Dr. David Kippen, HRExaminer.com Editorial Advisory Board Contributor
This week, we’re trying something different. David Kippen, the genius behind Evviva Brands is going to take us on a tour of Market Research. David is a powerful advocate for the idea that you have to learn about the markets you serve. So, one step at a time, we’ll go through the basics of doing your own work to get a ‘dirt under the fingernails’ look at the market. – John Sumser
Dr. Kippen is CEO and Chief Strategist of Evviva Brands. With a background spanning advertising and communications and a client base spanning the globe, Dr. Kippen is recognized as among the top thought leaders in brand strategy. David has held leadership roles in several top associations that support the HR and communications professions. He is currently a member of SHRM’s Performance Management Task Force and an active member of the Council of Communication Management. Full Bio »
DIY Market Research 5/5 Wrapup: Great. Now What?
by David Kippen
Market research on the local economy, infrastructure and quality of living can show you how costly local talent will be.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but why should you care? And why should you bother? First, because taken together, these details comprise a mosaic illustrating many important things about the fixed cost of the local economy and the local quality of living. As a general rule, the better each of these areas is, the more costly local talent will be.*
That obviously has important implications for pay expectations. And keep in mind that the developing world is…developing. That means you might end up with a very different mosaic in two similarly sized cities. Also, because migration patterns in developing economies are often driven by kinship and family ties, citizens of one city may not understand that their own local economic environment isn’t the same as the country as a whole.
But there’s a finer point, one that has everything to do with advertising and is exactly why it’s so important not to let your agency fake their way: the less developed the economy, the more important basic job elements will be to your core talent; the more developed the economy, the more likely talent is to seek self-individuation through work.
In plain English, if you’re try to use marketing messages about “a career of your dreams” in a marketplace where people dream about predictable income, you’ve missed your mark. And if you promise “stable work” in a marketplace where the talent wants development and advancement, you might as well sell nail clippers to penguins.
(* Cost of talent sometimes correlates positively with education level, but because quality is generally predicated on suitability for a given task, that’s often not the case. The universal ranking of universities offering specialized programs are typically a better indicator.)
