Transcript Reading 1: Listening Begins at Home

Reading 1:
Listening Begins at Home
Stengel, Dixon, Allen
History of Marketing Research
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Procter girls
Qualitative (still dominant in Europe)
Direct mail
Telephone
Internet
Stengel, et al. overview
• “listening to the consumer” is key
• Marketing plans should be developed from
research, not from intuition
• P&G’s marketing plans were in disarray
Methodology
• Stengel, et al. conducted qualitative research
• April 2001
• Internal focus – marketing employees, mostly
brand oriented
• Shadowing one-on-one
• Off-site focus groups
• Depth interviews
• Quantitative survey of employees
Researcher challenges
• Jargon particular to P&G and the industry
• Time to collect data
• Researcher lens
Findings
• People development was weak
– Coaching skills were not being used
– Change management was erratic
– Formal and informal training programs dropped
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Valuation of marketing as a profession
Focus on activity, not results
Discipline relative to established processes
Not listening to customers
Prescriptive Actions
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Six steps on page 112
Common language
Training
Centers of Expertise
Focus Marketing roles
Marketing as a career