Marketing in Real Life

Forrester's 2009 Market Research Predictions are out and if you're not a subscriber, you can at least read the executive summary here... One prediction of note: "Traditional qualitative research will see erosion as market research online communities (MROCs) and fusions of quantitative and qualitative research from firms such as Invoke Solutions gain steam. In short, everyone will be looking for ways to gain insights to succeed in a troubling market in as cost-effective a manner as possible. This means that newer research modes will gain traction and grab more share of stable or declining market research budgets — even among research buyers who have been more traditional in the past."

As a huge fan of LinkedIn, I am very excited to say that Invoke Solutions is among the first companies to have access to LinkedIn members for research purposes. Using our Engage Open methodology, we'll be able to target business respondents and get their valuable qualitatative and quantitative input for our clients.

Invoke's Peter Mackey was recently on a panel at the Research Industry Summit in Chicago hosted by IIR and the Research Report's Bob Lederer. In preparation, we were asked to answer a few questions about the data quality issue and we thought the responses were worth sharing. 1) How do you define quality? There does not appear to be a universal definition for quality. Most of the discussion around quality has been focusing on quality of the participant and placing the burden for improving quality on the sample providers. I believe this is a superficial view of the issue. At Invoke, we define quality in three ways. First, is quality of the participant. We need to ensure that people are who they say they are and that their responses are truthful. Given the Engage Live experience and the transparency to the data it provides, we have a real-time window into respondent integrity. As a result, we make an extra effort to screen properly. And we pay close attention to participa...

If you like this blog I think you'll enjoy an upcoming free webinar from Invoke Solutions, featuring Forrester Research’s Principal Analyst Brad Bortner: Merging Qualitative and Quantitative Research for Better, Faster, Product, Communications, and Positioning Insights December 10, 2008 at Noon ET Register here: https://invoke.webex.com/invoke/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=486505370 Invoke Solutions, a pioneer in online research, will be joined by Forrester Research’s Principal Analyst Brad Bortner, for a webinar about using innovative approaches to deliver better, faster, more cost effective research that supports specific product, communications and positioning decisions. Together, Brad and Invoke’s Peter Mackey will define some of the changes in today’s research environment that have altered the optimal modes for data collection and analysis. They will specifically be focusing on Invoke’s breakthrough solutions that gather qualitative and quantitative data at once, turn projects aroun...

My colleague, Peter Mackey, took part in IIR's Research Industry Summit and was particulary taken back by a presentation on panel quality by our client at Washington Mutual, Ron Gailey. Ron and his team began studying the impact of panel quality on research results to see how big an issue existed and what the real drivers of inconsistent data were. Three big findings: 1) The longer a person has been part of a panel and the overall number of surveys they have taken has a significant impact on ratings. 2) New panelists and panels tend to give higher scores than long standing panels and panelists 3) The lower scores tend to be more accurate because new survey takers suffer from a "halo" effect So, what next? Ron states that its essential to understand the makeup of online panels and to adjust to create consistent, balanced sample plans. Furthermore, using a single sample source could be unintentionally biasing your data. Looks like professional respondents might not be th...

Some comic relief from The Daily Show's John Oliver, conducting a survey with Iraq's ambassador to the UN.

One of the presentations I attended at The Market Research Event was Tina Bronkhorst from Digitas and Jen Drolet from iModerate talking and why and when to use Hybrid methodologies. We live the the "hybrid" world, so much of this was not new to me, however at least once audience member asked "what exactly is hybrid?", reminding us once again that most research is still being done the old fashioned way They discussed three main ways of conducting hybrid: Online survey with IM-like chat intercept ( iModerate ) Online focus groups/interactive research sessions with closed ended, open ended, IM-like chat and redirects ( Invoke ) Online communities ( Communispace , Passenger ) Watch here where Tina and Jen give a few tips from their workshop. Thank you both for a great workshop! Read the full post on the TMRE Blog here

My favorite story from the last two conferences came from a cocktail party conversation I was having with a senior level executive of a large, traditional research firm. He said "I feel like I am a Walmart buyer at a Couture fashion show. My clients buy grey sweatshirts and are happy with them." Going to as many conferences as I do, I tend to forget that while all of the talk is on the cutting edge, most of the research being conducted is traditional, simple, expensive and slow. The good news is that I am seeing incremental improvement that at least acknowledges the participant experience and begins to take advantage of technology. As made famous in the classic move What About Bob , "Baby steps to the car..."

If you only go to one conference a year, I really recommend IIR's The Market Research Event. The speakers are great, the presentations are practical, and the attendees are excellent to talk to. I'll be blogging about a few of the presentations over the next few days, but hope everyone who went got as much out of it as we did. Thanks to IIR and everyone who participated. More to come...

This past week I made my first trip to the ESOMAR Congress, where Peter Mackey and I presented on Tuesday. Part 2 of a busy conference season! There were some great presentations which I won't get into but you can read a write up of many of them at the WARC blog at http://www.warc.com/ConferenceBlogs/ESOMAR-092008.asp . We'll be presenting again at the upcoming Market Research Event along with our client from Liberty Hardware. You can read what's going on at that one through their blog at: http://themarketresearchevent.blogspot.com/

I spent much of this week at the AMA Research Conference here in Boston and am continually surprised at one fundamental disconnect between buyers of research and providers of research. Providers don't grasp that not every study needs to be "perfect" to be useful while most buyers are forced to settle for slightly less in exchange for speed. We definitely see the difference. That's why its not surprising that a large percentage of our clients rely solely on the Live session experience, automated reports, and a consultative discussion to make their decisions instead of waiting for a full report. They don't have time to wait so we give them everything we can in a couple of weeks so they can move forward.

Over the weekend I was catching up on back issues of The Marketing News and came across an article by Elisabeth Sullivan titled Delve Deeper: Online Research Developments to Understand Consumer Motivation. The article quotes Nora Ganim Barnes of UMass Dartmouth's Center for market research about the need to do better than traditional online feedback mechanisms. "The last thing you want to do is have someone go to your web site and you say 'Click on this link' to provide feedback,' and you have a box pop up that's limited to 120 characters. That's cold, impersonal." She continues to say "...while online feedback surveys give customers the sense that they're throwing their opinions into the void, blogs provide a forum in which customers can interact with one another." Throwing opinions into the void. I agree. Our (Invoke) research sessions simulate a live discussion experience so respondents feel like they are part of a group. It...

We're recently been doing a lot of research around brand charisma - what drives people to thaink of brands as a trusted friend and choose one brand over another in the face of parity or even cost and convenience hurdles. One of the brands that has risen to the top is Corona because of the way the way people want to spend time with Corona and enjoy a relaxing moment in life. They've illustrated this beautifully in the contrast shown between Corona and non-Corona drinkers in this video on their web site. (click to play) Check back for our white paper about brand charisma and a case study on the beer category.

I applaud MarketTools recent announcement of their quantitative tool to evaluate survey engagement as documented in the July/August Research Business Report. I really do. But to me the issue of engaging surveys is simpler. Take it yourself and see how you feel. If you can't get through it without getting bored, distracted or angry than participants will feel the same way. And when clients push for more information to be included, have them take it as well! Because Invoke's Engage methodologies are designed to be engaging and interactive, we can get away with longer research sessions (60-90 minutes) but for standard survey environments a little common sense can go a long way.

Right now we’re conducting interviews to help finalize our upcoming analytics and reporting tool and one comment jumped out to me as a surprise. She said “it’s very green.” She’s right – being able to easily review and manipulate data on a screen sure beats printing out reams of data as part of your normal process. It is amazing how much paper is wasted in the creation of a normal research Power Point report. While admittedly it was not our intent, its nice to know that we’re doing our part to help! Have you thought about how you can reduce your printing?

Bob Skolnick , North American CEO of Synovate seems to think so in this month's Marketing News... This heightened need to understand competitors and consumers may well prove a boon to the market research industry, despite the struggles of the economy at large. Bob Skolnick , North American CEO of Chicago-based market research firm Synovate , predicts "was abobe average growth" in the overall demand for data. Because of the demand for data, Skolnick notes, Synovate has been under greater pressure to yield applicable results. "Client companies need to see smart research done to make sure they are satisfying their best customers and developing new business where they can," he says. "The market research business, while not recession-proof, is much less susceptible to budgets being cut."

Three quotes from Procter & Gamble's Dina Howell about the mindset of today's consumers: "The way people shop is constantly evolving but people don’t just want the next thing, they want the next 'best' thing." “Great brand building can inspire shoppers to do things differently. That's why P & G is focused on engaging consumers in non-sales conversations through microsites, forums, advice, etc." "The consumer is boss."

Four great lines from an extremely entertaining and informative presentation by Stew Leonard Jr. or Stew Leonard's - the regional grocer known for delivering great customer experiences and phenomenal fresh food in Connecticut and New York. “Always 'Think Yes' instead of why you have to say no” “Look at competitors not to see how you’re better but to see where they are doing something superior” “All of the great customer service companies are dissatisfied with their customer service” “The big don’t eat the small, the fast eat the slow With all of the time spent on the complexities of planning, research, insights, category management, etc. it is refreshing to hear someone apply logic to building a phenomal brand with customers who are also overwhelmingly loyal advocates.

One of the many excellent speakers at IIR's Shopper Insights conference was Bob Thacker, SVP of Marketing and Advertising at Office Max. While his presentation wasn't very insights centric, he did make a number of excellent points. Some of the highlights: “People relate to companies like people” “Look before you leap, but leap!” Office Max is trying to make news not ads. “You have to learn from the mistakes of others, can’t afford to make them all yourself” They need to get $5 of value for every dollar they spend “If you don’t have big bucks, have big ideas” Office Max is trying to transform the lousy state of the American workplace and add some personalization - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC0Nsba1fWQ The OMX brand itself had no personality until the rubber band ball and now their involvement in reality tv and cause marketing (see below) http://officemax.mediaroom.com/index.php/adaymadebetter http://www.worldslargestthings.com/press/newbigball.htm http://officemax.mediaroom...

We recently conducted a study testing branded applications for use with leading social networking and gaming web sites and it occurred to me that knowing online research is different than knowing the online space as it exists today. We spend a lot of time understanding the way people interact with the web and other digital media to help clients maximize their investment there and connect online and offline behaviors. I am not sure that is the case for many people who just conduct research online. We're focused on enhancing consumer engagement, etc. and improving our online applications so next time you're looking for research about online content - ask your provider if they know the online space or just do some work there.