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Simon Chadwick
Cambiar
Member
October 7, 2009 / Read/Post Comments
A colleague told me today that the mid tier in the research department at General Mills is desperately in need of basic research training, that they really do not know the basics. General Mills??? The old university of American market research?
How can we think that the principles of market research - and with that, the principles of participant engagement - can thrive if a company like the Mills has let go its training heritage?
When I started in this business (too many years ago), we were sent out into the field (which, at that time, meant on to the streets and into the homes of the public) with four questionnaires designed to be totally horrific. This torture lasted six weeks and was designed to teach us what the effect of our questionnaire and sample design actions would be not only on interviewers but also on the people who responded to our surveys.
I challenge anybody to tell me that this sort of training exists today! Prove me wrong!
Jul 14, 2010
Rules of Engagement
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Comments
Whilst part of the problem is that companies are not providing (requiring) the training, I think there is a trend towards people trying to avoid the hard work bit of learning.
I am one of the module authors of the Principles of Marketing Research online course [http://www.principlesofmarketingresearch.org/] and I have been approached by a couple of people recently asking if I could help them with the advance analysis module. My initial answer was yes, both times. But after discussing it with them it turned out they were looking for a quick way to learn it. The problem is that I can help people avoid taking the wrong turning and I can help make things clearer but I can't help them learn faster. Learning requires a certain amount of effort and certain amount of repetition and practice, there is not an easy option. And too many people appear the believe the is an easy way.
Even if companies are not sending people out to interview people, good researchers should be finding ways of understanding the whole process, IMHO.
I agree that there has to be a commitment to learn. But there also has to be a commitment to teach. At NOP, we brought the full curriculum of the UK training over to the US. There had never been anything like this before in the US companies - people almost bit our hands off to take the modules.
In another discussion, the quesiton is asked why are questionnaires still persistently long? Part of the reason is that we have not trained people (on both sides of the fence) how to make them short!
I just finished the Principles of Marketing Research course that Ray mentions and can recommend it. We often learn our industry piecemeal over time so not surprisingly there was plenty I didn't know after many years in the business.