Cambiar Consulting

Winds of Change Series

by Ian Lewis, Cambiar Partner

The next few years will see a paradigm shift for market research – to borrow from Andy Grove in “Only the Paranoid Survive” we are approaching a strategic inflection point.

As part of the ARF Research Transformation Super Council, a small group of us envisioned how research will look ten years from now.  The volume of available information will continue to grow exponentially, driving the need and opportunity for synthesis and knowledge creation.  Our fundamental premise is that research in 2021 will represent a continuous and organic flow of knowledge, which Kim Dedeker (Chair of the Americas for Kantar and former head of market research for P&G) named “The River”.  There are 1,000′s of tributaries that feed the river, representing individual information sources.

There will be a fundamental shift in how we approach business decision making and influence of strategy. We will move away from a project orientation toward an ongoing process of knowledge access and utilization. Value creation will be catalyzed from the organic knowledge found in the flow of the river.

Today we answer marketing questions by designing a study.  Tomorrow we first fish the river of information and only then decide if a study is needed – if so, it will be focused by what we learned from fishing the river.  That old 80/20 rule will be flipped – today we answer 80% of questions with a new study, tomorrow it will be 20%.

Corporate leaders will develop fluid, search-able knowledge collection capabilities – an insights-on-demand resource that will not require interruptions to initiate individual studies for most business questions.  These “corporate information rivers” will be private, not public – they will contain digital information (from social media, websites, mobile, etc.) and will also contain proprietary information from market and media research studies, competitive intelligence, customers, sales and other sources.

What will happen structurally to client market research departments? With so much information available, who in the client company will “own” this resource? Truly progressive research departments will take the lead and be rewarded with a bigger role, but less progressive departments will lose relevance and risk being dis-intermediated.

And what will happen to research companies? Will today’s research companies develop or acquire complete capabilities to become a true partner with progressive client departments?  Or will they fail to adapt and lose relevance along with the less progressive clients?  Advanced analytics will flourish, and new entrants will challenge entrenched research companies. Will tomorrow’s leading companies come from an advanced analytics heritage?  Will the leaders be IBM? Google? Facebook? Or will WPP just keep buying more stuff?  Or will it be a company that isn’t even on the radar? (E.g. Autonomy – http://www.autonomy.com/)

Nobody knows exactly how and when this will play out.  But we’re convinced that major change will be evident within five years.  Now is the time to stay on top of how clients and existing research companies are evolving, and to study new entrants, so that you can develop and implement your strategy.

For more, read the March 2011 JAR article “The Shape of Marketing Research in 2021” at http://www.consultcambiar.com/knowledge-center/

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

by Monica Wood, Cambiar Partner

In the world of Market Research often times the function and its deliverables are thought of as a cost center. This is an obvious problem for the industry, as the Market Research function is in the business of value creation.  As we continue to want organizations to see us as strategic business and thought partners, budgets get slashed and headcount cut. So how do we be strategic thought partners in times of cost cutting?

I have some thoughts on the subject as this is something I was constantly challenged with while at Novartis and other large companies where I ran the Market Research function.

• First, prioritize all work. I highly recommend this be done and aligned at the very top, as frequently as monthly, since priorities are always changing. Next, outsource low value-added work. This is where outsourcing to India can play a great role.
• Second, make your Procurement Department your best friend. The more procurement understands that all market research is not created equal, the more likely they will be to accommodate the Market Research function’s need to add value and help drive the business.
• Third, create “smart approaches” to get to insights more cost effectively. Online communities and other social media tools can be used to get early insights at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods of focus groups and the like.

Last, forgive my reframing this great line, but the strongest defense is a strong offense. I suggest you demonstrate and market the value the function has created frequently and to whomever is willing to listen. Often times the Finance department can become your biggest champion if they understand the risk the company is avoiding by using appropriate new product screening approaches, as just one example. The more functions in the organization and the more individual champions for the function you have, the more likely the function will move from being perceived as a cost center to a value creation center.

Have you been challenged with doing more with less? What are your thoughts on how to keep the monies and resources flowing?

Contact Monica at monica@consultcambiar.com.