Does trust matter?
We think it does. We believe that increasing the level of trust in our industry will enable market research companies to deliver value to clients and to remain profitable into the future. In order to deliver accurate data and valuable insights efficiently and at speed we need to have a large pool of people willing to take part in research, either actively or passively. We believe this is a matter of urgency and that the industry needs to act sooner rather than later on this issue. The cracks are already beginning to show. If you missed it in our last issue, I suggest you read Peter Mouncey’s excellent piece on the UK polls inquiry. We would argue that we use some of our best methods for polling and therefore the conclusion must be that we are also, at least now and again “getting it wrong” with our insights on commercial projects. Unlike the polls, there is, fortunately, no immediate “truth” to catch us out on commercial projects, so we can “get away with it”. If a product is launched and fails despite the recommendation of market research to launch, there are many other things to blame. However, as the world becomes more digitialised the “truth” will catch up sooner rather than later also with respect to commercial research.
“Good enough research” – Really?
We don’t need the accuracy of polls some people argue, we just need “good enough” results. Whilst that is perhaps fair enough, the problems lies in the fact that we have no accurate measure for what is “good enough” and when does it turn “bad”. When you buy a piece of rope you know how much weight or tension it can take before snapping; you know when the rope is good enough. Buyers of market research do not have that luxury, so if you cannot measure quality, why pay more for quality? What we need is a set of tools for measuring quality or in other words for measuring the degree of risk being taken by buyers under different quality parameters. Until we do, opting for “good enough” might well be “dead wrong” in practice. Certainly not good for clients, but also not good for the industry in the long run.
No burning platform – why bother?
Our biggest challenge is apathy… “we don’t have a problem today”… History teaches us, however, that once you have a burning platform it is too late, or at least very costly and time-consuming, to repair the damage. Therefore building goodwill is key; it is an investment in our future, in many ways the onus is on us to act globally like the Germans have acted locally for the last 10 years. A programme has been devised by GRBN to tackle the issues head-on, not only from an industry perspective, but from the perspectives of market research companies as well as clients. The key objectives of the programme are shown opposite. In practical terms the work involves producing a set of toolkits for associations and their members to use to build trust The programme is in place and the key is in the ignition. All we need is fuel in the tank. We are looking for associations, companies and individuals to partner with us and support this programme. If you are passionate about trust, data protection, the user experience and/or the value of research to society, then we hope you will partner with us. The more partners we have the more we can achieve more quickly and the more the burden is shared. Please contact us to find out more about the partnership opportunities and benefits to partnership.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR