A M/A/R/C Case Study - Developing Customer Relevant Concepts
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The document outlines a case study by m/a/r/c on how they assisted an automotive parts distributor in utilizing customer insights to create a new approach for marketing replacement parts. The research involved qualitative and quantitative phases to understand consumer needs, preferences, and the role of mechanics in recommending parts, leading to refined concepts for product development. Ultimately, the findings highlighted the significance of integrating consumer feedback before launching large-scale studies for successful marketing strategies.
A M/A/R/C Case Study - Developing Customer Relevant Concepts
- 1. M/A/R/C Case Study Developing Customer Relevant Concepts How M/A/R/C helped one automotive part distributor utilize the voice of the customer insights to help develop a new way to reach replacement part buyers. © 2011 by M/A/R/C® Research All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form of printing or by any other means, electronic or mechanical, including, but not limited to, photocopying, audiovisual recording and transmission, and portrayal or duplication in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from M/A/R/C Research.
- 2. The Business Issues Throughout the automotive industry, our client’s type of automotive replacement part is currently marketed using one primary standard. Our client wanted to develop a new concept for the part which would emphasize assessing multiple aspects of the automotive part when deciding on a replacement, rather than the single aspect currently being used for selection. It was expected that this new concept would allow customers to be able to select an automotive part that would fit best with their own driving habits, environment and other needs. By allowing customers to have a more “customized” fit between their needs and their replacement part our client hoped to differentiate themselves from their competitor’s. Many automotive replacement parts are difficult for most consumers to distinguish between, and often a “grudge” purchase that is made There was a lack of an out of necessity…rather than the result of a well thought out, planned understanding of customer’s process. Recent trends have shown fewer and fewer consumers needs when deciding on a replacing automotive parts themselves, instead relying on replacement part. recommendations and installation from their mechanic when choosing which part to purchase and install in their car. Additionally, for most automotive parts, there is little awareness of which characteristics are important to consider when making purchase decisions. As a result, the ability to differentiate automotive replacement parts in the minds of consumers is a challenging undertaking which requires knowing how they currently choose the parts, as well as what areas they might need to be educated in to respond to the new concepts our client was developing. Given that information related to how and why customers choose a specific replacement part was critical to choosing the new concept that would best differentiate our client’s automotive part it was important to uncover all of the drivers, both rational and emotional, behind a consumer’s parts choice. At the same time it was important to also understand if there were any needs among consumers related to this type of part that were currently not being met that could be incorporated into the new concept to ensure its success. A key part of the research was also to understand how and why dealers and mechanics were recommending a specific replacement part to their clients given that most consumers rely on the recommendation of these professionals when purchasing a new part. The Research Objectives The research was driven by a desire to understand customer’s wants and needs related to our client’s type of automotive part: What were customer’s needs associated with these replacement parts, and what benefits (both functional and emotional) did fulfilling these needs bring? Understand perceptions of potential concepts and importantly identify ways to improve to make more consumer relevant. Page 2 Identify the features of the new concept to be optimized? (To be answered with a quantitative phase)
- 3. The Solution The study M/A/R/C designed combined both qualitative and quantitative phases in order to provide detailed guidance to our client regarding how to optimize their new automotive parts concept. The key goal of the qualitative interviews was to both gain an in-depth understanding of what drives consumer’s automotive part replacement choice and to refine those concepts that could then be tested in the quantitative phase of the research. The qualitative phase featured the M/A/R/C CustomerVoices SM interview process…a process used to gain a literal “straight from the customer’s mouth” perspective of the marketplace. CustomerVoicesSM is a rigorous interviewing and analysis technique that has its origins in laddering. It is an exacting qualitative methodology that is used to elicit and identify the marketplace needs for products and services. A key to the CustomerVoicesSM interview is to let respondents introduce ideas in their own words rather than supplying terminology. Once needs have been identified by the customer, the The study design addressed moderator then follows up on each need separately to gain a deeper the unique aspects of the understanding of the rational and emotional benefits that are a result how and why consumers of having these needs met. In addition to the more concrete rational choose an automotive automotive parts characteristics, uncovering the “softer” more replacement part. emotional reasons underlying consumers’ replacement choices was not an easy task, especially given that most consumers give relatively little thought as to which brand or type of replacement part they will install in their vehicle. Since many consumers rely heavily on the input of dealers or mechanics; in addition to talking with consumers, we used the same interviewing method to talk with dealers and mechanics to understand how they make their recommendations. The qualitative research was conducted using face to face interviews among; a) “shade tree mechanics”, those consumers who installed their own replacement for this type of part, b) consumers who used a mechanic for the installations, and c) replacement part dealers and mechanics. The interviews were conducted over a four day period in two cities. Using this sample make up and choice of locations helped ensure that a wide variety of perspectives on replacement part choice were obtained in order to be able to guide the development of possible concepts. The Results and Actions Taken Using the insights gained from the qualitative interviews M/A/R/C was able to make concrete recommendations as to how best to optimize the different replacement parts concepts to be tested in the quantitative phase of the research. Page 3
- 4. Prior to beginning the qualitative phase of the research our client had Strong qualitative findings strong ideas about which replacement part concept they wanted to allowed for the refinement move forward with developing. However, they had not conducted any of concepts before the research among consumers in order to gain their feedback on any of quantitative phase. the different concepts or their components. As a result of the qualitative phase of the research several of the original concepts were abandoned while others were refined. At the same time some additional new concepts were developed based on the feedback from both the consumers, as well as the dealers and mechanics. After changes were made to the concepts, the new versions were quantitatively assessed. At the conclusion of the quantitative research it was clear that the client’s initial favored concept did not resonate with their customers, and as a result was not developed further. Instead a different concept, highlighting different benefits was chosen as the way to move forward. By having direct feedback from the consumer it allowed our client’s marketing team to show their internal clients why certain concepts should not be developed in favor of others and how this would impact their business. This research showed the importance of having consumer input in the development of product concepts prior to the beginning of a larger scale quantitative study. Using a combination of more open ended questioning to understand the relevance of this type of automotive replacement part to the consumer along with the ability to qualitatively refine or develop concepts proved important to ensuring that the concepts were customer- centric and that only the most viable concepts are tested during the larger scale quantitative phase of the research. Page 4