Results of studies of the top CEO’s in the world indicate that one of the current challenges of generating valuable market research is the challenge of insuring the research team member’s possess and utilize critical thinking skills. By making use of various media, mining and delivery tools & techniques, Digital Market Research Strategies is designed to foster cognitive and real world skills in digital market research. This course creatively applies Multiple Intelligences (MI) Learning Theory methodologies to help students gain a comprehensive understanding of how to strategically develop and deploy Digital Market Research projects.

The course implements a Kaizen-centric approach to teaching the students to engage in a disruptive Digital Market Research process by teaching them to plan tradition and “Next Generation” market research projects, which strategically, dynamically and perpetually uncover unmet as well as real-time, emerging market needs.

Digital Market Research Strategies emphasizes the problem solving and critical thinking skills used to plan, as well as to implement and evaluate the results of online market research project deployments and data. Students will develop skills in several major instructional areas, including formulating a digital research design, data mining & collecting, reporting, analyzing market research data and evaluating research project results.

Students refine and utilize critical thinking skills to analyze a problem; plan, create, and execute a project plan; apply technology to acquire, organize, analyze and present information; apply sound theoretical principles and practices to a digital research project; create, organize, apply, and process information to derive results; choose ethical courses of action; identify activities and prioritize workflows based on time and resources; and utilize the combination of tradition / “Next Generation” Market Research technology and critical thinking skills to deliver valuable market research outcomes which create customer loyalty for the researching entity.

Applicable Job Roles: webmasters and web content managers.

• Understanding Market Research versus Marketing Research
• Understanding the Major Types of Market Research
  • Traditional vs. Digital Market Research
• Strategically Structuring Your Market Research Project
• Identifying Your Research GOALS (What is the Business Need)
• Pinpointing the needs of your desired segment(s)
• Selecting the right Types of Digital Market Research:
  • Primary research versus secondary research
  • Product, Brand, Psychological, Database
  • E-Communities, Media Monitoring,
• Listen, Analyze, Understand, Engage
  • Understanding Rationale (know your competition and your industry)/Assumptions (the basis of your research)
    • Learn and Understand your customer
      • Who, What, When, Why and How?
    • Know your Industry and Competition
      • B2C versus B2B
        • Qualitative versus Quantitative
  • Determining Demographics:
  • Gender, age, location, income, where they shop, what they do for work and play, number of children, web site visitation, “likes”, navigation patterns, conversations
• Budget Considerations
• CASE STUDY: Identifying the Market Research Business Need

• Overview – Digital Market Research Strategy Design
• Tradition and “Next Generation” Digital Market Research
• Digital Market Research Design via test marketing and experiments
• Optimize your Audience and Sample Size
• E-Community, Co-Creation and Advocacy
• Online Quantitative/Qualitative Research
• To Gantt chart or to chart dynamically and graphically or maybe a little of everything.
• HANDS-ON Exercise: Produce a Digital Market Research Plan that support the Business Need

• “Knowledge is Power” – Researching Your Market
• Market Scope
• Digital Market Research Tools and Techniques
• Apply ethical integrity in a market research project
• ESOMAR 26 code of conduct in online research Compliance
• User Experience (UX) “Friendly” Digital Market Research Strategies – more Co-Creation
• HANDS-ON Exercise: Students engage in a Digital Market Research Exercise

• Analyzing data collection methods based on the TRIPLE CONSTRAINTS (time, cost and quality)
• Understanding Data Sources:
  • Primary – directly from the source
  • Secondary – from previously published research
    • (Web searches, online questionnaires, customer feedback, your future business prospects, focus groups, etc…)
  • Co-creation – part of the entire Digital Marketing DNA workflow
• Plan For your Collective Data Progress Tracking
• Big Data – Define, mine, combine, and perpetually refine.
• Advanced Analytics: multi-source (e-listening reports, online qualitative surveys, CRM Dbases, etc…) data synthesis.
• CASE STUDY: Analyzing data requirements for a Strategic Digital Market Research Project.

• Understanding the Voice and Mind of The Customer
  • Getting intimate with your Product(s)/Service(s) Buyers
    • Current and Potential
  • Optimizing your Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Implementing the Engagement (Compelling, Informative, Educational)
• Understanding the “Art and Science” Analyzing your data
• Hitting your Target Audience with Bulls-eye Accuracy
  • Zooming in on the proper demographic group
• Applying statistical analysis concepts in digital market research
• CASE STUDY: Students engage in a Due Diligence Exercise – Discuss a scenario and recommend an appropriate and synergistic digital market research segmentation, collection and analytics strategy

• Use your Analytics-centric Outcomes to Speak to the Voice of The Customer
• Report key findings and recommendations based on the market research
• Choice Modeling Consideration
  • a. Graphical, Online User Experience(web, video, gamified, mobile, portable,)-Centric
  • b. Web, e-Community Visibility
• Apply ethical integrity in a market research project
• Build Brand Champions
• Develop Loyalty Partners
• HANDS-ON Exercise: Mini-Capstone Exercise – Create a research presentation