Telecom Industry

To ensure the success of new products and growth of brand share in a highly dynamic and competitive market, our client needs constant up-to-date information on all aspects of purchase, usage and satisfaction amongst the most recent purchasers of mobile devices around the globe, within a competitive context.

In addition, they also need to understand the intentions of those planning to buy a new mobile device in the coming months and monitor actual purchase choices.

Due to the combination of established and emerging markets across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, a multi-mode data collection vehicle was developed, using both online panels and face to face interviewing.

Some 10,000 interviews are conducted each month, meaning that tens of thousands of recent mobile device purchasers have been researched to date.

Harris Interactive’s in-house developed online reporting tool, Viewport, provides instant access to the research for over 100 users worldwide, and enables sophisticated user-generated analysis. SWOT analysis is also provided at a global and country level over time and our team has produced over 60 separate insight reports on a range of topics.

The results inform development of strategies for all aspects of the business including consumer insight, forecasting, marketing and product development.

Our client needed to understand the specifics of its position and performance among small and medium enterprises across a number of key European markets. To gain the insight required, a tracking study of brand awareness and business purchase decision-making was needed.

Quantitative research was developed to track brand awareness/recall, favourability, purchase consideration, actual usage and loyalty towards own and competitive brands. To fully understand the drivers moving business customers through the loyalty ‘funnel’, brand values, customer connection/engagement with the brand, and business communication needs were also explored.  The client’s enterprise market segmentation was incorporated.

Our 2 million strong online panel was used to recruit and interview key influencers and decision makers. Quotas for company size were implemented for each country to ensure robust sample sizes in each segment of interest.

The research programme identified discrepancies in the loyalty ‘funnel’ by country which pointed to unutilised potential. Key driver analyses carried out for favourability, purchase consideration and loyalty helped formulate recommendations on ways of maximising the brand’s performance. Further action planning was facilitated by identifying target customer groups where customer connection was weaker for both emotional and aspirational fit. Finally, the insight into the enterprise decision-making process pointed to the importance of external partnerships and the prioritisation of communications channels in reaching the target groups.

A need to understand the potential market for a newly created and innovative service, prior to taking the proposition a step closer to launch. Particular focus was given to exploring the segments of the customer base likely to adopt versus mass market prospects, as well as determining which of several pricing propositions had the greatest appeal to each customer segment.

As there was an absence of a relevant competitive set for the proposition, this study used Conjoint analysis to establish respondents’ attraction to the product and willingness to pay for the service over varying price points. An online research approach enabled stimulus material to be easily used to explain the concept and gauge reaction, interest, potential usage, barriers and preferred supplier type. Respondents were shown a number of packages, with varying price points and product features, which they were asked to rank by likelihood to purchase.

A statistical model was then created by our Marketing Sciences team that allowed prediction of potential customers’ reaction to any profile. A simulator tool was developed that enabled our client to model the market response to "what if" scenarios with estimated revenue and profit figures.

We were able to recommend a way to maximise revenues by launching two very different but optimally priced packages. Our analysis predicted a high degree of exclusivity between the customer groups that would take-up the product with each package. This information was used by our client in their final decision-making and forecasting before launch.

Out client had experienced radical internal changes during recent years and wanted to ensure that satisfaction and loyalty among their business clients was not affected.

Originally, two quantitative projects were commissioned separately; one measuring overall satisfaction and loyalty and the other monitoring the performance on individual service areas in detail. Our research team merged these into one study, linking performance with satisfaction and thereby developing a model of key drivers of loyalty and churn.

To give the client further actionable insight, we observed performance at various service areas levels, which highlighted areas of dissatisfaction and opportunities. Results were compared to previous phases to pinpoint any slips in satisfaction and to verify that actions taken by the client had the intended effect.

The insight gained from this continuous study, has led our client to focus resources in priority areas of improvement. In fact, they have used the findings to constantly increase their performance against this index over time.

Furthermore, a ‘loyalty index’ was developed to benchmark managers’ achievements, which is directly linked to their bonus scheme.