An Article from the Journal's June/July publication.

1. BY ANDY RICE
Who researches the
researchers?
T
he market research industry is a bit like Leonard Cohen. respondent. Now I know that it’s hard to make this point without
Or Marmite. Or even Manchester United. Some people sounding patronising or arrogant, but if you’re going to interview
love market research (usually clients) and some loathe it someone who’s been around the block a few times on the subject
(almost every creative director). But whichever side of the fence of personal financial management and the use of charge cards, it is
you’re on, even if you’re a rabid opponent, you would probably surely unwise to send someone who behaves and dresses like a first
still concede that most research is conducted with a high degree year arts undergraduate. Grubby paperwork and uncertain computer
of competence, and to standards that can withstand rigorous skills only served to exacerbate my poor initial impression.
enquiry. This assumption becomes all the more significant when
you remember that most quantitative market research is executed But worse was to come. All good questionnaires start with the ‘filter
somewhere out there in a different demographic world, beyond questions’ which are designed to weed out respondents who might
the prying eyes of clients or creatives. With or without fieldwork be deemed to have an interest in the subject under discussion, either
backchecks, those marketers who commission research ultimately because they work in the same field as the client, or because they are
put their faith in the hands of total strangers whom they will never professionally close to the market research industry. Which should
meet nor have a chance to evaluate. have ruled me out, as I made clear to my interviewer. However,
she was having none of it, and was determined to get her fee for a
Which, in my recent experience, is rather worrying. completed questionnaire, especially given the angst she had suffered
trying to find me in the first place. Every conceivable argument was
A week or two ago, I was recruited by phone to take part in a very used to try to avoid disqualifying me, until eventually I relented, having
vaguely articulated ‘brand enhancement’ programme. Fearing satisfied myself that I could still answer her questions fairly and frankly
the worst, I nevertheless agreed to take part, as much out of a as a typical charge card owner. (I hereby throw myself at the mercy of
sense of morbid curiosity as a desire to demonstrate professional the SAMRA disciplinary inquisition and plead forgiveness as a first-time
solidarity. And so I accepted the invitation to spend thirty minutes offender).
or so with someone whom I suspected – correctly as it turned out
– to be a market research interviewer. Big mistake. I am well aware that research companies put in place checks and
balances to maintain the highest professional fieldwork standards. I
What followed next was a litany of embarrassing and amateurish am also certain that what I encountered is likely to be the exception
incidents that would have been amusing if they hadn’t been rather than the norm. But I still think it comes as a salutary lesson
so damaging to my perception of research fieldworkers as to marketers that there is no substitute for first-hand experience as a
highly trained practitioners of their often tedious craft. First, my means of judging what happens in those disciplines that you choose
interrogator-to-be got hopelessly lost, and while phoning me for to outsource to external suppliers (and this extends way beyond
directions somehow conspired to make it clear that it was my fault market research). Get out there, get stuck into the real marketplace,
that our offices were so hard to find. And if I wasn’t to blame, then however remote it might be from your everyday world, and put yourself
her previous appointment, or the taxi driver, or both, most certainly for just a few minutes in a respondent’s shoes.
was. She was not a happy bunny, and made sure I knew it.
It might even tempt you to try a Marmite sandwich while listening to
When she finally arrived, very late, I was immediately reminded of Leonard Cohen.
that first rule of effective fieldwork – match your interviewer to your
34 [ the Journal ] J