The future is here

When I was a kid, if you’d have said what will things be like in 2024, I would have said we would probably be flying around in space cars living on planet Mars.

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2024 feels like it should be the exciting future.

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And yet here we are, the future is now and it all looks a bit more mundane than most of our fantastical predictions from 30years ago.

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The bins still need putting out. Christmas tree lights are still a pain in the arse. My socks still go into the washing machine as pairs and return their journey solo. The M25 still takes longer to get round than a trip to Sydney.? I still have draws of miscellaneous crap which make no sense, particularly as most of mine contain now defunct technology, definitely USB sticks, possibly even the odd floppy disk if you looked hard enough.

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I imagine by 2080 such draws will still exist, probably still with rogue USB sticks.

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So the future isn’t as shiny as you think it’s going to be.

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Well I have to say, the same can be said of market research.

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For the last 100 years, each decade has heralded new innovation and development of methodologies, all of which have been designed to help businesses, governments and organisations better understand what people think and what they really want.

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• Daniel Starch created the first method testing advertising effectiveness back in the 1920’s.
• George Gallop developed larger scale polling, still used in political polling today, back in the 1930’s.
• The idea of a ‘focused interview’ was created by Paul Lazarsfeld to test anti-Nazi radio broadcasts on behalf of the Office of War Information, helping people understand the ‘why’ behind some of the canvasing that had already been popularised in the 20’s and 30’s.
• Ernest Dichter came up with motivational research in the 1950’s, using a version of Freudian psychology to unlock people’s deep-seated motivations with the idea of being able ‘to mobilise and manipulate human needs.’
• In the 1970s, an economist named Gary Becker first used the phrase behavioral economics to describe rational choice theory—the idea that people always respond rationally and maximize self-benefits—and explain how people make decisions and respond to market forces.
• Even as late at 1999 when Wendy Gordon wrote her bible on qualitative research.

?This world and these innovations were exciting! Thrilling new inventions! New ways of unlocking business growth! Getting inside the mind of your consumers! Even being able to manipulate what they thought! What a ride!

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You only have to watch the episode of Mad Men in season 4, entitled ‘The Rejected’ – an episode where the planners at SCDP are practically salivating over a focus group where they get to watch their secretaries apply lipstick, to see how truly novel this idea really was.

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To find the gem of your next great idea right in front of you from behind a mirror – what a mouth watering prospect that would be to hungry creatives!

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As I stare down the barrel of my empty Quality Street tub, I feel like the world has fallen out of love with the idea of understanding people.

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I feel even more deeply that people have stopped really believing that market research as a profession is exciting and certainly not aspirational.

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This might be at odds with what you continue to hear from CEO’s and CMO’s but the lived experience of running a research business suggests otherwise.

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I don’t think this is wilful neglect. Businesses want to believe that consumers and people that buy their products matter.

I think in an ideal world, businesses sincerely believe that if they pay attention to people, that competitive advantage will follow.

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However, market research is often set up to fail.

It's the small voice in a room of loud voices.

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Marketing has been going through somewhat of a transformation in recent years. What started with relatively inaccessible MBA’s has proliferated into Mini-MBA’s, and a whole host of other personal development courses.

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I got re-targeted this morning with a new type of Mini-MBA that most clearly is setting itself up to rival Mark Ritson’s course, called Next MBA which has lecturers such as Seth Godin, Gary V and Philip Kotler, you know the usual suspects.

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The point is that there is an explosion of learning, development and demand to be better more equipped and excellent professionals amongst marketers. This is surely good news for a profession that has historically struggled to make headway into the boardroom, and has often been left out of the C-Suite.

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But where is the equivalent for market research?

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I’m not talking about marketing courses, I’m talking about professional development skills that are pertinent to a researcher, in becoming an all round excellent professional.

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Professionalism and innovation in research method.

Excellence in presenting.

Creativity in engaging an audience.

Clarity of your strategic recommendations.

Thorough consideration for how to be persuasive in the boardroom.

Brilliance at bringing an organisation with you.

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All things often lacking in market research.

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By creating a buzz around our own personal development in the industry, we challenge the stereotype that research and as a consequence insight departments that brief agencies are weak links in otherwise thriving marketing communities.

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I went to a research conference TMRE, in San Antonia, Texas in 2022, ?and Stan Sthanunathan stood up as keynote speaker and described our profession as the ‘risk mitigation department’.

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His challenge to our industry was that we should be the engine room for growth, the teams in any business that marketers, CEO’s, CFO’s are beating a path to, because of all teams in any business, Insight teams should have their finger on the pulse of the consumer and therefore be driving the future.

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I think that starts with getting excited.

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Looking around and thinking - what can I get up to?

What trouble can I cause?

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For surely the greatest challenge to us all is how can we wrestle ourselves and others around us back into a space of wonder and awe. Of creativity and energy.

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Of a desire to be better and better one another in the process.

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So it’s 2024. This is supposed to be the future.

I’m determined to be excited about it.

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