Never have so many fences been so firmly sat on

Might sound like a semantic but it literally amazes me that in the 21st century, market research continues to be obsessed with presenting every possible viewpoint.

MARKET RESEARCH CAN BE REALLY USEFUL BUT ONLY IF IT TELLS YOU SOMETHING.

Sounds obvious right?

Well not as obvious as it might seem. I don’t know about you but before opening a research agency I often found myself drifting off in a research debrief.

“Mum’s are really busy” and “I don’t like the colour red” being some of my most favourite pearls of wisdom gleaned from a 2hour market research debrief.

Brand consultancies pride themselves on being strategic, why not research agencies?

Strategy in my experience rarely crosses paths with market research.

A classic trait of most agencies is a lot of ‘you could do this’ or ‘you could do that’.

Never have so many fences been firmly sat on.

But this is all wrong.

As an industry we only really have one client. People.  

People that buy the products and services that you want to sell or get them to use.

It is our job in market research to bang the drum for utility on their behalf.  We have one job to do, which is to make the lives of people we research better.

Lord knows the world doesn’t need more stuff.  What it needs are products and services that actually do a job and even if for a brief moment, create a little bit of joy or satisfaction.

Perhaps it comes down to how we define ‘tells you something’.

What we don’t mean at The Mix is that it tells you everything we heard.

What we do mean is we tell you what you need to go and do a better job.

Might sound like a semantic but it literally amazes me that in the 21st century, market research continues to be obsessed with presenting every possible viewpoint.  Research in the 21st century, has a moral duty to observe and understand what we see but then also be able to communicate with great clarity the one thing that will make a product or service better for the people that use it.

If we don’t, we have failed and more crap stuff will keep getting produced.

So if you are on the side of utility, then you need to pay attention to the small stuff, understand the viewpoints but then make some choices.

‘The essence of strategy is sacrifice’

- David Ogilvy

Perhaps never more has this been an important phrase to remember and perhaps never more has research needed a bit of sacrifice.