Researching for success…
Dec 28 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal
Market research may be a “dirty” phrase to some people but the business established by Lisa Hart is based on a far more sophisticated model, she tells Alastair Gilmour
She is chief executive of Acritas, the Newcastle-based enterprise operating in market research, but after a question or two, this emerges as far too loose a term for the business analysis, brand value identification and client relationship world that she and her specialist staff move and shake in.
“What we do is use market research in very specialised areas,” she says. “We advise organisations in the very high-value service sector, such as the larger accountancy practices, commercial insurance companies and high-end banks – people who have very relationship-based businesses. We help them develop their own business.”
And, crucial to a relationship-based business is its brand. The Acritas team – mainly highly motivated graduates and people with business experience – delve into the value of an organisation’s brand and identify what makes each firm special in the eyes of buyers. She says that knowing the strength of your brand is essential in retaining and attracting clients and a powerful tool in understanding what they value most – and well executed research will provide crucial data to capitalise on brand strategy, client relationships, service development and employee
retention.
“We talk to the people in companies who have influence,” she says. “We challenge their assumptions, not from our own experiences, but by talking to other people who can advise and analyse.
“Market research is quite a dirty phrase – we don’t stop people in the street or ring people at home. We make business appointments for face-to-face meetings. When I was working for a big law firm in London hiring people to do research I found they weren’t as robust in their approach as they could be. They might be doing nappies one day then talking to a chief executive the next, so I saw there was a gap in the market for very specialist research at a high level.
“We look at a brand, ask how effective it is, does it stand out, are there new market opportunities, new regions, products and services to exploit – and is there a demand? I always envisioned being
the global leader in market research
for professional services, now we’re
not far away from achieving that
goal.
“The way we’ve got there has been very different to what we anticipated, but the vision has remained the same.
“At first we expected to have a number of key accounts that would deliver so much revenue each year, which we’d grow over the years gaining more client accounts and fulfilling their individual needs. None of them could give quite the right budget to it, and because they were all so similar we thought, wouldn’t it be much easier to do one huge study of the market, and then sell it to each of these firms. Our idea evolved, and what we now do is the whole of the research ourselves, invest in it ourselves, and then sell it to multiple firms. It allows clients to see where their brand position is, but it doesn’t involve multiple surveys of interviews with the same people.”
Acritas has interviewed more than 10,000 decision-makers around the world to seek their thoughts and opinions on a range of issues from client service to innovation.
“It has taken a lot of investment,” says Lisa, “but we have to take that sort of risk. Business-to-business is not quite as easy as working in consumer goods, which has very standard methodologies.
“We spend a lot of time with our interviewers training them to understand law firms’ terminology from the simplest things so they can be confident and are able to interact. We do a lot of detailed probing.”
Lisa is forever measuring herself and her company’s performance against role models, seeking advice whenever possible.
“I always find networking groups helpful,” she says, clearly happy that the Acritas alphabetical position puts her at top tables at those events.
She believes research is at its most powerful when it’s used to help shape and define business strategies, inspiring confidence that the right decisions are being made using intelligent extraction, analysis and interpretation of the questions asked.
“You need mathematicians to do the in-depth side and wordsmiths to restructure what people are saying,” she says. “We’ve got all that here in our offices. It’s very exciting.”
Lisa Hart certainly understands all the questions. The success of her business suggests she knows all the answers, too.
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