AI and marketing research from the Quirk's archives

Welcome to our new feature! In each issue, Pro Insights will offer a handful of tips and commentaries on a single topic, drawn from our vast library of past magazine and e-newsletter articles. Future installments will include customer satisfaction research, health care research and qualitative research. Let us know (joe@quirks.com) if there are subjects you’d like us to tackle. As always, you can start your own search by accessing these and thousands more articles for free at www.quirks.com.

Let your stakeholders see their customers in action on the job

In her article “Why mobile ethnography belongs in B2B research,” Caroline Stovold detailed the many ways that in-the-moment research using cell phones can add potentially overlooked details and contexts to a B2B project, making respondents more than just data points and uncovering unspoken insights.

The outputs of mobile ethnography provide plenty of case studies to use to exemplify the research findings and bring the data to life. This is particularly important in B2B research as the audience may have little experience of a respondent’s job or workplace. Threading together videos, photos and sound bites can produce a more engaging report, making it easier for the audience to empathize, resulting in more memorable results. This ultimately leads to research findings that drive action.

In addition to gathering in-the-moment data, mobile ethnography will also gather a lot of contextual data, i.e., events or circumstances that may not seem significant to the respondent but are meaningful to the researcher. This contextual data is again often something a respondent will not mention in a focus group; perhaps it just seems too obvious or unimportant but can be the extra nugget that the researcher is looking for. In a tradesperson example, the ethnography may reveal that the installation was done in a different sequence of events than the manufacturer originally intended. Often, contextual data can lead to innovation.

FMCG + B2B = A-OK

Matthew Oster, in his article “How B2B research methods can help FMCG companies,” outlined the ways that B2B research can be of value to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies whose products are sold to or used in institutional or B2B markets. Rather than depending on the (often informal) types of internal research like conversations with sales team members, Oster argued companies need a comprehensive effort to find out how much they don’t know about what they don’t know.

In the absence of using outside market researchers, most FMCG companies have developed in-house techniques that are frequently incapable of meeting the difficulties of understanding market drivers in the B2B space: who is leading in that space, whether they may be other FMCG manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers or service providers; and whether their sales are successfully meeting the size of the opportunity in this space. Many FMCG companies are frankly even unaware that a blind spot exists in their knowledge of the B2B marketplace.

At the most fundamental level, research on the institutional end-users within a B2B environment has to start with a broader examination of the institutions themselves before a deeper dive on purchasing and consumption trends. As a result, such research typically involves a top-down analysis of the underlying components of these institutions (how many exist; what they look like and offer their customers; how they can be segmented; how many people they serve, either in the form of employees, guests, visitors, etc.; how fast they’re growing or declining, especially compared to other similar types of institutions). Research such as this relies on interviews with industry experts (trade associations and other industry groups, government statistical agencies, prominent end users) as well as official statistics, FOIA requests and demographic/macroeconomic analyses.

This structural approach is combined with bottom-up research focused on understanding the specific behavior of a particular channel. Sizing the opportunity for a particular product in the B2B marketplace comes in the form of [research with] procurement and purchasing officers, service providers and distributors, with care to sample a range of facilities by size, type and needs (e.g., within channels like manufacturing, certain facilities require specially formulated products for services like cleaning and sanitation). Though this methodology doesn’t change markedly depending on the institutional channel, country or product in question, the sampling size might change to reflect the level of integration in the industry, the amount of respondents who can credibly add insight and the comfort of industry professionals to respond to market research inquiries.

How to use laddering without annoying B2B respondents

Most marketers are finally getting wise to the role of emotions in B2B purchases and, by extension, researchers are also using various methods to dig deep with B2B respondents. Back in 2010 Bernadette DeLamar helped pave the way by offering tips on using laddering with B2B respondents to get at the emotional drivers of their purchases in her article “When using laddering in B2B research, target your probes effectively.”

To meet the challenges posed by laddering in B2B studies, we need to adapt the process to meet the more complex situations posed by business respondents. Experience has led me to the following adaptations:

  • I clue in respondents as to what we are doing as well as the actual goal of the interview process itself.
  • I add an additional layer to the chain (a “rung” to the ladder) wherein attributes are linked to the organization/business itself.
  • I adhere to a more rigorous structure than we might with consumers, to forestall impatience and annoyance among these busy respondents.

Even among consumers, a relentless series of “Why is that important?” probes can lead to frustration and a desire to say anything just to get the drilling to stop. I surmise that the probes that great moderators actually use are something on the order of their “trade secrets.” After all, it is common advice to avoid “why” questions in research, given that the response is often “Why not?”

The trade secret for business respondents, then, is a rigorous application of the questioning structure, together with a series of very targeted probes. A questioning series might proceed along this structure:

Regarding (Attribute/Feature) X:

  • What is the benefit of that attribute/feature to your business?
  • And how does that benefit you, personally?
  • And when you have that benefit in your life, what is the consequence of that for you (or, what is the upside of that for you; or, for what reason is that meaningful/important to you)?
  • And when that happens/exists, how does that make you feel?

The goal is to elicit responses until the respondent reaches an emotional end state such as security or happiness or accomplishment or peace of mind. It is often useful to use the Maslow hierarchy of needs as a heuristic device for identifying such end states. And, because we are attempting to get the respondent to that last rung of the ladder, a response to “How does that make you feel?” on the order of “It makes me feel good” is not an acceptable endpoint. In this context, “good” needs refinement and definition through additional coaxing.

Applying the structure rigorously has proven highly successful among busy business professionals. Simply employing a series of seemingly directionless probes (e.g., Why is that important to you?) can leave respondents exasperated and uncooperative. Give them a structure, however, and they “get it.” A few (perhaps two in 10) will complete laddering chains practically on their own without any probes. On the other hand, a different few (perhaps one in 10) will not get it at all and never be able to reach even an emotional consequence, much less a core value or motivation, which is, of course, why we conduct multiple interviews.

The value of understanding the value chain

Many B2B products have more than one customer. To be sure, some are more important than others, but using research to introduce your internal stakeholders to the various links in the value chain is a way to expand your purview while also identifying new potential markets, said Eric Whipkey in “Why you should care about what your client’s consumers want.” 

The problem with the traditional B2B research mind-set is that it assumes that your clients are your sole customers. Of course this is true but there are usually other consumers of interest, too. It is all about the value chain. Somewhere down the value chain is a consumer to whom your client sells its products or provides services. The trick to making consumer research relevant in a B2B world is ensuring that you explore your client’s ultimate customer. It is business-to-consumer-for-business (B2C4B).

So how do we determine which link of the value chain upon which to concentrate? Like many things in life, the answer is often, it depends. A rule of thumb is to look at the first section of the chain, think about who is going to touch the product or service next or who directly benefits from it at the client site and ladder down from there. Sometimes there is only one link in the chain, like a CPG company – you create a product for a consumer. But that’s not what we are discussing here. B2C research is very straightforward when it comes to the value chain. Let’s take a manufacturing industry example:

Steel companies make steel for the automotive, construction, energy, manufacturing, pipe and tube and steel distribution industries. Who is the immediate client? There are many. But who is the ultimate client? How far down the chain do you go? It really depends upon what will resonate most with your client. For the automobile industry, it is NOT likely to be the end consumer (car buyer) but in construction, it could be the architect, the builder or even the homeowner picking out materials at Home Depot.

Builders want strong but flexible materials but homeowners will want reliable materials that will hold up for years under extreme stress (i.e., earthquakes, severe winds, etc.). While you can just ask your immediate client what sort of steel to make and still satisfy them in the short term, your goal is to add value for your client, improve revenues, grow your business and theirs and build your brand.

As a market researcher, the question is really whose opinion, perception or needs will be most influential in your client’s steel choice? When your immediate client makes their decision, they are looking for some evidence that those down the value chain will pick their product over others. If you can show them that those consumers or certain segments of consumers are more likely to choose their product due to some inherent property of your steel, you have a pretty strong ROI story to tell them. To this end, you would do much better by striving to satisfy the ultimate client’s needs and bringing your clients loyal advocates.

With B2C4B research, the goal is not to get consumer research to tell you about your client, directly. You need consumer research to understand what your client’s customers need so that you can turn to them and tell them, “I know who your clients are and I know what you need to provide them.” What’s more, you can ensure that you can do it better than other providers. This way you come off looking like a very innovative company that really knows their business and what’s still more, it would be true. In essence your consumer research becomes a key part if not the star of your sales pitch to current and potential clients.

So, what type of research would apply using this new frame of reference? Like a lot of things it is easier to discuss what will most likely not be as useful. Loyalty research like Net Promoter and advocacy research is not especially helpful, as your client’s customers don’t likely even know about your company. Neither will brand and brand positioning work about your company help you much. This could be explored with your client’s brand or perhaps the positioning of your product type or industry.

Others that will not likely apply are obvious, like package testing, copy testing, etc. As mentioned earlier, the research should focus on the ultimate consumers’ needs, attitudes and use patterns, perceptions of your client’s brand and/or the types of products/services produced by your client(s). In addition, do not shy away from including your clients and potential ultimate consumers in co-creation sessions.

Even better, use your end-consumer insights to feed co-creation sessions with your clients. You will be surprised by your clients’ positive reaction and the role that you and your company can play in the strategy and deployment activities of your clients. This simple change of reference makes consumer research every bit as important in the B2B world as it is in the CPG world. It just needs to be applied from a slightly different point of view.

With B2B data presentations, it takes time to save time

To really deliver useful information and analysis, B2B researchers need their reports to make outcomes and actions clear and understandable to their end clients, wrote Kieron Mathews in “Successful B2B research requires insight generation, not just data gathering.”

Generating insight does mean more data, which does, of course, need to be shared with the client. However, this does not need to be shared during the initial debrief. Sitting through a quantitative research debrief can result in clients drowning in data and struggling to identify the key findings of the study – the insight. Known throughout the business as “death by bar chart,” this has been one of the most common by-products of the industry’s transition from data production to insight generation. So how do you cut down on the number of slides, save a few trees and make sure there is more insight and less data in a research debrief?

The trick is to be very focused on what bits of the analysis actually make it into the debrief presentation. The best insights are clean and simple, with distinguishable business actions that can be implemented. The time spent with a client is often limited, so researchers need to keep their presentations short to allow for an extended question-and-answer session. This gives those attending a chance to discuss the findings of interest to them and extract the required knowledge from the researcher. To achieve debrief success, researchers should:

  • Start thinking about the presentation at the beginning of the research project. This gives the team a structure to work toward and gets them pondering how certain elements of their findings may eventually be communicated to their audiences.
  • Invest time. It takes a lot longer to write a short presentation. An organization must develop a culture that allows researchers time to conclude a project and create a powerful presentation and not rush the vital final stages of the activity.
  • Ask “So what?” This is a very effective way of culling redundant slides. Ideally this is undertaken by a colleague who is not close to the data. If the researcher can’t answer this simple question there are two choices: go back and do further analysis or delete the slide.
  • Think visually. Making a presentation engaging and easy to understand will demonstrate to a client that the company has gone that extra step to produce an informative document and will also allow them to share the presentation and communicate the key findings with others in the company.