AMA Publishes "10 Minutes with Gunilla Broadbent"

Piet Levy of the American Marketing Association recently published an interview with Gunilla Broadbent, president of the ESOMAR Council and GB Global Positioning. See what she has to say about marketing, research, the recession and the future of today's marketers.

Q: How is the international marketing
research world faring in the recession?


A: Every time we’ve had a recession, the
research industry has basically weathered
that pretty well. If you look at research as
a portion of marketers’ budgets, compared
to advertising and other things they do,
it’s very, very minor. But it is extremely
important for the success of their future….
This is the onetime when [clients] really need to make
sure they are on top of things, and that they
have the consumer intelligence they need
to continue to nurture their brands.


Q: What is it about international market
research, specifically, that makes it an
important component of a marketer’s
strategy, even during these tough times?


A: I think the growth opportunities for
both marketers and for research is really
the emerging markets, where we have
continued to see an increase in consumption
and a continued growth in the middle
class populations who have increasing
amounts of money they can spend. Our
[U.S.] market is going to be more stagnant,
and Western Europe as well. There’s going
to be an increased desire and an increased
need to do research in China, India,
Brazil [and] Russia, but also in other
emerging markets.


Q: Your argument is not just for more
marketing research, but also perhaps
different research. In what way?


A: We need to be more sensitive and listen
more to the consumer. We need to not
just ask questions of them or ask questions
to them. We need to engage them in a
conversation, listen to them and understand
what they’re saying. We have to step out
a little bit from that old, very traditional,
rather strict scientific role that we used to
play and just be a little bit more creative and open-minded. You can do qualitative as
well as quantitative to get the two perspectives,
and I think that’s important to
understanding a particular market that
you’re not so familiar with.


Q: Even though you argue that your
industry is traditionally recession-proof,
economic problems are certainly taking
a toll on your clients. How has that
impacted the way you do business?


A: We have to become more creative and
smarter as to how we spend money because
budgets, no doubt about it, are going to be
scrutinized, and in some instances cut. So
we have to figure out a way [to] provide real
insights and real intelligence, perhaps with
a lower price tag. Already, online research is
cheaper than doing face to face or telephone,
so that will continue to increase in
importance. We also, perhaps, have to look
at smaller sample sizes and at spending less
money for each type of research that we
need. It’s up to the researcher to be creative
and innovative in coming up with the best
possible methodologies for the best possible
price. I think there’s going to be a lot of
pressure on us to do that.


Q: Aside from the economy, what are some
other challenges affecting international
marketing research?


A: Less developed markets have in some
instances no self-regulation, no real established
professional standards, and that is
very important for us to continue to
encourage the more developed countries to
actually impose that and help developing
countries to establish that. We, as a market
research industry, frequently have been
criticized that we just deliver numbers and
then we walk away from it, and there’s no
real sense of what the implications are and
what [clients] need to do next. I think it’s
very important for us to listen to our clients
and to make sure we meet their needs. And
therefore, the training of researchers today
is very important. We need to emphasize
more of a role of management consultant
than of a researcher, and that would help to
elevate the whole research profession and to
bring us closer to the boardrooms.


Read the full interview at http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Publications/MarketingNews/2009/43/6/Knowledgebase_10_Minutes_Broadbent.pdf.

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