Such comprehensive studies could include the following steps:
- Desk study to gather and analyze secondary market data (when the customer is considering entering a new product category);
- Qualitative research (focus groups or in-depth interviews) which helps to learn more about consumer usage and attitude patterns and develop hypothesis, select attributes for further consumer segmentation. It often serves as a key element for a later quantitative research;
- Quantitative research which helps to accumulate statistically viable data on consumer usage and attitude patterns, verify the existing hypothesis developed at the prior qualitative market segmentation stage.
Usage and Attitude Studies help to collect the following data:
- Brand awareness for a given product category (top of mind, prompted)
- Advertising awareness (one of the elements to estimate advertising campaign efficiency)
- Brand purchase for a given category: frequency, quantity (volume), point of purchase, consumption pattern
- Brand image
- Brand satisfaction, brand loyalty, brand perceived benefits and limitations (on the basis of niches and gaps analysis)
- Consumer profile: social, demographic, psychometric
- Specific attribute segmentation broken down by psychometrics / behavioural or rational /social and demographic attributes
- Exhaustive and comprehensive description of the studied segments, their size estimation
- Examination of the segment attractiveness for the customer
- Evaluation of the product differentiation strategies/techniques to exploit the target segments.