If you come across an agency which doesn't have a research director, assume that it doesn't have a research department. Don't waste your dime on the phone call.
When you do make an appointment to see someone, take your resume in your hot little hand and see if you can convince the agency to hire you. If they can't use you at that time, despair thee not. Try your luck in the same places you tried for summer employment, especially research firms.
If you can't find a job anywhere in research, try to get a job in a different department of an agency. Maybe you can get into account service or media. Both of these departments are heavy users of research. So, you'd meet the right people, and with a little luck you might be able to work your way into the research department after a while.
If all else fails, do whatever you have to do to get into an agency. Sweep floors, run errands-do anything-so you can be close to what you want and can start learning the business. Because whether you find what you're looking for right away or not, one thing is certain: research is here to stay. In fact, it's becoming bigger and more important with each passing year.
If you can't find a research job now, be patient. It's inevitable that more of them will open up in the future. New uses are being found for research all the time. Research helps make the intangible elements of advertising tangible. It helps business people come to grips with concepts, words, and pictures, because, while it may be difficult for them to understand the ideation process, it's easy for them to see a chart that shows that 47% of the people interviewed like a particular ad. So whether they like that ad subjectively or not, they can be reasonably sure that almost half of the people who make up their market will like it.
Once in a while, problems can crop up for the research department of an agency. Those problems are usually with the creative department. This can happen when knowledge gained through research is used in lieu of work which would normally be done by a creative team.
For example, let's say you're working on an ad for a shoe pad. Research says the biggest benefit of the product is that it helps keep your feet from hurting. Ordinarily, that information would be passed on to the creative team and that team would come up with a concept, headline, and visual that would make that point.
To wit: visual: shots of foot pads in different kinds of shoes.
Headline: For the agony of da feet.
Product logo at the bottom.
Once in a while, though, the information gained through research is translated literally into an ad. When that happens, the involvement of the creative team is virtually eliminated.
To wit: visual: shot of product.
Headline: Product name. It helps keep your feet from hurting.
Someone makes a case for this approach by saying that this ad contains exactly the information found in research. They claim the ad contains just what the consumer wants to hear. So, how can it be wrong?
It can be wrong because, when you eliminate the creative department's input, you eliminate the fun and the magic that turns straight information into interesting information. You lose an ad that makes the correct point in an interesting and provocative manner. Instead, you get one that's dull and has nothing unique about it. You get an ad that is expected, one that isn't arresting enough to stand much of a chance of being memorable.
That's why it's so important for agencies and advertisers to understand the proper way to use research; and that's why it really pays for an agency to have a good research director on staff, one who not only knows how to research a product, but who also understands how to make what he's learned work as hard as it can. One who is secure enough in his findings to let someone else determine the most effective way to state them. It's when research is used in this manner, hand in hand with a creative department, that an agency does its best work.
When research is used properly, it is probably the most effective tool we have to get people to try a product or service.
Advertising research is one of the most exciting areas in the ad business. You learn things about products, trends, and people long before anyone else does. And because advertising research is so dynamic, so visible, and so valuable, being part of it will become even more exciting as time goes by.
