Tracking research…is it useful?

Another quarter has passed and yet again the tracking presentation has been booked for 2 hours. You have to wonder, why? Do they really have 2 hours of fresh insights? If so, who wouldn’t be clamouring to attend the tracking presentation?

The sad truth is, that in most cases, the 2 hours time slot is arbitrary and more likely driven by the questionnaire length, not the quantity of fresh insights. You arrive at the presentation to realise the same charts are being presented in a similar order and trends are mostly flat. You make it through the 2 hour presentation, do you?
a) Have a clear idea of what to do based on the findings
b) Walk out a little wiser, but still need to ponder the so what; OR
c) Exit with a slight headache and desperate need for caffeine.

Perhaps, I’m being a little extreme, but I do think c) is a viable answer for some and I do believe many would fit into box b). You need to ask, is this good enough given the amount of research budget allocated to tracking?

I’ll say now that there is no set solution, mainly because every businesses needs will be different. For this reason, a ‘food for thought’ approach is more appropriate. There are a number of ways to improve your continuous research program…

Ensure everyone is aware of what you want to get out of your tracking research
Objectives are normally clear at the briefing stage, but this undoubtedly changes with time. And when you are talking about tracking research the original briefing is often a distance memory. To overcome this issue, objectives should be set for every presentation and reviewed at an overall level at least yearly. If there are no objectives in a particular quarter, then there should be no presentation. On this point, presentations should only be scheduled when there is something to say and if this means not presenting for 4 months and then presenting 3 times in one month then so be it.

Keep your approach to tracking flexible
The areas in which you are seeking insights will change throughout the year as the macro and competitive environments change. Tracking research should be flexible enough to offer topical insights as required and provide a cost effective means for collecting this data. For example, right now is an opportune time to use the tracking vehicle to get a quick read on the impact of the recession on spending in your category.
Consideration should also be given to transferring some of the tracking budget to more ad hoc continuous research. For example, create you own consumer panel to conduct ongoing ad hoc research with (e.g. this month lets ask them about cooking habits, next month lets talk about celebrity endorsers etc).

Ensure tracking is reflective of the real-world
This is extremely important for the credibility of the research, but also the usefulness of the research in decision making. It’s common for the research to say one thing, while the business metrics (e.g. sales) are saying the opposite. It is essential to, at the very least, understand why there is this disconnect, but ultimately the goal should be line up tracking results with business metrics.

Reporting needs to be collaborative and engaging
To often research recommendations are naive and too broad to be meaningful. For this to change a collaborative approach to reporting needs to be adopted. Firstly a brief should be prepared before the agency begins work on the presentation –involving internal stakeholders and other agencies (e.g. advertising and media). The draft presentation should be shared with stakeholders and feedback incorporated into the final version.

Really there should be no surprises in the final presentation; no one needs to feel blindsided or defensive. It can also be more useful to run the final presentation as a workshop, as opposed to the common ‘speech’ format. This way everyone’s comments can be included in the final recommendations and the end result is more meaningful insights.

Cover all touch-points consumers have with your brand
The marketing world adapts to changing media outlets and consumption at a rapid pace, and research needs to keep up. It’s not sufficient to just focus on the effectiveness of TV advertising anymore. Ultimately, tracking research should account for all the touch-points that influence a consumer’s perception of brands in your category. This also means understanding the impact of word of mouth or press on the brand. Arguably a news story about your brand will have more of impact than your own TVC.

Granularity is essential in driving actionable insights
The final point I want to touch on relates to usefulness of the actual data collected. In most cases brand data is collected at an overall level with little consideration given to different buying situations/ occasions. Take this example, brand preference at an overall level could be flat, but this could be masking a significant ‘undercurrent’ trend. For example, brand preference could be increasing within the ‘snack occasion’, but decreasing within the ‘meal occasion’. This simple example highlights the importance of granularity in tracking research and implications on marketing decision making.