
Who isn’t your client
Who is funding the department
Who do you need to hire
Who are your competitors
What
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What services will you provide
What are your staffing requirements
What budget will you have
What budget will others have to pay for your services
What is your business plan
What is your agenda
What are you tracking
Why
• Why does the company want/need a marketing
research and/or competitive intelligence department
Where
• Where is the research going to conducted
• Where is the research department going to be housed
• Where within the organization is the department going
to report
• Where is the funding coming from
• Where are the projects coming from
When
• When do you want to set up the department
• Or, when do you want to expand it
• When are projects going to be done
– At planning time
– All year long
How
• How are you going to go about setting up or
expanding the department
• How are you going to justify your budget
• How are you going to justify your headcount
• How are you going to justify your existence
• How are you going to respond to requests
• How are you going to determine what requests to
respond to
• How are you going to determine the needs of the
organization
How
• How do you do what you are supposed to do
• How do you get your data/information
• How do you go about hiring the right people
How much
• How much time do you have
• How much is your budget
• How much do your clients have in their budget for
MR/CI work
• How much interest is there in using the department
• How much staff do you need
Now, once you have the answers,
what do you do
Building a CI and/or marketing
research department
Building a CI and/or marketing
research department
• “Form follows function”
– Louis Sullivan
• There is no generically “correct” department
• Every department will look different
– Culture of the company
– Needs of the company
– Ability of the company to fund it and to staff it
First, Establish the Business
Needs
Potential Areas of Research
Cost
Structure
Customers
Products
& Services
Organizational
Structure
Financial
Performance
Business
Operations
Distribution
Channels
Strategic
Plans
Management
& Culture
Information
Technology
Marketing
& Sales
Competitive Intelligence
Proactive
Reactive
Primary
Research
Competitive
Intelligence
Secondary
Research
Strategic
Tactical
Determine Services to be
provided
• Marketing Research
– Primary
• Qualitative
• quantitative
– Secondary
• Competitive intelligence
– What types
• Business Information Center
– “Virtual Lab”
– Daily insurance related news
Second, Build/run the department
• Organizational
• Costs
• Benefits
Organizational
• Analyze the company now
• Identify possible areas of duplication of effort – where
is MR/CI being done now
• Senior Executive long term commitment
• What is the philosophy regarding outsourcing vs.
keeping things in-house
• Decide who controls the MR/CI budget
• What do senior management, business division
management, distributors want in terms of MR/CI
services
Structure
• How many people needed to meet needs identified
• What type of people
• Span of control/levels of management
• Where will the unit and/or people reside
– Centralized
– Embedded within a business division
Costs to Consider
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Salaries
Internal marketing information
External marketing information
Travel
Technology
Development and maintenance
Training
Memberships
Benefits to Consider
• Will the information/data be used to make better
decisions
• Can the company/will the company respond to
competitor moves
• Will the company do something once MR identifies
consumer needs/wants
• How does the company react to changes in market
conditions
Benefits to Consider
• Will the company do something once MR identifies
distribution force needs
• Does the company take a long term view on issues
• Does management care about the company’s
image/awareness
• Does management want to track customer loyalty
Measuring the value of the
Department
• Quantity and quality of key information
provided to decision makers
• Timeliness of information
• Fewer surprises
• Ability to put competitor actions into context
• Less frustration trying to interpret
overwhelming or contradictory information
• More proactive decisions
• More informed management team regarding
competitive issues
“Marketing Research” Defined
The gathering, analysis, and
communication of actionable
information in order to:
• Design/develop products and
services,
• Determine market position,
• Determine image/awareness,
“Marketing Research” Defined
• Track customer and agent/producer
loyalty,
• Support the development of
strategies and
• Do what it takes to make the
company more successful.
• Determine corporate culture
• and, a whole lot more
Marketing Research is “not”
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Doing “gee whiz” research
Doing management’s kids’ homework
Doing Loss Control’s environmental analysis work
An information gathering process
A project specific initiative
“Analysis paralysis”
Database management
Simply statistical analysis
“Competitive Intelligence” Defined
Competitive Intelligence is the
gathering, analysis, and
communication of actionable
information about competitors'
products, market position,
performance, capabilities, strategies
and intentions.
Competitive intelligence is “not”
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An information gathering process
A project specific initiative
“Analysis paralysis”
Database management
Role of a CI Program
• Improved planning and decision-making
– Preempt competitors' marketing moves
– Protect or increase your market share
– Avoid expensive surprises
– Assess merger and acquisition candidates
– Learn from other companies' experiences
A Competitive Intelligence
Example
Continuum of services
In-depth analysis
of competitor
strategy/operations
High
Annual detailed
review of
competitor organizations
Level of analysis
Analysis of
competitive information
Competitive
information
Low
Initially
When will be in a position to be provide
3-6 months
Phase One
• Tracking top competitors
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Personnel moves
New policies
Strategy
Financial news
Other interesting tidbits
Phase Two
• In addition to simply tracking competitors analyze
results to determine significance, if any of
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Personnel moves
New policies
Strategy
Financial news
Other interesting tidbits
Phase Three
• In depth report of one competitor per month for six
months
– Strategy
– Target markets
– Financials
Phase Four
• Identify key issues which warrant in-depth competitor
information
– Claims processes
– IT moves
– Financials
• Provide results
Put together the team
A successful team will
• Profile the organization
– SWOT analysis
• Identify desirable (internal) customers and their wants
& needs
• Identify emerging markets and trends
• Provide timely, useful reports to Senior & Executive
Management
• Act as an independent and objective advisor to
decision makers
Expectations of a MR/CI team
• Objective, clear and concise reports
• Creditable data
• An explanation of the forces responsible for results
found
• An analysis of the implications of competitive
situations or studies completed
• Recommended courses of action and options
• Active participation on the teams implementing the
results of the research
Operating Philosophy
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Collaborative working relationship
Project prioritization – in collaboration with clients
No agenda
Good, cheap, fast, pick two
Must have a client
Must be actionable
Ethics
• Trade secrets represent only 5% of all the
information about a competitor
• What is legal is not always ethical
• Always remember the “public disclosure rule”
if this appeared in a headline, would we be proud of
it?
• CASRO rules followed
• SCIP “code of ethics” followed
Implementation - Overview
• Hire and/or move internal staff
• Obtain space and all needed hardware, software,
books, periodicals, on-line licenses
• Develop internal communications plan introducing the
MR/CI team
• Set priorities
Overall competencies
• Comfort Around Higher Management
• Composure
• Learning on the Fly
• Decision Quality
• Drive for Results
What to look for in people
• Business Acumen
• Action Oriented
• Time Management
• Written Communications
• Approachability
• Presentation Skills
Managerial Competencies
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Listening Skills
Creativity
Persistence
Strategy
Experience
Professional Development
Staffing for CI
• Skills required
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Masters in Library Science
Marketing research experience
Strong consulting skills
Familiarity with a wide range of information sources
Experience managing external vendors
CI Analyst Competencies
• Understanding data bases, particularly unique internal
data bases
• Knowledge of the library
• Knowledge of key software packages
• Communication skills
– Writing and interviewing
– Stating facts quickly and convincingly
– Listening and asking follow up questions
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Team player
Reasoning skills, inductive and deductive
Pattern Recognition
Organizational skills
Staffing for Marketing Research
• Skills required
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Marketing research experience
Strong consulting skills
Familiarity with a wide range of information sources
Experience managing external vendors
Project management
Knowledge of various methodologies
Questionnaire design
Discussion guide design
Familiarity with various statistical techniques
MR Analyst Competencies
• Project management skills
• Understanding data bases, particularly unique internal
data bases
• Knowledge of the statistics (not necessarily how to do
them, but to know what needs to be done)
• Knowledge of key software packages
• Communication skills
– Writing and interviewing
– Stating facts quickly and convincingly
– Listening and asking follow up questions
• Team player
• Reasoning skills, inductive and deductive
Get the proper tools for the team
to use
Get the proper tools for the team
to use
• Fast computers
• T1 line or at least broadband
• Database access (for example, Lexis-Nexis, Highline,
D&B, AM Best etc)
• SAS or SPSS or whatever
• On-line focus group capabilities
• On-line research tools (for example, survey monkey,
Zoomerang or other services)
• Budget to bring in outside resources as needed
Sources of information
• I.I.I.
• SCIP
• National Underwriter
• Conference Registration
• ACORD
• AM Best
• Highline Data
• [email protected]
• Risk and Insurance ([email protected])
Sources of information
• Insurance News Network
• Gartner Technologies
• The Automated Agency Report, Inc.
• Giga Information Group
• Lexis-Nexis or Dow Jones News Retrieval/Factiva
• [email protected]
• www.InsuranceBroadcasting.com
• [email protected]
• Business Insurance ([email protected])
Associations – Health Insurance
• America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
• National Association of Managed Care Regulators
(NAMCR)
• Association of Managed Care Dentists (AMCD)
• Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP)
• Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC)
• Institute for Health Freedom
• National Managed Health Care Congress (NMHCC)
• National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU)
Associations – Property and Casualty
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Risk and Insurance Management (RIMS)
Professional Insurance Agents (PIA)
PCI
NAMIC
AIA
IABA
Associations – Life Insurance
• LIMRA
• ACLI
Associations – All Lines
• Society of Insurance Research (SIR)
• American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA)
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners
(NAIC)
• IASA
Associations – Customer
• Too many to name
• There is one for practically every industry group
– Many have more then one
• There are also consumer groups such as AARP for
people over 50 and for every ethnicity
• Labor Unions
• Health and Pension societies
• And, many, many government sites with all sorts of
great information
Some final thoughts
Things to consider
• Educate the entire organization about what
Marketing Research and CI can deliver
• Time & resources are limited
• Great ideas may not always be successful –
be flexible
• Stay in touch with your clients
– Provide quarterly updates, at the highest level
• Stay in touch with senior management
Things to consider
• If organizationally possible, Don’t let the
purchasing department tell you to whom you
should outsource
• Position the department at the highest level
possible in the department; report to the CEO
or business division head
• Become indispensable
Open Discussion
• Q&A
• Share ideas
Market Research and Competitive
Intelligence Department Management
© Copyright 2009 The Glen Ellyn Consulting Group, LLC
The Glen Ellyn Consulting Group, LLC
[email protected]
www.glenellynconsulting.com
630-790-4304