Leveraging your internal customer list for research can provide invaluable insights that drive product development, packaging decisions, brand perception analysis, and customer segmentation. By directly engaging with your existing customers, you can gather feedback that is both relevant and actionable, leading to more informed business decisions.

In our previous blog post, we covered best practices for conducting research using your email lists.

Now, let’s dive into specific examples of how you can utilize your customer list to enhance various aspects of your business strategy.

Below are some examples of research that can be done using your internal customer list:

Product Development/Ideation

• Before spending resources on developing new products, gather input from current customers.

• In early ideation stages, understand if the idea has legs or if there is some other product out there that is similar.  

• Are they aware of this type of product? 

• What do they think about it? 

• Do they currently purchase them from another brand? 

• Are they currently satisfied with their purchase? 

• What do they like/dislike about this product? 

• What are the benefits?

• In the later stages of product development, these types of questions are still important, but you may want to focus more on specifics - do they like it, would they buy it? 

• How would they use it? What benefits are important and compelling? 

• How much are they willing to pay to purchase your product?

Please note that it is important to test new product ideas with prospective clients as well.

Package Tests

• Perhaps you’ve decided to refresh your packaging, whether it be due to costs, sustainability or standing out. This can have a direct impact on the brand as packaging visually represents what the brand stands for. 

• Test out the new packaging by sharing mockups with your current customer base to ensure you don’t alienate them from your brand and find the design that speaks best to your overall brand. 

• In this instance, it is important to gauge their thoughts on current packaging alongside other options your team is considering.

• What do they currently like/dislike about your new packaging? 

• How strongly do they associate it with your brand? 

• How likely are they to notice it in-stores? 

• What words or emotions come to mind when they see the new packaging?

Please note that it is important to test new packages with prospective customers as well.

Brand Perceptions / Competitive Analysis

Gauge your performance against competitive brands. Identify how your brand compares to competitors amongst your current customer base to quickly identify strengths and weaknesses.

• Are they aware of these brands? 

• Do they purchase from them? 

• If so, how often, for what categories/products, and how satisfied are they?

Understanding your customers' awareness, purchasing and satisfaction from competitors can help you determine what strategies are needed to grow your brand (market penetration? Customer retention? etc).

Use this to also identify brand loyalty and perceptions of brands.

• How much do they like/dislike the brands? 

• How likely are they to recommend each brand? 

• What thoughts or emotions come to mind when they think of each brand? 

• How do they perceive each brand? 

This information can help with specific messaging regarding the brand.

• Gather intel on competitive brands by discovering where they are advertising. Your customers may provide insights as to where your target customers discover new brands.

• Where have they seen/heard about these brands? Friends and family, different social media platforms, influencers etc.

Segmentation

Even if you already have demographics on your customers, a deep dive into your customer base allows you to understand them more comprehensively. Identifying their behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, hobbies, communication habits can allow you to build out profiles. 

These profiles represent different groups within your customer base that share similar characteristics. 

• This can be used to target specific profiles with products/product lines and messaging to enhance brand perception and loyalty.

These insights could help in multiple ways: prioritize segments that are larger and more profitable, more efficient targeting for ads, messages or products, more focused product development that address the needs of specific segments, better ways to identify and reach consumers  that share similar profiles as your current customers but have not heard of your brand.

When it comes to research, you don’t have to spend a ton to get high quality, professional research. Lab42 has experience conducting research using our clients’ lists, and understands the best practices to increase the response rate among your customers when using email lists.