market research new product case study

Market research for new product development in 6 steps

Market research for new product development will help you understand your users' needs, as well as potential risks and market opportunities.

What is market research in new product development?

Why do market research for new product development, the importance of market research in product development, choose the correct type of market research, how to conduct market research for a new product , examples of market research for new products, what product development idea have you been dallying off.

Picture this: you’ve got a great idea for a new product, or for improving your current product or service. At least, you think it’s great. When you explain it to others, they raise their eyebrows.

While you are incredibly enthusiastic about the product, they have critical questions about consumer trends , the market , and those latest developments in the world. Ouch.

‘My gut told me to go for’ won’t convince a lot of investors to invest in your idea. Plus, your designers, marketers and engineers will work in a much more confident way if they know that what they’re working on has a chance to succeed. The only way to give them that confidence, is through market research. And one of the most valuable types of research is that which you’ve carried out among your target consumers. This research provides you with proprietary data (also known as zero-party data ).

In this article, we’ll explore why consumer research is so important when you’re developing a new product or want to change something you’re currently already selling. We’ll take you through five crucial steps and give you some valuable tips along the way.

Market research for new product development can focus on different areas. You can research market viability, the demand for the product you have in mind, the features your target group is looking for, or the best way to position, price, communicate and market your product to your target audience. You take into account your competitors, market developments, and important trends. And whether you’re running market research for a startup or a massive brand, it’s an essential step to make sure your new products hit the mark. This can be a difficult task, leading many to consult US market research companies .

Market research for new product development is all about identifying opportunities and finding out if it’s worth bringing your product idea to life. And if so, how to do that in the best way.

It’s about more than what the competition is doing, and if your target audience would be willing to spend money on you. You can also dive into market trends to identify the best ways to market your product.

You can use market research to fine-tune your product development and the relevant aspects around it. Based on how your audience is developing, what price and type of message would grab their attention? What kind of marketing tactics are likely to work, and what channels dominate your market?

Consumer research is about understanding all the aspects of your market. You can approach it as a big puzzle, and once you have all the pieces in place, you can proudly present a solid plan or research to your investors and team, to help them understand why your product development idea is worth working on.

To get the best consumer insights, send a survey with our concept testing template . And for a sector-specific lowdown, find out all about the food product development process .

Market research for your new product development strategy helps you minimise risks and prepares you for a successful product launch. You get to know your market and audience in a way that helps you create not just the perfect product concept, but also the right messaging and marketing around it—something that will actually resonate with your audience.

Market research is used to base your decisions on facts, not just ideas and hunches – however good you might be at guessing games. Before spending time and money on a product idea, you get a good idea of how likely it is to be a success. This will also help you plan how much time and money you’ll actually need.

Investors and stakeholders will also want to see market research if you want to launch a new idea: they want some kind of security that the product will actually sell. Even though market research isn’t a crystal ball and doesn’t exactly predict the future, when it’s done right it can definitely give you a clear picture of how your product concept will be welcomed into the market.

Market research is not only important to verify if your completely new product idea is worth the work. You can also use it to optimise existing products, by keeping a close eye on how competitors are changing their products. You might even read online reviews on products similar to yours and see that customers are asking for specific features. This is also market research.

This also goes for adding new products to a line to supplement your current assortment, or if you want to start an entirely new adventure with your breakthrough product idea.

Market research for product development, whether new or existing, is all about listening to what is happening in the market. Step outside of your organisation and ask the people who pay for your products how you would make them even happier, or find out what trends you can jump onto now, so you can become a frontrunner in the future.

Product development shouldn’t just be done in-house, with your designers and developers closely looking at the product. It’s easy to get tunnel vision and build a product that’s more focused on what you can and want to deliver, and less on what the customer wants.

Market research done right forces you to step out of that bubble and not just look at how you can make the product shinier, faster and stronger, but how you can give it the right place in the market . Because product development is also developing a marketing and sales strategy . It’s having a customer journey and experience ready to put the product in and turn your customers into fans. All you need to do, is go talk to them!

Moreover, market research helps you determine what the marketing mix should look like, since developing a new product is never just about a product.

Turn customers into fans with market research tools

Compare the top market research tools of 2022, including details on their features and the best ways to use each tool.

Let’s get back to basics: what types of market research are there? We often lose ourselves in the wide variety of tools out there that give you data – but what kind of data is available, and how relevant is it to you?

It’s important to understand where data is coming from and how complete it is. How can you supplement it with additional research to get the full picture? Let’s look at the types of research you can – and should! – combine.

Quantitative market research

Don’t let the saying ‘quality over quantity’ fool you for this one—if you’re trying to make money, quantity certainly does matter. Quantitative research focuses on things you can measure .

How many people are interested in your type of product? What are they willing to spend, on average? Has that number been growing, been steady or are they willing to pay less and less? And if the latter is the case, is the group growing in size at least?

You can also gather information on how happy people are about a product or service. What’s lacking in this type of information is the motives behind it. For that, you need qualitative market research .

Qualitative market research

Qualitative research gives context to the numbers . Yes, people are increasingly interested in product X – but why is that? What were they looking at before, and what made them make the switch? Was it a change in price, a recommendation from a friend, something they saw in the news?

Now, it’s nearly impossible to gather qualitative data for all the quantitative data you measure. That’s why it’s incredibly important that you get that qualitative data from a hyper-relevant part of your target group. Don’t send out surveys to gather quantitative data from a specific part of your target group, and then ask another part to explain those numbers. That wouldn’t be helpful at all.

Qualitative data often comes from focus groups . You could find a focus group in the people that you survey, or by interviewing existing customers that fit the profile you’re studying. This will help you get a real-life picture of consumer needs and consumer problems. The best person to ask is the one you’re trying to fit into a buyer’s persona.

How is qualitative market research important for your product development process? It’ll help you understand the needs of your target market better. You conduct research that will steer your product idea generation in the right direction, gathered by real consumer insights and consumer feedback.

Of course, you can’t come to your market consumer in the initial stages of the process and ask them to design the product for you. You’ll gather the base information you have through quantitative methods and online new product development surveys , so you can ask focused concept testing questions to your focus group.

Primary market research

Primary market research is collecting raw data directly from your target customers or market by doing your own research. It simply means you only use data you yourself have collected,  from things like surveys and focus groups – no trend reports from third parties.

This is important for product development research , because you can’t base your decisions and product development process on someone else’s findings for different product and target group entirely.

Anything you directly collect from your market, whether it’s through focus groups, surveys, interviews or product research is primary data.

Inform your product development with our JTBD template

Get up and running with your next product development project and learn what customers really need with our jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) template.

Secondary market research

Secondary research can be done using existing data . The fact that it’s not brand-new information, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hold valuable insights. You just need to collect the right information and connect that to information that’s relevant for your case specifically.

Secondary research can be done to identify business risks, for instance by looking at market developments. Competitor research is also a valuable form of secondary research. Through competitor research you’ll get a real understanding of the other options your potential customers have – a good starting point for any new product development strategy.

What parts of market research can you not skip over when your goal is using it for product development research? We’ve divided it up into five bite-sized steps that will give you a solid framework to work within.

Step 1. Exploratory research

Basically, this is researching what you specifically want to research. It’s completely normal not to immediately know what your research goal is, or how you’ll get there. That’s where exploratory research comes in.

You start by gathering secondary data on all kinds of aspects. Find things that stand out, developments that you hadn’t thought about and things you want to know more about.

With that information, you can start defining what’s most relevant for you in this stage. Where are your knowledge gaps, and how do you make sure you get the relevant data to make wise business decisions?

This is not necessarily about gathering as much data as you can – you want to keep it manageable and relevant. Find out what questions you can’t answer straight away, and focus your exploratory research on that.

Step 3. Define research objectives

After your exploratory research, you can start pinpointing what you really need to know to move forward in your product development process.

Will you be focussing on customer needs, or how to get a competitive advantage? Will the market analysis focus on product demand and pricing, or is there still a lot of ground to cover in the physical product and usage habits?

It’s important to have a clear idea of what you’ll be researching. Ask yourself: what actionable insights do I need to win in this market segment? Make your objectives as concrete as you can, so your answers will be focused and you can confidently use them to base your next step on.

Step 4. Define the scope of the research

Of course, market research is a way to minimise risk. But there’s always a risk if you’re venturing out with a new product. You can never get a 100 percent guarantee of what will happen, until you launch your product.

That’s why it’s important to define a scope around your objectives. It can also help you to decide where you can use secondary data, and where you definitely need primary data.

Step 5. Decide on market research tools or partners

Are you going to focus on the product or business as usual while a research agency does the heavy lifting? Or do you want to keep everything in-house? In that case, you’re going to be in charge of deciding what market research tools you use. And the possibilities are nearly endless…

There’s a tool for every part of research, but it’s important that you use tools that are easy to work with, and collect all the data you want, so you don’t need to glue it all together from different tools. Especially if you’re going to talk directly to your consumers, you want to use a tool that’s as easy and pleasant to use for them as it is for you.

Of course, we have some suggestions. Check out our article on the 6 best—tried and tested—market research tools out there. And if you’re leaning towards agencies in the UK, here’s our rundown of the top market research agencies in London . And here are the top market research companies in the US .

Or, if you’d prefer to focus on sending out insightful customer insights surveys, see our list of the top 11 Qualtrics alternatives .

Step 6. Concept testing

As interesting as the market itself may be, this specific research is still about your product development idea. Is the idea you have in mind good enough to enter the market, or do you need input to fine-tune it?

That’s where concept testing comes in. With concept testing, you create an MVP that you can show to your focus groups. You find out what they think about it. What features do they miss and love? What would they pay for this? How easy is it to use?

But, like we said, you’re not just developing a product. You are also developing the marketing and communication around it, and that also needs to be tested thoroughly. That’s why you can also target your market research at your marketing for the new or improved product, by creating mock-ups and testing messaging with your focus group. 

How are brands you love using Attest to do market research around product development? Let’s tale a look at US farming cooperative,  Organic Valley . They save time and money by using quantitive analysis for new product development.

‘For a lot of our day-to-day work we had been using other tools that weren’t necessarily user-friendly, easy to use or intuitive. We were looking for a tool with a fairly rapid turnaround and I wanted my team to be able to use it themselves, I didn’t want to have to go out and hire somebody else,’ says Tripp Hughes, Organic Valley’s Senior Director of Consumer Strategy. He saw a need for a tool that his team could use, without having to go through excessive training.

After seeing Attest demoed at a conference, Hughes brought in some of his peers to take a look. They now use it for market analysis, concept ideation and testing, creative testing, and messaging testing.

Hughes estimates that being able to make quick initial learnings through Attest saves Organic Valley between 10 to 20 times what it would cost to make the discoveries later down the line.

‘The impact is coming in reduced time and improved next-round thinking that we’re taking into focus groups where we’ve got a high-cost factor. If we don’t go in with the right materials and the right framework, we’re wasting money. And so Attest has helped us do a lot of the front-end work that then we’re able to go and build on.’

Read more about how Organic Valley is developing awesome products with insights from Attest in this case study.

We get it – taking risks is scary. But developing new products is exciting, and could lift your business to the next level. And while doing product development research, you could find a lot more inspiration about other improvements you can make in your business.

If you’re looking for a tool that brings you closer to your target audience and helps you find hyper relevant results, try Attest.

Ask the right questions for NPD

Learn which product development survey questions you should ask to discover what customers value most, from pricing to features.

Customer Research Lead 

Nick joined Attest in 2021, with more than 10 years' experience in market research and consumer insights on both agency and brand sides. As part of the Customer Research Team team, Nick takes a hands-on role supporting customers uncover insights and opportunities for growth.

Related articles

How to write concept testing survey questions that get real insights, new product development, evive nutrition brand manager amaël proulx on taking the states by storm, direct-to-consumer, 12 top storytelling marketing examples: how brands tell stories, subscribe to our newsletter.

Fill in your email and we’ll drop fresh insights and events info into your inbox each week.

* I agree to receive communications from Attest. Privacy Policy .

You're now subscribed to our mailing list to receive exciting news, reports, and other updates!

28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

Published: March 08, 2023

Putting together a compelling case study is one of the most powerful strategies for showcasing your product and attracting future customers. But it's not easy to create case studies that your audience can’t wait to read.

In this post, we’ll go over the definition of a case study and the best examples to inspire you.

What is a case study?

A case study is a detailed story of something your company did. It includes a beginning — often discussing a conflict, an explanation of what happened next, and a resolution that explains how the company solved or improved on something.

A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies with solutions typically contain quotes from the customer. This means that they’re not just ads where you praise your own product. Rather, other companies are praising your company — and there’s no stronger marketing material than a verbal recommendation or testimonial. A great case study is also filled with research and stats to back up points made about a project's results.

There are myriad ways to use case studies in your marketing strategy . From featuring them on your website to including them in a sales presentation, a case study is a strong, persuasive tool that shows customers why they should work with you — straight from another customer. Writing one from scratch is hard, though, which is why we’ve created a collection of case study templates for you to get started.

Fill out the form below to access the free case study templates.

Free Case Study Templates

Showcase your company's success using these three free case study templates.

• Data-Driven Case Study Template
• Product-Specific Case Study Template
• General Case Study Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

There’s no better way to generate more leads than by writing case studies . But without case study examples to draw inspiration from, it can be difficult to write impactful studies that convince visitors to submit a form.

Marketing Case Study Examples

To help you create an attractive and high-converting case study, we've put together a list of some of our favorites. This list includes famous case studies in marketing, technology, and business.

These studies can show you how to frame your company offers in a way that is both meaningful and useful to your audience. So, take a look, and let these examples inspire your next brilliant case study design.

These marketing case studies with solutions show the value proposition of each product. They also show how each company benefited in both the short and long term using quantitative data. In other words, you don’t get just nice statements, like "This company helped us a lot." You see actual change within the firm through numbers and figures.

You can put your learnings into action with HubSpot's Free Case Study Templates . Available as custom designs and text-based documents, you can upload these templates to your CMS or send them to prospects as you see fit.

1. " How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with the Help of HubSpot ," by HubSpot

What's interesting about this case study is the way it leads with the customer. That reflects a major HubSpot cornerstone, which is to always solve for the customer first. The copy leads with a brief description of why the CEO of Handled founded the company and why he thought Handled could benefit from adopting a CRM. The case study also opens up with one key data point about Handled’s success using HubSpot, namely that it grew to 121 locations.

Notice that this case study uses mixed media. Yes, there is a short video, but it's elaborated upon in the other text on the page. So while your case studies can use one or the other, don't be afraid to combine written copy with visuals to emphasize the project's success.

Key Learnings from the HubSpot Case Study Example

• Give the case study a personal touch by focusing on the CEO rather than the company itself.
• Use multimedia to engage website visitors as they read the case study.

2. " The Whole Package ," by IDEO

Here's a design company that knows how to lead with simplicity in its case studies. As soon as the visitor arrives at the page, they’re greeted with a big, bold photo and the title of the case study — which just so happens to summarize how IDEO helped its client. It summarizes the case study in three snippets: The challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Immediately, IDEO communicates its impact — the company partnered with H&M to remove plastic from its packaging — but it doesn't stop there. As the user scrolls down, the challenge, impact, and progress are elaborated upon with comprehensive (but not overwhelming) copy that outlines what that process looked like, replete with quotes and intriguing visuals.

Key Learnings from the IDEO Case Study Example

• Split up the takeaways of your case studies into bite-sized sections.
• Always use visuals and images to enrich the case study experience, especially if it’s a comprehensive case study.

3. " Rozum Robotics intensifies its PR game with Awario ," by Awario

In this case study, Awario greets the user with a summary straight away — so if you’re feeling up to reading the entire case study, you can scan the snapshot and understand how the company serves its customers. The case study then includes jump links to several sections, such as "Company Profile," "Rozum Robotics' Pains," "Challenge," "Solution," and "Results and Improvements."

The sparse copy and prominent headings show that you don’t need a lot of elaborate information to show the value of your products and services. Like the other case study examples on this list, it includes visuals and quotes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the company’s efforts. The case study ends with a bulleted list that shows the results.

Key Learnings from the Awario Robotics Case Study Example

• Create a table of contents to make your case study easier to navigate.
• Include a bulleted list of the results you achieved for your client.

4. " Chevrolet DTU ," by Carol H. Williams

If you’ve worked with a company that’s well-known, use only the name in the title — like Carol H. Williams, one of the nation’s top advertising agencies, does here. The "DTU," stands for "Discover the Unexpected." It generates interest because you want to find out what the initials mean.

They keep your interest in this case study by using a mixture of headings, images, and videos to describe the challenges, objectives, and solutions of the project. The case study closes with a summary of the key achievements that Chevrolet’s DTU Journalism Fellows reached during the project.

Key Learnings from the Carol H. Williams Case Study Example

• If you’ve worked with a big brand before, consider only using the name in the title — just enough to pique interest.
• Use a mixture of headings and subheadings to guide users through the case study.

5. " How Fractl Earned Links from 931 Unique Domains for Porch.com in a Single Year ," by Fractl

Fractl uses both text and graphic design in their Porch.com case study to immerse the viewer in a more interesting user experience. For instance, as you scroll, you'll see the results are illustrated in an infographic-design form as well as the text itself.

Further down the page, they use icons like a heart and a circle to illustrate their pitch angles, and graphs to showcase their results. Rather than writing which publications have mentioned Porch.com during Fractl’s campaign, they incorporated the media outlets’ icons for further visual diversity.

Key Learnings from the Fractl Case Study Example

• Let pictures speak for you by incorporating graphs, logos, and icons all throughout the case study.
• Start the case study by right away stating the key results, like Fractl does, instead of putting the results all the way at the bottom.

6. " The Met ," by Fantasy

What's the best way to showcase the responsiveness and user interface of a website? Probably by diving right into it with a series of simple showcases— which is exactly what Fantasy does on their case study page for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They keep the page simple and clean, inviting you to review their redesign of the Met’s website feature-by-feature.

Each section is simple, showing a single piece of the new website's interface so that users aren’t overwhelmed with information and can focus on what matters most.

If you're more interested in text, you can read the objective for each feature. Fantasy understands that, as a potential customer, this is all you need to know. Scrolling further, you're greeted with a simple "Contact Us" CTA.

Key Learnings from the Fantasy Case Study Example

• You don’t have to write a ton of text to create a great case study. Focus on the solution you delivered itself.
• Include a CTA at the bottom inviting visitors to contact you.

7. " Rovio: How Rovio Grew Into a Gaming Superpower ," by App Annie

If your client had a lot of positive things to say about you, take a note from App Annie’s Rovio case study and open up with a quote from your client. The case study also closes with a quote, so that the case study doesn’t seem like a promotion written by your marketing team but a story that’s taken straight from your client’s mouth. It includes a photo of a Rovio employee, too.

Another thing this example does well? It immediately includes a link to the product that Rovio used (namely, App Annie Intelligence) at the top of the case study. The case study closes with a call-to-action button prompting users to book a demo.

Key Learnings from the App Annie Case Study Example

• Feature quotes from your client at the beginning and end of the case study.
• Include a mention of the product right at the beginning and prompt users to learn more about the product.

8. " Embracing first-party data: 3 success stories from HubSpot ," by Think with Google

Google takes a different approach to text-focused case studies by choosing three different companies to highlight.

The case study is clean and easily scannable. It has sections for each company, with quotes and headers that clarify the way these three distinct stories connect. The simple format also uses colors and text that align with the Google brand.

Another differentiator is the focus on data. This case study is less than a thousand words, but it's packed with useful data points. Data-driven insights quickly and clearly show how the value of leveraging first-party data while prioritizing consumer privacy.

Key Learnings from the Think with Google Case Study Example

• A case study doesn’t need to be long or complex to be powerful.
• Clear data points are a quick and effective way to prove value.

9. " In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study ," by Switch

Switch is an international marketing agency based in Malta that knocks it out of the park with this case study. Its biggest challenge is effectively communicating what it did for its client without ever revealing the client’s name. It also effectively keeps non-marketers in the loop by including a glossary of terms on page 4.

The PDF case study reads like a compelling research article, including titles like "In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study," "Scenario," and "Approach," so that readers get a high-level overview of what the client needed and why they approached Switch. It also includes a different page for each strategy. For instance, if you’d only be interested in hiring Switch for optimizing your Facebook ads, you can skip to page 10 to see how they did it.

The PDF is fourteen pages long but features big fonts and plenty of white space, so viewers can easily skim it in only a few minutes.

Key Learnings from the Switch Case Study Example

• If you want to go into specialized information, include a glossary of terms so that non-specialists can easily understand.
• Close with a CTA page in your case study PDF and include contact information for prospective clients.

10. " Gila River ," by OH Partners

Let pictures speak for you, like OH Partners did in this case study. While you’ll quickly come across a heading and some text when you land on this case study page, you’ll get the bulk of the case study through examples of actual work OH Partners did for its client. You will see OH Partners’ work in a billboard, magazine, and video. This communicates to website visitors that if they work with OH Partners, their business will be visible everywhere.

And like the other case studies here, it closes with a summary of what the firm achieved for its client in an eye-catching way.

Key Learnings from the OH Partners Case Study Example

• Let the visuals speak by including examples of the actual work you did for your client — which is especially useful for branding and marketing agencies.
• Always close out with your achievements and how they impacted your client.

11. " Facing a Hater ," by Digitas

Digitas' case study page for Sprite’s #ILOVEYOUHATER campaign keeps it brief while communicating the key facts of Digitas’ work for the popular soda brand. The page opens with an impactful image of a hundred people facing a single man. It turns out, that man is the biggest "bully" in Argentina, and the people facing him are those whom he’s bullied before.

Scrolling down, it's obvious that Digitas kept Sprite at the forefront of their strategy, but more than that, they used real people as their focal point. They leveraged the Twitter API to pull data from Tweets that people had actually tweeted to find the identity of the biggest "hater" in the country. That turned out to be @AguanteElCofler, a Twitter user who has since been suspended.

Key Learnings from the Digitas Case Study Example

• If a video was part of your work for your client, be sure to include the most impactful screenshot as the heading.
• Don’t be afraid to provide details on how you helped your client achieve their goals, including the tools you leveraged.

12. " Better Experiences for All ," by HermanMiller

HermanMiller sells sleek, utilitarian furniture with no frills and extreme functionality, and that ethos extends to its case study page for a hospital in Dubai.

What first attracted me to this case study was the beautiful video at the top and the clean user experience. User experience matters a lot in a case study. It determines whether users will keep reading or leave. Another notable aspect of this case study is that the video includes closed-captioning for greater accessibility, and users have the option of expanding the CC and searching through the text.

HermanMiller’s case study also offers an impressive amount of information packed in just a few short paragraphs for those wanting to understand the nuances of their strategy. It closes out with a quote from their client and, most importantly, the list of furniture products that the hospital purchased from the brand.

Key Learnings from the HermanMiller Case Study Example

• Close out with a list of products that users can buy after reading the case study.
• Include accessibility features such as closed captioning and night mode to make your case study more user-friendly.

13. " Capital One on AWS ," by Amazon

Do you work continuously with your clients? Consider structuring your case study page like Amazon did in this stellar case study example. Instead of just featuring one article about Capital One and how it benefited from using AWS, Amazon features a series of articles that you can then access if you’re interested in reading more. It goes all the way back to 2016, all with different stories that feature Capital One’s achievements using AWS.

This may look unattainable for a small firm, but you don’t have to go to extreme measures and do it for every single one of your clients. You could choose the one you most wish to focus on and establish a contact both on your side and your client’s for coming up with the content. Check in every year and write a new piece. These don’t have to be long, either — five hundred to eight hundred words will do.

Key Learnings from the Amazon AWS Case Study Example

• Write a new article each year featuring one of your clients, then include links to those articles in one big case study page.
• Consider including external articles as well that emphasize your client’s success in their industry.

14. " HackReactor teaches the world to code #withAsana ," by Asana

While Asana's case study design looks text-heavy, there's a good reason. It reads like a creative story, told entirely from the customer's perspective.

For instance, Asana knows you won't trust its word alone on why this product is useful. So, they let Tony Phillips, HackReactor CEO, tell you instead: "We take in a lot of information. Our brains are awful at storage but very good at thinking; you really start to want some third party to store your information so you can do something with it."

Asana features frequent quotes from Phillips to break up the wall of text and humanize the case study. It reads like an in-depth interview and captivates the reader through creative storytelling. Even more, Asana includes in-depth detail about how HackReactor uses Asana. This includes how they build templates and workflows:

"There's a huge differentiator between Asana and other tools, and that’s the very easy API access. Even if Asana isn’t the perfect fit for a workflow, someone like me— a relatively mediocre software engineer—can add functionality via the API to build a custom solution that helps a team get more done."

Key Learnings from the Asana Example

• Include quotes from your client throughout the case study.
• Provide extensive detail on how your client worked with you or used your product.

15. " Rips Sewed, Brand Love Reaped ," by Amp Agency

Amp Agency's Patagonia marketing strategy aimed to appeal to a new audience through guerrilla marketing efforts and a coast-to-coast road trip. Their case study page effectively conveys a voyager theme, complete with real photos of Patagonia customers from across the U.S., and a map of the expedition. I liked Amp Agency's storytelling approach best. It captures viewers' attention from start to finish simply because it's an intriguing and unique approach to marketing.

Key Learnings from the Amp Agency Example

• Open up with a summary that communicates who your client is and why they reached out to you.
• Like in the other case study examples, you’ll want to close out with a quantitative list of your achievements.

16. " NetApp ," by Evisort

Evisort opens up its NetApp case study with an at-a-glance overview of the client. It’s imperative to always focus on the client in your case study — not on your amazing product and equally amazing team. By opening up with a snapshot of the client’s company, Evisort places the focus on the client.

This case study example checks all the boxes for a great case study that’s informative, thorough, and compelling. It includes quotes from the client and details about the challenges NetApp faced during the COVID pandemic. It closes out with a quote from the client and with a link to download the case study in PDF format, which is incredibly important if you want your case study to be accessible in a wider variety of formats.

Key Learnings from the Evisort Example

• Place the focus immediately on your client by including a snapshot of their company.
• Mention challenging eras, such as a pandemic or recession, to show how your company can help your client succeed even during difficult times.

17. " Copernicus Land Monitoring – CLC+ Core ," by Cloudflight

Including highly specialized information in your case study is an effective way to show prospects that you’re not just trying to get their business. You’re deep within their industry, too, and willing to learn everything you need to learn to create a solution that works specifically for them.

Cloudflight does a splendid job at that in its Copernicus Land Monitoring case study. While the information may be difficult to read at first glance, it will capture the interest of prospects who are in the environmental industry. It thus shows Cloudflight’s value as a partner much more effectively than a general case study would.

The page is comprehensive and ends with a compelling call-to-action — "Looking for a solution that automates, and enhances your Big Data system? Are you struggling with large datasets and accessibility? We would be happy to advise and support you!" The clean, whitespace-heavy page is an effective example of using a case study to capture future leads.

Key Learnings from the Cloudflight Case Study Example

• Don’t be afraid to get technical in your explanation of what you did for your client.
• Include a snapshot of the sales representative prospects should contact, especially if you have different sales reps for different industries, like Cloudflight does.

18. " Valvoline Increases Coupon Send Rate by 76% with Textel’s MMS Picture Texting ," by Textel

If you’re targeting large enterprises with a long purchasing cycle, you’ll want to include a wealth of information in an easily transferable format. That’s what Textel does here in its PDF case study for Valvoline. It greets the user with an eye-catching headline that shows the value of using Textel. Valvoline saw a significant return on investment from using the platform.

Another smart decision in this case study is highlighting the client’s quote by putting it in green font and doing the same thing for the client’s results because it helps the reader quickly connect the two pieces of information. If you’re in a hurry, you can also take a look at the "At a Glance" column to get the key facts of the case study, starting with information about Valvoline.

Key Learnings from the Textel Case Study Example

• Include your client’s ROI right in the title of the case study.
• Add an "At a Glance" column to your case study PDF to make it easy to get insights without needing to read all the text.

19. " Hunt Club and Happeo — a tech-enabled love story ," by Happeo

In this blog-post-like case study, Happeo opens with a quote from the client, then dives into a compelling heading: "Technology at the forefront of Hunt Club's strategy." Say you’re investigating Happeo as a solution and consider your firm to be technology-driven. This approach would spark your curiosity about why the client chose to work with Happeo. It also effectively communicates the software’s value proposition without sounding like it’s coming from an in-house marketing team.

Every paragraph is a quote written from the customer’s perspective. Later down the page, the case study also dives into "the features that changed the game for Hunt Club," giving Happeo a chance to highlight some of the platform’s most salient features.

Key Learnings from the Happeo Case Study Example

• Consider writing the entirety of the case study from the perspective of the customer.
• Include a list of the features that convinced your client to go with you.

20. " Red Sox Season Campaign ," by CTP Boston

What's great about CTP's case study page for their Red Sox Season Campaign is their combination of video, images, and text. A video automatically begins playing when you visit the page, and as you scroll, you'll see more embedded videos of Red Sox players, a compilation of print ads, and social media images you can click to enlarge.

At the bottom, it says "Find out how we can do something similar for your brand." The page is clean, cohesive, and aesthetically pleasing. It invites viewers to appreciate the well-roundedness of CTP's campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team.

Key Learnings from the CTP Case Study Example

• Include a video in the heading of the case study.
• Close with a call-to-action that makes leads want to turn into prospects.

21. " Acoustic ," by Genuine

Sometimes, simple is key. Genuine's case study for Acoustic is straightforward and minimal, with just a few short paragraphs, including "Reimagining the B2B website experience," "Speaking to marketers 1:1," and "Inventing Together." After the core of the case study, we then see a quote from Acoustic’s CMO and the results Genuine achieved for the company.

The simplicity of the page allows the reader to focus on both the visual aspects and the copy. The page displays Genuine's brand personality while offering the viewer all the necessary information they need.

• You don’t need to write a lot to create a great case study. Keep it simple.
• Always include quantifiable data to illustrate the results you achieved for your client.

22. " Using Apptio Targetprocess Automated Rules in Wargaming ," by Apptio

Apptio’s case study for Wargaming summarizes three key pieces of information right at the beginning: The goals, the obstacles, and the results.

Readers then have the opportunity to continue reading — or they can walk away right then with the information they need. This case study also excels in keeping the human interest factor by formatting the information like an interview.

The piece is well-organized and uses compelling headers to keep the reader engaged. Despite its length, Apptio's case study is appealing enough to keep the viewer's attention. Every Apptio case study ends with a "recommendation for other companies" section, where the client can give advice for other companies that are looking for a similar solution but aren’t sure how to get started.

Key Learnings from the Apptio Case Study Example

• Put your client in an advisory role by giving them the opportunity to give recommendations to other companies that are reading the case study.
• Include the takeaways from the case study right at the beginning so prospects quickly get what they need.

23. " Airbnb + Zendesk: building a powerful solution together ," by Zendesk

Zendesk's Airbnb case study reads like a blog post, and focuses equally on Zendesk and Airbnb, highlighting a true partnership between the companies. To captivate readers, it begins like this: "Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend."

The piece focuses on telling a good story and provides photographs of beautiful Airbnb locations. In a case study meant to highlight Zendesk's helpfulness, nothing could be more authentic than their decision to focus on Airbnb's service in such great detail.

Key Learnings from the Zendesk Case Study Example

• Include images of your client’s offerings — not necessarily of the service or product you provided. Notice how Zendesk doesn’t include screenshots of its product.
• Include a call-to-action right at the beginning of the case study. Zendesk gives you two options: to find a solution or start a trial.

24. " Biobot Customer Success Story: Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida ," by Biobot

Like some of the other top examples in this list, Biobot opens its case study with a quote from its client, which captures the value proposition of working with Biobot. It mentions the COVID pandemic and goes into detail about the challenges the client faced during this time.

This case study is structured more like a news article than a traditional case study. This format can work in more formal industries where decision-makers need to see in-depth information about the case. Be sure to test different methods and measure engagement .

Key Learnings from the Biobot Case Study Example

• Mention environmental, public health, or economic emergencies and how you helped your client get past such difficult times.
• Feel free to write the case study like a normal blog post, but be sure to test different methods to find the one that best works for you.

25. " Discovering Cost Savings With Efficient Decision Making ," by Gartner

You don't always need a ton of text or a video to convey your message — sometimes, you just need a few paragraphs and bullet points. Gartner does a fantastic job of quickly providing the fundamental statistics a potential customer would need to know, without boggling down their readers with dense paragraphs. The case study closes with a shaded box that summarizes the impact that Gartner had on its client. It includes a quote and a call-to-action to "Learn More."

Key Learnings from the Gartner Case Study Example

• Feel free to keep the case study short.
• Include a call-to-action at the bottom that takes the reader to a page that most relates to them.

26. " Bringing an Operator to the Game ," by Redapt

This case study example by Redapt is another great demonstration of the power of summarizing your case study’s takeaways right at the start of the study. Redapt includes three easy-to-scan columns: "The problem," "the solution," and "the outcome." But its most notable feature is a section titled "Moment of clarity," which shows why this particular project was difficult or challenging.

The section is shaded in green, making it impossible to miss. Redapt does the same thing for each case study. In the same way, you should highlight the "turning point" for both you and your client when you were working toward a solution.

Key Learnings from the Redapt Case Study Example

• Highlight the turning point for both you and your client during the solution-seeking process.
• Use the same structure (including the same headings) for your case studies to make them easy to scan and read.

27. " Virtual Call Center Sees 300% Boost In Contact Rate ," by Convoso

Convoso’s PDF case study for Digital Market Media immediately mentions the results that the client achieved and takes advantage of white space. On the second page, the case study presents more influential results. It’s colorful and engaging and closes with a spread that prompts readers to request a demo.

Key Learnings from the Convoso Case Study Example

• List the results of your work right at the beginning of the case study.
• Use color to differentiate your case study from others. Convoso’s example is one of the most colorful ones on this list.

28. " Ensuring quality of service during a pandemic ," by Ericsson

Ericsson’s case study page for Orange Spain is an excellent example of using diverse written and visual media — such as videos, graphs, and quotes — to showcase the success a client experienced. Throughout the case study, Ericsson provides links to product and service pages users might find relevant as they’re reading the study.

For instance, under the heading "Preloaded with the power of automation," Ericsson mentions its Ericsson Operations Engine product, then links to that product page. It closes the case study with a link to another product page.

Key Learnings from the Ericsson Case Study Example

• Link to product pages throughout the case study so that readers can learn more about the solution you offer.
• Use multimedia to engage users as they read the case study.

Start creating your case study.

Now that you've got a great list of examples of case studies, think about a topic you'd like to write about that highlights your company or work you did with a customer.

A customer’s success story is the most persuasive marketing material you could ever create. With a strong portfolio of case studies, you can ensure prospects know why they should give you their business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

How to Write a Case Study: Bookmarkable Guide & Template

How to Market an Ebook: 21 Ways to Promote Your Content Offers

7 Pieces of Content Your Audience Really Wants to See [New Data]

How to Write a Listicle [+ Examples and Ideas]

What Is a White Paper? [FAQs]

What is an Advertorial? 8 Examples to Help You Write One

How to Create Marketing Offers That Don't Fall Flat

20 Creative Ways To Repurpose Content

16 Important Ways to Use Case Studies in Your Marketing

11 Ways to Make Your Blog Post Interactive

Showcase your company's success using these free case study templates.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Home Blog Create Case Studies With Market Research Tactics

Create Case Studies With Market Research Tactics

Wordpress + bootstrap.

To customize the contents of this header banner and other elements of your site, go to Dashboard > Appearance > Customize

• Category: ">

Ready to create case studies? If you’re a B2B business (or a B2C business with long sales cycles), you should be. Case studies fuel a host of marketing and sales activities, from PR and content marketing to outbound sales enablement.

But, volume matters. The more case studies you have that represent a wide variety of industries, use cases, and benefits, the more you can pick the right story for the right context.

Thankfully, you can scale case study creation with classic market research approaches. Because case studies are, at their core, tailored one-to-one interviews , you can templatize the approach and create a case study arsenal in as little as 2-3 months.

Why Create Case Studies

Creating case studies takes time. We won’t dispute that! But, the benefits of creating case studies is so great that it’s well worth it. Check out some of the benefits most organizations derive from building up their arsenal:

PR Opportunities

After a business launches a new product or service, there isn’t much “newness” to announce. This means you have to make news. Finding great customer wins gives PR teams something worthwhile to pitch. These stories talk to the business’ products or services in an intersting, not too business-centric way, offering great PR fodder.

Marketing Nurture Activities

In longer sales cycle businesses, you need to keep you product top of mind. Using case studies throughout your nurturing and bottom-of-funnel outreach activities gives you targeted content to do just that.

Top-Of-Funnel Marketing Activities

Most companies need to fuel their social media, blog, and email marketing activities to attract new attention. Slicing and dicing case studies into smaller content pieces lets a marketing team produce top-of-funnel content for months on end.

Outbound Sales Materials

For those businesses doing outbound sales, case studies serve as valuable entry tools. Citing a customer name and the the business benefits they enjoyed builds credibility and gives an outbound sales team the chance to pitch a prospect on a meeting or demo.

In sum, when you create case studies, you create a content marketing and sales activation engine.

Start With The Case Study Output Template

Using market research to create case study libraries means developing a scaleable approach. That’s why we always say start from the end and then work backwards. When it comes to case studies, that means start with your final template or output layout. Once you know what you want your output to look like, you’ll know what information you’ll need to fill it in.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of ways to build out your case study template. Nevertheless, the example on the left is a standard approach we like. This is because it includes a few key components:

• Skimmable Text : Most prospective customers are in a hurry. This means they may not want to read a full story. Having a column or area that makes it easy to glean the case study content solves this problem. With a bulleted text and results area, readers absorb the story quickly. From there, they can read the fuller story or move on.
• Long-Form Story : For prospects that want the entire story, include the main body area. This is paragraph-based text that offers a synopsis of the customer’s background, how they approached their problem using the solution, and the tangible benefits received.
• Individual Quote : Social proof matters. There are few things more impactful than a person willing to give their name and likeness to another company for marketing purposes. That’s why, if possible, include a customer quote.

Design Your Case Study Questions

Obviously, the questions you ask will depend on the nature of what your product or service does. You’ll need some amount of question tailoring. That said, if we look at our template above, you’ll see you need to ask questions around three key areas:

Business Background

These are questions that isolate the business challenges a customer had, and what led them to look for your solution in the first place.  Typical questions include:

• • Tell me a little about your organization (e.g. employee number/background, what people are tasked with, core KPIs, etc.)
• • What challenges did you have that ultimately led you to seek out a solution?
• • Why were these issues so problematic?
• • What was your go-to approach to addresses this before you starting using our product?

This is where you marry the customer’s problem with your solution. These questions let you illustrate how people use your solution to address a variety of needs. Some sample questions include:

• • What was it about our product that led you to pick it?
• • How did you first go about using it?
• • Were there certain features in particular you / your team found critical? If so, which ones and why?
• • What was especially beneficial / useful about the experience?

Especially important are tangible, quantifiable benefits that let you tout really clear product wins. Some questions we often use include:

• • Tell us about [time savings, cost savings, faster resolution times, faster throughput times, etc.] you got from using the product. How did that come about?
• • Thinking about broader business goals, how did this fit in? How did the product help you meet those objectives?
• • Were there any unexpected benefits you received from using the product?

Structure Your Outreach & Production Workflow

Once you finalize your questions, you’re ready to gather up your case study interviews. This means developing a process for reaching out to customers, gathering their stories, and formalizing the stories into complete case studies.

The typical workflow includes the following approach:

1. Develop An Outreach List : First, build a list of all the customers you hope will give you a story. This usually means working with sales or customer service reps to build out an initial list. As they enter in names, also ask them to include a “Why.” That is, what do they know about this customer that makes them a great case study opportunity.

2. Perform Outreach : With your list finalized, it’s time to reach out and request a case study interview. We suggest developing email templates and phone scripts for your sales and customer service teams. This lets them spend their time on outreach, not on figuring out how to ask for the interviews in the first place.

Include an explanation of what the process is, why you’re doing it, and what they may get in return. This is also where you mention any incentive you wish to offer.

3. Schedule The Interviews : Once a customer says “yes,” get them scheduled! You can do this manually or with a tool. For example, we like using Calendly , a scheduling tool that lets you streamline scheduling and get meetings faster.

4. Complete The Interviews : This is the part where you get to use your interview questions with each and every customer. It’s also where you can go a bit off script. As you listen to answers, don’t be afraid to probe for more details. Each story is a little different, and therefore may require some tailored questions.

5. Draft The Story & Get Approval : With the full story recorded, clean it up and draft it into your standardized case study template. Because you are likely using customer names, you’ll need to share the document and get their approval. Or, get their feedback and make necessary edits.

6. Finalize Design & Publishing Approach : With approval in-hand, you can finally share the story. At the simplest level, this likely means putting it into a PDF for easy shareability and pushing it live on your website. However, it should also include sharing it with your content and sales teams and letting them consider how they can leverage it for their particular needs.

Most Popular Posts

• Research Services
• Case Studies
• Original Research
• In the News

Get the latest research trends and best practices in the PlanBeyond monthly newsletter.

Product Case Studies: Examples and Best Practices for Success

Discover the power of product case studies with our comprehensive guide.

Posted May 15, 2023

Featuring Nataraj S.

Ask Me Anything: Product Management Recruiting

Thursday, april 25.

9:00 PM UTC · 45 minutes

Table of Contents

Product case studies are an important tool that businesses use to showcase their products and demonstrate their value. They are especially crucial for companies that have innovative and complex products that require explanation and demonstration to potential customers. A product case study can help potential customers to understand a product's features, benefits, and the results they can expect when using it. In this article, we will explore the importance of product case studies, how to identify the right products for case studies, tips for creating compelling case studies, and best practices for promoting them.

Why Product Case Studies are Important for Businesses

Product case studies provide businesses with a platform to showcase their products in a real-life scenario and demonstrate how they solve customers' problems. By doing so, businesses can communicate the value of their products to potential customers and build trust with them. According to a study by MarketingSherpa, 71% of B2B buyers read case studies during their decision-making process, making them a highly effective marketing tool. Case studies provide social proof and credibility that inspire others to use the product and generate leads. Additionally, product case studies can be repurposed into blog posts, website pages, social media posts, and email marketing campaigns, giving businesses an ongoing source of content to engage their audiences.

How to Identify the Right Products for Case Studies

The first step in creating a successful product case study is identifying the right product to showcase. The ideal product is one that solves a problem that your ideal customer faces, has unique features that set it apart from competitors and generates positive results. It's important to consider the availability of resources, such as time, budget, and personnel. You also need to assess how representative the product is of your business's value proposition and goals. Finally, consider the potential impact of the case study and how well it aligns with the target audience's interests.

Free trial!

From 92 top coaches

Access a library of videos, templates, and examples curated by Leland's top coaches.

150+ video guides.

Example Resumes

Exercises & Templates

Technical Skill Development

Tips for Choosing the Best Format for Your Product Case Study

The format of your product case study will depend on the product, audience, and objective of your study. Common formats include written case study, video case study, podcast case study, and presentation format. The chosen format should match the objectives of your study, the target audience's preferences, and your available resources. The format should be well-designed, clear, persuasive, and include all relevant information that the reader or viewer needs to know about the product.

Elements of a Compelling Product Case Study

Effective product case studies share certain elements that make them compelling to readers and viewers. The elements include the background of the company and customer, the problem or pain point that the customer faced, the solution offered by the product, the implementation and usage of the product, and the results achieved by the customer. A good product case study should be well-structured, engaging, and informative. It should have a clear and concise message, a call to action, and be supported by data and quotes from the customer or expert.

Steps to Creating a Successful Product Case Study

The process of creating a successful product case study encompasses various steps that businesses should undertake. The first step is to identify the product, identifying the customers who use it and their needs. The second step is to collect data by researching, interviewing customers and experts. The third step is to create a structure or outline that guides the case study, including the key elements mentioned above. The fourth step is to draft the case study, edit it, and get feedback from customers and experts. Finally, businesses should promote the case study to their ideal audience through multiple channels.

Real-life Examples of Successful Product Case Studies

There are numerous examples of successful product case studies that businesses can use to inspire their strategies. One example is the Dropbox case study, a written case study that showcases Dropbox's product's integration with other services, cost savings for businesses, and customer feedback. Another example is the Hubspot case study, a video case study that focuses on the customer's business challenges, the solution, and the results achieved by their partnership with Hubspot. These case studies are well-written, engaging, and informative, providing valuable insights for potential customers.

How to Measure the Success of Your Product Case Study

After creating and promoting a product case study, it's essential to track its success to improve future strategies. Metrics such as the number of views, engagement, clicks, leads generated, sales, and customer retention rate can provide insights into the case study's effectiveness. Additionally, reviewing customer feedback such as testimonials, ratings, and reviews can give businesses valuable insights into the impact their product case study had on customers.

Best Practices for Promoting Your Product Case Studies

After creating a product case study, it's critical to promote it to reach your ideal audience effectively. Best practices for promoting your product case studies include using multiple channels such as social media, email marketing campaigns, press releases, website pages, blog posts, and paid advertising. Additionally, segmenting the audience based on their interests and preferences can increase engagement and lead generation. Finally, businesses should measure and analyze the metrics to adapt their strategies based on the case study's feedback.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Creating Product Case Studies

Creating compelling and effective product case studies can be challenging, and it's essential to avoid common mistakes that can hinder their impact. Common mistakes include failing to target the right audience, not having a clear message or value proposition, making the case study too sales-oriented, or lacking concrete data and statistics. It's crucial to have a thorough understanding of the product, the customers, and their needs, and providing an objective evaluation of the results to avoid these pitfalls.

How to Use Customer Feedback in Your Product Case Studies

Customer feedback is an essential source of insights for businesses that want to create engaging and effective product case studies. The feedback can be collected through customer satisfaction surveys, interviews, and reviews. By incorporating customer feedback in product case studies, businesses can improve the credibility of the study, provide social proof and build trust with potential customers. Additionally, customer feedback can help businesses to improve their products, services, and marketing strategies based on customer needs and preferences.

The Role of Storytelling in Creating Effective Product Case Studies

Storytelling is a powerful tool in creating compelling and persuasive product case studies. By telling the customer's story, businesses can connect emotionally with potential customers and demonstrate the benefits, value, and relevance of the product. Storytelling can also make the case study more engaging, memorable, and relatable. The story format can help simplify complex concepts and make it easier for customers to understand the product's features and benefits.

Tips for Conducting Interviews with Customers and Experts for Your Product Case Study

Conducting interviews with customers and experts is a crucial step in creating accurate and informative product case studies. Tips for conducting successful interviews include preparing a structured agenda or script, identifying the right experts and customers, asking open-ended questions, listening actively, taking detailed notes, and following up after the interview. By conducting thorough and well-prepared interviews, businesses can gather valuable insights, quotes, and data that can help shape the product case study effectively.

How to Incorporate Data and Statistics in Your Product Case Study

Data and statistics can provide valuable insights that justify the value and impact of the product being showcased in the case study. When incorporating data and statistics in a product case study, it's essential to use credible and reliable sources, present the data in a clear and concise format, and link the data to the customers' needs and challenges. Data and statistics can also help businesses to identify trends and patterns in their customer behavior and preferences, leading to better marketing strategies and product development.

The Benefits of Using Video in Your Product Case Study

Video is a powerful and engaging format that can increase the impact and reach of product case studies. Video case studies can offer a more immersive and engaging experience for potential customers, allowing them to see the product's features, benefits, and value in action. Video case studies can also be easily shared across multiple social media platforms, generating greater brand awareness and recognition. Additionally, video case studies can provide visual data, graphs, and diagrams that can be more impactful than written or spoken testimonies.

How to Leverage Social Media to Amplify your Product Case Study

Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to amplify the reach and engagement of product case studies. Tips for leveraging social media include identifying the right social media platforms, creating shareable content that resonates with the audience, using relevant hashtags, tagging influential people in the industry, and promoting the content to targeted audiences. Social media can also be used to generate feedback, encourage testimonials, and gain insights into customers' views and opinions.

The Importance of A/B Testing in Optimizing your product case study

A/B testing can provide valuable insights into how potential customers interact with product case studies and what elements are most persuasive. A/B testing involves creating two versions of the product case study, each with a slightly different element, such as colors, headlines, or calls to action. By measuring how customers interact with each version, businesses can identify which elements are most effective and optimize the case study accordingly. A/B testing can lead to increased engagement, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction.

Best practices for collecting qualitative data through surveys and interviews

Collecting qualitative data through surveys and interviews is a valuable source of insights for product case studies. Best practices for collecting qualitative data include creating a structured interview process or survey, identifying the right questions, avoiding leading questions, listening actively, encouraging detailed responses, and using open-ended questions. Additionally, businesses should ensure confidentiality and anonymity to encourage honest and objective feedback from customers and experts.

Top mistakes businesses make when creating product case studies

Creating effective and compelling product case studies can be challenging, and businesses can make common mistakes that can hinder their impact. Common mistakes include not targeting the right audience, failing to have a clear message or value proposition, making the case study too sales-oriented, and lacking concrete data and statistics. It's crucial to have a thorough understanding of the product, the customers, and their needs, and providing an objective evaluation of the results to avoid these pitfalls.

The role of branding in creating an effective product case study

Branding plays a crucial role in creating an effective and persuasive product case study. The case study should reflect the brand identity and voice, including logos, fonts, and colors. It should also align with the target audience's preferences and interests and embody the brand's values, mission, and vision. An effective product case study should differentiate the brand from competitors and communicate the unique selling proposition. Lastly, brand consistency should be maintained across all channels and formats used to promote the case study.

Browse hundreds of expert coaches

Leland coaches have helped thousands of people achieve their goals. A dedicated mentor can make all the difference.

Browse Related Articles

May 16, 2023

How to Prepare for Mozilla Product Management Case Interviews

Are you preparing for a Mozilla Product Management case interview? Look no further! Our comprehensive guide provides tips and strategies to help you ace your interview and land your dream job.

How to Prepare for Schmidt Futures Product Management Case Interviews

If you're looking to nail your Schmidt Futures product management case interviews, this article is a must-read.

How to Prepare for Square Product Management Case Interviews

Are you preparing for a Square product management case interview? Look no further! Our comprehensive guide provides tips and strategies to help you ace your interview and land your dream job at Square.

How to Prepare for TikTok Product Management Case Interviews

If you're looking to land a product management role at TikTok, then you need to be prepared for the case interview process.

How to Prepare for Walmart Product Management Case Interviews

If you're looking to land a product management role at Walmart, you'll likely need to ace the case interview.

How to Prepare for Zynga Product Management Case Interviews

If you're preparing for a Zynga product management case interview, this article is a must-read.

March 13, 2024

The Best Newsletters & Podcasts for Product Management

Stay ahead in product management with our expert-curated list of the best newsletters and podcasts. Gain insights, trends, and tips from industry leaders to level up your skills and career.

Best Companies for Product Managers: Top Employers for PMs in 2023

Discover the top companies that offer the best opportunities for product managers in 2023.

How to Prepare for Miro Product Management Case Interviews

If you're preparing for a Miro product management case interview, this article is a must-read.

How to Prepare for Oracle Product Management Case Interviews

Looking to ace your Oracle Product Management case interviews? Our comprehensive guide provides you with expert tips and strategies to help you prepare effectively.

How to Prepare for Shopify Product Management Case Interviews

If you're preparing for a Shopify product management case interview, this article is a must-read.

How to Prepare for Spotify Product Management Case Interviews

Are you looking to land a product management role at Spotify? Our article on how to prepare for Spotify product management case interviews is a must-read.

• Browse All Articles
• Newsletter Sign-Up

ProductMarketing →

No results found in working knowledge.

• Were any results found in one of the other content buckets on the left?
• Try removing some search filters.
• Use different search filters.

Case Studies for Product Management: A Deep Dive

We can all agree that applying real-world product management strategies is crucial for success.

This comprehensive guide dives deep into illuminating case studies across various industries, providing actionable insights on critical decision-making frameworks.

Introduction to Product Management Case Studies

Product management involves overseeing a product from conception to production to ensure it meets customer needs. Frameworks like the Product Development Life Cycle provide structure for taking a product through different stages like planning, prototyping, development, and growth.

Studying real-world examples is invaluable for gaining insight into successful product strategies across industries. By analyzing concrete case studies, product managers can understand how top companies conceptualize, develop, and improve their offerings.

Defining Product Management and its Frameworks

The role of a product manager is to understand customer needs and guide development of solutions. This involves research, planning, coordination across teams, and analysis.

Some key frameworks provide processes for product managers:

• Product Development Life Cycle - Conceptualization, Development, Growth, Maturity Decline
• Jobs To Be Done - Focusing on the job the customer aims to get done
• Design Thinking - Empathizing, Defining, Ideating, Prototyping, Testing

These frameworks help structure product decisions and strategy.

Importance of Best Case Studies for Product Management

Analyzing detailed examples of product management in action provides:

• Real-world demonstrations of frameworks
• Examples of product development decisions
• Insights into product successes and failures
• Strategies across industries and product types

By studying case studies, product managers can learn best practices to apply in their own work.

Overview of Industries and Product Case Study Examples

Upcoming sections will explore product management case studies from:

• Technology - Software, hardware, apps
• Retail & ecommerce - Online and brick-and-mortar stores
• Financial services - Banks, investment platforms
• Healthcare - Electronic medical records, patient apps

Specific companies like Apple, Nike, Intuit, Kaiser Permanente will be used to demonstrate product decisions.

What are case studies for Product management?

Case studies provide in-depth analyses of how real products were developed, launched, and iterated on over time in order to achieve success. They offer product managers valuable insights into proven product management strategies across various industries.

By examining case studies, product managers can learn how top companies approached critical activities like:

• Conducting market research
• Defining product requirements based on user needs
• Prioritizing features and functionality
• Developing prototypes and minimum viable products (MVPs)
• Designing effective user experiences
• Iterating based on user feedback
• Tracking key metrics and optimizing
• Developing go-to-market strategies
• Scaling successfully

Additionally, case studies allow readers to understand the reasoning behind key decisions, including both successes and failures. They provide a unique inside look at product development processes through real examples.

Overall, product management case studies enable new and experienced product managers to enhance their approach by learning from past experiences across a diverse range of companies, products, and industries.

How to make structure in case studies for Product management?

Studying product management case studies is a key step to understanding real-world examples of product strategies and decision-making. When analyzing case studies, having a clear framework helps extract key insights. Here are four steps to structure your analysis:

Evaluate the Need

• What customer problem does the product solve?
• How was the need validated through research?
• What metrics indicate the market size and demand?

Validate the Solution

• How does the product solution address the key pain points?
• Were experiments and prototypes done to validate assumptions?
• What early traction or usage metrics demonstrate solution fit?

Set Goals and KPIs

• What key goals and objectives guide the product roadmap?
• How do key performance indicators track progress towards goals?
• What metrics align to the customer and business goals?

Evaluate Decisions and Outcomes

• What key decisions shaped the product strategy and features?
• How did experiments and iterations impact the product direction?
• What final business and customer results were achieved?

Using this structure ensures you gather insights across the product lifecycle - from identifying needs, defining solutions, to measuring outcomes. Analyzing case studies this way quickly reveals the key decisions and strategies behind a product's success.

What are the 4 types of case study?

Case studies are an effective way to showcase examples of successful product management strategies and provide valuable insights into real-world scenarios. There are four main types of case studies:

Illustrative Case Studies

These provide a descriptive overview of a product, business, or industry. They tell the story of a product's development, struggles and successes. Illustrative case studies help set the scene and provide context.

Exploratory Case Studies

Also known as pilot case studies, these are condensed case studies performed before implementing a large scale investigation. They aim to gather preliminary data and help determine the focus, design and feasibility of a larger case study.

Cumulative Case Studies

These aggregate quantitative information from several sites or sources. They compile data in order to answer a research question, like assessing the performance of a product across a variety of markets.

Critical Instance Case Studies

These examine a single instance of intense interest. They provide valuable insights from a business success or failure. For product managers, these help illustrate how even minor details can impact product adoption and performance.

How to prepare for case study interview for product manager?

Preparing for a case study interview as a product manager candidate requires focused preparation across four key areas:

Understanding the Case Study

• Research the company, product, industry, and business context thoroughly to identify potential issues and scenarios the case study may present.
• Review your knowledge of key product management frameworks like market sizing, PRD writing, prioritization matrices, and financial modeling to brush up on core competencies.

Knowing the Interviewers

• Understand the background and seniority level of the interviewers. More senior panelists may expect more strategic thinking vs tactical execution.
• Identify any particular viewpoint an interviewer may bring given their role - engineering, design, growth, etc.

Setting Assumptions

• Clarify any assumptions you can make about the case details upfront instead of getting derailed later.
• Be ready to set limitations around scope, resources, timelines, budgets, or success metrics if not explicitly provided.

Applying Strategy

• Use an open-ended, discovery-based approach for broad business challenges without an obvious solution path.
• Leverage a more narrow, focused analytical strategy for executional cases with clearer parameters.

Following this four-step approach when preparing for a case study interview enables product manager candidates to systematically evaluate the situation, tailor their approach, and demonstrate strong analytical abilities sought after in PMs. The ability to clarify, strategize, and execute under ambiguity is what interviewers look for.

Product Development Case Studies

This section features examples of innovative and user-focused product development processes that led to successful outcomes.

Apple iPod's Intuitive Design Principles

Apple's development of the iPod is a great case study for simple, intuitive product design centered around understanding user needs. When Apple was developing the iPod, they focused extensively on the user experience and identifying pain points in existing MP3 players.

Some key insights that guided the iPod's design:

• Users wanted to easily carry their whole music library with them
• Managing and scrolling through huge song libraries was tedious
• Existing players had complex, confusing controls

To address these issues, Apple designed the click wheel interface to make scrolling through songs incredibly simple and fast. The intuitive menu system also made adding songs easy. And using a compact, hard drive-based design allowed the iPod to store thousands of songs so users could carry their whole library.

The end result was a revolutionary product that felt almost magical to use because it understood and solved core user needs so well. The iPod's intuitive design shows how focusing on user experience over specs can lead to market-defining products.

Iterative Improvement in Google Maps

Google Maps exemplifies a data-driven, iterative approach to product improvement. After launching Maps in 2005, Google constantly monitored usage metrics and user feedback to guide improvements.

Some key iterative changes:

• Added more business information and integrated reviews after seeing people search for places
• Improved driving directions with features like traffic data and alternative routes based on user complaints
• Added Street View and walking directions to address user needs beyond just driving

This methodical improvement process, driven by real user data, allowed Google Maps to completely dominate digital mapping and navigation despite strong competition from established players like MapQuest early on.

The ongoing success of Google Maps highlights that launching the perfect product out of the gate is nearly impossible - you need an iterative process fueled by usage metrics and user input.

Amazon Kindle: Filling the Market Gap

The Amazon Kindle provides an excellent case study in identifying and addressing gaps in existing markets. The Kindle team realized there were no truly great hardware devices focused exclusively on long-form reading.

They saw an opportunity to create a better reading experience by analyzing pain points with physical books:

• Books can be heavy and bulky during travel
• Finding new books means physically going to stores
• Paying for individual books adds up in cost

To solve these user problems, Amazon designed the Kindle ereader hardware to be extremely portable while giving on-demand access to Amazon's massive ebook library.

Additionally, they offered subscriptions and cheaper pricing models for digital content through the Kindle Store ecosystem. This revolutionary approach filled the market gap for dedicated digital reading hardware and content delivery that consumers were waiting for.

The runaway success of Kindle highlights the opportunities in understanding pain points with current solutions and addressing them with innovative new products.

Product Management Case Study Framework

Case studies provide invaluable insights into real-world applications of product management best practices. By analyzing examples of successful and failed product launches, product managers can identify effective frameworks to guide strategic decision-making. This section explores key frameworks evident across product management case studies and how cross-functional teams, market validation techniques, and lean principles contribute to positive outcomes.

Utilizing Cross-Functional Teams

Collaborative teams comprising diverse expertise increase the likelihood of creating products that effectively solve customer needs. Case studies demonstrate that supporting collaboration between product managers, engineers, designers, and business stakeholders leads to:

• Enhanced understanding of customer problems
• Validation of product solutions against real user needs
• Improved transparency and buy-in across organizations

For example, the case study XYZ shows that increased coordination between product and engineering during development boosted software quality by 34%. Similarly, early designer inclusion at ACME refined the user interface and improved conversion rates after launch.

Market Research and Validation

Case studies consistently highlight the importance of upfront market analysis and continuous customer validation to create successful products. Common factors include:

• Comprehensive competitor analysis to identify market white space
• Dedicated qualitative and quantitative market research around problem/solution fit
• Multiple rounds of prototype tests with target users at each product stage gate

The case study for 123Workforce illustrates this. By gathering over 500 customer discovery interviews, the product validated strong demand for a new employee scheduling tool. This market validation supported business case approval to build an MVP.

Lean Product Development Techniques

Case studies demonstrate that lean principles enable effective product iteration based on real user feedback versus internal assumptions. Specifically:

• Minimum viable product (MVP) releases help fail fast and cheaply
• Continuous build-measure-learn loops rapidly incorporate user inputs
• Evidence-based prioritization focuses on the highest customer value features

For example, PlanHub’s early MVP launch gathered inputs from initial users to refine core features rather than overinvesting upfront. This lean approach facilitated quicker time-to-market and product-market fit.

In summary, case study analysis provides frameworks to help product managers incorporate cross-functional participation, customer validation, and lean methods for successful product outcomes.

Product Launch and Marketing Case Studies

This section highlights creative, strategic product launches and marketing initiatives that generated significant consumer interest.

Dropbox's Innovative Referral Program

Dropbox pioneered referral marketing in the SaaS industry with its onboarding flow that rewarded users for sharing the product. This helped Dropbox rapidly acquire customers in a capital-efficient way in the early stages.

Some key aspects of Dropbox's referral scheme that made it effective:

• Frictionless sharing: Users could easily access a unique referral link to share Dropbox with friends and family. The seamless referral integration incentivized sharing.
• Reward structure: Both referrer and referee got extra storage space for signing up, appealing to primary needs of users.
• Virality: Strong incentive structure combined with easy sharing options enabled Dropbox's impressive viral coefficient.

The referral program strategy supported Dropbox's rapid user base growth and helped establish it as a leading file hosting/sharing SaaS application.

Leveraging Slack's Freemium Model

Slack employed a tactical shift from a paid-only model to a freemium pricing strategy. This opened doors for viral enterprise adoption by allowing teams to try Slack's communication software for free up to a usage limit.

Key aspects that made Slack's freemium work:

• Generous free tier: The free version provided enough value for small teams to collaborate. This established stickiness.
• Self-service signup: Smooth self-service signup enabled easy adoption by businesses without sales interaction.
• Virality features: Free teams could invite other free teams, propagating usage. Upgrades were natural with business growth.

Enabling teams to try the product risk-free via the freemium version supported Slack's rapid business growth . It helped position Slack for success in the team communication software market.

Peloton's Premium Positioning

Peloton pioneered the high-tech fitness bike concept with integrated digital content. Its marketing focused on positioning Peloton as a premium product to justify the $2000+ pricing.

Strategic aspects of Peloton's positioning:

• Targeted high-income consumers who valued premium brands as status symbols. This supported the elevated pricing.
• Curated aspirational brand content around exclusive lifestyles to promote product desire. Raked in sales despite pricing.
• Stimulated engagement via leaderboards and social features to lock in recurring subscription revenue.

The premium marketing positioning strategy enabled Peloton to drive rapid sales growth despite its high ticket prices relative to traditional exercise bikes.

Product Management Case Study Interview Insights

Case study interviews are a crucial part of the product management interview process. They allow candidates to demonstrate their analytical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and understanding of user experience best practices. Preparing for case study questions and mastering methods like the STAR approach can help PM candidates stand out.

Mastering the STAR Method

The STAR method is an effective framework for structuring responses to case study interview questions. STAR stands for:

• Situation - Set the context by concisely outlining the background of the case study.
• Task - Describe the problem you need to solve or goals you need to achieve.
• Action - Explain the step-by-step process you would take to address the situation. Show your analytical approach.
• Result - Share the outcome of your proposed actions and how they achieve the desired goals. Quantify the impact if possible.

Using the STAR method demonstrates you can methodically break down complex issues and drive towards solutions. When executed well, it highlights critical PM skills like prioritization, metrics-driven thinking, and cross-functional collaboration .

Analytical Thinking and Problem-Solving

Case study interviews evaluate your comfort with ambiguity and your capacity to structure unclear problems. Interviewers look for analytical thinking - your ability to synthesize data, identify root causes, and balance tradeoffs.

Shine a light on your analytical abilities by:

• Asking clarifying questions before diving into solutions
• Mapping out all stakeholders and components of the system
• Determining which metrics are most important and relevant to track
• Proposing hypotheses before making decisions
• Quantifying the impact of your recommendations with estimates

This showcases your aptitude for breaking down and solving complex product challenges.

Highlighting User Experience Outcomes

While analytics are crucial, PMs must balance quantitative rigor with qualitative empathy. Case studies let you demonstrate user centricity - evaluating ideas through the user's eyes.

To highlight UX sensibilities, discuss how your solutions:

• Simplify or improve key user flows
• Reduce friction during onboarding
• Increase retention by solving pain points
• Improve satisfaction via new delighters

This underscores the customer value created and your ability to advocate for users. Quantify improvements to showcase your user focus.

Ongoing Product Management Case Studies

This section focuses on outstanding examples of continually evolving products by listening to users and proactively addressing their needs.

Duolingo: Mastering App Gamification

Duolingo has refined their app over time to balance user enjoyment and motivation to drive engagement. For example, they introduced timed practice sessions and streak bonuses to incentivize daily use. They also gamified the experience with virtual rewards and levels to make language learning fun. As a result, Duolingo has over 500 million downloads and has become the world's most popular language learning app. Their case demonstrates the value of continually optimizing gamification elements based on usage data.

Amazon: A Culture of Customer Obsession

Amazon's customer-centric culture focuses on constant refinement of the user experience. For example, they use customer feedback and behavior data to surface relevant products and recommendations. They also optimize delivery speed and convenience through initiatives like Prime and same-day delivery. This obsession with understanding and serving customers has helped Amazon dominate multiple industries online. Product teams can learn from Amazon's disciplined approach of aggregating signals from users and translating insights into interface improvements.

Uber: Strategic Market Expansion

Rather than rapidly expanding globally, Uber tailored its rollout strategy city-by-city. This allowed them to adapt their product and operations to address local needs. For example, they integrated cash payments in India where credit card use is lower. They also customized promotions and subsidies by market to balance growth and profitability. Uber's patient but deliberate expansion enabled sustainable gains that a rushed, untargeted strategy may have compromised. Their expansion playbook demonstrates the merits of crafting versatile products that serve regional variations.

Key Takeaways and Best Practices

The product management case studies explored demonstrate several essential insights and best practices:

The Centrality of User-Centricity

Deep understanding of user needs and putting the customer first were critical success factors across many examples. Companies that made user research and testing core to their process were best able to refine their offerings.

The Power of Continuous Iteration

Few companies got their product right from day one. The most effective demonstrated a commitment to constant iteration based on user feedback rather than striving for perfection at launch.

Innovative Strategies in Action

We saw clever approaches to pricing, promotion and user acquisition. For example, one company offered free plans to students to drive adoption and another used influencer campaigns on social media to increase awareness.

Latest Posts

This article will explore how product management side projects can catalyze professional development by allowing you to experiment with new methodologies and enhance your skillset.

This comprehensive guide promises to equip you with a structured approach to tackling product case studies. You'll gain frameworks to methodically analyze prompts and craft insightful solutions.

Through real-world application, valuable feedback, and community engagement with groups like The Product Folks, PMs can significantly accelerate their skill development and expertise in the dynamic field of product management.

Come For the Content ‍ Stay For the Community

Marketing case study 101 (plus tips, examples, and templates)

Summary/Overview

If you’re familiar with content lines like, “See how our fancy new app saved Sarah 10 hours a week doing payroll,” you’ve encountered a marketing case study. That’s because case studies are one of the most powerful marketing tools, showcasing real-world applications and customer success stories that help build trust with potential customers.

More than 42% of marketers use case studies in their marketing strategy. Let’s face it — we love testimonials and reviews. People love hearing customer stories and experiences firsthand. In fact, 88% of consumers view reviews before making a purchase decision. Case studies work similarly by providing prospective customers with real-life stories demonstrating the brand’s success.

Case studies provide a more in-depth view of how your product solves an existing problem — something potential buyers can relate to and learn from.

In this article, we take a closer look at what marketing case studies are, why they’re important, and how you can use them to improve your content marketing efforts. You’ll also learn the key elements of a successful case study and how to turn a good case study into a great case study.

What is a marketing case study?

A case study is a narrative that documents a real-world situation or example. A marketing case study is a detailed examination and analysis of a specific strategy, initiative, or marketing campaign that a business has implemented. It’s intended to serve as an all-inclusive narrative that documents a real-world business situation and its outcome.

Marketing case studies are tools businesses use to showcase the effectiveness of a particular tool, technique, or service by using a real-world example. Companies often use case studies as sales collateral on websites, email marketing, social media , and other marketing materials. They provide readers with a firsthand look into how your product or service has helped someone else and demonstrate the value of your offering while building trust with potential customers.

Some common key components of a marketing case study include:

• Context: A case study begins by describing the business’s situation or problem. This often includes challenges, opportunities, or objectives.
• Strategy: An outline of the tactics or strategy utilized to address the business’s situation. This includes details such as the target audience, messaging, channels used, and other unique aspects of the approach.
• Implementation: Provide information about how the strategy was implemented, including timeline, resources, and budget.
• Results: This is arguably the most crucial part of a marketing case study. Present the results through data, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the impact of the strategy. The results section should highlight both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Challenges and Solutions: A great case study not only focuses on the successes but addresses any obstacles faced during the campaign. Make sure to address any challenges and how they were overcome or mitigated.
• Customer Feedback: Including testimonials or quotes from satisfied clients is a great way to add credibility and authenticity to a case study. Choose customer feedback that reinforces the positive outcomes of the strategy taken.
• Visuals: Compelling case studies include visuals such as graphs, charts, images, videos, and infographics to make the information presented more engaging and easier to understand.
• Analysis: An optional way to conclude a case study includes discussing key takeaways, insights, and lessons learned from a campaign.

Case studies can help you connect your product to the customer’s needs by providing a real world examples of success and encouraging conversions.

Benefits of marketing case studies

Some of the key benefits of using case studies in your marketing efforts include the following:

• Building trust and credibility. You build trust and credibility with potential clients or customers by demonstrating real world success stories. In-depth looks at how your products or services have helped other businesses or people achieve success can increase customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
• Learn best practices. Learn from strategies employed in successful case studies and apply similar approaches to future campaigns.
• Enhancing sales and conversions. By highlighting the real world results your products or services have delivered, case studies can be a powerful tool for boosting sales. They can help demonstrate the value of your offering and persuade your target audience to make a purchase.
• Explain how your business generates results. Case studies are a compelling way to share key takeaways with your target audience and showcase your brand.
• Use them as content marketing material. Use case studies as content for marketing purposes on websites, social media, and beyond.

Case studies can help your business stand out and achieve success. By highlighting the real world results you’ve delivered, you can use case studies to boost sales, build customer loyalty, and compellingly showcase your business.

Tips on how to write an effective marketing case study

Are you ready to write a compelling case study? Get started with these tips.

Develop a clear and compelling headline

You have about 10 seconds to communicate your value proposition to keep customer attention. Whether you’re designing a new landing page or making a long-term plan for your brand’s content marketing strategy , the headline is the most crucial part.

A compelling title should capture readers’ attention and make them want to read more. To craft a compelling headline:

• Understand your audience: Before crafting a headline, ensure you know your target audience — what are their pain points, interests, and needs?
• Highlight the most significant result: Focus on the most impactful result achieved in the case study. What was the primary outcome of the strategy implemented?
• Keep it brief: Keep your headline concise and to the point. Try to keep your headline under 12 words.
• Use action words: Incorporate action verbs such as “achieved,” “transformed,” or “boosted” to convey a sense of accomplishment.
• Include data: Numbers make your headline more credible. For example, if the case study achieved a 75% increase in sales, include that in the headline.
• Emphasize benefits: Focus on the positive changes or advantages the implemented strategy brought to the client or business. Use these as selling points in your headline.
• Make it unique and memorable: Avoid generic phrases to make your headline stand out from the competition.
• Use keywords wisely: Incorporate relevant keywords that align with the case study and your target audience’s search interest to improve search engine visibility through search engine optimization (SEO).
• Consider subheadings: If you cannot fit all the necessary information in a headline, consider adding a subheading to provide additional context or details.

Here are some examples of clear and convincing case study headlines:

• “Achieving a 150% ROI: How [XYZ] Strategy Transformed a Startup”
• “How Optimized SEO Tactics Skyrocketed Sales by 80%”
• “Mastering Social Media: How [ABC] Brand Increased Engagement by 50%”
• “The Power of Personalization: How Tailored Content Quadrupled Conversions”

Write relatable content

Almost 90% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers prefer influencers who they consider relatable. Relatability is part of building trust and connection with your target audience.

When writing your case study, make content that resonates with readers and speaks to their pain points. The best marketing doesn’t just increase conversion rates — it also serves your customers’ needs. To write content that really resonates with your target audience, make sure to:

• Understand your audience: To successfully write relatable content, you first need to understand your target audience — their interests, pain points, and challenges. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your content to their needs.
• Identify pain points: As mentioned above, identify challenges your target audience may face. Make sure to highlight how the product or service in the case study can effectively address these pain points.
• Tell a story: Create a narrative that follows a standard story arc. Start with a relatable struggle that the customer or business faced and describe its associated emotions.
• Use real customer feedback: Incorporate quotes or testimonials from actual customers or clients. Including authentic voices makes the content more relatable to readers because they can see real people expressing their experiences.
• Use relatable language: Write in a tone to which your audience can relate. Only include overly technical terms if your target audience solely consists of experts who would understand them.
• Use social proof: Mention any recognitions, awards, or industry acknowledgments that may have been received by the customer or business in the case study.
• Encourage engagement: Urge readers to share their own challenges or experiences related to the subject matter of the case study. This is a great way to foster a sense of community.

Outline your strategies with corresponding statistics

Whether you’re showing off the results your marketing team achieved with a new strategy or explaining how your product has helped customers, data and research make it easier to back up claims.

Include relevant statistics in your case study to provide evidence of the effectiveness of your strategies, such as:

• Quantitative data: Use numerical data to quantify results.
• Qualitative data: Use qualitative data, such as customer testimonials, to back up numerical results.
• Comparisons: Compare the post-campaign results with the pre-campaign benchmarks to provide context for the data.
• Case study metrics: Include specific metrics relevant to your industry or campaign if applicable. For example, in e-commerce, common metrics could include customer acquisition cost, average order value, or cart abandonment rate.

By incorporating relatable outcomes — such as cost savings from new automation or customer responsiveness from your new social media marketing campaign — you can provide concrete evidence of how your product or service has helped others in similar situations.

Use multiple formats of representation

People love visuals . It doesn’t matter if it’s an infographic for digital marketing or a graph chart in print materials — we love to see our data and results represented in visuals that are easy to understand. Additionally, including multiple representation formats is a great way to increase accessibility and enhance clarity.

When making a case study, consider including various forms of representation, such as:

• Infographics: Use infographics to condense critical information into a visually appealing, easy-to-understand graphic. Infographics are highly sharable and can be used across marketing channels.
• Charts: Use charts (bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, etc.) to illustrate statistical information such as data trends or comparisons. Make sure to include clear labels and titles for each chart.
• Images: Include relevant photos to enhance the storytelling aspect of your case study. Consider including “before and after” pictures if relevant to your case study.
• Videos: Short videos summarizing a case study’s main points are great for sharing across social media or embedding into your case study.
• Tables: Use tables to help organize data and make it easier for readers to digest.
• Data visualizations: Include data visualizations such as flowcharts or heatmaps to illustrate user journeys or specific processes.
• Screenshots: If your case study involves digital products, include screenshots to provide a visual walkthrough of how the product or service works.
• Diagrams: Use diagrams, such as a flowchart, to explain complex processes, decision trees, or workflows to simplify complicated information.
• Timelines: If your case study involves a timeline of specific events, present it using a timeline graphic.

Use a consistent design style and color scheme to maintain cohesion when incorporating multiple formats. Remember that each format you use should serve a specific purpose in engaging the reader and conveying information.

Get your case study in front of your intended audience

What good is a compelling case study and a killer call to action (CTA) if no one sees it? Once you’ve completed your case study, share it across the appropriate channels and networks your target audience frequents and incorporate it into your content strategy to increase visibility and reach. To get your case study noticed:

• Take advantage of your website. Create a dedicated section or landing page on your website for your case study. If your website has a blog section, consider including it here. Optimize the page for search engines (SEO) by including relevant keywords and optimizing the meta description and headers. Make sure to feature your case study on your homepage and relevant product or service pages.
• Launch email marketing campaigns. Send out the case study to your email subscriber list. Be specific and target groups that would most likely be interested in the case study.
• Launch social media campaigns. Share your case study on your social media platforms. Use eye-catching graphics and engaging captions to draw in potential readers. Consider creating teaser videos or graphics to generate interest.
• Utilize paid promotions. Use targeted social media and search engine ads to reach specific demographics or interests. Consider retargeting ads to re-engage visitors who have previously interacted with your website.
• Issue a press release. If your case study results in a significant industry impact, consider issuing a press release to share the exciting news with relevant media outlets or publications.
• Utilize influencer outreach. Collaborate with influencers who can share your case study with their followers to increase credibility and expand your reach.
• Host webinars and presentations. Discuss the case study findings and insights through webinars or presentations. Promote these events through your various marketing channels and make sure to encourage participation.
• Utilize networking events and conferences. Present your case study at industry-related conferences, trade shows, or networking events. Consider distributing printed or digital copies of the case study to attendees.
• Utilize online communities. Share the case study in relevant online forums and discussion groups where your target audience congregates.
• Practice search engine optimization (SEO). Optimize the SEO elements of your case study to improve organic search ranking and visibility.

Remember, the key to successfully promoting your case study is to tailor your approach to your specific target audience and their preferences. Consistently promoting your case study across multiple channels increases your chances of it reaching your intended audience.

Marketing case study examples

Let’s look at some successful marketing case studies for inspiration.

“How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with HubSpot”

Right away, they lead with compelling metrics — the numbers don’t lie. They use two different formats: a well-made video accompanied by well-written text.

The study also addresses customer pain points, like meeting a higher demand during the pandemic.

“How AppSumo grew organic traffic 843% and revenue from organic traffic 340%”

This case study from Omniscient Digital leads with motivating stats, a glowing review sharing a real user experience, and a video review from the AppSumo Head of Content.

The case study information is broken down into clearly marked sections, explaining the benefits to their target audience (startups) and providing plenty of visuals, charts, and metrics to back it up.

“How One Ecommerce Business Solved the Omnichannel Challenge with Bitly Campaigns”

Download this Bitly case study from their site to see the details of how this company made an impact.

Not only is it well designed, but it also tackles customer challenges right away. The most compelling types of case studies serve their audience by showing how the product or service solves their problems.

Bitly nails it by listing obstacles and jumping right into how the brand can help.

Marketing case study template

Use this basic template to better understand the typical structure of a business case study and use it as a starting place to create your own:

Case Study Title

Date: [Date]

Client or Company Profile:

• Client/Company Name: [Client/Company Name]
• Industry: [Industry]
• Location: [Location]
• Client/Company Background: [Brief client or company background information.]

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the client or company and any necessary context for the campaign or initiative.
• Problem statement: Describe the specific challenge or problem faced by the client or company before implementing the campaign or initiative.
• Strategy: Explain the strategy that was implemented to address the challenge. Include details such as target audience, objectives, goals, and tactics.
• Implementation: Provide a timeline of the strategy’s implementation, including key milestones and other notable considerations taken during execution.
• Outcomes: Present the qualitative and quantitative results achieved through the implemented strategy. Include relevant metrics, statistics, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Comparative data: Compare the post-campaign results to pre-campaign benchmarks or industry standards.

Analysis and Insights:

• Key insights: Summarize insights and lessons learned from the campaign and discuss the campaign's impact on the client or company’s goals.
• Challenges faced: Address any obstacles encountered during the campaign and how they were mitigated or overcome.

Conclusion:

• Conclusion: Summarize the campaign’s overall impact on the client or company. Highlight the value that was delivered by the implemented strategy and the success it achieved.
• Next Steps: Discuss potential follow-up actions, recommendations, or future strategies.

Testimonials:

• Include quotes or testimonials from the clients or customers who benefitted from the campaign.
• Incorporate relevant visuals to illustrate key points, findings, and results.

The above template is a great way to get started gathering your ideas and findings for a marketing case study. Feel free to add additional sections or customize the template to match your requirements.

Craft a compelling marketing case study for your business

Are you ready to make your marketing case study shine? With Adobe Express, you can make high-quality infographics and presentations that take your case studies to the next level.

Choose from our library of designed templates, or make it yourself with powerful tools and a library of ready-to-use graphic elements.

Get started with Adobe Express today to make compelling marketing case studies that engage your audience and drive conversions.

Try Adobe Express today

Ready to create standout content?

Start for free

Explore Related Posts

https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/brand-strategy

https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/marketing-plan

https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/types-of-marketing

Let's talk solutions

We want to hear about your challenges. Give us a few details so we can discuss possible solutions.

Products & Methods

We offer expertise across many methodologies as well as unique, innovative products that understand consumer choice and solve business problems.

As thought leaders, speakers, authors, and influencers, we stay engaged with our research community to exchange knowledge, encourage discussions, and keep our edge.

We’re an agile, responsive Philadelphia-based small business of nearly 50 market research professionals, many regarded as thought leaders and experts in the field. Meet us and learn how we work.

Solutions & Products

New product research, why do only a handful of new products succeed and many others fail.

It’s often because critical marketing opportunities are overlooked.

A smart approach to market research for new product development will help you see new ideas, expanded targets, and other considerations.

We’ll not only help you get more out of your new product development work—we’ll provide you the expertise needed to turn consumer feedback into useful insights.

Our Approaches

Present a set of choices and you’ll find out what your target truly values.

Max-Diff and other choice-based methods, including our proprietary products Bracket™ and Message Test Express™ , can help you make better decisions.

Kick-start ideation with Idea Mill™ , a fast and inexpensive way to generate and validate new product ideas.

We can help you understand buyer trade-offs, and valuate a range of different packaging options so you can make intelligent pricing decisions. We can also help with more straightforward concept testing and price-demand techniques.

New Product Market Research Case Studies

We helped these clients prioritize product features, understand purchase intent, and prepare for market-ready pricing.

Business-to-Business

Priced to market.

Bracket™ and discrete-choice conjoint analysis helped this legal services provider prioritize the features and benefits that attorneys would pay for.

Food and Beverage

Would you buy this.

Idea Audit™ delivered fundamental concept metrics, difficult-to-quantify information, and purchase likelihood estimates for the makers of EVO Oil Sprayer — all at a low cost.

Consumer Pkg Goods

Is this unique enough turning failure into success.

Conjoint and TRC Simulator allowed this CPG heavyweight to understand how their new breakfast product idea could meet consumer preferences in five different markets across four continents.

What we’ve learned from new product development research

Marketing a new product successfully means knowing which key features to emphasize, which campaign concepts resonate, and if additional opportunities reside within. Our experience in market research for new products taught us smart ways to get to those critical answers.

Feature Prioritization

A dynamic approach to feature prioritization.

Have you had this problem? You need to measure preference for the features in your product/service but there are just so many of them it seems like an impossible task.

General Research

You may get more than you pay for.

How often have you done surveys where open-ended questions soliciting new product/feature ideas have produced poor response? If your answer is “innumerable times,” then it is time to consider smart incentives.

Blog insights on market research for product development

Product development research to find out what is useless.

I read an interesting article about design elements that no longer serve a purpose, but continue to exist.

What Research Is Best to Test New Product Development Efforts?

A few times a week I get the privilege of talking to an inventor/entrepreneur.

Shouldn’t your market research be customized to you?

You are unique. Your business challenge is unique. That’s why your market research should be customized to work for you. Let’s talk about working together to help you find new audiences, new insights, even new ideas.

Todd Fabian Heinz

“the trc folks are knowledge experts on a wealth of analytic methodologies and, more importantly, know how to match those methods to your business need.”, teresa anderson blue cross blue shield of vermont, “trc provided thoughtful guidance—taking the lead on the process and ensuring that the research answered all of our questions.”, russ senyk luye pharma, “your willingness to talk through my needs and curiosity about them sets you apart from the other firms i’ve used.”, susan topel centene corporation, “have i said thank you for all that you all have done please express my sincerest and overflowing gratitude for how agile and responsive your team has been.”.

Correct. You are (still) able to distinguish between a human and AI. Read our blog for more.

Case Study – Launching a New Product With Buyer Persona Research

Imagine you’re the head of sales or marketing for a leading cybersecurity company, and you have an upcoming product launch that is targeting small businesses. Since the bulk of your sales will be online, you want that online sales process to be smooth and frictionless.

In this short video, we’ll show you how one of our clients used buyer persona research to reveal the marketing and sales approaches that aligned well with an online sales approach.

Video Transcript

The business problem.

Imagine for a minute that you’re the head of sales or the head of marketing for a leading cybersecurity company, and you know that you’ve got an upcoming product launch that’s gonna target small businesses.

And because you’re targeting small businesses, you kind of want the bulk of those sales to just be online. You want them to be relatively frictionless. You don’t want to involve a number of the sales team members for every single deal that you’re trying to create. You just want it to be a really smooth process for these small businesses to pick up your solution.

And this is exactly the problem one of our clients presented us with not that long ago, and instead of deciding to just maybe muddle ahead or just make some good guesses as to what they should do from a marketing and sales standpoint, they decided to Act With Clarity™.

The Solution

And once they made that decision, they came to us and said, could you conduct some buyer persona research on our behalf? And so we went off and conducted a number of in-depth interviews with CEOs and CTOs and heads of IT in this target market of smaller businesses. And over the course of those conversations, we focused on pain points, and jobs to be done from a cybersecurity standpoint, on the buyer’s journey overall, and how these folks would relate to each other on that journey. We looked at the competitive landscape and we even dug deep on the type of messages that might resonate with these personas.

And ultimately then our client was able to Act With Clarity™. They were able to go off and build really robust marketing and sales approaches that would really align well with the type of solution that they were trying to bring to market.

And if you’re facing a similar problem, if you’re about to target a new market segment or you’re about to launch a new product and you’re unclear about how to message or do outreach for that solution, you can give us a call, drop us an email at  [email protected]  or visit cascade  insights.com  and fill out the contact form and hopefully we’ll be able to help you too, Act With Clarity™.

Get in Touch

" * " indicates required fields

Copyright © 2024 Cascade Insights | Ethics Policy | Privacy Policy

What are you looking for?

• Free Resources

14 Market Research Examples

This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter .

Example #1: National bank’s A/B testing

You can learn what customers want by conducting experiments on real-life customer decisions using A/B testing. When you ensure your tests do not have any validity threats, the information you garner can offer very reliable insights into customer behavior.

Here’s an example from Flint McGlaughlin, CEO of MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, and the creator of its  online marketing course .

A national bank was working with MECLABS to discover how to increase the number of sign-ups for new checking accounts.

Customers who were interested in checking accounts could click on an “Open in Minutes” link on the bank’s homepage.

Creative Sample #1: Anonymized bank homepage

After clicking on the homepage link, visitors were taken to a four-question checking account selector tool.

Creative Sample #2: Original checking account landing page — account recommendation selector tool

After filling out the selector tool, visitors were taken to a results page that included a suggested package (“Best Choice”) along with a secondary option (“Second Choice”). The results page had several calls to action (CTAs). Website visitors were able to select an account and begin pre-registration (“Open Now”) or find out more information about the account (“Learn More”), go back and change their answers (“Go back and change answers”), or manually browse other checking options (“Other Checking Options”).

Creative Sample #3: Original checking account landing page — account recommendation selector tool results page

After going through the experience, the MECLABS team hypothesized that the selector tool wasn’t really delivering on the expectation the customer had after clicking on the “Open in Minutes” CTA. They created two treatments (new versions) and tested them against the control experience.

In the first treatment, the checking selector tool was removed, and instead, customers were directly presented with three account options in tabs from which customers could select.

Creative Sample #4: Checking account landing page Treatment #1

The second treatment’s landing page focused on a single product and had only one CTA. The call-to-action was similar to the CTA customers clicked on the homepage to get to this page — “Open Now.”

Creative Sample #5: Checking account landing page Treatment #2

Both treatments increased account applications compared to the control landing page experience, with Treatment #2 generating 65% more applicants at a 98% level of confidence.

Creative Sample #6: Results of bank experiment that used A/B testing

You’ll note the Level of Confidence in the results. With any research tactic or tool you use to learn about customers, you have to consider whether the information you’re getting really represents most customers, or if you’re just seeing outliers or random chance.

With a high Level of Confidence like this, it is more likely the results actually represent a true difference between the control and treatment landing pages and that the results aren’t just a random event.

The other factor to consider is — testing in and of itself will not produce results. You have to use testing as research to actually learn about the customer and then make changes to better serve the customer.

In the video How to Discover Exactly What the Customer Wants to See on the Next Click: 3 critical skills every marketer must master , McGlaughlin discussed this national bank experiment and explained how to use prioritization, identification and deduction to discover what your customers want.

This example was originally published in Marketing Research: 5 examples of discovering what customers want .

Example #2: Consumer Reports’ market intelligence research from third-party sources

The first example covers A/B testing. But keep in mind, ill-informed A/B testing isn’t market research, it’s just hoping for insights from random guesses.

In other words, A/B testing in a vacuum does not provide valuable information about customers. What you are testing is crucial, and then A/B testing is a means to help better understand whether insights you have about the customer are either validated or refuted by actual customer behavior. So it’s important to start with some research into potential customers and competitors to inform your A/B tests.

For example, when MECLABS and MarketingExperiments (sister publisher to MarketingSherpa) worked with Consumer Reports on a public, crowdsourced A/B test, we provided a market intelligence report to our audience to help inform their test suggestions.

Every successful marketing test should confirm or deny an assumption about the customer. You need enough knowledge about the customer to create marketing messages you think will be effective.

For this public experiment to help marketers improve their split testing abilities, we had a real customer to work with — donors to Consumer Reports.

To help our audience better understand the customer, the MECLABS Marketing Intelligence team created the 26-page ConsumerReports Market Intelligence Research document (which you can see for yourself at that link).

This example was originally published in Calling All Writers and Marketers: Write the most effective copy for this Consumer Reports email and win a MarketingSherpa Summit package and Consumer Reports Value Proposition Test: What you can learn from a 29% drop in clickthrough .

Example #3: Virtual event company’s conversation

What if you don’t have the budget for A/B testing? Or any of the other tactics in this article?

Well, if you’re like most people you likely have some relationships with other human beings. A significant other, friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, customers, a nemesis (“Newman!”). While conducting market research by talking to these people has several validity threats, it at least helps you get out of your own head and identify some of your blind spots.

WebBabyShower.com’s lead magnet is a PDF download of a baby shower thank you card ‘swipe file’ plus some extras. “Women want to print it out and have it where they are writing cards, not have a laptop open constantly,” said Kurt Perschke, owner, WebBabyShower.com.

That is not a throwaway quote from Perschke. That is a brilliant insight, so I want to make sure we don’t overlook it. By better understanding customer behavior, you can better serve customers and increase results.

However, you are not your customer. So you must bridge the gap between you and them.

Often you hear marketers or business leaders review an ad or discuss a marketing campaign and say, “Well, I would never read that entire ad” or “I would not be interested in that promotion.” To which I say … who cares? Who cares what you would do? If you are not in the ideal customer set, sorry to dent your ego, but you really don’t matter. Only the customer does.

Perschke is one step ahead of many marketers and business leaders because he readily understands this. “Owning a business whose customers are 95% women has been a great education for me,” he said.

So I had to ask him, how did he get this insight into his customers’ behavior? Frankly, it didn’t take complex market research. He was just aware of this disconnect he had with the customer, and he was alert for ways to bridge the gap. “To be honest, I first saw that with my wife. Then we asked a few customers, and they confirmed it’s what they did also. Writing notes by hand is viewed as a ‘non-digital’ activity and reading from a laptop kinda spoils the mood apparently,” he said.

Back to WebBabyShower. “We've seen a [more than] 100% increase in email signups using this method, which was both inexpensive and evergreen,” Perschke said.

This example was originally published in Digital Marketing: Six specific examples of incentives that worked .

Example #4: Spiceworks Ziff Davis’ research-informed content marketing

Marketing research isn’t just to inform products and advertising messages. Market research can also give your brand a leg up in another highly competitive space – content marketing.

Don’t just jump in and create content expecting it to be successful just because it’s “free.” Conducting research beforehand can help you understand what your potential audience already receives and where they might need help but are currently being served.

When Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) published its annual State of IT report, it invested months in conducting primary market research, analyzing year-over-year trends, and finally producing the actual report.

“Before getting into the nuts and bolts of writing an asset, look at market shifts and gaps that complement your business and marketing objectives. Then, you can begin to plan, research, write, review and finalize an asset,” said Priscilla Meisel, Content Marketing Director, SWZD.

This example was originally published in Marketing Writing: 3 simple tips that can help any marketer improve results (even if you’re not a copywriter) .

Example #5: Business travel company’s guerilla research

There are many established, expensive tactics you can use to better understand customers.

But if you don’t have the budget for those tactics, and don’t know any potential customers, you might want to brainstorm creative ways you can get valuable information from the right customer target set.

Here’s an example from a former client of Mitch McCasland, Founding Partner and Director, Brand Inquiry Partners. The company sold a product related to frequent business flyers and was interested in finding out information on people who travel for a living. They needed consumer feedback right away.

“I suggested that they go out to the airport with a bunch of 20-dollar bills and wait outside a gate for passengers to come off their flight,” McCasland said. When people came off the flight, they were politely asked if they would answer a few questions in exchange for the incentive (the $20). By targeting the first people off the flight they had a high likelihood of reaching the first-class passengers.

This example was originally published in Guerrilla Market Research Expert Mitch McCasland Tells How You Can Conduct Quick (and Cheap) Research .

Example #6: Intel’s market research database

When conducting market research, it is crucial to organize your data in a way that allows you to easily and quickly report on it. This is especially important for qualitative studies where you are trying to do more than just quantify the data, but need to manage it so it is easier to analyze.

Anne McClard, Senior Researcher, Doxus worked with Shauna Pettit-Brown of Intel on a research project to understand the needs of mobile application developers throughout the world.

Intel needed to be able to analyze the data from several different angles, including segment and geography, a daunting task complicated by the number of interviews, interviewers, and world languages.

“The interviews were about an hour long, and pretty substantial,” McClard says. So, she needed to build a database to organize the transcripts in a way that made sense.

Different types of data are useful for different departments within a company; once your database is organized you can sort it by various threads.

The Intel study had three different internal sponsors. "When it came to doing the analysis, we ended up creating multiple versions of the presentation targeted to individual audiences," Pettit-Brown says.

The organized database enabled her to go back into the data set to answer questions specific to the interests of the three different groups.

This example was originally published in 4 Steps to Building a Qualitative Market Research Database That Works Better .

Example #7: National security survey’s priming

When conducting market research surveys, the way you word your questions can affect customers’ response. Even the way you word previous questions can put customers in a certain mindset that will skew their answers.

For example, when people were asked if they thought the U.S. government should spend money on an anti-missile shield, the results appeared fairly conclusive. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed thought the country should and only six percent were unsure, according to Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls .

But when pollsters added the option, "...or are you unsure?" the level of uncertainty leaped from six percent to 33 percent. When they asked whether respondents would be upset if the government took the opposite course of action from their selection, 59 percent either didn’t have an opinion or didn’t mind if the government did something differently.

This is an example of how the way you word questions can change a survey’s results. You want survey answers to reflect customer’s actual sentiments that are as free of your company’s previously held biases as possible.

This example was originally published in Are Surveys Misleading? 7 Questions for Better Market Research .

Example #8: Visa USA’s approach to getting an accurate answer

As mentioned in the previous example, the way you ask customers questions can skew their responses with your own biases.

However, the way you ask questions to potential customers can also illuminate your understanding of them. Which is why companies field surveys to begin with.

“One thing you learn over time is how to structure questions so you have a greater likelihood of getting an accurate answer. For example, when we want to find out if people are paying off their bills, we'll ask them to think about the card they use most often. We then ask what the balance was on their last bill after they paid it,” said Michael Marx, VP Research Services, Visa USA.

This example was originally published in Tips from Visa USA's Market Research Expert Michael Marx .

Example #9: Hallmark’s private members-only community

Online communities are a way to interact with and learn from customers. Hallmark created a private members-only community called Idea Exchange (an idea you could replicate with a Facebook or LinkedIn Group).

The community helped the greeting cards company learn the customer’s language.

“Communities…let consumers describe issues in their own terms,” explained Tom Brailsford, Manager of Advancing Capabilities, Hallmark Cards. “Lots of times companies use jargon internally.”

At Hallmark they used to talk internally about “channels” of distribution. But consumers talk about stores, not channels. It is much clearer to ask consumers about the stores they shop in than what channels they shop.

For example, Brailsford clarified, “We say we want to nurture, inspire, and lift one’s spirits. We use those terms, and the communities have defined those terms for us. So we have learned how those things play out in their lives. It gives us a much richer vocabulary to talk about these things.”

This example was originally published in Third Year Results from Hallmark's Online Market Research Experiment .

Example #10: L'Oréal’s social media listening

If you don’t want the long-term responsibility that comes with creating an online community, you can use social media listening to understand how customers talking about your products and industry in their own language.

In 2019, L'Oréal felt the need to upgrade one of its top makeup products – L'Oréal Paris Alliance Perfect foundation. Both the formula and the product communication were outdated – multiple ingredients had emerged on the market along with competitive products made from those ingredients.

These new ingredients and products were overwhelming consumers. After implementing new formulas, the competitor brands would advertise their ingredients as the best on the market, providing almost magical results.

So the team at L'Oréal decided to research their consumers’ expectations instead of simply crafting a new formula on their own. The idea was to understand not only which active ingredients are credible among the audience, but also which particular words they use while speaking about foundations in general.

The marketing team decided to combine two research methods: social media listening and traditional questionnaires.

“For the most part, we conduct social media listening research when we need to find out what our customers say about our brand/product/topic and which words they use to do it. We do conduct traditional research as well and ask questions directly. These surveys are different because we provide a variety of readymade answers that respondents choose from. Thus, we limit them in terms of statements and their wording,” says Marina Tarandiuk, marketing research specialist, L'Oréal Ukraine.

“The key value of social media listening (SML) for us is the opportunity to collect people’s opinions that are as ‘natural’ as possible. When someone leaves a review online, they are in a comfortable environment, they use their ‘own’ language to express themselves, there is no interviewer standing next to them and potentially causing shame for their answer. The analytics of ‘natural’ and honest opinions of our customers enables us to implement the results in our communication and use the same language as them,” Tarandiuk said.

The team worked with a social media listening tool vendor to identify the most popular, in-demand ingredients discussed online and detect the most commonly used words and phrases to create a “consumer glossary.”

Questionnaires had to confirm all the hypotheses and insights found while monitoring social media. This part was performed in-house with the dedicated team. They created custom questionnaires aiming to narrow down all the data to a maximum of three variants that could become the base for the whole product line.

“One of our recent studies had a goal to find out which words our clients used to describe positive and negative qualities of [the] foundation. Due to a change in [the] product’s formula, we also decided to change its communication. Based on the opinions of our customers, we can consolidate the existing positive ideas that our clients have about the product,” Tarandiuk said.

To find the related mentions, the team monitored not only the products made by L'Oréal but also the overall category. “The search query contained both brand names and general words like foundation, texture, smell, skin, pores, etc. The problem was that this approach ended up collecting thousands of mentions, not all of which were relevant to the topic,” said Elena Teselko, content marketing manager, YouScan (L'Oréal’s social media listening tool).

So the team used artificial intelligence-based tagging that divided mentions according to the category, features, or product type.

This approach helped the team discover that customers valued such foundation features as not clogging pores, a light texture, and not spreading. Meanwhile, the most discussed and appreciated cosmetics component was hyaluronic acid.

These exact phrases, found with the help of social media monitoring, were later used for marketing communication.

Creative Sample #7: Marketing communicating for personal care company with messaging based on discoveries from market research

“Doing research and detecting audience’s interests BEFORE starting a campaign is an approach that dramatically lowers any risks and increases chances that the campaign would be appreciated by customers,” Teselko said.

This example was originally published in B2C Branding: 3 quick case studies of enhancing the brand with a better customer experience .

Example #11: Levi’s ethnographic research

In a focus group or survey, you are asking customers to explain something they may not even truly understand. Could be why they bought a product. Or what they think of your competitor.

Ethnographic research is a type of anthropology in which you go into customers’ homes or places of business and observe their actual behavior, behavior they may not understand well enough to explain to you.

While cost prohibitive to many brands, and simply unfeasible for others, it can elicit new insights into your customers.

Michael Perman, Senior Director Cultural Insights, Levi Strauss & Co. uses both quantitative and qualitative research on a broad spectrum, but when it comes to gathering consumer insight, he focuses on in-depth ethnographic research provided by partners who specialize in getting deep into the “nooks and crannies of consumer life in America and around the world.” For example, his team spends time in consumers’ homes and in their closets. They shop with consumers, looking for the reality of a consumer’s life and identifying themes that will enable designers and merchandisers to better understand and anticipate consumer needs.

Perman then puts together multi-sensory presentations that illustrate the findings of research. For example, “we might recreate a teenager’s bedroom and show what a teenage girl might have on her dresser.”

This example was originally published in How to Get Your Company to Pay Attention to Market Research Results: Tips from Levi Strauss .

Example #12: eBags’ ethnographic research

Ethnographic research isn’t confined to a physical goods brand like Levi’s. Digital brands can engage in this form of anthropology as well.

While usability testing in a lab is useful, it does miss some of the real-world environmental factors that play a part in the success of a website. Usability testing alone didn’t create a clear enough picture for Gregory Casey, User Experience Designer and Architect, eBags.

“After we had designed our mobile and tablet experience, I wanted to run some contextual user research, which basically meant seeing how people used it in the wild, seeing how people are using it in their homes. So that’s exactly what I did,” Gregory said.

He found consumers willing to open their home to him and be tested in their normal environment. This meant factors like the television, phone calls and other family members played a part in how they experienced the eBags mobile site.

“During these interview sessions, a lot of times we were interrupted by, say, a child coming over and the mother having to do something for the kid … The experience isn’t sovereign. It’s not something where they just sit down, work through a particular user flow and complete their interaction,” Gregory said.

By watching users work through the site as they would in their everyday life, Gregory got to see what parts of the site they actually use.

This example was originally published in Mobile Marketing: 4 takeaways on how to improve your mobile shopping experience beyond just responsive design .

Example #13: John Deere’s shift from product-centric market research to consumer-centric research

One of the major benefits of market research is to overcome company blind spots. However, if you start with your blind spots – i.e., a product focus – you will blunt the effectiveness of your market research.

In the past, “they’d say, Here’s the product, find out how people feel about it,” explained David van Nostrand, Manager, John Deere's Global Market Research. “A lot of companies do that.” Instead, they should be saying, “Let's start with the customers: what do they want, what do they need?”

The solution? A new in-house program called “Category Experts” brings the product-group employees over as full team members working on specific research projects with van Nostrand’s team.

These staffers handle items that don’t require a research background: scheduling, meetings, logistics, communication and vendor management. The actual task they handle is less important than the fact that they serve as human cross-pollinators, bringing consumer-centric sensibility back to their product- focused groups.

For example, if van Nostrand’s team is doing research about a vehicle, they bring in staffers from the Vehicles product groups. “The information about vehicle consumers needs to be out there in the vehicle marketing groups, not locked in here in the heads of the researchers.”

This example was originally published in How John Deere Increased Mass Consumer Market Share by Revamping its Market Research Tactics .

Example #14: LeapFrog’s market research involvement throughout product development (not just at the beginning and the end)

Market research is sometimes thought of as a practice that can either inform the development of a product, or research consumer attitudes about developed products. But what about the middle?

Once the creative people begin working on product designs, the LeapFrog research department stays involved.

They have a lab onsite where they bring moms and kids from the San Francisco Bay area to test preliminary versions of the products. “We do a lot of hands-on, informal qualitative work with kids,” said Craig Spitzer, VP Marketing Research, LeapFrog. “Can they do what they need to do to work the product? Do they go from step A to B to C, or do they go from A to C to B?”

When designing the LeapPad Learning System, for example, the prototype went through the lab “a dozen times or so,” he says.

A key challenge for the research department is keeping and building the list of thousands of families who have agreed to be on call for testing. “We've done everything from recruiting on the Internet to putting out fliers in local schools, working through employees whose kids are in schools, and milking every connection we have,” Spitzer says.

Kids who test products at the lab are compensated with a free, existing product rather than a promise of the getting the product they're testing when it is released in the future.

This example was originally published in How LeapFrog Uses Marketing Research to Launch New Products .

Related resources

The Marketer’s Blind Spot: 3 ways to overcome the marketer’s greatest obstacle to effective messaging

Get Your Free Test Discovery Tool to Help Log all the Results and Discoveries from Your Company’s Marketing Tests

Marketing Research: 5 examples of discovering what customers want

Online Marketing Tests: How do you know you’re really learning anything?

Improve Your Marketing

Join our thousands of weekly case study readers.

Enter your email below to receive MarketingSherpa news, updates, and promotions:

Note: Already a subscriber? Want to add a subscription? Click Here to Manage Subscriptions

Get Better Business Results With a Skillfully Applied Customer-first Marketing Strategy

The customer-first approach of MarketingSherpa’s agency services can help you build the most effective strategy to serve customers and improve results, and then implement it across every customer touchpoint.

Get headlines, value prop, competitive analysis, and more.

Marketer Vs Machine

Marketer Vs Machine: We need to train the marketer to train the machine.

Free Marketing Course

Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages (with this free online marketing course)

Project and Ideas Pitch Template

A free template to help you win approval for your proposed projects and campaigns

Six Quick CTA checklists

These CTA checklists are specifically designed for your team — something practical to hold up against your CTAs to help the time-pressed marketer quickly consider the customer psychology of your “asks” and how you can improve them.

Infographic: How to Create a Model of Your Customer’s Mind

You need a repeatable methodology focused on building your organization’s customer wisdom throughout your campaigns and websites. This infographic can get you started.

Infographic: 21 Psychological Elements that Power Effective Web Design

To build an effective page from scratch, you need to begin with the psychology of your customer. This infographic can get you started.

Receive the latest case studies and data on email, lead gen, and social media along with MarketingSherpa updates and promotions.

• Your Email Account
• Customer Service Q&A
• Search Library
• Content Directory:

Questions? Contact Customer Service at [email protected]

© 2000-2024 MarketingSherpa LLC, ISSN 1559-5137 Editorial HQ: MarketingSherpa LLC, PO Box 50032, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32240

The views and opinions expressed in the articles of this website are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect in any way the views of MarketingSherpa, its affiliates, or its employees.

Home • Knowledge hub • How to write a market research report for a new product launch

How to write a market research report for a new product launch

When launching a new product to market, it’s imperative to be prepared with relevant information. You need a deep understanding of your market, how your products will benefit that market, the potential challenges you might run into, and much more.

This is why it’s so important to write an in-depth, professional, and relevant market research report. Not only to gather and display all the right information but also so that you can share that information clearly and easily with people within and outside your organization. This is important for a wide range of different reasons.

In this article, we’ll look at why market research reports for product launches are so important and show you how to do it as effectively as possible.

Why market research reports are important

Conducting a detailed and relevant market research report before you launch your new product is a good idea for all kinds of reasons. Here are some of the main ones:

• Get buy-in from senior decision-makers . When launching any product, you’ll always want the full support of the top decision-makers at your organization. This can be a tricky thing to acquire, especially if your team is relatively unproven. A detailed and informative market research report can be the deciding factor in winning their support, convincing them that your product is well-placed to succeed, and making it much easier to achieve your goals.
• Learn more about your customers and target audience . One of the main reasons to conduct market research is to understand your prospective customers in more detail. The work you do to compile a report will give you a clear and detailed understanding of what your customers want, what they already like, where they conduct their own research, and much more. This will arm you with the insights and knowledge you need to launch your product confidently and successfully.

Discover ideas for new products and how to improve existing ones . When you research your target market, you’ll likely stumble upon inspiration for new products in addition to the one you’re planning to launch. The feedback you get from your research will also be laced with ideas for improving and tweaking existing products

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

• First Name *
• Last Name *
• Business Email *

How to write a market research report effectively

In the rest of this guide, we’ll show you what you need to do to ensure your market research report is as detailed, relevant, and valuable as it possibly can be. Let’s start with the type of information you need to include.

What you need to include:

Buyer personas.

This is a crucial part of getting to know your customers and the different groups they fall into. You should start by researching your target market members as much as possible through a range of channels — interviews, social media research, email surveys, and more. Then, divide them into demographics and create a detailed persona to represent each one.

This is an incredibly valuable step because it allows you to break down your market and make broad predictions about each group’s preferences, pain points, habits, and desires. If done right, this helps you target your future marketing much more accurately and effectively.

Understand your competitors

Getting to know your competitors is a key element of market research. It allows you to understand what you will be up against when launching your product and what segments of your market might be easier or more difficult to sway from their loyalty to your competitors.

Your research report should contain detailed information about each of your competitors and what they offer. What do their products lack that yours can provide? Why do your customers go to them? How dominant are they in your market? What kind of loyalty do they command? What are some of the keys to their success? All this will help you understand what you’re up against and strengthen your chances of success.

Who did you talk to?

Much of your market research will involve talking to various people and groups of people in situations like focus groups, interviews, and surveys. It’s important to document this side of your research carefully and include it in your market research report. Be sure to break down the people you spoke to into demographics and be as specific as possible — try to align this with your buyer personas.

This will help you understand what different demographics want, identify any areas you may have missed, and see any opportunities for segmentation or expansion, as well as providing clear visibility into your research process and allowing you to justify your findings and decisions to other company members carefully.

Clearly show what will happen next — how will you use your findings? 

When you present your market research report to decision-makers in your organization, their primary concern will be what you want to do with it. Research is only valuable if it has a practical application, which should be a key element of your report.

It’s best to be specific — create plans and roadmaps for campaigns, build strategies, and include timelines and carefully researched cost estimates. If you can present a clear and viable plan for your product launch, it will be much easier to gain the support and buy-in of the higher-ups in your company. Be ready to defend and justify these plans.

Primary vs Secondary Market Research

There are two main types of research you’ll need to do when preparing your market research report: primary and secondary. Here is the difference:

• Primary research . This refers to the first-hand information you have gathered during your research — straight from the primary source. Examples include interviews with individuals, focus groups, surveys, and information from sales teams. It helps add a human touch to your research, incorporating real people’s distinct voices and opinions.
• Secondary research. This is data that your company didn’t personally collect but is available in the form of things like public records, trend reports, and market statistics. While it lacks the specific human element of primary research, it’s a great way to gain valuable overall insights about your target market without having to conduct huge research projects yourself.

Convincing company decision-makers with your market research report

One of the most essential functions of a market research report is to convince your company’s key stakeholders that you are prepared for a product launch and have everything in place to begin the process successfully.

When creating your report, you should always have this goal in mind. Here are some ways to do that:

• Always clearly tie your research for business outcomes. For every conclusion your report reaches, explain what this means for the business and what concrete actions you will take as a result.
• Use as many stats and as much hard data as possible. Clearly express this data in the form of graphs and other visual aids. Show where your data came from, how you collected it, and how your findings will impact your product launch.
• Consider using Porter’s 5 Forces Model . This business model is aimed at understanding and explaining the fundamental market forces at work in any given industry. It can be illuminating to tie your research into this model.

A well-researched and detailed market research report is an essential part of a successful product launch strategy. It allows you to clearly understand your market, formulate concrete plans and strategies, and gain the support of your organization’s decision-makers.

Without one, you’ll be plunged into the dark, facing the monumentally challenging task of launching a product without the support of extensive research and data. To find out more about how Kadence can help you prepare a market research report and launch your product with confidence, contact us .

Helping brands uncover valuable insights

We’ve been working with Kadence on a couple of strategic projects, which influenced our product roadmap roll-out within the region. Their work has been exceptional in providing me the insights that I need. Senior Marketing Executive Arla Foods

Kadence’s reports give us the insight, conclusion and recommended execution needed to give us a different perspective, which provided us with an opportunity to relook at our go to market strategy in a different direction which we are now reaping the benefits from. Sales & Marketing Bridgestone

Kadence helped us not only conduct a thorough and insightful piece of research, its interpretation of the data provided many useful and unexpected good-news stories that we were able to use in our communications and interactions with government bodies. General Manager PR -Internal Communications & Government Affairs Mitsubishi

Kadence team is more like a partner to us. We have run a number of projects together and … the pro-activeness, out of the box thinking and delivering in spite of tight deadlines are some of the key reasons we always reach out to them. Vital Strategies

Kadence were an excellent partner on this project; they took time to really understand our business challenges, and developed a research approach that would tackle the exam question from all directions.  The impact of the work is still being felt now, several years later. Customer Intelligence Director Wall Street Journal

Get In Touch

" (Required) " indicates required fields

Privacy Overview

Researched by Consultants from Top-Tier Management Companies

Powerpoint Templates

Icon Bundle

Kpi Dashboard

Professional

Business Plans

Swot Analysis

Gantt Chart

Business Proposal

Marketing Plan

Project Management

Business Case

Business Model

Cyber Security

Business PPT

Digital Marketing

Digital Transformation

Human Resources

Product Management

Artificial Intelligence

Company Profile

Acknowledgement PPT

PPT Presentation

Reports Brochures

One Page Pitch

Interview PPT

All Categories

Top 10 Product Case Study Examples with Templates and Samples

Well-crafted case studies can have an immense influence over clients and showcase the success of your products - but how do you create the ones that standout? Are you an aspiring professional, looking to leave a lasting impression through your product case studies? Look no further! Here is your solution ! 

Prepare to be amazed as you uncover startling statistics: companies using case studies effectively in their marketing strategy may experience up to 70% more conversions. Here we present the Top 10 Product Case Study Templates , with examples and samples to inspire and assist your journey.

If you are looking for project business case studies , read our blog to learn more!

Embark The Ladder of Success with Our High-End Product Case Study Templates

With SlideTeam's carefully curated templates designed to maximize engagement and visual appeal, you have everything you need to craft captivating case studies that captivate your target audience. Keep reading to learn about the leading case study templates in detail!

Template 1: Product Case Study Analyst Performing Research Business Automobile Electronic

Professionals in the automobile sector will benefit significantly from this comprehensive template, offering a systematic framework for analyzing goods in the automotive electronics market.

Anyone from product analysts to market researchers to business consultants to those curious about the automotive electronics market might benefit from this template. This template can help you communicate your results clearly, whether you're doing an internal study for your company or making a presentation for customers or stakeholders.

Download now and improve your knowledge of product case study analysis in the automotive electronics industry. 

DOWNLOAD NOW

Template 2: Case Study Analysis for a Soft Drink Product

Have you ever wondered what goes into a comprehensive soft drink case study analysis? This template reveals the secrets of successful soft drink brands.

The problem statement outlines the soft drink product's issues. It discusses measures to overcome them. Improve your soft drink offering using the template's intelligent ideas. "About Us" gives context for the case study.

Marketing specialists may analyze their soft drink product's market performance and critical initiatives and create expansion ideas. Discover the secrets of successful soft drink products by downloading them now!

Template 3: New Product Management Techniques Strategy Case Study Product Development Strategy

This template inspires and educates professionals and amateurs by fostering product management and development. It helps you discover new product development methods within your industry. It includes a detailed case study of the problems, methods, and results of product development plan execution. It shows how companies can manage brand and customer management.

This template is helpful in engaging customers. It has three phases for strategy, product development, and portfolio management, offering effective results. Why wait?

Template 4: A business case study for automobile product

If you are a business owner in the automobile segment, there is no doubt you may face difficulties in developing innovative and cost-efficient products. NOT ANYMORE! Our next-gen template provides a compelling narrative to address these hurdles. 

By engaging in this case study template, you'll gain insight into the problem-solving process, understand implemented solutions, and evaluate remarkable results achieved. With topics including challenge , solution, outcomes, technology, problem, and client, this template makes an invaluable resource available for instant download. 

Template 5: A case study for financial market product

Are you ready to decipher a successful automobile product company case study? This template unlocks the secrets of auto product success. This template covers the issue, solution, results , and technology. It analyzes the issue and shows how the solution helped the customer.

The template helps marketing teams, and sales professionals identify problems and solutions that produce results. Don't waste this resource! Get this template to amaze your audience with stunning images and powerful outcomes. 

Head to our blog and discover the power of financial case study templates for remarkable impact.

Template 6: Case Study For Production Services One Pager Sample Example Document

You are a production services company that has found itself with an obstacle. Your achievements and success stories are great to showcase but are having difficulty being effectively presented to their target audience. That was until you came up with this AMAZING template.

The template covers a financial market case study in one step. The framework helps marketing teams assess how life events and vacations affect financial market items, allowing tailored advertisements.

Template 7: Stakeholder Product Delivery Case Study

Jeff Bezos once said, "We see our customers as guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our daily job to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better." 

This philosophy becomes even more significant during this Product Delivery Case Study template. The template includes a detailed case study of three delivery phases. It shows how product owners overcome their obstacles in terms of customer service. The case study examines how delivery practices affect stakeholders, presenting lessons and recommended practices.

Product developers, shippers, and managers may learn about delivery methods and issues. The template helps project teams meet stakeholder expectations and deliver products smoothly.  Download to captivate users. 

Template 8: Product Development Plan Case Study Product Development Strategy

Are you a successful business looking to navigate the complexities of product development? This template highlights the brand's issues, strategy, and results. The case study shows how the brand satisfied customers and grew their product.

Product managers may improve their practices by studying effective product development techniques. The template may help them identify brand difficulties and create market-positioning strategies. Don't delay! Download to unlock success through strategic innovation.

Template 9: A case study for product launch advertising services ppt powerpoint topics

Launching a product successfully requires more than just a great product; it also demands strategic advertising services. In that case, our template is best. Each case study portion breaks out the issues, solution, focused approach, and successful pricing methods.

It lets you exhibit real-world events, problem-solving, and customer success. It works for startups, existing enterprises, and advertising agencies. It helps you demonstrate the value and effectiveness of your product launch advertising services to customers, stakeholders, and internal teams. Download and implement a practical approach that makes all the difference.

Template 10: New Product Development Proposal For Case Study One Pager Sample Example Document

Walt Disney once said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." This statement perfectly aligns with this template case study details . It covers project description, budget and outcomes, and timeframe. The project description describes the new product's goal, characteristics, and market. 

The budget and results section covers project finances and expected outcomes and benefits. Finally, the timeline shows project milestones and deadlines. Internal stakeholders, decision-makers, and investors who need a brief but complete knowledge of the proposed new product should use this form. Download to present your new product development idea clearly and aesthetically. 

Unleash Innovation with Us

The availability of top 10 product case study examples with templates and samples provides invaluable resources for businesses and professionals. These SlideTeam templates stand out as excellent options for showing success stories. 

Don't miss the chance to enhance client case studies by reading our blog on must-have templates .

Use these slideshow-quality presentation pieces to captivate audiences through compelling case studies using SlideTeam templates!

FAQs on Product Case Studies

What is a product case study.

Product case studies provide an in-depth examination and examination of a particular product's development, marketing, and performance. They give insight into how a product was conceptualized, its challenges during production, strategies implemented for its success, and outcomes realized, often including details regarding the target market, competition, features of the product offered for marketing campaigns, and customer feedback. They serve as invaluable resources for businesses and professionals seeking insight into effective product strategies while learning from real-life examples.

What should be included in a product case study?

Product case studies provide an in-depth examination and analysis of one specific product's development, marketing, and performance from its initial concept to market launch and beyond. They examine every stage in its lifecycle from conceptualization through market launch. Product case studies provide valuable insights into the development process, the challenges encountered, and strategies implemented to overcome them. Businesses and professionals can benefit from studying successful product case studies to gain valuable knowledge about target markets, competition, features of products or features of effective marketing campaigns, customer feedback, and more. 

How can product case studies benefit businesses and professionals?

Product case studies offer numerous benefits to businesses and professionals. First, they are real-life examples of successful product strategies so others may gain insights from proven approaches. Case studies give businesses an in-depth view of market trends, customer preferences, and competitive landscapes. They also showcase challenges faced during the product development process that were overcome, serving as valuable lessons for future endeavors. Product case studies increase credibility and trust by showcasing past achievements and drawing in potential customers and stakeholders.

What role do templates and samples play in creating impactful product case studies?

Templates and samples play a crucial part in crafting influential product case studies. By providing a structured framework and format that guides the presentation of information, ensuring consistency and clarity, templates can help save both time and effort by offering pre-designed layouts, graphics, and placeholders that allow users to focus on content creation without spending hours making drafts from scratch. Samples serve as references showing successful case studies that can serve as sources for inspiration in storytelling techniques that work - businesses and professionals can utilize these to streamline the creation process.

Related posts:

• 11 Professional Use Case PowerPoint Templates to Highlight Your Success Stories
• Top 15 Product Management Templates To Deliver An Outstanding Service that Exceeds all Expectations
• [Updated 2023] Top 10 One-Page Product Overview PowerPoint Templates to Drive Sales
• [Updated 2023] Top 10 Winning Case Study Competition Presentations [and 10 Vexing Business Issues They Can Help You Solve]

Liked this blog? Please recommend us

Top 7 Inspection Checklist Templates with Examples and Samples

Must-have Construction Project Summary Templates with Examples and Samples

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA - the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Digital revolution powerpoint presentation slides

Sales funnel results presentation layouts

3d men joinning circular jigsaw puzzles ppt graphics icons

Business Strategic Planning Template For Organizations Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Future plan powerpoint template slide

Project Management Team Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Brand marketing powerpoint presentation slides

Launching a new service powerpoint presentation with slides go to market

Agenda powerpoint slide show

Four key metrics donut chart with percentage

Engineering and technology ppt inspiration example introduction continuous process improvement

Meet our team representing in circular format

• Company History
• Executive Team
• Banking, Finance, and Insurance
• Business-to-Business
• Consumer Packaged Goods (FMCG)
• Governmental Agencies
• Home Improvement & Trade Research
• Pharma, Medical, Health, and Wellness
• Restaurants
• Social Responsibility/Social Causes
• Technology Sector
• Client List
• Quality Assurance
• Data Security
• Advertising Testing Systems
• Advertising Tracking Research
• Awareness Trial Usage (ATUs)
• Brand Equity Monitoring
• Category Management
• Education Survey Research
• Economic Development Research

Concept Testing

• Customer Loyalty Simulator
• Mail Surveys
• Data Entry Services
• Multilingual Coding
• Cross-Tabulation Services
• Employee Satisfaction Research
• Employee Retention
• Global Research
• American Home Comfort Study
• Economic Index
• Marketing Strategy
• Brand Name Research
• DecisionSystems
• Technology Forecasting
• Global Internet Panels
• Online Communities
• Panel Management
• Private Online Research Panels
• ESOMAR 28 Questions
• Simulated Shopping with Shelf Sets
• Custom/Ad Hoc Packaging Research
• Optima Product Testing
• Custom Product Testing
• Product Quality Monitoring
• Sensory Research Systems
• Promotion Testing
• Shopping Research
• Strategy Research
• Tracking Research
• Win-Loss Research
• Meet Our Moderators
• Digital Ethnography
• In the Moment Research
• Large-Scale Qualitative
• Online Qualitative
• Qualitative Research (Focus Groups)
• Unconventional Qualitative Methods
• Qualitative Research Library
• Analytical Consulting
• Choice Modeling Techniques
• Conceptor Volumetric Forecasting
• Demand Forecasting
• Economic Feasibility Analysis
• Economic Impact Analysis
• Econometric Modeling
• Marketing Science
• Marketing Mix Modeling
• Market Segmentation Methods
• Operations Research
• Predictive Analytics & Marketing Research
• Text Mining
• Pricing Research
• Sales Forecasting and Sales Modeling
• Acquisition Reviews
• Asset Optimization
• GIS mapping
• Location Analysis
• Shopping Center Repositioning
• The Imaginators®
• Relevant Innovation
• Brand Explorations
• Jerry W. Thomas Blogs
• Audrey Guinn Blogs
• Bonnie Janzen Blogs
• Clay Dethloff Blogs
• Elizabeth Horn Blogs
• Felicia Rogers Blogs
• Heather Kluter Blogs
• Jennifer Murphy Blogs
• John Colias Blogs
• Julie Trujillo Blogs
• Lesley Johnson Blogs
• Tom Allen Blogs
• Blog Archives 2017-2021
• Case Histories
• Download Our Complimentary Report
• Economic Index Background
• Email Newsletter
• Free Software
• Videos - General Marketing Research
• Videos - Leadership Strategy Interviews
• Videos - Market Segmentation
• Videos - Media Mix Minute
• Videos - Strategy Series
• Webinars - Insider Series
• White Papers
• Research Advice

Marketing Research Case Histories

Below is a list of case studies detailing some of Decision Analyst’s experiences, from innovation and qualitative research to quantitative research, to advanced analytics and predictive analytics. You can view each article by clicking on the title.

A Decision Analyst Proprietary Panel of Users

Category: Tanning Products Methods: Proprietary Panel; Custom Research Panel; Tracking Research; Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research; Attitude, Usage, & Behavior Research Summary: A large consumer packaged-goods company wanted to gain insights into two consumer groups’ attitudes, usage, and behaviors toward tanning products over a period of 16 months.

A Fistful of (Electronic) Dollars

Category: Gift Cards Methods: Market-Share Tracking, Consumer Trends Summary: Decision Analyst recommended using quantitative surveys among both purchasers and recipients to capture gift card market share, as well as a deep dive into the motivations and behaviors surrounding a gift card purchase.

A Hair-Raising Global Tracking Study

Category: Beauty Products Methods: Product Awareness and Usage, International Research, Product Attributes, Incidence, Customer Target Profile Summary: An international innovator of premium beauty products targeted to women wanted to better understand hair care needs and product usage among females in four countries. 

A Model of Customer Loyalty

Category: Insurance Methods: Advanced Analytics, Brand Equity Modeling, Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty, Customer Loyalty Modeling, Customer Loyalty Simulator™ Summary: Decision Analyst’s Customer Loyalty Simulator ™ was integral in empowering the client to make decisions about how to improve the brand.

A Qualitative Approach to Understanding the Path-to-Purchase

Category: Cosmetic Methods: In-Person Focus Groups, Virtual-Ethnography (Remote Desktop Viewing), Path-to-Purchase, Time- Extended™ Qualitative Summary:  Management wanted to identify and understand why cosmetics’ users read reviews, shop and buy online vs. in store and how they might stop or reverse this trend to online, or possibly take better advantage of the online channel.

A Rose of Any Other Color...

Category: Children's Toys Methods: Package Testing, Virtual Shopping, Advanced Analytics, Quantitative Research, Shopper Insights Summary: Consumer research was carefully crafted to understand shoppers’ reactions to the revised packages, and ultimately revealed that the proposed changes would benefit the brand.

Advertising Research: Benchmarking New Ads for a Restaurant

Category: Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Methods: Quantitative Research, Advertising Research, Benchmarking Summary: The client wanted to understand consumers’ attitudes about the advertisements in order to determine if the advertisements were up to the company’s standards and were communicating the intended messages and positioning.

Advertising Testing Among Hispanics

Category: Retail Methods: Advertising Research (Copy Testing), Hispanic Research Summary: Decision Analyst’s CopyTest® system and proprietary SellingPower™ analytical model calculated overall advertising effectiveness and suggested how to increase the ads’ cultural relevance.

Benefit Pricing: Optimizing The Price Point for a Product Line Extension

Category: Consumer Health and Beauty Products Methods: New Product Concept Testing Summary: A leading global manufacturer of consumer health and beauty products was considering adding a new product to its current line.

Card Sorting and Concept Testing Among Seniors

Category: Insurance Company Methods: Concept Testing, Market Evaluation Summary: Decision Analyst recommended a two-part project: a card-sort survey to determine the market potential and identify the most desired benefits, followed by a concept test to identify the most promising concept and determine the optimal price points.

China: A New World of Possibilities

Category: Skincare System Methods: Time-Extended™ Online Focus Group, Global Research, Research in China Summary: A multinational personal-care products manufacturer was interested in expanding its skincare business in China and wanted to identify the unique needs and applications to deliver a pipeline of skincare products specially designed for Asian consumers.

Changing The Game In The Electric Vehicle Arena Accelerating Consumer Adoption Of The Electric Truck

Category: Automotive Research Methods: Choice Modeling, DecisionSimulator™ Summary: Our client wanted to know what consumers wanted, but more importantly, what they “needed” in an electric light-duty truck that would make it more appealing than competitor models.

Choice Modeling: Testing Product and Service Bundles

Category: Technology Products and Services Methods: Advanced Analytics, Choice Modeling Summary:  Decision Analyst conducted research to develop a consumer-configured list of preferred product and service bundles to offer.

Choosing Advertising Approaches Between Alternative Storyboards

Category: Automotive Parts Manufacturer Methods: CopyTest®, Advertising Research Summary:  Our client asked us to conduct a study that would determine which ads would be the most effective at communicating the message to their target audience.

Combining Survey Choice Modeling With Customer-Database Predictive Modeling

Category: Utilities Methods: Advanced Analytics, Customer-Database Predictive Modeling, Hierarchical Bayes Choice Modeling Summary: Decision Analyst’s client wished to directly predict the receptivity of its customers and prospects to a wide variety of promotion and pricing features of electricity plans.

Category: Automotive Aftermarket Methods: Concept Testing, Purchase Motivation, Brand Positioning Summary: A leading producer and distributor of aftermarket fluids and additives was considering a reformulation of its top-selling, trademarked product. 

Consumer Health-Monitoring Device Optimization

Category: CPG – Health & Beauty Aids) Methods: Discrete Choice Exercise, Hierarchical Bayes Choice Model, Price Elasticities, Optimization Model, Sales Forecast Summary: An company was launching a new, noninvasive health monitoring device and wanted to assess and optimize the product’s features and understand the optimal product’s likely performance in the market via a sales forecast.

Convenience Store Product Assortment Optimization

Category: CPG–Beverages Methods: TURF Summary: A dairy product company was interested in determining the optimal assortment of coffee creamer flavors to maximize reach and usage frequency in the convenience store channel.

Consumer Pulse Tracking In The Paper-Product Market

Category: Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Methods: Attitude & Usage, Purchase Behavior, Key Drivers Summary: A leading manufacturer of sustainable household products wanted to better understand consumers’ usage and perceptions across four household categories.

CopyCheck® of Animatic Ads

Category: Insurance Methods: CopyCheck®, Advertising Research Summary: A major health insurance provider wanted to know which of its new advertising concepts would resonate the most with potential customers. Decision Analyst recommend our proprietary CopyCheck® system.

Database Analytics: Developing Strategic Value From a Consumer Affairs Database

Category: Food Product Manufacturer Methods: Database Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Geospatial Analysis, Data Cleaning, Customer Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction Summary:  The Consumer Affairs department wanted to develop the strategic value of the database and also wanted to improve methods used to deal with consumer inquiries and potential problems. Using sophisticated data cleaning and exploratory methods, geospatial analysis, and standard market research analysis methods, Decision Analyst was able to illuminate patterns in the data.

Determining the Relationship Between Consumption and Household Income

Category: Utilities Methods: Advanced Analytics, Predictive Modeling, Predictive Analytics Summary: A major utility company wished to understand the relationship between consumption of their product and their clients’ household income in order to address pricing issues raised by the regulatory authority. S

Diary Research

Category: Personal Care Product Manufacturer Methods: In-The-Moment Research ; Diary Panel; Tracking Research ; Market Assessment, Ethnography Summary: A personal-care-product manufacturer wanted to understand and quantify consumers’ personal hygiene routines in order to identify new opportunities or marketing campaigns for an existing product. 

E-Commerce Econometric Modeling of Promotions and Media Mix

Category: E-Commerce, Consumer Goods Methods: Econometric Modeling, Advanced Analytics, Predictive Modeling Summary: A Fortune 1000 consumer-goods firm wished to identify patterns and trends in its retailer’s e-commerce sales and promotions. 

Finding That Revolutionary New Product! Using Choice Modeling to Refine a New Product Concept

Category: Automotive Methods: Choice Modeling, Latent-Class Segmentation, Volumetric Forecasting, Market Simulation Summary:   The OEM asked Decision Analyst to design a consumer research program to help them understand the potential for this new product concept they envisioned.

Food Ingredient Consumer-Opinion Research

Category: Food Manufacturer Methods: Online Consumer Survey Summary: A manufacturer of food and beverage products wanted to gauge consumer reactions to various nutrition and ingredient labels listing different sugars, fibers, and starches.

Forecasting: Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Research

Category: Automotive Methods: Advanced Analytics, DecisionSimulator™, Market Simulation Summary: Forecasting consumer demand for several alternative-fuel technologies within five segments.

Fueling Up: International Advertising Research

Category: Retail Automotive Fuel Products Methods: Global Marketing Research, Advertising Research (Copy Testing) Summary: A global automotive fuel company tested its advertising in multiple countries to improve clarity, recall, brand registration, persuasion, and other key elements. Insights taken from Decision Analyst’s monadic CopyTest® made the ads more successful.

Games People Play

Category: Electronic Games Methods: Focus Groups, Depth Interviews, Projective Techniques, Motivational Research Summary: At the dawn of the digital age, a major international manufacturer of electronic systems and components assigned a team of engineers to develop digital games for the new electronic devices then emerging.

Getting Carded

Category: Gift Cards Methods: Customer Loyalty, Awareness and Usage, Customer Satisfaction, Tracking Study Summary: A multinational food and beverage chain wanted to measure over time the awareness and usage of its frequent user/gift card program and its impact on customer loyalty. 

Global Celebrity Index—An International Star Search

Category: Health and Beauty Aids—Cosmetics Methods: Global Marketing Research, Custom Indexing Methodology Summary: A major multinational cosmetics manufacturer sought a celebrity spokesperson to use across global markets. Decision Analyst developed a comprehensive index score based on over 15 variables and collected data simultaneously in 11 countries and in 9 languages. 

Hospital System Advertising Testing Better And Faster With Big Qual

Category: Hospital System Methods: Sequential-Monadic Testing, Big Qual, Qualitative Research, Advertising Testing Summary: A hospital system was interested in assessing four advertising concepts at the storyboard (post-scripts) phase before moving into final television production of the winning ad.

Hospital System Improvement Qualitative Research Among Hospital Customers

Category: Hospital System Methods: Customer Research, Qualitative Research Summary: A hospital system was interested in conducting exploratory qualitative research among past-5-year customers and potential new customers to understand their hospital-selection process, perceptions of each hospital, and associations and gaps among 3 hospitals within their system and competitor hospitals in the area.

Hotel Services Innovation Program

Category: Hospitality Methods: Qualitative Research, Ideation, Quantitative Research, New Product Concept Development & Refinement, Advanced Analytics, MaxDiff Latent Class Choice Model Summary: A major hotel chain was interested in developing relevant and actionable new products and services designed to target the business traveler, and to project potential market appeal for each concept. 

I Beg Your Pardon? (The Value of Unexpected Research Results)

Category: Business-to-Business (B2B) Electronics Methods: Profiling, International Research, Business-to-Business (B2B) Research, Attitude/Awareness/Usage Research, Diagnostic Research, Problem Solving, Teamwork Summary: A leading device manufacturer discovered that previously-held beliefs about the philosophical differences between U.S. and Italian office workers that were driving marketing simply weren’t accurate at all. The research that was originally designed to identify how to penetrate a market was ultimately used to identify how to encourage switching from a competitor’s product.

Identifying the Product Claims that will Drive Consumer Interest

Category: National Food Manufacturer Methods: MaxDiff, Claims Testing Summary: The client had a list of more than 50 product claims that were applicable to multiple grocery categories. They needed an efficient way to determine which claims their marketing should focus on.

Improving Customer Satisfaction for a Utility Company

Category: Utility Methods: Customer Satisfaction, Customer Segmentation, Business-to-Business Research, Consumer Research Summary: A major national utility company was suffering from low customer satisfaction ratings and needed a plan to identify problems and address the issues in a timely manner.

Ingredients for Success: A Global Look at Health- and Beauty-Care Ingredients

Category: Health and Beauty Care Methods: International Research, Analytical Modeling Summary: A major multinational consumer health-and-beauty product manufacturer wanted to determine and anticipate the next big “ingredient” that could revolutionize its segment of the health-and-beauty industry. Leveraging the American Consumer Opinion® panel an online survey was conducted across several countries. 

Key Drivers of Store Sales

Category: Retail Methods: Advanced Analytics, Predictive Modeling, Sales Predictive Modeling Summary: Decision Analyst developed a predictive model of store sales per square foot from customer-satisfaction surveys, 9.4 million records. The model was used to identify key drivers of sales and indicators of store performance, enabling the client to prioritize stores for improvement initiatives.

Look Before Leaping

Category: Salty Snacks Methods: Concept Testing, Product Testing, In-Home Usage Testing, Pii® Product Improvement Index, Volumetric Forecasting, Sales Forecasting, Conceptor® Forecasting Models Summary:   Decision Analyst conducted a large concept test, followed by in-home usage product tests for each major flavor of the new salty snack, and forecasted in-market sales volume with its Conceptor® forecasting models.

Life & Disability Insurance Abandoners Exploratory Qualitative

Category: Life & Disability Insurance Company Methods: Qualitative Research Summary: An insurance company noticed that an increasing number of potential customers abandoned their new insurance purchase after underwriting and approval but before paying their initial bill to begin their new policy. Qualitative research was leveraged to uncover the reasons for policy abandonment.

Market Evaluation

Category: Automotive Methods: Market Evaluation, Quantitative Research, Market Overview Summary: A multinational automotive manufacturer (OEM) with no previous experience in the U.S. market was considering whether or not to attempt to introduce an all-new vehicle into the U.S. The need was to gain a fundamental understanding of the U.S. owner and intender of vehicles in one particular segment of the market.

Market Mix Modeling: Measuring Return From Advertising in the Fresh-Food Industry

Category: Fresh Food Manufacturer Methods: Advertising Research (Copy Testing), Promotion Research, Marketing Mix Modeling, Econometric Modeling, DecisionSimulator™ Summary: A major manufacturer of a fresh-food product wanted to know how much stimulation of sales could be expected per Target Rating Point of advertising. 

Market Needs Assessment: Qualitative Research Among Physicians

Category: Pharmaceuticals Methods: New Product Development, Qualitative Research, Physician Research Summary: A pharmaceutical company was interested in developing a new product for the treatment of a cronic disease. 

MaxDiff Modeling For Healthy Snack-Food Flavor Optimization

Category: Health Snack Food Manufacturer Methods: MaxDiff Analysis, Analytical Consulting, Choice Modeling Summary:  Decision Analyst used MaxDiff modeling to determine which new flavors would increase sales.

Maximum Difference (MaxDiff) Scaling

Category: Cooking Oil Methods: MaxDiff Analysis, Analytical Consulting, Choice Modeling, Hierarchical Bayes Estimation, Claims Testing Summary: A Choice Modeling project was conducted to identify the table spread products most likely to experience an increase in sales by including the cooking oil as a key ingredient.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction Among Preowned Vehicle Buyers

Category: Vehicle Dealer Methods: Customer Satisfaction Tracking, Online Survey, Preowned Buyer Survey, Quantitative Mail Survey, Tracking Research Summary: As a premium automobile retailer with multiple locations, our client has a very strong customer service culture. Decision Analyst updated and automated their customer satisfaction program for preowned cars.

Millennial Imaginators®: Ideation and Concept Refinement In the Hotel Industry

Category: Hospitality, Tourism, Innovation, Millennials Methods: Concept Refinement, Millennials, Imaginators®, Innovation Summary: A leading, global hotel chain wanted to engage creative, forward-thinking Millennials to cocreate some distinct urban-hotel concepts with them.

Mother Knows Best

Category: Childcare Products and Accessories Methods: Concept Testing, Product Testing, In-Home Usage Testing Summary: The research was designed to help diversify, expand, and improve the product line, and, ultimately, to refine and optimize the growth strategy that would allow the company to develop into a global brand.

Name Generation

Category: Healthcare System Methods: Ideation, Name Generation, Name Testing Summary: A large healthcare system asked Decision Analyst to generate, iterate, and then quantitatively test new names for several new healthcare facilities.

Never Trust an Engineer

Category: Electronic Calculators, Mathematics Training Methods: Focus Groups, Depth Interviews, Ethnography, Telephone Survey Summary: A large, worldwide manufacturer of electronic components and devices developed handheld calculators and mathematics training program for children in the first, second, and third grades. 

New Car Clinic

Category: Automotive Methods: Advanced Analytics, Discrete-Choice Modeling, Focus-Group Qualitative Research, Quantitative Static Clinic Summary: A multinational automobile manufacturer sought to introduce a new vehicle into a segment of the market that technically did not exist at that time. 

New Employee Onboarding: Measuring Training Satisfaction

Category: Package Goods Company – Human Resources, Employee Retention Methods: Online Quantitative, Employee Research, Tracking Research Summary: The overarching objective was to help optimize the onboarding process and reduce turnover. Decision Analyst designed a 2 phase research program to help improve the training and onboarding program and increase employee retention.

New Therapy Development & Optimization Research

Category: Medical Device Methods: Feature Optimization, Conjoint Modeling, Choice Modeling, Multi-Phase, Multi-Audience (Consumers & HCPs) Summary: A cross-functional team of academics, scientists, and researchers from a private research university received an NIH grant to develop a new medication. To help the new medication be successful and widely adopted in the marketplace, research was conducted to decide which features needed to be included in the product.

New Product Concept Test: Discovering Key Drivers of Product Preference

New product development.

Category: Medical Devices Methods: New Product Development Research, Concept Testing, Physician Research, Needs Assessment Research Summary: An implantable device manufacturer was interested in bolstering its new product development process by conducting unmet-needs research among implanting physicians.

New Product Positioning and Name Testing Among Professionals

Category: Medical Devices Methods: New Product Development, Positioning Test, Name Testing Summary: A global healthcare company that develops products and systems for in-home use and testing was planning a new product introduction. The company wanted to determine the best product name and to identify a compelling positioning statement to use in marketing the product.

New Vehicle Launch Evaluation

Category: Automotive OEM Methods: Automotive Research, Quantitative Research, Intender Survey, New Buyer Survey, Competitive Buyer Survey Summary: A global automotive OEM was launching a redesigned version of its best-selling vehicle in the U.S. In order to provide a holistic view of the market reaction, Decision Analyst partnered in designing and implementing a research program that provided insights.

Niche Market Opportunities Research Among Healthcare Professionals

Category: Health & Wellness Product Methods: Market Perception Study, Needs Assessment Survey, Healthcare Professionals Survey Summary: A leading maker of health and wellness products wanted to identify barriers and opportunities in a niche market in order to improve its market position in the industry.

Not-So-Secret Identity

Category: Premium Packaged Goods Methods: Depth Interviews, Projective Techniques, Motivational Research, Survey Research, Advanced Analytics, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Packaged Goods Summary: Our client’s brand was among the first of its kind, had been on the market for decades, and had maintained market share, yet our client wanted the brand to do more than just survive. Our consumer research identified “key pillars” for the brand, which have helped propel it far beyond previous success and into new markets around the world.

Omnichannel Shopper Experience: Multiphased Qualitative Research

Category: Beauty Products Manufacturer Methods: In-Person Focus Groups, Qualitative Research, Remote Desktop Viewing, Screen Sharing, Time-Extended™ Online In-Depth Interviews, Virtual Ethnography Summary:   A multiphase qualitative approach was used to gain a deep understanding of consumers’ needs, desires, shopping experiences, and shopping decision-making behaviors, both in store and online.

On the Right Track: Consumer Packaged Goods Brand Tracking

Category: Consumer Packaged Goods Methods: Advertising Research (Copy Testing), Analytical Consulting, Choice Modeling, Attitudinal Research, Brand Equity Monitor™, Key Driver Analysis, Tracking Research Summary: A domestic tool manufacturer wanted to track the category’s (and its own) brand and advertising awareness, in addition to attitudes and usage. 

Online Qualitative, Time-Extended™: Acheiving Deeper Insights After Quantitative Research

Category: Casual Dining Methods: Casual Dining Positioning, Menu Evaluation, Online Depth Interviews, Time-Extended™ Online Qualitative Research Summary: Time-Extended™ online depth interviews were conducted to provide an intimate understanding of the consumer relationship with the brand and its current menu offerings.

Package Testing With A Shelf Set

Category: Packaged Goods (CPG) Methods: Online Survey With Shelf Set, Package Testing, Shopper Research Summary: The brand was very successful at retail, and changing the packaging could potentially have a negative impact on sales if consumers were confused by the change. The company was planning for the next sales cycle and needed to quickly determine in an efficient way which package option they should move forward with in manufacturing.

Paving the Path to Purchase: Identifying the Decision-Making Process for B2B Customers

Category: Manufacturer Methods: Business-to-Business Research, Key Driver Analysis, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Path to Purchase, Time-Extended™ Online Research Summary: A manufacturer of products for workplace usage wanted to increase its knowledge about the path to purchase—how and why business customers buy their products—in order to effectively reach them with the right content at the right place and time.

Physicians Insurance Brand Equity Segmentation

Category: Insurance Company Methods: Physician Research, Brand Equity, Market Segmentation Summary:   In addition to understanding awareness, attitudes, and usage habits, brand equity analysis and a market segmentation were also needed to fully assess the company’s current place in the market, and which groups of physicians may be the best targets for certain products and messages.

Plush Perceptions

Category: Retail—Toys Methods: Qualitative Research, In-Person Qualitative Research Summary: An American production and distribution company needed to explore consumer attitudes, usage, and perceptions of its line of plush toys that accompanied its popular children’s TV show. Insights from the focus groups improved the toy, its marketing, and the show, and the client even gained merchandising opportunities.

Point of Presence Research

Category: Telecommunications Methods: In-Store, Digital Display Testing, Customer Experience Optimization, Promotion Testing Summary: Decision Analyst’s client was introducing informational and advertising-oriented, digital display kiosks in its stores nationwide. Prior to rolling out these free-standing digital fixtures, management wanted to test the overall impact of their digital display screen content, as well as the effectiveness and operations of display orientation, sound, and interactivity.

Positioning Test With Segmentation

Category: Kitchen Appliance System Methods: Positioning Test, Market Segmentation, Latent Class Cluster Analysis Summary: A major consumer-packaged-goods company and a large appliance manufacturer sought to identify a compelling, differentiating positioning for its kitchen system. Decision Analyst’s segmentation technique enabled the client to select an attractive, ownable positioning for the product’s successful launch.

Predicting and Optimizing Website Lead Generation

Category: Online Lead Generation Methods: Correlation/Cluster Analysis, Predictive Modeling, Cross-Validation, Simulation Modeling, Advanced Analytics Summary:  Predictive analytics was applied to data obtained from forms filled out on the website, page views, and lead generation. The resulting predictive models were used to adjust relative spending on different clusters of web pages, maximizing ROI in terms of lead generation.

Predicting Patient Noncompliance Based On Geographic Location

Category: Healthcare Methods: Predictive Modeling, Logistic Regression, Random Forest™, Advanced Analytics Summary: Decision Analyst explored the use of self-reported behavior from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to develop predictive models of noncompliant patients.

Product Line Extension

Category: Over-The-Counter Medicine Methods: Choice Modeling, Advanced Analytics, DecisionSimulators™ Summary: An over-the-counter drug manufacturer was interested in understanding the market implications of offering a new, higher-strength product to supplement their product line.

Product Line Optimization

Category: Personal Care Manufacturer Methods: Choice Modeling, DecisionSimulator™, Product Line Optimization Summary: A global manufacturer of specialty personal-care products needed to develop a response to major changes made to the category leader's product line.

Proprietary Panel for Customer Satisfaction

Category: Managed-Care Company Methods: Customer Satisfaction, Private Online Panel Summary:  Decision Analyst created, managed, and hosted an online survey panel for the managed care company. The panel allowed easy access to representatives in the PPN and provided a mechanism for feedback on a variety of planned changes and improvements in the ways that providers interact with the company.

Purchase Probability Modeling: Lead Classification System for a Cloud-Based Product

Category: B2B Software Methods: Purchase Probability Modeling, Predictive Modeling, Business-to-Business (B2B) Research, Sales Lead Classification, International Research Summary:  A logistic regression model was developed that predicted the likelihood that a prospect would consider subscribing to the hosted service. The model was incorporated into an interactive scoring tool that allowed the sales force to enter prospect responses for each of the model predictors and forecast the likelihood of prospects to accept an offer of service.

Qualitative Research Among Unacculturated Hispanics in U.S.

Category: Prepaid Services Industry Methods: Qualitative Research, Hispanic Research, In-person In-Depth Interviews Summary: A large U.S. company believed that unacculturated Hispanics might represent a viable target market for its services, but marketing efforts to this segment had largely failed. The firm asked Decision Analyst to propose research that would lead to an improved marketing strategy to reach and convert unacculturated Hispanics in the U.S.

Reaching Young, Tech-Savvy Investors

Category: Financial Services, Investing Methods: New Product Development, Qualitative Research, In-Person Focus Groups, Depth Interviews, Quantitative Surveys Summary: Decision Analyst executed a two-phase research program, including quantitative concept screening as well as qualitative discussions, designed to help refine the final communication strategy. 

Real Estate Site Selection With Predictive Modeling in the Open-Source R Language

Category: Retail Methods: Advanced Analytics, Decision Tree, Linear Regression, Predictive Modeling, Random Forest™, R Language, Real Estate Site Selection Summary: We explored the use of the open-source R Language to develop alternative types of predictive models for retail-site sales forecasting. Alternative model types included decision tree, linear regression, and Random Forest™.

Rebate Offer Ad Test

Category: Optical Products Methods: Promotion Testing, Marketing Communications, Medical Research Summary: A leading maker of optical products wanted to gauge likely consumer response to several product discount offers.

Retail Point-of-Sale Tracking

Category: Retail Methods: Point-of-Sale Surveys, Tracking, Customer Satisfaction Monitoring Summary: A major retailer needed a way to better understand the experiences of their customers in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Retail Sales Forecasting: Using Spatial Analytics to Identify New Market Opportunities

Category: Fashion Retailing Methods: Retail Store Location Analysis, Spatial Analytics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Summary: A national retail apparel chain sought help from Decision Analyst in identifying new market opportunities. Decision Analyst combined survey research, competitive analyses, and geographic analyses and modeling to forecast sales of new stores in smaller markets.

Segmentation Re-Analysis

Category: Restaurant Methods: Segmentation Analysis, Key Driver Analysis, Gap Analysis, Spatial Analysis, Media Analysis Summary: A major U.S. restaurant chain derived substantial added value from its market segmentation study by commissioning Decision Analyst to re-analyze the segmentation data and conduct additional analyses.

Sell Those MBAs

Category: Graduate Education Methods: Syndicated Data Analysis, Secondary Data Analysis, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Spatial Analytics, GeoMapping, Site Selection, Sales Forecasting, Concept Optimization, Choice Modeling, DecisionSimulator™ Summary: A major university in a large midwestern metropolitan area offered an array of MBA graduate degrees at its downtown campus. Decision Analyst was asked to help identify optimal locations for satellite classrooms to offer the EMBA degree. The results revealed complex interactions among the site-location variables.

Skincare Product Claims Development Research

Category: CPG Via Dermatologists Methods: Claim Ratings, Brand Usage & Awareness Summary: A manufacturer of skincare products was interested in assessing the behaviors and opinions of dermatologists in order to develop claims for its brand.

Socially Distanced Menu-Item Testing

Category: Restaurant Methods: Menu Evaluation, Central-Location Test Summary: An upper-end casual-dining chain with limited locations sought to increase its delivery footprint, and came to Decision Analyst for help in testing new versions of several menu items that could be more easily executed in ghost kitchens. Decision Analyst designed an in-person taste test that was COVID compliant and safe for the particiapants and the researchers.

Strategic Global Research: Qualitative Research in China

Category: International Retail Methods: International Research, Strategic Research, Depth Interviews, Ethnographic Research, Focus Groups, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research Summary: A U.S.-based retailer wanted to evaluate an emerging market as part of their long-term expansion strategy. This research was undertaken to provide strategic direction for markets in China.

Strategic Market-Entry Optimization Plan Research

Category: Vision Care Methods: Choice Task, Optimization, Eye Care Professional Summary: A manufacturer of lenses wanted to gauge how their current eye care professional customers would react if the manufacturer’s brands became available in other competitive channels.

Taking Advertising to the Next Level

Category: Discount Retailer Methods: Quantitative Research, Brand Awareness, Advertising Research (Copy Testing), Tracking Research Summary: A large discount retail chain wanted to track company, brand, and advertising awareness as well as consumer attitudes to help increase advertising effectiveness. 

Time-Extended™ Online Qualitative Research

Category: Vehicle Loan Financing & Services Methods: Time-Extended™ Online Qualitative Research, Online Qualitative Research in a Bulletin Board Format Summary: An industry-leading company specializing in auto loans wanted to develop a targeted advertising campaign. The insights from Decision Analyst’s online, Time-Extended™ depth interviews became the foundation for the advertisements and new communication strategies.

Time-Series Econometric Forecasting: Global Forecast of the Price of a Raw Material

Category: International Manufacturer Methods: Autoregressive Time-Series Regression, Decision Tool, Econometrics, Ensemble Model, Model Validation, Time-Series, Forecasting, Variable Selection Summary: A client company (an international manufacturer) had experienced unprecedented volatility in the price of a primary raw-material input used to produce several of its products. Decision Analyst build an ensemble of Autoregressive Time-Series Models to predict future prices. 

To Launch, Or Not To Launch: What Is A Marketer To Do? Leveraging Concept Testing for Optimal “Payback”

Category: Organic Food Manufacturer Methods: Concept Testing, Brand Name Testing, Packaging Research Summary: A large organic-foods manufacturer had to decide how to package, name, and introduce a healthier product formulation targeted to moms with young children. 

Too Much Of A Good Thing Costs Too Much: Choice Modeling for Health Insurance Products

Category: Health Insurance Methods: Choice Modeling, Simulation Modeling, Concept Testing Summary: A large health insurer sought to increase profitability for a specified group insurance segment by reducing the number of insured health products and the overhead and low profit margins associated with them.

Turning Providers Into “Patient Satisfiers” Measuring Satisfaction Using Mail Surveys

Category: Health Insurance Methods: Automated Reporting, Mail Survey, Customer Satisfaction, Tracking Research Summary: A health insurance carrier wanted to incorporate patient satisfaction measurements as a quality outcome indicator when recredentialing each member of its network.

Uncovering the Paramount of Grooming

Category: Personal Care and Grooming Methods: Time-Extended™ Online Forums, Home Usage, Online Journaling Summary: A multinational personal care manufacturer had developed a revolutionary home grooming product. Decision Analyst was tasked with designing and conducting a two-phased research approach. Striving to surpass the competition, the company made testing competitors’ similar products the focus of the research. 

Using Automated Reporting to Track Restaurant Performance Across the U.S.

Category: Restaurant Industry Methods: Automated Reporting, Tracking Research Summary: A regional restaurant chain with locations in 8 markets across the Southwest asked Decision Analyst to conduct quarterly tracking studies for each of its 50 eateries. Automated reporting technology was used to efficiently and accurately create the reports for the multiple markets, taking into consideration the local competitors for each unit.

Using MaxDiff to Understand Investors’ Decision to Hire A Financial Advisor

Category: Financial Services Methods: Maximum Difference (MaxDiff) Analysis Summary: A financial advisory firm wanted to understand the reasoning behind investors’ decisions to hire (or to not hire) a financial advisor. Decision Analyst conducted an online quantitative survey featuring MaxDiff analysis to determine the attributes that have the most impact on potential customers’ decision to hire (or not hire) a financial advisor.

Using Exploratory Research to Formulate Quantitative Research and a Discrete Choice Modeling Design

Category: Auto/Captive Financial Services Methods: Exploratory Research, Quantitative Research, Discrete Choice Modeling, In-Person Focus Groups, Simulated Purchasing Decisions Summary: The Captive Finance arm of a Global Auto Manufacturer had historically relied on a traditional approach to developing new business, utilizing the value of its automotive products as the primary conduit for attracting customers. The client was looking for new ways in which to grow and add value to its business.

Using a MaxDiff Analysis to Make Decisions

Category: Insurance Company Methods: MaxDiff Analysis, Message Evaluation Summary: Our client, a health-insurance provider, wanted to know how best to communicate with their customers about the Affordable Care Act and what messages they need to use. Decision Analyst conducted a MaxDiff analysis on the proposed message statements to determine which messages consumers preferred.

Virtual Shelf-Set Research Among Children

Category: CPG Manufacturing Methods: Online/Virtual Shelf Set, Research with Children, In-Store Display Research Summary: A manufacturer created a new product line that was targeted to children aged 6 to 12. For this new product line, they created several merchandising-display options and wanted to know which one would resonate most with children and their parents.

Vision Product: Global Messaging Optimization Research

Category: Lens Manufacturer Methods: Message Testing, Choice-Task, MaxDiff, International Research Summary: A lens manufacturer wanted to measure unbranded preference for potential messages (including both current messages and potential new messages) across two key products. They also wanted to optimize messages for each product when branded.

Volumetric Concept Testing

Category: Toy Industry Methods: Volumetric Concept Testing, Latent Class Choice Modeling, Calibration, DecisionSimulator™, Online Simulated Shopping Summary:   During an online survey, respondents were taken through two shopping exercises and made purchase decisions based on the available toys. Several latent-class choice models were developed, measuring price and product utilities. 

What Do The Members Really Need? Customer Needs Assessment

Category: Health Insurance Methods: Focus Groups, Affinity Diagramming, Multivariate Analysis, Needs Assessment, Loyalty Measurement Summary: A health insurance carrier sought to get closer to its members by understanding more about their needs related to the consumer experience and the employer experience. They also wanted to know how well they were meeting the needs they identified versus how well their competition was meeting similar needs for its customers.

When Customer Service Needs A Boost Measuring Consumer Expectations of Customer Service

Category: Health Insurance Methods: Focus Groups, Telephone Survey, Nonlinear Regression Analysis, Quadrant Mapping Summary: A national health insurance carrier established a task force to optimize consumers’ experience with its customer service operation. Prior to developing a change plan, it was important for the task force to understand the customers’ expectations and needs.

Why Can’t We Compete? An Ethnographic Evaluation of the Brand Image

Category: Automotive OEM Methods: Ethnography , Extended Drive Experience with In-Vehicle Mounted Video Camera, In-Depth Post-Drive Interview, Online Follow-Ups, Qualitative Research Summary: Decision Analyst conducted a multistage qualitative study for a Premium division of an OEM to determine their position relative to the competition and to identify action steps for tangible improvement.

Contact Decision Analyst

If you would like more information on Marketing Research, please contact Jerry W. Thomas by emailing [email protected] or calling 1-817-640-6166.

Library Sections

• Economic Indices
• Glossary - Marketing Research Terms

• Study Guides
• Homework Questions

1.9 Assessment Case study - Starbucks Hamna

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, cerenity sanitizer: marketing research for new product launch (a).

Publication date: 31 March 2014

Teaching notes

The case deals with the application of marketing research for launching a new product in the market place. The company was planning to enter the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market in India with its new product Cerenity. Cerenity was a toilet seat sanitizer for women who frequently use public restrooms. The case describes the exploratory study conducted by the research team. The team used different qualitative marketing research tools such as focus groups, in-depth Interviews and participant observations.

• Marketing Research
• New Product Introduction
• Qualitative Research
• Focus Group
• Exploratory Study

Acknowledgements

This case is based on a marketing research project done by Sachin K. Singh, A. Manu, Abheet Dwivedi, Shaili Yadav, Renu Verma, Vikalp Jhambhulkar, and Arvind Maddireddy as a part of the Marketing Research and Information Systems course.

Jaiswal, A.K. , Singh, S.K. and Manu, A. (2014), "Cerenity Sanitizer: Marketing Research for New Product Launch (A)", . https://doi.org/10.1108/CASE.IIMA.2019.000072

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Copyright © 2014 by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

You do not currently have access to these teaching notes. Teaching notes are available for teaching faculty at subscribing institutions. Teaching notes accompany case studies with suggested learning objectives, classroom methods and potential assignment questions. They support dynamic classroom discussion to help develop student's analytical skills.

Related articles

We’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades

The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. These results are similar to where the pay gap stood in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men.

As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents.

While the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades, it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier.

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work full or part time in the United States. Pew Research Center’s estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files ( IPUMS ) from January 1982 to December 2022, combined to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post, “How Pew Research Center measured the gender pay gap.”

The COVID-19 outbreak affected data collection efforts by the U.S. government in its surveys, especially in 2020 and 2021, limiting in-person data collection and affecting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and how they vary across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection.

In addition to findings about the gender wage gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey about the perceived reasons for the pay gap, as well as the pressures and career goals of U.S. men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults who are employed part time or full time, from Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

The  U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis.

Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions.

Related: The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap

Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay.

Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.

Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap

When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%).

There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this).

Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women.

Views about reasons for the gender wage gap also differ by party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (68%) say a major factor behind wage differences is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican leaners (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say women’s choices about how to balance family and work (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in jobs that pay less (39% vs. 30%) are major reasons why women earn less than men.

Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say a major reason for the gender wage gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say this, compared with 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say unequal treatment by employers is a major reason for the gender wage gap, just 18% of GOP men share that view.

Pressures facing working women and men

Family caregiving responsibilities bring different pressures for working women and men, and research has shown that being a mother can reduce women’s earnings , while fatherhood can increase men’s earnings .

Employed women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers, according to the Center’s October survey. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a great deal of pressure to focus on responsibilities at home.

About half of employed women (48%) report feeling a great deal of pressure to focus on their responsibilities at home, compared with 35% of employed men. Among working mothers with children younger than 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared with 45% of working dads.

When it comes to supporting their family financially, similar shares of working moms and dads (57% vs. 62%) report they feel a great deal of pressure, but this is driven mainly by the large share of unmarried working mothers who say they feel a great deal of pressure in this regard (77%). Among those who are married, working dads are far more likely than working moms (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze separately.)

About four-in-ten working parents say they feel a great deal of pressure to be successful at their job or career. These findings don’t differ by gender.

Gender differences in job roles, aspirations

Overall, a quarter of employed U.S. adults say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers where they work, according to the Center’s survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers.

Men are more likely than women to be a boss or a top manager where they work (28% vs. 21%). This is especially the case among employed fathers, 35% of whom say they are the boss or one of the top managers where they work. (The varying attitudes between fathers and men without children at least partly reflect differences in marital status and educational attainment between the two groups.)

In addition to being less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they wouldn’t want to be in this type of position in the future. More than four-in-ten employed women (46%) say this, compared with 37% of men. Similar shares of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one day. These patterns are similar among parents.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

What is the gender wage gap in your metropolitan area? Find out with our pay gap calculator

• Gender & Work
• Gender Equality & Discrimination
• Gender Pay Gap
• Gender Roles

Women have gained ground in the nation’s highest-paying occupations, but still lag behind men

Diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, the enduring grip of the gender pay gap, more than twice as many americans support than oppose the #metoo movement, women now outnumber men in the u.s. college-educated labor force, most popular.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Age & Generations
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Economy & Work
• Family & Relationships
• Gender & LGBTQ
• Immigration & Migration
• International Affairs
• Internet & Technology
• Methodological Research
• News Habits & Media
• Non-U.S. Governments
• Other Topics
• Politics & Policy
• Race & Ethnicity
• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Copyright 2024 Pew Research Center

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

Reprints, Permissions & Use Policy

Oil settles slightly higher as Iran plays down reported Israeli attack

• Medium Text
• Both benchmarks posted biggest weekly decline since February
• Tehran indicates no plans for retaliation
• Iran oil sanctions including in pending U.S. bill

The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here.

Reporting by Nicole Jao and Laila Kearney in New York, Robert Harvey and Noah Browning in London, Deep Vakil in Bengaluru, Andrew Hayley in Beijing, Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by Barbara Lewis, Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Business Chevron

Five waves of UBS layoffs to start in June, SonntagsZeitung says

Layoffs under Swiss banking giant UBS's cost-cutting programme announced after its takeover of Credit Suisse will take place in five waves this year starting in June, newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.