Syndicated Research is not enough

At any media symposium - bashing of media research (and subtly the media research agencies) is always a planned session. While media representatives enjoy detailing without any understanding of the science of media research, how erronours and unrepresentative the research is; the media research users (primarily agenices) reiterate how important it is to consolidate the different researches into one single entity so that they have to buy only one research. The media research agencies on their part just play the victims saying that they could do better if they had more money.

And, it is the same story that I have been seeing for the past 8 - 9 years that I have been around in the media industy. .. but nothing has changed as yet excepting the continuous reduction in the value realization of their product for all.. media research, media agency and media itself.

The media research design that we are currently (very unhappily) using was not forced upon us. At one time it was very relevant and was a game changer and the media agencies based all their methods and practices on the provided metrics. Media developed content to deliver on the metrics so that they could have a high profitability. Media research agencies flourished. But, now 10 years or so have passed and all are unhappy with the state of affairs.

'Access to media' was the variable that was of most importance and all media research delivered that metric. There was no need for any other parameter as media was scarce and differentiation amongst media was not of great consequence. The consumers consumed what media they could get. Today, consumers have immense choice and are consuming multiple media - each in a different manner and for a differenet purpose and 'access to media' information is not enough. For communication planners to reach their desired consumers they need to differentiate between media based on the same variables that are in use for differentiating between brands.

The whole media ecosystem consists of the media, media agencies, media research exists to enable brands to seek consumer and to cater to them. And, an understanding of how media connects with consumers is the vital knolwledge that will enable media professionals build brand communication plans that do justice to the brands that they serve.

Hence, for this ecosystem to prosper the critical question is not if we need one research agency or two (that is best left to the research agencies and market forces to decide). But, the critical question is what data do we need for making relevant and impactful communication plans. The answer to this question will differ across products and brands and so it would be naive to expect some piece of syndicated research to cater to the need of every brand's communication planning.

The brand has the most at stake. If the media research available is not good, ultimately the brands money gets wasted based on media strategies based on sub-optimal media plans. It is therefore for each brand to start looking at ways in conjunction with their media agency and media partners to setup information systems that deliver 'media knowledge' to build their communication plans.

Syndicated research will not be enough for communication planning. The era of syndicated research (or even conventional market research) is over. It is time for brand-dedicated consumer behaviour capture systems to be deployed that will enable the next generation of communication planning.

Think!!