Copy testing (pre-testing) of advertising to ensure maximum effectiveness of campaigns and predict advertising performance. Ad research can also be be used to engage target audiences and involve them in the creation of messages suitable to them and their peers.

Periodic or continuous tracking of advertising recall and associated changes in product usage.  Ad tracking allows  a researcher  to clearly identify what impact advertising has had on the intended audience and identify if the correct media channels have been used and whether the advertising has been effective.

Without brand equity there is no brand. Your brand has a set of values or perceptions that creates demand among your customers. By tracking the strength of your brand compared to competitors you can ensure that they are not encroaching on the values that your brand owns and the marketing territories that your brand is operating in.

Evaluation of consumer and customer responses to new product ideas, distribution methods or advertising before implementation allows your target market to be engaged in further refining your product or service to meet their needs.

What do your customers think about how you have served them? What is their experience when choosing, acquiring, using and disposing of your products or services?  It is not enough to have a top quality product and deliver it rapidly, customers have attitudes and opinions that are very complex and will influence future sales.

Specialist research methods are used to identify the decision making processes of different customer groups. Special attention is provided to ensure conscious and subconscious influences are identified and levels of influence measured.

Retaining experienced and top quality employees is one of the toughest tasks in today’s world.  By monitoring employee experience and engagement at regular intervals, problem areas and potential solutions can be identified to ensure that employee experience is positive, and engagement is at a high level throughout the entire organisation.

Complex marketing problems quite often need complex solutions. Blind and double blind testing is used, where appropriate to counter the placebo effect and any observer bias that can occur.

Following or observing shoppers in store or even in mocked up stores provides valuable ‘in the moment’ information about their behaviour and why they do what they do in the short moments as they are evaluating your product and those of your competitors.

How do you know what ‘best in class’ is? Research can provide the answer as well as track the performance of your brand and other market players against these key market metrics.

How does the market see your brand compared to the competition? Do you have ownership of the brand attributes you expect? Has your repositioning strategy been effective at reaching your target segments?

How much elasticity exists in your current level of pricing? How will your customers react to changes in price and what will be the likely effect on purchase volume and frequency? What impact will the introduction of a low price competitor have on the market? All these questions and more can, and have, been answered by Taverner.

Use research to develop new ideas for products, invigorate a stale product, develop new packaging or identify new distribution methods. Get your customers and other stakeholders involved in idea generation, idea screening and testing of product ideas and concepts.

Sharpen your marketing edge by fully understanding the demographic and psychographic differences among your customers.  Segmentation allows high value segments to be identified and may identify segments of the market that your competitors have yet to recognise.

While often considered the ‘standard’ in market research U&A studies still provide valuable insight into the impact of all marketing and sales efforts in a particular channel. While you know how you’re performing often the performance of your competitors can be little bit hazy and a U&A study can bring the needed clarity.