Market research is an important step in articulating a brand. In fact, it’s arguably the most important step. If your brand is what you stand for in the minds of the people you’re trying to reach, influence, and move to action, then first you have to understand what those people think of your brand now. And by “those people,” I mean the people who are going to enroll at your institution, give you money, or say nice things about you to other people (who might be inclined to enroll or give you money.)
You can approach market research in many ways. That approach depends on your institution’s goals, competitive position, and internal dynamics.
But while there are many right ways to do market research, there are also some wrong ways that are all too common.
1. Talking to the wrong people.
The people who matter are your key audiences. They define the brand. The list of people can differ depending on your goals, but it generally includes current students (even though they are technically part of the institution, they’re still a key audience), prospective students, parents, and alumni.
It’s important to get the perspective of the key internal stakeholders, of course. Not only does it help you gain internal buy-in, it can also help define the questions that you ask the external folks. But in defining your brand, their opinions don’t matter nearly as much as the opinions of the external people.
2. Asking people to predict future behavior.
In my experience, if you ask people questions they will give you answers. They want to make you happy (particularly if they’re being paid), and they don’t want to look stupid. But people are really bad at predicting their own future behavior. Asking questions like, “If we developed a program in underwater basket-weaving, would you enroll?” leads to an inflated enrollment estimate. The most reliable answers are those related to past behavior.
3. Having the wrong competitive set.
You may want your institution to be like Harvard, but unless you’re in the top 10, it’s unlikely that your prospective students view you that way. Be honest about who your competitors are — they are the institutions with which you have the highest crossover in applications. You need to know how your audiences compare you to them. It’s fine to include a few “comparative” schools as well — schools you aspire to be like — as long as you keep it realistic.
4. Calling it quantitative when it’s really qualitative done with a questionnaire.
Quantitative research is predictive to a population of people. It requires a sample size large enough to be statistically reliable. Just because you ask 20 people to fill in an online survey doesn’t make it quantitative research. There’s no firm number of responses required to do a predictive survey, but 100 is a good estimate. It’s rare that you will get more than a 10 percent response rate for a survey, so that means you need to send AT LEAST 1,000 emails or make 1,000 phone calls to get the number you need. So if your list has fewer than 1,000 people, it’s unlikely you can do quantitative research.
5. Doing quantitative research when you should be doing qualitative research. Or vice versa.
Qualitative research answers the “why” questions. Quantitative research answers the “what” and “how much” questions. Both can be important, depending on your goals. But the mistake institutions often make is skipping right to quantitative research without understanding the “whys.” And internal decision-makers want to know “why.” We always recommend qualitative first. It not only answers “why,” but it helps ensure that you are asking the right questions in quantitative studies.
6. Leading the witness.
“Don’t you think that Acme Community College offers just as good an education as Big State University?” Don’t ask questions people have difficulty saying no to. Two tips to reduce bias:
If the answers are overwhelmingly positive (or negative), it’s likely you have a biased interview outline.
Want to learn more? We recently published a white paper that explores the specific challenges of higher education branding and gives you strategies for clearing the most common hurdles.