Last week I had the privilege of presenting at the European Pharmaceutical Market Research (EphMRA) Annual Conference in Brussels. My talk was on the important topic of the future of the Market Research profession.
My invitation came as the result of one of the committee members seeing a question I had posted at the end of last year on several LinkedIn groups: “Does your organisation need a market research department? And in the future?” Whether you are a researcher or a user of research data, the following summary of that presentation should help you understand the need for us all to change the way we work with information and data, in order to increase their value to the business. Recent studies by both IBM and Business Intelligence about the information needs of top management in general and marketing in particular give us some great clues about what they dislike and what we need to change.
Management don’t get what they need
Executives complain that their information currently comes from numerous, disparate sources, is rarely available in real-time, cannot be easily accessed without the help of IT, and anyway takes too long to customise it to their needs. The good news is that they don’t seem to get too much; in fact it looks as if they actually want more, but more of what they need.
Executives don’t get it in the format they need
Management currently get their information primarily via emails and spreadsheets, which I find shocking. Why do we expect them to take the time to sift through all the information to draw their own conclusions? Are we still too scared to voice our own opinions, or to make recommendations? Only one in eight receive dashboards and yet this is their preferred medium. They want someone to have thought about their needs and then to provide a simple form that is easy to scan, interpret and take action on.
Marketing needs their data in real-time
It’s a hard time to be a CMO or head of marketing these days. They are being challenged more than ever before, to prove the ROI of their spending. They want more real-time information so they can take better informed decisions. They also need consistency so they can compare across channels and link sales back to individual campaigns and lead-generation efforts.
Marketing don’t feel ready to manage even more information
More than two-thirds of CMOs feel totally unprepared for the current data explosion, especially as it relates to social media. They also feel that they aren’t keeping up with all the rapid market changes, even when they have the money to do so.
The solution is as easy as ABC
Taking into account what management have said about their current information sources, providing what they need is as easy as ABC:
- Accessibility to the information they need, where and when they need it.
- Business impact so that what they receive enables them to identify and take the actions needed.
- Consistency so they can compare across brands, categories, countries or regions.
In addition to these three essential elements, it is important for us to ask the right questions of the data. As with good market research, getting the right answers depends upon asking the right questions (>>Tweet this<<). And we can only do this if we have a good understanding of what the business needs. In order for us to increase the value of market research and planning in organisations, analysts need regular interaction across all departments and divisions. For some companies, this has meant placing the experts in each business unit, but I personally feel that whilst it does increase their interaction with the business itself, they lose independence as well as integration across divisions. From my experience, the most valued market research departments are centralised and individuals or teams have identified responsibilities by business or region. This frees them to give honest, unbiased feedback without the pressure of over-keen bosses to influence the analysis and results. Additionally, in order for market researchers to maintain the interaction needed to understand the whole business, they will need to learn some new skills:
- Socialising with both internal clients and external customers will provide analysts with a better feel for the business and how to support their needs. They must also accept to work more with social media data. Some claim it is not representative, but I beg to differ. From what one can read online, it is probably the closest an organisation will ever get to the true feelings of their customers.
- Synthesising of both integrated data and the sharing of the knowledge and understanding resulting from its analysis. Storytelling is such a hugely popular topic that I don’t think I need to go further on it, but the integration and synthesis of information from multiple sources will become essential. As the “internet of things” increases the flow of information into companies, someone will have to manage and make sense of it all and I believe that market research is the best equipped for this role.
- Surprising management with exciting new ways to gather a better understanding of customers. Technology is providing more and more ways to do this without even asking questions of our customers. Whether it is virtual reality, facial imaging and emotional coding, neuroscience and biometrics, market research now has a wealth of new tools available, so they need to reconsider how they gather their information. Whilst it means that they will have to get out of their comfort zone of standard methodologies, the benefits in terms of surprise and delight of their management will more than compensate.
I concluded my presentation by saying that market researchers will have to become “Bionic” to encompass the three new areas of expertise that is necessary to meet management’s needs. These are:
- Methodological expertise, as well as project management and analytical skills
- Intellectual curiosity to synthesise information from all sources and generate actionable insights
- Improved communication skills to tell stories that influence business decision-making
Whether suppliers will take the first role alone or help with the second and third as well, will depend upon the client-side teams treating them as true partners and not mere information gatherers. Do you think this is possible in your own organisation? I would love to hear your thoughts either way. C³Centricity used an image from Kozzi in this post.
