102 Research Ideas

1. Puts you in good shape to make smart decisions.
2. Identify the most effective marketing channels.
3. Can measure how far reaching your Brand Identity is.
4. Will tell you your reputation in the marketplace and how prospects learn about your organization.
5. Reveals the Image and Awareness of your Product, Service and Organization.
6. Who customers and prospects view as your primary competition and how you stack up.
7. Your strengths and weaknesses.
8. The most effective way to introduce a new product or service to the marketplace.
9. The messages to use to better position your organization.
10. Pinpoint where your new business or new members will come from.
11. Evaluation of your website.
12. The cost of bringing customers to your website.
13. Identify new markets to pursue.
14. Identify how to pursue those new markets.
15. Measure customer satisfaction.
16. Prioritize which of your products or services have the most value to your customers.
17. Measure if customers read your newsletter or publications and how much time they spend with each issue.
18. What things they want to see included in your newsletter or publications.
19. Customer needs, wants and “hot buttons.”
20. What a prospect wants to hear during your sales presentation.
21. Who is the favorite presenter or insider based on the individual board members?
22. What are the “hot buttons” of your prospects and individuals listening to the presentation?
23. Demographics of your customers, prospects, members and employees.
24. The likelihood that your customers will continue doing business with you.
25. The likelihood that your customers will do more business with you in the next year.
26. The likelihood that your prospects would consider a new supplier or vendor.
27. How customers find a new supplier.
28. Input on a new concept or prototype.
29. What hot topics to address in your next direct mail campaign.
30. What issues to address in upcoming conferences or seminars.
31. What points to bring out in your next speech.
32. Understand how customers and prospects make their decisions.
33. Establish what events or issues cause a customer to start to consider your product or service.
34. Uncover the biggest issues facing a specific industry, organization or trade group.
35. In depth analysis of your pricing policies. Is it too high? Just right? Too low?
36. Will customers pay more for your product or service? If so, how much?
37. The importance of industry trade shows.
38. Identify which industry trade shows are a must for customers to attend?
39. Identify which industry publications will be the most effective for reaching a target audience.
40. The degree of familiarity or name recognition of industry leaders, the competition and your organization.
41. Future trends: Is your market growing, staying the same or decreasing.
42. The percentage of market share you have verses your competition. How do we rank? What differentiates us?
43. Test concepts, ads, communication messages, brochures, packaging, websites and slogans.
44. Understand member’s perception of membership benefits.
45. Identify who are the key decision makers and key influencers for a sale.
46. The reasons why someone buys your product or service.
47. How to improve your new employee orientation program.
48. Why employees join your organization.
49. Why employees stay with your organization.
50. What your employees think about compensation, their supervisor and benefits.
51. Ways to improve your employee recruitment efforts.
52. Ways to improve the performance appraisal process in your organization through a 360 degree assessment.
53. Measure the overall effectiveness of specific training programs and identify future programs that are needed.
54. Identify future leaders or organizational mentors.
55. Determine if all the staff is “rowing in the same direction.”
56. Determine what issues are the most important for strategic planning and which ones need the most attention at this time.
57. Research from various constituents to enhance the strategic planning process.
58. Who is the industry leader? What changes are expected in the industry next year?
59. What standards are needed in the industry that might bring a significant return to working groups?
60. Who are the industry trade groups we need to know about?
61. What governmental issues or proposed legislation are on the horizon that may affect my organization and industry?
62. Identify governmental, economic or external issues that can be used for public relations positioning statements.
63. Pre and Post research to measure an organization’s image before an ad or PR campaign and then to follow up after the campaign has concluded.
64. To learn “best practices” regarding a function, process or practice.
65. To borrow an idea from one of the industry leaders or someone who is thought of as best in class.
66. To understand how other organizations or leaders handled the same issue or problem you face today.
67. Answer critical organizational questions.
68. Settle internal debates with management team members with facts rather than guesswork.
69. Find out how often your customers need the sales people to call on them.
70. Find out how often your sales people actually call on customers.
71. Find out how productive the sales people are on their visits.
72. Need a “fact-based” marketing plan.
73. To identify new partnerships, vendors or manufacturing reps.
74. To identify potential acquisition targets.
75. To show the value of the company to others who may be considering acquiring you.
76. To see if your acquisition target is telling the truth about their market position or customer base.
77. How your competitors respond to changes in the marketplace.
78. How the competition sets its pricing policies.
79. What your competitors perceive as their strategic advantage over you.
80. Which competitor products or services are selling better than others and what new products or services are they developing.
81. If you should use push or pull through marketing concepts.
82. Determine which internal department is the most effective or productive and why?
83. Information to help craft organizational values and value propositions.
84. Help learn what it will take to become an employer of choice.
85. Need to segment your markets or understand each of your market segments better than you already do.
86. Need a leg up on your next negotiation.
87. Find that it is important to see if your trademark, logo, domain name has been registered.
88. Uncover the secrets to creating long lasting customer loyalty.
89. Measure employee commitment to your brand and to your organization.
90. To test the names of a new product or service.
91. Measure the effectiveness of your brand promise and your customer’s experience.
92. Measure the level of quality, uniqueness and ease of use of your product or service.
93. How to navigate the black hole.
94. The competencies needed for a successful job, function or organization.
95. Which 20% of our customers will bring us the 80% of revenues?
96. Identify where your organization, products or services are in their lifecycle.
97. What are the most commonly asked questions about our products or services?
98. Measure the importance of product availability and delivery to your customers.
99. Clarify an important issue, perception, hunch or challenge.
100. Obtain the most effective promotional strategy for your products and services.
101. Determine when the economy will improve.
102. Need more than 102 ideas to prove that research can make your life better?