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Customer-centric IT: 4 tips for technology marketers
stomer centricity is reshaping IT in many organizations, as customer experience becomes an increasingly important source of competitive advantage. We’ve seen this trend developing over the past few years and it is now gaining widespread attention. Customer centricity means aligning IT’s resources and objectives to optimize the customer experience. Increasingly, IT’s strategies, organizational structure, and role in the organization are evaluated in relation to the external customer.
Read MoreB2B Product Messaging Checklist
Product messaging to B2B audiences is challenging. Marketers need to convey complex messages in simple but compelling terms. Here are five recommendations that will help you in the initial stages of message development, when decisions about message content, benefits and value propositions are made.
Read MoreDon’t throw out the data along with the failed concept
Product management and marketing teams often use primary research to test new product and service concepts. Before investing millions of dollars and years of development efforts they want to know if the concept has legs. Sometimes the research shows that the market does not have enough appetite for the concept to justify further investment. At that point the research has done its job. But often the results can provide additional value to the organization that is forgotten.
Read MoreThe importance of anchoring in pricing research
Identifying the right price for your product or service can be challenging. This is especially true in B2B markets where the decisions are often complex, have high dollar amounts associated with them, involve multiple decision makers, and prices are often fluid based on discounting and other sales strategies.
Read MoreOvercoming the skeptics – Turning research into action
One of the challenges with customer satisfaction and NPS surveys is turning the results into strategic and tactical actions. This post provides some steps that can help address this challenge.
Read MoreOvercoming Groupthink
In their book Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter Cass R. Sunstein of the Harvard Law School and Reid Hastie at of University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business provide an explanation of the causes of groupthink and offer practical steps organizations can take to overcome them. Their observations and recommendations align with how we at Isurus view the risks of groupthink associated with focus groups and the concrete actions we take to avoid it.
Read MoreShould M&A due diligence incorporate primary market research?
The due diligence process for mergers and acquisitions is intended to validate the decision and minimize risk. Unfortunately the resources and rigor devoted to the activity can be undermined by common biases that distort reasoning.
Read MoreIf organizations value it, why won’t they pay for it?
A client recently asked us this questions as part of a market sizing exercise. Fortunately this client asked the question before entering the market and was able to plan accordingly. The buzz surrounding new products or technologies often attracts established vendor that can find after investing in a new category the market does not live up to their expectations in terms of market size or revenue growth. The disconnect stems from behavioral gaps in the typical market adoption curve.
Read MoreDoes statistical significance matter in the real world?
To make a claim more believable simply add a chart – that is the key finding of a study by Aner Tal and Brian Wansink of Cornell University. Their research shows that people find data presented in a chart more believable because they associate charts with science. Their findings shed some light on the artificial importance sometimes placed on statistics in quantitative B2B research.
Read MoreAmplified experience: What is it and does it occur in focus groups?
A common concern with focus groups is group think. In most cases what appears to be groupthink is actually poor moderation – the moderator fails to control dominating personalities and elicit comments from the quiet ones. Beyond being strong moderators to further combat the possibility of group think Isurus includes individual exercises in most focus groups. This ensures we collect feedback from everyone and provides the more timid participants with a stick in the ground they can stand by when aggressive participants try to sell their point of view.
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