Connect the Dots
Is research the insight chicken or egg?
I was having lunch yesterday with an acquaintance from the research industry who raised an interesting question. In a future where insight will be a rich mixture of behavioural data and traditional research insights, is it best to be a researcher embracing data, or a data analyst embracing research?
My spontaneous view was that it probably was best to be a researcher first, with all the training and experience in understanding the nuances of consumer’s lives and contradictions before then embracing the rich seam of behavioural data. Behavioural analysis can sometimes tend towards a rather mechanistic process, partly driven by the vast amounts of data that need to be analysed.
That said, there is a speed and practicality to the analysis of behavioural data that can sometimes outshine the often slower and harder to apply insights that flow from traditional research; and in a world of accelerating business decisions and data overload these are powerful skills.
So on balance I’m not sure I can answer the question. There are benefits to starting analysis in either world, and to be honest the better we get at connecting the dots, the less it will matter. Of course, for the next generation of insight professionals, the distinction will be less important as they develop their skills with access to both types of data, hopefully operating with both the sensitivity of traditional researchers and the practical speed of data analysts.
"Positively evil"?
This comment appeared in Laura Craik’s column in the Evening Standard last week:
“Junk mail that is positively evil
Unaddressed junk mail is bad enough; spookier still are the endless catalogues of maternity wear, baby clothes and nursery furniture that have fallen through my letterbox since becoming pregnant, each addressed to me by name. Somebody, somewhere is making a tidy living selling contact details to businesses prepared to pay handsomely for the priveledge. This is junk mail of the most evil sort, an invasion of privacy far more worrying than a pizza flyer.”
It’s an interesting and sobering perspective for a number of reasons. Firstly it shows that the excitement felt by the marketing and insight industries about being able to intelligently use data to offer consumers better relevance is not immediately shared by the population. Our assumption that more relevance is better is clearly countered by fears of invasion of privacy amongst some consumers.
Secondly, it powerfully underlines the need for us all to better explain how insights and data from all sources are gathered, stored and used. It’s tempting for researchers to reassure themselves that they’re safe from these issues due to the rules of anonymity in place. However, the dividing line between research insight and behavioural insight will begin to blur faster than many realise over the coming years - to consumers it’s often a semantic difference.
Privacy, correctly negotiated permissions and transparency will define business success in the usage of integrated insight in the future.
Are you what you do?
The marketing world is about to be enveloped by a tidal wave of behavioural data, that will dominate insight decisions for the foreseeable future.
For many markets and sectors, the arrival of real data about what consumers actually do will be a revelation. It’s already happened in grocery, airlines and a few other sectors through loyalty card data, but electronic footprints from internet usage, financial transactions and media usage will mean that most marketers will have access to real unequivocal data about what consumers have actually done for the first time.
The days of asking consumers what they buy, which media they consume and where they shop will soon be long gone. This will create a big whole in research industry revenues as marketers revel in rapid, granular data from other sources.
Once the novelty wears off however, will it be enough? Past behaviour may be useful in more routine areas of life, but is not always a complete predictor of future behaviour, particularly in more occasional purchase categories, self treating and gifting.
The research industry cannot fight the arrival of real data about consumer behaviour and will have to let go of many of its staple revenue streams. The opportunity however lies in two areas: joining this new insight together from different sources to paint a holistic picture of consumer decision making and enhancing this new insight with a lot more focus on why consumers do what they do.
Looking forwards, for successful researchers, it’s going to be a lot more about the why than the what.
From gatherers to analysts - the new insight value chain?
This week’s edition of The Economist focusses on what it calls ‘The Data Deluge’, a discussion of how the rapidly accelerating volume of information available about all aspects of modern life is transforming the way we do business.
We are moving from a world where information was scarce to one where it is becoming superabundant, a world where a megabyte (220 bytes) used to be a worryingly large amount of information to analyse but where we are now starting to worry about dealing with Yottabytes - that 280bytes!
For the research and insight industry, the implications of an explosion in the amount of data available are profound. In a world of scarce information, those who could somehow gather data and shed light on the truth were valued and feted. In a world of superabundant information, those who offer a teaspoonful of insight are less likely to be noticed. as the real stars will be those who can make sense of, and draw insight from, vast amounts of data quickly and reliably.
To remain relevant to data hungry and fast moving industries, we have to move from being an industry where value was derived from providing scarce information, to one where value is derived from connecting and interpreting the vast amounts of infomation available, to help clients make better business decisions faster.
Making the first connection
Welcome to this new blog, which intends to raise awareness of, and stimulate debate around, a growing body of new data and insights that is challenging the usefulness of and even the need for many of the staple research approaches that have supported the industry since its inception.
Called ‘Connect the Dots’ the blog will aim to challenge what I see as a degree of denial (or maybe just ignorance or fear) in research circles about the approaching tidal wave of behavioural, attitudinal, lifestyle and media data that today’s society is beginning to generate just by going about it’s daily business in a digitised world.
When we look back on today’s research world in the future, we may gasp at the paucity of the information we had to deal with.
In 1973, British households were spellbound by a TV ad from Cadbury’s. It featured a family of aliens, the Smash Martians, who laughed at the thought of Earth people preparing their own mashed potatoes rather than using convenience food, Smash.
In a future world flooded with data and ever-more customer-centric companies who shape strategy around customer insights, there may be similar amusement around the way we used to do market research.
Imagine having to ask people to remember what they had bought or even asking them to scan all their shopping at home. Imagine relying on only 5,000 households to press buttons to find out who was watching which TV channel. Imagine trying to join up disparate data sets through black box econometric models which few understood and no-one trusted. Imagine having to wait weeks or even months to get feedback from consumers…. the hilarity of it all!
We are on the cusp of a tidal wave of new sources of customer data that offer unprecedented new opportunities to better understand and communicate with consumers in the future, to ‘connect the dots’ and truly understand cause and effect in marketing for the very first time.
The implications of this future for the research, marketing and media worlds are profound but we must remember that the individual, whose data we are starting to analyse and understand, must be rewarded, reassured, better served and treated with respect and confidentiality if they are to continue to allow us to observe and analyse their every move.
There are many issues around this new connected, data-driven future, and this blog aims to provide a discussion point for the industry to debate them as we move into a new territory.
