Storytelling in Market Research

Storytelling in Market Research

Foreword

The study of market research wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of New Coke. It’s a classic example of miscommunication between the company and the consumer and blind following of research. In the field of marketing this story represents a company being persuaded by the storytelling of numbers and statistics, without taking into account the largest component of marketing: the human element. Smart market research requires hard numbers, but marketing is still an art. Successfully navigating the market means having intuition based on fact, and then packaging the product’s message in a neat thirty-second to one-minute ad spot, and in such a way that it resonates with the consumer. The story of New Coke is the story of what not to do when conducting market research. (This example comes from discussions in my marketing management class and from Qualtrics.com, a market research firm).

Example Story

Setup: Coca-Cola’s research tells it that taste is the number one factor in the company’s declining market share.

Back in the mid-1980s, Coca-Cola market share was declining and it was frantically trying to correct the fall. Its research told it that taste was the culprit. So the company conducted hundreds of thousands of taste tests, and moved forward with blind assurance that New Coke was the answer to its market share woes. New Coke could have been a welcome change in Coca-Cola’s product line-up, but what it didn’t do when it was conducting research was tell consumers that they would pull Classic Coke from stores; Coca-Cola didn’t realize the emotional attachment and value of the Coca-Cola taste. So when Classic Coke was removed from stores, consumers rebelled.

Analysis

This anecdote demonstrates the power of correctly, or incorrectly, reading causes and effects. Given the problem of declining market share, companies must correctly identify causes and take guided, measured, fact and intuition-based steps to produce favorable effects. Persuasion in this story comes from the data collected from hundreds of thousands of people. Because the data was flawed, it persuaded Coca-Cola to take action that would lose it millions of dollars.

Retelling

Setup: Instead of focusing on the company as a whole, I focused on the executives’ reactions to imply their reliance on the consumer:

The Coca-Cola boardroom is in a panic. After seeing market shares fall, the soft drink powerhouse again watches its numbers plummeting to the ground. Executives pace around the room, stare out of windows, sit twiddling their thumbs. Where have all their customers gone? The simple truth is that Coca-Cola executives didn’t trust their original, time-honored taste to bring in customers. The resulting consumer rebellion and loss of millions of dollars is one of the most recognizable marketing mishaps on record. And what dastardly product did this? New Coke, “It actually tastes better!”

I rearranged the story somewhat to start at the end, when consumers left Coca-Cola. I also shifted viewpoints from the company to the executives to reiterate just how reliant on consumer loyalty they are, and how not trusting that loyalty can have destructive results. All their jobs are on the line because of a market research mishap.

Communication and Persuasion in Market Research

There are several myths that float around in consumers’ minds when they think about marketers. One is that marketers are pushy, and that they will lie and cheat to move product out the door. Another is that consumers are no match for a wily, well-trained marketer. These myths conjure up images of a slick-haired salesman, sitting at his desk thinking of ways he can hustle a few unwary buyers. First, any consumer who thinks this is thinking of the wrong profession. If marketers pushed unwanted products, they would be out of a job, along with the CEO, Vice President, and the entire Board of Directors; lying or cheating would simply expedite the process. Second, consumers have all the power; their voices dictate virtually all of a company’s actions. Companies can, and do, fail when they cut off precious communication with the consumer. The market research profession seeks to foster this communication, and in the process, consumers can, and do, persuade companies to take action for better products and better services.

In order to achieve this, market researchers have to ask questions. Because marketers need to know the real-world problems that buyers are trying to solve, companies have to assume that they are not in control. This is why the strongest rhetoric comes from the consumer. Ingenious marketing is more often than not the result of good questions and good answers. Companies spend millions for this privilege. Domino’s, for example, recently overhauled its pizza recipe as a result of intense focus group sessions, Twitter feeds, and one comment in particular: “There is no love, no love in this pizza.” Never mind “the tomato sauce tastes like ketchup” or “this crust is cardboard.” The taste-able lack of love in the pizza set off the warning bells at Domino’s headquarters: people don’t like our pizza.

This phenomenon of emotional connection, however, isn’t limited to pizza. The Plastics Council, for example, was fighting environmental groups and lawmakers for the survival of plastic itself in the country. It released a series of ads in the 90s that fell completely short. The reason: it made the wrong emotional connection. Their first round of ads triggered emotional responses more akin to “I felt like I was drowning in plastic.” After reflecting and repositioning, marketers at the Plastics Council asked the right questions, this time looking at the personal benefits that people gain from using plastics, and building up to a strong, positive emotional connection. If the Plastics Council hadn’t reached out to people and gotten meaningful feedback, its message would have been lost. More importantly, if the marketers at the Plastics Council hadn’t asked the right questions, there would have been no feedback at all.

Persuasion in market research, then, comes from the people. This is what most interests me about marketing. As a marketer, I’m not selling snakeoil, I’m building connections and solving problems. And all I have to do is ask the right questions.