By Denyse Drummond-Dunn, C3Centricity.
In 2007 the MREB ran a study to understand why some MR departments were rated better than others. They concluded that the two major areas in which MR provides value to business are the new learnings from conducting projects and the accumulation of knowledge over time. They also identified three stages in the development of MR departments to achieving true value and information ROI:
- Methodological experts, data collection and provision to business with just an explanation of findings.
- Insight generators where researchers act as consultants, interpreting the “so what” and supporting decision-making.
- Synthesizers and socializers, actively participating in day-to-day business decisions, by not only facilitating insight generation, but also by synthesizing knowledge from multiple sources.
They discovered that most MR departments sit in the first two stages, and yet it is the third stage that brings most value to business. In the last eight years, I don’t think much has changed, do you?!
A second study shows that top management complains they can’t find the information they want when they need it, and anyway get emails and spread-sheets, rather than the (mobile) dashboards they would prefer.
A third study reported that over two-thirds of CMOs feel unprepared for the current data explosion, especially from social media. They appreciate there’s knowledge and understanding lurking in it, but have trouble keeping up with the rapidly changing marketplace.
The growth in Big Data offers a huge opportunity for market researchers from both the client and supplier sides. It’s vital the profession shows its superior skills of analysis and synthesis, and gets much closer to the action, before someone else does. It’s time we led the transformation from Big Data to Smart Data.
Smarter Data Integration
It is claimed that the typical large company has around 14,000 databases on average and yet most of that data sits in individual departments never being reviewed, let alone integrated. Management’s preference for dashboards requires data to be both consistent and comparable.
In one CPG company, I found
five initiatives being run concurrently, which each needed the creation of a master data file. By combining efforts, we managed to generate one larger enterprise MDS with a single list of values, definitions and processes, to which each project connected. This resulted in significant savings of resources and better collaboration between project teams.
Smarter Business Understanding
Most research is conducted in relative isolation from the rest of the business, but we now should incorporate the bigger data flowing into our companies from other sources. However this comes with the prerequisite of an important culture change.
One CPG company developed a Global Project Management System, but two issues arose:
- Marketing rarely referenced it, preferring to request information directly from the research team.
- Researchers were reticent to publish their work, claiming confidentiality.
Another CPG company developed a consumer data warehouse, which integrated all consumer information, from market research, call centres and CRM. It provided a holistic view of the consumer, but the rollout beyond test market was delayed because countries didn’t trust the HQ with the same access to information that they had.
Both projects would have succeeded had there been more openness and confident collaboration. If MR is to lead the push for smarter data, we need to address the required culture changes, not just solve the technical challenges of data integration.
Smarter Questions
Researchers know that getting the right answers depends upon asking the right questions, but for this we need a better understanding of the business, which comes from more involvement. To achieve this, MR needs new skills of sociability and synthesis.
We should become more engaged within our organisations, so that we are seen as the invaluable customer representative in all internal discussions.
Synthesizing is a skill in which market researchers should excel and yet we still rarely manage to tell the “so what” stories that appeal to management. I believe this comes from not speaking
their language.
To conclude the perspective of turning Big Data into Smarter Data, we need multiple (new) skills within MR:
- Project management, methodological expertise and analytical skills.
- Intellectual curiosity to generate insights and help the business to solve problems.
- Storytelling, communication and influencing skills to transfer this understanding and inspire action.
If you work alone or in a small team, you will have to rely more on your suppliers for the first tasks, to free up time to develop your consultancy skills. Of course suppliers can and I am sure would welcome the chance to help there too, but for that they require total transparency, something that is often difficult to achieve.
Making data smarter requires cultural change. Market research can lead the integration and analysis of all information flowing into organisations today, but must also be seen as the leader in the requires cultural changes too. Isn’t this what we (should) have been doing all along?
MREB – the market research arm of the Corporate Executive Board
From www.BusinessIntelligence.com
From IBM and BusinessIntelligence.com
Aaron Zornes, The MDM Institute
MDS – Master Data Source
CRM – consumer relationship marketing / management
Denyse Drummond-Dunn is President & Chief Catalyst of C³Centricity (www.C3Centricity.com), a global consultancy that provides strategic counsel to the executive teams of billion-dollar brands.
She is the author of Winning Customer Centricity (www.WinningCustomerCentricity.com), lauded as “A must read for today’s and tomorrow’s marketers”. The book includes many examples from her career of over 30 years’ in senior executive roles with Nestle, Gillette & Philip Morris International.
(mobile) dashboards they would prefer.
A third study reported that over two-thirds of CMOs feel unprepared for the current data explosion, especially from social media. They appreciate there’s knowledge and understanding lurking in it, but have trouble keeping up with the rapidly changing marketplace.
The growth in Big Data offers a huge opportunity for market researchers from both the client and supplier sides. It’s vital the profession shows its superior skills of analysis and synthesis, and gets much closer to the action, before someone else does. It’s time we led the transformation from Big Data to Smart Data.
Smarter Data Integration
It is claimed that the typical large company has around 14,000 databases on average and yet most of that data sits in individual departments never being reviewed, let alone integrated. Management’s preference for dashboards requires data to be both consistent and comparable.
In one CPG company, I found
five initiatives being run concurrently, which each needed the creation of a master data file. By combining efforts, we managed to generate one larger enterprise MDS with a single list of values, definitions and processes, to which each project connected. This resulted in significant savings of resources and better collaboration between project teams.
Smarter Business Understanding
Most research is conducted in relative isolation from the rest of the business, but we now should incorporate the bigger data flowing into our companies from other sources. However this comes with the prerequisite of an important culture change.
One CPG company developed a Global Project Management System, but two issues arose:
- Marketing rarely referenced it, preferring to request information directly from the research team.
- Researchers were reticent to publish their work, claiming confidentiality.
Another CPG company developed a consumer data warehouse, which integrated all consumer information, from market research, call centres and CRM. It provided a holistic view of the consumer, but the rollout beyond test market was delayed because countries didn’t trust the HQ with the same access to information that they had.
Both projects would have succeeded had there been more openness and confident collaboration. If MR is to lead the push for smarter data, we need to address the required culture changes, not just solve the technical challenges of data integration.
Smarter Questions
Researchers know that getting the right answers depends upon asking the right questions, but for this we need a better understanding of the business, which comes from more involvement. To achieve this, MR needs new skills of sociability and synthesis.
We should become more engaged within our organisations, so that we are seen as the invaluable customer representative in all internal discussions.
Synthesizing is a skill in which market researchers should excel and yet we still rarely manage to tell the “so what” stories that appeal to management. I believe this comes from not speaking
their language.
To conclude the perspective of turning Big Data into Smarter Data, we need multiple (new) skills within MR:
- Project management, methodological expertise and analytical skills.
- Intellectual curiosity to generate insights and help the business to solve problems.
- Storytelling, communication and influencing skills to transfer this understanding and inspire action.
If you work alone or in a small team, you will have to rely more on your suppliers for the first tasks, to free up time to develop your consultancy skills. Of course suppliers can and I am sure would welcome the chance to help there too, but for that they require total transparency, something that is often difficult to achieve.
Making data smarter requires cultural change. Market research can lead the integration and analysis of all information flowing into organisations today, but must also be seen as the leader in the requires cultural changes too. Isn’t this what we (should) have been doing all along?
MREB – the market research arm of the Corporate Executive Board
From www.BusinessIntelligence.com
From IBM and BusinessIntelligence.com
Aaron Zornes, The MDM Institute
MDS – Master Data Source
CRM – consumer relationship marketing / management
Denyse Drummond-Dunn is President & Chief Catalyst of C³Centricity (www.C3Centricity.com), a global consultancy that provides strategic counsel to the executive teams of billion-dollar brands.
She is the author of Winning Customer Centricity (www.WinningCustomerCentricity.com), lauded as “A must read for today’s and tomorrow’s marketers”. The book includes many examples from her career of over 30 years’ in senior executive roles with Nestle, Gillette & Philip Morris International.
