Dialog with Michael Berens
Posted by Debra Semans on Wed, Feb 03, 2010 @ 11:50 AM
Welcome to the February 2010 edition of The Marketing Dialog. This month’s guest marketing leader is Michael Berens, Director of Research & Knowledge Resources, American Society of Interior Designers. The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID, www.asid.org) is the professional association representing over 36,000 interior design professionals. Through education, knowledge sharing, advocacy, community building and outreach, the Society strives to advance the interior design profession and, in the process, to demonstrate and celebrate the power of design to positively change people’s lives. ASID members engage in a variety of professional programs and activities through a network of 48 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.
To thank our guests for their participation, Polaris will make a donation to the charity of their choice. Michael has chosen the ASID Foundation. The ASID Foundation started as a way to support interior design education but has more recently broadened its mission to support programs and research that further understanding of the many ways that interior design benefits our health and safety. “Green design is just one of the best known examples, but there are many more that most of us never notice. Through its work, the Foundation is helping to insure a better quality of life for us all,” said Michael.
We invite you to make a contribution of your own or to learn more about The ASID Foundation by clicking this link: http://www.asidfoundation.org/favicon.ico
TMD: Thanks for participating in this month’s Dialog, Michael. We usually start with the basics and ask why do you think marketing research is important?
Michael: Over time, it is easy to become seduced by what you know about the customers (or in our case, the members) you hear from often. Their stories become the stories, and their voices fill in the blanks for all the other people you never hear from. Marketing research, if well done, can reveal who the rest of your customers are and give you insights into what they want and what they are thinking about. What we don’t know can hurt us, but often we don’t know what we don’t know.
TMD: I love the idea of Marketing Research telling the customers’ – or members’ –stories. That really fits with using story-telling as a way to communicate information and reinforce an organization’s culture and values.
In your opinion, how does marketing research for associations differ from other marketing research situations?”
Michael: With an association, you have easier access to your target market through your membership directory and prospect lists. You can develop a closer relationship with them, and you have many more channels through which you can get input and feedback. However, there are different levels of member involvement, and you have to be careful that you are not just hearing from the same members over and over again.
TMD: From the marketing research you conducted, what information was your organization surprised to discover or would not have known without the research?
Michael: One of the biggest surprises was when we asked members and potential customers what they would like to see us offer that we currently don’t offer. Many of their suggestions—in fact, the ones that ranked highest—were things that we have offered for years, or thought we had. We discovered that there was a big disconnect somewhere. Either we were not communicating effectively or what we thought we were offering was not what the customer wanted. We have since done some focus group work to try to sort out the source of the disconnect.
TMD: Proving once again that perception is reality!
Michael: Indeed!
TMD: What marketing decisions do you think are the most difficult to make without any research?
Michael: In my experience, the most difficult and dangerous decisions are those that assume you know what people want based on customer feedback. What people say they want and what they will actually pay for or show up for can vary greatly.
TMD: I have always thought those were the trickiest situations to research as well. Humans just aren’t good at predicting what they will do in the future!
Michael: It’s easy for someone to say if they like something in a vacuum, but once they have to make choices, their preferences or level of commitment can change drastically. If a substantial investment is involved, you need to do the research and delve a bit deeper into what’s behind the feedback you’re getting before making a decision.
TMD: What were the most important lessons you learned about marketing research in the early days of your career?
Michael: One was to spend the money to oversample for market segments that were largely unknown or usually difficult to reach. You want to have really good information from those folks, especially if you are running crosstabs. Otherwise you are likely to end up with more uncertainty, not less.
TMD: Good point – nothing like getting the results back and wishing you had sampled differently to teach that lesson. Anything else?
Michael: The other is, I suspect, part of the initiation of being a researcher. That is, discovering how resistant people can be to research findings. Even when the powers that be are clamoring for research and hard data, they will fall back on what they think they know if the research findings don’t reflect their world views. A few years ago I came across Peter Block’s book on consulting, and he goes into great depth on that phenomenon and how to prepare the presentations of your findings so that you dodge that bullet. I wish I had read it 10 years earlier!
TMD: That would be Peter Block’s Flawless Consulting? (Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used)
Michael: Right.
TMD: Good recommendation – especially since marketing researchers are – at the end of the day – consultants to their customers, whether internal or external.
Michael: That’s my perspective.
TMD: Michael, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your unique perspective on marketing research in the world of Associations. We enjoyed speaking with you.
