At SDR Consulting, we pride ourselves on not only being good business people and good consultants, but also very good at teaching what we know. We can put together custom seminars and workshops on a variety of topics such as:

• Marketing strategy,
• New product development
• Pricing strategy and pricing research
• Market structure and market segmentation
• Product and service positioning
• Marketing research, from the basics to advanced techniques

Each seminar can be customized to address specific learning needs within your organization. Please contact us to discuss your organization's needs and we will put together a program tailored for you. Examples:

Strategic Marketing

Stefan Bathe

Marketing is inherently strategic - at least it ought to be, with few exceptions.

Strategy is about the successful integration of processes. Market Research, product design, promotion, market feedback, etc. are just some of the processes that are part of strategic marketing. Too often these processes are executed in their own little "organizational niches" - which can lead to contradictory results and recommendations, or even worse: wasted time and resources.

This seminar will take a very practical approach to the integration of the key marketing processes, and how that integration will lead to the development of a successful marketing strategy.

What you will learn:

• The potential components of a successful marketing strategy
• To decide which components are relevant to your business
• Processes to integrate those components throughout the organization
• The organizational requirements for a successful marketing strategy
• The communication requirements for a successful marketing strategy
• The information needs to support the strategic marketing process

• How to design and execute the individual components of marketing strategy (but recommendations for further learning will be provided)
• Formulas - this seminar is not about prescribed methods

John Wurst

Marketing researchers have increasingly turned to discrete choice to address questions concerning product and price optimization and strategy. This methodology offers important advantages over alternative procedures. Responses are selections from alternative offerings as opposed to preference ratings or rankings, unique features and prices for individual products are easily handled, and market shares are estimated directly from the model. However, proper application of this procedure is not always straightforward. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a practitioner-oriented introduction to discrete choice analysis.

What you will learn:

• An overview that defines discrete choice analysis
• Discussion of its various applications
• A contrasting of discrete choice to alternative methods
• Design and data collection issues
• Modeling and model estimation
• Interpreting the results
• Market simulators
• What can go wrong and how to avoid problems
• Recent developments

John Wurst

Marketing professionals often feel uncomfortable with their backgrounds in multivariate methods. Multivariate courses often dwell on the technical details leaving students lost among the trees. The purpose of this course is to present many of the more popular methodologies from a practitioner orientation. Regression, factor analysis, discriminant analysis, segmentation, and conjoint will be presented from a conceptual standpoint. Emphasis will be placed on the different types of business issues that the methods can address, how the methods work intuitively (there will be few formulas), and the benefits they provide. Numerous real world examples and cases will be utilized. Attendees will obtain a conceptual foundation that will enable them to recognize when certain multivariate methods would be beneficial, how they should and shouldn't be applied, and how to interpret deliverables derived from the methods.

Market Segmentation - Beyond the Basics

Stefan Bathe

This is a true, interactive seminar dedicated to discussing advanced topics in the analytical and measurement procedures used to develop market segments.

The tutorial goes beyond the "how-to-do-it" aspects and instead deals with the "how-to-use-it" aspects of segmentation. Discussions will center around real-life examples which are used to highlight the potentials of well executed segmentations and the pitfalls of poor segmentation efforts.

A working knowledge of the basic concepts of market segmentation and preferably some practical experience conducting and/or using segmentations. A basic understanding of cluster and discriminat analysis is most helpful.

Attendees will have a better understanding of the many issues involved in the successful design and implementation of market segmentation studies and will learn about some new tools and techniques for executing segmentation projects.

AMA Advanced School of Marketing Research

http://ecommerce.ama.org/evsystem/asmr.htm

Concept and Product Testing

Rob Arnett

Marketers need to know the business potential for new products and services before they are launched in order to:

• Determine their viability in the market
• Properly set the level and type of marketing support for the launch
• Set expectations for product performance with management, shareholders, and the retail trade

There are a number of available approaches to assessing business potential for a new product that is in development. These research methods can alert marketers to potentially fatal flaws in the product or marketing plan, and provide solid direction for go/no go decisions. This session will review and explain the primary methods available for assessing the business potential for new products.

Assessing Marketing Potential for New Products

Rob Arnett

New products are the engine of sales and profit growth in many companies. But the road to new product success is littered with many product failures. A well-run new product development process, using the best concept and product testing methods available, is the best way to get successful new products to market as quickly and efficiently as possible. This session will discuss how to design advanced concept and product tests to support the new product development process, as well as applications for existing products as well.

Marketing Strategy to Marketing Research

Stefan Bathe

This session provides the link between the execution and the application of market research in the business process. Course will provide an overview of the strategic marketing process; how the different aspects of market research can be integrated; and, how they should be used to support that process. The key theme is integration: rather than viewing market research as a series of "studies", we will take a more holistic view.

Marketing Structure and Segmentation

Stefan Bathe

Segmentation and market structure analysis are key pieces of the strategic marketing process. They provide critical guidance from opportunity identification through to target market selection, positioning, and go-to-market strategy. This session includes discussions on segmentation objectives, segmentation basis variables, measurement issues, alternative segmentation procedures and approaches, and implementation issues.

Experimental Design for Conjoint and Discrete Choice

John C. Wurst

Marketing researchers have increasingly turned to conjoint and discrete choice experiments to address questions about product and price optimization and strategy. Fundamental to these techniques is the plan for running the study, which is called the experimental design. The purpose of this session is to provide a practitioner-oriented introduction to experimental designs for conjoint and discrete choice analysis. The session will cover:

• The definition of an experimental design.
• A comparison of conjoint and discrete choice designs.
• Balance, orthogonality, design efficiency
• Methods to assess and compare alternative designs
• How to obtain good designs

In addition, real-world examples from the instructor's experience will be presented.

AMA Marketing Workshop

http://ecommerce.ama.org/wk/index.html

Introduction to Marketing Strategy - Basic/Review

William D. Neal, Senior Executive Officer, SDR Consulting

• The development of customer-driven strategic planning
• The interface between strategic planning and strategic marketing
• Developing strategic marketing plans at the market and product level
• Information sources for supporting the strategic marketing process
• Processes and procedures for developing an effective strategic marketing plan
• Current management practices and how they fit

Benefits of Attending: Attendees will learn about the strategic planning process and the integration of marketing strategy and business strategy. We will provide a roadmap for developing a strategic marketing plan and discuss all of the elements in that plan. The take-away from this tutorial is that attendees will acquire an operational framework for developing an effective marketing strategy and learn how to develop a strategic marketing plan that fosters sustainable competitive advantage.

"Excellent program that provided a step-by-step model to use on the job."

Basics of Quantitative Research - Basic/Review

Stefan Bathe, Managing Partner, SDR Consulting

What's the right sample size? Will this questionnaire get me the information I need? Should I use telephone interview or cut costs with a mail survey? This two-hour session will give participants a step-by-step approach for designing a quantitative research study. Participants will get practical help with problem definition, developing and prioritizing research objectives, setting research budgets and understanding the cost drivers in surveys, sampling methods and sample size, measurement issues, questionnaire development, data collection and basic analysis.

Benefits of Attending: Attendees will be better able to define marketing problems in terms research can address, and will come away with realistic expectations for what research can and cannot do. You will be better equipped to interact with your colleagues in research inside or outside your organization in such a way that your objectives are met on time and on budget. In addition, attendees in organizations with no inside research support will become better equipped to conceive and design quantitative research, to manage execution and analysis by external researchers, and to interpret and implement quantitative research results.

"This course was a quick, but applicable overview of market research for someone outside of the field or just beginning in the field."

Strategic New Product Development - Best Practice

Rob Arnett, Managing Partner, SDR Consulting

Solid new product strategy coupled with a well-run new product development process is the best way to get successful new products to market as quickly and efficiently as possible. This interactive session will focus on the following topics:

• Creating a new product strategy
• Building cross-functional teams to drive innovation
• Designing and managing a new product development process
• Planning marketing programs to support new product launches

Benefits of Attending: Participants will learn how to develop a successful strategy for creating new products, as well as how to implement that strategy using a stage-gate new product development process.

"Very relevant, real world material to my new product situation."

2005 AMA Executive Insights Conference

Insights to Impact

http://ecommerce.ama.org/evsystem/executive.htm

Rob Arnett - Conference Committee Chair

Learn from research leaders and marketing executives in diverse industries how to generate business insights that will drive your company's growth. Choose from a variety of topics and speakers to find the ones most relevant to you. Ask questions of today's research leaders and leverage their expertise to improve your company, your department, and your career. Network with other senior research executives in a relaxed setting designed to promote camaraderie and information sharing.

What you will learn:

• Learn how to generate business insights that will drive your company's growth.
• Leverage the expertise of research leaders to improve your company, your department and your career.
• Access to new techniques and approaches to problems.
• Network with other senior research executives in a relaxed setting designed to promote camaraderie and information sharing.