Want to avoid putting your ad in front of Ozzy Osbourne when you wanted to target King Charles?

I love insights. Market research. Audience understanding, whatever you want to call it. To quote Hayel Wartemberg, "Storytelling without research is just guessing." Research is a vital part of the creative and communication chain.

But the second part of his quote showcases where we as an industry need to get better... "Research without storytelling is just reporting."

This picture of King Charles and Ozzy Osbourne is a favourite of mine because it shines a light on the terrible state of the market research industry.

We lazily group huge numbers of people together based on having similar demographic realities. Whether that's the Gen Z obsession, chatting to BAME or combining genders with sexualities. This approach leads to lazy and blanketed ideas of how people in those groups think, feel, purchase and behave.

I get it, we want to mass target and attempt to make our jobs easier–so intersectionality is ignored. It’s probably why you receive ads for products that you wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.

Here's the solution we have at Word On The Curb

• Overlay personas and interest groups to protected characteristics
  Targeting purely based on demographics doesn’t create the granularity you may think. A Black, 25-year-old man from London may have more similar interests with a White, 45-year-old woman from Sheffield, than his own brother. If you want to target effectively, learn as much as you can about the person
• Obsess over mixed methods research
  Market research is the most powerful industry for uncovering and painting a picture of societal realities. It’s a blank canvas. Quantitative research to me is the outline, Qualitative research is the colour between the lines–you need to do both to understand society effectively.
• Challenge stereotypes consistently
  We all suffer from unconscious bias. Perceptions of groups we may not be familiar with are formed by media portrayals. We all need to own up to it and challenge ourselves to uncover realities by staying hungry to learn about our audience/s. Be always on with your insights approaches–our products allow you to do that pretty easily.

Research, creative and media agencies will keep failing their brands by trying to cut corners. Constantly attempting to lower costs and time spent in the field whilst attempting to effectively reach audiences (especially those who have been historically marginalised) is a mathematical error.

Remember, storytelling without research is just guessing.

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