Cambiar Consulting

by Simon Chadwick, Managing Partner

In a sure sign of its continuing resurgence as an association of relevance in the United States, the Marketing Research Association has mounted an excellent new conference aimed at the corporate researcher. Intelligent partnering with the Market Research Executive Board (MREB) and Quirk’s meant that not only did 400 delegates turn up but that there was a slate of generally good speakers to entertain and inform them.

Among the most widely acclaimed of these were Ian Lewis of Cambiar (full disclosure – I am Cambiar’s managing partner), Chris Frank of American Express and Andrew Abela of Extreme Presentations. Lewis set the stage by reviewing the future of research in the coming decade, replete with fresh data from the Cambiar Research in the Future Study. Chief among his points that resonated with the crowd: the gap between the desired state of corporate researchers to be true thought partners in their organizations and their relative lack of doing so. Lewis charted out a number of key trends that will materially affect research in the coming years, including the corporate researcher’s’ need to deliver more with less; the rise of DIY; the organic river of knowledge that will increasingly be available to organizations outside of the norm of what we currently think of as market research; a taxonomy of the new modalities that are available to us; the rise of the global middle class; and the need to find, recruit and train new types of talent for a new age.

Frank picked up on this theme by giving very practical advice to organizations on how to make sense of the tsunami of information with which they are faced – and the key questions that need to be asked in order to do so. Abela then carried this forward by giving his audience a radical view of the research presentation  -  no more than 5 slides, no bullets, no color, no clip art. Just a laser focus on content. The perfect presentation, he said, could have nothing added nor anything deducted from it.

Of great interest in interacting with participants here was the degree to which these clients are more willing to experiment with new modalities and new ways of approaching research than are their primary suppliers, the research agencies. It seems that, in this instance, clients are once again pointing the way to change to those that service them. There is a palpable hunger among client researchers to find ways in which to be more effective, more impactful and more provocative – and much discussion on the necessary mindsets, structures and tools that would enable this to take place.

Kudos to MRA, MREB and Quirks for a valuable new addition to the conference circuit.

Keys to Success

Simon Chadwick, Managing Partner

One of the strongest and most frequent complaints we hear from market research clients is that suppliers “don’t get their business” – i.e. they don’t display a fundamental understanding of the client’s category, needs, competitive context or even internal processes and decision making. I often hear this in relation to new business pitches, where research companies come in ill-prepared to discuss their wares in the context of the client’s business and its needs. It’s also one of the top reasons that clients give for being less than satisfied with their current suppliers.

Recently, we were asked by a research supplier to define “getting the business”. What do clients mean by this and how should research companies act to show that they really do “get it”? Well, here are a few thoughts.

First of all, “getting the business” is a mindset. You are curious about the client; you have an insatiable desire to understand everything about them. You are able to put yourself in their shoes, to empathize with them. From that mindset comes meticulous preparation, whether what you are preparing is a pitch, a proposal or a report. What data can you find, from as wide a set of sources as possible, that will help you understand the client better? What previous research in their category is there that can help paint a picture of their competitive context? What has been published about them in the business and trade press? What do you know about their products? What can you find out about their financial health and their strategy? (A good tip here is to find podcasts or recordings of recent investor and analyst calls they have held).

Given this mindset, here are five things that demonstrate that you really do “get” the business:

1. You demonstrate an understanding of key financial metrics (P&L’s, balance sheets, ROI, etc.)

2. You show an understanding of marketing and have an appreciation for what marketers do and the situations they face

3. You demonstrate deep knowledge of the client company:

- its process (for example, in new product development or strategic planning)

- its culture (how do decisions get made? how open are they to innovative thinking and approaches?)

- you know who the key stakeholders are, their roles and their needs

- you understand and can speak the company jargon.

4. You show real understanding and learning of the brand and its category

- you know the brand’s positioning

- you are aware of the history and trends impacting the brand and the category

- you understand, and keep up with, the competitive landscape

- you are abreast of the key issues and opportunities

- you know what the knowledge base of the MR department is concerning the brand and the category — or, if you don’t, you make it your   business to do so.

5. Finally, you are aware of what role MR plays in the organization

- does it have a strong objective voice?

- to whom does it report?

- is it viewed as a strategic partner or a tactical necessity?

- what is the relationship between your client and their client — and what are their client’s primary needs?

Do and demonstrate all of this and you will show that yes, you get the business – and, who knows, you may get the business!  Good luck!

Cobbler's Shoes

by Bill Guerin, Partner

Contradictions fascinate me, because if I’m able to hold the associated tension in my logically Newtonian left brain, some resolving flash of insight eventually emerges in my right brain.

We all know the story of the cobbler’s shoeless children and the related irony that sometimes those who we expect would most naturally benefit from a situation go without.  And as I think about our industry (an occupational hazard), I’m struck by some surprising ways in which clients of market research firms may be going without – and I’m also curious as to how they might feel about that.

Let me explain….

I’m currently at 30,000 feet (literally) returning to the US after conducting a 5-week series of consultative sales and account management workshops in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.  In reflecting on these recent experiences – as well as my 5 years sales consulting experience with Cambiar and work with 50+ market research firms and over 1,000 client-facing employees – I’m seriously wondering about a few apparent contradictions with market research firms:

1.   How can we routinely give exquisite advice to our clients on ways to uniquely position their brands in targeted markets, yet so many of us try to be all things to all people, struggle with defining our target markets and lack an original and compelling value proposition?

2.   What do our end clients think about us promoting to them the necessity of collecting, processing and acting on customer feedback, yet so few of us do the same with our clients?

3.   Why do we consult with our clients on optimizing their CRM platforms without doing much of the same in our business?

4.   When we know so well the economics of maintaining an existing customer versus attracting a new one in our client’s business, why do we oftentimes fall short in establishing and executing account strategies to keep and grow our clients?

5.   When we really understand the crucial importance of a strategic plan to lead and drive our client’s business – and help our clients put those plans in place – why do so few of us have similar plans to lead and drive our business?

6.   How can we be in the question-asking business, yet when we get in front of our clients and prospects we often miss opportunities to ask good, consultative questions that uncover their core needs?

7.   How can we guide an advertiser in creating a commercial that elicits a desired emotional and behavioral response, yet so often neglect to connect emotionally with our clients and prospects?

8.  When we create disciplined processes for our clients to take new products from initial concept to successful launch, why are so many of our own product development efforts fragmented and unsuccessful?

9.   When we regularly work with our clients to understand their drivers of performance and help them establish KPIs to monitor and manage their business, why do so few of us have a similar dashboard to run our own business?

These are just a few of the many contradictions I often see.  Please understand, my intent here isn’t to whine, bash, generalize or self-flagellate, but to provoke some creative thinking and dialogue around what might be possible if we consumed more of our own medicine – the advice “Physician, heal thyself” comes to mind here.

Or if we return to our friendly neighborhood cobbler, to have a thriving shoe business, perhaps we should first consider making delighted customers of our own children.

I suspect others have thoughts and perspectives to share – would love to hear them.

Contact me at bill@consultcambiar.com