Mock New Product Committees - a marketing research method designed to address complex decision processes with multiple stakeholders

1. Mock Committees
Unraveling the Group Decision Making Process
Note: These are slides from a presentation at the Mid-Atlantic
Marketing Research Association Spring Symposium 2013.
They were not designed to stand alone without a presenter.
For additional information, contact Jeff Adler at the number
below.
1355 Piccard Drive
Suite #230
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone: 301-840-3850
Email: DC@centracDC.com
All slides copyright © 2007-2013 by Centrac DC, LLC. All rights reserved.

2. But first, Who Are We?
About Centrac DC
• Custom Primary Research
• Quantitative & Qualitative
• Domestic & International
About Jeff Adler, PRC, President
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JeffreyAdler
Twitter: www.twitter.com/JCAdler
• 30+ years MR experience; includes Procter & Gamble
• B.S.E. Marketing & Decision Sciences, Wharton School, U of PA
• PRC, Expert Level
• AMA MR Boot Camp™ faculty member & annual guest lecturer at
Wharton
• Speaker at IIR, AMA, MRA, SCIP, PMRG & ARF
• 1st recipient of PMRG’s Circle of Excellence Award (2007)
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3. Today’s discussion
1. The business challenge
2. The traditional approach
3. Mock Committees
1. What are they
2. Who is involved
3. Why they work
4. How to use to influence business decisions
5. Where they were born / Example applications
6. Executional considerations
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4. The business challenge
• The group decision…
– multiple stakeholders
– in various functions / business areas
– asserting varied & often conflicting degrees of decision
making responsibility
• …but all play an integral role in the final
purchase decision
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5. Traditional Approach
•Conduct research among each stakeholder group
•Divergent opinions of who
ultimately makes the call
•Results in a “he said, she said” analysis
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6. …Mock Committees are born!
• So why not get everyone talking together
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7. What are they?
• All stakeholder groups around single table
• Create fictional committee / assign roles
– Individuals project their experience / role onto fictional committee
• Recreate committee meeting including:
– New product / service pitch
– Discussion / breakout groups
– Attempt to reach decision
• Discuss
– What worked / didn’t work with pitch
– How could it be done differently
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8. Who is involved?
• Representatives from all parties involved in
final decision – from administrative to C-suite
– Purchasing / CFO
– Users
– Product champions
• Plus client side product / service experts
– …its OK to let them out from behind the glass
• Moderator / facilitator
– Sets the stage & keeps group on task
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9. Why they work?
Use of projective techniques
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10. Why they work?
Use of projective techniques
• Help verbalize underlying
emotions/feelings, attitudes & behavior
– Depersonalizes controversial thoughts, oppositional roles
– “Project” words/thoughts/attitudes of anonymous “others”
• Can include use of
– Metaphorical journey
– Ambiguous pictures
– Visualization of the ideal
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11. Why they work?
Use of projective techniques
• Set the stage for a committee meeting at
fictional company
– Ask respondents to imagine they all now work for XYZ
• Role play
– Discussion from perspective of:
• Current role
• Other decision makers/influencers
– Argue for/against selection vis-à-vis competitive selection
– Anticipated dialogue between decision maker / presenter
• Imagined thoughts of decision maker / presenter during dialogue
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12. How to use to influence business
decisions
• Get’s all the questions / issues on the table
– Clients can see first hand how product / service will be scrutinized
in these meetings
• Refine / re-write the pitch (dress rehearsal)
– What could have been done differently?
– How would they present to their group?
– Which pitch strategy is most impactful
• Better train champion
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13. Where they were born?
• Challenge of purchasing in a hospital
– Multiple players
– Decreasing emphasis on user preference (according to user), paired with
reluctance of purchasing to assert opinion without user input
• Created a Mock New Product Approval (or Value
Analysis) Committee
– Gathered Head of Purchasing, Surgeons, Nurses, Product Champion
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14. Example Applications
• Any B2B purchase with multiple
stakeholders & decision makers
• Devices, Pharmaceuticals & Supplies
• Software / IT systems
• Insurance / Benefits
• Facilities Management / Service Providers
• Capital Equipment
• Convention services
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15. Executional Considerations
• How they differ from traditional focus groups:
– Longer, allow 2-3 hours minimum
– Larger, ideally recruit at least 3 people from each title / segment
• Typically conduct 4 – 8 groups
– Depending on # segments
– Depending on # topics
• Don’t overlook international markets
– While the product / service may be uniform, the processes
certainly are not
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