Making Quantitative Research Meaningful
Recent projects have involved working for a leading European retailer in bidding for the contracts to operate new sites at major transport hubs as concessions from the site owners.
The Brief
Orrani’s task has been to provide clear analysis of the customer dynamics at these extremely busy European sites, which featured significant levels of public and trade footfall and multiple locations with different characteristics.
The core objective was to provide marketing insights (and supporting data) to enable the retailer to position its bid propositions as effectively as possible, based on the learnings gained. On successful completion of such tenders, these insights then allow it to optimise its eventual store configuration and range offering. A key aspect of the process is also to support the retailer’s added value relationship with the site operators.
These research projects are critical to the retailer’s international development. The company requires a research partner with:
- Strong business and marketing experience
- Very robust analytical capabilities
- A global resource network which can guarantee implementation of such projects in the demanding timeframes that the business development context dictates.
Our Approach
Orrani’s team’s extensive experience in using data to empower business decisions has led to an approach that centres on a simple six-step continuous cycle:
- Objectives: what do we need to know and from whom?
- Design: how do we sample and measure the target population?
- Fieldwork: how to collate, clean and code our responses?
- Results: what should we do with the non-responses and how do we describe the results?
- Insights: what are the key drivers and how do these differ by different segments of the population?
- Decisions: what actions can be taken?
Sufficient discussion at the initial step is absolutely key, as objectives which are poorly understood, imprecise or too numerous are all sure routes to bad surveys.
All research on these projects has been done through face-to-face interviews at very busy locations, with the resulting data fed into Excel for detailed statistical analysis.
One challenge in each location has been that the customer traffic has often comprised people using the transport site for non-transport reasons: these can be local shop staff, meeters and greeters, local residents using the location for shopping or even just passing through to avoid bad weather!
As always, one of our priorities has been to develop segmentations relating to the business questions that need to be addressed. Traditional customer segmentation is often based around WHO the customer is (demographics). However, of far greater value are segments based on what customer is DOING (their behaviour). For example:
- WHAT are customers buying? Product info
- WHEN are customers buying? Date & time info
- WHERE are customers buying? Location info, online/offline
- HOW are customers buying? Payment method, usage of offers
Our Solution
These projects have provided our customer with comprehensive reports that, in turn, enabled them to build effective business cases based on actionable data in each bid process. Examples of typical graphical output :
Orrani can do the same for any business that wants to grow its scale and improve its operations based on hard data!
Email us at orrani@orrani.com or call us on + 44 (0)1225 318 222 or +1 (303) 908-7274 to discuss how we can help your business be more effective.
Client Testimonials
Orrani Consulting is unique in combining genuinely global experience in the dairy industry, exceptionally strong insight into local markets and business cultures and a determination to deliver high quality, practical results.
This has accelerated and enabled our business development decision, and I fully recommend them to other international marketers.
Orrani have delivered a number of high quality research projects covering the European and Russian dairy sectors. Their strong 'in-market' experience combined with an ability to clearly articulate and interpret developments have helped provide excellent outputs that are of direct benefit to our client companies.
We would have no hesitation about recommending Orrani Consulting to companies seeking to carry out research into the dairy sector.
We have used Orrani's services for developing detailed industry reports and found them excellent - they were clear up front about project timelines, scope and costs, and delivered a quality product that met all of their promises, while being easy to work with.
We retained Orrani Consulting first in late 2006 because of their extensive experience in providing strategic insight into the world dairy industry and developing markets.
The CMAB found that the Orrani team took a very proactive approach to our projects and is now helping our organisation and industry to develop distribution in key international markets.
They have approached our projects with only the highest level of integrity and commitment and are always working to go the extra mile to produce world class results.
Our organisation has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the team at Orrani Consulting since the mid-1990s. We have engaged them upon a wide variety of research consultancy assignments assessing business opportunities and strategic issues in key markets such as the US and in developing regions such as Asia, Latin America and Africa.
We value their expertise in the international food industry and particularly the dairy sector very highly and expect to continue to work in partnership with Orrani Consulting.
Orrani Consulting provided expert advice to a tight deadline to enable us to make an informed appraisal of a potential investment target in a specialized sector of the food industry.
We would strongly recommend them as an insightful, flexible, honest and cost-effective support to strategic and financial decision-making on food industry issues.
Orrani have a real understanding of the global dairy industry because they roll their sleeves up and get out there in the market to find the real insights that make the difference. This means they really try to understand what we're looking for. I read Orrani's reports from cover to cover and I can't say that about all reports that I see.
Annette Brune and her team of experts at Orrani conducted a review of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s (ASMI) Southern Europe Marketing Program – funded in part by USDA MAP funds – in 2011-12.
The evaluation they produced exceeded expectations by providing incisive and actionable recommendations for Program Managers as well as a cost/benefit analysis that demonstrated the merit of the program to USDA. While it is common to get well-written evaluations, they frequently wind up only being read by program managers.
A testament to the quality of the work that was done was that many seasoned Alaska seafood industry members requested the report for the in-depth seafood market research and it continues to be used as a reference today. Excellent work!
The USA Poultry & Egg Export Council has utilized the services of Orrani Consulting on a number of projects including research studies in the Caribbean, Oceania, Asia and Africa. The work carried out by Orrani is always top-notch and really gives us a detailed look into potential export markets for our industry. Without their assistance, we would not be able to effectively carry out the programs we do in over 75 markets worldwide.
Orrani Consulting is second-to-none in its understanding of the global dairy markets. Their ability to use this knowledge to provide clear and actionable counsel to industry players at all levels and from many different angles is a key strength. The Orrani team has many years of experience in analyzing and communicating the dynamics of the business. Clients and the industry in general benefit immeasurably from the phenomenal network that Richard and Annette have developed and nurtured over their many years in the industry.
We have retained Orrani Consulting to support us on a number of projects relating to global dairy ingredient markets. Each time Orrani has delivered high quality, in depth expert advice and insight on quite specialised topics. We would strongly recommend Orrani to organisations seeking insight into the global dairy sector.