The following case studies highlight the kinds of problems and questions faced by some of our clients, and how Management Insight helped them find the answer.

Case Study One - New Channel Validation Study

What was the problem?

The client was considering taking their product to market using an entirely new channel. But little was understood about this new channel, and whether such a strategy was worth further investment.

What did Management Insight do?

Management Insight recommended, designed, and implemented a series of 4 focus groups consisting of participants from the new potential channel.  The research explored the motivations and needs of this potential new channel, as well as solicited feedback on several alternative channel programs.

Results?

Based on this research, it was found that this new channel had unique needs, and would be successful at recommending these products, but would likely fail at reselling them. As a result, the client completely redesigned their approach and program for this new channel.

Case Study Two - Global Market Tracker

What was the problem?

The client needed to measure, and track over time, preference and consideration for their products and competitive products.  They also needed to understand the factors driving consideration, preference, and deployment of their products, as well as their top competitor's products.

What did Management Insight do?

Management Insight recommended, designed, and implemented an 8 country telephone-based tracker study that is run once each year.  This study captures critical metrics, as well as identifies and analyzes year-to-year trends.  The study instrument also gathers critical segmentation and 'locator' metrics, which allows the client to identify and reach the most vulnerable market segments.

Results?

This research enables the client to track market trends, and the effectiveness of their marketing and new product introductions on a global basis. They are able identify and track the most critical attributes driving consideration, preference, and deployment of theirs, and their competitors' products.  Armed with this information, the client is able to identify the highest priority areas for product development, as well as design more effective go-to-market programs that leverage strengths, and exploit competitor weaknesses.

Case Study Three - Next Generation Product Concept Test

What was the problem?

The client needed to validate prototypes and concepts early in the development cycle to understand if their next generation product was compelling to real customers and prospects.

What did Management Insight do?

Management Insight recommended, designed, and implemented  a series of focus groups in the US, and abroad, to understand and validate critical pain points in the product area, and measure how compelling, relevant, and differentiated the next generation concepts were with real customers and prospects.

Results?

This research enabled the client to identify and validate the most compelling concepts, and understand which concepts needed more work, or didn't address critical needs sufficiently.  Having this information early in the development cycle allowed the team to react quickly and easily, before making the most significant investments in engineering.  The research also allowed the client to identify the critical deliverables for version 1, versus functionality that could be saved for a later release.

Case Study Four - Awareness, Attitude, and Usage Study

What was the problem?

The client needed to understand, measure, and track what was driving awareness, attitudes, and usage of competitive products among key customer audiences. They had key questions such as:  What are customers’ levels of awareness, consideration, and preference for these products?  How do customers develop their awareness, consideration, or preference?  What are customer attitudes on the key dimensions that drive their awareness, consideration and preference?  Is there a relationship between awareness and attitude, and usage and attitude?  How is this changing over time?

What did Management Insight do?

Management Insight recommended, modeled, designed, and implemented a 7-country telephone based tracker study. This study is executed once each year, and gathers current measures, as well as analyzes wave-to-wave trends.  The study instrument also includes many 'locator' metrics so that vulnerable market segments can be identified and reached with programs.

Results?

This research enabled the client to understand and track critical market metrics of their top competitors, identify the most vulnerable countries, markets, and segments, and well as measure the effectiveness of their marketing programs in disrupting the competition.

Case Study Five - Modeling Decision Making Behavior

What was the problem?

The client needed to understand, model and simulate the factors that drive product purchase decisions and recommendations among their distribution channel partners.
 
While they had research identifying the most important attributes among their channel partners, they did not clearly understand which level of these top attributes was optimal, and what effect different levels would have on decision making behavior.

What did Management Insight do?

Management Insight recommended, modeled, designed, and implemented a web-based conjoint study to identify, model, and simulate the top attributes and attribute levels affecting product decisions.  

Conjoint Analysis is a powerful research technique for understanding and simulating real-life tradeoffs.  Participants evaluate scenarios which consist of collections of several attributes and attribute levels.  Conjoint Analysis allows you to identify a set of “knobs”, and a set of levels for each knob.  And then understand which knobs and levels drive behavior.

Qualitative focus groups and depth interviews were conducted prior to the quantitative study to identify the top attributes and attribute levels, and to test the feasibility of alternative conjoint designs.

Results?

This research enabled the client to identify the most critical 'knobs' affecting preference and decision making for their products, and which attributes channel partners would trade off most often.  The research also provided the client with a market simulation tool where they can experiment with different go-to-market scenarios, and gauge the expected market shift in preference share.