Ups and downs – Ken Parker

The best advice I’ve had is…
“Always check your flies before giving a presentation.” The advice was given to me after I had embarrassed myself for about an hour in front of a senior audience. I thought they were laughing at my one-liners, but no. Surprisingly enough, I’ve never made this mistake again.

…and the worst advice I’ve had is
“Do what you have to, avoid what you can.” Amazingly, this was given to me by the foreman of the local authority when I was working as a gravedigger. The advice couldn’t be more alien to me and my work ethic. Looking back, though, I think gravedigging was the ideal introduction to my market research career - I’ve always thought the deeper you dig, the better the findings.

“I, for one, am proud to be a market researcher and wouldn’t swap places with a management consultant for one minute”

A campaign that grabbed me recently is…
one that has been grabbing me for ages. No matter what the execution, I still think the Ronseal ‘does what it says on the tin’ campaign is fantastic. It’s so simplistic and perfectly targeted to its audience. Most people who are engaged in DIY don’t have the faintest clue what they need and feel intimidated by the choice. Ronseal connects with its potential consumers brilliantly by giving them total reassurance they are buying stuff that will be easy to use and perfect for the job. OK, it’s formulaic, but it has a sense of humour and, importantly, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

…and a campaign that needed more research is
I’m not convinced the Hyundai World Cup campaign had any research behind it. I just can’t picture the content of the creative brief. It totally failed to communicate a message, and worse than that, it was neither giving me product information nor creating an emotion. The sponsorship rights, coupled with the media purchasing of idents and ad slots offered such an opportunity. What a waste.

One thing this industry could use more of is…
bravery. It’s about time we started taking real pride in what our industry offers, rather than constantly beating ourselves up and looking over our shoulders at what consultants do. I, for one, am proud to be a market researcher and wouldn’t swap places with a management consultant for one minute.

…and one thing this industry could use less of is
losing sight of high-quality research just because it might cost a bit more or take a bit longer. Anyone can paint by numbers, but Picassos are hard to come by. If we don’t remember that our purpose is to make a positive difference for brands using creative insight, rather than do everything as cheaply as possible, my gravedigging skills might need re-employment, this time to bury the industry.

One thing I hope to do is…
get a really first-class team together from within the industry and go on a road trip round the universities to show how research helps generate exciting decisions that shape our world. It seems to me that the universities only teach the mechanics of research, not the creative output. No wonder kids don’t want to apply.

…and one thing I wish I hadn’t done is
had the misfortune to work in an era when procurement procedures and departments were introduced. They are nothing short of the devil’s work as far as I’m concerned.

If I hadn’t become a researcher…
obviously I would have been a famous sportsman. Spurs would have been my first choice. Other than them, I think the piste would have called me and I would have been Britain’s number one downhill skier. I can see it now: Parker the Peregrine to rival the fame of Eddie the Eagle.

…on the other hand if I hadn’t become a researcher
I probably wouldn’t have come into contact with sport at such a high level. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be able to combine my work with my love of sport and be involved in a number of key strategies including presenting worldwide research findings to the inner sanctum of the International Olympic Committee, being in the same syndicate group as Jean-Claude Killy on the Sydney Olympics marketing think tank, and assisting with setting up the Premier League.