Analytics & Research-Based Marketing Enablers

The purpose of this blog

Michael has been instrumental in getting this blog started today.  He is a one man research team at a online retailer / catalog firm.  After talking with him I realized that this idea of creating a forum for marketing research / analytic community is surely needed.  Previously, I used think of this concept as a just another good idea.  I never recognized that there could be a segment of researcher/analysts who are pretty alone in their quest and do not have colleagues who really understand their predicaments.  Not only do they need some bonhomie but also would also want to hear what others are doing to improve desired outcomes. 

I guess most RA's (Researchers/Analysts) in some way are in the same situation.  They all want to know what other people or organizations are doing.  I am not talking about methodologies.  Everybody talks about that .  There is enough attention in the academia on those issues.  However, just as much attention is needed to learn about the reasons that some organizations and people are more successful than others in increasing RA utilization for marketing efficacy.  What will it take for a CMO to pay more attention to not only RA studies but also RA's ? What will it take for RA's to one day occupy the CMO's office.

These are the issues that I hope would be discussed on this blog.

It is my intention to invite line manager's and CMO's to provide input here.  For that we need the community to become large enough on this site.

Please join me in this endeavor.   Post your suggestion about what you would like to see here.

Market Researcher's Glass Ceiling

I used to be a market researcher and I shall forever be.  However, it was very hard for me to get out of marketing research and go above and beyond it.  It is almost as if there is a stamp on your forehead that says you can't do this because you are a market researcher.  Career transitions are usually hard and painful anyways.  What I have often wondered is why do market research people find it so hard to go different ways or rise up in the organization beyond marketing research.  Why is it that CFO's can become CEO's, Pricing Managers become CMO's, sales people can become marketing chiefs, brand managers can too certainly as  do advertisers... but I market research... NOOOOO.. I have only come across a handful of successful people in this category.  Is it that market researcher's do not want to do so or are they so different?

There are a lot of market researchers who would like to hear responses to this... and I hope you can give your experience.

Dealing With Internal Clients

It’s another new blog! And I have big hopes that this one will be an especially interesting and even useful one. There are many thousands of professionals in the world who work in market research or heavily rely on market research to do their jobs. But there are few places they can go to share thoughts and benefit from the perspective of others that are in a very similar position. I think this blog will become one of the best places for market research professionals of almost all kinds to relate and chronicle their wisdom and their conference room war stories.

 

And while there’s plenty of places to talk about research methodologies, I look forward to hearing about things like:

 

- Dealing with partisan managers who subtly pressure the market researcher to generate results in their favor instead of results that a rival manager wants.

- How to make research more actionable.

- How to get the executive staff to think of market researcher as more than a numbers wonk who can’t think strategically.

 

I look forward to discussing these and dozens of other topics a market researcher will face. Nick has introduced a good first topic on April 3^rd – Why is there a glass ceiling for Market Researchers?

Customer Expectation Management

An article of mine is getting published in the Retail Customer Experience Magazine for the month of May issue.  The general concept can be read in the following newsletters.

Why Customer Satisfaction Is Wrong Headed

How To Correctly Think About Customer Satisfaction

 I would like to start a dialog on the idea of measuring customer expectation mentioned in there.  As in the links above, customer satisfaction measurement is futile if we first do not create and verify customer expectations.  It is only with reference to an expectation can we measure satisfaction.  What we often fail to realize is that the mantra of customer satisfaction is wrong headed.  It should be customer expectation management that is really important.

Customer experience is actually about how we as people or customers respond to an external stimuli.  As such it is about managing response as much as managing the stimuli.  In fact, I think it is more about managing response than the stimuli.... well at least in some instances.

Just so you know, you can sign up for my newsletter by visiting 8020 Insights.

Signing A Contract With The Customer Segment

Mark Twain once said that the difference between right words and almost right words is the same as the difference between lightening and lightening bug.

I want to talk about one such set of words that is considered lightening by many but actually is a lightening bug. The problem with the situation is that the true lightening is neglected because of this incorrect and misleading focus.

Let’s look at the two sets of words: 1.) Customer Centricity and 2.) Segment Centricity. While customer centricity does a decent job of helping businesses improve, it is merely a directionally correct concept that actually misleads us away from a more precise and hugely valuable idea. The consequences are dramatic, just as Mr. Twain would have predicted. The problem is that customer centric models and the ilk have really no meaning. They have simply become a part of the corporate cacophony that is used by managers to look good during meetings but have no implementational capabilities or specifics for operationalization. Loose terms such as these are bandies around with no meaningful effect. These buzzwords actually harm us by keeping us away from things that matter. It is what I call churning of the wheels.

Read any magazine on CRM or marketing and you will drown in customer focus words. It seems that the customer is king and can never be wrong. That the sole purpose of businesses is to serve customers, almost as if money making is a bad idea. Yet, research shows that boat loads of money has been wasted on customer centricity initiatives. And all this happened while every profit making company in the USA makes almost every customer mad with their phone systems and offshore customer service. It seems at some point we lost our way as researchers (academic or not) and started believing our own propaganda. I think it was wise to use these words when firms were product centric, and many still are, but now it is time that we talk more clearly. The champions, protagonists, seductionists, profiteers, demagogues, and the rest of hype-induced by standers of the customer centricity gospel have taken the concept too far. Every customer need not be satisfied. All customers are not equal. Customer is not the king. We are about making money and we decide how that is to be done. Of course, we serve customers but on collaborative terms. We decide what type of customers we serve and how we serve them, such that those customers find us to be the best choice. Just as Ford Model T Black Color did not fit every customer, every customer does not fit every firm. We need to set expectations correctly and deliver on them. Over delivery is not needed. Just deliver on the promise that they think you have made. Manage that promise and that expectation.  Try to sign a contract  with the customer segment.   

Focus on the customer segment not on the customer. The problem is that we are wasting resources on low return or negative return initiatives on customer centricity. When focusing on segment centricity can spearhead positive returns. We set expectation proactively and know exactly how to deliver upon them. It is very simple. We do not try to force fit Model T on everybody. We do not try to stay with Model T and expect to make customers happy.  That won't happen.  Communicate with the customer.  They will respect you for that.  But no ... we want to hedge our bets.  We really do not want to sign a contract with  the segment because that would lead to accountability.

We are the ones responsible for not standing up and speaking against the rampant abuse of words.  Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Centricity, etc. etc. are used almost interchangeably. Stop collecting customer survey when you do not really have a highly refined customer segmentation strategy.

Truth is if customers really mattered then there would not be any collection agencies.

The only way you can set expectations is when we focus on segment centricity, segment satisfaction, and segment experience.  It is the segment that matters and not the customer.  Firm need to not spend money on customers from incorrect segments.   Defining your segment is hard  because managers  will not have an easy way out then.

Oh well...

 

Impact of Research In Decision Making

Definition of insanity is, according to Mr. Albert Einstein, "Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. -"  I guess then we all are insane to some extent.  Definition of genius is, according to Mr. Nick Vaidya, "Doing the same thing repeatedly once you know the results -" Mr. Warren Buffett and Sam Walton are geniuses in that respect.  This really does not take super intelligence to figure out.  Though it takes nerves of steel to stick to the model as long as it works.  Buffett did not budge from his chosen path during the dot com days, even though there was tremendous pressure.  In fact, many a investers pronounced him dead. 

Most of us, in business or otherwise, are so intellectually bankrupt despite our high intelligence that we can not see patterns of our own behaviors.  That is precisely the reason why we are stuck where we are.  This goes for not just individuals but also companies.  For five years Kraft sold Oreos Cookies in china with limited success.  When led by a new people and research they changed the size, price, and sweetness.  The new people were locals.  The result - Oreos is now the best selling biscuit in China. 

Granted it was not simple to accomplish this feat and a lot of marketing was involved as well.  What is hard to understand though is why a firm would not use local input/research when selling internationally. This is a very simple rule.  It is a no brainer.  It is an 80/20 rule.  It is like General Custer going to battle without adequate information. Corporations, both big and small do this over and over again.  Little bit of research can make a huge difference.

Why is it that executive management often refuses to take good research into account when making decisions?

Most of us, in business or otherwise, are so intellectually bankrupt despite our high intelligence that we can not see patterns of our own behaviors.  That is precisely the reason why we are stuck where we are.  This goes for not just individuals but also companies.  For five years Kraft sold Oreos Cookies in china with limited success.  When led by a new people and research they changed the size, price, and sweetness.  The new people were locals.  The result - Oreos is now the best selling biscuit in China. 

Granted it was not simple to accomplish this feat and a lot of marketing was involved as well.  What is hard to understand though is why a firm would not use local input/research when selling internationally. This is a very simple rule.  It is a no brainer.  It is an 80/20 rule.  It is like General Custer going to battle without adequate information. Corporations, both big and small do this over and over again.  Little bit of research can make a huge difference.

Why is it that executive management often refuses to take good research into account when making decisions?