Last month I was reading USA Today and noticed a really cool ad. It was a full two page ad with a headline of "You Asked For More Here Goes". A few weeks earlier Target had published an invitation to tell them what more they could do for their customers. They received over 600 responses and followed up with this two page ad highlighting what people said and what Target is doing about it.
Here are a few examples of the five they listed:
Customer said:
You could do a much better job of replenishing your stock, especially in the food.
Target’s response:
To better meet our guests’ wants and needs, we’re making improvements to our replenishment methods. Specifically, in the refrigerator/freezer case, product is being filled every hour – directly from the truck whenever possible.
Customer said:
Can you offer more Plus Size women’s clothing:
Target’s response:
Launched last month, our new Pure Energy brand delivers fashion-forward looks for Plus Size women to complete their wardrobe at affordable prices, with new styles arriving in stores each month. And for other brands you can always find a broader selection of Plus Size options at Target.com.
For me I really liked the fact that the ads included marketing research. It made me feel a little bit better towards their company, what they were selling and it would make a difference to me for shopping at the store and buying products.
What about you?
- Do you like when companies include market research in their ads?
- Can you think of any others that are currently doing that?
- As a researcher, how does it make you feel when a company does this?
I look forward to reading your comments.
Sean J Jordan says:
You know, Merrill, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings. I like that they’re saying, “We listen to our customers.” But I think that for anyone who has complained about something and seen their complaints not addressed, it says, “We selectively listen to our customers so we can validate our own decision-making.”
I think the best way to present it is not to quote verbatims (or approximates thereof), but rather, to say, “we’ve been hearing from many customers that we need to carry more plus sizes. For example, one customer told us, “X”. When we hear so many speaking up, we’ve got to listen!”
It’s sort of a “100,000 customers can’t be wrong” sort of bandwagon approach, but it feels more inclusive and less individualized… which I think Target is really shooting for anyhow.
Noel Lesniak says:
I tend to not put much credibility in research metrics insert into ads. The reason is that the selected metrics are usually cherry picked leveraging one finding that shows the organization in a positive light relative to competitors when a view of the whole might very well tell a different story.
When most ad viewers look at an ad it is understood that this is the view of the advertiser and puts the advertiser in the most appealing terms. Inserting research results in this mix may tend to discredit the objectivity of the specific research and perhaps research in general.
On the other hand, we encourage our customer satisfaction research customers to share the results of the research along with a corrective action plan with customers. The ideal media for this might be a customer newsletter or other in place customer communications.
Marc Dresner says:
How about using research in PR campaigns? Interesting take: http://bit.ly/8hl6tZ