What is the future for market research in a post-pandemic world?

What future for retail market research?

What is the future for market research in a post-pandemic world? asks Paul Latimer of market research consultants, Latimer Appleby.

MARKET research is a vitally important discipline that is still pivotal to the way retail business is done. But even before Covid-19, the question was what is the future of research and is it heading for an existential crisis? But with Coronavirus still with us, we consider its future now. Everyone knows a bit about marketing; in fact, I’d go so far as to say a lot of us see ourselves as marketing experts, even those of us who don’t work in the industry. The same might be said increasingly for market research. How things have changed over the years! I can recall back in the 1980s, if you went to a restaurant, you might be asked how your meal was at some point, perhaps halfway through your main course, and again when you got the bill. But that was about it. And, it was really more about pleasantries than trying to gain real insights. But nowadays (i.e. pre Covid-19) few of us will not have come across the ‘tell us what you think’ kind of feedback research. In fact, I’m not sure which shops didn’t already ask for this sort of feedback, so what is driving this? Incidentally, ‘tell us what you think’ surveys are not, in the strictest sense, market research i.e. they don’t hold up scientifically, they can’t be used to provide accurate results as there is no control over who replies. For example, you could for instance finish up with all male respondents between the ages of 26 and 32, which may not be your key

target market. In addition, the questions are often not formed or written in any scientific way, in that they are usually very simplistic.

The evolution of research

In the distant past, shopkeepers knew their customers. They knew them by name and they knew their needs, wants and habits. It meant that the smart retailer was able to tailor his or her product or service to each customer. With the growth of the mass market in the 20th century, it became increasingly difficult for brand owners, or service providers, to get the sort of information they wanted back from their customers, so market research came into its own. By the early 21st century, as well as using market research, it was common to use service measurement companies to assess service delivery in places like shops, pubs and restaurants. These used so called ‘mystery shoppers’. But the cost of running these programmes was not cheap, and questions were raised by clients about ‘who’ were these mystery shoppers, i.e. were they real consumers or were they actually professional shoppers? In short, they asked if the results were valid. They wanted feedback from real people, real customers, and so the age of the actual consumer giving feedback took off.

The future for telephone research doesn’t look great, argues Paul Latimer.

Free feedback?

Nowadays, as I say, we are all bombarded by requests for feedback, via email, via text message, or by a line printed on your till receipt, that asks for some feedback in return for some chance to win some vouchers via some sort of prize draw. Hmm, any takers? This is all good, I hear you say. Well, yes, and no. You see, what clients were prepared to pay for in the past, using mystery shopping companies, they now expect to get for free. Of course, none of this is really for free, since the systems need to be put in place to manage the programmes, but the key thing is professional researchers are effectively out of a job. And when eventually everyone tires of giving their feedback for free, realising that nothing much is done with it other than to use the ‘good’ results, and bury the ‘bad ‘ones, then people will think twice about giving their feedback for free at all.

Hanging on the telephone

That’s one aspect. Now consider telephone research. Few of us have not been hounded by the spam caller, whether from a big telecoms company, an insurance company or another service provider. An article in one of the Sunday papers referred to the landline as the annoyance in the hallway. Increasingly, we use our mobiles, and so a call to the home landline unfortunately is often either from an elderly relative or from a hoaxer. This may be an irritation to a lot of us, but consider the market researcher, the researcher who specialises in telephone research, telephone research that depends on making calls to landlines. Clearly there are other options, e.g. for telephone researchers to make more calls to mobile phones. However, as we know, mobile phone numbers give no indication of the location of the user, so location-targeted random digit dialling will not work for telephone calls to mobile numbers. This may not be the end of telephone research just yet, but the outlook doesn’t look good.

Face-fo-face research

Well how about face-to-face research involving traditional survey methods, intercepting people as they exit retailers or shopping centres, surely that was pretty healthy pre-Covid-19? Well it was, but to use that oft used cliché, ‘none of us are getting any younger’. Never was this truer than for the market research interviewer community. In fact, what is happening is that more and more of the most capable, most experienced and hence best researchers are retiring, but crucially they are not being replaced by younger researchers. The result is that this is a dying skill. Research companies are increasingly turning to ‘cheaper, more available resources’ i.e. students. Again, all well and good, you may say, and I know many are trustworthy and in time they could even become skilled. However, it is more likely that they will move into some other form of full-time employment, and they will leave market research behind. But even so, comparing them to skilled, trained, experienced researcher interviewers is just not fair. Much of this is driven by cost considerations and the need to do things more effectively and I dare say online. Countless young marketers will have made use of social media to conduct ‘free’ market research. But the thing is this: once the novelty of completing those online surveys and those ‘how did we do?’ requests for free has worn off, where will we turn to in order to get our market research done? By that time, is it possible that the role of the traditional market researcher will have disappeared completely? And it won’t necessarily be an easy thing to start up again. The good news is that

About the author:

PAUL Latimer is an experienced market researcher. Having held a number of marketing roles in a wide variety of industries, he moved over to focus on market research from the agency side in 2004, before setting up his own market research consultancy, Latimer Appleby, in 2012. He is a graduate of the University of Birmingham, and holds several diplomas, including those from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Market Research Society (MRS) and the Institute of Data & Marketing. He is a Certified Member of the MRS, and a Fellow of the CIM. For more information, see www.latimerappleby.com.

marketers are generally very bright people and I’m sure they will find other ways to conduct research but maybe, just maybe, we should expect to see some huge changes in the research industry in the coming years ahead.

Seismic shifts in market research

These thoughts were penned even before the current global pandemic. Latest figures show that in general terms, grocery shopping is healthy, up 3.3% year on year, but this hides some significant shifts. We are seeing continued huge growth in online grocery shopping; people are shopping more locally to where they live. Latest data from Tesco shows are habits have changed again and we are now more likely to grocery shop once a week. So what things will we have to consider in the future when it comes to, for instance, face-to-face research? Can we apply social distancing when we interview shoppers in a retail environment? Will we see market researchers in full PPE? I can only think that things for market research might look even more bleak as we battle our way through this most unpredictable of times. My message to all businesses out there is simple: market research, use it or lose it.

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STAPLETON’S FLOUR POWER ANSWERS ALDI’S CALL!

WITH so many households taking to baking in a big way, keeping flour on the supermarket shelves has been a real challenge. Stapleton’s Bakery, based in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, and who supply Aldi with nine fresh bread lines, including Handmade Irish Pitta Bread, has added another essential product to its business, supplying 142 Aldi stores nationwide with two varieties of flour, 1kg plain or 1kg wholemeal. “This is a perfect example of the close relationship that exists between Aldi and our suppliers,” said John Curtin, Group Buying Director of Aldi Ireland. “With such a demand for flour, we are very happy to be able to have extra product on the shelves of all 142 Aldi stores - Joe and his team at Stapleton’s Bakery have done a great job turning this around in such a short space of time.”

CIRCLE K LAUNCHES ‘LITTLE THANK YOUS’ INITIATIVE

CIRCLE K has launched a new community initiative to give special recognition to the people in Ireland who are working hard to keep the country moving right now. ‘Little Thank Yous’ gives customers the chance to send a gift to someone who they feel deserves a thank you for their efforts to support their local community, from health professionals to teachers, delivery drivers or business owners who have donated food to a local cause. Customers visit circlekthanks.eu/ie and personalise a message and share a gift link, which can be sent to up to five of their ‘heroes’. When the customer’s chosen ‘hero’ opens the link to redeem their gift, they will be provided with a list of beverages from Circle K’s in-store product range that they can redeem for free in sites across Circle K’s company owned store network nationwide.

INITIAL HYGIENE’S INNOVATIVE ANTIBACTERIAL DOOR HANDLE SOLUTION

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MRS DOYLE’S TEA IN ALDI

IF ever there was a time for a decent cup of Mrs Doyle’s tea, it’s definitely now, and the good news is that Mrs Doyle’s tea is available in Aldi since May 20. Over the years, Mrs Doyle has had many offers to bring her famous Irish tea blend to the big island but it seems she knew there would be a time, and a place, and it’s definitely now, as she partners with Aldi Ireland. With each pack sold, there will be a donation made to help children in the developing world make it through the present crisis.

JAVA REPUBLIC CAMPAIGN SUPPORTS PIETA

JAVA Republic has launched its ReLeaf Campaign, which will see the company donate €1 from every box of tea sold online to Pieta, throughout the month of May. The Covid-19 pandemic meant that Pieta had to cancel its largest annual fundraising campaign, Darkness into Light, and instead is appealing to others to help spread its messages of solidarity and raise awareness of the work it does. “We have always been huge advocates for the tremendous work Pieta does within our society. Now more than ever we need to be mindful of our own mental health and get help and support if needed. We’re privileged to be in a position to support Pieta”, said Grace O’Shaughnessy, Managing Director of Java Republic.