Alert!August 2010 | Vol

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Alert!August 2010 | Vol. 50 | No. 08

Emerging Technology Technology/Software Directory iPad for MR Social Media & Research

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 1 With so many information sources, attending industry events is no longer a given. But face to face meetings can be “incredibly productive when the program and people are important. MRA’s First Outlook Conference will be that kind of event.

The workshop on mining social media will provide an in-depth look at

how to ﬁ nd and listen to online

“conversations, and even help you build a social media monitoring

dashboard. This is real quality. “ “ Join me in Orlando at the Walt “ Disney World Swan Resort, an exciting place “to develop relationships. Janet Baldi Vice President, Data Collection RTi Research

MRA FIRST OUTLOOK CONFERENCE INSIGHTS & STRATEGIES FOR THE ENTIRE PROFESSION NOVEMBER 2-4 2010 ORLANDO

www.mra-net.org/foc2 | 860.682.1000 MRA’sMRA’s Alert! Alert! Magazine Magazine - August - July 2010 August 2010 Alert!August 2010 | Vol. 50 | No. 08 With so many information sources, attending industry events is no longer a given. But face to face meetings can be “incredibly productive when the program and people are important. MRA’s 7 Social Media Research: First Outlook Conference will be that From Buzz to Biz kind of event. By Annie Pettit, Ph.D.

Emerging Technology The iPad as a Data Technology/Software Directory The workshop on mining social media 16 Collection Device iPad for MR Social Media & Research will provide an in-depth look at By Jerry Arbittier

how to ﬁ nd and listen to online conversations, and even help you

“ Don’t Forget Your “Place” When On This Month’s Cover build a social media monitoring 19 Creating a Customer Satisfaction dashboard. This is real quality. From left: “ “ “ “ Strategy Tathagat Jaruhar, vice president of business By Jason Mantel development, Aldius Consulting Group, Inc. and Join me in Orlando at the Walt Disney Noam Raz, CEO, Meida Shivuki CI. World Swan Resort, an exciting place 21 Beneath the Surface: to develop relationships. Uncovering the Emotional “ Engagement of Consumers to 4 From the Editor 38 Counterpoint Opinion Optimize Advertising By Tara M. Cantore Column Janet Baldi By Dr. Carl Marci By Kathryn Korostoff Vice President, Data Collection Inspirational Quote of the RTi Research 25 Alert! Magazine’s Second Annual 4 Technology & Software Directory Month 40 Business Reads By Tara M. Cantore 31 How to Use Technology to 10 My Business To Do List For Redefine Today’s Economy August 42 Research Standards By Daniel Burrus By Patrick Glaser 11 Welcome New Members Online Research Communities: 44 Legislative Update 34 Putting the Customer at the MRA Heart of Your Marketing Strategy 12 New Member Spotlight By LaToya Rembert-Lang, J.D. FIRST OUTLOOK CONFERENCE By Mark Simon 14 President’s Perspective 46 Now Hiring INSIGHTS & STRATEGIES FOR THE ENTIRE PROFESSION 36 From Stunts to Strategy: By Elisa Galloway, PRC NOVEMBER 2-4 2010 ORLANDO A Research-Based Social Media 48 MRA Chapter Update Marketing Roadmap 15 CEO Column By Taddy Hall By David Almy 50 Industry News & Announcements MRA FIRST OUTLOOK CONFERENCE The views expressed Editor-in-Chief: Editorial Advisory Content Editors: Submit to Alert! Advertise in Alert! in Alert! are solely Tara M. Cantore Board: David Almy Submissions to Alert! are If you are interested in INSIGHTS & STRATEGIES FOR THE ENTIRE PROFESSION those of the authors MRA Headquarters Adam Berman, PRC Kristen Darby welcome and should be getting your name out to NOVEMBER 2-4 2010 ORLANDO (860) 682-1000, Elyse Gammer, PRC Patrick Glaser sent to Tara Cantore at the leaders in the profes- and do not necessarily Fax: (860) 682-1010 Paul Kirch, PRC Lisa Lockwood MRA Headquarters, 110 sion, contact Tara Cantore reflect the opinions or [email protected] National Dr., 2nd Floor, for advertising opportuni- Aaron Nichols Susan Sadlak positions of MRA. Meg Ryan, PRC Glastonbury, CT 06033 or to ties. E-mail Tara at tara.cantore@mra-net. [email protected] org. Articles are edited for or call (860) 682-1000. Visit us online at www.mra-net.org/foc | 860.682.1000 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 content, length and interest www.mra-net.org/alert 3 to MRA members. From the Editor Keeping Ahead of Technology

Welcome to the August issue of Alert! used the iPad for a project in physician about neuromarketing on page 21. Magazine. As you may have already offices to see if he could collect data from Also in this issue is a new column for noticed, Alert! has a new look this month. patients in the waiting room. His article Alert!, called MRA Chapter Update. To We have a new design giving it a more “The iPad as a Data Collection Device” find out the latest news and events taking slick, newsy, modern look. gives readers tips and lessons he learned place in your chapter, view the column on This issue of the magazine is dedicated while using the iPad for data collection. page 48. to emerging technology. Technology is To learn more about his findings, read the In MRA news, we have launched the constantly changing, and it is important article starting on page 16. Web site for our next event, MRA First as members of the market research profes- Another interesting article in this issue Outlook Conference – Insights & Strate- sion for you to stay up-to-date on the lat- is “Beneath the Surface: Uncovering the gies for the Entire Profession. The Con- est technology and software available for Emotional Engagement of Consumers to ference will be held on November 2-4, new ways of conducting research. Optimize Advertising” by Dr. Carl Marci. 2010 at the gorgeous Walt Disney World One of the latest pieces of technology In this article Marci goes into the Swan Resort in Orlando. We are changing market researchers may be trying to incor- advancements in the field of neuroscience up the event a bit with more content to porate into their research is Apple’s iPad. for market research. He uses the compa- meet your needs. We have three 6-hour Introduced earlier this year, a buzz has nies Warner Bros., Starcom and Walgreens workshops scheduled, which will be led been going around as to how this easy- as examples of businesses that have used by world-class speakers on the topics of to-use, high-tech device can be incorpo- this type of research to understand their project management, social media and rated in research. Jerry Arbittier recently customers better. You can read more data presentation. We have added more keynote speakers, including Bob Groves, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, and of course we have MRA’s great networking opportunities at the Conference as well. And another exciting component to the Conference (at least in my opinion) Inspirational Quote of the Month is it is taking place at Disney! To help you experience the magic even more, we are including passes for Magic Kingdom or Epcot to be used on November 4 after 4 p.m. Check out the most up-to-date details on sessions and the Conference schedule at www.mra-net.org/foc. “When you come to the Stay tuned to next month’s issue of Alert!, which will focus on healthcare/ pharmaceutical research. This has been end of your rope, tie a hot topic in the industry for some time now, and we will have several articles giving in-depth looks at this sector of the industry, as well as a healthcare/pharma- a knot and hang on.” ceutical research directory. Have a great month! ~Franklin D. Roosevelt Tara M. Cantore is MRA’s publications editor and editor-and-chief of Alert! Magazine. She can be reached at [email protected] or 860-682-1000.

4 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 AL-0810-1.qxd:Layout 1 7/6/10 11:01 AM Page 1

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MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 5 6 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Social Media Research: From Buzz to Biz By Annie Pettit, Ph.D.

Social media buzz monitoring has brands with a commercial focus that are different sources pegging it at less than been top of mind for many rarely purchased or used by individuals one percent. researchers and marketers over the (e.g., heating systems, metal manufactur- Similarly, demographic information is not last year or so. The ability to determine ers) are far less likely to generate an online available in any meaningful quantity as it how often and when a brand has been presence as opposed to brands with a is simply non-existent, or when it is avail- mentioned in social media, whether it be consumer focus, such as cereal or able, privacy regulations often prevent on Twitter, Blogger, Flickr or some other electronics. the information from being shared beyond popular Web site, is highly attractive to Another important distinction to be the initial transaction. Demographic companies. But the nature of buzz is that, aware of is that geographic information is information that can be associated with without sound research principles, it is not currently available in any great quan- social media data must be inferred from simply buzz. It is not necessarily valid nor tity. Internet users freely visit Web sites the language of the writer, generalized reliable and not necessarily appropriate for that are hosted all around the world so from Web site demographics, or grossly predicting brand performance nor creat- identifying geography based on the Web over-generalized from tiny samples. These ing relevant marketing campaigns. Only a site domain isn’t appropriate. Most of the methods are not ideal, but they are the well thought out scientific backbone can social media Web sites generating high only options available until privacy fears transform simple buzz into valid biz. volumes of traffic and chatter are dot com can be overcome, if ever. As with any research method, there Web sites that have no distinct region One of the scientific backbones of re- are limitations unique to social media associated with them; think of myspace. search is data quality. Anyone can collect research. First, traditional awareness and com, twitter.com or youtube.com. Geo- and disseminate enormous volumes of incidence measures are not appropriate location, or assigning GPS data to words data, but it is not until scientific processes because the lack of online opinion does and pictures, is only just becoming are applied to the data that it becomes not equate to lack of awareness. But, popular via foursquare, Google Latitude, research data. For social media research, important in a different way, the lack Facebook location and other similar cell data quality begins with a deceptively of online opinion may reflect a lack of phone applications. But, at this point, the complicated task of ensuring that the data personal relevance, disinterest or privacy percentage of data being tagged with a truly reflects the data that were intended concerns related to the brand. In addition, location is miniscule, with a number of to be collected. Where survey data quality

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 7 focuses on random responding, leading questions, and other survey design issues, SMR must focus on validity, or collecting the ‘right’ data. A research study on Apple computers may accidentally include data for apple pies or apple orchards. A number of very common brands, such as Target, The Gap and Coca-Cola must also go through rigorous data quality processes to accurately identify relevant data and clean out irrelevant data. Other important components of research are sampling and weighting. These techniques are typically used to ensure that the aggregation of results reflects a population according to a specific rule. For example, survey researchers often want to ensure that results reflect a 50/50 balance of opinions from women and men, even if women contribute 70 percent of time period. This is particularly important score based on 70 percent women and the opinions. This also ensures that when when a sampling plan includes Web sites 30 percent men even though we know it results are tracked over time, fluctuations that are used by a small percentage of should be 50/50. Second, we could weight in gender proportions aren’t the cause of people but produce high volumes of data, the results to ensure that each source fluctuations in results. In SMR, sampling such as Twitter. contributes an even proportion in each and weighting variables are typically Let’s look at an example of weighting. time frame (middle red line). Or, we could specific Web sites, such as Twitter or You- There are many possible ways of look- decide that the opinions voiced on mi- Tube, or types of Web sites, such as blogs ing at opinions towards the iPad. First, croblogs reflect early adopters and should and video sites. The end result is that we could consider raw unweighted data be weighted higher (bottom green line). changes in data reflect changes in opin- (top blue line). In the survey world, this It’s not surprising that the three lines are ion, not simply changes in the amount of would be comparable to letting the data quite different. As with any sampling and data that Web sites make public or where fall as they may, or generating an overall weighting plan, determining which result the crawlers visited during the specified

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8 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 (speed, downloading) and features (keyboard, screen). In this example, verbatims were classified according to seven different constructs. Then, the continuous sentiment scores were transformed into a five point Likert scale. Among those verbatims that referred to pricing, about 35 percent of them reflected Top 2 Box scores, or positive sentiment (remainder were 60 percent neutral and five percent negative). And, among verbatims that referred to innovation, 55 percent were positive whereas is the right result depends on the purpose 300 years of history and about 70 years only 28 percent of verbatims related to of the research. of documented study, comes into play. batteries were positive. Sentiment analysis is a process for Content analysis is a process for catego- As with all things new, researchers have determining whether the emotion as- rizing verbatims into relevant groups or begun the task of developing the stan- sociated with an opinion is positive or constructs such as pricing, recommen- dards of social media research. What is an negative. Traditionally, humans have dations, cinnamon flavor or warranties. acceptable level of validity for automated poured through verbatims one by one It used to be a time-consuming manual sentiment analysis and content analysis? manually coding their sentiment. Taking process but the ability of computers to How best can we report on geographics into account poor grammar, sarcasm, lack speed up this process means that, not only and demographics? And given “the right of clarity and other writing styles that can verbatims be coded using the 10 or 20 of the individual to be free from unsolic- make the interpretation of intent difficult, codes regularly used for a specific study, ited contact” (IMRO, http://www.imro. human coders can achieve inter-rater reli- they can be automatically coded for thou- org/profstds/code.cfm, May, 2010), what ability of about 85 percent (based simply sands of additional ideas or constructs. are the implications for privacy of the on percentage agreement). Though not Advanced systems are even capable of individual in this age of lessening privacy? quite as accurate, with some systems identifying new and emerging constructs, The next couple of years will bring untold achieving validity scores in the range of those which had not been previously con- changes. 65 percent to 75 percent, the ability of sidered but are evident in the data. automated procedures to score thousands In the case of the iPad, applying auto- and millions of records in minutes makes mated content analysis can generate hun- the automated process an undeniable dreds of relevant constructs from physical Annie Pettie, Ph.D. is the chief research advantage. In the end, the best sentiment descriptions (color, size), functionality officer at Conversition Strategies. analysis system must incorporate the best of both processes. Standardized scales are one of the shining features of survey research. The traditional five-point likert scale allows researchers to compare different brands and features on the same scale. Determin- ing which brand is the higher achiever, and by how much, is a reasonably simple task. The same holds true for sentiment analysis. The first step towards scaling is consistency, a requirement easily met by automated systems which ensure 100 percent inter-rater and within-rater reliability. Second, because some automated processes assign sentiment scores on a continuous scale, which can then be transformed into any Likert scale, box scores for one brand can be fairly compared with box scores of another brand. Sub-category, category and industry norms are the logi- cal next step beyond standardized scaling. On its own, sentiment analysis is simply interesting. To know that a person or a brand receives many positive or many negative scores is more fun than helpful. It offers no direction into where product improvements are required or where marketing campaigns need to focus. This is where content analysis, a technique with

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 9 My Business To Do List For August

Nominate outstanding MRA volunteers for the Rising Star, Shinning Star and Celebrated Company Awards. The deadline to submit nominations is September 17. For details, visit www.mra-net.org/membership/awards.cfm.

Look out for my 2011 Blue Book listing information. Renewals and new listings may be secured beginning September 1. Save the date for MRA’s CEO Summit, February 16-18, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Apply for Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) to help generate new business and increase my value to current and prospective employers.

Check out MRA’s Industry Blog, “The Researcher’s Perspective” at www.mra-net.org/perspective.

Check out the online edition of Alert! Magazine at www.mra-net.org.

10 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Welcome New Members

Bistra Anatchkova Steve Dodge Eli Lieber WYSAC Paradigm Precision Sample Dedoose Laramie, WY Port Washington, NY Manhattan Beach, CA

Tamara Barber Michelle Finzel Anna MacIntosh Forrester Maryland Marketing Source, Inc. Southeastern Institute of Research, Inc. Cambridge, MA Randallstown, MD Richmond, VA

Venu Bendapudi Meighan Frederick Candida McCollam Cross-Tab Marketing Services Pvt Ltd Bluestem Brands, Inc. LocalSpeak Astoria, NY Eden Prairie, MN New York, NY

Cedric Benoit Julie Gardner Jeff Meglio Kadence (UK) Ltd InsightsNow, Inc. Communispace London, UK Corvallis, OR Chicago, IL

Archana Bhandari Svetlana Gershman Marc Melikian Capella University Signature Data Primary Point, Inc. Minneapolis, MN Bellevue, WA Woburn, MA Nominate outstanding MRA volunteers for the Janice Marie Bleyaert Holly Gordon Manish Narang Rising Star, Shinning Star and Celebrated Company Awards. SC Johnson & Sons Clarabridge Market Xcel Data Matrix Pvt Ltd The deadline to submit nominations is September 17. Racine, WI Reston, VA New Delhi, India

For details, visit www.mra-net.org/membership/awards.cfm. Travis Bochenek Roger Green Christopher Nielson Ugam Research Roger Green & Associates, Inc. Lighthouse Research & Development, Inc. Newton, MA New Hope, PA Riverton, UT

Bob Boespflug Heath Greenfield Laura Noll Voice Count International Millward Brown, Inc. Progressive Insurance Portland, OR Lisle, IL Mayfield Village, OH Save the date for MRA’s CEO Summit, Susanne Bowen Julie Hamilton Kathy Norton Adayana The Nielsen Company Consumer Research Network, Inc. February 16-18, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. Indianapolis, IN Chicago, IL Northvale, NJ

Lewis Copulsky Dan Healy Kristine Oppelstrup Apply for Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) Lewis & Clark Real Opinions Columbia University to help generate new business and increase my value to Raleigh, NC Dubai, UAE Astoria, NY current and prospective employers. Anne Sophie Damelincourt Stacey Hurwitz Rodney Oudan Blue Lemon Qualitative Research & Strategic Research Horizons Worcester State College Consulting Needham, MA Dedham, MA Check out MRA’s Industry Blog, “The Researcher’s Paris, France Perspective” at www.mra-net.org/perspective. Ursula Keeler Andrew Peterson Dayeli Guadalupe Manuet Delgado Progressive Insurance Student Student Mayfield Village, OH Provo, UT Zupango, Mexico Alec Kisiel David Poole Frank Della Rosa Observation Baltimore Pure Branding Symphonetic Baltimore, MD Leverett, MA Eastham, MA Suzanne Klein, PRC Victoria Prader Jennifer Dineen Gillette, NJ The Sherwin-Williams Company University of Connecticut Cleveland, OH West Hartford, CT

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 11 Welcome New Members

Noam Raz Annalisa Tammaro New Organizations Meida Shivuki CI CIDC Petah Ikva, Israel Cambridge, MA ArkTeleservices, Inc. Valley Stream, NY Joel Reiss Scott Taylor, PRC Capella University CMI Bain & Company Minneapolis, MN Atlanta, GA New York, NY

Tiffany Rigatuso David Tritack Borderless Access Panels Pvt., Ltd Observation Baltimore RTi Research Bangalore, India Baltimore, MD Stamford, CT FTA Research & Consultant Vietnam Marissa Romero Meghan Van Horn Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam Culturati Research and Consulting, Inc. Sentient Decision Science San Diego, CA Portsmouth, NH MediaCom New York, NY Paraj Saxena Tim Wirtz Student Convergys Customer Intelligence Services Quantel Research Corp. Medford, MA Erlanger, KY Ogden, UT

Inball Shohat-Pawlowski Donna Wise Quest Global Research Group Legacy Marketing Partners Survey Executives, LLC Oakville, ON Chicago, IL Atlanta, GA uSamp Bill Stamats Andrew Wisnewski Encino, CA Stamats Marketing & Planning Systems (MaPS) Cedar Rapids, IA Waltham, MA

New Member Spotlight

Meet one of MRA’s What is your favorite aspect of Families, which provides support in feed- newest members, Roger working in the marketing research ing the hungry across the US. It seemed Green, president/CEO, industry? Getting to know a community that the best way to celebrate our birthday Roger Green & of extremely bright, creative, industrious, in his absence was to devote the day to Associates, Inc. even idealistic professionals. My favorite something we both believed in. I have aspect of marketing research comes when been extremely fortunate that co-workers What made you the RG+A team finds a nugget in our data and friends have worked so hard to turn decide to pursue that can change the way the medical this dream into reality. a career in stakeholders — physicians, consumers, marketing payers — look at or treat a disease. If you could give one piece of advice research? to someone who is new to the MR As long as I can remember, I was Outside of MR, what hobbies do you business, what would you tell them? fascinated by statistics, strategy, politics like to do in your free time? I run a Can I have two? 1. Superior marketing and human behavior. In my early 20s, I business and am at the end of raising four research is something between a craft discovered political polling, which gave kids. That doesn’t leave much time. Still, I and an art. There are rules about what you me a chance to indulge all these fascina- love to cook, know a bit about wine, work must and what you cannot, but to bring tions. Eventually, I grew tired of the nas- out like a fiend, and ski whenever I can value, you must press on past the rules to tier side of politics (negative campaigning squeeze in the time. Plus, I am a sports convert data to vision, and vision to and politician egos) and transitioned into and politics junkie. action. 2. Bring passion, energy and faith. healthcare marketing research as a place If you do, you will never find a better way to “do good” and “do well” at the same Last year you launched Marty to spend your professional life. time. I have been doing this and loving it Green’s Lunch. Can you tell our for more than 25 years now. readers a little bit about this charitable event and why you started it? My dad and I share(d) a birthday, July 24. After he died, I learned that he and I both donated money to Feeding America’s

12 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Circles can signify deep emotions… even in research.

Respondent verbatim data can be pretty straightforward The themes are illustrated as circles that are created and that’s the problem. Traditional verbatim “coding” using technology that evaluates the frequency, techniques can’t always identify the true meaning of the importance and inter-relationships of the key semantic data because of the linear nature of these results. As a components. This analysis provides strategic and result, valuable customer insights might be missed. actionable insights that are far superior to the basic “word cloud” graphics.

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MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 13 President’s Perspective Falling Forward: The Future is Not What it Used to Be

Never before in my professional career has As researchers we continue to work to forming a full review of our corporate busi- technology change occurred so rapidly. find the position such research plays when ness plan and future strategies. A position For me, as a researcher in the profession paired with more traditional research of realignment designed to bring relevan- for well over 40 years, there are times techniques. cy to our current and future membership where I have felt as if I’m falling forward. We need to continue to find the balance through education, industry standards, Can any of us predict the next “emerg- of utilizing the latest and newest tech- government affairs, including protection ing technologies?” and oversight, networking and connection Science fiction opportunities, and so much more! writings of the “We need to continue to find Make plans now for the MRA First past have had their Outlook Conference, which will be held in moments, such as the balance of utilizing the Orlando on November 2-4. The Conference atomic energy and is receiving new features, which is space travel, but it latest and newest techniques being designed to better meet the needs has also had its bad of researchers throughout the entire moments. Watch- to continue to provide industry – from buyers of research to ing the cartoon the providers of research services and Jetsons as a child, relevant and valuable products. Making connections I wondered if we happen and providing great education, all would ever get insights to our clients.” wrapped into a conference by an around in a future organization that cares about the future of with jet packs and the industry, is what sets the MRA First have robots cleaning our homes. I’m still niques to continue to provide relevant Outlook Conference aside from all others. waiting. Remember the super computer and valuable insights to our client, while I ask that you invest in you, your firm and HAL from the sci-fi movie 2001 a Space at the same time balancing the need for the industry by attending this event. Odyssy? That was a bit short sighted – not understanding the usage of the data and Stepping into the role of MRA president with predicting a future of electronic brain to be clear and definitive as to how it can at such a time is indeed interesting and (artificial intelligence) computers, but with and should be used. This calls for research exciting…and lots of fun! predicting giant machines in our future. provider standards. Such standards are yet Now, most of us carry around pocket-sized to be written. This would be an interesting mini-computers, not giant ones. conversation for the future. In a discussion on this subject, MRA As we talk about the future of technology Past-President Merrill Shugoll said, “Of the in this issue, at MRA we are also looking past 50 years, in the last five years more to the future. The past two months have Elisa Galloway, PRC is the president of MRA and change occurred with technology than been a whirlwind of activity, as the Board president of Galloway Research Service. She can be the prior 45 years, and those last five years of Directors, the Strategic Review Task reached at [email protected]. changed the world more than ever before.” Force, the newly hired CEO David Almy, I would argue at any one time, it could myself and the MRA staff have been per- be said the last year of change was more pivotal than the prior 49 years. In the market research industry we have seen biometrics used to gain marketing insights and other forms of research techniques used to measure physiological responses to advertisements through skin conductors and heart rate and eye movents, to name a few. Social networking has introduced Web measurement globally – the ability to mine, measure and analyze the millions of opinions expressed on the Web.

14 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 CEO Column

A Broader, Bolder MRA

In the coming weeks, you will receive a data collection, but recognizes that as the requiring a consensus of the Board or a request to approve an update to MRA’s industry has grown, so too has MRA’s big majority of the membership before they Articles of Incorporation, which I’m confi- tent. MRA’s value proposition also has can happen. dent will result in a broader, bolder MRA. been expanded to include all within mar- • Introduces Director and Officer indemni- Our Board of Directors has worked hard to keting research. This includes corporate fication to 2010 standards. This idea didn’t carefully update our Articles to 2010 stan- researchers – who some call “End Users” yet exist in 1957. dards and position MRA for growth and although those “End Users” I’ve talked to • Eliminates obsolete references and future success. I urge you to vote “yes” on prefer “Corporate Researchers” so that’s modernizes other language where appro- this important initiative. what I’ll call them – as well as full service priate – cleaning things up. A little background. The Articles are our research providers, opinion surveyors, Every half century or so it’s probably wise constitution, so to speak. Articles for not- and important for for-profit associations (MRA is a 501(c)6 healthy tax-exempt organization under IRS rules) “Every half century or so it’s organizations to typically define a corporate purpose, how revisit their found- the organization is to be managed at a probably wise and important ing documents and high level and include a bunch of legal update where details. for healthy organizations to necessary. We They have great meaning to you in that didn’t change our Articles define what MRA is all about, revisit their founding everything this explain why we deserve tax exempt status time around, but and how we are to be governed. In this documents and update where we have done a they are vitally important to every MRA rather thorough member as they provide strategic focus necessary.” job of modernizing for the organization. MRA’s constitution MRA’s formal beginnings can be traced data collectors and the vendors who sell to reflect a changed world, a bigger to the Association’s Articles as filed with to and support all. In short, every provider community and an optimistic future. the State of New York in 1957. The and consumer of marketing research and Now, it’s your turn to review and Articles were amended once in 1970 when opinion surveys, fairly represented and hopefully approve the proposed the Marketing Research Trade Association served well. amendment. With that success, we’ll be became the Marketing Research Associa- • Establishes a clear hierarchical man- able to accelerate MRA’s strategic plan tion. That one word was the only change agement structure with MRA’s members and rapidly build a broader, bolder MRA made since the original 1957 filing. serving as the highest authority, its Board designed around you and your peers! It may not come as a surprise to you that of Directors next, and the Association’s MRA’s Articles are past due for a major Bylaws next. This is implied but missing update. To bring them up to 2010 in the original document. The Association standards, we examined every word. We also has a set of Policies which deal with David Almy is MRA’s CEO. He can be reached at realized that the original language often the day-to-day administration of MRA [email protected]. was dated and inexact, which is not which are posted on MRA’s Web site for surprising given its age, changes in our our members to review. Although not industry and improvements since the late referenced in the Articles, MRA’s Policies 1950s in practices of how articles are best are important management guidance from drafted. the Board for the Association’s benefit. In summary, the newly proposed amend- • Permits updates to the Bylaws by an ment: affirmative 2/3rds vote of the Board of • Shortens, broadens and updates MRA’s Directors or by an affirmative majority corporate purpose. MRA’s vision, also now (50 percent plus 1) of the membership, under formal review, has broadened over improving the agility of the Association’s the years to include the entire marketing management. MRA’s Bylaws need tweaks research profession. This is not to sug- from time to time, and a 2/3rds major- gest that we ever will forget our roots in ity is a safe, rapid way to achieve them,

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 15 The iPad as a Data Collection Device By Jerry Arbittier

There has been a tremendous amount of hype about the iPad. It seems like it can do everything but make us coffee and toast in the morning. The tendency for hy- perbole is typical when something is different. And the iPad is definitely different. It is not quite a laptop, and while working like an iPhone, you can not make calls on it. Market researchers use both laptops and iPhones as data collection devices. Therefore, since iPads are somewhat in- between the two, one may ask, what role will it have to play in the process of data collection? This article provides some insights into this role. Our primary project was to look at the practicality of placing iPads in physician offices to see if we could collect data from patients while they are in the waiting room. This article provides lessons learned as part of doing this project. It starts with the purchasing of the iPad to actually observing patients taking a five internal memory (16GB, 32GB and 64GB). not accept Flash programming. Therefore, minute survey. As part of the process, you Each type of upgrade adds substantially if you have any special questions that will discover eight steps to help you with to the cost of the iPad. Since we were do- require Flash, you need to find another using the iPad for data collection. ing Internet surveys where the data was means of getting the job done. Since most being stored at a central site, 16GB was questions are fairly standard, this may not 1. Purchasing an iPad more than sufficient. be a big issue for you. There have been numerous articles Our surveys will run in physician The physical size of the iPad was more written about the popularity of the iPad. offices. While the office may have their important. While not as small as an They are not an exaggeration. As of this own internal network, making sure that iPhone, it is definitely smaller than the writing, the typical consumer can only you are connected to the network can typical size screen that a respondent purchase two iPads at a time. When you cause start-up issues. Therefore, purchas- uses at home or in the office. Therefore, go to purchase them, the wait can be two ing a 3G iPad is a necessity. However, if you need to program the survey with the to three weeks. If you want to purchase you purchase a 3G iPad, you also need to size of the iPad screen in mind. What we more than two iPads, you will need to purchase an AT&T plan. There are cur- did was have the programmers test their go through the business department. rently plans based on 250MB and 2GB programs on the iPad and then make They are very friendly, but do not expect usage per month. Buy the 2GB plan. adjustments. This provided a tremendous special treatment even if you are ordering While we were not a heavy user, we ran amount of help in the design of the online 100 iPads. And especially do not expect out of space within three days on the survey instrument. a discount based on the quantity you 250MB plan. We ended up having to go One additional point: When you turn the purchase. Maybe if you are Coca-Cola and to the larger plan and in effect lost the iPad, the screen turns with you. While this purchasing thousands there is a discount, money that we paid for the initial plan. seems like a “cool” feature for selling the but I was told in no uncertain terms the iPad, it disoriented the respondents in our iPads are not discounted regardless of 3. Surveys on the iPad test. Luckily, the iPad has a switch on the how many you purchase. One of our most pleasant surprises was side for keeping the orientation stable. that we took a standard survey link and You should use the switch or program the 2. Type of iPad it worked on the iPad without doing any- software so the screen stays stable. The iPad can be purchased with just thing. That was the good news. How- WIFI (runs on an internal network) or with ever, as we started to do more advanced 4. iPad Features 3G (runs on an external network). You programming, we ran into problems. The We found the iPad has three features that also can get the iPad with three levels of main stumbling block is that the iPad does were especially useful in data collection

16 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 17 that are not typically found on a home 6. 3G vs. WIFI 8. Respondent Usage computer. The first is the touch screen. The advantage of the 3G iPad is you can While respondents liked using an iPad, While a touch screen is very intuitive, you use either the 3G network or the inter- it did not mean they were good users. would be surprised at how many respon- nal WIFI network at your location. The Based on our observation, half of the dents are afraid to touch the screen for the disadvantage is the iPad will go back and respondents would have needed help in first time. A note indicating it is okay to forth between both networks, if both are doing the survey. The biggest issue was touch the screen is very helpful. Second, available. This will mean the respondent they held their fingers on the screen for an iPad allows you to enlarge the screen will see messages on the screen. The too long and the iPad “copy/paste” feature using your fingertips. This is especially iPad continues to ask which network the appeared. This always made them stop to helpful when the scale points are small. respondent wants to use. Therefore, you ask what to do. This was definitely more Again, an instruction note is helpful. need to select the best network for each prominent in older users and people who Finally, the iPad keyboard will automati- particular location and set the iPad for that had not used an iPhone in the past. cally appear when an Open End question network. The good news was the respondent is shown. The problem is the keypad questions were minimal. In addition, does not go away when the respondent is 7. Respondent Reaction regardless of age or previous Apple usage, finished. You need to have instructions on It may be that it is new or that it is flashy, it only took 5-10 minutes to instruct office how to close the keyboard. but it was obvious when observing personnel on how to assist the respon- respondents taking the survey that they dents. Therefore, using existing personnel 5. Securing an iPad enjoyed using the iPad. Regardless of age at a field site is an easy solution for main- The iPad has the advantage of being very or if they have used an Apple product in taining the iPad in the field. portable, which makes it ideal for doing the past, most people were smiling when While every project is different, and there surveys in the field. It also makes it easy to taking our survey. Nearly 86 percent of will always be other challenges, using steal. If you go to an Apple store, you will the respondents rated the iPad as above the above eight guidelines should help in notice that they secure the iPad by actu- average for providing survey responses. implementation of the iPad for data collec- ally drilling a hole into the back of the iPad This was true even though only 43 percent tion. The iPad size and mobility does make and then tethering their power cord to a had used an Apple product in the past and it a unique data collection device. It is lock inside the iPad. While I am not therefore were not familiar with the Apple another modality that you should consider putting a drill into our iPads any time style of communication. when fielding new studies. soon, you should include a case for your iPad that is secured to a certain location. Jerry Arbittier is the president of SurveyHealthCare.

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18 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Don’t Forget Your “Place” When Creating a Customer Satisfaction Strategy By Jason Mantel

Customer satisfaction is top-of-mind tations of your customers, the first and decisions. If businesses don’t know the when assessing the market research perhaps lasting impression of your facility impact of their facilities, they may be needs of an organization, and is may supersede that of your people, prod- losing revenue and customer opportuni- frequently a large portion of any ucts or processes. ties. company’s research budget. It requires For example, if you have a lousy “street Facility Evaluation Research isn’t a new companies to measure customer feedback presence,” will a potential customer even concept, but this type of research has regarding their interaction with employ- get close to your door? And once inside, is evolved from simple audits, where a mini- ees, products and even processes in an the environment consistent with the cus- mum threshold is defined and achieved, effort to identify areas for improvement. tomer’s expectations, or does it take away to more comprehensive assessments of Ultimately, the objective of these exten- from their satisfaction? processes and presentation, applying sive efforts is to understand and repair In an ever-increasing homogenous retail scientific method research principles that shortcomings that can negatively impact environment, where consumers are more outline clear actionable results. But evalu- the company, such as lost business. distracted than ever, they react quickly ation against a set of criteria is only a part But there is one element of the experi- and make fast decisions in their purchase of the effort. ence that may be overlooked, and that is process. Often, they react based on fa- Investigating what customers want, the “place” where the customer has the miliarity, and have an expectation of your what they notice, and at a minimum what experience. The facility – be it a retail facility before they even experience it. they expect, leads to successful facility store, dealership, restaurant, branch or This makes it critically important for research. Laying the foundation with prop- service location – can have a major impact businesses to understand the impact that erly identified evaluation areas, thresholds on satisfaction. Considering the expec- “place” has on consumers’ purchase defining success, and priorities aligned

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 19 with overall objectives are necessary in loan. Every customer notices something results, company management will have a planning, and where market research aids different about their surroundings, making better idea of which locations are adher- the process. every detail worthy of attention. ing to corporate guidelines, and applicable Like with any research, the core values In short, an optimal customer experience examples of optimal facility presentations. of consistency and objectivity are critical: includes a positive opinion of a physical Franchises can be rewarded for superior an independent third-party performs the store, space or location. results and they can even track their prog- evaluation, rigorously trained profession- For Facility Evaluation Research to be ef- ress using online tools. als are dedicated to the process, and an fective, it requires a thorough understand- Your facility, environment or “place” objective rating scale anchors the findings ing of location standards and consumer directly impacts a customer’s experience; so the conclusions in each area evaluated expectations before an evaluation instru- however, it is the component of customer are based on the application of a scale, not ment is designed or assessors are sent satisfaction that often gets overlooked. its interpretation. into the field. That often means holding Your “place” should receive the same criti- Beyond a typical audit or mystery shop, various focus group sessions with custom- cal reflection as your people, products and assessors are trained to have a heightened ers, and an investment in a scientifically processes. level of awareness about what makes a proven research strategy by the governing How much attention you are paying to facility different. They are seasoned to body. your “place,” and making changes to ad- “see” and evaluate, and not just “look” at Once the baseline is established and a dress facility issues, could have a signifi- a facility’s attributes, noticing the small- methodological process has been cre- cant impact on your bottom-line results. est details that can have a significant ated, consistency of assessments can be And better data leads to actionable steps subconscious impact on consumers, from achieved delivering quality, defendable that will improve your customer satisfac- consumer sightlines to retail presence to results. The most effective Facility Evalu- tion profile. cleanliness, and everything in between. ation Research campaigns include not Your facility or “place” is a reflection of just a defined rating system, but detailed the executives or owners running the assessor commentary and photographic business, the company as a whole and evidence where images are captured from the brand. And first impressions mean all the facility locations, in a similar fash- Jason Mantel is a vice president at everything. Customers increasingly ion, for a variety of applications. Morpace. expect personalized attention and close And the benefits of this approach are not relationships whether they are buying a just for corporate clients, but for franchises car, ordering a sandwich or applying for a as well. By generating more accurate

20 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Beneath the Surface: Uncovering the Emotional Engagement of Consumers to Optimize Advertising By Dr. Carl Marci

Advances in the field of neuroscience – 1. Emotional centers of the brain process models are attempting to integrate vari- particularly affective neuroscience, which information before it reaches cognitive ous findings and as an industry we are focuses on the mechanisms of emotion – areas. These emotional centers developing methods to assess the overall have provided academic researchers with significantly influence subsequent accuracy and effectiveness of these mod- new insights on how the brain functions, cognitive processes. els in an ever evolving media landscape. how it processes information, and how 2. Emotional processing plays a powerful As such, market researchers and advertis- emotions influence complex consumer role in directing attention, determining ing agencies are taking the first steps in behavior. For years, the brain had been a the depth of overall information processing a scientific journey to bridge the gap be- black box. Now, these developments are and influencing the formation of tween existing self-report methodologies giving all researchers a look inside, result- memories. and a fully neuroscientifically informed ing in improved insights and enhanced 3. Many aspects of emotional processing, framework. Nonetheless, important strides outcomes for market researchers. information processing and learning occur are being made as new research suppliers In fact, appreciation of neuroscience automatically without conscious aware- bring expertise and technologies from a among market researchers and advertis- ness and involve relatively distinct areas variety of disciplines to bear on ever more ers has led to the emergence of a new of the brain separate from the language complex media-related business problems. field within the industry, often referred centers. This complicates consumers’ The technologies employed by academics to as “neuromarketing,” which leverages ability to accurately report their emotional and medical researchers studying neuro- the application of neuroscience principles experiences via traditional self-report science – such as biometrics, brain imag- and a variety of technologies in market surveys and focus groups. ing and EEGs – are also being applied to research practices. Recent findings from In other words, emotions are the pri- address questions particularly relevant to mary driver of advertising and marketing (for a review, human behavior, see Plassman et al., 2007). “Market researchers and efficiently tell- A seminal study in the journey toward a ing us which bits new relationship between neuroscience advertising agencies are of information to and advertising was the study of McClure engage, and which et al. (2004), which demonstrated that to ignore. In the when individuals are aware of the brand taking the first steps in a modern world, we of sugared cola they are consuming, they are overwhelmed are more likely to prefer branded products. scientific journey to bridge the with information, Importantly, consumers often showed that and the bits we branded preferences were associated with gap between existing emotionally engage different regions in the brain related to are those that are emotional memories activating and over- self-report methodologies and the most relevant – riding the more narrowly circumscribed those relevant bits centers related to taste alone. This finding a fully neuroscientifically of information that provides direct evidence for the break through the neurobiological basis of brand response clutter and engage and influence over simple matters of informed framework.” us on an uncon- sensory stimulation. scious level. Our Other studies have also made use of emotions ultimately modern technologies to examine relation- affective neuroscience along with re- influence all or most of our behaviors, ships among advertising, activation of search coming out of related fields such without conscious awareness, so the emotional memory centers, personal pref- as the cognitive sciences, social psychol- unconscious plays a significant role in the erences and the importance of context, ogy, experimental psychiatry and artifi- overall human experience. as well as examining biological processes cial intelligence, have led to a number of These are still early days in the applica- associated with the direct experience and important advances regarding the role of tion of neuroscience to market research. recall of advertising content. our emotions in advertising: An increasing number of advertising

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 21 also provides a new teaching tool that is unbiased and allows second-by-second feedback with the potential for higher returns on investment. Neuromarketing is not without its challenges. The field has been portrayed in equal parts as the “holy grail” of market research – access to understanding what truly motivates consumer behavior – and as a short step away from making researchers into the “Big Brother” of George Orwell’s 1984. This has done much to create an “either/or” dichotomy (as either useful or not) among advertisers regarding its actual utility. As is often the case, the truth lies somewhere in between these two extreme views. While applications of the tools from neuroscience are promising in many respects, some have noted that studies making use of biologically-based techniques often produce findings similar to those obtained via self-report methods. Despite the well- known limitations of self-report, it would be concerning if there were not at least some overlap in studies of traditional measures of consumer attitude and recall with neuromarketing research. This overlap As a more recent example of the application of neuromarketing to media and marketing research, Innerscope Research conducted a biometric study with Warner Bros., Starcom and Walgreens to identify interpretable elements that consistently trigger high and low emotional engagement when people view branded integrations. Branded integrations are an increas- Will Lower Costs Help You? ingly popular method of advertising on television in which marketing messages are delivered within TV shows rather than during traditional commercial breaks. The • E Pre-Recruiting A huge investment in our database study tested two Walgreens integrations, has resulted in signficant efficiency a comedic segment about the Walgreens • 100K+ Database Photo Center during The Ellen DeGeneres • Free Parking gains. To help the economic recovery Show and a more serious segment about • 10 years - Top Rated we are passing on these savings. the Walgreens Take Care Health Tour that • Commercial Kitchen was part of The Bonnie Hunt Show. • Digital Audio * The integrations contained very differ- We have reduced our prices by 20% . ent content and were presented in clearly • 4 Luxury Suites distinct styles from one another. However, • 50 years in business Call or email us for a quote. there were several themes and best practices that emerged from analyses of the participants’ biometric responses. The * Discount applies only to projects held in our research center and may not be combined with other offers. unconscious emotional engagement data suggest several best practices that can be Chicago Facility - National Recruiting seen in the chart shown here, including making sure to rouse audience curiosity [email protected] and focus on consumer benefits, while 847•390•8666 avoiding the use of terminology viewers www.preres.com may not understand. The results of this study not only suggest that biometric measures of engagement reflect unconscious viewer reactions to TV content, but

22 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 reflects the complementary nature of these suggest the gap between neuroscience Bias-specific Activity in the Ventrome- methodologies. and advertising is closing as advertisers Dial Prefrontal Cortex During Credibility The excitement comes from the addi- and media companies embrace the new Judgments. Brain Research Bulletin, 67, tional insights and value that a neurosci- insights of neuromarketing. The technol- 413-421. entifically informed research program can ogy used for testing is becoming more • Marci, C. (2006). A Biologically Based produce. When consumers find messaging scalable and cost-effective for use in any Measure of Emotional Engagement: both unconsciously engaging and then research program – from early concept Context Matters. Journal of Advertising can consciously recall that they found and animatics testing through to final Research, 46, 381-387. the message engaging, that is market creative. Neuromarketing methodologies • McClure, S.M., Li, J., Tomlin, D., Cypert, research “gold” in terms of the increased will continue to produce meaningful and K.S., Montague, L.M., Montague, P.R. value and predictability of the insights. actionable results, adding value beyond (2004) Neural Correlates of Behavioral This is where neuromarketing offers the scope of traditional research methods Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks. the greatest opportunity to the market to help market researchers understand Neuron, 44, 379-387. research industry. Measuring uncon- consumer motivation and behavior. • Page, G. & Raymond, J. (2007). scious emotional engagement eliminates Neuroscience and Marketing: It’s What conscious biases from the research References: it Means that Counts, Not How it’s Done. process altogether, allowing advertisers • Ambler, T., & Burne, T. (1999). The International Journal of Advertising Re- and market researchers to go beneath the Impact of Affect on Memory for Advertis- search, 26,132-134. surface. Why was that particular message ing. Journal of Advertising Research, 39, • Plassman, H., Ambler, T., Braeutigam, successful? Exactly what about that ad- 25-34. S., & Kenning, P. (2007). What Can Adver- vertisement was emotionally engaging to • Briggs, R. (2006). Marketers Who tisers Learn from Neuroscience? Interna- the consumer? What specific recommen- Measure the Wrong Thing Get Faulty tional Journal of Advertising, 26, 151-175. dations can be used by advertisers to opti- Answers. Journal of Advertising Research, mize levels of engagement? By answering 46, 462-468. these questions, neuromarketing provides • Deppe, M., Schwindt, W., Kraemer, J., Dr. Carl Marci is the CEO and chief clear direction for optimizing marketing Kugel, H., Plassman, H., Kennings, P., science officer at Innerscope Research, messages in any media environment. & Ringelstein, E. (2005). Evidence for a Inc. Developments over the past decade Neural Correlate for the Framing Effect:

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24 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Alert! Magazine’s Second Annual Technology & Software Directory

With PRECISION ENGAGE, your online survey will instantly come to life. Real live interviewers will take respondents through each survey, question by question. This increases comprehension and completions, and provides better results – because it helps your respondents to really GET ENGAGED with your survey! Go to precisionopinion.com/engagedemo to take a sample survey. Or contact Jim at 702-483-4000 or [email protected]. The 2010 Technology & Software Directory is a special advertising supplement to Alert! FAST. CUSTOMIZABLE. FLAT FEE COST. showcases some of the companies in the survey and opinion research industry that are developing innovative techniques and technology for researchers to use to make research easier, more accurate and more widespread. If you would like additional information on any of these listed companies, please use the contact information included in the listing. To be included in next year’s directory, contact Alert! Magazine’s Editor, Tara Cantore at ONLY FROM PRECISION OPINION. [email protected].

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 25 2010 Technology & Software Directory

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20|20 Technology (division of 20|20 Re- Confirmit is the world’s leading SaaS ven- Deltek is the leading provider of software search) is a worldwide leader in Online dor for customer feedback, employee feed- and solutions designed specifically for Qualitative Research software and service back and market research applications. project-focused businesses. Our software with five industry-leading platforms: Qual- Confirmit targets global 5000 companies applications have enabled organizations Board™ (bulletin boards), QualMeeting™ and market research agencies worldwide to automate mission-critical business pro- (webcam interviewing), QualAnywhere™ with a wide range of software products for cesses around the engagement, execution (mobile qualitative), QualJournal™ (online feedback / data collection, panel man- and delivery of projects. More than 12,000 journaling) and QualLink™ (qual-quant agement, data processing, analysis and customers rely on Deltek to measure busi- hybrids). Comprehensive training, top- reporting. ness results, optimize performance and notch project management, European sup- win new business. port desk, 24/7 support, free webinars. Cross Tab Marketing Services 301 Palm Spring Center, Malad West, Digital Research, Inc. 2x4 Mumbai-64, India 201 Lafayette Center An der Muenchener Str. 1 Mumbai, MH 400 064 Kennebunk, ME 04043 Mettenheim, Germany, -- 84562 +91-22-40682822 207-985-7660 +49-8631-184609-0 www.cross-tab.com www.digitalresearch.com www.2x4.de/en Venu Bendapudi [email protected] [email protected] Michelle Aldridge Bernhard Witt Cross-Tab provides a full range of market research and analytics solutions to global DRI is a leading provider of online re- 2x4SmartTranslate is a Web based plat- research and consulting clients. Our ser- search, including online proprietary panels form with a revolutionary new way for sur- vices include: data collection; online data and Waggle™, our online market research vey translation management. It includes collection; CATI; panel and India fieldwork; community and omnibus platform. We also client previews, html/placeholder checks, market research process outsourcing; offer traditional quantitative data collec- change management, translation- and survey programming; data processing; re- tion methods including paper surveys, brand-database and connects to all major ports/presentations; panel & field manage- telephone surveys and personal intercepts. survey systems, including ConfirmIt, IBM/ ment; extension teams; data analytics;& We provide qualitative research services SPSS, Globalpark, Voxco, Nebu and many secondary research. either in-person or online. others. Datamatics Global Services, Inc. E-Tabs CfMC Solutions for Research 510 Thornall St. Suite 100 201 Houston, Suite 308 547 Howard Street Edison, NJ 08837 Batavia, IL 60510 San Francisco, CA 94105 732-767-9503 888-823-8227 415-777-0470 datamatics.com www.e-tabs.com www.cfmc.com [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Frank Racioppi Ken Brewster

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26 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 2010 Technology & Software Directory

Globalpark Language Logic Nebu USA 299 Broadway, 19th Floor 600 Vine St. Suite 2020 823 Delta Ave., Suite C New York, NY 10007 Cincinnati, OH 45202 Cincinnati, OH 45226 646-597-6725 513-241-9112, ext. 22 +1 513 321 2150 www.globalpark.com www.languagelogic.info www.nebu.com [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Kelly Anson Nicole Price Andrew Jeavons

Globalpark helps organizations like Citi, Language Logic is a leading provider of in- Dub InterViewer is a multimode data General Mills and Nintendo – and research novative text analytics software and solu- collection system for WAPI, CAPI and leaders GfK and TNS – turn feedback into tions to businesses throughout the world. CATI. It uses one script for all modes. insights that drive product innovation, Customers rely on our data processing, Dub Knowledge is a mature, advanced customer loyalty and marketing reach. analysis and reporting solutions to hear sampling and panel management system. German-engineered and globally-tested, the “Voice of the Customer.” Our industry Samples of any size can be drawn, there is our insight management platform inte- leading Ascribe platform is recognized for no limit to the size of the panel. grates panel community and survey man- providing solutions that deliver measur- agement – online, offline and mobile. able ROI. Ocucom 333 Mamaroneck Ave., Suite 434 Infotools MarketSight LLC White Plains, NY 10605 10 Glenlake Pky, Suite 130 2 Canal Park 513-846-9353 Atlanta, GA 30328 Cambridge, MA 02141 www.Ocucom.com 770-518-4686 617-582-3800 [email protected] www.infotools.com www.marketsight.com Joyce Rachelson, PRC [email protected] [email protected] Jackie Young Michele Beckley Ocucom™ provides comprehensive market research service and software Established in 1989, Infotools is a leading MarketSight LLC is the developer of solutions. Its proven Ocular ™ interview- supplier of database services and software MarketSight®, an intuitive data analysis ing methodology with PreCast™ video tools that maximize investments in con- application for creating cross-tabs, auto- technology uses media to produce richer sumer research. Tools including HARMO- matically running statistical tests, creating data, higher completion rates, shorter on- NI and ESPRI are used by the world’s most powerful charts, viewing response data, line interviews. Services include sample, successful organizations in more than 110 and sharing results with clients and col- questionnaire and panel design, as well as countries to make better business deci- leagues in a secure, Web-based environ- data mining, Web hosting, project man- sions using consumer research data. ment. MarketSight is compatible with agement. SPSS, SAS, Triple-S, and Excel. Interactive Video Productions LLC Online Survey Solution 470 Highway 79 MDSS, Inc. 1660 N Westridge Circle Morganville, NJ 07751 5833 North Post Road, Suite D Irving, TX 75038 732-970-9446 Indianapolis, IN 46216 615-383-2502 www.interactivevideo.com 317-541-9740 or 800-870-6377 www.OnlineSurveySolution.com [email protected] www.mdssworld.com [email protected] Bob Granito, President [email protected] Janet Savoie, PRC Kathy Pellman, VP IVP offers a choice of unique and inno- Online Survey Solution offers full service vative technology solutions for market Research Tracker II by MDSS, Inc. is the online data collection to fellow market researchers across the USA and UK. Our industry leader in database manage- research companies. We offer a full range range of services includes usability and ment systems for qualitative research. It of services including project consultation, eye tracking labs with full-time techni- features easy point-and-click querying by questionnaire design review, panel part- cians and videographers for ethnographic demographics, past participation or any nerships, full service programming and research and summary highlight videos. of the 100 user-defined fields. Research more. We bring an average of 20 years of Tracker II increases productivity by creat- market research experience and are ing recruiting lists, e-mails, profile sheets, committed to delivering indispensable sign-in sheets, confirmation letters and service to each project. invoices. A variety of add-on modules are also available.

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 27 2010 Technology & Software Directory

Optimum Solutions Corporation software is the only software needed post- ic targeting, and radius sampling using 266 Merrick Road field. No limits to analysis, data or table state-of-the-art computer technology and Lynbrook, NY 11563 complexity or levels, cases or weightings. database procedures. 516-247-5300 Presentation quality charts and tables. www.oscworld.com Fully time series aware, best continuous Statistical Solutions [email protected] tracking software around. Fully automated Stonehill Corporate Center reporting to MS Office. Full export/import 999 Broadway For over 20 years, OSC has provided lead- from common packages. Saugus, MA 01906 ing market research firms with the exper- 800-262-1171 tise and technology to process their most Revelation, Inc. www.statistical-solutions-software.com extensive, complex surveys. Only OSC’s 1200 NW Naito Parkway, Ste 630 [email protected] patented software (FAQSS) captures and Portland, OR 97209 Helen Murphy interprets data automatically from all 503-808-1492 forms and exceeds the industry standards www.revelationglobal.com Statistical Solutions designs unique and guarantees accuracy rate of 99.9%. [email protected] statistical software applications. Used by Kat Gomm leading marketing researchers, SOLAS Productive Access, Inc. for Missing Data Analysis application 22343 La Palma Ave. Suite 110 Revelation is a leader of online qualitative provides seven different methods to Yorba Linda, CA 92887 market research technologies. Our Web impute missing values and so makes the 714-693-3110 and smartphone-based platform integrates most of your data. With powerful statisti- www.paiwhq.com key research methodologies into one cal analysis capability, BMDP helps build [email protected] single, easy to use application. Revelation advanced customer retention models for Cliff Gee empowers researchers to probe deeply international telecoms companies. into “in the moment” consumer behavior Productive Access, Inc. (PAI) offers pow- at a fraction of the cost and time of in- SurveyWriter erful software tools for market research person techniques. 3717 N. Ravenswood Ave. Unit 236 analysis. mTAB™, PAI’s flagship product, Chicago, IL 60613 is a Web-based software solution designed Sawtooth Software, Inc. 773-281-8490 for analysts who work with survey data. 530 West Fir www.surveywriter.com mTAB™ takes datasets out of binders and Sequim, WA 98382 [email protected] away from programmers and puts them 360-681-2300 Dave Nager, PRC into the hands of researchers and www.sawtoothsoftware.com planners. [email protected] SurveyWriter is a powerful online market Aaron Hill, PRC research application that allows you to QSR International (Americas) Inc. create professional surveys and analyze 90 Sherman Street For nearly 30 years, Sawtooth Software data in real-time. In minutes, create, edit Cambridge, MA 02140 has specialized in software for conduct- and field surveys using only your browser. 617-491-1850 ing online surveys. Our SSI Web platform Eliminate the need for expensive software, www.qsrinternational.com supports simple to complex surveys, and network administration and programming [email protected] allows users to self-host or host with our expertise. Katie Desmond hosting service. No per-respondent fees. Free technical support is provided. SSI Techneos Systems Inc. QSR International’s NVivo software lets Web also includes options for conjoint/ 209 - 788 Beatty Street you work with text, audio, video and pho- choice analysis and MaxDiff. Vancouver, BC V6B2M1 tos. And from October 2010, you’ll also be +1-604-435-6007 able to work with information in databases Scientific Telephone Samples www.techneos.com such as online survey responses. NVivo al- 27121 Towne Centre Dr 290 Samantha Singh lows you to do more analysis in less time, Foothill Ranch, CA 92610 and uncover valuable insights for your 800-944-4787 Techneos provides mobile survey, cus- clients. www.stssamples.com tomer and enterprise feedback, panel, [email protected] ethnography and digital diary solutions to Red Centre Software Angelique Uglow, PRC Fortune 500 firms, global market research Level 4, 313 La Trobe Street organizations, government and academic Melbourne, Australia, Vi 3000 Scientific Telephone Samples (STS) is a institutions. With clients in over 50 coun- +61 419 309 158 leading provider of RDD, listed and (B2B) tries, Techneos provides the most ad- www.redcentresoftware.com business sampling. Since 1988, our com- vanced survey software for mobile phones, [email protected] mitment to quality, outstanding customer PDAs, netbooks and other mobile devices. John Gwyther service, accurate and productive sampling makes STS the smart choice. Fast turn- Ruby crosstab, analysis and reporting around free business purging, demograph-

28 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 2010 Technology & Software Directory

Transcend Products, LLC London, Paris, New York, Brussels, Hong Voxco 761 West 1200 North Kong and Munich. The company special- 1134 Ste. Catherine St. West, Suite 600 Springville, UT 84663 izes in translations for multinationals and Montreal, QC H3B 1H4 888-261-7444 organizations in both the private and pub- 1.888.VOXCO.US www.TranscendProducts.com lic sectors and employs more than 5,000 www.voxco.com [email protected] translators covering over 80 languages and Suzanne Ouellette Paul Reay multiple specialisms. Voxco develops world-class software appli- Tired of wasting productivity and sample uSamp (formerly United Sample) cations used by marketing and social re- with dialer delays? Our predictive di- 16501 Ventura Blvd., Suite 250 searchers to collect and process strategic alers connect your agents before the Encino, CA 91436 data. With over 400 customers, Voxco op- respondent says hello while dialing 100% 877-217-9800 erates offices in Canada, the U.S., France, predictively. 10% to 40% production rate www.usamp.com Germany and the UK. Our expertise is improvement guaranteed. 100% SIP-based [email protected] equally recognized by the market research with soft-phones, no more phone systems Shannon Moore industry, contact centers, institutions and or T1s. Integrates with any CATI system. corporations. uSamp™ is one of the world’s fastest TranslateMedia growing online panel companies, provid- 244 5th Avenue, Suite G 266 ing survey panelists and technology for New York, NY 10001 use in market research. uSamp has 90 212-796-5635 team members worldwide and over 2.7 [email protected] million global market research panelists. Patrick Eve, CEO uSamp is based in Los Angeles, with offices in India, Connecticut, Dallas and TranslateMedia is an award winning London. translations agency with offices in

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MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 29 CANADIAN VIEWPOINT REAL PEOPLE. REAL SOLUTIONS.

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Canadian Proprietary Consumer Panel (over 260,000) Today’s Economy Canadian Physician Panel Canadian Pharmacist Panel By Daniel Burrus Mall Intercept (national network of locations) Online / Web Surveys redefine the marketplace as well as your So even though we have a statistical Multi-Mode Web Surveys Today we’re in an era of technology-driven transformation. That products and services. In this case, recovery, we have a human recession. On-site intercept / Exit interviews means you can attain higher profits when technology becomes a tool of creation. As such, recovery can’t be jobless. CATI Telephone you use technology to redefine your You can create new products, new The bottom line is that we can use products, your services, and/or how the services and entire new markets, which technology to eliminate jobs or create industry in general works. then creates new jobs and careers. them. It’s time for businesses to focus Unfortunately, most companies are Why is this important? Currently, the on redefining technology as a tool for job using technology only one way – to lower United States is digging out of the worst creation. If you’re ready to start redefining costs and become more efficient. They recession since the 1930s, and the global your company so you can grow your busi- view technology as a way to “do more economy is suffering its worst setback ness and stay profitable as you create jobs with less,” “streamline the workflow,” in decades. The key to recovering is for years to come, consider the following Carol Udell ext. 223 [email protected] and “trim expenses.” Sound familiar? all about jobs and how to create them. guidelines. 1-888-770-1770 Alan Boucquey ext. 222 [email protected] While that is certainly one good use You don’t create jobs by increasing 905-770-1770 Jason Zweig ext. 238 [email protected] of technology, you can also use it to productivity; you create jobs by creating www.canview.com Leo Arsenault ext. 274 [email protected] new products, services and markets.

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 31 warehouse system • Based on where your customers and they now rent and your industry are going, out their enterprise is there a way to use technoogy IT platform and to create new opportunities? warehousing space to other companies. Understand How Technology is Affecting So they are not Your Customers only redefining an Look at how technology is affecting your industry, they’re customers in your industry right now. But also redefining don’t just look at productivity. Look at the themselves. overall customer experience as well as Another example who is buying your offerings. For example, is Apple. Back in in the late 1970s, when ultra light aviation early 2000, before was born, the first ultra light aircrafts were they launched the basically hang-gliders with engines. The iPod and iPhone, FAA decided, due to the size and weight most people of the plane, people didn’t need a pilot’s thought Apple license to fly an ultra light aircraft. As a was quickly going result, the first ultra light manufacturers out of business. targeted that demographic – people who That’s when the wanted to fly but who didn’t have the company redefined time or money to get a pilot’s license. themselves around One company, UltraSports, thought music. Later they they could attract a better customer, redefined again so they asked, “Why not redefine the with the iPhone, product, the customer and the market?” which is telecom- Rather than target those who wanted to munications. Now fly but didn’t have a license or the income they’re doing it again with the iPad, which to afford buying an aircraft, UltraSports Know Where You’re Going will launch another revolution as they decided to target commercial jet pilots Look at your product, service or industry redefine ebook readers and media players. and flight instructors for their ultra light and see how you can use technology Like Amazon.com, Apple has redefined aircrafts. After all, these pilots were the to redefine it. The classic example is themselves as well as their industry. best pilots, they loved to fly and they Amazon.com. When they first started their So when it comes to your company had money; however, because of their business, they used technology to redefine and your industry, ask yourself some key jobs, flying had become more automated how people sell books. But they didn’t questions, such as: and less fun. Then UltraSports went stop there. They then expanded to other • What is growing and what is shrinking? one step further and redefined the ultra products and redefined how nearly every- • Where is the direction of the future light aircraft itself by adding a stick and thing is sold. Then they redefined again. going based on technology? rudder and instrument controls. They They developed a large IT, logistics and made the ultra light fly like an airplane

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Alert Magazine - 1/3 pg - 7.25” x 3.25” 32 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 rather than a hang glider, which better today. The moral: The longer you wait to A (Re)Defining Moment appealed to their new target market. redefine how you compete, the harder Staying ahead during a technology-driven UltraSports went on to become a national it is to survive. However, when you transformation is indeed possible. It’s all leader in their first year, all because they pinpoint a way to use technology to about looking at where your customers are redefined who their customer was and create new products and services, you going rather than where they have been. then made product changes accordingly. add new revenue streams and new jobs. It’s about looking at where technology is So when it comes to your customers, So when it comes to competing in a evolving and how it is shaping the market, not where it used to be. When you ask the right questions and take action on what “The bottom line is that we can use the answers reveal, you can use technology to redefine your company, create new technology to eliminate jobs or jobs and experience higher profits than ever before.

create them. It’s time for businesses

to focus on redefining technology as a Daniel Burrus is the founder and tool for job creation.” CEO of Burrus Research. ask yourself some key questions, such as: technology-driven age, ask yourself some • Is there a better customer? For example, key questions, such as: maybe you’re selling to a customer who • Is there a way you can use can only afford low-margin products and technology to redefine how you services. compete? • Who is your ideal customer? • Is there a way you can use • Is there a customer you don’t have but technology to change your should have? product or how you service people? • Could you redefine your product and • Is there a way you can use technology attract that customer? to redefine your customer’s experience? • Is there a way to use technology to enhance your product or service in some way that opens up a market or creates a new market for you…and thus new jobs?

Take Competition Seriously Look at the specific ways in which you compete in the marketplace as well as what makes you unique. Then decide how technology can redefine the way you compete. For example, when was the last time you bought something from the Polaroid Company? At one time, they were the king of instant photography. But then technology and digital photography changed their industry, and the way they competed (instant photography) changed…but Polaroid didn’t change with it. Instead, they made the mistake many businesses do: they used technology to get more efficient and lower their costs. Similarly, the Kodak Company was failing for over a decade. Finally, they looked at how they competed in the past, as well as what it would take to compete in the future. That’s when they embraced digital photography. And while they still have some traditional film labs across the country, it’s their digital products division that’s profitable

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 33 Online Research Communities Putting the Customer at the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy By Mark Simon

Market research has long been volved in decision considered counter-cyclical; when making around times are tough, it makes sense to new products, fully evaluate new initiatives prior services and initia- to launch and dissect the perfor- tives. Condé Nast, mance of past campaigns. However, publisher of Vogue, the current business outlook is forcing us Glamour and GQ to challenge such conventional beliefs. created title- When talking to many clients over recent specific research months, I’ve noted two core themes. communities to First, our uncertain business world – select magazine volatile, complex and ambiguous – is covers, brainstorm characterized by cuts in discretionary article ideas and activities such as research, “thinking shortlist editorial outside the box and inside the budget” topics. Why? To and more strategically, the concept that drive editorial sat- market research can guide organizations isfaction and brand out of crisis. relationship, with Second, the explosion in social media the ultimate goals has been forcing marketing and research of increasing reader professionals to figure out how to exploit retention, circula- the power of social media for insight tion and advertis- advantage. How can we engage the stake- ing revenue. holder in meaningful, contextual dialogue? Co-creation re- Blogs, reviews and wikis provide opin- search communities ion, but we know little or nothing about have been deployed by Unilever, LEGO®, into decision-making – in retail, employ- the people creating such content. As a Dell and Starbucks – and all tapped into ees are often among the best customers. response to these challenges, many com- the reality that consumers are much less • Increase staff satisfaction and retention. panies are turning to online research com- passive since the advent of the Internet • Provide a channel to relay customer munities for decision-making advantage; and need an outlet for their ideas. By giv- feedback captured on the shop floor. harnessing the power of communities but ing the respondent a seat at the decision- • Reacting rapidly to internal demands for applying them to the research process. making table, you can build strong and information. The true “end-to-end” community allows long lasting relationships that may not • Sense-checking ideas. meaningful dialogue between organiza- have been possible through offline media. • Raising research’s internal profile – when tion and participant via an engaging A client cited the following further insight is relevant and timely, it will be member Web site, participant manage- benefits of their employee and customer used more to drive change. ment tool to build up member portraits panels: • Profiling context – enhance discus- and multiple dialogue channels – surveys, • Striking a balance between outsourcing sion threads and survey responses with discussion forums and member content complex research to agencies and focus- demographics, attitudinal and purchasing creation. Examples include blogs, wikis, ing in-house on quick turnaround projects. behaviors. instant chat, personal/VIP areas and • Facilitating real-time dialogue between member-created polls. Importantly, there marketing and customers: a high level What’s in it for the Agencies? should be an explicit research objective of engagement (more than 50 per cent Media planning, advertising, PR, digital communicated to the participant. response rates to surveys or discussions). and MR agencies are embracing research • An extremely high quality of open text communities – which can be white- What’s in it for the Brands? responses. labeled rather than branded and built Brand advocacy: identify your best or • Empowering employees: give ready- around a general sample of the population most loyal customers and get them in- made internal advocates tangible input or defined segments, such as early adopt-

34 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 ers or opinion formers. Motivations for adoption include winning new clients by supporting the pitch process and offering clients access to the community for follow-up work. The community model allows agencies to move beyond the project by project cycle and when times are hard, adding value and another revenue stream by providing custom research figures highly. Agencies are also finding that research communities internalize research fieldwork costs and increase margins, while allowing creativity and idea generation to flourish; the fruits of the creative process can be evaluated quickly by an external audience.

What’s in it for the Respondents? We can categorize people into two groups: participants and non-participants. Until the Internet empowered every individual to publish their thoughts, reviews and opinions worldwide, the former far outweighed the latter. But this empowerment has given the community member a seat at the table alongside the brand owner and the researcher. Make sure that newfound status is respected. • Engagement: is the topic interesting and relevant? • Impact of participation: share results and findings from previous surveys and discussions and show changes resulting from member feedback. • Recognition: offer socially-visible rewards and recognition, such as VIP areas and member ratings; create personal areas and encourage member-to-member interaction; and provide financial incentives that are appropriate to the commitment required.

Caution Advised! Co-creation may be desirable, but don’t use it to replace research expertise. Inform your community that their ideas could be used; beware anodyne solutions resulting from many voices (remember Henry Ford and his “faster horse”); and don’t take member opinions as gospel. Consider your company culture. Do you feel comfortable sharing information with customers? Do you have the resources, expertise and senior buy-in? And bear in mind the benefits of in- vs. out-sourcing – gain more by being close to the participants. Never forget the community members who are giving you their time, expertise and loyalty – provide appropriate social, financial or informational rewards. Establish clear objectives for the research community beyond pure dialogue. Quantifiable objectives, such as those employed by Condé Nast and others, keep the bigger picture in mind.

Final Thought Implement projects where brands and agencies listen and don’t project. We are offered a huge opportunity by listening to our customers and placing them at the heart of our marketing strategy – and online panel communities offer an effective way to do this.

Mark Simon is the managing director, leader global technology practice at Toluna.

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 35 From Stunts to Strategy: A Research-Based Social Media Marketing Roadmap By Taddy Hall

In recent history, few aspects of If success is based on the entertainment are sometimes a consequence of success- marketing have generated as much factor alone, success is far less certain. As ful brand marketing. They are not mean- buzz as, well – buzz. And while en- our friend and former Publicist boss David ingful, free-standing performance metrics. thusiasm has motivated no shortage of Kenny often says, “To succeed, digital Successful social media marketing isn’t entrepreneurial adventures and a smatter- marketing needs to provide a service to about amassing thousands of followers, ing of experimentation among traditional consumers.” That is a far cry from the but instead predicated on identifying the advertisers, facts have been fewer and traditional broadcast advertising paradigm most influential members of your audience hard data on effective practices scarce. As of “interrupt and repeat.” and converting their loyalty into advocacy. a consequence, results have been incon- So what does the data on social media We like to call this The One Percent Rule. sistent. marketing tell us? Recent data that Meteor Solutions In this article, we are going to draw on Probably the most striking headline is collected from across more than 20 brand dozens of actual cases and data from the emptiness of pursuing Fans, Friends marketer clients shows that the quality of hundreds of millions of visitors to Web and Followers as ends in and of them- friends, fans and followers a brand sites of all (non-illic- amasses on social media sites matters it) categories. Our more than the quantity. In category after process has been category, we routinely identify a fraction one of fact-finding “Successful social media of one percent of site visitors who are and research-vet- marketing isn’t about amassing responsible for 20 percent-40 percent of ting. Truths have site traffic through sharing of the brand’s emerged that serve thousands of followers, but content or site links with others. Further- as reliable guide- more, these 20 percent-40 percent Word- posts for instead predicated on of-Mouth Visitors convert (as defined by marketing innova- marketer) at 2X-4X the rate for other site tors. identifying the most visitors. It’s worth remem- bering at the outset influential members of your Finding your Super Influentials that despite the audience and converting their fresh technology Who Is Your Brand’s One Percent? – and at times too loyalty into advocacy.” To find your key influencers, you need much of it – that so- to use a social media analytics tracking cial media presents, and measurement tool that goes beyond it also enables basic human desires as old selves. An increasing body of data is “listening to the conversation,” measuring as civilization: pointing to the folly of such efforts. This Web site traffic, clicks on campaign links - Our emotional need to connect and to Fast Company article (www.fastcompany. or conversions. share com/magazine/145/next-tech-five-steps- - Our practical need for trustworthy to-social-currency.html) of May 2010 is What Your One Percent Likes to Share? information must reading for any interactive marketer After you’ve identified these individuals, Partly because of these needs, humans who lists “Fan Count” as a performance use your social media analytics platform are indefatigably social, and perhaps the metric – and the findings argue for a very to dig down into the content they like to explosive growth of social media should different approach. As a marketer for one share most often. Do they tend to share be unsurprising. Thankfully, these two of the world’s largest CPG conglomer- deals and discounts? Or do they prefer to consumer “jobs” of “connecting” and ates mentioned a few weeks ago: “A year share links to your branded entertainment “information gathering” suggest useful ago we were totally focused on building content, like YouTube videos, social games litmus tests for most social technologies Facebook Fan Pages for our brands. Today and contests or informational articles? and marketing programs: those pages are just signposts in the Once you have identified what your - Does the proposed program help con- desert. Even the ones with traffic and fans super Influentials like to share, you can sumers connect and share? have made negligible contribution to our separate your one percent into groups, - Does it help them access useful informa- business.” such as “shopping mavens” who love to tion? Bottom Line: Friends, Fans and Followers pass along deals and discounts; “experts”

36 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 who love to share new research, top-10 recognize and reward them with graphs of your most influential advocates lists, how-to articles, and other educa- incentives that are aligned with this and fans. Easy ways to do this include tional content; “gaming gurus” who like motivation. Use your company’s Twitter following/friending your influential to share information about contests and and Facebook pages to call out public followers/friends and retweeting/posting games; or “entertainers” who like to share achievements, like funny or useful content even if it’s not yours. movie trailers, YouTube clips and social YouTube videos on relevant topics posted 4. “Integrated Strategy” Rule: Brands media apps. by your top one percent. Blog about an need a Digital Strategy….not a Facebook interesting article, post or tweet an Strategy, a Twitter Strategy, a Blogger Where Does Your One Percent Go to influential member of your customer base Strategy, etc… the online social world is a Connect and Share? has written, and let them know what network – not a series of silos, and siloed The next step is identifying which social strategies under- networks, blogs, forums and Web sites perform. your one percent hangs out on, and which “Bottom Line: Friends, Fans and 5. “Horse Before methods they use to share your content the Cart” Rule: (e-mail, social updates, tweets, etc.). One Followers are sometimes a Success in social thing you’re likely to find out is that while consequence of successful media happens Facebook and Twitter undoubtedly play when brands infuse major roles in the spread of your brand’s brand marketing. They are not their content with content, major social networking sites are social dimensions not where you’re likely to find and reach meaningful, free-standing (Facebook Con- your one percent. nect, most notably) Think about it — if you are someone performance metrics.” NOT when they extremely passionate about cars, are you simply stick their really going to bore and alienate your fam- ads and content in ily and friends on Facebook? Some of them you’ve done. And make sure to extend social forums. In other words, if you want might, but for the rest, they have a blog, special offers or direct access to top to succeed in social media, your brands post comments on other blogs and interact company executives to your influential and content need to have social dimen- with niche communities of like-minded users. A big part of making these people sions – content worth sharing, brands influencers, advocates and fans. feel special involves granting insider worth talking about, sites that encourage access to people, deals or information that consumer participation and dialog. If your Connecting with your Influencers is limited to a select few. social strategy relies on advertising in Now that you know how to find and mo- social media, probably better to hang onto What Motivates Your One Percent? tivate your Super Influentials, you should your money. Do your influencers share content about also keep a few simple rules in mind when your brand in pursuit of fame, fortune or a planning your next social media marketing Getting Started bit of both? Understanding what moti- campaign: We call it the “WHO, WHAT, WHERE” vates your one percent to share is key to 1. The Al Haig Rule: No, you’re not phase. Map the social graph of your brand, finding out what makes them tick, and “in charge” here. In a socially governed Web site or campaign to reveal: what types of content they will respond to environment (the world we inhabit), it - WHO are the influential brand advocates favorably. matters far more what consumers do with driving your viral activity For most people that spend time creating your content than what you do with your - WHAT is the content that most engages and sharing content, it’s not about fortune, content. What consumers say about your them it’s about fame. They share links with brand has more impact than what you say - WHERE is this viral sharing happening friends and their wider social network about your brand. Armed with these facts you’ll be a in a because it makes them feel important, 2. The “Power of Weak Links” Rule: position to take some action: special and useful. That doesn’t mean Online influentials are not necessarily - Optimize media planning influential people don’t like deals as a rule, those with the most friends or followers. - Improve digital PR but they respond most positively to the Influentials are individuals who link to - Strengthen content and offers attention and recognition they get from the most – and most relevant – communi- - Directly engage your influencers and sharing useful content and valuable infor- ties. In other words, links to individuals in those whom they influence mation with others. different communities are worth far more Our studies suggest that this is a fairly For example, we’ve seen on several than the same number of links within a predictable, even conservative, approach marketing programs that the percent of single community. to igniting a virtual cycle of learning, incremental unique visitors to a site from 3. “Feed the Fire” Rule: Consumers innovation, and results. shared links more than doubled when the love to share relevant, engaging, use- names of the top sharers where posted on ful and entertaining content with their an online leader board, and top-sharers friends. Make it easy for them to find your were given access to exclusive content. content and make it easy to share your content. This is far more than pasting Taddy Hall is the COO of Meteor Solutions. Make ‘Em Famous a sharing tool on your pages. It means If your data does indeed show that your actively syndicating and curating your influentials are more motivated by fame content and distributing not only through rather than fortune, then it’s time to your brand’s social graph, but through the

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 37 Counterpoint Opinion Column Market Research Departments: The Hero of the Market Research Story By Kathryn Korostoff Despite all the things market researchers What to do? I suggest that the first step them with training, skills and support so disagree about these days, one thing we is to rethink and re-document the depart- that they can handle ad hoc projects. Sure, all agree on is that the industry is ment’s functions. For the sake of preci- these folks wouldn’t handle high-end stud- changing. And I don’t mean predictable sion, let’s say that there are four major ies and trackers, but just getting ad hoc little evolutionary changes. I think we all functions that research departments studies into the hands of the departments agree that there are big, disruptive, provide, for the overall market research that actually use the results can be a time revolutionary changes taking place. and customer insight function to be suc- saver. Right? Right. cessful: 2. Challenge assumptions about current These changes are creating stress on lots 1. Project Management. Including the supplier relationships. Are you spending of industry stakeholders, but the group very time-consuming management of too much time managing your suppliers? facing the greatest challenge? In-house suppliers and clients for custom research Maybe it’s time to change them. Or maybe market research departments. studies, especially for high-end, organiza- it’s time to challenge them as to what they In-house market research departments are tion-wide projects and trackers. can do to reduce your time spent manag- being bombarded with extra demands on 2. Policy Creation and Enforcement. For ing projects. Ask your suppliers to get top of the normal challenges of budget- example, how many times a year custom- creative – if they are truly your allies, they ing, project management, internal client ers can be invited to research events, and will. support and supplier management. Those what types of incentives are permissible. 3. Invest in tools that automate. I know are long-standing issues that in-house Other polices around approval processes, too many market researchers who still research departments have been dealing for example, “Any questionnaires over 20 spend 30 or 40 hours a project creat- with for years. But now, on top of that, items long must be approved by (name of ing charts and graphs, and it just isn’t they are dealing with: the organization’s market research direc- necessary anymore. Questioning librar- 1. An unmanageable number of mar- tor),” or “any survey of customer group X ies, reporting tools and research workflow ket research-related associations, social must be approved by sales executive Y.” management can all be tremendous time networking groups, events and interactive 3. Resources. Finding, developing and savers. “media”—too many to keep up with, too maintaining centralized access to research 4. Use collaboration to your advantage. many to ignore. tools, secondary reports, in-house research As researchers, we are stuck in a rut; we 2. Proliferating pockets of unsanctioned results, standardized questionnaire tem- assume that at the end of the project, we research, often done by well-meaning but plates, sample sources, in-house panels go off to our office, think hard, get brilliant untrained colleagues. and communities. and create a report. Instead, we could 3. Increasingly sales-hungry research 4. Training. For example, either produc- more often start the data sharing early on, suppliers, making the risk of answering a ing directly, or through partners, training get client input in a collaborative analysis phone call almost unbearable. for in-house researchers as well as internal process, delegate some of the analysis and 4. Insufficient time to truly assess the clients (such as “product concept test- writing, ask internal clients for help, and options and merits of social media-related ing” for product development groups, and not only save a lot of time, but get even research methods. “message testing” for marketing teams). more buy-in to research results (people 5. Insufficient time, and in some cases au- In most client organizations that I work who are close to the analysis process are thority, to establish and enforce customer with, the convention has been to spend more likely, in my experience, to find the research policies (which are of urgent about 70 percent of the department’s research recommendations credible). Let importance because of the unsanctioned time on item 1. But given the changes the internal clients be an ally, too. research that does take place). taking place, and the criticality of market Market research departments and their 6. Internal clients becoming aware of research excellence in today’s highly com- leaders face a battle given the market numerous “market research” services petitive markets, I argue that this should research industry’s changes, and for that, and solutions, many of which are at best be reversed. Project management should they are the real heroes. To overcome the distractions and at worst disruptive. be 30 percent of the department’s time; big challenges, we will all have to make 7. Internal clients who are reading about the bulk of this highly skilled, experienced big changes. Indeed, the real enemy is the “free” market research options, when in function should be in policy creation and status quo. reality the phrase “market research” is be- enforcement, resource delivery and ing used very loosely. training. It’s a battle out there, and our hero (the How could this even be feasible you ask? market research department) needs a 1. In organizations where applicable, em- Kathryn Korostoff is president of Research mighty sword to keep the kingdom afloat. brace the rogue researchers and provide Rockstar.

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MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 39

MARC-1025B OSS ad.indd 1 3/11/10 3:39 PM Business Reads Using Facebook to Promote Your Business

By Tara M. Cantore

To keep with the theme of this month’s to “fan” your page, issue – emerging technology – I decided add links to your Fan to read a new book I received on using Page in your e-mail Facebook for your business called signature, business Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next cards, Web site, etc. Marketing Campaign by Justin R. Levy. The point is to let I use Facebook every day in my personal everyone know you and professional life, and I didn’t think I are there. would learn much from reading this book, To use Facebook but I was mistaken. This book has an as a marketing and overlook at the basics of using Facebook promotional tool you for beginners, but then it also goes more can use features in-depth for those who are more seasoned such as events to Facebook users as well. promote upcoming Facebook Marketing gives the reader webinars or confer- actionable information that they can ences, leak photos implement into their business now. It of an upcoming starts off with the basics, how Facebook product to your fans was started, and how to set-up a basic on the photo section Facebook account and use the profile op- of the page, promote tions like notes, photos, video, comments, a new service via a likes, chat, etc. Note on your page The author states some interesting or run a Facebook facts about Facebook, which includes: ad for an upcoming More than 5 billion minutes are spent on event to a targeted Facebook each day (worldwide); 30 million demographic. users update their statuses at least once The advertising each day; 120 million users log into their strategy is very simi- Facebook account each day; and 8 million lar to the marketing users “fan” Fan Pages each day. With and promotional numbers like that, it is no wonder that strategy, in that Facebook has become such a popular tool you are advertising for business promotion. your products and Although all the chapters in the book are services directly on very informative and helpful, the one that the page. Levy concludes the book with a chapter I got the most use out of is the chapter Some companies may find it beneficial to on examples of some of the best Fan Pages on “Developing a Facebook Marketing use all three of these tactics. MRA current- on Facebook. Some examples include Strategy.” ly uses all three, and I plan on implement- Volkswagen, Microsoft Office, Barack In this chapter, Levy prepares the reader ing several of the ideas Levy points out in Obama and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. to come up with a plan to use their busi- this book to make our Fan Page even more Overall this is a good book for anyone ness Fan Page to promote their business. of a community. who is looking to start using Facebook He gives readers three main strategies for One of the interesting tidbits I would like in their business. It gives the novice the doing this. The type of plan that is used to point out from the book is for basic understanding of the tool and helps all depends on what you are trying to ac- businesses to take advantage of the them to grow into the tool as a way of complish with your page. The three plans Facebook Insights tool. This tool is avail- marketing business. are: Community Building; Marketing & able for Fan Page administrators, and it Facebook Marketing is available through Promotion; and Advertising. allows you to measure your page. Infor- Que Publishing for $24.99. If you would like to build a community mation that you can find here includes: out of your page, then your main goal is to number of posts on your page; number of develop an overall presence on Facebook. interactions in your community; score of In order to do this you need to let others post quality; number of mentions; number Tara M. Cantore is MRA’s publications know about your Fan Page. Send invites of reviews; fans that have subscribed or editor. to colleagues who are already on Facebook unsubscribed; and fan demographics.

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MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 WWW.INTERACTIVEVIDEO.COM 41 Research Standards

How is Brand Equity Measured?

By Patrick Glaser

In simple terms, “brand equity” is a College) brand equity model is described Additionally, Keller posits that it is also construct that is designed to reflect the below. Keller’s framework is given due to necessary to evaluate how the image real value that a brand name holds for the the independence of the work at the time of the brand develops in the individual products and services it accompanies. of its formulation, because it is widely (i.e., from rational thought processes or Brand equity is considered important known throughout the research profession emotional processes), the importance of because brands are believed to be strong and because Keller has given a compara- branding on the product or service class influencers of critical business outcomes, tively detailed description of the concept and whether the image arises in the indi- such as sales and market share. For ex- and its underpinnings. vidual at appropriate times. On this last ample, Inc. Magazine notes that “branded Keller observes that the common theme point, Keller notes that some consumer products invariably decisions are made at point-of-purchase command a higher locations. For these types of products and price than so-called “From a marketing research services, “brand recognition and visual ‘generic’ or ‘store awareness will be important.” Conversely, brands’ – even perspective, brand equity is “recall and verbal” measures are important when the product for purchasing decisions that are typically is itself a com- often viewed conceptually – made at a location outside of the store or modity like sugar. company. In such cases the as a framework for Notably, Keller’s model, like all types higher price is due of analytical models, represents a way almost entirely to understanding the power of to understand a specific construct. A the power of the reasonable first step in framing a brand brand.” the associations consumers equity model for a company is to learn Brand equity, like about brand equity models that have been most constructs, have with particular named proposed and critiqued. For more infor- has been defined mation, including a comparison chart of and measured in products and services.” published brand equity models and mea- numerous ways. surement tools, visit the MRA Web site at It is sometimes http://www.mra-net.org/rq/resources.cfm viewed from the perspective of tangible in brand equity models is “brand knowl- and access the file “Brand Equity Mea- financial assets of a firm. However, from edge,” or “the thoughts, feelings, images, surement.” a marketing research perspective, brand beliefs, attitudes, experiences and so on equity is often viewed conceptually – as that exist in the minds of the consumer.” a framework for understanding the power These intangibles are what give a brand of the associations consumers have with its value, thus they can be measured in particular named products and services. order to assess brand equity. Consistent Patrick Glaser is MRA’s director of In contrast to the absolute dollar valua- with this observation, he defines several research standards. tions that underscores the direct financial important dimensions that should be perspective, marketing researchers seek measured in brand equity models. These to measure and understand brand equity include: for strategic positioning and planning. • Brand Awareness Breadth (i.e., recall and recognition) & Depth (i.e., recall Measuring Brand Equity under different situations), Brand equity has been defined and • Brand Performance Imagery (e.g., measured by experts from both academia reliability, effectiveness, design), as well as for-profit companies. In fact, • Brand Imagery (e.g., type of person many research agencies have developed who uses product or service, their own brand equity models that are personality/values) executed in partnership with End User • Brand Judgments (e.g., quality, researchers. For the sake of illustration, credibility) Professor Kevin Keller’s (Dartmouth • Brand Feelings (e.g., warmth, fun)

42 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 43 Legislative Update

Conducting Survey Research in the Clouds

LaToya D. Rembert-Lang, J.D.

All businesses are finding ways to mini- or any other entity, mize costs and increase efficiency, and is a third party that survey and opinion research companies maintains informa- are no exception. A popular new tool in tion about, or on this endeavor is cloud computing. While it behalf of, another can be a productive means for many busi- entity. nesses, survey and opinion researchers should consider the significant implica- Privacy Implications tions for the privacy of personal informa- from Cloud tion and business data. Computing Cloud comput- What is Cloud Computing? ing involves the Cloud (which refers to the “Internet”) exchange of infor- computing involves the sharing or storage mation, including by users of their information on remote personal servers owned or operated by others and information, with accessed through the Internet or other the cloud service connections. It is both the applications provider. Privacy delivered as services over the Internet and laws do not spe- the hardware and systems software in the cifically prevent data centers that provides those services. disclosure of per- In essence, cloud computing is a culmi- sonal information of nation of a platform, hosting provider, respondents or em- with a cloud service provider, a Business application and a storage service on the ployees or other business information to Associate Agreement must be developed Internet – in a central and cost-effective cloud providers. There are laws, however, between the covered entity and the location. As a result, more information is that concern the restrictions and disclo- business associate, and also between the placed and accessed on the Internet as sure of certain types of information that cloud provider and the covered entity. opposed to being stored on personal make it illegal for cloud service providers As a result, this may impact the terms computers or servers. to obtain rights to information or data. that are included in Business Associate Cloud computing generally falls into For example, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Agreements. three basic categories: Infrastructure Act (GLBA) prohibits financial institutions From an international perspective, the as a Service, Platform as a Service and from disclosing a consumer’s personal EU Directive has specific requirements Software as a Service. Clouds can also be financial information held by financial for any data transfer out of the European either public or private. A public cloud is institutions to third parties. Disclosure of Union (EU). Transferring data out of the offered over an Internet connection as a financial information may not be restricted EU requires international safe harbor service. A private cloud is arranged within under the law to service providers. certification, model contracts, and/or the protection of a firewall that is Information, however, that is obtained by binding corporate rules. This applies to all managed by the user. cloud service providers, could impact a data transfers, including transfers of data There are different types of cloud determination as to whether disclosure in the cloud. computing, such as Web-based e-mail is a violation of the law, specifically if it is Depending on the scope of the data or services, backup services, customer obtained without prior consent as a information, there are a myriad of other resource management applications, non-affiliated third party, state and federal privacy laws to instant messaging and Voice Over Also, as part of the federal Health consider for the cloud. It is imperative to Internet Protocol (VOIP) services. All of Insurance Portability and Accountability review when disclosure under the laws is these services streamline processes for Act (HIPAA), the Privacy Rule restricts authorized and whether there are specific users without providing users detail about the disclosure of protected health requirements governing the release of how the services are conducted. A cloud information. The Act requires business information. Beyond specific laws, cloud service provider, which may be an individ- associates to enter into Business computing also has privacy implications ual, a corporation or other business, a non- Associate Agreements with covered for policy and additional considerations profit organization, a government agency entities. Before any information is shared such as, legally privileged information,

44 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 professional secrecy obligations and catastrophic failure and recovery of Conclusion requirements that may compel disclosure information on behalf of the vendor, Any information stored on a computer can to the government or other private parties. a disaster recovery plan, privacy and be stored or processed in a cloud, such security standards, regulatory and as e-mail, word processing documents, Privacy Guidelines for Cloud Computing compliance issues, service level spreadsheets, databases, videos, Survey and opinion researchers that en- requirements and penalties, changes photographs, financial and accounting gage in cloud computing services should in management processes, terms information, business plans, PowerPoint consider all aspects of privacy and risk applied and termination rights. presentations, sales numbers, appoint- such as: the protection of confidentiality, • Prior to signing any agreement with a ment calendars, address books and a host integrity or accessibility of any informa- cloud service provider, ask and know of other products and services. With the tion; prevention techniques for the the answers the following questions: use of cloud computing technology on the unauthorized use or unauthorized o Does the cloud service provider rise, survey and opinion research access to service provider systems; and/or have written information about businesses must be aware of the the prevention of a breach or infection of security policies in accordance implications of using clouds from the systems used in the cloud. with federal and state requirements? perspectives of both a business and a In general, survey and opinion research o What does the cloud service respondent. The type of information and businesses should consider the following provider’s contract provide in terms of data shared in a cloud will create different practices before putting any type of privacy and protection of data privacy and confidentiality risks. Re- information in any type of cloud: provided? searchers must consider all plausible risks • Consult with technology, security and o What kind of data or information will and circumstances before engaging in any legal departments: Make sure that be in the cloud? agreement with a cloud service provider. all departments are in accord about the o Does the cloud provider have the right known risks and advisability of to use, disclosure or make public any Disclaimer: The information putting any type of information or data data or information? provided in this article is for guidance into a cloud, whether public or private. o Where will the data or information be and informational purposes only. It Trade secret information should never stored? is not intended to be a substitute for be put into a cloud. o Where are the cloud provider’s legal advice. MRA advises all parties • Comply with laws and policies: When servers? to consult with private legal counsel considering putting data or o Will the data or information be regarding the interpretation and information in the cloud, make sure that transferred to other locations, and if application of any laws and policies to your company is not violating any so, when and where? your business. laws or your own policies that have o Can certain types of data be subject to been shared with respondents or other geographic restrictions? third parties. Understand what o What is the compliance plan for information you are putting in the cloud cross-border transfers (e.g., from the LaToya D. Rembert-Lang, J.D., is MRA’s and the legal requirements accordingly. EU to somewhere else)? general counsel. Depending on where your cloud service o If data or information is removed from provider is located, different laws may the cloud provider, who owns it? apply. o Will the cloud provider give notice of • Develop appropriate service level any change in the terms of service, agreements: Make sure the agreement and if so, when and where? covers such issues as data ownership,

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Junior Analyst, Reseach Community Managers/Customer Research The Glover Park Group has an immediate need for a motivated You have 6+ years of professional work experience in market junior analyst for its growing public opinion research division research, marketing/brand management, online community in the company’s Washington, DC office, working on corporate, management, or consumer insights. You are analytical, inquisi- political and issue advocacy research. The Research Division tive, energetic with a bias toward action, and comfortable with plans and executes quantitative and qualitative research projects quantitative and qualitative data. You are someone so good with designed to inform public affairs campaigns, message devel- clients that they rave about you on a regular basis. You under- opment, and corporate strategy. Public opinion and/or market stand clients’ business challenges and provide strategic insight, research experience is a must. Qualifications • Minimum Bach- and are also great with process and details. You work best in elor’s degree • 3+ years public opinion and/or market research a collaborative work environment focused on excellence and experience required • Ability to manage multiple highly visible customer satisfaction. Sound like you? If so please visit: www. projects simultaneously • Ability to meet aggressive deadlines communispace.com/careers without sacrificing product quality • Ability to work coopera- tively as a team and across multiple departments well • Excel- Business Intelligence & Research Manager lent written and oral communication skills Responsibilities o The Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau, seeks a Supports every phase of division projects from proposal to client Business Intelligence & Research Manager. The BIR will imple- presentation including: o Proposal writing and developing project ment a management and resource program to deliver market and budgets, o Helping to design and develop research tools such performance information to the CVB and its stakeholders. Re- as questionnaire and discussion guides. o Field management sponsibilities include: develop market research programs; man- and vendor coordination, o Data analysis, and o Report writing age organizational performance reporting including marketing and preparation of client presentations. o Ideal candidate may program effectiveness; and implement a research publications analyze data and draw strategic observations with recommenda- and communications program. The successful candidate will tions that are both innovative and actionable to non-technical have a minimum of four years in market research or other quan- audiences. To apply, please submit a cover letter, résumé to hr@ titative analytical field. Tourism research experience preferred. gloverparkgroup.com. Please reference “Junior Analyst” in the A bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience is required. subject line of your email. You can also mail your cover letter Must have excellent interpersonal and oral/written communica- and résumé to Human Resources, The Glover Park Group, 1025 tions skills. For more information and to apply: F Street, NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20004. GPG is an equal http://www.palmbeachfl.com/partners – members/jobs opportunity employer and seeks qualified candidates regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, national Research Manager origin or age. RESPONSIBILITIES: Manage all phases of the consumer research process including needs identification, project design, survey Director of Operations – Top Rated Focus Group Facility design, analysis, and presentation of results. The position will Opinions Unlimited, an affiliate of Focus Pointe Global, oper- support the Merchandise LOB to assist them in understanding ates the highest rated focus group facility in Houston, Texas. customer needs as well as supporting them in the development This fast-paced, high visibility position is responsible for the and refinement of new product ideas. REQUIRED QUALIFICA- day-to-day management of the meeting room facility, staff, food TIONS: (These are the minimum qualifications you need to be and beverage services, audio-visual resources, and other related considered for the job.) * Undergraduate degree in related field business center functions. Will report to Anndel Martin, Presi- or equivalent * Hands-on market/consumer researcher with at dent. Ideal candidates must possess: • Solid marketing/strategic least 7 years of relevant research experience * Demonstrated thinking orientation with proven presentation, leadership, com- knowledge of retailing/merchandising research * Critical thinker, munication, managerial and client development skills • Five or able to sort through complex business issues to develop research more years managing the P&L of a group, division or business • plans that will generate actionable recommendations * Proven Successful track record in client service/business development ability to develop innovative research approaches to complex • Proven business acumen and negotiation skills • Ability to business issues * Able to conceptualize and build an analytic identify and secure new opportunities for revenue growth within plan, design questionnaires, and analyze and summarize data existing accounts and new prospects • Ability to multi-task in leading to actionable recommendations * Excellent written and a fast-paced, hands-on environment with the ability to work verbal communication skills – able to interface with senior ex- flexible hours while providing high-quality service for clients ecutive leadership on critical business challenges * Hands-on • Effective written and oral communication skills and ability experience performing multivariate statistical analysis us- to work well under pressure with a diverse staff and clients • ing SPSS (or similar package) required * Demonstrated strong Knowledge of HR functions (i.e. proper paperwork, laws govern- analytical skills * Demonstrated strong partnering skills DESIRED ing interviewing process, etc.) • Strong computer aptitude and a QUALIFICATIONS: * Advanced degree preferred * Demonstrated positive attitude • Experience with planning and executing large strong presentation skills * Demonstrated strong team player meetings, conferences, conventions and/or corporate events that skills * Demonstrated ability to partner with external research include catering and hospitality is a plus • Market Research ex- consultants To apply please go to disneycareers.com req #250976 perience is preferred • College degree Please submit cover letter (with salary requirements) and resume to opportunity@opinions- unlimited.com.

46 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Call Center Assistant Supervisor Job Description Marketing Research & Business Processing Group Survey Operations Plattsburgh, New York ICF Macro, an ICF International Company, is a professional services firm offering high quality research, management consulting and information technology services supporting business and government. ICF’s Web site is www.icfi.com. Job Description: The primary focus of the CATI Research Call-Center Assistant Data Collections Manager will be on supervising the activities of Shift Supervi- sors and Telephone Interviewers. Other duties include training and motivating staff and a variety of other research call center management activities. Qualifications Basic Qualifications: • Hands-on supervisory experience; experience in a research, call center environment highly desired • Strong interpersonal, organizational and analytic/problem solving skills • Familiarity/affin- ity with computers Preferred Skills/Experience: • Proficient MS Office user • Basic proficiency with analytic techniques • Ability to communicate effectively with diverse constituents • Ability to effectively lead in a team environment • Survey research experience in a for-profit consulting work environment • Experience conducting large, primary data collection survey research utilizing CATI technology ICF offers an excellent benefits package, an award winning talent development program, and fosters a highly skilled, energized and empowered workforce. ICF International is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer - M/F/ D/V For a listing of other career opportunities at ICF, please visit our Career Center at www.icfi.com/careers/

View all our current job postings at www.mra-net.org/careers

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MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 47 MRA Chapter Update

NorthWest Chapter Announces Scholarship Winner Greater New York Chapter Holds End of Year Celebration Jeff Spitzer and The Greater New Meegan Thye- York Chapter held Walker recently its annual End of presented the Year Celebration NorthWest MRA’s and new board first ever installation scholarship to ceremony on June Alysia Furman of 22. The event was Oregon State a great success, University. The with awesome award was made music, delicious possible through food and drinks the recently and great network- established North- ing. New members West Chapter to the board include: Tim Taylor of Authentic Response and Alan Endowment Fund, Lambert of MSG. which exists to promote excellence in the marketing research industry. The next round of awards will be considered in January, MRA Chicago Chapter Welcomes New Chapter President 2011. Learn more at http://www.northwestmra.org/resources/ The Chicago endowment-fund. Chapter gathered on MN/Upper Midwest Chapter to Hold Fall Conference June 15 to The MN/Upper Midwest Chapter of MRA will hold its Fall celebrate and Conference, “Energize Your Market Research Career” on thank the September 16. Topics planned for the event include: response outgoing board rates, brand research, charts & graphs, computer tips, genera- and welcome tional differences, psychology of wording, qualitative research, the 2010-2011 hiring for research and hope & humor in the workplace. The one board. Sarah day event will take place at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Kotva, the Brooklyn Center, MN. For more details, visit www.mnmra.org. outgoing chapter Southwest Chapter to Hold Annual Education Forum president spoke MRA’s Southwest Chapter will hold its Annual Education Forum about the on August 19 & 20 in Dallas, TX. Highlights of the program chapter’s include: Rhonda Shasteen, retired CMO, Mary Kay, Inc.; Michelle accomplishments despite a still struggling economy. She high- Adams, vice president of shopper insights, PepsiCo; and Merrill lighted the board’s efforts to “go green,” emphasizing the Dubrow, president & CEO, M/A/R/C Research. For more details decision to no longer publish the FYI and to no longer send on the event, visit www.swmra.org. mailed invitations for the smaller educational events. Instead the chapter utilized other technologies and e-mail to be sure to get Save the Date for Great Lakes Chapter Event the word out about the events and goings-on of the chapter. The Great Lakes Chapter is planning its conference for September 9-10, 2010 in Columbus, OH. Location and details of the event will be released soon.

Save the Date for New England Chapter Event The New England Chapter will hold a networking event on August 24 at LeLacheur Park as the Lowell Spinners take on the Vermont Lake Monsters. It will be Boston Celtics Night at the Park, and you will have the chance to meet Glenn “Big Baby” Davis. Chapter members, families and friends are invited to meet up at the Gator Pit at 6 p.m. for a BBQ prior to the game. Tickets are $25 per person and includes dinner. For details, visit www.newenglandmra.org.

48 MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 Energize Your Market Research Career At the Live MN/Upper Midwest MRA Fall Conference September 16, 2010 Earle Brown Heritage Center Brooklyn Center, MN

Become a part of the synergy that ignites when Planned Topics at the professionals meet in one room. Fall Conference Include: You’ll benefit from expert insights at the live Response Rates sessions that cover today’s hottest market Brand Research research topics. Charts and Graphs – Computer Tips Generational Differences Take home tips you can immediately put to use to Psychology of Wording energize your workflow and give your career an edge. Qualitative Research Hiring for Research Save the Date: September 16, 2010! Hope and Humor In the Work Place Seize your chance to attend this live, regionally-located Professional Research conference dedicated to Certification (PRC) credits available helping you energize your career.

View updates at www.mnmra.org/events.htm, or request more information from [email protected].

MRA’s Alert! Magazine - August 2010 49 Industry News & Announcements

C&C Market Research Opens Three New E-Tabs Expands London Team SurveyHealthCare Announces New Hire Locations Ben Rozenheim has joined E-Tabs as a Heather Stockhoff has joined C&C Market Research announced the sales development executive. He previ- SurveyHealthCare as senior developer. opening of two new locations in both ously worked for SNAP Surveys managing She will work to structure the program- Stamford, CT at the Stamford Town Center both public and private sector accounts. ming department of the company. She and Rockaway, NJ at the Rockaway Town- In his new position Rosenheim will be has direct responsibility in overseeing square Mall. The company also relocated focusing on securing and development of the company’s iPadPatient data collec- its Kansas City location to St. Joseph, in new clients. tion development. Stockhoff has five years East Hills Mall. of experience in marketing research and Quester Announces New Hire programming. She most recently worked WorldOne Expands Jessica Martin has joined Quester as a at Rockbridge Associates. WorldOne announced the opening of its research assistant for their Ankeny office. seventh global office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In this position Martin provides support to Bellomy Research, Inc. Announces New Hire Quester’s account managers and coordi- Bellomy Research, Inc. hired Michelle uSamp Acquires DMS Insights from AOL nates between the research operations Browder as research manager. Browder uSamp announced the acquisition of DMS and marketing departments. She also joins the company from Information Re- Insights from AOL. DMS Insights and conducts analysis and develops research sources, Inc. where she served as director- uSamp will combine to offer best-in-class reports. account management. online sample and panel management solutions. The current DMS leadership and Focus Forward Announces Promotion Synovate Announces Appointment production team will remain unchanged. Focus Forward Nationwide Recruiting Synovate has appointed Ben Llewellyn The integration process will result in announced that Beth Reilly has been as managing director in Malaysia. He had complete continuity of service to all promoted to director of qualitative ser- been acting head of the business since the clients. DMS and uSamp are identifying vices. Her primary responsibilities are end of April. Llewellyn joined Synovate in areas where combined capabilities will overseeing five project directors, costing Malaysia in 2003, and before his promo- provide enhanced services. The DMS of projects and overall profitability of the tion he served as research director. Insights company name is not expected projects in field. Over the past three years, to change. Its brands and properties will Reilly’s roles have included assistant likewise remain active for the foreseeable project director, project director and senior future, including Opinion Place, which has project director. operated continuously since September 1996.

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