Over the past few weeks, YouTube has been overflowing with spin-offs of the viral video, Stuff* Girls Say. The original, based on the eponymous Twitter feed, inspired dozens of other satires, from Stuff People in DC Say (“Right, but where are you from originally?”), to Stuff* College Freshmen Say (“I’m either going to major in political science, psychology, business, or maybe pre-med.”), to my personal favorite, Stuff* Nobody Says (“Does anyone know how I can make Papyrus my default font?”). I’m still waiting for “Stuff Market Researchers Say”– we’ll leave the comments section open for your suggestions.

These videos are only intended to be humorous – stereotypes and sweeping generalizations are embraced and political correctness and cultural sensitivities are deliberately thrown aside. But in addition to provoking a knowing laugh (or righteous indignation), these videos also made me think about creative ways to collect, manage, and present knowledge about customers.

For Research to have the greatest impact on customer-related decisions, teams need to use effective communication strategies to engage their business partners. If your research team were to make a video titled “Stuff Our Customers Say,” what would it sound like? Would you need to adjust the way you think about segmentation? Not many of these Research videos would ever achieve YouTube fame, but our most progressive members are thinking differently about how to make existing information accessible to researchers and palatable to business partners.

Here’s an example of how Deloitte used video to highlight the many voices of its consumers. (Golf? Golf!)

MREB Members, read about how Heinz uses video to create an appetite for customer learning.

*This is a family friendly blog — the actual video titles all replace the word “stuff” with a more colorful 4 letter word beginning with S.

Snow removal is not Washington D.C.’s strong suit.  On Monday, all federal agencies enjoyed a two hour delayed opening because of a whopping 0.7 inches (1.8 cm) of snow that fell here over the weekend. Perhaps the city should forgo the plows and heavy machinery in favor of some of the tools featured in this article, which promise to make snow removal easier and safer.

With the importance of good tools (and the importance of good insight) in mind, the Market Research Executive Board has compiled some of our best insight generation exercises, worksheets, and practice guides into one easy-to-use toolkit. (The best part? Our tools carry little to no risk of back injury!)

Insight generation is one of the most important and most difficult tasks of any market research function.  MREB research has shown that a shift to make quality insight generation a priority is associated with a 70% increase in business impact. These 15 hands-on tools are designed to support you and your team in scoping and focusing your efforts, thinking creatively, and framing your insights in an actionable and impactful way. MREB members, access the toolkit here.

Christmas. Birthdays.  Hanukkah.  Physicals.  Year end reviews.  Budget analysis.  All things we (have to) do on an annual basis.  Some things are fun, and some?  Maybe not so much.  Let’s just call them necessary.  Aside from the handful of us who actually enjoy working with numbers, things like budget analysis and planning can be low on the list of our favorite things, but we all know they’re needed. 

In an attempt to help make at least that last one (budgeting analysis) a bit less painful, every year we survey our members on their budget levels, staffing levels, and resource allocation choices, etc.  We upload the results into an interactive tool so that you can get specific data points, applying various filters, should you wish.  (e.g. Market research budgets are on average what percent of company revenue when only looking at for financial services companies between $2 and $20 Billion in revenue?  That’s .06%, if you were curious.)  Additionally, we’ve pulled a number of the key metrics and results into an Executive Summary. 

As I look at the overall results, a few observations particularly stood out:

1.  Flat was still “the new up”.  We said this last year, and we hoped that would be it… but in 2011, flat was still the new up.  Overall average budgets in 2011 were the lowest we’ve seen since the recent high in 2008.  There was one bright spot – B2C-Indirect members have on average actually seen an increase in budgets across the past three years.  If that’s you, thank your lucky stars to be in the fortunate few!  Those of us who are continuing to “do more with less,” check out our Cost and Efficiency Optimization center where we discuss successful tactics such as: better utilizing existing information, prioritizing research resources on the right issues, and organizing teams for more efficient response times.

2. We are optimistic for 2012.  While budgets have as a whole been decreasing for the past few years, 45 percent of us believe our budgets will increase for 2012.  Another 43% of us believe they will stay the same.  An in-person informal poll during our London Executive Meeting in November had the same results.  Looking outside of just budget numbers, overall 43% of us believe we will be able to increase our staff size in 2012, and another 48% believe their staff size will stay the same.  What a better picture for the new year!  For those of us who are lucky enough to increase in staff size this year, find helpful tips on how to hire “insight-ready” researchers in our Hiring topic center.

3. Continuing the trend from last year, we are even more so not just a marketing support service.   While a solid 99% of us support Marketing, a large majority of us also support our peers in Strategy/Planning (89%), R&D (86%), Sales (79%), General Management (79%), and Corporate Communications (71%).  In fact, there is no area that we support less than last year.  I’m certain this doesn’t come as much of a surprise to any of you.  I can’t count how many conversations I’ve had with members that start “So now we are also supporting [x group]… how do we make sure they know how to work with us effectively?”  If that’s you, we’d love to talk with you!  One quick thought to get you started: set internal partners’ expectations, demonstrating strategic value to the company, and setting boundaries on when to not call upon Research.

For additional data points on average department size, budget breakdown, project allocation, organizational structures, etc., see our 2011 Executive Summary, or benchmarking interactive tool. 

Here’s to a great 2012!

Time to continue our series on the 5 consultative skills that researchers should build to improve business impact:

1. Insight
2. Business Problem Solving
3. Influence
4. Communication
5. Synthesis

It’s time to talk Influence, a skill that can sometimes be overlooked in its importance.  But think about it: business partners weigh both rational and emotion criteria when making decisions– things like trust, stress, and relationships can be quite influential in business decisions. 

The problem is, we’re researchers.  And that means that, by definition, most of us naturally gravitate to rational analysis, so if given the choice we’d take training on insight generation or consultative business skills over emotional influencing skills any day.  We might assume that things like active listening and conflict resolution are internal traits that cannot be improved, but our research shows this isn’t true: you CAN become more emotional influential with the right focus.

We have seen a number of companies institute training and frameworks to improve researcher influence:

• ConAgra utilizes a two-day training session to make researchers more aware of the importance of influencing skills and the gaps in their own arsenal, and then provide frameworks, tools, and templates to apply influencing skills in their interactions.
• EMC² conducts peer review sessions (with clear expectations for the audience to learn and actively engage) to provide constructive criticism for upcoming research presentations and discussions.
• Nokia utilizes an engagement strategy that maps business partner relationships and power levels to improve recommendation adoption.  

MREB members, read more about these influence-building initiatives here.  And you can also access interactive versions of Nokia’s engagement tools.

If it’s not L’Oreal aiming to double its sales in Brazil by 2015, it’s Volkswagen planning to build a $2 billion facility.  Countless multinational corporations have been gearing up to take advantage of the millions of newly-empowered Brazilian consumers in the market. For many, Brazil is the new frontier and quite frankly, a strategy for growth during a weak economy in the U.S. and Europe.

Researchers should be aware of the quirks of conducting projects in Brazil versus other countries. Specialists on the country explain, for example, that with the enormous variation in geography, climate, wealth distribution, and ethnic makeup, Brazil often seems like many countries in one.

Recently, the rapid expansion of the middle class has forced researchers to think deeply about how best to reach out to these newcomers. As consumers, they tend towards novelty and buying on credit, but are often inexperienced in purchasing decisions and product-testing.

Here are three key points that a recent MREB research study uncovered:

• Results skew positive – Since 2003, a whopping 35.5 million people have moved into Brazil’s middle class, many of whom are purchasing large-ticket items for the first time ever. Experts warn that survey results tend to skew positively as many Brazilians lack the context to rate products accurately and are too polite to strongly criticize. Researchers can compensate by measuring responses against a baseline.
• Online panels still lacking – Even as millions of Brazilians move into the digital space, market researchers still complain about sub-par online panel quality. Lack of widespread broadband access also contributes to making online market research a less-than-popular choice of method. Face-to-face and telephone interviews continue to be the most effective though admittedly more expensive, methodologies to choose.
• High up-front costs – Experienced market researchers warn about the sticker shock of conducting research in Brazil. Interestingly, these costs have less to do with currency and more to do with sky-high interest rates and taxes, leading to expensive working capital and costs of labor.

MREB members, learn more about market research in Brazil in our newly published research brief. For those interested in other emerging markets, stay tuned for our work on Russia, China and India.

For additional resources, check out our work on Supporting Global Business Needs, Manage Dispersed or Virtual Research Teams, and Manage Offshore Research Teams.

A recent article in the Huffington Post explored the poor ability of people to predict the events of the future – a particularly popular pastime in early January, and getting a lot of press in 2012 especially with the shaky economy and upcoming election(not to mention the threat of the end of the world, according to the Mayans). The author asks this not of psychics or modern-day prophets, but of the experts – people who should be able to make balanced, accurate predictions.

The culprit he fingers? Confirmation bias, the tendency of people to look for and accept information that reinforces their existing beliefs, conveniently ignoring contradictory information. In the context of this discussion, it’s confirmation bias while researching – which the scientific method was created to counteract, and which market researchers are trained to avoid.

There’s another way that confirmation bias can get in the way of Market Research, though – while trying to get business partners to internalize customer information or insights, especially those that contradict their existing beliefs. People are likely to ignore or resist internalizing new information in these circumstances.

The key to getting past this tendency? To create multi-sensory, realistic, and engaging learning opportunities for business partners. While a data point on a powerpoint is easy to dismiss, not so is a customer in front of you demonstrating what this data point says. It’s those three characteristics that make immersive experiences so effective at changing people’s minds – creating visceral dissonance and then rebuilding their “gut” understanding.

MREB members, learn more about these “gut-busting” experiences and how companies like P&G and Alticor create them.

Last week I started a series of posts on the five consultative skills that researchers can build to improve business impact:

1. Insight
2. Business Problem Solving
3. Influence
4. Communication
5. Synthesis

With insight already covered, it’s time to address skill #2: business problem solving.  More than two-thirds of the research leaders that we spoke with think that it takes 7 or more years to develop the skills to act as a consultant to business partners—and business problem solving in particular can turn into a problem of time.

To avoid losing productivity from junior researchers and the crippling replacement costs for senior ones, we have seen research departments train to apply existing logic skills to speed up the natural process of gaining business-specific experience.   

For one company, Research found that the team excelled at project execution, but their impact on the overall business was lagging.  They were answering their business partners’ questions, but still not addressing the real business need.

To help speed up the team’s ability to ensure match between research request and the underlying business issue, researchers cooperatively work with business partners to identify the root business problems BEFORE doing any research.  By formalizing an analysis tree framework, the team can use iteration to make sure that they identify key issues and sub-questions.  As the VP of Marketing put it,

“Delaying the start of our project to go through this process was a bit painful, but in the end I feel much more comfortable that Research understands my issues.”

MREB member, see the details of the Business Issue Diagnostic Approach here.

As researchers we spend a lot of time talking to a lot of different people in our organizations.  Working with IT to get access to the latest pieces of information, with our business partners to get our latest insight across, and with other researchers to prioritize our queues and coordinate next steps.  (I could go on…)

But what about the informal conversations with colleagues?  This week on CareerBliss communications and networking experts offered seven tips on improving your office rapport.  Some of my favorite small-talk tips include:

• Men can tease.  Women?  Not so much-as the article [kindly] puts it “…when men tease or insult each other, they come off as light-hearted and friendly; when women tease or insult each other, however, they come off mean-spirited.”  Noted.
• Talk sports-I know ladies, it looks like we’re batting 0-for-2 here, but this applies to us too (note my sports analogy usage-she shoots she scores!).  But seriously, the sports page headlines do have something for everyone.  For example, I quite dislike basketball, but today’s Washington Post gave me the feel-good story of the day: a 5’7’’ high school phenom who actually reduces crime in the city as he plays.  Oh, and if you need someone to talk hockey, I’m your girl! (Go Caps!)
• Confidence is Fundamental-to successful banter, you’ll need to assume that others are just as interested in chatting as you are.  Think of each conversation as a compliment, “I’m talking to you because you’re an interesting person.”
• Don’t be a one-chat wonder-pay attention during your daily run-ins so that you can follow-up on things the next time you see folks.  Get out those cell phones and make note of kids’ names and favorite out-of-work hobbies.

We know that customer insight is not just good for the company, it is essential for long-term survival. Indeed, 70% of severe business failures result from inadequate customer understanding. And yet, according to our own study of business partners, most Research departments have yet to fulfill the strategic role desired by researchers and business partners.

Foundational research competencies like research skills and project execution are not enough to drive business impact.  We’ve found that the biggest opportunity to advance Research’s impact lies in five consultative skills:

1. Insight
2. Business Problem Solving
3. Influence
4. Communication
5. Synthesis

Over the next few weeks I’ll write about each of these skills, starting today with insight.  And to make sure that we’re all on the same page, we define insight as the identification of some relationship or meaning within diverse sets of data that promises significant business impact.

To make sure you are hitting the right insight bar, the theory of insight is not enough.  For example, by providing a simple framework for insight development grounded in customer behavior, Vodafone makes sure researchers know what a great insight looks like and how to go about developing them independently.  MREB members, access the full overview for developing insight skills here.  And stay tuned next week for more on Skills for the Next Generation of Market Researchers.

In a recent HBR post environmental psychologist Sally Augustin outlines ways to make your workspace a place where you can accomplish your best work.  And her recommendations have me thinking I need to make some changes in here:

• Protect your back-you will feel more comfortable if you find a way to sit so that your side rather than your back faces your workspace entry point.
• Remove the red-thanks to teachers using red to grade our childhood papers, the color now inhibits cognitive tasks.
• Seek rounded leaves-people pay attention better when there are leafy plants around.
• Personalize-folks with a workspace that tells a story about who they are find more satisfaction with their jobs.
• Organize and declutter-I would write more here, but I’ve temporarily lost track of my keyboa…

Alright…after a trip to the dumpster and the garden center I’m ready to continue.  The environment that you work in matters, and not just in a physical sense like Sally wrote about above.  When we analyzed what made successful teams more insightful, we found that it’s all about the environment. 

Research can create an environment conducive to insight generation by fostering an open, creative culture.  To boost insight from your team you need to:

• Clarify the Insight Mandate-featuring insight in the mandate of the function is important but not enough—mangers must help researchers internalize commitment to insight and raise the bar of business impact through experiential training.
• Create Team Support for Risk Taking and Creativity-creating an environment where researchers take risks, push for creativity, and encouraging peers to do the same is not as easy as simply encouraging researchers to express creativity and take unlimited risks—there need to be guardrails to prevent time-wasting and inappropriate risk–taking.
• Coach Insight Generation-Using standard manager techniques that help teach process management or presentation skills can shut down creativity and aren’t appropriate for unstructured activities like insight generation.

What do you do to make yourself the best work environment?  Share your tips of the trade in the comments section below.