Verity Marketing

Marketing that gets to the point.
33 Stilwell Av. 102 3GW Tel 01223 783412 Fax 01223 78400 www.xverityx.com e-mail don.alwood@xverityx.com

Data for the market research program - sources and methods.

Literature search - We looked at everything that has been written about Hapman™ and Ausweiss over the past eighteen months. We looked at trade journals, newspapers, as well as internal company reports and sales figures. We also did net searches to see how and where our products and those of Ausweiss™ were mentioned on the internet. These searches used to take almost three months, but with improved data mining through IT we now complete the searches in 4 weeks.
Advantages - quick cheap, good demographic spread
Disadvantages - does not always reflect the current situation

Trade sentiment - This helped us to get a feel for how the product is doing now. We talked to professionals in the clothing industry at trade shows, and industry meetings. We spoke to department store managers, our suppliers, and our large customers. We also discussed the company with sales prospects.
Advantages - informed, up-to-date professional opinion
Disadvantages - subjective, may not reflect the opinion of the general public

Focus groups - We chose groups of 15 people representative of different demographic groups and market segments. The groups discussed their opinions about clothing, and their perceptions of Ausweiss™ and Hapman™ brands. They were also asked what they found positive or negative about each. They was also asked their opinion of the marketing now being done by both companies.
Advantages - information about how to construct a campaign, feedback on possible approaches, can be done quickly
Disadvantages - expensive, opinions of focus groups may not be representative of the general population

Street interviews - We asked a survey company to approach people on the high street and ask them their opinions about their preference for clothing, how much they would pay for certain items according to brand, the amount of their disposable income, and their perception of different clothing companies.
Advantages - Large number of surveys, over a good demographic distribution, at a relatively good price. Quick results.
Disadvantages - People are not always honest with the interviewer. Replies are affected by the type of person who does these surveys

Telephone surveys - These take less than two weeks, and get responses from a wide section of the population. They are essentially yes/no or very restricted answers to the same type of question as asked in the street survey. However, questions cannot be as probing - for example about income, as the questioner already has two items of data on the person being questioned - name and phone number
Advantages - Quick, cheap, good demographic spread quickly
Disadvantages - Limited data.

Mail surveys - These cover a wider geographic area, and again give access to different market segments. We used two different groups - those former customers who were on our databases, and a random segment of the population. This was to see if previous customers were more positive to the company than those who had not brought from Hapman™.
Advantages - The cheapest way to access a large sample group.
Disadvantages - Responses can be slow (up to 8 weeks), and it is not possible to ask customers the reasons for their answers.

Site survey - We have run a survey page on the Hapman™ web site, asking customers their opinions of Hapman™ products and about their clothes shopping habits in general.
Advantages - Almost free, access to a large market segment
Disadvantages - Limited demographic. Only those with internet access using the Hapman™ site and who wanted to respond contributed data.