Thursday, 20 April 2017 Who the hell is MarlaJan and where does she work? Well, she is not a researcher or employed by the healthcare industry. She is a nurse, patient, survivor, patient advocate and an inspirational lady. What is her story? MarlaJan was born with congenital heart disease and defied the odds to become a nurse and help patients like her who are dealing with serious medical conditions.  Just as her life was approaching something we might term as “normal”, she was diagnosed with lupus.  The combination of that, her long and continuing medical treatments and the issues associated with her congenital heart disease has meant she has had to deal with physical and mental difficulties that I am really not sure that I would have been able to cope with.  Although she looks well enough in this photo, every day is a challenge and clearly there are good days and bad days. Her experience has motivated her to become an advocate for patients suffering from her condition.  She talks openly and with humour about her “fake boobs, and an out-of-order baby maker” although it is plain to see there is a lot of hurt and pain. And through this story, we get real insight not just into the issues of coping with a disease like lupus and its treatment, but also the physical and mental side effects, the impact of other conditions and how we can better address these to provide not just longer life but a better quality of life too. Emotional impact I have attended a great many conferences over the years and this was the first time that I saw a presenter getting a standing ovation.  There were people fighting back tears, not in sadness or pity, but because we were inspired.  Inspired by the honesty and bravery of MarlaJan and inspired to try to be better in our jobs to help MarlaJan and all those who lives we can positively impact. "Notwithstanding the commercial purposes of what we do, I am fundamentally in healthcare to help people live longer, better lives." Giving voice I must apologise but I have done a terrible job of conveying MarlaJan’s story and the impact it had on the audience.  In my defence, it is a mission impossible task although I acknowledge a writer of any talent would have done better. It is not practical have respondents sitting in an office next door, so what can we do that we are not doing now? Beyond a one-way written question and answer It is impossible for me to write about her presentation and convey its nuances and emotions, so it is impossible for any research to do the same with customer views. There are additional difficulties to overcome. First, respondents often struggle to find the right words to convey what they mean. That means for example, moving away from asking to listening and observing. Second, it is often a “system 2” response that we get back and measure and not a “system 1” response. For example, a “system 2” response may aim to please by responding with the answer they think they ought to give rather than what they really think. Third, the market research industry continues to bore people with over-long, over-complex questionnaires which most people in data collection agencies know have lost the respondent’s interest and attention after a few minutes. Furthermore, as I have written about previously, this causes a serious bias in the respondent sample. Stop defending what is not working! There are lots of new, innovative agencies that are offering services that seek to tackle the current inadequacies of what we are currently doing.  So why is it that for most organisations, 90%++ of their spend is on the same discredited methodologies as they have utilised for the past 10 years?  Marketeers don’t buy into the change?  It is so hard to get Medical affairs/compliance approve it?  The straight-line on my tracker might not stay straight?  I can only bring in new things to low risk projects – I just don’t have many of these at the moment? "If you are in your job for more than money, then you need to learn how to influence change for the better." How making the respondent the “star” can help you So much research is based around the researcher trying to demonstrate how smart they are, that we have lost our way.  Market research is nowhere near as important and influential as it should be.  If you think of how you make the respondent the “star”, what you are really doing is putting the customer first.  To do that, we need to bring them alive, make the research feel authentic and create an emotional reaction. Power of video A key way to do that is though the use of video.  We all walk around with a portable recording studio in our pockets.  We are attached to our smart-phones and almost all of us have learned to use the video capabilities as part of our personal lives.  There is nothing we love to consume more than video.  76% of all internet traffic is video.  This is going to rise to more than 90%! Influence and activation Perhaps the biggest single issue that the market research industry faces is its inability to influence its internal clients and activate what might still be good research findings.  It is no use blaming others – blame ourselves.  We need to communicate in the way that people want to consume data – visually.  If I had shown you a video of MarlaJan, you would get as close as possible to “the moment” that those attending the conference experienced.  It is not just the words, it was the tone, the eyes, the facial expressions, the body language than conveyed her story. All of that builds an emotional connection.  As neuroscientist Antonio Damasio proved, we need emotion to make choices. And the star is…. To me, video is the most obvious “no-brainer” in the list of “no-brainers” that the market research industry should be taking on.  Our job should be about making the respondent the star of the show.  That is the most effective way for us to get our own star to rise again.

Friday, 5 May 2017 The Times They are A-Changin’ Does anyone not believe that market research is in the process of going though a significant period of change? In none of my recent articles*, have I got feedback arguing that it is not going to change significantly. What is far less clear is the exact nature and timing of the change. The Denialists will argue that it is 10-15 years away so there is no need to panic. There are some commentators who argue that the change is taking place and the environment in 5 years will already be very different to today.  “People are slow to change behaviours but the change may be more profound than any of us realise.” From what I see, there is so much money and investment being poured into technology that I can’t see the industry being the same in 5 years time as it is today.  Remember IBM personal computing? There was a time that a significant part of IBM’s business came from manufacturing personal computers. Indeed, there was a saying amongst the IT community that “no one got fired for buying an IBM”. Roll forward to today and IBM does not make any personal computers. Companies like Dell, Apple and so on took over with cheaper and better alternatives. When it turned, the saying changed to “you would only get fired if you bought an IBM”. IBM knew they would never be able to compete and sold the business to the Chinese firm Lenovo. How profound is profound? Ray Poynter predicts that 40-60% of jobs in market research will go and 20-30% of new jobs will be created. A net loss to the industry of 10-40%. That seems a pretty reasonable estimate to me but it could be larger if the change is more profound. That doesn’t sound too bad? Does that mean you will be safe if you are not in the bottom quartile of performers in your company? Well no. I am afraid the starting point is that if you are a quantitative researcher, the risk is at least 40-60%. Those are not great odds! Is Qual safe? Only from a relative point of view! Technology, changing behaviours and commercial requirements will seriously impact on traditional in person interviews. Why gross not net? Here is the problem. It is not just new skills, new knowledge and new approaches that market researchers need to learn. Researchers need to become “young” again. Agile minds, comfortable with change and managing innovation without dragging progress back into the present/past. Many researchers on both the manufacturers and even worse on the Agency side are currently resisting innovation even when it is a “no-brainer”. New skills can be acquired so perhaps they think they can re-train when the time comes. For those folks, I have a very clear message - the new market research world will not want to employ “Researchersaurs” whatever their skill sets. “Innovative companies do not hire those whose attitudes drag their organisations back from their goals.” Look at how many of the new companies entering the market research space - both founders and their staff - are coming from outside of the industry. “you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone” Becoming innovative and being able to deal with change is not something you can suddenly decide to do. It is a skill that is fuelled by experience. There are risks in bringing in innovation that need to be managed and benefits that need to be sold into (internal or external) clients. Most of all, it requires a creative, curious, problem-solving mind and a “can do” attitude. Don’t panic At this point, perhaps you are panicking! Don’t. Panic can cause you to distance yourself from the problem rather than solve it. Panic breeds fear and fear drives inaction and denial. Nothing good is going to come from panic. What should I do? Take a lesson from IBM. They re-invented themselves into a software and consulting business. To do that, they moved from being a fairly conservative hardware manufacturer to a much more innovative, people-focused organisation. And they are also one of the technology businesses that will have a significant part to play in the market research environment of the future. Personal reinvention Just as IBM needed to reinvent themselves, so do you need to reinvent yourself. No panic – just calm and logical analysis. Build objectives, identify skill gaps and build an action plan with SMART goals. Plan to innovate Part of your personal reinvention plan must involve a plan on how you improve your ability to do new things or the same things differently. Market Research will evolve for the better We are naturally suspicious of change. It is an instinct that has helped us to survive. But we are naturally more curious which has helped us to evolve. So, don’t panic; think, plan and act.

Tuesday, 23 May 2017 How reliable is your market research? I hope it is self-evident that market research is only as good as the data it is built on. “74% of market researchers cite reliable data as the most important issue in study design.” GRIT Q4 report, 2016 As I have commented in previous articles, most market research studies are not used in decision-making. “Most research, perhaps 80% of it, is irrelevant to decision-making.” The Golden Age of Research Reinvented, 2017. I wonder if the two points are connected? What’s going on in consumer market research? The Green Book has been leading the way in challenging market research practice: “We MUST change or risk losing access to respondents” GRIT, 2017 In a follow-up to the alarming Q4 2016 GRIT report, a further investigation has revealed more damning evidence of the poor way the research industry treats its customers. New findings in the GRIT Consumer Participation in Research report confirms that there are significant issues that undermine the reliability of market research results: 1. Only a quarter of all respondents globally are satisfied with their experience participating in research. 2. Over half of all respondents admitted that the design of a survey impacts their willingness to complete it 3. Over 50% of respondents said surveys should be less than 10 minutes in length “The results of the study just reinforce our belief …. That the industry does a poor job of putting the respondent first, despite having the means and the knowledge to do so.” GRIT, 2017. The authors’ conclusions: 1. Go “mobile first” in survey design 2. Stay under 10 minutes 3. Think like marketers when designing research 4. Give respondents fair reward and give them choices 5. Use research as a brand engagement and relationship building opportunity. What’s going on in Healthcare research? Industry body BHBIA has made an attempt to tackle the issue by setting up a Response Rate Task Force: “This followed data presented at the BHBIA Annual Conference in May 2015 showed that the industry has been experiencing a decline in healthcare professional response rates in market research.” BHBIA, 2015 Some two years later, at the 2017 Annual Conference, we had another update. Whilst there are few clear actions coming out that would have a substantive impact on the issue, the chairs did warn that screeners had been identified as a key area that is eroding participation. A screener process is meant to assess whether someone qualified for a survey. Whilst BHBIA recommend 10-12 questions (at least a 2-3 minute process, which is already way too long in my view), most screeners are longer than that and screeners of 5-10 minutes long and 20-30 questions are now not uncommon. Does this strike you as an appropriate way to treat important people like Oncologists? Why the lack of respect? Specialists are very important people in society. If we meet them in person, we treat them with respect and know their professional time valuable. So why do market researchers continue to behave in the opposite way? For the market research industry, data is important but people are not. As GRIT observes, the industry is incapable of seeing the connection between the two. What does that mean? Most of the quantitative research done is worthless if the data it is built on is not reliable. It should be obvious that most, if not all, questionnaire designs are creating their own bias. Market research in its current form is flawed. How is the industry responding? Like Ostriches. No one wants to hear it and any efforts to change are notional at best and ignored at worst. Stop tinkering! The industry needs a radical re-think of what is does – a process akin to zero-based budgeting – start again and entirely re-design its approach on everything. Put the respondent first and build from there Market research should be about bringing the voice of the customer into the heart of corporate decision-making. Respondents are customers and human beings and should be treated with respect. Research needs to fit into their lives and respect their time. Get this right and market research can be influential.

Thursday, 27 July 2017 nuaxia is an information technology platform serving the healthcare sector. nuaxia announces today the launch of its new Video Interviewing service. The new service will allow clients to access not only its 1 million Members but also any other individual within its profiled database of 5.5 million healthcare professionals. The new service will complement its self-service, multi-media, micro survey service that was launched in January this year. nuaxia clients will now be able to use its platform to conduct both short video response surveys and longer video interviews. "nuaxia has received very positive responses to its video capabilities and so we are delighted to be able to extend our video services. Video represents 74% of all Internet traffic and this is forecast to rise to around 90% in the next few years. 59% of executives would now rather watch a video than read text. We continue to see video gaining traction as the preferred medium for interaction and insights. Our video services are fast, cost-effective and fantastically impactful."