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It’s been seven months now since Research Solutions Ltd became Synovate, and what an amazing time it’s been. We continue to be impressed by the enthusiasm and innovation being shown by our new family of colleagues throughout the world. This was particularly on show when Debra Hall and I attended the annual ‘Planet Synovate’ company conference in New Orleans in late April. It was an action packed week with two days of specialist mini-conferences followed by 60 sessions spread over three days.
The conference was full of intensive yet inspirational and worthwhile learning. It was also great to see five entries from our New Zealand team in the final round of judging for the global Synovate awards.
There is a wealth of new ideas, research techniques and applications that we are still learning about. Some, such as the Brand Value Creator, have already been adopted with enthusiasm by our clients and researchers alike. Many other techniques are still being assessed by our staff to understand how they fit the needs of New Zealand market and clients.
One key outtake from the conference was just how much more can be achieved from research that is developed through collaboration. Collaboration between researchers, yes, but also between researchers and clients. When you think about it, market researchers will inevitably deal with more marketers, more marketing problems, and in more industries, than any of our individual marketing clients simply because marketers comprise the bulk of our clients. Last year alone our team completed over six hundred individual projects for over one hundred and fifty clients.
As a result, the input that an experienced market researcher can give early in the piece can be good value. Chances are that over the years they’ve had other clients encountering issues similar to yours, and the learnings and experience gained from researching these issues and seeing what those other marketers have done can often be a big help – client confidentiality withstanding!
So the key message I would like to convey in this issue of ‘Usage, Attitude and Opinion’ is to get your researcher involved early in the piece. Once a challenge or opportunity has been identified as attention-worthy, get your researcher involved in the ensuing discussions. It can’t hurt, and it will almost certainly help. | 
