Licensing: Live issue research - Why client research can miss the mark

Research has always played an important role in sales promotion. Most agencies would not dream of entering a pitch or responding to a brief without first scrutinising the attitudes of the target market. And the desire to show return on investment means that post-campaign evaluation has long been a must.

But agencies are now facing demands for research once they have put their ideas to the client, halfway through the process. "It is a regular occurrence with some of our bigger clients," says Roger Marriott, managing director of Dynamo Marketing. "We experience it with food, alcohol and other FMCG brands and retailers."

With the trend towards fewer, but bigger campaigns, the major SP players are moving away from simple on-pack promotions to campaigns that stretch online and involve above-the-line promotion. That means a great deal more money being put into promotions - and clients want to make sure it is well spent. "Rather than research a promotional concept, they are researching an entire theme through the line," adds Marriott. "And then they'll research the promotional mechanics."

Marketing directors are under pressure from internal procurement departments and their bosses to justify their expenditure. Researching a promotion before it is launched can provide this justification. The problem, some agencies argue, is that by slavishly following research, clients are unwittingly diluting creativity and robbing promotions of excitement.

Few agencies are willing to go on the record to register their displeasure with their clients. One agency boss points to a recent pitch for a confectionery brand in which he had participated. He saw the creative ideas that won the business for a different agency, but the final campaign - a simple cash prize giveaway - was substantially different. A risk-averse client, he contended, had failed to back the agency's idea following research. "We saw the ideas going into the pitch - for us the result was very disappointing. It was hardly pushing the envelope."

A risky business

The advertising industry has also started complaining about risk-averse marketers testing an agency's ideas to destruction. The result is campaigns that rely on tried-and-tested methods, but are not creative enough to stand out and create a breakthrough for the brand.

Greg Nugent, marketing director of Eurostar, backs up this view. "Agencies are half right and half wrong. Research is not necessarily bad, but done badly it can be. Some clients use research either to kill something or to remove risk."

Not everyone agrees. Ian Millner, chief executive of Iris, says the idea that research stifles creativity is "ludicrous". His agency builds consumer panels to shadow a campaign's development. Ideas are run past the panel to ensure they are on the right track. Rather than being at odds with the creative process, research feeds it, Millner argues.

"People in agencies tend to be white, middle-class and university educated. They don't have a clue about the real world," says Millner. "They need to invite real people into the process, and develop an idea in the context in which it will be received."

Not all research is the same, of course. There is a difference between a hastily convened focus group and hiring a market research agency to conduct an in-depth survey. If a client wants to research an idea, it is important that samples are robust, results are studied in detail, and time for it is built into the schedule.

It does not always happen this way. Simon Marjoram, director at Geoff Howe, has seen marketers base their opinions on flimsy studies. "We've had some clients who have just shown an idea around their building and taken that straw poll as research."

Handle with care

The key to getting the most from research is to use it carefully and at the right time. "You should only put stuff into research when you're happy with the creative," adds Marjoram. "The ideas should be at a stage where everyone is happy. If the client re-engineers the campaign on the basis of the feedback, that can be wrong."

This means that the client and agency should agree to the core idea, then use research to guide how that can be implemented. That was the approach used by Branston Beans for its campaign through The Big Kick. Launched in 2005, the brand won a seven per cent share in three months on the back of an experiential campaign that asked consumers to compare the taste of Branston Beans and Heinz Baked Beans.

According to Debbie Simmons, chairman of The Big Kick, the agency and client had decided that the campaign should focus on the taste of Branston Beans. The agency then researched the idea among 250 adults in a pub in Hertfordshire. The team handed out samples of the product and recorded people's reactions. What they found was that when people tasted the beans in isolation, their feedback was simply that they tasted like beans. They had nothing with which to compare them. As a result, the agency decided that a taste comparison involving Branston and its rival was the best way forward.

"Without that research we may simply have conducted a sampling campaign," says Simmons. "I'm not sure we would have developed the campaign we did if we hadn't done the initial research."

Eurostar's tie-in with the release of The Da Vinci Code movie, handled by Space is a similar case. Nugent says it worked on the campaign for 18 months without research because it knew the core idea was sound. It was only with three months to go that research was used to tweak the campaign.

"What the research did was tell us what would or would not get people excited - what sort of games, what sort of prizes," says Nugent. "It took away the risk and gave us confidence that what we were planning would work."

The concept paid off - more than 150,000 consumers took part in the promotion and advance bookings to London and Paris jumped by 20 per cent.

Despite agencies' fears, research can be a benefit. With client marketers under pressure to justify their expenditure, canny agencies recognise that good research presents an opportunity to cement their role as their clients' strategic partners.

This is crucial as sales promotion shops jostle for position with agencies from other disciplines for that big idea. Dynamo's Marriott points to an integrated campaign his agency is handling for food brand Danone. The agency says it won the business due to the strength of its research. In situations such as this, Marriott argues, being able to back up your concepts "levels the playing field".

Clients who depend on research may seem risk-averse, but it is up to agencies to prove that what they are suggesting will work. Those agencies that recognise and understand the demands being placed on marketers will be the ones that win their trust - and their business.

SOUTHERN COMFORT/IRIS

Agency Iris was tasked by drinks brand Southern Comfort to develop a relationship marketing campaign for 18- to 24-year-old males. It held a series of group discussions with members of the target market to assess attitudes toward the brand.

One early idea for a Southern Comfort club was dropped when research showed young men would not aspire to be members. Instead, Iris found they would prefer to hear from the brand through offers, access to unique content and competitions, and that digital would be the most appropriate method of communication. Iris also found the target market would be happy to give out email addresses in order to find out about sponsored music events, merchandise and competitions.

Because the brand did not have a database, year one has been focused on driving recruitment via off and online media with the aim of capturing data. For example, an in-bar poker campaign, which ran in 1,600 bars in November 2006, directed consumers to a website containing poker tips and opportunities to win branded poker kits.

Results so far have seen excellent site traffic with opted-in data capture passing its first-year target by the end of the third quarter.