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.

What does it take to create brand champions?

We all know that there are so many media outlets today and brand messages are more cluttered than ever. Ultimately, all this noise makes it harder for consumers to actually pay attention and engage with a brand. So what does it take for consumers to love and champion a brand? In a previous blog post, I listed a few tips that brands and companies should pay attention to in order to keep their best customers. The third tip I recommended was to reward customers. Rewards not only create a sense of belonging, but it also makes the consumer content and feel appreciated. Ultimately, this leads to a zealous consumer who will sing your praises and will tell the world (and fellow bloggers) about the wonderful experience. Luckily, I am not alone in praising the concept of rewarding.

In The New Champion Customers: Measuring Word-of-Mouth Activity Among Reward Program Members, a recent COLLOQUY study explains that members that participate in a loyalty-building effort, like rewards programs, are 70%more likely to actively recommend a product, service, or brand than the general population. Some of the more notable rewards programs are MyMarriot Rewards, MyCokeRewards and the Best Buy Reward Zone. The study was designed to “explore the intersection between consumers who participate in loyalty and reward programs and their Word-of-Mouth (WOM) activity regarding brands, Reward Programs and specific product categories.” The study polled more than 7,000 consumers in the U.S. and Canada. Of those who participated in rewards programs, 55% described themselves as brand champions. The majority of this group (68%) said they would recommend a program sponsor’s brand during the course of the next year. When asked why they are motivated to participate in W-O-M activity, respondents said: to tell manufacturers what I think (73%), to get smart about products and services (68%), to be the first to discover new items (68%), to get free product samples (63%) and to share my opinion with others (61%). (Check out the COLLOQUY study here.)

Based on findings from this study, and my own feelings on this topic, its seems obvious that people want to belong, desire a deeper relationship with brands and want to share their opinions with those brands and others around them. The companies and brands that want to hold on to their customers should listen to their needs, wants and comments in various places such as call centers, social networks, blogs and You Tube. People that feel compelled to share their opinions will in a major way. It’s happened in the past, and it will continue to happen. Rather than have disgruntled or disengaged customers, brands have an opportunity to make strong connections with their cusotmers and ultimately, build a relationship that could last a lifetime.

What have you done for me lately?

A day in the life of a “Manhattanite” can make your head spin when it comes comprehending every brand message. While in grad school, a professor asked the class to track the number of brand messages we encountered in the course of one day. Tracking this one day was an eye opening experience for me. There were an infinite amount of touch points such as billboards, magazine stands, bus advertisements, television, radio, subway advertisements and many more. On a cold Monday morning, I encountered all these touch points before I stepped foot into my office building. As I turned on my computer to begin a normal work day, the frenzy continued. Other touch points I came across were emails, e-newsletters, websites, magazines and word-of-mouth.

The end result of the exercise was obvious. There are a ton of companies and brands sending out messages to consumers in a variety of ways. Although I was aware of my surroundings and the brand messages, there were times when I simply did not care to pay attention because they were irrelevant to me or the timing was inconvenient. So how do the worthy messages stay put in your brain and then encourage you to take action? My findings lead me to believe that brands need to do a better job of reaching consumers and more importantly, inspiring them. Ultimately, the key ingredients that increase the impact and satisfaction of the media messages are timing, placement, personalization and targeting.

There are some companies and brands that do an excellent job of targeting their consumers, as well as communicating the right message at the right time. My favorite company that does a great job of all of the above is Banana Republic. In 2008, the brand celebrated its 30th anniversary and made sure to let consumers know that they are listening to their needs and wants in the fashion industry. From an urban, chic safari feel, to adventurous and classy in the big city, Banana offers fun, flirty, affordable and sophisticated clothes. I find all my work clothes and evening attire in this one store as well as on their website. That being said, when I was asked to sign up for their credit card and receive wonderful benefits and perks, I gladly signed up. Banana welcomed me to their store with a letter and various coupons. Additionally, I got coupons to their sister stores such as Old Navy and the Gap. In fact, they were so excited to get me as a customer that they make sure to send me emails on a weekly basis about all the new trends and styles. Getting a coupon is only part of the excuse for a shopping spree.

For a glimpse of how Banana celebrated the 30th anniversary, check out this video:


Since I’ve become a brand loyalist to a distinct selection of stores and brands, I thought I would take the time to give my opinion on what the basic necessities are for retaining a customer and ultimately, making them a best customer.

My three tips for retaining best customers:
1. Welcome me to the “family.” Since there are plenty of similar stores, companies and brands out there, tell me the benefits of being part of this family.
2. Say ‘thanks’ for spending my hard-earned money at your store. Also keep me informed about new items, sales and store openings.
3. Reward me. Send me coupons via email and mail. The store knows what I bought so other suggestions based on my previous selections would be helpful.

Likewise, there are also brands that do not do a good job of communicating with their customers. First up on the chopping block is Citibank. But that explanation and rant is for a different day. Stay tuned.