Ipsos OTX: Evolution: A New Role for Market Research - Shelley Zalis - MediaBizBloggers

"Not everything that counts can be counted," said Albert Einstein, "and not everything that can be counted counts."

Einstein was no dummy. He saw things, and said things, that resonate far beyond his own interests and even his own time. That line, for instance, perfectly describes the state of market research today. It sums up neatly the single most critical challenge we as researchers face – evolution.

Executives talk about the importance of deep consumer insight

… but struggle to achieve it. Recent research from Boston Consulting Group found that only 35% of clients describe their consumer insight capabilities as best in class. And 90% use research as a tactical tool, not a strategic resource.

This means that the majority of research is average--or worse. And the conclusion that executives do not consider research to be a strategic tool is a wake-up call for market researchers everywhere.

Why are things perceived to be wrong? We know the symptoms but what are the causes?

One big cause is growing pains. Research has gone from a cottage industry to an industrialized, global business. With that growth has come a focus on price, standardization and speed. We have created excellence in process rather than INNOVATION.

This has changed the balance of research expertise and the operational focus of the people working in the business. They have less experience in broader things but more expertise in specific ones. And less space to be different, let alone an inclination to look for anything other than the ordinary.

But we don't live in ordinary times and we don't do market research in an ordinary ecosystem. We work in a digital world, where everybody is an expert, and both researcher and researched are being transformed by cultural and behavioral changes, and access to instant information that's just a mouse click away.

How do we change? We do what a legendary Apple ad campaign urged us to do: THINK DIFFERENT.

Evolution in market research means not merely collecting data but decoding and identifying the part that is worth using. That's work that gets talked about … and shifts the expectations of market research.

We need to evolve market research the way account planners evolved the creative process 30 years ago. We need to stop reporting and start telling stories.

How do we do that? By listening, observing and talking with consumers, experts and stakeholders. By developing and activating techniques designed to go deeper than numbers ever can, where we can probe, engage and learn, not merely measure. By using non-linear surveys, intelligent probing, blogging, video cams and other digitally-enabled research that doesn't always ask the obvious.

We need to embrace outside expertise--very much like account planners do--and partner with neuroscientists, semioticians, academics and other experts (including planners themselves). And to the clients who are our stakeholders, we move to storytelling versus reportage. From a torrent to a drip approach that connects stakeholders with their consumers to get faster answers.

This is how market research can and should evolve, from a disseminator of collected data to a provider of profound insights that reveal feelings, ideas and thoughts as well as numbers.

This is what marketers will ask of their research agencies in the next five years. This is what we must be prepared to answer. Only then will market research be considered best-in-class. Only then will it be strategic, not merely tactical.

Only then will it count.

Shelley Zalis has over 25 years of experience working in traditional marketing and advertising research companies. In early 2000, Shelley Zalis founded OTX, which in nine years has grown to become a top 18 global research agency, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Miami, and London. In January 2010, OTX was acquired by Ipsos. Shelley now leads the Ipsos Global Innovation Center. Shelley can be reached at Shelley@otxresearch.com.

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