What are the essential research techniques that determine business success?

This series, based on the new book " The Textbook on Research Methods for Creating Hits by a Current Dentsu Inc. Strategic Planner" by Ayaka Asami, a current strategic planner at Dentsu Inc., shares research methods that directly lead to business success.

This time, we present a conversation between Eiji Doi, editor-in-chief of the daily book review email magazine "Business Book Marathon," publishing marketing consultant, and business book reviewer, and Asami, taken from the talk event "Hits Start with Research" held at Bookstore B&B. They discuss why "research methods" are essential in today's era and share the key techniques that can make or break business success.

In this era of opinion inflation, "research methods" become your weapon

Asami: Mr. Doi, you've produced numerous bestsellers, including The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (over 1.6 million copies sold domestically, 13 million worldwide), The 2 Million Yen Salary Savings Declaration, and The "Ultimate" Introduction to the Essence of Failure. And let's be honest, The Textbook of Research Methods is also a book you produced.

Doi: Congratulations on already reaching the third reprint (*1). As a marketer myself, I've long been curious about Dentsu Inc.'s marketing secrets. It's rare for an active, frontline marketer to write such an in-depth book, so I requested really challenging content, resulting in an incredibly thick book in the end (laughs).

*1 = As of April 22, 2022, it's now in its sixth printing, exceeding 15,000 copies.

 

Asami: It's what you'd call a "brick of a book," right? (laughs) Mr. Doi, what are your impressions regarding the theme of "research methods"?

Doi: In recent years, we've seen an "inflation of opinions," especially online. Not just opinion leaders, but ordinary people too—all sorts of views are flying around the media space. However, many of these contain personal biases, or tend to circulate things that are easy to understand. This often leads to a disconnect between facts and opinions. Precisely because we live in an era where this gap can easily widen, I believe honing research skills is crucial.

Asami: Bridging the gap between facts and assumptions is indeed a critical point in marketing research. You often hear the term "insight," which refers to the true concerns, desires, and feelings that customers or consumers themselves may not be able to articulate. If planning is done based only on superficial aspects without deeply grasping these insights, it leads to outputs anyone could come up with or initiatives that fail to deeply resonate with the target audience.

Here's a famous example: A building owner was troubled by complaints that "the elevator takes too long to arrive." Making the elevator faster wasn't feasible. So, they installed mirrors beside the elevator, and the complaints stopped. Why? Because people who check their appearance in the mirror stop noticing the wait time. In other words, people weren't frustrated by the elevator's absence; they were frustrated by the wasted waiting time.

There's a trick to how you investigate!

Doi: Identifying what's causally linked is crucial, right? On the other hand, even though companies today possess vast amounts of data that could serve as research material, there are cases where they fail to utilize it effectively.

Asami: I believe it's vital to formulate a hypothesis before starting research. A hypothesis is a tentative answer derived from the information currently available. While it involves some gut feeling based on experience, it's not just a wild guess; it's considering "the most plausible conclusion at this point" as the hypothesis.

People sometimes ask, "If you start with a conclusion and then investigate, won't your perspective narrow and cause you to miss important data?" But actually, having a conclusion allows you to sense something off when different trends emerge. Why is it different from what I expected? Why isn't it resonating as much as I thought? Starting from that sense of dissonance and proceeding with research leads to deeper insights. If you just research aimlessly, you often end up finding nothing.

Doii: I see. So the idea is to first formulate a hypothesis and then refine it by comparing it with data and facts.

Asami: Combining research methods is also crucial. Broadly, there are four: desk research and fieldwork, quantitative and qualitative research. When I worked on marketing for a certain health food product, the client had excluded women in their 40s from the target audience, thinking they wouldn't be a good fit. When I asked why, they said quantitative research showed poor responses from women in their 40s.

However, when we conducted qualitative interviews, we found that while they were highly aware of the nutrients in the product, they mistakenly believed they were already getting those nutrients in their regular diet. Thinking about it that way, women in their 40s aren't outside the target range at all—they're actually a promising target, right?

Doii: Interesting, isn't it? Incidentally, this book goes into considerable detail about the research process leading up to the success of "10-Second Eyelash Extensions," a product from the long-established cosmetics manufacturer Cozy Honpo. Even in selecting the package design, they skillfully varied their research methods, didn't they?

Asami: That's right. After proposing four package design concepts with different directions and conducting research, two of them received positive feedback from various demographics. But the art director in charge of design pointed out, "These designs are getting broad approval, but no one is saying this is their absolute favorite, right?" And it was true. Ultimately, they went with a design that, while divisive, was intensely loved by those who favored it. It became a hit product, achieving an unprecedented shipment of over 1.1 million units for false eyelashes.

Doi: While the research approaches differ, the key point is that hypotheses are based on evidence, not intuition or gut feelings.

In the second part, we'll delve into the behind-the-scenes research conducted during the creation of "The Textbook of Research Methods" and explore the research techniques that fueled Doi's bestsellers!

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Details about 'The Textbook on Research Methods for Creating Hits by a Current Dentsu Inc. Strategic Planner' can be found here.