Carrying our market research and establishing the needs of customers was essential to the success of Web 2001-2004. This guidance was provided to help countries and departments so they could establish through market research who their customers were and what needs they had.

Understanding your customers
How successful is your website? Some of you could give a detailed answer to that question. However, we know that many of you do not have the resources to provide such an answer. We realise that writing content in this instance is an intuitive process - relying mostly on a broad knowledge, hoping that the information you provide reaches the right market. For this reason, we have installed a new website analytics tool called Mtracking. This will provide you with detailed information on site visits, meaning you can judge the success of your pages and develop your site accordingly.

All sites that are hosted on the Obtree server in Manchester will be able to access the Mtracking service. Support also will be given by Internet Business Development (IBD) managers in analysing and using your results to develop your website structure and customer journeys.

For those who are beginning work in Obtree, developing new sites, tools like Mtracking will prove invaluable. In addition to this, we can also provide assitance with more detailed market research through our Confirmit service. Confirmit can be used to create and report on online customer surveys, to help understand the needs of your customers. Support will be given in creating and maintaining surveys. Training will be given for those who need to maintain their database of survey results. For more information on our Confirmit service, please visit our main IBD intranet site.

While IBD cannot offer detailed analysis of your survey results and site visit statistics, we can offer advice on how your results can be used in relation to planning your customer journeys and site architecture.

Resources

How to understand your Web customers and Internet usage (MS Word 167 Kb)
An important document, to be used throughout your project. The document highlights key areas of thinking that need to be covered when planning your new site, including statistics analysis and market research techniques.

Global Internet Digital Market Review 2002 (MS Word 100Kb)
Is annex B to the above document. Written by AKQA, it details the our audience online, country by country.

Through your customers' eyes (MS Word 26Kb)
A useful practice tool, this document gives you a selection of imagined (although likely) website customers. You can then design a customer journey for your website to suit them. This should be used in conjunction with the above document.

Methodology for the pilot market research in Japan (MS Word 30Kb)
This is a pilot market research project for the new Japan website. This should provide helpful information on how to conduct your market research.

Focus group guidelines (MS Word 44Kb)
Focus groups can prove invaluable when testing plans and ideas. They can also offer a real insight into your customers' opinions. In addition to these guidelines, a brief for the Japan focus group (MS Word 77Kb) is also available.

British Council online market analysis (MS Word 42Kb)
Conducted in April 2002, this report looks at all our country and corporate websites, 245 in total, with regard to their affect on audience awareness, appreciation, engagement and influence. In addition to the report, original data in spreadsheet and graph format is also available (MS Excel 131Kb).

The Global Market
To understand our online operations work in a global context, the business.com website provides a wide range of valuable market research resources.