Research
Providing YOU with extremely accurate ‘intelligence’….
When decisions MUST reflect your constituents’ or customers desires
We provide…
- Market Research
- Political Research
- Survey Research (exploratory, confirmatory, causal-modeling)
- Focus Group Research
Dameron Communications partners with Strategy Research Institute (SRI) to provide all of our market research and political research.
SRI began conducting public opinion research nearly three decades ago. They have perfected the process to the point where, today, SRI routinely predicts the outcome of elections, for example, within 1% to 2% of actual voting behavior (when the statistical margin of error typically ranges from ±4.5% to 5.8%… a performance record that competing research firms cannot match.
SRI is set apart from other research firms and organizations because they continue where others leave. Specifically, most applied research firms provide only basic descriptive statistical analysis (percentages and cross tabs), while SRI goes beyond descriptive statistics to advanced, inferential statistical analysis, including, but not limited to, correlation analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, and even causal modeling. Thus, SRI yields far more accurate predictions of voting behavior and/or consumer behavior.
The Institute is comprised of a select team of behavioral scientists (both quantitative and qualitative researchers) and strategic planners. SRI‘s searchers are proficient in the most up-to-date, advanced scientific methodologies and have advanced degrees from such academic institutions as UC Berkeley, The USC Annenberg School for Communication, and New York University.
New Product Development
Developing a Winning Strategy…
Identify & Engage the Determinants of Success
It’s well documented in the marketing literature that 8 out of 10 new products introduced into the marketplace ultimately FAIL to realize their market potential; when using the appropriate tools, 8 out of 10 new products/services introduced into the marketplace can and should SUCCEED!
The traditional approach begins with tailoring the respective product/service to the perceived desires and needs of those in the target market, but that’s not enough. It is a so essential to:
(a) Identify opinion leaders/Influentials within the target market (or market niche) and (b) Compare their perceptions (e.g., the definition of “value”) with those who comprise the mainstream market. The final step is to construct and implement a strategy that will capitalize upon this form of market intelligence.
Toward this end, they:
- Identify the determinants of deciding to purchase.
- Identify barriers to the decision to purchase and “test” strategies/tactics for overcoming these barriers and/or avoiding them altogether.
- Test and rank-order product attributes that appeal to consumers in the target market; then identify differences between opinion leaders and those in the mainstream market.
- Identify/develop message strategies, with the end product being PULL vs. PUSH marketing, promotion, and sales strategies/tactics.
To learn more, read Diffusion of Innovations: and Closing the Chasm™: Introducing New Products/Services into the Marketplace by Integrating Diffusion of Innovations with Product Life Cycle.
[1] Rogers, Everett M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations (4th edition). New York, NY: The Free Press.
[2] G. Gary Manross (1997). Closing the Chasm: Introducing New Products/Services into the Marketplace by Integrating Diffusion of Innovations with Product Life Cycle; Copyright©2004 Strategy Research Institute; e-mail gmanross@sri-consulting.org for a copy of this article).
‘Closing the Chasm’™
Identify Influentials & Opinion Leaders,
Get Them Working for You!
— G. Gary Manross, Ph.D.
Consumer behavior (such as adopting new products/ideas) is a follow-the-leader process; the masses follow relatively few Opinion Leaders and other “Influentials.” The adoption process is best understood through a powerful paradigm that has been studied for more than 50 years. This paradigm is one called Diffusion of Innovations
While the ‘Diffusion’ theory was introduced into the marketing discipline in the 1960s, the power of this approach as a persuasive tool is only now being accepted by corporate America. Examples of its recent acceptance can be seen in such publications as:
- The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing, by Emanuel Rosen; Doubleday
- The Influentials: One American in 10 Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy, by Edward Keller and Jonathan Berry; Simon & Schuster
- Crossing the Chasm: Marketing & Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers, by Geoffrey A. Moore; Harper Business
- Linked: The New Science of Networks, by Albert-Lászlo Barabási; Perseus Publishing
SRI is one of the few organizations, if not the only organization, in America that specializes in developing and implementing strategic/tactical plans that are driven by the Diffusion paradigm. SRI’s airman/CEO, G. Gary Manross, Ph.D., studied under the “father” of Diffusion theory, Dr. Everett Rogers, at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (USC).