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The Conference Continues
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24/3/01
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Another fast moving day at the annual MRS Conference in Brighton covered an awe inspiring range of topics as the rain teemed down outside. Included on the agenda were the much discussed impact of the Internet on research, customer loyalty and satisfaction, social issues, the research advertising interface, branding and creative thinking for competitive advantage.
Following Rupert Howell’s challenging keynote address to the MRS Conference last year arguing that the industry had failed to come up with innovative new ways of conducting advertising research, two papers presented today responded to this challenge.
Merry Baskin of Baskin Shark and Neil Coburn of Research Business
International in a paper entitled "Two Tribes Divided by a Common
Language?" identified several key reasons behind the tension between ad
agency planners and advertising market researchers. This includes the
undisputable fact that both "tribes" have a different agenda in
terms of their motivations and expectations from research. Some of the
suggestions offered for building a "peace agreement" include
proper briefings, involving the marketing director, understanding the
advertising strategy and brand/consumer relationship and explaining it
properly, devoting sufficient time to the job, understanding the difference
between idea and execution and increased strategic and creative development
research at the start of the process.
Vaughn Flood of Ideas in Action then outlined a fresh practical approach to
making qualitative research a more sensitive and reliable tool in terms of
exploring the potential appeal of innovative ideas. The company has been
combining group discussions with a number of follow up online
"feedback/rumination" sessions over a certain time period. In this
context, a succession of rumination pages are placed on the Internet with
respondents free to visit and submit their input at any point within a given
timeframe.
In the social arena, Sue Brooker and Graham Kelly of BMRB International
discussed the findings from the NSPCC Full Stop campaign baseline survey.
The findings so far raise questions in several areas about the adequacy of
the present child protection system in the UK but it is hoped that the
results will establish benchmarks in terms of the future monitoring of the
treatment of children.
On the customer satisfaction and loyalty front, Roger Donbavand of Business
Development Research Consultants and Maryan Broadbent of The Royal Bank of
Scotland presented an interesting case study into how the bank has attempted
to take on the realities of customer relationship management. Through the
results of consumer workshops conducted by BDRC, the RBS instigated a field
CRM test in Glasgow. This yielded such positive results (with a 5% increase
in sales for the bank in the test area) that the sign off has now been given
for a national CRM offensive at the bank.
Given the mass of material generated by the Conference presentations, MrWeb
will be returning to further investigate some of these themes in the near
future.
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