I’ve just finished reading a public report written by a market research agency, an agency that says it specialises in insights. Yet the report mainly features lots of metrics alongside no understanding of whether they are unexpected (high or low) or normal. Sometimes guesses are made that a metric looks unusual, it’s a guess because it’s based on intuition rather than being evidence-based. And then there is some interpretation, heavily based on (incorrect) theory.
Nothing new. I see this sort of thing practically everyday. I’ve pointed out dozens on twitter and in my blog.
But many marketers pay money for such reports, and use them to make decisions. The report above generated articles in ‘Retail Times’, ‘The Grocer’, ‘Talking Retail’ and WARC. Not a single one questioned the researchers’ interpretation.
Well, this is unfortunate you say, but quite understandable marketers regularly ask consultants for insights and recommendations. I think they do it too much. And senior marketers are too relaxed about this, too accepting that their marketing departments lack the competencies that should be core.
Market research agencies are experts in conducting surveys, in drawing representative samples, designing questionnaires and administering them, compiling and analysing the data. These are specialist technical skills, and there is a lot of on-going R&D they need to do into how to measure the things marketers are interested in. Market research agencies typically hire people with academic backgrounds that relate to these technical research skills (e.g. psychometrics, statistics). They rarely hire people with marketing qualifications. This is all perfectly understandable. But why then do marketers look to them for marketing insights, and strategy recommendations. This is like visiting your car mechanic and asking for legal advice.
We need advertising agencies because we need their artistry, their creativity. So why do we end up paying for thousands of people who attend our marketing strategy meetings? Ad agencies again hire people from artistic backgrounds, some financial people to run their own business, and then some customer service people. Again they rarely hire marketing graduates. All perfectly understandable. But why do marketers then look to agencies for marketing strategy recommendations? Why should we even think that ad agencies know how adverting works to drive sales? Few of them do, and that should be OK. That’s the job of marketers to know, not creatives.
Media agencies know how to buy and schedule media. They work really hard to do this efficiently because this can result in big savings for their clients. It’s a complicated business. But why do marketers expect them to, on top of all this, advise on the appropriate media strategy for their brand? Few people in media agencies know much about this, and they shouldn’t be asked because it’s an abrogation of responsibility for the marketing department not to know about media strategy.
My advice to CMOs…. Work hard to reduce your outsourcing of marketing decision making. This is core competence. It’s your potential advantage.
