Insights? If only
Our world of market research - or data, research and insights as Esomar calls it - is changing fast.
Lenny Murphy's list of the Top 150 market research companies published recently on the Greenbook platform (Greenbook Top 150 global MR companies) was an eye-opener: tech-heavy, some consulting companies, very USA centric, and lots of names that are honestly very new to me.
Our industry is changing indeed.
The amount of data that hits mine and no doubt many desks has likely increased exponentially.
But what about stuff that deserves the term "insights"? I predicted 2018 would be the year of quality - seems my crystal ball was a bit clouded, at least judging by what's on public display.
I'm consistently underwhelmed by the stream of e-mail updates with enticing headlines announcing new studies on target groups, new approaches on data analysis etc etc. If I can find the time to read to the end of a press release, it's often staggeringly banal. Insights? If only.
It's not seldom to hear the same criticism levelled at papers presented at conferences.
Would this have cut the mustard 15 years ago? I doubt it. Speed and frequency seem to have taken over, with standardisation and automation increasingly in place - the human touch aspect more questionable.
Maybe we are witnessing companies choosing to present their best thinking to clients privately, protecting their IP.
But the dulling down of insights seems a more widespread phenomenon, as suggested by an article in the current issue of Marketing Week, entitled "Today's marketers are missing true insight" (Marketing Week/ Cheryl Calverley). The author Cheryl Calverley, clientside CMO of Eve Sleep has the following to say:
"I find it astounding that the more sophisticated we get – with analytics, predictive modelling and rafts of data scientists – the less able we seem to be to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes and create brands and interactions that genuinely make their lives better."
Quite. Maybe qual agencies haven't been effective enough at promoting their undoubted skills of discovery and exploration.
It's also possible that as more IT and data folk become part of the new MR normal, there is a lack of time, desire or ability to tease out interesting and actionable insights - "real stuff" - let alone communicate it well.
Analytics can easily become abstract, narrowly focused on efficiencies; the concept of insights de-humanised, with less power to inspire and deliver on consumer-centricity.
From a practitioner perspective, all the above leads to a sense of disconnect, of bonds loosening. The economics of the new market research landscape may be a driving factor, but the core of what we're about, the drive to understsand, inspire, provoke and change behaviours is essential.
I hope insights are not getting lost in a deluge of data, increasingly standardised and automated to keep up with the crazy pace of digital.
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.