Quirk’s recently published a sneak peek at some early results from its Q Report, a survey of corporate researchers. I generally enjoy reading this study and getting a broad picture of how organizations, across a spectrum of industries and sizes are anticipating and managing the dynamic changes impacting the profession. I was more than a little disheartened when I read the responses to an open-ended question in the 2019 survey which asked Quirk’s researchers, “What are the key metrics against which your marketing research and insight function is judged?” A large number of respondents reportedly summed it up with one word, “None.” Others were equally concerning such as the two below.

“None! Executives and leaders throughout the org. like us & use us, and we’ve not been asked to quantify our value with specific metrics (Yet!!! Dreading the day it comes.).”

“Our group is very highly thought of and we don’t really have key measures we’re trying to hit. We make up some things to have goals, but people love what we do for them and they heavily rely on us.”

Do you yourself see Insights as an investment?

This really begs a question of all corporate researchers, “How do we expect our business partners and senior executives to value the investments they put in into research, if we don’t?” According to ESOMAR, over $70 billion a year is spent by corporations, NGOs, foundations and government on deriving insights from consumers, customers and citizens.

Management has a lot of choices as to where they wish to invest if they are interested in Customer Insights. Gartner reports that traditional Customer Insights teams are under pressure from both internal and external forces including new competitors, data availability, adjacencies, and competing functions such as IT, UX, CX, CI, and where it’s a separate function, data analytics. All on the backdrop of an ecosystem driven by increased time pressure and heightened customer expectations. In this context, how is management to know what value they have derived from research spending, if we don’t measure and report it? I believe that if don’t think of insights as an investment, the function risks being treated as a line item cost that quickly becomes a target in times of austerity or when funding is needed for another investment (such as in data infrastructure).

The Quirks respondents, sadly, are not in the minority. Three years ago, when Boston Consulting Group, Cambiar and the Yale Center for Consumer Studies jointly published a series of papers on the management of insights in major corporations, they found that only 20% of Customer Insights functions could be considered as being strategic partners or sources of competitive advantage for their organizations. That is, only 1 in 5 were demonstrably adding real value. One of the contributing factors to why more aren’t engaged in measuring ROI, is that it’s hard to measure. Another quote from the Quirk’s study below speaks to this challenge.

“This is tough; leadership wants to see ROI but I am a cost center for the organization. The research conducted has positive influence on our future products however those aren’t often seen immediately – so it becomes hard for leadership to see why we should spend.”

Difficult is no excuse for doing nothing

What I would challenge is that just because it is difficult, or we cannot do it for everything, does not mean we should give up on doing it at all. I recommend starting with the studies where it is relatively easy to link the impact of the study to revenue or cost savings, or even projected ROI such as with copy testing. There are also surrogate measures in cases where direct revenue isn’t so easy to calculate – for example, increases in customer retention or improvements in adherence. One of the things I appreciate about the Handbook is that it gives me new ideas and approaches to thinking about how to measure impact. Because, no, I can’t do it all of the time but if I get into a measurement mindset, it becomes part of the culture and part of how I think about the value of what I do.

Get the right mindset

People tend to do what they are incentivized to do in business, so if we reward people for producing studies or spending money, this is exactly what they will do. I often share that my job is not to “make studies, but to create Business Impact”. This is a fundamental mindset shift in how we think about our roles that has a tremendous impact on how we perform. If our focus is on treating research as an investment in insight, then we ask different questions as we begin a study. Instead of asking just for the time and budget and maybe a catering order, we focus our discussion on the Business Impact of the study itself, what are the desired business outcomes, key performance metrics, decision criteria, and the impact of a GO or NO GO decision.

This shift may feel subtle. But as we change our thinking about the work that we do, we change how we speak to our business partners and how we measure our success. Even people who have actively resisted the notion of measuring an ROI on research have shared with me that when they started asking these questions, their relationships with their business teams changed. They were viewed increasingly as strategic partners versus a service that delivers studies. And interestingly, more studies then in turn delivered a measurable Business Impact.

Having an ROI and Business Impact mindset creates a virtuous circle. The more case studies and testimonials you have, the more the work of the function is proven and perceived by senior management to have a positive ROI, the more it is seen as an investment and less as a cost line item. If the ROI is consistently significant, then the more the company will be willing to invest in it and the greater the value that will be derived for the organization over the long term.

Get measuring and showcase your value

 Peter Drucker once said “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”. This is certainly true of insights. Some years ago, Kim Dedecker, when she was leading consumer insights at P&G, bemoaned the fact that 70% of her budget was going to rear view mirror, more on validation and too little to predictive and innovative initiatives. By measuring your impact, you can see this effect more clearly and make strategic decisions with the evidence to support your recommendations to business leaders on where they should place their investments. Once you measure the impact of what you do, it becomes fairly obvious which types of studies deliver greater ROI and business impact.

My experience has been that researchers have a really hard time saying “no”. We like to please, myself included. However, as we begin to measure impact, it becomes easier to prioritize and push back on those projects that are unlikely to deliver significant return, or to suggest an alternative course that would provide more value to the brand. As a result, you begin almost by default to devote more resources to strategic, rather than purely tactical, studies. So rather than thinking of measurement as something to be dreaded and avoided at all costs, how can you begin to think of it as an opportunity to showcase your value?

Lisa R. Courtade
Department Head, Global
Customer & Brand Insights, Merck