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Quirk’s Marketing Research Review

2010 Volume XXIV Number 8 August

departments contents 6 In Case You Missed It... 8 Survey Monitor

52 Now and for the future 10 Names of Note case study The road ahead for marketing 30 Still in the hunt and advertising research Comcast’s Versus channel By John Wittenbraker 12 Product and Service Update turned to research to 58 Too much information? better understand a core Let’s be prudent in our use of 14 Research Industry News audience segment neuroscience for marketing By Jon Last and Christopher Whitely and advertising research 73 Index of Advertisers By John Owen

74 Calendar of Events techniques columns 24 Does UGC make 78 Before You Go… 16 By the Numbers you say ‘Ugh’? Are Internet access panels When your consumers are a lemon market? talking online, here are By David Haynes some tips on how to listen 24 By Andrew Wilson 20 Software Review Q data analysis software 36 Something ventured, By Tim Macer something gained

Considerations when 76 Trade Talk Illustration by Jennifer Coppersmith employing a market Book helps make sense of research online community measuring social media By Julie Wittes Schlack By Joseph Rydholm 42 Consider the source Thoughts on sampling and weighting in social media research Publisher Steve Quirk By Annie Pettit Editor Joseph Rydholm 48 Making sense of the chatter Cracking the code of social Content Editor media data analysis Emily Goon By Thomas Malkin Production Manager James Quirk Directory Manager Alice Davies Advertising Sales Evan Tweed, V.P. Sales 651-379-6200 [email protected] Lance Streff 651-379-6200 [email protected]

Social Mavens – profiling social-networking Boomers Why aren’t teens more Baby Boomers and social networking. It’s hard to tell if the hype around the pairing is anything excited about driving? more than just that, but research from San Francisco research company Continuum Crew suggests A car just isn’t what it used to be. Or that the social networking-savvy Boomer - the unicorn of all things Web 2.0 - exists and can be rather, a car doesn’t mean what it used reached. To be fair, 47 percent of older Boomers and 45 percent of younger Boomers are still not to mean - at least not for teens. De- participating in any form of social media (with older Boomers behaving more like seniors/the silent spite the sunroofs and Bluetooths and generation and younger Boomers behaving more like Generation X), but the number of Boomers Bose systems and on-board navigation who are open to social media - and therefore reachable - is still in the 35-40-million range, according to a May 31, 2010, article in MediaPost written by Lori Bitter, president of Continuum Crew. of 21st-century automobiles, Genera- While social media isn’t catching on with Boomers at the lightning-fast pace it did with their tion Yers aren’t revving their engines younger counterparts, the time Boomers spend online has grown 62 percent in the past three years waiting to turn 16 and get their first while they reported actually spending less time volunteering, reading magazines, reading news- taste of freedom and adulthood, ac- papers, reading for pleasure, exercising, listening to the radio, spending time with a spouse and cording to a June 7, 2010, article watching TV. Clearly, Boomer leisure activity is shifting toward online activities, but marketers in Automotive News titled, “Kids on have struggled to solidify the relationship between Boomers and social media. cars: Who cares?” To help companies engage the Boomer who is online and in social networks, Continuum Fewer teens and young adults are Crew identified a segment of users called Social Mavens: Boomers who are connected, driving, and those who are driving exploring and expanding networks daily. A marketer’s in with the Boomer generation lies are doing less of it. In 1978, nearly with these Social Mavens who have significantly more frequent contact with individuals half of U.S. 16-year-olds and three- across all types of groups within their social sphere. This includes family members; political quarters of 17-year-olds had driver’s organizations; hobby or interest groups; religious organizations; social groups; neighbors; co- licenses, according to the Department workers and former co-workers; and business contacts. of Transportation. By 2008, only 31 The Social Maven is most likely to be a younger Boomer (aged 45-54) and equally male and percent of 16-year-olds and 49 percent female, which is a surprise to many who think of women as the voracious social media consum- of 17-year-olds had licenses. The down- ers. Mavens are huge consumers of all types of media and also use more traditional media than ward trend also holds true for 18- and the other segments, indicating a greater need for integration of online and offline engagement for 19-year-olds, as well and those in their companies who want to reach this segment. 20s. Additionally, the share of miles driven by Americans ages 21-30 fell to 13.7 percent in 2009 from 18.3 per- Bland just won’t do – stronger flavors rev up Americans’ taste buds cent in 2001 and from 20.8 percent in Who wants jalapeno when you can have habanero? Recent flavor extensions to some Ameri- 1995, according to the Federal High- can classics have shown that Americans’ palates are evolving to accommodate - and demand way Administration. - spicier and more intense flavors. And food and beverage companies are turning to consumer The real question is why more teens taste tests as well as their labs to ensure that their new products and line extensions are and young adults are content to wait out aligned with adrenaline-chasing taste buds, according to Miriam Gottfried’s May 26, 2010, their licenses or perhaps not drive at all. article, “A Taste for Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier: The Increased Craving for Intense Flavors Certainly the cost of buying, insuring Suggests That the American Palate is Changing,” in The Wall Street Journal. and maintaining a car - not to mention Most companies care about getting it right. When Dr Pepper Snapple developed its Dr fueling it, which costs as much as a gal- Pepper Cherry soda, it tested 30 different cherry profiles with consumers, who judged the lon of gas did when Boomers were 16 flavors on a nine-point scale and issued JAR (“just about right”) scores. Dr Pepper Snapple years old - are deterrents, but there may also added fruit punch and mango flavors to its line of Venom energy drinks, and Wrigley be something bigger in play. rolled out its Orbit gum in tropical flavors like Maui melon mint and mango surf to cater to “I don’t think the car symbolizes this fruity trend. However, as people crave intensity in flavor, some traditionalists wonder if freedom to Generation Y to the extent it diners will become desensitized to natural flavors. Regular mangoes may taste bland when did Baby Boomers or, to a lesser extent, eaten next to mango-flavored gum or a mango energy drink. Generation Xers,” said Sheryl Connelly, The current flavor boom may seem like a major departure from the mashed potatoes, cultural trends tracker for Ford Motor chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese and other unadventurous fare that have long Co. For Boomers, a car meant staying been the mainstays of American cuisine, but the flavor profiles now on U.S. shelves connected with the youth subculture, but are bolder than those of the rest of the world. For example, Wrigley gum is actually these days the Internet and smartphones sweeter and more minty in the U.S. than it is in China. do the cultural connecting. Intense flavor is being injected into meals prepared at home as well. Americans now keep Another explanation could be the an average of 40 different spices on-hand at home - a figure that has grown roughly twice worker-bee mentality of a tight economy as fast in the past two decades as it did in the previous 30 years. McCormick now counts - and a long commute. When time is a sea-salt, smoked paprika, roasted garlic and dried lemongrass among the flavors in its typi- limited resource, some would-be drivers cal grocery-store offerings. Asian and Caribbean spices, blends and marinades have been the might need the time spent commuting on focus of recent rollouts, and the company is predicting strong Indian spices will become more a train to work, which is something that popular within the next five years. can’t be done when driving a car.

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Green advocacy, green adoption vary in definition Small businesses believe and demographics they will lead the U.S. out of recession When it comes to green living, the embrace the green cause as a method Small business owners are eager to youngest and oldest consumers are of establishing their identities and lead the charge out of the country’s advocacy-oriented, while Generation independence. Among Boomers, for protracted recession - with almost X and Generation Y moms are whom rallying behind causes that sup- three-quarters saying they will be more likely to take action and adopt port the greater good is already part the driving force behind the U.S. green habits within their households, of their collective identity, supporting economic recovery in 2010, accord- according to a study from J.D. Power green causes provides an opportunity ing to Signs of the Times, a report Tribe Intelligence, a division of J.D. to share their point of view and their from FedEx Office, a Dallas division experiences for creating change. of FedEx Corp., Memphis, Tenn. In In contrast, Generation X fact, 51 percent of the small business and Generation Y moms take owners polled say their businesses a functional approach to green have already or will fully recover by living by applying green behav- the end of this year. iors within their households. For This optimism is a marked Generation X moms, being green improvement over the survey’s is motivated by a desire to be findings last year, when 54 per- less wasteful and more frugal in cent of respondents indicated they their spending. In applying green were very concerned about the behaviors such as gardening, com- economy’s impact on their busi- posting and recycling, they have ness. Further evidence of this found that living a green life- brighter outlook is that 18 percent style brings the benefit of saving of small businesses are considering money. While buying products an increased budget for staffing and that are perceived as green is not human resources activities in 2010, a primary goal for Generation X up from just 9 percent last year. moms, they are willing to do so Small businesses also are planning as long the products fit within to put their trust in the power of Power and Associates, a Westlake their budgets. marketing to help them restore busi- Village, Calif., research company. Generation Y moms take a do-it- ness to pre-recession levels. About 42 J.D. Power Tribe Intelligence yourself approach to applying green percent of those polled are consider- examined unsolicited consumer behaviors by developing their own ing increasing spending on marketing mentions to provide perspective on cleaning products and baby food in and advertising initiatives in 2010, the online discussions of consum- an effort to provide pure, quality and 30 percent say they may increase ers in five demographic groups: products for themselves and their spending on sales initiatives - both teens, early careerists, Generation families. They actively avoid poten- actions specifically aimed at boosting Y moms, Generation X moms and tially-toxic cleaning products and customer traffic and revenues. Boomers. Teens, early careerists and support brands that provide greener The results further underscore Boomers primarily take an advocacy alternatives. For many Generation Y small business owners’ firm belief in approach to living green lifestyles moms, being thrifty can be an added the value of traditional and online through educating themselves about bonus to going green. marketing and advertising. In 2008, environmental issues and legislation Green topics that are discussed before the recession was fully felt and supporting causes ranging from online most frequently by these five throughout the marketplace, 41 per- climate change to air quality and demographic segments follow similar cent of those polled were considering conservation. They display fervor in divisions. For Boomers, early careerists increasing spending on marketing advocating for green legislation and and teens, climate change is most and advertising initiatives. In 2009, policy but often stop short of adopt- commonly discussed. For Generation with the recession in full-swing, even ing green habits. X moms and Generation Y moms, more small business owners (44 per- While these groups have this recycling is the most frequently dis- cent) reported considering a budget advocacy approach in common, their cussed green topic of conversation. increase in that same area. This year’s motivations for taking the stance For more information visit www. differ. Teens and early careerists jdpower.com. continued on p. 62

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InsightExpress, a Stamford, Conn., tive research prodigy. Berman will SurveyHealthCare, a New York research company, has hired Cary be based in Los Angeles. research company, has named Nadel as senior director, custom mar- Heather Stockhoff senior developer. keting research. Norm Galvin has been promoted to executive vice president of The Modellers LLC, a Salt Lake Western Wats, an Orem, Utah, InsightsNow Inc., a Corvallis, Ore., City research company, has named research company, has appointed research company. J. Mark Wirthlin president; Bob Fawson as vice president, Christopher G. Diener COO; online services. Ipsos North America, a New York and Cindy R. Ford executive vice research company, has named Mark president. The Research Partnership, London, has Campbell CFO, U.S. financial hired Philippe Pouliot as associ- operations. ate director. Pouliot will be based in Philadelphia. Kah Huey Loh has also Tracey Holupka has been promoted joined the company’s Singapore office to marketing research manager of as research director. Carfax Inc., Centreville, Va.

Gerhard Hausruckinger has been appointed to the management board of GfK SE, a Nuremberg, Germany, research company, and Ford Sampson will assume responsibility for the Retail and Technology sector ICM Research, London, has named beginning January 1, 2011. His Justin Sampson chairman. appointment follows the departure of Gérard Hermet. The New York chapter of the Pouliot Loh American Association for Public The Marketing Research Association, Opinion Research, Deerfield, Ill., Moh Yin Chang has joined Omaha, Glastonbury, Conn., has appointed has appointed Sandra Bauman, Neb., research company The MSR David W. Almy as CEO. president of Bauman Research Group as senior methodologist. and Consulting LLC, Glen Rock, N.J., president-elect for 2010-2011.

M/A/R/C Research, Irving, Texas, has hired John Cheneler as senior vice president, medical services; and Clay Dethloff as senior vice president, qualitative services. Almy Martin Chang McCrary Ipsos Health, a New York research Jessica Martin has joined Des company, has appointed Robert Stockholm, Sweden, research soft- Moines, Iowa, research company Ramirez vice president, partner- ware company Cint has named Quester as a research assistant in its ship development. Michael McCrary managing direc- Ankeny, Iowa, office. tor, Cint USA, sales and operations; TaeHoon Kim has been promoted and Terence McCarron senior vice London research company BrainJuicer to lead the health care division president, sales. Group PLC has appointed Han of Synovate Korea, a Seoul, South Zantingh as managing director, China. Korea, research company. Smarty Pants, a Johnson City, Zantingh will be based in Shanghai. Tenn., research company, has Millward Brown, a Naperville, Ill., hired Nicku Bastani as qualitative Bellomy Research Inc., Winston-Salem, research company, has named brainiac. Additionally, Elizabeth N.C., has hired Rita Kenny as senior Berman has been named qualita- research manager. continued on p. 72

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SymphonyIRI adds commentary from Ipsos OTX analysts pictures; record voice notes; grab the neuromeasurement to its and GamesRadar.com editors. Each actual time, date and location of an in-market testing month, video game industry profes- activity; scan a barcode; and analyze Chicago research company sionals and consumers can visit the the results. For more information visit SymphonyIRI Group has inte- GamePlan Stats Web site to obtain free www.cloudmobileforms.com. grated its in-market testing service data, including the top 25 upcoming BehaviorScan with the neuromeasure- and recently-released titles. GamePlan Research Now to offer panel- ment headsets from San Francisco Stats data will also provide regular based online ad tracking service research company EmSense, with the updates of select GamePlan Core Research Now, London, has launched goal of quantifying shoppers’ emo- data. The data will come from Ipsos Online Ad Tracking, a service designed tional and cognitive responses to new OTX MediaCT’s GamePlan Insights to work in tandem with the company’s products and advertising campaigns. weekly syndicated consumer track- online panels to monitor the success of The EmSense neuromeasure- ing study. For more information visit online ad campaigns; assess brand aware- ment headset will be used in the www.gameplaninsights.com. ness; and measure ad effectiveness. The BehaviorScan test markets (Eau tool is intended to identify panel mem- Claire, Wis.; Grand Junction, Joint venture created to help bers who were exposed to an online ad Colo.; Pittsfield, Mass.; and Cedar harness social media campaign, as well as capture information Rapids, Iowa) and is intended to New York researcher The Nielsen about the campaign, the Web sites provide consumer packaged goods Company and New York business con- where the ad appeared and the time marketers with another layer of sulting firm McKinsey & Company have and date that it appeared. Panelists consumer and shopper insights. launched NM Incite, a joint venture who have been exposed to the online The headset, shaped like a thin, created to help companies use social ad will receive targeted invites to plastic headband, reads brain waves media intelligence to improve busi- follow-up surveys. and monitors the breathing, heart rate, ness performance. NM Incite builds Additionally, Online Ad Tracking blinking, head movement and skin upon the social media and online brand clients will have access to the profiled temperature of consumers to mea- metrics, consumer insights and market sociodemographic information that sure their emotional and cognitive intelligence of Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Research Now provides from its panel- responses to ads, new products and With the joint venture, BuzzMetrics ists. Clients can also compare the results in-store conditions. For more infor- will become wholly part of NM Incite. among panelists who were exposed to mation visit www.symphonyIRI.com. The initial areas of focus are measuring the ad along with panelists who were and improving marketing effective- not exposed. For more information visit Ipsos OTX MediaCT debuts two ness, product launch optimization and www.researchnow.co.uk. new services customer service experience. For more The Worldwide Motion Picture Group information visit www.nmincite.com. AdEffx Smart Control at Ipsos OTX MediaCT, a Los Angeles methodology sets out to measure research company, has launched its script New tool available for digital ad effectiveness evaluation division, designed to assess the conducting research via Reston, Va., research company com- potential viability of films at the script BlackBerry Score Inc. has introduced AdEffx Smart stage. The division will evaluate a script’s Cloud Mobile Forms, a U.S. technology Control, a methodological approach for potential for success by implementing a company, has made eSurvey, an online measuring digital advertising effective- multistage review and analysis, including and mobile survey tool for researchers, ness. The Smart Control methodology, evaluation, playability, marketability and available for BlackBerry smartphones at based on marketing mix modeling tech- quantitative validation. For more infor- BlackBerry’s App World. 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News notes change in the packaging of Marlboro Toronto research company The MRA Research Industry Index Lights, including all materials about Youthography closed its doors for (RII) jumped from 91 at the close market strategies, themes, con- business in May 2010 following of 2009 to 98 during first-quarter cepts, creative recommendations the demise of Y Syndicate, its sister 2010 - the highest index score since and dissemination strategies and all advertising business. the fourth quarter of 2007. The documents pertaining to marketing RII, compiled by the Marketing research - qualitative, empirical or 2010 marks 15 years in business Research Association (MRA), otherwise - concerning Marlboro for Cologne, Germany, research Glastonbury, Conn., is a composite in the gold pack. Such documents company Skopos. score based on reported changes in include, but are not limited to, any business metrics and changes in busi- documents relating to consum- QSR International, a Doncaster, ness owners’ perceptions of the health ers’ concerns, beliefs, perceptions, Australia, research company, will of their business. understandings, thoughts or impres- award six grants to academics teach- Separately, the MRA announced sions about the marketing or sale of ing qualitative research methods that the Colorado Pharmaceutical Marlboro in the gold pack; the cor- in universities in the U.S., Canada Transparency Act, signed into law relation between the color or word and Asia-Pacific. Grants can be put by Governor Bill Ritter, includes an gold and taste; the yields of tar, nic- toward NVivo 8 or NVivo 9 software amendment proposed by the MRA otine or other tobacco constituents; licenses; NVivo training workbooks; excluding incentive payments for or health risk and product harm. and training and consulting services health care practitioners who partici- from QSR. For more information pate in marketing research projects. In June 2010, Denver research or to apply for a grant visit www. The MRA was also successful in firm TAi Companies announced qsrinternational.com/news_whats- defeating similar bills lacking such an that it has suspended operations new_detail.aspx?view=229. amendment in Connecticut, Hawaii, in all locations. For TAi business- Minnesota and Mississippi. related inquiries contact Hal Meier Acquisitions/transactions at 201-923-5807. New York news Web site The On June 17, 2010, The Food Huffington Post has acquired New and Drug Administration (FDA), San Francisco research company York technology startup Adaptive Rockville, M.D., wrote a letter to Quantcast received accreditation Semantics in a cash deal. Adaptive Richmond, Va., cigarette manufac- from the Media Rating Council Semantics will provide JuLiA, a turer Philip Morris demanding that (MRC), New York, for its syndi- semantic analysis engine already used it surrender all the market research it cated online traffic measurement by The Huffington Post, to help has conducted or possesses on how service Quantified Publisher. MRC moderate the 100,000 comments consumers react to the firm’s planned accreditation certifies that the published on the blog every day. changes to Marlboro Lights packaging. Quantcast Quantified Publisher pro- This is the first acquisition for In an effort to evade a new FDA gram and its supporting processes The Huffington Post; terms of the ban on promoting cigarettes as light, adhere to industry standards. transaction were not disclosed. mild, or low-tar, Philip Morris has attached onserts to its Marlboro Lights Spanish Broadcasting System FactSet Research Systems packs stating, “Your Marlboro Lights Inc. (SBS), Coconut Grove, Fla., Inc., Norwalk, Conn., has acquired pack is changing. But your cigarette and Columbia, Md., research Quincy, Mass., research company stays the same. In the future, ask for company Arbitron Inc. have Market Metrics Inc. Marlboro in the gold pack.” entered into a settlement agreement In addition to the onserts, Philip regarding SBS’s concerns about Chicago consulting company Morris and other tobacco companies the impact of the Portable People Accenture has agreed to acquire are using lighter-colored packaging Meter (PPM) service on minor- assets from CadenceQuest Inc., for light brands and have switched ity radio broadcasters. Under the an Arlington, Va., customer insights to terms such as gold and silver to agreement, SBS will resume encod- company. The proposed acquisition replace light and ultra-light. ing its broadcast signals for all of its of the retail sector software assets The FDA has requested all docu- markets that use the PPM radio rat- of CadenceQuest would expand ments referring or relating to any ings service, and SBS has extended the digital, marketing analytics, onsert or other written material its contract with Arbitron for the retail marketing and merchandis- concerning the marketing or sale of use of PPM ratings in said markets. Marlboro in the gold pack or any continued on p. 70

14 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com

> by the numbers By David Haynes

Are Internet access panels a lemon market?

• the quality of products or ser- I believe that the Internet access Editor’s note: David Haynes is CEO of vices is variable; panel space is what economists call Western Wats, an Orem, Utah research • sellers find it difficult to objec- a lemon market. Lemon markets firm. He can be reached at 801-379- tively demonstrate quality prior are unhealthy and require collective 4002 or at [email protected]. to the sale; action to improve their vitality. By To view this article online, enter article • sellers have an incentive to over- adopting independent quality certifi- ID 20100801 at quirks.com/articles. state the quality of their goods; cation, the market research industry • buyers find it hard to evaluate can address many of the common the quality of the offer prior to frustrations in the Internet data col- Various claims I purchase. lection space. Recently, I was discussing the Academician George Akerlof Today, all of these conditions Internet panel space with a promi- earned the Nobel Prize in Economic are met in the Internet access nent buyer of survey research Sciences by explaining lemon mar- panel space. This is a cause for services. She was having a difficult kets in his paper, “The Market for concern because lemon markets time sorting through the various Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and disadvantage buyers by driving claims of competing firms. “They all the Market Mechanism.” Akerlof high-quality providers out of the promise quality,” she declared, “but wrote that lemon markets tend to market and incentivizing current the only element I can objectively develop when a number of condi- providers to offer lower-quality measure is price. It’s hard to pay a tions are met: products. premium for quality when you are not sure you will get it.” I have heard other vexed researchers echo her frustrations. snapshot Because buyers have a difficult time determining the quality of the The author argues for a way to allow users of access goods ex ante, they are compelled panel research services to pre-judge the quality of their to guess - and the best estimate suppliers’ products and eliminate the uncertainty that is given limited information is average. Therefore, the buyer will pay harming both buyers and vendors. no more than the average market price. The average market price

16 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Customers’ expectations keep rising. Competitors are nipping at your heels. Is your brand performing up to task?

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SAN FRANCISCO hurts high-quality providers because exercising rational judgment in a Objectively demonstrate they are denied a rightful price less-than-perfect market. Improving the market for online premium. The average market Sellers of lower-quality goods access panels can be done by price helps low-quality provid- are advantaged in a lemon market. invalidating one of the conditions ers because they receive unfairly They receive the average market necessary for a lemon market to rich margins. This dynamic drives price for below-average products. exist, namely the one in which high-quality providers out of the This aids in low-quality market sellers find it difficult to objec- market or toward lower-quality entry and rewards provider misrep- tively demonstrate quality before offerings. How many times have I resentation. I believe that a large purchase. In a healthy market, rep- heard the lament, “Companies talk part of the quality problem in online utation can signal a quality offering. about quality but make purchase access panels is due to the effect of The difficulty in our space is that decisions on price”? A lemon rewarding market participants for many providers’ operating practices market explains this dynamic in a lower-than-average quality products. change over time. Quality yesterday rational framework. It’s not that Within the limitations of science, does not guarantee quality today. buyers are hypocrites; they are just we have known what is required to Objective, third-party quality provide reasonable quality Internet validation can augment reputa- respondents for years, yet too many tion and enable sellers to credibly >>>.36)(37(92*64 providers choose different practices demonstrate quality before the for short-term gain. It is expensive sale. Third-party quality vali- to actively manage a large panel dation must provide relevant, inventory, so few companies do it. unbiased, standardized metrics But a quick review of the available comparable across sample sources. marketing literature would not lead With this in mind, I propose the RU a buyer to this conclusion. Instead, following conditions that a vali- he or she is led to believe that there dation process should satisfy to are many large global panels that are enable buyers to make more qual- carefully managed for data quality or ity discriminating decisions: that actively managed panel inventory is no longer necessary. 1. Applies to all online sampling frames. 2. Directly measures variables salient to the purchase decision (these may include, but are not limited to, consistency of data Sometimes, over time, comparisons to exter- nal benchmarks, and respondent it takes a conversation. thoughtfulness and legitimacy). 3. Process and participation are fully transparent. Our clients use web surveys. They also realize that not all marketing 4. Independence - the validating questions can be answered by a mouse click or an entry in a text box. entity must have no incentive that would prevent it from assign- Some of their information needs require a conversation. That’s when ing failing marks to low-quality they contact us. sample sources.

We use an increasingly novel research technique to help our clients Compelling start learn from their customers and prospects. We get respondents to talk – There are a number of laudable sometimes in person, sometimes on the phone. We listen. We probe for efforts underway today. Although the answer behind the answer. Our clients learn. in early stages, quality programs such as those from MarketTools; When your research requires a conversation, give us a call. You’ll talk. Imperium; Mktg, Inc.; and a We’ll listen. Together, we’ll develop a plan to meet your needs. number of industry organizations provide a compelling start. I urge all market research participants to Helping clients listen and learn since 1986 offer their full support. Through a rigorous certification process, sellers can objectively and consistently dis- caloresearch.com play quality, lifting the health of the C A L O survey research market and helping RESEARCH SERVICES 10250 Alliance Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242 (513) 984-9708 it shed the “lemon” tag. |Q

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Q data analysis software

Q is a new data analysis program kind of survey question - single- Editor’s note: Tim Macer, managing from Australia-based Numbers coded, multi-coded, numeric director of U.K. consulting firm meaning International that is designed to allow value, even grids - in a consistent ltd., writes as an independent software researchers to reveal hidden depths and even-handed way. Unlike the analyst and advisor. He can be reached in their survey data using the power majority of conventional market at [email protected]. To view this of statistical testing and modeling research tabulation tools, it is not article online, enter article ID 20100802 but without expecting researchers afraid of letting researchers - the at quirks.com/articles. to become advanced statisticians. primary audience for this software - QIt’s perhaps fitting for software from get eyeball-close to the data: All the Down Under that this tool can turn case data is only a mouse click away, PowerPoint deck. The expectation is the process of analyzing market on a dedicated data tab. that your data provider or data pro- research data on its head. If it bor- Q is offered as a desktop tool that cessing department would set this up rows from any school of data analysis, works under Windows. You start for you and even create some reports it is probably from the SPSS Base by opening your Q file (with the ready to work on. If you want to statistics approach, but in a way that file type “.Q”, which is the study’s do it yourself, you can also create is much more market research-savvy database containing both case data your own Q database by importing than the more general-purpose SPSS. and survey metadata) just as you directly from SPSS SAV or SPS files Q deals intelligently with every would open a Word document or or from Triple-S files. These will load in all the variables from your study Q by Numbers International (www.q-researchsoftware.com) and give them the right designations (single-coded, numeric, etc.), which Pros Cons are important to ensure Q knows the • Easy graphical way to recode variables, • Output styling a little lackluster most appropriate models or tests to merge categories and create filters • Limited support for tracking studies • Makes applying sig tests and statistical • U.S. support currently comes from Australia apply to each question. CSV import models to research data very easy is also there as a fallback, though to • Excellent range of use guides, help and Cost get the best from the program you online tutorials • Single-user annual license of Q Professional will then need to spend some time is $1,499. Q Basic with a reduced feature set is $849 annually. Multi-user and volume setting up appropriate question and discounts available. category labels and ensuring the right question types are set.

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The Fine Art of Marketing Research Easy to learn and use you merge categories; create nets; little lackluster is in the quality and This software is very easy to learn and rename, reorder or even remove range of the options to finesse the and to use, though it is not necessar- categories. Most functions or options outputs it provides. It makes little ily intuitive at first sight - probably are no more than a single context- attempt to represent data graphically because there’s some unlearning to sensitive click away. in histograms or pie charts. Charts do for most experienced research- Another difference is that the are restricted to those associated ers. To make the point, Numbers program works out the best way with correspondence mapping or provides not only a quick-start guide to analyze the questions you have other such models. There is no to take you through basic tables to selected - you use the same table integrated support for Excel or choice modeling and latent class option whether your question is PowerPoint, either. If your point analysis in 60 pages, but also an numeric, categorical or grid. There of reference is SPSS, then you may instant-start guide which distills are a lot of different options that find its outputs a step up, but if the basics into a single sheet. There help Q understand the kind of data you are coming to it from other is also integrated help and online it is dealing with, and from this it market research data analysis tools, training with show-me features that will also select the most appropri- you may well be disappointed. take over the software, select the ate significance tests to apply to the The full version of Q will also right menu options and then undo question. It makes appropriate adjust- let you import and refresh your data, it again, ready for you to do the ments according to whether the data which provides some rudimentary work yourself. are weighted or not, and also takes support for trackers. However, the What really differentiates Q from into account the effect of applying current version, although it contains other survey data analysis tools is multiple significance tests that can very good support for time-series that it offers the researcher a blended otherwise lead to false positives. analysis, is poor at version control approach to data analysis, combin- In the tables, arrows and color- and reconciling differences in data ing straight crosstabs for primary coding show not only which values formats between waves of the study. reporting with advanced multi- are statistically significant but high- Perhaps surprisingly in these days of variate approaches to reveal hidden light the direction of the difference. data integration, you can only have trends and connections in the data. As you generate tables and other one study open at once, though So often, these connections remain outputs, these appear in a tree on Windows will let you have more undetected in most survey datasets the left. You can keep them or dis- than one instance of Q open. simply because the researcher lacks card them and you can also organize Overall, these are relatively minor either the tools or the time and them into subfolders. From this, you weaknesses in a highly-intelligent budget to dig any deeper. Q can can create a package of a subset of software product. They are largely help move the task of analysis from the tables or models you have cre- indicative of a developer whose pri- superficial reporting of the num- ated. This creates a small e-mailable orities lay in simplifying the most bers to telling the client something file which others can then view by challenging problems, and in doing he or she really hadn’t realized - downloading the free Q Reader. so allowing substance to triumph based on evidence and backed up The Reader can provide a very perhaps a little too much over style. with confidence scores. simple and inexpensive route to dis- For the more involved opera- tributing interactive tables to clients. Gradual introduction tions, such as multivariate mapping Numbers limits the options in the One company making extensive or latent class analysis, you always Q Reader version but clients and use of Q is Sweeney Research, also start from basic tables and analysis. It co-workers can still slice and dice in Australia. Erik Heller is general help keeps you grounded, letting you the data in different ways that are manager of Sweeney’s Sydney office approach more advanced and possibly relevant to them but have no direct and an experienced researcher with less familiar analytical techniques in recourse to the raw data. a background in advanced quantita- a stepwise process, building on what Another impressive feature is tive methods. He has overseen the you have already seen and verified. its handling of conjoint analysis. Q gradual introduction of Q as an One of the design principles lets you roll up an entire multilevel analysis tool for researchers to use on Numbers applied to Q was to put choice model into a single composite data collected largely in-house from users in front of the actual numbers question, which you can then cross- a broad range of telephone, online as early as possible in the process. tabulate and filter with the same ease and in-person surveys. “One of the You always start in table view, look- as a simple yes/no question. And advantages of Q is that it is very easy ing at some of the data, but this view with all of the built-in significance for someone who is not that involved is highly dynamic and many of the tests and other analytical techniques in the data analysis to go into the options that you find tucked away in at your disposal, you can very data and run some additional cross- menus, pick-lists and property sheets quickly determine the real drivers in tabs,” Heller says. in other analysis tools are achieved any choice-based model. “There is a huge efficiency gain simply and elegantly by dragging and if someone works up a hypothesis dropping. For example, just click- A little lackluster when writing his report and does not ing, dragging and dropping will let Where the software is perhaps a have to stop what he is doing, run

22 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com downstairs or write an e-mail to the they are applied. If you think about ably used to having a bit more data analyst. It may not sound like the purpose for which most of the control over the data and this way much, but it is really quite disruptive traditional tests were originally you are putting a bit more trust into and therefore desirable to streamline designed, it is very different from the software. Clearly, the approach this from the business perspec- the ways we analyze commercial they have taken is that they want tive. That is not something that is research studies today. to make it as simple as possible. It especially novel to Q, but where Q “In a way, at the 95 percent is ideal for someone who does not differentiates itself from other tools confidence level, every twentieth have the time to get involved with like SPSS is the extent to which it test will be a false positive. And all the statistics behind it. I think it is intuitive and easy for people to on a typical study, we run hun- is a great feature and one I will use immerse themselves in the data.” dreds of these tests. Q uses testing a lot more going forward.” Asked how long it might take a approaches that aim to account for Another plus for Sweeney novice user to become familiar with this and are therefore more appro- Research is the ability to export the software, Heller says, “That really priate for the huge number of tests tables and charts in Q for clients to depends on the individual, but most that are done on a typical study. It view in the free Q Reader. “For people seem quite capable of using Q means it is easy to cut across big them to be able to look at the within a couple of hours: checking data sets and see the important, tables and merge categories without the data make sense, interrogating statistically-significant effects. To manipulating the original data is very the tables and producing some addi- do that in a software like SPSS is beneficial and we find they are very tional basic tables.” infinitely more cumbersome.” keen to use it. It does not overload However, as Heller points out, Heller had also used Q to analyze them because the free version has this is just the start for most users conjoint studies, both before and fewer options; it just allows them in understanding what Q is capable after the conjoint analysis module to check the little queries they of. “The statistical abilities of this was added to Q, where an entire might have. It is all about sim- program are the biggest reason I’ve choice-based experiment is simply plifying things. There is so much been driving this internally to get treated as a single composite ques- information out there these days people to use it. What’s really good tion. “I’ve use it on one project, and there is no shortage of data - about it is the sophistication of the so far” he says. “It is brilliant in its the aim is to provide it in the most tests and the foolproof way that simplicity. Most people are prob- usable format you can.” |Q WE DON’T CUT CORNERS Opinion Search provides university & college educated interviewers, onsite supervision & quality control monitoring, and live data access.

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www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 23 > By Andrew Wilson Does UGC make you say ‘Ugh’?

When your consumers are talking online, here are some tips on how to listen

ore people than ever actively participate in blogs, forums, product/service reviews, social media sites and other platforms for user-generated content (UGC). The opinions social media research media social M expressed in these venues are unsolicited, honest, candid and passionate and can be extremely thoughtful. The topics are varied and people discuss everything from what they did last night to the technical nuances and likes and dislikes of the latest gadget. With the explosion of UGC, managers have begun to face the question, “Are you listening to UGC?”, but how you listen will dictate what strategic decisions you can make with this new data source. The UGC ocean is vast, but having a lot of data does not automatically imply you can or should analyze these data quantitatively. UGC should be viewed as a series of unstructured conversations that, when used appropriately, can Editor’s note: Andrew Wilson is senior add depth to and expand your understanding of who your customers are project director at Applied Marketing and their experiences with your products and services. Science Inc., Waltham, Mass. He can Many quickly find the sheer volume of online conversations over- be reached at 781-684-6300 or at [email protected]. To view this whelming and look for tools to help focus their efforts. One popular article online, enter article ID 20100803 solution, dating back to the earliest days of UGC in the late ’90s, is to at quirks.com/articles. “scrape” the Web and use text analytic tools to automate the analysis. How does scraping work? The researcher selects a number of search terms, much like a search engine, and then the tool crawls the Web in search of UGC relating to these snapshot search terms. All positive hits are then aggregated in a database. Next, User-generated content is everywhere these days. But a text analytic tool counts how fre- how do you make sense of the chatter? One successful approach outlined by the author is to analyze what’s quently a product, feature, brand, being said and use the findings as a springboard for more etc., is mentioned and makes an rigorous research. attitudinal assessment (e.g., positive, neutral, negative) for each statement.

24 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com This solution is relatively inexpensive tive. Similarly, this same tool finds or that of its competitors. Much of and enables reports to be generated that only 50 percent of the comments today’s UGC is created by a rela- quickly. But there are some issues. relating to both the Mazda brand and tively small minority. There is also a While these tools make the task of its product quality are positive. The possibility that different types of cus- “listening” easier by automating manager might initially conclude that tomers are responsible for UGC for searches and distilling the endless consumers believe Scion has higher different companies (e.g., young auto search results into quantitative data, product quality than Mazda, but enthusiasts may be primarily respon- there are three inherent problems let’s dig a little deeper into these sible for Scion’s UGC while young that people should be aware of when numbers by asking a few simple professionals could be predominantly collecting and analyzing UGC quan- questions about the data. responsible for Mazda’s). In 2009, titatively: representation, contextual Forrester Research found that while confusion and online echo. Representation Internet penetration is approaching To demonstrate how these issues First and foremost, who is responsible 80 percent, only 24 percent of adults can be disruptive, consider the fol- for that 70 percent and 50 percent? would be considered creators - those lowing fictional example. Imagine a Are those figures representative of who publish a blog, publish a Web manager at Toyota wants to use UGC all Scion and Mazda customers? If page, upload videos, upload audio/ to investigate whether consumers not, are they representative of the music they created, write articles/ feel the product quality of Toyota’s same subset of customers (e.g., auto stories and post them (Source: Scion is superior to a model offered enthusiasts, actual customers, potential Forrester Research’s 2009 Consumer by Mazda. Let’s assume that after customers, etc.)? Technographics Study). scraping the Internet, an automated The Internet users responsible for For most UGC, the common program reports that 70 percent of all user-generated content are not nec- thread is passion. People are driven the UGC relating to both the Scion essarily representative of the general to blog, post, review, tweet, etc., brand and its product quality is posi- public, a company’s customer base because they are passionate about

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 25 an activity or they experienced an search results and excludes some rel- are easy for you and I to understand abnormal or extreme experience evant ones. You can also be sure that but extremely difficult for a computer that they’d like to share with the it has assigned improper attitudinal program. For example, when visiting world. Without understanding who assessments to many of the phrases. a Mazda enthusiasts’ site you might is responsible for the UGC behind Currently, human oversight and encounter a post titled, “My suspen- the above figures, one should be review of the data are the only ways sion is amazing,” where a user gushes cautious before concluding that to be sure your data are truly relevant about how great the suspension is consumers or even certain consumer to your search terms and that attitu- on their Mazda 6, which is then fol- segments perceive Scion’s product dinal assessments or other codes are lowed by replies such as, “I agree, quality to be superior to Mazda’s. correctly assigned. but my previous Mazdas had poor Here are some examples that high- suspensions,” “I’m not sure I agree Contextual confusion light the contextual confusion issue. with your earlier post, that car really What percentage of the results is truly Most of today’s text analytics tools has oversteering problems,” “You’re relevant to Scion, Mazda and their would classify the following state- wrong, that system is horrible,” “With product quality? What percentage of the ment as a negative comment about the new upgrades it’s much better results was misclassified as positive, neu- the Scion: “With the supercharger than stock and now I love my car,” tral and negative? Are these percentages included on my Scion, it is one bad etc. Imagine Mazda wants to use these the same for Scion and Mazda? machine,” not being able to recognize scraped data to evaluate how consum- Context is essential to understand the slang use of the word bad to actu- ers feel about the Mazda 6 and its meaning. It is also extremely difficult ally mean good. Similarly, most of suspension. You quickly get a sense of to automate since contextual clues the technology would classify the fol- how language and context can con- are constantly evolving alongside lan- lowing statement as being positive for found an automated program that is guage and are often very subtle (e.g., Scion: “I loved my Scion then I had determining relevance and providing discerning Apple the company from to replace the transmission twice in an attitudinal assessment. apple the food). While text analytic the past two years.” and Web-scraping tools are improving Further complicating matters, Online echo in their ability to understand context, much of a Web-scraped database will Of the results, how many are dupli- it is certain that any Web-scraped consist of forum posts and replies, cate thoughts from a single user? Is database still includes many irrelevant which have complicated references that this equivalent for each brand?

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26 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Internet users creating UGC rarely ences and decide to tell their story ing what people are saying - instead limit themselves to a single outlet (e.g., to anyone who will listen, hoping to of how many people are saying it - is forum, blog, Facebook, etc.). Thus, warn other consumers and/or warrant where the real value lies. search results often contain a single a response from the manufacturer. Rather than beginning with UGC person’s thoughts expressed on mul- These events are not uncommon and, and letting it drive how you listen to tiple sites. Unless the wording used more importantly, disrupt quantitative customers, a better approach begins on each site is identical, the database analysis of UGC data. with identifying the important strategic cannot identify the person as the same These three issues - representation, issues your organization faces. Then user and remove these duplicates. Most contextual confusion and online echo determine whether collecting UGC UGC is anonymous. While there is - make quantitative analysis of UGC will enhance your understanding of technology that can scrape data and precarious. While some academ- those issues. Are people even talking attribute results to a single user, the ics have used UGC quantitatively to about your product or service category universe of user-identified UGC is successfully predict movie box-office online? A quick search on Google, dramatically smaller than the user- success and stock prices in the short Omgili or Technorati can give you a anonymous universe. Consequently a term, those applications have been sense of what’s being discussed. scraped data set is likely to be distorted unique and difficult to apply to other In deciding whether or not to by very vocal users expressing them- applications. This is not to say that analyze UGC, an organization should selves multiple times in several different quantitative analysis of UGC cannot also consider if an important seg- venues. Understanding the degree to be useful, but people should be aware ment’s thoughts are absent from the which duplication dilutes your data can of the data issues that exist and adjust UGC universe. If they are, can others be a guessing game. their strategic decisions accordingly. speak for this segment (e.g., products Consider the following hypo- targeted toward the elderly)? If not, thetical example. A customer has their Sift through the mass it may be necessary to supplement transmission fail but the failure was A more robust method for analyz- the Web-scraped UGC database with not covered under warranty. They ing UGC is to use Web-scraping and an additional form of exploratory post about it on their blog and then text analytics tools to sift through the research (one-on-one interviews, again on an auto-enthusiast forum to mass of UGC, but to then analyze focus groups, etc.) or consider a dif- vent some more. Later they discover the results qualitatively. UGC can be ferent approach entirely. that others have similar experi- incredibly influential, but understand- Let’s return to our earlier car

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 27 example to demonstrate how an orga- Striking the right balance can be dif- not be most important and, given the nization could analyze UGC more ficult, but you’ve hit the mark when issues discussed earlier, there is potential effectively. Imagine that an automo- the majority of the cleaned database for your analysis to be misleading. tive manufacturer wants to investigate is relevant and an analyst can actu- To make judgments about what what wants and needs customers ally read through the entire database. features and issues organizations have when purchasing a vehicle. While this may take a while, they’ll should focus on or which ones are Feeling confident it has not excluded still be able to pull out lots of nuggets most important, a more rigorous important opinions or groups, the of useful information. quantitative research method would organization might scrape the Web, Next, using text analytics, an ana- be the logical next step. This could looking for UGC to understand how lyst can classify comments by features, involve asking a random sample of customers evaluate automobiles (e.g., issues, buying processes, etc. It is also customers to go through an impor- how customers define product quality, useful to understand which features tance and performance rating exercise what features they consider, current are frequently talked about together or possibly a conjoint exercise. These issues with vehicles today, issues in (i.e., co-occurrence) and many ven- more rigorous quantitative methods the buying process, etc.). This broad dors offer tools that automate and will provide a much clearer pic- search would likely net far too much graphically display these results for ture about what to focus on and the content for any one person or small your UGC database. organization can have much greater group to read the entire database. So Using text analytic tools this way confidence in these results. With cleaning the database of irrelevant and graphing the co-occurrence of appropriate experimental design and results should be the first step, which topics helps organize the content so sampling methodology, this approach might involve removing any com- that you can learn faster and more ensures the results are representative ments that are fewer than 10 words effectively. Classifying the cleaned and are not susceptible to the issues or comments about pricing and pro- data makes it easier to see broad discussed earlier. motions, which tend to be abundant trends and understand issues more and irrelevant. There are other obvi- completely. As you continuously read Extraordinarily influential ous topics that can be removed from through the database you’ll discover As online outlets (blogs, social net- the database but beyond that the task new classifications and important working, reviews, forums etc.) have becomes subjective. issues you initially overlooked. The exploded, customers have become To give you a sense of just how goal here is to develop a qualita- more powerful in their ability to much irrelevant data there could be in tive report similar to one you would influence each other and the busi- a scraped database, consider this actual receive after conducting one-on-one nesses they interact with. Even though example. During a recent experiment at interviews, focus groups, ethnogra- UGC may not represent the broad our firm, we scraped the Web for UGC phies or other forms of qualitative views of the market, it can be extraor- on mouth-care products and found research. This process will help you dinarily influential, given its ability to that only 10 percent of the results were identify key issues, develop theories reach others. Therefore understanding actually relevant to our topic. about customers’ experiences and what is being talked about online and understand their wants and needs. the implications of those discussions is Hit the mark Given a structured database of crucial for many businesses. By under- A word of caution, which may seem UGC, it is tempting to try to reach standing the limitations inherent in obvious: the more refined the search, conclusions about the features and some of the UGC data collection and the smaller the resulting database. issues that are most important based on analysis techniques currently available, While this makes sifting through con- volume and an attitudinal assessment, organizations can identify appropriate tent easier, it simultaneously increases but this process should be reserved until times to use these data and when to the risk of removing key insights. later. Often what is top-of-mind may seek out more robust insights. | Q

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www.decipherinc.com | 800-923-5523 > By Jon Last and Christopher Whitely Still in the hunt

Comcast’s Versus channel turned to research to

media research media better understand a core audience segment

n 2009, Comcast’s national sports cable network faced a challenge.

It had rebranded and changed its name from Outdoor Life Network I(OLN) to Versus in September 2006 to better communicate the network’s core focus around competition, rather than just the outdoors. Yet

it continued showing large blocks of outdoor content, which were housed

under the Versus Country umbrella. While the perception was that Versus

was moving away from its outdoor programming offerings, the number of

hunting and fishing programming hours on Versus actually increased 6 per- Editor’s note: Jon Last is president of Sports and Leisure Research Group, cent from 2007 to 2008. White Plains, N.Y. He can be reached at 914-358-3558 or at jlast@ However, endemic hunting/fishing advertisers began to perceive Versus sportsandleisureresearch.com. Christopher Whitely is director, research at Comcast Country as being “less pure” than competitors who maintained a 24-hour, Networks, New York. He can be reached seven-days-a-week schedule of outdoor programming. An examination a at [email protected]. To view this article online, enter article ID straight trending crosstab of syndicated data from 2006 to 2009 suggested that 20100804 at quirks.com/articles. Versus viewers’ participation in outdoor activities was going down. (There

was not a question in the syndicated studies asking respondents directly if snapshot they viewed Versus’ fishing and hunt- Following a rebranding of its Outdoor Life Network ing programming.) At the same time, as Versus, which broadened its scope to include other viewers of the competing Outdoor sports, Comcast Networks conducted in-depth research to show advertisers that the channel’s core audience of Channel did not display any decreases outdoorsmen was as strong as ever and receptive to ad in hunting or fishing participation over messages outside of the hunting and fishing categories. the same time period.

30 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com This was counterintuitive and gave passionate about and likely to par- Comcast Networks and Sports and rise to a series of questions. Were ticipate frequently in the sport or Leisure Research Group in 2009 was Versus viewers actually participating sports that are the focus of the media designed to provide an insight-driven in outdoor activities less or was the outlet. By early 2009, with the sales platform to address these issues. decrease a function of the network’s and marketing teams facing scrutiny rebranding? That is, since the network from advertisers who questioned the Unstable data was previously known as Outdoor Versus Country audience’s com- One of the great paradoxes of media Life, was the broader Versus brand mitment to field sports, Comcast research within narrow vertical niches diluting the true scope of outdoor Networks sought to address these like sports is that huge advertising programming on Versus? concerns through a custom research decisions are often made on relatively There was no indication that approach that would enable network unstable data. Having sat in the seats viewers were becoming less engaged executives and advertisers to better of media researcher and marketer, with the programming after the understand this audience and dem- independent researcher and advertis- rebranding, as the audience to onstrate the network’s commitment ing client, the authors have seen a Versus Country’s programs contin- to the vertical category. constant battle between the often ued to grow. Over the 2006 to 2009 The core question we sought to elusive search for valid and project- period, the Versus Country block answer was the true level of Versus’ able syndicated currency from which saw an 11 percent increase in its audience participation in the endemic to make cross-media evaluations and average household audience and 26 categories of hunting and fishing. management’s desire to simplify con- percent growth in its key primetime Beyond that was a desire to provide clusions about audience fit through programming block, according to additional details on the category- succinct measurement metrics that Nielsen Media Research. specific behaviors, attitudes and put the advertiser’s options on a level It is important for endemic adver- preferences of the field sports market. playing field. This situation is particu- tisers to reach an audience that is Proprietary research conducted by larly acute in the sports media.

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 31

Figure 1: Respondent Self-Identified Spending Levels, Compared to Competitive Networks Viewers of Outdoor Programming on TOTAL Versus Network X Network Y Spent $200+ on Camping Equipment 26.2% 31.2% 27.6% 28.1% Spent $200+ on Hunting Equipment 24.7% 32.7% 25.9% 28.6% Spent $200+ on Fishing Equipment 26.0% 35.7% 29.7% 28.8%

Source: Comcast Networks Outdoor Sports Viewer Study conducted by Sports & Leisure Research Group, 2009

One of the challenges that today’s recession. Both potential solutions was often problematic when syn- sports media marketplace presents are also limited by information avail- dicated data depicted vertical golf when attempting to tie together ability. Particularly in vertical niches media audiences at virtual parity, audience viewing profiles, adver- like sports, there is often a limited despite the fact that the most uni- tising receptivity and purchasing amount of stable and projectable versally accepted syndicated data behavior for smaller/niche sports is data, a lack of universal measurement source revealed that literally half of the multitude of research sources across the category and across media, the aggregate audiences of the lead- available. Each has its own limita- and varying levels of acceptance and ing vertical golf media did not even tions. The syndicated sources are research utilization within the respec- play golf. How then could reasonable constrained by issues that include tive endemic marketplaces. cross-media evaluations be made, recency, depth and questions regard- In past work experience, one when the currency data cast doubts ing both sample appropriateness of the authors has observed frus- on audience differentiation across and survey question design. At the tration when syndicated currency media? How could media planners same time, custom research efforts failed to deliver a plausible sense objectively utilize currency that are inhibited by scope, repeatability of differentiation between various raised such fundamental questions of and cost issues, which have become vertical media in the golf space. accuracy? And how could media sell- more acute as research budgets have For example, from both a media ers confidently and rationally assert been compromised during the recent seller and buyer’s perspective, it the value of their audiences when the very foundations that defined those audiences were in question? These were some of the issues before us as we began working on the Versus project.

Identify the desired utility Before embarking upon our specific Phone methodological framework for Versus, the Sports and Leisure Research and Online Comcast project teams sought to identify the desired utility and application of the research. It was clear B2B that a proprietary study would need to broadly define the Versus Country audience and the overall field sports B2C enthusiast population. We sought to identify key drivers of brand preference and satisfaction on both an aggregate Bilingual and comparative basis. We built brand-blind question constructs that evaluated awareness and understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of specific programming Call or visit us today! content across the competitive set. Simultaneously we sought a more 866.966.9727 (toll free) Actively supporting... holistic understanding of the role www.pbresearch.com MRA AMA AAPOR of field sports within the overall [email protected] lifestyles of the audience. Inquiries focused on spending and behavioral

32 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com

Figure 2: Comparative Participation of Versus Hunting/Fishing Programming Viewers and Spending In Outdoor Activities Sports and Leisure Research Group Versus Adult Male 2009 % Difference vs. Hunting/Fishing Viewers Study % Syndicated Study Hunt 2-3 Times Per Month 8.5 +0.4 Fish 2-3 Times Per Month 22.1 +9.3

Spent $50+ on Fishing Equipment in Past 12 Months 79.9 +69.0 Spent $200+ on Camping Equipment in Past 12 Months 31.2 +25.4 Spent $100+ on Hunting Equipment in Past 12 Months 49.8 +42.6

Clothing Expenditures - Amount Spent in Total: $1,000+ 5.5 -3.5 Home Remodeling - Amount Spent in Total: $5,000+ 9.5 +2.3 RU Domestic Vacations - Amount Spent in Total: $1,000+ 38.7 +9.0 ARE. YOU. patterns within the category and engagement within the field sports across horizontal categories. category. Insights would need to be LISTENING? By inquiring more compre- derived that could articulate the key hensively into other aspects of the drivers of satisfaction, both within audience’s lifestyle, attitudes and the sport and within the media that *VUZ\TLYZ[HSR behavior outside of field sports, cover it. Linkages would need to be 3PZ[LUHUKJHW[\YLPUZPNO[Z the research could also open doors drawn between these drivers and the [VKYP]LWYVK\J[PUUV]H[PVU toward non-endemic advertising ability of various media to deliver SV`HS[`HUKTHYRL[PUNYLHJO opportunities. The inclusion of on them. Individual programming inquiries into non-endemic cat- content would need to be analyzed 4LNHIYHUKZSPRL:VU`)4. egories like automotive, financial and dissected across the competitive services and travel would allow set. The resonance of specific on-air *P[PHUK+HPTSLYHUK[VW advertisers in those spaces to see the personalities and experts and the HNLUJPLZSPRL;5:HUK.M2 value of an audience that was demo- ability of the outdoor audience to YLS`VU.SVIHSWHYRMVYLMMLJ[P]L graphically and attitudinally aligned properly associate them with defined *\Z[VTLY-LLKIHJR*VTT\ with their target market criteria. brand essence statements for each UP[PLZ3L[\ZOLSW`V\[VV By becoming an expert in both media could further enable Versus the content and category-specific to more richly assess its program- realities of the outdoorsman across ming environment. .36)(37(92*64 his life, Versus Country would now ;>0;;,9.36)(37(92F5,>: be able to position itself not just Build a sampling plan *644<50;@'.36)(37(92*64 against its media rivals but also assert With the objectives and desired itself as a knowledgeable point of study utility clearly defined, the next entry for those advertisers seeking challenge was to carefully build a to connect with the Versus audience sampling plan. Sports and Leisure through their passion for field sports. Research Group tapped into a There would also need to be sampling universe of sports enthu- a more robust approach toward siasts and participants culled from uncovering the target’s levels of multiple best-of-breed online panel www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 33 sources. With the firm’s principals the brands and to potentially derive ers outside of the vertical space. actively engaged in industry efforts profiles specific to an advertiser’s We also compared the study to mitigate respondent quality issues, customer base. results with a syndicated research great care was exercised in not only proxy (using Boolean logic) of selecting sample sources that met Leverage the findings “male adult Versus viewers” AND respondent quality criteria but also Upon completion of the fieldwork “participate in hunting in the past in building multiple up-front and (559 completed surveys among male 12 months” OR “participate in fish- topic-blind levels of screening ques- hunters and anglers age 18+) and ing in the past 12 months.” The tions into the survey instrument. The analysis, the key thrust of the proj- frequency of Versus viewers’ par- screening questions measured partici- ect team was to determine the best ticipation in hunting was roughly pation and commitment levels to a means with which to leverage the comparable across the two stud- variety of sports activities (inclusive findings and their implications for ies, while the Sports and Leisure of field sports) before delving into Versus and its advertisers. First, the Research Group data suggested that more specific inquiries on vertical data showed superior demographics, Versus viewers were more likely media usage within the category. endemic category spending patterns to participate frequently in fishing Careful quota design and A/B/C and field sports participation levels activities. Most interesting, however, version splits were deployed to for Versus viewers relative to the was a comparison between respon- maximize the topics to be explored competitive set (Figure 1). dents’ self-identified spending levels in in depth, without sacrificing over- Further, the data gave the the endemic categories, which was an all projectability of the findings. Comcast sales and marketing teams order of magnitude greater among the Similarly, with the planned objective a platform from which to position Sports and Leisure Research Group to leverage the findings into custom its audience as category influencers, sample. At the same time, a further insights that could be packaged for thus indicating an opportunity for comparison with non-endemic spend- specific advertisers and prospects, advertisers to extend their reach by ing categories (e.g., clothing, home the research teams incorporated connecting with the Versus audi- remodeling) indicated results that brand usage and preference ques- ence. Versus Country viewers also were more in line with the syndi- tions for the top endemic brands. demonstrated a greater propensity cated data (Figure 2). Our conclusion: This could be used to gauge the to spend in non-endemic categories directly speaking with our viewers audience’s level of engagement with that would be attractive to advertis- indicated a level of passion and com-

34 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com mitment to the outdoor activities This data was crafted into custom will host a show beginning in fall even beyond our expectations. modules that could be presented by 2010 called Gun It with Benny Spies. The data also opened win- the sales force help clients better Spies has the potential to be a true dows to redefine “purity.” While understand how they can differen- crossover star whose show could certain endemic advertisers ques- tiate themselves against their own resonate outside of the traditional tioned the format change from competition through a marketing field sports audience. Starting in Outdoor Life Network to Versus relationship with Versus. 2011 - with ESPN2 scaling back on as one that detracted from an out- For example, for a large outdoors most of its outdoors programming door focus, cross-media evaluations retailer, the Versus sales team pro- - Versus, in more than 75 million within the research demonstrated vided a side-by-side comparison homes and the fastest-growing sports Versus Country as more efficient in of the outdoor participation habits cable network in the country, will reaching committed and influen- of their own hunting/fishing cus- continue to offer the most audience tial field sports enthusiasts, as well tomer and how they overlapped reach in the genre. as more captivating in its content with the Versus audience. The and the resonance and credibility insights into their own customers, Richer understanding of its on-air personalities. Of all in addition to the insights into the It has been said that research in the the outdoor program hosts evalu- viewing patterns and preferences media market is analogous to a lamp ated in the study, Versus’ host Bill of the hunting/fishing viewer, post, in that some use it as a support Dance ranked No. 1 as “One of My helped build an ongoing partner- to lean upon while others use it for Favorites.” Versus’ hosts took four ship with the retailer. illumination. The research strategy out of the top five spots and eight On the programming side, the and its application here met both out of the top 10. research confirmed the importance criteria. Sports and Leisure Research of having entertaining, relevant pro- Group partnered with the Comcast Educate clients grams with knowledgeable hosts. insights team to design a proprietary Finally, the research captured and Versus subsequently reaffirmed study that allowed Versus Country to crosstabulated habits, behaviors and its commitment to having quality both explore the benefits and chal- attitudes of outdoor sports enthu- shows with the most trusted and lenges created by its rebranding while siasts toward a variety of leading credible presenters in the industry. simultaneously garnering a richer endemic and non-endemic brands. A young talent named Benny Spies understanding of its audience. |Q

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 35 Something ventured, something gained

Considerations when employing a market research online community

p until about 10 years ago, the differences between qualita- By Julie Wittes Schlack tive and quantitative research could be clearly articulated. UQualitative data took the form of words and pictures; quantitative data was expressed in numbers. Qualitative was conducted with a maximum of 15 people at a time and usually in real time, while quantitative typically required a sample size at least in the hundreds and could be conducted synchronously or asynchro-

social media research media social nously. But with advances in text analytics (which enable researchers to quantify what is essentially qualitative data) and the kind of inquiry and feedback enabled by Web 2.0 technologies, the bound- aries between the two forms of research are blurring. Accelerating that fusion is the explosive growth of market research online communities (MROCs). And compounding the confusion is the concept of the “panel community” - panels from which small groups can be sliced off for more intensive qualitative work. These trends have become flashpoints in a larger debate about sample size, respondent quality and reliability. When does qualitative morph into quantitative research? What’s the difference - if any - between a panel with some community features and a community with some survey capability? Is one environment better able to assure respondent quality than another? And what’s the magic n needed for researchers to feel confident in what they’re hearing? In this article, we’ll explore the broad question of how research conducted in this kind of social media context is fundamentally reframing traditional choices, creating both new risks and new opportunities. First, though, some definitions and background.

Get to know their customers Back when Mad Men referred to advertising professionals (and not to the acerbic television show about them), brands tried to get to know their customers through snapshot qualitative techniques like focus groups and through quantitative Editor’s note: Julie Wittes Schlack means like telephone and mail is senior vice president, innovation The author outlines some of surveys. Then along came the the specific trade-offs (big Internet, and, just as the advent of and design, at Communispace vs. small, general vs. specific, television led to a rash of televised Corporation, a Watertown, Mass., research firm. She can be reached at pure vs. passionate) that radio plays, market researchers used the Web to do what they’d julie.wittes.schlack@communispace. researchers make in choosing always done - administer surveys com. To view this article online, enter to use market research online - but do so in a more time- and article ID 20100805 at quirks.com/ communities. cost-effective manner. articles. But just as TV viewers started

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© Copyright 2010, United Sample, Inc. All rights reserved. uSamp and DMS Insights are trademarks of United Sample, Inc. to hunger for more than the tweeting online activists? And while researchers with the whys behind chance to watch talking heads, it’s all well and good to try to mine the whats, some panel companies with Web 2.0 and its emphasis insight from their conversations, offer custom or “communi-panels” on collaboration, conversation researchers still have specific ques- in which a small group (200-500) and consumer-generated con- tions in need of answers. of panelists are invited to not only tent, consumers began taking a Hence the allure of panels and respond to surveys but to talk to more active role in their feedback online communities. Both enable the client company via a basic to companies, demanding to be the capture and tracking of informa- online discussion board. However, not just respondents but advi- tion about who is expressing what these groups are typically short- sors. Empowered by public online views. Both enable researchers to lived and reactive - reflecting the forums and social networks - some test stimuli and get specific answers essentially project-driven approach brand-sponsored, some wholly to specific questions in a fairly typical of survey research - and independent - consumers now secure manner. typically generate less engagement have venues in which to offer both But they also differ along some and participation than do their solicited and unsolicited input to key dimensions. Surveys capture long-term counterparts. major brands. The locus of con- sentiment at a moment in time and In contrast, the hallmark of trol has shifted somewhat from the don’t enable the continuous source longitudinal organic or recruited researcher asking survey questions of insight that long-term commu- communities (not mere panel spin- tied to a moment in time to the nities do. They can provide more offs) tends to be shared passion or consumer spontaneously posting measurable, projectable data but are purpose, relationships with other reviews and stories, generating a relatively tone-deaf to the nuance community members and reciproc- continuous stream of input. and texture of more spontaneous, ity on the part of the sponsoring While that white noise of online consumer-generated, multi-modal brand, which reveals its identity, sentiment can be useful - especially expression (i.e., text, images, video, acknowledges what consumers are for objectives like brand monitor- etc.) that communities support. saying and, wherever possible, closes ing and reputation management They are useful for confirmation the loop with them by sharing if - it creates as many problems for and validation but can be of limited and how the brand is acting on that researchers as it solves. After all, value for discovery and innovation. input. But these very strengths of how typical are these blogging, In an attempt to provide private online communities - long- term relationship, intimacy, high engagement and transparency - raise concerns about data validity, projectability and bias. And the typical “Say, was you ever bit size of these communities - 300-500 members - creates confusion as to by a dead bee?” whether they’re qual or quant. We can help you understand the buzz — and beyond. Risking and gaining So what’s a market researcher to do? Reframe the choices. Market Doyle Research Introduces SiMMR sm: researchers need to understand what The intersection between social media and market research we are risking - and gaining - by shifting our focus and methods, by looking beyond dichotomies s (AVEYOUUSEDASOCIALMEDIALISTENING like data vs. insight or quant vs. PLATFORMBUTNEEDHUMANANALYSISTOHELP qual. We need to think in terms of YOUUNDERSTANDWHATITMEANSFORYOUR informed trade-offs and then ask BUSINESS ourselves: “Given these trade-offs, s $OYOUWANTTOUSESOCIALMEDIAASA what’s the best tool for the job?” MARKETRESEARCHTOOL BUTDONTKNOWHOW Following are some of the trade- s $OYOUHAVEALOTOFSOCIALMEDIAFOLLOWERS offs that are especially germane to BUTDONgTKNOWWHATTODOWITHTHEM today’s social media environment. -ORETHANBUZZ,ET$OYLE2ESEARCHS SM Big vs. small 3I--2 ANALYSTSBEYOURGUIDEIN Historically, the benefits of having ANSWERINGTHEhSOWHAT vINSOCIALMEDIA large numbers of research respondents were obvious. Large samples Call Kathy Doyle at 312-863-7602 could be representative of the gen- or email [email protected] '2

38 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com ferences between responses, creating of taking as many paying surveys turn, fuels greater engagement. confidence in the projectability of as possible in the shortest period of These points aren’t meant to the findings. However: time. Panel and online community refute the legitimate statistical Not every insight needs to be companies are continually devel- arguments for the importance of projectable. When trying to fore- oping new methods to identify large sample sizes for specific tasks, cast sales, it’s crucial that your and weed out these people but such as sizing markets and predict- survey sample be as typical of your their mere existence leads one to ing sales. But increasingly, some target audience as possible. But it question the assumed benefit of market researchers will rely on takes only one thoughtful or per- large sample sizes. smaller, more highly-engaged sam- sonal disclosure to shed light on an Big numbers don’t yield high ples to generate and validate key unmet need or new opportunity. participation rates. In a typical insights, tweak concepts and test Your most passionate, articulate large public forum or online com- and refine surveys that they then consumer may not be the most munity, 1-9 percent of visitors post take out to a larger sample size typical one but may well be the original content and the remain- later in the process. Then once a most valuable one. And if your ing 90-99 percent “lurk.” Even in product or campaign is out in the target audience definition is spe- large private communities (10,000+ marketplace, they’ll employ Web cific enough (e.g., platinum-level members), active participation aver- mining and other passive listening frequent fliers; men who wax their ages about 20 percent, meaning platforms to monitor awareness, cars at least twice a month), you that 80 percent of site visitors don’t buzz and general sentiment. may indeed feel comfortable gen- participate. In contrast, research eralizing from a relatively small conducted by Communispace General vs. specific populations sample size to that entire target. Corporation across 60 of its own “Representative” is an increas- Poor respondent quality can amplify small (300-500-person) private ingly questionable concept. With mistakes/misdirection. Straightliners, online communities and over the majority of the U.S. population speeders, phantoms ... a whole new 25,000 members showed an aver- online and many American con- lexicon has sprung up to describe age lurker rate of only 14 percent. sumers engaged in some form of the entrepreneurial, if unethical, The intimacy of small communities brand feedback - whether through group of people who create mul- makes members feel listened to and posting reviews, taking surveys or tiple online identities with the goal helps them be heard, and that, in becoming “fans” of specific brands

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 39 - it’s difficult to define representative out knowing who they’re talking ratings, the research indicated populations in anything but strictly to or why the research sponsor is that community members were demographic terms. And with tra- asking. Think about how much actually slightly more critical of ditional market research targets like more focused your own book or individual concepts being tested. first-time moms spanning ever-widen- restaurant recommendations or par- As with close friends or family ing age ranges, and broad definitions enting tips are when you know who members, their candor increased like Hispanic or African-American you’re advising - better still, when with their emotional investment ever more open to interpretation, you have a reciprocal, long-term in the brand’s success. even conventional demographic relationship with them - and the By the same token, that ongo- definitions can be less precise or reasons why more bilateral research ing relationship with the sponsoring meaningful than they used to be. methods can yield higher quality brand makes private communities While this trend can be prob- insights become obvious. a poor choice for testing brand lematic for research in certain While episodic survey research awareness or even elasticity. product categories, it also creates can be relatively inexpensive and new opportunities in a market that’s provide solid feedback, there are Infusion of inspiration increasingly niche-based and long- also tremendous benefits to be Stan Sthanunathan, vice president tailed. Relevancy in products and derived from longitudinal work. - marketing strategy and insights messaging is critical to a brand’s Does the sauce taste as good on the at Coca-Cola and co-chair of the success, so researchers often have fifth use as it did on the first use? Advertising Research Foundation’s more to gain by listening to the Do patients take their medications Online Research Quality Council, “right” group of people than they as religiously once the prescription noted in an interview with Robert do by trying to generalize findings bottle turns cloudy? What triggers Bain in the October 22, 2009 issue to a generic population. attrition from one product or trial of research, “People are too focused There are many ways to gain access with another? Is today’s message on probability and non-probability to that targeted group - by commis- more compelling than the one we samples, people are too focused sioning custom panels, mining content came up with last week? These on respondent engagement - this from the blogs and public forums are answers that can only be effec- is all about making minor changes they frequent, by pushing surveys to tively derived from understanding to what we are doing right now. members of Facebook and other social how consumers’ attitudes and usage Those are all necessary, but they’re networks who fit a given profile and evolve over time, from iterating not sufficient conditions for the by recruiting them for private com- with the same group as you develop success of the [market research] munities. But regardless of method, the and refine products and messaging. function ... The clients are saying, more successful you are in engaging Of course long-term relation- ‘Inspire me, help me to take some and retaining them, the more likely ship with the same individuals transformational action’ and we’re you are to arrive at actionable insights. understandably raises concerns busy creating better mousetraps.” about positive bias. But innovation Multiple, and sometimes Pure vs. passionate research tells us that it is the lead blended, 21st-century market Inherent in the notion of a “pure, users - the ones most knowledge- research techniques can help the untainted” sample is that the able and passionate about a given industry move beyond valida- researcher is having a one-time brand or category - who often tion and provide that infusion of encounter with a neutral group of generate the ideas and fuel the inspiration. Scaling the transpar- respondents. To the extent that organizational will to change and ency traditionally associated with this replicates real-world condi- improve products. And research qualitative or ethnographic work tions (e.g., testing ad recall based conducted by Communispace can yield engaged, motivated on a single exposure), that’s a Corporation across 15 of its CPG participants who generate higher- useful framework. communities and over 2,300 mem- quality insights. Leveraging online But answering questions posed bers suggests that: and mobile technologies enables by an anonymous brand, with research in more naturalistic settings no view into if and how one’s • Community participation leads that feel safe, maximize participant responses are going to influence members to feel heard by the comfort and encourage intimacy. that brand, is rarely an emotion- sponsoring brand. And above all, coming out from ally-engaging experience. Most • As a result of feeling heard, they feel behind the glass and building real respondents will try to be polite a greater affinity with the brand. relationships with “respondents” and answer the researcher’s ques- • That greater affinity results in leads to a deeper knowledge tions with as much precision as the more candor, not less. of research participants as real format allows. But the price paid people, enabling researchers to for that singular, pristine encounter Based on both content-coding feel greater confidence that they is superficiality. After all, from the (counting instances of negative know and can trust them. consumer’s perspective, they are feedback, positive feedback and That seems worth the trade- being asked to give advice with- rationale for both) and on concept offs, doesn’t it? | Q

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Thoughts on sampling and weighting in social media research

hen was the last time you carefully crafted a survey, designed perfectly-worded questions and then passed the By Annie Pettit Wsurvey out to anyone who wandered by you on the street? When was the last time you spent hours building the most balanced and unambiguous survey and then calculated the results using just the first 1,000 returns, of which 900 were from women and 100 were from men? When was the last time you carried out marketing research with a complete disregard for sampling and weighting?

social media research media social Clearly, you haven’t. So why do we throw the concept of sampling and weighting out the window when we think about social media research? Sampling is a mainstay of nearly all marketing research because it is neither financially nor logistically feasible to capture the opinions of every single individual in a research population. And, we usually have a goal or strategy in mind, a reason for talking to the people we talk to, when we’re developing a research program. Social media research embraces the same tenets as other types of research such as survey research. It is not feasible to scour the entire Internet every single day searching for every last mention of every brand. Databases are not large enough to hold all of that data, nor are the days long enough to find all of it. Effective sampling for social media research, therefore, entails gathering sufficient data from sufficient sources such that the sample of results gathered can be generalized to a wider population. A well-developed sampling plan ensures that the full range of online opinions and perspectives is reflected in the data in the appropriate proportions. Traditionally, sampling is used to identify which groups of people, perhaps business owners or mothers of teenagers, will be asked to respond to a survey. In the social media research space, sampling snapshot doesn’t refer to the selection of individuals based on their demo- When analyzing data from graphics but rather to the selection social media, the choice of a of Web sites based on the type or description of the source. As such, sampling plan depends on the the sampling frame for social media purpose of the research and research consists of all blog entries, status updates, product evaluations, Editor’s note: Annie Pettit is chief how those results will research officer at Toronto research be used afterwards. The video and photo comments, forums and many other types of written firm Conversition Strategies. She can author discusses three contributions on the Internet. be reached at annie@conversition. options and some of the An important consideration is com. To view this article online, enter issues surrounding the use that researchers can only sample article ID 20100806 at quirks.com/ of data from social media. from publicly available ver- articles. batims. Some Web sites, such

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ONLY FROM PRECISION OPINION. as Facebook, only release certain pieces of information to the public Figure 1: Average Sentiment (5=Positive) Internet because the users have 5 given Facebook permission to share Microblog Blog it. It is, of course, possible for a 4 researcher to log into their own personal Facebook account and read or 3 harvest the private information, but this is simply not feasible or ethical. Other Web sites, such as Twitter, 2 only publicly release a portion of their data. Even though it is possible 1 for a researcher to sign into Twitter iPod Pop- Adidas Kindle iPad Kroger Sam's Tiger BP and access all of the data, it may not Tarts Club Woods all released outside of Twitter. Working hand-in-hand with sampling to promote the reliability Figure 2: Top 2 Box (Percent Positive) and validity of results is the process 80% of weighting. Weighting means that Microblog Blog results from certain subgroups of 60% people are given more or less promi- nence when the results are being calculated. For example, if the inten- 40% tion of survey research is to produce results that generalize to the general 20% population, it is important that the survey sample consists of men and 0% women in census-representative Adidas iPad Kroger Kindle Tiger Pop-Tarts Sam's iPod proportions. If sampling is unable Woods Club to accomplish this, then skillful and appropriate weighting can create the desired effect. ation. Using Alexa (www.alexa. true, a sample of one would be com/siteinfo), we determined the all you ever needed to generalize Make the difference penetration of seven very large, to the population. Figure 1 illus- In the case of social media research, global Web sites. Most people trates average sentiment scores for the combination of sampling and are aware of these Web sites even nine different brands. Scores range weighting ensures that even when if they don’t use them. Among from 1 (negative) to 5 (positive). the quantity of data coming from Internet users, about 34 percent use Sample sizes for each brand are at different sources changes from week YouTube while about 7 percent least 2,000. The verbatims were to week, the change won’t bias the use Twitter. Then, we gathered a grouped according to their source, results. Given the penetration rates random selection of data from the and in this case, we focused solely and active user rates that vary tre- Internet that mentioned the iPad on microblogs (such as Twitter or mendously by Web site, sampling and reviewed the sources. During identi.ca) and regular blogs (such as and weighting can make the dif- the same time period, only 2 per- Blogger or WordPress). ference between valid and invalid cent of our sampled data came from Verbatims on microblogs gener- results. For example, consider a YouTube whereas about 62 percent ally have a more negative tone than situation where one particular Web came from Twitter. those on blogs, perhaps because site has many users who make com- Does this mean that Twitter microblogs are more likely to ments, of which only a few are users are the people appreciating and reflect off-the-cuff opinions while released publicly by the Web site. buying the iPad? No. Does it mean blogs are generally more thought- Then, consider a second Web site we should allow the 7 percent of out and rehearsed. And, across that has fewer users who make many people on Twitter to let their voice the various brands, the difference comments, of which a larger per- - which is 62 percent of the data - between the two sources ranges centage are released to the public. overwhelm the rest of the data to be from slight to one-third of a point A research plan needs to consider the final voice of the iPad? Maybe. on a five-point scale, a significant whether it might make sense to Maybe not. Does it matter where difference for market researchers. allow one source to overpower the the data comes from? But, average scores aren’t the results, or if sampling and weighting The fundamental reason for sam- entire story, as market researchers must be used to equalize the voices. pling is that different people have understand the importance that top- Let’s consider a specific situ- different opinions. If this wasn’t box and bottom-box scores have as

44 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com

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www.toluna-group.com Figure 3: iPad Sentiment by Three Weighting Systems

Fluctuating Stable Microblog

Top 2 Box Sentiment Sentiment 2 Box Top

Mar 01 - Mar 08 - Mar 15 - Mar 22 - Mar 29 - Apr 05 - Apr 12 - Apr 19 - Apr 26 - May 03 - May 10 - May 17 - May 24 - May 31 - Mar 07 Mar 14 Mar 21 Mar 28 Apr 04 Apr 11 Apr 18 Apr 25 May 02 May 09 May 16 May 23 May 30 Jun 03 estimates of “passion.” In Figure 2 average 25 percent of the data, will fluctuate from time period to the brands are compared using top then verbatims from blogs were time period, and reflect the priori- two-box scores, or the percent- weighted to contribute 25 percent ties of the data collection vendor. age of verbatims that generated a of the results in each week. However, sampling processes are positive sentiment. Microblog: Bottom green line not required in order to identify Unlike average scores, top - The weight of microblogs was individuals who have complaints and two-box scores fluctuate wildly increased and made stable from then react to those complaints. from source to source. For the week to week. Adidas brand, microblogs and blogs Though all three methods show Option 2: Stable weighting produced very similar top two- increases and decreases in sentiment This is a simple weighting option box scores of around 50 percent. at similar time frames, the magni- that ensures that each source con- However, for Kroger, microblogs tudes of those changes resulted in tributes the same volume of data in generated top two-box scores of very different trendlines (Figure 3). each time period. Single sources can about 68 percent while blogs gen- Depending on the weighting system be weighted up or down as desired, erated scores of about 40 percent. selected, completely unwarranted but the system ensures that volume Blog postings are generally more business decisions could easily be spikes of one source do not affect positive than microblogs, but the made. (Note: The iPad was released the entire set of data. This is one trend is very unstable. In the practi- on April 3, 2010 in the U.S., and method for countering the effects of cal world, the effect of gathering May 28 in Canada and Europe.) vendor differences. data from different sources without considering sampling or weighting Depends on the purpose Option 3: Internet- means that differences can easily So, what is the right weighting representative weighting reflect a vendor’s data collection scheme to use? Similar to survey Use a third-party source such as practices as opposed to generaliz- research, there may not always be Alexa to identify the penetration of able consumer opinion. a perfect weighting system that can various Web sites. Then, apply those What follows is a practi- account for data collection vendor penetration rates to the data such cal example of how the lack, or differences, data cleaning processes that results are weighted according misuse, of weighting systems can and other intricacies of social media to Internet penetration as opposed affect research results. Using the data. The choice of a sampling to vendor data collection strategies. same sample of iPad data, which plan depends on the purpose of the was gathered from a variety of research and how those results will Treasure trove sources such as blogs, microblogs, be used afterwards. Just as we have Social media data is a treasure news sites and comment sites, top learned to create and use the appro- trove of potential insight. We two-box scores were calculated in priate sampling plans for survey have learned that simply gather- three different ways. research, the same holds for social ing data and averaging whatever Fluctuating: Top blue line - media research. But there are some numbers result can easily lead to Scores were averaged together and simple starting points from which the dissemination of misinfor- sources contributed different propor- many more options will evolve. mation and ultimately to poor tions of data during each time frame. business decisions. Understanding Stable: Middle red line - Scores Option 1: Raw and unweighted the complexities behind sampling were weighted such that each Using data in its raw, unweighted and weighting is one step toward source contributed a similar perform is most suited for customer improving the validity and reliabil- centage in each time frame. For relationship management work. ity of social media data and social example, if blogs contributed on The volume contributed by sources media research. | Q

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Cracking the code of social media data analysis

or some researchers, information generated by social media has By Thomas Malkin become a worthwhile source of complementary data. When the Fdirectional insights from social media are integrated with the representative opinions garnered from traditional marketing research, they give full voice to the needs, wants and viewpoints of the customer and can help achieve optimal decision-making. But for many in our industry, the task of making sense of the flood of words generated by the social

social media research media social media outlets is daunting, to say the least. One way to extract insights from the torrent of consumer opinions is to apply the methodology market researchers use to analyze open- ended survey questions: coding. The coding approach to analyzing unstructured comments involves readers quantifying positive, negative or neutral opinions after they’ve matched the subjects (i.e., “Cell Phone Product X”) in the text with categories or classifications. These categories typically represent consumer passions or issues that drive purchasing decisions (i.e., opinions around apps or multimedia for the cell phone product category). The challenge in adapting coding to social media is that reading through the vast amount of constantly-changing data on the Internet is overwhelming and expensive. Technology is thus needed to automate coding so the high volume of historical and daily social media data is not a barrier to obtaining insights from this valuable trove of data. For automated coding to achieve accuracy, especially in social media where people communicate with familiarity in blogs, forums and social utility sites like Facebook, one approach is to go beyond keyword-based technology and take into account the implicit subject, implicit issue snapshot and context-dependent sentiment. An example of an implicit subject is, While analyzing data from “This phone has a great battery life,” social media is something in which the type of phone isn’t new to researchers, one explicitly mentioned. An example of an implicit issue is, “This camera is way of extracting meaning too large,” in which the category or from the data isn’t. Old- classification - size - is not explicitly mentioned. And an example of fashioned coding - with Editor’s note: Thomas Malkin is an assist from technology, a context-dependent sentiment is, “This battery life is long,” in which president of GeeYee, a Chicago of course - is an approach “long” makes this opinion a posi- social media analysis firm. He can be that can generate useful tive sentiment whereas long means reached at [email protected]. To insights and bring clarity to something negative in the opinion, view this article online, enter article a seemingly murky process. “This movie line is long.” ID 20100807 at quirks.com/articles. This type of rubric allows

48 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Activities and Hobbies Entertainment and Media Shopping Food and Beverages Internet and Technology Money and Spending Psychographics

The world of kids, tweens, teens and parents at your ﬁngertips.

Subscription includes: A customized portal for instant online data access; monthly Currents providing in-depth insight on key topics; a yearbook highlighting the attitudes and beliefs of youth and their parents; For more information: Visit us at www.youthbeat.com/blog and strategic consulting to help www.youthbeat.com you make the most of it. or follow us on twitter, @youthbeatspeaks [email protected] 800.621.5022 researchers to compare brands or its competitors as to when each brand brand’s positioning relative to a com- products to each other based on the experienced more or less positive and petitive set on the issues that drive issues that resonate with consum- negative opinions (i.e., daily, weekly, purchasing decisions. Researchers can ers rather than just brand buzz. For monthly, etc.) and where in social now not only see how many opinions example, if Brand X has an 83 percent media such opinions were expressed. have been expressed on three dimen- positive sentiment on the topic of The advantage that social media pro- sions of data - the subjects, issues and customer satisfaction (the 83 percent vides over other data sources is that sentiment - but also see the correlations representing a ratio of the over- Brand X can efficiently learn why among those three variables as well. In all positive and negative opinions), consumers consider its competition addition, issues or subjects that may not that could very well meet the prior to be better on customer satisfaction be talked much about and thus typi- expectations of Brand X. However, by simply drilling down to read the cally overlooked by decision makers if Brand X’s competitors are achiev- actual comments about Brand X or all can become directionally insightful if ing a positive sentiment on customer of its competitors from their original they are spoken of in the context of or satisfaction greater than 87 percent, online sources. relative to something else. Brand X now has a decision to make Let’s say a beer brand in the as to whether it wishes to do some- See the correlations craft beer category is trying to win thing about this disparity. Doing a With the availability of social media- market share by going green. In a competitive trend analysis over 12 generated input, a starting point for 12-month study on the category, the months on customer satisfaction decision-making is to get a measur- issue or code “green initiative” is would give direction to Brand X and able, story-style read on a product’s or not spoken of very much among the

Using social media to track the Tiger Woods saga

or a more detailed example of how a marketing the level of November, around his mid-February state- Fresearch firm has used social media research, Thomas ment. By March, the level of online conversation was Malkin spoke to Jon Last, president of Sports and back to pre-scandal levels. Leisure Research Group, White Plains, N.Y. “Upon further assessment, we looked at the tonality of the conversations pertaining to those opinions on How have you used social media in conjunction with your tra- Tiger. We developed codes that could be used to mea- ditional marketing research? sure the tonality relative to some of the findings of our “We tracked the magnitude and tonality of Web con- prior attitudinal research, selecting ‘admiration,’ ‘apol- versation and opinion about Tiger Woods over 1,100 ogy accepted,’ credibility,’ ‘disappointment,’ ‘doubtful,’ disparate and relevant Web sites from January 2009 through ‘inspiration,’ ‘marketability’ and ‘trustworthiness,’ among mid-March 2010, right after Woods’ public statement in others. Our analysis demonstrated that conversations in February, to see if it was consistent with our attitudinal social media were on par with the conclusions that we survey research that was part of our winter 2010 omnibus drew from the traditional quantitative study. study. In the omnibus study, a national sample of nearly “From an illustrative standpoint, if you take a look 1,000 avid golfers agreed that the rancor regarding the at an issues trend analysis, you’ll see that before the transgressions of golf’s greatest player would dissipate significantly by the Figure 1: Tiger Woods Social Media Story Before November 20, 2009 summer months. Further, this study suggested that for the most engaged and passionate fans, Tiger’s on-course achievements far outweighed any personal shortcomings.”

What were your findings upon benchmarking the insights obtained from social media with those from your prior attitudinal research? “As one might expect, the level and tonality of buzz regarding Tiger was at its peak immediately after his November accident. But this chatter quickly and precipitously dropped in the first month of the new year, spik- ing again, though at nowhere near

50 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com several brands in the competitive set. Once a historical read on a prod- since opinions are quantified and But when opinions on this issue are uct category is obtained, monitoring weighted by source based on discus- expressed, they are usually done so becomes more impactful. One new sions on both the subject and issue. in the context of a couple of brands form of measurement is the monitor- in particular, and both brands have ing of changes in social media thought More breadth distinctly different volumes of social leadership on issues that resonate Gaining an understanding of prod- media. Being able to visualize how with consumers before and after an uct categories based on the voice of the opinions correlate (see Figures event. Emerging trend analysis and the crowd in such a granular manner 1 and 2 in sidebar) and then drill crisis management also becomes creates many applications for market down to understand the actual story more thoughtful and less reaction- researchers. They can benchmark around “green initiative” provides ary because researchers can get a the insights obtained against prior directional insights for any brand in better read on what course of action quantitative and qualitative research the craft beer category. This is espe- to take once they know the issues and see more breadth in the data that cially true if the brand in question discussed, how they’re evolving over may otherwise have been missed. is not being acknowledged for its time and how consumers are talk- Typically, many more questions than efforts by consumers across millions ing about those issues (especially in answers are raised, leading to further of social media outlets. Additionally, the context of and relevant to other exploration using traditional market- insights can be obtained by seeing issues or subjects). Such granular ing research and, one hopes, a clearer stories emerge amongst the other monitoring can also provide greater and more complete picture of the issues measured in that study. insights for communication strategies market segment in question. |Q

crisis emerged on November 20, 2009, conversations visualize the intensity of conversations on Tiger himself, the on Tiger’s character were focused on two issues: admi- issues or pre-determined codes and sentiment by looking at ration and inspiration. From November to January, both the size and the color of the circles. [The smaller the new conversations emerged on the issues of character, circle and the lighter the color, the lower the frequency of namely trustworthiness, marketability and credibility. conversation; the larger the circle and darker - i.e., green - or Conversations around disappointment and doubt, which hotter the color - i.e., yellow - the higher the frequency of previously included opinions solely about his golf game, conversation, with the reddish colors showing the high- now included those about his character as well. In the est intensity.] You can also see the statistical correlations of second peak period in February, disproportionally fewer the three data dimensions - subject, issue and sentiment - as conversations were occurring under inspiration and indicated by how close the issues are to each other [The trustworthy with new conversations emerging under closer they are to each other, the higher the correlation.] apology accepted. Thus we were able to use the social Thus, it’s apparent that conversations around admiration and media analysis to validate the earlier hypotheses drawn inspiration are closer to positive sentiment and spoken of by our quantitative research. Golf fans were beginning in the same context relative to other issues before the crisis to quickly move past the issue! emerged. As you can see on the second heat map [Figure 2], “Another illustration of the findings can be seen in the by March 22, the story was quite different.” heat maps [Figures 1 and 2], both prior to the crisis and at the tail end of it. Prior to November 20 [Figure 1], you can What are your conclusions about benchmarking insights from social media with those from your prior Figure 2: Tiger Woods Social Media Story From March 10 to March 22, 2010 attitudinal research? “While such analysis is not as representative as a well-designed quantitative attitudinal study, it does yield strong directional insights and provides breadth to our earlier findings. So, while I won’t go as far as Ad Age did in suggesting the imminent demise of traditional survey research, I will assert that this capability presents us with a valuable new tool to enhance our understanding of fan sentiment. At the risk of further prop- agating the sound-byte society, I’d maintain that social media in concert with formal research is a conversation that all market researchers should be paying attention to.” www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 51 Now and for the future

The road ahead for marketing and advertising research

nnovation, insight, action ... all concepts that seem to be on everyone’s lips in the marketing research profession. Whether it’s By John Wittenbraker Imarketers challenging themselves to maintain their relevance and currency in the corporation or marketing research providers staking out leadership positions in the marketplace, these aspirations are driving

trends in research trends in forces in our industry. But how do we fulfill these aspirations? What does the future of marketing and advertising research look like? What professional and organizational traits will be successful in the future? What topics or areas will be hot? What tools will be required to get to where we need to be? What developments seem to be short-lived and what do we think will have enduring value in the next five to 10 years? To help gain insight on some of these questions, GfK, in collaboration with the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), undertook a survey of ARF members (and followers). The anonymous 10-minute interviews were conducted in February and March 2010 among 249 professionals on the ARF’s e-mail list.

How do we feel? We live in interesting times. Large multinational research firms are growing by acquisition and organic growth, marketers are challenging their research partners to provide more value, the Internet and digital innovations continue to transform the marketplace and new research technologies are being developed and commercialized. In the face of all this change, how do we feel about our profession today and what do we think we’ll be like in the future? Respondents were asked to rate whether a variety of words or phrases describe the advertising and marketing research profession right now and whether they think the relevance of each one will increase, remain unchanged or decrease over the next five to 10 years. The industry is at a crossroad. Respondents say that these are excit- snapshot ing times but also challenging times. They predict that the future of the marketing research profession will be Editor’s note: John Wittenbraker A survey of ARF members driven more by a combination of cre- sought to identify some of the ativity and technical capability. These is managing director at Media, necessary traits the industry insights are based on a quadrant Pa., research firm GfK Brand and Communications. He can be reached needs to develop and maintain analysis (Figure 1) where the horizontal axis reflects where respondents at 484-441-1701 or at john. in order to thrive and also feel we are today and the vertical [email protected]. To view looked at the topics and trends axis shows how they feel things will this article online, enter article ID coming down the pike. change over the next five to 10 years. 20100808 at quirks.com/articles. The lower-right quadrant illustrates

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ATLANTA Schlesinger Associates Adler Weiner NEW JERSEY/ PHOENIX Plaza Research (Houston) Delve (Downtown) (Los Angeles, Irvine) NEW YORK Delve (Tempe) Schlesinger Associates Focus Pointe Global Schlesinger Associates Advanced Marketing (Metro Area) Fieldwork Phoenix (Dallas) Fieldwork Atlanta (O’Hare) Perspectives AIM (Hackensack) (Scottsdale) Schlesinger Associates Murray Hill Center South Smith Research (Deerﬁeld) AIM (Los Angeles, AIM (Morristown) Fieldwork Phoenix (Houston) Costa Mesa, Long Beach) Plaza Research Smith Research (Downtown) Fieldwork West (South Mountain) Think Group Austin Fieldwork LA (Irvine) (Austin) Schlesinger Associates Smith Research (Oakbrook) (Fort Lee, NJ) Plaza Research Focus Pointe Global Superior Research Focus Pointe Global Schlesinger Associates VIRGINIA CONNECTICUT House of Marketing (Teaneck, NJ) BALTIMORE Performance Plus (Enﬁeld) Research (Pasadena) Meadowlands Consumer RHODE ISLAND Alan Newman Research (Richmond) AIM Razor Focus (Stamford) Meczka Marketing Research Center (Secaucus, NJ) Performance Plus Baltimore Research New England Marketing Murray Hill Center Plaza Research (Providence) WASHINGTON, D.C. (Towson, MD) Research (Norwalk) Plaza Research (Paramus, NJ) (Metro Area) Schlesinger Associates Schlesinger Associates SAN DIEGO BOSTON DENVER (Edison, NJ) Plaza Research OMR (Greenbelt, MD) MINNESOTA OMR (Washington, DC) Focus Pointe Global Fieldwork Denver Taylor Research NORTH CAROLINA Shugoll Research Fieldwork Boston Plaza Research Ascendancy Research (Minneapolis) L&E Research (Raleigh) SAN FRANCISCO (Bethesda, MD) (Waltham) FLORIDA Performance Plus Delve (Minneapolis) Fieldwork San Francisco WISCONSIN Concepts in Focus OHIO Performance Plus Fieldwork Minneapolis Focus Pointe Global (Jacksonville) Delve (Appleton) (Framingham) (Edina) AIM (Cincinnati) Greenberg Studios MARS Research AIM (Columbus) JRA (Milwaukee) Schlesinger Associates MISSOURI Plaza Research (Ft. Lauderdale) Delve (Columbus) Schlesinger Associates UNITED KINGDOM CHICAGO Plaza Research Delve (Kansas City) Opinions, Ltd. (Cleveland) (Ft. Lauderdale) Aspect Viewing Facilities AIM (Schaumburg) Delve (St. Louis) SEATTLE Plaza Research (Tampa) PHILADELPHIA (South Manchester) Adler Weiner (Downtown) Hatch Research (St. Louis) Fieldwork Seattle National Opinion (Metro Area) Aspect in the City Adler Weiner (Lincolnwood) Peters Marketing (Downtown) Research (Miami) Plaza Research (Manchester) Delve (Oak Brook) Research (St. Louis) Fieldwork Seattle Schlesinger Associates (Marlton, NJ) Field Facts Worldwide/ Fieldwork Chicago (Kirkland) (Orlando) NEW YORK JRA Focus Pointe (London) (Downtown) Gilmore Research Superior Research Focus Pointe Global (Montgomeryville, PA) London Focus (London) Fieldwork Chicago (North) (Downtown) (Tampa) Focus Suites JRA (Mount Laurel, NJ) Shoreditch Studios (London) Fieldwork Chicago (O’Hare) WAC Fieldwork New York TEXAS The Research House Fieldwork Chicago (Ft. Lauderdale, Miami) (Westchester) PHILADELPHIA Austin Market Research (London) (Schaumburg) Innovative Concepts Delve (Austin) The Research House Focus Pointe Global LAS VEGAS (Long Island) Focus Pointe Global Delve (Dallas) (Wimbledon) Focuscope (Downtown) Plaza Research JRA (White Plains, NY) (Center City, Bala Cynwyd) Fieldwork Dallas Focuscope (Oak Brook) Murray Hill Center Focus Suites (Bala Cynwyd) Focus Pointe Global (Dallas) Focuscope (Oak Park) LOS ANGELES New York Consumer JRA Murray Hill Center (Dallas) Murray Hill Center Adept Consumer Testing Center Schlesinger Associates Plaza Research (Dallas) Plaza Research (Beverly Hills, Encino) Schlesinger Associates (Center City, Bala Cynwyd)

WWW.INTERACTIVEVIDEO.COM Figure 1: Future Traits of the Marketing & Advertising Research Profession So what about the future? How will industry traits and success factors 60% Developing Traits Accelerating Traits evolve by 2020? Our results show that professionals expect the industry 50% Methodologically advanced to pivot in the coming years to be Innovative a more creative, yet more method- 40% ologically advanced, profession. First,

Creative note that none of the current hall- 30% Influential in the boardroom marks of the industry are predicted to accelerate in the next 10 years Persuasive Exciting 20% (the upper-right quadrant is empty). Full of Opportunity Challenged Nevertheless, many of the Enduring Valuable to society Traits in the lower-right will be 10% Personally fulfilling Fragmented more slowly dynamic, with a net dif- Unpredictable

Future View of the Profession of the Profession View Future ference in expected increase of 10 0% Profitable percent to 20 percent. The more dramatic sea change is -10% Secure illustrated by the array of character-

(Net difference: In 5-10 years, will describe the profession more-less than today) the profession describe will In 5-10 years, (Net difference: Opportunities Enduring Traits istics in the upper-left, Developing -20% Traits quadrant. These are traits that 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Current Profile of the Profession are not strongly associated with our (Describes the profession right now fairly or very well) business today but are predicted to be more characteristic of the busi- what could be considered Enduring opportunity, exciting and valuable to ness in the next five to 10 years. At Traits - characteristic of today, with society. So even as we just now seem the top of the list is the prediction little expected change in the future. to be coming out of a recession, mar- that the industry will be more meth- While respondents feel the industry keting research professionals feel that odologically advanced. This clearly is challenged and fragmented they the industry is delivering value today reflects the growing complexity of the also find it personally fulfilling, full of and has promise for the future. evolving marketing environment, the

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54 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Figure 2: Filtered Verbatims Associated with the Word "Data" into the industry. In the end, these advances should help us improve on some of the most important challenges the industry faces, namely, being persuasive and influential in the boardroom. The profession clearly has opportunity to improve on value delivery and our respondents predicted that the research community will rise to this challenge. Is the industry ready for this change? Does the talent pool exist that’s needed to meet this exciting explosion of data sources available and cal/analytic capability to integrate opportunity? The data suggest that the drive to develop ways to integrate large amounts of data from multiple our success at capitalizing on this shift all of this information to produce sources and render meaningful and will depend on our ability to adapt to more incisive insights and drive better actionable insights (see Figure 2). the skills required to drive innovation. business decisions. Interestingly, it’s not just better Roughly seven out of 10 respondents This conclusion is supported methodological and analytic capabil- felt that 1) “finding and keeping tal- by open-end data captured in the ity that people feel will drive industry ented researchers” and “innovative survey. Respondents were asked to change. Innovation and creativity are thinking in market research” are both speculate about what the industry’s also Developing Traits, expected to be timeless challenges and 2) did not feel biggest challenge will be in the year on the rise in the future. So despite that it is getting any easier to find 2020. The most common word used the conventional wisdom in some qualified people to work in advertis- in their responses was “data.” When quarters that the marketing research ing and marketing research. the analysis was narrowed on those profession is being slowly marginal- verbatims that mentioned data, it ized into a commodity, results show Topics ebb and flow was clear that the challenge is to that the rapid increase in complexity With so much innovation going on have the requisite methodologi- may provide a new rush of creativity in the industry, sometimes it can be

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 55 Figure 3: What Topics Will Be Hot in the Future? tising effectiveness; innovation; cultural trends; media planning/mix analysis; CRM; shopper insights and Fading Trendy Cutting- Fast (hot/cold) Timeless Edge multicultural marketing. Brand strategy/management There are two research topics that 80% Customer loyalty are truly hot Emerging Trends: digi- Timeless Topics Marketing/advertising effectiveness 70% Product/service innovation tal marketing and mobile marketing Cultural trends (Figure 3, second panel). With large 60% Media planning/mix optimization CRM shares of advertising dollars shift- 50% Shopper insights ing from traditional to digital media, Multicultural marketing 40% it’s not surprising to see research on 30% digital media as a cutting-edge topic.

20% Mobile marketing is not far behind, both in growing spend and as a hot 10% subject for the research industry. 0% And the blurring of the distinction between the two topics with the iPad, 80% Emerging Trends netbooks and emerging ideas and 70% Digital marketing business models for streaming adver-

60% tising across these platforms will Mobile marketing most likely keep this area hot for the 50% foreseeable future. However, taken 40% in context with the dominance of the Timeless Topics above, industry 30% Touchpoint effectiveness professionals view these Emerging 20% Trends to be more of a expansion, 10% or evolution, rather than a revolu-

0% tion in the field. Touchpoint effectiveness echoes 80% the pattern of an Emerging Trend but had a weaker endorsement as 70% Transitional Trends Cutting-Edge compared to digital/ 60% mobile advertising. (In general, touch- Impact of social networks 50% point effectiveness refers to how various channels and other modes of 40% Neuroscience consumer contact - paid and unpaid 30% - perform in communicating brand messages and impacting purchase. 20% These might include advertising, 10% customer service, public relations, point-of-sale, sponsorship, etc.) 0% Overall familiarity with this topic was Fading Trendy Cutting- Fast (hot/cold) Timeless Edge not as strong as for the other topics, which flattened the effect across the a challenge to keep track of what’s be around for a while. response options. Touchpoint impact hot and what’s not. Topics ebb and Cutting-edge: We’ll be seeing is likely to continue to have currency flow in professional and academic more of this. as it is a component of the larger and publications; we think about the new Respondents were also allowed to more timeless “marketing effective- firms showing their wares at the ARF check for “Don’t know” (hard to say) ness” topic noted above. re:Think, IIR or ESOMAR meetings and “No idea” (for those were unfa- Finally, there are topics that we but this is mostly retrospective. What miliar with the topic). might consider Transitional Trends, are the emerging trends? What topics Three main patterns of response seen by some as cutting-edge but are truly timeless? And what might be for the topics emerged. There was a viewed by others as passing trends just passing fads? strong modal response for a variety (Figure 3, third panel). This bi-modal The survey asked respondents to of Timeless Topics, hallmarks of the response was seen for “impact of rate a wide array of topics as: profession that appear to have endur- social networks” and “neuroscience.” Fading fast: Its days are numbered. ing relevance (Figure 3, first panel). While these topics may have been hot Trendy: Here today, but maybe These include (in order of perma- at one time, there is some evidence gone tomorrow. nence): brand strategy/management; that they either may appeal only to a Timeless: Tried-and-true and will customer loyalty; marketing/adver- narrow niche in the marketplace or

56 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Interestingly, it looks like Web tracking may already be maturing into a Timeless Tool as this is the modal response for this expanding technology. This could be accelerating due to the integration of this functional- ity into many online services like Google and Amazon. Not surprisingly, the market research toolbox has a number of technologies that are seen as Transitional Trends (Figure 4, third panel). Most of these tools align with the topics that were seen as transitional. Social media/Web conversation monitoring and measurement, automated text analysis (semantic/sentiment analysis) and customized online communities were seen as Cutting-Edge by some, but Trendy by others. Similarly, just as neuroscience appeared as a Transitional trend, so was neuro/ biometric measurement as a tool. Either because these tools are seen as relevant only to a segment of the market or because their broad-scale applicability is yet to be proven, these tools are in a state of flux in the marketplace. They may gain currency with a demonstration of broader relevance or may be rel- egated to narrower application. Finally, among the tools included in the survey, only telephone surveys proved to be in decline. While telephone interviewing will continue to be necessary for some targets and in some regions, it’s clear that the long-term viability of phone interviewing is not promising.

Quickly adapt What does all of this mean for the perhaps have limited staying power. Timeless Tools included the marketing and advertising research Time will tell how these transitions related media/marketing mix mod- community? Right now, marketing will resolve as these technologies are eling and econometric modeling. research is seen as exciting, fulfilling further developed in the marketplace. Respondents also reported some and full of opportunity. However, core data collection methodologies as it’s clear the industry needs to be Similar patterns timeless such as online surveys, focus able to quickly adapt to the grow- Digging a layer deeper, what do groups and ethnography (Figure 4, ing complexity of marketing in a professionals think about the future first panel). digital world and the expansion of relevance of a wide range of tools in Professionals view mobile data streams that becoming available use or in development in the research and passive, behavioral measures from it. To achieve success in the industry? Respondents were asked to of market response as Emerging world of today and of tomorrow, it’s rate these tools on the same Fading Technologies (Figure 4, second paramount that professionals marshal Fast to Cutting-Edge scale that was panel). This includes data collection all these resources to provide market- used for the research topics. Not sur- via mobile phone; passive data col- ers with a view of their own possible prisingly, similar patterns in the results lection (GPS, RFID, microchip) and futures that will help them make emerged for tools. Web usage/tracking technologies. better decisions today. |Q www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 57 Too much information?

Let’s be prudent in our use of neuroscience for marketing and advertising research

t a brain imaging center at a university in the U.S., a woman is By John Owen lying face-up in a 12-ton tube. The room is darkened and a Awhite plastic cage covers her face. She is surrounded by brightly- lit computer screens and is given strict instructions to lie still, as even the slightest movement could affect the accuracy of what is about to take place. The neuroscientist then starts to go about his work. Given this scenario, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that a complicated and possibly risky medical procedure is underway. In fact, what’s about to happen is that the neuroscientist is going to read the woman’s mind.

neuromarketing research neuromarketing Welcome to the world of neuromarketing - a relatively recent development by the marketing and advertising industry to try and understand how people think and thereby gain greater insight into how people react to visual and audio stimuli.

Unlocking our minds Over the past 10 years, neuroscientists have spent an increasing amount of time researching ways to read people’s minds through brain-pattern analysis, using techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Already, scientists can predict with great accuracy the last thing you saw by analyzing your brain activity through a method of neural decoding, which involves scanning the brain while you look at thousands of pictures and analyzing how you respond to each one. Over time, this allows scientists to construct a general decoding pattern that can be used to identify an object you see without the need for pre-analysis. If successful, these techniques could influence the way we view issues such as mental health, by allowing doctors to gain greater understanding of the mentally ill or people suffering from stress-related disorders. This in itself is an impressive achievement, but the far bigger challenge is how to uncover the actual thoughts associated with that object you see, although some scientists snapshot believe that even this will be achiev- able within a decade. At the same time, While the ability to examine this technology is raising serious ethical consumers’ brain waves to test concerns with the potential for misuse Editor’s note: John Owen is their reactions to products, and the fear that one day our private thoughts may become more accessible. CEO of Melbourne, Australia, services or advertising shows research software company QSR promise, the author argues Few are more curious International. He can be reached at that care should be taken in Understanding the complexities of the [email protected]. To view the use of neuromarketing human brain is perhaps one of our this article online, enter article ID 20100809 at quirks.com/articles. research techniques. most natural curiosities. But when it comes to gaining a greater apprecia-

58 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Connect.

mindfieldonline.com/client

Data Quality [email protected] Is Our Responsibility 800-969-9235 tion of the science behind what drives behavior is fundamental to psycholo- plex procedure, requiring many levels peoples impulses, few are more curious gists, psychiatrists, therapists and other of scientific research, study and analysis than marketers and advertisers. similar professions, it is also the role of and is likely to be a highly expensive So how is this science being the market researcher and therefore it is investment. There is also another major deployed in the marketing industry and little wonder that there is an increasing disadvantage in that although this is is it all hype or can marketers really interest in this rapidly-evolving technol- an exciting and innovative technology benefit from this technique? ogy that promises so much in terms of with promise, it is still hard to correctly Neuromarketing, a term coined in the possibility of determining how and predict the thoughts and behavior of 2002, uses various sensor and imaging when decisions are made. consumers - it’s not as if you can carry a technologies, such as the fMRI referred Until recently, researchers have pre- 12-ton fMRI scanner around with you to earlier, to measure changes in brain dominantly relied on respondents to feed while carrying out surveys! activity as well as in heart and respiratory back information on how and why they This type of analysis is carried out rates. The subtle change in reactions can make certain decisions. They’ve devel- under laboratory conditions where test- tell researchers precisely when a decision oped various questioning techniques ing on participants is done using multiple is made, what part of the brain is making that have provided reasonably reliable products and the purchasing behavior it and even give clues as to why a par- projections. But one of the reasons is analyzed using sophisticated scientific ticular decision is made. neuromarketing is so attractive is that methodology. In addition, we are all dif- Author and behavioral economist it addresses, arguably, one of the major ferent and the conscious or unconscious Dan Ariely has said that these cutting- weaknesses of market research: identify- responses to visual or audio stimuli in edge neuro-tools could arm marketers ing why people make certain choices. a controlled environment could vary with previously unobtainable informa- In the traditional data analysis significantly. With this approach comes tion, as consumers themselves may be method of market surveys, customers the risk of drawing broad-based conclu- unaware of how they think, feel, react may fail to express their real choice, or sions because a handful of customers and, ultimately, consume. He listed may even bend the truth, and this can have shown a similar reaction, which food, entertainment, buildings and lead to the failure of marketing strate- in turn may lead to a more hit-or-miss political candidates as a few examples of gies that do not take these factors into marketing strategy than would justify the the “products” this kind of marketing account. The neuromarketing approach substantial investment. could apply to. of studying brain activity may help Although understanding human overcome this weakness, but it is a com- Robust debate On the ethical and moral side of the argument there is robust debate on the potential for harm or exploitation and the protection of consumers’ control, as neuromarketing research achieves greater effectiveness in understanding - and potentially manipulating - consumer behavior. One could argue that the essential objective of marketing as a discipline is to manipulate consumer behavior, and many of the traditional tools of marketing such as focus groups and surveys rely upon the subtle inter- pretations of human psychology to arrive at conclusions about consumer behavior. What is still unknown is whether the application of neuromarketing research techniques will allow sufficient understanding of the way in which the brain works to permit the manipulation of desirable behavior in consumers’ preferences. There is also the risk of creating a consumer backlash where the application of neuromarketing research techniques is seen as a shortcut by marketers to “mess with people’s heads” instead of developing an appealing and rewarding experience that treats customers as individuals who will make the right decisions for the right reasons.

60 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Bypass focus groups specific feelings potential customers Either way, market research firms are have toward a new product or brand. now beginning to offer their clients Its approach is to try to understand the brain-based information about con- emotional side of consumer behav- sumer preferences, choosing to bypass ior by utilizing a combination of focus groups and other market research neuroscience and psychology. The techniques on the premise that directly company’s “emotional profiling” peering into a consumer’s brain while technique aims to capture emotions they view products or brands is a much that people are aware of and willing to better predictor of behavior. Studies share and also reveal the subconscious have shown that most buying decisions emotions or those that they are specif- about products are made at the last ically trying not to reveal. It attempts minute and understanding why a cus- to assess both positive and negative tomer may forgo their favorite brand feelings, as well as specific feelings that for a new brand is largely unknown impact purchase decisions such as secu- and an area in which neuroscience rity, excitement and relaxation. The may help unlock the answer. technique requires a quantitative and Several major companies have qualitative element in order to pro- already invested significantly in neu- vide both the metrics that define the romarketing research with some brands’ emotional profiles as well as perceived success, including the 2004 what triggers the key emotions found Pepsi Challenge study which many in the quantitative emotional profiles, claim led to the dramatic increase of to tell marketers what to do to acti- interest from marketers in the potential vate the desired emotions. of neuromarketing. In this particular case, 67 people had brain scans while Often been effective taste-testing Coke and Pepsi and after The use of psychological techniques analysis, it was concluded that, based in marketing and advertising has been on the taste test, Pepsi should com- around for many years, in particular to mand 50 percent of the soft-drink develop a positive association between market. As Pepsi clearly didn’t have a product and service and something that kind of market share, and the desirable. These methods have often results seemed to show that people been effective and have been achieved were choosing Coca-Cola due to without taking away the freedom of branding, etc., it allowed Pepsi to choice from the consumer. divert funds earmarked to improve As the science of neuromarket- taste into improving the Pepsi brand. ing continues to develop, the line But again, the question can be asked between what is acceptable and that, as the fMRI didn’t reveal any- what isn’t in terms of its applications thing new to anybody (the answer was will become thinner and thinner. It already freely available from the vocal is hard to argue against the use of customer base), was it worth the cost? neuromarketing to develop and test In the past, the most common and strategies that are designed to help effective way of reaching large market overcome significant social issues segments was to advertise regularly such as encouraging people to stop using a single form of media such smoking or avoid obesity. But its use as print or television. But today this in advertising campaigns that encour- approach rarely works, as the market age consumers to buy fast food or has fragmented and a more focused alcohol may be far less acceptable. strategy is required using different media There is no doubt that neurosci- depending on the target audience. The ence will be a vital tool in helping to hope is that neuromarketing research open up a whole new understanding techniques will provide a new tool to of the human mind. But as it develops, help create a more scientific approach it will be important for organizations to reaching consumers, by providing a to tread carefully in its application to clearer picture of how they will react to advertising and marketing to avoid various forms of advertising. public alarm and to allow sound sci- As one example, St. Louis-based ence - rather than promotional hype Emotive Analytics has developed a - to dictate the extent of the regulatory research technique to uncover the framework constraining its use. |Q www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 61 Survey Monitor of course product designers and social media and SEO. For more infor- continued from p. 8 marketers see it as a threat to their mation visit www.gotostrata.com. livelihood, which they should not,” survey results show 34 percent made says Michael Alioto, vice president, A higher class of consumers cuts to their marketing and advertis- analytics, for Gongos. For more have adopted couponing ing spend last year and 31 percent say information visit www.gongos.com. U.S. adults wearing designer duds and that decision had a negative/extremely diamond studs are on the vanguard negative impact on their business Online not killing the TV ads - yet of savvy spending, using coupons results. For more information visit While more dollars are moving to to fatten their wallets and save big, www.fedex.com/office. digital advertising, corporations con- according to a study conducted by tinue to spend the majority of their ad Rochester, N.Y., research com- Consumers long to show budgets on television, as it remained pany Harris Interactive on behalf of companies their co-creativity the top advertising choice in first- Coupons.com, Mountain View, Calif. While marketing research tradition- quarter 2010, with 41.8 percent of ad Wealthier, more-educated and met- ally serves to uncover insights for agencies saying their corporate clients ropolitan Americans are some of the products in the making, co-creation are more focused on TV than any most likely to be coupon users. is acknowledged as a more proac- other medium, according to a survey “All sorts of people - includ- tive process, integrating consumers conducted by Chicago business soft- ing what we call the ‘sophisticated into the development process as ware company Strata. Although while couponer’ - are proudly aboard the early as the pre-planning stage, and TV remained on top, the number couponing bandwagon,” says Steven consumers are anxious to take on declined 27 percent from first-quarter Boal, CEO of Coupons.com. “We this role of developing new prod- 2009. Internet/digital advertising all want the biggest bang for our ucts and enhancing existing ones, continues to increase, with 68 per- buck, so the fact that well-heeled, according to online research com- cent reporting that their customers educated and urban shoppers are munity data from Gongos Research, are more focused on digital than they taking advantage of coupons and Auburn Hills, Mich. were a year ago. searching for them online further In an inquiry of 1,000 men and “To advertisers, TV still matters,” illustrates the proliferation of the women across the U.S. as to whether says John Shelton, president and CEO culture of couponing.” they were willing to engage in a com- of Strata. “But just as radio gave way More affluent. Six out of 10 pany’s development process to assist to television, we can see that TV is adults with a household income of in the creation of products, packaging slowly giving way to digital. Our $100,000+ have redeemed a coupon and the marketing of those products, survey taps into the perception that in the past six months. Additionally, only 8 percent of consumers were digital has its limitations in reach and about four in 10 adults in this income opposed to or not interested in the effectiveness and must still be used bracket have redeemed coupons idea of co-creation. Among six con- with traditional media like TV.” printed from an online source in the sumer product categories included in Nearly 40 percent of ad agen- past six months, making them nearly the survey, respondents indicated the cies believe it will be at least five twice as likely to do so as adults with highest level of interest when it comes years before they anticipate spending a household income less than $35,000 to snacks and beverages, with con- more on digital media than tradi- (21 percent). sumer electronics coming in second, tional media, including broadcast and More educated. Adults with col- followed by health and wellness. print. However, just as TV ad share lege degrees are almost twice as likely While consumers do not neces- continues to decline, traditional print to have used coupons in the past six sarily expect recognition or direct advertising appears to be declining months as those who didn’t graduate compensation from the company for even further. Nearly two-thirds of from high school, further dispelling their ideas, 73 percent of consumers respondents say their clients are less the perceived lowbrow stigma of do expect a sample of the product focused on print than they were a couponing. In fact, the survey shows or a cash incentive (71 percent) year ago. Not one agency polled feels that this group of grads is also more in exchange for their ideas and/or it will increase print ad buys. likely to make a purchase specifically their time investment. Additionally, Other key findings include: 87.5 to redeem a coupon, visit a product’s 76 percent of consumers are will- percent of advertising firms say they Web site to get a coupon and search ing to forego acknowledgement or are most likely to use Facebook in for coupons online. creative license for their ideas, pro- client campaigns, followed by Twitter More metropolitan. More than tecting the company from claims (57.1 percent) and YouTube (39.3 three-fourths of adults who have used based on intellectual property rights percent); 62.5 percent handle SEO/ coupons in the past six months live in or royalty expectations. search placements in-house; 32.1 metro areas. “While this is our initial study percent of the agencies say that their The survey also revealed that just focused on co-creation, it indi- clients’ focus on spot radio will be less like their female counterparts, men cates that there is no real downside than it was a year ago; and 67.9 per- are embracing coupons. Specifically, to integrating consumers into the cent say their digital spend goes toward 51 percent of adult males have used full product creation mix, unless online display, followed closely by a coupon in the past six months. Not

62 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com only are they using coupons, but 71 percent cite a desire for greater there is a concern that healthy over one-third of men responded control over inventory. Sixty percent menu items may not sell, but there that they even have a designated state the moves are made to alleviate is also a danger to having a calo- place to keep their coupons, and shopper confusion, and 52 percent rie-laden menu when the calorie they’re just as likely as women to are reducing selection to cut costs count law starts taking effect,” says clip and tell: 18 percent of men and improve profitability. Nearly half Giandelone. “There may be some have blabbed to a friend about a of retailers are making more room initial consumer shock at the calo- coupon they found online. for store brand products. For more rie counts and chains may have to Even if economic conditions information visit www.nielsen.com. start listing lower-calorie options or improve, eight out of 10 adults plan smaller portion sizes to help diffuse to continue to engage in coupon- Restaurant-goers rejoice in this unpleasant surprise.” For more ing activities, according to the survey menu makeover mandate information visit www.mintel.com. findings. For more information visit Menus around the U.S. are in the www.coupons.com. process of getting a makeover thanks Residents turn to Web-based to the passing of the new health tools for neighborhood news Retailers’ trimmed assortment care bill, which will require all Americans use a range of approaches defies consumer demand for restaurants with 20+ locations to to keep informed about what is variety include calorie counts on menus, happening in their neighborhoods, More than half of U.S. consum- menu boards and drive-thrus begin- and online activities have been ers indicate they are likely to shop ning in 2011. This is all gravy for added to the mix. Face-to-face elsewhere if they notice a reduced restaurant-goers, as more than 60 encounters and phone calls remain product selection, while nearly half percent think restaurants should post the most-used methods of interac- of retailers indicate continued plans nutritional information on menus tion with neighbors, but Internet to decrease assortment, according to a and two in five think federal or tools are gaining ground in com- study from New York researcher The local governments should facilitate munity-oriented communications, Nielsen Company. But how costly is such actions, according to data from according to a poll from the Pew the choice to downsize? Seven per- Chicago research company Mintel. Internet and American Life Project, cent of personal care product shoppers “Menu transparency will allow Washington, D.C. say that when faced with a shelf that consumers to have control over When asked about online con- does not contain the item they want, their food decisions with a com- nections to communities and they’ll leave the store without buying plete understanding of what they’re neighbors, 22 percent of all adults anything in the category. Often, this eating,” says Eric Giandelone, direc- signed up to receive alerts about translates into the consumer taking tor, food service research, Mintel. local issues (i.e., traffic, school their entire shopping basket purchase When going out for dinner, events, weather warnings, crime elsewhere. While 7 percent may seem nearly 60 percent of survey respon- alerts, etc.) via e-mail or text mes- like a small number, consider that a dents say they want something that saging, and 20 percent of all adults one-half of one percent decrease in tastes great and 23 percent claim used digital tools to talk to their shopper closure across the grocery to want to eat a healthy meal. neighbors and keep informed about channel could cost as much as $1.5 Only 14 percent of diners say they community issues. Additionally, billion in sales. are never interested in ordering a 11 percent reported reading a blog So far, most consumers haven’t healthy restaurant meal. Nearly half that addresses community issues; observed assortment changes, with of survey respondents report eating 9 percent exchanged e-mails with only 7 percent reporting a notice- healthier in restaurants in the past neighbors about community issues; able reduction in product variety, year, although diners have different 5 percent said they belong to a and although 42 percent of retailers methods for doing so. Reducing fat community e-mail listserv; 4 percent decreased assortment in 2009 amid (67 percent) leads the way in strate- communicated with neighbors by considerable industry hype, assort- gies for adopting healthier eating text messaging; 4 percent joined a ments overall shrunk by only 1 habits at restaurants, followed by social network site group connected percent. Looking ahead to 2011 how- eating more fruits and vegetables to community issues; and 2 percent ever, 40 percent of retailers indicate (52 percent). Meanwhile, 49 per- followed neighbors using Twitter. they’ll continue to downsize, with cent of patrons are cutting calories Still, crossing paths on the stated targets to cut up to 10 percent by simply ordering less food. sidewalk and the neighborhood of SKUs on the shelf. So while consumers are thrilled telephone directory are still major Driven in part by the recession, to have the information on the players in keeping neighbors con- consumer packaged goods retail- menu to help them make healthier nected: 46 percent of Americans ers are making assortment changes decisions, what will this mean for talked face-to-face with neighbors for several reasons. Seventy-five restaurants where a large order of about community issues, and 21 percent of retailers are downsizing fries or a piece of carrot cake will percent discussed community issues their product assortment to improve set you back a hefty 1,500 calories? over the telephone. For more infor- merchandising opportunities, while “From a restaurant’s perspective, mation visit www.pewinternet.org.

64 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com November 8-10, 2010 Hilton San Diego Bayfront San Diego, California

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Dan Heath Michael Tchong Susan Wagner Bill Hoffman Co-author, Founder, VP, Global Strategic SVP, Consumer Switch Ubercool Insight, Johnson & Insights, Johnson Best Buy

Premier Partner www.themarketresearchevent.com Product and Service Update would in an actual store or other nology, its new generation of audience continued from p. 12 real-world setting. For more infor- measurement, designed to serve as a mation visit www.neurofocus.com. solution to measuring media by extend- the control response (i.e., frequency = ing the Portable People Meter (PPM) 0) is derived. For more information visit Omniture releases tool to unify technology onto a wireless platform www.comscore.com. social media analytics and ad By migrating to a wireless plat- targeting form, Arbitron aims to be better Ad cataloguing could help London business software com- equipped to follow the media habits understand print ad success pany Omniture has made available of on-the-go consumers. The updated drivers SearchCenter Plus, its social media device design resembles a simple Starch Advertising Research, New display advertising solution designed cell phone and is sleeker and smaller York, has begun cataloguing the tens for marketers to measure and manage than the current meter. The inclu- of thousands of print advertisements in targeted display advertising buys on sion of cellular wireless technology in its database according to the different Facebook. Features include management the meter eliminates the need for an elements appearing in the ad (i.e., cou- templates based on conversion metrics to in-home docking station and a com- pons, recipes, Web addresses, etc.) to create automated bid strategies; integra- munications hub. The meter is ready help marketers better determine which tion of impression, click and cost data out-of-the-box and can be charged components of an ad’s creative generate from Facebook with site conversion with a USB cord. Arbitron can com- ad readership and response. Among the data; campaign overviews from one municate with panelists through a text 45+ print ad variables being identi- interface to manage and report perfor- screen on the meter. It also retains a fied are the use of celebrities; sample/ mance results; the ability to organize motion detector to monitor compli- trial offers; scent strips; sweepstakes; campaigns, ads or placements within ance, similar to previous versions of telephone numbers; interactive bar custom groups to report and manage the PPM meter. For more informa- codes with which readers can attain based on business criteria; and the ability tion visit www.arbitron.com. more information about the product/ to create and manage targeted ad buys in service being advertised; recipes; and the same application. For more informa- Harris Interactive introduces coupons. In addition, ads with specific tion visit www.omniture.com. Research Lifestreaming words and phrases in their copy, such Rochester, N.Y., research com- as “Made in USA,” “Limited Offer,” Engager tool hopes to discover pany Harris Interactive has launched “New,” “Save” and “Free” are being link between brand engagement Research Lifestreaming, a platform identified. In 2010, Starch is set to and profit intended to present a 360-degree view measure consumer ad readership of New York research company Hall & of individuals by connecting informa- approximately 144,000 print ads in Partners has introduced Engager, a plat- tion they post online, survey responses some 3,150 issues of 186 consumer form intended to link a brand’s level and behavioral data. magazine titles. For more information of engagement with its profit margins. Clients are also able to interact visit www.starchresearch.com. The Engager framework looks at the with Research Lifestreaming par- dimensions that drive engagement with ticipants, observe their actions, ask 3-D tool set to bring another brands (sensing, knowledge, understand- questions and listen to conversa- dimension to virtual in-store ing, integrity, connection, commitment, tions. The tool is also designed to research conviction, participation and advocacy) serve as a single source, including Berkeley, Calif., research com- and aims to identify the link between attitudinal, behavioral, demographic pany NeuroFocus has launched its brand engagement and brand value by and psychographic information for N-Matrix 3D System, a virtual-store conducting research among the general each respondent. technology designed to apply knowl- public and business-to-business audi- Specific capabilities include edge of how the brain perceives and ences. Engager then connects these listening to conversations on mem- analyzes products, package designs findings to company profits and stock bership social media networks (with and store settings to create 3-D market expectations. The pilot was respondents’ full consent) and link- virtual renderings. Based on neu- conducted across 15 categories in the ing panelists’ demographic profiles roscientific research, N-Matrix 3D U.K., U.S., Australia and China, with to their social networking posts; aims to reproduce entire environ- plans to roll out globally. Future plans observing behavioral patterns of ments and the individual elements also include conducting category-specific individuals using Harris Interactive’s contained within them in detail, Engager studies. For more information Clickstream and mobile GPS tech- incorporating the other visual visit www.hall-and-partners.com. nology; interacting with participants cues of realistic lighting and per- using two-way interaction via group spective. The system also features Arbitron debuts next generation discussions on the Web and asking customizable 3-D environments and of electronic audience them one-on-one, in-depth questions touch-sensitive gloves that enable measurement about their experiences; and survey- subjects to reach out and pick up Columbia, Md., research company ing panelists with traditional surveys products and view them as they Arbitron Inc. has debuted PPM 36 tech- to gain marketplace and macro-level

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Find what you need them quick and timely information. Directories in our media mix. With more than 7,000 listings in 500 Webinars research service and industry categories, Quirk’s offers interactive education and training Quirk’s is the ultimate resource for locating through the convenience of your own PC. a marketing research provider or facility. Marketing research tools and ideas in print and online www.quirks.com Research Industry News e-Rewards/Research Now, Under 40 list of marketing research continued from p. 14 Dallas; Global Market Insite Inc., industry leaders. Bellevue, Wash.; Survey Sampling ing solutions and platforms offered International, Shelton, Conn.; Research companies Interviewing by Accenture’s marketing division Toluna, Dallas; and uSamp, Encino, Service of America, New York, and Accenture Interactive. Calif., have formed a partnership with Phoenix Multicultural, Los Angeles, Westport, Conn., technology develop- together have been awarded the 2010 Constant Contact Inc., a ment firm Imperium to create an Asian American Advertising Federation Waltham, Mass., e-mail market- Imperium Category Exclusion (ICE) Market Researcher of the Year Award ing software company, has acquired user group - open to any panel ser- for their work on the second edition of Menlo Park., Calif., social media vices company - intended to improve the Asian American Marketing Report. e-mail management company sample quality. As a respondent takes NutshellMail to enhance its market- an ICE client survey, validation data Carol Hanley of Columbia, Md., ing and online survey tools for small can be used to exclude those who research company Arbitron Inc. has businesses and nonprofits. have recently participated in similar been named one of Radio Ink’s 50 surveys, helping to eliminate poten- Most Influential Women in radio. Columbia, Md., research com- tial respondent biases. pany Arbitron Inc. has acquired New accounts/projects the technology portfolio, patents and Insight Marketing Systems, a Rentrak Corporation, a Portland, trade name from San Mateo, Calif., Melbourne, Australia, research com- Ore., research company, has research company Integrated Media pany, and Cambridge, Mass., research expanded its contract with Schurz Measurement Inc. (IMMI). The company MarketSight have formed Communications, Mishawaka, Ind., offering will operate under the name an alliance to allow research buyers extending Rentrak’s StationView Audience Measurement Technologies to access and analyze research results Essentials measurement services to the Inc. The technologies acquired include online using an integrated Web-based South Bend, Ind., and Springfield, IMMI’s cell phone-based technology, solution developed by the two firms. Mo., markets. which is designed to capture consumer Separately, Rentrak has signed cross-platform media usage. Kinesis Survey Technologies a contract with Dallas-Fort Worth, LLC, an Austin, Texas, research firm, Texas, ABC affiliate WFAA, to pro- Port Washington, N.Y., research has made an agreement with Moscow vide StationView Essentials to The firm The NPD Group has acquired research company Online Market Belo Corp. television station. LGI Network, a Randolph, N.J., Intelligence LLC (OMI) giving OMI research company. The acquisition exclusive software and hosting reseller New York researcher The will combine LGI’s retail point-of- rights to all Kinesis products in Russia, Nielsen Company has secured sale information on fine watches Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. a two-year extension to its con- and branded jewelry and NPD’s tract with Television Audience sales tracking of fashion watches and Association/organization news Measurement Ireland, Dublin, other accessories. LGI will continue The Marketing Research through August 2017. to operate independently for the Association (MRA) has announced Additionally, Redwood Shores, first two years. the recipients of its 2010 volun- Calif., ad management firm Rocket teer awards. Jane Rosen of Nichols Fuel Inc. has opted to use aggre- El Segundo, Calif., research Research was awarded the Honorary gated consumer purchase data from company iSuppli has acquired Lifetime Membership Award; Marisa Nielsen with the goal of improving Screen Digest, a London sub- Pope of Jackson Associates Research the effectiveness of online advertis- sidiary of Adams Media Research, received the Distinguished Service ing campaigns. Rocket Fuel will Monterey, Calif. Financial terms of Award; Alice Butler of M/A/R/C use offline sales data to create model the transaction were not disclosed. Research received the Award of groups of consumers with specific Excellence; and Damon Jones of brand affinities to optimize the cam- Alliances/strategic partnerships Burke, Inc. was awarded the Betsy paigns to reach look-alikes based on InsightExpress, a Stamford, Conn., J. Peterson Award. The Southwest specific brand attributes. research company, has partnered with Chapter of MRA was given the Seattle research company Meteor Chapter of the Year Award. Lanham, Md., software company Solutions to combine Meteor’s influ- Vocus’ public relations management ential brand advocates identification Awards/rankings platform has been selected by the with InsightExpress’ ad effectiveness The American Marketing Minnesota Historical Society, St. measurement through AdInsights, its Association, New York, has named Paul, Minn., for media relations, rela- ad effectiveness solution. Tom H.C. Anderson, founder tionship tracking and the monitoring and managing partner of Stamford, of news and social media. International panel companies Conn., research company Anderson Authentic Response, New York; Analytics LLC, to its inaugural Four London research company Verve

70 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com has been appointed to build, manage panels in the U.S., U.K., France $10.4 million; gross margin in the and run Bristol, U.K., mobile tech- and Germany. company’s AMI division totaled 73 nology company Orange’s Better percent of AMI revenues. Operating Together customer panel. New companies/new divisions/ expenses were $10.6 million. relocations/expansions Operating loss was $0.2 million versus MarketPublishers.com, Limassol, Vancouver, B.C., research company operating income of $1.8 million. Net Cyprus, has been authorized to dis- Vision Critical has opened an office income totaled $0.2 million, or $0.02 tribute and sell research reports from in Barcelona, Spain. Eva Laparra has per diluted share. Renub Research, Bangalore, India. been appointed to lead the office. Consolidated revenues were $91.1 million for fiscal 2010 versus $95 mil- Cincinnati consumer packaged Echo Stats Research, Fort lion for fiscal 2009. AMI revenues rose goods company Procter & Gamble Lauderdale, Fla., has launched a new 57 percent to $19.8 million from $12.6 (P&G) has made Stockholm, product development division, led by million for fiscal 2009. Operating loss Sweden, research company Tobii Elizabeth Wallings. was $0.9 million, compared with oper- Technology Inc. a preferred part- ating income of $5.2 million in 2009. ner for scaled virtual market research San Francisco research company Net income was $0.6 million, or $0.05 solutions. The agreement will also EmSense has opened its European per diluted share. enable Tobii to collaborate with headquarters in central London. P&G on Tobii product innovations. Intel Capital, Santa Clara, Calif., P&G will use Tobii solutions for New York research company invested $10 million in True ROI package and shelf testing globally. WorldOne Inc. has opened an office Accountability for Media, New in São Paulo, Brazil. York. The investment is part of an New York research company $18.2 million Series C round lead by Luminosity has completed its Ipsos, a Paris research company, Intel Capital, which includes participa- U.S. Boomerang Consumer Study, has launched the Ipsos Social Research tion from existing investors Arbitron which focuses on young adults Institute to improve its global under- Inc., Columbia, Md., and WPP, called who have returned home to standing of social policy and research Dublin, Ireland. live with their parents, using the methods. SODA Mobile Access Platform from Nielsen Holdings BV, New Vancouver, B.C., research software New York research company Hall York, has announced plans to sell up company Techneos. & Partners has opened an office in to $1.75 billion in shares in an initial Singapore. The office will be headed public offering, according to a June 3, MRDC Thailand, a division of up by managing partner Hilary Lee. 2010, report in The Wall Street Journal. London research company MRDC, Nielsen plans to use proceeds to repay has been appointed a reseller for The Interactive Advertising debt and for other purposes, accord- Oslo, Norway, research software Bureau (IAB), New York, has formed ing to its filing with the Securities and company Confirmit. the IAB Multicultural Council, which Exchange Commission. replaces the former IAB Hispanic New York media company WPP/ Committee. The Council has also WPP Digital, New York, has Group M has signed a multiyear released its U.S. Latinos Online: A made a strategic investment in Ace contract for Columbia, Md., research Driving Force report. The report can Metrix, Los Angeles. In connection company Arbitron Inc.’s Portable be found at www.iab.net/us_latinos. with the investment, WPP and Ace People Meter and diary radio ratings Metrix will partner to provide market- services across all markets. Encino, Calif., research com- ers with access to in-market television pany uSamp has opened an office in advertising performance metrics. Bellevue, Wash., research company Trumbull, Conn., and formed a proj- Global Market Insite Inc. has been ect management team in India. Cardinal Value Equity selected by Sony Music UK, London, Partners, Greenwich, Conn., sold to deliver interactive online surveys in Research company earnings/ nearly 2 million shares (over half of conducting artist research. financial news its holdings) of Infogroup, Omaha, Rentrak Corporation, Portland, Neb. Cardinal was one of the inves- Dallas research company Ore., announced financial results tors that filed a shareholder lawsuit e-Rewards Inc. has adopted for fiscal fourth-quarter 2010 and questioning the way Infogroup San Francisco research company the full year ended March 31, 2010. founder Vinod Gupta used company MarketTools Inc.’s TrueSample Consolidated revenues increased more money to support his lifestyle. validation platform for e-Rewards’ than 12 percent to $25 million for clients. As part of the agreement, the fourth quarter, driven primarily USamp, Encinco, Calif., closed a e-Rewards will use TrueSample by strong growth in the company’s $10 million Series C round of financ- as additional validation of its Advanced Media Information (AMI) ing, lead by OpenView Venture e-Rewards and Valued Opinions division. Gross margin improved to Partners, Boston. www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 71 Names of Note San Francisco research company professionals. Research will be continued from p. 10 Solarbuzz has hired Finlay Colville among his responsibilities. as senior analyst. Martin Attwood senior account Karen Fraser has been appointed director. Attwood will be based in Insight Research Group, London, to lead the research division of The Melbourne, Australia. has promoted Lee Gazey to man- Advertising Association, London. Separately, Millward Brown ager, commercial development. has appointed Tim Wragg as The company has also appointed Colm Mallon has been appointed CEO, Europe. Supporting Wragg Emma Stewart and Jenny territory manager, Ireland, of on the European board will Service as senior research execu- GfK Retail and Technology, a be Juan Ferrer-Vidal, COO; tive and Siobhan Connolly and Nuremberg, Germany, research Krzysztof Kruszewski, CEO, Anthony Rowbottom research company. developing European markets; executive. Cath Booth, chief client offi- Bazaarvoice, an Austin, Texas, cer; Elizabeth Brownhill, CFO; San Francisco research com- research company, has hired Mark Dan White, CMO; and Paul pany EmSense has hired Riggs as chief client officer. Kessels, director, operations. Sue Nosworthy as senior vice president and director, Rebekkah Carney has joined the Kadee Fabyan-Dew has joined European research; and Maria Fort Washington, Pa., office of G & S Research, Indianapolis, as Domoslawska as vice presi- London research company Double senior project manager and mod- dent, digital and media research. Helix as vice president, medtech erator. The company has also Nosworthy and Domoslawska prime market research. promoted Juston Miller to pro- will be based at the company’s gramming supervisor. European headquarters in London. Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical has named Eva San Francisco research company Gareth Thomas has been named Laparra senior vice president, MarketTools Inc. has named Ben director, international develop- European operations and manag- Langleben strategic client direc- ment, at Doctors.net.uk, an Oxford, ing director of the company’s tor, U.K. U.K., online network of medical Barcelona, Spain, office.

72 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com index of advertisers

Affordable Samples, Inc...... p. 61 Intellisurvey, Inc...... p. 39 800-784-8016 | www.affordablesamples.com 310-392-3907 | www.intellisurvey.com

Allegiance, Inc...... Inside Back Cover Interactive Video Productions, LLC ...... p. 53 866-794-4785 | www.allegiance.com 732-970-9446 | www.interactivevideo.com

American Marketing Association ...... p. 67 Leo J. Shapiro & Associates ...... p. 60 800-AMA-1150 | www.marketingpower.com 312-321-8111 | www.ljs.com

Baltimore Research ...... p. 5 Marketing Research Association, Inc...... p. 75 410-583-9991 | www.baltimoreresearch.com 860-682-1000 | www.mra-net.org

Bellomy Research, Inc...... pp. 27, 55 McMillion Research Service ...... p. 7 336-721-1140 | www.bellomyresearch.com 800-969-9235 | www.breakthrough-healthcare.com

Burke Institute ...... Back Cover McMillion Research Service ...... p. 59 800-543-8635 | www.BurkeInstitute.com 800-969-9235 | www.mindfieldonline.com

Burke, Incorporated ...... p. 21 Nebu USA ...... p. 26 800-427-7057 | www.burke.com 513-321-2150 | www.nebu.com

C&R Research Services, Inc...... p. 49 Opinion Search Inc...... p. 23 312-828-9200 | www.crresearch.com 800-363-4229 | www.opinionsearch.com

Calo Research Services, Inc...... p. 18 PhoneBase Research, Inc...... p. 32 513-984-9708 | www.caloresearch.com 970-217-4883 | www.pbresearch.com

Decipher, Inc...... p. 29 Precision Opinion ...... p. 43 800-923-5523 | www.decipherinc.com 800-780-2790 | www.precisionopinion.com

Decision Analyst, Inc...... p. 9 Q Market Research Software ...... p. 11 817-640-6166 | www.decisionanalyst.com 866-805-2419 | www.q-researchsoftware.com

Dooblo, Ltd...... p. 54 Radius Global ...... p. 17 [44] (972) 9 767 8998 | www.dooblo.net 212-633-1100 | www.radius-global.com

Doyle Research Associates, Inc...... p. 38 Readex Research - Outsourcing Services ...... p. 19 312-863-7600 | www.doyleresearch.com 800-873-2339 | www.readexresearch.com e-Rewards Market Research ...... p. 13 Schlesinger Associates, Inc...... Inside Front Cover 888-203-6245 | www.e-rewardsresearch.com 866-549-3500 | www.schlesingerassociates.com

Esearch.com, Inc...... p. 28 Scientific Telephone Samples ...... p. 47 310-265-4608 | www.esearch.com 800-944-4STS | www.stssamples.com

Globalpark USA ...... pp. 18, 33 Toluna, Inc...... p. 45 888-299-9422 | www.globalpark.com 800-710-9147 | www.toluna-group.com

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) ...... p. 41 uSamp Inc...... p. 37 206-315-9300 | www.gmi-mr.com 818-524-1218 | www.usamp.com

Group Dynamics in Focus, Inc...... p. 35 Western Wats ...... p. 15 866-221-2038 | www.groupdynamics.com 801-373-7735 | www.westernwats.com

I/H/R Research Group ...... p. 34 WorldOne Research ...... p. 3 800-254-0076 | www.ihr-research.com 212-358-0800 | www.worldone.com

Institute for International Research...... p. 65 888-670-8200 | www.iirusa.com

www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 73 calendar of events

Featured Event hold its annual marketing research mation visit www.geoscape.com/ conference on September 26-29 at welcome-letter.aspx. the Hilton Atlanta. For more information visit www.marketingpower.com. The ARF will hold its 2010 ARF Industry Leader Forum, themed Sawtooth Software will hold its annual “Discovering Consumer Insights,” Globalpark will host a Webinar, research conference on October on October 28 at the New York themed “Marrying Online and 6-8 at the The Newport Beach Athletic Club. For more information Offline Activities to Engage Marriott in Newport Beach, Calif. visit www.thearf.org. Consumers, Build Brand and Capture For more information visit www. Insights,” on September 22 at 11 sawtoothsoftware.com. The Marketing Research Association a.m. EDT. For more information will hold its First Outlook and Expo visit www.globalpark.com. CASRO will hold its annual confer- conference on November 2-4 at ence on October 11-14 at the Four the Walt Disney World Swan in The 2010 Ethnographic Praxis in Seasons Resort Aviara in North San Orlando, Fla. For more information Industry Conference will be held Diego, Calif. For more information visit www.mra-net.org. on August 29-September 1 at visit www.casro.org. the Midtown Conference Center in IIR will hold its annual conference, Tokyo. For more information visit The Qualitative Research Consultants “The Market Research Event 2010,” www.epic2010.com. Association will hold its annual con- on November 8-10 at the Hilton ference on October 13-15 in Bayfront in San Diego. Use code The Australian Market and Social Philadelphia. For more information TMRE10QUIRK when registering to Research Society will hold its annual visit www.qrca.org. save 20 percent off standard rates. For national conference, themed “Eyes more information visit www.iirusa.com. Wide Open,” on September 9-10 ESOMAR will hold its annual at the Melbourne Convention and online research conference, themed The Marketing Research Association will Exhibition Center in Melbourne, “E-Universe: The Power of hold its annual fall education conference Australia. For more information visit Listening,” on October 17-19 in on November 10-12 at Walt Disney www.mrsa.com.au. Berlin, Germany. For more informa- World in Orlando, Fla. For more infor- tion visit www.esomar.org. mation visit www.mra-net.org. ESOMAR will hold its annual congress, themed “Odyssey 2010 ESOMAR will hold WM3, a con- ESOMAR will hold its 2010 confer- - The Changing Face of Market ference on worldwide multimedia ence on innovation on November Research,” on September 12-15 in measurement, on October 19-21 in 14-16 in Barcelona, Spain. For more Athens, Greece. For more information Berlin, Germany. For more informa- information visit www.esomar.org. visit www.esomar.org. tion visit www.esomar.org. The Society of Insurance Research will DMG World Media will present the The Life Insurance and Market Research hold its annual conference and ad:tech London exhibition confer- Association will hold its annual meet- exhibit fair on November 14-17 in ence, themed “Think Strategy, Not ing on October 24-26 at Gaylord Jacksonville, Fla. For more informa- Just Technology!” on September National Hotel and Convention tion visit www.sirnet.org. 21-22 at National Hall, Olympia, in Center on the Potomac in Maryland/ London. For more information visit Washington, D.C. For more informa- ESOMAR will hold its qualita- www.ad-tech.com/london/adtech_ tion visit www.limra.com. tive research conference, themed london.aspx. “Foresight on Moods and Thoughts,” PMRG will hold its annual meet- on November 16-18 in Barcelona, The Mystery Shopping Providers ing of The PMRG Institute on Spain. For more information visit Association will hold its annual October 24-26 at the Westin Boston www.esomar.org. conference on September 21-23 Waterfront. For more information at the Hotel InterContinental in visit www.pmrg.org. To submit information on your upcoming conference or event for possible inclusion in Chicago. For more information visit our print and online calendar, e-mail Em- www.mysteryshop.org. Geoscape will hold its annual multicul- ily Goon at [email protected]. For a more tural marketing summit on October complete list of upcoming events visit www. The American Marketing Association will 27-29 in Miami. For more infor- quirks.com/events.

74 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com The Walt Disney World Swan Resort MRA FIRST OUTLOOK CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 1-4 ORLANDO 2010

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www.quirks.comwww.mra-net.org | 860.682.1000 August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 75 By Joseph Rydholm trade talk Quirk’s editor

Book helps make sense of measuring social media

lsewhere in this month’s issue researcher’s individual situations. viewpoints from a host of sources on you’ll find a host of articles on But the book excels as a com- how to think about and approach the Econducting marketing research pact, readable and good-humored analysis and measurement of social using social media. Along with using assemblage of thoughts, strategies and media data. Many of the sources and research to monitor what the sites that provide tools or metrics market is saying about them will be familiar to social media in blog posts, tweets and user- measurement veterans but for generated product reviews, many those just getting their feet wet, companies are also examining Sterne has packaged a lot of infor- how they can use social media mation in a way that helps you outlets to tell their stories, sell get a quick education on this fast- their wares and forge relation- changing sphere. ships with consumers. There’s no doubt that, done Have a plan right, Web-based outreach can One of the messages he repeat- build brands and enhance good- edly drives home about measuring will, but can you put a dollar social media ROI also applies to value on those things? Does marketing research: know why you the cost of maintaining a blog want to know what you’re trying or a Facebook fan page add to to measure, and have a plan before the bottom line? Is all the effort you start, one that explains what really worth it? you’ll do with the information. The search for answers to those He writes, “… you must first types of questions should begin be certain that you know what with a reading of Jim Sterne’s new you are trying to find out (what book Social Media Metrics. problem you are solving for) and There are no single answers then be certain that you and those here, no “here is what you around you agree on your defi- should do” that will apply to nitions of the terms you use to every situation - the Web and describe and solve that problem.” its data sources are obviously too To that end, his chapters are vast for that, as are the differ- helpfully-titled and sequentially- ences between each marketer or organized. For example, in order

76 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com to sell someone something, you have to get them to notice you (chapter two), then determine how they feel about you (chapter three), how emotionally connected they are to you (chapter four) and what it takes to get them to act (chapter five). Then you need to figure out how to listen to what people are saying about you on social media (chapter six) and use your investments in social media to drive business outcomes (chapter seven). You’ll want to read the book with a computer nearby, as nearly every page contains URLs for source material. David Berkowitz’s “100 Ways to Measure Social Media” is reprinted, as are helpful things like the eight stages of listening (complete with the resources needed and likely impacts) and interesting case studies on Salesforce.com and its use of a range of social media measurement approaches and IdeaStorm, Dell’s foray into crowdsourcing.

Comforting breadth No single book could cover the myriad nuances of every form - the likes of Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc., each warrant their own volumes - but Sterne gives a concise (240-page) and thorough overview of the social media sphere that has a comforting breadth. True, after completing it, you may be amazed at all that you need to know and all that there is to know but you’ll no doubt have a firmer grasp of the big picture and the experts and enti- ties at the forefront of social media measurement. |Q

Social Media Metrics (240 pages; $24.95), by Jim Sterne, is published by John Wiley and Sons (www.wiley.com).

Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, (ISSN 08937451) is issued monthly by Quirk Enterprises, Inc., 4662 Slater Road, Eagan, MN 55122. Mailing address: P.O. Box 22268, Saint Paul, MN 55122. Tel.: 651-379-6200; Fax: 651-379- 6205; E-mail: [email protected]; Web address: www.quirks.com. Periodicals postage paid at Saint Paul, MN and additional mailing offices.

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Coming in the October issue…

What drives net promoter score? Three authors from Observant LLC offer a structured approach for qualitative verbatim analysis to help determine customer loyalty for a client in the consumer electronics industry.

Testing a new fraud prevention product PSCU Financial Services used quantitative, qualitative and in-market research to fine-tune its CardLock fraud prevention service. www.quirks.com August 2010 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | 77 before you go… online and offline cover-to-cover News about Quirk’s and quirks.com Facts, figures and insights from this month’s issue

Get your research multimedia seen at quirks.com Internet users creating UGC rarely limit themselves Whether you have research-related to a single outlet (e.g., forum, blog, Facebook, etc.). multimedia to share with the Quirk’s Thus, search results often contain a single person’s > thoughts expressed on multiple sites. Unless the word- audience or you’re looking to get ing used on each site is identical, the database cannot caught up on the latest Webinars identify the person as the same user and remove dupli- and product demos, be sure to check cates. (page 27) out our online multimedia directory, designed to be a free and complete repository for all market- It takes only one thoughtful or personal disclosure to ing research audio, video, PowerPoint slideshows and other shed light on an unmet need or new opportunity. Your research-related multimedia. The directory can be accessed most passionate, articulate customer may not be the from the quirks.com home page and is searchable by title, > most typical one but may well be the most valuable topic, organization and multimedia type. The directory is one. (page 39) equipped to include Webinars-on-demand, tutorials, research presentations, news, interviews, product demos and much Verbatims on microblogs generally have a more more! To list your research multimedia content, contact negative tone than those on blogs, perhaps because Emily Goon at [email protected]. > microblogs are more likely to reflect off-the-cuff opinions while blogs are generally more thought-out and The SourceBook hits desks in rehearsed. (page 44) September Don’t be alarmed next month when your There is robust debate on the potential for harm and exploitation and the protection of consumers’ control, Quirk’s delivery is five times as thick! > as neuromarketing research achieves greater effective- September brings the arrival of our annual ness in understanding - and potentially manipulating Researcher SourceBook, the most com- - consumer behavior. (page 60) prehensive directory of marketing research companies around the world, listing over 7,100 locations - all searchable by name, geographic location, industry, specialties >>> Enter to win! and more. The SourceBook is also available online at quirks. One of 10 Q Professional licenses - com/directory. We will return to our regularly-scheduled a $4,497 value programming in October! Q is market research analysis software that will halve your analysis times. It is the only software to include everything from basic tables and coding to choice Want more War Stories? modeling, latent class analysis and trees. Q Professional features: Disrobing research respondents, barroom-brawls in > automated significance testing and multivariate analysis focus groups and interviews > drag-and-drop to merge and recode with precocious kids - Quirk’s War Stories column has it > editable charts exported to Microsoft Office > self-guided online training all. Quirk’s twice-monthly e-newsletter always includes For more information visit www.q-researchsoftware.com. a few War Stories - true-life, Winners will receive one year of a transferable license, which can be moved humorous anecdotes of life in the research trenches compiled from one machine to another, and includes e-mail and telephone support. by Art Shulman - and our click counts tell us that our read- To enter, send an e-mail to [email protected] with your complete ers are loving them! If you’re interested in reading more tales contact information. Please include “Q Research Contest” in the subject line. Deadline to enter is August 31, 2010. The winner will be selected at of research-related wackiness, check out quirks.com/articles random and announced in the October issue of Quirk’s. and select War Stories in the “Article Type” pull-down Congratulations to June’s winners: Brett Waters, AAA Auto Club South; William menu. Additionally, if you have your own (or a colleague’s) Muckelroy, Lynx Research Consulting; Ruth Waters, ConAgra Foods Inc.; Maureen E. Fyke, Fisher-Price Inc.; and John Herman. Winners received a copy story to tell, send it on to Art at [email protected]. of Kathryn Korostoff’s book How to Hire & Manage Market Research Agencies. 78 | Quirk’s Marketing Research Review | August 2010 www.quirks.com Make Sense of Your Verbatim Data, Fast.

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www.allegiance.com 866.794.4785 Burke Institute’s Newest Seminar Offering...

Next Generation Qualitative Tools: tSocial Media tOnline Communities tVirtual Research Platforms

Stand Out From the Crowd. Everyone is talking social media these days, but it’s important to understand how the next generation of qualitative research tools can help you as a marketing research professional. Beginning with a case study approach, you will learn what tools are available, who offers those tools and which ones you can add to your toolkit. Online communities, blogs, virtual research platforms and social media will be covered as part of this two-day program, providing step-by-step instructions and workshops to enhance your skills.

Who Should Attend Individuals who plan to use, support or implement social media, online communities or virtual research platforms. When September 30 - October 1, 2010 Where Chicago, IL

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