Julie Vincent, Insight Director, TSR Insight, Part of The Student Room Group
Clare Riding, Director of External Affairs, University Academy 92 (UA92)
Presenter
Presentation Notes
JV Firstly, we would like to say thankyou for inviting us to speak at your conference. It is a pleasure to be here and we really hope that our session will be useful. Today we are going to take you through the approach, terminology and methodology detail so that you are able to create a watertight research brief to inform strategy and communications around influencers and the influenced. Clare and presented something similar at CASE Conference a few years ago and I ran a session at YMS Voxburner a few weeks ago, which is the main youth marketing conference in the UK with events all over the world.
Julie Vincent@JulieVincentTSR• Insight Director, TSR Insight and
The Student Room Group• Over 20 years in marketing and
market research• CMRS, MCIM Chartered Marketer• Clientside for 12 years heading up
market research and insight and 10 years as a consultant
Clare Riding@missclareriding• Director of External Affairs, UA92• 17 years in education marketing• Worked in universities, FE college,
and an independent boarding school
• Implementing full service marketing teams and building market research (both teams and activity) from scratch
Presenter
Presentation Notes
JV Having worked 12 years buying in research from small agencies to large global agencies like TNS before they were Kantar, and then as an agency side researcher for 11 years, I understand what I needed as a client but also what I need now agency side – so what everyone needs in order to in order to get the best value for money – and the best insight from projects. CR my experience comes from a marketing background, having worked in 4 universities, one fe college and one independent boarding school I’ve delivered a range of activities from re-brands, building brands, building teams and restructuring teams and activity to now building a whole new institution from scratch. The one common theme throughout these roles has been insight – many organisations do things because they have always been done, and especially in education do what others are doing. Using market research to drive insight instead is the one thing I believe will really set schools/colleges/universities apart
TSR InsightTSR Insight• Specialist full service youth market
research agency• Focus on young people, their influences
and influencers• Strategy, planning and insight
As part of The Student Room Group we have exclusive access to the community for market research• 10 million monthly users • UK’s largest online engagement
• UA92 is formed from a collaboration between academic leaders, Lancaster University, alongside Manchester United legends turned entrepreneurs and sporting managers, the Class of 92, plus a strong group of employer partners
• As part of our degrees, awarded by Lancaster University, students develop cognitive, emotional and social intelligence, plus attention to physical and mental well-being to enable them to shine, whatever their dreams
• We are based in our new campus in Old Trafford, Manchester
CR Marketing activity can be an expensive business, using market research to inform the activity, targeting and message has been my starting point in all roles for introducing research in a broader context. Once I’ve been able to demonstrate that the activity delivers return on investment – both in terms of student numbers but direct feedback from research – I have been able to either secure that budget or see an increase in funds/people. This has also led on to support for broader research such as portfolio/product research. Choosing an educational route (whatever the age of the student) is a high involvement purchase, the decision has the potential to change the life of the student. This means understanding the touch points that either the parent/student goes through when making the decision is crucial. If you understand the touchpoints, you can more confidently build a journey to ‘purchase’ through your marketing and comms.
Invest in what works
• DIY works, but professionalise as much as you can afford
• Objectivity is critical
• Remember, that your brief and your research have an internal and external role
• You might also need some help up front, market research consultancy can help
CR Creating a brief is crucial – not only to give your project focus and clear objectives but it can also be useful to use in engaging stakeholders in the project/work. If the headteacher/teachers/alumni etc are clear about the purpose of the work, it will be easier to obtain support for the results. It’s incredibly useful to get some ‘outside’ support from market research professionals – objectivity can be very helpful in delivering tricky messages. Ask for help with questionnaire design as that is critical to getting the right information you need.
What’s in store today?
• Demystify the jargon• Detail you need to know• 5 tips when choosing a research
CR Today we are going to Help you understand the jargon or feel more confident using it Help you with context and the detail Give you some top tips about choosing your research partner and agency Final take outs from the day
JV I would include insight as jargon. It is in everything, but rarely explained and a little mysterious. I’m an insight director, our business is TSR Insight, everything is ‘insight led’ You don’t get insight out of it if you don’t shape research with that in mind
JV Internal discussions around this can become quite circular, people often have their favourite methodology or a pet hate. Often briefs arrive where they expect all kinds of feedback, they want % and depth, or depth and representativeness. We will explain today how to prioritise and make sure you get what you need. The most important thing is getting the right methodology to fit your objectives.
Start with secondary research
What have you already got?• Data analysis• Desk research
• Internal and external sources• Abundance of data is often a
problem to be solved• Make sure you have some
good questions to ask
Presenter
Presentation Notes
JV I would say always do a bit of this first. Do a literature review. When we do research plans for cilents, first question, what research and data do you have? True gaps, much better value. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Ask different questions of your research and data. Commissioned research should add colour and depth to something you already know, or address a true gap.
Primary research is for asking real people what they think
Qualitative• Participants felt or thought• Interactive and iterative• Structured and semi-structured • Focus groups and depth interviews• Face to face, online or telephone• Ethnographic research
Presenter
Presentation Notes
JV Primary research broadly divided into two areas, quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative is when you want to be able to get to as large a pool of respondents as possible and say X% said. Usually self completion but can be done with things like telephone surveys, where a questionnaire is used but someone asks respondents the questions and completes the survey for you online CATI. It is generally a mix of closed and open ended questions. Qualitative is all about depth. It allows respondents to tell you things in their own words and explain in more detail. It can be very structured or semi structured.
• Still write a brief• Survey Monkey doth make researchers of us all• Weight up the risks• Questionnaire design is critical• Doing your own interviews and focus groups risk
CR I think it’s crucial to determine the level of risk in the research – are you considering a re-brand? If so, definitely outsource the research. If you’re thinking about changing some of the format of an open day - this could be done on the day in survey form.
JV I have clients who wanted to do research for a long time but didn’t because the brief felt like a huge hurdle. It’s a list and there are no wrong answers. Consider doing this even if you are going to do it yourself, it might show that you need independent thinking or that the task is too much.��Avoid getting your brief in a twist by articulating what you need so that your agency has what it needs to do the best job for you Background and objectives - Why are you doing it Internal audience – What success looks like Target audience - Who you want to hear from Scope - What you want to ask Methodology - How you want to do it Budget – to tell or not to tell, but do have one Timetable – when you need to make your decisions
Background and objectivesWhy are you doing it?
Background • Strategic context• Introduce the team, the market,
why you need the research• Punchy, like an elevator pitch
Presenter
Presentation Notes
JV Don’t assume your agency knows everything you do. Even if you’ve worked with them before, tell them again. What absolutely has to happen as a result of it, what does it inform and what decisions will be taken. Objectives, be really clear, get into your agency’s head – easy to get mission creep. Enable your agency to challenge you.
Internal audienceWhat does success look like?
• Who will see the work and what’s their perspective on it?• What does success look like for them?• Are they expecting…
– A large response– A representative sample– Depth of knowledge
CR Internal stakeholder are critical, we need to know your audience. We as an agency can help you manage and meet internal expectations Large or small, wherever you work will be hierarchical and political We often have more than one internal customer, which is ok as we work as consultants, but it is much more efficient if an agency is clear who as veto over decisions VC versus marketing department – different perspective on success
Target audienceWho you want to ask?• Current parents/prospective parents• Current students/prospective students• Day pupils/boarders• Overseas agents• Alumni• Teachers/staff
CR No amount of detail here is too much, don’t assume your agency understands your context around things like geographical spread and family income. You can’t do good research if you ask the wrong people The audience will depend on the purpose of the research – if you ask current students/parents you will get responses to help you attract more of the same (if that’s the purpose) but if you want to diversify or re-focus your effort, you’ll need to find people you’re not yet reaching – this can be more expensive but should certainly deliver return on investment.
ScopeWhat you want to ask?
• List of questions• Agencies don’t expect this to be exhaustive• There aren’t any wrong questions or answers• A good agency will cluster and interpret to translate
this into the actual questions to be asked of the target audience
JV This is really important, give your agency as much of a steer as possible and consider communicating internally that it might be than an agency could recommend a range of approaches. There is a belief that quantitative is the same as data, and in a data heavy world what people are looking for is insight and depth. But, you can often design quant to feel much less data heavy and it can work. But, there is no substitute for qual if what you really want to hear is how people think and feel in their own voice.
BudgetTo tell or not to tellThe worry… If you say it is £10,000 will you get an approach for £9,999? But, you don’t want three proposals at
– £2,000, £8,000 and £20,000• Use a comparison matrix and don’t just focus on tangible
deliverables• Think about the importance of the impact of the research and what
will be spent as a result of recommendations when setting budget• Consider asking for a menu approach if you’re not sure how much
you want to spend• Make sure you know what the budget is! Or even, make sure there is
a budget…• And think about your incentives – value, timescale and hard to reach
JV This is contentious as some clients will never give budget. Incentives – what would be of value to your audience, how swift a turnaround do you need, how hard to reach is your audience. Scale of incentives is often hard to define. At The Student Room prize draws with Amazon vouchers work, often 3 £20 ones. For our big Options Survey (large annual survey with over 5,000 respondents) we have big prizes of cash and things like festival tickets and weekends away. For qualitative, this is a huge factor in costs, for some depths people can be paid up to £50 for an hour of their time.
Timetable When you need to make your decisions
Work back from when you need the insight and set a deadline Be sure of your actual deadlines• Example is simple quantitative and what
we would create for a client• For qualitative the timeline includes
recruitment and getting in people’s diaries• Be aware that some research can be done
really quickly– But, some research needs a fieldwork
period that can’t be rushed, but the reporting can be speeded up
• Make sure your key staff are free– Not on holiday for example and know
JV Something we would do for a client, we often just get a deadline. Qual – lists together, GDPR compliant, start recruitment, get in people’s diaries, do the interviews, do the analysis and reporting.
5 tips to the perfect research partner
1. Know your brief2. Do your research3. Invite 3 agencies to submit proposals4. Know who will be managing your project5. Know your budget
CR Shared steps and tips – now confident All you need now is your agency Know your brief Decide whether you need some consultancy input from the agency to shape it. Make sure both parties are clear about what you want. 2. Do your research into the agencies to invite to tender Have a hunt through the MRS Buyers Guide. Talk to them on the phone. Make sure they know your industry or market. Decide where they can add value and knowledge. 3. Invite 3 agencies to submit – Range of sizes large global or one man band? 4. Know who will be managing your project Your day to day contact is critical. 5. Make sure they match your budget Are you in the market for a large global agency or not. You get great quality from one person bands.
Finding the right agencies to choose fromMarket Research Society Buyer’s Guide
