Market research — A competitive differentiator

Customer seek value-added suppliers. Vendors seek to differentiate themselves. Often, these goals are achieved through product design and delivery.

However, ideas, big or small, can accomplish the same goals. Ideas developed through market research. Cost effective. Innovative. Novel.

As a simple example, advertising agencies pitching a potential account use market research to differentiate themselves. Market research enables them to demonstrate an understanding of their client’s products and preliminarily test innovative advertising concepts.  MedSpan Research’s RapidSurv is an excellent tool for achieving these goals. This product delivers Internet survey-based data from 25 respondents within 5 days.

As another example, MedSpan Research enabled a healthcare distributor develop competitive differentiation. The approach our client used was simple, yet incredibly effective.

Our client distributes healthcare products to hospitals and many other market segments. In turn, one of the market segments provides a services that many hospitals purchase. Over the years, the service providers have devolved to competing almost exclusively on cost. Our client believed that the service providers could, instead, compete through value-added programs. MedSpan Research’s responsibility was to conduct market research to evaluate our client’s hypothesis.

MedSpan Research conducted an Internet survey of 70 hospital purchasers, finance executives and nurses. We recruited respondents using our proprietary contact database, RapidAccess.  With more than 130,000 provider executives, recruitment was a snap. The study examined how hospitals currently use the vendor’s services, the benefits and challenges they encounter and their level of interest in new programs related to the vendor’s core services.

The results clearly verified our client’s belief. Hospitals would pay a premium for a value-added service. The service providers could break the self-defeating cycle of cost cutting through innovation.

Our client developed a streamlined version of MedSpan Research’s PowerPoint presentation as a sales aid. How cost effective! The sales team use the sales aid  to share the results of the study with service providers and hospitals.

Customers opened their doors when they heard about the study. Service providers were astounded to learn they could compete in a new way. In a way that would deliver incremental profits. In a way that would lead to competitive differentiation. Hospitals were intrigued with learning more about their peer’s perceptions and approach to utilizing a key external service.

Our client won as well. Both hospitals and the service providers started to view our client as a value-added partner rather than as a vendor simply selling product.

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