Qualitative Research

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    KumeuGirl.com

  • Does MR have some catching up to do?

    1 Nov 2009 | 1:37 am
    Browsing a couple of ad agency bloggers, and came across a couple of interesting pieces. This deck uploaded by Jason Oke demonstrates the issues with connections planning: Connections Planningness View more documents from Jason Oke. If agencies are moving towards a new understanding of what people do, and how they use media; and towards identifying people’s real problems. [...]

  • Bricolage

    31 Oct 2009 | 7:54 pm
    Popularised by Wendy Gordon, the analogy of the bricoleur (or a ‘do-it-yourself ‘ person) was initially created by Claude Levi Strauss when discussing the concept of mythic thought. A 2002 Admap article described the shift from where ‘we use contact with consumers to generate material from which to extract insightful and useful meaning’ to: ‘we use qualitative [...]

  • academic research

    30 Oct 2009 | 8:57 pm
    There is a breadth of academic thinkers: Chris Kelty, Clay Shirky, Tom Boellstorf, Mimi Ito, The Daniel Miller Assemblage, Danah Boyd’s dissertation on social media, Lisa Galarneau dissertation on gaming etc. Developing Cyberethnographic Research Methods for Understanding Digitally Mediated Identities by Natalia Rybas, Radhika Gajjala discusses academic ethnographic theory and implications for practice of [...]

  • recent winner of slideshare contest

    14 Oct 2009 | 8:37 am
    Healthcare Napkins All View more documents from Dan Roam. inspiring use of ppt and diagrams

  • finding beauty in larger companies

    27 Sep 2009 | 6:37 am
    It’s been a while since my last post, there’s nothing like an integration during a recession to remind one about change, and the true and very real challenges of business. It was an article about this very integration that prompted this post, an article that I myself could have written ten years ago when [...]
 
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    FreshMinds Research

  • Good customer service: just what the doctor ordered?

    Jake Griffiths
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:49 am
    People in the NHS work very hard. I know that and you know that. It’s a valuable service and one of which we should be very proud. But culturally there is still a big barrier in understanding patients as customers. NHS support staff must stand in line at Argos getting annoyed at the rubbish service just like the rest of us, but when it comes to applying these principles to their own jobs it doesn’t always translate. Here’s an example from a conversation I had when attempting to book appointments with an Acute Trust. If I’d had this conversation with someone in my bank,…

  • Coming soon - Alistair Leathwood tells you what’s on his mind

    Emma Barker
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am
    Alistair Leathwood, Managing Director of FreshMinds Research, shares his thoughts on both the world of research and the world at large. To get some idea of what to expect, why not take a look at some of Alistair’s previous posts: Welcome to the FreshMinds Research blog Ex-pert? The researcher as architect: building a definition Is social media the new punk rock? Alistair Leathwood takes to the spotlight Who is Alistair? Alistair is the Managing Director of FreshMinds Research, having crossed the divide after two successful years with sister company FreshMinds Talent. While heading up…

  • We’re lovin’ it: the branding turnaround of McDonald’s

    Jake Griffiths
    13 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am
    About two years ago, I was in a meeting with a very wise lady called Chloe Salmon, who worked with us for a short time in our Consumer research team. We were talking about models of behaviour change and how we could adapt them into our research methodologies. One of the things that we discussed was the ‘three things’ rule. The theory involves people altering their behaviour in response to specific changes being demonstrated by an organisation or brand. In other words - choose a brand that you wouldn’t ordinarily go anywhere near, and then think of three things it would have…

  • Start from the very beginning: ‘and’ is a very good place to start

    Emma Barker
    11 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am
    Goodbye Mr Chips (1939) As FreshMinds Research’s resident marketer it falls to me to write a lot of what we put out there. And when I’m not writing I’m proofing. So words are pretty much what I do. Already I can sense the uncomfortable shifting of people in their seats: “you started a sentence with ‘and’ – you can’t do that.” Au contraire, my friends. Forget what your teachers told you - writers have been starting sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but’ for years. Where other words fail to inject the requisite pace and energy into your writing, these two little conjunctions…

  • NHS marketing - the stuff of nightmares

    Jake Griffiths
    10 Nov 2009 | 11:30 pm
    Take a good look at this photo. If that’s not a mess I don’t know what is. The truth is you’ll see many noticeboards like this in services run by the NHS - it’s a marketer’s nightmare. Even though it has a broad theme (I took it in the maternity wing of my local hospital) there are so many things wrong with delivering information about services to patients in this way: 1. It’s a bombardment Just look at what’s on offer. Whether you’re after breastfeeding advice, a domestic violence helpline, information for immigrants, aquanatal classes, ‘Twinline’, help…
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    Zebra Bites

  • It’s a fine line

    Katie Harris
    16 Nov 2009 | 4:19 pm
        There’s been a lot of talk about engaging research participants in this ‘new’ research paradigm. I’m focusing on qualitative market research here because firstly, that’s my thing… …and secondly, because I hear that ‘engagement’, within the context of market research online communities, is community-nirvana. The ‘best’ communities are engaged communities. This strikes me as, paradoxically, both obvious and alarming. There’s a very fine line between engaging research participants enough to… well…participate in our market research, and over engaging…

  • The ‘new’ world of market research

    Katie Harris
    2 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pm
    I’ve just come back from a fantastic trip to Chicago where I attended the ESOMAR Online Research 2009 conference. You can find Jeffrey Henning’s brilliant recap here (he pretty much live-blogged it – very impressive!). Anyway, not surprisingly, there was lots of talk of ‘new’. And it would have been easy to come away with the message that the market research industry really needs to get with the ‘new’ programme or, quite simply, it will wither away and die. Because the new world of research is here! New methodologies. New technologies. New ways of engaging with respondents…

  • ‘Traditional’ vs what? ‘Unestablished’ research?

    Katie Harris
    17 Oct 2009 | 2:18 am
    The term ‘traditional research’ is often used to describe offline methodologies; mostly, I’ve observed, in the context of selling what I assume must be ‘non-traditional’ (??) online methodologies. In this context, the word ‘traditional’ conjures imagery of antiquated, moth-eaten and fusty research practices. And clearly, many offline methodologies are anything but. Not to mention that many research solutions require a hybrid of both online and offline approaches. But if we have to throw labels around, it’d probably be more accurate to substitute the word…

  • More stuff I wonder…

    Katie Harris
    2 Oct 2009 | 12:38 am
    Great post over at Ray Poynter’s (always) inspiring blog. The way Ray described a short-term community, I think, delineates a clever, and potentially efficient, research methodology. But I’m yet to be convinced of the long-term research community concept (although I’ve no doubt some readers are probably pulling their hair out over my apparent inability/reluctance to see the light/‘get it’). : P I’m assuming that in a ‘community for market research’ (vs a ‘community for customer relations/brand building’) context, a client will actually have some questions they want to ask…

  • Black or white? Discuss.

    Katie Harris
    29 Sep 2009 | 3:47 am
    Coincidentally, after my last post, this came up in my Google Reader today; More on the Problems with Opt-in Internet Surveys Here’s the first article; Study Finds Trouble for Opt-in Internet Surveys I had the great privilege of attending an AMSRS Professional Development session earlier this year to hear Jon Krosnick speak. He was brilliant. And so it’s with great interest that I follow this very timely and fascinating debate (hosted on Gary Langer’s excellent blog). Make sure you follow the links to get the full story/debate. It’s an important one. P.S And here’s a link to the…
 
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    Design Research

  • Why are Japanese lunches so beautiful?

    Sam Ladner
    1 Nov 2009 | 1:19 pm
    I am a big fan of MUJI, the simple Japanese housewares company. So I was quite interested to read a post by their art director Kenya Hara on the New York Times’s “Room for Debate.”  Hara argues that Japanese people have …a special ability to focus fully on what’s right in front of our eyes. We tend to ignore what is not an integral part of our personal perspective. We ignore that our cities are a chaotic mess, filled with ugly architecture and nasty signage. Hara believes that Japanese simplicity is a function partly of this narrow focus. Beautiful designs are…

  • The essence of qualitative research: “verstehen”

    Sam Ladner
    15 Oct 2009 | 5:54 pm
    “But how many people did you talk to?” If you’ve ever done qualitative research, you’ve heard that question at least once. And the first time? You were flummoxed. In 3 short minutes, you can be assured that will never happen again. Folks, qualitative research does not worry about numbers of people; it worries about deep understanding. Weber called this “verstehen.” (Come to think of it, most German people call it that too. Coincidence?). Geertz called it “thick description.” It’s about knowing — really knowing — the phenomenon…

  • Detecting Social Media Bullshit: A Sociologist’s View

    Sam Ladner
    29 Sep 2009 | 7:00 am
    Social media “gurus” abound these days. Which ones are worth listening to and which ones are bullshitters? Philosopher Harry Frankfurt exposed bullshitters in his famous essay “On Bullshit.” The liar knows what the truth is and cares very much about concealing it. The bullshitter, on the other hand, doesn’t care what the truth is and has no compunction in stretching it. The same goes for social media “gurus.” Those that care what about rigourous examination of the social may be wrong, but at least they take great pains to analyze the phenomenon. Those…

  • Designers are from Venus, Six Sigmas are from Mars

    Sam Ladner
    25 Sep 2009 | 7:05 am
    DT has a great post over at Design Sojourn that discusses Six Sigma methodology and how it relates to design. He cites Tim Brown at IDEO who argues that Six Sigma is essentially Newtonian, while design thinking is quantum. In his own design work, DT expressed doubts about using Six Sigma: After studying the Six Sigma process, I point blank said: “There was no way any of my designers are going to be judged on the quality and success of a design based on how many sketches or iterations we did before we deliver it.” Both Brown and DT cite Sara Beckman, who recently discussed the topic in the…

  • When “woman” means “short”

    Sam Ladner
    21 Sep 2009 | 10:35 am
    Sociological Images has a great post about product design gone wrong due to stereotypes. Lisa writes that Moto Guzzi motorcycles have created a “lady seat” (I kid you not; that’s what they call it). Lisa points out, quite rightly, that the only characteristic that makes this a “lady seat” is its size: So really, it’s just a lowered seat for people who are shorter than the imagined person for whom the motorcycle is being built. This is a use of sex as a shorthand for referencing physical characteristics that (may or may not be) true on average, but are not…
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    Cheskin - Fresh Perspectives

  • What is Design Thinking? Musings of a business consultant, Part 2

    Leigh Marriner
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:45 pm
    Cheskin is ahead of the curve on thinking about what Design Thinking is, even if we are still working it out ourselves. Our approach building on the design literature’s four quadrant model to show how we move from “What Is” to “What Could Be” seems clearer than most of what I heard at the Pecha-Kucha talk at the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley on the Accenture annual award winning paper on “Innovation as a Learning Process: Embedding Design Thinking," by Sara Beckman and Michael Barry. A number of leading lights talked for 6 minutes and 40 seconds each on What is Design…

  • What is Design Thinking? – Musings from a business consultant, Part 1

    Leigh Marriner
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:15 am
    There is a lot of confusion about what “Design Thinking” means, both among the design community and the broader business community. As a Boston Consulting Group-trained strategic business consultant, I have been struggling to understand what design thinking is and what it adds to solving a client’s problems. Cheskin Added Value integrates the disciplines of business consulting, design thinking, and understanding the customer experience in order to deliver innovation ideas, strategy and guidance to our clients. During my seven years here, I and many others have been working to figure out…

  • Seeing Differently

    Darrel Rhea
    8 Nov 2009 | 8:23 pm
    Thursday night my wife Nancy and I stood at the edge of a 3000 ft. cliff over looking Yosemite Valley. A full moon and sky full of stars lit Half Dome and the sheer walls of the valley below. We had Glacier Point to ourselves, not a person within many miles. It was perfectly quiet and absolutely still, the only sound was the crackling of a distant waterfall. Yosemite is familiar territory. I have visited many times and hiked, camped, climbed, and taken the kids. I think of it as “our park.” But that night, I saw it for the first time again. It went from “our park” to “one of the…

  • Modeling Consumer Economic Mind- States: The Tension Between Hope and Predictability

    Miguel Gomez Winebrenner
    5 Nov 2009 | 3:14 pm
    As an economics major in college I was overwhelmed by predictors of economic success that were based on hard variables such as GDP, unemployment, velocity of money, among others. All of these variables are important in predicting the state of economic affairs, but at the time I was also intrigued by other “softer” variables. For example, I was curious about the role that patriotism played in the economic success or failure of a nation- my hypotheses was that a nation of highly patriotic individuals was more likely to outpace countries with a lower index of patriotism. The premise being…

  • Is the Trend Towards On-Demand TV Applicable to the Hispanic Market?

    Miguel Gomez Winebrenner
    14 Oct 2009 | 11:04 am
    On-demand technology like Apple TV is one more piece of evidence that consumers, thanks to the Internet and DVR capabilities, have and will continue to hold more and more power over what they watch, when they watch, and how much/little advertising they want to see. TV as we know it, including TV for Hispanics, is drastically changing. But there is debate as to how concurrent the new general media paradigm is to the Hispanic media evolution.
 
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    The Human Element

  • Personal ad

    Alison
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:20 am
      A somewhat more personal post today.  Excuse the indulgence. Searching for direction. By Unhindered by Talent on Flickr Modest and mundane overload It’s been very hard to be online much in the last couple of weeks, what with child illness, half-term and major home refurbishment all requiring time and attention, before we even consider actual day-to-day work.  I like (and value) puttering about on Twitter and the internet, but it remains a tricky time sink when things get busy.   Twitter in particular dumps a ton of fascinating Stuff every day.  I can’t keep up; lately…

  • That’s why it’s called ‘research’

    Alison
    22 Oct 2009 | 6:18 am
    A wee rant.  I came across this conversation about online communities on Research Live.  There is a discussion of the pros and cons of research-based online communities, branded online communities, and right at the end a commenter who says that all this community talk is ridiculous and simply listening to internet buzz (via networks like) Facebook is the way forward. Listen, my children. Many many years ago, I was a wee trainee research manager for a company that did a very boring thing.  We made the fragrances that go into washing powders.    We did not think this was at all dull.  We…

  • Can market researchers have an opinion?

    Alison
    15 Oct 2009 | 8:04 am
    Robert Bain of Research Magazine has a blog post today about the way that business people pick on market research as a way of underlining their modern business credentials.  He quotes a piece by Marc Babej, a marketer writing in Forbes magazine who fixes the passing blog reader with a flinty stare and declares:  ‘You burned big bucks to collect scads of data. Too bad much of it is meaningless.’ Babej’s article is less a research hatchet job and more about ’smart’ research investment: after all, he has a proprietary technique up his sleeve. It got me thinking…

  • Evidence and belief

    Alison
    1 Oct 2009 | 5:12 am
    This morning, news came in from the inquest into the death of a 14-year old girl, Natalie Morton, who died shortly after receiving a vaccination against HPV (human papilloma virus).  In short: the poor girl had a malignant tumour in her chest which was undoubtedly the cause of death. This hasn’t stopped the anti-vaccination squads from speculating about the safety of the vaccine.  The Daily Mail, long-time opponent of most childhood vaccinations (except the ones against really horribly scary illnesses) has already been running a story depicting HPV vaccination as ‘a mass…

  • The curious case of the game show neuroscientists, or how NOT to research an online community

    Alison
    3 Sep 2009 | 4:15 pm
    I’m a fond member of the blogging/social networking site, Livejournal.   Over the last few days, I’ve seen the most incredible shitstorm unfold, over the cack-handed efforts of two rogue academics to research what they were pleased to call ‘the cognitive neuroscience of fanfiction’. Background First, a bit of background: Livejournal (one of the original social networks) is a vast and varied set of subcultures, and interconnected blogs, dominated by film, TV, book and gaming fans.    It is more counterculture than culture, really: it tends to be left-wing, creative and anarchic.
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    Co-creating the future

  • ‘Against the Odds’: Can the Internet enlighten political marketing?

    Nick Coates
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am
    Back in October, Jacob Kestner commented on this blog that social tools on the Internet are providing people with an avenue to express themselves with immediacy. Ellie Gellard’s #againsttheodds is a sound example of how the ‘mass’ can engage with issues directly and immediately, and can make a difference. #againstallodds on Twitter Against The Odds was originally shown preceding Gordon Brown at this years Labour Conference. Gellard, who is a habitual user of the communication tool Twitter, became convinced of the potential to influence transient voters toward New Labour in the…

  • Researchers remember: relationships are the source of results!

    Tom Hoy
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:03 am
    Last week I spoke at the ‘Marketing: the art of’ conference in Newcastle. The Northern Research Network asked me to elaborate on how we at Promise believe the nature and status of ‘research’ is being redefined by our shifting digital landscape. It was a fantastic day with loads of interesting things going on: a particular highlight was the talk given by Tim Smit, the founder of the Eden Project. Although the subject of the conference was marketing, Smit deliberately avoided referring to it directly, and in doing so demonstrated how marketing can become bogged down with opaque and…

  • Beware the expert!

    Anna Peters
    13 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    Experts have many admirable qualities: they are pretty good at mastermind, we can learn a lot from hanging out with them, and tend to make excellent dinner party guests But despite all this, experts are dangerous.  They spend the majority of their time immersed in what they do, becoming better and better. In fact, they spend a significant portion of their time becoming expert. Because of their proficiency, it is all too easy to assume that these experts will be the ones to uncover the next big thing – the next innovation or best selling product. Traditionally we have had a tendancy to…

  • Jimmy Choo at H&M!

    Ben Hayman
    10 Nov 2009 | 6:42 am
    Try queueing for 12 hours in a pair of these... Jimmy Choo has launched a range of shoes at H&M. Stella McCartney has a limited edition range of children’s clothes at Gap. These are the latest in a spate of high fashion/ high street brand collaborations that have seen retailers such as TopShop, H&M and Gap partner with well known fashion designers and celebrities to create limited edition ranges. This idea tells a story about how the ‘luxury gap’ in fashion has closed over the last couple of years. If Jimmy Choo had lent his name to an H&M range five years ago, brand…

  • Good service in London! You wouldn’t believe it!

    Arunima Kapoor
    5 Nov 2009 | 11:01 am
    The other day I was out for dinner at a posh (ish) London restaurant, Buddha Bar, and the most unexpected thing happened, it had great service! A friendly and attentive waitress, who pre-empted our needs and helped us make great choices from the menu. I am always quite shocked at receiving good service in London, so that when it happens I am unsure how to act. However, when it does happen (and because it is so rare) I tell everyone about it and recommend the restaurant, the staff and the food. This might be the ‘halo’ effect, but everyone loves talking about a great evening out and this…
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    UIE Brain Sparks

  • Icons & Images on December 3

    Adam Churchill
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am
    One of our most popular UIE Virtual Seminar presenters is back, sharing his thoughts with you on visual design.  On December 3, Patrick Hofmann drills down into one of his favorite topics, Effective Use of Icons & Images. Icons and images are being used more today than ever before to aid people in finding information. How can you employ these in design to maximum effect? How will you know if you’ve succeeded? This UIE Virtual Seminar will address Patrick Hofmann’s most recent usability research and visual design projects to answer these questions.  Want to learn more, see…

  • UIEtips: Design – Exploring Options and Making Decisions

    Jared Spool
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pm
    “It’s expensive.” “We don’t have time.” “This was the only solution we could think of.” Often, when we talk to teams about whether they think they explored enough design alternatives, they tell us they didn’t because of time, resources, or their own lack of imagination. However, good design doesn’t have to be an expensive process, if you have the right tools and techniques in your toolkit. At last week’s User Interface 14 Conference, I had the opportunity to hear Leah Buley, Donna Spencer, and Dan Rubin share their favorite…

  • UI14 Session Sampler: Leah Buley’s A UX Team of One.

    Brian Christiansen
    11 Nov 2009 | 11:44 am
    An audio selection from Leah Buley’s A UX Team of One 7.5MB – 14min 15sec If you didn’t attend the User Interface Conference this year, you may have missed the buzz over Leah Buley’s session entitled “How to be a User Experience Team of One”. Attendees loved it. Leah gave them tips and techniques used by top user experience teams that any UXer can use in a small team or an unsupportive environment. Below are some notes I took during Leah’s session and slides from this portion of the talk. The slides here are shrunk to fit our blog, but the materials…

  • UIEtips: Gerry McGovern Says “Manage the Tasks”

    Jared Spool
    28 Oct 2009 | 9:36 am
    For years, we’ve known about the importance of completing tasks. Not the items on your to-do list — the users’ tasks. What we found in our research over the last 10 years is that practically every measure of users’ performance correlates strongly with the users completing their task. Users who achieve their objective believe the web site looks more professional, rate it as more fun, tell us it runs faster, and are more satisfied with the site. There’s no doubt: if you want users to love your site, make sure they complete their tasks. Yet, even though we know task…

  • SpoolCast: Innovation Beyond the Buzzword

    Jared Spool
    23 Oct 2009 | 1:31 pm
    Duration: 27.5m | 15MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ←This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] How many IBM or General Electric television ads do we need to see before we are groaning at the mention of the word “innovation”? It’s too late for me, personally. But that doesn’t mean real innovation is dead. Steve Jobs has been quoted saying Apple will innovate their way through tight times. This past week Apple announced…
 
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    Martin Lindstrom

  • Brand vision - Absolut Branded Language

    Disney, Kellogg's, and Gillette are three completely different brands with one commonality. Over the past decade, they've established a branded language, whether they know it or not. In my latest book, we found 74 percent of today's consumers associate the word "crunch" with Kellogg's. Another 59 percent consider the word "masculine" and Gillette as one and the same. Americans formed the strongest association of masculinity to Gillette, by an astounding 84 percent. Disney scored higher in purloined language than any other brand. This brand welcomes you to its kingdom of fantasy, dreams,…

  • Wireless strategy - Useful techniques - B2Branding

    Let's discuss a product category that's excruciatingly boring: rolling bearings and seals. I want to look at SKF, one of the world's largest manufacturers of rolling bearings and seals. I don't know about you, but I couldn't think of a less sexy and uninspiring product line. If you didn't know this business or the brand, you'd think (when you visited SKF's site) you'd arrived at the wrong URL. SKF not only tells you about the company's support of one of the world's largest rock shows and how SKF products help their clients make delicious biscuits, it also has a special postcard section. The…

  • Wireless strategy - Product placement - Useful techniques - Future generations - BRANDchild

    You may be surprised to learn that close to 80 per cent of all brands purchased by parents is controlled by their offspring. But what will undoubtedly startle you are the figures that show a whopping 67 per cent of all car purchases is also determined by the children of the home – and not by the parents. Tweens (8- 14 year olds) are an increasingly powerful and smart consumer group, which in 2002 alone, spent and influenced an astounding €1.88 trillion. Did you know that an average British kid between 8 and 13 years of age is exposed to 22,000 television commercials a year? In fact these…

  • Brand vision - Blogs

    You can’t avoid them – the blogs. They’re so plentiful that the opinions they offer are forming part of news reports. Given the evident potency of blogs, therefore, the question is should blogs remain within their current sphere of influence, helping individuals to share their personal opinions on with the world, or should they be adopted by brands as communication tools? The fact is that the marriage between blogs and brands is no longer a vision. Personality brands, like Seth Godin or Tom Peters, already blog the net. And brands like Weight watchers, LEGO, Apple or Harley Davidson…

  • Optimizing sales - Brand alliances - Brand Alliances Put to the Test

    I'll bet that, more than once in your career, you've pondered the risk of teaming up with some other brand in a co-branding deal. The deal probably looked good; the conditions were perfect; but the brand... would it damage your own? It would be an exaggeration to claim that a number of studies have examined co-branding. But, luckily enough, I've managed to get hold of one study that might help us shed light on the issue. The Journal of Consumer Marketing published the study I’m referring to in 2000. It reveals a lot of interesting data and highlights facts of which we are possibly…
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    PluggedIN

  • Activity ideas for market research online communities: perceptual mapping

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:40 am
    Last month we posted ideas about ways to go beyond surface level findings in market research online communities (MROCs) but we wanted to start a series of regular features about different ideas and tips for activities to run in your MROC.  This post is on perceptual mapping.Traditionally, perceptual mapping is a common technique used in qualitative settings to get people to better articulate perceptions about a brand based on select attributes. This same technique can be employed in the online community setting using a simple image. Typically, there are two common ways to use perceptual…

  • How to avoid making bad decisions in community research?

    13 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am
    Bad decisions happen, yes, even after research is done. Truthfully, they can result from any methodology, but one way to prevent this in research communities is to really recognize the value and limitations of your community. The ValueSince communities are great qualitative tools, they allow you to better understand why people behave, decide and act the way they do. Communities are great for exploring pros/cons, barriers/opportunities, so keep it all in perspective and don't ask your community to do something it can't.  Instead of asking your community, "how much do you like this…

  • "Mugging" in Market Research Online Communities (MROCs)

    9 Nov 2009 | 6:06 am
    Research Rockstar (Kathryn Korostoff) has a great post on her blog about the concept of "sugging" (selling under the guise of market research) in MROCs.  In it, she coins the phrase "mugging" to describe the practice of marketing under the guise of research in market research online communities.  We've blogged a bit about this before on MROC Talk (check out "'Sugging' in market research online communities" and "10 reasons to have a separate online research community" if you're interested), however it's worth touching on again given that it's starting to come up more often... …

  • ESOMAR Online Research 2009 Takeaways

    2 Nov 2009 | 11:28 pm
    I'm finally back and caught up after ESOMAR Online Research 2009.  It was great to meet and hang out with fellow Twitter folks from the research industry, including @jhenning, @sawchuckMR, @duey23, @tomewing, @ZebraBites, @steveaugust, @katetribe, @shailibhatt (and many more...).   I won't go into a full recap of the conference presentations, since Jeffrey Henning of Vovici (@jhenning) did a great job of that on Vovici's blog, but I will highlight a few of the takeaways I had during the conference...Research insights through social media can be harnessed...somehow - The feeling…

  • PluggedIN at ESOMAR Online Research 2009

    21 Oct 2009 | 7:54 am
    In case you missed it in our monthly newsletter, PluggedIN will be at the ESOMAR Online Research 2009 Conference next week in Chicago.  Both Ben and Matt will be there to meet up with fellow online researchers.  We'll also be at the tweetup if you would like to catch up for a drink after the conference.  Hope to see you there!
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    The QuestionPro Blog

  • School is in Session

    Ivana Taylor
    17 Nov 2009 | 11:36 pm
    Today’s guest post is from the team at ALL Things CRM, a comprehensive and easy-to-understand resource where you can learn about all aspects of customer relationship management, and the best ways to achieve superior results for your business. You have probably seen the acronym CRM floating around online, and might have seen the word contact management along with it, but thought little of either. For the business world, they are very important things to know about, and are easy to understand. CRM, or customer relationship management, is used to describe the methods in which a company…

  • How to Create an Irrisistable Offer

    Ivana Taylor
    16 Nov 2009 | 4:47 am
    Let’s get one thing straight.  You don’t sell products or services – you provide offerings. There’s a difference.  And the difference is so much bigger than semantics.  In fact, if you are struggling with what makes your company unique, then this distinction will really help. Products are things. Services are actions. People are priceless.  But Offerings are Everything that’s Uniquely YOU. Picture your offering being everything – the entire package that you offer to your customers – just as a butler would.  You are the butler, serving your…

  • Small Talk is Big Business

    Ivana Taylor
    12 Nov 2009 | 11:15 pm
    I listened in on a recent Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) webinar in which John Moore, of Brand Autopsy stated: Social Media helps small businesses seem big and big businesses act small Knowing the psychographics of your customers can help you not just act small but be small and have one to one level conversations with them.  This is exactly what will ignite positive word of mouth for your business! According to Forrester Research, 94% of consumers trust Word of Mouth and 84% of business buyers say Word of Mouth has the greatest influence over their purchase decisions,…

  • 3 ways to Magnetize People to Your Brand Using Social Media!

    Ivana Taylor
    10 Nov 2009 | 11:27 pm
    You’ve seen people with thousands of fans and followers on Twitter and Facebook. You’ve heard stories of people selling services and products and making money with Social Media but you haven’t been able to get any significant amount of followers or generate any interest, much less income, using these tools. You may be ready to shrug this Social Media thing off as a fad. There are over 300 million users on Facebook alone, with the largest growing demographic being 35 and older.  It stands to reason that many of the people who are interacting or have to potential to encounter…

  • CRM: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Application

    Ivana Taylor
    9 Nov 2009 | 5:02 am
    Today’s guest post is from the team at ALL Things CRM, a comprehensive and easy-to-understand resource where you can learn about all aspects of customer relationship management, and the best ways to achieve superior results for your business. Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is a crucial part of a successful business. This is a process that involves gathering information on a company’s customers in order to meet their needs more effectively and efficiently. The primary piece of information used is service or product history. That is, what has each specific customer purchased…
 
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    Blumen Research

  • Software for business analytics & dashboards

    Eric B
    25 Oct 2009 | 5:02 am
    After testing the boundaries with my last post on integrating Twitter within time dependent market research reports I am going to try to take a look at a more traditional topic, Software for Business Analytics & Dashboards.“Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, applications and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning.” WikipediaThe area of business analytics and dashboards for business intelligence is fairly new to me and I have been researching two tools to possibly…

  • Twitter market research case study: Paranormal Activity

    Eric B
    13 Oct 2009 | 6:47 am
    While I am not a full fledged ambassador of using Twitter sentiment and analysis as a market research tool I can see the benefit in analyzing the data combined with a time dependent market research study using questionnaires and panels. Over the weekend the indi film, Paranormal Activity purchased by Paramount Pictures, which shot for a reported $15,000 grossed $7.1 million. The market push first included screenings at 12:00 am slots to build up buzz and fans could vote on a dedicated website to bring the film to their city. Paranormal Activity averaged $44,163 a theater over the past…

  • Actionable surveys

    Eric B
    12 Oct 2009 | 2:13 am
    A great article by John Goodman and Patty David from TARP Worldwide Inc. on why customer satisfaction surveys are not actionable was recently written for Quirks.com. I want to focus on the methods they bring forward to create a more actionable survey and expand on those ideas.Ask direct questions about what went wrong: Pre-populate your questionnaire with a list of things that could have gone wrong. This is a strong point and according to the authors it helps in uncovering as many as three times more problems. I assume that it provides a base and starting point for clients or consumers to…

  • Derived importance in the Importance Satisfaction Model

    Eric B
    4 Oct 2009 | 8:36 am
    In the post covering the value of the importance satisfaction importance model I mentioned three areas that have to be taken into account before drawing results from the model. The notion that respondents will correctly identify importance levels for each product or service attribute will now be up for debate.From the last post:It is up for debate if customers can correctly identify importance levels for each attribute. When asked an importance level for several attributes what client would not want to indicate that each one is important. You have my business now focus on everything. While…

  • Two new partnerships within the data space

    Eric B
    24 Sep 2009 | 7:20 am
    Over the past week there were a couple of quite interesting partnerships between technology and research companies. The first was between Ominiture and comScore, while the second and more interesting partnership from the new age market research standpoint was between Facebook and Nielsen. Omniture and comScore are going to be working together on a new product that will include data gathered from comScore with analytics from Omniture. The two companies will be able to show the audience size and how users interact with the actual site. The partnership stems from the fact that there can often be…
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