Mark Irving, advertising company director on how advertising can get bogged down by too much research.
One of the good things about the New Zealand advertising industry is that clients and agencies really don't get too bogged down with research, especially compared to the Australian advertising market.
Clients in NZ tend to trust agencies and go with their gut feel a bit more, which in my opinion is how it should be.
From my experience in Australia, some clients are surprisingly conservative, added to the fact that there's usually a lot more money at stake.
In my opinion, too much of the wrong type of research can dilute an idea. It's a bit like watering down an orange drink. You keep adding water and very soon you've got something that tastes and looks like water.
I remember working for an Australian ad agency on a nationwide company of plumbers. The company, backed up by the account management team at the agency, had arrived at the idea and insight through their 'research' that "WYZ Plumber loves you." I'm not sure what their 'research' involved but this was their finding.
The findings it transpired were based on a conversation with a customer who formed a lasting friendship with a plumber once the job was completed.
This is all good but our belief (myself and my art director) maintained that when your toilet is blocked, you don't want a plumber to love you, you just want the job done.
Generally speaking, the only love a plumber should be giving a customer is when it's shot on film in a Los Angeles bedroom and the tap it turns out really wasn't broken at all.
On another occasion, an ad I worked on was put into research. The client felt uncomfortable. We were told parts of the ad were too male dominated, bordering on violent. The main images involved seven year old boys having a great time with water pistols.
I also believe sometimes the nature of market research questions are worded in quite a confusing manner, not taking into account that many people are not that marketing savvy.
I've had a bit experience myself as a part time phone-based market researcher many years ago. I can see why people throughout the country would tell us to "f..k off" when we called up.
I also remember having to ask an exhaustive list of questions on a particular brand of biscuit.
Questions like: "Is the brand of biscuit an a) playful brand, b) adventurous brand c) conservative brand d) aspirational brand? You can generally sense the frustration when people pause and tell you - "it's just a pack of biscuits," "who dreams up this stuff" and "there's someone at the door."
The frustration was ratcheted up a few levels knowing that as an interviewer I couldn't lead them to a particular answer. Time passes very slowly in these types of situations.
So generally speaking, I'm not particularly fond of the sometimes rigid market research format. I am very fond of consumer insights though.
As Hugh MacKay one of Australia's foremost social researchers puts it in the excellent book 'Cutting Edge Advertising':
"A lot of research in the advertising process is misguided. It asks people rational-sounding questions that create the expectation that there will be a rational explanation.
If you ask people a rational explanation, they'll give you one. But it may have nothing to do with the truth. How do you know that you wouldn't have got a different answer if you'd asked a different question?"
Mark Irving is the director of Range Advertising and Communications
