Advertising is Yummy

The Limits of Market-Research Methods

Alison Dumas talks in this article about the oxymoron of the commonly used market research method “participant observation.” She drives home the idea that people today are more and more telling what other’s want to hear. This presents a huge problem for those who are trying to truly get to the bottom of one’s behavior. Even though focus groups, she argues are effective to a certain point, in order to truly understand a culture or a person, one must observe them throughout every minute of the day. Even then, she says, there is a huge problem. We stop. We stop after we’ve (market researchers) have recorded habits and trends, and that is a huge downfall. She continues to say that “Cultures need prodding to reveal themselves, and it’s not the type of prodding typically found in the moderators’ guides, where the goal is to get the consumer to answer our questions.” Enter, participation. Skilled participation is the “other half” without each other, neither, in her opinion would work.

Rather than sitting around and having a facilitator ask monotonous questions, trying to find an answer very simple questions that likely will provide no insight, it is important to find a “code”. Marketing guru, Clotaire Rapaille has long understood this problem. It doesn’t matter what people necessarily say. People are so savvy these days that verbal cues are most often always misleading. Rapaille, in an effort to break through this clutter, cracks the “culture code.” To Rapaille, there is a code for everything. Here is an excerpt from Rapaille’s Culture Code:

“I structured a three-hour session with each of the groups. In the first hour, I took on the persona of a visitor from another planet, someone who had never seen coffee before and had no idea how one “used” it. I asked for help understanding the product, believing their descriptions would give me insight into what they thought of it.

In the next hour, I had them sit on the floor like elementary school children and use scissors and a pile of magazines to make a collage of words about coffee. The goal here was to get them to tell me stories with these words that would offer me further clues.

In the third hour, I had participants lie on the floor with pillows. There was some hesitation among members of every group, but I convinced them I wasn’t entirely out of my mind. I put on soothing music and asked the participants to relax. What I was doing was calming their active brain waves, getting them to that tranquil point just before sleep. When they reached this state, I took them on a journey back from their adulthood, past their teenage years, to a time when they were very young. Once they arrived, I asked them to think again about coffee and to recall their earliest memory of it, the first time they consciously experienced it and, if it was different, their most significant memory of it.”

These are not usual focus groups, and it is because like Dumas, Rapaille understands that studying that pairing this very important observations method with the skilled participation is the recipe for success. Rapaille takes this understanding a step further to break the “code” to reach a certain culture.

Again, in our required reading – we read over a chapter that touched upon market research as a solid foundation to any IMC plan. In reading this, I was able to apply it to the “real” world of IMC and a certain client I am trying to pitch with the idea that in any situation, it is best to support a move by research, and to not move forward with anything until there is a solid, verified reason for doing so.

We have been brainstorming with this client and one of our radio stations. This certain radio station set up a couple of excellent brainstorming sessions with our client at which we were able to throw around some ideas- however, research didn’t seem to be too big of a concern for them. Why? Ultimately because they’re selling radio and aren’t truly concerned with whether or not they have adequate research (who can blame them, we’ve all got our agendas – and I’m not saying they’re wrong in doing this, because I don’t think they are.) But, it all came down to the meeting we had with our client outside of these brainstorming sessions. Yes, their (the radio station) ideas were solid – but, why would we move forward on a whim? Ad dollars are the first thing to be cut because they’re the easiest to blame. If two competitor stores went out of business and our client’s revenue increases, well hell – I’m sure the props will be given to advertising (even if that really isn’t what drew this new revenue) however if something just as disconnected from advertising happens, and the revenue drops – again advertising is the focus and ultimately to blame. It is just the way people think. Someone running a business doesn’t want to worry about advertising, they want their internal, agency or contracted marketing professionals to – however, the second something wrong happens – it is advertising’s fault. It is something with which we’ve been tainted with forever, and unfortunately will always be. Off subject.

Back to my point in regards to market research. Our client wants to completely re-invent themselves. This doesn’t happen over night, and it surely doesn’t happen without solid research to ensure we’re moving into these uncharted waters cautiously. I’ve been pitching market research to this client for months now, and am proud to say we’re setting up a focus group within the next couple of weeks. My message: You cannot REACH these new potential consumers without KNOWING and UNDERSTANDING exactly what makes them tick. Sure, we could place their current commercial on a different station, but what is to say that the copy/feel/design of that commercial will appeal to their senses the way it did to the old primary target (soon to be secondary). Maybe it will! Maybe it won’t, but you sure as hell can’t waste a 500k budget on “assuming” it will – you can’t even spend a 500 dollar budget assuming, it is wasted time, money and effort – all recipe for disaster.

SO: We’re setting up a focus group – a qualitative form of market research, and in my opinon, one of the most successful techniques. The non-verbal cues say it all and any chance you have to have a round table discussion with a target you’re trying to reach, is a good thing. Maybe we will find out that our current advertising will work with a few small tweeks, but maybe we won’t – and we absolutely cannot afford the time, money and/or effort to find that out the hard way.

In our required textbook for the graduate class I’m taking, I read a small blurb, with a big space for error. In the small example given in the book, the author simply explains that Exxon Mobile fought with the idea of localizing, or globalizing their new IMC message. Ultimately, E.M. decided to go with a global approach. Globalization? From what I’ve learned, there aren’t too many cases, internationally, in which this would be a “good” idea. Things change from town to town, county to county, state to state and they absolutely change country to country. To side-step any problems, E.M. substituted actors in these commercial spots with those of the country’s decent. Now, don’t get me wrong – I really don’t have some affinity towards localization only, but I do feel as though globalization has to be very broad,  and in some, if not most, cases – that is very difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against E.M. or anyone else who feels and who has proven that globalization is the right way to go, but in my opinion, I feel as though the best way to reach consumers is to speak to them in their language (not only literally, but in every sense of the word) and I feel that it is very hard to do that by implementing something across the board.

Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend! That’s for sure. I’m workin, and studying for the weekend. We go back to school this evening in Buffalo. Like I said earlier, I’m in a class with two other people, another student and our teacher. It is a really great set up as we get to have conversation (relative to the industry for the most part) which really opens the door for us to delve deep into what is going on today in the industry. Last week was great and I actually don’t dread going to class – I do,  however, dread the drive. It is so much more of an effort when you live an hour and a half away- but, people do that every day for work – and I think I can handle it and will by far be rewarded! So, here’s to another good class tonight! I’ll be posting my thoughts from some reading that I’ve done – in regards to IMC!