Cluster Bombing
Does this sound familiar? You work for a retailer with a large catalog and Internet business. Your bosses figure out that not all customers are the same when it comes to brand loyalty, and that their purchase behaviors reflect this disparity.
They decide to divide the buyers into manageable clusters. Then they hire a market research firm to survey customers on their needs and perceptions.
And guess what? They put you in charge of the project.
Don’t quit (yet). Instead, imagine this scenario:
Under your direction, the research firm develops a questionnaire and shows it to focus groups before mailing it. The purpose? To determine whether the database is made up of relatively homogeneous segments that differ in how they perceive and use different sales channels.
The research will also try to find:
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Other stores your customers shop in.
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The share of a customer’s business done in your stores.
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Which departments are or aren’t shopped.
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What customers like about your stores, compared with those of your competition.
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Why some items are purchased through one channel and not others.
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How you measure up to your rivals in terms of price, service, appearance, parking, depth of product lines and returns policy.
The research firm runs the survey through focus groups around the country. Assuming they respond well, you send questionnaires to 3,000 randomly selected customers.
Here’s where the fun
