If media agencies want to take the lead in the integrated marketing communications process, it means more than just having total communications studies: They will have to become adept at unlocking
channel insights for all marketing/communications stakeholders.
Essentially, there are five typical avenues to accelerate insights generation: Expert interviews, direct observation, personal
experience, exploratory research and unique ways of interrogating quantitative data. Media planners and buyers primarily use quantitative research to determine the size of the targeting opportunity,
understand the audience and assess the most appropriate media vehicles. Attitudinal - or psychographic - data is a key method for gaining an understanding of consumers and insights into their
motivations.
When I first started working in the United States in the late '90s, MRI, the multimedia research authority, had a relatively simple list of about 40 psychographic statements. Today,
MRI boasts over 500 psychographic statements, while its rival, Simmons, has an equally impressive number. At Universal McCann, we have our own proprietary survey which supplements the Simmons database
with more than 200 attitudinal statements.
But while psychographic data is very useful, it's also a trap. The consumer world is riddled with irrationalities and paradoxes. For example, how many
of us know someone who smokes and yet still goes to the gym three times a week to stay healthy.
Demographics are logical and the definitions mutually exclusive. For instance, you're either 30
years old or you're not; you're either married with kids or you're not. But with psychographics, illogicalities and contradictions reign everywhere.
The No. 1 rule for quantitative insights:
Don't treat psychographics like demographics. We can't quiz psychographic statements in a linear fashion, one statement a time. Rather, we have to cross-examine a myriad of statements simultaneously.
One study I did for a financial-services company indicated women were being undervalued by the sector. We used multivariate mapping, where every brand and statement was statistically correlated to
each another in a spatially accurate map. This revealed fashion-seekers were distinctly different from style-seekers, and on diametrically different places on the map. The younger fashion-seekers
would assiduously follow fashion; for example they strongly agreed with statements such as: Every season I buy the latest fashions, or I like to keep up with the latest fashions. But
style-seekers - older, professional women who principally agreed with statements such as I spend more than I can afford on clothes and I like to make a unique fashion statement - were a more lucrative
target.
These were two very different types of women, both acutely interested in their appearance yet for very different reasons. This insight allowed us to change the strategy and separately
address the well-heeled, successful woman. In the same study, we then progressed to a custom-made cluster analysis of financial prospects. This indicated the best level of psychographic discrimination
was a five cluster solution where we ranked each cluster from rich to poor.
Included in the top 10 statements of the richest cluster was: I disagree a lot that I tend to spend money without
thinking - a statement that 56 percent of respondents concurred with. None of the other clusters had this statement in their top 10 except the very poorest cluster. Ironically, 46 percent of the
poorest cluster also concurred with this statement. Alongside other supporting data, this provided an insight into the paradoxical value of money that allowed us to understand exactly how to appeal to
that richest cluster: In their overall attitude to money, they all essentially appeared to be budding John Paul Getty tycoons.
Attitudinal insights are very powerful at helping spur different
communications channel strategies. They allow us to build elegant yet robust communications bridges where general media data might imply dead-ends. While everyone accords great credence to the concept
of integration, detailed public case histories are still relatively thin on the ground. If our industry is to take the next leap into an integrated marketing/communications world, such impartial case
histories could be a key starting point.
Graeme Hutton is senior vice president and director of consumer insights at Universal McCann. (graeme.hutton@universalmccann.com)