30 Market Research Experts Reveal The #1

Biggest Mistake Companies Make When

Contracting Out Market Research December 2, 2014 by Zintro

By far, one of the most effective ways a company can obtain meaningful, unbiased industry

data is by conducting market research.

Because, as aptly described by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, when done properly market

research is able to help companies examine potential sales of a product or service, or

understand what products people want, who will buy them, and at what price, or countless

other important business insights.

Since many of the businesses and experts we work with here at Zintro benefit immensely

from market research, but are not themselves market research professionals, we wanted

to learn more about the market research process. More specifically, wanted to discover

expert tips from market research experts on the most common (and avoidable) mistakes

companies make when contracting out market research. To do this, we asked 30 market

research experts to answer this question:

“What’s the biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market

research?”

We’ve collected and compiled their expert advice into this comprehensive guide on how to

effectively contract out market research. See what our experts said below:

Meet Our Panel of Market Research Experts:

Bryan Mattimore

Kay Cruse

Tim Glowa

Anne-Marie Duffy

Pedram Sameni

Andrea Masci

Scott C. Hammond

Jennifer Dale

Bryan Clayton

David Poulos

Dipanjan Chatterjee

Frances Reimers

Emil Lamprecht

Adam O’Leary

Edith Bullard

Mike Bloxham

Jonathan Pirc

Alicia Kan

Guy Smith

Werner G. Krebs

Daryl Travis

Leslie Handmaker

Kenny Kline

Jerry W. Thomas

Kalyan Banga

Sandy Arons

Ron Sellers

Edward Nevraumont

Elliot Simmonds

Mike Poller

Bryan Mattimore

Bryan Mattimore is the Co-Founder of The Growth Engine Co., an innovation agency

based in Norwalk, CT. Bryan has been moderator of over 500 focus groups and 200

innovation projects for Fortune 500 companies leading to over $3 billion in annual sales.

He is also the author of two books, the newest being: “Idea Stormers, How To Lead and

Inspire Creative Breakthroughs” (Wiley Jossey-Bass, 2012).

The biggest mistake that companies make when contracting for qualitative research

(aka focus groups) is…

They expect the groups to give them definitive answers instead of interesting questions

and/or directions to pursue. We think of these groups as an invitation to learning and

exploring, not as way to make definitive decisions.

The biggest mistake clients make in quantitative research (for instance on-line

surveys with typically 200 or more respondents) is to have not spent enough time thinking

about the criteria for screening the respondents in the study.

Kay Cruse

Kay Cruse is the Vice President of Strategex, a Chicago-based, global market research

andstrategic consultancy, and has been helping companies grow and prosper by using

strategic and actionable market research and discovery for over 20 years. In her leadership

role, she uses Voice of the Customer market research to support corporate and brand

development, customer satisfaction and loyalty assessments, as well as comparative

competitive market intelligence.

Based on my experience, there are five big mistakes companies make when

contracting out market research and they typically fall into three phases:

Pre-Research, During Research and Post-Research. Missing any one of these watch-out

areas can set your study on a path of disappointment even before you begin.

Pre-Research Phase

Mistake #1: Not Identifying the Most Capable Vendor Resource for Your Study.

Questions to consider: What direct experience has the vendor had in your preferred type

of methodology? Can your vendor explain the pros and cons of this type of research

option?

Mistake #2: Not Defining the Objectives of the Study Itself.

What do you want the study to accomplish? Many times, clients will ‘jump’ to the questions

to ask, versus plotting out the objectives. Give your vendor objectives, then let the market

research professionals construct the questions to support your objectives.

Research Phase

Mistake #3: Wrong List, Wrong People Equals Wrong Information.

Be sure you’re querying the right people – whether in a “Voice of the Customer” discovery,

Internet survey, or moderated facilitated Focus Group. A quality market research house

will guide you through identifying the best mix of people to deliver the level of information

you’re seeking.

Mistake #4: Constructing questions that are ambiguous or leading.

Many times, client-companies want market research to support their own beliefs as

opposed to going to their customers to dig into what’s really going on. That can mean only

asking the questions they know will give them the information they want to hear.

Post-Research Phase

Mistake #5: Not Trusting the Results.

Quality market research sometimes delivers painful results to companies. In reality, that’s

a good thing. More importantly, based on the findings, your research partner should be

able to define strategic, actionable steps to take to improve your company’s health,

productivity, and ultimately, its profitability.

Tim Glowa

Tim Glowa is the Co-Founder and Partner of Bug Insights, a marketing analytics company,

and is a results-focused marketing analytics and human resources consultant who has

been helping clients solve complex marketing or human capital challenges for nearly

twenty years. A recognized thought leader in the preference measurement, total rewards

strategy development, and human capital analytics spaces, Tim has published several

articles on conjoint and its applications. He has presented on this topic at numerous

conferences in North America, Asia and Europe. He has conducted a number of studies

over the past two decades for senior executives at Fortune 500 companies in the United

States, Australia, Canada, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the U.K.

I think there are two big problems with most managers requesting market research.

Both of these problems cause the results of the research to be less useful than they

could be, and will – sooner or later – hurt the organization by failing to deliver the

best marketing insights that are possible…

Problem 1 – prescribing a technique – I’ve seen this happen all the time – both as an

external consultant, but also as an internal partner. Someone in the organization wants

research, but instead of relying on the experience of the research manager or the

consultant, they not only say the problem they are having, but how the research should be

conducted. 9 times out of ten, the methodology is completely wrong. For instance, I’ve had

managers tell me they wish to estimate the demand for a new product (great idea), then

say they’d like to do a couple of days of focus groups to do this (bad idea). You need an

experienced researcher to match the problem with the right solution. Focus groups are

great to uncover ‘why’ people believe what they do, but because you are only talking to a

small number of people (usually 50-75 over a couple of groups), you cannot project this to

a broader audience of all customers. You need to match the approach with the problem

you are trying to solve.

Problem 2 – Using purely descriptive research, when you need something prescriptive.

This is also very common. You’ll administer a survey, and find that 60% of people are

satisfied with your products or service. But you won’t know if this is a good number, or a

bad one, because there is no context – its purely descriptive. Now, if you tracked over time,

and found out last year you were at 80% and now are at 60% (a 20 point decline), you can

investigate why. Or you might have norms that are available, and understand that other

competitors have a rating of 50% and you have a 60% score, so thats good. But without

context, its almost a meaningless number.

Problem 3 – As an extra, the biggest problem, and one that happens in the vast majority

of market research reports is the data dump. Whoever is doing the analysis wants to

include every possible combination of data into the presentation, presumably to show the

value they are creating. But the problem with this, is it often is without any interpretation. I

want to scream when I see a title saying “satisfaction by age”, and then a table of data

without any context, summary or interpretation. A good research report should stand on its

own – it should summarize the data, have a logical story, make prescriptive

recommendations that summarize both insights and implications to the business, and

should be about 10-15 powerpoint pages maximum.

Annie-Marie Duffy

Anne-Marie Duffy is the President of Communications & Brand Analytics Practice

for Phoenix Marketing International, a market research firm.

One of the biggest mistakes that clients make in contracting out market research

is…

To take a narrow approach that:

a) treats research as a commodity instead of something that in most cases should be a

creative partnership (one that yields efficient and effective answers to a business

challenge) and

b) approaches the research project with very specific parameters in terms of methodology,

audience, scope…even sample size.

This can lead to a narrower, more compartmentalized project–one that may focus too much

on their own brand instead of the overall market and competitive set, or on current

customers rather than potential customers and new untapped markets. It can even lead to

spending more than is necessary.

By taking a broader approach we can work with a client to inventory what we, and they,

likely already know. By probing syndicated databases or prior research conducted, we can

move forward, and not waste valuable time and money confirming what was learned in the

past. There may be a new product or research approach that will yield better learnings in

a shorter time, or for less money — or both!

Research is always evolving, and repeating the past for fear of “losing track” can mean

missing out on an opportunity to move a brand forward, therefore gaining deeper insights

into competitors, consumer behavior, and the client’s industry.

Pedram Sameni

Pedram Sameni is the CEO and Founder of Patexia, an online platform connecting

corporations to subject matter experts who help them assess their IP portfolios. At Patexia,

Pedram has harnessed the power of crowdsourcing, leveraging a large network of subject

matter experts to provide innovative market research solutions.

The biggest mistake that companies make when contracting out market research

is…

Going too broad.

An overview of the entire market is informative, but in terms of making successful business

strategy decisions, the most crucial piece of information is often not in the broad strokes,

but the result of an in depth analysis of a specific market segment. In reality companies

would often benefit from a survey of a smaller sample size with a deeper emphasis on a

few target characteristics. Especially crucial is to make sure that the research firm a

company employs has access to the right subject matter experts to derive accurate data.

Traditionally prepared market research reports are often faced with an inability to

sufficiently customize the work while keeping the final product cost efficient for both the

client and the firm. Thus, when contracting out market research, companies need to think

strategically and decide in advance the scope of information that will be most valuable.

They should not instinctively choose the most famous firm if it does not specialize in the

industry and information they actually need. This will result in a, no doubt well crafted, but

ultimately generalized report of limited value.

To elicit the most useful research, the company must first consider the most critical

questions for their decision making process, and then select a research firm with the

expertise to tap into that information and relevant communities of experts, even if that

means thinking outside of the box on the type of research firm to employ.

Andrea Masci

Andrea Masci is the Global Vice President of Strategy & Execution for SAP, the world’s

number one business software provider. In his leadership role, Andrea oversees the

strategy management of SAP Services worldwide. Among his many responsibilities,

Andrea coordinates the whole market intelligence relative to the IT Services business.

Learn more about Andrea and his work at www.andreamasci.com.

The biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market research is…

To select the provider based on existing open frame contracts/ relationships.

Selecting a provider for out market research has to be strictly tailored to the organization’s

specific information needs. For instance, are you looking for a market forecast? For a

detailed benchmark? For a customer buying expectation or behavioral analysis? In what

vertical market? For what specific services or product?

Even within the same industry, each provider is different – even if they present themselves

as generalists. When considering out market providers, organizations should ask these

questions of a potential provider:

• What areas do you specialize in? Providers will have specific deeper expertise and

reliability levels along certain themes and segments – based on their past experience and

work with special projects in the same areas

• What are your different research methodologies? For example, does the potential

provider build its structure around interviews with market players, or with a customer

interview-base, or perhaps around a mathematical-based model? Depending on which, it

will make them more or less accurate for your focused topic

• What are your underlying market beliefs? Seek to understand their expert point of view

on the market. Does it align with yours? This will influence their analysis.

Further, as is pretty common with any market research project, you will likely want to

investigate deeper along a specific aspect, which you would not have anticipated before.

Clearly, your provider needs to be able to build upon that.

Thus, when you are preparing to seek out market research, query your provider short-list

on how they would accomplish to your scope – and determine whether their research

methodology fits your content purpose and whether it is modular enough to allow minor

scope variations without requiring a new project to be kicked off.

Scott C. Hammond

Scott C. Hammond, PhD is a Clinical Professor of Management in the Jon M. Huntsman

School of Business at Utah State University. He teaches market research and consumer

behavior.

The biggest problem with marketing research is…

Making claims that go beyond the data. This often comes when we try and use rate to

describe occasion, or occasion to describe rate.

Rate, using numbers and statistics, measures how often something occurs. Occasion,

using words, examines the qualities of those occasions.

Rate addresses questions like how often customers are satisfied at what level? What is

the size of the market? How many of what kinds of customers are in the market? Qualitative

measures can help us know what customer service means? Why customers select your

product? What customer service means?

The most common mistake in marketing research is making a rate claim using an occasion

measure (like a forces group, or interviews) or making an occasion assumption using a

rate measure.

Jennifer Dale

Jennifer Dale is the President & CEO of InsideHeads, LLC, a full-service online market

research company with over 17 years experience administering web surveys, moderating

online focus groups and conducting in-depth interviews.

Hands down, the biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market

research is…

Not knowing what they’re going to do with the findings when the study is complete.

Sounds ludicrous, I know, but I have to guide my clients down that road, most didn’t even

know existed. More than a research objective, to make a research study truly actionable

companies need to think through the actions that will be needed once they receive the

findings. Too often research is conducted to tacitly confirm an opinion or proposed strategy,

and the resulting report and recommendations for next steps unfortunately sits dusty on a

shelf.

Bryan Clayton

Bryan Clayton is the CEO of GreenPal, a web and mobile app connecting lawn care

professionals with homeowners.

I would say one big mistake companies make when conducting market research is…

Their failure to validate their hypothesis and findings,

Before jumping off the deep end and launching a new business idea or building a new

product, entrepreneurs need to validate the question, does anybody care about this?

This can be accomplished by running some quick inexpensive campaigns/experiments in

Google Ad-words, and Facebook’s ad platform as well.

As a very basic example, if someone wanted to start a new home cleaning business. They

could run an ad on Facebook for: “Now taking new appointments for home cleaning”.

Then target that down to the geo they are considering and also who their target market

would be. Then by measuring the click through rate on the ad, one will be able to discern

very easily if there is any demand for their business idea, or even if anyone would care

about it. This can save entrepreneurs months and years of pain beating their head against

the wall trying to sell something that no one is interested in.

David Poulos

David Poulos, a.k.a. “The Marketing Doctor”, has over thirty years of marketing experience,

ranging from private enterprise, state and federal government, non-profit and charitable

organizations, and has effectively served as Director of Sales for Pan International,

Director of Marketing for National Information Corporation, and as Director of Client

Accounts for Strategic Partners Group. Davod is the author of “The Marketing Doctor’s

Survival Notes,” and has published over 20 articles on a variety of marketing topics in

nationally

published magazines and websites, has published over five year’s worth of weekly blog

articles on non-profit and commercial marketing, management and customer service best

practice, and has been quoted as an expert in articles appearing on Fox News Small

Business and MSN Main Street Business websites. Learn more about David and his work

at www.themarketingdoc.com.

There are lots of common errors companies make when hiring out market research

services – one of the biggest is…

Making assumptions about what they know and don’t know, and what they want the

research to accomplish. Can’t achieve if you don’t know the goal.

One other large mistake is that companies don’t see research as an investment in making

their marketing more effective, just as an expense. That lack of belief in value tends to

make them shop by price rather than desired outcome, and they rarely get the full benefit

of the research data as a result.

Another common mistake is to not set aside adequate funds to enact the marketing efforts

the research data indicates are needed. Now you’ve got a report that does no good. We’ve

offered research as the basis of our engagements since our inception in 1997, and it’s the

cornerstone of our practice.

Dipanjan Chatterjee

Dipanjan Chatterjee is a Senior Vice President at BAV Consulting, a Y&R company, where

he advises some of the world’s best brands on marketing strategy. Prior to BAV, Dipanjan

was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, a strategy consultant at Booz & Co., and

has held several senior executive positions in the industry.

In my work advising leading global companies in brand and marketing strategy, I

frequently execute market research on their behalf. Most clients I deal with already

have a mountain of research lying neglected in a cubicle or in the furthest recesses

of someone’s hard drive. There is little understanding of how this voluminous

research (and the investment in it) will move the needle for the business. One of the

biggest mistakes companies make in outsourcing research is…

To not do the requisite homework ahead of time: have a clearly defined purpose for the

research triggered by clear business imperatives, and a tactical game plan of how to

implement the findings of the research.

The other crucial ingredient for success is to have a designated internal business owner

lead every step of the way – from thought leadership to process coordination – so that

contracting research is more a partnership and less a hand-off into the great unknown.

Frances Reimers

Frances Reimers is a Senior Account Executive and the Director of Corporate Visibility

of PCI communications. With more than ten years experience in communications,

marketing, public relations and event management, Frances plays an integral role on the

PCI project management and sales teams. She also lends business development

expertise to PCI marketing strategy, outreach, and client development. Frances is a

sought-after speaker who provides presentations on a variety of marketing,

communications and events topics for businesses and not-for-profits across the country.

The biggest mistake that organizations make when contracting out market research

companies is…

Not following through with the data they have been given.

While not always clear-cut, market research such as focus groups allows companies to

receive real-time feedback regarding their message, brand, product, or service. But sadly,

often if that feedback does not coincide with the organizations previously held belief the

data is put on a shelf never to be implemented. I always encourage my clients to view

market research as a ‘free pass’ to tweak whatever it is we’re analyzing to make it more

effective. Some buy that philosophy, others not so much.

Another challenge is that some organizations are receptive to market research, but lack

the manpower or skill sets in order to implement the data. When that is the case, and there

isn’t a budget to work with a firm, the data is relegated to the shelf.

Emil Lamprecht

Emil Lamprecht is the CMO and Creative Director of CareerFoundry. He’s worked as a

product designer and marketing specialist for 7 years, including research and launch of

entire products for major manufacturers like Duncan Toys.

The mistake companies make in contracting market research is two-fold:

One, companies don’t really know what they want or need, they have a vague idea that

their product should focus in a general direction, and expect the contracted company to fill

in the blanks. But in doing this they lack control, essentially by giving the decision power

to a company that isn’t selling the product and ultimately may not have an infrastructural

understanding of the companies strengths.

Two, by not categorizing potential niches before outsourcing the research, a company’s

general inquiry will receive a general review of the market, putting you in a please-all

position with your marketing strategy.

Adam O’Leary

Adam O’Leary is the President of Encite Marketing and a graduate of Colorado State

University who has experience on both the client and agency side of the marketing world.

He founded Encite in 2005 with unique and more efficient business model that caters to

small business. In his leadership role, he sets the strategic direction for all Encite projects

and develops integrated marketing campaigns that bring results.

We have found that the biggest mistake companies make when contracting out

market research is…

Not having trust.

Trust is a powerful thing. It must first be evident in the market research firm prior to a

company hiring them (obviously), but it also must be in data that comes from the results.

A company must trust the findings even if that data uncovers issues that they may not want

to hear or leads to a change with their product/service, company structure or procedure &

processes.

We have worked with several small businesses that, after conducting a research

campaign, they didn’t trust the findings, which led to them not using the data. Obviously,

this is a huge waste of time, money and resources. We have actually had one firm tell us,

“That’s not right. I’ve been in this business 25 years and our customers don’t think like

that.” This was amazing to us since the feedback we were discussing were issues that

several of their current customers informed us of.

Edith Bullard

Edith Bullard is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for PCI, an integrated marketing

agency, and has over 30 years of experience in brand management, advertising,

integrated marketing, market research, e-business and event management. She joined

PCI to spearhead the development and growth of a new and expanding Communications

Division, and serves a variety of corporate, not-for-profit, and government clients.

The top mistakes I’ve seen companies make when contracting out market research

are…

Hiring the first market research firm they speak with.

It’s important to conduct due diligence to make sure that the firm you hire is truly able to

conduct the type of research in which you’re interested – can they conduct the

methodology required, do they work in the needed geographic area, do they have access

to your target audience. Also pricing varies greatly between firms so you’ll want to get

quotes from more than one firm.

Often companies approach market research without having a clear objective for the project.

What are you really trying to achieve? Hand in hand with that is companies who try to

accomplish too much during one research project. A good marketing research firm should

be able to help narrow the focus of your research so you’ll get actionable results.

Companies should make sure they have clearly identified the target audience for their

research and then they need to really hold the market research firm accountable for

recruiting the right people. I’ve often had to reject recruited candidates because they did

not meet the screening requirements. Carefully watching the recruiting process is a must.

Last, make sure the market research firm you choose is expert in the methodology that will

get you the information you want and need. A firm that specializes in focus groups, for

example, will not be able to return quantitative results. Your research objectives should

lead to the right methodology, which in turn should lead your choice of firm that conducts

your research.

Mike Bloxham

Mike Bloxham is the Vice President, National TV and Video, of Frank N. Magid Associates,

a leading research-based strategic consulting firm, and has worked in media research and

consulting for over 25 years, advising multi-national corporations, media owners and

government agencies on strategic marketing and communications issues on an

international basis. A recognized innovator and thought leader in the media space, he has

extensive experience in attitudinal and behavioral research across all media and marketing

channels with a particular emphasis on the integration of emerging and traditional media

among all audiences from children to seniors. Frank N. Magid Associates has provided

expert research-based counsel to clients in the media space for almost sixty years.

The real value in any research project is not in how it is executed but in how it is

designed and interpreted. Quality execution is merely hygiene and is an entry-level

requirement. Nobody appoints a company they don’t believe will do a good job of

running the project. Many research clients bemoan the fact that their suppliers do a

good job of executing and of reporting on what they did and what they found, but

not on taking it further to how it impacts the business. The mistake then, is…

In not seeking out research partners that have both subject matter expertise and the

consultative skills to accelerate the understanding of the business implications of the

insights revealed and how they can be harnessed to move the needle on the issues at

hand.

The solution is to ensure you have evidence of a research partners’ ability to go beyond

“What we did and what we found” to “What it means and what you should do.” This will

cost more, but it will also deliver more value.

Of course, not every project requires this level of service from the supplier, but for those

that do failing to secure the right skills and mindset beyond the ability to execute well results

in a less effective project and a slower assimilation of implications and opportunities –

which is probably the biggest mistake anyone can make.

Jonathan Pirc

Jonathan Pirc is the Founder of Lab42, a quantitative market research firm that helps

businesses accomplish and prioritize their goals through targeted social media-based

research.

The biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market research is…

Not having a complete grasp on the scope of work or the goals of the market research

project.

We’ve found that when our clients go into a project with an incomplete thought process, it

opens the door to not asking (and answering) the right questions, extended timelines and

increased expenses. Fully understanding the goals of your market research is a very

important step in the process, and the market research company you do business with

should walk you through every step before actually moving forward with the project.

Alicia Kan

Alicia Kan is a Branding and Social Media Strategist at Globe Runner, an SEO, content

marketing and online advertising agency in Dallas, Texas. She marketed an international

market research company for 12 years that covered 62 locations across the world.

The biggest mistakes companies make when contracting out market research are…

Not being clear on the objectives.

What works for measuring customer experience may not necessarily work for advertising

testing. Be clear about what you want out of the research — benchmarks? proof of ROI?

new product guidance? — and make sure the supplier designs the study and uses the

appropriate methodology to complete these objectives. The worst that can happen is

getting back a bunch of PowerPoint charts and now knowing what to do with the

information.

Not being clear about the budget.

Generally qualitative research (focus groups etc) cost more than quantitative studies. See

previous point about objectives in design study and consider how your budget fits in with

these. You can run up a bill if costs aren’t watched. A good vendor will work with you on

the budget and see that a study is designed as cost-efficiently as possible, e.g. close-

ended questions instead of open-ended ones for a questionnaire.

Not having a tight questionnaire.

Some surveys in quantitative studies can ramble on in different directions. Keep it focused,

with a logical flow, in as short a time as possible. The longer it is, especially for online

surveys, the more likely a respondent will lose interest and not complete the survey. When

designing an online survey, it’s always useful to have a meter that shows progress or time

left in the survey.

Guy Smith

Guy Smith is the Chief Strategist at Silicon Strategies Marketing. Guy generates trust

throughout your organization with his precise guidance and transfers of marketing

knowledge that create marketing strategy buy-ins. He helps executives build teams ready

to implement go-to-market strategies by including key staff and stakeholders throughout

all processes.

The biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market research is…

They often don’t understand the problem that they need to solve, and thus ask for the

wrong answers.

If a manager or entrepreneur is looking at the problem from their bias, then the problem to

solve is poorly defined. If they believe in their hearts the issue is, say, competitive

pressures, they will ask for competitive research. If the problem was actually quality control

creating negative buzz about the product, he would never learn that.

The second biggest mistake is not in contracting for the work, but what to do afterwards.

All too often the manager doesn’t like the answer he receives. Sometimes it reflects badly

on him, or it shows weaknesses he cannot quickly address, or it goes against his

perceptions. The research then becomes wasted paper because he takes no action on it.

Werner G. Krebs

Werner G Krebs, Ph.D. is the CEO of Acculation, an Internet of Things Predictive Analytics

company, and is a data scientist who was worked for top firms in high-frequency trading,

marketing analytics consulting, banking, software, and academia. As a software developer

he has extensive experience migrating demanding applications to the cloud.

The biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market research is…

Not doing their homework and utilizing low-cost Web 2.0-techniques to get their idea

perfected first before contracting out.

Technologies like Social Media, Google Adwords, on-line surveys, Amazon Mechanical

Turk make it possible to get that is similar — in some cases statistically identical — to

what’s available from traditional contract market research firms, but at a fraction of the

price.

Even if they (or their investors) want that validation from a traditional market research firm,

it makes sense to take advantage of these low-cost tools first to make sure their is viable

before spending the big bucks to get that extra, external validation.

Daryl Travis

Daryl Travis is CEO of Chicago-based emotional research and brand strategy

firm, Brandtrust.

The biggest mistake companies make with market research is…

Settling for data instead of demanding insights.

For example, asking a plethora of questions about what is happening in the marketplace

yet neglecting to reveal why it is happening. Research that delivers only findings is hardly

worth the cost. It’s one thing to gather data and analyze patterns in the data but it’s another

thing altogether to translate data into insights that deliver competitive advantage to the

business.

Everyone knows people say one thing and do another. People don’t know their own minds

and can’t predict what they will do. Yet conventional market research persists in asking

respondents what they think they think. What people think is the correct answer to a

research question does marketing researchers and strategists very little good. In fact, it

frequently leads them astray.

That’s why we must utilize research methods that allow us to explore non-conscious

motivations, people’s unarticulated desires and needs. It means we have to get into

people’s heads. But it’s dark in there and we don’t know our way around. It makes

researchers uncomfortable. So much so, it becomes acceptable to settle for shallow, one-

dimensional research that provides answers to *what* is happening but never *why*. Yet,

if we don’t discover why people do what they do, we’ll never meet their unarticulated

desires and needs. And fail to find any advantage in the market place.

Leslie Handmaker

Leslie Handmaker is the Marketing Manager of NextDayFlyers, and online

printing company.

Over the past couple of years we’ve outsourced some market research

responsibilities, overall I believe that outsourcing market research in itself is a

mistake for the following reasons:

1. When outsourced, even the savviest consultants hired to do the research just aren’t

familiar enough with the space we’re in and thus they don’t always realize they’ve

uncovered pertinent details in their research. We’ve found this out the hard way as items

happened to come up during a conversation, but were never included in the reporting

documents.

2. It’s essential that internal teams perform the research on their own, this way the

learnings are ingrained in the team and not forgotten.

Kenny Kline

Kenny Kline is a Consultant, Entrepreneur, and Founder of Slumber Sage, the premier

source for sleep methods and sleep products online.

The biggest mistake that companies make when contracting out market research

is…

Not being involved in the process.

I’ve done a lot of market research for companies, and seen market research that has been

outsourced, and the greatest single factor that leads to success is client involvement. No

one knows the product/service and the company’s capacity to execute on a given market

better than the client. A lot of outsourcing firms will come back with beautiful decks and

fancy numbers, but this doesn’t mean the information reflects the core competency of the

company. Use the outsourcing company’s smarts/perspective with the client’s inside info

for a winning combination!

Jerry W. Thomas

Jerry W. Thomas is the President and CEO of Dallas/Fort Worth-based Decision Analyst

Inc., a leading international marketing research firm. The company was founded 38 years

ago and currently employs about 240 researchers and staff. Decision Analyst Inc. is about

the 12th largest marketing research firm in the U.S. In addition to the company’s traditional

research methodologies, it operates what is believed to be the world’s largest online

consumer opinion panel, which has nine million participants around the world.

The single biggest mistake companies make when contracting out market research

is…

Choosing a research firm that promises to answer every question and solve every problem

(and often promises to do all of this at a surprisingly low price).

The very best research cannot answer every question or solve every problem. To do good

research requires the time of highly educated, experienced researchers, who must spend

significant time on research design, questionnaire design, and analysis to come up with

solid answers and recommendations.

To do good research requires that the research firm survey the right respondents.

Expensive staff and expensive respondents are expensive, but the contracting firm ends

up with good solutions and good value for the money.

Kalyan Banga

Kalyan Banga is Head of Global Market Research & Analytics of VOZIQ, a social business

intelligence firm. He is an accomplished market research professional with over 10 years

of experience in the field of research framework design, social media research & analytics,

consumer insights mapping and developing Go-To-Market (GTM) Business Strategies. He

has also been quoted widely by various industry publications.

One of the biggest mistakes that companies make when contracting out market

research is…

Allowing the contractor to suffer from a lack of focus on your project:

For businesses, one of the biggest concerns is ensuring that their market research

contractor is providing due attention to their research projects. A contractor may be

catering to the expertise-needs of numerous organizations at the same time and

sometimes might lack total focus on your research needs and objectives thus defeating

the end objective of undertaking the research work thereby making the output redundant

instead of providing real insights& strategies for decision making.

As a check, regular checkpoints and weekly milestones needs to be set to ensure projects

are performed with accuracy and efficiency.

Sandy Arons

Sandy Arons is the Founder and President of Arons & Associates Divorce Planning, a firm

helps divorcing couples understand the numbers in the settlement and get a financially

smart divorce. Prior to this position, Sandy spent decades in corporate America in sales

and marketing jobs. While employed with Johnston and Murphy and Bridgestone

Firestone, she was responsible for the first marketing research projects these companies

ever conducted to understand consumer buying behavior.

One of the biggest mistake companies make when contracting out marketing

research is when…

Management underestimates the amount of time it takes to dissect the information and

distill it into layman’s terms so it can be incorporated into strategic planning.

Management also assigns these types of projects to employees that don’t have the

marketing or statistics background to fully understand the implications of the results.

Too often the research is completed but, not really incorporated into strategic planning for

the company as a whole or the different relevant departments (sales, marketing, operations

etc.). If it is incorporated, it is short term.

Ron Sellers

Ron Sellers is the President of Grey Matter Research & Consulting in Phoenix, AZ, and

has been on the client and vendor sides of research and consumer insights for nearly three

decades. His clients have included multiple Fortune 500 companies and many smaller

firms and organizations.

One of the biggest mistakes in contracting out research is…

Not seeking to be in a genuine partnership with the research consultant.

A good researcher should not just be an order-taker but should be a partner in making the

research as helpful and insightful as possible for the end client. This means expecting a

high-level person to handle the project, expecting them to understand your specific industry

and unique business situation, expecting them to make intelligent recommendations, and

expecting them to treat the project as if it were their own. But it also means listening when

they make recommendations, giving them all the background and information necessary

for them to understand your business situation, and treating them like a partner in the

process rather than just a vendor to which orders are being given.

Whether a research company or consultant is prepared to act as a partner can be

determined during the RFP process. A researcher who doesn’t ask questions about the

RFP, doesn’t seek to discuss it with you to gain a more complete understanding, doesn’t

ask for additional information, or doesn’t make suggestions about the project probably is

more of an order-taker than a potential partner. At the same time, if you’re not open to

suggestions, are frustrated when questions are asked, feel offended when the researcher

suggests something different than you designed, don’t have time to discuss things with the

researcher, and/or just want to select a vendor based on lowest price, then you’re probably

not ready to partner with a researcher and get the full value of what a good partnership

can be.

Edward Nevraumont

Edward Nevraumont is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of A Place For Mom and prior

to this role, he was a Marketing Executive at Expedia (overseeing Loyalty & Database

Marketing and Marketing Strategy globally), an Engagement Manager at McKinsey &

Company and a “P&Ger”. He also holds an MBA from The Wharton School. Learn more

about Edward and his work at MarketingIsEasy.com.

The biggest mistake companies make when initiating customer research is…

Not deciding beforehand what they will do with the answers.

Most of the time Market Research is done for the sake of it and to feel good about a

decision you were going to make anyway. Good market research design helps you make

decisions – by deciding before you even start how different answers will cause you to go

forward with different routes. If you are going to do the same thing regardless of the result

you get back you are wasting your time – and lining the pockets of the services company

(who will be happy to take your money)

Elliot Simmonds

Elliot Simmonds is a Marketing Consultant with more than seven years’ experience on the

agency side of market research. He has won and worked on projects across a wide range

of industries, including numerous research studies in the education sector and for clients

including The Home Office. He regularly blogs about marketing and consumer insight

topics on the Rippleout Marketing blog.

The biggest mistake companies make when contracting market research is…

To confuse research goals and business goals.

Too often, briefs are prescriptive in terms of methodology or contain too much detail on

how companies want a project to run, whilst missing out the key information – i.e. what is

the long term impact of this research going to be, what do you really want to find out. Leave

the decisions as to methodology to professionals, and concentrate on providing clear

objectives for the research outcomes.

Mike Poller

Mike Poller is an experience Marketing Consultant with over 20 years of experience. and

the Owner of Poller & Jordan Advertising Agency, a Miami-based marketing firm.

In my experience in market research, the biggest problem companies make when

contracting out market research is…

First, when companies do not know the question they want answered. The second biggest

mistake is when they already know what they want the answer to be.

Sometimes using market research is the mistake…

These days, it is often easier to use Google Adwords to do a live test of different offers.

Set up three different ad campaigns using three different offers and put a few hundred

dollars behind it to see which resonates with consumers. For example, 10% off vs 12% off

vs 15% off

Similarly, using Google Adwords you can test your offer across the top ten markets or test

rural vs urban. The possibilities are nearly endless.

http://blog.zintro.com/2014/12/02/30-market-research-experts-reveal-1-biggest-mistake-companies-make-contracting-market-research/