There will always
be those that will
complete surveys
just
pass
the
time, but are they
trustworthy and
representative?
True trust comes from a winwin
healthy
relationship.
Not exploitation. The same
is true of
client-agency
partnerships. And these will
only improve once the Board
Members of these large firms
truly appreciate the great
work MR and CI departments
and their agencies do, and the
great input and insights they
provide (delivering both the
necessary reassurance and
occasionally rocket fuel that
decision makers love).
The C Suite can’t work or rely
on their guts (or
their
accounts) alone. they just
can’t. And so they need to
boost the budgets for MR/CI/
CX departments to ensure
and demonstrate they are
truly customer-centric (and
that this is not another buzz
phase).
How can we ‘pull’ consumers
to gather insights rather
than ‘push’ them to seek
information?
Darren Mark Noyce: I like
this question as it opens up
the debate on how we treat
respondents and informants. We
really should respect our fellow
humans. We should reward
them for their input and for the
value of their input (brands can
make billions of pounds of profit
remember from their customers
and their respondents). And as
important, we should maintain
relations and communications
so they feel their input was
worthwhile
(intrinsically,
not
just extrinsically). The best way
to do this is to share the results
and outcomes in an open honest
way, to build trust and respect.
But where this is not possible,
we should also ensure that
these respondents believe in
what we do, that they believe
in Market Research per se. By
mutually allowing brands to
declare results proclaiming this
shampoo is better than that one,
but with only 73 respondents
won’t help! Pre-election opinion
polls that are not open about
the true margin of error (given
the uncertainty of predicting
ANY human behaviour) won’t
help. Offering a Mars bar or 100
panel-points worth 25p for a
20 minute survey won’t help.
The trouble is the constricted
client
budgets
for
Market
Research, and the over-supply
or competition in the industry,
has led to the commoditisation
of the project. This in turn
reduces prices and margins,
meaning suppliers have to cost
control where they can so that
they can maintain margins and
cover overheads – and often this
has started with streamlining
respondent communications and
incentives. Our source of data
has become the true commodity
here. There will always be those
that will complete surveys just
pass the time, but are they
trustworthy and representative?
True trust comes from a winwin healthy relationship. Not
exploitation. The same is true of
client-agency partnerships. And
these will only improve once the
Board Members of these large
firms truly appreciate the great
work MR and CI departments
and their agencies do, and the
great input and insights they
provide (delivering both the
necessary
reassurance
and
occasionally rocket fuel that
decision-makers love). The C
Suite can’t work or rely on their
guts (or their accounts) alone.
They just can’t. And so they
need to boost the budgets for
MR/CI/CX departments to ensure
and demonstrate they are truly
customer-centric (and that this
is not just another buzz phrase).
What are the changes you
will like to recommend that
will have a positive impact
on the quality of data that we
deliver?
Darren Mark Noyce: Rubbish in,
rubbish out. It’s always been true
and always will be.
Verify
and
validate
before
trusting any data source. Where
does it come from? Why does it
exist? What structure is it in, if at
all? Why ordered like that? Does
it include everyone, or a sample?
Can the sample be trusted (is it
reliable and representative)? Are
the bits of data meaningful? Are
they text or numbers? Can they
be analysed (in the platforms
we have)? Do we need new (MR)
data to answer our questions/
needs? The basics really.
To ensure this and improve
things, we need understanding
and some control. Of course,
much of the ‘old’ data streams
were built in isolation with
no view to incorporation into
big picture analysis. Going
forward, this won’t be the case
so things will naturally improve.
And there is much work now
to make various data sources
‘compatible’
and
analysable
together. In terms of the (MR)