What is market research?

It is the technique of looking at and understanding customers’ attitudes and their behaviour in all aspects of considering a brand. Research is about measuring and diagnosing. Research is your radar system. It is there to help you, not to make decisions for you. But a good research insight can lead you to a brilliant place.

But there’s a problem. Research is used politically so people in business can blame the consumer … ‘Well, they said…’ to substitute for the marketers’ own failure to think.

‘Most people use research much as a drunkard uses a lamppost – more for support than illumination.’

(David Ogilvy)

And I love this from the late, great Anita:

‘Using research to manage a business is like using the rear-view mirror to drive a car.’

(Dame Anita Roddick)

We know that research is, at best, a pretty blunt tool. We know that asking, ‘What do you think of lavatory paper?’ is unlikely to provoke a useful or even a truthful answer.

We have seen a diminishing credibility in the accuracy of political polls, with the remarkable exception of YouGov – due in part to its being completed privately and online. Doing things online tends to make you dispassionately honest in a way a normal questionnaire doesn’t. An expert recently described the web as a ‘disinhibiting environment’.

Old-fashioned research is history

Would we have had the fire or wheel if they had undergone market research?

There was a series of films created by the Idea Group in San Diego about focus groups held with cavemen. (Check it out on Google.) The first was about fire, which to a Neanderthal they agreed would be better if it were cool not dangerously hot, and more symmetrical, and if it were green not red, which is too aggressive a colour, reminiscent of blood and death. If there were a cool green fire I might buy it, one said. So fire, as we know it, got the thumbs-down; as did the wheel, which they thought might run away downhill and hurt someone. So much better, they agreed, if it were square – much safer. Watch it – if nothing else puts you off focus groups this will. It’s a brilliant little campaign, very funny and pointed, but most of all containing terrifying notes of truth.

New-wave research is trying to involve respondents as partners rather than objects of observation. Recruit a diverse group of creative minds and have a conversation with them – this is the way to go, as opposed to old-fashioned ‘clocking-in’ research.

Types of research

In simple terms, there’s ‘quantitative research,’ which involves recruiting large panels of customers that can comprise:

• Ad hoc work to investigate a market.
• Tracking studies (such as Target Group Index or Taylor Nelson’s shopper studies).
• Online research, such as that popularised by YouGov.co.uk.
• Brand purchase and stocking trends (Nielsen).
• Brand-switching studies that show how many people change brands, how often and precisely when – a way of measuring the power of marketing activity (Nielsen or GKK).
• Advertising research – day-after recall work and effectiveness studies on a broader front done by people such as Millward Brown.
• Major government-funded social and economic studies.
• Market studies such as those produced by Mintel.

And there’s ‘qualitative research’, which commonly comprises:

• Focus groups (or group discussions) usually lasting two hours and comprising a moderator with seven or so specially recruited respondents.
• Depth interviews – one-to-one research work, typically an intensive hour’s interview.

‘Respected’ research is expensive. By this I mean the sort of research private equity and investment banks like. But limit this if you can and spend your own money on understanding, provoking and advancing consumer ideas.

Good researchers are often the brightest and most exciting intellects you’ll encounter in marketing and tend to be adept at benchmarking things such as advertising and new products. When a professional researcher says, ‘In my experience …’ it usually pays to listen, especially if they’re relaxed and ‘off duty’, because they have listened to an awful lot of people in their time.

Useful web sites are the Market Research Society, the market research national and international body which has two useful sites: www.mrs.org.uk and www.theresearchbuyersguide.com (I refer to this latter one later on). More is more when it comes to learning.

Good, investigative research leads to discoveries like the one Prius made about their solar panels and air-cooled snoozing drivers. Good research tells you a deodorant called ‘No-Sweat’ might work in Australia, but probably not so well elsewhere.

Trusting your own eyes and ears

But our mission is brilliance, not mediocrity, which is why I want to focus on some easy-to-set-up research techniques that can lead you personally to eureka moments. As Warren Buffett said:

‘In the end I always believe my own eyes rather than something else.’

1. Online questionnaires. They are cheap to administer and once you have a reasonable sample of respondents you can get very fast responses to questions you have.
2. Consumer-complaint chat rooms. Robert Heller, the management guru, said his dilemma was that only one person in ten who had a complaint actually bothered to complain. He advocated soliciting complaints and dealing with them.
3. Brand surgeries. Brand surgeries come from the world of politics and are the way you, the brand steward, gets to meet your customers (your voters) and test out the temperature every now and again.
4. Super-groups. Consumer councils of reasonably expert people.
5. What’s new, pussycat? This is about having a bunch of bright ‘vigilantes’ (vigilant people) who, just in the course of their normal lives, keep their eyes open for exciting innovations. The Dutch innovation watchers called Trendwatching (the B2C division) and their B2B division, Springwise, have 8,000 trend spotters.

But if you want to know what’s going on in a market go out and talk to people. What could be simpler? It may not be objective but it’ll get you thinking.

How to choose brilliant research companies

• You want the best brains. So the first question is how smart are they? Only the best will help you to be brilliant and they MUST be great at speaking in simple, easy-to-understand language.
• They must bring insights to what you are doing that provide exceptional value.
• They must have track records in your area so they can benchmark their observations against competition.
• Ask to see them at work before you hire them. Everyone has a right to test-drive an expensive sports car, which is what they are like.
• Avoid big and boring. Contact www.theresearchbuyersguide.com to find out who’s doing good stuff right now.
• And better still choose a brilliant person, not a company … someone who will tell you the truth. There are lots of good people around. Ask other marketers.

The pros and cons of research

Research is a vital tool in brilliant marketing, but it is a chisel and sometimes your brilliance has been to create a beautiful marketing mahogany table. Be careful how you use one on the other.

Real brilliance comes from a passionate interest in people and a desire to know how they tick. It also comes from the realisation that many people change their minds, their habits and nearly 40 per cent of them their partners.

1. Research has drawbacks. It works on what has happened in the past – it is poor at trying to see the future and the really big things like life, death, fire and wheels.
2. Think hard before you do paid-for research – DIY research is a great place to learn.
3. But if you do, only use the best, brightest researchers. Too much work is done by low-grade moderators working with respondents who are groupies, spending most of their lives in sitting rooms in group discussions. Ask yourself if you’d trust these people to tell you how to run your life.
4. Research is a radar system. Good research can provide you with great insights – look out for the insights, not the whole truth.
5. Use your own ears and eyes too. Make sure you have your own conduits to consumers. You cannot be a brilliant marketer unless you have a direct line to enough people who use and understand your brand.
6. Are your key customers committed to your brand? The key in building a brilliant brand is to find as many people as you can who are really committed to it, not just loyal but who actually adore it.