Consumer Clinic is designed to test products with control and precision, to broaden the types of question asked and to facilitate international comparisons at an early point in the development process when group discussions might be the only other option.
Consumer Clinics are:
- Fast
- Accurate
- Cost effective
- Flexible
- Able to cope with large numbers of stimuli
- The only 100% comparable international qualitative research methodology
Consumer Clinics are unique because they provide both robust numerical data and sensitive diagnostics, from the same stage of research without diluting the benefits of either.
Consumer Clinic can test:
- Concepts
- Products
- Pricing
- Advertising
- Packaging
All in the same session if required.
Recruitment
Respondents are pre-recruited, as for group discussions, against quota controls to ensure representation of the target market. This often involves 8 respondents, but can be 10 or 12 according to the needs of the brief.
Consumer Clinic Sessions
Consumer Clinics involve a mixture of individual interviews and discussion which means that numerical assessments and sensitive qualitative diagnostics are achieved from the same session.
Projective techniques.
Sensory testing.
Pricing evaluations.
Econometric testing.
Observational research.
The number of individual interview and group phases vary accordingly to the needs of each project. During individual interview phases respondents may examine in detail new concepts, products, packs, advertising materials or whatever. Also they take their own time to make responses, free from the influence of other respondents.
Discussions held after an individual assessment phase result in a superior quality of debate because respondents have assessed stimuli at their own pace and are ready to talk, with greater confidence, uncontaminated by peer group pressure.
Duration of Consumer Clinics and Venues
Clinics last typically two and a half to three hours which provides ample time to research a large number of stimuli in depth. But they can take as little as one hour or as long as a whole day.
Clinics are held in well lit, spacious environments where there is ample room for individual interviewing stations, group discussions, product preparation facilities and observation or video recording.
Businesses used to focus much more on how to attract customers than on how to retain them.
In the 2000’s businesses are increasingly waking up to the economics of customer loyalty and now retaining customers is a much more publicised and practised strategy with, quite rightly, a long term perspective.
Relationship Marketing, the building of strong relationships with customers, is increasingly the prerequisite for business success and no business can afford to ignore its position and relationship with other suppliers and customers along the value chain.
ACC offers research services along customer value chains covering:
- Optimising customer value chains
- Channel strategy research
- Mystery Shoppers
- Customer satisfaction studies
- Setting and monitoring quality standards
- Benchmarking
- Pre-testing/evaluating the effectiveness of customer loyalty programmes
- Pre-testing/assessing direct marketing campaigns