FG is currently executing a research project among senior execs at selected technology vendors to help us all learn more about what specific demand generation tactics are being planned for use in 2012.
The key value to participants will be a summary copy of our findings. Since it’s very clear – and common knowledge at this point – that ‘the old tactics’ are no longer working for marketers, continually perfecting the new roster of what works best is good for everyone; shared intelligence benefits us all.
In exchange for about 15 minutes of their time, participants in the study will also be entered into drawings for pairs of high-tech running shoes or charitable donations in their names to Hunger Task Force.
This study, entitled, “Run a better race – together,” referring to the way runners’ individual times improve when they run in groups, will conclude in early January with findings available to participants soon afterward.
If you’re unfamiliar with research at FG, following is an excerpt from our deliverable on the topic:
Frantz Group performs research. We do this for many reasons, including marketing, but certainly not limited to it. Research – primary and secondary, for ourselves and for our clients, surveys and other sorts – is central to what we do here:
“It’s part of our culture to need to understand what is driving the market,” says Frantz Group president John Frantz.
Communicators first, we at FG must thoroughly understand the things we intend to ‘teach’ through our work (teaching is integral to motivation; motivation is key to selling). We also need to continually update our knowledge and understanding of the concepts, issues, techniques and technologies with which we involve our clients and which we use in the process of motivating others. Then, we seek to take our understanding one step further – into the realm of innovation – so that, where possible, we can not just teach or market to our targets, but inspire them.
The idea of ‘information plus inspiration’ is a thread that runs through all that we do here; in the way that we strategize campaigns and marketing plans, how we write content and even how we nurture our clients’ customers along the way to whatever their goals may be. FG is not just a vendor, we’re a guidance counselor and a professor and a shrink and a confessor and an investment broker and your best friend when you need help selling your wares or finding your target market and then talking to them so they’ll listen. All of these things are aided by research.
Research projects at FG are born out of that just-right combination of listening and thought leadership. Frantz Group has performed numerous research projects and surveys over the years in order to learn more about such things as customer satisfaction, all sorts of issues of importance to our clients, the current state of technology marketing, and our ongoing series on marketing in a tough economy. FG also performs unique projects, like research inside trade show populations, for example, where we learn about issues germane to specialized groups by joining ongoing conversations and finding ways to empathize with and market to participants’ special needs and concerns.