Is in house research enough?

We approach companies to talk to them about research, innovation and product development. One regular reply we hear is ‘we do all our research and development work in house’. It’s a reasonable response, after all who knows your products, processes and customers better than your company? You probably think in house R&D is easier to control, cheaper and gives you the insight you need. 

Of course we’re going to disagree with that because we’d like to work with the companies we’re approaching. But there is a very important discussion that should take place around whether in house research is giving you what you need to push your company forward. 

We see lots of brands setting up their own research panels and groups to work with mums and we think that’s a flawed way of doing research. Why? 

If you’ve asked mums to sign up to test your products (especially if that’s done using social media where they might already follow or like you) then you are testing people who already like your product. To gain real insight and get a more balanced viewpoint you need to ask consumers who might not even know or yet have an opinion on your product.  We also know that certain brands might attract a certain demographic and provide you with skewed results that will only appeal to a narrow audience. MumPanel consists of all kinds of mums, from all kinds of backgrounds (and was grown organically) which means our research takes into account the views of lots of different kinds of mums. We’re also impartial, no one wants to please us but we know mums might want to ‘please’ a brand because they like them (or hope they might get something out of it). 

One of the great things about internal research is that you are totally immersed in your product and probably know a fair bit about your competitors.  You can add to this by using an external agency that is completely immersed in the world you want to speak to (for example mums) because they can reference not only your industry but also other things that affect consumer decision-making and buying decisions.  We have been working with mums for over three years and as professional researchers and mums we know how to connect and ask the right questions to get the most rich and rewarding replies. 

Often it’s the little nuggets on information gathered during insight that can be the most significant and make the most difference. Sometime in-house research is so focussed on a specific answer that they miss the ‘background chatter' or key decision making points. In our experience innovation often comes as a result of an offhand comment by one mum. Because we have an overview of the mum world and an objective perspective we can spot these comments and then go and sense check them with other mums. 

And our final piece of advice if you are going to do in house research is to make sure you understand the ins and outs of research. It’s vital you know what influences respondents, how to ask the right questions to get the information you want and to know which answers have meaning. 

If you’d like to know more about mum focussed market research will MumPanel then email lynne@mumpanel.co.uk

Finding and filling the gaps – mum insight

We’ve all had those moments in life when we’ve thought up outlandish inventions or wished for a product that didn’t exist. I found myself doing this more once I became a parent and scouring the internet for the solution to problems I didn’t know I had before my children arrived (do you need to carry a potty around once you start potty training, how do you carry an umbrella and push a pram, how do you sneak vegetables into your children’s diet?).

And if you are trying to sell to mums then how do you stay one step ahead of the competition? You find products that don’t exist that mums want. Spotting trends and understanding what products might appeal to mums is best done through a combination of research and insight techniques. We know from our insight work that new products and services can often develop from an offhand comment by a mum. We also know that developing products quickly through a streamlined research process is important, both to keep up with a fast changing market and to beat the competition to the store shelves.

Because we work with thousands on mums we’re constantly hearing about emerging trends and what they want – if you’d like to know more about how we can help you develop new products or services then drop us a line.

Why you shouldn't ignore research - The Apprentice

Last night we were glued to BBC1 watching The Apprentice. What had us so interested? The teams were asked to develop a household gadget that would solve a problem and could take a slice of the £10 billion pound homeware market. The boys decided on a home composter but we were much more interested in the girls' team approach. They initially struggled for ideas after nominating Jane (a food manufacturing supplier) over the seemingly more qualified R&D Manager Katie. Finally they focussed on what problems they could solve in the bathroom. Laura said she didn't like being splashed in the bath and the idea of a baby splash screen was put forward along with a protective tap cosy. At this early stage they lacked ideas - and we often find that's not about knowing the market very well - when we do mum insight work we pull on the opinions and thoughts of thousands of mums. Out of this we can come up with product and service ideas that mums love, and are grounded in research rather than what we think 'might' work.

When we're working with companies on new product development we go through a number of testing and reviewing stages including focus groups which is where the girls went next. As they arrived one of the team said they really needed to listen to what the target market wanted. By this stage it was becoming clear that the team was already being influenced by the loudest members of the group - the same thing can happen in companies when one person wants to champion an idea - even if that idea is flawed and the market doesn't want it.

The mother and toddler group were used for focussed research, the ideas of a tap cosy and splash guard were put forward and (from what we could see on the programme) the guard was rejected (can't reach the child, splashing is fun) and the tap cosy was a good idea that mums would buy. On the street research was also done and the conclusions were the same. So they had different types of mums in different settings telling them the same thing (valuable insight both in terms of what mums want and also what they don't like) but as they moved to the design stage they ditched the tap cosy idea because it was too difficult or risky. Despite the market clearly telling them they wanted the product they abandoned it at the first hurdle. Developing a really good product that mums actually want isn't always easy and the companies we work with have to juggle commercial considerations but what's the point of developing a product that the market has clearly told you they don't want.
Katie, R&D manager, made it very clear that she thought there was no point in doing market research if they were just going to ignore it. We couldn't agree more wholeheartedly.

In the end the team member who was fired was the one who contributed the least. She didn't like the splash guard concept and we wondered if she would have been saved if she'd spoken up. We know companies don't work exactly like the Apprentice but it did make us reflect on listening very carefully to team objections during the product development process.

Get in touch if you are currently developing a product or need idea generation for products and services aimed at mums.