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To win a place at the corporate table, researchers need to
take some risks.
Passionys.
Dispassion
By John W. Huppertz
he corporate table. That's the one located in the
conference room of the executive suite where
discussions about the future
of the business take place. Those of us in marketing research k now where it is because,
for many years, we have stood outside the door awaiting
decisions made inside. Moreover, many of these busi ness
decisions are made using our work.
In a world where an organization's success increasingly depends on the quality of information
and analysis, it would seem that mar k eting researchers are
essential to the decision making and s trategy formulation
processes of firms. However, marketing researchers h ave
yet to claim their place at the corporate table to give voice to the
data. Why Hasn't It Happened?
At the AMA's 2002 Annual M
arketing Research C
onference,
indus try leaders suggested that researchers have been too
wrapped up in executing the requests they receive from
their brand marketing col leagues—in other words, taking
and filling orders. In the Sept. 16, 2002, issue o
f Marketing
News, i ndustry leaders c alled on researchers to "move beyond
the task of simply crunching numbers
marketing
research
17
Executive Summary
Marketing researchers, on the other hand, are the scientists of the business world.
Scientists, by definition, are systematic and objective in their approach to problems; they are
dispas sionate about the ideas they research. They apply a systematic method to
an issue and then objectively observe the results. It's not surprising, therefore, that when
professors Paul Green and Donald Tull gave this definition of marketing research, the
sci entific method took center stage:
Often, it seems that a marketing researcher's passion sur faces only when preventing a
company from making mis takes, earning him or her a reputation as an idea killer
rather than a team player. This closes the door to upper management, which traditionally
values passion for over coming obstacles to accomplish goals. By proactively using research
data to transform a firm's business, marketing researchers can channel their passion
for discovery into growth initiatives that companies desperately need, thereby earning a
place at the corporate table.
"Marketing research is the systematic and objective search for, and analysis of,
information relevant to the identification and solution of any problem in the field of
marketing.” Green and Tull (1993), Research f or Marketing D
ecisions
and churning out results; they need to understand the underly ing business issues at stake
and adjust the information they gather and how they analyze it." They encouraged
researchers to build stronger relationships with other disciplines and depart ments of
their companies to demonstrate day-to-day value.
This is not the first time we've heard such advice. While marketing researchers should
follow these suggestions to gain w ider respect within their organizations, they fail to
develop the quality that senior management values most: a passionate, single-minded
determination to achieve business results.
Passion is powerful. It enables people to go beyond the call of duty and to overcome the
impediments that stand in the way of accomplishment. Companies need p assionate
people. They need people who don't take "no" for an answer, who p ersist in getting
things done, and who run through walls to reach their goals and deliver results.
Companies need people who refuse to let little things stand in their way and for whom
surmounting obstacles defines them and their success.
As Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas pointed out in a September 2002 Harvard Business
Review a rticle, the ability to overcome adversity and learn from it-both in the work p lace
and in life-has been linked to the leadership ability of managers in many contexts.
Passionate people rapidly climb the corporate ladder because their bosses know
they deliver. They are the "c hampions” handpicked by management to lead
important new initiatives such as product introductions and acquisitions.
Prominent companies like Procter & Gamble have enshrined passion in their
corporate culture and made it part of their standards of performance:
Researchers can be passionate, too, but in a fundamentally different way. The good ones
are passionate a bout d
iscovery, a bout finding patterns in a sea of data and creating
insights out of them. H owever, m any marketing researchers become passionate
only when they feel their research findings are being ignored or not properly used.
Often, this passion is a roused when the researcher's data shows that an idea proba bly
won't work, yet the project is going forward anyway.
Consider the case of an energy marketer in the Northeastern United States,
whose senior management hatched an idea that looked great on the surface. Some of
the firm's managers wanted to open a chain of retail stores where customers could shop
for energy-related appliances like water heaters, furnaces, and gas fireplace logs. They
could also pay their energy bills and sign up for service plans at the store.
The boss selected a marketer to serve as the project's "champion" to get the project
off the ground—the "Passionate Champion Marketer" (PCM), who adopted the idea
as his own. The PCM assembled a team that included a member from the marketing
research department. He turned to the marketing researcher to provide data, fully
expecting that the research would support his idea, thereby confirming that it should
merit both corporate funding and a high level of passion to be aroused in the other project
team members.
When the results came in, however, the researcher reported that consumers were not
enthusiastic about the idea and it probably would not work. Very quickly, the
researcher earned t he label of "not a team player" and "obstructionist.” In
response, the researcher took offense, and tensions grew. The PCM came to
regard the researcher as one of the obstacles that must be knocked down and run over
for the project to succeed. In the PCM's opinion, the researcher did not have the
passion required to make the idea a success.
Few researchers have the skills, much less the power, to take on a PCM with a full head of
steam and the backing of management. So, despite the research, the project went ahead and
the firm embarked on plans for a chain of 80 retail stores with more to come. Within two
years, after only 10 stores opened, the project failed, the stores closed, and the idea
was abandoned.
This scenario plays out even in large companies that appear to be sophisticated
enough to listen to the facts. For example,
"We are at our best when working on tough challenges because P&G people have such a
tremendous passion for winning. In fact, that passion is our defining characteris tic
as an organization. And it is that passion that will ensure P&G maintains its rightful place
as the preeminent consumer products company in the world."
amble Annual Report, 2000
Procter G
18 Summer 2003
35,000
25,000
Bob Lutz, who recently came out of retirement to lead General Motors' new
product development group after a successful Exhibit 1 Product introductions of
packaged goods stint at Chrysler, where he was responsible for developing the PT
Cruiser and Dodge Viper, m ade these observations about what he discovered
upon his arrival at GM:
30,000 "With many of the vehicles already h
ere at GM when I a
rrived, I said, 'Those
are pretty ugly vehicles, how did we research these?' After reading the research reports, I
found that's exactly what the research said: 'It's butt-ugly,
has low appeal...' But once something had been blessed
20,000
15,000+ by senior management, n obody questioned it anymore... I a
sked about the
(Pontiac) Aztek. The people who ques
10,000+ tioned it were taken into the woodshed by the boss and
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 told, 'That thing is going
forward, it's going to be great,
Source: P
roductScan Online M
arketing Intelligence S
ervice, Ltd. , N Y. and
aples, N we have to
believe in it and support it 100%. I don't ever want to hear you or anybody
else questioning this because we can't use doubters around here."
ucts compete for space in retail supermarkets, which have "Revenge of the Car Guy,”
July 4-11, 2002, R
ollin
g Stone capacity to carry a total of 20,000-30,000 items, both
new
and existing. (See Exhibit 1.) What would have happened had GM's marketing researchers
While a number of business writers proclaim that failure is succeeded in blocking those
vehicle programs and the projects often good and even necessary for innovation to
thrive, it can had not moved forward? True enough, failure could have been be
expensive. Furthermore, strategic mistakes are often the avoided and precious resources
could have been saved. cause of companies troubles. Using data from Mercer However, even
then, the research department would have Consulting, Eric Almquist and Andy Pierce
showed that strate received little praise. While the firm would have saved some gic
errors were most often to blame for the woes of Fortune money and resources, it
also would have lost a growth opportu 1000 companies who suffered significant
losses in shareholder nity. Passion for not taking action is not the kind of passion
value in a short period of time. Of the specific strategic errors management wants
to
these firms made, “demand see. While marketing
shortfall” topped the list. researchers must use
While marketing researchers must use their skills
When researchers guide their skills to keep
opportunities with companies from mak
accurate estimates of ing mistakes, their ability to
to keep companies from making mistakes, their
customer demand, help the firm avoid pitfalls is
they provide a valu not enough
ability to help the firm avoid pitfalls is not enough.
able strategic service
to management and The oute to the Table
R
the shareholders. Although marketing researchers make enormous contribu- Failure is
also costly in terms of employee morale, espe t ions to organizations by providing good data
at the right cially among team members who put their hearts and souls t ime, marketing and
brand managers are the ones who use the into an idea that does not work out. As passion
increases, peo data to decide on a course of action. In order to improve their ple
take things more personally (just as management wants). If standing within their
organizations and attain a prominent an initiative fails, team members feel as though
they have place at the corporate table, researchers must make simultane failed, even if
it becomes apparent that the idea was bad from ous contributions at four key levels of
the firm's business plan t he start. ning and marketing processes. The first two are
necessary but I n an era where cost r eduction has become paramount, it's not
sufficient, as they take place below the radar of manage interesting that contrary
research is often ignored and side ment. The latter two, however, can provide a
platform for lined even when it could save substantial amounts of time and
researchers to help guide their organizations t o new levels. money. Perhaps this is
because cost savings are prized when
Avoiding failure. Companies need growth, often in the they apply to operating
expenses or costs of goods s old. New form of new products and services.
Companies spend billions growth initiatives fall into a different category.
Companies every year to develop a nd introduce new products, so there is consider growth
initiatives as investments, and thus use a dif a considerable amount at stake. Yet many
of them will fail. ferent metric to evaluate the expense. No one begins a new
According to Marketing Intelligence's ProductScan Online, a program believing that
the resources being invested will not s ervice that tracks new product introductions in
the consumer result in growth. packaged-goods industry, more than 30,000 new
products are Regardless of whether the researcher helps avoid failure or now
introduced every year in the United States. These prod confirms the merit of an idea,
this area of responsibility
marketing research
19
remains largely outside senior management's field of vision. If ner. She decided to create
an online survey that each customer the data comes back with a negative
verdict, marketers—not could complete after a service encounter. The only thing
the researchers-join management to decide whether the program service
representatives needed to do was to ask the customer should be killed or
whether it should move forward regardless for his/her e-mail address and
announce that a survey would of the research findings. If the data comes back
positive, mar be e-mailed to them. She also convinced the firm to invest in a keters get
management to authorize the project, and it pro small-scale validation study to assure
everyone t hat the online ceeds to implementation under the direction of a PCM. Either results
would be c omparable to those obtained through a way, management does not hear
the news from the research more conventional research methodology. By putting this pro
department.
cedure into place, she created a system t hat provided nearly Enabling success. Most firms rely
on marketing research real-time customer satisfaction data that the team used to
departments to provide data to the brand marketing and sales monitor operational
improvements. teams so that successes c an be achieved in many areas, includ While
praiseworthy, the director did what marketing ing new product launches, brand
one for decades: provide timely information ship,
management and steward researchers have d
the efficiency of marketing operations, and advertising to support t he company's
strategies. The work still took place effectiveness. In this context, t he marketing
researcher partici- beneath management's radar. Successful participation at this
pates on a team charged with a ccomplishing an objective for level is necessary
but not sufficient to earn a place at the cor the firm. The great majority of a firm's
marketing research porate table. a ctivities fall into this category. At this stage, whether
the Discovering opportunities. In order to influence senior objective or initiative has merit is
already decided. The mar management, the marketing researcher needs to move
beyond keting researcher helps the team make decisions about the fulfilling research
assignments designed to avoid failure or most efficient and effective ways
enable success. When to spend its limited marketing
marketing researchers funds to achieve the greatest
look beyond already-gen result. This is not limited to new
The question marketing researchers need
erated ideas and already product initiatives. These
created products, ser activities include t racking
vices, ads, or distribution studies, usage and attitude
to ask is, "Are there opportunities for us to
channels, their strategic studies, copy testing and
value increases. And this advertising research, sales
transform our business if we use
begins to attract manage promotion evaluation, sales
ment's attention. analysis, strategic position
Where the aforemen ing studies, a
nd many more.
our data to innovate?" tioned steps dealt with the past and present, Here,
passion counts.
the task of discovering opportunities looks The researcher must be one
to the future. Management places high value of the team members who
on this activity because companies need runs through walls t o complete the job, who
discovers how to growth, which has become exceedingly hard to achieve. be successful with
limited resources. Researchers a re i n a Markets have b
ecome saturated, competition is
intense, distri unique position to help the team achieve its g oals. They play bution channels
have consolidated, product life cycles have the part of enablers of success.
shortened, and new technology is rapidly copied. Where can Consider the case of a marketing
research director for a firms find growth? large health insurance plan. The firm's
CEO assigned her to a Marketing researchers can play a critical role here.
special satisfaction improvement team concerned with declin H owever, it means a
significant shift in emphasis must take ing customer satisfaction scores and the negative
effects they place in the marketing research field, from testing others' could have
on the firm's customer retention and profitability. ideas to generating new ideas
based on market demand. F or
After overcoming some initial defensiveness about the satis example, instead of conducting
usage and attitude studies, i n faction scores, the team began brainstorming ways of
improving which we measure how many people use certain products and the
organization's performance and raising customer satisfac what they think of them, researchers
must focus on what peo tion. They came up with some terrific strategies to increase
cus ple need to use and extrapolate to new ideas that will fulfill tomer satisfaction, and
the team was very excited about imple those uses. menting them. However, they
would need immediate feedback Many marketing research executives will retort,
“We to determine which ideas were working. They couldn't wait already do that now." If
so, it's not enough. Companies are u ntil the next major customer satisfaction survey was
conducted starved for innovations to the point that they're looking for t he following year, nor
did they have the budget to conduct an new sources, often outside the firm. In an October
2002 extra survey or call customers after service encounters to admin Harvard B usiness
Review article, Darrell Rigby and Chris ister special surveys.
Zook argued that companies should take an open-market The marketing research director
made it a personal mission approach to innovation, seeking out new ideas from suppliers,
to find a way for the team to obtain the data in a timely man- strategic partners,
alliances, and even competitors. They
20 Summer 2003
A Researcher's Route to the Table
In a paper presented at the AMA's 2000
Frontiers in Service conference, Gary Area of
Loveman shared the following story. He Influence
Key Contribution
How
explained that, when he became CEO of Harrah's Entertainment, he recognized that
same-store sales in the gaming industry Transforming Discovering new and better
Innovating with data
declined predictably in the y ears after a the Business business strategies
new property opened. It was an accepted On the
industry phenomenon: A property's first Management Discovering Finding new
opportunities Using data to spot t he next t rend. year was its best year. A former
professor
ecome Assessing
Radar Opportunities or products to b failures and learning
of marketing, Loveman saw a huge o
ppor passionate about
from them. Helping creators to
tunity to change the nature of the business innovate through b etter input
with marketing data. By creating a from the marketplace
database of patrons who had visited Harrah's casinos, h is team developed
mar
keting programs to bring them back time Enabling
Serving as a passionate Researching the market and cus and time again. The best, most
profitable Success member of the team
tomers to improve marketing for c ustomers received special treatment
existing products. Using research including discounted hotel rooms and spe Below
to achieve greatest leverage at lowest cial privileges, while improved customer t he
cost. Overcoming obstacles to
service helped make all guests feel welcome Management
shorten time lines, finding
and want to return. Loveman and his team Radar
conclusions faster
reversed the trend, generating same-store
sales growth for the first time in r ecent his
At minimum, preventing the firm from tory. Harrah's brands gained significant Avoiding
Remaining objective so team making errors. Proving the potential market share and reaped the
benefits of a Failure
passion can be channeled of great new ideas. Quickly and accu strong competitive
position. into the right initiatives rately predicting marketplace success What does it take
to achieve such a
strategic transformation? Passion. Not
only passion for discovery and analysis, reported a survey of 200 global senior
executives in which but also passion to make a persuasive business case to man
“91% of executives across all industries surveyed called agement, and passion to
see the idea come to life. Loveman increasing their company's capacity for
innovation 'critical to and his team of analysts were passionate, first about being
creating future competitive advantage and earning profits." right, and then,
equally important, about putting into place Clearly, the demand exists for new
ideas.
the strategies that changed the conventional wisdom about In this arena,
marketing researchers can unleash their pas how things work in the gaming
business. sion for discovery and combine it with their analytical skills to create a
powerful impact on the firm's strategy. Marketing Informed Innovation
researchers can become the passionate champions of innova Although we must
remain dispassionate about the r esults of tion in the firm. They can discover
new opportunities, rather our work, we need not be dispassionate about our work.
than merely pass judgment on those proposed by others. Marketing researchers
can share the determination to succeed
Transforming the business. A t its best, marketing research that has
marked the leaders of industry, and w e can do it with redefines business strategy
by using data in novel ways to cre- out the slightest hint of compromising
scientific integrity. ate a sustainable competitive advantage. This may mean a
Research has long been stuck in a rut of responsiveness. complete r edefinition
of a company's or even an i ndustry's Perhaps we haven't had the
opportunity to step beyond the accepted principles. Unlike purely passionate
marketers, mar deluge of requests for information that merely meets the day
keting researchers have the data t o support significant change. to-day needs of
business, while management continues to
We've begun to see this type of information driving busi look elsewhere for
ideas, innovation, and growth. But, ness strategy in today's marketplace. The
rapid growth of despite business confidence in intuitive champions, the need
giant retailers like Wal-Mart and H ome Depot would not be f or informed
innovation remains—and so does that seat at possible without sophisticated
distribution systems that run the table. on real-time logistical data. Someone
realized that supply chain information c ould transform the business by generating
enormous efficiencies as the enterprise scaled up. The ques John W. Huppertz is a
managing partner and the head of mar tion that marketing researchers need to ask
is, "Are there keting and research services at Eric Mower and Associates, a
opportunities for us to transform our business if we use our Syracuse, NY-based
marketing communications firm. He may data to innovate?”
be reached at jhuppertz@e
ric.mower.com.
marketing research
21