developing innovative qualitative research techniques for effective digital marketing strategy
DESCRIPTION
Developing innovative qualitative research techniques for effective digital marketing strategypresented at QRWEBA2011 conferenceorganised by Merlien InstituteTRANSCRIPT
By Stanislav & Preslav Bondjakov, Directors
ConsumerVisions
Developing innovative qualitative researchtechniques for effective digital marketing strategy
ConsumerVisionsDigital Media Research+Strategy
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Who we are...
ConsumerVisions – specialised digital media research agency,
owned by Preslav & Stanislav
Focusing on building digital strategies based on consumer
insights & helping organisations offer successful digital media
Prior to establishing ConsumerVisions, we have worked at
leading global market/social research agencies
Building on many years of research experience, including in
digital media research
Have consulted to a wide range of commercial and government
organisations in Australia and New Zealand
Regular speakers at conferences and forums
Partner with specialised research recruitment agencies to recruit
top quality participants
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The Internet Evolution...
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The internet evolution
[INSERT 2 minute VIDEO HERE] ...[FILE TOO LARGE TO BE EMBEDDED – TO BE PLAYED SEPARATELY]
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Some promising stats...
Some key statistics in Asia show that:
� Out of a total population of 3,834,792,852, there is 825,094,396 internet users (nearly 22%);
� 42% of world internet users are in China alone;
� Internet user growth in Asia between the year 2000 and 2010 was 622%;
� Half of all internet users in Asia are from China.
While Oceania / Australia accounts only for 1% of world internet
users, internet penetration is 61%
� In 2010, internet user growth in Oceania / Australia was 179%
� With the proposed new National Broadband Network, internet penetration is forecasted to increase to 98% of all Australian households
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But be wary of savvy consumers...
Digital consumers are becoming very savvy in their website selection and the way they use websites - “Now, when people go online they
know what they want and how to do it” says Dr. Jakob Nielsen, global usability guru
Websites are selected on the basis of good design, intuitive navigation, high level of user empowerment, engagement, and relevance
Websites are more likely to succeed if they are designed according to how humans think and behave
Users read web pages in an "F" pattern. They're more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down. That makes the first two words of a sentence very important
Users are extremely good at screening out things and focusing in on a small number of salient page elements
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Users connect well with images of people looking directly at them -professional images are not appealing, people relate easier to more realistic images
According to Dr. Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage to reach to where they want to go on a website, the rest search and get straight to the destination page
People are spending less time on websites – there is a greater need to present them with highly relevant, well organised information
Hence, the need to develop highly usable, well organised websites and applications which are developed with users.
But be wary of savvy consumers...
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From Web 1.0 to 3.0...
4 minute video - illustrating the social media revolution...[FILE TOO LARGE TO BE EMBEDDED – TO BE PLAYED SEPARATELY]
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From Web 1.0 to 3.0...
Web 1.0 is the internet before 1999, experts call it the ‘Read-Only’ era
� Users were only able to read static information
� No active communication flow from consumer to producer of information,
no real interaction, low levels of user engagement and empowerment
Web 2.0: The year 1999 marked the beginning of a Read-Write-Publish era
� Higher levels of user empowerment & interactivity, incl. blogging, social media & live video streaming
� Publishing of user content is only a few clicks away
� Few remarkable developments of Web 2.0 are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and MySpace.
Web 3.0: The era of personalisation, semantic web, intelligent search, and behavioural targeting and advertising
Web 4.0: ...under development...leave it for next conference!!!
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Where to from now?
Although the internet usage is booming and users are savvier than
ever...
...digital media is still catching up
Organisations need to understand their digital customers & respond to their needs
Perceived value of digital media research is increasing
Just as it took a while for advertising research to take off, following the TV boom (50’s-60’s), digital media is at its peak of development now and consumer research is starting to become an integral part of it...
The sites of the (near) future will be developed with consumers, using innovative research solutions
We are here to enlighten you on cutting edge qualitative research techniques for building effective digital marketing strategies...
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From research to application
Through our innovative qualitative research methods we help
clients:
� Develop a consumer-centric strategy which also recognises the business requirements and limitations
� Develop sustainable digital offering through in-depth understanding of digital consumer’s needs and expectations
� Ensure digital offer is relevant, up-to-date, and usable
� Improve e-commerce and m-commerce presence and sales, by developing highly impactful and relevant ‘shop fronts’ or homepages, as well as seamless shopping experiences
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Research methodologies...
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Consumer driven strategy
Motivations
Brand attitudes
Digital lives
Competitive environment
Brand challenges
Insights & foresights
Needs & preferences
Digital
strategy
Market-driven
web offer
Platforms
Interaction
Technology/ trends
Business requirements
Multi-channel
Digital
Consumers Qualitative research
User experience optimisation
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Methodology model
1. Situation analysis
2. User needs research
3. User experience research
4. Web development
Digital strategy
development
Prototypedevelopment
Overall goal: Assisting organisations in formulating market-driven digital
strategies, leading to optimal digital offers, e.g. websites, apps, etc.
User experience optimisation
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Purpose: Understanding market environment, business context & goals,
current digital offer, and existing research & data
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Overview of methodologies
Step 1: Situation analysis
Methods:
� Expert site review & web assets audit
� Market/Competitor analysis
� Site analytics review
� Business requirements & KPIs – interviews with key internal stakeholders
� Workshops with web design & development team
Key outcome:
� Input into digital strategy & user needs research design
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Purpose: Deep understanding of digital consumers’ lives. Exploring user
needs, preferences, motivations, brand attitudes & behaviours, with a view
to developing a consumer-centric digital strategy.
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Overview of methodologies
Step 2: User needs research
Methods:
� Exploratory focus groups – incl. persona development, card sorts
� In-depth interviews
� User workshops – incl. usability testing, task completion, observations
Key outcomes:
� Digital strategy
� Prototypes
� Specs brief to designers
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Purpose: Discovering issues with usability, design and branding, with a
view to recommending optimised user experience.
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Overview of methodologies
Step 3: User experience research
Methods:
� Expert review - to identify key problem areas prior to user testing
� User workshops/interviews – incl. usability testing, task completion,
observations
� To identify usability problems with navigation, labelling, content, page layout. Involves task completion and provides suggestions to improve user experience
Key outcomes:
� Recommendations for optimised user experience
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Focus on research methods
Focus groups
� Exploratory discussions:
� Number of groups depends on audience groups/segment types
� 6-8 participants per group, recruited & screened professionally
� Exploratory funnel approach – group members participate in a spontaneous
discussion. General topics are explored first, followed by more specific topics.
� Used for:
� Understanding digital consumers’ needs, attitudes, motivations & behaviours
� Brainstorming ideas; uncovering marketing insights; developing hypothesis
� Outcomes:
� Data is qualitative & directional, not conclusive. Views are analysed & then
summarised. No attempt is made to quantify the findings.
� Findings feed directly into digital strategy development.
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Focus on research methods
In-depth interviews
� Interviews follow the same general principles as focus group, in the context of
informal and unstructured discussions.
User workshops
� 3 phased session:
� Involves ‘real’ users or potential users of the website
� 4-5 participants per session, recruited & screened professionally
– Phase 1: Unpolluted initial group discussion of people’s needs and
expectations of the site, marketing mix elements – begin to form an idea of
consumer motivations and behaviours
– Phase 2: Each participant completes a set of tasks on the site on a PC –
‘think aloud’ method or recording in a workbook is used. Each participant is
observed by a senior researcher. Key site usability issues are uncovered.
– Phase 3: Follow-up group discussion - focus website projected on data
projector. Discussion of experiences with the site, stumbling blocks,
opportunities for enhancements and optimisation of user experience. This
discussion provides specific suggestions for improvement of site’s
navigation, design, and content.
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Focus on research methods
User workshops cont’d...
� Used for:
� Usability testing, marketing mix evaluation
� Understanding a site’s next level from users’ perspective
� Outcomes:
� Actionable recommendations for optimised user experience & web
performance. Aided by visual outputs such as interactive prototypes, marked-up
pages, and implementation workshops.
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Case study...
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Case study
Redevelopment of a key Australian Government website
� Australian Department of Broadband, Communications & the Digital
Economy is one of Australian Government’s key departments
� It has a public website with over 5,000 web pages and over 3,000 downloadable documents
� The website’s main audience is the general public, as well as businesses
� Website was designed around business areas, rather than being user-
centric
� It was difficult for users to achieve their tasks on the site, and there were low levels of satisfaction
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Case study
A continuous website improvement program implemented:
1. Overall strategy for the Department’s digital offering;
2. Two consecutive qualitative research studies on the Department’s site;
3. Expert and usability reviews of a Web 2.0 mapping application;
4. An annual web performance monitoring project, tracking website KPIs on a quarterly basis.
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Case study
Qualitative studies:
� First study comprised of 8 workshops with website users – total of 53
participants. Second study involved 9 workshops, with a total of 67
participants
� Studies focussed on exploring the needs and preferences of users for the site
� Iterative development of the site with prototypes tested at each stage
� Each workshop lasted 2 hours, and it was divided in 3 parts
� The first part explored users’ needs and expectations of the site, its navigation,
design, and content. Also, key perceptions of the Department and its online
communication tools.
� The second part consisted of an individual workbook completion, covering a set
of tasks on the old and new sites, and a set of website ratings.
� This was followed by an in-depth discussion about users’ experience with both
sites, encountered issues and suggested improvements to the current site.
Suggestions included improvements to the site’s navigation, design and
content.
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Case study
Usability reviews & web performance monitoring:
� Expert and usability reviews of the Web 2.0 application were concurrently run with the second qualitative study.
� Web performance monitoring program focuses on tracking website KPIs to identify areas of poor performance and provide actionable
recommendations for improvement in navigation, design and content.
� KPIs were developed in close consultation with the Department’s
executives who own the content on the site. Included business requirements gathering and confirmation.
� As a result of the qualitative research and the web performance monitoring
program, the Department has started to implement recommendations such as improving the page design, layout, and Web 2.0 technologies.
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Case study
Original homepage
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Case study
2nd iteration of homepage - based on research
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Case study
Prototype of new homepage - based on research
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Case study
Latest homepage - based on recommended prototype
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Case study
Examples of some Web 2.0 tools embedded in the Department’s sites
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Case study
Web 2.0 application example – initiatives map
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Key outcomes for client
Digital strategy with recommendations on key areas to focus, according to user and business requirements – transformation of business-centric to more user-centric
In-depth understanding of key segment needs and behaviours, leading to development of a more usable and relevant website
Actionable recommendations for key website improvements including navigation, design and content
Implementation of Web 2.0 technologies
Implications for the re-design of the Department’s Intranet to being more user-centric
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E-commerce example...
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E-commerce example...
A multi-channel international retailer with offline retail stores as well as an online store
Client identified declining online sales over a year, but did not know the reasons behind this decline
Research program included:
1. Site analytics review - identified where most drop-outs were coming from;
2. Expert review - identified some major site flaws;
3. User experience workshops – identified reasons behind poor sales, e.g.
product selection & bundling, shopping process, poor synchronisation with
offline product stock, registration, and payment page
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E-commerce example...
Following all research, it was recommended that:
� Homepage design is improved to include a centre page moving-images panel which show cases the uniqueness of the brand and products, with
ability to start shopping straight from this panel;
� The shopping experience is improved, including simpler site navigation, easier product selection, better integration with social media tools, and full
offline and online product stock synchronisation
Client has implemented key recommendations and has already started to see improvements in sales.
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More successful stories...
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Some of our key clients...
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More of our work...
Background: Kraft Foods
embarked on a major global
website redevelopment project
which involved redeveloping and
redesigning their websites in all of
their main markets
Key objectives: To identify the
optimal content, look and user flow
for the Kraft Foods Australia
website, and drive up volume via
extended usage ideas
Methodology: Qualitative
research involving interactive
workshops, in-depth interviews,
observation, ratings
Outcomes: Kraft Foods have
seen marked improvement in
visitation rates of the site since its
redevelopment, and also
indications of increased volume.
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More of our work...
Background: Re-development of
Sun Safety website for
Queensland Health – market
research to develop new IA for,
and key design aspects &
tools/features
Key objectives: increase site
uptake through effective
marketing and positive user
experience; motivate users to
return to the site; and advocate
the site to others
Methodology: Conducted
consumer workshops, worked
with a web designer to develop
the new IA, features, design
elements
Outcome: Client re-developed
the website completely,
implementing the new IA and
design recommendations
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In conclusion...
Through innovative qualitative research methods clients:
� Develop a consumer-centric strategy which also recognises the business requirements and limitations
� Develop sustainable digital offering through in-depth understanding of digital consumer’s needs and expectations
� Ensure digital offer is relevant, up-to-date, and usable
� Improve e-commerce and m-commerce presence and sales, by developing highly impactful and relevant ‘shop fronts’ or homepages, as well as seamless shopping experiences.
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Contact: Stanislav Bondjakov, DirectorEmail: [email protected]
Web: www.consumervisions.com.au
Phone: +61 425 744 796
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Presented at the Asia-Pacific conference on
Qualitative Research in Web 2.0
22 & 23 Feb 2011, Macau SAR
For more information
Please visit: http://www.merlien.org