Marketing in Real Life

My wife and I are seemingly crazy. We still care about buying thoughtful gifts and spend all year building up our pile so that we’re not wed to craziness at the local mall. But we’re clearly not normal. According to recent research conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey of 1000 consumers 19% of people (25% of males) don’t get started until December rolls around. In fact, when we asked people in October, 12% already knew they would wait until the last minute to buy all of their gifts (17% male, 6% female.) So, as you finish shopping take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. And think of me sitting by the fire with a nice glass of wine. Happy Holidays!

I am privileged to be one of 5 bloggers who, each 15th of the month – will produce a POV on an issue facing the Marketing Research industry. You’ll also be hearing from Annie Pettit (organizer), Bernie Malinoff, Joel Rubinson and Brandon Bertelsen. Links to their posts will follow. I am also particularly excited about this first topic: interactive questioning and its impact on the research industry. A little background… I work at Chadwick Martin Bailey , a high end, mostly quantitative research firm with a focus on segmentation, brand, product development, and customer loyalty work. I have been here for most of the last decade, with a two year stint at Invoke Solutions in the middle. So I see the traditional angle and the non-traditional angle from an inside perspective. Question: Is technology helping or hurting the research industry? Answer: Yes. That is to say that it is not a matter of helping or hurting, it’s about accepting and embracing the reality of technological advances a...

A snipit from CMB and CMG Partners' upcoming white paper, the Marketing Performance Advantage. Boston, MA (10/7/2009) – Only one-fourth of companies believe they are managing their marketing efforts effectively, according to the results of a landmark survey of more than 400 companies by strategic marketing consultancy CMG Partners and market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey. But the study also found that those companies that actively use marketing effectiveness best practices are reaping positive results in areas such as share gains or revenue growth. The study, entitled The Marketing Performance Advantage, surveyed more than 400 companies across a variety of industries and company sizes to determine the key attributes of successful marketing organizations and to understand what marketing practices they employ. “We found a high degree of interest in marketing measurement, but surprisingly very few executives reported success with translating that interest into improved marketin...

Seth Godin's blog post today is about marketing (or the lack thereof) to the second circle - beyond the people who already know you, the ones who the people you know talk to about your products and services. In research we see this issue every day, clients who only want to research the people who know them well - those who have considered, purchased, repurchased, etc. This is, of course, necessary, but its only telling one part of the story. The people who are not currently considering you (or your category) may be just as viable a target. You need to understand their goals, needs, and hot buttons so you can either add them to your target set or rule them out altogether. But wihtout understanding where they stand, you'll never be able to significantly grow beyond your core market.

Just reading an interesting report on the state of the research industry in the UK from RSM . Seems similar to what we're facing in the US, although at least here at CMB we're seeing fits and starts more than continued recovery. Still, people are spending and while cost is important, it is not the only factor we're seeing in decisions. (Which is good for us!) Here are the key summary points from the report: Recession bites Six out of ten research professionals have seen their budgets decline in the past six months and only one in twenty have experienced an increase. This decline is expected to slow down over the next six months but a third still expect budgets to drop. The proportion expecting an increase is static at one in twenty. Even with this slightly more optimistic outlook budgets are expected to shrink by 3.5% over the next six months (indicating a year on year decline of at least 7%. Research activity in most sectors is expected to experience a net decline - mos...

In professional services firms you always hear the "cobbler's kids have no shoes" mentality about their look and feel, use of research, etc. Well, we may not (and you may not) have huge budgets but that doesn't mean we can't follow our own advice and find out what our market is looking for and move in that direction. For years we have been conducting client feedback but like many of our clients it has been used largely for score keeping . Right now, we're wrapping up a broader A&U project about what companies are looking for from value-added research firms and now we have the opportunity to take a fact based approach to addressing it. The takeaway - even if its a simple methodology find out what your customers are looking for and find a way to provide it to them. My favorite comment from the research about why they would choose a small/medium provider over a large one: "Smaller providers are more like a Partnership. They are easier to meet with the ...

I spent much of this week at the AMA Research Conference here in Boston and am continually surprised at one fundamental disconnect between buyers of research and providers of research. Providers don't grasp that not every study needs to be "perfect" to be useful while most buyers are forced to settle for slightly less in exchange for speed. We definitely see the difference. That's why its not surprising that a large percentage of our clients rely solely on the Live session experience, automated reports, and a consultative discussion to make their decisions instead of waiting for a full report. They don't have time to wait so we give them everything we can in a couple of weeks so they can move forward.

A recent post over on the "Church of the Customer" Blog spoke about how the writer was asked to participate in a survey and obliged but felt that it was sorely lacking and wanted to drop off after the second question because it was boring, repetitive, and he didn't feel like he was giving valuable feedback. He suggests trimming it back to 4 main questions: Would you recommend? Explain why you answered that way. How would you describe the company? What can we do to improve? In general I agree. Surveys are too long and still fail to ask the key questions that people want to answer. he also unknowingly suggests a qual - quant survey design. But even more important, he makes the case for an interactive experience where customers and prospects feel like they are actually communicating with a company not just filling out a survey. That's the whole basis for what we do at Invoke and why after a "non-live" experience with our Engage open methodology, peop...

I spent the last two weeks on vacation in Europe and took advantage of a great deal from IcelandAir to fly through Reykjavik and spend time exploring a fascinating country. Those exploits aside, I was very impressed with the airline and not just because of the brilliant marketing partnership they must have with the Icelandic Tourism Board to reduce costs of flying to Europe if you include an overnight stop over. The airline has installed personal entertainment systems in their new planes and along various TV , movie, and gaming options has included a survey mechanism for people to provide feedback while on the flight. While the survey quality wasn't great, the fact that they are taking advantage of a captive audience to improve their service was refreshing and much appreciated. When is your audience captive and do you use that time to help improve your business?