Last month, the United States elected the first African American ever to the office of President. He was not elected because of his race, but because he ran a campaign that was so disciplined, broad and deep that it touched the culture, emotions and context of people's lives in a way that had not been seen since FDR. âBrand Obamaâ was perhaps that best executed campaign that we have seen in the last half century. Period. Its architecture, messaging, imagery and sheer reach, using both traditional and new media, was breathtaking. Its ability to energise people and to call them to action was the dream of any Madison Avenue executive. Across the articles in this issue, you will find clarion calls for innovation and imagination in the way that we approach understanding consumers and citizens in these unsettled times.
The world around us seems to be in meltdown. While banks collapse and the credit markets freeze up. governments are scrambling to avert a replay of the 1930s. In the centre of the storm, middle classes around the world shiver and wonder what the effect will be on them and their livelihoods. As the scenario unfolds. I would venture to suggest that research will need to be on hand as never before to understand and tell the story of how the lives of ordinary people will change. How will values and behaviour mutate in the new reality? What will this mean to the relationships that people have with brands? How will societal interaction change? In short, how can we understand this tsunami of change, react to it in real time and make sense of it? To do so, we will need to do more than just ask questions. We will need to listen to stories, understand their context, observe them, retell them and interpret them. Enter qualitative research, with all its abilities to observe, probe, interpret and immerse. Qualitative has long had the power to transport us into the world of the people we study and has had an impressive history of innovation, based on psychological and social sciences, with which to do so.
When we talk about market research, we often forget that research as a whole encompasses great swathes of work done for social and political purposes. Indeed, in the US alone, research expenditure by government, social think tanks and universities almost doubles the size of the custom market. Social research in particular focuses less on people as consumers and more on them as people whose fundamental needs and desires require understanding if we are to improve the lot of the human condition. The benefits derived from this most basic function of research can be huge and intensely influential, far outweighing the cost of the research itself. In this issue, Jim Clifton reports on highly significant findings from the Gallup World Poll. His conclusion is that the primary human desire today is a good job - and that this has major consequences for the success or failure of cities and entire nations. This insight derives from a meticulous application of survey methodologies across the entire globe.
In this changing environment, researchers, research clients and decision makers are confronted not only by a need to know, but also to understand, to challenge and to debate. It is with those needs in mind that we set about a fundamental review of what Research World should be and what its role will be going forward in the service of all who are involved in our profession. The mission of the new Research World is to stimulate challenging debate on the critical role of research in commerce and society. It is appropriate that our first issue should be centred on the topic of innovation. There is a tremendous debate shaping up in the articles inside as to whether innovation requires a framework or whether we need, in the words of Malcolm Gladwell. "to embrace uncertainty." We examine top-down innovation as well as co-creation and we examine in depth the psychology and the physiology of peopleâs reactions to good design, as well as peering into how a company like Philips marries research, creativity and design. We also have new features focusing on technology, career profiles, marketing case histories and guest columns.
It would appear that the world is in the throes of another age of mass migration. Today, 190 million people live outside the country of their birth. Societies are becoming multicultural in a way that they have never been before. For marketers and researchers, the need to reach and understand the great variety of ethnicities in the developed countries of the world poses issues of considerable delicacy. It is as important to think âin-cultureâ at the design stage and to understand the role of culture in the analysis stage as it is to be familiar with the effects of question order bias or wording bias. Research in an era of ethnic diversity requires skill, knowledge and sensitivity beyond the norms of yesteryear. But without training in the basic skills of good research combined with intelligent career development, we will struggle to achieve even those results.
Although it has become a cliche to say so, the advent of online research has changed the face of our industry and will continue to do so for years to come. Indeed, I believe that we are only at the very beginning of the innovation cycle that online has begun to unleash. As it does so, however, there are many deep questions that need to be answered. In this issue. Bill Blyth examines some of the major questions that surround mixed mode research. We also examine how J&J is moving its marketing online for a number of important categories and brands. The question is: what role should and could research have in the process?
To be a media planner today must be one of the most stressful jobs in the business world. Confronted with a tsunami of change in the ways in which people consume media - and indeed live their lives wrapped up in different and new media environments -it is their job to make crucial multimillion-dollar decisions on media spending allocation. To be able to do this effectively, you would have to be a world-class anthropologist, understanding just how each new generation interacts with a media landscape that is constantly changing in different parts of the world. How do you leverage a MySpace or a Second Life? How do you understand the role of mobile web in India or China where it is now the âfirst screenâ? And how can you possibly calculate the return on your investment when the measurement currencies differ wildly in their estimates and something as banal as cookie deletion completely throws your numbers for a loop? Our second area of focus in this issue centres on the deliberations at WIN (the World Industry Network) in Paris.
Much of innovation has been occasioned by the impact of the internet on our business, as we seek to come to terms not only with the power ofthe web itself but the amazing societal and generational changes that it has created. As social networking has established itself in multiple layers of society, so the potential of networks and communities is beginning to be discovered for the purposes of research, ideation and innovation with the customer. As Maria Rapp of Communispace says in this issue, âitâs all about listening.â And thatâs what makes it truly exciting - researchers and their clients are rediscovering the art and science of listening to people in new and challenging ways. Even more refreshingly, one of McKinseyâs latest benchmarking studies provides significant evidence that companies that use these and other research innovations are more likely to succeed. We should not be surprised that good, innovative research definitively leads to high market and financial performance, but it is always good to see it in black and white and to be able to share it with the world. According to McKinsey, high-performing companies adopt more innovative research techniques, embed them in the heart of the organisation and align their consumer insights functions as a whole with the strategic direction of the company and with senior management. That, in a nutshell, is what successful research is all about and what makes it such an exciting - and potentially âcoolâ -industry in which to work. We need to celebrate our innovations and our successes and evangelise them to the world, to business, to universities and to government. Over the next few months, you will see more of that in these pages and we hope you will join us in our evangelical mission!
One of the constants in the long and illustrious history of market research has been vigorous and impassioned debate about how (and if) advertising works and what this means for researchers trying to predict and measure impact and ROI (return on investment). Never has this been more true than today. The factors shaping debate in 2008 are numerous: online advertising is beginning to take its seat at the table; consumers spend more of their time out of home and so emphasis shifts to outdoor and in store measurement; in some markets, mobile web is almost as prevalent as office or home PC internet connections. Where the factors shaping the debate may be changing, the fundamental questions being debated remain the same. How do we measure the reach of a particular medium or campaign and how do people interact with advertising? Where online is concerned, the issue of reach is a subject of major disagreement, with various measurement tools providing wildly differing answers.
This month Research World is focusing on talent development, which pleases me enormously as it is a particular hobby horse of mine. Yet, I am also acutely aware that it is one of those subjects to which it is incredibly difficult to do proper justice. After all, the principles of good talent management are not shrouded in mystery - we all know (or think we know) them.
This monthâs issue is typical of the Research World approach of late. It takes an issue that is topical and important - emotional response to brands and how to research this - and looks at it from a variety of angles. David Penn challenges the emphasis on neuromarketing as a means of tapping our unconscious emotional response to brands and points out that, while we can measure responses in the brain, this does not necessarily mean that we know what those responses mean. He makes a powerful case for research as a means of trying to establish the critical links between the cognitive and the emotional. Marc Gobe links emotional response to brands with our ability to humanise them, with their personality and the experience that they create.