Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Building A Market Research Function From Scratch.

Posted by Anonymous on 6/5/2009 at 12:36 PM ET 500 Points
Currently: small, fast growing biz (80 ppl) with multiple people across the organization managing research efforts (advisory board by sales team, customer insights by product team, brand insights by marketing, opinion polls by support/training team) with little to no market research expertise or background. We put them together to form a Market Intelligence Team to improve sharing of process, resource and findings. So far, it's moving slowly, primarily because there's no clear owner held accountable or empowered to make resource/prioritization decisions.

Future: centralize the market research function by identifying a leader for the function and tasking them with building the ideal process for prioritization of requests, conducting research and sharing findings, identifying the ideal tools, and building the appropriate team (internal/external resources) to get the work done. Their overarching mission being to ignite innovative thinking and represent a voice of the market into the business that can be supported by data from research and from trends monitoring across the industry.

Who's created a research function from scratch before? What should we avoid? What worked really well that you recommend we repeat? Which articles or best practices did you consider? What were the critical first steps to take? What were important quick wins that really made a difference?

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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 6/5/2009 at 4:21 PM Accepted
    What a great question, Kirsty!

    The most important consideration, in my opinion, is that you start NOT with market research expertise but with a customer-focused strategic marketing approach. You need someone who will be able to ask the right questions, not be a data wonk or a survey specialist or a focus group moderator. You can rent those skills until you get to the point where you can justify bringing them on-board full-time.

    If it were up to me, I'd hire a Brand Manager-type. The good ones are used to coordinating the efforts of others, working across functional lines inside the organization and with outside agencies, and looking at the big picture for new product ideas, new markets, new ways to add value, serve customers and make money.

    I once hired a market research specialist at a food processing company where I was serving as CMO, and I recall spending an inordinate amount of time giving direction and asking the important questions, while the person I hired was strong technically but unable to think beyond the next survey or product taste-test. I realized too late that the hard part of market research is knowing what to ask, not being able to execute.

    Hope this helps. You're in the land of Brand Managers, of course, with P&G in your back yard. (Full disclosure: I'm a P&G alum myself and have fond memories of my days in Cincinnati ... and teaching Marketing Strategy and Market Research at Xavier and Thomas More.)
  • Posted on 6/5/2009 at 8:06 PM Accepted
    Most small companies can't really justify a full-time market research and analytics person on staff, so they contract with an outside expert to provide the services they need.

    And many outside research and analytics folks are only too happy to have a long-term gig doing what they love to do for a client that appreciates their skill set and the contribution they can make to a business.

    I'd worry less about building the market research function internally and more about what you hope to learn and accomplish. Then "buy the milk you need," rather than taking in a cow.

  • Posted on 6/10/2009 at 9:24 AM Moderator
    Needless to say, I respect blanalytics's point of view and perspective, but I disagree with his conclusion. Our experiences are considerably different when it comes to "marketing guys."

    Any "marketing guy" who wastes his company's money on market research in order to get answers that are already in his (or her) head is incompetent and should be relieved. It's a blatant misuse of market research.

    Are there incompetent people in marketing? Of course. There are also market researchers who gladly take their money and deliver bogus research in return. That doesn't make all marketing guys bad any more than it makes all market researchers good.
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