A Successful Research Project – Step 6: Implement & Launch

by Jenny on January 5, 2017 Comments Off on A Successful Research Project – Step 6: Implement & Launch
  1. Discussion & Discovery (CLICK HERE)
  2. Secondary Research (CLICK HERE)
  3. Clarify Objective (CLICK HERE)
  4. Primary Research (CLICK HERE)
  5. Strategy & Planning (CLICK HERE)
  6. Implement & Launch
  7. Report & Benchmark

Having discussed and distributed the primary research results analysis, it’s time to convert strategic insights into action. At this point, each department has received relevant data in support of their respective goals. Now is the time to assign individual or team-based tasks guided by the strategic approach established in the previous step.

For more information regarding how we arrived at this point, we’ve provided links to previous steps above.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS STEP?
At long last, we have a reliable and organized database to help guide our decision making. Each department head has worked closely with one another in understanding key points within the results analysis and were able to request data segmentation best suited to their respective goals.

Now, each department has their own internal meeting to review data points and insights directly related to their specific objectives. Marketing personnel can identify the most attractive consumer groups by demographics or purchase habits, thus providing a focus for new content marketing or promotional campaigns. Sales groups can better identify the most effective channels for incoming and outgoing communication which will streamline their efforts and improve conversion rates.

With the overall strategy in place, as established in the previous step, high-level objectives are boiled down to team goals and individual tasks. The supporting primary results analysis offers reliable guidance to ensure inter-departmental efforts stay focused on the primary objective yet operate independently. Now that each department has assigned staff responsibilities, it’s time to give the ‘green light’ and hit the ground running.

WHY IS THIS STEP IMPORTANT?
As individual departments begin assigning specific goals and tasks, an increasing number of moving parts are created. Each of these moving parts represents a piece of the greater business machine and, as a result, can impact overall group performance either positively or negatively. This is why concise, clearly articulated directives are important.

When interacting with staff, an effective way to communicate and justify individual tasks is to reference data supporting overall strategy and decision making. By helping staff members understand the ‘why’ behind their expected deliverables, they are more likely to be successful in their efforts.

Similar to a relay race, multi-faceted projects require smooth transitions from one phase to the next. This takes careful, calculated planning and precise execution. Having an established project timeline and a cohesive understanding of how one phase impacts the others will help ensure the entire operation runs smoothly. Again, this all relates back to our reliable source of data and strong understanding of how resulting insights apply to existing business objectives. As an added benefit, if segmented results are distributed internally within each department, staff members can reference their own report along the way. Since the data supports decision making at both macro and micro levels, teams can address their own obstacles without having to defer to management for clarification.

MACKENZIE BRANDED EXAMPLE:
As with each previous step, before proceeding we revisit our overall research objective to ensure we use resulting insights appropriately. It’s easy to become distracted with interested data points that have nothing to do with existing goals. When this happens, our efforts veer off track and we begin to lose sight of why we conducted research to begin with.

Our initial research objective was to better understand millennial Athleisure consumers in regards to their spending and lifestyle habits. Now that we have collected and analyzed primary data, we leverage what we’ve learned to guide our strategic decision making.

Based on our review of high-level results analysis, conducted in Step 5, we established that between the two millennial age groups [18-24 & 25-34] the younger millennials tend to spend more per purchase than the older millennials. This established our target consumer base, now we game plan specific tasks to leverage these insights in our effort to increase revenue.

While shopping online, 64% of younger millennials spend over $50 whereas only 53% of their older counterparts spend within that same amount.

While shopping in-store, 35% of older millennials spend $50 or less whereas only 27% of younger millennials spend within that same range.

In search of revenue growth opportunities we reference the above statistics when making marketing and promotional decisions. As we focus our marketing on younger millennials, we know they are already spending a healthy amount online so our goal is to motivate more frequent visits and purchases by offering added value through incentives. If we can get these younger millennials to make repeated individual purchases their likelihood of increased spending over time improves.

On the other side, we see that older millennials shopping in-store are spending $50 or less. Since in-store visits require more effort than online shopping our focus with this consumer group is not to motivate more frequent visits, but rather to encourage increased spending while in-store. Our goal is to create promotional or rewards-based campaigns that bump spending levels above the $50 threshold.

With these specific objectives in place, each department will brainstorm a creative and logistical approach to capitalize on these opportunities. Since our primary research data also includes frequency of gym membership, weekly exercise, and other lifestyle habits, this will help with campaign ideation to ensure the messages we create are relevant to our targeted consumer groups.

As we move forward in building and launching these campaigns, each department can keep referencing our results analytics to produce variations in approach while still operating within the same framework. This consistency will help deliver a consistent brand message thus ensuring the marketing campaign and sales approaches are aligned.

Be sure to check back soon as we continue our series with Step 7; Report & Benchmark.

 

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Jenny

Jenny Dinnen is President of Sales and Marketing at MacKenzie Corporation. Driven to maximize customer's value and exceed expectations, Jenny carries a can-do attitude wherever she goes. She maintains open communication channels with both her clients and her staff to ensure all goals and objectives are being met in an expeditious manner. Jenny is a big-picture thinker who leads MacKenzie in developing strategies for growth while maintaining a focus on the core services that have made the company a success. Basically, when something needs to get done, go see Jenny. Before joining MacKenzie, Jenny worked at HD Supply as a Marketing Manager and Household Auto Finance in their marketing department. Jenny received her undergrad degree in Marketing from the University of Colorado (Boulder) and her MBA from the University of Redlands.

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