Research Methodologies

What is pricing research– Pricing research provides a company with the information it needs to make informed pricing strategy decisions based on customer and market feedback. It allows companies to understand and predict a customer or market’s sensitivity and response to price changes for an existing product or service and helps to inform the price-setting strategy for new products and services during the development phase.

When to use pricing research- Pricing research is beneficial for a company during various stages of the product life cycle. ,

• In the exploratory phase  to assist in understanding the business potential for the product
• At the detailed concept check phase  where you want to understand likely uptake at different price points
• At the maturity or post-launch phase  to monitor/ increase the update of product vs. competition

Why to use Pricing Research

• understand and optimize pricing strategy
• capture insights on market or customer price sensitivity and elasticity
• Determine a company’s profit margin as well as market share.
• predict a market or customer’s response to price changes
• It is essential to help determine the future of product/ technology in the market

How is Pricing Research done: While there are many approaches to doing pricing strategy research, five different methodologies generally emerge:

Van Westendorp/ Price Sensitivity Meter (PSM)– this methodology is typically used for gauging consumers’ price expectations for a finished product, often an existing product in an established category. The technique uses open-ended questions combining price and quality and enables a company to see a range of prices that are acceptable for a product or service in the market and to gauge customer price sensitivity as the price rises. Van Westendorp/PSM is typically used when a company is planning to introduce a new or substantially different product or service where there isn’t an existing reference point for the price.

Gabor-Granger Technique– The Gabor-Granger methodology is based upon asking people the likelihood of their purchasing a product or service at different prices. It is most useful when a marketer has a price range in mind and wants to understand the uptake at specific price points.

This model results in a demand curve for the product that shows the percentage of respondents interested in buying at each price point, allowing a company to estimate willingness to pay for the product, as well as revenue-optimizing price points,

Conjoint Analysis– Conjoint is a technique that is typically used to help a company determine optimal product or service configuration to drive price and revenue objectives. Conjoint is helpful because it simulates real-world buying situations that ask respondents to trade one option for another, and helps to create market models where share, revenue and profit can be projected. Conjoint analysis also produces a model of buyer decision-making that can be used to simulate multiple possible market scenarios and provides more accurate assessment of price sensitivity and preference share than other pricing methodologies.

• Max-Diff Analysis – This methodology is a statistical approach for obtaining preference or importance scores for multiple items, such as offering features and pricing models. This technique forces customers to make trade-offs, instead of using rating scales, which provides highly differentiated results across all items being tested. It is also considered to be an easier methodology for the respondent than the more complex conjoint analysis method.
• Price Value Perception (PVP) – PVP is a pricing technique that sets prices, based upon the value perceived by the customer rather than a product or service’s actual cost. This methodology is useful if a company wants to understand the price range for a new product, relative to existing products in the market and the value that the market associates with the product.
• Methodology-  Pricing research generally needs robust sample size, is often done in combination with concept testing research. While pricing studies are most typically done using quantitative research, they can also occasionally leverage qualitative techniques, such as Van Westendrop and Gabor Granger methodologies.

Usage and Attitude Study (U&A)

What is U&A research-

U&A research is a methodology that helps a company to measure buying patterns, product preferences, and unmet customer needs in order to determine which product to offer, which market or segment to target, and which channels will be most successful. The primary objective of a U&A research study is to identify white spaces in the market and market gaps that could potentially be served by a new or existing product or service.

U&A studies generally have market-wide coverage and normally provide a large number of customer and market insights, such as frequency of purchase, frequency of use, attitude towards product/service/brand/ technology, and strengths and weaknesses of offerings.

When to use/conduct U&A research –

U&A research is usually conducted when a company has knowledge gaps in areas including market opportunity, brand perception, product opportunity, customer or market attitudes, behavior, needs, and segments.

Why to conduct U&A research-

• Inform market positioning strategy
• Segment your customers basis their demographic/ psychographic attitudes
• Profile users and non-users of targeted product/service
• Understanding of the competitive landscape
• Identification of current barriers/issues faced by the market
• Understanding about a new market and barriers to entry
• Ideas on how to improve a current offering or identify new opportunities for innovation

How is U&A research done-

U&A studies are typically done using customized qualitative and quantitative approaches on an ad-hoc basis.

Brand Health Tracker (BHT)

What is BHT research-

Brand health tracking is a research program focused on the ongoing measurement of a company’s branding metrics, such as brand awareness and perception, saliency, and purchase consideration, in order to determine brand health and identify opportunities to maximize the success of marketing campaigns and increase sales and market share.