Our role is to shape decision-making. In large multinationals, the global structure of the marketing organization largely determines whom we get to influence. Evolving structures further complicate or limit our role. However, the researcher is actually far better equipped than marketing personnel to deal in a borderless environment, and can serve a unique role in synthesizing learning and providing concrete solutions that cut across geographic frontiers. The emergence of social media creates havoc with traditional marketing structures, but significantly enhances our potential value to the global enterprise.
Consumer opinions are prolific, authentic and insightful when respondents are more 'relaxed' in the internet versus when they are approached in person. Analysis on consumer-generated content in social media made a great contribution to nurturing the insights to support business decisions, however, social media analyses are not yet going to replace the richness gathered from traditional focus groups in which the interviewers listen, understand, perceive and feel the emotions of the individual that is in before the researcher.
This paper details how to marry the science of segmentation with the art of understanding the organization's business to deliver actionable and usable insights. It discusses why science or statistics alone are necessary but not sufficient to provide an actionable segmentation solution. The paper also demonstrates an alternate analytical approach to avoid some of the common pitfalls of segmentation studies that arise through the use of standard factor-cluster approaches. Though the paper focuses on segmentation, it has broader application by demonstrating best practice in how to balance the use of statistical techniques to deliver usable insights. Successful insight activation through an effective, continued dialogue between research and the business, is also highlighted in the paper.
Few would argue that supplier consolidation is reshaping the fundamental landscape of the market research industry. Very little attention, however, has been devoted to the long-term impact of this trend on customers, especially those seeking large, complex, ad hoc multinational studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine industry consolidation from the perspective of this kind of research buyer - what it is has meant so far, and what it is likely to mean over the rest of the decade.