Problem Detection combines Qualitative & Quantitative research methods to reveal Key Competitive Weaknesses.

Devised by BBDO in the early 1970's,  PDR led to Burger King's most effective ad campaign. Learn how this consumer research method can work for you.
 

     Qualitative research methods, such as focus groups or in-depth one-on-one interviews, probe for attitudes, core beliefs, and emotional  reactions to concepts or existing products.  Often focus groups will play back ideas they've heard or read in advertising. The results are inferential.

     
     Quantitative research methods, such as surveys, polls and mall- intercepts, ask a large sample of persons to rationally score a list of simple statements. The results can be projected with some confidence into the general population.

Problem Detection Research combines Qualitative & Quantitative methods to discover what people most dislike about a larger competitor's product or service.

   Then you offer a better alternative in operations and advertising.  

The basic flaw in most consumer research is that if you ask people what they want from a product or service, they will play back generic messages they've heard in advertising.  You get statistical mush.

However, people love to gripe. If you ask what problems they have with existing brands, they will happily oblige you with long litanies of real or imagined competitive faults.

Step One.  Qualitative Research.

     Assemble one or two focus groups of people who patronize your main competition.  Ask them to think of any problems, gripes, or other points of dissatisfaction they may have. Play devil's advocate. Take notes.  Compile a list of 40 to 50 gripes - anything that might be mentioned by anyone.  

Step Two. Quantitative Research.

     Ask a hundred or so people via telephone, mall-intercept or online surveys to score each gripe on frequency and importance.  Use a 1-to-10 scale for each parameter.  

    "How often does this occur?  How important is it to you?"

     Compute the Frequency X Importance scores for each gripe. The highest scoring gripes are your competitor's key vulnerabilities.  

Step Three. Technical Scrutiny.

     Identify the highest scoring problem that you can solve - either with a product or service change, packaging, or simply with better advertising. Then concentrate your efforts on that positioning. 

This technique was first used by BBDO in New York back in the early 1970's to determine the correct strategy for Burger King, which was then quite a bit smaller than McDonald's.

PDR revealed that people's biggest problem with McDonald's was that they always made their sandwiches the same way.  After technical scrutiny and some minor operations changes, Burger King launched its famous "Have It Your Way" campaign.

"Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us..." 

Here's how Problem Detection can work for a smaller company, like yours. 

     The Speedy Cleaner chain could ask people what they want from any dry cleaner. They'd say, "24 Hour Service", "Low Prices," and "Clean Clothes."  Why?  Because those generic promises appear on the big sign outside ACE CLEANERS down the street.

     In a PDR, you ask the same people if they have any problems with ACE.  Make a list.  Then call a couple hundred people and ask them to participate in a brief interview.  You might limit the gripe list to 10 to 15 problems you think you could solve.  

     Average the Frequency and Importance scores, then compute the quotients.  Your score sheet might look like this:

	ACE CLEANERS PDR - 214 Respondents
		FREQ	IMP	F X I
1	Prices higher than others	2	7	14
2	Inconvenient store hours	1	5	5
3	Inconvenient location	6	2	12
4	Owners not on site	3	1	3
5	Dry cleaning doesn't remove all spots	3	9	27
6	Dry cleaning damages fine clothing	2	10	20
7	Dry cleaning leaves whites dingy	6	7	42
8	Shirts not always crisply starched	2	8	16
9	Shirts are not well-pressed	1	7	7
10	Items of clothing are missing	1	10	10
11	No one to do minor repairs	9	2	18
12	Buttons are missing on shirts	2	8	16
13	Collar stays are missing on shirts	7	2	14
	AVERAGE	3.5	6.0	15.7

      Clearly Number 7 - DINGY WHITES - got the highest score: 6 Frequency X 7 Importance = 42.  A lot of people think that ACE leaves their dry cleaning a little dingy, AND that's a fairly important issue.  

Notice that everyone knows ACE doesn't do minor repairs (#11), but that's not too important (9 x 2).  Ace also damages fine clothing (#6), but not too often (2 x 10). 

Notice also that left to your own devices, you might decide that the most important thing to talk about are your convenient locations or store hours!

      Dingy Whites are ACE's Achilles Heel.   

     Can you fix that problem? 

     Proceed to TECHNICAL SCRUTINY.   

     Perhaps most dry cleaners use the same batch of cleaning solvent all day long.  By the end of the day, the last whites in come out soaked in other people's dirt.  It might cost you extra money to change your solvent say three times a day, but if you did that, you could promise:

     You'd expect lots of people who dislike ACE's dingy to try SPEEDY.  That's basically what happened when BK ran "Have it your way..." against McDonald's.

     Before you spend a great deal of money on generic advertising, spend a lot less on Problem Detection.  Use the results to answer Question II in your Creative Work Plan.  PDR combines qualitative & quantitative research methods in devastating tool that can help you beat the Other Guys at their own game. 

   03/27/06