Carl Davidson
Director, Research First Ltd
Carl Davidson is one of New Zealand’s leading experts on social and market research. He is a founder and Director of Research First Ltd, the South Island’s largest market research company. He has a background which combines psychology, sociology, and marketing; and a career which has straddled the academic and corporate worlds. He has more than 20 years’ experience in social, market, and evaluation research and is the author of eight books about research and consultation practice in New Zealand. Reflecting his standing in the New Zealand research community, in 2010 Carl was made the Chief Commissioner of the Families Commission and tasked (in his spare time) with turning it into a world-class centre for research on families.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Community Research
As the outline for this year’s conference makes clear, ‘knowing your audience’ is one of the basic ingredients for creating good communications. This means that we need to face each new communication challenge not by asking ‘what can we do about it?’ but by asking ‘how should we think about it?’. This presentation is about how market and social research can provide an enduring framework to help answer that question.
We all know that the needs, expectations, and demands of audiences are changing across the world. Furthermore, the rate at which these things are changing is accelerating. In this kind of environment, the ability to quickly understand an audience and to be able to think clearly about its needs is paramount. Otherwise, as Mark Twain cautioned, ‘you can’t depend on your eyes when your mind is out of focus’.
This presentation outlines the most common ways that we allow research to get ‘out of focus’. Drawing on lessons from a wide range of research projects conducted in Christchurch after the earthquakes, the presentation provides ‘seven deadly sins’ to be avoided whenever you truly want to ‘know your audience’.
Carl Davidson is one of New Zealand’s leading experts on social and market research. He is a founder and Director of Research First Ltd, the South Island’s largest market research company. He has a background which combines psychology, sociology, and marketing; and a career which has straddled the academic and corporate worlds. He has more than 20 years’ experience in social, market, and evaluation research and is the author of eight books about research and consultation practice in New Zealand. Reflecting his standing in the New Zealand research community, in 2010 Carl was made the Chief Commissioner of the Families Commission and tasked (in his spare time) with turning it into a world-class centre for research on families.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Community Research
As the outline for this year’s conference makes clear, ‘knowing your audience’ is one of the basic ingredients for creating good communications. This means that we need to face each new communication challenge not by asking ‘what can we do about it?’ but by asking ‘how should we think about it?’. This presentation is about how market and social research can provide an enduring framework to help answer that question.
We all know that the needs, expectations, and demands of audiences are changing across the world. Furthermore, the rate at which these things are changing is accelerating. In this kind of environment, the ability to quickly understand an audience and to be able to think clearly about its needs is paramount. Otherwise, as Mark Twain cautioned, ‘you can’t depend on your eyes when your mind is out of focus’.
This presentation outlines the most common ways that we allow research to get ‘out of focus’. Drawing on lessons from a wide range of research projects conducted in Christchurch after the earthquakes, the presentation provides ‘seven deadly sins’ to be avoided whenever you truly want to ‘know your audience’.