It is common knowledge that marketing managers and business executives conduct research to develop viable, actionable solutions to their marketing and business problems, the things that keep them up at night.
As an agency that lives and breathes creativity with a focus on solving our clients’ branding and marketing problems, Glazer+Kalayjian realizes that the methods we have available to develop new solutions haven’t performed exceptionally well over the years. Recently it has been found that approximately 95% of new product launches fail within three years. We find that unacceptable.
Currently the GK market and research efforts are led by Paul Richards, an expert marketer and research pioneer in his own right. He conducted research on focus groups to understand why their results tended to be inaccurate, unreliable, and generally performed poorly on guiding the creation of breakthrough solutions for marketers. What began as a two or three-month endeavor turned into a two year Research & Development effort that required re-thinking the entire process.
Turning focus groups into a powerful creative tool was akin to turning a Kia into a Ferrari!
Creative Development Sessions
Creative Development Sessions (CDS) are small groups that look like focus groups, but what is actually “under the hood” is an integration of powerful creative tools, a strong strategic and tactical marketing orientation, and a unique understanding of how the human mind functions in a group session, enabling the process, not the moderator to achieve the objectives of the assignment. The following are just three of the elements that contribute to delivering accurate, reliable and groundbreaking results.
1. The Knowledge Circle
We developed and use the Knowledge Circle. It represents all of the knowledge in a category. Typical group sessions only work in the KK and KDK areas. The result, all competitors are working with the same information and possible breakthrough solutions are not even considered, much less explored.
Creative Development Sessions enable us to effectively work in the DKDK and develop breakthrough solutions
2. Don’t Ask Why
Every moderator probes “why did you say that?” or “why did you choose that?” or some “softer” version of the same question. Our research revealed that asking a softer version makes little difference. The responses are the same:
* Behavior Justification,
* Rationalization,
* Defensiveness,
* Pleasing the Moderator,
* Posturing,
* Maybe they Don’t Really Know,
* Maybe the Truth.
Our research also revealed that there is no way to tell what the truth really is because the respondent is not going to look foolish and do anything to reveal their distortion. Instead, we use a completely different process, using parallel comparisons to develop an accurate and reliable understanding of the real reasons why one idea is preferred over others.
3. Identify the “Real Ideal”
We define the Real Ideal as the choice a consumer (or business) would make given all possible alternatives. We view that as including everything in the Knowledge Circle, which includes possibilities into the future. The Real Ideal delivers a powerful long-term strategic perspective for all marketing and product development efforts. Focus groups develop an ideal just based on the KK and KDK, and as a result, are not going to be as accurate or reliable.
Fortunately Glazer+Kalayjian uses a wide variety of testing methodologies to effectively achieve the most Return On Investment. Whether it’s testing names, messaging and positioning, logos or package design, at Glazer+Kalayjian we believe the right investment of research in product development and brand strategy is critical to success.