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When considering all the various types of research that can be utilized in the course of marketing strategy work— observation, consumer interviews, creative testing, focus groups, surveys, user testing, and more— it is inevitable that good old “desk research” falls to the bottom of the wish list. It’s in the name itself: secondary research. Secondary, i.e. something that is considered supplementary to the primary source. My belief is that this humble form of data gathering is not just elementary work, but research that should be considered crucial to any project and treated with respect.
It is often suggested that desk research isn’t strong enough or clear enough to create a compelling argument for a recommendation. On the contrary, here are some key ways that secondary research can help teams develop a persuasive argument that meets the burden of proof.
Understanding Your Audience
Thorough desk research can put you ahead in two departments when it comes to audience insight. First, there’s your actual presentation audience- the client, brand or organization you’re working with- and then there’s the audience you hope your work will impact.
For the first group, desk research can be invaluable to learning “how to speak the language” of the company or client you are engaged with. Seeking out corporate announcements, press mentions and other interviews with your team can give you a view into how they think and what terminology resonates. Additionally, going through this exercise shows you have done your due diligence and, with larger organizations operating across multiple departments or groups, can often result in illustrating unseen connection opportunities.
When it comes to the actual work and the groups it’s intended to affect, there is no shortage of potent statistics and comprehensive reports available to review online. Particularly in today’s content-driven era, you would be surprised how much is out there to pull from. One consideration is to come at this from a few different angles depending on the information you are seeking. Don't expect there to be one perfect report out there on the demographic you are looking to engage and all their behaviors. However, if you collate information from different and diverse sources (research firms, media studies, press releases, etc.) you will likely be able to present a fairly comprehensive and valuable perspective on any group.
Assessing the Competition
A requisite for any marketing strategy work is to evaluate the competitive landscape and understand what they are producing and how they are operating. This is work that should be owned by a strategist who can view activity through the lens of your brand or business and help assess opportunities and threats. This is another area where desk research shines. While many are generally aware of what their competitors are up to, taking the time to go through their digital channels or review their recent advertising in a diligent fashion can go a long way. There are many great ways to gather this content including Moat, iSpot TV and of course brands’ websites and social media presences.
It’s important that you don’t end your assessment with a simple accounting of what’s been created, but provide your POV on the quality of content in-market and its relationship to your potential strategy. Competitive evaluations should strive to highlight unique whitespace. This can be areas of the consumer journey to focus efforts on, an opportunity for better digital channel usage, or identifying potential for differentiated creative direction. Having a view on both what’s been developed by others and where your brand can add distinct value is indispensable.
Revealing Future Expectations
Lastly, desk research can be a powerful way to validate your hypothesis with evidence that activity or behavior is already underway. While primary research can be useful to help unearth and bubble up consumer demands, secondary research can reveal which companies have already acted on these trends and built campaigns or products to support them. Consumer research firm Trendwatching has built a powerful platform around this very type of work. By reviewing where and how organizations have behaved in response to emerging trends, you are essentially getting a peek at what’s to come in greater scale shortly. Similarly on the product and services side, TrendHunter curates the latest innovative products being developed and should serve as a useful reference tool to understand what’s been produced from a technology and innovation standpoint.
In addition to trend tracking, don’t be afraid to poke around newer internet discussion and interaction points to seek inspiration. Channels like Reddit, Twitch and Quora can often provide unexpected insight into the consumer group you are designing a strategy around. When relevant to your brand or category, conversations and discussions happening on these networks can be thought of as miniature internet focus groups.
Surfacing these insights and bringing forth a cogent perspective will no doubt leave an impact on your audience. However, it is important as you go through your secondary research work to try and avoid confirmation bias. It’s ok to gravitate toward sources and examples that validate a hypothesis, but equally important to maintain objectivity throughout your process and consider other points of view. Ultimately, you want to build trust with your partners and in your work. To do so, transparency is a must.
With these approaches in mind, I hope that desk research begins to climb out of the last resort consideration set for teams and into the primary requirements for projects.
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