Banking & Insurance Travel & Tourism Healthcare IT & Telecoms Advertising, Media & PR Business to Business Automotive & Petroleum

Our Approach to Strategic Research & Consultancy

Clients around the world now demand that market research agencies offer strategic research i.e. informed and intelligent analysis of research findings and insights and recommendations that are practical, realistic and actionable. Clients want more than tables and charts. They are looking for ROI on their research spend and want to work with agencies that conduct surveys that help them improve business performance in terms of revenue and profitability.

Offering such strategic research consultancy requires an agency to offer the following.

  • The Objective of Research Is To Deliver Actionable Insights
    Clients don’t commission research because they love market research. They invest in research in order to achieve business objectives, whether that might be increased revenue, improved market share, higher margins, better customer retention etc. The ultimate objective is to improve profitability. We at CAP understand this, we are aware that research is not an end in itself, it has to produce a return on investment (ROI). That’s why we employ senior, experienced staff who understand business to run our research projects
  • Agencies Must Identify The Real Business Reasons
    for Conducting Research
    We place great emphasis on determining the business reasons why a client wants to commission research. We do not treat RFQs at face value, we “interrogate” the client on the real business reasons for conducting research. Without this knowledge an agency cannot possibly provide strategic, actionable recommendations. Our proposals are carefully designed and researched, we don’t just give quotations.
  • Executives Must Have An Understanding of Business
    This is essential if an agency is to offer marketing and business advice. At CAP we only employ executives who have at least 10 years background in research and who have broad international experience and who can demonstrate that they “understand business”. Many of our Directors have worked client-side and thus have a full appreciation of the complexities and subtleties that client companies face in building their businesses. Roger Thomas, our MD, has over 40 years experience of running research agencies in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific. He worked client-side with Ladbroke-Hilton, Ritz Hotel, Paris and Staines Catering. Certain of our executives also come from the management consultancy sector.
  • Executives Must Have Specific Industry Knowledge
    The first question that clients ask of an agency today is “How well do you know my industry”? At CAP we concentrate on certain industry sectors and ensure our executives have in-depth knowledge and experience of each sector.

    Travel & Tourism. Roger Thomas has worked in this sector for over 30 years and has conducted surveys for most of the world’s leading hotels, airlines, airports, tourist boards, car rental firms, corporate travel companies, travel agencies etc. He worked as Marketing Director for Ladbroke-Hilton and the Ritz Hotel, Paris. Has conducted surveys in over 60 countries worldwide.

    Financial Services. Keith Kong has worked for banks and insurance companies for over 12 years both in Hong Kong & China.

    Healthcare. Dr. May Zhang heads up our Healthcare practice based in Beijing. She has worked in the healthcare industry for 19 years, including 12 years as brand manager and marketing manager for major pharmaceutical companies.

    IT & Telecoms. Jason Weng is Director of our IT & Telecoms practice. He has worked for many of the world’s leading IT suppliers.

  • Executives With International Experience
    “Travel broadens the mind” so the proverb goes and we at CAP strongly believe that this is important in the market research industry. Our researchers have wide experience of conducting projects in Europe, US, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East, India and South America.
  • Senior Executives Only Used Throughout the Project
    The biggest failing among research agencies is that senior executives do not undertake the research. At CAP we only employ senior staff and these undertake the whole project. This ensures high quality surveys and that our clients enjoy excellent ROI on their research spend.

  • Advanced Methodologies
    Strategic research agencies develop sophisticated methods of understanding customer attitudes and practices. Advanced methodologies not only give a clear picture of purchasing behaviour they also enable the agency to produce actionable and intelligent insights and recommendations. Our INSIGHT™ model enables us to identify the key “order-winning” factors that influence brand selection. Advocacy is the litmus test of the strength of a brand – it identifies the percentage of customers that actually recommend a brand by word-of-mouth. As such it is a much stronger measure than satisfaction or loyalty. We have developed Advocacy-Pro™ which identifies a brand’s advocacy position and shows how it can significantly improve its advocacy performance.
  • Concise Proposals, Succinct Reports
    We don’t write 50 page proposals – who’s got the time nowadays to read these? Our proposals are short and succinct and include a one page summary which describes all main aspects, including the fee. The main aim of our proposals is to demonstrate that we understand the ultimate business objectives of the proposed survey, and can offer a research approach that is cost effective and will produce actionable insights.

    Our reports are around 20-30 pages and comprise an analysis of key findings plus recommendations. Complete data and tables are available for those researchers who wish to conduct further analysis