Case Study - Six to Seven Six to Seven is a telecommunications company marketing state of the art telecommunications equipment. The company is currently in the process of developing a new generation type of mobile phones. When developed, this phone will enable users not only to make standard telephone calls and connect to the Web, but will have a small screen which will enable users to view the person at the other end of the line in high definition, unlike competitors' models whose definition characteristics leave a lot to be desired. Needless to say, investment to develop the technology and market the product is substantial.
As part of the development process, the company is eager to find out more about potential customers for this product. In particular, they are interested in finding out if there is a market for the product, how big this market might be, and how customers will respond to this concept. They propose hiring a specialist market research agency with skills in the area of researching buyer behaviour, particularly for new product concepts.
QUESTIONS 1. What areas of buyer behaviour should this proposed research encompass, and why?
2. What types of research techniques might be useful in researching these areas? Suggested approach For the first question, the obvious route is to investigate consumer buying behaviour. However, it is the retail trade that will decide whether or not to stock and market these products, so some investigative research is called for in terms of simply finding out the attitudes of the trade to such an innovation.
How it should be marketed should also be investigated - with various distribution possibilities being investigated e.g. through the retail trade - specialist retailers or electrical chains, or through the medium of the worldwide web, or indeed to attempt to market the product solely through the company. The second question relates to techniques to be used. For the trade it is suggested that depth interview will be the most appropriate medium, but for end consumers, some kind of investigative research might be required, possibly through the use of focus group discussions