Article published in the ESOMAR
Market Research Best Practice
30 Visions for the Future
THE HOLISTIC APPROACH
Emphasizing the Importance of the Whole and the
Interdependence of its Parts
By Christine Blache and Karen Hofman
As corporate visionaries work to get to know their consumer in a fast changing environment wrought with global competition, where changes in the marketplace happen in the blink of an eye, they must break through the barriers raised by tight schedules, limited budgets and the resistance of soldiers of the status quo. What can be done? Strategic research managers turn to qualitative research as a source of innovation, but also in their quest for a new Grail in consumer research—getting quantitative results while using qualitative techniques.
But what kind of qualitative research can reap such results? Qualitative research that follows a holistic model; one which emphasizes the importance of the whole while simultaneously acknowledging the vital interdependence of its parts.
Through examples from our recent research, we will try to illustrate how companies and their research partners can obtain the best results by working openly and closely together. We will also explain how things can sometimes go wrong and what steps should be taken to avoid jeopardizing the success of a project in midstream. Finally, we will give our own definition of the Holistic Approach and propose a “check list” of actions we feel indispensable to the conduct of successful research and innovation.
Introduction
When one considers the vast amount of money spent on research each year, and that the return on such investment may not always be up to par, it is no wonder smart research managers think that the time has come to start developing overarching research strategies, building from a solid yet nuanced understanding of the multifaceted consumer. How do we get this? Strong qualitative research done collaboratively.
As qualitative market research suppliers, we have found over the years that the projects which uncovered the most meaningful and actionable opportunities were built upon a broad-based multidimensional approach combined with a strong collaboration with the clients throughout the course of the entire research process. These were projects in which the client took a holistic approach internally, in their relationship with our market research team, and in their approach to the design and evolution of the project.
The holistic approach has been, and is being, applied in many different industries. For example, the airline business. We all think we know what it takes for a plane trip to be completed successfully: we need adequate planning, coordination and communication from the beginning to the end.
But now think about what else needs to going right in order for the plane ride to be a success. The things we don’t normally concern ourselves with, but someone, say, a pilot, would. We need to make sure that we have the proper plane size and power, that it will be able to fly safely, that the structure, the engine, the electronic gear, the landing equipment are in good shape. During the flight, we will have to stay in contact both with the ground and other aircrafts in your airspace, as well as the lives in your hands in the cabin. All this until you have delivered your passengers safely to the gate. It is a strong relationship based on trust, during the entire process, with numerous teams, intermediaries and partners all operating behind the scenes.
With worldwide competition, tighter budgets and an educated and increasingly savvy consumer, the need for efficient results dictates that companies exert just as much dedication and care than an airline pilot would when bringing projects to life, to success.
Case History
We recently conducted two research projects for two different clients that, though on the surface similar, ended with radically different outcomes.
In the first case, while working on a project on innovation for the European branch of an international consumer goods company, we had a very active and strong collaboration with the client across all the different levels of the decision ladder from the onset of the research. As a result, the findings of the research easily climbed up the different levels of management, reached the General Manager, and at present, a new line of products is being developed by the company’s R&D department.
In the second case, while working on a global project for different international company, our teams were not united, and we have since learned that the research results are on a shelf somewhere, figuratively and, maybe even literally. We are left trying to figure out how ties with the different actors on the project can be reconnected, if they even can be.
What happened?
I – The first Project:
A – How we got started
A little over a year ago we were challenged by the new European Innovation Department of an international consumer goods company to conduct ethnographies to uncover opportunities for new product development.
While it is always great to be invited to play a role in the development of new products, at the same time we were concerned about the breadth of the study, and became even more so when we found out that the budget was rather tight to accomplish this task.
Our first meeting with the client was an extensive exchange around the idea of innovation-- what it meant for them, why they were considering ethnography, what their ideas were around reaching to the consumers. What was their perception of their usual consumer? How did they perceive their brand at this moment in time? Where did they see their brand going in the near future? How innovative were they willing to be with their product? Could drastic changes be accepted in the renewal of certain lines of products?
For our team, this kind of intellectual and emotional involvement is a key component of the early stages of research.
Regarding the scope of the project, we asked if we could narrow down the project a bit, in order for us to have a greater focus. For example, we suggested we work around a specific age sample or household composition type, but the client asked that we keep the research as open as possible to gather as much information and insights as we could. They felt this was a rare opportunity to be out there with a blank canvas trying to uncover what could be the next innovative steps the company would take. Most of all they wanted to rid themselves of any pre-conceived ideas that might lead them in the wrong direction. We needed to deconstruct their initial vision in order to uncover new ideas. The challenge, however, was to come up with “immediately actionable results.” They wanted the R&D department to start developing new products in the next few months.
We agreed to this on two conditions:
- That the client be fully involved in and off the field from the very start of the research to the end.
- That the research be narrowed down halfway through the field work, based on our first findings.
They agreed.
B - What made things “click” in the project:
1 – Preparation phase:
· The team who hired us was empowered to make decisions and carry them through. This gave them leverage and leeway in decision-making.
· Our team was involved very early on in the preparation. The clients openly expressed their needs, their expectations, and their goals.
· “Dreaming was allowed.” The client started with a very open mind and fought against pre-conceived ideas. They were ready to rid themselves of opinions that would prevent them from being receptive to new findings. They actively brainstormed with us and pushed concepts hard during these discussions, constantly rethinking their product category on the whole.
· The client provided us with a context: elements already in their possession, innovation benchmarks, trend watching, details of their recent successes and failures with innovation, etc.
· The client also provided us with guidance on the company’s culture, politics and general attitude towards qualitative research within the different departments of the company. They discussed what they had done before, what had worked or hadn’t worked and why, where product development had to fit within their financial framework, what would go well within the company’s culture and what wouldn’t. They gave us examples of innovative developments that went as far as the prototype phase before they would be considered too bold or too pricy. In other words, we had to come up with new, bold ideas, but they had to be sufficiently grounded if we were to be successful.
· In preparing the research, time was allowed for solid back and forth exchanges in defining the territory, the target, the scope and the type of subjects we wanted to explore, allowing for the elaboration of a solid and broad-reaching interview guide.
· The client allowed for enough time. The emphasis was on getting it done right, not just fast.
2 – During Research:
· The project manager on the client side had several qualities that facilitated the in field and analysis work:
o He was internally respected and had leverage.
o He was both attentive and open-minded.
o He actively participated in exploring new angles and in challenging our findings to push the research further. He readily engaged in our discussions about the most far-fetched ideas, leaving no stone unturned.
o He was sufficiently knowledgeable on the company’s brands and practices, allowing him to react immediately to ideas and findings.
o He was present in the field and also made himself readily available during the analysis phase of our research.
· The complete management team on the client side agreed on several “mid-term” brainstorm discussions to analyze the findings while still in the field. This allowed for:
o Immediate feedback on the scope of the findings.
o The room to make adjustments
o The opportunity to adjust the ongoing research based on initial insights.
o Clear communication.
3 – Disseminating the results:
· While our team was preparing the final deliverables, based on the topline analysis done by our ethnographers, the client organized an “innovation workshop” that included both our team members and members of their R&D, marketing, communication, production and finance departments. This workshop was aimed at reviewing the results together, deciding which directions were the most interesting to take, brainstorming on the type of actions that could be taken from there, defining possible new lines of products, and benchmarking these ideas against what was already developed in the company and what was available on the market. Our role was then to synthesize this workshop and prepare for a final presentation.
· The client’s team had been so involved in the entire process of the research, and so many people had been brought in at different levels that a formal presentation was almost unnecessary. The research material was already self-appropriated by the client’s team.
· When the formal presentation took place, all the parameters, and most notably the political ones, were worked between the client and us in order to facilitate the passage between “research results” and “product development” at a higher hierarchical level within the company. We actually co-presented the research as a team.
4 – Conclusion
While still waiting for quantitative results on the consumer’s side regarding the new product development, the research was already considered successful by management within the company because of the success of the holistic team approach. This was accomplished thanks to the help of an open minded management team which took a serious role both in guiding the research, involving its team and maintaining a proper balance between “being generous and creative” and “turning ideas into facts.” A paper was written internally by the project manager about the research and the paper was elected Notable Paper of the Month and distributed across all the departments of the company.
II – The second Project:
A – How we got started
The second project began as a global exploration of similarities and differences in consumer needs, values and practices around a broad theme central to this major international company’s business. The division that commissioned this research was charged with bringing a new, globally-based way of thinking to the company’s more traditional approach. As researchers, we were very excited to be contributing to the development of what promised to be a more holistic corporate vision.
We were initially brought into the project by a consulting agency that had an established relationship with the client. From the enthusiastic give-and-take of our initial meetings with the agency and the client, we anticipated a strong tripartite collaborative relationship that would stimulate thinking and be characterized by an openness to the reframing of preconceived (and perhaps culturally-biased) notions pertaining to the central theme.
Given this climate, we agreed to the open-ended subject of the research, anticipating increasing definition as the project developed. Faced with budget and time constraints, we worked with the client and consultant to build a research design that would allow the project to be completed in a specified time frame, but that would require prompt client feedback along the way to keep the process moving smoothly.
B – Falling off track
With the approved design and objectives in hand, our two field teams set out to simultaneously conduct fieldwork in culturally disparate countries on two different continents.
Once in the field, the client and the consultant, overloaded with busy schedules, attended a limited number or none of the interviews. For similar reasons, no members of the client’s in-country teams could attend the interviews.
This situation gave us little opportunity to debrief with the client about our findings either while in the field or thereafter. We were unable to fine-tune the focus of our research.
Trapped between the company’s objective of being “open and creative” in their thinking and strategic research, and the ensconced practice of demanding immediate development, the client’s project managers where under a lot of pressure. This resulted in ambiguous communications and lack of client input. Situations arose where we were asked to provide findings that were neither incorporated in our agreed upon interview guide nor mentioned as mid-course adjustments while in the field.
While the project yielded rich results based on the stated objectives and the agreed-upon consumer targets, communication breakdowns and missteps in obtaining broad-based organizational buy-in compromised the acceptance of the research across organizational divisions.
Many of the problems we encountered seemed to stem from a sort of schizophrenia that arises in companies that want to change their approach in understanding and communicating with the consumer but find themselves trapped in systems that pressure them for concrete and immediate quantitative results. Certainly not a holistic approach.
The Holistic Approach
Steps and Actions for Successful Projects with Actionable Results
“Start your Journey with a Sense of Destiny”
Gary Hamel in “Leading the Revolution” – HBS Press
The Holistic model can be applied to many situations. One common application of Holism is found in medicine, where one considers that traditional and unconventional methods can be used complementarily to help cure patients of what ails them.
Another use of Holism has been applied to agriculture by Allan Savory. His “Holistic Management” was designed to help farmers in Africa create a model of farming that takes into account economics, ecology and social responsibility.
Specializing in ethnography, we find this last example about agriculture particularly interesting. Having to deal with the complexity and desires of consumers who are more and more eager to lead meaningful lives and to express themselves through their choices, we feel it is essential to find a level of collaboration with clients that will be rich and deep, both on the organizational level and on the intellectual level. In the process, we must take into account economics, ecology and social responsibility.
A - Actions to Take on the Client Side
Introduction:
In the Quest for the Grail --the challenge of getting quantitative results using qualitative techniques-- we have found that the most successful companies in reaching their goals are those who combined vision and passion with collaborative work and result-oriented actions.
How can Top Management involvement be essential in developing an overarching marketing research strategy?
On an emotional, social and political level:
· Reinforce or reinvigorate the values of your company and brands. There is a strong emerging desire for meaningful and soulful products, brands and actions.
· Find a TRUE equation between what you say and what you do. This goes for:
o Your brand
o Your products
o The way you run your company or division
For example: Changing your strategy by launching a “health food” line probably requires to revisit the way you buy resources, transform them and distribute them.
· Take into account that you are dealing with an educated and responsible consumer whose expectations are getting higher everyday. This complexity has to be taken seriously and the emergence of anti-marketers, anti “ready made” speeches, must encourage the development of overarching politically- and socially-coherent strategies from companies and brands. Company policies both within and outside of the organization may be deciding factors in consumer choice.
· Remember also that you are facing a global reorganization of both economic standards (some traditionally mature markets see their buying power decrease and need to make smart choices, while emerging economic giants create new opportunities) and family standards (explosion of the 19th century family unit model in favor of a less formal community-oriented model that’s reshaping everything from habitat to education).
· Word travels fast:
o you must be the one to promote the right idea
o the slightest mistake regarding ethics can immediately catch up with you
o you must design a highly collaborative organization that will both promote your messages and prevent crises
· “Share your Dreams”: Elaborate a vision and share this vision with others in a clear and inspired way – be passionate and infect others with your ideas in such a way that they will be excited about their work. Such excitement infuses your brands with energy which then gets communicated to the consumer.
· Most of all keep an open mind at all times. The market researcher is often coming to the table with a fresh perspective that facilitates their seeing what is often overlooked by clients who have been conditioned by past findings. With a fresh perspective, market researchers can uncover the magic that will make consumers connect with a product more deeply.
On an organizational point of view:
· Articulate your vision so that at least the strong lines (both in terms of directions and expected results) are clear to everyone.
· Communicate the message to the appropriately empowered management.
· Develop an overarching research strategy for the short, middle and long term. Use well-designed, broad-based ethnographic research to gain a firm grasp of your consumer market and provide a roadmap for future quantitative research.
· Make sure you will be able to provide the energy and investment that will match the scope of your vision (is everybody on the same agenda?).
· Estimate the scope and breadth of your project and select the appropriate methodology: you may not want to use a bazooka to kill a fly. In an overarching theme approach, you may want to set a solid base by using qualitative research methodologies that can capture important and often unanticipated or nuanced findings around the complexity of consumer motivations.
· Once in the field, allow for the development of as many angles as possible.
· Never loose sight of your long term strategy and keep on communicating it during the entire length of the project.
· Validate the different steps on a regular basis -- missing a step could mean additional time and stress.
· Allow sufficient timing for communications and synthesis of data throughout the process. Listen to the market researcher's ideal timing (it is not in our interest to have a project drag on longer than necessary, and we have experience in knowing what time frames are most comfortable for progress).
· From global to local: INVOLVE YOUR TEAMS! They know a lot of things you don’t and they will be extremely valuable both in contextualizing and relaying your ideas within vastly different cultural frameworks.
· Make sure that within the company, all departments work on the same “metrics.” If they don’t, adjust the communication system among the departments to ensure a better flow of data and action.
· If you are going to use intermediaries for qualitative research, make sure you are in touch with all partners at regular intervals. Qualitative research is deep and thorough, and you don’t want to miss out on the precious data as it is being extracted and analyzed. Let it resonate regularly against the strategy you defined.
· Understand the benefits and limitations of using an intermediary consultant to coordinate research efforts (use is more common with international and/or strategic projects).
o Benefits: Larger projects need either a consultant or an empowered project manager to oversee all the efforts produced by all teams. Being at the same time aware of all steps of the research while being able to distance oneself, a good consultant can bring depth, vision and velocity to a project. A good consultant can unlock doors and keep the level of watchfulness and inspiration very high.
o Limitations: Consultants will sometimes try to water down or soften the blow of bad news (e.g. on one project we were asked to do a video that softened the harsh findings, only to be later asked by the client to make it more biting so that upper management would truly understand the scope of the problem). Other times they might try to force findings into predetermined schema that do not necessarily reflect the organic structure and inter-linkages of the actual findings (e.g. two international projects--we literally spent days trying to make our findings fit into the consultants’ grids) which leads to inflexibility in the communication of findings.
· Use market researchers as sounding boards in helping to refine your research strategy. Their understanding of the complexity of the consumer experience can offer insights that help you build richer, more grounded and holistic research strategies:
o For example: A major American retailer for whom we had previously completed two successful projects approached us about conducting strategic research with their commercial customers. We developed a research proposal suggesting avenues of exploration that stimulated our client’s thinking. They came back to us with a far more elaborate research objective, to which we proposed several ideal methodologies. After a few more rounds of discussion and rethinking, we persuaded our client to examine the constellation of relationships linking commercial and consumer customers. Ultimately, this proved key in getting at the heart of their research question.
B - On the Market Research side:
In this context, research companies’ most significant role is to take the client a step further in sustaining a very high level of expectation and excellence, helping open as many doors as possible for innovative ideas and uncovering the conscience of their brand.
Be Holistic on emotional, social and political levels:
· Research Companies need to be inspirational. The research company’s role is to help the client be generous with its brand. There is a conscience beneath each brand that needs to be developed and revealed to the consumer. In a complex world with educated consumers, having the conscience of a company behind a brand is a major asset. The research company is there to provide the tools that will bridge the gap between the company’s and their consumers’ expectations.
· Research companies cannot be shy. They must keep their clients in tune with the deep shifts taking place in society and strongly voice the ideas emerging from the field.
· Research companies need to be bold and daring. Observation is not enough. It is the responsibility of research companies to offer new angles and be bold about it. They must be prepared to read between the lines of what consumers say to get at underlying values, motivations and needs.
· Research companies need to be true partners. Ideas will remain mere ideas if they are not channelled through collaborative exchanges and expressed in actionable terms.
Be Holistic in an organizational way:
· Find your Champion within the company. You will not obtain and sustain a strong relationship with the client without someone who can establish trust and quality exchanges.
· Privilege both analytical thinking and dreaming from day one til the very last day of the project.
· Keep angles wide open at all time.
· Process the results in a direction that is desirable, focused, validated, flexible and actionable.
· Encourage the client’s project manager to teach you about the company’s policies, politics, and strategies.
· Encourage the client’s project manager to be the promoter of your ideas.
· If you work through an intermediary, look for proper collaborative management that will help you reach the best win/win/win (client/intermediary/marketing company) situation.
o Explain very early on the absolute necessity of having access to strategic information about the company’s vision and goals. Insist on being briefed on the baseline understanding of the consumer so that you can add to the client’s knowledge base.
o Install a communication network that will help you to communicate and discuss your findings and analysis during the entire duration of the project—involved intermediaries can become advocates of the findings.
· If it is known in advance that client feedback may be difficult/not always immediate, allow extra communication time in the schedule to avoid frustration/miscommunications on both sides.
· Be realistic about timing and methodology. Be wary of ambiguity and over-compromising in the interest of building a relationship.
Conclusion
Organizations today are ever more aware of the need to be generous, expressive and innovative—and the need to stay dynamic in a rapidly changing world. But to do so, they must harness their resources both internally and externally to unleash their creativity and gain momentum. Taking a Holistic approach with their teams, their market researchers and their research strategies is the key to ensuring productive results that move from consumer insight to viable new products, brand positioning and marketing strategy.
