One of the biggest challenges (or opportunities) facing the marketing research industry today is the blurring of boundaries between research and consulting. Increasingly, clients are expecting research firms to not only provide insights, but also act as consultants in overall business and marketing strategy planning. I believe that firms best placed to thrive in the next decade are the ones that adopt the 'consulting' mindset, rather than the pure 'information' mindset.
Even though most researchers like to think that they are consultants (by default), this is not the case in most instances. Adopting a consultant's mindset requires a significant face-shift not only in terms of skills, but also in terms of approach and the overall delivery model.
Quite simply put, I differentiate researchers and consultants based on one fundamental criterion: a researcher works with data, while a consultant works with data gaps. This essentially means that a 'consultant' doesn't rely on the primary data to solve the client's business problem. Solving a business problem goes beyond merely using primary data - it is a combination of data (primary and secondary), expertise, context, judgement and intuition.
I have a quick audit to determine where one lies on the strategic value creation continuum.
1. Do you know the key forces affecting the client's industry and business in general?
2. Do you know the client's strategic objectives for the next financial year? This not only includes marketing objectives, but also their advertising strategy, media, brand plans.
3. What is your level of collaboration with the client throughout the research process? Do you attend the client's internal planning sessions? Do you meet with the client at on-going intervals to discuss findings and brainstorm hypotheses/ possible actions? (rather than going away once the research was commissioned and coming back after 2 months with a magic solution!!).
4. Have you used alternative knowledge sources to address the problem? (i.e. secondary data, client's internal database information, industry context, expertise and judgement).
5. Do you provide 'insights' versus just 'information'? More importantly, do you provide a strategic action plan for the client based on the findings?
6. Do you help the client operationalise and implement these strategic recommendations? Do you follow up and see if these strategic recommendations were implemented and if they had any value to the client?
7. Finally, and most importantly, would you still be able to solve the client's business problem if there were gaps in the primary data?
If we can answer "yes" to each of these questions, we can be sure to have made the transition from being a source of "information" to a source "strategic value" to our clients.
I totally agree with Adnan. To comprehend what Adnan has written here, it simply means your approach to any given task as a consultant. You can either get away with mundane data crunching or add value by going a step further. So in the end you either meet the client's expectations or beat it. In the process you come out as a stronger professional with insights about the domain you are working on and better problem solving skills. It is really commendable the way Adnan has gathered his thoughts together to write this article on such a important aspect i.e. Delivery or approach to an engagement / assignment.
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