Consider your audience, hone your message
Editor’s note: Jan Bleyaert is principal of Capture Research LLC, Boston.
Brilliant men and women have brought us to new heights of sophistication in constructing samples, building questionnaires and analyzing data. Why, then, despite all this great work, do we market researchers continue to experience the frustrations of being misunderstood, or worse, ignored by people in our organizations?
I asked several marketing professionals in major corporations around the U.S. about their communications with the marketing research team. Here are some examples of their responses: “I can tell they work really hard but we often can’t understand what they send us.” “I don’t know if I can trust the researcher to really understand what the findings mean in marketing terms.” “This information is just so technical, I wish they would bring it down a notch.”
Clearly, barriers to good communication exist within both the marketing research departments and the departments they support.
Part of the explanation involves the academic orientations of professional researchers. With backgrounds in data collection and analysis, we’re inclined to focus on the merits of our designs and methods and overlook the deliverables. Additionally, timetables simply don’t promote good communication. After slogging through a long project, it’s tough to consider spending even more time developing a plan for presenting the results; at this point, we’re on to designing the next study! Finally, project budgets generally don’t include funds to create deliverables.
Clients, meanwhile, are bombarded with e-mails, presentations and reports, but find it next to impossible to consume all this information because they’re stuck in meetings all day. When it takes longer than a few minutes to review something, by necessity, they skim, skip or shelve it, hoping to get to it “some day.” A researcher may want to show the bells and whistles; some clients simply want them to get to the point.
Marketing researchers may also notice their clients asking for the same information over and over. Some functions need certain kinds of information on demand, in real time. This suggests that the formats and archiving of information need revamping to accommodate easy, real-time access and searching.
Here are some suggestions for building better communications between research teams and their internal clients:
1. Build skills within the team.
2. Create processes that include, as a distinct and separate step for projects, a communications plan.
3. Add communication effectiveness to staff evaluations.
4. Provide access to tools and resources such as internal and external suppliers, (videographers, graphic designers) and templates.
Establish goals
Before the study begins, the researcher should establish communications goals. I prefer the term “communications” to “reporting.” The word “report” literally means, “to give a formal account of,” “to relate, as what has been learned by observation or investigation.” Communication is more interactive. In effective communication, the receiver of the information emerges changed, and success is now defined, not in terms of production output, but in terms of impact. This is a better standard for marketing research. The criterion for success now becomes whether the goal of the communication - be it learning, inspiration, data usage, persuasion to a point of view or some other metric - was reached.
Once goals are formulated, the project design should include a communications plan. One way to envision this is to write a generic statement of what the raw findings are expected to include. Facts should be listed in order of importance and should be summarized in what journalists call the lead. The plan also needs to explicitly name constituencies that should get the information and how they are likely to use it. The plan should address, based on what is being communicated and how it will be used, a distribution plan including timing of release (information may be released all at once or sequentially). And, finally, it may be necessary to add a feedback element that allows users to discuss the results among themselves or directly with the research team.
It is helpful to distinguish between research-as-news versus research-as-decision-tool versus research-as-inspiration. In other words, “I need to know about it” is different than “I need to know it” or “I need to be aware of it now but reference the details later.” You may eventually need to design different forms of the message to address these needs. This sends clients a message that we truly care about and understand what they need, and we’re going to work toward giving it to them in the best possible format.
In reality, sometimes a researcher is too junior or too new at a company to design such a plan without assistance, and it’s appropriate to enlist clients for support. Sometimes, however, the client has a limited perspective on objectives and constituencies. (Many marketing researchers would liken the defining of study objectives, particularly when there are multiple clients, to the herding of cats.) Certainly, even well-integrated research departments can’t always know every implication in advance and the truly important recipients of your final insights may lie beyond the immediate client list. A little proactive attention and flexibility in the design will help accommodate these contingencies.
Considered carefully
The original source of your message should be considered carefully. In many instances, the ideal source for your information may not be in marketing. For instance, if your project’s ultimate objective is to improve the effectiveness of the sales force, it may be better for the research to come from a leader in sales. In some cases, it’s quite effective if deliverables include observations from both the client who sponsored the research and the research lead. A trusted, well-chosen source can add substantial weight and, in some cases, actually become a part of your message. However, when a source of information is not considered credible or trustworthy a “discounting” effect occurs.
I queried marketing researchers in several different companies to find out who presents research results within their firms. Some admitted they often have their research vendors do it. This may be expedient (and sometimes politically desirable), but as a common practice it may erode the authority of the research team. With vendors continually communicating insights to clients, these same clients may, over time, view the research department as administrators and vendors as the real “brains.” The research team is also in a better position to provide valuable context for the information not available to an outside firm. When a researcher handles the communications, clients perceive him or her as a credible point person for additional questions. Due to time constraints, this practice may not be possible for all projects, but should be the rule for important, high-visibility projects.
It may also be helpful to keep in mind that the source of your information will become blurred over time. People often forget where they heard something, a phenomenon called the dissociative cue effect in which, over time, the mental “tag” indicating the source detaches in memory from the message. Hence, it’s a good practice to reinforce the original source somewhere within the content.
Most persuasive
Recall from basic psychology that direct experience is the most persuasive source of information. (This is part of the reason - to the frustration of many marketing researchers - that a few idiosyncratic statements in a focus group can outweigh reams of objective, carefully collected data.) However, when possible, having others in your company experience the consumer’s point of view firsthand is more powerful than presenting secondhand observations. Obviously, this must be managed carefully. The risk is that executives may jump to the wrong conclusions based on only a handful of consumers, but I would argue these risks are more than offset by the benefit of having advocates in high places for the customers’ point of view. A formal debriefing at the project’s conclusion will help identify and reinforce the observations that seem most consistent.
You can also create additional awareness of your message by purposefully building internal buzz. Present the research to 20 people, and there are now 20 additional delivery points for the information. Give the people at your presentation the tools they’ll need to be able to spread the word. Audience members can be given pocket-sized fact cards to encapsulate key points and which include contact information or a Web site for more information. Craft the message carefully, create ambassadors for your results and the important points will travel around the company. Rarely do large PowerPoint decks handed out at the end of a presentation have this effect, and only a few may want this amount of detail after the presentation.
Much more skillful
Marketing research results are most often presented in-person to a small group as a PowerPoint deck that is then sent via e-mail to others on request. However, when we consider the ways and reasons people will use this information, we can be much more skillful in packaging it. I’m often amazed at how many times I’ve received a PowerPoint presentation via e-mail and was expected to be able to figure out what was going on after reading through a series of cryptic bullet points and diagrams. Where and when will this be seen and how will the information be used? Will someone always be there to present it or does it need to stand alone? Is it something designed to provide detail for people to be able to go back to, as a reference, or is it simply designed to have a single impact or change a perspective, or both?
It may be helpful to revisit how we structure marketing research reports. Our default approach, originating in academia, includes these general headings: background; methodology; executive summary; detailed summary; recommendations.
But it’s hard to imagine an academic being asked to make a million-dollar decision within a three-month period based on as much information as he or she could get as quickly as possible. I suggest a better format is one that media organizations developed long ago, and one that works best for busy people:
Main Headline
Subhead One
Detail
Callouts
Subhead Two
Detail
Callouts
Implication/Conclusion/What’s Next?
This is but one of many designs that are more amenable to business and originate from the field of journalism. The structure allows individuals to access content based on how much detail they need and helps them quickly get back to the information they need.
Many research departments use report formats as an attempt to brand themselves internally, and this is fine. But ideally, the form and structure of your information will be determined in large part by how the information will be circulated and used by people. The form your information takes should enhance its content, not act as a barrier.
And even if the information is dry, you can package it creatively to make it more enjoyable; entertainment value builds involvement.
Although chronology may always not suit your information, it’s helpful to exploit this structure when possible. The story format is familiar and simple. Stories are easy to remember and repeat to others. And it’s been said that if one can change the stories that are told within an organization, one can change the culture. Marketing research reports can actually include, through their structure and examples, elements of drama. The “unexpected” is a critical element in successful comedy or drama. Build into your communications a few dramatic elements, and your audience will more easily remember this piece, and will look forward to getting more from you in the future.
One can’t know entirely how information should be packaged in advance. But if we anticipate the communications aspect of the project, it can impact the design of the study. As an example, I’ve often been asked by clients to reconfigure focus group tapes into something compelling for senior management. Generally, this is not possible. The video is poor-quality, shot through glass and it’s difficult to capture ideas succinctly because people tend to ramble. It should be taken into account whether senior management is the audience early on, to ensure there are adequate resources for compelling deliverables.
Great message structure
Generating enthusiasm for marketing research is an art form, and typically involves a combination of great message structure, packaging pizzazz and audience participation. This participation can take the form of attendance at focus groups or viewing ethnographic research with streaming video and allowing research users to talk with one another about what they’re hearing.
Given our clients’ increasingly complex environments, it’s safe to assume they won’t have time to wade through the confetti of observations to get to the big picture. Journalists face this situation every day and the solution is so important that journalists learn during day one on the job: “Don’t bury the lead.” The lead for your project could be something as simple as “Product requires open architecture.” It could be more esoteric like, “Best message: Insurance is for people, not for things.”
Over the years I’ve noticed that very senior executives, at the end of a long presentation, will often verbally recap that presentation in one sentence and then look around the room to see if others agree with this interpretation. It’s an interesting phenomenon and suggests that these busy people intuitively know they won’t remember everything, but they want to make sure they understand the single most important insight. We need to do this proactively. Although a certain degree of angst results when executives gloss over the details, generally speaking, we should consider the space in an executive’s mind as real estate and use it carefully.
As researchers, we are trained to be objective observers in our organizations and our methods are designed to maintain this status. Yet this doesn’t mean that we view information without affect. In fact, research on cognition indicates decision-making always involves some degree of emotional valence. Hence, it’s helpful to consider not only what we have learned but also how we should feel about it.
I recently developed a consumer documentary for a company summarizing a large body of research designed to change the organization’s focus. In an early meeting I asked the client team, “How do you want people to feel when they see this?” I was met with a room full of blank stares, and, to be fair, it is not a question that often comes up. But this question led to a discussion about what impact we wanted this video to have to change the organization. If the work is to have any effect at all, people must have the facts but also must feel something. It’s best to anticipate and manage that in advance.
Better use of technology
One of the most important trends in research is better use of technology to engage clients with customers. Hence, we see a proliferation of community Web sites that let clients to hear from consumers themselves and observe their conversations. New technology also offers clients, for the first time, the chance to observe in-home and on-site interviews in real time from their desktops anywhere in the world. It’s likely that the next generation of presentation tools will be Web-based versus PowerPoint-based. A Web-based reporting system could enable users to self-navigate densely populated reports and incorporate multiple media such as audio, video, data tables and slides, all of which could be accessed with a click of the mouse. Additionally, a Web-based reporting system promotes interactivity with the content by dedicating portions of the site to bulletin boards where clients can post reactions and engage in conversations regarding the results.
These are just a few ideas for improving market research communications and delivering our results. It’s time for us to create more thoughtful processes for this crucial process. The mass media, from reality-TV shows to social-networking sites to 24-hour news organizations, provide intriguing ideas for this work. In the end, when we become better communicators, we’re more effective business partners. The information we gather increases in value and transforms our insights today into our companies’ wisdom about their customers, their products and the future.