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Researchers as Change Agents

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No brand is more associated with Atlanta than Coca-Cola, so it is only fitting that Stan Sthanunathan, vice president of marketing strategy and insights for The Coca-Cola Company, kicked off the 2010 American Marketing Association’s Marketing Research Conference in Atlanta.

Stan began his keynote, “Making Change Happen: 10 Principles for Thriving in the Research World”, by reviewing the need for change. Change itself is not an option, but our decision on whether to act, or not, is. The world changes rapidly, and brands grow and shrink: while Coca-Cola has remained the leading global brand over the last ten years, Google [founded only 12 years ago] is now the fourth leading brand worldwide. As for market research, “We have made progress as an industry,” Stan said, “but more out of necessity. Have we changed fast enough to become change agents in business? NO!”

As researchers, we need to change our mindset. “It is not about following the change as quickly as possible,” Stan said. “It is about helping companies to shape the change.” Stop providing “insights” and start provoking transformation. Stop quantifying the expected, and start listening for the unexpected. Stop focusing on better methodological mousetraps, and start focusing on value creation that provides an ROI.

As researchers, we need to become more innovative in our approaches. Focus groups and survey research are just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath the waterline is much we need to learn to “observe, listen, synthesize and deduce.”

Stan exhorts us embrace ten key principles for “making change happen”:

1. Embrace technology…quickly. “Our track record is not great. How many of you feel that you have access to better technology at home than work? Consumers are like us… they have moved on technologically… it is about time companies do.”
2. Embrace risk. We are risk mitigators of new concepts; everything we do is risk mitigation, which saps us from being risk takers. “If 120 years ago we had used conventional research to evaluate Coca-Cola, we would have never launched that product: it’s brown, murky, with fizz, and an unusual taste.” Yet Coca-Cola has launched carefully researched products with scientifically valid research results that failed. As Dr. Robert Kozinets, author of Netnography, has said, “For innovation and inspired consumer insight an ‘n of one’ is often all you need.”
3. What you dream, what you internalize, becomes true. As George Bernard Shaw wrote, “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” Research departments and agencies should set budget for experimentation and should share their successes, as well as their failures. “Do we have the guts to create a Hall of Shame?” Stan asked. “For every success there are nine failures, but people push failures under the carpet and showcase successes, and end up repeating those mistakes.”
4. Focus on business outcomes. The job of a researcher isn’t complete when a report is delivered; in fact, then it has only begun. Researchers think of reports as transactions rather than as building relationships.
5. Focus on talent acquisition. The top recruiters from business schools are McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Bain, Booz and Google. Market research needs to do more to attract the best and the brightest.
6. Shift resources. Perhaps 80% of budget is spent on “rear view mirror” research, such as brand trackers; perhaps 80% of our time is spent on report cards, discussions of data quality and explanations of the past. We need to shift from 80% looking back to 50% looking forward: “Provide inspiration and not explanation”, Stan said; deliver forward-looking insights.
7. Leverage creativity. Research presentations should be experiential and immersive experiences, not data dumps. Those are the presentations you recall and can act on.
8. Be confident thought leaders. “Be proactive! Outsource process out of the company and in-source thinking. We need to be the best beverage marketing company, not the best at research process.”
9. Compensate based on value and not inputs. Sarah Armstrong, Coca-Cola director of worldwide media, told Ad Age in April of 2009: “We want our agencies to earn their profitability, but it's not guaranteed.” Coca-Cola Research is following this path as well. It is certainly uncomfortable for research firms, but it is absolutely required.
10. Question conventional wisdom. The TED conference “Three Days to Change the World” is devoted to “ideas worth spreading”, many of which go against the received wisdom. Stan exhorted, “How about we make this AMA conference ‘Three Days to Change the World of Insights’? If we can’t drive change, who can?” He concluded with the words of the Hopi chief who said, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Truly an inspirational way to kick of the Marketing Research Conference in Atlanta! Follow along on Twitter (#amamrc), watch video interviews of speakers (coming soon) on the AMAMRC.com conference site, and check back here for a few more blog posts from the conference.