Written in collaboration with Edwin Harms,
KPN Head of the Residential Market Intelligence department (July 2010)

KPN's annual evaluation of market research agencies concludes SKIM as number one preferred supplier. "SKIM scores high on all aspects of our evaluation", says Edwin Harms.

KPN is the leading telecommunications company in The Netherlands, offering many different services, including mobile telephony, fixed telephony, Internet and television. Since 2004, SKIM has helped KPN with defining and fine-tuning its propositions and the pricing of those propositions by means of conjoint analysis.

Many studies have been conducted, in which finding the right balance between asking price and offering value to consumers has been of key focus. How do consumers value new features like an Internet connection on their mobile phone, and what are they willing to pay for them? Or, what happens to the customer base if we increase both our Internet speed and our price? As head of the Residential Market Intelligence department, Edwin Harms has been involved in many of the studies SKIM has done for KPN. We asked him to share his opinion about SKIM with you.

Edwin Harms: "SKIM scores high on all aspects of our evaluation. Their value for money is high, especially in more complex research studies."

Role of market research within KPN

Being in an industry where the pace of product development is fast, KPN's market research needs are relatively straightforward. Edwin Harms explains: "We want to understand what consumers want on various aspects of telecom in order to serve them as well as possible with our offerings. Most of the studies we do are outsourced to specialized agencies that have the required expertise and offer good value for money. SKIM for instance is very strong in pricing and proposition studies, so we let them take care of these studies for us."

With regards to the future of market research within KPN, Harms strongly believes in the power of standardisation. "When we standardise several types of market research studies we do, we can capture our learnings over the years to build on our collective knowledge. With SKIM we already do this in some of our categories, where we conduct a similar study every year. This helps us to better understand and explain the trends in our business."

Expertise in telecom and pricing & portfolio management

When selecting a market research agency, according to Harms, four aspects are relevant: "A market research agency should convince us of their expertise, value for money, their approach, and of course the working relationship with the agency. At KPN, SKIM is very much valued for its expertise in pricing and consumer value proposition research, through conjoint analysis. Furthermore, SKIM brings a strong understanding of the complex telecom industry, which is very much pricing oriented. And although SKIM is sometimes somewhat more expensive than other agencies, this is compensated by the value they offer: their value for money is high, especially in more complex studies."

Analytical skills and keeping promises

These elements are part of the reason that SKIM has been voted as best market research agency in the yearly KPN market research evaluation, for two years in a row. "Each year we evaluate the market research agencies we've worked with on a number of aspects; SKIM scored high on all of them.
In particular, SKIM's analytical skills, the way they keep their promises and their proactive, dedicated and flexible approach to our projects distinguishes them from other agencies. Not only during our projects but also after completion of our projects: SKIM does not stop when the report is delivered."

Expect great answers

Committed to actionable results, at SKIM we seek to provide our clients with great answers. According to Harms, great answers means enabling in market success. "SKIM's optimization of KPN's propositions is indeed an example of a result oriented answer to one of our complex business questions."

Want to know more? Don't hesitate to give us a call or drop an email!