MRIA VUE Magazine, July-August 2012

vue

the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association

JULY/AUGUST 2012

Canada, Keep Exploring: Enhancing Travel and Tourism in Canada through Marketing Research AU CONTRAIRE What Do We Really Know about Buyer Behaviour?

The Reality of a Constantly Changing World: Some Research Highlights Ann Kingman Interview

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932

Cultivating Cultural Interpretation: Sylvestre Marketing’s Roots, Stem and Blossom A Conversation on Global Trends for Innovation with Mikel Cirkus

vue JULY/AUGUST 2012

VUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE MARKETING RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION TEN TIMES A YEAR

In this month’s features: (L to R) Chuck Chakrapani, Christian Mueller, Isabelle Landreville, John Ball, Mikel Circus

ADDRESS

FEATURES 10 CANADA, KEEP EXPLORING: ENHANCING TRAVEL AND TOURISM IN CANADA THROUGH MARKETING RESEARCH

by Ron Silverton and Stephen Popiel 16 AU CONTRAIRE (1) WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT BUYER BEHAVIOUR?

by Chuck Chakrapani 19 THE REALITY OF A CONSTANTLY CHANGING WORLD: SOME RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

by Christian Mueller 22 ANN KINGMAN INTERVIEW

by David Hamburg 25 CULTIVATING CULTURAL INTERPRETATION: SYLVESTRE MARKETING’S ROOTS, STEM AND BLOSSOM

by Isabelle Landreville 27 A REPORT ON THE 3RD ANNUAL LIFE SCIENCES MARKET RESEARCH CONFERENCE

by John Ball 29 A CONVERSATION ON GLOBAL TRENDS FOR INNOVATION WITH MIKEL CIRKUS

by Michele Westergaard

COMMENTARY Editor’s Vue Message from the Executive Director

COLUMNISTS 30 TWO SOLITUDES 30 THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION 31 QUALITAS 31 INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY 31 BRAVE NEW WORLD

The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L’association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing

2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg. 4, Unit 104 Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Tel: (905) 602-6854 Toll Free: 1-888-602-MRIA (6742) Fax: (905) 602-6855 Email: vue@mria-arim.ca Website: www.mria-arim.ca PRODUCTION: LAYOUT/DESIGN LS Graphics Tel: (905) 743-0402, Toll Free: 1-800-400-8253 Fax: (905) 728-3931 Email: info@lsgraphics.com CONTACTS CHAIR, PUBLICATIONS Stephen Popiel, PhD, CMRP Tel: (416) 271-8454 stephen.popiel@TD.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF David Hamburg, Hamburg Consulting (514) 972-0662 david.hamburg@sympatico.ca MANAGING EDITOR Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA amgabriel@mria-arim.ca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP (647) 855-5088 christianmuellerphd@gmail.com COPY EDITOR Siegfried Betterman Interested in joining the Vue editorial team?

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Original articles and Letters to the Editor are welcome. Materials will be reviewed by the Vue Editorial Team. If accepted for publication, they may be edited for length or clarity and placed in the electronic archives on the MRIA website.

The opinions and conclusions expressed in Vue are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association.

Publishing Date: July/August, 2012 © 2012.

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COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E

Editor’s Vue David Hamburg

Welcome to our “big fat summer issue.” Whether you take it along to the cottage or the beach, there’s something for everyone in these combined issues.

The timing is perfect for our special feature, Ron Silverton and Stephen Popiel’s insightful interview about enhancing travel and tourism with Michele McKenzie, CEO of the CTC and David MacDonald, group vice-president of Custom/Financial at Environics Research Group. Chuck Chakrapani, one of the leading doyens of our industry, has written a (part 1) piece examining some of our preconceived assumptions on buyer behaviour – definitely food for thought. Another returning contributor, Vue’s associate editor, Christian Mueller, discusses some of the main topics recently covered over a buffet breakfast at ESOMAR’s “Best of – Canada 2012” meeting held in Toronto this past May. Is it any wonder that “change” was the big buzzword? Yes, in many ways this is also a house issue and to that, I plead guilty. I’m a huge podcasting fan and thought that it would be a good idea to share with you my recent interview with Random House’s Ann Kingman, broadcaster of one of my favourite podcasts, Books on the Nightstand. I’m still wondering why more podcasting hasn’t unseated television in terms of popularity. The content is far more interesting and more important; the voices are authentic. Rounding off our summer issue are features from Isabelle Landreville, senior VP at Sylvestre Marketing, on Cultivating Cultural Interpretation: Sylvestre Marketing’s Roots, Stem and Blossom; ex-MRIA president, John Ball, reporting on the third annual Life Sciences Market Research Conference; and Michele Westergaard’s interview with Mikel Cirkus, Global Director of the Conceptual Designs Group, Firmenich, Flavours Divisions. But enough said – time to slap on more sun block and chill.

Bienvenue à notre « gros numéro juteux d’été ». Que vous l’ameniez à votre chalet ou à la plage, vous trouverez quelque chose pour tous les goûts dans ces numéros combinés. C’est le parfait moment pour notre article de fond basé sur une interview pénétrante que Ron Silverton et Stephen Popiel ont menée auprès de Michele McKenzie, PDG de CTC, et de David MacDonald, vice-président général de Custom/Financial chez Environics Research Group, sur la façon d’améliorer les voyages et le tourisme. Chuck Chakrapani, un des principaux doyens de notre industrie, a écrit un article (1ère partie) examinant quelques-unes des hypothèses préconçues sur le comportement des acheteurs – sans contredit matière à réflexion. Sous le titre « Best of – Canada 2012 », le rédacteur en chef adjoint de Vue Christian Mueller, un autre contributeur régulier, examine certains des principaux sujets soulevés récemment au cours d’un petit-déjeuner buffet de la rencontre d’ESOMAR à Toronto en mai. Faut-il s’étonner que « changement » y figure comme le grand mot à la mode? Oui, de bien de façons, ce numéro porte sur nous, et j’en suis coupable. Étant un accro invétéré de la baladodiffusion, je me suis dit que ce serait une bonne idée de partager avec vous ma récente interview avec Ann Kingman de Random House qui diffuse une de mes émissions balados préférées « Books on the Nightstand ». Je me demande encore pourquoi plus d’émissions balados n’ont pas damé le pion à la télévision quant à leur popularité. Leur contenu est beaucoup plus intéressant et important, et leurs voix sont plus authentiques. Enfin, notre numéro d’été comprend un article par Isabelle Landreville, VP principale chez Sylvestre Marketing, sur « Cultivating Cultural Interpretation: Sylvestre Marketing’s Roots, Stem and Blossom », par l’ancien président de l’ARIM John Ball sur la troisième conférence annuelle de Life Sciences Market Research, et par Michele Westergaard sur son interview avec Mikel Cirkus, directeur mondial de Conceptual Designs Group, Firmenich, Flavours Divisions. Assez dit – il faut maintenant appliquer la crème solaire et relaxer.

David Hamburg, Market Research Consultant, Hamburg Consulting Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédacteur en chef, Vue • Email: david.hamburg@sympatico.ca • (514) 972-0662 • t david_hamburg 4

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Message from the Executive Director Brendan Wycks

Annual Financial Activity Survey Reveals Challenging but Stable Year in 2011; yet Wide Divergences in Revenue and Profitability Based on Size of Firm

Le sondage annuel sur les activités financières révèle une année 2011 stable; mais pleine de défis et de grandes différences selon la taille de l’entreprise

The results of MRIA’s most recent Annual Financial Activity Survey indicate that 2011 was a challenging – yet overall stable – year for marketing, survey, and public opinion research and market intelligence in Canada.

Les résultats du plus récent sondage annuel de l’ARIM sur les activités financières révèlent que 2011 a été remplie de défis – tout en étant stable dans l’ensemble – pour le secteur de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing, des sondages et de la recherche sur l’opinion publique au Canada.

Industry revenue last year was flat when compared to 2010, but firms that are not MRIA Corporate Research Agency members reported a sharp revenue decline as a group. There were wide divergences in revenue and profitability based on size of firm.

Revenue (All Agencies) Overall, 2011 industry revenue was reported at $759 million, essentially unchanged from $761 million in 2010.

Firms with revenue of less than $250,000 (n=36) saw their revenue increase by 15%, on average, from 2010.

Firms with revenue of between $250,000 and $500,000 (n=10) saw their revenue remain unchanged, on average.

Les revenus de l’industrie l’an dernier sont demeurés stables comparativement à 2010, mais les sociétés de recherche qui n’étaient pas des membres corporatifs de l’ARIM ont signalé une forte diminution de leur revenu comme groupe. Il y a eu de grandes différences dans les revenus et la rentabilité des sociétés selon leur taille.

Revenu (toutes les sociétés) Au total, le revenu de l’industrie en 2011 a été de 759 millions de dollars, c’est-à-dire pratiquement inchangé par rapport à 761 millions de dollars en 2010.

Les sociétés dont le revenu était de moins de 250 000 $ (n=36) ont enregistré en moyenne une croissance de 15 % comparativement à 2010.

Les sociétés dont le revenu se situait entre 250 000 $ et 500 000 $ (n=10) ont eu en moyenne un revenu stable.

Firms with revenue of between $500,000 and $1 million (n=18) saw their revenue increase by 14%, on average.

Les sociétés dont le revenu se situait entre 500 000 $ et 1 million de dollars (n=18) ont enregistré en moyenne une augmentation de 14 % de leur revenu.

Firms with revenue of between $1 million and $3 million (n=28) saw their revenue increase by 3%, on average.

Les sociétés dont le revenu se situait entre 1 million et 3 millions de dollars (n=28) ont enregistré en moyenne une augmentation de 3 % de leur revenu.

Firms with revenue of between $3 million and $8 million (n=30) saw their revenue decrease by 8%, on average.

Les sociétés dont le revenu se situait entre 3 et 8 millions de dollars (n=30) ont accusé en moyenne une réduction de 0,8 % de leur revenu.

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Firms with revenue of between $8 million and $15 million (n=10) saw their revenue increase by 7%, on average.

Les sociétés dont le revenu se situait entre 8 et 15 millions de dollars (n=10) ont signalé en moyenne une augmentation de 7 % de leur revenu.

Firms with revenue of greater than $15 million (n=9) saw their revenue remain unchanged, on average, as compared to 2010.

Les sociétés dont le revenu était au-dessus de 15 millions de dollars (n=9) sont demeurées stables en moyenne comparativement à 2010.

Profitability (Gold Seal Agencies Only)

Rentabilité (sociétés Sceau d’or seulement)

Gold Seal Agencies overall saw their profitability decline by 0.3%, as compared to 2010.

Dans l’ensemble, la rentabilité des sociétés Sceau d’or a diminué de 0,3 % comparativement à 2010.

Gold Seal Agencies with revenue of less than $1 million saw their profitability decline by 2.3%.

Gold Seal Agencies with revenue of between $1 million and $3 million saw their profitability decline by 1.5%.

Gold Seal Agencies with revenue of between $3 million and $8 million saw their profitability decline by 0.8%.

Gold Seal Agencies with revenue of between $8 million and $15 million saw their profitability increase by 1.6%.

Gold Seal Agencies with revenue of greater than $15 million saw their profitability increase by 0.9%, as compared to 2010.

Other Findings In 2011, the majority of Gold Seal Agencies continued a focus on cost cutting, but the measures implemented were generally less austere than in 2010.

La rentabilité des sociétés Sceau d’or dont le revenu était au-dessous de 1 million de dollars a diminué de 2,3 %.

Les sociétés Sceau d’or dont le revenu était entre 1 et 3 millions de dollars ont accusé une réduction de 1,5 % de leur rentabilité.

Les sociétés Sceau d’or dont le revenu était entre 3 et 8 millions de dollars ont accusé une réduction de 0.8 % de leur rentabilité.

Les sociétés Sceau d’or dont le revenu était entre 8 et 15 millions de dollars ont enregistré une augmentation de 1,6 % de leur rentabilité.

Les sociétés Sceau d’or dont le revenu était au-dessus de 15 millions de dollars ont enregistré une augmentation de 0,9 % de leur rentabilité comparativement à 2010.

Autres résultats En 2011, la majorité des sociétés Sceau d’or ont continué de se concentrer sur la réduction des coûts, mais les mesures mises en vigueur ont été en général moins austères qu’en 2010.

Still, there was a greater hesitation to hire in 2011.

Last year, 34% of Gold Seal Agencies did not hire any new staff, as compared to 29% of Gold Seal firms in 2010. And 2011 saw 30% of Gold Seal Agencies reduce head count, as compared to 25% in 2010.

On a cependant manifesté une plus grande hésitation à effectuer des embauches en 2011. L’année dernière, 34 % des sociétés Sceau d’or n’ont pas embauché de nouveaux employés, comparativement à 29 % en 2010. De plus, en 2011, 30 % des sociétés Sceau d’or ont réduit leurs effectifs, comparativement à 25 % en 2010.

In terms of regional business distribution, firms doing business in Ontario and the Western provinces saw revenue from those parts of the country rebound in 2011, while those operating in the Atlantic provinces and especially Quebec experienced declines as compared to 2010. Quebec’s proportion of overall industry volume dropped from 15.5% in 2010 to 10.7% in 2011.

Du point de vue de la distribution régionale des affaires, les sociétés faisant affaire en Ontario et dans les provinces de l’Ouest ont signalé une augmentation de leur revenu en 2011, alors que celles faisant affaire dans les provinces de l’Atlantique et particulièrement au Québec ont accusé des baisses comparativement à 2010.

La proportion du Québec dans l’ensemble du volume de l’industrie a chuté de 15,5 % en 2010 à 10,7 % en 2011.

With respect to the geographic location of clients, while 80% of business for MRIA research agencies

Par rapport à la situation géographique des clients, 80 % des affaires des sociétés de recherche membres

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is domestically based, the proportion of U.S.-based clientele continues to increase. U.S.-based clients constituted 16.8% of overall industry volume in 2011, up from 15.5% in 2010 and 12.5% in 2009.

In terms of research methodologies, telephone continues to decline slowly (28% in 2011, down from 34% in 2009), while online methodologies continue to grow (46% in 2011, up from 39% in 2009).

With respect to forecasting business performance for 2012, the industry has a cautious outlook. Among Gold Seal Agencies, more firms anticipate either no change or a decrease in their revenue and pre-tax profits than was the case at the beginning of 2011.

The Research Agency Council Board conducts the Annual Financial Activity Survey among Corporate Research Agency members, both Gold Seal and Basic.

Basic Research Agencies receive an abbreviated version of the survey, since some of the questions in the full survey are not applicable to them. They also receive an abbreviated version of the results report.

For Gold Seal Agency members, the results report includes detailed information regarding industry salary and benefits levels across a comprehensive range of positions.

Having access to this report is a member benefit.

Participation in the survey is a mandatory condition of Gold Seal Agency membership.

Not only is the information garnered through the survey valuable to participating research agencies for tracking industry trends and developments, but it’s also of interest to outside parties (e.g. ESOMAR and the media) that frequently approach MRIA for data on the size and direction of the Canadian industry.

The survey is managed by the MRIA office and overseen by the executive director to ensure that all individual agency data are kept strictly confidential.

Tabulation is done by an independent, third party tabulator, who receives the data without any identifying company information. The results report provides aggregated information only.

The Annual Financial Activity Survey works handin-glove with MRIA’s monthly revenue report for Gold Seal Agencies, a process for tracking current business activity in the industry. Currently, 57 Gold Seal Agencies (73% of the total) participate in the voluntary monthly revenue report. They are continuously updated on the aggregate revenue trends in our industry, so they can better assess the performance of their own organization in the context of the broader economy.

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de l’ARIM se situent au Canada, mais la proportion de la clientèle basée aux États-Unis continue d’augmenter.

Les clients basés aux États-Unis représentaient 16,8 % du volume total de l’industrie en 2011, en hausse par rapport à 15.5 % en 2010 et à 12,5 % en 2009.

Quant aux méthodologies de recherche, l’utilisation du téléphone poursuit sa décroissance lente (28 % en 2011, en baisse par rapport à 34 % en 2009), alors que les méthodologies en ligne continuent de croître (46% en 2011, en hausse par rapport à 39 % en 2009).

Dans le domaine des prévisions sur le rendement des affaires en 2012, l’industrie se montre prudente. Un plus grand nombre de sociétés Sceau d’or prévoient soit aucun changement, soit une diminution de leur revenu et de leurs profits avant impôt comparativement au début de 2011.

Le conseil d’administration du Conseil des agences de recherche effectue le sondage annuel sur les activités financières auprès des sociétés membres corporatifs Sceau d’or et du niveau de base. Les sociétés de recherche du niveau de base reçoivent une version abrégée du sondage, puisque certaines questions du sondage complet ne s’appliquent pas à elles. Elles reçoivent aussi une version abrégée du rapport sur les résultats. Pour leur part, les sociétés membres Sceau d’or reçoivent un rapport sur les résultats qui inclue des renseignements détaillés sur les niveaux de salaires et d’avantages sociaux d’un vaste éventail de postes au sein de l’industrie.

L’accès à ce rapport est un avantage pour le membre.

La participation au sondage est une condition d’adhésion obligatoire des sociétés membres Sceau d’or.

Les renseignements recueillis au cours du sondage sont précieux non seulement pour les sociétés de recherche participantes dans leur suivi des tendances et des développements au sein de l’industrie, mais ils intéressent aussi des organisations externes (p.ex. ESOMAR et les médias) qui approchent fréquemment l’ARIM pour obtenir des données sur la taille et l’orientation de notre industrie au Canada.

Le sondage est administré par le bureau de l’ARIM et surveillé par son directeur général afin d’assurer que les données individuelles des sociétés demeurent strictement confidentielles. Les tableaux de données sont produits par un tabulateur indépendant tiers qui reçoit les données sans aucun renseignement identifiant une société. Le rapport des résultats ne fournit que des renseignements agrégés.

Le sondage annuel sur les activités financières va de pair avec le rapport mensuel de l’ARIM sur les revenus destiné aux sociétés Sceau d’or qui est un processus visant à faire le suivi des activités d’affaires courantes au sein de l’industrie. À l’heure actuelle, 57 sociétés

COM M E N TARY / COMMEN TAI R E

For MRIA’s 2012 Financial Health of the Industry Survey, to be launched in early March of 2013, we encourage all marketing research firms in Canada, large and small, to participate. When you do, you will be helping to provide the most accurate and timely depiction of the health of the Canadian marketing, survey, and public opinion research and market intelligence industry.

Sceau d’or (73 % du total) participent volontairement à ce rapport mensuel qui les tient constamment à jour au sujet des tendances générales des revenus de notre industrie et leur permet donc de mieux évaluer leur propre organisation dans le contexte de l’économie plus générale.

Nous encourageons toutes les sociétés de recherche marketing au Canada, grandes et petites, à participer au sondage annuel sur la santé financière de l’industrie 2012 de l’ARIM qui sera lancé au début mars 2013. En The accompanying table provides a summary of the participant, vous aidez à fournir une description plus key findings of the 2011 Financial Activity Survey. précise et opportune de la santé de l’industrie de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing, des sondages et Among all firms % of industry revenue de la recherche sur l’opinion publique.

(2010 figure) Gold Seal firms

72 (71)

Non-Gold Seal firms

28 (29)

B2B research

14 (18)

Qualitative research

13 (12)

Sub-contracted to other Canadian MR firms 13 (10) Business conducted for clients outside Canada

19 (18)

Largest client industries: Consumer packaged goods

14 (19)

Financial services

17 (16)

Media

12 (11)

Public policy/polling

7 (10)

Among Gold Seal Member Agencies Data collection: Online research

46 (42)

Telephone research

28 (30)

Mail

5 (5)

Most common types of studies: Customer satisfaction research/CSM

20 (23)

Tracking studies

13 (13)

Usage & attitude studies

9 (10)

Public opinion

10 (10)

Client sector:

Le tableau suivant offre un résumé de principaux résultats du sondage sur les activités financières en 2011.

Toutes les sociétés % du revenu de l’industrie (en 2010) Sociétés Sceau d’or 72 (71) Sociétés qui ne sont pas Sceaux d’or 28 (29) Recherche interentreprise Recherche qualitative Sous-traitance accordée à d’autres sociétés de RM Affaires exécutées pour des clients à l’extérieur du Canada Les plus grandes industries clientes : Biens de consommation emballés Services financiers Médias Politiques / sondages gouvernementaux

14 (18) 13 (12) 13 (10) 19 (18)

14 (19) 17 (16) 12 (11 7 (10)

Les sociétés membres Sceaux d’or Collecte de données : Recherche en ligne 46 (42) Recherche par téléphone 28 (30) Recherche par la poste 5 (5) Types d’études les plus courantes : Satisfaction de la clientèle / MSC Suivi Utilisation et attitude Opinion publique

20 (23) 13 (13) 9 (10) 10 (10)

Secteur de la clientèle :

Private

73 (74)

Public/Not-for-profit

27 (26)

Privé Public / À but non lucratif

73 (74) 27 (26)

Brendan Wycks, BA, MBA, CAE, Executive Director / Directeur général, Marketing Research and Intelligence Association / L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing Email: bwycks@mria-arim.ca • (905) 602-6854 ext./poste 8724

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Canada, Keep Exploring: Enhancing Travel and Tourism in Canada through Marketing Research Ron Silverton, CMRP and Stephen Popiel, CMRP 10

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S P ECIAL F EATUR E

Canada has long been a global destination for tourists looking to experience the wonders of our vast natural landscapes, the history of our country, and its modern-day culture. However, in recent years, travel to Canada has declined, impacting both operators and the economy overall.

Stricter security measures and passport requirements as a result of 9/11 have diminished travel by Americans. As well, among international travellers, Canada had been losing its competitive position, while other global destinations pique travellers’ interests.

Against this context, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) developed the “Canada, Keep Exploring” brand, along with an important strategy based on experiential tourism concepts – a strategic tool called the “Explorer Quotient” (EQ).* Rooted firmly in values-based customer research, EQ began as a way to understand travellers, beyond traditional demographics. Over time, EQ has grown to be a fundamental component of the CTC’s marketing strategy, including an interactive online tool that enables travellers to find out what kind of explorer segment they belong to, with recommendations for interesting travel options to consider.

We recently had an insightful conversation with Michele McKenzie, CEO of the CTC and David MacDonald, group vice-president of Custom/Financial at Environics Research Group. Six years after the award-winning partnership between the CTC and Environics began, EQ continues to succeed in numerous ways.

Michele, what is your EQ traveller type and, if planning a trip anywhere in Canada, where would you choose to go?

Michele: The fundamental premise of the Explorer Quotient (EQ) is that everyone is an explorer, whether their version of exploring means safe, prepackaged group tours, or more extreme travel such as venturing off into the wilds with little more than a backpack. Even trips to the same destination can be interpreted differently by different explorer types. For one type of traveller, a trip to northern lakes could be an opportunity to immerse in the natural beauty of the environment; for another, it could be an opportunity to bond with a child – the same destination, but two very different motivations and experiences.

I am a “Cultural Explorer,” and this means I like experiences where I can really interact with local people.

I have travelled extensively in the Canadian North, and I think it’s an incredibly exotic area of the world where you can have truly authentic experiences with people who are equally amazing. I would go back as often as possible.

David, what is your EQ traveller type?

David: I’m an “Authentic Experiencer” and have turned out that way every time I have taken the quiz since we first created it in 2006. This makes sense, as many researchers, especially those who do ethnographic research, like to observe people and patterns – it’s a very AE thing to do. Like Michele, I aspire to travel to the North. As an AE, I would be drawn to observe the northern culture, whereas travellers with Michele’s CE explorer type would lean towards getting actively involved and participate more in the culture.

Michele, when you say “the North,” how far are we talking?

Michele: I’ve been through the Northwest Territories, Baffin Island, Labrador and Yukon, but I’ve not been beyond the Arctic Circle. What I have on my bucket list is sailing through the Northwest Passage with my kids. When my youngest graduates from university, that’s going to be our trip. I gave all three of them the choice of any trip they wanted to do, as long as it was in Canada, and that’s the one they chose. My children are showing signs of being professional students, so I’m not quite certain when this trip will happen, but I know it will!

That explains the traveller type you are, focused on culture and exploration. What was the inspiration behind the whole program? Why did you set it up, and what were you hoping to achieve by it?

Michele: We did not necessarily go at this trying to set up a program. We were looking for a new way to understand our current and potential customers so that we could communicate with them in the most relevant way. We had just refreshed the Canadian Tourism brand around the concept of exploration, and we were inspired by the work Michael Adams was doing on social values.

Environics provided us with a new window, a new way to look at our customers, using social values, which we could link to travel motivation. This inspiration came directly from Michael’s work. Up until that point, we had become experts at understanding our travellers from a demographic point of view. But we wanted to build our brand from a desire that we all share as travellers – the need to explore.

We were on a journey to get much deeper insights, well beyond demography alone, and social values research seemed to be just what we were looking for. Environics had both the ability and the social value expertise to develop travel motivation–related questions for global surveys. vue July/August 2012

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From that work, we took it to the next steps, asking Environics to segment our market into traveller types – a collaborative effort that grew from our wanting to have a much deeper understanding of our customers and to have a competitive advantage. We knew that no one else was doing this.

Were your senior managers all in agreement?

Or was it challenging to get everyone to embrace the idea of EQ so that you had to solve those traditional marketing problems on the back end?

Michele: Actually, David should respond as to whether it was hard to work with our organization. But I can tell you as a leader, this work came at a time of profound organizational change. We were being relocated from Ottawa to Vancouver, and only twenty per cent of our team came with us. There are very few times when a leader has to implement a major change, but when we were onboarding our new team here in Vancouver, we were able to build up this EQ work as a core part of our strategy. New people coming on board had this concept as a part of their orientation.

The move was tumultuous but, for me, it was a great leadership opportunity. And the research was part of that. I suspect we were a very frustrating client, as there were only seventeen people who made the move.

How has the use of the Explorer Quotient changed your strategies, and how can it be used in the future?

Michele: Something profound that we’ve seen over the last year is the launch of a new CTC program called “Signature Experiences Collection,” which is a new phase, or next logical step in commercializing the research behind the Explorer Quotient. What we have found with the introduction of Signature Experiences is that EQ has become more real and useful at the individual operator level.

The Signature Experiences program has been very successful and performed beyond my wildest expectations.

Had we tried this program ten years ago, within our international marketing strategy, it would have been troublesome and seen as being selective. It was not the way we were able to operate at the time.

The research gave us a very strong foundation on which to align customers and experiences. The EQ program provides the CTC a solid foundation upon which to continue to innovate and stay ahead of the pack, and it keeps me excited about new opportunities.

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Your website, the Signatures Experiences Collection, is simply beautiful to look at [ED: Readers can access the site at http://caen.canada.travel/things-to-do/all].

Tell us more about this initiative.

Michele: It’s a good example of what happens when solid research is commercialized. David, I think, will agree that this is exciting.

David: Absolutely. It allows you to pick the best target EQ types at a strategic level, then match the inbound traveller with locally based travel providers who best fit the customer’s EQ. One of the things I think really helps is the word of mouth after you have had the Signatures Experience – coming back with a very positive sentiment to share with peers, bringing a lot of favourable social media discourse about being able to match up desire with experience.

Michele: No one else is doing that in the same manner that we have designed. Many more destinations now realize that they have to focus on experiences, yet no one else has figured out how to connect the images in their marketing to actual experiences, other than to offer packages.

The core research in EQ has helped us to really understand the difference between a product and an experience. We used to start by telling people the facts – where we are physically located; where Vancouver is on a map; that it is accessible by air, road, water; that it’s close to the border, etcetera. However, that’s not very engaging.

Now, our current marketing starts by making an emotional connection. We offer tools for travellers to learn and talk about their destinations through the lens of a traveller seeking an experience – as opposed to giving someone a geography lesson.

Do you find that the international travellers have really embraced this concept, or are some countries’ travellers more open to using innovative tools such as the Explorer Quotient and Signature Experiences Collection?

Michele: We are finding our potential travellers, in every market, increasingly willing to engage. At the same time we were developing these tools, social media was really emerging, and our timing was perfect. People have become more interested in relating to a brand on a personal level.

So I’d like to believe that this is all good management.

But a part of it was simply good luck! The quiz allowed us to ride the social media wave very effectively as the tools were relevant to individual travellers. We are also using the

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research in all of our marketing, so it’s beyond a quiz and a survey tool for us: it is fundamental to our work.

The world knows that Canada is a beautiful country, and most travellers aspire to visit some day but don’t have enough information on what to do once they come here.

So the whole idea of getting our experiences out there and understood is vital, as is the ease of purchase.

People have to choose Canada and really want to come here in order for us to close the sale. We are not a discount destination; we are not competing with destinations that are more like commodities, such as a sun destination in February. People will spend more when they get here, so we have to compete differently. The focus on experience really helps us do that.

David: It’s almost a religion, where you have this awakening experience and you start to understand the power of the value and motivation that underlies this tool and how the traveller is “already there.” The CTC embraced it first, and now the rest of the industry is becoming aware of it.

We already knew the differences in values between the United States and Canada (written about in the book Fire and Ice, by Environics founder Michael Adams), and those differences were fully replicated in the EQ work. Adding in the values of France, Germany, and the U.K. showed those cultures to be in a slightly different sphere than Canada and the United States. But the most differentiated values were those found in Japan, South Korea, and China, where far more traditional values exist. These cultural differences mean that the EQ segments appear in different proportions in each country, and that there are some EQ segments that are unique to specific countries. This was envisioned when we created the EQ system.

You have mentioned social media several times, and CTC has a strong presence. How successful has this been for you, and do you have some tips for others?

Michele: When social media first started entering the marketing vernacular, we saw it as another channel and repurposed content for that channel. And it is not a channel at all, but rather a way of doing business which requires us to have an approach to content that is very different, becoming fully integrated for the channel. We’ve done a lot of work in that regard. The appeal of social media is that it is theoretically cheaper, and a lot of marketers have been chasing social media executions for that reason.

Social media is not well understood in terms of what gets value. We tried not to get too enamoured by all the

quanta that are available in social media. It is more than just another way for us to reach out to our customers; it’s a way for our travellers to reach out to each other. And that has driven our shift from a B2C marketing environment to a C2C marketing environment.

Do you find that different traveller types use social media in different ways, or do they all use it the same way, or not use it at all?

Michele: The “Free Spirit” traveller type uses social media more than other types, mostly for bragging rights, and social media is perfect for them. We are finding that different traveller types use social media differently; however, every traveller type is advocating their experience while on their trip. That’s becoming a part of the new opportunity for us.

While Free Spirits are heavier social media users, there is definitely impact and influence across every traveller type.

David: The Free Spirits and Cultural Explorers, in particular, are very expressive and outer-directed. The Authentic Experiencers are a little more introverted, so they are less likely to share their experiences online but no less likely to use social media as a decision-making tool, seeking out what others say online about a destination or experience.

Michele: We’ve become much more invested in developing content that other folks will use as they see fit. As marketers, we spent a lot of years trying to control content and the message – that was our job. But we now know we can’t control any of this stuff. What we really want to do is get our content out there on whatever platforms our customers are using. It’s no longer about trying to draw people to our websites so we can count them and influence them.

It’s about getting our content out on all the websites our customers are going to, influencing them there, and making it easier for them to buy. It’s a really big change.

Tell us a bit about your best practices forum.

Why did you decide to create it, and how helpful it has been to you?

Michele: The best practices forum grew out my lack of engagement with the agendas of the few international meetings we did go to. Yet there is a great appetite for Canada to show up at these meetings. We found other jurisdictions that shared the same challenges we have, so we invited them to a meeting in Vancouver. vue July/August 2012

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I was looking for answers for my board through some international benchmarking. I cannot compare our results to anyone else’s, because we all use different methodologies.

Countries like Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and now the U.S. are asking a lot of the same questions, and I was looking for ways to collaborate. While it’s still a work in progress, what we have found is that the best practices forum is a great table for troubleshooting and sharing ideas.

Even though we are competitors, we share common problems: the established destinations in the world are all losing share, and we must all work with our governments to address the problem. It is in this latter area where we all win by sharing practices on what’s working. For example, we all have visa challenges. We have been able to learn how other countries are handling these challenges in innovative ways, and we can bring these innovations back to Canada, to work with our own government on improving the visa processes.

It is very helpful identifying best practices, especially as they relate to barriers to travel. While we have not talked about our marketing strategies specifically, we do watch each other very closely. Wherever I go, people talk about the Explorer Quotient. They know about it, and they are very envious of it. It’s been fun.

What words of advice would you have to research providers in terms of best practices and improvements to the industry?

Michele: This project is a really good example of meaningful marketing research. Environics has a long-term vision in this project, and that’s very valuable. We’ve always worked with our research partners on a contractual basis, going through RFPs, and it’s very hard to look at long-term relationships.

However, in this project, both sides did just that, and it has been a really important part of our success; we are collectively vested in seeing this work continue to evolve.

I was on an international panel recently and, as often happens, I was asked what advice I would give to other NGOs. My answer was quite consistent: Overinvest in research, and use it. To marketing researchers, these are welcome words, but it’s often not the case in destination marketing. The CTC chooses to invest heavily in research and to use it to gain competitive advantage. We are generally not a big spender on marketing, and we try to get more results without more spend.

David: We really believed in EQ, especially once we saw consistent metrics emerge. We felt strongly that this had deep roots and long legs – it would run the distance. And 14

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what kept us encouraged as a partner was the fact that the CTC has taken these value-based research tools farther than any other client we have worked with before. No other organization has had as much use of, and as much success with, values-based research tools. That has been very rewarding to us, especially as we are talking about consumer experiences of travel that are purely discretionary.

Applying EQ does take a long-term view; this is not the kind of marketing based on research that will turn overnight.

So it did require a longer-term horizon and a lot of vision.

It is also a great testament to the vision and dedication of the CTC for committing to this lengthy journey with the confidence that it would pay off in the end.

ED: The CTC is now recognized as one of the top marketing organizations in Canada, gaining the prestigious Marketer of the Year designation in 2009. The CTC has led the evolution of the tourism brand to a place of strength in the global marketplace, contributing to Canada’s number one country brand position in the world, for the second year in a row.

Find out your EQ Traveller Type at www.canada.travel * Explorer Quotient and EQ are registered trademarks of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Michele McKenzie, a graduate of Dalhousie University, was appointed president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission in January 2004 and reappointed in January 2009. She has guided the CTC from its origins as a newly formed Crown corporation to a professional and competitive brand marketing organization. Michele’s operating mantra is “Great Marketing, Great Team, House in Order.” She founded, and remains active in, the CEO Best Practice Forum, a collaborative undertaking involving the CEOs of the world’s leading national tourism organizations. http://en-corporate. canada.travel/about-ctc David MacDonald, CMRP, is group vice-president of Custom/ Financial at Environics Research Group and head of ERG’s Travel and Tourism Research Services practice. In 2007, David received MRIA’s Best in Class award for the Explorer Quotient research – his second MRIA award, having received the Best Multinational award in 2004 for research at GM. Both award-winning studies are examples of how values-based research tools can help organizations understand global markets at an integrated level and also succeed in segments within local markets. He can be reached at david.macdonald@environics.ca

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Why Manitoba Embraced EQ What’s your traveller type?

I am a “Cultural History Buff.”

Why did you select the Explorer Quotient (EQ) as a traveller segmentation model?

We have heard from other provinces which have adopted EQ (New Brunswick, Yukon, Alberta) that the research has shifted how their provincial marketing agencies think about marketing. The Explorer Quotient sharpens the marketing focus and eliminates shotgun approaches. It is an exceptionally comprehensive market segmentation tool that extends well beyond demographics. We, like other provinces, are looking to create an awe-inspiring brand for Manitoba. EQ provides us with a comprehensive tool that will help us identify whom we are talking to, who is most likely to visit, and for what reasons – as well as help us with media and promotional investment decisions.

What appeals to you the most about EQ? EQ is the most comprehensive marketing tool I have ever seen. It will become the tool against which our advertising and communications initiatives will be measured in the future.

Travel Manitoba has committed to a three-year agreement in adopting the Canadian Tourism Commission’s EQ program. Our target customers will no longer be defined simply by gender, education, age and income. This research digs deep and provides psychographics – information about the customer’s core social values, personal philosophy, and general take on the world. We will have information about their key drivers for travel.

Psychographics is a big factor motivating people in their choice of travel experiences; their defining natures are the reasons why one person is driven to camp rough in the wilderness and another revels in the luxury of a big city shopping trip. We recognize the value of the extensive research that has been undertaken in building these psychographic profiles, across both national and international markets.

Furthermore, the flexibility and scalability of the EQ program creates the opportunity for every tourism business in Manitoba to take advantage of this information – from the smallest “mom and pop” operation to big brand organizations – and with it, the potential to change the way we market the tourism business in Manitoba.

We are confident that, as we align experiences with well-developed psychographic personalities, we will build our industry’s capacity to create more effective marketing campaigns. Ultimately, this will generate a higher return on our investment.

What are the first steps you’ll take to apply EQ at Travel Manitoba?

We have already begun the process of introducing EQ to our collective staff through a two-day meeting led by the Canadian Tourism Commission. And while we are just scraping the surface at this time, it is our intention to introduce our advertising agency and other related suppliers to EQ, as well as introduce EQ to Manitoba’s tourism industry at our upcoming annual conference. In fact, EQ is the theme for our conference this year.

We are currently reviewing a number of advertising and communications partner organizations; and once decisions are made, we will introduce all stakeholders to the power and importance of EQ, ensuring that our messaging and targeting are consistent and effective in the future.

We are very much looking forward to implementing EQ across the entire organization, including partner suppliers and industry, to help us to align tourism initiatives and the industry in Manitoba.

Colin Ferguson is the president and CEO of Travel Manitoba, which can be accessed at www.travelmanitoba.com

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Chuck Chakrapani, CMRP, FMRIA

AU CONTRAIRE (1) What Do We Really Know about Buyer Behaviour?

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Things That Just Ain’t So

What do we know about buyer behaviour? I mean what do we really know about why people buy? Do we really know if heavy users are more loyal than light users? Do we really know if users of niche brands are more loyal to their brands than users of large brands to theirs? Do we really know that attitudinal key drivers provide any clues to marketing strategy? Do we really know whether loyalty programs work? Do we really know that advertising persuades consumers to buy? And do we really know that customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition?

Most of us probably feel we do really know the answers to these questions (and there are others). Of course heavy buyers of our brand are more loyal; niche brand buyers are more attached to their brands than buyers of undifferentiated large brands to theirs; attitudinal key drivers can be used to increase customer satisfaction; loyalty programs work; advertising persuades consumers to buy; and it is more cost effective to make our current buyers buy more than it is to acquire new buyers. Even if we don’t explicitly say it, current marketing and research efforts indicate that we do act as if these things were true.

Except that there is no research evidence to support any of these beliefs. In fact, accumulated evidence points to the contrary.

“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we do know that just ain’t so.” – Artemus Ward

Ivan Ilych and Me

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I myself believed many of these myths for a long time. Somewhere along the line, marketing models that didn’t live up to the hype and marketing theories that didn’t add up at all started to bother me. Like Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilych, who wondered towards the end of his life, “What if my whole life was wrong?” I wondered, “What if all I thought I knew about marketing was wrong?”

I started looking for answers in studies that have been replicated over and over again, and not in single studies based on significance testing.* What I found surprised me and overturned many things I thought I knew.

This series of articles is about “There is nothing more evidence-based understanding of horrible than the murder buyer behaviour. of a beautiful theory by a I’m not just speculating. Just brutal gang of facts.”

– Francois de La Rochefoucauld consider the following: • Marketing texts written in the 1950s and 1960s claimed that

eight out of ten new products fail. They still claim the same failure rate.

• We were told that if we used sophisticated mathematical and statistical models, and identified the key drivers, we could sell more products and services. There is no evidence that we could.

• Marketing experts told us that if we increased customer loyalty, the company would prosper. Almost all airlines have loyalty programs, and almost all airlines are struggling to survive. Does loyalty exist and, if it does, can it be increased?

• Brand extensions are supposed to bring great profits by appealing to segmented markets. Many brand extensions become extinct, as they end up confusing consumers.

What’s going on? We have brilliant minds trained in the business schools of Harvard, MIT, Wharton, Chicago and the like.

We have many PhDs in our profession. Yet there is no evidence that marketing today is any more successful than it was fifty or one hundred years ago. Which marketer or researcher truly predicted the sudden decline of RIM in 2011? And who offered proven strategies to reverse the decline? Who predicted the astonishing ascendency of Apple over the past ten years?

To be sure, today’s marketing is more “sophisticated,” has many moving parts, and is laden with theories and models.

But is it any more effective? What do marketers know for sure today that they did not know some fifty years ago? We believe that we know more, but do we?

To find out how much we do know, two business professors “Data! Data! Data!”

(J. Scott Armstrong and Randall he cried impatiently.

Schultz) in 1992 asked four grad“I can’t make bricks uate students to independently go without clay.” through nine well-known market– Sherlock Holmes ing texts. Their assignment: to (Arthur Conan Doyle) identify the managerial principles found in those nine texts.

While these texts contained over 500 principles, no evidence was provided by the texts to support most of them. Only twenty of the principles were distinct and meaningful. These twenty were subsequently sent to marketing professors, who rejected half of them. Eventually, only two were found to have supporting evidence.

The moral of the story is that what is taught in MBA marketing courses are prescriptions that sound reasonable, and not principles supported by proven research. For example, a statement like “To be successful, you should differentiate your brand” sounds very reasonable. But is there any evidence to support that it is true? The fact is that a large number of marketing generalizations are not based on data but on what sounds rational. vue July/August 2012

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Predicting Buyer Behaviour Is Possible

In disciplines like physics, we have precise laws: the law of gravity, Boyle’s law, and the like. They have been shown to hold under different conditions. They are precise; their effects are predictable. While gravity works the same way each time and the same way everywhere, a human being is a lot less predictable. We can never be sure that someone who bought Colgate toothpaste this time will or will not buy it the next time. Even if the consumer says that she is going to buy Colgate the next time, there is no guarantee that she will.

But the interesting thing is that while an individual is never fully predictable, collective action can be very predictable. In other words, while we may not be able to predict that a given individual would or would not buy Colgate the next time, we can predict the product’s market share with near precision.

The prediction may not be as precise as predictions in physics; however, it will be “While a man is an close enough for marketing insoluble puzzle, in the purposes. aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.

Lawlike Relationships You can, for example, While hard sciences like physnever foretell what any ics have laws, in marketing we one man will do, but you have “lawlike relationships.” can say with precision What are lawlike relationwhat an average number ships? will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant.”

Lawlike relationships are approximate, but precise enough – Sherlock Holmes for our purposes. By using (Arthur Conan Doyle) lawlike relationships, we may be able to predict that our market share next month will be 35 per cent. It may turn out to be 34 per cent or 36 per cent, but our estimate of 35 per cent is precise enough for us to act upon.

Lawlike relationships are descriptive and not necessarily causal.

For example, we may be able to predict how many of our customers will be repeat purchasers the next time around, based on some recurring patterns of behaviour; we may not necessarily know why this pattern occurs.

Lawlike relationships are widely applicable but not universal.

Because lawlike relationships are tested under different conditions, they are widely applicable. But they are not universal truths. There may be exceptions, and their applicability may be limited.

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Many lawlike relationships showing how consumers behave have been identified by researchers. Unfortunately, they are not to be frequently found in marketing or research textbooks – or even in the arsenals of practitioners of marketing and research.

Insights Hidden in Plain Sight

So how much do we know about buyer behaviour?

It turns out, quite a lot. But that knowledge is not all that widespread, and it is not what most of us believe to be true. In fact, in many cases, it is quite the opposite.

The purpose of this series of articles, Au Contraire, is to look closely at some widespread myths of marketing and research, and to replace them with knowledge supported by solid evidence. We will explore topics such as brand loyalty and repeat buying, key driver analysis and customer satisfaction, brand positioning and differentiation, and advertising and buyer behaviour.

We will see that what we think we know is not necessarily supported by evidence, that there are “things we do know that just ain’t so.”

Endnote

* One of the major problems with marketing research, and social sciences research in general, is blind faith in significance testing. Scientific principles are established through careful replications, not through significance testing. Using significance testing as a way to arrive at scientific generalizations is mostly nonsensical. But that is a different discussion.

Dr. Chuck Chakrapani is the chief knowledge officer of Leger, The Research Intelligence Group. He is also a distinguished visiting professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, editor of the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Research, and a member of the board of directors of the Marketing Research Institute International which, in collaboration with the University of Georgia, offers the online course “Principles of Marketing Research.” He is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society as well as of MRIA and has authored over a dozen books and 500 articles on various subjects.

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Christian Mueller, CMRP

The Reality of a Constantly Changing World: Some Research Highlights Question: What do the following three things have in common?

1. Asian youth culture 2. the Canadian Opera Company 3. games people play to make research more engaging Answer: They are all changing.

These were also the main topics discussed over a buffet breakfast at ESOMAR’s “Best of – Canada 2012” meeting in Toronto on May 9.

This meeting, the latest in a series of best-of presentations arranged by ESOMAR and chaired by its director general Finn Raben, featured opening and closing comments by Cam Davis, ESOMAR’s representative in Canada, as well as presentations by a trio of international and local speakers describing recent work of interest to an audience of fellow researchers.

While individual remarks focused upon a particular content area, each speaker addressed the need to keep up with important changes that occur globally at an everaccelerating rate. To use an oxymoronic expression, change vue July/August 2012

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is constant. And these talks responded to the challenge of constant change in several different ways.

Changes in Asian Youth Culture

The first talk – given by Robin Brown, senior vice-president of Consumer Insights at Environics Research, and coauthored by Joseph Chen, manager of Brand Building, Consumer and Market Insight at Unilever Canada – took a detailed look at how Asian youth are changing the world “from Delhi to Shanghai to LA.” Although this investigation was global in scope, Robin’s account of this research looked mostly at the implications of a growing Asian influence in North America, which has seen an unprecedented influx of East Asian (Chinese, Korean) and South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan) youth to Canada and the U.S. These youth movements – the largest to come out of Asia lately – are notable not only for their size but also for their close ties to the burgeoning markets where they originate, primarily China and India. Studying such a younger demographic offers insights into the future direction of these markets as well as their influence abroad.

To better understand the nature of Asian youth culture in both home and host countries, an online quantitative survey of those between the ages of 15 and 29 was conducted on schoolfinder.com databases for Canada, China, India, and Korea. Subject matter experts were consulted to help with the design of this survey, which was followed up in Canada with online qualitative research in order to examine Canadian youth more closely.

The results have a lot to say about youth marketing in these countries. Regarding Asian immigrant youth, for example, a marketing strategy should be adaptable to the relevant immigrant population (i.e., taking into account differences between the home and the host country).

Immigrant youth may also represent an untapped opportunity to extend the reach of certain Asian brands from their home country to new markets outside of Asia.

The North American launch of Lux soap, hugely popular in China, exemplifies just such an opportunity.

Changes in Web Design for the COC

In his talk, entitled “Shifting Customer Behaviour Online,” Adam Froman, founder and CEO of Delvinia, took a case study approach to the subject of how the Canadian Opera Company’s website was recently upgraded to enhance the operagoer’s experience visiting the site.

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The first step in this process was to generate customer insights, employing online research in order to compare operagoers with Canadians in general. A key finding at this initial stage was that COC customers were more engaged in specific online behaviours than the average Canadian, yet only 18 per cent of these customers transacted with the COC via its website (www.coc.ca).

Because research also found no significant behavioural differences between those transacting via coc.ca and those transacting elsewhere with the opera company, a digital strategy was developed to create an interactive experience that inspires visitors to coc.ca to stay engaged with opera while integrating the COC website with the opera company’s brand. In the long run, this strategy envisions coc.ca as Canada’s principal destination for opera-related information and content.

In line with this vision, the website was overhauled to make it function more efficiently (improving site navigation, expediting the subscription renewal process, facilitating donations, etc.) and to optimize the visitor’s experience using the site, thereby enabling fans to share their love of opera and empowering them to become advocates for the brand.

Since the website’s overhaul, bounce rates have decreased from 56 to 26 per cent and online sales have increased 30 per cent from season to season, making online the number one channel for single ticket purchases as well as number one for one-time donations. These statistics appear to indicate that Delvinia’s strategy and its implementation have been successful in moving the COC’s customer base in the desired direction.

Changes in the Quality of Online Research

In his talk about “Research Gamification in Action,” the U.K.’s Jon Puleston, vice-president of Innovation at GMI, drew upon more than one hundred research-on-research experiments conducted by GMI and Engage Research over the past five years.

Given that response levels obtained with traditional marketing research methods are generally in decline, these experiments investigated how gameplay could be used to produce higher-quality feedback from online questionnaires.

Jon began his talk by noting that gamification is not a new concept. In fact, ESOMAR’s previous best-of meeting in Toronto included a presentation on the same topic (summarized in the January-February 2012 issue of Vue).

One may define a game as any mental activity done essentially for fun or enjoyment, and gaming techniques have been successfully incorporated into a wide variety of activities in order to stimulate greater participation and achieve better compliance.

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These techniques appear to have enormous potential to engage respondents, simply because many surveys today can, in Jon’s words, “already be seen as games, just boring, badly designed ones.”

In order to start making survey questions more game-like, one might note the example of Tom Sawyer, who got other boys to whitewash his aunt’s fence by convincing them it would be fun. This classic tale illustrates that there is no fundamental distinction between playing a game and doing real work.

Rather, the essential element distinguishing a game from real work is a positive attitude – enthusiasm versus boredom.

Gameplay mechanics can be thought of as “enthusiasm enzymes” that make ordinary tasks extraordinary and more enjoyable to do. One way to incorporate this thinking into a survey is to create a scenario in which respondents are asked to use their imagination in order to answer questions.

For example, “Describe your favourite meal” may become “Imagine you are on death row and have to choose your last meal.” In an experiment comparing these two conditions, the request to use one’s imagination reportedly quadrupled the average word count.

Another way to transform a survey into something more pleasurable is to apply rules to the task. However counterintuitive this may seem to some people – basically because rules set limits restricting one’s freedom – the application of rules to the answering of a question has been shown to be more productive in some cases.

Following the example of Twitter, which has effectively transformed text messaging into a game by limiting the number of characters to 140 per message, an experiment compared responses to “How would you describe yourself?” with those to “In exactly seven words, how would your friends describe you?” Albeit confounded by asking how friends (rather than you yourself ) would describe you, this experimental comparison showed that the restrictive question produced nearly twice as many descriptors as the nonrestrictive question.

Clearly, various techniques may be combined when transforming surveys into games so that people might actually want to play them. One hoped-for goal of such transformations is to engage respondents in lengthy survey tasks for a longer period of time, thus maintaining a high level of data quality throughout.

Take a repetitive task like evaluating a long list of musical artists. In a traditional survey, respondents would probably be asked to rate how much they liked each one. In what may be termed “quest mode,” however, respondents could be asked to imagine that they are building a playlist for their own private radio station and that they must decide how much each artist

should be played. In this case, the number of artists that were evaluated almost doubled.

The potential benefits of gamification are sometimes shown by remarkably simple changes in question wording.

For example, in one study, simply adding the words “can you guess” extended the time that respondents spent considering a question from ten seconds to two minutes. In another study, a two-minute time limit (versus no time limit) resulted in ten times as much feedback. In a third study, the expression “we challenge you” added to an advertising recall test prompted a threefold gain in the number of ads recalled.

Besides rewording the question to seem more like a game, the other route to gamification is to have respondents answer questions in a more playful manner. In large part, this process of making answers more game-like is strictly an exercise in the ergonomics of online questionnaire design (e.g., visual appeal). On the other hand, this process might entail the awarding of points or similar rewards, such as animation or sound effects, based upon a player’s performance, whether alone or in competition with other players.

In Closing

Qualitative researchers might well be expected to recognize the value of gaming techniques, as they have been applying these methods to their research for years.

The fact that quantitative researchers are finally coming to the realization that gameplay may also have advantages for them leads me to speculate whether or not the two types of research are poised to converge in the very near future. Such convergence would mark a radical change in the development of research methods.

For the moment at least, qualitative and quantitative research can certainly be viewed from this perspective as more complementary than ever. Indeed, it may be mutually beneficial for the two types of researchers to collaborate more completely than they have in the past, whenever a piece of research is being designed.

Given this reasoning, I wonder if there might not have been an opportunity to probe even more deeply into the psyche of Asian youth and their diaspora, had the qualitative and quantitative components of that study been fully integrated into a single survey instrument. While I would expect youth in general to be quite receptive to full-on gamified research, how might the results of such an enriched survey differ from the results obtained?

Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP, has made a career of marketing research since 1984, most recently as chief methodologist at Fresh Intelligence Research Corp. Currently independent, he may be reached at christianmuellerphd@gmail.com or (647) 855-5088. vue July/August 2012

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Ann Kingman Interview David Hamburg

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Hello, Ann Kingman, co-host of Books on the Nightstand, one of my favourite podcasts. It’s interesting to hear from an industry insider [Ann is a sales rep for Random House], but on a strictly personal level. Your show isn’t a plug for your company; it’s all about your take on book-related topics. Let’s start at the beginning: How did you get into podcasting?

I spend about four hours a day in my car, where I like to listen to podcasts. I’m a knitting enthusiast, so I was listening to a lot of knitting podcasts – there must’ve been around forty at the time. But I was also interested in listening to book podcasts; there just weren’t many around at the time. In any case, the book podcasts I listened to revolved around author interviews. This is great if you are interested in the author; but if you’re not, you wouldn’t listen to it.

After a successful bookstore event that I led with my colleague Michael Kindness, who is the co-host on Books on the Nightstand, we were asked to write a column for the store’s newsletter. Ultimately, that didn’t work out, but it gave us the idea that we needed a way to connect with those kinds of people, the readers of bookstore newsletters. So we decided to start a podcast.

Easier said than done.

Not really. It took a night of googling about how to create a podcast. When I saw that most of the podcast hosts weren’t tech-savvy and were just amateurs, I knew that it could be done inexpensively. The hardest part was worrying about keeping my job, and making sure that what we did was really independent and that it was okay with our employers. We can talk about any book from any publisher. If we couldn’t, then it would just become another commercial enterprise.

But producing a podcast is still a significant undertaking.

Sure, it can be a scramble, but there is always something going on. There are big book communities on Twitter and Facebook that are always engaged in ongoing discussions, so we get many of our ideas from there. Coming up with ideas is not a problem. Recording time is not a big deal: it takes about two hours. A lot of time is spent keeping the community together, doing things like updating our Facebook page.

What are the logistics involved in producing a podcast?

That’s actually secondary. Great content can make up for a lot of imperfections. If you have a really interesting show, it doesn’t have to sound perfect.

I like the rawness of podcasting. It doesn’t sound phony.

When we started, we had mikes that we plugged into our computers, because Michael and I live in different states and work from our home offices. We did the first few episodes

by Skype. There was a piece of software that allowed you to record the calls, but it wasn’t perfect. Now, we do the podcast over the phone, record it digitally, splice it together with an editing program, and then we have our podcast.

That’s it?

Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s that easy.

Let’s talk about how you get an engaged audience. Not only do you have a strong following and a great website, but you have even branched out into staging major events like Booktopia.

That’s some feat. It’s so hard to get people to do anything these days.

Maybe it’s because booklovers tend to be the only ones in their social circles who are really avid readers. It’s not a popular hobby. Our Booktopia group allows people to find their kindred spirits. A lot of these people attended the event on their own; they didn’t know a soul, yet everyone managed to find things in common to talk about.

Tell us how you organized your first Booktopia event.

It was a little through accident. While on work, Michael and I were staying at this charming inn in Vermont. We thought that it would be a great idea to have some book friends there and talk about books. We threw this idea out there on our podcast, and the response was very positive. Many people said they’d attend such a gathering. Within three weeks, we had a hundred people signed up. Then we realized there were only eighteen rooms at the inn. So we scrambled and managed to put it all together.

By the time the weekend came, we had 75 people and nine authors. This year, we’re doing three Booktopias across the country: in Manchester, Vermont; Oxford, Mississippi; and Santa Cruz, California. Vermont is sold out; Santa Cruz has only eight spots left; and Oxford has about twenty spots [at the time of this interview]. Each event will have between six and eight authors.

That’s some story. Companies hire expensive marketing event consultants to organize events like this, and you pulled it off with ease.

I have to say, however, that it’s certainly not a money-maker.

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with our community, find out what they want, introduce readers to authors, and really make magical things happen.

It’s a pleasure to create these events and meet our listeners live.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting a podcast?

I’d recommend starting with an actual measurable goal. Say that goal is to sell 3,000 white papers; that is something that will not be measurable through the podcast. In our case, our goal was to have a community that talked about the books that we recommended. After talking to our listeners, we realized that they were reading the books that we were talking about. Setting yourself up as an authority is a good goal, however you measure it – whether it’s getting three gigs for consulting services or getting people to attend your event.

Make it human. Let people get to know you.

A podcast is the sound of your voice in someone’s ear, and that’s incredibly powerful. People are going to listen to you and feel that they know you much better than if they were reading what you wrote on a screen.

Your podcast is audio. What about video podcasts?

I think that the audience will drive the format. We did one video podcast where Michael was in a bookstore talking about book jackets. We needed that episode to be visual. But we don’t do video, for a few reasons: Our offices are always a mess and we don’t want anybody to see that. I also don’t want to have a makeup crew on hand before I have to record.

But getting back to knowing who your audience is: Where is your audience going to engage with your podcast?

Will it be at their desk in an office? If that’s the case, then maybe you want to broadcast in video, if they can watch videos during the day. These are things that you have to figure out. We made an audio podcast because that’s what we used to listen to in the car.

That said, I think if we decided on a video podcast, it would probably never get done. You have to be realistic and understand your own comfort level.

You also have to be consistent, whether on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Don’t overreach what you can deliver. We started every two weeks; then after a year, we went weekly when a lot of people asked for that. Had we started weekly, then we probably would not have lasted long.

Do you have a set format that you follow?

Yes, we have a three-segment format that is easy to organize.

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that’s in the news, something that’s smart and relatively short. Our second segment is longer and usually around a topic, a theme: it might be about our favourite mystery novel or an author tour. Finally, our third segment is about a book we want you to read, and we’ll talk about that in detail. Working with these three topics makes the podcast easy to produce.

Any parting thoughts, Ann?

I think that podcasting is a great business tool that’s hard to sell. People who don’t listen to podcasts don’t understand its power. We did this with Random House (our employer). We never went to them and said this is something we’d like to do and we need your permission. When they saw what was happening, they were on board. Podcasting is a very niche market.

How come everyone isn’t listening to podcasts?

Everyone has a device, be it an iPhone, an iPad, an iPod or a laptop. Everyone has a specific interest, and podcasts are the perfect channel.

I don’t think it’s incredibly intuitive to learn how to download podcasts. There are a couple of iPhone apps like Instacast that make podcast listening seamless. You can search and download podcasts just from there. You don’t have to connect your iPhone to a computer and download the podcasts from iTunes. I think that when those apps become more popular, it will grow. It’s just that not too many people will sit down in their den at 7:00 p.m. to listen to a podcast.

I think we’ve covered the ABCs of podcasting, Ann. Thanks a lot for your time, and good luck with the Books on the Nightstand podcast and with Booktopia.

Ann Kingman is co-host and co-producer of Books on the Nightstand, a weekly podcast in which she and Michael Kindness talk about books and reading, bringing informative, entertaining and thoughtful book talk to their listeners. Having grown the podcast into a thriving online book community, Ann and Michael have recently begun hosting weekend reader retreats around the country. A district sales manager for Random House, Ann lives with her husband and two daughters in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

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Cultivating Cultural Interpretation: Sylvestre Marketing’s Roots, Stem and Blossom Isabelle Landreville

First and foremost, we’d like to thank MRIA for giving us

to a plethora of methodologies, some inconceivable only a

the honour of awarding us Best in Class at the recent annual

decade ago.

conference in Newfoundland.

Sylvestre Marketing has seen four decades in total – and

Sylvestre Marketing has grown tenfold in recent years,

this year, we’re celebrating forty years of growth. Founded in

and our success is truly a sight to behold when one considers

1972 by Robert Sylvestre, CMRP, we began as a qualitative

our roots. It has been a long road of continued evolution

firm that also dipped its fingers into quantitative research.

and constant shifts, a road that has seen qualitative research

The company’s first projects took place in the founder’s

itself evolve and change from mere traditional focus groups

sitting room, aided by his wife’s committed organizational

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skills and hospitality. As there were few qualitative research firms in Quebec at the time, Robert Sylvestre naturally became an important figure for companies entering the Quebec market.

As a bilingual moderator, he had a knack for bringing to life for his English-speaking clients the particular reality of the demographics of the Quebeckers he interviewed. At the time, he primarily worked alongside other moderators, who needed his linguistic prowess. He developed a passion and a skill set for listening, analysing and delving into the thoughts and feelings of those who told their stories.

When 276 Sherbrooke West opened its doors, Robert Sylvestre had his own facility, with what was then stateof-the-art equipment, and a two-way mirror. A bilingual team then joined him: new moderators from Ontario who brought their own perspectives to the growing knowledge database he had gathered on Quebec.

As time went on, Sylvestre Marketing became renowned for its particular approach to marketing research, and for the quality of its moderators and its reports. Moreover, the company was now able to translate the popular cultural references of Quebec into those of Ontario, finding analogues in both provinces. Thus, a great many clients came to us directly, instead of merely outsourcing the French moderating to us.

On June 4, 1994, Robert Sylvestre’s daughter Julie joined the moderating team. She eventually took over the business as acting president as well as a moderator, surrounding herself with others who shared her passion for qualitative marketing research. Julie Sylvestre, CMRP, decided that qualitative research would become our sole business, leaving quantitative behind, in order to focus on the quality of our qual work.

From there, business took off at a breakneck pace, pursuing its original primary goals: demystifying cultures, understanding them, and finding ways of translating one culture into another. In 2008, we set off with our official positioning, though it had been a reality for a long time: two solitudes experts, cultural interpreters.

From these advances, we’ve had some amazing opportunities to highlight cultural differences, transcending the two solitudes by far. We’ve conducted projects throughout Canada at the national level, often to explain Canadians to U.S. clients. We’ve also conducted projects in Europe and excelled at delving into that continent’s cultural contexts as well.

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We pride ourselves on ensuring that nothing gets lost in translation.

The Pepsi Refresh project that won us MRIA’s Best in Class award was precisely on target with our specialization.

PepsiCo held a “Quebec Day” to help understand why Pepsi was such a staple in Quebec and how the new millennial generation perceived the brand. In order to do this, Sylvestre Marketing built intergenerational profiles based on the perspectives of older boomers, younger boomers, and millennials. We used a multitude of social media–based methodologies and interacted with millennials where they are most comfortable sharing – on Facebook, blogs, and bulletin board focus groups – asking respondents to share videos and photos. Because the way something is said and when it is said are as important in qualitative analysis as what is said, our in-house videographer captured participants on video, both on the street and in our offices.

We were then able to deliver our findings in an interactive multimedia research report during our keynote address at Pepsi’s Quebec Day, bringing our specialty to life.

Our passion for qualitative research lives on in our team, as do the knowledge and skills that have been expanding since 1972. As the newest partner to the firm, I am proud to represent this heritage. Since joining Julie Sylvestre as senior partner in 2011, I have seen us grow exponentially. Not least among the changes, 276 Sherbrooke has become 2067 Crescent Street, a modern office for a modern team. Our founder’s portrait hangs in the lobby, above MRIA’s crystal Best in Class award – a reminder of the dedication and commitment that has brought us here. With our expertise as cultural interpreters as our compass, our sails are unfurled.

We look forward to each new voyage.

Kindest thanks to Maria Ressina and Caroline LemireGaumont for their valuable contribution to this piece.

For the French version of this article, please check out Sylvestre Marketing’s blog at www.sylvestremarketing.com/ click-culturelles/ Isabelle Landreville, M.Sc., Senior Partner at Sylvestre Marketing (SM) was born and raised in Ottawa where she obtained her bachelor’s degree. She then pursued marketing research at ESCP Europe in Paris. A qualitative researcher since 1999, she started off her career traveling across North America and all of Europe as an ethnographer. She joined SM in 2005.

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A Report on the 3rd Annual Life Sciences Market Research Conference John Ball, CMRP

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In mid-June, during a time when the temperature soared high enough to make sidewalk-sizzled Philly cheese steaks a possibility, health-care marketing research experts converged on the city of Philadelphia to find out what else was hot. The conference was the 3rd Annual Life Sciences Market Research Conference, created and hosted by specialty conference and symposia creator marcus evans.

The two-day event was anchored by a series of brief presentations and discussions by industry leaders and academics who presented their views on the latest challenges in the world of ethical pharmaceutical marketing research.

Topics included regulatory constraints and their impact on timing for the completion of insight work with medical professionals, within precedented timelines and without overstepping HIPAA privacy rights; the use of secondary sources (IMS Health data in particular) and internal study libraries to manage information flow internally in order to avoid reinventing the wheel; the difficulties and challenges inherent in global study management concurrent with a burgeoning need by the C-suite to better understand how to work profitably in these high-growth markets (especially BRIC); internal organization of marketing research departments (how to grow from one to many); and ways of optimizing and evaluating new methodologies and supplier resources to bring insights and impact to senior management decisions in order to accommodate the various ways in which engagement is evolving (especially vis-à-vis the role of social media and web-based advocacy websites).

Oh, and of course, the all time favourite: How to do all of this with smaller budgets and tighter timelines.

Without a doubt, the construction and design of this event was very professional and allowed for a very open exchange of ideas. To a one, the presentations and panels were inclusive of input from the attendees. The smaller size of the gathering (less than thirty at any given session) facilitated open conversations on any given topic and nearly full audience participation. Audience participation came naturally and assisted in creating context for the excellent presentations. True to the meaning of the word conference, it was the event’s size more than anything else that led to a high level of engaged dialogue amongst those in attendance, without feeling forced or uncomfortable.

Imagine continuous Q&A, mostly from the presenters to the audience instead of the other way around.

The schedule of the two-day event was fairly complete, tending toward earlier starts and mid-afternoon finishes.

The venue was an older property right in the downtown core, so attendees could avail themselves of business services and downtown sights during the large amounts of allotted free time.

There were a few organized events for the attendees outside the program, and breakfast and lunch (catering and 28

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service was excellent). One thought would be to enhance the agenda with a few optional non-core elements such as a speed networking or social event at the end of the day.

Speaking of networking, it would have been nice to have WiFi Internet access available to those in the common areas where the conference was held. I say this recognizing that the content of the conference would have been sure to dissuade us from paying too much attention to our electronic devices. However, the attendance fee for this conference was fairly steep, and it would have been a nice touch to have us connected during the day.

A few years back, MRIA made it clear that forging ties with our brother and sister associations, or connecting with organizations like this, which put on industry-specific conferences and seminars, would bring MRIA members value beyond our borders through increased access to valued information and the opportunity to network with those in the marketing research profession elsewhere. To wit, at this event, I met and spoke with the head of membership for the Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group (PMRG), Rochelle Cinque Scott, who agreed wholeheartedly with this sentiment.

One small organizational point is that association guests (she and I both) were treated as media, with restricted access to talks given by representatives of companies who have confidentiality concerns (which I fully understand and support). At one point during a lunch, I was greeted somewhat tentatively by an attendee who stated that she “had never had the opportunity to meet someone from the CI [competitive intelligence] field.” To avoid future confusion, perhaps there could be another category of attendance created for future events so that those in academia or those representing an association could be distinct from the media, albeit with the same caveats and confidentiality assurances in place.

Well, as it turns out, I am reporting on this event. It opened my eyes to the value of smaller sector-focused events as a means of getting beneath the surface on areas of importance to particular subsegments of our industry.

I explained to the marcus evans representative facilitating this event that I wholeheartedly support the notion of their holding these types of events in Canada. Or, as we did with Net Gain, we could build our own.

John Ball, CMRP, is a past president of the MRIA and principal at Opus Enterprises, a marketing research and management consultancy based in Toronto. He can be reached at john.ball.opus@gmail.com or (416) 278-1999.

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A Conversation on Global Trends for Innovation with Mikel Cirkus Michele Westergaard

Mikel Cirkus, Global Director, Conceptual Design Group, Firmenich, Flavors Division, answered a series of questions, before the forthcoming Canadian Consumer Insights and Trend Spotting Conference, organized by marcus evans, August 14-15, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. All responses represent the view of Mr. Cirkus and not necessarily those of Firmenich, marcus evans or Vue magazine.

What is your outlook on the future marketplace?

What will shape consumers’ behaviours?

You have a unique approach to spotting trends – what are some of the key features?

How can organizations be more innovative?

The premise behind our approach to tracking trends is to get as close to the edge as possible. Trends begin at the edge. We say we go “where the fun, pain, action and danger are.” This is where you’ll find the earliest of trends.

How can organizations better identify trends and insights into Canadian consumers?

Identifying trends and discovering actionable insights within them applies to any organization in any segment in any market. To better identify them is to first have a frame of reference with which to establish the rate of frequency of change. Real change is what is being observed, and trends may or may not evolve from the change or sameness. At Firmenich, we use our Trenz™ tool for fragrance and flavour inspiration, marketing guidance, and new product development worldwide.

How can businesses turn those trends into bottom line results?

There’s no “sure thing” in hunting. Observing change and trends, is in a sense – hunting. If you have an established brand in an established market you can drive trends simply by not following them. In other words – be the change. Others will follow because they too are part of the process. Everything influences everything else. There is no trickle-down anymore.

The future marketplace is part science fiction and part reality television. The rate of cultural information, technology, science, and medicine is happening exponentially. If you’re not out there connecting the dots already, you can be sure someone else is. Pay close attention to what already exists that will disrupt or create the consumer landscape ahead.

Now there’s a multi-million dollar question! If a company wants to be more innovative – truly innovative – they first need to get out of their own way. Let go. Let your employees be empowered. Let them break free. Create. Play. Get out of the office. Innovation won’t happen without inspiration. Be inspired. Connect the dots. Make a new picture. Tell a new story. Be the change.

Mikel joined Firmenich in January 2000 as the Creative Director for the Perfumery Division’s Body & Home Care Creative Marketing. In 2005, Mikel made the switch to the Flavors Division where today he is the Global Director of Conceptual Design. As a founding member of the Global Trenz Team, Mikel identifies key industry and consumer trends, combines them with ongoing analysis of competitive environments, and creates a proven means to enable their clients to embrace, adapt or even create changes that have added value to their brands.

About marcus evans

marcus evans annually produce over 2,000 high quality events designed to provide key strategic business information, best practice and networking opportunities for senior industry decision-makers. Their global reach is utilized to attract over 30,000 speakers annually, ensuring niche-focused subject matter presented directly by practitioners. For more info, contact Michele Westergaard, Senior Marketing Manager, Media & PR, marcus evans at 312-540-3000 ext. 6625 or Michelew@marcusevansch.com. vue July/August 2012

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TWO SOLITUDES

THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

How to Make a Statement: The Case of Our

BBM Canada versus Research in Motion: Trade-mark Dispute Hits Close to Home

“National” Holiday(s) Isabelle Landreville, M.Sc. Sylvestre Marketing

The end of June and beginning of July is a festive period for Canadians and Quebeckers alike. While Canadians celebrate Canada Day on July 1, Quebeckers celebrate two “national” holidays: Saint-Jean Baptiste Day on June 24 (Fête Nationale du Québec) and the official Moving Day, July 1! How did this come about, you may wonder?

The origins of Quebec’s Day dates back to 1834 when Ludjer Duvernay decided to reinstate a Quebec tradition that had ceased with the English Conquest, Saint-Jean Baptiste Day. His objective was to give a National Day to French Canadians. That same year, sixty Montrealers, including the mayor, held an immense buffet in its honour, inspiring celebrations throughout French Canada that lasted up to five days! In 1925, it became the official National Day and in 1977, René Lévesque declared it a statutory holiday for all Quebeckers to celebrate Quebec’s unique identity.

Conversely, Canada Day (then Dominion Day) dates back to 1868, established by the Governor General Lord Monck to celebrate the “Union of the British North American Provinces.” Few celebrations were organised with the exception of the 1917 Golden Anniversary of Confederation and the Diamond Jubilee. The celebrations on Parliament Hill only became an annual event in the 80s. Interestingly, it was Bourassa in 1974, head of Quebec’s Liberal party, who amended the civil code to ensure families with young children would not have to move during the school year. That is how the social phenomenon of Quebec’s Moving Day came to be. Was that simply a convenient long weekend to help students and families move or was the political party making a statement about Quebec’s identity and distinction, cluttering Canada Day under cardboard boxes?

So, whether you were moving or watching fireworks on July 1: Happy National Holiday!

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Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP CorbinPartners Inc.

When June started, the news was hot off the press. By the end of June the other shoe had dropped.

On May 31, the Federal Court of Canada issued a decision in a dispute between Research in Motion and MRIA member company Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (“BBM Canada”). The dispute concerned the potential confusion between “BBM” and, well, “BBM.” BBM Canada had launched a trade-mark infringement suit against RIM, claiming that BBM Canada had used the registered trademark BBM for sixty years, and that RIM’s use of the same acronym would confuse the public. In the course of presenting its evidence, BBM Canada cited instances in which its research requests to consumers had been inferred to be overtures by RIM in connection with BlackBerry services.

Not finding BBM Canada’s evidence sufficiently weighty, the Federal Court ruled that the two companies operate in different business sectors, so that RIM’s use of the acronym and BBM Canada’s use could peacefully coexist.

On June 28, notice was given that BBM Canada will appeal that decision. Readers who want to appreciate the decision in full detail, with all the ins and outs of trade-mark law explained, will find it posted at this link: www.smart-biggar. ca/files/2012FC666RIM.pdf.

Intrigued about evidence for intellectual property protection generally? I had promised readers notification of details of a new Osgoode Hall Certificate Program in Intellectual Property management and protection – for corporate executives and the advisors who help them to make the most of their brands, copyrighted materials, product inventions and trade secrets. Research companies are pure intellectual property plays, another reason that executives of MRIA member companies may find this program worthwhile. The link to learn more about it is here: www.osgoodepd.ca/cle/20122013Fiscal/2012_IP_certificate/index.html.

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QUALITAS Digital Travelers and Virtual Vacations Lindsay Porter Ipsos Reid UU-Qualitative

There has been an increasing trend for people to “stay connected” while on vacation with the popularity of mobile devices and easy online access. Laptops, tablets, smartphones and personal mobile devices are considered, nowadays, to be necessary travel essentials. Consumers are capitalizing on location-based apps like Foursquare and Gowalla to help coordinate and guide them through their vacation destinations, sourcing out recommendations of attractions, nightlife, shops and entertainment.

Not only are consumers more engaged digitally to reap the benefits of recommendations found online, but they are also more engaged in chronicling and sharing their vacations through the use of social media. With a growing number of free social media/photo-sharing/blogging websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger and Tumblr, gone are the days of sending postcards through snail mail and waiting to arrive home to share experiences with family and friends. Today, vacationers just have to log on to their social media accounts to provide immediate, in the moment updates of their vacation adventures, or alternatively, have the ability to simply send a message, photo and/or video via SMS/SMS. Vacationers’ heightened engagement with the digital and mobile world can serve the marketing research industry well as it can allow us to “travel” in the moment with our consumers and learn about their experiences with any given category, product and/or service all while they are away. Leveraging their already existing social media sharing behaviours, we can have them share in a way that does not seem daunting or intrusive, even while on vacation. Keeping the tasks short, simple and fun can yield fruitful insights that may otherwise be left uncovered should we wait for their return home.

INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY My Summer Vacation Margaret Imai-Compton, CMRP Principal, Imai-Compton Consulting Inc.

Remember going back to school in September, at the start of another year, and talking to all your friends about your summer vacation?

As adults, we can constructively use our summer vacations as a time to pause and recharge, but also as a time to leverage our creative forces. Vacations are a wonderful way

to break daily routines, try new activities, meet new people, find yourself in unpredictable situations, and renew ties with your family. There are plenty of stimuli to observe, absorb and harness towards a creative process.

What vacations do best (if you give yourself permission to really be on vacation) is sprout lots of ideas because on some level, you are thinking, “This is how it could be,” rather than “This is how it is.”

Albert Einstein famously said, “Problems can’t be solved by thinking within the framework in which they are created.” So by taking yourself out of your usual framework when you’re on vacation, you’ve created a fertile setting for considering the “coulds” in your life.

Fundamentally, the “coulds” are really about making new connections. And in the creative process, there are many techniques to jump-start the “coulds” such as Breaking Patterns (finding alternative ways to experience a situation), Random Connections (links between the problem and random items) and Adjacent Worlds (explore other areas where similar issues or benefits are apparent).

Even if the “coulds” emerging from a vacation are freeflowing and personal in nature (“What if I could have my gin and tonic by the lake every afternoon?”), they utilize the same principles that drive the creative process. So go ahead, enjoy your summer vacation, and when you’re back at work, let the “coulds” spill over into your problem solving.

BRAVE NEW WORLD Tourism beyond 2020 Corrine Sandler Fresh Intelligence Research Corp.

Tourism is undeniably on the rise as people around the world will be living longer and expecting to do more during the course of their lives. In Canada alone we spent an estimated 24.2 billion dollars on international travel in 2009, a figure that is trending upward each year*.

To better understand implications in this sector, Fresh Intelligence in conjunction with The Future Foundation has examined the future of the tourism industry by carrying out extensive forecasting research. This article will examine predictions for the future of travel by identifying informed assumptions that will impact the evolution of consumer trends.

One of the most impactful predictions for tourism is the potential for global average temperatures to rise by more than 2°C by 2030, a shift that is significantly higher than last century’s 1.06°C. This temperature increase could vue July/August 2012

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have serious implications for the climate in areas previously popular with holiday travelers.

Interestingly, many consumers dream of a future of holidays in space as almost 70% of respondents under 25 are interested in travelling to space if it were affordable.

With companies like Virgin Galactic, which are set to fly passengers to an altitude of 360,000 feet to experience weightlessness and view the Earth from space, this type of travel is possible but only for those who can afford the $200,000 price tag, something that is definitely on my bucket list. Perhaps when competition in the space tourism industry drives the price down this might be realistic but over the next few decades we foresee virtual technologies plugging the gap.

The way we search for travel will notably change over the course of the next decade. We will not just research the location of our holiday online but will have the opportunity to step inside and investigate in detail. Through digital

maps of local neighbourhoods, we will be able to explore the nightlife in real time, interact with the head chef to customize our menu, and see whether a holiday destination is perhaps overpopulated at the time of our proposed trip.

Technology will never replace real travel but will allow us to have much richer digital experiences. Imagine being able to watch a sunrise over Machu Picchu in real time while in the comfort of your home.

Finally, we predict that travelling itself will become a whole lot more seamless and faster in the future as technological advances such as electronic chipped passports with RFID and biometric technology, pre-stored preference profiles, or even the use of a travatar (an omnipresent digital tour guide) will play a role in a more efficient in-flight process.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. You decide which one you are. Happy travelling! *www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/research/quick_facts/facts.shtml

Mark your Webinar Calendars August 8 @ 2PM EST Evolutionary Psychology & Consumer Behaviour with Dr. Geoffrey Miller

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October 24 – time TBD QRD presents Michelle Finzel, VP, Maryland Marketing Source, Inc.

IN D USTRY N E W S

DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES AND NOTICES MRIA’S DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES One of MRIA’s primary responsibilities – as with any self-regulatory industry/professional body – is to conduct investigations and take appropriate disciplinary action when complaints of professional misconduct are received or other evidence of member transgressions comes to light. Members of a self-regulatory industry/professional body, especially a voluntary Association such as MRIA, understand how important it is to have effective and fair disciplinary procedures.

Disciplinary procedures go to the heart and raison d’être of self-regulation. The outcomes of investigations and disciplinary procedures can impact significantly on the livelihoods of member professionals and the organizations they work for, and on the reputation of the industry/profession and the self-regulatory body itself.

Self-regulation is a privilege, not a right – a privilege granted because public trust has been earned.

MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures aim to protect the public trust and the goodwill earned by the marketing, survey and public opinion research and market intelligence industry over many decades, and its reputation for integrity.

The public, the business community, government, and self-regulated professionals and organizations themselves expect disciplinary procedures to be transparent and timely. They expect them to result in appropriate sanctions and penalties that serve as deterrence, and in suspensions or expulsions of members who harm the public or harm the industry/profession itself and, by so doing, undermine public trust and a hard-earned reputation for integrity.

Self-regulation is also founded on the member’s right to be treated justly and fairly by the self-regulatory organization.

MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures adhere to the principles of natural justice set out in common law. MRIA strives to • t reat all parties courteously, fairly, impartially and according to the principles of natural justice and the rules of administrative law; and • have investigation and disciplinary procedures that are timely, transparent, and result in proper and just outcomes.

MRIA is continually reviewing and strengthening its Disciplinary Procedures. The MRIA Board recently conducted an in-depth review that resulted in important improvements to the Disciplinary Procedures.

To read more, visit www.mria-arim.ca/Archive/PDF/0212Wycks.pdf

DISCIPLINARY NOTICES The Disciplinary Notices published on the following pages are intended to communicate the outcomes of recent cases and investigations which resulted in a sanction being imposed upon a member under the MRIA Disciplinary Procedures.

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NOTICE OF MEMBER SUSPENSION In accordance with MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures, a Complaint Panel was convened to consider a complaint of professional misconduct against torontoinsights.com, a Corporate Research Agency member of MRIA, which alleged that torontoinsights. com had falsified and misrepresented research data it had been commissioned to provide to the Complainant.

After completing its deliberations, the Complaint Panel found that torontoinsights.com had violated the following provisions of MRIA’s Code of Conduct and Good Practice: • Ten Core Principles, Principle 4, insofar as the data provided by torontoinsights.com to the Complainant were inaccurate and misleading; • Ten Core Principles, Principle 8, insofar as torontoinsights.com’s performance of its engagement by the Complainant failed to meet high standards of general competency in the design, execution, analysis, reporting, interpretation, and consulting phases of research; •G eneral Rules of Conduct, Provision 7(a), insofar as the research services conducted by torontoinsights.com for the Complainant were not carried out in accordance with established scientific principles; and •G eneral Rules of Conduct, Provision 7(b), insofar as the Respondent failed to ensure the reliability and validity of its data in the collection, processing, and analysis of such data.

The Complaint Panel determined that the nature and severity of torontoinsights.com’s violations of the Code go to the core of the integrity of the marketing and survey research industry. The Complaint Panel further determined that three of the four violations relate to Code provisions that are binding upon MRIA members, a factor that weighs in favour of a significant sanction. Finally, the Complaint Panel determined that the Code violations committed constitute serious transgressions, not merely minor violations of the Code.

As a consequence of its findings, the Complaint Panel imposed upon torontoinsights.com a sanction of a one-year Suspension from Membership in MRIA. torontoinsights.com filed a written appeal of the Complaint Panel’s decision, as provided for under Section 22 of MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures, citing four grounds for appeal. An Appeal Panel was therefore convened.

Following due deliberation and consideration of the information that had been put before the Complaint Panel, as well as additional information that had been provided by torontoinsights.com in support of its appeal, the Appeal Panel determined that the Complaint Panel’s findings were reasonable and supported by the facts of the complaint, and that the Complaint Panel had acted reasonably and in accordance with MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures in reaching its decisions.

As a result, the Appeal Panel upheld the decision of the Complaint Panel, dismissed the appeal, and confirmed the sanction of a one-year Suspension from Membership in MRIA, commencing May 29, 2012.

At the conclusion of torontoinsights.com’s one-year Suspension from Membership, it may apply for reinstatement to membership, provided that MRIA receives written assurances from torontoinsights.com that the Code violations it was found to have committed will not be repeated. If an application for reinstatement accompanied by such assurance is not provided, torontoinsights.com will be expelled from membership following the conclusion of its period of suspension.

MRIA’s membership records indicate that during the period of the Appeal Panel’s deliberations, torontoinsights.com did not renew its Corporate Research Agency membership in MRIA for 2012; nor did any individual associated with torontoinsights. com renew as an Individual Member for 2012; nor did any company related to torontoinsights.com renew as a Corporate member for 2012.

In accordance with MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures, MRIA’s Standards Portfolio Chair has communicated the decisions of the Complaint Panel and the Appeal Panel to torontoinsights.com and issued a written reprimand; this Notice of Member Suspension has been communicated to the MRIA Board of Directors; and this Notice of Member Suspension is hereby communicated to the membership, via publication in Vue.

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NOTICE OF MEMBER CENSURE In accordance with MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures, a Complaint Panel was convened to consider a complaint of professional misconduct against Don Mills, CMRP, FMRIA, a member of MRIA. After considering the submissions provided by the complainant and Mr. Mills, the Complaint Panel found that by: • criticizing the work of an MRIA member in a widely distributed newspaper; • making statements about an MRIA member’s research methodology that may not be accurate; and • publicly airing controversy between his firm and a direct competitor, Mr. Mills had unjustifiably disparaged the work of an MRIA Gold Seal Corporate Research Agency member, brought discredit to the marketing research industry/profession, and potentially undermined public confidence in the industry and the methods it uses.

The Complaint Panel found that Mr. Mills had violated Principle 5 of the Ten Core Principles of the General Rules of Conduct (which requires members to refrain from activities which unjustifiably demean, criticize or disparage others), and Principles 1 and 3 of the Statement of Professional Responsibilities contained in MRIA’s Code of Conduct and Good Practice (which prohibit researchers from acting in a manner that could bring discredit to the marketing research profession), and that these violations were more serious than a minor transgression of the Code.

As a consequence of its findings, the Complaint Panel has imposed a sanction of Censure upon Mr. Mills. In accordance with its Disciplinary Procedures, MRIA has issued a written reprimand to Mr. Mills; the Complaint Panel’s decision and the reasons for it have been communicated to the MRIA Board of Directors; and this Notice of Member Censure is hereby published.

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