An Essential Business Tool - Customer research is increasingly recognized as an essential strategic business tool today. If you're a marketing or product manager with a fixed budget and a customer base that seems more and more like a moving target, you know the value of good research.

New Generation Methods - But most conventional research methods, whether "quantitative" or "qualitative," simply aren't up to the task of delivering the crucial understanding and knowledge of customers that companies need in order to stay competitive. New, dynamic forms of research are emerging that tap into customers' inner worlds and explain their thoughts, feelings and perceptions in ways that can dramatically change the way you do business with them. BrandSequencing is one of these methods.

The following quote from BusinessWeek Online illustrates how in-depth research can uncover unexpected buying behavior that leads to significant branding strategies and increased profits:

"Thanks to its extensive customer research, Lowe's concluded several years ago that 80% of home-improvement decisions were initiated not my men, but by women. So Lowe's began making its stores cleaner and brighter and adding more designer-name goods by the likes of Laura Ashley and Michael Graves. So far, this formula is paying off: Profits rose 28%, last year, to $1.86 billion, on an 18% rise in sales. And in the latest BusinessWeek 50 rankings of the top-performing companies in the U.S., David bested Goliath: Lowe's vaulted to No. 9 on the list, while Home Depot finished at No. 22."*