Marketing Dynamics
At Global Link we help clients understand their marketing dynamics and decision-making processes, using various techniques including quantitative research, advanced statistics and secondary research.
Our approach is tailored made to every client and competitive situation, and we own extensive experience to provide input for creating a winning marketing strategy.
Global link enables companies to understand the impact and result of past marketing decisions and in parallel equips clients with the tools necessary to identify and target groups, providing directions on how to enforce and support organizations.
Branding
At Global Link, we believe that if an organization can find a way to connect with its customers on a deeper-level, it can enhance engagement and develop a more sustainable long-term relationship. As markets are becoming more complex, products are required to quickly adjust and reexamine their positioning status which forms the background for differentiation strategies.
We further view each brand as the culmination of all feelings and thoughts that, driven by marketing actions, accumulate in a customer’s mind. This is the background of our approach and stems from the realization that branding means more than just giving a brand name to a product. It includes all the elements of the brand equity thus leading to sound decisions.
Believing in the integration of quantitative and qualitative research methods we develop an optimum mix that provides strategic direction for decision making.
The tools are built around CAPI and CAWI questionnaire surveys as well as online and offline depth interviews and focus group discussions that when combined, provide for the entire range of the issues involved.
Usage & Attitude Surveys
The consumer decision making process includes: need recognition, information searching and processing, identification and evaluation of alternatives and finally the purchase decision. In the evaluating process of alternatives, there are people who find this selection process difficult and complex.
The objectives of our research aim at exploring the consumer process, the “brand health”, the product and the attitude formation towards the brand’s ability to drive consumers to adopt and position the brand among the brand portfolio that they would consider buying, and then turn them into buyers. We also strategically investigate how well a brand meets the criteria that are important to the customer. We find the brands’ strong elements that must be maintained and are important consumer criteria, but we also identify the weak elements of the brand that need to be improved.
Initially, the research objectives of the research will be fully aligned with the needs of the client and then the results will be analyzed using advanced methods of statistical analysis (segmentation studies) with the aim of proposing actions to be implemented for the improvement of brand image and the expansion of potential buyers. Through this study we find which characteristics are significant for heavy users, and which characteristics of the brand are significant for light.
The research tools include the following online systems: CATI, CAWI, CAPI as they evolve daily through the online platform developed by Global Link. Rarely, the PAPI method is also used.
Market Segmentation
The implementation of the strategic market segmentation, aims at dividing the market into segments. Through, segmentation studies we can create subjects of a market based on demographics, needs, priorities, common interests, and other psychographic or behavioral criteria used to better understand the target audience.
The objectives of our research are to investigate groups of consumers that are clearly different one from the other, but are highly homogeneous within the group. Thus, we create groups that have the same or similar needs / behaviors.
The methodology is completed in 2 stages.
First, we use Factor Analysis, in order to reduce the number of variables to fewer and the most important ones, so as to identify new and emerging market segments. Then with Cluster Analysis we address the heterogeneity within each dataset. Also by the same method we deal with the problem of detecting boundaries between the segments.
The research tools include the following online systems: CATI, CAWI, CAPI as they evolve daily through the online platform developed by Global Link. Rarely, the PAPI method is also used.
Advertising Effectiveness
In Global Link we realize that the role of advertising is to strengthen the feelings about brands. We found the way in which individuals relate to them, in order to build a strong, long-term relation with brand.
In order to help our clients, we use in our methodology, a leading independent global ad testing tool, which is designed to meet a range of client needs. It can also be used to test all kinds of advertisements, at any stage of development. Generally, this tool was designed to help clients make great advertisements that build successful brands by focusing on measuring brand feelings.
The proper role of a pre-test should be to measure whether the proposed advertising will enhance brand feelings and brand perceptions. It has been discovered that the primary opportunity for advertisements is that brand feelings have the strongest effect on purchase intent and enhance feelings to build sales.
The diagnostic tool is built, in order to send an email to participants and then expose them to the advertisement. After watching the advertisement, they can make questions around it.
New Product Development
The creation and launch of a new product can be one of the most challenging tasks a company has to face.
In Global Link through our extensive experience in testing all basic elements of a product (concept, name, packaging, price, organoleptic elements), help companies develop brands that match with their customers' taste and lifestyle. In that way way we have created brands that achieve deep emotional connection with customers.
We view each product as a set of different elements comprising a single distinctive unit that is geared at maximizing its potential along its entire life cycle. Towards that end we apply a research methodology that allows us to evaluate different combinations of product attributes, pricing and communication themes.
In that way we can offer our clients integrated solutions that cover all aspects of the marketing mix.
Pricing
We treat price as a multidimensional construct by examining both its financial costs eg list prices, discounts, incentives and payment terms and conditions
and non-financial “costs”, such as acquisition effort and associated feelings.
We look at:
1. Optimal price,
2. Expected price and
3. Price ranges
We examine price in 4 different market settings, applying respective scales and methodologies, depending on the business problems encountered.
•1. FMCG
•2. Consumer Durables
•3. Consumer Services
4. Retail