Marketing in Real Life

In this month's Quirk's magazine there is a blurb about a partnership between EMI Music and Lightspeed Research that will offer UK and Western Europe respondents free music and video downloads as incentives via the http://www.songs4surveys.com/ website. I say brilliant! I don't care much for points and never seem to receive any cash incentives, but free music, now you're speaking my language! Even better, I admire the creativity that Lightspeed is showing and that they recognize the changing landscape of consumers' online behavior. Good for Lightspeed and I hope more sample providers follow suit. Speaking of music, I'll be out for the next few days at the world's greatest music and food experience (in my opinion): The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival . If you love music, food, and people its a must do at some point... and don't forget that New Orleans still needs your help! Until next time, keep being creative and thinking about how you can condu...

Earlier this week I was given a summary of Dirk Engel's article from the 2007 ESOMAR Conference offering 5 Simple Rules to quick and relevant research. You can download the article here if you register. The 5 rules below are key in today's fast turn research world, where there is generally neither time nor money nor inclination to conduct long and complex projects. Its also the backbone for Invoke's Agency Program . Combine the Advantages of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Instead of Insisting on Sky-scraping Methodology Standards Make Sure that the Results of Ad-hoc Studies can be Combined with Big Representative Surveys Keep Cost Efficiency and Time to Market in Mind Do Some Jobs by Yourself Ensure a Flexible but Trusting Cooperation Between Client and Research Agency

I remember when I started in this industry how skeptical people were about online research. It doesn't seem like so long ago, but today's news from Kantar below is certainly a sign of how far we've come. Kantar Ops Closes Face-to-Face Panel April 16 2008 http://www.mrweb.com/drno/news8231.htm Kantar Operations – the internal operations division for the Kantar Group – has ditched its dedicated consumer interviewer panel due to the continuing advance of online data collection.The UK panel comprised 400 fieldworkers, who while not directly employed by the division, provided their services to Kantar Operations when project work required. Those fieldworkers affected by the panel closure will be offered the opportunity to work on the division’s specialist face-to-face Random Probability and Transport panels which conduct large volumes of social and public policy research, including large scale continuous projects. In a statement, the firm explained that it has seen interview vol...

One of the sessions I attended at the ARF Conference was a panel discussion that included the CEOs from Kantar, GFK, Nielsen, and TNS. Here is a sampling of responses wehn asked about what they could do better to drive data quality and increase the usefulness of research deliverables. Be bold in the delivery of insight and recommendations Think about what consumers are getting out of their survey experience Explore ways to better leverage technology Focus less on large sample sizes and more on research goals and objectives and how to meet them Make senior executives and researchers fill out surveys Continue to develop the ability to merge data sets Hire a better mix of researchers and non-researchers And the big one is to remember that ensuring the quality of insights and data is a joint responsibility between suppliers and clients. More to come...

Back to the ARF Learnings tomorrow, but I had to mention a survey invite that a friend of mine received today. The subject line in the email said "Tell us your thoghts on home improvement." Even better, the invite itself said: Details of today's survey: Topic: Home Imporvement Now one typo is bad enough, but that is two separate typos in the same invitation! If you really want people to take the time to give their honest, thoughtful opinions you might want to lead by example. Take the time to check your work and expect the same from your research partners. Its just common courtesy to the people you want to participate!

Over the next few weeks I'll share some of the insights I gained at the ARF Conference this week in talking to colleagues, watching presentations and reading what other companies are up to. For today I'll focus on one key point that stuck with me from a thoroughly entertaining and informative session featuring John Zogby – President & CEO of Zogby International and Joel Benenson – Founding Partner & President, Benenson Strategy Group, the strategy firm behind Barack Obama's campaign. While much of the discussion focused on political polling - the notion of norms and benchmarks came up and were somewhat dismissed by the panel. The world is changing at a rapid pace and many of us are working in uncharted territories - whether that means new purchase channels, new information sources, or new levels of brand engagement through online communities, widgets, and applications. So what do benchmarks really mean? The way we buy and consider products and services today is very...