More Specialist Agencies Despite Multi-channel Integration
March 2006
The “sociological imagination” is a term popularized by the sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959, and it’s a concept that is gaining increased prominence in marketing circles in New Zealand.
Although the term itself is unlikely to be cited in commercial circles, it refers to the important ability of marketers, market researchers and ad agencies to place themselves in the shoes (or minds) of others. By formally studying peoples’ social, personal, environmental and historical contexts, anyone with a sociological imagination is able, to some degree, to see the world from other peoples’ perspectives – perspectives which are completely ‘normal’ to those beholding them.
Obviously, gaining such an understanding of people’s lives and mindsets is a crucial part of marketing operations. It’s often not enough to simply tailor the language, images and media mix of a product in order to win the business of a specific group – often the very product or service itself will be integral to the experience and perspectives of the target market in question.
This is why market researchers are so often contracted to get inside the heads of a given market. Researchers may still be a niche group of business-friendly white tertiary-educated urbanites, but the good ones will excel at redefining ‘reality’ according to the perceptions of their subjects – it’s their job after all.
In larger markets, market researchers’ expertise in understanding the perspectives of specific markets has long been valued, to such an extent that many research companies now exist to solely focus on a wide variety of ethnic and other demographic groups. The United States in particular has many research specialists who focus on the black and Latina markets.
This growth of specialization has been late coming to New Zealand, primarily because of the small population that works against the economics of such specialist ventures. Some niche qualitative-only research companies have been operating for some time, but the growth in outsourced fieldwork options, desktop publishing, online research and user-friendly statistical analysis software has facilitated the launch of specialist research companies such as 18 Ltd (youth research) and SensoMetrics (sensory research), or Kudos (organizational research). This is a bold step away from the years in which the niche specialists were primarily differentiated by their methods, not their subjects.
For many marketers these changes will mean little change. Those who are satisfied with their chosen research partners will have confidence in their ability to understand and interpret the relevant consumers. Quite likely, these marketers’ very awareness of these specialist research companies may be minimal or non-existent.
But the profile of such specialization could be rising, notably because of the impending rise in specialty advertising agencies. For too long agencies have differentiated themselves by channel, often to the extent of establishing their own sub-brands, with which to focus on retail, DM, online, outdoor and even ‘ambient’. It’s all a curious evolution considering how the evolution of multi-channel marketing requires channel integration, not isolation.
So, for example, recent months have seen the rising prominence of agencies and approaches that are structured around markets, not channels. Auckland ad agency Spawn now offers the services of SeniorAgency, a network of research and advertising specialists focusing on consumers aged 40+. In addition, two Australian specialty marketing and strategy companies have been making PR forays in New Zealand – these being Splash (who focus on women) and Evergreen (who focus on seniors, as with SeniorAgency). Presumably they’re only doing this with local business in mind, so marketers and existing agencies are inevitably going to find themselves with more choices – or more competition.