How can you manage communication with stakeholders in a marketing research project?

Managing communication in a marketing research project involves: Identifying stakeholders, setting clear objectives, providing regular updates through meetings or emails, listening to feedback, being transparent about challenges, customizing communication methods, encouraging feedback, and documenting all communication and decisions. These strategies ensure alignment, engagement, and successful outcomes.

In my experience, outside of the tools, understanding the trust levels between the identified stakeholders themselves and between the stakeholder and the research team make a lot of difference. Trust based on past impact and current impact. And understanding and aligning outcomes at the start helps in getting the autonomy required to do the work :)

Identify and categorize all relevant stakeholders. This may include internal teams (marketing, sales, product development) and external parties (clients, vendors, research participants). Clearly define the objectives of your communication. Whether it's to update stakeholders on project progress, gather feedback, or share key findings, having clear objectives will guide your communication strategy. Foster an environment where stakeholders feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns. Encourage open communication through regular meetings, emails, or collaborative platforms.

Definir um mapa de influencia, definindo seus stakeholders é importante. Mas onde muitos marqueteiros se perdem é na adequação de narrativas aos diferentes públicos. “One doesn’t fit all” no universo de mensagens e públicos. Defina, priorize e adapte.

Let your implications and objectives help you identify the 5 most critical stakeholders in addition to, or among the members of the team you work with. 1. The key decision maker: The person who will be making the big calls based on the results. 2. The key expert: The current holder of consumer or product knowledge. 3. The casualty: The person whose work or hypothesis is most likely to be defended or revised by the new incoming information 4. The connector: The person who can help arrange meetings, help with logistics 5. The owner of the project. Your go to person. #2, #3 and #4 are the stakeholders that are most likely to get missed. Make sure you know they are in every single project.

I believe, in order to successfully communicate with stakeholders involved in a marketing research project, it is crucial to establish effective channels for consistent updates. This can be achieved by clearly defining project objectives, timelines, and key milestones, and consistently communicating them to all parties. To keep stakeholders engaged, it is important to tailor updates to their specific interests. Also, creating an open dialogue for feedback and promptly addressing any concerns is essential. Utilizing collaboration tools and scheduling regular meetings will help maintain ongoing engagement. By prioritizing transparent and proactive communication, stakeholders will be kept well-informed throughout the research process.

While defining the communication plan, it is important that the tone is always kept assertive yet the risks, deliverables and pragmatic expectations are conveyed. While communicating the survey results, there must not be any bias or barriers holding back critical points that ought to be discussed.

A comunicação assertiva é resultado do cruzamento de PUBLICO, MENSAGENS, CANAIS. Essa tríade, quando bem combinada, cria significado e relevância.

Una clave del éxito para mi ha sido crear un plan muy específico en cuanto a qué, cómo, cuándo y a quién comunicarás avances y resultados de la investigación. La IA me han ayudado a segmentar a mi audiencia y personalizar los mensajes, para que sean relevantes y efectivos. Después de mapear stakeholders, es bueno utilizar herramientas analíticas y de IA para identificar y segmentar a las partes interesadas basándote en su influencia, interés, y necesidades respecto al proyecto. Solo ahí, definir recién los objetivos medibles de la comunicación y dependiendo de estos juegas a desarrollar mensajes claves dependiendo de los canales a usar . Y ahí comienza el ciclo de medir, retroalimentación , documentación y ajustar estrategia.

Big thing in my experience is to be able to tell stories. Because Logic makes us think. Emotions makes us act and best way to stir emotions is to tell stories. Everything else flows from that.

Executing a communication plan is more important than devising one. A good message delivered badly is worse than a bad message delivered well!

Effective communication with stakeholders during a market research project begins with: PURPOSE? Define the purpose of the communication with clear objectives. WHO? Identify your stakeholders using their demographic and psychographic characteristics. WHAT? Develop your message and ensure its quality contents. HOW? You must identify the medium through which you can reach the stakeholders. Understand what type media they consume and what is the cost-effective medium to reach them? WHEN? Identify the primetime to reach them through the medium (media communication vehicle) you have identified above. WHERE? Understanding your stakeholder’s geography is important as it defines the Who, What, How, and When of your communication.

The more research you do, it is inevitable that we will experience change and issues from time to time. Good, honest, open communication is critical to managing stakeholders and overcoming these challenges.

Do not react on the spot to a reported issue, get balance feedback from all parties involved. Its is also critical to avoid partial one to one communication. Thats why the single point of contact option works better.

This is a very important step. Large scale research projects can take time if you have difficult audiences to reach or global audiences. While many teams try to account for the proper time frame, delays can happen as research suppliers sometimes need additional time. This can especially be true for research that requires face to face interviews or translations. Always communicate delays or issues in a timely fashion to stakeholders and offer them solutions or explain how time can be made up later. Being honest is better when mistakes happpen. Educate your clients on the process to help them understand what is going on. Most people are compassionate and appreciative of your transparency.

Enabling an honest discussion of the results helps. Getting right people in the room to build on the wisdom of crowds will help get more insights from the same research as different folks will bring their own rich perspective or lens to this. Also, ensuring that senior folks speak last is a tried and tested enabler of a good discussion.

Every stakeholder has expectations of what the results are going to tell them so knowing this in advance is critical to how you pitch the story. Knowing this will also help you to find the nuggets that will genuinely surprise and challenge and help the delivery to stand out.

The art of storytelling is critical when reporting results and recommendations. It transforms complex data into engaging narratives, making information relatable and memorable. It connects emotionally with the audience, for them, simplifying intricate details and emphasising the impact of findings. This skill not only clarifies but also persuasively inspires action, ensuring that insights are both understood and influential.

Be well prepared to start the implementation virtuous circle, which consists of measuring the implementation against the objectives, getting feedback, elaborating proper documentation, and adjusting the strategy.

Evaluations are crucial! Important to do happen after a failed campaign, but most important after a successful campaign. To figure what didn’t and what did work, and what proportion of success was a function of the plan and how much was randomness would help create a tighter process.

Following up is a great way to understand the impact of research as well as learn lessons on how certain approaches can be more impactful in the future. It’s also a great way to build stronger relationships with your business partners for the future and demonstrates your investment in the success from any research project.

Bucketing the project in three parts: What went well, What can be done better and what to avoid for the next project should be documented with actionable insights and also be included as the pre-study guide before initiating the groundwork for the next project.

When it comes to stakeholder management, especially in large organisations it is impossible to consistently be in contact with all teams and stakeholders. As such I have always created an insight library at every organisation, not only to ensure all data is available in one central location, but to ensure all stakeholders are aware of the research and insight which are going on. This creates a great culture of self serving data, but also as a showcase to the how research influences all areas of a business.

Communication is critical throughout any research project to ensure the project stays on track and on target from the initial objective set in the beginning. Many times as research goes on, the scope can change and it’s your job as the project lead to keep people on track and deliver the agreed upon deliverables. As research nuggets are discovered, stakeholders change their thoughts and try to steer the research down a different path. Clear, consistent communication across the stakeholder groups can often help deliver better insights in the end.

Understanding the operating style and needs of your stakeholders is critical. If you are in-person, you might think of this as "reading the room" to share the level of information those stakeholders want/need. Online communications (including videoconferencing platforms) is more difficult - especially when stakeholders leave their cameras off and you've had little opportunity to develop rapport or a baseline. I'd encourage you to (a) ask stakeholders what level of information they want early-on as you develop your SOW for the project, (b) observe how they communicate in-person and digitally, and (c) deliver your messages (brief or detailed) accordingly. Then (drumroll) follow-up by asking if what you delivered met their needs!

Desde mi experiencia, el punto de partida de cualquier estudio o investigación de mercado NO DEBE iniciar hasta haber alineado los objetivos con los procesos y herramientas a implementar. Las comunicaciones se complican a medida que el cliente quiere modificar el planteamiento inicial, ya sea porque los resultados parciales no le muestran lo que el quisiera ver o porque se percataron que la ruta inicial establecida no lo llevará a la meta esperada. En ambos caso, se genera un retrabajo y/o costos adicionales que el cliente a veces no está dispuesto a cubrir, y espera que el proveedor asuma ese costo. Siempre recomendamos invertir el tiempo necesario para alinear metas con procesos, para garantizar una ejecución sobresaliente.

Through my experience participating in various marketing research projects, communication plays a significant role. Firstly, understand the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. Determine the frequency of engagement. Identify the appropriate means of communication and establish a consistent schedule, such as weekly meetings exclusively with key decision makers or conducting alignment meetings. Be clear about the agenda and meeting cadence, ensuring alignment. I use the PODS method which focuses on Purpose, Outcome, Decision, and Structure, providing a framework for effective communication (no gaps, no overlaps). Lastly, it is beneficial to align key milestones and OKRs to ensure all stakeholders are working towards the same goals.