Services - Topics

Innovation research

Idea management

rc provides the different phases of innovation development and evaluation with effective instruments. To these belong in particular:

rc Gap-Explorer
rc Gap-Explorer uncovers, early on, latent needs in the market which will be strengthened in the future because of parallel identifiable trends. The morphologic scenario technique used by rc generates a set of promising areas of need which are available to your business as a valuable foundation for new developments.

rc Idea-Finder
The Idea-Finder aims at the exhaustion of creative potential of companies, organisations and people. Possible areas of need are presented to selected employees by internal surveys and workshop methods. They evaluate the relevancy of the identified needs for the own portfolio of offerings and develop solution ideas on that basis. Alternatively or complementary, we use creative workshops with customers and innovators for the Idea Finder.

rc Idea-Assessment
The most workable idea concepts have to be filtered out of the multitude that have been developed, so later detail development work can concentrate on those. The determination of the potential value of possible solution ideas takes place within a representative user study, in which the solution ideas are evaluated by the respondents regarding their benefit. Furthermore, rc Idea-Assessment provides first clues for optimising the target group and for the detailed development of the concept. This way, R&D-departments are able to begin specifically with the solutions with the best marks and therefore, the highest development potential.

rc concept measurement
We study quantitative potentials, optimisations, communications and target group requirements for concepts and products developed thereafter, within the scope of the tool of rc concept measurement approach (concept tests, utilisation and sales potentials, pricing, usability tests) as presented below.
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Concept tests

How is a new idea perceived? With whom does the new product score and what can still be improved regarding the service concept?
Central questions which concern the whole business and which are answered exactly, comprehensively and implementation oriented by rc. Our expertise regarding the conduct of concept tests provides you with the information you need to use the resources of your company target-oriented and to choose the right sales channels, marketing and price strategies.
With this, not only is it important to describe potential customers precisely according to their needs but also to identify current change barriers to be able to plan the whole distribution process for each target group.
Our comprehensive technical options like simulations, visualisations and test designs interactively convey a realistic picture of the concepts to the participants of the study and make these study approaches understandable, especially for practitioners.
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Utilisation and sales potentials

Prior to the development or introduction of a new product or service, it must be determined if sufficient acceptance is present on the market and which price would be optimal from an economic point of view.
In this context, data based insights need to be generated regarding whom, how and for which price products and services ought to be offered.
Marketing and distribution information flow together here. Organise this interplay optimally from the start - by planning and conducting the (re-) launch of products and services success-oriented and based on market data.
Our methods are validated many times and have been used for a broad range of products and services. The focussing of central questions with the right mix of methods by rc offers the crucial edge of knowledge to be able to exhaust existing potentials.
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Pricing

Pricing and with it price research is an important topic for every business because price adjustments are immediately measurable in the company's success and, therefore, should be calibrated in a way to optimise chances of profit. Therefore, the purchase decision occupies the focus of price studies and the question, which price should be chosen to gain optimal sales and profit.
The challenges lie in an adequate consideration of core factors which vary depending on product being offering and service (hereafter called products to simplify). For this, comprehensive experience in price research is needed, which rc is able to offer you.
The most important factors are related to:

Information state, experience, utilisation and need of users regarding similar products (current motivation or rather motivation segments)
Attitudes, market knowledge and utilisation regarding different ways of distribution or sales channels (Information purchase process typology)
Product preference patterns determine the potential user groups regarding the preference types (preference cluster)

Price research is always comprised of the areas of product diversification, market communication and sales channels. Those dimensions need to be considered before hand in the research concepts.
We use innovative price research methods adeptly combined with conjoint analyses and further price measurement methods (for example according to van Westendorp). Only the assessment under consideration of various perspectives and dimensions establishes reliable clarity regarding price margins to be exhausted.
Increasing profitability without the danger of a disproportional customer loss is the aim of our price research.

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Usability tests

Products and services should function easily and intuitively. Understanding needs to be made easy.
Website-based, simulative usability tests can serve on a multitude of application examples such as understanding and handling of devices, understanding of processes regarding online transactions, user manuals, labelling etc. Combined methods of ethnographic methods and direct utilisation studies also offer themselves, especially for feedback close to real life which is not influenced by a laboratory situation.
The elaborate effort for laboratory tests and/or the construction of prototypes often can be replaced by a well-implemented online simulation.
With the aid of our technology our online usability labs reach a broad user community, and can be efficiently conducted comparable to the international context and enable a very differentiated operating picture of the test objects.
The results show you how well your product, object or web application is understood, which optimisations the customers desire and how you are able to eliminate misunderstandings in operation and communication from the start.
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Relation research

Customer relations management Activ⁸

Customer satisfaction surveys and studies for the optimisation of the service quality contain tremendous value added potential. Therefore, they count without a doubt as the most important instruments of market research. But only by professional conception and execution of such a program can profit-increasing measures be derived and implemented effectively. For this purpose we have developed our Activ⁸ program for customer relations management. This helps to maximise the potential of a host of value added factors:

Decrease of customer migration rate
Extension of customer lifetime
Increase of utilisation percentage by the customers (share of wallet)
Increase of spending willingness of the customer
Increase of willingness to recommend (reference potential)
Reduction of costs by concentrating on the relevant satisfaction and loyalty drivers
Reduction of costs by optimising process efficiency
Decrease of costs for new acquisitions
Increase of future competitiveness

It is vital for the full utilisation of this value added potential that the program used consequently propels the implementation of improvement measures. Only then does an active and profitable customer relation management in the company become possible.
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Competition monitor

Regardless of your current position, the direct and indirect as well as the current and possible future competitors always need to be monitored.
How are your competitors positioning themselves? Where are their strengths? Which customers choose your competitors (instead of you) and why? These are the starting questions to be able to determine your own position on the market and to expand it effectively.
Furthermore, it is important to identify developments which offer chances or constitute threats early on - in other words: It is insufficient only to watch the close surroundings, but it is vital for the protection of your own position on the market to think outside the box.
Which measures are becoming necessary and how to realise those steps emerge as results of our competition analysis.
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Employee surveys

The crucial factor of success for a business is its employees - and the motivation with which they are committed to a business and its customers!
Before starting special training, seminars and advanced training programmes, a systematic investigation of those points which could be improved from the employees point of view should be made. The information is inside the company - it just needs to be harnessed!
On neutral ground - meaning by engaging an independent institute which guarantees anonymity and privacy, all employees can speak openly. At the same time the whole institute know-how from organisation over execution up to evaluation according to privacy rules is available.

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Interne Surveys

In globally active organisations, different departments have an explicit support mandate towards other departments. Those central service providers are often quality determining for whole parts of the business and should question themselves critically regarding the rendered service quality.
Examples for those departments are staff departments, IT-support, legal departments, etc.
But not only should the service quality of classic internal service providers be on trial. Advanced analyses of customer satisfaction surveys often show that critical customer experiences are causally attributed to flaws in the process of collaboration by internal company departments and not to the executive unit towards the customer. This is why internal surveys, regarding the satisfaction with the mutual collaboration of departments, are an important part of lived internal service quality and culture.
Internal surveys mirror a distinct feedback regarding performance and service quality. Engaging a neutral third party enables the categorisation of the own performance quality and the identification of optimising potentials. The courage to hold up a mirror to oneself pays off.
Experience has shown that important and urgent optimising measures could be defined in subsequent workshops within the departments and that identified weaknesses could be encountered by better communication.
Whether rather taking a qualitative approach within the scope of expert talks or as online-based method - the potential of internal surveys unfolds through the neutral moderation by rc.
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Communications research

Communications efficiency

The new technologies enable communication in the fastest way possible. But which information does your customer need? What does the potential buyer want to know about you? Which channels of information are best suited for which information and target group to purposefully expose the services of your company?
Our studies of communication management show you how which commercials, news and topics currently influence the image of your company. Additionally, you learn how and with which ways of communication and content to approach the right target groups.
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Integrated media research (incl. web 2.0 / social media)

We live in a media-diverse world. In it, the digital interactive media constantly take up more space. Especially web 2.0 applications and social media offerings open new dimensions for market research and go hand in hand with the increased usage of the internet via mobile terminals. This means that people not only use new methods of communication which give us the opportunity to understand the consumers on their way to the prosumer, but they also use the most different technical channels on which they are accessible. Regardless of where and how they communicate, whether online or offline: their reality stays the same and it is important to capture it in its entirety including its interdependency.
rc helps you to understand the communication of your customers and potential customers in the different media worlds. We meet the respondents where they are, no matter if they are surfing, reading e-mails on the Smartphone, at the desktop-PC, on the mobile phone, on the landline or where ever.
With our multi mode survey technique, we are able to reach the respondents then and there when and where it is necessary and give them the opportunity to participate in that survey channel best suited for them.
Content wise, we help you to understand the connections between the different media and provide you with answers to questions such as: In what way do discussions in the social media and the information from internet forums matter in offline-discussions? What is carried further offline? By whom? How many people watch the discussion? Which consequences does this have for participants and viewers and what are they carrying further how and where?
Word of mouth propaganda is nowadays complemented by link to link propaganda. We help you to understand the effects in its entirety and to draw the right conclusions for your marketing activities, where and how you need to appear to be effective. Methods of monitoring the web buzz and utilisation of the creative potential of your fans on the web are components of our offer in this area:

Social media / web-monitoring
Co-creation / crowd-sourcing

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Activ⁸ Brand Evaluation

We use our Activ⁸ brand evaluation method to analyse the strength of and the loyalty to the brand.
This is based on the understanding that the strength of your brand significantly depends on the ability to connect your customers permanently, gain new customers and to generate a high spending preparedness. Brand loyalty emerges when your brand is able to do this better in the view of the single person than the best competitor brand.
Activ⁸ brand evaluation complements the important basic factor of customer loyalty with the emotional aspects of brand loyalty as well as the area of brand attractiveness (also by non-customers) compared with the competition.
With this we conduct brand analyses for you containing the following elements which help you to position and control your brand on the market with foresight and clarity:

Determination of brand strength and brand loyalty (brand strength index + brand loyalty index)
Determination of loyalty and accessibility segments for your brand
Brand core and brand drivers analyses (brand profile and brand positioning, starting points for brand optimisation)
Brand migration analysis: to which competitors would uncommitted customers migrate? From which competitors could you gain the most customers the easiest?
Funnel analysis, to determine weak points in the purchase process

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FAIReFACTS exhibition research

For many companies the appearance at trade fairs constitutes an important element in the marketing-mix and even occupies the biggest part of the communication budget for many middle class businesses. To apply the budget optimally it is, therefore, important to judge the impact of the appearance for customers and potential customers and to optimise its efficiency.
With FAIReFACTS, rc offers businesses the opportunity to optimise their exhibition appearance and to conduct a comprehensive fair impact analysis. That way you get the opportunity to purposefully design your exhibition appearance more efficiently, judge the impact of your exhibition appearance by means of customer-oriented indicators and to optimise your plans across trade fairs.
Furthermore, FAIReFACTS contains a cost-reducing methodical approach to trade fair surveys which additionally contains content-related qualitative advantages.
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