And if you ask us that question, we’d tell you it’s a science first.
"The science of marketing is all about using data and insights to drive your strategy. The art of marketing is how you express that strategy."
Now that we know we are starting with science, what does that mean exactly?
Well, remember when you were in school and you had to come up with your own science research experiment? Remember what came first? The objective. Why? Because without an objective, you don’t have a testable proposition. And without a testable proposition, you don’t have direction. And we all know that when research doesn’t have a direction, it typically doesn’t garner any groundbreaking takeaways.
So, what does your high school science experiment have to do with marketing research?
Similar to the traditional objective, a great marketing research plan starts with a strong objective. One that is focused, measurable, and effective. Without a clear objective, your marketing research will not be as successful.
[TIP] By definition, a "Research Objective" is a statement of purpose that outlines a specific result to achieve within a dedicated time frame and available resources.
Applying this logic to marketing, a marketing research objective is a statement that outlines what you want to know about your customer. Clearly defining your objective at the beginning stages will help you avoid conflicting expectations or wasted collecting irrelevant data.
Start at the end. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but if you start with the desired outcome, you will be able to create a more focused objective. What’s the one thing you want to be able to take away from this research? What do you plan to do with the information? What does success look like? Use this objective as your compass while you navigate your research and analysis.
Typically, it’s easiest to do this in the form of a question. Here are a few examples.
This question will give you a list of features, in order of importance, for your Enterprise customer.
This question will result in a list of common factors that result in users searching for Service Y.
When you start seeing all the data points, behaviors, and survey responses - curiosity can set in.
An abundance of data can pull you in multiple directions because each finding is interesting in its own right. That’s when your objective comes in. Know the end result you are working toward and stay on that path.
Once you’ve got your desired outcome, you’ll want to create your objective. A few things to consider as you create your statement:
Let’s look at some examples:
While creating an objective may seem relatively straightforward, it can be easy to get wrong. Let’s go over some of the common pitfalls.
Now, if you follow the outline above, this shouldn’t be an issue because it forces you to get granular with your objective.
We want to avoid broad objectives because they can allow curiosity to get the best of us and a once seemingly clear research project can get muddied.
Every research project should have one objective and one objective only. Again, while this may seem easy enough to manage, you’d be surprised just how easy it is to sneak those secondary and tertiary objectives into your statement.
You see, the questions customers may have when searching for a car could be completely different than the questions they have when considering purchasing a car.
Avoid making your objective into a hypothesis with absolute statements and assumptions. Your objective should be more of a question than a prediction. That comes later.
This looks unsuspecting, but in reality, we're already assuming that search plays a role in our audience's journey. That could sway the focus of the research.
Once you’ve created your objective, let it (and only it) drive the beginning stages of your marketing research.
Write it on a post-it and stick it on your desk, write it on the whiteboard at every meeting you have, keep it top of mind as you continue your research. It will serve as a compass and help you avoid being led astray by interesting data, curious colleagues, and conflicting agendas.
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