Editor’s note: David Jastrow is a N.J.-based market research and strategy professional.
Saying “I don’t know” is a risky proposition. Even the smartest executives tend to seek out evidence that confirms what they already think rather than new information that would give them a more robust view of reality.
As Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner wrote in their latest book Think Like a Freak, companies need to learn to say “We don’t know” because until they do so, it’s virtually impossible to fill those knowledge gaps. It is important to encourage leaders and frontline employees to freely ask questions and consider alternative assumptions because they will come up with more creative ideas and ask better questions.
Pivoting from products to people
Marketing and market research has shifted from a focus on production – producing as much as possible of a given product or service – to a focus where the emphasis has to be squarely on the needs and wants of customers.
The biggest risk a company can make is thinking that the way it used to do business is the path to future success. Companies ranging from McDonald’s to Anheuser-Busch InBev have learned the hard way that old ways of problem-solving no longer apply. All too often what companies think they know about their customers turns out to be wrong.
Many other well-established (read: long-in-the-tooth) companies have used market research and new customer insights to connect to audiences and provide them what they really want. For example, Lego became the largest toy company in the world by launching Lego Friends, a line of toys that was created only after years of studying the play habits of girls and asking them what they liked.
Here’s the part that isn’t so neat: Often, turnarounds are not smooth. Work processes change, business divisions reorganize and people lose their jobs. Nothing less than organizational survival is at stake. Market research is the fuel that drives these changes.
To make sure that the desires of customers and audiences are shaping the organization, there are three essential rules that market research can help a company follow:
1. Stop pushing products and start solving problems.
2. Good ideas must be validated before solutions are built.
3. Put customer needs first.
Leadership supports the vision
To execute on these lofty objectives, companies need to create internal ambassadors to gather research and insights on these new ideas and new ways to doing things and communicate them across the organization. This vision must come from the top. Leadership must support, articulate and financially back the vision. They need to reinforce the idea that change isn’t being implemented just for the sake of doing things differently. Rather, these changes are designed to make the company better.
Invest in teams
These insights ambassadors are change agents. They are also diplomats, envoys and missionaries. They need to present a unified vision and deliver the tools necessary to gather and analyze customer insights. This must be a team effort. Organizing teams into a united department structures the group for long-term success.
Individuals and teams that once operated in silos or didn’t exist at all need to work as a cohesive unit with open communications and a clearly defined strategy. The following skills should be integrated into teams that make up this group:
Data and analytics: This team focuses on gathering, tracking and analyzing sales, usage, impact, systems performance, customer satisfaction and other critical market data.
Digital product performance: This technically-savvy team is responsible for digital product analytics, helping the business understand the impact of organizational investments in Web, mobile, search and social media development. This team measures where sales and marketing campaigns and product development decisions are successfully paying off and where the organization is underperforming.
Market research: The primary research team concentrates on delivering qualitative and quantitative research, ranging from surveys and conjoint analyses to focus groups and ethnographic research.
Through immersive experiential research, researchers can learn what professional and emotional triggers lead to purchasing decisions, along with the day-to-day situations they encounter. Gathering authentic information using the vast menu of tools and techniques available in a researcher’s toolbox, the market research team delivers data about what customers want and don’t want.
Strategic insights: This group synthesizes and analyzes the data elements to make strategic blueprints and recommendations to the business based on evidence gathered by the other insights departments, rather than on hunches and gut instincts.
Communicate the vision
Team leaders must communicate how they will accomplish their purposes and vision to achieve buy-in and broader organizational support. Everyone has to see market research as part of their job descriptions, regardless of job titles.
Sharing these concepts can be done via town halls, research-hour Webinars, social media and interactive drop-in clinics during which Q&A sessions can happen. These teams should align with sales groups and provide them with tools and templates to gather and share critical customer insights.
In global organizations, companies can’t afford to have intelligence locked in someone’s brain, tablet device or simply talked about over drinks at a conference. They need shared information that is gathered by the teams on the front lines. This evidence should be shared and synthesized to provide insights and a shared understanding that helps the company see the forest from the trees.
Empower colleagues to enable change by distributing train-the-trainer sessions that give teams the skills they need to gather and synthesize customer insights. Refresh and refine these gatherings frequently to reflect changing market conditions.
Measure performance
Examining and segmenting customers will help determine whether current buyers and users are the only ones that the company should be targeting. Are there adjacent markets to consider? Does the company have high market recognition? Are the market dynamics supportive of new options to deliver solutions to customers?
By frequently measuring customer satisfaction, teams can change their focus if the current results are not achieving the desired outcomes. If something doesn’t work, change it.
Think big, act big
Passion is one of the x-factors in building ambassadors and creating teams that lead to actionable knowledge. Instilling a sense of mission, purpose and excitement is critical in building and expanding these intuitions.
Fearlessness is also necessary when building ambassadors. Sometimes brutal honesty is required. Studies that question conventional wisdom are often the ones that make the biggest impact. Being polite corporate citizens doesn’t achieve meaningful change.
Perhaps most important of all, have fun! Creating internal ambassadors doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. It can begin with a team barbeque or a bowling outing. Work hard but play hard. Make it fun to come to work every day or at least most of the time. By focusing on the needs of customers through innovative approaches, your organization will be well-positioned to transform and grow.