Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research™

Interview with Mike Gadd, the new moderator and manager of Next Gen Market Research’s Canada SIG

Today posting a short interview so you can better get to know another of NGMR’s new moderators, Mike Gadd, president of Gadd Research, Inc.

Mike has been a fairly active member of ESOMAR and Canadian research organizations. I know Mike plays the Guitar in his free time. From his remarks on NGMR I also know he is a true statesman.

I asked Mike a few questions so that we can get to know him even better. Mike manages the Canada SIG on NGMR.

Tom: How Did you get started in Research?

Mike: I asked an old girlfriend who was reading Psychology at Southampton University UK what she was going to do - she said she was thinking about market research. She told me about MR. I was taking Business Studies and managed to get a distinction in Marketing; funnily enough there was hardly a mention of MR. I obviously liked Marketing but felt it was not for me; MR just sounded more interesting with more variety and more of a focus on people and their interactions with brands. Six months before leaving college I started writing to MR companies, not really thinking of client research departments, interviewed and was offered a job at the UK’s biggest at the time - AGB.

Tom: How if at all do you think research in your country is different than elsewhere?

Mike: Canada has the world’s second largest land mass but a relatively small population (of 34 million) living in a fairly narrow corridor 3,000 miles long above the border with the US. Research is different because the budgets are small, there are two official languages and many others used, the pressure to use US marketing initiatives is immense (but US and Canadian drivers/characteristics are quite different) and the culture not very innovative/prepared to take risks - it can be a tough sell persuading clients to go out on a limb.

Tom: Where do you get your inspiration/ideas?

Mike: From thinking there must be a better way. Also clients, books on creativity, innovation, the human spirit and design, Internet, especially LinkedIn, talking with people, attending conferences, being alert to what’s going on and what’s next. Mulling things over, looking at things upside down inside out, discussing and rediscussing, having fun. Transposing or transplanting ideas.

Tom: What do you hate/love most about research?

Mike: Hate - inertia, not changing with the times. The auditing aspect as opposed to discovery. Boring people to death, researching the wrong metrics the wrong ways and terrible reportage reporting. Standardized and systematic approaches for researching uniquely positioned brands and personalities. Hate poorly constructed overly long questionnaires, using direct questions when indirect or metaphor eliciting should be used instead.

Love - being useful, really helping decision makers to make the right decisions, using research across studies for foresight built on cumulative insight, using the right instruments at the right time. Growing healthy businesses. Experimenting.
I think Research should have more of a focus on the mainly emotional relationship customers have and prospects could have with brands.

Tom: What new technique/s do you find most interesting?

Mike: Anything (conventional, quant qual, online forums and other social media research, ethnographies in person or online, usability studies …) that gives a better understanding of the customer, the targeted prospect, how category consumers segment (there are lots of possibilities here), why (this is where neuro or biometric research has some way to go - perhaps genomic MR will have all of the answers - haven’t tried hypnotism yet) and how to optimize marketing (customer relationship building) initiatives.

Tom: If you were to set up an MR Dream Team, what would it look like?

Mike: The Team composition would really depend on the design of the project. There are so many great potential Team members out there. We have worked many different types of researchers and non-researchers, designers and programmers.

Tom: When you don’t research, what do you like to do?

Mike: Many things - variety is the spice of life. Spending time with family (I work with my daughter who is an amazing person and a wonderful researcher) and friends, reading, playing guitar, attending live concerts and movies, the odd game of golf and traveling.

Tom: Thanks Mike! I think you hit a couple of my interests there as well. Look forward to your continued insights on NGMR.

@TomHCAnderson

More About Mike

After childhood ambitions of being Davy Crockett, a knight, a soccer star and rock star, and a few career missteps in merchant banking, insurance, encyclopedia selling and computer operations, Mike took a degree in business studies. He first heard about market research, which sounded interesting, from a girlfriend. He liked the idea of variety!

The early years taught him much about left-brained research and off the shelf research methodologies. Working for four and a half years as Research Head in an ad agency instilled in him a healthy skepticism of most things relating to research. Years of copy testing confirmed what creative people have always known; that the emotional connection with a marketing initiative is the number one driver of purchase interest.

Frustration with conventional research methodologies stimulated a life long passion for innovation and creativity in researching the emotions and really useful “actionable” research for decision making.

He is a fervent believer of the Six Senses in Daniel Pink’s Whole New Mind: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning. He longs for right-brainers to rule and left-brainers, which include ISO super fans, to go the way of the dodo.

His interests continue to be fine conversation, dining, theatre, music, guitar playing, traveling, art and reading inspirational books, LinkedIn groups, anything that has the right energy and stimulates the right-brain. He likes to cycle, swim and speed walk. He has been known to walk the dog and help out with puppies.