Market Research is changing – Do’s and Don’ts Updated.
Everyone knows
that first the internet and now social media is shaking up the way we do
everything – from spending money, to making money, to researching better ways
of doing either or both.
Research is my
game and what follows is my opinion on what’s Hot and what’s Not.
Survey Monkey Quick Surveys
etc
These are perfectly
good, if limited, Research tools. In the wrong hands, for companies using
Survey Monkey or Quick surveys etc., it is like placing a chain saw in the
hands of 3 year olds – decent tools become lethal in the wrong hands. Too often users are like the worst DIY
amateurs– it’s like they pop down to Jewsons on a Saturday thinkingknow a trick
or two , come back with a few bits and bobs for a fraction of the price of a
decent plumber – then wreck the walls, the pipework, and ultimately cost you a
lot more, with attendant grief.
Don’t do this
unless you have decent design, data collection and analysis facilities to hand.
Telephone research
In a few years this will have disappeared completely – this is because hardly anybody, certainly not young people, bother with their land lines – and no-one has good mobile phone databases – so it may still be a feature of B2B but Not B2C research
Twitter, Face Book, Texts and other social media
The jury is out – there’s a lot of experimentation going on, but market research as we know it is not faring too well – the processes are too lightweight, too superficial to be utterly convincing.
Good New stuff
Things like psychographics, the study of personality values, attitudes interests and lifestyles are replacing mere demographics. It’s comparatively early days yet, but it seems to me this approach has legs, particularly in retail.
Focus Groups
Properly organized and without too many dubious frills like the interpretation of body language, these are still useful. Better still are data driven discussions where the quantitative drives and acts as a cornerstone of the qualitative research.
Online research
Often the staple for lazy thinkers, dwindling numbers of completions imperil this cheap mode of operational research. It’s successful if you go to companies like YouGov to do it for you but watch the pennies running away.
Face to Face research
If done properly it remains the gold standard. Ensure that your approach includes the right technology, the right field researchers, the right research design and the right analysts, who can tackle both the technology and derive genuine and actionable insights.
Don’t let research
amateurs near you. Banish them to the furthest parts of your fiefdom.
