Consumer Proximity: The Market Researchers Secret Weapon in Advertising Research

Troy Hakansson

Having just spent a week on the road doing exploratory research that is geared towards creating great advertising for a large multinational company in China, I’d like to reinforce the important role that consumer research has as an indispensable consumer sounding board that can help fuel the creative process – everywhere in the world.

This was not finished ad testing, but the exploration of an idea at the very early stages of the creative and communications process. We are conducting focus groups among Chinese consumers towards developing an idea, and looking for the cultural tensions that may lead to that ultimate insight to create great advertising.

Whilst most people working in research are probably aware, researchers have never had the most comfortable or equal relationship with advertising and creative agency types. Despite this, we should all nonetheless recognise the important role we play for the client. This is because of the market researcher’s secret weapon, consumer proximity. It is because of our unique ability to understand what will resonate, engage and motivate the consumer in advertising that our client is ultimately willing to listen to us. Furthermore it’s our impartiality, specialism and expertise in this endeavour that makes our voice all the more valuable. This is as true here in Asia, as it is anywhere in the world.

Incidentally, a lack of consumer engagement is something we still see all too often from some of the domestic companies here in China in their attitude towards consumer research. Many are still not yet convinced of the value of research, and instead prefer to second guess what their audience wants, which is probably a topic for an entirely separate post.

Ad agencies will naturally always defend their ideas, and never want their precious work constrained by an outsider, For that reason, during advertising development, it is also the responsibility of the research provider to be sensitive to this dynamic, and to deliver constructive and actionable feedback for the refinement of ideas rather than just kill the creative, to be both sensitive in sharing feedback, and honest if a certain idea or aspect needs to be urgently rectified.

As we all know, it would be dangerous for a client not to listen to the voice of the consumer. Most multinationals are aware of this, and as a result engage in the various steps of creative development.

I’m happy to say that most of the ad agencies we work with are engaged in the advertising research process and value the opportunity to talk to the consumers, and also value the feedback. This is where the client has an important role to play, to foster the right type of relationship between these partners, it is often when all these parties are not working collaboratively towards the same goal that research can be perceived as an inferior process and rejected (or alternatively, is used only selectively to support a creative agenda).

Douglas Dunn highlighted the disdain in which advertising research is often held in one of his recent series of posts from the Cannes Lions 2012. Its well worth a read, he cites Sir John Hegarty of BBH and Dan Wieden of Wieden & Kennedy in their joint speech from Cannes, bashing consumer research as the ‘the enemy of the creative industry’. He promotes the need for using ‘creative experiments’ and particularly advocates the use of online communities as a means to develop and refine creative ideas.

From a methodological standpoint, qualitative research will always be preferred over quantitative in exploring and developing early stage creative ideas, but there is a place for quantitative methods, such as the LINK test. I am also excited about the potential for online communities to garner feedback on creative development.

As researchers, whatever tools we use in the advertising development process, and wherever we are in the world, we need to push ourselves to find the right solution to enable research to be an aid to creativity rather than an obstacle. In doing this, we must also ensure that we are careful to communicate our findings constructively.

As long as our work is grounded in consumer insight and understanding, our intimate knowledge of the consumer and our proximity to them remain the researcher’s secret weapon.

Troy Hakansson is an Account Director with Millward Brown China. The opinions expressed by Troy on RW Connect are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer. The posts on this blog are provided ‘as is’ with no warranties and confer no rights.