Making Successful Decisions—
It All Starts With The Hard Facts

Just how do you make decisions?

Marketing. Programming. Product Line. It's disturbing how many of these decisions are based solely on past history, trial and error or “gut feeling”—especially in today's highly competitive, rapidly changing environment, where decisions must stay ahead of the present by anticipating the future.

Today, wise business, professional and institutional leaders know the value of research as a planning tool. The kind of objective, penetrating fact-finding that keeps you informed about the real needs and desires of your markets…your constituents…your audience. If you trust your “hunches” completely, then research is not for you. But, in today’s world, intuition is often a poor substitute for hard facts.

Even though you know your organization inside out, do you
honestly know how your products, services or programs are perceived by others—customers, competitors, consumers, contributors, etc?

Listening to the marketplace—research can:

  •  help define the characteristics of your market or audience
  •  provide data you need to predict future sales, fund raising
  •  measure effectiveness of your communications program
  •  keep your business or organization profitable

Now ask yourself the real question about research: can you afford not to use it? Remember, research need not be overly complex or expensive to be useful and effective. Research can help illuminate practically every facet of your marketing or communications program. You can:

  •  pinpoint audiences
  •  discover and analyze consumer habits, attitudes and preferences
  •  find out just who influences crucial buying/contributing decisions
  •  respond to needs and wants with new or improved products, services, programs

Research also can delineate your organization’s image…uncover small problems before they grow large…let you see how you stack up against your competition…provide for employee feedback…chart new directions…and measure how fast you’re getting there.

It costs less to know than it does not to.

Sound research data can protect you from costly errors—dollars wasted on untimely product development or off-target sales promotion.

How do we handle research?

At the Riger Agency, we can conduct thorough research from start to finish or any portion thereof, including:

  •  Discussion of objectives
  •  Assessment of target audience(s) and other information sources   •  Design of questionnaire and development of approach to interview
  •   Pre-test questionnaire
  •   Interview
  •   Gathering of findings
  •   Tabulation, analysis
  •   Report on findings (including interpretation)
  •   Formulation of a “here’s where we go from here” plan
(discussion of the research project’s ramifications for your
organization’s marketing/programming effort and resulting communications needs)

How much does it cost?

Perhaps the question should really be stated: How much might it cost if you don’t research? Input from a soundly planned and well-executed research effort can be the “ounce of prevention” that eliminates the need for a “pound of cure” later on.

Seldom are two research projects exactly alike. But there are some basic guidelines for determining cost:

  •   Preliminary consultation. At this initial session, we will ask
questions and gather information regarding the background of your
situation, your objectives, problems (if any), previous research
findings, etc. For this first get-together, there is no charge.
Following this consultation, we will furnish you with an estimate of
cost for the research which needs to be done.

  •   Development of research plan and recommendations. Next, at your authorization, we will formulate a detailed plan for meeting your research requirements, together with recommendations on how the plan is to be executed. This plan may include an assessment of target audience(s) and/or information sources, as well as the preliminary design of the questionnaire(s) to be used. Before we embark on this phase of your project, we require a down payment. (The amount is determined by the scope of the plan and project.)

Remember, there are major advantages to using an outside firm to conduct your market research. First, we bring an objective, outside point of view to your research. And objectivity is vital to vaild research findings. Too, when you cost-account your own involvement in research, you’ll find it’s usually much more cost-effective to have a professional research firm like ours handle the project for you.

Related topics:

More research tips are available in our article "Market Reaserch—Is it really necessary?"

When it comes to your next New Media project, research begins with your own careful evaluation. Learn more in the Riger "Web Project Start-Up Q&A."

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