Ogilvy on Research: Why Keep Asking Questions?

A lot of essential business functions look at the marketing department as a big mystery. They’re the people with big budgets making some kind of magic happen, but you’re not quite sure what that is or how it relates to what you do. They say things like “focus group”, “voice-of-customer”, “positioning”, “digital spend” and always bring up whatever the latest research says. You wonder… the business isn’t changing that much. Why keep asking questions?

We talk with a lot of companies and virtually everyone is looking to grow sales. Yet, nearly every day business owners, managers, even marketers tells us, “we know our customers” and “we don’t need research.” These comments are quickly followed by “we just need to know how to get more people to pay attention to us so they buy.”

Spoiler Alert – Market research is what tells you how to get people to pay attention to you and convince them to buy!

Without market research, it can take three or more years to stumble on to marketing strategies people will pay attention to – if it happens at all. It is amazing to me, that managers put up with poor sales for years when they could have answers about what would improve sales in a few weeks by simply utilizing market research. Successful brands from the most iconic companies use market research. You should too.

Why is market research important? Because you don’t know what you don’t know… and what you do know is that you have benchmarks and sales goals to meet, leads to gather and deals to close. If we’ve learned anything in the last year, it’s that the market, channel and customer priorities are in constant flux. So, let’s take a look at some best-of take-aways from the market research master, David Ogilvy.

The Father of Advertising

Marketers know the name David Ogilvy. He was a guru of marketing and advertising, and headed one of the most successful advertising firms of the 20^th century – Ogilvy and Mather – now known as simply Ogilvy. His perspective on the necessity of market research is spot on, legendary and started long before he earned the title the “Father of Advertising.”

Ogilvy started his career at Gallup; a research organization famous for its Gallup Poll. He attributed the success of his advertising campaigns to meticulous and persistent research into consumer habits. His book Ogilvy on Advertising is widely considered a must-read for those of us in marketing and advertising.

Before you picture Mad Men re-runs and say, “that book was written years ago, it has no relevance in today’s modern digital landscape.” You may have missed or forgotten the most important part of marketing. It’s about people not the vehicle. The principles of influence and persuasion are still the same. What’s more, your customers will tell you what works for them. All you have to do is ask.

It’s interesting that in the book, Ogilvy mentions research 170 times. He only mentions marketing 41 times.

Ogilvy on Research:

“There have always been noisy lunatics on the fringes of the advertising business. Their stock-in-trade includes ethnic humor, eccentric art direction, contempt for research, and their self-proclaimed genius. They are seldom found out, because they gravitate to the kind of clients who, bamboozled by their rhetoric, do not hold them responsible for sales results.”

Axiom’s Take – Sales are (mostly) all that matters. If your advertising and marketing aren’t driving sales, it’s art. We are not in the art business. Are you?

“Now comes research among consumers. Find out how they think about your kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them, and what promise would be most likely to make them buy your brand.”

Axiom’s Take – The best marketing is your customer’s words, wants, and needs reflecting back at them. Do you know what they say and think about your products?

“Research told me that what American tourists most wanted to see in Britain was history and tradition… So that is what I featured in the advertisements, only to be slaughtered in the British press for projecting an image of a country living in the past. Why did I not project a progressive industrial society? Why did I not feature the nuclear power stations which the British had just invented? Because our research had shown that American tourists had no desire to see such things, that’s why.”

Axiom’s Take – Show the customer what they want to see, not what you want them to see. Show them the solution to their longing. Do you know what your customers are looking for and what they want to see?

Selected Miracles of research

In the book, Ogilvy outlines “18 Miracles of Research” that can help you defeat competitors that are flying blind. Here are a few we rely on regularly.

Research can:

• Help you decide the optimum positioning for your product
• Define your target audience
• Get consumer reactions to a new product when it is still in the conceptual state
• Tell you whether your advertising communicates the message it’s intended to
• Estimate the sales of new products using mathematical models
• Find out which of several package designs will sell best
• Save you time and money by ‘reading’ your competitor’s markets

Axiom’s Take – Most companies fly blind. That’s why so few succeed. Good data produces miraculous results. Do you have the data you need to make an informed decision?

Last words from Ogilvy

“Few copywriters share my appetite for research. Research has often led me to good ideas. I have seen ideas so wild that nobody in his senses would dare to use them – until research found that they worked. Research has also saved me from making some horrendous mistakes.”

Axiom’s Take – Most companies have little appetite for research, preferring to go with “what they know” and fly blind. They get scared of “new” maybe “wild” ideas, and fear change. Yet they wonder why the phones are not ringing and then settle for lackluster results – little wonder marketing is sometimes viewed as an expensive, underperforming and unnecessary effort. Would you like to know what will make your phone ring?

Why Axiom

We can get you the answers you need in a few weeks to grow your business. Unlike many research companies that take months, we rely on best practices, not the latest fads. We deliver reliable data to spur discussion and accelerate decisions. We provide easy-to-read analysis and reporting with actionable opportunities capable of immediately increasing sales. All our work is conducted on a project basis with clear documentation of timelines, outcomes and costs before we start. No surprises – just results.

How can we help you get the answers you need to grow your business?