The Marketing Mix is the synthesis of the marketing variables that companies use to achieve their goals. It falls under the umbrella of operational marketing and the variables that are taken account are the 4 Ps: Product, Price, Point of Sale and Promotion. These four variables must act in harmony and be functional to the company’s mission and its objectives. Each one of them must undergo in-depth market analysis in order to verify a concept before it becomes a product, the intention to purchase and the satisfaction with the package on offer, its price and its promotion.
This type of research allows to verify a concept’s potential a priori – before it is made into a product. It can be quantitative or qualitative in nature: in the first case, between 4 and 8 focus groups are carried out, and in the second case the sample is almost always small (100-200 cases).
It allows to verify the appeal and propensity to purchase of a product which is already on the market or (more frequently) before it is launched on the market; a propaedeutic qualitative stage is advised (a couple of focus groups, for instance), followed by a quantitative analysis on an experimental sample of 100-300 cases.
A test used to assess the appeal of a package and, more generally, how consumers react to it.
An a priori test used to determine the price (or price range) a company needs to sell its products or services at in order to maximise profit.
The aim of the test is to guarantee a promotion’s quality and functionality before it is launched.
Istituto Piepoli’s online forum platform. It is managed in collaboration with Norstat and presents the following characteristics: a standard duration of two weeks to one month, which represents a great opportunity for thematic studies and always has one/two specially trained DQR moderators. It guarantees a high level of interaction and, by simultaneously tracing the conversational path of each participant, it allows us to collect autobiographical material and ethnographic data which in turn serves to focus the content in a progressive manner. Having a default duration of up to a month means it can be broken down into specific phases: theme launch in week one, re-elaboration and development of new stimuli in week two, new stimuli launch in week three and gathering improvement feedback in week four.
A further contribution to the discussion comes from observer (or ghost) profiles, which are created for the client and make it possible to see how the discussion develops on a daily basis and to agree with the moderators on what the next steps should be. These profiles are invisible to other users in order to give the client maximum freedom of movement.
