I am in a great mood. I have just put the final touches in a paper that I have been working on for a looooong time and sent it to a colleague for comments. I hope to submit it to the academic journal that I have in mind before the end of the month… and then the wait begins. Maybe it will be a long wait for the reviewers’ comments noting everything that is wrong with my paper. Or, worse, it will be a short wait for a message from the editor saying that my paper is not really suitable for that target journal (called a ‘desk rejection’).

The whole episode reminded me of a talk I heard recently about what it takes to be a great writer. Philip James, addressing the attendees at an academic writing retreat, stated that writers needed to have two key characteristics (in addition to being able to communicate well, of course). The characteristics are: Passion and Courage.

Writing with Passion
When you write, you are on your own. You decide what needs to be done and when. You determine your priorities. You execute the action plan.

It is very different from other tasks or roles. Even as a manager, say, your day is filled for you – someone requests a meeting, a report is due or some sort of problem requires your best attention. Your priorities and actions are often determined by others.

In writing the drive has to come from you. You have to find your own motivation and to assess what needs to de done in order to reach the submission stage.

Writing with Courage
Once you have mustered up the passion to finish your manuscript and you submit it, you are exposed. You have submitted your ideas to the scrutiny of others.

More often than not the reviewers will tell you how rubbish you are. There will always be something – in a recent submission, one reviewer even commented on comma and brackets placement.

At this point, it takes courage to get back up and try again, when you would much rather hide in the corner.

OK. OK. I can hear you saying that it isn’t only in academic writing that passion and courage are needed. It is the same in blogging…

Not long ago, Mark Schaefer tweeted that:

… and he should know as he blogs regularly and wrote The Tao of Twitter.

The best of ideas and intentions are often met with apathy, criticism or downright disbelief. Take Mark Jones, for instance, who created a blog to give a ‘warts-and-all account’ (as he puts it) of his business journey. His candid blog posts on the challenges he faces have been met with criticism. Some say that he was making too many mistakes, others that not much was happening.

I am sure that the same happens in other walks of life – in general, wherever you stand on your own too feet, rather than simply executing somebody else’s plan.

You have done your bit. You wrote with passion and courage. Now what?

Philip James offered two recommendations.

First, make sure that you have a great story to tell. People are more likely to give you a chance to improve your article if what you have to say is novel and/or really interesting – whether it is an academic argument, a commercial piece or even a personal journal.

Second, when you submit your work, aim high and go for the best outlet you can. If in academia, send it to the best (relevant) journal in your field. Yes, they will criticise what you write, whereas your friends and family would have said how much they loved it and how talented you are. If you aim low, the chances of being accepted may increase. But the thing is, the reviewers in good journals will (usually) give you really top quality feedback and their comments will help you grow as a writer, even if the paper is rejected.

I hope these thoughts motivate you as much as they motivated me to finish that much delayed paper. What keeps you going as a writer? When do you know that you have a “great story to tell”?

PS – On other news, I am now reviewing a paper that somebody else submitted to a journal. I did not make up my mind, yet, as to what my recommendation will be (accept / accept with revisions / reject). But of one thing I am sure: I will give the author(s) the best feedback I can. That’s the least I can do in return for their passion and courage.

In this post I reflect on the value of qualitative insight. I propose that marketing managers step way from questions such as ‘how many’, ‘how much’ or ‘how quickly’ and focus, instead, on ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’.

The obsession with metrics has taken over social media. Firms monitor fervently the number of comments on blog posts, how many friends or likes they have on social network websites, how many times their comments or posts are shared, and so on. The obsession even gave rise to a new industry, social scoring. In essence, social scoring firms produce an estimate of the social media value of individuals or organisations, much like the credit rating of borrowers in the financial services industry. And then there are the consultants promising to improve your social media customer engagement, the return on social media investment, the social score, and so on and so forth.

But numbers are not enough.

As Einstein famously said: Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. For the things that can not be counted, there is qualitative research.

Qualitative research in social media
Qualitative researchers are like detectives: looking beyond the facts in order to generate new insights into consumer behaviour. That is, to understand what really is going on.

Qualitative research can be used to understand the nature of the situation being studied; in other words, the WHAT. For instance, it helped consumer researchers Alexander Reppel and Isabelle Szmigin identify the perceived benefits of being able to manage one’s digital identity.

Qualitative research is also useful to explore the dynamics present in the scenario under study. That is the HOW. One example is Catherine Ashworth’s investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of social media use in the fashion sector.

Also important, is the ability to understand WHY something occurs. This was the goal of Mariann Hardey’s qualitative study. Specifically, it sought to understand why some highly connected, ‘always on’ individuals choose to ignore marketing messages delivered through social media.

The tools
In order to capture both factual and perceptual information, qualitative researchers can use the following tools:

Interviews – This is, possibly, the most popular data collection method. There are individual interviews, as well as group ones (known as focus groups).

Observations – Techniques such as mystery shopping or ethnographic observations help the research find out what consumers actually do, or in what order (as opposed to obtaining data about future intentions, hypothetical scenarios or memory of past actions).

Document analysis – Another technique is to study text or visual data such as packaging, advertising material or consumer diaries. Imagery such as video footage or pictures of brand usage in context seem to be particularly valued by marketing managers.

Often, studies will use more than one method simultaneously. For instance, insight about purchase intentions obtained through interviews can be complemented with observation of actual shopping behaviour (e.g., video footage, web-browsing records, scanner data, …). This process is called triangulation.

The simultaneous use of various methods is a unique strength of qualitative research. It deepens the understanding of what is being studied and it provides a solid basis for drawing conclusions.

The challenges
The variety of possible inputs and the richness and fullness of qualitative data create challenges for the qualitative researcher.

In the first place, it means that analysts are likely to have extensive and poorly ordered data to organise into meaningful datasets.

Then, it is necessary to analyse the numerous pages of interview transcripts, field notes and documents collected – and while there are now various software products that help with content analysis, it is still a demanding task.

Finally, it is important to communicate the findings of qualitative research in a way that makes it easy to draw conclusions and take managerial action. Extensive text often creates problems of information overload and there are only so many quotes one can include in a report or presentation.

Visual representations can be a powerful ally of the qualitative researcher. Flow charts, matrices, concept maps, networks and other visual displays can bring together information into meaningful patterns, conveying complex and subtle ideas better than words.

It’s challenging… but worthwhile because marketing is a discipline concerned primarily with interactions and exchanges. Qualitative research methods delve deep into consumers’ minds and, therefore, offer really good insight that goes beyond descriptions and measurements. Give it a go, because not everything that counts can be counted.

Are you using qualitative research to understand the use and the potential of social media? Please share what and how in the comments section below.

Now and again, an organisation will engage in a marketing communications campaign that you can’t help noticing but… which leaves you wondering ‘What’s the point?’

Some marketing communications initiatives have great entertainment value. They are beautiful or technically elaborate. Who doesn’t remember the Sony Bravia adverts featuring 250,000 brightly coloured balls bouncing down a San Francisco street?

This year, Sony revisited the advert to promote its 3D TV sets. This time, it used tennis balls, instead of rubber ones, to promote the 3D coverage of the Wimbledon finals.

Admittedly, the second advert did not have as much impact or broad appeal as the first one, but it was entertaining, nonetheless.

Other marketing communications initiatives try to capitalise on shock value. Benetton is the classical example for this.

More recently, Belgium’s Organ Donor Foundation launched the Reborn To Be Alive campaign, in which suggestive pictures of a female model in lingerie accompanied the provocative slogan ‘Becoming a donor is probably your only chance to get inside her’. This advert surely got tongues wagging but I doubt it changed behaviours or attitudes towards organ donation among the target group.

Yet another common sin in promotional campaigns is for organisations to jump on the bandwagon of the day just because it is available or it is possible to do it. For instance, some organisations create Facebook pages and proceed to collect ‘friends’, ‘fans’ or ‘likes’ without a clear strategy or discernible benefit. One such interesting case is described by Josh Bernoff here. The author noted that HMS Host, an operator of travel restaurants worldwide mostly on behalf of other brands like Starbucks, asked restaurant customers to become a fan of the company on Facebook. Inviting customers to become fans on Facebook is something that many other companies have been doing – so, why would this be wrong for HMS Host? As Bernoff points out, HMS Host does not have a brand that customers identify with, the actual Fan Page is very difficult to find and it does not match the company’s brand identity. Moreover, there aren’t many obvious reasons why customers should track the company on Facebook and does not seem to be a strategic reason for the company to have an official presence on Facebook.

Too often, when companies jump into social media without a clear strategy, pages or accounts fail to generate the desired level of engagement. Soon, they become poorly maintained or are altogether abandoned.

Another bandwagon is the use of QR codes. What is the purpose of adding a QR code on the back of a shampoo bottle, as in the picture below?

The additional information provided through QR codes makes sense in high-involvement products because it helps consumers make a decision and may increase the value of the product. For instance, digital marketing consultant Philip Tapkov (a bright former student of mine) added 2 to his CV as a gateway to additional, relevant content and, naturally, to demonstrate his eMarketing skills to potential recruiters.

Nintendo, too, uses QR codes to great effect in the Nintendo 3DS.

They are also used in tombstones in Japan (where else, right?) to create mini-social networks among people connected to the deceased.

But in shampoos… what is the point?

It’s time to get back to basics in marketing communications.

Integrated marketing communications is a process of exchanging messages with the customers (existing or potential) or other stakeholders, with the aim of eliciting a desired response. For that response to happen, the messages need to invoke the characteristics or attitudes that drive the desired behaviour – consumption or otherwise.

Does lust drive organ donations? Does high-drama drive purchases of fashion clothes? Does a QR code help shampoo buyers make a decision or does it improve customer satisfaction? I doubt it. It is time to get back to basics. To focus on the drivers of behaviour.

Campaigns driven by psychographics, like the ones described, may make a strong impression. However, they will fail to lead to sales because they do not tackle the key reasons for consumption.

Why do marketing managers sign off these campaigns?