MRG Conference: Media Research Is Too Parochial
In a world where pitches are fought and won over the strength of global networks, media research embarrasses itself with its parochial offerings, according to OMD UK’s Head of Research, Jo Rigby.
Addressing delegates at the MRG Conference in Budapest, Rigby called on researchers to put aside their territorial claims on what research they can offer and look beyond the “scarily diverse” research systems and methodologies used across global markets.
Rigby called on the industry to be honest and pragmatic when overcoming the obstacles that prevent it from producing global market research and emphasised the need to form insights that span borders.
She criticised researchers for spending too much time looking at buying patterns and analysing product purchase, asking: “We measure consumers to death but do we really understand them?”
Rigby emphasised the need for insightful qualitative research and described the findings of the recent Communigraphics study, which was carried out by OMD in an attempt to understand the roles that brands play in people’s lives.
The experiment, which was commissioned by Vodafone, asked consumers to categorise their personality traits by choosing between pairs of conflicting statements ascertaining tendencies towards introversion/extroversion, thinking/feeling, sensing/intuition and judging/receiving.
None of the pairs of statements were intended to be “black and white” and instead represented shades of grey, which, according to Rigby, offer a more accurate reflection of specific personality traits.
Rigby then explained that these personality statements were linked to the “real world” in an attempt to develop a picture into the individual media habits of consumers.
She concluded that this kind of insightful research represented the future of the media research industry, but acknowledged that challenging times lie ahead. She said: “It’s easier to count the bottles than describe the wine.”
Subscribers can access further MRG reports by selecting the option at the side of this page.