Qualitative research helps to identify consumer behaviour and media habits for advertisers and it compliments data analytics to develop a robust and accurate profile on potential customers. This information takes the guesswork and potential wasted budget out of testing, by clearly identifying which media vehicles, whether digital media, TV advertising or radio advertising, would be the most fertile ground to focus marketing strategies for the service or product. As a result, this significantly aids in media planning and budgeting for a more targeted TV advertising campaign.
Qualitative research uses distinguishing or inherent traits, properties or characteristics, as opposed to only looking for a quantity. This data is then reviewed and analysed, in an attempt to gain a further understanding of a specific target market and their associated consumer behaviour: what drives their decision-making and why?
By using a variety of qualitative methods, each marketing specialist can now be equipped with the understanding and empirical evidence to build a marketing strategy that is based on a specific data set of their consumer’s niche target audience. By identifying their target audience, they can drive lead generation through advertising campaigns that are designed to appeal to their specific audience.
1. Identify and confirm your target
- Selecting your target market starts with identifying qualitative qualifiers. These are both habits and behaviours that are displayed by consumers who need/want/can afford a company’s product or service. It is typically best practice that advertising agencies seek approval from the company involved before confirming the qualifiers and diving into any research.
2. Understand the potential size of a product’s market
- It’s surprising how often an advertiser is not completely sure of the size of their product’s market. Clearly identifying this number helps both the advertiser and advertising agency staff to set realistic budgets and gives them perspective on setting benchmarks to effectively track the success of their advertising campaign.
3. Put the market size in perspective
- While a market size number can look attractive, always try to put it in context. A qualified audience is typically a small piece of the general market. After extracting statistics from marketing data analytics tools, results are then compared to network indices. The advertiser is then shown what percentage of their desired target demographic is watching a network/station and how it compares to the national average.
4. Look for insights in the demographics
- It is often beneficial to include a secondary target as well. You may discover that the chosen sales channels that you previously used were too narrow or that you have been talking to the wrong people all along. Even if you don’t discover anything new and this process only confirms what you already know, it is good practice to consolidate the age breakdown, gender, geography and distribution of household income of your potential consumer.
5. Media usage & coverage
- Three key insights are derived from cross-referencing qualifiers with media platform. These insights can be instrumental for distributing media budgets and setting the marketing strategy:
- Consumer penetration by media platform – Provides insights as to which platform is currently the most efficient at reaching consumers and generating the most responses.
- Media coverage – The percentage of viewers that relates to the specific target market for specific stations and which networks have the largest percentage of viewers for the targeted market.
- Media usage – Identifies the time, in hours, that consumers spend with each medium per month.
6. Consumer geography
- Knowing where your consumers live is incredibly important.
- Some advertisers want to start with a full-blown national campaign, while others want to have a local campaign in a key DMA (designated market area). By identifying which markets are most effective for a product, geographic decisions become easier.
- In most cases, if you have identified 3+ large markets that are great for your product, you should consider organising a national pay TV campaign. With a national pay TV campaign you can reach a larger population, compared to a limited DMA plan with the same budget, which will also allow you to measure the response rates of each region. These insights as to how each region performs, can be vital for continuing to build out your DMA plans and ensuring that you are advertising in the most receptive markets. Qualitative research tools can go even further to identify and cross-reference which specific media vehicle, day-part, program, format and section will best reach a target.
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