Posts Tagged ‘product marketing’

Seeing Red, Consumers Pay More (or Less)

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways,” wrote Oscar Wilde in The Critic as Artist.

That’s just the problem for market research and consumer behavior.  Few design aspects of products, packages, brands, logos, advertising, and environments are more subjective than color.  Which is why so many marketing decisions about color are based on the personal preferences of designers, decision makers, and their spouses (“What do you think of this color, dear?”) rather than on scientific knowledge of which colors are best for specific purposes.

But just in time for Valentine’s day (today!) here is a compelling new finding about the color RED and how it affects buying behavior: (more…)

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How to Know If a Brand Extension Will Succeed

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

An article not too long ago in the Journal of Consumer Psychology summed up current research on brand extensions thus:

What factors determine whether or not a brand extension will be successful? The most important factor identified by prior research is perceived fit. Consumers respond more favorably if they are able to perceive a fit between the extension and the parent brand. . . . Perceived fit, no matter how it is defined, is the most important determinant of brand extension success—more important than marketing support, retailer acceptance, and quality of the parent brand.

The last sentence is worth reading again!  Marketing support, effective distribution, and even strength of the parent brand matter less than whether buyers think the extension makes sense. (more…)

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Research Makes Cross-Selling More Profitable

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Conventional wisdom is that your current customers are your best customers.  Indeed, when marketers focus on cross-selling as a strategy, they typically see substantial increases in revenue and profit.  Not only that, but when you look only at customers who cross-buy a lot, the profit from these customers is huge compared to customers who do not cross-buy or who cross-buy just a little.

But it turns out that hidden within these cross-buying customers are segments that are actually a significant drain on profits.  A study just published in the Journal of Marketing found that up to one-third of cross-buying customers are not profitable at all, and in fact, may account for the bulk of a company’s losses attributable to customers. (more…)

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Research Should Focus on Your Customers, Not on Your Products

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

An article in the most recent issue of the Harvard Business Review (“Rethinking Marketing”) argues that marketing is shifting from being product-centric to being customer-centric.  The old method was to develop a portfolio of products, build a team around each product, find the customers who need that product and market it to them.  The emerging method is to build teams around customer relationships, continually learn about what those customers need, then design and deliver solutions to them.

Not only will this shift from product marketing to customer marketing enhance the ability of businesses to deliver value to their customers and shareholders, but it will likely help market researchers bring higher levels of value to the work they do for their clients.  Why?  (more…)

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