Primary Research: The 8th P in the Marketing Mix
The Marketing Mix also known as the 7Ps have long been written about and applied to many marketing strategies, however a marketing strategy that consists of; product, place, price, promotion, physical evidence, people and processes lacks one thing, primary research.
Market research is fundamental at the beginning of any brand or business, with the need to understand if there is a demand for the product or service or even if there is a customer base for your niche USP (Unique Selling Point). Now hear us out, we believe market research should be constant, as people change, markets change and what appeals to a customer one day may not the next, right down to even testing your marketing strategy itself.
What is primary research?
In research, any test you conduct yourself or are a part of at present is known as primary research. This is where you (and a team of other people) decide to research an area specific to your interests, especially if there is limited research on that area or if the research in that area is not as up to date (depending on the field).
For example in marketing, trends are constantly changing and so it is important to understand that the buying behaviour last year is not the same this year. This is influenced by a wide variety of things such as social media, tech advances or something unprecedented like a global pandemic. Check out some of the work we’ve done for our clients here.
What is secondary research?
You may have also heard of the term ‘secondary research’, which is research that has already been conducted by someone else. It is important for basing your research from as well as understanding fundamental processes underpinning a specific research area.
Why should primary research be the 8th P?
There is much emphasis on primary research as being the 8th P and not secondary research for good reason (apart from the fact ‘secondary research’ has no P), as it allows you to conduct specific research about a product or service for your brand. It then makes the application of those findings much easier to implement into the marketing strategy, by creating processes that conduct the same research over time e.g. brand perception trackers. By continuing primary research around your business, you will hear direct feedback from your customers to help improve your products or services.
What are the benefits of primary research?
There are so many benefits to primary research; it helps inform your marketing strategy, your business model and it also gains you insight into what customers actually want rather than building a brand and strategy on an assumption. This validation (or invalidation) of an assumption is important to know up front rather than building a business, brand, product or service that doesn’t deliver on ROI (Return on investment), leaving you to then back at square one anyway.
An example of how primary research can be used in your marketing strategy is by giving your customers statistics on how other customers feel about your product or service, validating it in the customers minds. Below we have given examples of marketing communications one with primary research and one without.
Without statistics:
“Lemon juice, it's so good you have to try it.”
With statistics:
“99% of people who tried lemon juice said it improved the appearance and texture of their hair in just one week.”
Please note, no primary research was conducted for these examples, and we do not think you should put lemon juice in your hair... not without at least speaking to a hairdresser about it.
How do I conduct primary research in marketing?
A great place to start is Google Trends because it gives you a basic overview of whether people are searching for a product or service in a specific location. However, DIY tools at this level are not that intuitive and there may be many reasons people search for an item or service (such as market researchers) without there being an intention to purchase.
A more in-depth DIY approach is to use market research platforms such as Rare: Metrics that allow marketing teams to test a concept or creative before it goes live - these platforms also give data on a dashboard in an easy-to-read and digestible way, allowing you to gain rapid feedback on your creatives (image or video) for your marketing campaign. For marketing agencies it also helps to feedback to a client how effective using the agency is for a campaign.
Another route is hiring a team of market researchers who can help you through the research process. Market researchers can use methodologies to research any area of the market that you need. Initially this process begins with a consultation with the team who will apply the most appropriate method for research to suit your budget and timeframe.
An advantage to conducting primary research with a market research team is that they can help you research consumers you may not otherwise know or have been able to reach. They can also provide detailed insights on whether to evolve your product or service into a new market based on the research conducted. Our research team will help you to determine which strategies are best to implement from the research. During our consultations, the research team presents the results back to you and your team, opening up a discussion about what the data means for you and your brand.
Primary research allows for a qualitative method; looking at in-depth experiences and thoughts of the customers through interviews and focus groups. Primary research can also be a quantitative method; looking specifically at statistics through surveys and eye tracking, or a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative). No single approach or method of market research is more effective than the other, as it is dependent on budget, timeframes and the aim of the research.
How does primary research inform the 7ps?
As mentioned before, the 7Ps consist of the following areas:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Physical Evidence
People
Processes
Let's take a look at what each area covers and how primary research can help inform the different elements of the 7Ps.
Product
The product is the good or service that you are trying to sell. Primary research informs this because when done, it could allow you to improve the product and in turn improve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Price
Long gone are the days where you could estimate a price out of thin air. There is far too much competition and consumers now have their own knowledge (known as heuristics), based on similar products and services of what they should pay which influences their judgements (Khaneman and Tversky 1974). A popular strategy is the Van Westendorp price sensitivity meter, or using nudge theory as a basis for primary research into price.
Place
Where is the product or service sold? It's more than just deciding you want to sell on the internet. Is this product best on a drop shipping website like Amazon? Are your items handmade and unique so that they would be best on Etsy or should you have your own website? Are you a brick and mortar brand luring in those traditional shoppers giving them a physical experience filled with music or art and ergonomics and scents; its part and parcel of what it is your selling and in order to determine where that should be, primary research can allow you to make an informed decision on where to start.
Promotion
Advertising on all channels all the time will eat into your budget like there's no tomorrow, not to mention they will yield very different results. Some channels are more effective than others depending on your product and industry.
Take B2B businesses, it's no secret that LinkedIn will be a useful tool compared to TikTok. Aside from digital strategies, is a poster more effective than a billboard or a business card? These can seem very obvious but what about what time your customers access those adverts, or how they access them? If you are working in the construction industry, your customers will most likely drive to work or be a passenger. Therefore, advertising on your local radio may be an effective strategy compared to students who may be more inclined to use public transport and listen to Spotify on their daily commutes.
Physical Evidence
Should you use fast tempo music when in a restaurant to increase the turnover of people in the environment, then slower in the evening to increase the spend per person per meal (the answer is yes secondary research has taught us)? Or do people find your website easy or difficult to use? The more difficult making a purchase is, the more likely customers are to shop elsewhere. Primary research should feed into the physical evidence and can uncover improvements to increase KPIs and sales right across the board, from scents to sounds and customer service.
People
This is anyone involved in selling the product or service and as the saying goes “people buy from people” - what experience do you want your customers to have and more importantly what experience do customers expect from you? Primary research can help you to determine who should be involved in the selling of your product or service.
For example, some brands perform best with staff greeting customers at the doors, but that does not mean all brands should do this. This is the same with online purchases as some customers are frustrated by chat pop ups and would prefer to “speak to another human”. Whereas, others prefer a bot answering a simple question almost immediately. Primary research can help you determine which is the best way to make use of people in the business to elevate the customer experience.
Processes
This involves the processes behind the customer journey, such as customer waiting times by using technology to make processes more efficient. It is also considered to be the steps that an organisation takes to identify customer needs. Some may argue that primary research falls under processes, however, in order to analyse and identify customer needs, primary research must be conducted. With primary research feeding into each of the Ps, we feel it needs to stand alone as a P to highlight its importance in the marketing mix.
Ultimately, a market strategy without primary research can still have processes and secondary research could cover processes without primary research. Therefore, it is important brands are aware of primary research, what it is and how it is conducted for successful implementation of the marketing mix.
What about secondary research?
Don’t get us wrong, secondary research is imperative also, but it's already out there. Those applications from secondary research are constantly being made, sometimes without conscious thought. Secondary research applications are also incredibly easy to get wrong. Just because that research worked for one person or brand or customer base does not mean it will work for another. Primary research is imperative for understanding what works for you and your brand and it should be in your marketing strategy.
But one thing is for certain, to get a hold on the competition, primary research is just as important as the other 7Ps for an effective marketing strategy.
