Nursing the Magic of Research
The changes that research has undergone over the past 20 years or so have been considerable.
The modal switches have been notable - f2f, phone, digital - then Social Media monitoring, biometric approaches becoming quick and affordable.
Behavioural Economics-cum-Science has helped many frame challenges differently.
Online communities have charged forwad into the mainstream, digital qual too.
There’s lots more. Innovation working its wonders seemingly.
Innovation Powering Growth?
And if you take a look at the growth levels documented in the latest ESOMAR report, it’s breathtaking: 2021 saw overall global growth of +15% vs 2020. The tech sector is doing better still, at +18,9%, and in the US a giddy +24,3%.
These are astonishing figures. Just compare them with other categories - or GDP levels of many mature economies, where mid-single figure growth is regarded as stellar. Powered by some or all of the innovations mentioned above.
So we are in a good place - and the mood should be euphoric.
But is it? As ever, it depends on where you’re looking from.
If you are one of ESOMAR’sTop 5 Global Insights providers - IQVIA, Gartner, Salesforce, Adobe or the Nielsen Company - is this uptick up revenue translating into a mixture of benefits, soft and hard, for employees?
I don’t know anyone well enough in the respective departments at these huge tech companies to even guess an answer. I wouldn’t even know who to ask for.
Let’s assume all is good with the “leaders”. Satisfaction levels up, salaries matching inflation. And let’s accept that the contribution of Adobe’s Experience Cloud to an optimised Consumer Decision Journey as documented here (Adobe/ Seamless Customer Journey) constitutes an “insight”.
But what about the rest?
Uneven Growth Benefits
From my personal observations, the magic dust of market research is spread unevenly.
The providers of data, of panels, seem to be enjoying great growth, and the mood at least at the recent succeet trade fair in Munich was very upbeat.
In other segments, it’s more sanguine - pricing power is often limited in qualitative research, for example.
And ambitious consultative MR boutiques have to compete with the likes of BCG and McKinsey, with their huge reach and management access.
But what about “traditional” MR - those for one reason or another not really profiting from the positive impacts of scale, AI, software in one form or another?
The challenges are clear - staffing retention and acquisition, rising costs, competition through DIY. Is it as much fun as the growth rates - within Europe a still whopping +9% according to ESOMAR - suggest?
Cherish the Human in MR
However the answer falls out for sub-segments and individual companies within “trad MR”, I would say is that the human aspect in all of this tech-powered, data-driven growth needs cherishing - whether or not the growth rates are based on a realistic market definition.
The magic in research comes from people. The people we talk to - the people we work with. Individuals - with levels of quirkiness that might not be met in other industries.
Data isn’t much on its own - the magic comes from the people filtering, applying their lens. Strategic stuff. And new approaches, innovation comes from people being free to experiment, learn through doing, repeating iterations, failures being normal and costed for.
Efficiency pushes are great - but again have to be managed against the backdrop of employees seeking the meaningful in their lives, where the personal and professional are increasingly merging in a context of working-from-home as the partly normal.
And not to forget the long-and-the-short of it. Brands and businesses that only manage the quarter invariably suffer in the 3 - 5 year time frame.
We need to nurture the specialness - especially in uncertain times. What that might mean operationally I’ll talk about in a separate post.
Curious, as ever, as to others’ views
(Photo - Photo by Ethan Hoover on Unsplash)