Market Research - are we ignoring the rules of Brand-Building?
As our industry changes, it seems the rules of profitable brand building are being sidelined.
How many people in Market Research are familiar with Les Binet’s and Peter Field’s 2013 paper The Long and the Short of It, I wonder?
A few key messages -
i) Brand building leads to long term sales growth; sales activation lifts short term sales with NO longer term growth
ii) Marketing with broadest audience or reach ambitions leads to bigger profits
iii) Brand building reduces price sensitivity.
Members of the IPA can access the paper here: The Long and the Short of It. Otherwise it’s available on Amazon. The points above I took directly from slides available free online here, authored only by Mr. Binet Advertising effectiveneness - the long and the short of it.
Are MR folk aware/ mindful of this important empifically sound thinking? Judging from the direction much of the industry seems to be currently taking, I’d think either not enough, or it’s being ignored.
Market Research Myopia?
Take a quick look at the sort of agency propositions being financed heavily currently - they’re often SaaS based.
And the skillsets needed? Sales, IT, Finance - mainly, it seems. Research expertise is all baked into the software. Marcomms roles are too often junior, tactical, and peopled by folk lacking MR industry experience or expertise.
At worst, this can lead to an unfocussed, push-style sales approach - which is surprising, since my take is that outward bound sales activities aren’t that effective.
Branding doesn’t feature.
Take my experience at a recent trade fair. I talked to someone at a booth of a very succesful AI based predictions company.
The person was very keen to find out about my needs - he was in sales. A graduate with 2 years experience. Was he a researcher, I asked? No, business development. A humanities graduate, with no additional experience or training in MR methodology - nor scientific method (my prejudical assumption, I didn’t ask).
Feed the Funnel
Business development seems to be the job description of choice at the moment - not marketing, not branding, but a politer way of saying sales. Leads generation. Funnel activation. Now.
Which is all fine - if it works. But how many of the sales approaches you have experienced over the past year or two have really been qualified?
And from an equity POV: coming back to the Binet/Field work: activation of the brand funnel only works if the front-end is being feed or replenished with things like…..thought pieces. Trend studies. New methods or approaches.
Or more basically: ensuring enough of all your potential customers know what your company does, what sets it apart, and are likely to think of you when they next have a CFP.
Whatever the economic climate, brands that neglect the necessary support - in whatever form - are milked for a few years tend to do ok until about 3 years, when their substance is weakened.
If too many in the industry have that as their time horizon, we are in for a shaky ride in the not-too distant future.
Curious, as ever, as to others’ views.
(Photo: Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash)