The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Ever since I got in this industry – when dinosaurs still ran around the planet – I’ve been surprised at how many companies spend millions upon millions on consumer research but still end up knowing so little about them.

There’s a billion reasons for this – some of which are understandable, though with a major emphasis on the word ‘some’ – however the reality is far too many make the mistake of looking for things that suit their agenda rather than their audiences.

Nothing sums this up more than those who call it ‘consumer research’ … because by naming it that, they not only reveal their attitude towards the audience is that they’re walking wallets whose only value to them is they ‘buy stuff’, but also that they believe the only thing they need to do is identify functional and rational problems ‘consumers’ have in relation to their category and future success is assured.

This literal, narrow-minded attitude can be seen everywhere.

In every category. In every country. In every media.

Hence we end up with the same approach to the same problems in the same media with the same messages over and over and over again. Where success is increasingly defined by adherence to an approach rather than a fundamental or disproportionate impact on how people feel, act or behave towards who you are or what you stand for.

Except at award time.

Oh then, it’s amazing how the rules change.

Then it’s all about standing out rather than blending in.

Doing things that make a difference rather than reinforce a conformity.

But even then it often falls short, because what’s done is more about what lets you express your ego rather than doing something that reflects what people need or want.

Of course not everyone is like that …

The best places tend to do stuff that’s based on how culture and humanity live, not how marketing wants wishes they did. And they do this all the time, not as one-offs or on one ‘pro-bono’ client.

It’s why I always find it funny when I see brands or agencies being given massive accolades and yet you don’t understand how that happened because you don’t recognize anything they’ve done. Even when it’s explained.

Sure there are some circumstances where that may happen, but when that happens with a global player or a local competitor, you can be sure there’s something fishy going on.

The reality is I love this industry.

It has given me a life I never dared imagine I could have.

But seeing it fuck itself over and reward itself for taking shortcuts drives me literally insane. Even more so when you just have to look at what’s going on in culture and see far more provocative, imaginative and powerful examples of creativity solving real problems without the need for proprietary processes, eco-systems or questionable research methodologies.

Paula, Martin and I talked about this at Cannes a couple of years back.

I wrote about this even further back.

But when you see a 17 YEAR OLD develop a long-term, sustainable idea that not only shows real understanding of a specific audience, but how to use creativity to enable them to deal with the challenges and issues they face – rather than simply communicating the problem to more people – you have to ask whether all the processes, practices and tools our industry is seemingly obsessed with adopting and celebrating are helping us get better at what we do or moving us further away from the very thing we were once brilliant at, highly valued for and incredibly effective in helping drive business and brands forward.