About the Book
At its core, consumer insights research is fun. Fast-paced, creative, and exciting, working in this field means constant interaction and engagement with people, concepts, and ideas. Consumer insights researchers get to spend their days partnering with clients to solve complex and knotty problems across all mass communication industries, including film, television, digital, advertising, and public relations. They do deep dives to understand the perceptions and perspectives of target audiences using a wide range of approaches and methods. On every project, hours are spent playing with data and ideas, coming up with creative and innovative ways to approach problems and uncover the insights that will lead to effective audience engagement. This work is dynamic and intellectually challenging, celebrating innovative approaches that lead to unique explanations of—and solutions for—important problems. It also is essential to success: Whether you are working on a media product or a strategic communication campaign, successfully reaching your audience and meeting your objectives requires good research.
Unfortunately, this is not what our undergraduate students currently experience when using the existing crop of research methods textbooks. Even though journalism, media, applied communication, advertising, and public relations programs typically offer—and often require—at least a foundational research methods course, most undergraduate students do not leave those courses with an accurate understanding of what this field actually entails. Typically written with an emphasis on academic research, those books often are intended for those who plan to follow a very specific path—conduct scholarly research, primarily using quantitative methods. The scientific method dominates this perspective, and students are taught to prioritize the concepts and conditions central to academic research. While useful for those who are interested in continuing for graduate degrees, these textbooks do not adequately represent the world of—or prepare students for—the realities of consumer insights research. This book represents a much-needed alternative.
This textbook flips the typical model presented in mass communication research textbooks. In these books, audiences often are primarily framed almost exclusively as participants—presented as a means to generate data. Instead, as students will learn through this text, data should be used to understand people as thoughtful, deliberative audiences. As such, research should be done with the goal of better understanding target audiences in a meaningful way. With this orientation in mind, these insight-driven research projects allow media practitioners and strategic communication professionals to tap into audiences’ wants, needs, and desires through messaging and products designed to resonate.
This textbook is born of necessity. I have taught undergraduate students in advertising, media production, and public relations research methods courses since 2007. In the ensuing years, I have spent every conference scouring the book publisher’s displays, trying desperately to find a book that would do what I needed: accurately reflect the joy and excitement of consumer insights research. I wanted something that would prepare my students for what jobs really look like in this field, while also offering tips on how to do the fast-paced, low-cost research that can be conducted over the course of a semester to give students a “real-world” perspective on how to uncover, interpret, and apply consumer insights.
Guided by both my own experience in the field as well as interviews and recommendations with current practitioners on the client, boutique, and agency sides, this book will offer students an accessible, thorough, and compelling perspective on how to plan for and complete a consumer insights research project from the initial request for proposal (RFP) to the final presentation of findings.
Features:
Each chapter will include:
a guide for how to conduct in-class research
quotes and recommendations from experts in the field (including representatives from research and insights boutiques; advertising agencies and PR firms; and a wide range of industries (media, consumer packaged goods, travel, finance, etc.)
case studies & real world examples
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
PART I: PREPARATION
Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview
What is Research?How We See the WorldPlanning for Research DesignWorking on TeamsHow to Use this BookKey TermsChapter 2: Working with Clients
General Best PracticesLooking Good (And by “Good,” I Mean Professional)Confidence is Key. So is Humility.Getting Work StartedResponding to RFPsPitching New BusinessUnderstanding and Assessing NeedsBusiness Objectives and Research ObjectivesDeveloping Actionable Research QuestionsEstablishing and Working with BudgetsBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 3: Secondary Research and Analysis
Conducting Secondary ResearchSecondary Research SourcesNon-Public SourcesPublic SourcesBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 4: Applied Research Ethics
Why This MattersKey Ethical PrinciplesApplied Research EthicsGaining ConsentAnonymity versus ConfidentialityPrivacy Laws and Legal ImplicationsConducting Research OnlineAccurate Representation of Ideas, or How to Avoid PlagiarismBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsPART II: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Chapter 5: Qualitative Research Design and Considerations
Why Do Qualitative Research?BenefitsLimitationsQualitative MethodsInterviewsEthnographiesParticipant ObservationFocus GroupsOnline CommunitiesEnsuring RigorWays to Ensure RigorBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 6: Qualitative Data Collection
Writing an Effective InstrumentGuide StructureTips for WritingGeneral Best PracticesRecord, Record, RecordData Collection: In the FieldConducting InterviewsConducting EthnographiesConducting Focus GroupsConducting Qualitative Research OnlineBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysChapter 7: Using Creative Exercises for Deeper Insights
General Best PracticesGenerating Good DataTypes of Creative ExercisesCollageDrawings and StorytellingBring Brands to LifeFill-In-The-Blank“Magic Wand”Creating Lists and Organizing DataCard SortsMarketing ExecBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 8: Qualitative Data Analysis and Reporting
General Best Practices: During FieldingGeneral Best Practices: Post-Collection Data AnalysisIn the DebriefTopline Research ReportBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysPART III: QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Chapter 9: Quantitative Research Design and Best Practices
Why Do Quantitative Research?BenefitsLimitationsBasic Principles and CharacteristicsCorrelation is Not CausationStandardizationHypotheses versus Research QuestionsSampling and SamplesProbability SamplingNonprobability SamplingError, Margin of Error, and Confidence LevelQuantitative Research for AcademicsBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 10: Quantitative Data Collection
General Best PracticesPreparing to Write Your SurveyStructuring Your SurveyScreenerThe BodyDemographicsEditing Your SurveyWriting Good QuestionsDifferent Types of QuestionsBasic Rules for Writing QuestionsWriting Good ResponsesTrend StudiesBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 11: Quantitative Data Analysis and Reporting
Good Preparation, Good DataEnsuring Data AccuracyDescriptive StatisticsWeightingChecking on What Happens in the “Black Box”Statistical Models for the Non-StatisticiansConjoint AnalysisMaximum-Difference Scaling (MaxDiff)Discrete Choice ModelingFactor AnalysisCluster AnalysisData Reports and BannersDebriefing and Data AnalysisPreparing for your DebriefDebriefingReporting Quantitative ResearchBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsPART IV: REPORTING FINDINGS
Chapter 12: Writing Your Report
Goal and PurposeDevelop Your “Elevator Pitch”Organizing Your ThoughtsPreparing your OutlineIntegrate and Synthesize Insights into ThemesPlan your SignpostingBake in TransitionsFlesh out your RecommendationsAlways Come Back to your StoryTelling a StoryKeep the Story MovingShare Data StrategicallyFocus on your FlowStay FocusedReport SectionsReport FormatsBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 13: Developing (and Designing) Your Deliverable
Designing your DeliverableMake Sure your Story is ClearMake Signposts ClearMetaphors MatterDeliverable FormatsDesign Basics (Very, Very Basics)Designing your DeliverableHierarchyConsistencyEffective Use of Color and ContrastPresenting DataForms of Data PresentationGuidelines for Presenting DataBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysKey TermsChapter 14: The Client Presentation
Goal and PurposePreparationKnow your AudienceKnow your MaterialInternalizingDuring the PresentationWrapping Up the ProjectBack in the OfficeBest Practices & Key Take-AwaysFinal Thoughts
About the Author :
Danielle Sarver Coombs is professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University. She is the co-author of Female Fans of the NFL and author of Last Man Standing: Media, Framing, and the 2012 Republican Primary. Coombs has also co-edited three anthologies—Debates for the Digital Age, We Are What We Sell, and American History through American Sports (2012)—and has published research on sport fans and fandom in journals, including the Howard Journal of Communications, Liminalities, the Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Sport in Society, International Journal of Sport Communication, and Public Relations Research.
Review :
Danielle Coombs has done a wonderful job writing about research techniques that students can actually use, both as student researchers and eventual professionals. Students will enjoy reading this book.
The Consumer Insights Handbook is a much needed textbook for our discipline. Before now, we have never had a book dedicated solely to teaching our aspiring advertising and public relations practitioners the importance of research from an industry standpoint. Danielle Coombs has provided an accessible text for our students that's comprehensive, yet easy to read. Every research methods and insights course in our field should be using this book.
