A recent Greenbook blog article posted by @Angry_MR_Client, “How to Make an MR Client Angry in 7 Easy Steps”, shares her frustration with items such as “underdeliver” and “make slides no one wants to read.”  Alas, the items listed are exactly the kind of all-too-common challenges that frustrate many market research clients.

But they also frustrate the suppliers.

Bearing in mind that there are literally over a thousand market research suppliers worldwide, most seek to do good work.  When they under-deliver, it is not intentional.  And they’re not rejoicing in slide creation parties.

So where is the disconnect?

As @edward04 commented on the Greenbook post: It takes two to tango.

Part of the challenge we have in market research is that suppliers often walk a very fuzzy line between being an outsourcing partner (takes on a project, completes start-to-end, full authority and responsibility) and being a staff extension (reports to the client, gets approval at major milestones, numerous points of shared responsibility).  MR agencies often are hired, and want to act, as an outsourcing provider—but in reality, it is a mixed role (especially compared to other outsourcing models). Not clear why this is an issue? Consider this example from the world of employee management:

I ran a market research agency for 13 years, and managed lots of researchers in that time.  I learned early on that employees cannot be successful if they are given responsibility, but no authority. It just doesn’t work.  Employees who can’t make decisions or solve problems related to their areas of responsibility can never be effective. The level of responsibility assigned to an employee must be matched by an equal level of authority to act.

In the case of market research engagements, I see a lot of cases where the client and the supplier have confusing or unspecified divisions of responsibility and authority.  Frustration for both sides is the result.

Is the Market Research Client-Supplier Relationship Unusual?

Clearly, there are always tensions between buyers and sellers—of any kind.  Buyers want more value, sellers want more margin. Buyers want it faster/more convenient, sellers want scalable processes. The list could go on and on.  And such conflicts are not all bad: a little constructive tension serves the purpose of making sure clients and suppliers help each other evolve.

As for articles such as the recent Greenbook post? Sure, it is fine to vent—for both clients and market research suppliers. Nothing wrong with that!  But the real issue is this: how do we step away from recycled platitudes about client-supplier relationships and make real change?  When do market research agencies and clients work best together? Perhaps when both parties precisely specify and agree to the relationship model: outsourced or staff extension.

 [The book, How to Hire & Manage Market Research Agencies, is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions]

Market research training classes: now with dates through March 2013.

When consumers purchase a product, they expect to get what they paid for.  This is also true when companies purchase market research; unfortunately some no longer receive the high-quality tangible product they paid for, at least according to Gill Wales (as stated in her article published on Research-Live.com titled Will This Do.)

As quoted in this article, Justin Gutmann, head of research and insight for Consumer Focus, has a laundry list of problems with many of the reports he commissioned from reputable market research firms.  While firms dazzled him with well-written proposals and promises, the promises turned empty and the end result was a poorly written market research report indicating the writer did not fully grasp, or even understand at all, the subject being researched.  As Gill Wales writes, “No matter how skillful the fieldwork, if the report fails to provide a clear and reliable description of the outcome, then the client has acquired a useless product. The fieldwork may as well never have been done.”

These subpar reports can be attributed to a few issues, but as Wales notes, these issues are not difficult to fix.  Often, senior executives are involved in the planning and fieldwork portion of the market research, but delegate the actual report writing to junior analysts.  These junior analysts, while capable, are not properly trained and need more guidance from the senior executives, who are too often M.I.A. Furthermore, the author states that the economic environment today is contributing to market research firms being understaffed but afraid to turn away work, which forces them to sacrifice quality of work in order to keep up.  While this may seem smart today, in the long-run it will hurt them.  As Wales notes, the future for market research professionals lies in their ability to interpret, explain, and present the data that can now be gathered by ever-improving software.   She concludes that only properly trained professionals will be able to keep up with the changing market research environment. Not surprisingly, we at Research Rockstar agree!

Many of the comments on this article agree that the structure of market research firms, especially large ones, has lead to declining report quality.  As one commenter, Ray Poynter, notes, producing a good market research report is time consuming, and, as a result, a good report written by a senior executive costs well above what most companies will pay.  As Research Rockstar’s own Kathryn Korostoff notes, many market researchers she encounters are more than capable of producing good reports; they simply do not have the proper training to do so.  They have no processes, list of best practices, or frameworks to refer to.

Obviously we are biased, but this article raises issues we have been addressing in our market research training programs for over two years.  Good, cost-effective training can solve many of the issues seen in the market research industry today.  Unfortunately, many firms are not willing to pay the traditionally high costs of training.   We are trying to address this by offering more than twenty topics via virtual classroom training, which eliminates the cost and aggravation of travel, as well as having a lower price than in-person seminars.

[Want to learn more? Research Rockstar offers comprehensive market research training through a series of online classes.  These classes come at an affordable price, allowing market research firms to keep costs down while improving quality—thus avoiding the major problem of sacrificing quality for quantity that Gill Wales writes about.]

[The post was written by our fantastic new intern, Todd Haylon.  Well done, Todd!]

Remarkable Research Doesn’t Have to Include a Remarkable Price Tag

Market research exists on a continuum ranging from “quick and dirty” to “meticulous and complete.” And these days, there are some quick and inexpensive methods that aren’t that “dirty” at all. Before assuming that a new market research need requires a 3-phase, qual-quant methodology supported by a team of expert moderators and stats PhDs, ask yourself: what are all of the options? If you do decide a research need can be met by a quick, inexpensive approach, consider:

• Secondary research. More resources are available than ever. Don’t reinvent the wheel—see what exists; you may be surprised.
• Social media research. Using one of the free or lower cost tools (as opposed to some of the more elaborate tools which do come with bigger price tags), you can get directional information on what the buzz is on brands, products, cultural trends, etc.
• Facebook or LinkedIn polls. They are free and can be fast (assuming you can push that poll to a large enough network).
• New tools. Many new services integrate online research tools with panels. Check out AYTM (disclosure: Research Rockstar does have a relationship with AYTM), Zoomerang, and SSI (via its QuickTake offering).

Sure, some projects warrant the big bucks. But when big budgets and long timelines aren’t an option, useful information can still be gathered using creative methods.

[This is the fifth article in a series of 20 mini-posts titled, “Principles of Remarkable Research.” Don’t want to miss this series? Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS.]

If you throw “social media” and “market research” into a blender, what do you get? It depends on the exact recipe you select. The good news is that whatever you decide to try first, you can start with some free samples.

In terms of what many organizations can most easily test today, social media monitoring, social sampling and prediction markets are great options.

If you want to learn more about these methods, their pros and cons, and suggestions for getting started with them, please check out Research Rockstar’s new class: Social Media Meets Market Research.

Sign up for the class before May 25^th with coupon code 472Z1 and the class will be just $99.

This 73-minute online, self-paced class includes an automated, interactive self-quiz. With this fast, easy market research training, you will be ready to start “tasting” the samples, without the risk of a nasty BassOMatic mess.

Please check out the class preview: PREVIEW LINK.

This week, Research Rockstar gave away three (3) FREE VIP memberships to readers of the QuestionPro, Survey Analytics, and Research Access blogs. Winners will have 24×7 access to classes on:

• Market segmentation
• Questionnaire planning
• Product concept testing
• Delivering research
• And more

The three winners are…drumroll…Yuchen Chen, Cassie Rhodes and Katrina Gan. All three have been notified by email.

Thanks to everyone who participated!