The PROGRESS Consult Consultancy House was founded in 1996. Its activities are in the sphere of information and economic analyses, marketing and social research, market projections, business and management consulting, media planning and communication strategies.

We apply both quantitative and qualitative methods in our marketing research. The quantitative studies focus on the behaviour and attitudes of the consumers from the retail segment, as well as on the companies in the country. Studies based on combined methodologies are usually prepared for the Company's main partners.

The stable methodology used for years allows the Consultancy House both to register the current state of the markets, and to detect the most subtle movements and processes in the behaviour and attitudes of the customers of the respective companies in the sector in question. This is due to the traditional blocs that have been monitored for years and allow adequate comparisons. This accumulated experience makes it possible to make early projections, based in some cases on still minimal movements.

In addition to the regularly prepared products, the PROGRESS Consult Consultancy House performs studies and prepares specially ordered analyses for its customers. This type of products can cover all aspects of the activities of the assignor: the attitude and the satisfaction of the customers of the respective institution; testing of new products and identifying price niches for them; the prospects before new representative offices to be opened in a region; measuring the impact of advertising campaigns, etc.

Similar studies and analyses are made for the needs of banks, insurance and leasing companies, pension and investment funds, trade representations, networks of shops, newly-established enterprises, advertising agencies.

We are striving:

• to explore the potential consumers of certain products and services;
• to identify their basic attitudes for the choice of a brand and the characteristics of their customer behaviour;
• to discover the most essential characteristics of the product or service sought by them;
• to define the most promising target for our partners;
• to analyse the ways of reaching the consumers most effectively: from building a correct marketing policy to creating an economical but maximally effective communication strategy.

By integrating marketing and communications, we are in a position both to help our partners, which are among the leading companies, maintain their leading positions and contribute to the stabilising of the state of those that are experiencing temporary difficulties.

When we build the whole range of actions, we build the following construction:

• We measure the market;
• We identify the characteristics of the consumer behaviour and attitudes;
• We indicate the key elements of the product that could attract the attention of consumers;
• We identify the price range within which the product can be sold most successfully;
• We outline the groups of consumers guided by similar factors in their choice;
• We identify the specific individual characteristics of these consumer groups;
• We find the cross-section between the most promising groups of potential customers;
• We register their media behaviour;
• We create an economical but more effective communication based on the direct target.

Quantitative surveys

Surveys of this type are carried out as representative for the entire population, for the population of certain regions and for defined specific target groups and communities, mainly by the method of face-to-face interviews.

Along the same lines, we carry out quantitative surveys representative for both the companies in this country and for companies in certain regions or companies in individual industries.

Where the need of express information or of the most general orientation on certain problems arises, we also provide telephone surveys.

Qualitative surveys

We hold group discussions with representatives of a certain target for an in-depth study of consumer motivations from the specified target, for testing products, packages, advertisement campaigns, story boards or completed video spots.

Another method we apply in case of such commissions is in-depth interviews with representatives of the specified target.

Mystery shopping

In case of need of assessment of the operation of a given network of sites, of market conduct and the application of corporate standards on the part of the employees of a given company, we carry out research by the method of mystery shopping which, particularly when applied systematically, over equal intervals of time, give the opportunity to better evaluate the work of the company structure and employees.

PROGRESS Consult is a member of the Bulgarian Mystery Shopping Association (BMSA).

Marketing and communication strategies

At the final stage of work with our partners we are capable of preparing individual modules for their marketing and/or communication strategies. These analyses and suggestions are based on our specialized studies of the markets of the respective companies, the conduct and attitudes of their consumers, their factors and motives for choosing a given product or company by grouping them in specific consumer groups strictly designated according to their conduct or attitudes.

By testing the media consumption of the direct potentially most favorable target we develop communication suggestions (including to the point of recommendations what media specific by type and name can be used with the greatest return on advertisement costs) which are based on the actual specifics of that target's media consumption, not on formally defined by general demographic characteristics groups.

Financial institutions

We conduct regular studies and prepare analyses on the markets of banks, insurance and leasing companies, pension and other funds.

The principal distinguishing features of our products for the markets of the banks and insurance companies are:

• Strict differentiation between the retail and the corporate segments, the studies and analyses being made in successive months for the two segments (twice a year) so as to trace clearly the positioning of the different banks as a whole;
• The actual marketing studies are unambiguously focused on the financial behaviour of the individuals and of the companies, and are not part of studies covering all kinds of themes; the strict specialisation applied by us makes it possible to obtain information of extremely high quality and big volume;
• The reports submitted do not contain only data in graphic or tabular form, they analyse in detail every point in the study, using for comparison also data from the previous two or three years, which makes it possible to explain much more accurately some of the processes taking place, and not merely to take a snapshot of the current moment;
• It is absolutely mandatory to present every point in comparison with the two previous periods with a view to tracing the registered tendencies in greater detail;
• Our long experience in the sphere of the markets of the financial institutions in cooperation with our customers has resulted in the fact that the reports that we are drafting are customised so as to meet the needs of the concrete directorates or managements in such a way that they would be able to use certain parts of the analyses directly, and each report is accompanied by a management summary for the needs of the top management;
• It is a practice of our Consultancy House to make presentations once or twice a year upon customer's request, during which we report our observations on the most important points containing serious changes in the financial behaviour of the individuals and the companies;
• In view of the serious share of the research on the impact of advertising in these studies, as well as our specific research on the audiences of the media, we are in a position to compare the customer target-groups with the audiences of the media and with the extent of the impact of the individual communication carriers, which allows us to participate, upon request, in drafting extremely precise media plans and strategies.

METHODOLOGY FOR DEFINITION OF THE COMMON BRAND MARKETING POWER COEFFICIENT

An additional option in the marketing surveys is the novel methodology for calculation of the Brand Marketing Power Coefficient, developed by Progress consult in the last 15 years, and available at the present moment.

This methodology allows for measuring the marketing power of the company/brand in comparison with the marketing power of its competitors. The value of this Coefficient shows direct and unambiguous correlation with the real market share of the company/brand. The composite Coefficient comprises constituent modules which, when separately analyzed, give even more detailed information about the strengths and the weak points of the company and the competitors.

The modules represent those concrete features of the positioning of the company/brand in consumers' mind and behaviour, which – among the numerous marketing indicators, directly determine the marketing power of the company/brand. Their structure builds the construction that effectively establishes a company/brand in the respective market sector. The long term of preparation of the methodology allowed of the identification of exactly those most important elements that have crucial significance for the positioning of the company/brand. In addition to the composite Brand Marketing Power Coefficient, the analyses within this methodology present the relations between the constituent elements - communication efficiency, customers' loyalty, ability of the company/brand to meet their demands and necessities, etc. This allows to highlight with high precision the weak points and the advantages of the company/brand in comparison to its rivals.

The principal result of this methodology is that all important companies/brands in a given market sector are placed in the coordinate system of the sector according to the Brand Marketing Power Coefficient, they have achieved to the moment, and according to their share of customers. Thus, every company/brand can compare with the leader and/or the rest of the competitors.

The reliability of the methodology allows in the long term - with repeated analyses within subsequent surveys, to follow the dynamics in the development of the commensurate, as well as the accomplishments and the downsides of the company/brand and its competitors in each one of the modules constituting the composite Coefficient.