2024. November 6. 09:37
At the first Corporate Talk event of the autumn semester, Noémi Varga (Head of Strategic Marketing) and Gabriella Mezei-Mile (Shopper Marketing Team Leader), leaders of the Strategic Marketing Team at PENNY Hungary, provided insights on how they build on customer feedback and how they use qualitative research. For PENNY, many decisions are based on customer feedback, and this customer-centric approach permeates the entire company.
Focus on customers feedback
With the dynamics of the FMCG sector, direct contact with customers is essential for PENNY. The company constantly analyses market data (based on Nielsen and GfK surveys), competitors and considers every new marketing campaign or store design from the customers perspective. Qualitative research helps them understand how consumers react to an idea - whether it's a new campaign or a store redesign.
All research is a lesson
Customer research always brings new information. Whether it's about the reception of a campaign or repositioning (from Penny Market to PENNY.), customer feedback is always crucial. An interesting example was when asked about new fonts, customers were able to associate a whole personality to the font styles, helping to shape the visual identity.
Agency partnerships
PENNY works closely with market research agencies, but the marketing team remains an active part of the research. They attend focus group discussions, liaise with moderators and follow the research process throughout. The objectivity of the agencies is key to ensuring that feedback is unbiased and impartial.
Innovations in Research
The discussion revealed that PENNY is open to innovative research methods. For example, the researchers observe customers directly in stores during their purchases, gathering real experiences of customer behaviour. They also carry out online forums focused on home use, ethnographic research where shoppers share vlogs and photos, providing insights into their everyday use of products. They have also used innovative neuromarketing techniques, such as the eye camera, the results of which have been implemented through student projects with the help of the CoRe lab.
Store optimisation is also a priority for the company. PENNY uses heat-map analysis to study how shoppers move and make decisions in stores. Research shows that even the smallest details can have a big impact on the customer experience.
Although quantitative, numerical data is still more popular with senior managers, qualitative results are also increasingly accepted. In many cases, these studies provide direction for large-scale analysis. And quotes and visual elements (photos, videos) help to bring the voice of the customer directly to decision-makers, so that emotional factors are also included in corporate strategy.
Closing thoughts
The Corporate Talk discussion highlighted that customer opinion is key and that qualitative research, alongside quantitative data, is essential for real market success.