Decisions on the innovation strategy use information about markets, customers, competitors, technologies, and framework conditions. The company must recognize trends and forecasts made. That presupposes the correct methods of obtaining information.
Information as the Basis for Strategy Decisions
You need information to make a good decision about the right innovation strategy. To do this, you need to tap suitable sources of information and collect and evaluate information. It would be best to distinguish between secondary research and primary research according to how data is collected. Secondary research deals with acquiring, compiling, and evaluating existing data.
Secondary Research
Secondary research usually leads to results faster and is cheaper than primary research. With every form of secondary research, the data is evaluated accordingly. A distinction is made here between internal information sources and external information sources. Secondary research is the starting point for primary research. Therefore, the following rule applies: First, evaluate secondary material, then conduct primary research.
Typical examples of internal information sources:
- Accounting and bookkeeping data
- Sales statistics
- Reports with tasks
- Correspondence with customers and suppliers
- Previous market studies
- Files about customers or prospects
- Personal experience of the employees
- Own product descriptions, brochures, pricelists
- Company documentation Typical examples of external information sources:
- Official national statistics
- Foreign statistics
- Information from associations
- Business information services
- (Market research) institutes and consulting companies
- Banks
- Trade press, publications
- Address publishers and address manuals
- Fairs and exhibitions
- Company documents
Primary Research
Secondary sources are insufficient for tasks to satisfy specific market research information needs and justify business decisions. It can be tailored to a particular problem and requires thorough preparation and planning. Research also helps you understand clients’ behavior and how your competitors lead their businesses in the market. Primary research includes the following methods:
Observation
Observation is the visual or instrumental gathering of information. Observation forms are open or covert, participating (active/passive) or non-participating observation, under laboratory conditions (as an experiment) or field conditions.
Typical fields of application for observation:
- The point of sale
- Trade fairs
- In customer contacts
- When customers perceive advertising
- Advertising formats and promotions from competitors
- Location analysis and site observations
- For participants in group discussions, technical tools for observation are:
- Microphone
- Video camera
- Electronic counting and measuring devices
- Scanner
- Gaze recorders
- Telemeter
Survey
The survey is of the most significant importance for innovation marketing. It also serves primarily to ascertain the facts. The selection procedures for the survey are random and quota.
Methods of the survey are:
- Written survey (e.g., questionnaire by post or on the Internet)
- Oral survey (e.g., interview, in person or by phone)
Survey Tactics:
- Standardized or structured
- Directly or indirectly
- Open or closed
- Free conversation
Experiments or Tests
A test is an empirical study to assess hypotheses, that is, statements about objective facts. The essence of an experiment is an attempt to show the effect on other quantities by changing the impact of one or more portions. The experiments aim to check whether there is a causal link between at least two factors. Investigations can take different forms.
Trend Research
Another insightful instrument of primary research is trend research or trend scouting. Experienced trend scouts are here to discover and describe future developments, opportunities, and market potential. They bustle with customers at trade fairs in trendy shops or simply on the street; they watch TV series and commercials to see what the target group is up to and admire at a suitable time.
The special competence of trend scouts is that they must differentiate between mayflies and curiosities on the one hand and sustainable trends from which successful products can be derived. You need to know today what is “in” tomorrow. With the gift of an ethnologist’s observation and an entrepreneur’s flair, they discover innovation potential.
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