It’s no secret that every person inside of a marketing
organization, regardless of function, hates the current process for
re-examining past consumer research. Everyone has their own unique
frustrations and horror stories to tell when it comes to hunting down
past data and, here at KnowledgeHound, we’ve heard A LOT of the
complaints. See below for a few of the more common complaints we’ve run
across from three key members inside your organization:
The General Manager: “We’ve done this before”
You’ve heard this one before right? Your team spends days or weeks
working to pull together a recommendation for your GM on a certain
business issue. When the GM asks if any of you have looked at the old
research you all scratch your head, avoid eye contact, and collectively
sit in silence.
General Managers often complain that they feel as if their
organizations continue to try to solve the same problems over and over
again … like they have corporate amnesia. A better Knowledge Management
system can help you quickly assess what past consumer research you’ve
done and how to apply it to the current situation at hand.
The Marketing Manager: “The data isn’t being delivered quickly enough”
So, it’s first thing Monday morning and the Marketing Director needs a
summary pulled together on how the company is going to stop declining
share on your brand. Oh, and he needs it by the end of today. So, like a
crazy person, your brand/marketing manager scrambles over to the
insights team desk and ask for a full data dump on every piece of
research ever conducted on your brand. They want to know everything …
from sales, to trial barriers, to category habits and practices etc.
etc.
First off, let’s all give our brand/marketing managers a break. They
don’t WANT to be so demanding … they’re just trying to keep up with the
pace of business. And often times, they simply aren’t able to move fast
enough because hunting down past data is taking too long. They need
quick solutions that allow easy access and synthesis of past research
and a Consumer Insight Manager as their partner in crime to tackle those
big questions with all the data that they have.
The Consumer Insights Manager: “I’m focusing too much on data pulling not strategy”
“I got into market research so I could pull data points for my
business partners” … said no one ever. There’s not a single person in
Market Research who doesn’t feel at least some level of hatred towards
the current process of hunting down and pulling data from an old study.
I’ve heard numerous people claim that having to hunt down old data is
their least favorite part of their job.
Market Researchers want to be able to focus on the big picture and
drive new strategies through their strong understanding of the consumer.
They need tools to help with quicker analysis and visualization of data
so they can create compelling stories, which drive strategy and bring
unique value to the company.
Everyone struggles with finding and using past research inside a
large organization. It’s a common problem that effects every part of
your organization in significant ways. With the technology available
today, it should no longer be acceptable to waste hundreds of hours
searching for and analyzing your past data. Our suggestion? Do all these
folks a favor and think about upgrading your knowledge management system
to something that actually solves the problem.
