BIG Conference Widens Horizons

Around a hundred b2b researchers, mostly UK-based but with a smattering of guests from Scandinavia, Austria, the States and elsewhere, gathered in Wales last week for the BIG Conference. As usual the papers included some thought-provoking pieces relevant within and beyond b2b circles.

BIG's annual event is one of the first things inked in on the b2b researcher's calendar each year, and this one did not disappoint, helped by the spectacular sunshine and a very good mix of new faces among the regulars. The setting of the Marriott St Pierre in Chepstow is beautiful, although we are told this may be the last year in the popular venue.

In the opening keynote, ad man and plain speaker Lucian Camp, Chairman of an advertising agency rejoicing in the name of cchm:ping, told the audience that b2b research had many opportunities ahead but needed to develop new strategies for communicating with business audiences, include companies' investors, clients and staff. Camp said researchers must 'break through the dead language of business and unlock an emotional response' and that businesses should devote more energy to internal research and to competition tracking. In the question session that followed, he stressed the importance of researching b2b service: 'There are very few b2b products... even most things that appear to be products are actually delivered within a service framework' - a framework which generally allows more differentiation than the product itself. He reserved his strongest opprobrium for one particular medium of service delivery, call centres, which he considers 'a sledgehammer to a brand'.

Andy Lack of Jigsaw Research then delivered a talk on research into 'Advertising Funded Programmes' for a business audience - that is TV or radio programmes wholly or partly funded by but not actually sponsored by a company or organisation. Video clips from the programme studied, sponsored by Investors in People, promised much but seemed to hit technical problems (surely it must be possible to show a video at a Conference without a hiccup? Or is it too leading edge?). Summing up the pros and cons with a chart entitled 'Are they a success?', Lack decided to give the previous speaker a nod and 'cut through some dead language', concluding: 'The answer is a very qualified Yes... which to some people means No'. Despite the resulting titters and some major problems revealed by the research, Lack said it was the viewing slot given to the programme studied (opposite EastEnders and at a time when its SME audience were quite likely to be still working or putting kids to bed) which had really dampened its effect and potentially, the idea was an interesting one.

Cathy Bickham of BT concluded the first trio of speakers with a talk on disseminating insight through her organisation, with particular reference to the recent 'Digital Networked Economy' campaign. Aside from giving an insight (sic) into the many different types of insight differentiated within BT, Bickham entertained her audience with a gentle reference to the 'short attention spans' of the salesmen making up one of the key audiences for the work, and the need to allow for them (bless). The presentation was referred to several times later in the day, usually a good measure of relevance.

After the break, Farrouk Suntook of HI Europe tackled the Conference theme of 'B2b: The Widening Horizon' head-on by asking if there weren't ways in which it was in fact narrowing. Among the trends highlighted in his paper, an excellent piece and a delight for an old b2b hack like your correspondent, Suntook pointed to the rising relevance of b2c issues for b2b, the loss of crucial skills by researchers and the move from research driven by understanding of 'the market' to understanding of marketing. As an example of the first, he said segmentation had moved in many cases from the old, hard demographics of business size and sector to a softer, needs-based segmentation - even in the ballbearings market a recent study had talked about a segment of buyers called 'Golden goose'.

To illustrate the other two points, Suntook produced a chart with new project summaries down the left hand side and some older examples down the right. The difference was not only readily apparent but strikingly apt: on the left, matters of image, awareness, branding, customer feedback, and on the right projects involving market sizing, internal staff interviews, combinations of research and logistics, sourcing and others. Generally, those on the right seemed much more interesting and much more consultancy-based - they implied clients feeling comfortable with researchers' broad ability and understanding of their business, instead of regarding them as narrow specialists who only knew about marketing. Most importantly, they were things your correspondent used to do all the time in his days at IFF research, and things hardly mentioned in other papers, or recently by other b2b-ers. Here was an interesting variation on the 'we ought to be more like management consultants' theme - someone pointing out that many of us actually were more like management consultants ten or more years ago, and we were losing that skill set and losing our reputation for being able to do it.

Referring to his own company's high-tech offering, Suntook said there was a danger that more and more automation of research would make the profession 'more superficial... the clever technologies make the conclusions self-evident' - for instance by putting graphs and charts ready-made in front of clients instead of requiring expert interpretation - and leaving researchers with 'less ability to piece together the jigsaw'.

Second part of this review

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.