Marketing Research and the Information Industry

Transcription

1 Marketing Research and the Information Industry Thomas W. Miller A. C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business We have a product: information. It costs plenty to produce but little to distribute. If we keep it to ourselves, it has intrinsic value, perhaps, but little value to others, little value in terms of revenues. If we limit its distribution to a few people, it may generate substantial revenue. The more widely we distribute it, the less value it may have as a source of revenue (unless we are publishers) and the more value it may have as a source of fame. What a curious industry this is, the information industry. There are many successful firms, but many more that fail. The model for success can be custom research and high-priced services or general-purpose research and high-volume services. The model for success can be secrecy, with distribution to one client or a select group of clients, or openness, with distribution to many. The model for success could be large size and control of information sources and norms. The model for success could be small size, with demonstrated expertise in selected areas. It is a curious industry, indeed, and an industry in the throes of significant technological change. Recall Theodore Levitt s (1986) words about marketing myopia: The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined.... They let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. (pp ) We might expect many marketing research firms to stop growing, not because the need for business or consumer information declines, but because those firms think of themselves as being in the marketing research industry rather than in the information industry. What is the information industry? The role of marketing research, well-described by Churchill (1999), is pervasive:... effective decision making depends on the quality of information input, and marketing research plays an essential role in providing accurate and useful information (p. 4). All businesses are information businesses in the sense that they use information to guide strategy and operations. So what is the information industry? 2000 by Thomas W. Miller

2 If we are going to talk about an information industry, we should know how to define it. What are its boundaries? How is it distinct from other industries? Empirical studies in industrial organization begin with at least an implicit definition of an industry. In practical terms, this might translate into a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code or a group of codes. Though, as we can see from Exhibit 1, it is hard to define the information industry with SIC codes. Think of the information industry as a service industry, distinct from computer and information technology services and distinct from many other professional services. Marketing has its four Ps : product, promotion, price, and place (distribution). The information industry has its four Gs. Firms in this industry generate, gather, and group information, and then give (sell) information to other firms. Generate information. Firms generate information when they develop new scales and coding schemes, specify models, set priors, or provide a theoretical organization for research. Interpreting textual data from in-depth interviews or focus groups and writing research reports--these are creative, generative processes. Firms also generate information, quite literally, when they employ computer-intensive statistical methods, resampling techniques, or data augmentation. It is their styles of information generation that often distinguish one research firm from another. Successful firms in the information industry are creative firms. Gather information. Central to the information industry is the process of gathering information. Research firms gather primary information from business managers and consumers. They also gather information from a variety of secondary sources. Traditional modes of gathering include face-to-face and telephone interviews and focus groups, mail surveys, and observational studies. Today s methods of gathering include the additional methods of online research. Successful information industry firms are efficient gatherers. Group information. George A. Miller (1956) called it chunking. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the data, by the gigabits of information that come our way each business day. To learn from data, firms organize, aggregate, and process those data. They use model-based or data-adaptive statistical methods to transform, smooth, or reduce data. They convert data into summary statistics, parameter estimates, and probability statements. Although analysts may not reduce data down to what Miller (1956) called the magic number seven, plus or minus two chunks of information, their grouping activities should yield a more manageable, more understandable organization of the data. Successful information industry firms group information in meaningful ways. Give information to others. All types of firms are involved in information generating, gathering, and grouping. But for the firms in the information industry, the information providers, information generating, gathering, and grouping are 2

3 primary activities. Information providers make and sell information. Information clients buy and use information. Successful information industry firms provide long-term value to their clients. The information industry includes firms from conventional lists of the largest marketing research firms (Honomichl, 2000). It also includes small firms and independent agents. A nonfiction writer or an anthropologist describing social trends that affect consumers, giving lectures and writing books, is just as much a part of the information industry as is the large firm that gathers scanner data from supermarkets. It seems appropriate to consider firms at various points along the information supply chain. It seems appropriate to include firms engaged in business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer research, database as well as field research, and secondary as well as primary research. Level of aggregation or generalization should not be the deciding factor for including firms in the information industry. Information products can focus upon individual consumers, consumer segments, or markets. They can focus upon individual products, categories, or classes of products. At broad levels of aggregation, information products and services can deal with nationwide or worldwide markets and consumer cultures. Information Industry Analysis A former student of economics and industrial organization, Michael Porter (1980), provided a useful model for industry analysis and competitive strategy. Let s apply his model, as shown in Figure 1, to today s information industry. Suppliers. Information industry firms do research. They convert physical and human resources into information products. Physical inputs to the information production function include computer and communications hardware and software, offices and office equipment. Human resources, especially important to information production, include clerical personnel, technical writers, telephone and face-to-face interviewers, focus group moderators, database and business analysts, management consultants, statisticians, field researchers, and, of course, survey respondents and focus group participants. Because there are many suppliers of labor (many highly mobile information workers) and many suppliers of information services, individual suppliers have little bargaining power. Traditional research is labor-intensive; online research is less labor-intensive. Changes in information technology imply changes in the information production function. When today s firms want to learn about business and consumer markets and learn about them quickly, they use computers and communications technologies to generate, gather, and group information. They work with customer databases and conduct online research. Accordingly, information systems suppliers are an important component of the information supply chain. 3

4 Buyers. Custom research addresses the needs of individual clients, and there are many clients. General-purpose research also serves the needs of many clients. There are times when information buyers and sellers lock themselves into multi-year contracts, but it is more common for buyers and sellers to set up shortterm contracts on a project-by-project basis. Because there are so many potential buyers of business and economic information, individual buyers have limited bargaining power. Potential entrants. Traditional marketing research firms be warned. Potential entrants into the information industry include technology and information systems manufacturers and consulting firms, accounting and financial services firms, and political, social, and public opinion research firms. Advertising, media, and publishing firms can also supply research services. These types of firms have been around for many years, of course, and they have engaged in research of various kinds. In previous years, the threat of their entry into marketing research was not so great. Developments in information technology and online research have changed that. Because there are few barriers to entry into the information industry, the industry is highly competitive. Substitute products. Just as trucks and highways substituted for railway cars and tracks in the transportation industry, the methods of online research substitute for traditional modes of research in the information industry. Online marketing research is research conducted over the Internet, including electronic mail surveys, web-browser-based surveys, distributed survey applications, online interviews, bulletin boards, and focus groups. Online research is more than just a new way to gather information, more than just a new modality of research. It represents a technological and cultural change. What we do as researchers and how we think about research are changing because of what we can do online. Information industry rules. Some observers of the Internet, online shopping, and electronic commerce are fond of saying, The rules have changed. Forget the hyperbole. It may be a new world of technology, but the rules of economics and business have not changed. Quantity demanded increases as price decreases (law of demand). If two firms offer exactly the same product or service at different prices, consumers buy from the firm selling at the lower price (law of one price). Total cost increases as production quantity increases (no free lunch). There are economies of scale and economies of scope in production, just as surely as there are diminishing returns associated with the use or over-use of a single factor of production. Total cost is still the sum of fixed and variable costs, and profit equals revenue minus cost. If the rules haven t changed, what has changed? The parameters. Firms that set up their own web sites for online surveys incur higher fixed costs and lower variable (per participant) costs than firms that conduct traditional surveys. Communication over the Internet is faster than communication through mail. 4

5 Traditional research is time- and paper-intensive. The time to complete a traditional study, a cross-sectional survey of 1,000 consumers, for example, is measured in weeks or months. The time to complete an online study is often measured in hours or days. The parameters of information production change with technology. Economic agents, consumers and firms, are subject to the rules of information economics. These information rules, as described by Shapiro and Varian (1999), may be less widely understood than the law of demand or the definition of profit. But they are no less important to understanding the structure of the information industry and changes in the information supply chain. The Information Supply Chain Client firms are at the far end of the information supply chain. Clients need business and consumer information to make decisions; they need information to run their businesses. How shall they get this information? They can make it or buy it. To make information, firms set up in-house research departments. To buy information, firms set up contracts with research providers, firms in the information industry. All firms both make and buy information. What distinguishes firms from one another along the information supply chain is how much information they make and how much they buy. In past years it may have been reasonable to characterize information supply chains as being limited to individual research provider and client firms. Information providers would design studies, collect data, and write research reports on behalf of clients. Information generation, gathering, and grouping were customized for each client. A variation upon this theme would include initial providers of interviewing, tabulation, or syndicated database services (information gathering) selling to intermediate providers of research design, analysis, interpretation, and consulting (information generating and grouping) who would work with clients. Just as many businesses are being transformed by the e-business revolution, as described by Amor (2000), marketing research is being transformed by online research. The automation of information generation, gathering, and grouping activities can lead to the development of a more complex information supply chain. Figure 2 shows an information supply chain in which providers of information gathering software (survey or research tools) sell to intermediate providers of online research services. These providers of online research services, in turn, sell to custom research providers, who sell to clients. As we move from providers of general-purpose tools and services to providers of more specialized services, there is value added through information integration and customization. 5

6 Evans and Wurster (2000) describe how changes in information technology affect the richness versus reach trade-off. In a business-to-business context, richness refers to the quality of information, its accuracy, currency, customization, and relevance to the client. Reach refers to the number of clients who can easily access information. Consider how Evans and Wurster s (2000) analysis relates to the information supply chain: Until recently, it has been possible to share extremely rich information with a very small number of people and less rich information with a larger number, but it has been impossible to share simultaneously as much richness and reach as one would like.... The trade-off between richness and reach is based on the existence of information channels: physical infrastructures or behavioral patterns that support limited movements of information. But the existence of channels implies that some have privileged access and others do not: channels imply asymmetries. Some can get rich information only through an intermediary who has access to the channel and who extracts the value of his informational chokehold. Eliminate the richness/reach trade-off, make the channel universally accessible, and the asymmetry collapses. (pp. 23, 24, 29) Referring again to Figure 2, we see how alternative information flows can develop. There can be disintermediation. A vendor of general-purpose research tools can offer its products and services directly to clients at the far end of the information supply chain. To the extent that these general-purpose research tools are customizable, intermediate information providers, including providers of custom market research, may be eliminated from the supply chain. Traditional provider-to-client channels are unnecessary when clients can get rich information by using customizable research tools and when clients have worldwide reach through the Internet. What does the future hold for marketing research? On the client side we will see integration of research with product testing, advertising, promotion, display, pricing (including dynamic pricing in electronic auctions), sales order processing and fulfillment. In an increasingly information-mediated world, we will see the integration of research with other business functions. We will see it because an online medium allows it. Our attempt to place marketing research within the broader context of the information industry suggests that there will be increased competition among the providers of research services. Competition could just as easily come from information systems providers and consulting companies as from businesses included in conventional lists of marketing research firms. Because information systems and services are central to the research function, marketing research will be part of a large and growing information industry. 6

7 References Amor, D. (2000). The E-business (R)evolution: Living and Working in an Interconnected World. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Churchill, G. A., Jr. (1999). Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations (7th Ed.). Orlando, FL: Dryden. Evans, P., & Wurster, T. S. (2000). Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. (1987). Standard Industrial Classification Manual 1987, National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA. Honomichl, J. (2000, June 5). Business Report on the Marketing Research Industry. Marketing News, H1-H36. Levitt, T. (1986). The Marketing Imagination (New Expanded Edition), New York: The Free Press. Miller, G. A. (1956). The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. Psychological Review, 63, Porter, M. (1980). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: The Free Press. Shapiro, C., & Varian, H. R. (1999). Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 7

8 Exhibit 1. SIC Codes for the Information Industry The Standard Industrial Classification major group 73 is business services. Included among the services under this two-digit SIC major group are three-digit SIC groupings, such as 731 for advertising and 737 for computer programming, data processing, and other computer related services. Digging deeper into the 737 group, we see the following SIC codes: 7371 Computer Programming Services 7372 Prepackaged Software 7373 Computer Integrated Systems Design 7374 Computer Processing and Data Preparation and Processing Services 7375 Information Retrieval Services 7379 Computer Related Services, Not Elsewhere Classified (including computer consulting services) Many information industry firms would find themselves under the three-digit SIC code 738 for miscellaneous business services. SIC code 7383 is for news syndicates, firms engaged in gathering information (news, pictures, and features), processing information, and providing information to publishers of newspapers and periodicals. SIC code 7389 includes telemarketing, among many other business services not elsewhere classified. Separate from SIC groups 737 and 738 is another three-digit SIC group, 873 for research, development, and testing services. If a firm is involved in the publishing of information products, we might consider various codes under the SIC major group 27 for printing, publishing, and allied industries. We can find market research under SIC code 8732 for commercial economic, sociological, and educational research. But a firm that provides management consulting might just as easily find itself in a completely different area of the Standard Industrial Classification codes. The three-digit SIC grouping 874 is reserved for management and public relations services," with SIC code 8742 being management consulting services. It is easy to get lost in the SIC code jungle. Suppose a firm develops advertising information for business clients, publishes that information on its web site, and uses pop-up windows on client web sites to recruit visitors to its own site. The firm uses computers and communications software to deliver its online advertising product, and it offers consulting and research services with its product. Is this firm under SIC major groups 27, 73, or 87? Which three-digit group and four-digit code should we use for this information industry firm? Source. Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. (1987). Standard Industrial Classification Manual 1987, National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA. 8

9 Figure 1. Industry Analysis a la Porter POTENTIAL ENTRANTS Threat of new entrants Bargaining power of suppliers SUPPLIERS INDUSTRY COMPETITORS Rivalry among existing firms Bargaining power of buyers BUYERS Threat of substitute products or services Source: Porter (1980) SUBSTITUTES 9

10 Figure 2. An Information Industry Supply Chain Alternative Path SOFTWARE TOOLS COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE RESEARCH TOOLS INTERNET SERVICES ONLINE RESEARCH SERVICES CUSTOM RESEARCH Alternative Path CLIENT 10

11 About the author: Thomas W. Miller Thomas W. Miller is Director of the A. C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. This center of education and research supports graduate business students working toward MBA and MS degrees in marketing with a concentration in marketing research. Tom manages the center's research program and the EXPLOR program, which recognizes "exemplary performance and leadership in online research. An active researcher himself, Tom teaches graduate level marketing research for the Marketing Department. He holds degrees in psychology (Ph.D., psychometrics) and statistics (MS) from the University of Minnesota and in business (MBA) and economics (MS) from the University of Oregon. Prior to returning to academia, Tom worked for ten years in the computer industry, where he held technical, sales, and marketing positions. To cite this paper use: Miller, Thomas W. (2000). "Marketing Research and the Information Industry," CASRO Journal 2000, in press. 11