2013 Qrca Annual Conference October 16–18 San Diego, Ca

INSPIRATION AND RESOURCES FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

F a l l 2 0 1 3 V o l u m e 1 2 • N u m b e r 1

How to Successfully (Net)work a room

Should You replace Focus Groups with Social-media research?

Special Inside! Preview of the 2013 QrCa aNNual CoNFereNCe october 16–18 San Diego, Ca

W H eN e kS tH r No Wo GraPHY reallY

FALL 2013 THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION table oF CoNteNtS

28 WHeN etHNoGraPHY reallY WorkS

toolboX: What is art? What is personal care? What is a garden? These three case studies highlight how qualitative researchers stepped outside conventional parameters and pursued an ethnographic course of discovery that yielded unforeseeable dividends.

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SHoulD You rePlaCe CuStomer Co-CreatioN HoW to CHooSe FoCuS GrouPS Via CroWDSourCiNG… a market For Your StuDY: WitH SoCial-meDia DiSruPtioN ratioNal aND PerSoNal reSearCH? at itS FiNeSt aPProaCHeS

SCHoolS oF tHouGHt: Can social- treNDS: Today’s forward-thinking com- toolboX: A combination of market metrics, media research yield insights traditionally panies are intrigued with the potential of respondent specs and confidence that a gleaned in focus group settings and perhaps co-creating products and services with facility can deliver a particular experience even outperform focus groups in overall their customers. Learn how to tap into the are all factors in choosing markets that quality of insights? Monika Wingate tackles wisdom of consumers when crowdsourcing best fit your research project. the myths and realities of social-media for your clients. research and outlines a case study where social-media research did just that.

4 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

FALL 2013 THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION table oF CoNteNtS

JumPStartiNG iNNoVatioN 70 | Your oNliNe iNtroDuCtioN 42 tHrouGH WHiteSPaCe reSearCH to toDaY’S tHouGHt leaDerS

toolboX: Learn how to design research to pinpoint opportunities for innovative QRCA VIEWS PoDCaStS: Sharing tips and in- new products and services. The key is to identify those “golden egg” opportu- sights to help QRCs in their businesses, QRCA nities — not yet seen — that exist or have recently emerged. Feature Editor Mike Carlon talks with Diane Darling, a guru of professional networking. CaN tHe Future oF SoutH aFriCaN reSearCH 72 | 2 NeW reVieWS 48 be built WitH briCS? book reVieWS: Feature Editor George Sloan Global reSearCH: In 2010, South Africa was invited to join the BRIC group — gives in-depth reviews of two books for quali- now BRICS — to provide a trade gateway to African markets. Cape Town resi- tative researchers: I Killed a Rabid Fox with a dent and QRC member Corette Haf explores the implications of this economic Croquet Mallet: Making Your Business Stories development on the qualitative research industry in this emerging market. Compelling and Memorable and Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights. WHat to eXPeCt WHeN reCruitiNG 76 | Qualitative aDD… 56 For oNliNe reSearCH HoW oNe QrC GetS tHiNGS DoNe iN toDaY’S DiGital WorlD oNliNe Qual: Prepare for your next online qualitative research study more productively with this helpful recruiting advice from a veteran online moderator. Humor: Technology is making QRCs incredibly productive — so productive, in fact, that we HoW to SuCCeSSFullY (Net)Work a room: can hardly focus to get anything done. Here 60 aN iNterVieW WitH DiaNe DarliNG is a look at how one QRC gets things done in today’s digital world. buSiNeSS matterS: Just in time to help you at the upcoming QRCA annual conference, an expert networker shares tips and techniques for making successful connections at business functions. 8 From tHe eDitor-iN-CHieF 10 From tHe PreSiDeNt

11 iNDeX oF aDVertiSerS SNeak PreVieW oF tHe 2013 66 QrCa aNNual CoNFereNCe editor-in-Chief: Laurie Tema-Lyn, [email protected] managing editors: Kay Corry Aubrey, [email protected], NeWS From QrCa: and Joel Reish, [email protected] • Design/art Direction Mission: Exploration! Enhance & Publishing: Leading Edge Communications, LLC, (615) 790.3718, your business while boosting [email protected] your career and professional Feature eDitorS relationships at the upcoming book reviews: George Sloan, [email protected] • business matters: Mike Carlon, [email protected] • Humor: QRCA Conference in San Diego, Joel Reish, [email protected] • Global research: October 16–18. Here’s your Pat Sabena, [email protected] • QRCA VIEWS Podcasts: Mike Carlon, [email protected] • Qualitative toolbox: Jenifer Simson preview of the exciting work- Hartt, [email protected] • Schools of thought: Susan shops and networking events! Saurage-Altenloh, [email protected] • tech talk/ online Qual: Ted Kendall, [email protected] • travel Wise: Suzanne Klein, [email protected] • trends: Shaili Bhatt, [email protected]

6 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

• From the Editor-in-ChiEf •

Fall, tHe CleaN Slate — aND muSiNGS For tHe Future

nother fall season is coming upon us. My beach sandals are put aside, I relish my last homegrown Jersey tomatoes, and I look forward to filling up A new notebooks with fresh learning! Although it has been years since I sat in a “formal” classroom, it still feels like the exciting start of the school year, and the QRCA Annual Conference is the kick-off event. It is an opportunity to soak up lessons from others in the industry and to share experiences with colleagues By Laurie tema-Lyn and friends. Practical Imagination enterprises It is also a time to reflect on where we are headed… culturally, personally and ringoes, NJ professionally. This is an amazing time to be alive and to be part of this industry, [email protected] which is going through so many changes! I recently did a quick poll with members of the VIEWS editorial team on the type of qualitative research in which they are currently engaged. A third of us still work primarily face to face, my own practice included. But with much of my practice focused on consumer innovation, prototype development and events to immerse clients in consumers’ worlds, even when I am physically working in a research facility, the work is not “traditional” focus groups. More interesting was the finding that another third of our team could hardly recall the last time they did in-person research! The platforms they engage are predominantly online or mobile. And another third use a variety of methodologies, both in-person and online. I suspect that our team is somewhat representative of our association. It is remarkable how many new research platforms are available to solve our clients’ challenges and how much research is conducted without ever directly touching a human being. Of course, our digital milieu forces us to learn many new ways of communicat- ing with our friends, family and colleagues across the globe. Our computers are the phones in our pockets, enhanced with high-quality cameras and video capabilities, and apps help us navigate through this increasingly complex world we have created. How will qualitative research continue to develop over the next decade? Some fascinating clues are in this Fall 2013 edition of VIEWS! Certainly, social-media listening/interpreting is becoming a force to reckon with. Will in-person research, like focus groups, go by way of the dinosaur? Schools of Thought contributor Monika Wingate provides her provocative perspectives on the topic. Kevin Lonnie shatters a myth shared by some corporate leaders that consumers are just “not creative.” Lonnie takes us on the journey where his client and the CorreCtioNS wisdom of crowds (guided appropriately) created viable new product ideas. For those who may think that digital research is the only future, Mike Donovan Regrettably, we made two mis- presents a fascinating collection of cases that demonstrate how the deeply up-close and personal work of ethnography can change the whole frame of understanding. takes in author bylines in the Corette Haf provides an excellent primer on the state of market research in Summer issue of VIEWS. First, in South Africa. The country has recently joined the BRIC emerging markets of Brazil, the Travel Wise article, the cor- Russia, India and China. Will South Africa prove to be the next big market leader, rect name of Monica Zinchiak’s or will others out-innovate it? firm is Z. Research Services. And Inside this issue, you will also find four very practical articles. For identifying Julia Spink’s email address, in big whitespace opportunities, Maria Shepherd outlines a vigorous method that has the Global Research article, is been especially useful in the medical devices industry. Veteran researcher Jennifer [email protected]. Dale offers helpful recruiting advice for online studies. Diane Darling shows us how to successfully network a room to help you grow your business practice, and Carl We sincerely apologize to Monica Iseman provides excellent guidance on how to choose a market for a study. and Julia, as well as to our read- You will also find the exciting program for the Fall Conference to be held in ers, for any inconvenience these beautiful San Diego, as well as two book reviews that have me chomping at the bit, errors may have caused. especially for I Killed a Rabid Fox with a Croquet Mallet: Making Your Business Stories Compelling and Memorable. I started this letter talking about fall as the clean slate for learning. With this issue of VIEWS, I think that canvas is filling up quite well indeed! Hope you enjoy! 8 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org 1000 Westgate Drive, Suite 252 QrCa 2012–2013 oFFiCerS St. Paul, MN 55114 USA aND boarD oF DireCtorS Tel (toll-free in N. America): 888-ORG-QRCA (888-674-7722) Susan Saurage-Altenloh Corette haf President Director Tel (International inbound calls): Kendall nash Manny Schrager Vice President Director 731-584-8080 Mark Sumpter Liz Van Patten Treasurer Director Phone: 651-290-7491 Monica Zinchiak Shannon Pfarr thompson Fax: 651-290-2266 Secretary Executive Director Susan Abbott darrin hubbard Email: [email protected] Director Assistant Executive Director Shaili Bhatt david Ewald www.qrca.org Director Senior Advisor

Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) serves its members in the industry through education, promotion and representation. The state- ments and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the association, its staff, or its board of directors, QRCA Views, or its editors. Likewise, the appearance of advertisers, or QRCA members, does not constitute an endorsement of the products or services featured in this, past or subsequent issues of this quarterly publication. Copyright ©2013 by the Qualitative Research Con- sultants Association. QRCA Views is published quarterly. Subscriptions are complimentary to members of QRCA. Presort standard postage is paid at Nashville, TN. Printed in the U.S.A. Reprints and Submissions: QRCA Views allows reprinting of material published here, upon request. Permission requests should be directed to QRCA. We are not responsible for unsolicited freelance manuscripts and photographs. Contact the managing editor for contribution information. Advertising: For display and classified advertising rates and insertions, please contact Leading Edge Communications, LLC, P.O. Box 680142, Franklin, TN 37068-0142, (615) 790-3718, Fax (615) 794-4524. Deadlines are the first of the month prior to the following month’s publication. (Example: August 1 for the September issue.) Subscriptions are free to members and are available to buyers upon request.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 9 • From the PrESidEnt • tHiS Fall, booSt Your

By Susan Saurage-Altenloh liFeloNG Saurage research, Inc. houston, tX [email protected] CommitmeNt Known for delivering innovative, to learNiNG informative, instructional and utumn is my favorite time of year. A reactivated sense of urgency accompa- nies the student populace’s return to school (and onto the football field). On applicable insights A the weekends, incredibly diverse festivals engage the imagination by feeding and wisdom, the all of the senses with riotous color, lively music and delicious food. Marketing professionals seek to reinvigorate their communications plans or brand strategies, QrCA Annual Con- triggering decisions to reach out to favorite consultants. The best aspect of the season, though, is found in the plethora of conferences structured to educate, ference is a must- provoke, challenge and motivate those committed to lifetime learning. attend gathering for The QRCA Annual Conference is one of those sought-after events whose sessions, and the accompanying knowledge, stay with attendees for years. Known for the consummate delivering innovative, informative, instructional and applicable insights and wisdom, it is a must-attend gathering for the consummate qualitative research profes- qualitative research sional. Lifelong friends are made in a deliberately designed environment of warm professional. acceptance. Curiosity is encouraged, as are questions. As qualitative professionals, it is critical that we continuously add to our skill sets, expand our experience bases, challenge assumptions and tease our inner-child selves. QRCA VIEWS delivers on these every quarter, ensuring that qualitative research and QRCs remain a key and integral component of any successful marketing, branding or product-development effort. QRCA’s Annual Conference provides an additional opportunity for the qualitative professional to gain industry insights, up close and personal. Join QRCA, October 16–18, at our Annual Conference in San Diego as we celebrate 30 years of representing the qualitative industry. Polish up on your skills, learn about innovative platforms and solutions, meet new colleagues and engage in discussions about what you read in this issue of QRCA VIEWS. It is all part of a commitment to lifelong learning.

10 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org • INdeX oF AdVErtiSErS • tHaNk You to our VIEWS aDVertiSerS!

20/20 research ...... 61 morPaCeinternational, inc...... 54 Puzzle / Paris ...... 13 www.2020research.com • 877-737-2020 www.morpace.com • 248-737-5300 www.puzzleparis.com • 011+33-1 42 68 12 26 aCCe ...... back Cover murray Hill Center Southwest ...... 59 research House, inc...... 19 www.acceintl.com • 905-828-0493 www.murrayhillcenter.com • 404-495-1400 www.research-house.ca • 800-701-3137 adler-Weiner research Company ...... 35 National Field & Focus, inc...... 20 riVa training institute ...... 16 www.awres.com • 847-675-5011 www.nff-inc.com • 508-370-7788 www.rivainc.com • 301-770-6456 axiom research ...... 27 observation baltimore ...... 51 Schlesinger associates, inc...... inside Front Cover www.AXIOM-RM.com • 703-208-3000 www.observationbaltimore.com • 410-332-0400 www.schlesingerassociates.com • 866-549-3500 baltimore research ...... 5 on-target latam, taylor research, inc...... 46 www.baltimoreresearch.com • 410-583-9991 Facilities and Qual Consultants ...... 63 www.taylorresearch.com • 800-922-1545 burke institute ...... 7 www.on-target.com.mx • +1-347-892-2610 think Group austin ...... 20 www.burkeinstitute.com • 513-684-7616 opinion Search inc...... 57 www.thinkgroupaustin.com • 866-584-4659 ClearView research, inc...... 75 www.opinionsearch.com • 1-800-363-4229 triplescoop Premium market research ...... 11 www.clearviewresearch.com • 847-827-9840 Paramount market Publishing, inc...... 33 www. thetriplescoop.com • 303.325.6705 Complete research Connection ...... 53 www.paramountbooks.com • 888-787-8100 trotta associates ...... 38 www.crcmr.com • 614-220-4120 Practical imagination enterprises ...... 38 www.trotta.net • 310-306-6866 Consumer opinion Services, inc...... 9 www.practical-imagination.com • 908-237-2246 www.cosvc.com • 206-241-6050 Creative Consumer research ...... 25 www.ccrsurveys.com • 281-240-9646 Dawn Smith Field management ...... 11 www.signature-research.net • 416-696-8400 Delve ...... 3 www.delve.com • 800-325-3338 Fieldwork...... 73 www.fieldwork.com • 800-863-4353 Focus Coast to Coast ...... inside back Cover www.focuscoasttocoast.com • 800-935-6561 Focus Forward ...... 33 www.focusfwd.com • 212-626-9060 Focus Groups of Cleveland Survey Center... 71 www.focusgroupsofcleveland.com • 216-901-8075 Focus Pointe ...... 21 www.focuspointe.net • 888-873-6287 FocusVision Worldwide, inc ...... 39 www.focusvision.com • +1-800-433-8128 indyFocus ...... 31 www.indyfocus.com • 866-478-6111 insideHeads...... 15 www.myvff.com • 877-In-Heads interactive Video Productions, inc...... 55 www.interactivevideo.com • +1-732-970-9446 JS martin transcription resources ...... 31 www.jsmartintranscription.com • 818-691-0177 l & e research ...... 43 www.leresearch.com • 877-344-1574 leading edge Communications, llC ...... 70 www.leadingedgecommunications.com • 615-790-3718 market View ...... 45 www.emarketview.com • 203-791-1644

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 11 • SChooLS oF thought •

Should You with rePlaCe SoCial- FoCuS meDia GrouPS reSearCH?

By Monika Wingate Fountainhead Brand Consulting • mcFarland, WI • [email protected]

re you ready to ditch focus groups to be better, faster and cheaper than taps into websites or apps that function for social-media research? If you focus groups. to engage consumers in two-way conver- A said yes, you are not alone. Major Many researchers, however, say sations. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, companies like Frito-Lay, Estée Lauder otherwise. They claim that social-media Pinterest, TripAdvisor and WordPress and Walmart are already using social- research is just a cheap imitation. This are all examples of sites that are used media tools such as Facebook to replace article will tackle the myths and realities for social-media research. corporate focus groups (New York of social-media research and provide a Because social media’s purpose is to Times). They have found that social- case study that demonstrates how social- share information, ideas, personal mes- media research can effectively obtain media research can be used to effectively sages and other content, consumers are insights that are traditionally gleaned in replace focus groups. comfortable giving feedback to brands in focus group settings and even outper- this forum. In fact, research conducted form focus groups on activities such as types of Social-Media research by Nielsen indicated that more than half engaging niche targets, gathering behav- Before we dive into comparing social- of consumers prefer to provide brand ioral data and developing and optimi- media research to focus groups, let’s get feedback using social-media platforms. zing new product ideas. Essentially, on the same page about what social- Overall, social-media research offers social-media research has the potential media research is. Social-media research a wide range of capabilities, some that

major companies like Frito-Lay, estée Lauder and Walmart are already using social-media tools like Facebook to replace corporate focus groups.

12 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

Should You replace Focus Groups with Social-media research? C o N t i N u e D

more directly overlap with focus groups method, more sophisticated and costly ate social-media posts, this method may than others. Four common social- social-media monitoring tools are often not be applicable. media research methods are monitor- needed to quickly and accurately clas- ing, discussion, co-creation and private sify posts. Co-Creation groups. Figure 1 summarizes the power Co-creation and crowdsourcing have of each of these methods to replace Discussion become major industry trends. This focus groups. Social-media discussion research involves type of social-media research essentially engaging consumers in two-way conver- involves leveraging public social-media Monitoring sations using public social-media sites. sites to generate and optimize ideas. For When you think of social-media Many retailers, service providers and example, LEGO® created its own social- research, probably the first thing that consumer-goods manufacturers have media site called CUUSOO where con- comes to mind is monitoring. Social- discovered that social-media comments sumers submit new product ideas, com- media monitoring involves listening to not only drive purchases but also pro- ment and build on others’ ideas and and classifying consumer conversations vide critical feedback that can help them vote on their favorites. Researchers can on public social-media sites. One exam- stay competitive. Savvy brands like mine the database of posts to see what ple of a free monitoring site is www. Rubbermaid are aggregating consumer types of ideas are most popular. They socialmention.com. To use the site, just comments and complaints onto their can segment ideas based on the demo- type in a few keywords, and it will dis- website (reviews.rubbermaid.com). These graphics of the person who is submitting play all recent social-media posts using sites not only allow customer service to them and get a sense of the magnitude those words. It also tallies how many of better monitor conversations and easily of interest by grouping ideas and those posts were positive and negative, respond to consumer comments, but counting votes. as well as the number of posts by topic also they allow researchers to flush out While co-creation can give you feed- area. Monitoring sites often allow you problems and unmet needs for future back to new product ideas similar to to drill down and read individual posts product development. feedback from focus groups, it would that fit your interests. Overall, social-media discussions not be appropriate for proprietary ideas Given that monitoring is a passive offer two-way conversations similar to with high levels of confidentiality. Some approach, overall it acts as a replace- focus groups, but they may have limited companies are not comfortable using ment more for secondary research than applications based on a client’s desire public co-creation, as they are afraid it for focus groups. And while you can to discuss problems or ideas publicly. If will either leak proprietary insights or obtain a variety of insights using this your brands or products do not gener- create too much work to oversee.

figure 1. Likelihood of social-media methods to replace in-person qualitative (fountainhead).

PriVAtE grouPS high Co-CrEAtion

diSCuSSion

Monitoring

LoW types of Social Media research by their Ability to replace focus groups

14 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

Private Groups Private social-media groups build long-term relationships with consumers through private groups within Facebook, LinkedIn or other cloud-based, social- media platforms. Because social-media groups are often subgroups of a larger community, consumers are typically selected to fit specific screening criteria. Groups can last for days or months and range from a few dozen to hundreds of participants. One proprietary process for conducting Facebook groups typically lasts two months and involves three phases. In the first phase, the moderator reviews participant Facebook profiles, activities and interests to gain a more in-depth understanding of customer lifestyles. Each consumer posts some personal back- ground and images of specific occasions when he or she buys or uses a product in a certain product category. Partici- pants also engage in a discussion on their beliefs and values related to brands or products within the category. In the second phase, consumers discuss their ideal brand or product experience and post their ideas for specific solutions. Consumers can “like” each other’s ideas and build on them. In the final phase, more detailed solutions are presented to the consumer group. Ideas are evaluated both through individual surveys and group discussion. Private social-media groups offer the strongest potential to eliminate traditional focus groups, as they offer both privacy and two-way discussion. Once you have a social-media group set up, you get the most benefit if you keep the participants active for weeks or months. This approach makes private groups more appropriate for strategic initiatives than for “quick and dirty” research projects that seek answers in a few days.

Myths and realities So, why do researchers regard social- media research as inferior? Most people agree that engaging consumers in social media is faster and cheaper than other qualitative methods. The challenge seems to come when we get to quality. Follow- ing are the top four arguments against using social-media research in lieu of focus groups. C o N t i N u e D Should You replace Focus Groups with Social-media research?

Myth: Social-media research misses Reality: Clients can see and hear custom- very little time for in-depth discussion. insights because you cannot see facial ers directly via social media. Methods A 90-minute focus group with 8 people expression, voice inflection or posture. like private groups allow you to build a allows for just over 10 minutes of com- Reality: Social media has removed many relationship with customers over weeks ments per person. A typical social-media of the barriers associated with observa- or months rather than minutes. Also, group allows consumers to spend an tion. While many social-media posts the posting of photos and videos often unlimited amount of time reading and are text based, the prevalence of smart- brings each consumer and his or her sit- responding to posts. Not only can the phones, tablets and computers with uation to life. If clients want to meet the moderator probe answers with the entire built-in video cameras makes it easy to customer, it is easy to supplement social- group or specific individuals, but also capture thoughts and actions on video. media groups with select in-person inter- participants often post their own clari- Also, social-media comments often views. For example, if you build a social- fying questions or start new streams of do not need to be “filtered” via body media group about toothpaste and find conversation based on what they read. language like in-person research. Why? that a few participants use toothpaste Also, social media allows consumers to When in-person interviewers evaluate for an alternative use that interests your post pictures or video to demonstrate non-verbal cues, they are often trying to client, you can choose to interview what they mean or even follow up with overcome social-desirability bias created those consumers in person. more accurate information after check- as a result of the consumer’s desire to ing their store or pantry. please the interviewer. The privacy of Myth: Focus groups are more commenting on social media offers a interactive and provide more In the end, each social-media research much lower level of social-desirabil- in-depth answers. method has pros as well as cons when ity bias. Reality: Focus groups actually offer compared to focus groups (see Table 1). Consider this test: would you be more comfortable criticizing someone in person or via email? It is much easier table 1. Pros and cons of social-media methods versus focus groups. to freely express your feelings and opinions when you do not have someone staring you in the face. Certain projects undoubtedly need to include in-person Social-media observation, but some qualitative objec- methods ProS CoNS tives can be easily accommodated via social media.

Myth: Social-media research captures • Explores consumers’ native language. • May or may not address your question. only young people, and you cannot • Offers real-time information. • May be time consuming and complex trust them to be whom they say. monitoring • Reflects consumers’ interests and to mine the data. Reality: Consumers of all ages are on priorities unprompted. • May or may not be your social media. Nielsen data indicates that target audience. more than 70% of consumers in every • Economically captures lead users • May limit conversations. age group use social-media sites. and influencers. • Lose proprietary insights when ideas Discussion Validation is also fairly easy using • Reflects consumers’ interests are discussed within a public forum. social media. Most social-media sites and priorities unprompted. have established member pages with profiles, friend lists, activity posting and • Gathers hundreds or thousands • Can be costly to set up and monitor. of ideas from around the world. • Risk losing patent rights if ideas are “likes” that can be used to confirm par- Co-Creation ticipant identity and weed out consum- • Allows consumers unlimited time discussed publicly. ers whose profile and past behavior are to comment or post. not consistent with the study require- • Can recruit low-incidence groups • Works best with active social- ments. Social-media recruits also in disparate locations. media users. have the advantage of not being pro- • Can collect observational data • May not fit with quick turnaround fessional respondents. Many consum- by viewing social-media profiles, projects (due to setup and run times). ers recruited through social-media fan activities and posts. pages have never participated in market Private • Get to know consumers over weeks research before. Communities or months. • Can collect behavioral data while Myth: I could do research on social behaviors happen (in store or at home). media, but it is important for my • Often allow for both individual or client to see and hear prospective group discussions. customers.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 17 Should You replace Focus Groups with Social-media research? C o N t i N u e D

In many cases, social-media research reply if they had an answer or if they group participants were using a printed offers features that are not available in had similar questions or issues. This version of the Use and Care Manual, focus groups. Monitoring, discussion revealed unmet needs that were not artic- they gave more detailed feedback and co-creation all allow you to derive ulated in a focus group setting. Also, due on both the wording and the navi- what is important to customers organi- to the longer timeframe of the Facebook gation of the paper book. Many of the cally by observing unprompted posts groups, the client was able to develop Facebook participants viewed the Use and comments. Private groups allow you some concepts and receive specific feed- and Care Manual as a .pdf file rather to observe participants’ social-media back on new program ideas without than printing it, so they had a different behavior outside of the group and within adding a separate research step. usage experience. their own environment. Consumers also The focus group method did uncover Overall, findings were consistent post purchases or usage as they happen, a few insights that were unique versus enough to validate the Facebook group combining the benefits of focus groups the Facebook group. Because focus method. Also, the cost for completing and ethnography into a single study. Social-media research can often accommodate both one-on-one conversations table 2. Appliance study comparing facebook groups and focus group methodology. and group discussion, allowing for activities where group bias might be a concern or when sensitive topics need to be discussed privately.

Side-by-Side Case Study Perhaps the best way to illustrate Facebook Group Focus Groups how social-media research might Sample for both included new brand owners recruited from a list of the appliance replace focus groups is to provide a recruitment concrete example. In spring 2011, an company’s registered owners. appliance company hired our firm to Sample 30 participants 4 groups of 5 participants conduct research among new buyers to understand how to create the optimal length 7 weeks, 30 minutes per week 1 day, 90 minutes per group post-purchase experience for brand Sample Nationally diverse 1 city users. In order to determine the via- Geography bility of future social-media studies, the observers Logged in via Facebook Flown in from all over the country client decided to accomplish its objective through both Facebook groups and • PDF version of Use and Care Manual • Mailed version of Use and Care Manual traditional focus groups. An MBA stu- (available online) (many did not have it). Stimulus dent from UW-Madison’s A.C. Nielsen • Links to website and company • Shown specific sections of website Center for Marketing Research partici- Facebook page. and Facebook page via projector. pated in the project and wrote a white Introductions – week 1 Introductions – 10 min. paper on the methodological differences. Use and Care Manual Mark-up – week 2 Use and Care Manual Mark-up Table 2 provides a side-by-side compari- Website/Registration – week 3 (homework) – 15 min. son, including key differences in method Discussion Emails/Social Media – week 4 Website/Registration – 20 min. and findings. Guide Dealer/Showroom Follow-Up – week 5 Emails/Social Media – 20 min. Overall, Facebook groups and focus groups were both able to meet the Ideas for New Owners– week 6 Dealer/Showroom Follow-Up – 10 min. client’s objectives. Both had similar sam- React to Ideas – week 7 Ideas for New Owners – 20 min. ple composition and had nearly identi- • Collected unique information • Collected unique feedback based on cal discussion-guide content. And the based on ongoing questions and paper version of the Use and Care insights gained from each method over- maintenance issues. Manual (vs. online viewing). lapped significantly. However, the Face- • Uncovered unmet needs (information • Experienced more discussion book groups were able to uncover more that customers were seeking but could related to specific language in the unique insights versus the focus group not find) based on ongoing conversa- Use and Care Manual. method. Because consumers were able result tion of the group. to navigate the website on their own Differences • Impact of client website navigation time, they identified more issues and and video-streaming difficulties were posted detailed feedback on the website more prominent. and related videos. While participating • Gained feedback to a proposed in the panel, they were able to post ques- Customer Care program based on tions that came up as a new owner, and customer ideas and suggestions. other Facebook panelists were able to

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Should You replace Focus Groups with Social-media research? C o N t i N u e D

Facebook groups was about 25% less for individuals to discuss brands and video and social-media communications. on a per-participant basis than focus products. The nature of social-media In addition, companies may use both groups. In this instance, using the Face- research will result in improvements in social-media and in-person approaches book groups to gain initial insights as the quality of research insights, as well within the same project. For example, well as concept feedback eliminated the as a better ROI through more efficient companies may create social-media need for a second round of focus groups, research approaches. groups where they have consumers cap- ultimately helping the client get to mar- However, social-media research will ture video of shopping or usage, but ket faster. not always be an either/or choice versus they also supplement communities with in-person qualitative. For example, com- in-person observation. What’s next? panies may use in-person approaches to One challenge those of us in the Over the next five years, social access high-touch customers who prefer research profession face is the question media will transform how compa- using telephone support, in-person shop- of who will take the lead in building nies engage with and learn from con- ping or physical catalogs, although that methods for social-media research. His- sumers and other stakeholders. Social same company may use social-media torically, companies have reached out media will become the primary place research to develop websites, emails, to their marketing research departments to answer consumer questions. In the era of social media, every division within the organization potentially has direct access to consumers through social media. Without researchers involved in Social media will transform how companies developing methods, measuring effec- engage with and learn from consumers and tiveness and building standards, social- media research could mislead compa- other stakeholders. nies through unreliable and invalid research design. Whether you are a client-side mar- keter or research provider, your leadership in cultivating effective social-media research methods is critical in influenc- ing organizations to make good consumer-based business decisions. Ulti- mately, the question is not whether you should replace focus groups with social media research, but how you integrate social-media research into your overall plans for consumer engagement.

references “Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare as Corporate Focus Groups.” The New York Times. July 30, 2012. Wingate, Monika. “Should You Replace Focus Groups with Social Media Research?” American Marketing Association. July 7, 2012. “LEGO® CUUSOO.” http://lego. cuusoo.com. March 20, 2013. “How Social Media Impacts Brand Marketing.” Nielsen. October 14, 2011. “State of the Media: The Social Media Report.” Nielsen. Q3 2011. “Using Secret Facebook Groups for New Product and Branding Research.” Gail Casey and Dan Sarbacker. May 2011.

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• trEndS • CuStomer Co-CreatioN via Crowdsourcing… Disruption at its Finest

By Kevin Lonnie KL Communications • red Bank, NJ • [email protected]

his article is about disruption. groundbreaking and changed the way intention; it is drawn by simple econom- To put things in perspective, we did things and sparked an industry? ics. If the customer can help to suc- t let’s look at some truly disruptive For me, that would be the focus cessfully identify, develop and vet new introductions over the past decade: group, a technique that dates back well opportunities, the likelihood of success • 2001 = iPod — Although MP3 over 50 years. When your last revolu- increases exponentially! players had been on the market tionary idea is eligible to join AARP, it Crowdsourcing meets the value for a few years, the iPod accelerated is time to innovate! proposition of today’s consumer, where change in how music is consumed Innovation requires us to apply our the primary currency is social currency. and distributed. unique skills to the unmet needs of 21st In crowdsourcing, a challenge is issued • 2004 = Facebook — Not the first century business. I doubt many qual to a diversified group of consumers. The “social network,” but today Facebook practitioners would define themselves screening process takes care of itself, as is the ubiquitous social-media way to as people who only do “groups.” Focus only those with applicable knowledge connect and communicate with friends groups have been a convenient means to and a passion to compete in the chal- and family. an end, a place where moderators work lenge need apply. Talentless mercenaries • 2007 = iPhone — Six years ago, their magic. While the slow and gradual will quickly become discouraged, since we carried around a Blackberry, a cell demise of brick-and-mortar groups will simply showing up is no longer suffi- phone and a digital camera. Now that play itself out over the next decade, there cient to get paid. Instead, crowdsourcing we have our smartphone, we cannot are new opportunities for the talented employs principles of gamification that even remember where we left that qualitative expert. help create a fun (and mildly addic- digital camera. A combination of social and tive) iterative process to achieve prod- With that in mind, what was the last economic forces is moving to help re- uct development. truly disruptive advance in qualitative engineer the ideation process. Compa- At its core, crowdsourcing is com- research? And I am not talking about nies are intrigued by the potential of pletely reliant on the skills of the mod- iterative enhancements. Rather, what has co-creating with their loyal customers. erator. This process tests the most impor- happened in our field that has been truly This is not from any underlying altruistic tant skills of a qualitative researcher —

22 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org analyzing qualitative data, uncovering ucts being launched almost constantly, internet-enabled TVs) and energy man- key trends, inspiring innovation and Sony wanted to hear firsthand from agement. These members were part of serving as liaison between the “crowd” consumers what they wanted. a wide-ranging community of 2,000+ and the client. To find a “wise crowd,” we screened Sony customers, including head- Traditional qual looks to under- Sony Electronics’ online consumer panel phone users, tablet users, college stu- stand the underlying motivators behind and invited 234 members who expressed dents, etc. These “normal consum- a customer’s stated reactions to prod- passion for a variety of consumer elec- ers,” when brought together, created a ucts or concepts. In that role, the con- tronics (including mobile devices and “wise crowd.” sumer remains in a passive, reactive capacity. In sharp contrast, the crowd and the crowdsourcing moderator drive the ideation car! The success of the co- creation process (e.g., the car’s destination) is dependent on the ability of Analysis the moderator to tap into the wisdom of crowds. finalists It might be helpful to explain the difference between crowdsourcing and cus- Curation tomer co-creation. Customer co-creation refinement is the noun; it is what we are looking to achieve. Crowdsourcing is the verb; it idea is the process by which we achieve cus- Scoring tomer co-creation. In that sense, crowd- idea sourcing is the means to the end (cus- generation tomer co-creation). The impact that qual research exerts on a firm’s bottom line has traditionally been difficult to measure, However, in a crowdsourcing challenge, the impact of the research can be plainly determined by the success of the ensuing product/ We presented the challenge to 234 Sony Front line members service created. This takes qual to a new (from a panel of 2,000) and led them through this process. level, firmly integrated into the strategic engine of the new-product development process. Cool idea, right? Ah, but will it work each stage was carefully managed by klC and Sony electronics in practice? Let me take you through a crowdsourcing project that we recently – this is not just customer collaboration, but collaboration conducted with Sony Electronics. among customers. We used a variation of crowdsourcing that we call CrowdWeaving™, which is an iterative process. It begins with idea generation but relies on collaboration from all stakeholders to improve and flesh out those ideas. CrowdWeaving in two weeks, we received: allowed members of a proprietary online panel to help co-create with Sony! 109 unique ideas Case Study Example — Sony Electronics

The challenge: If you could combine 654 Comments any electronic products on the market to make your life easier, what would you design, and how would it work? Today’s consumer-electronics market 1,273 Votes is evolving very quickly. With new prod-

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 23 Customer Co-Creation via Crowdsourcing… C o N t i N u e D

All of that detail was not created because of an individual, but because an individual spurred a wise crowd to refine it and help it evolve. this is how a crowd can truly help you drive new innovation.

Idea Generation & Idea Scoring Below is an example of the conver- a necessary step to ensure the practical (Stages 1 & 2) sation spurred by an initial idea. “I like adaptation of the co-creation process. The first version of what ultimately the concept. But… it seemed cluttered” became the winning idea had some was a comment left by one member. This Finalists & Analysis (Stages 5 & 6) good detail and a relatively high score then initiated a response by the author We went back to our six finalists and (ranking 4th out of 44 ideas). It was still to gain a better understanding of what had them submit a final updated version a diamond in the rough, though, and the member meant by “cluttered.” for the last round of collaboration. not fully developed. Although members This back and forth is constantly In the case of the specific winning idea embraced the idea, they did not sit idly forging the original idea. The author is for this Sony Challenge, the winning by. They immediately began critiquing able to modify his idea in real time as author was greatly aided by the process. and offering suggestions. That is the this discussion is happening or come To the author’s credit, he acknowledged charm of this process: the initial idea back to it later and consider the feed- each and every one of the more than continues to evolve because once it is back as a whole. 30 comments/suggestion he received. put out there, true collaboration begins. Then we worked with Sony to eval- Although the original idea, while The next step of collaboration reveals uate our best ideas. This is the step we inspired, lacked depth and specifics, his the power of crowdsourcing. referred to as “Curation.” We identified final idea was now fully developed. six ideas that were the best developed Refinement & Curation and rated, as well as feasible to pursue. (Stages 3 & 4) Often during curation, the ideas that oriGiNal iDea FiNal SubmiSSioN In the refinement stage, the original become finalists are aided by things out- authors now draw on others’ knowl- side the creative process. They may be 125 words 414 words edge, comments and ideas to continue “low-hanging fruit,” ideas that are sim- developing their own idea. But, since ple and relatively inexpensive to imple- this is a collaborative process, the origi- ment. Or the crowd may have suggested Two detailed illustrations nal authors are also expected to rate an idea that is already in some form No by the author — and comment on other ideas, provid- of implementation, thus allowing the illustrations • Navigation illustration ing those authors with the same level crowd’s suggestions to be integrated at • Schematic overview of feedback. the inception of product launch. This is Intriguing, but Still intriguing, lacking in details but now fleshed out

All of that detail was not created because of an individual, but because an individual spurred a wise crowd to refine it and help it evolve. This is how a crowd can truly help you drive new innovation. So, what did Sony think of co-creating with customers? Here are a couple of quotes from Jessica Bates, Research Manager at Sony Electronics: “Crowdweaving provided us the wonderful opportunity to involve our customers in idea and product development. The best part was that our customers had the freedom to be creative, and we had the ability to frame it within areas that were a good fit for our business.

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Customer Co-Creation via Crowdsourcing… C o N t i N u e D

The fact that elements of the winning of professional innovators?” This, of ing and commenting, etc.). Regardless, idea are now being incorporated into course, serves to delay the inevitable as the key is to obtain a diverse crowd, future planning speaks volumes to how long as possible. which means it should be geographi- valuable this is.” We need to remember sometimes that cally dispersed. So, if you plan to con- “Not only did we get a pulse on what market research is essentially a cottage duct offline co-creation, I recommend consumers wanted, but we also were industry. Other forces are in play on a you choose several diverse geographic able to validate concepts we’d been far grander scale that will help liberate locations. The same logic that would working on internally and add to others the idea of customer co-creation. have you choose multiple focus group that were still in development.” Doc Searls of Harvard’s Berkman markets applies here, which is to elim- Center for Internet & Society recently inate the possibility of geographic bias. Customer Co-Creation wrote a book titled The Intention Econ- The choice of online versus offline via Crowdsourcing — omy: When Customers Take Charge. does not have to be mutually exclusive. the next Big thing? Searls feels that we will move from a Who says you can’t issue your crowd- If customer co-creation is truly disrup- market designed to control and capture sourcing challenge offline and then have tive innovation, how much of an impact consumers to one where we forge life- the idea submission and judging done will it make? To be candid, we have long relationships with core customers. online? When you think about it, that to temper our enthusiasm with sober- When businesses begin to think is basically how reality TV shows like ing realities. in those terms, the walls of elitism will American Idol collect their votes. In his book, The Innovator’s come down and the desire for ongoing Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen meaningful dialogue with customers will issuing Your Challenge / points to the different adoption curves take over. And, this will be driven by good economic sense. Creating with cus- Ladies & Gentlemen, between sustainable innovation and Start Your Engines! disruptive innovation. Essentially, sus- tomers and playing “up” to them instead of talking down to them create a com- Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, tainable innovation is a “no-brainer” so make sure you have your group upgrade that everyone can easily see is petitive advantage. To date, the role of customers in primed for action. To begin, you want better than the way we do things now to make the start of the challenge an — for example, doing a screener using product/service ideation has been mar- event. Build in a few days from when the CATI, as opposed to doing it via paper ginalized. Customers have been resigned challenge is issued to the time when the and pencil. to the passenger seat of the creative proc- ideas are accepted. Finally, issue an alert Disruptive technologies, however, ess (“What do you think of this con- (e.g., text alert, email, etc.) when you replace the status quo. As such, they cept?”). They have never been given the are ready for the Idea Generation stage. tend to be initially marginalized. So, opportunity to drive the car themselves. In the Sony case study, we received short term, I think customer co-creation As for qualitative practitioners, more than 30 ideas in the first two will be accepted only by early adopters, we are the conduit to the customer. As hours. This initial whirlwind of activity no matter how many success stories ideation power is shared with the cus- emerge in 2013. tomer, we derive additional clout. Our galvanized the crowd and sparked the Politics are also involved. Inviting ability to weave customer input into ide- participants’ competitive juices. customers to the ideation party will be ation will allow us to achieve discernible unsettling to current incumbents. There and measurable ROIs. final thoughts will be sanctimonious pushback: “Cus- Customer co-creation moderation is a tomers don’t know what they want until in-Person Versus online skill to develop now. Although the adop- we show it to them!” Or “How can the Most aspects of crowdsourcing lend tion curve is likely to be initially slow, average customer contribute an idea themselves to the online environment it will take off with or without you. I that’s going to be better than a team (e.g., collaborating, refining ideas, rank- encourage you to take this journey!

the art of Curation birth of the Focus Group

Here — http://youtu.be/gyiVCqf23ca — is a great clip about There is some dispute over the first use/introduction of the focus the art of curating, explained by Hans Ulrich Obrist, who is group, but to be conservative in our claim that the term has been the co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and director of around for over 50 years, we can refer back to sociologist Robert International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in London. He Merton, who wrote a book titled The Focused Interview in 1956. speaks very well to the role of the researcher in co-creation and how “moderators” can embrace the idea of “curator.”

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• ToolBox •

When Ethnography REally WoRks By Michael Donovan, Ph.D. Practica Group, LLC • Brooklyn, NY • [email protected]

hen ethnography really works, it What Is Art? changes the frame of understand- W ing; it upends rather than confirms My colleague, Rita Denny, began a thinking. In the upending, the impossi- project for the Detroit Institute of Arts ble becomes possible, creating a win for (DIA) by asking the ethnographic (rather clients, consumers and researchers. than philosophical) question, “What is This effect of “upending” takes us art?” She was hired to provide strategic beyond those occasional challenges to direction for a creative strategy that incoming assumptions that any diligent would ignite visits to the newly reno- researcher might voice. As anthropolo- vated museum. By “foregoing the place gists, we are trained to view the field of interest,” her ethnographic research itself with some critical distance. Envi- took place outside the precincts of the sioning a research space, we ask, “Who art museum to explore where art lives in are the people we need to attend to? peoples’ lives, hearts and imaginations. What voices should we listen to? What She talked to people in their homes and are the times, places and spaces that asked them to create an “ode” to their matter, the behaviors and the artifacts favorite piece of art, and with them, of those behaviors that situate our pro- she visited their favorite places for ject within a broader web of social rele- aesthetic experiences. vance and cultural meanings?” The research explored how “art” Taken together, such things constitute connected to her respondents’ every- “the field,” which is an analytical space day experience, especially its power to that we anthropologists like to problem- momentarily transform the quotidian, atize. Put differently, for anthropologi- to take a person out of the ordinary as cally trained ethnographers, the field is a he or she moves through it, such as pass- space of learning, discovery, observation ing a daughter’s picture on the refriger- and, quite importantly, negotiated mean- ator door or glancing at a photograph ings that emerge in conversations and at a morning coffee stop. These dis- interactions with our respondents and coveries, far afield from the museum (ideally) our clients. So, we begin a pro- itself, provided her clients with a new ject asking questions like: What is a vocabulary to communicate the expe- snack? What is investing? What is TV? riential pleasures of a trip to the DIA. What is masculinity? What is a family By connecting art’s transformational car? What is a drug? What makes a powers to the everyday, the museum’s mom a mom? What is a garden? These ad campaign provided new pathways to questions often seem naïve to our clients the museum experience. The research who come to a project with deep cate- findings upended our tacit assump- gory knowledge. Yet, when ethnography tions about museums and the cultural “really works,” it starts with questions barriers that disconnect “art” from like these. daily lives.

28 QRCA VIEWS Fall 2013 www.qrca.org QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 29 When ethnography really Works C o N t i N u e D

What is Personal Care? care product can mean and do in the ing class and professionals, young sin- U.S. market. gles, young families and empty nesters. Patti Sunderland, another colleague, Our ambition (and promised deliver- redirected a consumer package-goods What is a garden? able) was to create “ethnographic por- client beyond the familiar domestic traits” foregrounding respondents’ rela- terrain of personal care in an effort to For the following case study, “foregoing tionships to plants, green spaces, parks locate “white space” for new product presuppositions,” I will tell the story of and gardens, culminating in their percep- development in the U.S. market. She did how doing ethnography for the Brook- tions of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Our so by “foregoing the people of interest” lyn Botanic Garden led to a radical research design included extended visits — instead of interviewing the usual cus- redefinition of the field, both for our to respondents’ homes and the green tomer respondents, Patti employed cross- clients and ourselves. The “presuppo- spaces and places they identified in their cultural comparisons (a classic anthro- sitions” that Practica partner Charley communities, as well as respondent-led pological method) to discover new forms Scull and I ended up foregoing included “tours” of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. of feeling and new meanings for the rit- many incoming assumptions about peo- As “homework,” we also asked respond- uals surrounding personal-care products. ple and place, that is to say core incom- ents to create two collages: one that She learned from her French responding assumptions about the field itself. showed the pleasures they experience ents how personal care purposely opens We were engaged to help the Gar- in gardens and another that depicted a space of tactile exploration and enjoy- den with strategies that would increase what they love to do in the outdoors ment, and from her Vietnamese research, the frequency of visitors coming from and nature. she learned how such products are rit- “under-represented” communities in the These portraits were meant to ually activated to create “mood.” borough of Brooklyn. Together with our capture elements of neighborhood Patti identified two distinct experien- clients, we selected a number of neigh- and ethnicity, something that danced tial and emotional spaces in which her borhoods to visit, which (supported by artfully (we hoped) between composite clients’ product could thrive in the U.S. recent census data) served as geographic and singular portraits of the Chinese market. By translating the culturally proxies for various ethnic groups. These or the Mexicans of Sunset Park, the grounded experience of others (French included Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, Pan- Afro-Caribbeans of East Flatbush or and Vietnamese women) into an idiom amanian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Afri- the Italians or the Irish of Bay Ridge, that makes cultural sense to Americans, can American, Russian and “heritage etc. Ultimately, the portraits were posi- that of “personal space,” she expanded ethnics” (e.g., Irish and Italian, among tioned as a resource for Garden design the possibilities of what a personal- others). Our sample had a mix of work- and programming, as well as achieving our principal goal of providing direc- tional insights for diversity marketing and outreach. I think it is fair to say that Charley and I “entered the field” (a revealing locution in itself, is it not?) with an anthropological bias that ethnicity and neighborhood deeply mattered, deter- minately so, in defining the field. We believed these would be our core frames of reference and meaning. We reasoned that ethnicity and, to a lesser extent, neighborhood would reflect and encom- pass distinctive aesthetics, values and relationships towards plants, the outdoors, parks and gardens and that these cultural beliefs and practices, at the core of people’s identities, would be relevant in understanding their connections, or lack of “connectedness,” to the Gar- den. The portraits would provide an ethnographic key for effective communications, design innovation and program development. Based on these assumptions, which I think it is also fair to say were shared by our clients, we collaboratively con- structed an image and vision of the field

30 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org that foregrounded ethnicity and neighborhood and, if you are familiar with the demographic geography of Brook- lyn, also subsumed distinctions based on income and class.

Fieldwork Discoveries We began fieldwork in the very early spring, wearing winter jackets while observing crocuses popping out of the ground and buds swelling on trees. From the start, there was no doubt that ethnicity did matter, as did class and, we discovered, life stage and domestic cycle. (Not surprisingly, the Garden had different practical and social meanings for families with young kids, single hipsters and retired empty nesters.) Such elements of identity proved to be critical in interpreting our respondents’ relationships to plants, green spaces, parks and gardens. The more we took in, however, the more it seemed that we were confronted with a tangle of particularities. Our single 20-something Burmese respondent both perplexed and inspired us. Despite living in a stark industrial zone of Sunset Park, he saw the whole borough in metaphoric and emotional terms as a “green space” of discovery and learning and “growth.” And he claimed no nostalgia for the steamy trop- ical greenness of his boyhood. In contrast, our Caribbean and Panamanian respondents recall living in a world where “nature” was everywhere, a clamorously bright and sensual topos of birds, pigs, coconuts and mango trees. Their migration stories were about sep- aration from that green world and their adult efforts to reconnect with it through houseplants, gardens and other green spaces and places in Brooklyn. Our Mexican informants had a positively Proustian connection to home-country food plants, which were found in neighborhood markets, their backyard gardens and, in one instance, the Desert Pavilion in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Plant names, tastes and recipes were all mobilized in the revitalization of mem- ory and identity. There were also the urban “farmers,” all rather different in their outlooks. Mike grew Chinese cucumbers in construction buckets, begrudgingly in tune with the rapid economic intensifica- tion overtaking his once much greener Cantonese, but now densely Mandarin- When ethnography really Works C o N t i N u e D

speaking neighborhood. Lashon, a com- Bedford-Stuyvesant. Jeanette, a New brownstone to plant a Japanese maple. munity gardener whose plantings carry Orleans transplant, who had caught the And then there was hipster Mathew echoes of her rural Southern heritage, “locavore” spirit of eating locally grown (who stretched the notion of farming), asserted a deep affiliation with her food, grew a fig tree, berries and pole with an oversized table that dominated historically African-American, now- beans in her backyard and had cut the his living space, designed for communal gentrifying childhood community of concrete out in front of her Bay Ridge meals that drew on the local farmers’ market and a range of Brooklyn arti- sanal food products. This conceptual blending of foods, markets and Brook- lyn localness with green space proved to be an interesting thread to follow. Ethnicity, class and the shifting sands of local geography are all implicated in these stories (and the portraits we were crafting). In strategic terms, though, they lead in many different directions. This is a stubborn challenge for any outreach project that aims to increase “diversity.” Simply, what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander. And, given the finite resources that any institution can bring to bear, what sorts of diversity does one choose to privilege? Such con- cerns plagued us as we began assem- bling portraits that set us off on different trajectories — different aesthetics, different projects, different material conditions and different relationships to green spaces. Examining our sample of respondents by “official” neighborhood proved even less productive. The kinds of distinctions one might draw between Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Flatbush and East Flatbush (our chosen destinations) rested on demographic statistics and the vague sort of cultural capital that real estate agents employ when they are marketing a particular zip code. Bay Ridge is the place to move to when you “grow up” (have kids, achieve career goals, get a drive- way to park your car). Sunset Park is an exemplar of Brooklyn diversity, with its Chinese and Mexican avenues (8th and 5th respectively), “authentic” ethnic markets, restaurants and botánica shops. Sunset Park has become a con- genial neighborhood for the creative class, who cannot afford the bourgeois trimmings of nearby Park Slope. East Flatbush is now an enclave of house- proud Afro-Caribbean, Panamanian and African immigrants who have revital- ized blocks and blocks of semi-detached homes once owned by Jews and Italians. To be sure, there are some sociological truths to be mined here from the cross hatching of place, class and ethnicity.

32 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org But these “identities” seemed too dif- fuse to leverage in any relevant ways for the Garden. However, when we explored relationships between community and place, we made some exciting discoveries. We learned that neighbors were making connections through plants in ways that would escape casual observation. As our respondents and field observations showed us, plants were carriers of a whole bundle of shared meanings and values that made these connections resil- ient: shared aesthetics (shared values and ideas about design, what “fit,” what was beautiful, etc.), shared knowledge about plants and what it takes to grow them (horticultural advice, soil management, etc.), shared stories about plant origins, personal reminiscences, how they might be used in recipes, etc. These shared connections, that we came to recognize as ultra-local expressions of community, were visible across backyard fences, in adjacent flower boxes, within the common front yards of family duplexes and along the street views of a single block. We also observed such expressions of micro-community in the style of local city parks and in the char- acter of neighborhood gardens created from fallow lots, even in the tree pits that neighbors and merchants banded together to protect and “beautify.”

Green Place Making: the Field Envisioned as a Process We described these processes of creation as “green place making.” Neighbors had created new green areas, often shared, everywhere we visited, regardless of ethnicity, neighborhood or class. In empiri- cal terms, this proved to be a unifying constant for our sample. In anthropological terms, such under-the-radar green places were concrete embodiments of identity and community. As our respondents expressed this, the green places they were creating were a means of “connecting” with their neighbors, with their pasts, with themselves, with plants and with nature. By examining these shared experiences, expressed through the common idiom “connecting,” we found a way to untangle the diversity and difference that had hitherto marked our respondents’ relationships to green spaces (gardens, parks and plants). When ethnography really Works C o N t i N u e D

ethnography truly matters when it enables us (and our clients) to see deeper structures of meaning and value that animate their brands, products and services. ethnography works best when it is driven by the anthropological spirit of unveiling and interrogating tacit assumptions about the field.

The ethnographic discovery of what substrate of shared experience in the tion are eclipsed in favor of a naïve nat- (going into this project) were “invisible,” service of diversity marketing. In each uralism that pervades popular concep- hyper-local communities pointed to new instance, we had the confidence of our tions of the in-home, shop-along, ride- ways of envisioning the field, which clients to pursue an ethnographic course along or dine-along. Take, for instance, proved to be very productive for us ana- of discovery that (happily) yielded what has become the pictorial cliché of lytically and (we supposed) could be unforeseeable dividends. consumer ethnography: the open refrig- highly relevant for our clients at the Gar- This capacity to challenge tacit erator and pantry doors (we could den. We re-imagined the congeries of assumptions is the core value (and add medicine cabinet, garage or snack diverse and distinct communities, defined virtue) of anthropologically grounded drawer). Looking in fridges might lead by the intersection of ethnicity and offi- ethnography. Ideally, by getting back us to deeper contextual knowledge cial neighborhood, as an ongoing crea- to foundational questions (What is about a product or behavior that could tive process of “green place making” personal care? What is art? What is a inspire innovation. Perhaps, and this is that could be observed happening across garden?), ethnography has the capacity really speculative, those rice crackers the borough. To be specific, this co- to provide deep context and thus prompt are implicated in interesting ways in creation encompasses and subsumes the us to look at our particular research gendered expressions of discipline and diversity we set out to chronicle. questions with those proverbial “fresh independence. And perhaps those pork The Garden now has the opportunity eyes,” with a kind of critical and oppor- rinds lead us to exploring commitments to forge deeper and more relevant rela- tunistic naiveté. to regional or class identities or to tionships with its diverse public, if it I say ideally because, in the business- expressions of masculinity. Perhaps. chooses to build on its current outreach oriented research realm we inhabit, tacit Absent the license to follow such programs and devise creative and mean- assumptions are deeply (very deeply) threads and explore such stories, how- ingful ways of participating in the proc- entrenched. It is a challenge to get a car ever, looking in the fridge is just as likely ess of “green place making.” In this company that designs for Millennials to confirm our shared conventions. It instance, we could say that ethnogra- out of cars and those ubiquitous “ride- does not shift our frame of reference phy shifted (rather than expanded) alongs” and to consider apps like Four- in any fundamental way. It does not parameters by re-envisioning the field square and Flipboard, not as features of “expand parameters.” It may, in fact, around the shared experiences and activ- their vehicle, but as a way of understand- have the effect of redoubling our com- ities of “green place making.” In shifting the meanings and experience of mitment to existing parameters and our ing parameters, the research offers new mobility for this cohort. Another chal- incoming assumptions of what the field opportunities for shifting the boundaries lenge might be to get a snack company looks like. And so, to paraphrase Karl between the Garden and its public, both to think about ways that “healthy Popper, convention becomes dogma. The literally and figuratively bringing the snacks” are embedded in Americans’ snacks (and any stories they may carry) Garden to communities, as well as bring- cultural commitment to “growing” chil- stay in the snack drawer. ing communities to the Garden. dren into autonomous adults. What then Ethnography really matters when it might this cultural commitment suggest enables us (and our clients) to see deeper Conclusions for product innovation, packaging and structures of meaning and value that branding? If the field can be positioned animate their brands, products and serv- In all three case studies, the conventional as a locus of discovery, learning and ices. Ethnography works best when it is parameters that define the field were negotiated meanings between research- driven by the anthropological spirit of discarded: we went outside the museum ers, clients and our respondents, such unveiling and interrogating tacit assump- to discover its relevance for would-be challenges can be met. tions about the field. When we challenge museum goers; we went outside the The value of ethnography is undercut our research suppositions, we can gen- U.S. to find new meanings and product when ethnography is viewed only as a erate wins for clients, consumers and attributes for personal-care products method “to bring consumers to life.” (most rewardingly) ourselves. in the American marketplace; and we Too often, interpretive possibilities that sidestepped diversity to find a deeper arise from a thick ethnographic descrip-

34 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

• tooLBox • How to Choose a Market for Your Study: rational and Personal approaches

By Carl iseman AIm • Baltimore, md, and Columbus, oh • [email protected]

a facility owner and field manager for more than 20 The brand and category development indexes are useful for years, i have often wondered why moderators pick understanding specific customer segments relative to the market as a certain markets for their research. I have noticed As whole. Depending on whether you are conducting a consumer or business two approaches that, when used together, can contribute to study, these indexes could also be calculated for customers, accounts, eliciting topnotch findings. businesses or other entities. the Statistical Strategy The brand development index (BDI) quantifies how well a brand is The first approach to choosing an appropriate market for qual- performing within a specific group of customers, compared with its itative research is a logical one and uses numbers to point a average performance among all consumers. researcher in the right direction. These numbers are data such as the brand development index (BDI), category development brand Development index = [brand Sales to Group (amount)/Number index (CDI), market share, demographics, psychographics or of Households in the Group] / [total brand Sales/total Number of any number of other metrics that tell researchers and their Households] clients if the particular market and its respondent pool would be a good source for insight into the subject under study. The category development index (CDI) measures the sales performance of One of my favorite sites for demographic information within a category of goods or services within a specific group, compared with its a metro market is www.zipskinny.com. To view data such as average performance among all consumers. median household income, education, occupation, unemploy- Category Development index = [Category Sales to Group/Number ment, racial/ethnic composition and percent of population in of Households in Group] / [total Category Sales/total Number of given income and age ranges, simply enter the zip codes surrounding the city or facility of interest. Households] Often (but not always), clients have access to market share and category and brand development indexes. Researchers can the intuitive Approach request brand or category share from their clients, which they The second approach makes use of a researcher’s combination may have calculated or estimated from other research or omni- of intuition and experience. This narrowing of the choice proc- bus studies in which they have participated. These indexes are ess may boil down to the research team’s level of comfort with calculated as follows. a facility’s ability to deliver. The team expects the facility to

36 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org provide the correct respondents, full service and amenities for the moderator and clients, and a reasonable price — all, of Market and Demographic Quality of Experience course, with no drama! The mix of market metrics and “softer” Considerations Considerations needs will vary from project to project and from moderator to moderator. For projects with easy-to-find respondents, the mod- • Market share statistics • Track record for recruiting erator might create diversity by mixing large and mid-size mar- (BDI & CDI) “on-spec” respondents kets and geography. • Demographic statistics that • High level of service and Within the chosen type of market (for instance, say, North- suggest how easy it will be to amenities for both moderator east corridor cities), however, creating a good experience for find the respondents you want and clients the moderator and clients may take precedence. For a busy (household income, race, age, • Technological know-how and moderator whose life is a series of projects between airport gender, occupation, etc.) necessary equipment visits, the proximity of the airport to the facility might be a • Proxies for how well a market • Proximity to airport and hotels deciding factor. For other moderators, it is the sense of com- area will fit a study (e.g., • Competitive pricing fort that comes from knowing that their favorite focus group population density, number • City attributes (near facility understands exactly how they operate: how often of hospitals) friends, great restaurants, and at what intervals they want to see spreadsheets, at what • Proxies for the likelihood of sightseeing, etc.) point during the recruiting process they are likely to discuss finding respondents with tar- accepting “holds,” how the hostess assists them in picking geted attitudinal and behavioral the best respondents from those that show, how they treat characteristics (psychographics) clients and, most importantly, the knowledge that they have (e.g., number of movie theaters, the wherewithal to successfully complete that low-incidence or if considering advertising difficult recruit. before movies) And when the key criteria necessary for a successful project have been satisfied — whether in a market with a brand development index that is high enough to assure a successful recruit, not the Best fit or the ability to stock the backroom with a client’s favorite A question raised on a market research blog asked, “Why wine — “quality of life” factors may kick in. For some, it is a do costs vary so much from facility to facility for the same matter of the cities they like to visit, the opportunity to dine at project?” One reader opined that it must be the differing a talked-about restaurant, the ability to visit relatives or friends overheads (rent, wages, etc.) incurred by the facility. Although the next day or overlapping work with sought-after concert rent and, therefore, facility rental charges vary from city to city tickets or a ballgame. and even within cities, the band is relatively narrow. Recruiting

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 37 How to Choose a market for Your Study C o N t i N u e D

costs and incentives have become standardized across the service, providing information where the product is sold and United States and rarely vary more than plus or minus 20%. who the competitors are will assist in understanding what it In my experience as a field manager, outlier costs usually might take in costs and time to recruit your respondents. occur when a facility or the chosen locale is not a good fit for a project. Consider high costs to be good feedback as you hone in Summary your methodology requirements. On occasion (I won’t tell you So, how does this all equate to picking appropriate markets? how often this has happened!), I have been asked to recruit a By having access to market share and respondent demographics, demographic that does not fit the city or the project. Examples you can better choose which geographic markets to include in include recruiting English-speaking Hispanic respondents in your study. Focus group facilities and recruiters can partner a city with a total Latino population of less than 1%, setting with you to help you determine which markets are more likely firm quotas for groups such as Aleuts (native Alaskans) in cities to recruit the respondents you need. Recruiters can give their like Shreveport, LA, or requiring the purchase of a high-end best pricing and feedback on the likelihood of a successful stove (more than $3,000) from respondents with household recruit when researchers provide clear respondent specs and incomes below $50,000/year. In any metro market, higher market information, such as incidence within the popula- recruiting costs directly reflect the expected incidence of a tion, CDI, BDI and client/competitor market share, whether respondent type. The time spent by recruiters to find that gleaned from the client sponsoring the research or from second- elusive respondent will be costly. ary research. The more you as a researcher can share about your target In short, when choosing a market for your research study, respondents, the easier it will be for recruiters to identify poten- start by ensuring that the market has the types of respondents tial participants in their database and/or make an educated you need. Then, choose facilities within those markets that guess at the incidence in the population. To the extent that can deliver the type of experiences you want for yourself and your research project is focused on a particular product or your clients.

38 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

• tooLBox •

JumPStartiNG iNNoVatioN tHrouGH WHiteSPaCe reSearCH

By Maria Shepherd data decision Group • Lincoln, mA • [email protected]

you know an industry really graphics, public policy, competitive new well? If so, you may be ready technologies or an innovator who recog- do to provide whitespace research nizes unmet customer needs. — premium-priced qualitative research A great example was 3M’s Post-it® that identifies possible disruptive change notes. Post-it notes were disruptive to that can create opportunities for highly the stapler and paper-clip industries. The profitable, leapfrog innovation for inventor of Post-it notes saw the huge your clients. unmet customer need for an easy-to-add/ easy-to-remove solution to the process What is disruptive innovation? of managing paperwork, typically in Opportunities abound. Whitespace an office environment. In my home and research is the art of recognizing and office, Post-it notes are ubiquitous. I defining product opportunities. The goal have them sticking everywhere: on my is to identify new golden-egg opportu- computer and the bathroom mirror (def- nities — yet not seen — that may have initely gets my husband’s attention). That emerged due to market disruptions little, yellow piece of paper sends a “read caused by dynamically changing demo- me” message that is tough to match.

42 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

Jumpstarting innovation through Whitespace research C o N t i N u e D

how do QrCs Perform 3. Conduct one-hour qualitative If you do not experience it yourself, you Whitespace research? interviews (face to face is preferable, may know someone with back pain, and It starts with qualitative research but telephone is acceptable) with 20 for many people, the pain is debilitat- based on the voice-of-the-customer to 25 carefully selected respondents. ing. In Graph 1, a description of the (VOC) or outcome-driven innovation 4. Produce a verbatim transcription of spine patient’s treatment status (or lack (ODI) research pioneered by Anthony each interview. thereof) has been created based on the W. Ulwick, author of What Customers 5. Analyze the interviews with care- one published by the Viscogliosi Bros, Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innova- fully selected client stakeholders LLC, in their article, “Spine Industry tion to Create Breakthrough Products (if possible). Analysis, 2004.” The Viscogliosi broth- and Services. When applied in an indus- 6. Identify strategic spaces that ers are renowned investors in orthopedic try, both methodologies work to dig into are underserved. medical devices. The dotted lines define the customers’ wants and needs through 7. Identify low-hanging-fruit product the large treatment gap in spine treat- in-depth interviews. These processes peel ideas (this is a bonus for the client, ment and care. Creating a product here back the layers until they identify the but we never promise these bonuses would leapfrog the competition and core need that can be addressed through in advance). propel clients into a leadership position. innovative development. Good inter- The left portion of the X axis starts viewers excel in these methodologies. Focus on a specific segment with patients with low-moderate pain; Outcome-driven innovation pres- of an industry. these patients benefit from OTC pain ents Ulwick’s newest research on gaining If you are an industry expert, you can meds and physical therapy. At the far customer insights, and it has withstood do this research on your own, but if you end of the X axis are the patients with the test of time in the medical device are not, this process will require a signif- pain so unmanageable that they must industry. Rick Faleschini, Vice Presi- icant, pre-arranged investment of time go for disc replacement or, in extreme dent of Marketing, Johnson & Johnson, with client experts to identify product cases, fusion surgery. In particular, says about ODI: “Being outcome-driven ideas and whitespace strategic space fusion carries many quality of life issues, enabled us to grow our market share that is underserved. even after full recovery. It does not get in the angioplasty balloon market from Here is an example of the unmet more “whitespace” than this in ortho- less than one percent to over twenty needs of back pain and spine surgery. pedic surgery. percent and to create the stent (a huge unmet need in the business of treating heart disease), which became graph 1. a billion-dollar business in less than two years.”

how to do Medical device Whitespace research It is best to have a deep understanding of an industry before attempting whitespace research. Otherwise, your findings may seem superficial to your client. One of my medtech clients was disappointed in an agency that was hired to provide customer insights leading to Most patients under whitespace development. They told me this curve suffer back that the most insightful finding presented

# of Patients pain, with no treatment to them was that “clinicians in the oper- — this is white space. ating room wear sneakers because they are on their feet all day.” Great stuff for a shoe manufacturer, not so good for a medical device industry giant. Here is an overview of the steps:

1. Focus on a specific segment Conservative total Disc replacement Fusion of an industry. Care 2. Create a discussion guide that encourages respondents to fully Severity of treatment describe their unmet needs, problems or issues.

44 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org C o N t i N u e D Jumpstarting innovation through Whitespace research

Create a discussion guide that not a priority, so establishing contact Analyze the interviews with clients, encourages respondents to fully is important. and capture highly relevant quotes describe their unmet needs, and In addition, verbatim transcriptions on sticky notes. then interview them and transcribe. are an essential next step, especially if Go through each interview and write the This is where VOC/ODI experience client experts are working with you. highly relevant quotes on Post-it notes. comes in handy. I always refer to Ulwick’s books when creating a whitespace methodology-based discussion guide so that I can methodically uncover unmet needs, nice-to-have and must-have benefits and product solutions where customers are indifferent. You will not know which category the needs you are uncovering fall into until after the analysis. Your goal during the interview is to identify as many areas of frustration or lengthy, over-complicated tasks as possible, without letting respondents go off on tangents. A short list of my favorite discussion- guide questions that I use with physician respondents come from Ulwick’s books. They are: • Can patient treatments be executed in a more efficient or effective sequence? • Do some customers struggle more with executing the job than others (for instance, novices versus experts, older versus younger)? • Is it necessary that the customers execute all steps for which they are currently responsible? Can the burden be automated or shifted to someone else? • Which trends will affect the way the job is executed in the future? • What causes variability (or unreliabil- ity) in executing this step? What causes execution to go off track? • What does this step’s ideal output look like, and in what ways are the current output less than ideal? • Is this step more difficult to execute successfully in some contexts than others? • What are the biggest drawbacks of current solutions used to execute this step? • What makes executing this step time consuming or inconvenient? Always helpful is to start the interview by asking if you can follow up a maximum of two times via email if any additional questions come up. Then, test the email address immediately after the interview to thank the respondent and to remind him or her that you will be in touch again. This tactic seems to increase the probability of a response. Surgeons are very busy, and emails are

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 45 Jumpstarting innovation through Whitespace research C o N t i N u e D

Then group the Post-its on a conference- Then, copy/paste the relevant quotes of relevant quotes and develop a high- room table in the VOC methodology. from all the interviews into a single doc- level theme for each group. A spine If analyzing by yourself, copy/paste all ument. Start the process of grouping surgeon example: relevant quotes to the top of each inter- the quotes and identifying all common view, and label the source of each quote. themes. The goal is to take a grouping “Aspirin isn’t enough for most of my spine patients, and most do not qualify for fusion surgery.”

“ Most of my patients are stuck in physical therapy and get no real benefit from it. These are the patients Medicare won’t approve for surgery.”

“ It is frustrating to tell patients you can’t help them with their back pain.”

The high-level goal? Determining a strategic space that is underserved. Finding from above: a significant number of back pain patients are not treatable using current methods. This is whitespace. The next step is to size the market through secondary market research. Many syndicated market research reports and analyst reports are available that can help you do this. In the spine case, according to our friends at Viscogliosi Bros., LLC, it is quite large. Whitespace is valuable only if the market sizing shows significant potential in sales. In the case of a smaller market size, government or social-policy incentives may make R&D investment in this area attractive.

Pinpoint areas that may have a quick-fix available to your client. Whenever discussing frustrating topics, ask the respondent to describe a typically frustrating occurrence in detail. Ask how often this particular situation is encountered. Ask if other colleagues experience the same problems. Try to pinpoint as many specifics about this area as you possibly can. For example, when discussing frustrating topics with spine surgeons, we asked: • Is the patient’s back pain isolated in one area, or is it spread out through the entire back? • What is the specific diagnosis? If the pain is isolated to one physical area, we ask for specifics. For example,

46 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org C o N t i N u e D Jumpstarting innovation through Whitespace research areas of the back are identified by their surgeon respondent may think will help ating a score required quantitative anal- proximity to the vertebrae, which all us better understand this area of under- ysis and data not available solely from have names, so we ask: served patients. secondary market research. • Can you tell us the number and name Later, once concepts and prototype(s) of the vertebrae where the pain seems Never try to provide the solution, have been developed, the qualitative to be localized? Is this typical? only the unmet needs. researcher may be called in to help assess We try to get a sense of how Our philosophy is to identify unmet them. An ongoing market research proc- common this type of back pain is: needs, then size or quantify them and ess will allow your client to develop solu- • In what percent (approximately) present them to our clients using a rank- tions to unmet needs uncovered in the of your patients does this diagno- ordered system (see Chart 1, Customer whitespace research, while ensuring that sis occur? Needs Assessment). In the medical device they do not get too far down the devel- In the medical device industry, we industry, unmet needs are routinely opment path without checking in with are lucky to have clinical journals that organized into a document called mar- the end user (in the medical device space, have studied many patient conditions keting specification, but it may not be this is usually a clinician or a patient). and are a great resource for informa- called that in other industries. As you explore with your clients their tion. In your industry of specialty, there In the Cordis example from Ulwick’s own unmet needs for identifying new may be similar documentation. We ask first Harvard Business Review paper, an strategic whitespace, you will develop for specific clinical journal reference angioplasty balloon market-opportunity together exciting opportunities for busi- articles with author names, etc., that the score is presented. In this example, cre- ness growth — both theirs and yours.

Chart 1. CAn Matrix/Marketing Specification

Desired outcomes Definition rationale Performance expectation importance Satisfaction opportunity A word or phrase in Description of the Provide the List the customer requirements in A numerical A numerical A calculated the customer’s terms customer’s desired reason that qualitative, quantitative or compar- rating or rating of how value derived that states the need, outcome. This must the attribute ative terms. These may be based on ranking that satisfied the from the issue or problem (e.g., be synergized with is important to clinical outcomes, competitive prod- designates customer is Importance ability to reach treat- customer and team. the customer. ucts or regulatory or international the impor- with the out- and Satisfac- ment site, visualiza- standards. This is best defined as tance of the come when tion scores. tion, increase clinical a range spanning the customer’s outcome to using the outcome). desired and minimal requirements. the customer. products on the market.

Chart 2. Example: Cordis 1993 Angioplasty Balloon Market opportunity Score*

Desired outcome importance Satisfaction opportunity

Minimize restenosis. 9.5 3.2 15.8

Minimize force required to cross the lesion with the balloon. 8.3 4.2 12.4

Minimize time taken to place balloon across the lesion. 5.1 1.0 9.2

Minimize time to move the balloon through a tortuous vessel. 7.7 6.6 8.8

*ulwick, A., hBr turf Customer input into innovation 1/02

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 47 • gLoBAL reSeArCh •

Can the Future of South african research be built with briCS?

Cape town, South Africa

48 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org By Corette haf Corporate research Consultancy (Cape) CC • Cape town, South Africa • [email protected]

uring the last week of March 2013, general development, as well as to uplift the fifth BriCS summit took place humanity in order to establish a more d in durban, South Africa. This was equitable and fair world. the first summit to be held on the Afri- As a result of the global economic can continent, and it completed the first crisis, many countries in the world are cycle of BRICS summits, since each of looking towards emerging markets (and the member countries has now taken a the BRICS members in particular) to turn to act as host. stimulate global economic cooperation BRIC is the original acronym for a and growth to provide renewed impetus. grouping of the world’s leading emerg- A study by the International Monetary ing market economies, namely Brazil, Fund has indeed found that BRICS’ Russia, India and China. In December trade and investment with low-income 2010, South Africa was invited to join countries, of which most are in Africa, the bloc, which then became known as assisted these countries to weather the BRICS. The objectives of the group are impact of the crisis. wider than pure economic cooperation Some critics have questioned South and aim to promote peace, security and Africa’s right to be part of this group,

Some Stats about BriCS

• BRICS countries have increased their share of global GDP (gross domestic product) threefold in the past 15 years, amounting to between 20% to 25% of global GDP. • BRICS countries occupy 30% of global territory. • They are home to 45% of the world’s population. • Their contribution to global economic growth over the last decade has reached 50% (therefore, the leading power in global economic development). • BRICS’ combined foreign reserves are estimated at U.S. $4 trillion.

49 Can the Future of South african research be built with briCS? C o N t i N u e D

since its economy is much smaller than the South African president peeping out imports and exports. Exports from S.A. that of the other members of the coali- of the jacket top pocket of the smiling to its BRICS peers rose from $12.1 tion. It has been said that other emerg- Chinese president. billion in 2010 to $15 billion in 2012. ing economies (such as Indonesia, Mex- South Africa does bring the follow- South African exports to China grew ico, Turkey and South Korea) are much ing strengths to the coalition: by 46%, to India by 20%, to Brazil by bigger than South Africa. It has also • Substantial non-energy mineral 14% and to Russia by 7% in the last been alleged that the BRICS group has wealth. South Africa is ranked as the few years. been “hijacked” by politicians keen to world’s richest country in terms of its Examples include: form a new power bloc in the world and mineral reserves, worth an estimated • 10 South African value-added prod- that South Africa was included to pro- U.S. $2.5 trillion. South Africa is the uct categories with unique selling vide broader intercontinental reach and world’s largest producer of platinum, points have been identified as export inclusiveness. It is, however, widely chrome, vanadium and manganese, opportunities to China. believed that the main reason why South and it is the third-largest miner of gold. • South African wine, with an estab- Africa was invited to join BRICS is to It offers highly sophisticated and pro- lished reputation as a quality product, provide a gateway to the rest of Africa’s fessional services with regard to min- is now in demand by Chinese con- markets. South Africa’s position going ing expertise. sumers. A joint venture (JV) with a into the summit was to align BRICS • Considerable construction and Chinese company has resulted in the member countries’ interests in support- engineering expertise. South Africa export of 5.2 million liters of premi- ing the integration agenda in Africa. is investing about $35 billion into um wine to China. Although this may Jim O’Neill, recently retired chairman expanding and improving its represent a minor share of S.A.’s total of Goldman Sachs Asset Management infrastructure. bottled wine market, the opportunity and the person who originally created • A proven reputation for financial mar- for future growth is promising. the BRIC acronym 10 years ago, feels ket development and sophistication. • A Russian-South African JV will see that South Africa can more than justify The World Economic Forum’s 2011/12 the development of table grape pro- its presence if it helps Africa to fulfill its Global Competitive Index displayed a duction in the Krasnodar region, using remarkable potential. “If South Africa high level of confidence in the coun- South African expertise on growing could also help to lead the rest of try’s financial market development, and processing grape by-products. the continent to reach its own stand- ranking it fourth globally. Regulation • A recent JV between Airports ards where these are high, the conti- of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Company S.A. and Brazilian Invepar nent would be on an accelerated as well as South Africa’s auditing and resulted in an $8 billion concession to path to greater economic might,” he reporting standards, ranked number overhaul and operate Brazil’s busiest has reportedly stated (published quote one in the world. South Africa was and most valuable airport, Sao Paulo from “SA’s BRICS Score Not All Gloom ranked second for both the soundness Guarulhos International Airport. and Doom,” Mail & Guardian Online, of banks and the efficacy of corpo- • Significant growth has also been March 30, 2012). “By exploring cross- rate boards. reported in local tourism from other border expansion in trade and infrastruc- • Excellence in science, technology and BRICS countries. ture, as well as considerable improve- innovation — e.g., hosting the Square ments in domestic productivity, South Kilometre Array (SKA, the world’s Some Summit highlights, Africa will have more than justified its largest and most sensitive radio teles- Particularly for South Africa role as a BRICS member… I remain as cope, which will have a total collecting • The proposed creation of a BRICS excited about South Africa as I was 15 area of approximately one square kil- development bank and a $100 billion years or more ago.” ometer), for which other BRICS coun- contingent reserve arrangement to pool China, with the world’s second- tries supported South Africa’s obtain- currency reserves to protect against biggest economy, dominates trade and is ing the majority stake. volatility in global financial markets the top import partner for the rest of the • According to the World Economic and to head off short-term liquidity BRICS partners. At the end of 2012, its Forum’s 2012/2013 Global Com- pressures. Locally, it is hoped that the economy was almost 25% larger than petitiveness Report, South Africa bank will be hosted by South Africa, the other four BRICS nations com- remains the highest-ranked country in given the high regard for S.A.’s finan- bined. Standard Bank research analysts sub-Saharan Africa and third placed cial services sector and stock market. Jeremy Stevens and Simon Freemantle among the BRICS economies, after • The establishment of a BRICS busi- (among others) have sounded warn- China and Brazil. ness council, consisting of five top ing bells about the challenge posed by business leaders from each BRICS Chinese dominance. In particular, some South Africa’s Early Benefits member country. The first chairper- are very skeptical about China’s inter- from Joining BriCS son is South African mining mag- est in Africa. A cartoon published in According to Economic Development nate Patrice Motsepe. The objectives Business Day during the BRICS summit, Minister Ebrahim Patel, South Africa’s of the council will be to strengthen for instance, depicted the bigger four level of trade with BRICS countries now trade relations and promote business BRIC leaders next to each other, with accounts for a larger share of S.A.’s relations, technology transfer and

50 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

Can the Future of South African Research be Built with BRICS? CONTINUED

cooperation in banking, green and Japan in terms of RFPs received and collection methodologies” but that economy, industrialization and manu- projects conducted for international the lack of innovation moves beyond facturing. The council aims to boost clients by their company. research design and into technology. intraBRICS trade to $500 billion by Mari Harris remarked that the Ipsos “With mobile phones being ubiquitous 2015. The first project will be the lay- group in South Africa has seen most in emerging markets, it’s a wonder that ing of the BRICS cable, a 28,400 km growth coming from the developing no researchers have cracked data collec- undersea telecommunications cable world and believes that this also prob- tion on cell phones, ranging from the linking BRICS countries. ably holds true for the other big research low-end feature phones up to the latest companies. Leonie Vorster, CEO at smartphones,” she commented. BRICS’ Effect on the Southern African Marketing Research Matthew and Andrea from KLA agree Market Research Industry Association (SAMRA), confirmed the with this sentiment and feel that even in South Africa trend that it is becoming quite fashionable on the African continent, we are being So, in practical terms, what does all this to do business with emerging markets and out-innovated by tech startups in Kenya, mean for the market research industry in has encountered increased interest in Nigeria and Ghana. “The mobile phone South Africa? I reached out to various the SAMRA conference from European, represents over a billion ways in which industry leaders and asked them whether Asia Pacific and American countries. anyone in the world can ask an African they had experienced any changes or The key strength of the South African consumer a question without any need have done different work as a result of market research industry was perceived of our involvement as South African our newfound BRICS membership. to be that our industry is highly devel- market researchers,” they pointed out, None of my colleagues have noticed a oped and established and can be com- “and we urgently need to respond to significant impact on the local research pared with the standards of other West- that challenge.” industry that can be directly ascribed to ern markets. We have expertise in areas Some of my colleagues were of becoming part of BRICS. The general such as psychology and statistics that the opinion that our skilled work- feeling was that it may be too soon to result in work of high-quality stand- force is aging and that it is difficult to expect a meaningful influence, consider- ards. It was also mentioned that we are attract good-quality young people to the ing that South Africa joined only a few globally connected and have good links industry. Sifiso Falala, CEO of Plus 94 years ago. The biggest reported increase to many global clients. Matthew and Research, remarked that research is not in RFPs have come from India, but this Andrea from KLA remarked, “We rou- viewed as a glamorous profession for seems to be a general trend that I have tinely switch between the developed and many youngsters: “Compared to, say, heard about from many international developing sides of our market in our management consulting, advertising, contacts and social media, not just from daily work. We can speak the language auditing, etc., research is a very poor those in the BRICS countries. of the ‘haves,’ while understanding the financial cousin.” Matthew Angus and Andrea Chemaly world of the ‘have nots.” Also, the feeling was expressed that from KLA (Kaufman Levin Associates, Some of the strengths of our we are experiencing a shortage of skills in Johannesburg, S.A.) also found that industry are also weaknesses on the and a talent crisis that both need to be the biggest increase in RFPs and projects flipside. Although we have what Andrea addressed by a focus on training. Fellow have come from India. They have also Rademeyer from Ask Afrika refers to as QRCA member Lee Kotze, of Qual- been in touch with and conducted pro- “great pockets of innovation,” clients itative Intelligence, feels very strongly jects for a few Chinese clients. They and researchers are often too conserv- about the lack of training. “Sadly, there have heard very little from Brazil and ative and risk-averse to embrace change is no training available for the young, absolutely nothing from Russia. They and experiment with new technology aspiring qualitative researcher,” she says. point out, however, that the BRICS’ and methodologies. Shirley Wakefield “While Unilever came along with plans economies lag well behind countries like from Pondering Panda feels that the to improve standards, they made it South Korea, the U.K., France, Singapore industry makes use of “archaic data- exclusive, in that only companies and

“We routinely switch between the developed and developing sides of our market in our daily work. We can speak the language of the ‘haves,’ while understanding the world of the ‘have nots.’”

52 QRCA VIEWS Fall 2013 www.qrca.org

Can the Future of South african research be built with briCS? C o N t i N u e D

researchers working for Unilever will Similar to the sentiments expressed With regard to the future, the panel be exposed to better training.” Both Lee by our peers in developed markets, DIY of South African research leaders iden- and Andrea Rademeyer feel that there research and the blurring of boundaries tified Africa as the most obvious oppor- is no collaboration among companies between research and other disciplines tunity for our local research industry. and researchers, exchanging ideas and also pose a threat to the South African Sifiso Falala remarked that, for his com- new methodologies. market research industry. pany, interest in investment in Africa is already leading to more research requests than ever before from outside of South Africa. He states, “Africa is a bigger research opportunity than BRICS. Improved African trade and the removal of trade barriers within Africa will have a more immediate impact on Africans than BRICS.” Our colleagues from KLA share this sentiment: “The fifty-three markets to the north of us are the final frontier of human insight and many of our clients’ last chance at aggressive growth. In reality, it is the importance of Africa in general, not South Africa in particular, that has earned us a place at the BRICS table.” There is cautious optimism that, apart from Africa, growing collaboration with other BRICS countries can have a positive effect on our future local industry. Andrea Rademeyer of Ask Afrika expressed the hope that “collaboration of our industry within this economic block will strengthen our voice on the global platform… This space creates the opportunity for collaboration with partners from the BRICS, who will have experienced some of our challenges in their economies and consumer- scapes. I thus believe that BRICS pose a unique moment in time, which we should embrace, in order to generate new value for our industry.” Others cautioned against inertia and stressed that we need to take urgent and innovative action to address our challenges. Shirley Wakefield of Pondering Panda concluded, “Emerging markets offer significant growth potential within the research world. By South Africa being a member of the BRICS, the hope is that communications and opportunities will be enhanced, thereby increasing innovation, technology advancement and smart collaborations. The bottom line is that smart research in emerging markets requires agility and innovative thinking.”

54 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

• onLinE QuAL • WHat to eXPeCt When recruiting for online research

By Jennifer dale Insideheads • St. John, Virgin Islands • [email protected]

hen it comes to recruiting for requirements and recruiting options. For you from asking. You do not want to any research study — qualita- example, if your client comes to you to learn, after recruiting is complete, that W tive or quantitative, in person or “test some ads,” dig a little deeper: your client neglected to mention the online — the ultimate goal remains the • How did the need to test the ads income requirement. What your client same: recruit the right audience for the come to be? sees as obvious can also be obvious to right study. So, what makes recruiting • At what stage is the advertising you only if she tells you, so ask! for an online qualitative research study development? • If your client gives you specific demo- seem so daunting? • In what format will the ads be tested? graphics to recruit, from where did Perhaps it is baggage from years past. • Exactly how many ad versions will the statistics originate? More than one client has told me that you need to test? • Are different marketing strategies people lie online or that online partici- • What key questions are being asked planned or anticipated for different pants are anonymous and cannot be ver- internally within the organization? segments? ified. Whatever fears and inhibitions you • How will the results from your fabu- • Should participants be pre-qualified or your clients may have about online lous analysis ultimately be used? based on some level of past, current qualitative research, recruiting need not This kind of questioning is right up a or expected behavior or engagement be one of them. QRC’s alley. To design the most effective with a product or service? online qualitative research study, seek • What are the reasons and implica- Congratulations! out the critical criteria from your client. tions behind a blind study vs. one You are the proud manager Follow that same line of questioning where your client is clearly noted as of a new online qual project! when determining the participant quali- the sponsor? As with any research study, it is best fications. If your client does not know, to have a clear understanding of what she will expect you to figure it out. do not be fooled into your client expects, so begin with the Unfortunately, this kind of discussion thinking that online studies end in mind. Before conceiving a study can open up a can of worms and may require an online recruit. proposal, interview your client about reveal the need for some quantitative When it comes to online qualitative the research objective, participant research first, but do not let that deter research, recruit as needed. Most people

56 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org in popular target markets today have • You are told the list is up to date. than in years past, as most list companies access to some form of internet connec- • You are told the list is accurate. do not age very well. For online recruiter tion. Even folks with a dial-up connec- • The list is all sales contacts recommendations, ask another QRC, tion can effectively participate in most or prospects. or check out www.QUALocator.com text-based online platforms. With that • The list contains only email addresses. or www.Greenbook.org. QRCA mem- in mind, any recruiting method can be • Nobody knows the original source of bers can also access the Member Forum used to screen for an online qualitative the list. online, a great resource for insider tips. research study — phone, direct mail, If you do decide to recruit online for in person or online. Choose the right it all starts with who you know. your online qualitative study, be sure to recruiting method based on the unique You will find the best prospects for establish with the provider exactly what needs of your study and target partici- recruiting online qualitative research data you need to collect, as it most cer- pants. Consider your available sample studies from your existing contacts. tainly will include personally identifiable resources, budget, schedule and any Reaching out to your tried-and-true information (PII), such as phone num- other recruiting challenges your study partners will give you the best possible bers, email addresses and names. That may entail before deciding on the best outcome. Already work with a facility sounds obvious to QRCs, but not all recruiting method for your study. that recruits your focus groups in Texas? online recruiters are familiar with qual- Sounds simple enough, but beware: Get great response rates from a phone itative research and may not assume when sources are scarce or funds are house in Phoenix? Give them a ring! that you need this critical info. Some tight, you and your client may be Most recruiters today, including brick- sample suppliers work only with clients tempted to recruit research participants and-mortar focus facilities, have panels on the dark side (i.e., quantitative), who from what ultimately ends up being or panel partners that go beyond their need only the numbers. These online Bad Sample. own geographic boundaries. Start with recruiters have policies in place that You may not always smell disaster the recruiters with whom you already actually prevent them from giving you before it hits your study, but you will enjoy working, and go from there. If any PII, designed to protect their panel know when it arrives. Bad Sample is the they cannot accommodate you, they may members and their proprietary panel. enemy, and you are better off avoiding be able to recommend, or partner with, Additionally, some online recruiters may it from the start. Be on the lookout for a respected company that will. require that you use their online plat- one or more of these telltale signs that You can also reach out to reputable forms, which may or may not be what you could be headed for a rough recruit: online recruiters, who are much more you want. So, just be sure to ask those • Your client says she has a list or can qualified than list companies. The world important questions up front before get a list. of online recruiters is far better today leaning in for the kiss.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 57 What to expect When recruiting for online research C o N t i N u e D

Thanks to a team at ESOMAR, we to the survey tool, to DIY, you will need bit of graphic design, outsourcing to a can all be smart buyers of research sam- a sample source, as well as a method report writer or someone skilled to add ples. Two very helpful articles specifi- of inviting prospects to your online flare can keep your deliverables look- cally related to online studies — the screener. If your sample sources are lim- ing professional. recently updated 28 Questions to Help ited, remember that you are only as good Buyers of Online Samples and ESOMAR as your first attempt, and bulk email got communication? Guidelines for Online Research — can blasts have never seen a high response Qualifying participants for some level be found online at www.esomar.org. rate. For the best results, consider using of “online communication skills” is a service or app that specializes in send- up to you, as it will depend on whom if you have recruited for any ing custom emails and knows how to get you are interviewing and the objective qual study before, you have through “spam” filters. Not to discour- of the study. If needed or requested all the skills to recruit for an age the adventurous from giving it a try, by the client, consider adding an open- online qual study. just proceed wisely, and consider having ended question or two at the end of Whether you source the sample your- a backup recruiting option. your screener that requires a thoughtful self or work with a recruiter who locates A critical step in a DIY recruit text response (either on or off the study prospects for you, you will want to will be verifying participant identities. topic) that will provide more insight for design an unbiased screening question- The ESOMAR documents are a great final selection. naire. The fundamentals of the screener resource and offer basic online recruit- Assuming you have followed a smart will be the same regardless of the recruiting standards that even DIYers should recruit up to this point, speaking to your ing method. If you are recruiting by follow. Since we tend to work with a participants before the online study will phone or in person for an online study, smaller number of participants in our definitely bolster show rates. Regard- be sure to screen for available internet qualitative studies, a reliable list-verify- less of whether you actually recruit by connection and any other technological ing service can often be cost prohibitive. phone, reach out and give each invited requirements (such as speakers, micro- Fortunately or unfortunately, a quick participant a call. Some recruiters pro- phone or webcam). Over the phone, search online today can offer a world of vide outreach by phone as a follow-up, be sure to confirm the participant’s information about a prospective partic- or you can make the calls yourself. email address, since email is most likely ipant. Whether your study is B2B or Connecting with participants on how you will communicate with your B2C, sites like Google, Yahoo, White- a more personal level than just email study participants. pages and LinkedIn are steaming with dramatically increases their interest in If you decide your online study merits publicly available information that the study and their confidence in you. an online recruit, you will want to use can quickly confirm or deny a partici- Invited participants can be a little skep- an effective platform to administer the pant’s age, location, phone number and tical about an online research study, screening questionnaire — one that mon- more. Taking a look at respondent email despite having gone through the screen- itors or does not allow the respondent to addresses can also be quite revealing, as ing process. Hearing your voice secures change answers. Recruiters with online [email protected] should the relationship and assures each partic- panels will have the capability to pro- probably be left at the door. Whether ipant that you are real and interested in gram your written screener for online you ask a participant to recall demo- hearing his opinion in the online study. administration. Some recruiters will graphic information for confirmation or The phone call is also a great opportu- require that you use their screening tool seek data online to corroborate his qual- nity for participants to ask questions with their panel, so be sure to clarify ifications, verifications should be made and for you to confirm receipt of your what options will be available to you before official invitations are sent. emailed instructions. If needed, you can to DIY. Another bit of advice for pioneering also guide the participant through the To set up your own online screener, DIYers: you may need some additional online platform that you will be using, you can use an online survey tool like skills to prevent your participant profiles to address any functional issues in SurveyMonkey or SurveyGizmo. Be sure from looking like a scrapbook when advance of your online discussion. to include questions for email address you hand the goods over to your client. In addition to preparing participants, and phone number, two bits that can be If you want snazzy-looking documents you should also prep your client with a painful to see missing from the spread- like ones that the better recruiters pro- clear understanding of what she will sheet when recruiting is over. In addition vide, but you are not into learning a experience, including what she will be able to see and do, her role and respon- sibility during the online discussion (if any) and what your deliverable will look like. As with participants, giving a literal tour of the online platform the fundamentals of the screener will be the to your client in advance will help elimi- same regardless of the recruiting method. nate confusion and give you both peace of mind throughout the online qualitative study.

58 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

• BuSinESS mAtterS •

How to Successfully (Net)work a room: an interview with Diane Darling By Michael Carlon Vertigo Partners and QRCA VIEWS Business matters Feature editor • Stamford, Ct • [email protected]

remember when i was just starting out Networking Survival Guide. Her prem- former boss, who was going to be a key on the supplier side of the marketing ise is that everyone can achieve profes- investor, was killed on the first plane. i research business. It was 1999, and I sional and personal goals via network- My life savings were put into that busi- helped start Dynamic Logic, a company ing, which she deems a survival skill for ness, and it was gone in an instant. In devoted to measuring the branding value today’s fast-paced, competitive world. the regrouping process, I started a little of online advertising. It was imperative Diane graciously agreed to share some non-profit called DigitalE for women for our startup firm that we exhibit at of her wisdom on how to achieve busi- and technology. A person connected to industry conferences and tradeshows. ness success through strategic network- the group asked me to teach the mem- As an inexperienced professional in ing in a podcast interview for the QRCA bers about networking, so I put together my mid-20s, I was not a natural at net- VIEWS magazine. Needless to say, I a workshop for her and that was the working, and I made many of the mis- wish I had met Diane before exhibiting beginning of Effective Networking. takes you will read about in this article. at all those tradeshows during the early My father always told me, “Life is con- days of Dynamic Logic. Here is an What is the first thing tacts,” and I knew that getting better at excerpt from our interview. our readers should know networking would make the difference about networking? between success and failure. how did you come to launch Before you decide to go to any event, Many of us QRCs are small-busi- Effective networking? figure out why you are going — I like to ness owners and must constantly net- It started actually from a failure. In call this the “Whether Report.” Care- work to grow our businesses. Recently, I 2000, I launched a business called Lost fully consider whether or not you should was introduced to Diane Darling, a suc- and Found, designed to help airlines go to the event, and then determine why cessful entrepreneur who runs a com- and hotels manage their lost and found you are going and reflect on what you pany called Effective Networking. Diane inventory. I was running that business want to get out of the event. Your time has published two books on the topic, when September 11 happened, and all is valuable; if you don’t think you will Networking for Career Success and The of a sudden, the business was gone. My get anything out of an event, do not go. how important is how you dress? How you dress for an event is very important, and there are some practical While you should always look professional, matters to consider. While you should always look professional, I like to advise I like to advise people to wear something people to wear something that helps that helps them stand out. them stand out. If you make a positive impression on somebody, that person may not remember your name but he or

60 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

How to Successfully (Net)work a room C o N t i N u e D

she can tell someone else to “look for your speaker on networking. My name “I met so-and-so on a bumpy flight to the man with the pink tie” or “look for is Diane Darling.” When you do that, Dallas, and he asked me to schedule the woman in the purple dress.” The you give them something to talk about. a meeting with him through you. other advice I give is to wear something Also, they will have a greater likelihood Could I get five to ten minutes with that you are comfortable in because if of remembering your name if you say him on the phone?” To grab her atten- you are, you will come across more it after providing some context to who tion, I changed the font to make the relaxed, and people notice that. you are. word “bumpy” actually appear bumpy. Right away she knew who I was, what After you have reflected on why What is the biggest mistake I wanted and how to reach me, and I you are going to the event and someone can make when did so in a way that was memorable. If after you have packed the right meeting another person at you treat the assistant with the respect apparel, what else should you a networking event? that he or she deserves, you will have a do to prepare? Do not start with an elevator pitch; better chance at getting what you want. Pack your business cards! I cannot tell instead, start with a conversation. I think, in some cases, we tell peo- Along those lines, what is you how many people I meet at events the best way to follow up with who tell me they forgot their business ple things they do not need to know cards. Always keep a stash in your brief- or have not asked for, and that comes somebody, a phone call or case, purse, suitcase and even car — across as being pushy. I remember through email? that way, you will always have them being at an event, and this one guy said, Neither! Your best bet is a typed letter in with you. “I do receivables. Do you have any?” the mail because a 46¢ stamp is chump Also, practice how you introduce He was looking for a transaction right change, and it is the cheapest way to yourself. Most people don’t learn to use then and there. Don’t look to network- get attention. I get hundreds of emails a a stick shift on a Maserati. Many people, ing activities to leave with transactions. day, and they go flashing by, and I miss though, wait until they see the one per- Look to leave with relationships. Your half of them. Sending a letter in the mail son they have always wanted to talk to goal should be to simply get a business suggests to the recipient that he or she and go up to that person thinking they card and leave a positive impression so is important, and it is a better way to will sound perfectly intelligent, only to that the other person answers the phone get noticed. when you call to follow up. sound unprepared. Introducing yourself What tips do you have for to someone else in the correct way takes a lot of practice, so warm yourself up Most senior executives have people who may be more shy by practicing your introduction on a lot assistants who answer their and introverted and who might be of people before you decide to go after phone and manage their email easily intimidated by attending a that CEO. and calendar. What is your networking function? approach to getting past I would tell them to keep in mind that it When you do get the chance to the assistant? is not about them! The other attendees do not care that you are there; they care introduce yourself to someone Do not treat the assistant as a gate- about what you can do for them. Can else, how should you do it? keeper; treat him or her like your con- you help them in some regard? If you It may sound counterintuitive, but do tact’s trusted advisor. In actuality, you cannot help them personally, can you not start by saying your name. Rather, need the assistant to facilitate commu- introduce them to someone who can? If introduce yourself by stating a connec- nication between you and your contact. you view your role as someone who can tion you have to either the event or the One time, I met a potential client on a help another person, either though your person you are introducing yourself to. bumpy flight, and he asked me to sched- own skills or by introducing that person For example, when I am a speaker at an ule a meeting with him through his assis- to someone else, you may be more ener- event, I will start out with, “Hi, I’m tant; so, I sent her an email, stating, gized at the event and more successful at networking. What else should we keep in mind after we leave an event? the other attendees do not care that you are Use a customer relationship management (CRM) system or a database of there; they care about what you can do for some sort to store the contact informa- them. Can you help them in some regard? If tion of the people you meet. It can help you keep track of your follow-ups. Some you cannot help them personally, can you of these systems will even tell you when introduce them to someone who can? you are losing touch with some people if you have not reached out to them in a while.

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How to Successfully (Net)work a room C o N t i N u e D

64 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org C o N t i N u e D How to Successfully (Net)work a room

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 65 • nEWS From QrCA • QrCa aNNual CoNFereNCe october 16–18, 2013 • San Diego, Ca

on or before after 9/10/2013 9/10/2013 members $825 $975 Qualified Non-members $1,275 $1,425

25% DiSCouNt on conference registration fee for all first-time new members. Call (866) 674-7722 to learn more.

Visit QrCa.org/2013 for full workshop descriptions and to register! Schedule at a Glance

WeDNeSDaY, october 16 Registration and 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Marketplace Opens First-Timers and Ambassadors 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Networking Event 2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Welcome / Opening 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. QRCA Talks — Your Brain on Qual 3:15 – 3:45 p.m. Break in Marketplace WorkSHoPS • Techniques Practicum for Deepening Insights and Sharpening Outcomes • Little Data That’s Pretty Big: 3:45 – 5:15 p.m. How to Turn Your Report into a Transformative Analysis • Brand-Obsessed: Using a Strategic Planning Mindset in a Qualitative World 5:15 – 7:00 p.m. Cocktails in Marketplace 7:00 p.m. Dine-Arounds

66 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org tHurSDaY, october 17 FriDaY, october 18 Healthy Connections/ 7:00 – 8:00 a.m. Healthy Connections 7:00 – 8:00 a.m. Breakfast in the Marketplace Breakfast in Marketplace / 7:45 – 9:00 a.m. WorkSHoPS Optional Chapter Meetings • A Visual Upgrade: Design Reports WorkSHoPS that Inform, Persuade and Entertain • The Value of QRCA: Defining and • Qualship Enterprise: Warp Factor 5 Differentiating Yourself with the into the Research Unknown 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Research Buyer • Real-Time Mobile Ethnography: • How to Use Blogging and 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. See, Talk and Share, without Really Social Media to Being There Enrich Your Business • Off to New Horizons in • Expanding Horizons with Global Research Projects Linguistic Analysis: Uncover 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. Break in Marketplace More than Meets the Eye WorkSHoPS 10:00 – 10:45 a.m. Break in Marketplace • Moderating: Why Stop There? keYNote PreSeNtatioN Connecting the Dots Between “ Evaluating the Current and Future Moderating and Facilitating! 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. State of Qualitative Research” • Smooth Sailing through the Merrill Dubrow, 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Social-Media Research Waters: CEO of M/A/R/C Research Qualitative Opportunities in a Sea of Big Data 12:15 – 1:45 p.m. Lunch • LinkedIn Goes Deep; Do You? WorkSHoPS • What Every Researcher Should Know • Pushing the Envelope on about Usability Testing Online Qual: Facebook, 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Annual Meeting and Town Hall Video Journaling and More 1:45 – 3:00 p.m. • Beyond Comfortable Shoes: 12:15 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch & Awards A Practical Guide to Conducting 1:30 – 1:45 p.m. Break in Marketplace Small- and Large-Scale Shop-Along Studies 1:45 – 2:45 p.m. InterChanges • Tech Tools From a Tech Master Break in Marketplace / Optional 2:45 – 4:15 p.m. Break SIG & Committee Meetings 3:00 – 3:15 p.m. WorkSHoPS 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. InterChanges • 50 Shades of Respondent Gray: WorkSHoPS How Respondents Seduce Their • Design Research: Better Methods Way into Research, and What for Concept Ideation, Testing You Can Do about It and Refinement • Edible Illuminations & Creativity: • Beyond Contests & Online Panels: 4:15 – 5:15 p.m. 4:15 – 5:45 p.m. Tasty Tools to Inspire Insights Global Brands Get Serious and Ideas about Crowdsourced Market • Reframe Your Research Designs: Insights Programs Online Qualitative Panel • Getting Better Video with • How to Conduct Research Less Setup and Stress More Effectively Using Behavioral Economics 5:15 – 6:30 p.m. Farewell Cocktails

QRCA’s Gala Evening Event: 6:30 p.m. Exploration Old Town! Join the Fiesta! 6:30 p.m. Dine-Arounds

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION 67 QrCa annual Conference C o N t i N u e D QrCa 2013 CoNFereNCe iNFormatioN

What’s New at QrCa 2013?

30th anniversary activities energized and with a different perspective about QR and run- Be part of QRCA history at our table in the Marketplace. Hear ning a business in exceptionally new ways. from founding and early members at the Town Hall Meeting. Celebrate where we’ve been, and look forward to where QRCA QrCa talks is going. We are bringing back this popular plenary session, where quick- take, brief talks are mixed with classic QRCA questions and keynote Presentation — answers. This year’s theme is “Your Brain on Qual,” and we “evaluating the Current and Future State will be taking a look at the way neuroscience, biofeedback and of Qualitative research” other disciplines intersect with qualitative research. During this engaging 75-minute presentation, Merrill Dubrow, CEO of M/A/R/C Research, will analyze the current state of twice the interChanges the QR industry, address where it is headed and present helpful Continuing the evolution of the roundtable format, there will advice to aggressively move your business forward and specific be two sessions of InterChanges. More sessions will allow for ways to better position yourself with clients. extended Q&A with workshop presenters, opportunities to Attendees of this lively session (which promises to include repeat popular topics and a chance to spend an extra hour lots of excitement, surprises and giveaways) will leave feeling diving deep into a conversation about issues of interest.

Hotel and other information

the Hyatt regency mission bay Experience the epitome of California coastal chic at our conference resort hotel. Expect the best at this remarkable San Diego vacation resort, offering incredible ocean views, waterfront dining, a con- temporary poolside lounge, eco-friendly spa and redesigned hotel rooms, suites and meeting rooms. The only resort hotel in San Diego with multiple water slides, our conference destination also has three new pools, a waterfront health club and a full-service marina with jet skis, sailboats, kayaks, sportfishing and whale excursions. Single & Double occupancy is $209.00 + tax per night. Wireless internet is included in all guest sleeping rooms. Special rates good until September 20, 2013. Reservations can be made by call- ing 1-888-421-1442 and asking for the Qualitative Research Consultants Asso- ciation discount or by going to https:// resweb.passkey.com/go/QRCA2013.

68 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org

• QRCA VIEWS PodCAStS • CHeCk out our NeWeSt PoDCaSt with Diane Darling

ver the past five years, QrCA has brought you almost three-dozen o podcasts of interviews conducted by QrCA members with influential leaders from qualitative research, strategic consulting, academia and other relevant fields. You can listen to these interviews right on the QRCA website as streaming audio, or you can download the mp3 file to your laptop or portable player for listening on the go. You will find the podcasts under the Publications link at www.qrca.org. Most recently VIEWS Podcasts Fea- ture Editor Mike Carlon interviewed Diane Darling. Diane is the owner of Effective Networking, a training organization designed to help people become better at networking. Listen up as Mike and Diane discuss her path to starting her own training business, the challenges of growing a business and key tips that anyone can use right now to become better at networking. Find this informative new podcast — as well as interviews with Bill Abrams, Andrew Ballenthin, Mary Ellen Bates, Frank Bentley, Daniel Berkal, Scott Berkun, Ilse Bunan, Bill Buxton, Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart, Dorey Clark, Stephen Covey, Paul Gillin, Judith Glaser, Kenneth Gronbach, J. Robert Harris, Bill Hartman, Naomi Henderson, John Hlinko, Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, Andrew Kent, Jim Loretta, Bryan Mattimore, Dr. G. Clotaire Rapaille, Dave Siegel, Jean D. Sifleet, Susan Spiegel Solovay and Barbara Newman, Laurie Tema-Lyn, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, Liz Van Patten and David Vinjamuri — all at www.qrca.org.

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• BooK rEViEWS • i killed a rabid Fox with a Croquet mallet: making Your business Stories Compelling and memorable Nicholas A. Boillot HB Books, 2013 reviewed by george Sloan Customer Strategy International • Los Angeles, CA • [email protected]

ince storytelling is the subject environment. He rewrites it to improve • Heart matters. of numerous business books it, then rewrites it again and finally turns • No purpose, no story. S these days, i was curious to see the story into something far more inter- • Show your authority; don’t tell it. what makes nicolas A. Boillot’s I Killed a esting that grabs the reader’s attention. • Features and benefits are boring. Rabid Fox with a Croquet Mallet: Making If you are trying to write stories about • Be honest. Your Business Stories Compelling and yourself or your business (to help win • Choose your characters strategically. Memorable different. The first things that more sales), or if you are writing find- • Get it done. struck me were that the book is short ings that you want to be more relevant In case you are wondering how the and the cover is plain. Do not be misled to your client, I Killed a Rabid Fox with book got its title, Boillot explains how by either. a Croquet Mallet will help you. In the he killed a rabid fox one day while hang- Although it is a very quick read, the book, you will learn the techniques of ing out in his backyard pool with his book does an excellent job of teaching storytelling in a business environment, family and friends. Boillot obviously uses the reader about the structure of stories including the “10 Rules of the Road” to all of his storytelling skills when telling and the structure that surrounds telling keep in mind when working on stories. the “rabid fox” story, which has made a good story. Boillot relates examples of These rules are: him memorable to his agency clients. what makes a story boring, as well as • Show; don’t tell. In the final chapters, Boillot takes the the structural components that can turn • It’s not all positive, but there’s a reader through a series of exercises to it around to make it an interesting read. positive ending. start the “pipeline of stories worthy of In the book’s opening pages, Boillot tells • Get to the point — publicizing and repeating.” These exer- a story in a typical style for an office it’s business, not literature. cises cover the points made throughout the book, while focusing the reader on establishing stories that can be told about the business to promote it to clients and others. These same points can this book is a very quick read, and the be used to create better stories to tell your audience when reporting the author does an excellent job of explaining results from projects. both the structure of stories and the struc- If you are looking for advice on how to write the next great American novel, ture around telling a good story. these same Broadway smash or Hollywood hit points can be used to create stories to tell screenplay, this is not the book for you. If, however, you want to engage clients your audience when reporting the results by telling strong business stories, the from research projects. simple style of this book will guide you and is one that may be a go-to resource to add to your library.

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• BooK rEViEWS •

interviewing users: How to uncover Compelling insights Steve Portigal Rosenfeld Media, 2013 reviewed by george Sloan Customer Strategy International • Los Angeles, CA • [email protected]

have followed Steve Portigal’s blog, Jones telling artists, as they walked into “Key Stages of the Interview,” “How “All this ChittahChattah,” for many A&M Studios to record “We Are The to Ask Questions,” “Documenting the i years, and i am always fascinated by World,” to “check their egos at the Interview,” “Optimizing the Interview” his stories from his user research experi- door,” Portigal reminds the interviewer and a final chapter covering “Making ence. Excited to get my hands on his to remember (as he or she goes to the Impact with Your Research.” new book — Interviewing Users: How entrance of every interview) that the From an experienced researcher’s to Uncover Compelling Insights — I purpose is about the worldview of the point of view, Interviewing Users is con- was not disappointed. respondent, not that of the interviewer firmation of the skills you have devel- Portigal has covered, in depth, the or client. oped over the years, written from a field of conducting ethnographic inter- The book covers, in detail, every research professional’s point of view. views, referred to by some as design aspect of conducting great interviews, From a corporate researcher’s point of research, user research, site visits or con- and Portigal intersperses many personal view, this book is strong armament to textual research. Throughout his book, examples to back up his points, making bring the design team into the research Portigal simply uses the terms “inter- the book a compelling read, rather than process with actual users, rather than view” and “interviewing.” an academic one. The first chapter starts thinking that they (as product users For anyone starting out in the field with a strong argument for the “Impor- themselves) know all the issues involved. of ethnography, Interviewing Users is an tance of Interviewing in Design,” after Interviewing Users is peppered with excellent treatise on the subject. Portigal which Portigal goes through every step sidebars, personal stories from Portigal, delves into all aspects of conducting in the interviewing process in great client stories and excellent graphics, all ethnographic research, from developing depth. The remaining chapters are “A of which make the book an engaging the project with internal client users to Framework for Interviewing,” “Getting read. Researchers of any experience level presenting the results, and every small Ready to Conduct Your Interviews,” will gain something of value from delv- step in between. In the vein of Quincy “More than Just Asking Questions,” ing into Portigal’s Interviewing Users.

this book covers, in detail, every aspect of conducting great interviews, and Portigal intersperses many personal examples to back up his points, making the book a compelling read, rather than an academic one.

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• huMor •

Qualitative aDD... HoW oNe QrC GetS tHiNGS DoNe iN toDaY’S DiGital WorlD

By Joel reish Next Level research • Atlanta, GA • [email protected]

we all know, the technology technology is allowing him (or her) course, 87 additional emails will be available in today’s digital to get things done in the modern dig- arriving throughout the day, so I better As world is amazing. QRCs have ital world. tend to some of these new messages a vast array of enabling tools that allow right away. us access to more resources, more meth- Today is a big day. I have a major Naturally, I need to stay up to date odologies and more ways to run our report to write. As I sit at my desk first with what is happening in our industry business than ever before. In the olden thing this morning, I have cleared the and among my clients and contacts, days of qualitative research, like five or day to focus on this task. I open my so I check today’s LinkedIn update, ten years ago, we QRCs had it rough computer to start the day and find my which leads me to log in to the website, — sure, we had word processors, spell inbox with a typical assortment of 87 where I take a moment to endorse seven check and even email, but technol- new messages, all of them designed to colleagues for various skills they have ogy has come so far so fast that our help me be more productive and more listed. This dovetails to updates on the job today bears little resemblance to efficient and to learn more new stuff latest contributions to the 22 differ- the Ludditian way we used to do things. in the world of qualitative research. ent LinkedIn “groups” I subscribe to. Let’s examine one day in a QRC’s life To quote Louis Armstrong, “I think to And I also need to check Facebook. I to take a look at how this enabling myself, ‘What a wonderful world!’” Of have some professional contacts there,

76 QRCA VIEWS FALL 2013 www.qrca.org but I end up finding myself also getting Actually, I did not get to these right I have to keep up with all of this — I updates on friends’ travel plans, former away since I was interrupted by a pack- don’t want to fall behind! friends’ political rants and the latest lost age delivery from a client and four phone I received a few calls and emails tooth of the child of someone I knew in calls from various vendors wondering if throughout this day from people in high school. I have anything new for them to bid on other countries, representing companies There are emails from QRCA, MRA at this time. No, nothing new since they that are interested in a partnership with and AMA (from both the whole organi- asked me yesterday. me. A partnership! With me! Sounds zation and the local chapter), updating As I turn to get back to clearing exciting, until I inevitably learn that their me on industry news and upcoming my inbox, I find an alert that I need to idea of a “partnership” is that I farm events. I decide to click through on install a Java update, which requires out all my business to them, and in three of these invitations — the QRCA a re-boot, immediately after which I return, they will butcher the English in News Bites, a local AMA chapter meet- receive an alert that I need to install a all my deliverables. ing and something else that seemed Flash update, also requiring a re-boot. I remember that I need to schedule an extremely important at the time. Nat- Adobe Reader and Norton Utilities also appointment with the veterinarian to get urally, I also need to check out the require updates today, but thankfully no my cats neutered, so I do that. Except, updates from ESOMAR, DRNO and re-boot is needed for these (what a first I had an internet network service the AMA’s GreenBook newsletter. I time-saver!). interruption, so I had to re-boot the also need to scope out the emails from There also are many deals available modem. And, for some reason, my com- GoToMarketStrategies and the BtoB though these emails and websites. For puter no longer recognized one of my online edition. I definitely set aside a example, Groupon and Buy.com and printers, so I had to re-install the device couple of minutes to watch today’s video Amazon and Staples might offer a deal drivers. Wow, I am really getting a post from Bob Lederer at RBR. That on airport parking or business equip- lot done! service-disruption alert from FedEx ment or office supplies — of course, As the day progresses, I notice that could be important, so I better read that, these sites also have many offers for my inbox is filling back up. Not only too. Paramount Publishing, which sells personal purchases, and I have to look have I been dispatching business-related messages but also tons of personal ones. a wide assortment of books specific to at all of these deals to find the good ones I was able to discover the new movie our industry, has an email that draws for my business, or so I tell myself... releases at Redbox this week. Yahoo my attention. In fact, one of these emails reminds News gives me constant updates on the While I am at it, I better check out the me that I will need a new laser toner car- events of the day, and heaven forbid I various alumni newsletters from univer- tridge, so I search the web for a while to wait a few hours to learn about those. sities I attended before the PC was even find the right one at a good price, and A friend of mine used to work for AOL invented; you never know who could I place an order. Which reminds me: I and is tapped into the internet joke cul- have a new job that could lead to some need a new case for my smartphone, and ture, so I usually have an email or two new business for me. Same thing with there are some “work smarter” apps I from him with the latest silly pictures my local Chamber of Commerce: their wanted to download, and I think I am and fake news write-ups (and minutes newsletter tells me about some interest- running low on rollerball pens... ahead of anyone else getting them!). ing networking meetings coming up. And then there are the blogs and Well, it is getting late, the sun is I have many new emails from focus webinars. I can barely remember the setting, and I probably need to wrap group facilities. One facility is asking dark ages of just a few years ago before things up for the day. I feel good. It was me if I still want the third hold on their everyone with a thought or opinion felt a great, productive day: I took care of Generic Suite next month. WAC of it is worth broadcasting to the world, some important logistics for running my Miami always has interesting trivia when people were just experts in their little business, and I successfully met the tidbits. Several facilities are offering field without having to prove it to the demands of my inbox and telephone, special limited-time discounts, so I had entire industry on a daily basis. There dispatching the incoming wave with deft better bookmark those just in case. Sev- are webinars on the newest online tech- efficiency. I got a lot done! I learned eral more want me to know about their niques, blogs on creative exercises, essays some new things, maintained vital con- recent remodeling, catering options, rep- on recruiting, discourses on facility tact relationships with clients and ven- resentative demographics or an employee services, articles on SEO optimization, dors, and perhaps most importantly, I who recently attained PRC accredita- dissertations on the advantages of successfully treaded water against the tion. And it goes without saying that I cloud-based computing, white papers on onslaught of information that came my have to at least take a look at the variety sales-lead generation, dispatches on new way today, knowing I will have just as of emails from online qualitative provid- techniques in video-blog scraping and much to sort out tomorrow. I cannot ers, recruiters, translators, transcription- discussions on new methodologies that believe how efficient I have been in ists, headhunters, website builders, lead look suspiciously like old methodologies getting things done today! generators and bill collectors offering with a slightly new wrinkle. There are I end the day by planning out tomor- their services. I also better check my blogs on how to write blogs, webinars row. Speaking of which, tomorrow is a spam folder: you never know if some- on how to give webinars and even blogs big day: I have a major report to write. thing important fell in there. on how to give webinars and vice versa. I don’t want to fall behind...

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