The Science of Technology Marketing™
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The Science of Technology Marketing™ |
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EQUS Group Inc. analyzes and presents market intelligence, representing the invaluable Voice of the Customer™, in a way that enables our clients to put the information and recommendations into immediate action. Our research programs parallel the complete product life cycle.
Visit Our Services to learn about specific services offered by EQUS Group Inc. within these programs. |
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Successful planning is based upon envisioning an accurate map of your total market environment. Market Planning begins with collecting all of the market intelligence needed for effective product development and for establishing the new product's underlying marketing strategies. |
Although attracting new customers is fundamental to the success of any enterprise, many marketing programs fail to be effective because their messaging and positioning is not based upon current marketplace realities. We help our clients to develop product positioning and messaging strategies that resonate with your prospects.
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Once the product is launched, customer development and market expansion become essential for achieving revenue growth and product profitability. Our Market Expansion programs measure the effectiveness of our clients' marketing initiatives and recommend corrective action or fine-tuning for those elements found most ineffective. |
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EQUS Market Mapping™ begins by analyzing technology trends, identifying market opportunities, profiling key competitors and uncovering client’s customers’ issues and their most likely alternative solutions. We pretest product concepts to determine those with a significant Return on Investment. Our pre-testing programs enable clients to prioritize feature sets by interfacing with existing and potential customers. If product interface and form are critical to market acceptance, we provide usability labs that enable participants to help refine product designs. Our value to you is in creating the infrastructure that facilitates feedback from both users and sellers to your strategic planning process. Through our research we provide clients with the tools to create strategies based upon real-time market input from the most knowledgeable sources. Traditional qualitative focus group methodology is used to pretest market acceptance of new product ideas and/or marketing materials and messages. Small numbers of customers or prospects participate in focused discussions led by our in-house moderators. We can also establish an ongoing user forum from the group of participants for continuing discussions of important product issues. Clients use this opportunity to prove product viability. We use our quantitative eSurvey™ methodology to collect data on feature set preferences from a large sample population of qualified participants. This program enables the client to understand customer needs and prioritize features in importance to buying or design-in criteria. We have successfully completed about 800 focus groups since our inception in 1994. Our focus group clients include companies such as J. Walter Thompson, one of the world’s largest ad agencies. We have completed numerous web interface studies as well as technology product usability labs using consumer focus groups for technology environment, market segment opportunity map, competitive map, customer dynamics map, PC Computer OEM, PC Peripheral OEM, joystick manufacturer, CD-ROM materials, digital cameras, cell phones & PDAs, printers & scanners, and wireless products. We profile new or existing usage scenarios for client products/services, and analyze market dynamics (competition, existing alternative solutions, and business models). To gain the necessary insights, we frequently conduct site visits for different firmographic categories and geographic regions. Our analysts meet with one or more of the firm's senior managers to understand the factors impacting their product usage and purchasing decisions. We offer quick and incisive strategic insights into competitive strategies and tactics by collecting competitive product information. We help in determining product uniqueness vs. each competitor. We analyze product strengths and weaknesses vs. competitors, ranking results by importance to customer . With this information our clients are able to exploit the weaknesses of the competition and to better anticipate competitive moves, allowing preemptive decision-making. We put you firmly in the driver’s seat, enabling you to play offense rather than defense. We provide our clients with a reality check on technology adoption trends by focusing on what customers are really evaluating, budgeting, and installing. We can analyze factors that may deter adoption, help determine what is driving the technology trends, and uncover how customers are justifying the need for this product. This information enables our clients to plan and profit from strategic forces reshaping their business environment. This program validates mission statement, market opportunity, market dynamics, market entry strategy, and revenue projections. It allows early stage companies to focus on product development and not continually iterate business plans. |
We collect market information and industry insights to develop quantifiable metrics that enable our clients to provide solid evidence of their product/service’s business value, shorten the sales cycle and increase closing percentages. We give technology buyers the data they need to make a convincing case to decision-makers. The value proposition is an essential component of each marketing message and must be clear, compelling and convincing. A powerful business case or solid purchase justification is the core of each marketing plan or strategy. We test your value propositions to determine which messages convey the most compelling business case to your target customers. Product Positioning & Messaging We determine the most effective product positioning and the right set of core messages in our clients’ present competitive environment. Because competition and market dynamics constantly evolve, periodic market updates are beneficial and afford you the opportunity to fine-tune messages and positioning to maximize the current market opportunity. We interview the top decision-makers, our client’s target customers, to profile the decision-making process and determine who the most likely decision-makers for a specific technology or service are, competitive environment, customer perceptions, and what the obstacles to adoption with that organization are. We provide our client’s sales team with a customer map of the purchasing decision processes and anticipated product objections. We determine the effectiveness of selected distribution channels in new or existing market segments. We help our clients to identify their best selling organizations, to avoid both ineffective partners that waste valuable resources as well as selling conflicts with overlapping competitive offerings. |
Using in-depth interviews or our eSurvey™ methodology, we provide insights into product awareness, product satisfaction, purchasing criteria and market perception of both our client’s company and products as well as their competitors’. This information enables our clients to make necessary changes in marketing programs to impact current market perceptions and more precisely address the purchasing criteria. We survey customers to monitor the critical criteria, as determined by the client (such as product performance, technical support, sales support, quality of documentation access to field application support, etc.), that most impact the customer-supplier relationship. Each criterion is surveyed for how important it is to the purchasing decision and how our client company and their direct competitors compare. Because of the high correlation between customer satisfaction and purchasing decisions, many of our clients have instituted regular customer satisfaction surveys to monitor their customer base and proactively address identified shortcomings. Marketing Materials Effectiveness We survey and analyze feedback from our client’s customers and sales organization to determine the effectiveness of each sales tool. This program surveys items such as brochures, web content, application notes, seminars, ads and data sheets. The results from this study enable our clients to eliminate or strengthen ineffective collateral and to focus future marketing resources on what is working the best. We identify the best new markets for our clients’ technology and core competencies and recommend strategies to penetrate each new segment. We address which segments should be targeted and the basis for segmenting the market. Our segmentation studies have contributed laser-beam precision to our clients' marketing efforts. Why waste precious resources on reaching prospects least likely to buy? Our aim is to drastically reduce this "wasted reach" by honing in on your company's best prospects. We identify and profile the companies that would make the best partners for co-marketing or co-development of strategic alliances. It is often found that geography or unforeseen events lead to establishing partnerships. Marketing research enables the client to initiate a proactive search and analysis of strategic partners that meet their criteria and address the company’s critical needs. |
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