Is market research as we know it doomed?

A couple of my peers commented that whilst my last post had some interesting rants, the direct correlation between the aforementioned madman's monologue and the sites mission statement were a little like trying to fit the square through the icosagon hole - it will go, but it ain't going to be pretty.

So I guess that I may have already failed  in an area that I talk about with clients - sticking to objectives. But rather than completely change the subject, I am going to continue with where I should have taken the post. Either that or you can read on as I dig myself into a deeper hole!

The real reason people end up and stay in market research

In 1996 I purchased my first car, a 1984 Renault 11 with a whopping 1 litre engine and a stereo straight from a Jaguar. Despite this piece of upper-middle class technology sitting in the middle of the console, the Renault had no working fan for the heating. In England this means the windscreen misting up and resorting to driving with your head out of the side window like a dog, snot trails and all. I realised that I was going to need some money to keep this baby-beast running.

There is only so much house painting that a father can give his son to do, particularly when you live in the UK and it is guaranteed to rain and my luck with vehicles is on par with world peace,  I knew that I would need something more sustainable.

Living within a few km's of Millward Brown's head office meant that I no longer had to suffer the alternative of consumer rage that came with retail. Instead I was offered a comfy chair in a big call centre with a machine that churned out free hot chocolate. I thought "wow, I get paid to do this? call people up and talk to them about products that they use..." shame that the excitement was so short lived. However the one thing I was told that stuck in my head from that training 13 years ago that gave me a warm-fuzzy feeling was that Market Research was there to help improve products for customers. So a quick recap:

1. I was out of retail.
2. I had free hot chocolate on tap.
3. I was doing my bit of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Why old research sucks

This must have been a winner, if only it was true. So what was wrong?

Everyone knows what it is like to be called up, stopped in the street, have their personal space violated by a pop up advert as they surf the web, all asking to participate in research. We may or may not do it. There are theories as to why people participate in research, such as wanting to help, being opinionated etc... I won't get into that now. But you don't find people excited about participating in research. Why? Because watching sand dunes form and disappear in a windless environment is more exciting. There are a several reasons why respondents are so disengaged when it comes to the research process, but here are a few of them:

1. The research industry acts as a veil between the brands and the brand's customers. We do not let the customer know who they are answering questions for.
2. Rarely will the customer actually see the results of the research they participate in. Sure they may see the occasional TV advert they gave an opinion on or new packaging for Hormel's Spam, but they would have to be lucky.
3. When it comes to writing questions and surveys, researchers have the engagement skills of an androgynous single cell organism.

These may be generalisations and certainly there are exceptions out there, but having watched online research participation rates drop so rapidly over the past five years it does make you wonder.

Market Research as we know it is on a path of self-destruction because we have systematically failed to engage with customers. This leads to "who is answering all these questionnaires and why". So to answer this I recently ran a series of focus group and asked the participants why they did research. Money. Were they honest about the way the answered? Yes. Did they pay attention to the questions? For about 5-10 minutes.

Now we do not exactly pay participants generously, in fact on an hour by hour rate they are better off on the dole, which explains why research participants are becoming few and far between. We seem to be heading into an unsustainable future.

Is it the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse I see coming or is there a White Knight out there?

So, is all this inevitable, or can anything be done to increase respondent interest?  My recent experience with online research communities has told me that there is a future.  Aside from the mentioned focus groups, like researchers who are determined not to have their beliefs discredited (because researchers love nothing more to prove where there are flaws in others research methodology) we have conducted quant studies and online communities around this subject. 

Starting with the focus groups, when asked if they would join online research communities where they could talk to the brand, whilst they did not jump at it (being wary of research by this point) they felt that this was what was needed to engage people in participating in research again. With the quant studies there were a multitude of reasons why people who participate in research (I will post some more on their reasons in the next few days) and the online communities, where people got to sunk their teeth into the methodology had nothing but praise.

I am sure that communities are not the only tool, but respondents are not likely to tell us what other tools will engage them and allow us to conduct effective research at the same time.

So what does this have to do with Business Karma?

As mentioned, market research as we have known it is on a rapid descent into a respondent-less abyss. Like advertising and it's one way messages, we have been guilty of trying to maintain a parent-child relationship with customers, perpetually making assumptions on what we should be talking to customers about rather than listening to them. Using social media and in particular communities, there is an opportunity for us to not only start to increase the numbers of customers who are willing to participate in research, but also if we engage with them, dramatically increase salient information.

There is hope for the industry, but it requires a brave move that not everyone is prepared to make. Luckily there are a few organisations out there who are adopting new methods and will lead the way forward. Unfortunately though neither market research or social media saved my car from the radiator cracking and the head gasket blowing.