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Back from holidays and off to the Esomar Congress next week and so have been looking around at what seems to be the hot topic this year. Lots of stuff around new approaches based on conversations not questions (although some of us have been banging on about this for a while), but the other intriguing thing that keeps coming up is clients doing DIY research.
This seems to make a lot of sense to me now that we have global panels and straightforward questionnaire design software. For basic concept or copy testing why not make them cheap and simple? What about brand tracking – what extra value do most agencies add beyond a chart showing key metrics going up or down?
The interesting thing to me is what the DIY trend does to our industry. Will it mean that client side research departments get bigger and agencies smaller? Could it mean an explosion of smaller agencies dedicated to helping clients interpret and analyse the data they have collected? Will it increase the number of branded approaches to things like concept testing with a focus on norms, or will it destroy these approaches in favour of universally-agreed basic testing criteria?
Whatever happens it should be interesting and I suspect will mean major changes over the next five years. As long as no-one comes up with DIY qual (oh no, online buzz analytics)!
Steve Phillips
Steve is the Chief Happiness Officer of Spring Research. His work focuses on understanding consumer motivation and behaviour and he was instrumental in developing the Snakes & Ladders approach to exploring the purchase journey. This work won the ‘Best New Thinking’ award at the MRS Conference and also led to Spring winning the industries Innovation award. As part of the 38th Floor Group, Steve is also a partner in both MESH Planning and Tuned In Research.Recent Posts
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Readers' comments (6)
Christine | 2-Sep-2010 1:01 pm
DIY research certainly does seems to be on the increase and particularly in B2B. Did you have any thoughts on "what to do about DIY research"?
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Christine | 2-Sep-2010 1:24 pm
So funny - I thought the title said "what to do" not "what a to do"!
Shows what I'm thinking about...
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Lucy Davison | 2-Sep-2010 5:57 pm
The Esomar DIY Research session is designed to be very interactive; there will be ample opportunity for feedback and comment and we hope to address many of the questions you raise - how should MR best adapt to this new trend? The data that Richard Thornton and I will be presenting will demonstrate the impact so far, and indeed some of the trends you cite do seem to be happening.
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Steve Phillips | 3-Sep-2010 10:38 am
So Lucy, will you be postulating about what the world will look like in 5 years and if so will you give us a sneek preview!?
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Richard Thornton | 3-Sep-2010 11:16 am
Steve, we'll be opening up the debate and presenting the findings of both qual and quant research we commissioned on the industries thoughts around DIY. We spoke to researchers in agencies and amongst segments of 'end clients'. The feedback is enlightening...and surpriising in many ways. We do look ahead and touch upon best practice ideas and directions for the industry to consider. Not sure if that is enough of a sneak peek but I don't want to spoil the fun on the day!
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Steve Phillips | 4-Sep-2010 6:00 pm
Looking forward to it!!
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