One of the problems with conducting marketing research involves ensuring that a study is conducted at an appropriate time to limit the effects of events that might impact how people are thinking and feeling and to maximize the value of the information and insights shared. No one wants to be doing a study with investors during a month where the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets, a study with category users about a product brand that just endured a major recall or a study with consumers about a service brand that was just featured in national news for abusing its customers. If the news is big enough, the data are likely to be overwhelmed by the topic, and unless understanding the new context is a major objective of the research, it’s probably better to wait until the big news dies down.
But there’s also a fiscal side to timing, because the cost of marketing research often falls under a much larger marketing budget. During turbulent times such as a market shock, a major downturn or a recession, most marketing activities – including research! – get put on hold as organizations try to cut down on their spending and preserve their bottom line. Conducting a study during a financial meltdown can not only overshadow the importance of the research, but also limit funds available to do necessary follow-up research or to support the research with strategic planning and internal initiatives.
A third issue that can arise is what’s often known as “analysis paralysis,” where an organization has far too much information available and is stymied in making a decision that research might be able to shape because no one’s taken the time to clearly define what has been learned and what still needs to be known. Being overwhelmed with information or unable to break the loop of considering choice alternatives often establishes a barrier for new research. It’s similar to the feeling of walking in a supermarket to purchase a familiar brand only to find out that the store no longer carries it and that a new choice is required from dozens of alternative brands that are available – many people will find themselves unable to make a choice and will leave vowing to conduct “research” later (but secretly just hope their preferred brand will be back in stock next time they go shopping).
So, when is it a good time to conduct research? It’s an important question to consider, because there are always going to be reasons not to do it. Fortunately, there are several guidelines you can follow to ensure you time your research appropriately.
The best use of research is to support decision-making
When we use the word “research,” it often conjures up images of someone sitting at a big table piled with books, clippings and notes, or perhaps a middle-aged scientist in a lab coat sitting near an array of equipment and reciting data readings to a spectacled assistant. But these images really pertain to certain types of research about the accumulation of knowledge. That’s often called “pure research,” which is seeking knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
For marketing research, however, a far more accurate portrayal would be a group of business professionals seated around a conference room table, hearing a data presentation and preparing to make a decision in light of the information that’s being shared. That’s because marketing research tends to be about supporting decisions that need to be made by filling informational gaps. Studies are commissioned not because the information is nice to know, but because it’s need to know.
(Incidentally, those managers or leaders who conduct research for research’s sake tend to walk away grumbling that the research isn’t useful or actionable, which usually means that there won’t be a lot of research being conducted in the future!)
Research has to be strategic in purpose because too much information is simply overwhelming for one person or group of people to capably process. While it’s tempting to think that any information is good information because it helps to inform decision-making, the reality is that most information is irrelevant to the decisions we need to make and can even be misleading if it’s misunderstood or misapplied. One of the reasons problems like “analysis paralysis” tend to occur is because organizations don’t prioritize which information is helpful towards achieving their goals and different voices within the organization continually argue about whether certain indicators or insights should be trusted over others, leading to an indecisive state and a low willingness to change.
When decision-makers are faced with the need for research, the questions regarding timing really need to be:
- When do we need to have this information available to support the decision we’re trying to make?
- Once we have this information, how long do we need to process it before we can act upon it?
- If we don’t have this information in time, what are the costs of making the wrong decision?
- If we delay this decision to wait for the research, what are our opportunity costs?
The answers to those questions will generally determine whether there’s sufficient time to conduct research and whether it’s actually worth the time and cost of conducting a study.
The time required for research projects varies depending upon the complexity of the information required
Some research projects are simple enough that they can be fielded very quickly. Our record at RPG is hearing about a need on a Friday morning and having full results from 600+ respondents by Monday morning, but the reason we were able to do that is because the research had a very specific focus about a broad topic – tourism – and we were able to quickly procure a general-purpose online panel sample from a large geographic region to meet that need. We also had a strong understanding of what the client wanted to learn and we were able to spend time developing automated reports to provide them with the exact statistics and charts they needed.
But more often than not, research projects require weeks or months to transition from proposal to final report, and a lot of this has to do with the time required for the research team to:
- Work with the client organization to determine what the research problem and objectives actually are
- Develop a solid plan and appropriate tools to collect that information
- Conduct the field work or data-gathering
- Assemble and analyze all collected information
- Write up a report or develop a presentation showcasing the key findings and main insights
Some methods are also faster than others. Focus groups (both traditional and online) are fairly easy to conduct within a week or two of a research need thanks to the availability of research panels and professional facilities, and reports aren’t always needed if a topline brief and video recording will suffice.
Telephone interviews and online surveys can also be designed and deployed fairly quickly if the information required is fairly straightforward and the sample is broad enough, and key metrics can be tracked and reported in real-time dashboards as the data are being collected so that the most important data can be shared well in advance of the report.
By contrast, the field work time required for targeted in-depth interviews or surveys, B2B studies, case studies, observational research or ethnographic research can require significant amounts of time, sometimes weeks or months for the field work alone and another month or two for analysis.
How long an organization can wait for information has a large bearing on the method a research team will ultimately recommend. Just as a baker is always going to limited by the time required to prepare and cook and decorate a dessert, a research team requires time to adequately collect, analyze and report data. While there are often ways to speed up the initial stages of a project, it can be very difficult to speed up field work with a highly-targeted group, and it is rarely advisable to try to speed up analysis by taking shortcuts or eliminating some of the rigor.
While there’s never a perfect time to conduct research, many organizations wait too long to get the maximum value out of their investment
It’s not always easy to calculate the ROI (return on investment) of a marketing research project, but a well-designed project can save an organization many multiples of its cost by helping to prioritize decision alternatives and guide the organization down the most probably successful path. What’s more, a well-timed research project can save months of wasted email chains, quarrelsome meetings and heated internal discussions by providing data that puts an end to many arguments and allows a team or department to move forward to accepting and implementing a strategic decision.
What’s more, organizations tend to do better with information that can be viewed as an opportunity rather than a threat. When studies are able to be conducted proactively instead of reactively, they allow those involved to sidestep defensive reactions and work towards more positive outcomes.
For example, an organization that is committed to customer service and which conducts satisfaction surveys as a means of identifying emerging needs will be much more empowered by negative data (“It looks like we’ve got something we need to improve upon!”) than an organization that is conducting a satisfaction study after hearing a lot of complaints and which is still trying to get a handle on what the response needs to be (“All these people want to do is complain and tell us how awful we are!”).
What this often means is that research needs to be budgeted not as an optional expense that can be cut in times where funds are lean, but as a necessary step for strategic planning and decision-making which is valuable because it builds internal alignment, reduces arguments based on feelings instead of data, and keeps those inside an organization in the loop about what’s being said on the outside so there are fewer surprises and pitfalls.
Good research also tends to build on the lessons learned from past research. Many organizations that only commission the occasional study miss out on the fact that having a research team build up a field of knowledge about their business operations can provide enormous insights that can inform future decision-making without requiring as much primary research. Having the research team be a partner who helps inform decisions can also yield surprising benefits, since researchers tend to build up a strong synthesis of their studies and can anchor any discussion in what the data have to say.
We hope this article has been helpful to you, and we want you to know that we’re here to be a resource however we can be on anything you’d like to know about marketing research!
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