When Good Research Goes Bad

Like any good industry, in advertising we do our homework. For us, this often consists of market research asking questions like "What do people think of our product?" "Who uses our product?" "How do they interact with our product?" etc. It's been said by many an advertising genius, that really good advertising simply reveals a social truth. Our fondness for milk mustaches for example. Or the unifying feature of the white earbuds. Anyhoot, sometimes (although if you ask me, rarely), market research helps lead to that one resonating factor - the je ne sais quoi that separates the good from the great. So with that hope, market research is good.

That is, until it leads you to make statements like:
"What makes Tide better than Cheer? Mystery, sensuality are vital, you know... Laundry's an incredibly sensual experience. Think about it. When you see the water going onto the product, splashes up like a great big waterfall, you get this incredible vibrant fragrance. Clean clothes smell great. And you feel deep inside your heart, you're a better woman, better mother, better guy."

The above statement was made by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi (one of the big boy agencies for those of you not in advertising). Kevin wrote Lovemarks which is this fantastic book that states that advertising's goal should be to make you love a brand and be loyal to that brand beyond reason. I lap up every single word. Except for the whole laundry quote. That was from an interview Kevin did with CNN. There he's just crazy and way too into his research.

But there in lies the catch-22. How do you justify spending thousands (millions?) of dollars on market research if it doesn't lead you to such ridiculous conclusions? What if you spent even $30,000 (uber-cheap) and came to the conclusion that laundry is a chore that we all have to do, and putting your clothes in the washer isn't that big a deal and you don't really think about which brand you chose at the grocery store- you just go with the one you know the best and then you compare scents, because, damnit, that's what really matters and you can totally tell the difference between people who wash with Mountain Spring and Alpine Fresh? You'd feel ripped off because you could have spend $1 in gas, a day in a grocery store, and observed the same thing. So, then you get these crazy conclusions (ref: above quote) that lead you to come up with ads that make no sense whatsoever.

Oral-B apparently has this problem. Who the heck gets so excited about a toothbrush? It's not a religious experience, or even much of a new toy. My electric toothbrush which has all sorts of bells and whistle kept me interested for exactly 57 seconds, which was 55 seconds longer than I expected.

My point is, market research is fine and dandy and all, but I'd rather have an ad campaign based off a good-gut-feel than a 56-page report.

It'd probably cost a lot less too.

P.S. I would still love to work for Kevin Roberts someday and just because I diss on his laundry detergent quote here, I still think he's a freaking brilliant man. To his credit, his bottom line for that interview was "The only really question research should ask is, 'Do you love my brand more after seeing this commercial than you did before?'" If you don't, then it's not really the kind of advertising I want to be doing.