MARKET RESEARCH

SITUATION

Companies are constantly evaluating their customers, their competitors, their products/brands, and their own strategies to reveal insights that can give them an edge in the marketplace. It’s easy to sit around a conference room table and speculate what is going on in the minds of everyone engaged with your brand. It’s harder to remember that the people seated around that table are not your target audience. That’s where market research can save the day. Market research programs add focus and relevance to marketing efforts and programs so they stay centered on the target audience. They can also validate or refute the assumptions that come from those internal discussions, which allows companies to make better decisions and mitigate risk. Unfortunately, market research programs can also be very expensive and take months to execute. AgCall has developed a platform for affordable, quick-turn market research initiatives that can be executed on a smaller scale, but are projectable to the larger audience.

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

  • Validate or refute assumptions around topics such as: decision-making processes, key influencers, attitudes toward the client and its brands, what customers value in a manufacturer program (e.g. financing, rebates), and product usage patterns.
  • Strengthen the relationship between the client and its retail and grower customers by seeking their opinions.

STRATEGY AND ACTION

The strategic recommendation from AgCall was to:

  • Recruit, hire and train an appropriate number of TeleSpecialists to successfully complete the target number of calls within the desired time frame
  • Develop a call script that will allow a conversational discussion around the information the client is looking to obtain
  • Utilize the AgCall TeleManager platform to collect customer data and survey responses from each individual contacted for the program
  • Assign a dedicated AgCall project manager to lead and coordinate the efforts of this team, provide frequent updates on progress and any initial observations or trends, and complete a final analysis and report on the complete findings from the program, including final data output and cleansed customer information

The AgCall TeleSpecialists involved in programs such as this are seasoned callers with strong agricultural acumen and great attention to detail. As with all of our Associate positions, they work from their homes and utilize the AgCall TeleManager platform from their computer for all aspects of the program – they are not affiliated with a call center. Each program has a “Secret Producer” seeded into the call list. This is a person who is hired by AgCall to audit TeleSpecialist performance. They complete the call just as though they were part of the call list and ensure that the script is being followed precisely and that the caller is upholding our high standards for performance and quality conversations.

RESULTS

While each market research program has a unique set of stated objectives and deliverables, the results of these programs have been used by clients to:

  • Develop marketing, product stocking and incentive programs
  • Better understand decision-making processes and product stocking and selling cycles
  • Position new and existing products among various target audiences
  • Understand changing marketplace dynamics, grower practices, and customer needs
  • Improve relationships between the client and target audiences

Contact Us

Interested in what AgCall has to offer your business? Contact one of our Business Development Consultants today.

Ed Mazurkewich

Business Development Consultant

Email: e.mazurkewich@agcall.com

Twitter:@edmazurk

Mobile: 1 (403) 350-8184

Barrie Manikel

Business Development Consultant

Email: b.manikel@agcall.com

Twitter: @BarrieManikel

Phone: 1 (204) 758-3835

Mobile: 1 (204) 746-5041

Lori Dekan, CCA

Director Business Development

Email: l.dekan@agcall.com

Mobile: 573-881-4420

Monica Phillips

VP USA Operations

Email: m.phillips@agcall.com

Mobile: 1 (515) 505-0874