The motto 'the customer is always right' is a phrase pioneered by Harry GordonSelfridge, John Wanamaker and Marshall Field in the early 1900's. These men weresuccessful retailers who learned early in their careers that the success of their storesdepended on the happiness of their customers, and so the slogan has long beenregarded as the cornerstone of customer-centricity.More importantly, a happy customer continues to 'buy', and thus we must recognise thatit is the customers who drive innovation, change and evolution, as otherwise they wouldmove their spend and their budgets to other suppliers, or indeed, other sectors. This is astrue for Insights and Analytics as it is for Financial Services, FMCG or Healthcare.In a profession such as ours which has strong roots in science, rigour and ethics,the growing demand for speed, instant feedback, and digital solutions that we havewitnessed in recent years, has often relegated a more fundamental understanding of howour clients work and business needs are changing to a secondary importance; instead,the emphasis has tended to be on the 'now' and securing the budget available, not the'future' and how their needs may be evolving.Recognising the fundamentally important role that brand-owners play in determiningthe shape and structure of our profession, this study is the first in what we hope willbecome an annual monitor establishes a first benchmark of how insights are viewedand commissioned within brand-owning organisations, and the key criteria applied towhat is considered 'good' and 'successful' research.
Small Enterprises (SE) organisations with less than 50 employees, are often overlooked by market research agencies. However, in the UK alone SE account for 42% of all UK business turnover. It was in this context of untapped opportunity Northstar began fostering relationships with a variety of SE, and experienced a multitude of unexpected challenges that led us to assess and alter our working practices and approach to client relationships.
This is a story about how research can create a spark that propels a company forward- a story about how to engage internal stakeholders in novel ways, and achieve impact as well as a culture change. Equipped with personal life journeys around language learning in four countries, we set out to change hearts and minds of the Babbel team and spurred initiatives from two new products to a new customer insight training course for team newbies.
Whit this paper the author intends to introduce the initiatives of MR 2.0 (Marketing Research 2.0), the voluntary group of professionals, to illustrate a case of collaboration between suppliers and clients, hoping to inspire similar initiatives in other countries, rather than proposing new methods, analysis or processes. It tells a story rather than making thesis, of the journey the group has made till today, discussing critical issues, which lie in the relationship between suppliers and clients and could be common across countries, as well as the initiatives proposed to solve the problems.
The research industry and bodies like ESOMAR are at a critical junction in their history. As it stands today, the research industry remains grounded in largely unchallenged late twentieth-century assumptions. There are significant shifts in client needs, coupled with material changes in our ability to understand behaviour, a proliferation of data, and advances in technology. These forces mean there is real risk that the industry loses relevance, or becomes obsolete in its current form. The primary aim of this paper is to set the context for why client functions need to change, to discuss what the client side role will look like, and how it will add value to organisations.
This set of three Guidelines deals with issues which need to be considered when commissioning a marketing research project. Such projects may be carried out by a variety of organisations ranging from individual researchers or consultants to large multi-national companies offering a wide range of services. Throughout these Guidelines, the term agency is used to cover all such possibilities. The main objective of these Guidelines on commissioning research is to assist both client and researcher by reminding them of the various issues involved in specifying and agreeing a research project. In this way they seek to reduce the risks of error, omission or misunderstanding and to help to improve the general quality of research projects. They cover a wide range of items and are designed as a guide or âaide-memoireâ to help the parties involved without imposing specific obligations upon them. The need for this publication is probably most acute among inexperienced users of research, but even the most experienced clients and suppliers can benefit from a checklist approach. This is especially the case with international projects, where mistakes and misunderstandings can easily occur in setting up a project at long range.
This set of three Guidelines deals with issues that need to be considered when commissioning a marketing research project. Such projects may be carried out by a variety of organizations ranging from individual researchers or consultants to large multi-national companies offering a wide range of services. Throughout these Guidelines, the term agency is used to cover all such possibilities. The main objective of these Guidelines on commissioning research is to assist both client and researcher by reminding them of the various issues involved in specifying and agreeing on a research project. In this way, they seek to reduce the risks of error, omission or misunderstanding and to help to improve the general quality of research projects. They cover a wide range of items and are designed as a guide or aide-memoire to help the parties involved without imposing specific obligations upon them. The need for this publication is probably most acute among inexperienced users of research, but even the most experienced clients and suppliers can benefit from a checklist approach. This is especially the case with international projects, where mistakes and misunderstandings can easily occur in setting up a project at a long-range.
Managers often say that research is too sluggish, too expensive, inaccurate and vague. There is simply no time for it. Or they might add that a survey has no role to play in understanding what will come next - ânot even customers can predict the futureâ. The decision to commission research often involves a mixture of rational and more emotional considerations. Managers increasingly see research as the best way to obtain information about their markets, clients and the future. What about the effectiveness of the tools used? Compared with the era of face-to-face research and more physical contact with the neighbour - our respondent - the business environment has become more complex, although there are also more sources of information and some very powerful analytical tools available. The increasing investments made in market research around the world are a good measure of the growing interest in what it can potentially deliver. Over the years - or so it seems - certain challenges have remained constant. For example, providers have to deal with an increasing non-response rate, which is now also a rapidly growing problem for online research. For the user there remains the task of constantly having to demonstrate the added value of research. In this issue of Research World, we talk to a number of clients about the benefit of research in a more general sense, as well as in terms of branding, growth and innovation.