This document provides guidance on how to conduct importance/performance research to better understand customers and maximize marketing effectiveness. It recommends: 1. Identifying 10-12 important factors for products/services through secondary research and customer surveys, and having customers rate importance of each factor. 2. Surveying customers on performance for the same factors to identify gaps and areas of strong/weak performance compared to competitors. 3. Analyzing importance ratings versus performance ratings to determine where to focus marketing messages and product/service improvements to better meet important customer needs. The research helps align strategy and tactics with what matters most to customers.

1. How to Conduct Your Own
Importance/Performance Research

2. Marketing Matters:
Minimize Risk to
Maximize Rewards

3. Lessons Learned
(1)
• SCG has been conducting primary
research for manufacturing
companies for more than 25 years
• We have observed that many of
our clients’ competitors are
consistently miss-marketing
• They focus on what they are good
at rather than what we learn
through research, is actually
important to the market
• This makes it relatively easy to steal
share from them

4. Lessons Learned
(2)
• Importance/Performance
research reveals or reinforces the
essential truth and uncovers
false beliefs.
• IPQ provides practical insights into
defining value
• Providing quality research
strengthens client relationships.

5. 2 Critical Points
1. Focus on what is
Important to your
customers and
prospects. Not just
what you are best at
2. Make sure your
performance on the
most important
factors is exceptional
• Audiences must define what’s
essential - not companies
• Discover the brand promise that
resonates

6. Customer will tell
you what is
important. But you
have to ask.

7. How audience
research informs
actions

8. Discover the
differentiators
• What do audiences believe
about: the category, your
products and your competitors'
products?
• Where is the opportunity for you to
build Leadership Equity?

9. What is
important?
• Use secondary research to reveal
the issues
• Identify no more than 10-12 factors
to evaluate
• Query current stakeholders &
prospects on each factor
• Employ Top 2 and Bottom 2 scoring

10. Importance
Factors -
Illustration
1
Not at all
important
2
Slightly
important
3
Important
4
More
important
5
Very
important
• Trusted reputation
• Availability of trailers within
my timeline
• Lowest cost
• Comprehensive warranty
• Responsive customer service
• Advanced engineering and
innovation
• Custom-designed trailers
• Dealer location/network
• Breadth of selection
• After-market service
• Range of feature options
• Stability
• Durable, low-maintenance
• Resale value
This list includes factors you may use to evaluate
side-dump trailers and trailer manufacturers.
Please rate the importance of each.

11. How is our
Performance?
• Query audiences about your
performance against the very
same importance factors
• Employ Top 2 and Bottom 2
scoring

12. Controlling for
Neutrality is Key
We use 5 to 1 scoring to create
3 more useful buckets
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Top Two Boxes (4’s and 5’s)
5
4
3
2
1 Bottom Two Boxes (1’s and 2’s)

13. How to measure
enthusiasm bias
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Top Two Boxes (4’s and 5’s)
Bottom Two Boxes (1’s and 2’s)
5
4
3
2
1
Positive bias is determined
by more 5’s than 4’s
Negative bias is determined
by more 4’s than 5’s

14. How Do We Stack
Up?
• Rank order Top 2 Importance
scores
• Rank order Top 2 Performance
scores
• Find the holes:
• Where do you perform better than others?
• Do you perform well on factors not
considered important?

15. Messaging drives
strategy and
tactics

16. Core, formal and
augmented
product

17. Deeper Insights -
Stake Claim to
Category Benefit
• The leader in air filtration promoted
technical specs
• IPQ showed “cleaner air” most
important
• Brand promise is now a “Power
Brand” positioning: “Get Cleaner Air”

18. Deeper Insights -
Keep Message,
Modify Operations
• National DesignBuild firm staked
claim to “on-time completion”
• Customers felt otherwise – “missing
switch plate syndrome”
• Small details now completed
before walk-through

19. Deeper Insights -
Reaching an Elite
Market Segment
• The leading maker of figure skates
couldn’t break into the elite level
market.
• A survey of coaches revealed they
moved their skaters into the skate
they personally competed in -
typically as soon as the skater
advanced to regionals.
• Began including coaches in product
development and other
communication programs.

20. Deeper Insights -
Modify Message
from Features to
Benefits
• A leading mechanical
contractor was proud of their
large fleet
• But customers cared about
responsiveness
• Message shifts to “Rated #1 in
Quick Response”

21. Your Brand
promise must
reach audiences
through every
channel

22. Good Luck!