Kingfisher’s TradePoint utilises live research techniques

Marketers at retail brands in sectors as diverse as the building trade and luxury chocolate are gathering real-time consumer insight by incorporating live research techniques into their brand experience in an attempt to create products that are best in class.

Brands that recognise the value of real-time feedback together with the need for real-time response are turning the results of that research into products in a far quicker time, with last week’s insight often becoming this week’s product offer.

It is not just start-up and challenger brands that are integrating live insight as a tangible customer benefit.

TradePoint, the Kingfisher-owned trade brand associated with B&Q, is merging traditional focus group behaviour with in-store activity to glean the most relevant information from its specialised customer base.

“Questionnaire-driven research doesn’t work well with trade,” says Trevor Culpin, B&Q TradePoint’s marketing manager. “Doing the research in-store brings issues alive. You can see body language and adapt your questioning based on customer responses.”

Culpin believes it is crucial that the marketing team with the power to make the changes should conduct the research. “Putting the decision-maker in the room with the customer gives them the sense of importance, that they’re making a difference to their lives and to those of their peers.”

TradePoint marries the insight from these specific in-store events to data provided by the trade membership card. It also runs the Trade Mate campaign where senior managers pair up with a tradesman and spend the day working with them. The programme delivered insight that had an impact on decisions from the exact layout of the store to the introduction of a system for customers to manage their account online.

Culpin insists that the card and its in-store activity are crucial to gaining customer understanding in an underreported sector: “The trade sector is not as well covered with consumer information. This work is used as a touchpoint in the market. Data and knowledge are very powerful things to have.”

Source : Morag Cuddeford-Jones - Marketing Week
www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/live-research-takes-brands-to-top-of-class/4000920.article