Competitive Research

1. Who are our primary competitors?
2. On what basis do we compete?
3. What are our competitive positions?
4. What are our respective market shares?
5. What are their strengths?
6. What are their weaknesses?
7. What are their primary opportunities?
8. How are they a threat to our venture?
9. How do you compare to our competitors?
10. Who are our future competitors?
11. What strategic opportunities exist in the market?
12. Can we collaborate rather than compete?
13. What are the barriers to future competition?
14. Who are the most likely future competitors?

Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint analysis is a statistical technique used in market research to determine how people value different features that make up an individual Product or Service. The objective of conjoint analysis is to determine what combination of a limited number of attributes is most influential on respondent choice or decision making. A controlled set of potential products or services is shown to respondents and by analyzing how they make preferences between these products, the implicit valuation of the individual elements making up the product or service can be determined. These implicit valuations (utilities or part-worths) can be used to create market models that estimate market share, revenue and even profitability of new designs.

Advantages

1. Estimates psychological tradeoffs that consumers make when evaluating several attributes together
2. Measures preferences at the individual level
3. Uncovers real or hidden drivers which may not be apparent to the respondent themselves
4. Realistic choice or shopping task
5. Able to use physical objects
6. If appropriately designed, the ability to model interactions between attributes can be used to develop needs based segmentation

Disadvantages

• Designing conjoint studies can be complex
• With too many options, respondents resort to simplification strategies
• Difficult to use for product positioning research because there is no procedure for converting perceptions about actual features to perceptions about a reduced set of underlying features
• Respondents are unable to articulate attitudes toward new categories
• Poorly designed studies may over-value emotional/preference variables and undervalue concrete variables
• Does not take into account the number items per purchase so it can give a poor reading of market share

[Thank you, Wikipedia]

Marketing Brochure Prototype

A prototype marketing brochure is a good tool for "testing the waters" with prospective customers.

1. Easy way to test a new product, service, solution idea
2. Easy to iterate a concept
3. Easy to put in front of prospective customers for feedback: test, measure, learn
4. Customer can become part of the design process ... pencil and paper and eraser
5. Inexpensive ... time, money, resources
6. Works for most any idea concept
7. Flexible "size" (number of pages) although the fewer the better 
8. Can incorporate in the venture business plan, summary
9. Can use to design and develop a product and/or service based on prospective customer reactions to the product and/or service describe in the prototype brochure

Scientific Method

The Scientific Method is a well-refined process for solving a problem.  

1. Purpose/Problem ... What do you want to learn?  What problem do you want to solve?
2. Research ... find out as much as you can about the problem, from a variety of sources.  Takke copious notes.
3. Hypothesis ... Try to predict the answer to the problem, an "educated guess" ... "If I (do something), then (this will occur)".
4. Experiment ... Design a test or procedure to confirm of disprove your hypothesis.  Implement this process.
5. Analysis ... Record what happened during the experiment.  Collect data.
6. Conclusion ... Review the data and check to see if your hypothesis was correct.
7. Iteration ... Change what didn't work and test it again.