Don’t get me wrong. Research is a critical element of any successful marketing plan. In fact, research is the first step in pretty much every single project we’ve ever been involved with here at fisheye. There are, however, ways to use and not use research.
All too often, rather than take personal accountability and apply their judgement, marketers look to research to give them the answer or to hand them a crutch to use if things don’t go as predicted (well, the research said…).
We all know that consumers have a hard time looking beyond what currently exists and are uncomfortable with change. Henry Ford said that if he’d asked consumers what they wanted next in transportation, they would have said a faster, stronger horse.
With truly innovative products often the only way to learn is to go into the field with the actual product. Same thing holds for any true innovative thinking. The Master of innovation himself, Steve Jobs, said “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Remember, the future isn’t someplace we go, it’s something we create.
Sometimes the research takes so long to approve, field and then report back that circumstances have changed and the opportunity lost. A critical question to ask yourself upfront is “How am I going to use these results? What will they change?” If you can’t answer that question, you’re wasting both money and time.
Research will not give you The Answer. It is not meant to be a lamppost to lean upon. It is meant to be a light to provide illumination. Where research shines is in uncovering insight.
And to get those real insights, I always try to conduct it in context or in situ. Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi has a great way of describing this: “If you want to understand how a lion hunts, don’t go to the zoo. Go to the Jungle.”
So remember to take those field trips and watch for a while. It’s amazing what a simple yet powerful tool that can be. Try leaving any preconceptions at the office. Try to observe the entire user experience from pre-decision making all the way to final use if you can.
Stay Curious. Curiousity is your greatest asset. We all need to become 2 year olds again and continually question Why? Try practicing that Zen principle of the Beginner’s Mind. A mind that is open, no preconceptions, not already made up, still investigating, observing.
Finally, remember to add social media listening into your research. For the price of a focus group you can listen across social media platforms to what your users and competitive users think about your category and what’s important to them. Yes, it can be noisy but if you read the data right, the insights are there. We often compare twitter to a pointillist painting. When you stand close all you see is lots of small, meaningless dots, just like individual tweets or posts on Facebook can be meaningless. But when you step back from the canvas and you take in the whole, the picture emerges.
Now that’s illuminating!
