Hello. Throughout my career, I've come across three levels of market researchers. The basic market researcher, only charts and graphs; the interpretive market researcher, charts and data with some explanation and interpretation of the findings; and the extrapolative market researcher who provides forecasts, insights and consultations. In this lesson, I would describe those levels. After this lesson, you will be able to differentiate between them. This will help you decide which level of researcher you want to be or what a project might need. Let me show you what I mean. Level one is that, a researcher can analyze data and tell you what's going on. You can actually go out and collect data in a particular way. A client could ask you, "Hey. I just want you to do a customer satisfaction survey." You can do a customer satisfaction and just read the data. That is market research at the most basic level. Level two includes level one, but you take the next step to go on and interpret the data for the client as well. You could analyze the data and gain some insights and express what you think based on the information you gathered. And then at level three, you analyze and interpret the data, you report what's going on, and then you go on to extrapolate. You draw conclusions to make recommendations and judgments for your clients. Level three is built on other information that you've gathered in the process, and your expertise, and from secondary sources among other sources. Level one and level two research prepare you to be able to interpret and extrapolate better. It makes you a smarter person and a more valued researcher. Anybody can create data. I've seen market researchers that tell you on a project that this is what they want, and then they give you the data. They say that 69% are very satisfied and 12% are somewhat satisfied, and they give you the data. And then, that is level one market research. However, if you look at other data among other sources the baseline instead of 69% very satisfied and 12% somewhat satisfied, really could be 84% very satisfied and 4% somewhat satisfied. Let me give you an example here. You probably have heard of Net Promoter Scores. Net Promoter Scores is a standard or system using a scale from 0-10, measuring how likely you are to refer the Company X to your friends, and how likely you might be able to buy again from Company X. There's a formula in place. Anybody that does market research or customer satisfaction and uses Net Promoter Scores can collect the data. I could present the data back, and I could actually put the onus back on the client to figure out what their net promoter score is. Alternatively, I could do the work and start thinking about it and incorporating Net Promoter Scores into my findings. Those are different things. There are different roles that a market researcher could play. They could collect the data or they could collect the data that would enhance a survey of how many people would refer or would buy again. You could stop at a certain point or be proactive to help a client answer their question and solve their business problem. That's what I consider market research. Let me share an example where I could have satisfied the client with a level one or level two performance, but I went to level three. This is also an example where I started with internal and secondary research and progressed to see the need for primary research that led to a solution of the business problem. This had to do with a chain of casinos in North America. The casino group owned over a dozen casinos and gaming properties. I was hired to do a market segmentation study for them. They were going to embark on a very expensive new marketing campaign, so that agency hired me to do what they thought was a segmentation study. We're going to figure out what types of people, like this type of gaming establishment. Their initial internal research was based on loyalty charts. If you're in a casino, you participate in a loyalty program. The secondary research that was given to me was all about demographics and statistics of their loyalty program. Interestingly enough, we did not focus on the entire population, but ultimately ended up with four segments of customers in the data from their loyalty program. We found that their most loyal customers representing 20 or 25% of revenues were on average 51 years of age or older. This segment visited at least one of their properties over 100 times a year. We looked at the data to find out what's important to them, their satisfaction was exceptionally high. Another study they have done showed that this segment rarely ever complained. Then, we looked at another group. They were first time participants in the loyalty program. They tended to be in their mid-20s and mostly men. We discovered something very interesting. Their satisfaction was a full two points lower on a scale from 0-10 than their most loyal customers. Then after looking at the data some more, we found a correlation between, that they were also dissatisfied with how quickly it took for them to get their drinks. Now, we draw this parallel. Young men dissatisfied, impatient about their drinks. People that come to their properties over a hundred times a year, very satisfied and drinks are not a problem to them. In fact, they might actually consume more. This comparison of the data, and in contrast in satisfaction between the two segments, helped reshape our research. We decided to ask them questions. We recommended an internet survey with a focus on this apparent weakness. We know that people are motivated by money in this case, so the incentive here was give them some cash that they could apply to their gaming at the casino or gaming property. We went on to ask both segments questions about how long would it take for a person to get a drink when they order it. These young men, they said five minutes. The more loyal customers said 20 minutes. They had been there so long and gone to casino so often that they know when they order a drink, it's going to be in 20 minutes. After we've done the research, we discovered that they were conditioned in a particular way, and were satisfied with a drink arriving in 20 minutes because it was something they were used to. There were a lot of other factors that played into this, as well, but the secondary research based on demographic, loyalty cards and other internal research helped shape what we did later, and it gave us a greater level of precision. The marketing response of these loyalty cards and the feedback received from two different market segment shaped what we asked on our internet survey which, how long should it take to get a drink? Seeing that the different expectations shape different methodologies, it also help shape what to do within the methodology. Had this company not given me the initial internal research that they had, I would have never known to ask more specific questions on drinks, on food and other things that might actually impact customer satisfaction. By thinking in terms of being proactive to go past levels one and two, level three brought significant results to the client. Also, a thorough use of internal and secondary research directed our next steps for an overall market research plan.
