Business development is an integral part of any business, but some businesses can make the mistake of thinking about BD purely in terms of generating new sales and acquiring new clients. Let’s be real: of course, that’s important. But striking the right balance is about reframing your definition of business development. BD is about creating long-term business success which can’t be achieved without getting the bones of your company right. Bastion Insights’ Operations Director, Nicole Lobosco, shares the 3 key things to consider when it comes to upping your (internal) BD game. 

Support your people

So you’ve networked, you’ve emailed, called, followed-up and you’ve locked a new client down, ready to start a project with your company. Now it’s time to deliver but can your team provide the services you have already sold?

In terms of ‘internal’ BD, it’s important to start with your foundations. It goes without saying that an organisation is only as good as its people and to deliver a successful service, you may need a team of people around you to get the job done. Start by getting to know the team – understanding not only their skill sets but also where the gaps are. What makes them tick? What development opportunities are there? Plug the holes and when it comes time to deliver, your team is primed and ready. 

Support your clients

Remember that business does not only come from new clients. Do your current clients know and trust you? Have your account managers formed strong relationships? Do you surprise and delight whenever possible? If your clients rely on you, the opportunity to continue working together and even upsell will always be there. 

Building a good relationship with your clients also means being able to have conversations about tight deadlines or over-the-top requests, ultimately relieving the pressure on your team. It’s about working together to ensure that the end objective is met and sometimes this can take tough conversations and a touch of compromise to get there. 

Create processes and stick to them

So we know that clients are constantly asking for things to be delivered more quickly and for a lower cost. The only way to make that happen is to have all your bases covered. Make the changes internally and refine your processes. If you need something delivered immediately, do you have the processes in place to help your team get there? 

Taking the time to review and improve your processes will ensure that when that tricky, time-critical request comes through, you have the processes in place to respond.   

Overall, it’s important to ask yourself, are you selling a product you can deliver? Focus on your foundations; a strong, engaged team, firm relationships with your clients, and reliable processes. Otherwise, you may be making money but opening yourself up to chaos at the same time. 

Cue happy staff and happy clients.

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Read more from Nicole! Check out her blog on Bastion Insights’ accreditations.

Nicole is an enthusiastic, dynamic, highly organised and hard-working researcher with over 13 years’ experience in the market research industry. She is a strong team contributor with broad thinking capabilities, holding reliability and flexibility at her core. She is passionate about new techniques and ways of understanding human behaviour to unlock strategy and growth. Check out Nicole on LinkedIn here!

A letter from our CEO, Dianne Gardiner;

Just over 3 and ½ years ago Latitude embarked on a new phase, as we became part of Bastion Collective group. I am now excited to announce that Bastion Latitude has renamed to Bastion Insights.

We’re still the same fast-paced, customer-centric and culturally attuned Insights consultancy, just with a new name that better represents what we do. Bastion Insights uses customer communities, human-centred design, behavioural science, and cross-cultural insights to ensure our clients keep pace with an ever-evolving Australia.

Over 10 years ago I started this journey with Latitude Insights, and I’m incredibly grateful to our clients who have been a part of our evolution from a small market research agency to one of nine businesses within the Bastion Collective; working conjunctively across the full marketing and communications spectrum.

Dianne

Bastion Insights has joined as a foundation partner for Qualie.com, as it launches the world’s first market research platform, delivering objective qualitative research.

A powerful new tool, Qualie was developed because traditional qualitative research, though rich with insight, is based on small samples and is by its nature subjective. And while quantitative research has the rigour of numbers, it tells you little about what was really going on in people’s heads and hearts. Qualie brings the two together – the numbers and the why behind them – in one platform, delivering the output to clients that can be called Compelling ConsensusTM. 

Dianne Gardiner, CEO of Bastion Insights: “I love what Qualie enables us to do for our clients.  For years we have been working on hybrid approaches that blend of qual and quant to get a fuller picture for clients, quicker and easier. Qualie is one of the best solutions I have seen as it is developed from true qualitative foundations and those are embedded in the whole process ”.

Compelling ConsensusTM approach is great for clients who want to get feedback on ideas or qualitative findings with greater robustness.  Delivered using a unique qualitative survey approach that captures responses via video and survey questions and treats people as people, not as respondents,  and really puts the human back into the survey.  

To find out more about Qualie and Compelling ConsensusTM  please contact dianne@bastioninsights.com

In July this year, Latitude’s Insights Director, Tabitha Lucas, celebrated 9 years as a part of the Latitude team. A massive feat but only 9 years out of a market research career that stretches over 20 plus. With the rise of experience design, the fall of cold calling and the introduction of that crazy little thing called the internet, it’s safe to say a lot has changed in the industry over the past 20 years. Here, Tab talks about some of the things that have changed over the span of her career, and the things that have remained constant throughout her journey.

The Accessibility of People

When I first interviewed with Di (CEO of Bastion Latitude) I had never heard of an online community. I was dubious as to if it could even work! I told Di that she’d have to convince me, and she did! What started as small qualitative research online grew to big quant and qual projects, online engagement and designing and delivering best practices for dealing with online communities.

The ability to access people at any time was a game-changer. Not only just for online communities but the ability to source sample. For a long time, all market research agencies had a ‘phone room’ which was basically a call centre. We’d use uni students or casuals, each working a 4-hour shift, who would contact as many people as possible to interview. You might average 1 complete an hour, so for a project requiring 1000 completes, you’re looking at 1000 hours. The man-hours it took to complete big projects was incredible. Now, using online sample, you can practically source anyone, anywhere, anytime.

The Devil Works Hard But A Market Researcher Works Harder

The need to be agile remains constant over my 20 or so years in the industry. Timelines have always been short (and may have even gotten shorter!) and fast results continue to be a top priority for clients. Why the need for such a fast turn around? Because some companies tend to leave market research to the last minute. But the last few years as definitely seen a shift away from, ‘maybe we should do a survey?’ to ‘we have to know what the customer is saying’.’

It is definitely not the status quo but there are always stories of having to work to ridiculous-o’clock to get something out the door. I know market researcher’s don’t corner the market on occasional crazy hours, but it is part of how things sometimes pan out on the ‘supplier’ side. Fortunately, one of the other changes I’ve seen over the years is this sort of craziness becoming less frequent and less expected by leaders. There is an understanding that it’s not ok to burn people out by expecting really long days as par for the course. The marketing industry is changing and your colleagues understand the importance of your work/ life balance.

DI-Why?

Since the dawn of time (ok maybe not that long…), people have insisted ‘The market research industry is dying’. The market research industry will never die. The tools change and our industry always learns to adapt. But there is always a need to understand consumers to be successful.

The danger is the potential for bad DIY research, with businesses moving towards an ‘in-house’ model. With so much access to online tools and a crazy amount of customer data, some companies believe they have all that’s required to make an informed decision from their own research. But giving someone a car doesn’t teach them how to drive!

The challenge Market Research agencies face today is to educate. You can definitely conduct research in-house, but do you understand the risks? Do you know how to write a survey that makes sense? That will get you the best (or most useful) results? Can you find the ‘so what’ within your data? Do you understand what to do with your findings?

A researcher is an expert in designing surveys and discussions that will deliver quality insights that directly inform strategic decisions.

Discover Why, Uncover How

At the end of the day, my passion for Market Research boils down to wanting to understand what makes people tick. I’m just as interested in working out why people are choosing THAT particular chocolate bar as I am about the bigger picture stuff. I love getting inside people’s heads. The past 20 years, the goal has been about understanding people, and I can guarantee that it’ll be the same in another 20!

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Tab is Latitude’s Insights Director and heads up our Quantitative team. You can find her on LinkedIn here.

A range of professional and ethical standards inform the work of all good market research agencies. These are constantly evolving, capturing the shifting responsibilities of the industry to society in general. We are proud to display our accreditations as they validate our status as a global industry leader in trust, quality, and ethics. 

ISO 20252

ISO International Standards ensure that services are safe, reliable and efficient. It represents the quality standard of our industry. To achieve ISO 20252 accreditation Bastion Latitude proved we adhere to the highest quality standards for the market research industry.  

AMSRO 

AMSRO (Australian Market and Social Research Organisations) is the peak body for market and social research organisations in Australia. Our membership demonstrates our commitment to quality assurance, ethical practices and an active participation in our industry.

AMSRS

The Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS) is an industry body that represents market and social research professionals. Several of our staff, in particular, senior researchers, are members of the AMSRS which allows them access to professional development opportunities, guidelines of professional conduct and networking with other like-minded industry practitioners. The AMSRS also manages the QPR program – accreditation as a Qualified Professional Researcher which several of our staff have attained.

WIN (Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research)

The Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research (WIN) is a global network of market and social research organisations, providing unprecedented access to partners in all countries of the world. It allows for the conduct of global research studies as well as the exchange of best practice ideas, trends and thinking on a worldwide scale. As a WIN partner, Bastion Latitude was responsible for the Australian portion of the World Index Survey.

We are proud of what these accreditations represent; that we operate according to the highest ethical and professional standards for researchers all over the world.

It’s further proof to our clients that they’re in good hands.

Our Research Director, Mehdi Khallouk was invited to present a masterclass at Mumbrella360 this year, teaching the art of ethnographic investigation and sharing his top advice for frugal market researchers. A medley of marketers and advertisers, Mumbrella360 is the perfect place to stay up to date with everything happening in the industry. Below Mehdi shares in his own words, 5 things he took away from the conference.  

Mumbrella 360 is Australia’s largest annual media and marketing conference and usually a good barometer of industry trends. Here are five things I observed at the 2019 iteration. 

1. Australia punches above its weight in campaign effectiveness

WARC has crunched the numbers on their 2019 Effective 100 – their advertising effectiveness tracker – and Australia comes 3rd overall. In the world! Not bad! Examples of great campaigns this year include the ‘Inconvenience Stores’ campaign for Swann Insurance in Australia, the ‘Cheetos Museum’ in the USA and Aldi’s ‘Kevin the Carrot’ in the UK. 

2. Mass campaigns are back

Last year’s conference was already heralding the return of mass marketing. This year, several brands spoke out about their increased spend in mass channels and a rebalancing away from digital. It’s still more of an overseas phenomenon but it’s coming to Australia. The move back to mass has been advocated in “How Brands Grow” by Byron Sharp for years but it’s only now really hot. 

3. Investment in brand is finally picking up again

The last ten years in Australia have seen spend in brand – the long game – flounder and spend in sales activations – the short game – balloon. But predictably, loyalty has eroded and price sensitivity increased: marketing managers are starting to realise they have to invest in brand again if they want to grow. As usual, the push is led by the UK, where influential comms planners Peter Field and Les Binet have now advocated for brand for years in their book “The Long and the Short of It” – a highly recommended read.

4. We can all help repair trust in our democracy… even at a media and marketing conference

The most interesting presentation this year probably had nothing to do with marketing. In fact, it argued against marketing. Pr Marc Stears, Director of the Sydney Policy Lab at The University of Sydney, contended that the crux of our current democratic woes is that politics has moved away from building “I You” relationships to favour “I It” relationships. Basically, politicians have moved from building one-on-one rapport to thinking of voters in terms of systems: segments, needs, and motivations, communication strategy, process… The solution? Reduce barriers to joining political parties, get politicians to interact beyond their elite circles and lobby the media so they don’t report on politics as a technical horse race but as a warm endeavour. Look up Martin Buber, a philosopher for a full dive “I It” and “I You” relationships. 

5. Research does increase advertising effectiveness – and so does bravery

Mark Ritson, the star commerce professor at Melbourne Uni, knows how to wake up an audience, toeing the difficult line between entertainment, academia, and business consulting. This year, he and his team of PhDs manually coded 50 years of Effie awards (the most prestigious advertising effectiveness awards) entries to scientifically uncover what makes advertising effective. And guess what? Research does increase advertising effectiveness. Ritson and his team proved that those entries that had a research component to it were significantly more likely to win than those that didn’t. And to show that research doesn’t necessarily kill creativity, he also showed that the braver a campaign is, the more effective it is too. Research and creativity can work in tandem.

View this article and more by Mehdi via his LinkedIn. 

New research shows that catalogue readership has increased in the last five years and together with direct mail can hold the attention of the reader for longer than any television advertisement could ever dream of.

Latitude’s CEO, Dianne Gardiner presented her opinion on the power of print at the first Real Media Collective customer insights session in Sydney. Our study, conducted on behalf of Australia Post in 2018, showed the effectiveness of direct mail. Di reminded attendees of today’s often forgotten channel and how mail is a stronger performer than you may think.

“Mail is often the forgotten channel. It’s not sexy, it’s not new, it doesn’t attract the attention of other channels but what we tend to forget about mail is the level of engagement it does get, it’s personalised, it’s physical and it gets our attention”

Letterboxes are more regularly checked then email inboxes, with 95 percent of addressed mail opened.  There is also greater opportunity to stand out in the letterbox with one in 10 Australians receive more than 10 promotional emails each week.

“The study found 54 per cent of respondents said they opened their personalised mail straight away and read it thoroughly and kept it for later reference. The same sort of statistic was also for unaddressed mail.”

“Most mail is actually read fairly immediately, particularly if it’s personally addressed mail with 54 per cent saying they read it immediately on collection.”

“If it is personalised mail in particular it is more likely to be read as soon as possible where catalogues are more likely to be read later in the week when there is more time.”

How can your business capitalise on the power of print? 

Research Assistant, Naomi Trinh shares what she’s learnt in her first year in Market Research in her first LinkedIn article.

The transition from a university lifestyle to a 9-5 gig in the real world can be a daunting experience. But as a recent graduate myself, I’m here to assure you that there is a bright light at the end of that long scary tunnel, and it’s definitely worth it in the end.

I completed my Bachelor degree in 2017, and landed a full-time position at Bastion Latitude, an independent market research agency, in early 2018. It’s been an interesting journey, so I thought I’d share with you what I’ve learnt over the past year or so…

You’ll learn and use skills you wouldn’t have attained at university

When I look back at university, I think of the lengthy deadlines for assignments, the quality time spent with a never-ending stack of assignments and exams. Something I definitely did not anticipate was for my time management to seriously be put to the test once I started full-time work. It’s nothing new that agency life is fast-paced. Multiple projects roll in at once and turnovers can be as quick as 24 hours. Being part of a reactive culture has enabled me to manage my time much more effectively – it’s sink or swim and managing your time is vital!

Problem-solving is all in a day’s work – and I love it!

Another skill that I’ve developed in my first year is problem-solving. In the world of in-house market research, many issues and complications can arise. Anything from programming a survey, troubleshooting data software to making sure participants have access to qualitative discussions. These complexities allow you to look at situations and think of how best you can solve the problem for the best possible outcome for the client.

You’ll be exposed to multiple industries at once

No two days are the same. One of the many advantages of working in an agency is the exposure to not only different types of research methodologies but to different clients in multiple industries. I’ll find myself working on a project about postal services on one day, and about cosmetics on the next. I find that this kind of exposure keeps you up-to-date on what’s new or trending in each industry that you’re working with.

You’ll learn in your first year that…

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion”, as said by W.Edwards Deming, and “without a coherent model of human behaviour, you’re just another guy with data”, as said by Eaon Pritchard.

In order to be successful, the secret is combining the two as data ≠ insights… Add them together and the outcome will provide you with a deeper and more meaningful understanding of any research objective given to you.

You’ll learn that market research is more than focus groups and surveys

Sure, traditional research methodologies are tried and tested and deliver outcomes. But what I am passionate about is using new technologies and emerging methodologies to explore the customer’s journey and the user’s experiences. We understand the culture, social and behavioural motives, to help develop brand communications. Our job as researchers is to be insightful in the reports we deliver to our clients rather than being descriptive. It’s about what the data is telling us and how it all adds up to the bigger picture. As we Latituders like to say, it’s “discovering why and uncovering how”.

You’ll form lifelong friendships

For my last and most important point… you’ll form friendships that will last a lifetime. You’ll come to discover that work isn’t just a job, but it’s also working alongside those that inspire you and that you can call friends. I’m very fortunate to have had the pleasure to land myself into a workplace where the people and culture are nothing short of great.