“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” W. Edwards Deming, famed data analyst, said this great quote, and for me, it’s the ultimate MacGuffin.
Remember this meeting?
By now in your career, you’ve probably had the chance to be part of a great brainstorm meeting. One person has an idea, then another, then another, until your wall is covered in over-sized post-it notes. Spread before you is the foundation for greatness, and you can feel the excitement of building something that’s going to rock the marketing world.
But then the voices come out of the walls. “We should do this one!” or “What about that one?” and, of course, “This is how we did it last time!” And just like that, your opinion of creative brainstorming gets changed.
Great minds don’t always think alike
It’s not that great minds don’t think of great ideas – they definitely do! But despite the famous saying, great minds, unfortunately, do not always think alike. They think for themselves. They think of great, clever, witty, fun, fantastic ideas. And when two or more of those ideas come head to head, usually only one can win.
So here comes the question: if you have two great ideas, and only one can win, how do you know you chose the right path?
Market research for the win!
Our brainstorm example is a sea of opinions. Loud opinions, quiet opinions, new-idea opinions, experienced opinions, biased opinions, and more. They’re ideas that stand on the shoulders of the presenter.
What fantastic marketing needs is an unbiased opinion. Decisions made by fact, influenced by information that will make or break your campaign. And this, fearless readers, is where market research comes into play.
The data we look at to make marketing decisions, the vital market research information that the S2 team knows is important to your bottom line, is that necessary component to your creative planning. It’s the voice of your audience, and the actions of your customers. It’s the trends of the market, the pursuits of your targets, or the challenges of your competitors. It’s the information you need, whether you have it or not.
Take two parts brainstorm, one part research, stir and enjoy!
Consider the brainstorm sessions you’ve been in again. Ideas, big post-its, the whole nine yards. But add one more component – irrefutable truth about what you’re trying to do.
Are you planning a media campaign? Imagine you have a fact-sheet about your audience’s media consumption.
Are you coming up with clever advertising copy? Imagine if you have metrics on how your audience responds to specific word choices.
Are you mapping out a promotional strategy? Imagine if you have data on the times of day/week your audience will engage with your industry.
I’m not talking about ideas, experience, or opinions. I’m not talking about a QSR marketing expert saying “I’ve seen that customers usually come in around….” or a home services marketing director saying “We’ve seen customers respond well to television and radio….” No, we’re talking about data.
That fact-sheet, that’s coming from actual viewing habits, cut out to see the data from the people your brand is trying to reach. Those word-preference metrics, those are coming directly from advertising testing and audience surveys. The time of week data, that’s an average of the actual schedule habits from your primary audience niche.
So, you have truthful, factual information, and the conclusions are helping guide the course of your brainstorm. Consider now, how much more effective the solution to that “which route should we go” question becomes.
The ultimate MacGuffin
For those not-in-the-know, “a MacGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.”
Why do I consider data the ultimate MacGuffin? Because data is necessary to the story you’re trying to tell. And, more importantly, it’s without value if it’s not part of that conversation!
See, the great thing about the knowledge that data analysis brings us is its clear, simple, guiding truth. It lights the path, guides the way, and ultimately builds a definitive structure for creative minds to play within. It’s not the idea – it’s the facts that make the idea great. It negates differing arguments, it settles disputes, and it defeats bad ideas.
But knowledge alone is useless without application. All of the data analysis in the world can’t deliver the best campaign. It’s the great minds behind those campaigns that make it a reality. Data is insignificant without a mind to use its findings, and that’s why marketing with data analysis behind you is so incredible. Data doesn’t eliminate creativity – it fuels it!
It all adds up
I grew up in the home of an accountant, and to this day, I’m reminded that the amount a person owes is not dependent on the accountant. Accountants do math, and math is what it is. And if you’re getting a different result, you need a better accountant.
Market research works the same way. When we’re analyzing data, it’s not up to our biases, but our abilities to draw the conclusions. We’re not voicing our opinions on a topic – we’re calculating, querying, cutting and cross-tabbing. We’re mathing-out spending ratios and deriving data-based personas. We’re letting the data speak to us, so we can share it with you.
And that’s where a great market research firm can really boost your marketing efforts. Give us the right data, and we’ll show you how to use it build an insights-based framework to your marketing.
Consider another quote from Mr. Demings:
“In God we trust, all others must bring data.”
If you want to make it in marketing, you either need a multi-decade-base of experience, or a solid argument for your marketing case. And since we’re still waiting on Doc Brown’s Deloreon to show up, the data option is your best bet. You need to back up your ideas, your opinions and your cleverness with data. You need to come in swinging with a bat that your opponents, and your audience, can’t refute.
So what are you waiting for? S2 Research is here to help you get started on your data analysis project! Whether you’re looking at existing secondary industry data, your own database of information, or even if you want to conduct some exciting primary research to uncover new information about your customer base, we’re here to make it a reality. Give us a call, and let’s talk about your people. Contact S2 Research today!