Community is central to researching ‘hard-to-reach’ groups

“The average marketer looks at data in averages. A great marketer looks at data in its differences, because great marketing celebrates individual difference” – a brilliant bit of insight from the advertising guru that is Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland.

And a piece of insight that should inform all our insight. It’s a well-worn adage that the information you get is only as good as the questions you ask. I would take it a step further, by adding that who you ask those questions to is equally significant. When seeking consumer insight, businesses that focus on getting the biggest sample for the cheapest price rather than the quality of the data will get what they deserve – average results.

Golden nuggets of insight often lie with historically marginalised/underrepresented and therefore misrepresented groups. I didn’t use the phrase ‘hard to reach’ there on purpose because it suggests the fault lies with these groups themselves rather than within the very industry in which we exist. It’s the insight industry’s version of ‘it’s not me, it’s you’.

Different techniques beyond the ‘spray and pray’ approach are needed to tap into these audiences, be they young or black or LGBTQ+ or neurodiverse, or a myriad of other identities and their intersections.

Surprisingly not that long ago, ticking census box data for age, gender and geographical region was all you needed to claim that data was nationally representative – but you simply can't truly represent the nation’s opinions with such a limited view of research sampling.

This limited approach to sampling is exacerbated by the industry’s transactional relationship with its participants or ‘panels’ as they’re so lovingly termed – paying pennies for fairly intrusive questioning under the belief that people feel compelled to answer honestly and in-depth, to impersonal, boring online surveys or biased focus groups. It’s why you've likely looked at research stats and thought, "Really? The world thinks this way?" Because quite often, they don’t.

So, where should brands who want to diversify their target audiences begin, and how can they connect with customers who have historically been branded “hard-to-reach”?

Start by turning the phrase “hard-to-reach groups” into “groups we haven't tried hard enough to reach”, and then invest time and energy into attempting to reach them equitably if you truly care.

Once you know who you want to talk to, the next step is to look at how you are going to talk to them. And just asking questions isn’t the answer – to gather the best insight requires a two-way relationship, not a one-way questioning.

For historically marginalised communities, trust is vital. Treating individuals as participants that you simply remunerate for their time will not work. Instead you must work hard to truly understand these audiences and what drives them. Rather than the tried and tested ‘research panel’ route, Word on the Curb has invested in creating a community. I’m sure many panel managers would claim that they too run communities. But there’s the rub. Are you running a community or creating a community? Is it a drop-in panel for rewards or is it a community where members want to come and hang out, interact with your content and give their opinions, even when remuneration isn’t an option?

Is it a community that exists outside of your research, and do you compensate members for their active participation beyond the financials? By which I mean, do you show them you care about their time and opinions by engaging them consistently, be it through weekly opportunities, exclusive events, job opportunities or something else entirely? In essence, do you provide an ecosystem that serves them as much as it does you? It doesn’t take much of a leap of faith to know which style of community will elicit the richest of data – especially from those ‘hard to reach’ audiences.

When you’ve built your research community through impersonal ‘panels’, outcomes are predictable and non-innovative. When you build a mutual relationship with your community, you have the opportunity to be creative with your methodologies and create some unique and stand out campaigns.

For example, we recently conducted research for Just Eat with an approach that was partly inspired by ‘mukbang’ videos – for the uninitiated, that’s live streaming where viewers watch the host eat. Knowing how to create content that is sometimes fun and sometimes serious, and is simultaneously attractive and engaging to underrepresented or marginalised groups, means there is an always-on access to these groups in a community setting.

By fostering genuine connections and treating underrepresented communities as valued partners, businesses and brands will be able to collect nuanced data that is truly reflective of target demographics, including insights often missed by traditional methods.

As someone who has been the subject of misrepresentation and ‘lazy’ assumptions first hand, I know I can say to the insight industry, ‘it’s not me, it’s you’.  I’m not hard to reach, you’ve just not been trying hard enough.

Ndubuisi Uchea, co-founder and chief executive, Word On The Curb