Qualitative Research

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  • Best in class; Co-created innovation

    Co-creating the future
    kmacdonald-taylor
    15 May 2012 | 5:34 am
    In a recent article on mrweb.com our very own Dr Nick Coates and co-author of our new book Brand Together and brand consultant Nicholas Ind discuss, amongst other things (including what makes Nick’s “skin crawl”), how co-creation is being used primarily as an innovation technique.  Since we have come to an end of our series on why you might want to reconsider your approach to innovation this feels like a good time to look at some of the best examples of co-created innovation; Slices of co-created innovation excellence Mozilla – of course, right at the front of the co-creation…

  • Former Pro Football Coach Bill Cowher Teams Up With Leading Advocacy Groups To ... - Daily Markets (press release)

    "QUALITATIVE RESEARCH" - Google News
    15 May 2012 | 7:14 am
    Former Pro Football Coach Bill Cowher Teams Up With Leading Advocacy Groups To Daily Markets (press release) supported by a unique product offering that stretches across a range of marketing and business issues, specializing in product development and innovation, brand and communication, stakeholder management, retail and shopper, and qualitative research and more »

  • Very Pinterest-ing…

    Resolution Research Blog
    Katherine Albers
    20 Apr 2012 | 1:46 pm
    “To me, boards are a very human way of seeing the world. The site is about helping people to discover things they didn’t know they wanted — things that feel like they’ve been handpicked just for you.” –Founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann According to this article on CNN.com, the virtual pegboard site Pinterest.com is currently [...]

  • Phone geek Aussies show thirst for innovative smartphone features

    Marketing magazine
    Marketing
    15 May 2012 | 9:52 pm
    Smartphones have whet the appetites of Australians for innovative mobile features such as mobile payments, augmented reality applications and home control, with many displaying high interest in tasks once thought too technical. The findings, from TNS’ ‘Mobile Life’ study, show that around one in two mobile owners use their phones for social networking, gaming and location-based services, more than one in three for mobile banking and streaming video, and around one in four for music streaming and video calling. In addition, a high number of mobile users indicate interest in using these…

  • All the World’s a Stage – even if our (social media) Audiences are often Invisible

    Conversations with Dina
    Dina
    1 May 2012 | 11:28 pm
    Came across this blog post - Klout, Big Data and Opting Out  by Fred McClimans via @gautamghosh and liked this quote, among other things: “There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on.” Rod Serling.  I tweeted it, and @rajeshlalwani responds: Rajesh’s quote immediately made me think of Shakespeare and his monologue from As You Like It. How true it is centuries later, for Social Media, and in the context of the raging discussions around privacy and big data! All seven acts and seven ages, as described by Shakespeare collide at such a fast pace on…
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    "QUALITATIVE RESEARCH" - Google News

  • Former Pro Football Coach Bill Cowher Teams Up With Leading Advocacy Groups To ... - Daily Markets (press release)

    15 May 2012 | 7:14 am
    Former Pro Football Coach Bill Cowher Teams Up With Leading Advocacy Groups To Daily Markets (press release) supported by a unique product offering that stretches across a range of marketing and business issues, specializing in product development and innovation, brand and communication, stakeholder management, retail and shopper, and qualitative research and more »

  • The focus group fightback - Research Magazine

    15 May 2012 | 6:14 am
    Research MagazineThe focus group fightbackResearch MagazineQualitative research guru Mary Goodyear nailed the difference back in the 1990s, reminding us that the US-style focus group and the more European group discussion were different animals, distinctive in approach, usage and interpretation.

  • Qualitative Associate Director - Bizcommunity.com

    15 May 2012 | 3:28 am
    Qualitative Associate DirectorBizcommunity.comWe are looking for a qualitative research professional with over 10 years' solid experience at the research supplier. • Someone who thinks creatively and is happy to push the boundaries. Should you not receive any response within 2 weeks please and more »

  • Revelation to Host Webinar, “Four Awesome Activities for Product Testing” - TopWireNews (press release)

    14 May 2012 | 11:30 pm
    Revelation to Host Webinar, “Four Awesome Activities for Product Testing”TopWireNews (press release)Revelation CEO Steve August will share insights in how to leverage digital qualitative research to gain deep understanding about how your customers experience your product. This informative webinar will help participants learn ways to see their product

  • MarketVision Hires Health Care Veteran - Daily Research News Online

    14 May 2012 | 10:47 am
    Daily Research News OnlineMarketVision Hires Health Care VeteranDaily Research News OnlineUS-based MarketVision Research has appointed health care veteran Kendall Gay as Vice President of Qualitative Research, leading its qual health care team. MarketVision was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Cincinnati with offices in Chicago,
 
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    Resolution Research Blog

  • Very Pinterest-ing…

    Katherine Albers
    20 Apr 2012 | 1:46 pm
    “To me, boards are a very human way of seeing the world. The site is about helping people to discover things they didn’t know they wanted — things that feel like they’ve been handpicked just for you.” –Founder of Pinterest, Ben Silbermann According to this article on CNN.com, the virtual pegboard site Pinterest.com is currently [...]

  • (Virtual) Reality Check

    Katherine Albers
    23 Mar 2012 | 2:36 pm
    Can an experience in a virtual reality actually influence the way we behave? According to Mike Olsen’s article in Wired Magazine, if a person witnesses him/herself in a virtual reality, that person is more likely to alter their behavior according to what they’ve seen. For example, when a person experiences him/herself as heavier, they are [...]

  • How To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day In Style

    Katherine Albers
    15 Mar 2012 | 2:15 pm
    St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and revelers (both Irish and otherwise) are busy preparing to celebrate. According to the 2010 census, there are 36.9 million people in the United States who claim Irish ancestry. The good news is, you don’t have to be Irish in order to celebrate (after all, St. Patrick [...]

  • SocialFlow: The Latest Advancement in Social Media Marketing (Should You Go with the Flow?)

    Katherine Albers
    2 Mar 2012 | 2:04 pm
    How do modern companies determine what forms of social media marketing will best benefit their business? Some conduct surveys and focus groups, or perform extensive market research on what “sells” but ultimately the decision regarding what to post about on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter boils down to a gut feeling and reaction. [...]

  • Remembering Steve Jobs

    Katherine Albers
    24 Feb 2012 | 6:20 pm
    “It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. [...]
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    Marketing magazine

  • Phone geek Aussies show thirst for innovative smartphone features

    Marketing
    15 May 2012 | 9:52 pm
    Smartphones have whet the appetites of Australians for innovative mobile features such as mobile payments, augmented reality applications and home control, with many displaying high interest in tasks once thought too technical. The findings, from TNS’ ‘Mobile Life’ study, show that around one in two mobile owners use their phones for social networking, gaming and location-based services, more than one in three for mobile banking and streaming video, and around one in four for music streaming and video calling. In addition, a high number of mobile users indicate interest in using these…

  • 4 reasons to look at in-stream video advertising now

    Carolyn Bollaci
    15 May 2012 | 7:43 pm
    Few of us need a fortune teller to know that in-stream video advertising is hot right now, and getting hotter. Worldwide, around 200 billion videos are watched online every month, reaching a global audience of 1.2 billion people, according to comScore. In Australia, spend on video advertising grew 31% year in 2011 to $43.7 million, compared to sluggish display advertising growth of only 4%, according to the IAB.  Moreover, that growth is expected to more than quadruple to $200 million by 2014. In Australia, demand for online advertising video inventory so outstrips supply that CPM prices for…

  • Your marketing quote and niche ad option of the day – 16 May 2012

    Marketing
    15 May 2012 | 7:20 pm
      “Advertising is the poetry of capitalism.” – Michael Maynard   Each weekday in May we’ll bring you a niche, alternative or emerging advertising option that perhaps won’t appear on your research and data reports but highlights opportunities that can add reach, impact and value to your marketing and advertising mix. Your niche ad option for 16 May is: Ice advertising How’s this for a unique ambient advertising solution?  Over 40 million ice bags are sold annually in Australia through outlets such as bottle shops, service stations and supermarkets. Icy Media offers…

  • Tourism Aus claims $61m budget windfall

    Marketing
    15 May 2012 | 7:06 pm
    Tourism Australia has been handed an unexpected $61 million marketing boost to target Asian tourists. The ‘Asian Marketing Fund’, set aside in last week’s Federal Budget in recognition of the growth expected to come from Asia’s emerging middle class, follows the announced relaunch of ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ in China, as the national tourism body sets its sights increasingly on the East. The boost will be given out over four years: $8.5 million in the first year (2012-2013), followed by $14 million the following year, then $17.5 million, and $21 million in…

  • The dos and don’ts of Facebook ads, straight from the horse’s mouth

    Marketing
    15 May 2012 | 5:53 pm
    Facebook’s measurement team is to make its research on what does and doesn’t work when it comes to advertising on the social network public at an upcoming Advertising Research Foundation conference in America. The presentation will reveal how to tailor six elements of ad creative to implement successful ads on Facebook, according to AdAge, which was given a sneak peak of the findings. These six elements include two that are visual – focal point and noticeability – and four relating to a range of aspects of the message, from whether it’s easy to discern the brand to…
 
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    Conversations with Dina

  • All the World’s a Stage – even if our (social media) Audiences are often Invisible

    Dina
    1 May 2012 | 11:28 pm
    Came across this blog post - Klout, Big Data and Opting Out  by Fred McClimans via @gautamghosh and liked this quote, among other things: “There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on.” Rod Serling.  I tweeted it, and @rajeshlalwani responds: Rajesh’s quote immediately made me think of Shakespeare and his monologue from As You Like It. How true it is centuries later, for Social Media, and in the context of the raging discussions around privacy and big data! All seven acts and seven ages, as described by Shakespeare collide at such a fast pace on…

  • The Future of Insights Talk

    Dina
    19 Apr 2012 | 9:59 pm
    I’ve tweeted it and facebooked it … but this is still my space, my main lifestream and my first love … and although I haven’t been blogging much, I thought I’d  share my talk on the Future of Insights which I made at the India Social Summit 2012. Here’s the deck on Slideshare – in fully downloadable format, along with the talk script: Future of insights. dina mehta. april 3, 2012 india social summit View more PowerPoint from Dina Mehta And here’s is a video of my rather rushed presentation at the India Social Summit 2012.    

  • Reading Bytes for Apr 19

    Dina
    19 Apr 2012 | 10:30 am
    Updates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina Ethnographers vs. Moderators: Know What You Are Buying | anthrostrategist – Ethnographers vs. Moderators: Know What You Are Buying The other day I was speaking with someone about ethnography and was informed by the person in question that she too was a “moderator.” She, of course, practiced ethnography, such as it is, and informed me she had been “moderating ethnographies” for years.  Yes, it made my skin crawl. Not because someone was…

  • Reading Bytes for Feb 24

    Dina
    24 Feb 2012 | 9:30 am
    Updates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina Social Means Freedom, for Better or for Worse – Nilofer Merchant – HBR @nilofer (via @armano) – From a series of posts on how the Social Era will reward fast, fluid, flexible organizations. QUOTE: "This post is part of a series on the Social Era and answers the question: If you were going to design an organization from scratch today, what would you design for? And the answer is: nimbleness." …….. "What will it look like to lead an…

  • Reading Bytes for Feb 23

    Dina
    23 Feb 2012 | 9:30 am
    Updates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina India’s elite is blinded by a cultish belief in progress | Siddhartha Deb | Comment is free | The Guardian – QUOTE: The Hazare movement has since petered out, but its central idea, of the unique meritoriousness of the middle and upper classes of India, remains. It is an illusion, and it reminds me of the illusion among the middle and upper classes of another society, and that is the US. I live and teach in New York, where I've seen among my students (mostly white,…
 
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    Co-creating the future

  • Best in class; Co-created innovation

    kmacdonald-taylor
    15 May 2012 | 5:34 am
    In a recent article on mrweb.com our very own Dr Nick Coates and co-author of our new book Brand Together and brand consultant Nicholas Ind discuss, amongst other things (including what makes Nick’s “skin crawl”), how co-creation is being used primarily as an innovation technique.  Since we have come to an end of our series on why you might want to reconsider your approach to innovation this feels like a good time to look at some of the best examples of co-created innovation; Slices of co-created innovation excellence Mozilla – of course, right at the front of the co-creation…

  • The Importance of Innovation

    Nicole Holloway
    10 May 2012 | 12:05 pm
    Innovation is quickly becoming the word of the moment, with everyone searching for the next big idea…whether it’s an invention or a way to enhance experience – companies are looking for big ideas to draw customers in. For the first time in what feels like years, people are trying to look past the recession and survival strategies, and thinking about the future. But how do you predict an ever changing, already complex market? One significant movement in development is to move away from the static boardroom environment and use methods that utilise the consumers input from the word go…

  • 10 reasons to think again about the way you innovate! (part 10)

    kmacdonald-taylor
    10 May 2012 | 4:29 am
    And finally, consumers keep it real! Keeping consumers involved at every stage of the process means an idea won’t lose its DNA. It will stay as relevant, fresh and exciting as when it was first conceived. If consumers don’t stay involved, the idea can end up so diluted that it comes out of the innovation process looking nothing like it was originally intended. “Keeping it real” is essential. It helps to de-risk the innovation process so we don’t invest a whole lot of time and money in trying to flog a non-starter to the business. We believe: Keep consumers involved; keep an open…

  • 10 reasons to think again about the way you innovate! (part 9)

    kmacdonald-taylor
    8 May 2012 | 4:40 am
    Co-creation gets to more stretching ideas through play Who are the most creative people in the world? It’s kids of course! We have learned from kids and built many of our processes on the principles of play. Play helps people bond, lose their inhibitions and ultimately helps them push boundaries to develop bigger, better ideas. We believe in everybody’s ability to be creative and it’s part of our job to help them unlock their creativity. As well as inspiring people to come up with ideas, play is also a great leveller. Giving a group of people consisting of a board member, staff and…

  • 10 reasons to think again about the way you innovate! (part 8)

    kmacdonald-taylor
    3 May 2012 | 6:26 am
    Co-creation uses diverse groups to stimulate thinking  It’s a myth that recruiting “creative types” leads to a more creative output, or that innovation should be “left to the experts”. From our experience the most creative innovation processes are the ones that include the most diverse set of people. Inviting people from different backgrounds, with different opinions and areas of expertise, helps us solve innovation challenges, as the more creativity people bring to the process the more new thinking and ideas there are. We work hard to “upskill” participants to think about the…
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    UIE Brain Sparks

  • Do A/B Tests Focus Us On The Wrong Problems?

    Jared Spool
    14 May 2012 | 11:56 am
    Last week, I attended a conference presentation where a team presented findings from their A/B Testing efforts. It was a cute presentation where they posted the control and test variants, then asked the audience to pick which one “won” the A/B test. They compared the audience answer to the variant that demonstrated the best increase in the conversion rate (sometimes as little as 0.9%, which the presenters declared as a “huge increase”). For dramatic effect, the variant that won often broke many commonly accepted design principles, supporting their case that A/B testing trumps our…

  • Brian Suda – Designing with Data

    Sean Carmichael
    14 May 2012 | 10:00 am
    [ Transcript Coming Soon! ] A data visualization, when done well, can be an incredibly powerful way to communicate information. It ultimately boils down to the choices you make in how to design and present the data. If you make the wrong choice you can run the risk of not accurately displaying the data or struggling to effectively tell its story. Brian Suda, author of A Practical Guide to Designing with Data, believes experimentation is a big part of arriving at the right choices. As ideas end up on the cutting room floor, not only do you arrive at a great visualization, but you’re building…

  • UIEtips: Five Factors for Successful Persona Projects

    Jared Spool
    8 May 2012 | 2:24 pm
    Personas are one of the most controversial tools in the professional UX toolbox. People either swear by them or swear at them. When they work, they are awesome, but when they fail, well, they fail gloriously. For the past few years, we’ve been researching why so many persona projects have such dismal results. We discovered there are basic factors that are critical for a project’s success, yet most teams ignored them. In today’s UIEtips, I look back at an article that discusses five of these factors. We look at the role of research, who should be involved in the personas, and…

  • Self Design And The Out-Of-Box Experience

    Jared Spool
    5 May 2012 | 2:34 pm
    For many projects, self design works great. By designing for our own use, we can optimize the user’s experience to be smooth and seamless. A while back, I wrote about the advantages of self design and the alternatives to self design. Of course, to be successful at self design, you have to use your design practically every day and you have to have a base of people just like you that’s big enough to support whatever business model pays for your work. That way, when something in annoying in the design, you’ll discover it quickly. And when you fix it for yourself, you’re also fixing it…

  • UIEtips: The Magical Short-Form Creative Brief

    Jared Spool
    3 May 2012 | 4:05 pm
    Small is good. We love small products. Why not small processes? Mobile phones used to be big and bulky. Then we found ways to make them smaller and pack more stuff into them. Now we walk around with multi-purpose computers in our pockets. And guess what? We use them more than ever for things we never imagined we could do. What if we did that same thing for our UX processes? What if we could “smallify” important artifacts to make them easier to carry around? Would we use them more for things we can’t imagine? In this week’s UIEtips, I talk about the Short-Form Creative…
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    Branding Expert Martin Lindstrom - Author, Speaker & Fan of the Consumer

  • TIME Magazine – “Living in the Moment”: The Latest Marketing Meme

    Martin Lindstrom
    15 May 2012 | 7:59 am
    By Martin Lindstrom: Marketing consultant and author of Brandwashed - April 2, 2012 It’s a message that makes us feel strangely optimistic and important. It also gets us to buy stuff. I recently found myself eavesdropping on a conversation at a cafe between two men in their twenties. “I want to try live more in the moment,” one of them said. “In fact, I’m going to have to put some serious effort into this notion, because I tend to focus on the future and, in the process, I neglect the present.” His friend, nodding away, seemed in perfect agreement. It was eerily similar to…

  • Fast Company: How I Busted Out of My Addictive Technology Loop

    Martin Lindstrom
    8 May 2012 | 5:32 pm
    By Martin Lindstrom: Marketing consultant and author of Brandwashed – May 8, 2012 As with all addictions, our intense fascination with life-changing tech must be managed. I found this out the hard way–when my rental car met the parking garage wall. Recently I was sitting around the boardroom table of a major security company in Tel Aviv, when I noticed something quite unusual. There was black duct tape covering the camera lenses of every laptop and tablet in the room. The small microphone outlets were taped over as well. I was curious, and asked the head of security why this was…

  • Fast Company: How Enemies Power Innovation

    Martin Lindstrom
    2 May 2012 | 8:50 am
    By Martin Lindstrom: Marketing consultant and author of Brandwashed - May 1, 2012 What we can all learn about the art of business from Pepsi’s epic war with Coke and Apple’s public dust-ups with Microsoft. Not long ago I spoke with a group of teenagers about branding. Soon enough the subject turned toward Coca-Cola. For my own curiosity, I asked them who they considered Coke’s main enemy. Of course, I was expecting them to state the obvious–Pepsi. Instead the room went kind of quiet. No one was sure. The hyper competitiveness of the Coke-Pepsi dynamic, which I grew up…

  • Fast Company: The Truth Dresses Down

    Martin Lindstrom
    17 Apr 2012 | 1:07 pm
    By Martin Lindstrom: Marketing consultant and author of Brandwashed - April 17, 2012 What I learned about honesty from showing up at a stranger’s home an hour early. When I showed up on the London doorstep of a stranger’s home, an hour too early, something unusual happened. What first began as a scheduling mix-up resulted in one of the most profound consumer observations I’ve ever made. Admittedly, my job is somewhat out of the ordinary, and my consumer research sometimes takes me to very strange places. This week I explored the psychology of feminine hygiene. Last week it…

  • Fast Company: Want To Be More Creative? Get Bored

    Martin Lindstrom
    10 Apr 2012 | 3:14 pm
    By Martin Lindstrom: Marketing consultant and author of Brandwashed - April 4, 2012 Where and when do you do your best thinking? For me, it’s in the pool. As I power up and down the lanes, I rethink what I’ve learned. I now have the time and space to solve whatever problems have arisen. It’s an important meeting with myself, and I keep it religiously. Because the day I lose it, I’ve lost myself. Quick: Survey your friends, your family, and colleagues and ask them when it is that they get their best and brightest ideas. How do they come to solve insurmountable challenges? And when…
 
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    QuestionPro Blog

  • How to Optimize Your Survey for Mobile

    Ivana Taylor
    14 May 2012 | 8:03 am
    Mobile technology is more popular than ever before, as we have no doubt all noticed from the ever-present mobile phones and tablets on our possession at all times. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, global traffic to mobile devices is expected to increase 18-fold by 2016. Smartphone use tripled in 2011, and it’s expected that mobile devices will use 2.6GB of data per month. What does all this mean for online survey creation? Quite simply, you must be optimizing your online surveys for mobile devices since that’s where people are accessing their email and browsing the web. To…

  • Ways to Use Data Segmentation in the Survey Process

    Ivana Taylor
    9 May 2012 | 6:38 am
    Data segmentation is one of the most useful tools when creating online surveys. The process helps your business identify opportunities for growth, target communication toward specific audiences, and reduce costs from having multiple survey campaigns. QuestionPro has different types of data segmentation grouping options available, including Custom Variable Based and Time Based. Lets look at data segmentation and what it can do for your survey research. Segmentation lets you sort responses based on parameters such as question responses, custom variables or time frames. You can access the data…

  • How to Integrate External Variables Into Your Survey

    Ivana Taylor
    7 May 2012 | 6:38 am
    External variables are useful tools that will make your survey even more powerful. Specifically, the variables are additional information about your customers or survey respondents that is then integrated within the survey. This can result in even more accurate responses. QuestionPro makes it easy to include external (or custom, as it is also known) variables into your survey creation. Lets take a look at custom variables and how they are best used. External variables may be used in the Questions / Answer Options on the survey as well as within the email invitation to take the survey. Within…

  • Stopping Respondents from Dropping Out of Surveys

    Ivana Taylor
    2 May 2012 | 9:29 am
    What’s one of the most challenging components of survey research? More than likely, it’s the people that start to complete a survey and then stop mid-way through the process. This is quite frustrating to survey administrators who see it is a missed opportunity to gather response data. QuestionPro has thought long and hard about this problem and we’ve come up with two options you can use to curb this behavior and get the online survey responses you need. Save and Continue The “Save and Continue” option lets your survey takers save the responses and return to complete the questions at…

  • How Mobile Surveys Can Help You Get Reponses

    Ivana Taylor
    30 Apr 2012 | 9:27 am
    Survey research is not what it used to be. And chances are, it will continue to evolve with the popularity of smart phones, iPads and the like. In fact, 46% of Americans are using smart phones. So why not use this technology to help enhance your survey response rates and data gathering techniques? QuestionPro has debuted a new online survey tool to help you conduct surveys using smart phones and iPads, and even when there is no connection to the Internet. SurveyPocket is a mobile survey application that allows for the gathering of survey data in the field by using a smart phone or iPad as…
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    Emerging Markets Insights

  • 3 winning strategies to beat local competitors in Asia (Part I)

    Gilberto Gaeta
    14 May 2012 | 9:15 am
    Competition from local players is one of the biggest challenges for many multinationals in Asian emerging markets, especially in China. Over the last few months, Frontier Strategy Group conducted primary research with over thirty leading multinationals in Asia to gather the most innovative best practices to play against local competitors. While we found a number of common (and quite renowned) themes (e.g. R&D localization, Asia-for-Asia products, supply chain optimization), here are 3 winning strategies which separate leaders from laggards. 1. Invest on value-driving differentiators Most…

  • Modest Business Climate Improvements with Iranian Nuclear Negotiations

    Matthew Spivack
    11 May 2012 | 9:03 am
    There is some optimism among Middle East analysts and US government officials regarding easing tensions with Iran. The renewal of direct nuclear negotiations and the Obama administration’s determination to avoid an oil price spike during an election year has supported these developments. An averted regional conflict would mean a modest decline in the cost of doing business in MENA, but this hinges on a breakthrough in the next round of nuclear negotiations and shifts in internal political dynamics in Iran and Israel. As a result of easing tensions, a modest decline in oil prices would be…

  • Key Lessons from Walmart’s Corruption Probe in Mexico

    Clinton Carter
    9 May 2012 | 7:49 am
    Executives in high-risk markets should use Walmart’s troubles in Mexico to educate corporate headquarters of the difficulties of achieving high growth targets while abiding by FCPA standards in emerging markets. While Walmex’s growth was seen as one of the major success stories in emerging markets retail, we now know that it was fueled by business practices that created significant legal and reputational risk for the company For those who have done significant business in Mexico, the bribery allegations should not come as a major surprise, nor that skirting FCPA compliance has become more…

  • Companies can Improve Profitability in Turkey through M&A

    Martina Bozadzhieva
    8 May 2012 | 2:49 am
    While Turkey is one of EMEA’s most attractive growth markets, MNCs face significant challenges in building a profitable business there. According to Frontier Strategy Group’s clients, strong local competition is one of the biggest obstacles to growth in Turkey. MNCs can improve their profitability and boost their performance in Turkey by leveraging increased scale to cut costs and create economies of scale. FSG’s research shows that scale leads to improved profitability in Turkey at a higher rate than it does in the BRIC markets. One way in which MNCs can take advantage of this is…

  • May 2012 Latin America Outlook: Taking Global Volatility In Stride

    Clinton Carter
    7 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Frontier Strategy Group’s clients are revising growth forecasts for Latin America’s major economies upwards as the outlook for the global economy begins to stabilize. Growth leaders are emerging in the Andean region, and we expect that Chile, Colombia, and Peru will contend for the highest growth rate in Latin America in 2012. Strong fundamentals are keeping the Mexican economy remarkably stable while Brazil continues to miss the mark. Finally Argentina and Venezuela’s risk profile is increasing significantly, forcing MNCs to reconsider whether the potential rewards warrant the blood,…
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    Research Design Review

  • Confusion & Misinterpretation Associated with Scale-point Terminology

    Margaret R. Roller
    27 Apr 2012 | 10:59 am
    Is there really any difference between “extremely” and “very”?  What about “moderately” and “slightly”?  And if something is “poor” does it really matter that someone else rated it “very poor”?   Rating scales using this type of terminology have been around for a long time yet it is curious why they continue to show up in survey design. In February 2012, Gallup posted the results of a survey question that asked registered voters about the importance of various issues on their decision to vote for one presidential candidate over another.  The interviewer stated…

  • Defining “Marketing Research” by Scientific Principles

    Margaret R. Roller
    23 Apr 2012 | 11:45 am
    Terry Grapentine and Roy Teas advocate in the spring 2012 issue of Marketing Research magazine for a revision to the American Marketing Association’s definition of “marketing research.”  They argue that the current definition is not sufficiently grounded in scientific principles and is missing the all-important reference to theory which they consider a key component to “knowledge creation,” which in turn “is crucial in developing marketing strategy.”  Grapentine and Teas call on textbook authors as well as the AMA to integrate the idea of theory and theory development into…

  • The Impact of Visual Components on Online Survey Response

    Margaret R. Roller
    31 Mar 2012 | 5:37 pm
    Although researchers are always looking for improved ways to design their studies in order to maximize cooperation and completion while minimizing item nonresponse or other sources of error, now seems to be a particularly good time to experiment with online survey design.  Just in the last week articles on the Web from Lightspeed Research, Greg Heist at Gongos Research, and others have talked about the growing problem of declining response rates to our online surveys and called for shorter, simpler, and more engaging survey designs.  Heist takes the idea of engagement a step further and…

  • Focus Group Research: Thinking About Reasons May Hamper New Insights

    Margaret R. Roller
    18 Mar 2012 | 1:30 pm
    A focus group discussion is nothing if not a venue for researchers to probe more deeply on any given issue.  Focus groups by definition target a particular topic and envelop group participants with variations of the “why” question – “Why do you say that?” “What makes you say that?”  “Explain your reason for choosing Brand A over Brand B“ – as well as any number of projective techniques that shine light on unconscious, less-than-rational motives and perceptions.  Moderators spend considerable time devising ways to get at the underlying reasons for people’s behavior and…

  • The Importance of Socioeconomic Status in Research Design

    Margaret R. Roller
    29 Feb 2012 | 10:23 am
    There has been a lot of press lately for a paper recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Paul Piff (a PhD student at UC Berkeley) and three of his colleagues at Berkeley along with Stéphane Côté at the University of Toronto.  The paper – “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior” – discusses numerous studies the authors conducted in order to better understand the behavioral differences between “upper-class” and “lower-class” people.  They conducted both in-situ research as well as laboratory experiments looking at such…
 
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  • P&G Makes Major Move to Asia

    jimb
    11 May 2012 | 12:40 pm
    P&G announced yesterday that it is moving its Skin Care and Cosmetics unit to join its Baby Care unit in Singapore.   They want the leadership of these consumer brands to be near the biggest world markets with the greatest growth potential. This is a major step for a US-based, globally-competitive, consumer brand.  P&G has moved the brand leadership away from corporate HQ to be closer to the customer of the future.  Will more brands follow?  They have to.  Brands are mature in the western economies but personal income is rising in many of the developing countries.  When you look…

  • Guerrilla Warfare in Social Media?

    jimb
    8 May 2012 | 4:10 pm
    Social media monitoring is hot and a lot of companies are putting a lot of money into social media monitoring.  We did a little investigating and found several firms who provide “tweet for hire” services.  So, how does one person with a grudge and $500 give a engage in guerilla warfare with a major brand?  Actually its not difficult. We did a quick analysis of social media volume of a couple of well-known consumer brands, one fairly large and one not-so large.  Tweeters mentioned the large brand an average of about 40 tweets an hour or 960 tweets a day.  The smaller brand…

  • Is it ethical for social media monitoring providers to use Tweetbots?

    jimb
    11 Apr 2012 | 3:47 pm
    Should social media monitoring firms use TweetBots to increase their website’s SEO? Its happening and it sure seems unethical to me. Here is how it works:  There are several firms that will re-tweet for a fee.  The firms are used for marketing and to increase a company’s website’s SEO.  One is called PayPerTweet.  Here is a quote from their home page:  ”PaidPerTweet lets you hire Twitter users to blast your link, ad or announcement to 100s of thousands of Twitter followers in an instant.”  Another provider is called Retweet.it.  Their website claims,…

  • Google Breaks Old Research Rules…and New Ground

    jimb
    2 Apr 2012 | 8:42 am
    They say one of the keys to innovation is to break a rule that really doesn’t matter anyway.  Google has done it again.  This time, they have broken the paradigm that a respondent must answer an entire battery of questions.  Why was this necessary before?  Simply because it was the most efficient way to do it…back when we were doing paper surveys.  Today, it is simply not the most efficient way. Congratulations to Google for seeing through the cloud of common practice and providing a faster and cheaper way to obtain research data. As reported the past few days by Bob Lederer…

  • Sex, Southern Baptists and Starkville, Mississippi

    jimb
    19 Mar 2012 | 4:30 pm
    Several people have asked me to expand on my experience that was mentioned in the QRCA Views Winter 2012 issue and included in a recent blog post “Road Warriors Reveal Steamy (and Funny) Side of Qual.”  So, below is the whole story as I sent it to Joel Reish of Next Level Research, former QRCA President, article author and friend. My favorite was the time I was brought in on a study regarding sex education materials among Southern Baptists in Starkville, Mississippi. There was no facility so we had to contract with a hotel.  So I made arrangements for the hotel to host the group…
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