What Research Needs Is a Process!

Posted by Bob Kaden on April 30, 2007

5 comments | 2233 reads

Toni Louw’s recent article in Advertising Age, “A Core Research Competence Must Ground Leadership” is on the mark for identifying a problem but falls short of putting forth fresh solutions.

Marketing Research fails to be integral to strategic planning because the process of planning research and then actualizing new strategies once the research is completed is woefully inept.

Untold hours can be spent in identifying creative and media strategies before a dime is spent putting decisions to work. But when it comes to expensive marketing research studies, marketers are prone to whipping out research objectives, collecting data and waiting for the results.

Marketing Research will never be the strong force Louw is seeking until marketers spend the time necessary figuring out the pivotal questions that they should be asking. Questions that provide answers that will, in fact, lead to the strategic direction the marketer is willing and able to execute.

This suggests that research planning should be front-end loaded. It could be brainstorming potential action plans, developing “if the data says this, then I could do that” scenarios or locking decision makers in a room until they fully explore the strategic implications that will surface from the questions that they are asking.

Whatever the process, research will continue to be a step-child to the privileged few or the hidden agendas until the, “I don’t know what I’ll do with the results until I see them,” mentality is purged from our approach to using research data.

Bob Kaden

Bob Kaden is the author of Guerrilla Marketing Research and president of The Kaden Company, a marketing research consultancy that works with clients in planning and applying research to make more money. He is a frequent lecturer and trainer in the areas of creativity and marketing research processes.

About Bob Kaden |
Connect:

Categories:

2233 reads
Print
Email

5 comments »

Sampson Lee

May 1, 2007

The Effective Research

Robert,

Thanks for the insights.

Based on your experience, do you have any idea why marketers do not spend the time necessary figuring out the pivotal questions that they should be asking?

Sampson Lee
gurublog: The Effective Experience

Bob Kaden

May 2, 2007

Effective Research

Thanks for your inquiry and response to my recent blog comments.

There are many reasons marketers don't spend the time necessary to figure out the right questions...questions that will lead to marketing action.

Chief among them is the manner in which research is planned and the orientation of the market research community. Researchers typically focus on asking a lot of questions, generating tons of date, executing the research and writing reports. In doing so, there is the hope that at least some of the data will be revealing and surface a silver bullet when the report is finally issued but it rarely does.

Researcher spend very little time with the users of the data before the research is executing in anticipating potential actions that can be taken once the research is completed. Further, they don't have the clout to say NO to conducting research even though it might not have actionable implications. Marketing researcher fail to create a platform (or a process) for conceptualizing if/then data scenarios before conducting research (e.g., If the data indicates this, I would do that. And most research as conduct fails to implement a follow up process that leads to marketing actions from the research findings.

I'm afraid this a complex subject and I'm being long winded here. Conceptualizing action oriented questions takes time. It also takes a strong researcher or a well respected research department to insist their users take time before the research is executed to make sure the right questions are asked. Ones that can lead to action the marketer is willing and able to take.

Hope this begins to address your question.

Sampson Lee

May 3, 2007

Research Effectiveness

Robert

Your reply did address my question, thanks.

Read from your short bio, I'm curious in how companies could use consumer research (particularly on satisfaction) to make more money.

And, are there any way to measure the ROI / quantify the effectiveness of research?

Sampson Lee
gurublog: The Effective Experience

Bob Kaden

May 3, 2007

Follow Up Sampson

Sampson:

Measuring ROI from research and making more money because of research cannot be answered in a couple of paragraphs here. I wrote a book on the subject and am in the process of writing a second one. Should you want to get into a dialogue about this, please forward your email address to me at thekadencompany@sbcglobal.net Thank you for your continued comments.

Sampson Lee

May 3, 2007

Thanks Robert

Robert,

I've gained some insights from your another article Don't Just Collect Customer Satisfaction Data; Do Something With It, and I will look into your book Guerrilla Marketing Research.

Thanks
Sampson Lee
gurublog: The Effective Experience

Post new comment

Your name: *

E-mail: *

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Homepage:

Subject:

Comment: *

Input format

Filtered HTML

Allowed HTML tags: <a> <img> <hr> <table> <tr> <td> <th><ul> <ol> <li> </li><blockquote> <colspan> <rowspan><object>
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

Post

Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

Notify me when new comments are posted

All comments

Replies to my comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image?: *

Enter the characters shown in the image.

MarketPlace

Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program

[May 30-31, Frankfurt; July 25-26, Hong Kong] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 34 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.

Join us on May 29th in New York City. Stuart Ryder, SVP, Mobile Research Lead for Ipsos IOTX & Roxana Strohmenger, a leading Forrester analyst, will be in attendance to share best practices and new trends in mobile market research.

[June 12, Sir Francis Drake Hotel] Gregson Siu, Vice President, Ariba Business Operations, Ariba and Bob Thompson, CustomerThink, will be in attendance to share best practices, new trends and latest research to help you develop your customer experience program.

Social Networking and sCRM International Congress in Colombia

[June 25-26, Bogota] Thirteen international thought leaders will present, from different perspectives, the trends, the uses, and the magic - as well as the reality - of Social Networking and how it impacts the way customers are doing/will do business.

Driving ROI With VoC

Walker has identified multiple ways to measure ROI – there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. This paper will address each and conclude with some recommendations to help B-to-B practitioners evaluate which ROI approach will work best for their particular business need.