We hope the last research debrief you were in made you smile or even laugh. If it didn’t then we believe it was unlikely to have been a very good debrief.
In 2002 we sat in a meeting for several hours while a well known management consultancy, supported by a lot of research, presented their findings. We and the client left knowing it had cost a lot of money, but with little insight into how the business could use the information or what to do next. That day Clarity was conceived.
In a cluttered, competitive and confusing world we are determined to keep things simple. Our objective is to peel back layers to find a simple truth. We do this through:
Asking obvious questions and questioning obvious answers.
Achieving Clarity is about looking harder, but it can be about doing things differently as well. Conventional research methodologies can give you conventional results. We have approaches like Sonar that are more human, engaging and intensive that can protect ideas and bring us all insights.
Compared with the research giants we’re small, so we can be flexible to your needs. We have structured ourselves so that we can operate without layers of people or bureaucracy. We make decisions fast and focus on the research.
Talking to a few people well. We look for real decision makers who we can have an intensive dialogue with in an intimate environment and find real insight.
This all about skimming for direction; talking to more people with less depth. Its role is to find a starting point, establishing a perspective that sets the agenda.
The omnibus has become unfashionable in the internet age, but for easily accessible data from robust samples they are standing up to the test of time
Unlike some we love business to business research. It provides a great counterpoint to our consumer work, and we know how to make the difference.
The team - a deliberately diverse group from many backgrounds all bring a rich experience. We encompass business strategy, research, sales, training, operations, design, advertising and finance.
Importantly we all have a ‘can-do’ approach to the world and a desire to achieve. We are all committed to our principle of always ‘adding value’. Meet some of us:
The world runs on big numbers, but they won’t help you to understand it. People are the key and that’s what we focus upon. We believe people are being lost in the ‘process’ of consumer research. We do everything we can to reach out to them, disarm them and encourage them. In return they are more likely to show us the truth. Here’s some more Clarity thinking:
Repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result is madness. Creativity is the key. It's about looking at things differently, or out of context, while suppressing the fear of unconventionality. It's where inspiring ideas come from and for us this is Clarity.
Research needs plenty of reality checks. Do we really understand how these people live, behave and believe? Do we really understand what our client’s needs are? Who else is an interested party to this research? What is the impact of this research really going to be? If you can’t answer these questions it’s not valuable research.
People don’t talk in order, or to order. Research shouldn’t fight with human nature. Topic guides have everything in, but allow room for all the stuff we don’t know we want to talk about. We want to have a conversation with people and give them a chance to tell us what they really think and how they really feel.
For us environment is very important. You can’t engage with people fully in sterile rooms. The old style researcher would say that they could cope with any environment and you can to a degree, but why make it more difficult? This research is important isn’t it? We don’t like viewing facilities because of their artificiality – sometimes they are essential, but let’s keep them to a minimum. Instead we look for interesting venues. Somewhere that inspires, provokes comment and fosters security.
Keep it simple. Over creative stimulus is often used to make up for lack of creativity on the part of the researcher. It doesn’t. For example in ad development use very neutral cartoon characters and let the idea come through. Don’t oversell; it simply distorts and suffocates the insights.
Interviewing people on a one-to-one basis really works and you can get more depth as well as breadth from this approach. People love it too! We are very keen on methodologies like 'Sonar' – read more about it in What We Do.
Here are some recent blogs and articles from Clarity. Click on the title to see it all.
We hope the last research debrief you were in made you smile or even laugh. If it didn’t then we believe it was unlikely to have been a very good debrief.
Young people are drinking and fighting less and taking fewer drugs, so there are fewer of them ending up in A&E.
These two people seem to you and me to be reasonable, but they are worried and frustrated and they engage in an argument.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seems to have become part of the business landscape. Often there is more than a hint of tokenism about the implementation, however.
Winston Churchill is famous for his lack of academic achievement. He went on to be a truly great leader, however.
Most of us don’t love our cars. We don’t wash them more than every six weeks. One third of us have never driven a car for pleasure.
We have a good friend who runs Strand News. You are unlikely to have heard of Strand News, but you will definitely have read their stories.
Focus research groups can be great for the right purpose. We use them a lot when we are looking at broad topics, exploring attitudes, searching for direction, often in the early stages of a project.
There seems to be a continual rumbling bile of discontent about the fickleness and commitment of young people to work.
We’ve all heard of Imposter Syndrome, where people are unable to internalise their accomplishments.
For management there is an underlying assumption that they should lead. Leading means that they have all the answers and of course they don't, prompting frustration and failure.
There is a divide going on in this country that has been with us for decades, only now it seems to be getting worse.
Notwithstanding a financial crash, over the last twenty years the rich (and the well-off) have got richer and the gulf between the haves and the have-nots has widened.
The power of myth remains very powerful even in our modern world. The passing of Nelson Mandela demonstrates this very clearly.
A researcher once told me, ‘my mind is pure’ when moderating research. The claim was that they were completely impartial and objective.
To the more detached observer south of the border, the issue of Scottish independence and the campaigns for and against it can appear quite confusing.
What happened in the Scottish Independence Campaign looks to be coming home to roost in this year’s general election.
Calling a General Election is always a dicey business. You never know what a campaign will throw up or who will gain unexpected momentum.
The day after Theresa May called this General Election we said it wasn’t going to be as simple for her as the polls were suggesting.
Recently on ITV’s The Agenda, Peter Oborne accused all advertisers of being ‘snake oil salesmen’. It got us thinking; are there virtues in being a snake oil salesman?
Our ability to assimilate and normalise so rapidly a world where social media is integral to a lot of people’s lives, has been seen as surprising.
Three months ago we asked; what was the UK going to feel like on June 24th? We worried that the referendum campaigns by both sides were highly divisive and negative.
We’d really like to hear from you so please:
Freephone 0800 027 4425
International +44 800 027 4425
e-mail roddykemp@CLARITYres.com
Richmond
TW9 3BZ
Clarity and Clarity RES are trading names of Clarity SMC Limited Liability Partnership. ‘Clarity’ is a registered trademark
If you’re looking for a new challenge, have a genuine breadth of experience, a can do spirit and are basically a happy person we’d love to hear from you.
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