The second day of the BMRA’s conference ‘A Fork in the Road’ on 15th November addressed that perennial issue familiar to any of us who have attended a market research conference in the last 10 years: the need for us – the market research profession – to do more than just collect the data. So there were more provocative speeches and more impassioned pleas to change.
How can it be that, as researchers, we provide the tools to drive change but don’t seem able to change ourselves? When speed is so crucial to our business, why is it taking so long for us to resolve it? These contradictions set the stage for a day of ironies.
Following a review of delivered market research projects, Susan Rogers concluded that both the quality of work and the client relationships are often very poor. We don’t know enough either about marketing or the needs of our clients. Isn’t that what we’re experts in?
Daniel Wain argued convincingly that the industry fails to invest enough in its junior staff. Why is this man not at the client coalface? It was one of the best conference deliveries many of us will have witnessed.
Tony Dent said we should question some of the assumptions that govern research and do more qual. Tony is a statistician who sells quant samples.
Session two provided some relief from these incongruities. Louise Southcott had some practical advice on how to do research in Europe when budgets are tight by using creative respondents to do their own analysis and reporting. This was followed by Stephen Phillips arguing that smaller agencies are better than bigger ones. Free from irony, Stephen runs a small agency and of course he is right in every way: we independents are more passionate, more experienced, more flexible, more rounded and more creative.
This couldn’t last. Two non-Muslims from Research International and the Islamic Bank of Britain showed how they had built a brand for the followers of Sharia law. Then Microsoft demonstrated the importance of listening and working with people in local markets, rather than dictating from a head office. This was actually one of the most telling talks – the mystery shopping exercise had been conducted by Young & Rubicam because Microsoft wanted something relevant, lively and actionable. Isn’t that supposed to be our job? To hear them stressing the difficulties of getting a good sample and the importance of asking relevant questions was enough to make you weep.
Finally, after that indictment of our topsy-turvy industry, Robin Croft of Glamorgan University told us that Britain is leading the way in international research. Did you know that market research per capita spend is $40 in the UK and just £25 in the US? And why? Because we’re creative, flexible, adaptive, pragmatic, solutions-oriented and form good partnerships.
Who can make sense of it?
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