18 | Market Research, a Love Story (Not Really)

After five wonderful years as a trumpet player in the Oregon Marching Band and its parent, the Oregon Athletic Bands (OAB), it was time to move on. I chose to focus on career in my final year of college. But I wasn't satisfied with where I was leaving certain things. And so I wanted to apply my marketing education in a way that benefited both myself and the organization I spent the best years of my life a part of. I pitched a term-long marketing consultancy to the OAB administration, and they were very supportive. I had won* my first client**.

The plan had two sides: update the recruitment strategy, and build brand awareness with athletic event audiences. The brand-building aspect was a great journey in itself, but was far more out of my hands. Successful brands must live their persona to their core, not just speak it. Sometimes this requires massive cultural and organizational shifts, and mid-football season is no easy time to effect change from the outside. The group is heading in the right direction. The fuller story is for another day. It was in the recruitment strategy that I had the opportunity and backing to create something much needed.

The foundation for the need was that that recruiting results had plateaued. We recognized that our perception of the situation was swayed by our own experiences, and we weren't connecting with high school students as well as we probably could have. So we initiated a longitudinal study on the draws of the organization, comparing those of fresh recruits against veteran members and past strategy thoroughness. Some incredible, just eye opening things were found in the data. There existed topics that vets preached from their hearts yet held little interest by the audience (Oregon spirit, scholarships, Nike uniforms). There were topics that meant the world to high school bandos but didn't even show up on older members' radar (musical quality, large base of friends). There were even topics that both sides found incredibly important that were being neglected entirely in the recruiting and retention process (physical fitness/health). The implications of this information goes beyond recruitment purposes, and it will be interesting to see how it evolves with the organization.

An in-house creative team of six*** was assembled (plus me) and we got to work. We spent two weeks contructing a new print campaign true to the data findings. We did everyhting we had planned to do...and yet we hated the result. It was dull and felt preachy. After some time to reflect, it's clear that what we originally made was just a reformatted version of the old OAB posters and every other college marching band's strategy: Join us! We're big and awesome and rooted in tradition and you'll get experiences you never dreamed possible!... It was doomed to be lost in the noise.

So we threw it out and started over. Many a meeting we worked through pulling our own experiences and digging deep into the meaning behind them, enlightened by the research, not driven by it. What we landed on was a true AHA! moment. We looked deep into ourselves and others, and pulled out powerful human insights that led us to a bigger question: not how can we bring more people in based on the draws, but how can we tackle the issues that keep away the ones that don't join? The majority of high school band members don't continue their art into college because they get burnt out by the seriousness of their programs. In many instances, the penetration rate by the OAB into weaker programs is higher than the powerhouses. The goal was thus to convince high school band students that college band is not an extenuation of high school band: it's a whole new world. From there we came to the central idea of "This is Not High School." It could be applied to show those who disliked high school band that the negatives they knew didn't exist in the OAB. For those that enjoyed themselves, but needed that extra push, it meant that the OAB takes the best aspects and catapults them to new heights, even to the point where band is unrecognizable. I could go on all day, but I'll give you some examples and let you be the judge.

We were all very happy with the result this time around, especially the OAB administration. It's strange to think back and realize that as powerful as the research was, it almost killed the whole campaign. It certainly was used to augment our understanding of the problem, but the big moments came not from hard research but from searching deep in the world we inhabited and sharing our own stories. I certainly have a stronger grasp of how market research can destroy potential for great work in the ad world. I've witnessed how easy it is to get lost in the measurability of data. I have a story to share with clients to warn them about sticking to the safety of numbers and focus groups. Market research is a tool, and like any tool it can be misused and abused. It also has the potential for inspiration, justification, and guidance so don't throw it out just yet. This experience has been more than valuable, and it will undoubtedly influence my work on sustainable** projects through my career.

If you want to learn more about the OAB campaign and share your take, let's start a conversation.


*The competition was to not do anything.
**This was all very free....And very rewarding.
***Six is counterproductive I came to learn. Never again.