Vicky Else gives her insights on how the face of research has changed

I am very excited that Vicky Else, President of The Market Artist agreed to do a Q&A for my blog. Vicky Else has worked in marketing and relationship marketing for more than twenty years, in both client and agency roles, across a wide range of business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries. Now a consultant, she develops consumer insights and research approaches to support both existing and new business projects. Below you’ll find some key insights on how the face of research has evolved in the digital world.

Although most of us know why research is so important for companies and brands, can you please remind us why conducting research is crucial for brands today?
The consumption of your brand messages, on and offline, can be measured and tracked; in other words, you can use data to describe what is going on. Because there’s so much data nowadays, some people think that’s enough. However, tracking can’t ever tell you why. Why do people like or dislike what you provide? You need to answer that question to figure out what you want to do about the data.

Can you give an example of how insights can help create powerful strategies?
If you don’t know what people want, how they use it, and what might turn them off, how can you create a strategy? An example: one of my clients wanted to revitalize an aging car brand without turning off their older drivers. It’s difficult! How could they appeal to 40-somethings and people over 65? They needed to find the lifestyle and demographic intersection points for their brand audiences. They did make it work, by associating their brand with golf. Golf imagery appealed to the younger set without turning the older set off.

People think about research differently now then they might have in the past. What are some of the new ways that people think about research now?
It still comes down to corporate culture, in my experience. Companies that love to be scientific and careful still do tons of research (e.g., pharma, packaged goods), and those which rely on instinct and aggression are impatient with it (e.g., financial services). A good thing about the digital world is that fast online panel surveys make even the instinct crowd more open to doing some basic research before they leap.

Specifically, what has changed over the years in terms of research and the approach?
It used to be phone surveys, mailed surveys, focus groups, and mall intercepts. You still need those, but now we can do more, much faster using online research. Also, sophisticated analytics have been very helpful to brand research—segmentation techniques can link brand perception to lifestage, attitudes, behavior and demographics, very useful for “one-to-one” types of branding efforts. The ability to efficiently ask questions of people as they shop or browse online is very helpful. You also can recruit a proprietary panel of your customers and run raw new ideas past them; they are biased but the early feedback can keep you from wasting valuable resources. The online world has also spawned new types of research, like eye-tracking and usability studies. I’m sure that mobile platforms are going to add to this list.

What are the negative aspects of these changes?
Speed can make people sloppy and uncreative. Both creativity and analysis take time! When I started out, it was very expensive to do any kind of brand communication, so we did our brainstorming and research homework before we printed mail pieces or shot TV ads. Online, though, you can quickly put out an idea and get hard results to see how it works, so you may not think hard enough about the potential impact on your brand. It’s important not to forego good research; just because you can afford the production cost of a mistake, that doesn’t mean you can afford the brand cost.

Can you give a few guidelines or best practices when trying to figure out the best research strategy to use in this fast-paced digital world?
1. Don’t rush! Fast research only works when the research question is simple. If you just want thumbs up or down, an online panel will probably work for you in four weeks. If you want to learn how to refresh a brand it’s going to take full suite of studies, backed by analysis, which will take at least a year. For everything in between, you need to work with your vendors to decide how much research is enough.

2. The steadier you are about research, the more efficient you can be. Develop a methodology to evaluate your brand messages, and then train your marketers to use it consistently. Your past studies serve as benchmarks, making your process faster and cheaper. Companies that adopt this discipline save big bucks and learn much more.

3. Build efficient ways to do qualitative research into your customer touches. You can squeeze attitudinal questions into online profiles if it doesn’t make them too long, or ask website visitors to fill out quick surveys. Start a proprietary customer panel. Put a survey URL on your packaging. Just keep those why insights flowing.

Victoria Else is not only is a twenty-odd year veteran of the marketing and advertising industries, she also has a very entertaining and witty blog. To learn more about Vicky, check out her blog, Behind the Two-Way Mirror, or her website, The Market Artist.