As marketers - whether in a business, a community or an economic development office - we’re often too close to our products, services or community to be objective about things like customer satisfaction and requirements, the competition or the opinions of our residents. Surveys, focus groups and other research programs give us a clear view of our environment, ensuring our strategies and programs are bsed on facts, not guesswork. Such feedback ensures our objectives align with those of our stakeholders, also providing us with a benchmark against which we can measure the success of our programs.
At Twist Marketing, we work with our clients to conduct structured market and brand research that provides actionable insights, reveals hidden challenges and identifies new opportunities. We then translate that data into effective strategies and high-impact programs that deliver the highest return on investment possible from your budget. Our research services include:
Marketing and Brand Audits
What do you already have, what do you need and what should you change? Unless you’re starting from scratch, your existing brand and marketing strategy, programs and materials can provide a wealth of information. Approaching your current brand and marketing from your customers’ perspective, we review your messages, positioning, branding and other materials to provide you with an understanding of what you’re doing right and where you can improve. This also gives you a benchmark you can use to base your future activities on, and against which you can measure the effectiveness of your brand and marketing as you move forward.
Focus Groups
When conducted properly, internal and external focus groups are invaluable tool for learning about what people really think. Conducted improperly, and they can quickly turn into bull sessions that are cathartic for the participants but counterproductive for you and your company. We know how to identify and select group members, and engage them in conversations that constructively explore issues, evaluate specific concepts and validate themes.
Surveys
Formal, structured surveys are the best way to gather quantitative data that produce scientifically valid statistics. They’re also the best way to eliminate subjectivity and produce objective results that give you the true picture of what’s going on.
- Online Surveys—Fast becoming the industry standard for quantitative research, online surveys let respondents provide input when it’s convenient for them to do so, are cost-effective and targeted, and they provide real-time reporting of results.
- Telephone Surveys—These are most appropriate for gauging broad public opinion in initiatives such as stakeholder consultations or trend polling.
Stakeholder Interviews
In person interviews can draw out information that would be difficult to obtain using more structured research methods, along with informal or tacit knowledge that an audit would miss. These are typically employed in environments where the key influencers and issues are well known, such as internal corporate research or customer research projects.
Public Consultation and Outreach
Town hall meetings, open houses, newspaper ads and speaking to groups like the local Chamber of Commerce. Although these may be good enough to show regulatory groups that you’ve fulfilled requirements to tell the public what you’re doing, they are no longer enough to get the local community on your side of public infrastructure projects, natural resource development programs and other large scale initiatives.
Based on the information and insights uncovered in the research process, we can help you put together and execute public consultation and outreach strategies that both meet regulatory requirements and frame local issues to your advantage. By complementing open houses and news paper ads with online and offline marketing, project branding and integrated public outreach campaigns, you can set the agenda before special interest groups garner support, and stop NIMBYism before it stops you.
Competitive Intelligence
Stop guessing what the competition is doing and start knowing. Competitive intelligence programs are a lot like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, only without knowing what the picture is or where the pieces are kept. We help you find the pieces— on websites and news reports, government and analyst reports, in your customers’ and sales teams’ heads—put them together and analyze the picture they make. The end result is the competitive information you need to make informed decisions across your business.
