The proposed research will be carried out in three stages. The first stage will be aimed to interview existing customers, product specialists and open sources to reveal users’ parameters and any useful information related to the market. The second stage will provide detailed information about attitudes to the product, intended applications and possibilities for the OPCs. This will help to design a questionnaire to be used at a final stage.
3. Desk Research
Purpose
Secondary research will be aimed to gather information about intended usage and specific technical criteria in key market niches for TSI product. This trend data should indicate a status of marketplace. Review of existing standards for environmental and filter test markets is to be completed. Review of patents and old products is also planned.
This desk research will attempt to establish the following:
- How many customers do a business using the product or similar devices?
- What are standards currently used by customers? (e.g. ASHRAE standards)
- Who should be a target audience for promotion?
- What are competitive companies and products?
- What are process and important features of competitive products?
Procedure
The search of secondary sources will be carried out to refine the objectives and specify critical-to-quality user needs. At this point, information about competitive products market, competition and technology should be gathered at open sources [1-6] to uncover any pertinent information to be used at the next stages. Specifically, desk research will gather data on performance, usability, maintenance and calibration, software and warranty requirements. Data is to be summarised in Table 1 shown in Annex. This data should give a better understanding of TSI marketplace. At this stage, it would be worth generating a list of brand names and uncover any competing brands that may be used in face-to-face comparison at the following stages.
The search will begin internally with TSI key personnel who have a direct access to engineering and marketing records. Several brief meetings are to be conducted with these customers and sales team, discussing the requirements of the research. Access to internal documentation will be provided as follows: market plans for US and international market, distribution and pricing, correspondence or project information with key customers, regional buyers’ patterns, any complaints. These will aid in understanding of marketplace and SWOT analysis to help in segmentation.
An external search will also be conducted. Existing market assessments will be carried out amongst the major competing firms such as Grimm. Published research databases [1], reports (2-4) will have to be analysed and trade associations (5-7) should be approached in order to obtain relevant information. Portfolio of advertisement and promotion activity used by a competitor will be created to help in establishing the elements of promotional platform.
4. Qualitative Research – Focus Groups
Purpose
Interviews with customers are aimed to (a) determine a prioritized list of users’ requirement for a new line of TSI Optical Particle Counters (OPCs), and (b) identify customers’ attitude towards to applicable standards.
Population and Sampling
Qualitative research can be used for exploratory research into attitudes towards OPC products. Several focus groups are selected from each market niche to cover the customer and non-customer groups of the target market. TSI is pursuing a separate line of OPCs to address three market segments: environmental monitoring, basic and applied aerosol research, and filter testing. TSI’s customers can be divided into three main focus groups: 1) Distributors, 2) OEM’s and 3) End users. In percentage representation it will be as follows: 50% of the business goes through 260 distributors globally, 40% sales to end users (sold via mfg. rep) and 10% to OEM’s (via direct TSI sales). Non-customers are divided as University and agency experts, independent consultants, and industry gurus. Users’ needs, intended usage and important features of the product are listed in Table 2 in the Annex.
The focus groups are to be split up into different income, private or public institutions, level of knowledge etc. Members of the groups will be invited for an interview to be carried out under a mock laboratory with OPC demo products. Although interview is guided by an interviewer to ensure relevant and useful data being collected, it is generally free flowing and this spontaneity can uncover previously unconsidered issues and hypotheses. Responding to questions yet generating new ideas participants will be able to reply in their own words.
Procedure
An indicator of customer’s attitudes towards to the products can be critical-to-quality characteristics, which could be quantified by interviewing customers and non-customers in the key segments. Customer population would be selected from the leading experts and internal product specialists, which is easily available via collaboration links and/or direct employment by TSI. Some of these customers are direct users of TSI product while another group is also involved in development of new product, thus assessing usability and customer qualities. Competitors’ users should be excluded from customer survey as they may give inaccurate and/or irrelevant data. Critical data to quality should be identified at the following positions.
This research is to be conducted by interviewing of the respondents (Table 3 in annex) according to the following three groups:
a) Filter Testing
- ASHRAE 52.2 Filter Test.
- EN 779 standards.
- Cabin Air Filtration.
b) Environmental Monitoring
c) Bioaerosol Research
The interviewer will need to have experience of conducting focus groups meetings. Coding and analysis of focus groups and the interpretation of projective techniques (8) could reduce an accuracy of findings, as it is impossible to interpret them without introducing interviewer bias. As the research is to be qualitative with a number of focus groups and is to be used for exploratory research rather than descriptive research, the representatively of the respondents chosen is not really a fundamental issue, as long as the decision makers are made aware of this limitation. Arisen problems could be solved by conducting a mini pilot focus group, perhaps using known experts that TSI knows to gain feedback before a real study is undertaken.
4. Quantitative Research
Purpose
Customers and non-customers (experts, channel partners) survey solicits information on market size, trends, and competition as well as customer requirements in the research OPC market within different channel partner territories.
Population and Sampling
Selecting respondents for questionnaire is conducted amongst the focus groups identified at the qualitative research stage. This part of research is to be conducted in two phases.
Phase 1:
- 12-20 external customers from the three niches (table 3 in Annex)
- 6-10 non-customers (experts, channel partners)
- 10-15 internal TSI Sales & Engineering personnel
Phase 2: Validate quantitative information
Procedure
A series of surveys through the use of questionnaires will be carried out to collect information on attitudes towards to OPC product, including motivational, behavioural and perceptive aspects. Both standardized and structured questions will be asked to reduce bias caused by questionnaire design. The questions will be pre-tested to validate quality of the design as proper question wording can help increase response rate. In addition, University of Minnesota is well-known institution to target audience and thus it is selected as a sponsor to the marketing research. As an incentive, TSI will use a method of sending a gift once returned a questionnaire.
Questionnaire with a cover letter and stamped reply, if sent by post, will be distributed to selected respondents. Mail interviews will allow wider distribution and lower cost while there is no interviewer bias influence. An accurate mailing list should be available for an interviewer. Telephone reminders can boost a response rate to as much as 50%, but all these methods add to the costs of this research. Therefore, combination of these two methods could possibly gain a sufficient number of responses to provide accurate yet reliable marketing information. Data analysis and test of significance (p < α) will be conducted to validate the results (8).
Face-to-face interview with randomly 3-5 selected respondents will be conducted by qualified staff, which is familiar with specific application. The interviewer can influence the response elicited through comments made or by stressing certain words in a question itself.
6. Reporting
Following the research, an interim report and presentation will be submitted to the board members. This will be discussed at a meeting of stakeholders to identify the viability for the next stages of research. There will be a presentation of all findings and major conclusions drawn from the research. Copiers of final report, Power Point presentation and remarks will be distributed to team members and also available online. In addition, transcripts of interviews can be available upon request.
7. Timing
The table below shows suggested timeframe for the project. Justification for staffing, budget and time are given below in the text and table 1.
Table 1 Diagrammatic Work Plan and Allocation of Research Time
Note: MM – marketing manager, MC – marketing research/communication specialist, PM – project support specialist.
8. Budget
Allocation of time by marketers to the project will in any week typically be as shown in table. Weekly technical discussions between all project team members will typically be 2 hours per week. Interim progress and review meetings will be held typically for 2 hours twice per project lifetime.
9. Credentials
The project will be carried out by marketing department.
Quality control
All interviewers are qualified-marketing specialists to be supervised by team manager. 10 percent of interview data will be controlled by one of the following ways: in person, by telephone or by post. All fieldworks meet the industry standards laid down by professional bodies, the ESOMAR, MRS and CIM.
10. References
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ABI/INFORM Global database. [Accessed on 15 March 2009]
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Peterson, A. et. al. (2008) Gas Detection Equipment - Global Strategic Business Report. San Jose, CA. Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
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Nickson, B., et al. (2009) Report on Gas Detection Equipment: World Market Segmentation by City. San Diego, CA. ICON Group International.
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Peterson, A. et al. (2008) Gas Chromatography Systems - Global Strategic Business Report. San Jose, CA. Global Industry Analysts.
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Crooks, M. et al. (2009) The 2009-2014 World Outlook for Gas Detection Equipment. San Diego, CA. ICON Group International.
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Gas Analysers & Sensors (UK) - Portfolio Analysis. Stockton- on- Tees,
Plimsoll Publishing Ltd. Nov 2008. Pages: 130
- The Worldwide Gas Detection Equipment Market - 257 Key Players Analyzed. Business Wire, 2 October 2007. www.carat.co.uk/whats_new_item.asp?ID=66 [Accessed on 15 March 2009]
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, J. and , R. (2009) Business Research. 3rd Edition, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
ANNEX
Table 1 Competitive markets, companies and products
Table 2 Focus Group / Market Segmentation
Note: Customer segmentation is recommended defining the needs and requirements for each of these market niches.
Table 3 Proposed Customers and Non-customers