What if.... 80% Insights Understanding is Good Enough?
A provocative question - what if "80% MR understanding" is perceived as actually "good enough" by 80% of all the major MR spending organisations worldwide?
By "good enough" I mean: reaching a level of understanding of what's driving sales, market share, profitability that decision makers are happy with.
For example: relying on direct Customer feedback instead of NPD concept tests for new product launches; utilizing the Ad Agency for key insights into its campaign development; allowing or asking Marketing to execute its own tactical research via DIY software/ the email database....
Why would any serious Business Manager even think that?
Maybe if some or all the following apply perceptually:
The impact of Insights hasn't been sufficiently clear over time
The cost of MR appears high - especially without a clear sales justifcation
Digital Communications ROI is totally transparent and measurable
DIY MR surveys are cheap, quick and easy to execute.....
Datastreams from BI are becoming ever more analytically powerful
The impact rules of TV advertising are crystallising (more on that below)
Any of that sound familiar? A hypothesis: in many areas, the Business ignorance that traditionallly fuelled the need to commission MR managers is shrinking; more and more data is availalable, often free.
Add to that: MR no longer has the tight grip of ownership in making sense of the various data sources - competition has arisen internally (BI) and externally (web analytics companies).
Without wishing to paint a picture of MR dystopia, I would suggest that Insights on both client- and supplier side is challenged to re-imagine itself in a world increasingly illuminated by data. Here's my take.
1. Marketing Effectiveness: not actually that Mysterious any more?
How do TV ads actually work? Much of the meta-analysis stuff I've seen and read about over the past 5 - 8 years suggest that's it's more simple than we like to think - grab people's attention, do an engaging piece of copy, and then slot the brand in. Bingo.
Then shift to POS - activation time. Make sure that your shoppers simply can't help but bump into your display - then give them pack size, pricing, whatever - and press the repeat button.
So - is it still so mystical which 50% of your Marketing budget is being wasted?
The odds are higher that you're going to waste less. The complex seems remarkably simple.
2. Keeping the Insights "Aha" Moment Alive
If you accept the above - that as knowledge, Best Practice - on areas of Brand and Shopper Marketing as well as Communications excellence - expands across industries, companies, then the role of Insights to truly illuminate and excite with a new insight becomes a different one: more focused, trying different things, approaches, only adding value by providing a truly new lens on an often familiar reality.
This additional knowledge gain has to be sufficient to justify the effort/cost - and the leap from say 20% understanding to 35% understanding is arguably an easier, less costly but more urgent one than moving from e.g. 80% understanding to 95%.
Management will increasingly be challenged on budgets; questions on the true impact value of MR will become more frequent, but often the challenge will be the same: Do we really need to do all that stuff?
Maybe investing more in sales visits might be a more sensible reallocation of cash. Or TV budget.
Sure, there are masses of exceptions - new market entries, for example. NPD. More on this below. But for many MR areas, the case for investing into new MR understanding can seem less urgent.
One thing's for sure: "same-old same-old" won't cut it.
3. Re-Focusing Insights to High Value Areas
The change imperative in Market Research is in my view very different from simply asking "how can we improve our methodologies?" or "how can we offer a slimmed down version of Product X cheaper?".
In this scenario, it's more strategic - I'd suggest it's about:
a) re-focusing on where and how MR will likely have an irreplaceable added-value role in a world of Connectivity, BI and Analytics and....
b) tying insights tightly to a tangible output - so "Insights and.....product design", "Insights and.....innovation".
Many qual. agencies - sorry, boutiques - are beginning to promise ideas as well as insights - which means confronting or co-operating with people already specializing in the business of idea generation.
On the first point (a), ie MR focus areas: here's my starter-list, driven by asking: could a machine do it? Could you get it by web-scraping?
- NPD (conjoint won't go away fast, MROCs are more than flavor-of-the-month....)
- Qualitative (If Six Sigma can ask why? why? why? why? why? then why not qual....;))
- Pack development (track where the eye's falling...)
- Relaunches (volume estimates....)
- Geographical expansion (U&As, ethnographies...)
- Trend research (OK, that's a tough one - so much is out there)
MR's role needs underlining as impartial-but-vocal player: a role I would see increasing in mature markets where Salesmanship can easily be valued more highly than impartiality.
Then there's DIY MR - currently probably in its infancy still, but the stories of misleading findings and negative case studies will likely lead to a back-lash moment, where MR will have an educational role on methodology, sampling, validity.
I've not followed up on point b) above - something for future blogs, maybe....;) - time running short on me right now.
So to sum up: Insights in the true sense ("aha" moments) have a bright future if they continue (?!) to inspire, focus on the right areas, embrace the challenges of digitalization and continue to innovate.
Current supplier positionings and offerings will need to keep close tabs on future client needs (including those of Marketing, Sales, BI, Customer Service) to remain clearly relevant - and those needs are only very partly covered by the excellent Green Book Blog surveys.
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.