Give two different brands where you think a brand barometer would be useful. Defend your answer. "Market Research is a lot of baloney. All I do is ask my wife's opinion." How would you react to this statement?
Brand Barometer is essential to marketing and the well-being and profitability of a company. A well-designed and administered brand barometer can spell a lot of difference to a company’s profitability. Brand barometers, I submit, are useful because compared to just asking a wife’s or neighbor’s opinion about a product or service that is out there in the market, brand barometers if conducted by credible market research agencies using the state-of-the-art brand barometer tool offer a more substantial and empirical data and information. The Brand BarometerSM for example highlights the following in their reports to companies: loyalty rating, service breakdowns, and priorities of improvement (Avenue ISR, n.d). None of this can be had by just asking one’s wife.
Of course asking a wife’s opinion is convenient and cost less, but a wife or wives do not necessarily reflect the desired sample population of users of a certain brand, unless if it were a brand that only wives use, whatever brand it is, I cannot think of any. Marketing research agencies at first impression are there to stash cash from companies in the guise of conducting research but compared to merely asking opinions by convenience, marketing research agencies generally know how to select sample from a desired population so that the results at least reflect the opinion of the market.
Brand Barometers conducted by specialized marketing firms use specialized tools to organized data collection, analysis and interpretation which is then given to the company who has commissioned such study. Brand barometers usually measure the market’s response by finding out customer satisfaction, a service or product breakdown and suggested improvements as done by Brand Barometer SM. Other well-designed brand barometers such as the one advocated by North Star Destination Strategies, ask the single, most important and powerful question: Would you recommend the product or service you are using to others? This is rather too general but as you can see the interview does not stop from there as sub-questions are prepared and the interviewee have answered questions that were previously threatening. Which is better compared to asking them directly the question: How would you rate the efficacy of Brand X in terms of whitening your skin? The answer to the qualitative question, “How would you recommend?” is systematically quantified for accurate analysis and reporting. This question requires trustworthiness of the respondent and some risks of laying on the lines one’s character. These are questions, which sometimes one’s brave and nagging wife can be a very good respondent at, but, kidding aside, you cannot always be asking your wife the same question again and again for a specific period of time. Scientifically done brand barometers are conducted to give a company feedback over a specific period of time like monthly or quarterly.
Brand barometers used to measure customer satisfaction, service and product breakdown and improvement are useful in almost different types of products, in food, cosmetics, clothing, cars, cellphones, furnitures, television networks, shows and magazines. The question, “Would you recommend? And the other follow-up questions that follow the global question are applicable in any circumstances and in any brand.
Let’s take one brand for example, in the line of food: Quaker Oats. And I ask the question, “Would you recommend Quaker Oats to (specify whom)? Why and why and why? This question is even applicable to toothpastes, I will ask the interviewer, “Would you recommend Colgate Total to others? Why and why? So that a brand barometer is useful in any kind of products from needles to choppers, books, websites, even the choice of a president. The latter of which, one asks, “Would you recommend Mr. President to others? Why? What are his credentials? Previous accomplishments? Position in issues? The sub-questions are flexible and customized according to the product or service but ensuring that this does not impede the goal of objectivity of the research process.
I maintain therefore that Brand Barometer is essential that it is useful in all types of products from all types of brands. I also maintain the position that I’d rather cut a little budget from my research department and hire a credible and reliable marketing research agency than using a wife’s opinion or commissioning my own research using my own people. A study by Jenkins (2006) of the dependability and reliability of psychological brand barometers, using repeat-interview technique revealed that psychological brand barometers have high reliability. In the end it does not only saves me time but it also gives me credible and reliable data from an expert in the area of Brand Barometer. This in the long-term translates to more customers, improved brand, better management and hence profitability.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avenue ISR, n.d. Brand BarometerSM [online] Available at: <http://avenueisr.com/solutions/?fuseaction=article&ArticleID=8755> [Accessed on 28 April 2011). Jenkins J.D., 2006. Dependability of Psychological Brand Barometers. I. The problem of reliability. Abstract only. Also published in the Journal of Applied Psychology
Volume 22, Issue 1, February 1938, Pages 1-7. Available online 16b May 2007. [online] Available at: < http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WY3-4NRK6TY-1&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F1938&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1733635543&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=05d203e3135b0d05d8e0eceec43ec29b&searchtype=a> [Accessed 28 April 2011].
Lancaster, G and Massingham L. Essential of Marketing Management. Sample page only p 379 from Google Books. [online] Available at: <http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=sULd00aYYxEC&pg=PA379&lpg=PA379&dq=brand+barometer%2Bmarketing+management&source=bl&ots=wMYsf-X7BU&sig=IDSP8b4a-Wmr32hP-L3Duqconug&hl=tl&ei=WbC4TfDxLIGcvgPa7KWiAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=brand%20barometer%2Bmarketing%20management&f=false> [Accessed 28 April 2011].
North Star Destination Strategies, 2008. Sample Brand Barometer Report. [online] Available at: <http://www.northstarideas.com/documents/SAMPLEBrandBarometerReport_001.pdf> [Accessed on 28 April 2011).
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