Sixty Seconds on Market Research

Researchers always talk about the benefits of their work, so we asked them to tell us about the problems instead …
All a question of relationship
We could probably all compile a long list of reasons why market research programmes we’ve run have failed to live up to expectations. Time pressures and budget constraints are almost invariably an issue, but those things alone are not the answer. Maybe we should ask instead what makes a research programme succeed? Research can be an administrative nightmare and still effect change in a business – what allows it to have this kind of real impact?
I think the answer is found in the agency–client relationship. Poor communication, changing or unclear objectives, and confusion over what we can do and whom we should target – these are enemies of effective market research. Instead, we should aim for clear communication about the needs of the research users, sharing of information to aid design and interpretation, and collaborative development of ideas from the research.
This sort of relationship – working together and understanding each other – enables high-impact research. The closer we as an agency get to the client business, the higher the success rate on projects. The more open and informative you are as a client about your business objectives, the more likely you are to get research that will drive the business decisions in the right direction.
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