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The role of market research in 2015 #NewMR Social Media Challenge

1 Introduction

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Notes about this report

This report is the TNS submission to the NewMR collaborative review of social media research. It addresses the objective of examining the benefits that social media research can currently deliver through the lens of the topic of market research.

The report focuses on the two business objectives of:

Increase the use of MR (which is taken to include increasing the value of MR, increasing the number of situations where MR is used, and increasing the number of people using MR)

Increasing the number of suitably qualified people who want to work in the market research industry/profession

Analysis of social media posts in English, French and Italian has been conducted in order to address the business objectives across a number of countries. The report is the result of a collaborative effort from many colleagues across TNS, as follows:

Lead Analyst

Preriit Souda

Supporting Analysts

Andrea Cartabia, Laura Fontana, Kyle Findlay, Leonardo Gherardi, Anastasios Hadjianastasiou, David Mermoud, Manuella Molia and Veronica Ravaglia.

Contributing Authors

Sarah Ashley, Bob Burgoyne, Andrea Cartabia, Laura Fontana, Leonardo Gherardi, Emily Gong, Veronica Ravaglia, Evert Rutgers, Preriit Souda, Phil Sutcliffe and Karine Trinquetel.

©1998 – 2015 TNS, a Kantar Group Company. All rights reserved

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Context and approach

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Self-expression through social channels (whether Facebook, Twitter or more specific forums) is second nature to digital natives – and a rapidly learned behaviour for the older ‘silver surfer’ generation. Consumers are increasingly aware of the power they can exercise through these channels, and some less agile brands are struggling to adapt in this environment.

In parallel to this however, there is an emerging consensus that companies which are able to effectively manage and derive insight from data (the new “oil” or “soil”) are more successful. Sources of information are rapidly multiplying and the sheer volume of data is growing exponentially. These are exciting times for insight professionals – we should be well placed to help our clients capitalize on these new sources and redress the balance of informational power in the marketing ecosystem.

At TNS, we take a holistic view of data and recognize that all sources and collection methodologies have comparative advantages; questions they are particularly suited to helping answer, or business requirements which they can fulfill more effectively. Our approach to solving clients’ business issues is therefore “data agnostic” or, put a different way “data appropriate” – we use a combination of sources and methodologies to leverage their benefits and avoid their pitfalls.

We work with data which are fit for purpose given the business question, budget and speed requirements. We also recognize that volume does not equate to value – we help our clients focus on the data that matter, smart data if you like, rather than obsessing about big data.

Whilst for a typical client project we would be likely to triangulate social media data with survey and/or qualitative data, our focus for this project has been social media data alone. Our approach involved running numerous queries related to market research (e.g. marketing research, surveys, data science, big data etc.) across most of the key social media channels as well as blog posts and forums. Search queries were made in English, French and Italian for the year July 2014 to June 2015. Findings have been extrapolated based on 20% of all social media data for the period, with Netbase as our source of the data.

We use a smart combination of human insight specialists and big data analytical techniques. After extensive data cleaning, SPSS modeller text mining was used to identify the key issues and individual posts have been used to illustrate these themes. Network maps are used to identify who is involved in the conversation and the degree of influence they have.

2 Summary

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The MR industry needs to grasp the opportunity social media provides

The wider public frequently discuss ‘polls’ and ‘surveys’ online where the topics relate to sport, pop culture or politics. However, to many observing our industry from outside, we’re seen as boring and associated with nuisance calls.

Within the MR industry a relatively small number of influencers dominate content, with Twitter and Linked In being used more to like or share content rather than as fora for discussion and debate. There is the opportunity for industry bodies to learn from the management consulting and tech industries and provide open access to content to disseminate better the MR industry’s views and opportunities to the outside world and potential employees.

With the explosion of interest in topics such as big data, analytics, data visualisation, business intelligence and neuroscience, MR’s share of voice is relatively small. We talk about these topics within the industry and how MR needs to evolve and capitalise on new data sources to stay relevant. However, MR is not yet effectively harnessing this to its advantage in social media.

Most of the MR content online relating to career opportunities is focussed towards those already in the industry and the job posts tend to reflect the traditional requirements of a market researcher rather than capabilities that are needed to take our industry forward.

A great market researcher has invaluable skills – the ability to draw insight from data and deliver actionable recommendations through engaging stories about people. These skills are more important than ever in a big data world. The MR industry needs to take the opportunity to communicate this more effectively through social media channels to clients and prospective employees.

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Key takeouts for market research

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Information is not knowledge

The industry needs to take advantage of the current buzz around big data and analytics to develop more visibility for MR and reinforce MR’s competitive advantage; i.e. the ability to generate insight out of the mass of data and translate it into actionable recommendations.

A little more talk and a little more action

If Elvis had been a modern market researcher, he would have updated his lyrics to encourage the industry not only to accelerate its pace of innovation, but also to be more proactive about appropriating conversations around data analysis to its benefit.

1+1=3

Create more of a discussion around the industry and its opportunities and collaborate with specialists like database managers and data visualization specialists in order to spur on innovation and change, and create more valuable services for clients.

Build it and they shall come

We must create a more vibrant exchange of ideas and communicate the innovative spirit in the research industry more broadly, to attract young graduates and data scientists and give them the desire to learn more about the industry.

3 Investigating the Market Research relevant conversations

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We found it wasn’t straightforward to isolate conversations about MR. For example, in France in setting up our queries, we first included the terms ‘sondage’ and ‘#etude’ to capture conversations around surveys and the broader theme of MR.

What we found was an enormous amount of noise, in the form of:

Sports Twitter accounts ‘polling’ their fans on Twitter on which team would win an upcoming football match

Teenagers talking about fun online polls, a study of the average amount of pocket money French parents give their children, or making jokes such as “surveys say that x out of y people…”

Huge amounts of people sharing interesting survey results (largely around politics) and statistics, but not discussing the domain of MR specifically

When we re-adjusted our query to clean out all this noise, in France we were left with a level of conversation that was only 0.06% of the volume of our original query (only 9529 posts in the past year, compared to 1,620,718 for the broader query), highlighting a culture in France where people love statistics and findings, but do not make the connection between them and the market research industry.

Distilling the signal from the noise*

*French data

Broad query Posts related to MR as a profession

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To many observing our industry from outside, we’re seen as boring and associated with nuisance calls

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A selection of English language posts…

I think market research companies like… calling my mobile with.

Why do you feel its ok to cold call people numerous times to take part in a survey? Well as I said in my emails call me again and I won’t be responsible for my language.

Market research is the most boring thing I want to die.

So my brother has to do some boring market research for work, can you spare 5 mins?

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58.7 19.8

10.3

2.5 8.7

77.4

12.4

7.5 1.8

0.7 21

31.9 29

10.8

7.2

French 9,529 Italian 14,969

MR discussions* on social media are dominated by English language and by forwarding links

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English 2,379,252

English language conversations dwarf those in French or Italian by a factor of c25,000 to 1. Twitter dominates in English and French but much less so in Italian where Twitter as a channel is much smaller and skewed to a young, technologically advanced user group.

The strong skew to Twitter with its 140 character limit means that in general, the conversations on social media involve sharing soundbites and links to articles, rather than people expressing their opinions on market research. The culture on Twitter and LinkedIn is one of link sharing, with people liking or retweeting posts, but far fewer people replying or discussing the topic at hand further. This creates an effect where social networks act more as amplifiers rather than as a forum of exchange and debate; this atmosphere of exchange does exist around other topics (e.g. politics), but MR is not currently a high enough engagement topic for people to discuss it in that way.

*Primary terms: #marketresearch, #marketingresearch, #consumerinsight, #mrx, ""marketing research"", ""market research"", ""consumerinsight"", ""marketresearch"", ""marketingresearch"“ ** (12 month period, June 2014-15)

% % %

Twitter News Blogs Forums Other

4 Who is involved in the conversation

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Key influencers over the past year English language

Each dot on this network map represents a tweet and the lines in between show the connections between the Twitter handles.

The big dots marked show the organisations, individuals and media platforms that are most active in the conversation about market research.

The physical proximity on the map indicates a high degree of connectivity, for example between Ray Poynter and Lenny Murphy. Key

MRAmrx

RayPoynter

Euromonitor

Lennyism

kristinluck

RealTonyRocha

LoveStats

researchlive

TechCrunch

anthonyha TweetMRS

visioncritical

PMRVRfromRFL

ESOMAR tomderuyck

Ipsos Mori MikeMacLeod

MRX_Robot

DJSResearch

Organisation

Individuals

Media platforms

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There is an opportunity for industry bodies to broaden the MR industry presence

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Currently social media conversations are dominated by a small number of individuals potentially skewing the industry perception online. Most Linked In groups are very similar, with similar stories, re-sharing of the same content and a select few people doing most of the posting. So long as ESOMAR and MRS remain relatively restricted communities requiring memberships, alternative spaces represent the key areas for disseminating the Market Research Industry’s views and opportunities to the outside world/potential employees.

Members only magazines, events and resources locked behind login screens

Open-access articles/ magazines and educational videos are more common amongst the Management Consulting and Tech Industries vs.

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Syntec_etudes

FBenaut

TNS Sofres

Wizbii_jobs

InternFrance

Digimind_FR

DataGroupEurope

MRX_Robot

DataGroupUSA

Major_Brands

W4_Jobs_France

DataGroupAsia

ninjacking

sophiecorbiere

Zooming into the MR industry-specific community French

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Looking at the MR community specifically (circled in red), we find that conversation has been centered largely around the major annual market research event, le Printemps des Etudes.

There are also a few more digital and startup-centric accounts which retweet and diffuse content around new MR products or job offers (circled in light blue).

Further out towards the edge, we see some accounts dedicated to sharing job postings in France, which are generally consumed but not interacted with (circled in orange).

And on the fringes, there is a constellation of accounts dedicated to tweeting news about new surveys and reports.

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Conversation map Italian key influencers

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@AssirmRicerca is the

Italian association of market research institutes. Published contents mainly concern data releases or events.

@squadrati is a market research group specialising in semiotics.

@gcomin is the founder

of comin&partners. He deals with communication, journalism and public affairs.

BOTstartup write about innovation and start up.

5 Market research versus other sources of insight

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Map of Conversations happening on twitter around the broader sphere of insights in last 12 months.

(English)

Insight Universe MR’s share of voice is relatively small in the new, evolving insights universe (English)

25% Big data universe

22% Business intelligence

21% Neuro science

15% Conversations around market research

16% Data analysis

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Conversation at or around the event this year focused around:

Within the industry we talk a lot about big data Key themes at le Printemps de Etudes…

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As the key MR event in France, the topics discussed at the Printemps des Etudes are a barometer for the industry as a whole.

This year’s key buzz topics centered around big data, future-proofing MR companies, real-time insights, and the coming into fruition of social media insights.

This panorama of discussion reveals a recognition that MR needs to evolve and capitalize on new streams of data in order to stay relevant.

How to create skills and business structures in the current MR context.

Big data: The opportunity to exploit, the cost of analysis, and the need to structure data for actionable insights.

Real-time insights. The maturation and increasing integration of social media insights.

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But MR is only a very small part of the broader scope of data conversations (French)

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Big data/data science, data visualization and CRM elicit very large volumes of discussion – particularly around data visualization, as infographics are very popular content to share socially.

There is a large amount of overlap in the conversations around these topics, especially between infographics and big data, demonstrating the importance of all three elements of analytics, visualization and business impact for businesses looking to play in this space.

The node of conversation around market research (in the red circle) is much smaller showing that MR is currently not adequately exploiting the huge conversation around big data to build more visibility and recognition as an industry.

Big data/data science

Data visualisation

CRM

Market research

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Big Data Some observations from Social Media

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There is an increasing perception/acknowledgement that “Big Data” is only as good as the people who can analyse it.

However MR analytics have not caught up – too great a reliance on Tech companies in spaces where MR could credibly play.

Key credible tech players in this space in social media: IBM, Microsoft, Intel, SAP, Google.

Big Data Social Media groups don’t discuss MR and its potential usefulness. The MR industry are very much the observers and commentators on Big Data, not vice-versa.

There is an opportunity for MR to stand up as the human face and interpreters of Big Data. Big data needs effective analysis, insight generation and storytelling. MR can capitalise on the shift in terminology we are seeing to “good” or “smart” data.

6 Attracting talent to the industry

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2 in 5 posts about market research in French are about jobs and training

18% Market research training

Themes around MR jobs and internships make up 20% of our collected data set

Using text mining techniques, we grouped words that commonly appeared together in our data pool into themes and analyzed the occurrence of these themes in the data collected. Posts about jobs comprised about 1 in 5 posts captured in our dataset, while training comprised another 18%. That means almost 2 in 5 posts around market research were meant as career information dissemination tools, further underscoring the role of digital channels in France as a means of sharing and retrieving information, rather than one of exchanging ideas. Almost none of these posts were potential candidates expressing interest in working in the industry, revealing that online social sources are not where candidates discuss job potential, and that MR does not currently have the sort of profile that attracts large amounts of new interest.

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MR job postings are slow to see evolution

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For all the discussion around revolutionizing the industry, big data and integrating new streams of data into market research, recent job postings are still relatively traditional.

Too much of this… …not enough of this

The majority of job postings are still rooted in traditional survey, project management and report-writing skills.

Only a small propotion mention any capabilities in digital methodologies, data science or statistics. The industry seems to be more active in talking about evolution than in taking steps to enable the change.

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Meanwhile, data science is hot in many other fields

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In searching around data science and analytics-related fields, job positions are plentiful in domains ranging across marketing agencies, big brand clients, software firms, and consulting firms, but almost none appear for market research, an industry whose sole purpose is mining data to produce insights.

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Other industries are much more vocally and successfully engaging with young people through social media – be it through thought leadership or direct career advertising/ guidance.

MR needs more people in the industry to engage more proactively with younger people through thought leadership, careers guidance, mentoring etc. There is a huge amount of exciting innovation happening in MR and the industry should take the opportunity to share and discuss this thinking more actively to attract new, innovative hires that can drive further evolution in MR.

MR has the opportunity to build a much more engaging online presence to attract the best and brightest new talent to the industry

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Furthermore the negative tone to much of the MR discussion online risks being off-putting and uninspiring to young people.

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