NewEdge is differentiated from traditional research firms in both the breadth of research techniques it offers, including both qualitative and quantitative, as well as its extensive experience in strategy development for market growth and penetration of products and services. The strategy experience and breadth of methodologies allow NewEdge to meet the strategic needs of the client by building multi-method research approaches that cost-effectively directly address those strategic issues.
More than research methods… you need a research strategy
While most firms recognize the importance of developing a business strategy, they are less familiar with the importance of developing a research strategy. Whether your goal is growth or improving customer satisfaction, your research should be structured to address that goal. There is a common phrase in management strategy that says that "structure follows strategy." This means that you should not determine the structure of something, e.g., an organization, until you have determined the strategy you are going to pursue. Too often, firms choose a structure for their research before developing a strategy.
NewEdge's founder, Dr. Pamela W. Henderson , has a Ph.D. in market research and strategy and is familiar with the benefits and drawbacks of every type of research. This expertise allows NewEdge to develop strategies for firms, as well as assist them in implementing these strategies. A research strategy involves determining the strategic goals that are driving the desire for research, the methods that will most cost effectively achieve the insights necessary, and the best approaches to sampling the populations of interest to achieve representation and overcome the disturbingly low response rates seen in most research.
Why research does not always meet a firm's needs
There are several reasons why research sometimes falls short of supporting the development of strategies. Research firms are typically methodology oriented. they are known for certain methods — e.g., call centers or focus groups. While they say that they will help build your firm's strategy, they can only do so within the boundaries of the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques they provide. NewEdge designs research strategies using a wide range of tools customized to your needs.
NewEdge's research capabilities
- Languages and Countries-Within the United States NewEdge conducts focus groups and survey research in Spanish. NewEdge also designs research and administers it in other countries. NewEdge recently conducted a large scale study of corporate identity and brand logos in 7 countries, spanning every continent. Results will be available by December 2004. Also available is a study of logos in the U.S. and China and Singapore .
- Key informant interviews
- Observation
- Experimental design
- Literature Review
- Survey research
- Focus Groups
- Industry and market assessments
- Demand estimation, forecasting, and feasibility studies
- Competitive Intelligence
- Disruptive Market Research™
- Ethnography and Observation
The long-term survival and growth of companies is dependent on a strategy of pursuing disruptive innovations. Knowing that structure follows strategy, the question arises as to how market research should be structured to support the strategy of identifying disruptive innovations. Considering the nature of disruptive innovations reveals four principles that guide the structure of disruptive market research. Research structured according to these principles has yielded opportunities for innovation outside of current products and markets in over 100 applications across a broad range of industries, for small to Fortune 500 companies.
NewEdge has successfully designed research for companies at all stages in the markets. Our customized research strategy has discovered key insights that lead to disruptive growth whether you are seeking opportunities for a new or current products; or new or current markets.
Specialized Market Research Services:
Most R&D projects begin with a new, often undefined concept, and perhaps some creative brainstorming. Our Front-End Insights™ process gives structure to this phase. We help our clients formalize their front-end R&D process so that they capture the good ideas, identify the best, and give priority to the most rewarding.
By testing concepts in the market, we can give our clients the information they need to make a go / no-go decision of their marketability. The process gives clients insights into their early ideas that enable them to qualify opportunities, gauge their attractiveness, and effectively allocate resources.
Our Front End Insights™ process seeks market information and customer validation both early and often. By engaging in research and analysis right from the conceptual stage, we equip our clients to make go / no-go decisions at each phase of the “fuzzy front end”.
As a result, they employ their resources to take them to new levels of growth.
Identifying unmet needs is the key to successful innovation – but it can be a major challenge. Unmet needs can seem elusive and, in today’s sophisticated, diversified, highly specialized markets, niche opportunities in the form of unmet needs are becoming harder to find.
But the company that identifies a need – sometimes before the customer has even articulated it – and uses this as the driver to breakthrough innovation, has a distinct advantage over the competition. Such a company is willing and able to take a flying leap into the lead … and stay there.
We partner with companies that desire that kind of disruptive growth. Our proprietary Disruptive Market Research™ methodology often gives our clients unexpected insights into unmet market needs. Our Unmet Needs Insights™ technique focuses attention on the key members of the market.
Most market researchers enter an interview with clearly-defined research parameters, and little capacity to accommodate ideas that don’t fit. By contrast, we clearly define our goals, and we focus our attention on hearing what the interviewee most wants us to know. This approach reveals the indicators, or symptoms, of discomfort in a market, a technology, or an industry.
Respondents can often not define the problems they face, let alone the solutions they would like to have. But by recognizing the indicators, we can identify potential opportunities for our clients to meet these needs—and, in the process, to lead the market in a whole new direction.