A few home truths

Because consumers have wised up to tried-and-tested research methods, researchers are having to be more innovative. They will even visit people’s homes to gain a clearer picture of attitudes towards brands. David Benady reports

Having a market researcher round for dinner may not be everybody’s idea of a great night in, but people are increasingly letting the snoopers cross their threshold with the lure of a little cash. Market researchers will go to great lengths to get through the door – including making cash payments – as they seek to observe, at close range, how consumers relate to products and brands. Some researchers even offer to clean the floor or do the washing-up in their eagerness to learn about how the public views these tasks.

It beats standing around on a rainy high street, clipboard in hand, trying to get members of the public to give up 20 minutes of their time to answer a list of seemingly irrelevant questions. In fact, the standard method of conducting market research through face-to-face interviews is viewed in some quarters as having decreasing value to marketers if used on its own.

Wising up

The public is wising up to market researchers’ methods and will often put up barriers to questionnaires, either by refusing to take part in surveys or by giving less than frank answers. The same applies to telephone-based research, where it is becoming more difficult to persuade people to take part, as they often think it is part of a sales pitch.

At the same time, market research companies are trying to move up the pecking order in the marketing services sector to increase their margins and to differentiate themselves from their rivals.

In the data age, information has become a commodity. Having yards of research findings is no longer sufficient for market research companies: there are plenty of rivals who have reams of information about the public and sophisticated methods of segmenting this data. The internet means there is a growing pool of information about what kinds of pages Web users click on to, and there is the growth of lifestyle data while stores are collecting information on their customers through loyalty cards. This means that market researchers are having to think more strategically about how they process their data. The collection of data has become a devalued activity. Now it is all about interpretation.

As Mick Williamson, creative director of market research company TRBI, says: “Now that baseline market research expertise has improved and the tools are there for anybody to use, more and more companies are gathering and selling information. This provides clients with fuller shelves and more choice.

“It is increasingly difficult for clients to see the wood for the trees and identify the right information for their needs.”

He says that the research industry needs to regain the high ground as expert “interpreters of information and providers of understanding”, moving beyond being mere information gatherers. He sees them competing with management consultants and advertising agencies to supply insights into consumer behaviour, rather than just providing completed questionnaires.

The search for increased margins in a business where anyone can play – be they ad agencies, direct marketers or website operators – has, in part, driven market researchers towards qualitative rather than quantitative research. While it may cost more than £30 a respondent to conduct face-to-face interviews, a focus group can be organised for under £2,500. Cheaper still – and more fruitful, claim researchers – is in-depth observation in consumers’ homes.

This has the advantage of providing insights into how people really relate to brands, rather than finding out about the superficial impressions they have of them, which are gleaned through questionnaires.

No real need

Part of the problem for brands is that there are few areas where there are real consumer needs to be met. In the early days of consumerism in the Fifties and Sixties, there were shortages of prepared foods, cleaning products, cars and other goods. But today, most consumers would say they have all they need in terms of choice of consumer products. For companies trying to build sales and profits, this makes the way a brand is developed, and the manner in which consumers relate to it, of prime importance as competition heats up with rivals.

Brand owners are seeking greater insights into consumer psychology. As Louise Southcott, managing director of research company Link Consumer Strategies, says: “Research is not getting the kind of depth people require. You have got to understand the motivations – nobody needs another snack or another spirit. There aren’t gaps in our needs.”

To achieve the necessary depth of understanding, Southcott uses the observational methods of ethnography to find out about the deeper motivations behind consumer choices. This involves going into people’s homes and watching how they perform certain tasks and getting them to talk about brands and products.

One observation project she worked on for a gravy manufacturer showed that although people say gravy is an important element of a meal, many people will prepare it quickly, and as an afterthought. This knowledge helped in developing a new instant gravy. The observational method allows researchers to separate the way consumers think they relate to a product from the deeper relationship they have with it, which they may not be conscious of. So the way that people cook roast dinners, she says, is tied to memories of childhood and their attempts to mimic how their mother would make a roast dinner.

But for some researchers, there is still plenty of mileage in face-to face interviews and filling in questionnaires. BMRB International research director Richard Windle says that using large panels of consumers who can be contacted at various times is one way to get beyond the fact that consumers have become too sophisticated for researchers.

“Market research is changing. Many of the methods have been used for a number of years, such as face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews. We are finding problems on response issues, it is getting more difficult to recruit face-to face interviewers and interviewees,” he says.

He believes “people feel reasonably well disposed to market research,” and are prepared to help if the questions are interesting and relevant. He advocates using a large panel, with up to 10,000 people. This, he says, enables the researchers to draw samples from within the panel without using the same people, so the sample groups can remain relatively fresh.

Windle is sceptical about how far the internet will be used as a method of data collection. He says the Web was once touted as a major potential source of data gathering, but the speed of its penetration was overestimated. He sees it as problematic recruiting respondents via the internet, but thinks it is useful if people are recruited using other methods, and can then fill in questionnaires or answer questions using the Web.

The advantages of alternatives to face-to face techniques is that they can be constructed in a way to overcome the fact that consumers have wised up to the sorts of questions asked by market researchers.

Modernising methodology

“Problems arise if people continue to use old-fashioned methods that were not that good to start with. We have a more sophisticated consumer out there; they know what we are after. We have to use more sophisticated techniques to ensure the information is relevant and important,” says Context Research International chairman Mike Owen.

He criticises old methods such as holding up an ad, and asking the sample if they like it. Much better, he argues, is to see the research as part of the whole development process. So people should be asked in general terms about their reactions to an ad, rather than asking them to specify their feelings. “We have to do research that doesn’t ask people why do they do this or that – they don’t know themselves. You have to use research that identifies what they do with more subtle techniques. The way advertising works is through a passive process, people do not react consciously, they react passively,” he says.

Mix ‘n’ match

But most researchers stress that the different methods should be used together and that each has its place. Ethnographic research is good for coming up with ideas for product innovation, but questionnaires have their use in tracking how consumers see brands in comparison to rivals.

“Ethnographic research has been around for ages, we have been using it for 15 years,” says Anne Marie McDermott, managing director of research company Quaestor. “People are using it to complement the more traditional types of research and ensure it works as hard as possible for clients. We add it to our portfolio of techniques.”

One project she was involved in for household goods manufacturer Vileda involved going into people’s homes and mopping their floors to try to gauge their attitudes to cleaning. She found that there are fastidious cleaners, who are motivated by hygiene and others who do it for aesthetic reasons. This insight helped Vileda launch the Magic Mop for those who take a more easy-going attitude to cleaning.

Some argue that market research is often self-serving, since it gets the answers the researchers believe the marketers want to hear. That marketers use research to justify their activities, though many of the greatest brands have been developed primarily through inspiration. But being original is getting harder in an over-shopped world where brands proliferate. Insights gleaned by research carried out at close range will play a greater part in brand development in the future.