Market research firms make more cash > 4Qs
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Market research firms make more cash using the 4Qs
I would like to share a secret on how market research firms can make more cash from customers. I worked as an art director for advertising agencies during the 2000s. It was a common practice for clients to engage a market research firm before we began a campaign.
We were responsible for delivering campaigns for brands like Citibank, Telstra, Foxtel, and Jaguar. The campaigns cost clients upwards of a few million dollars, so the idea was to use intelligence found in the research to improve the potency of the ad campaign.
Do you know what we did with the research? As soon as the client left the meeting, we would pick it up the pile of market research and bin it. It was very gratifying. Everybody was really excited. All this great work compiled into a neat report nobody would use.
Market research is (heart) broken
This situation must be disheartening for the researchers. They pour hundreds of hours into creating compelling reports. They wait patiently for the ad campaign to hit the public domain, and when it does, discover the campaign drew little inspiration from their findings.
WTF?
Example
In this text I offer a reason why market research is underutilized. Save from plucking a few statistics we could shape into value propositions, the market research was a waste.
01
Blind tests show 50 percent of women prefer product A over product B
ANALYSIS
Great. It’s a nice fact you can shout in words and pictures. It is a type of testimonial. These women bought it, so should you.
Second example
What if the research presents intel that is obscure? Data that’s useful but cannot be immediately applied to words and pictures?
02
Women under twenty did not buy product A, and showed interest in products made from all-natural ingredients.
ANALYSIS
It is easy to appreciate its value but hard to put into practice. Analyze this intel, and you’ll quickly see there’s a lot going on. We have to make a lot of decisions before commencing words and pictures.
Market research unfairly labeled bs
The improvements market research introduces are far reaching, beyond the scope of an ad agency. Good market research like the piece shown in Example 2 can touch every aspect of the business – product, branding and customer segmentation alike.
4Qs framework for better decision-making
Research is binned because ad agencies take the intel, and shove the intel into words and pictures. Only a small percentage of the intel survives. What is missing is a decision-making framework to synthesize the intelligence before words and pictures commence.
The 4Qs is a framework is a suitable decision-making tool. Intelligence is gathered and synthesized to address one of four Quadrants. The 4Qs takes what you know intuitively and organizes this knowledge into four Quadrants, hence the Four Quadrants (4Qs for short).
Market research firms leave money on the table
Ad agencies are preoccupied creating sexy words and pictures, not working through difficult business decisions. Market research companies, on the other hand, hire analytical people, who can solve complex problems. With orientation, staff can apply the 4Qs framework and move the market research firm up the value chain.
Bill more hours
Learn more
I gave you a 5-minute overview of the 4Qs. Grab the book and check out Quadrants 1-4 in detail.
