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Matt Gaffney
CEO and Founder, Branded Research Inc.
I've been asked to address the changes and challenges (and opportunities) that lie ahead for the panel research and online sampling industries. The insights industry has been experiencing a long overdue shake up over the last few years. So where does this leave us panel researchers and sample collectors? These are big questions, so I turned to our dear old friend Confucius, who gave us – among his many kernels of wisdom – this particular one: “If you wish to define the future, one must study the past.” As you might imagine, this is a highly introspective exercise. And one that forces some existential questions about our industry. Who are we as panel researchers? What is our role in market research?
The answers lie in our ability to reacquaint ourselves with our core asset – the data itself. We, as the primary collectors of respondent data, stand squarely at the front of the market research queue. No doubt a winding and twisting process that will ultimately result in some very significant decision-making by our clients. Products and services decisions become solidified. Millions of dollars are set in motion the world around.
The segmenting. The trend-spotting. The predictive analysis. This all happens after we collect the precious data that goes into the MR soup. This is inarguably critical. In the current climate, however, the panel and sample providers seem to be largely on the outside looking in, a full arm’s length from the rest of the soup-making. Much too far removed from the brand and agency conversations which eventually lead to our assignments. There are, of course, many reasons for this. And many of us are more than satisfied with this safe distance. But for the data-conscious, this is a fundamental issue that we are collectively going to need to solve.
We know our past, so how do we move forward into the future?
The fact of the matter is that research takes collaboration. Panel researchers and sample providers need to move across the market research aisle and take our rightful place at the table. We should be engaging in frontline conversations about sample methodologies and programming practices. We should resist the idea that our sample just shows up back at the agency without much fanfare regarding its origins. And so should our agency and client partners.
In order to collaborate effectively and transparently, the need for significantly increased dialogue across the buyer-supplier chain will be paramount. Do you have a compelling story about how you sample? How you recruit and develop audiences? Are you truly answering the “who” question? If so, you should be yearning to share those stories. By doing so, we’ll be normalizing both the expectations and the economics of our sample and, at the same time, properly addressing the equally fundamental issues associated with the respondent experience.
Separately but equally as important, sample should not be entirely a commodity business. Sample as a commodity, with few exceptions, will undoubtedly present itself as compromised data. Expectations in this current climate are unrealistic and we’re delivering far from an achieved product as a result. Expectedly though, not many are quick to point this out. Panel agencies, boutique panel companies, affiliate and publishing groups, arbitrage outfits – all have done exceedingly well in this environment. But things are beginning to feel a little bit different. And that’s a good thing!
The macro forces at play – most notably mobile and the demands of agile research – are putting different pressures on how data can and should be collected. The data-first panel researcher is primed to take advantage of these shifts. We’re moving past a standard survey online methodology as the silver-bullet quantitative solution. This was a flawed notion to begin with.
All things considered, however, I’m bullish on the future and the opportunities that lie ahead. What were prematurely and largely ill-considered as threats, scary terms like “big data” have only shifted the makeup of the overall market research pie (what I deem to include surveys, qualitative, big data and social).
There is simply more synthesis across the channels. More blended science. As a result, our duties as primary data collectors are becoming more broad, more nuanced. We have more roles to play. Now there’s opportunity.
Surveys, albeit optimized for today’s environment, still have their place. There will always be questions we simply can’t find the answers to in preexisting data sets. They are certainly changing though, morphing into qualitative and quantitative mechanisms driven by the capabilities of our mobile phones. We’re also employing big data solutions like collecting passive behavioral data on our panelists. And we’re sourcing those panelists from social networks that provide rich data profiles and fusing quantitative methods like video and image capture.
The market research industry, on the whole, is facing intense pressures to become more agile, to keep up with the demands of a society whose attitudes and behaviors change at incredible speed. Remember spring/summer and fall/winter seasons in the fashion world? Cheap fashion companies like H&M introduce new looks weekly and rely on near real-time insight data to do so. As panel and sample companies leveraging numerous, highly effective mobile methodologies, we’re well-equipped to do our part to deliver quick, quality-first data. In addition, the adoption of API solutions has significantly increased the efficiencies in how we can deliver this data.
Healthy business environments tend to present unique challenges along with unique and exciting opportunities. And I firmly believe that’s what we have in front of us. To be sure, at the core of all of it remains the little gold nugget – the data. Let’s use our past to define our future. Let’s make data front and center. Let’s tell our data stories and close the gap that exists between sample providers and the market research world at-large.
gobranded.com
matt@gobranded.com
888-848-2525