vue Connecting with
Opera The Canadian Opera Company’s Journey into the Digital Age Bring Consumer Insights Closer to the Boardroom
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932
Interview with Manon Gauthier, CEO, Segal Centre for Performing Arts The Art of Competitive Intelligence Using Research to Generate Media Attention
the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association
J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 1
Trust Matters We believe that trust is earned, never assumed. At Logit, we are proud of the trust we have earned from our clients. We consistently deliver the highest quality work efficiently, professionally and of course, on time and on budget. This allows our clients to focus on their business with the research we provide.
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JULY/AUGUST 2011
vue VUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE MARKETING RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION TEN TIMES A YEAR
Cover: (L) Adam Froman, CEO, Delvinia (R) Alexander Neef, General Director, Canadian Opera Company This month's features: (L to R) Froman, Batchelor, Gagnon, Codogno
ADDRESS The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing
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THE CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY’S JOURNEY INTO THE DIGITAL AGE The Canadian Opera Company has adopted a customer-centric approach to the creation of a digital experience designed to showcase the opera’s richness, connect with clients, and drive online sales. by Adam Froman
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BRING CONSUMER INSIGHTS CLOSER TO THE BOARDROOM A successful business requires that its board of directors understand human behaviour and imaginatively promote consumer insights, yet boards all too often ignore market research. by Alex Batchelor
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INTERVIEW WITH MANON GAUTHIER, CEO, SEGAL CENTRE FOR PERFORMING ARTS A gifted communicator and visionary business leader talks about her work in transforming one of Montreal’s premier arts spaces and giving patrons what they wanted. by David Hamburg
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THE ART OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE The president of Customer Foresight Group shows how competitive intelligence is like visual art: it can be understood in terms of focal point, texture, perspective, scale and proportion. by Enrico Codogno USING RESEARCH TO GENERATE MEDIA ATTENTION Lessons from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants teach us how to generate media attention from research. by John Tabone
COMMENTARY
COLUMNISTS
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The Innovation Accelerator
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The Court of Public Opinion Standards
Editor’s Vue President’s Letter Message from the Executive Director
NOTICE OF MEMBER CENSURE In accordance with MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures, a Complaint Panel was convened to consider a complaint of professional misconduct against torontoinsights.com, a Corporate Member of MRIA. After completing its deliberations, the Complaint Panel found that torontoinsights.com had violated Provision 31(a) of MRIA’s Code of Conduct and Good Practice www.mria-arim.ca/STANDARDS/CODE2007.asp As a consequence of this finding and the determination that the Member’s actions were deliberate, the Complaint Panel has imposed upon torontoinsights.com a sanction of Censure. In accordance with MRIA’s Disciplinary Procedures, MRIA has issued a written reprimand to torontoinsights.com; 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.
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@hotspex.ca EDITOR-IN-CHIEF David Hamburg, Hamburg Consulting (514) 748-1827 david.hamburg@sympatico.ca MANAGING EDITOR Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA amgabriel@mria-arim.ca ASSOCIATE EDITORS Kevin Hare kevin.hare@rci.rogers.com Claire Bazley cbazley@indigo.ca COPY EDITOR Siegfried Betterman 2011 ADVERTISING RATES Frequent advertisers receive discounts. Details can be found by going to: www.mria-arim.ca/advertising/vue.asp Please email vue@mria-arim.ca to book your ad. The deadline for notice of advertising is the first of the previous month. All advertising material must be at the MRIA office on the 5th of the month. 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, 2011 © 2011. All rights reserved. Copyright rests with the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All requests for permission for reproduction must be submitted to MRIA at publications@mria-arim.ca. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO 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 Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932 ISSN 1488-7320
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Editor’s Vue David Hamburg
Don’t forget to don your best formal wear and opera glasses when you read this month’s highfalutin special issue of Vue on the arts. Anything else would be uncivilized. The scene opens with Adam Froman’s tour de force article on the Canadian Opera Company’s journey into the digital age. We learn how this venerated institution leveraged the digital experience to enhance communications with their patrons. After all, man cannot live by baritone alone. According to Manon Gauthier, CEO of Montreal’s acclaimed Segal Centre for Performing Arts, audiences are changing and have become active stakeholders in the artistic process. If that means culling their feedback on a work in progress, then so be it. Not only has market research captured centre stage, but the Segal Centre is a shining example of how it can even bring diverse communities together. Enrico Codogno, founder of Customer Foresight Group, has developed that idea one step further. Why not consider research, in this case, competitive intelligence, as art in its own right? This is an elegant concept that will challenge you to look at data and findings in an entirely different light. If you have any potential clients who are sitting on the fence with your latest proposal, have them read Alex Batchelor’s article on the importance of bringing market research closer to the boardroom. It just may help you get the green light. Rounding off this month’s star-studded features is John Tabone’s savvy article, “Using Research to Generate Media Attention,” which brings to the forefront another new dimension for the use of market research. Enough said. Summer is beckoning, and it’s to revel in its glory. Catch you in the next issue, when the fairest season will already be drawing to a close.
N’oubliez pas de revêtir vos meilleures tenues de soirée et de sortir vos lorgnettes pour lire l’auguste numéro spécial de Vue sur les arts ce mois-ci. Tout autre accoutrement ne serait pas convenable. La scène s’ouvre sur l’article tour de force d’Adam Froman décrivant le parcours de la Compagnie d’opéra canadienne vers l’ère numérique. Nous apprenons comment cette institution vénérable a utilisé l’expérience numérique comme effet de levier pour améliorer la communication avec son public. Après tout, on ne peut pas vivre que de barytons. Selon Manon Gauthier, PDG du réputé Centre Segal des arts de la scène, les publics se transforment et, dans la foulée, ils deviennent des intervenants actifs. Si cela signifie qu’il faut recueillir leur rétroaction sur un travail en cours, ainsi soit-il. La recherche marketing a non seulement saisi un rôle de premier plan, mais le Centre Segal est un brillant exemple de la façon dont elle peut rassembler des communautés diversifiées. Enrico Codogno, fondateur du Customer Foresight Group, pousse cette idée un peu plus loin. Pourquoi ne pas considérer la recherche, dans ce cas de la veille concurrentielle, comme un art en soi? Il s’agit d’un concept élégant qui nous met au défi de voir les données et les résultats sous une optique tout à fait différente. Si vous avez des clients éventuels assis entre deux chaises par rapport à votre récente proposition, faites-leur lire l’article d’Alex Batchelor sur l’importance de rapprocher la recherche marketing de la salle du conseil. Cela vous aidera peut-être à obtenir le feu vert. Pour conclure les reportages parsemés d’étoiles de ce mois- ci, l’article futé de John Tabone, « Using Research to Generate Media Attention », met au premier plan une autre nouvelle dimension de l’usage de la recherche marketing. Assez dit. L’été nous invite à nous délecter dans sa gloire. Je vous rattrape au prochain numéro, quand la plus belle des saisons tirera déjà vers sa fin.
David
David
David Hamburg, Market Research Consultant, Hamburg Consulting Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédacteur en chef, Vue Email: david.hamburg@sympatico.ca • (514) 748-1827 • david_hamburg
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CO M M E N TARY / COMMENTAIRE
Letter from the President Kimberlee Niziol Jonas
This month, I want to update you on our recent and upcoming initiatives in two areas of MRIA focus that are knit together in our strategic plan. One of our strategic goals since MRIA’s inception – and one that’s likely to remain of premier importance for some time to come – is advancement of the practice. We define that goal to mean facilitating the development and sharing of new and innovative approaches to marketing research and market intelligence, and fostering excellence in the management of research organizations and research functions. By definition, advancement of the practice is key to the ongoing professionalization of our industry. And in that connection, our recently completed 2011
The national conference in Kelowna contributed to the advancement of the practice, reaching out to our sister industry associations. MRIA national conference in Kelowna contributed immensely to the advancement of research industry practice, and of our profession. The conference delivered outstanding learning, networking, socializing and business development experiences for those who attended – truly an experience that will be talked about for years to come. But in addition to delivering value and creating a major participation and involvement opportunity for members, another important way that the conference contributed to advancement of the practice was by providing a platform for MRIA to reach out to our sister associations. Over the past six years, we have developed mutually beneficial, reciprocal relationships with numerous sister industry associations around the world, relationships that have contributed immensely to this strategic goal. We were honoured that
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Ce mois-ci, je veux vous offrir un compte rendu de nos initiatives récentes et futures dans deux domaines cibles de l’ARIM qui sont interdépendants dans notre plan stratégique. Un de nos buts stratégiques depuis le début de l’ARIM – et qui demeurera sans doute primordial pendant encore un certain temps – est l’avancement de la pratique. Ce but signifie que nous facilitons le développement et le partage de nouvelles approches innovatrices à la recherche et à l’intelligence commerciale, et que nous encourageons l’excellence dans la gestion des organismes de recherche et dans les fonctions de la recherche. Par définition, l’avancement de la pratique est essentiel au professionnalisme continu de notre industrie. Par rapport à ce but, la conférence nationale 2011 de l’ARIM qui a eu lieu récemment à Kelowna a contribué immensément à l’avancement de la pratique au sein de l’industrie de la recherche, et de notre profession. La conférence a offert des expériences extraordinaires d’apprentissage, de réseautage et de relations sociales et d’affaires à ceux et celles qui y ont assisté – une expérience dont on parlera sans doute pendant des années à venir. Mais en plus d’avoir fourni de la valeur et d’avoir créé une occasion importante de participation et d’implication pour les membres, la conférence a également contribué à l’avancement de la pratique en offrant à l’ARIM une plateforme pour établir des contacts avec nos associations sœurs. Au cours des six dernières années, nous avons développé des relations mutuelles, bénéfiques et réciproques avec de nombreuses associations sœurs de l’industrie partout dans le monde qui ont grandement contribué à ce but stratégique. Nous sommes honorés que des représentants de plusieurs associations sœurs se soient joints à nous à Kelowna dont : • Finn Raben, directeur général de l’ESOMAR, l’association européenne pour les études d'opinion et de marketing,
CO M M E N TARY / COMMENTAIRE
several sister association representatives were able to join us in Kelowna, namely • Finn Raben, director general of ESOMAR, the world association of marketing and opinion research • Don Marek, executive director of the Marketing Research Institute International (MRII) • Pamela Bracken, head of the University of Georgia’s delivery arm for MRII’s Principles of Marketing Research online certificate program • Patrick Glaser, director of Research Standards at the Marketing Research Association (MRA) in the U.S. In 2010, ESOMAR reached out to marketing research associations globally and encouraged a discussion of how we can increase cooperation in order to benefit all within the industry – whether by cooperating to establish and maintain high standards of ethics and practice, or simply by updating each other and providing a sounding board for new ideas. The underlying rationale is that, by working together, we can better promote the value and benefits of marketing research worldwide. Expanding MRIA’s presence with other associations and participating in international association meetings have produced a win-win, enabling us to learn from relevant comparators and share best practices. In a similar vein, a former MRIA strategic goal – which was moved, in 2008, into the realm of ongoing operations, but remains prominent and important – is good governance. In our strategic plan, we define this operating priority to mean conducting the affairs of the association in accordance with principles of good governance, with fiscal responsibility, and with support from a strong staff team.
• Don Marek, directeur exécutif du Marketing Research Institute International (MRII) • Pamela Bracken, chef de la section de prestation du programme en ligne du certificat sur les principes de recherche marketing du MRII à l’université de Georgia, • Patrick Glaser, directeur des normes de la recherche à la Marketing Research Association (MRA) aux États-Unis. En 2010, l’ESOMAR a établi des contacts avec les associations de recherche marketing partout dans le monde et a encouragé une discussion sur la façon dont nous pourrions augmenter la coopération afin que tous ceux au sein de l’industrie puissent en bénéficier – que ce soit en coopérant pour établir et maintenir des normes élevées d’éthique et de pratique, ou simplement en nous tenant réciproquement à jour et en offrant un lieu de rétroaction aux nouvelles idées. Le raisonnement sous-jacent est que nous pouvons, ensemble, promouvoir mondialement la valeur et les avantages de la recherche marketing. L’expansion de la présence de l’ARIM auprès d’autres associations et la participation à des réunions d’associations internationales a été bénéfique à tous points de vue et nous a aidés à apprendre des comparateurs pertinents et à partager les pratiques exemplaires. Dans un même ordre d’idée, un ancien but stratégique de l’ARIM – qui est passé en 2008 au domaine des opérations courantes tout en demeurant proéminent et important – est la bonne gouvernance. Dans notre plan stratégique, cette priorité opérationnelle signifie que l’association mène ses affaires selon des principes de bonne gouvernance, en étant responsable financièrement, et en s’appuyant sur une équipe d’employés solide. Par rapport à ce but, votre conseil d’administration national 2011–2012 s’est engagé à offrir un leadership vigoureux et à exercer une bonne gouvernance dans l’accomplissement de la vision et de la mission de l’association.
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And in this connection, your 2011–2012 national board of directors is committed to providing strong leadership and good governance in the fulfillment of the association’s vision and mission. As described by Mel Gill, author of Governing for Results: A Director’s Guide to Good Governance, governance is about “achieving desired results and achieving them in the right way.” Governance involves decisions that have far-reaching implications for the organization, and incorporates the values and vision of the organization when making those decisions. To be proactive, this fall MRIA’s board of directors and other volunteer leaders will participate in a special workshop on association governance best practices: the roles and responsibilities of volunteer directors. This workshop will increase our association leaders’ awareness and understanding of their key responsibilities, and it will provide them with guidelines, tools, knowledge and direction that will help them become more effective directors and volunteer leaders in today’s changing and challenging environment. As the governing body of our association, the MRIA national board is responsible for ensuring that the association maintains a strong strategic focus. In the months ahead, the board will be front and centre in that aspect of its mandate, as we go through the process of formulating a new strategic plan for 2012 to 2014. I look forward to updating you on our progress on this fundamentally important challenge, and will do so in future issues of Vue magazine.
Kimberlee Niziol Jonas Market Research Manager GlaxoSmithKline kimberlee.a.nizioljonas@gsk.com (905) 814-3500
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Comme l’a décrit Mel Gill, auteur de Governing for Results: A Director’s Guide to Good Governance, la gouvernance consiste à « atteindre les résultats désirés, de la bonne manière ». La gouvernance implique des décisions qui ont des conséquences à long terme sur une organisation et elle inscrit les valeurs et la vision de l’organisation dans le processus décisionnel. Afin d’être proactifs, le conseil d’administration de l’ARIM et d’autres leaders bénévoles participeront cet automne à un atelier spécial sur les pratiques exemplaires de gouvernance d’une association : les rôles et responsabilités des administrateurs bénévoles. L’atelier sensibilisera davantage les leaders de notre association à leurs principales responsabilités et les aidera à mieux les comprendre en leur offrant des lignes directrices, des outils, des connaissances et une orientation qui les aideront à devenir des administrateurs et bénévoles plus efficaces dans l’environnement actuel si changeant et rempli de défis. En tant qu’organe directeur de notre association, le conseil d’administration national de l’ARIM doit s’assurer que l’ARIM maintienne un solide objectif stratégique. Au cours des prochains mois, cet aspect de son mandat sera au premier plan des activités du conseil pendant que nous procéderons à l’élaboration d’un nouveau plan stratégique pour 2012 à 2014. J'aurai le plaisir dans les prochains numéros de vous tenir au courant de nos progrès dans l’approche à ce défi fondamentalement important.
Kimberlee Niziol Jonas Directrice de la recherche marketing GlaxoSmithKline kimberlee.a.nizioljonas@gsk.com (905) 814-3500
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CO M M E N TARY / COMMENTAIRE
Message from the Executive Director Brendan Wycks
When MRIA’s Legislative Focus Must Move beyond Parliament Hill
Quand la cible législative de l’ARIM vise au-delà de la Colline du Parlement
As highlighted in last month’s message, sometimes MRIA’s legislative and regulatory eyes and ears must turn inward and the association has to deal with matters that affect our status as a not-for-profit corporation and as an organization that is situated in Ontario and has employees there. This month, I want to tell you about our task in complying with recent Ontario legislation that impacts not just upon MRIA, but on any organization that operates in the province. Awareness of the new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), its reach, and the imminent compliance requirements is, at best, low throughout Canada’s most populous province, as the government has not done a good job of communication. January 1, 2012, is the deadline for Ontario organizations to comply with the first of five AODA standards – the Customer Service Standard – all five of which are slated to come into force, sequentially, by 2025. The Customer Service Standard applies to all organizations in Ontario, in both the public and private sectors, that (1) provide goods or services directly to the public or to other businesses and organizations, and (2) have more than one employee. The AODA uses the same definition of disability as is found in the Ontario Human Rights Code. While there is an onus on persons with disabilities to “self-identify,” the legislation requires organizations to create an environment in which such individuals will feel comfortable doing so. In essence, the AODA is intended to remove barriers that potentially keep persons with disabilities from fully participating in society. The Customer Service Standard requires that all of an organization’s employees and volunteers who deal with customers (clients; contractors; buyers; distributors; and, in
Comme je l’ai souligné dans mon message du mois dernier, les oreilles et les yeux législatifs et réglementaires de l’ARIM doivent parfois se tourner vers l’intérieur quand il faut que l’Association s’occupe de questions qui affectent son statut d’organisme à but non lucratif et d’organisation employeur située en Ontario. Ce mois-ci, je tiens à vous informer de la tâche qui nous incombe pour satisfaire aux dispositions de la récente loi ontarienne qui a un impact non seulement sur l’ARIM, mais sur toute organisation exploitée dans la province. La connaissance de la nouvelle Loi sur l'accessibilité pour les personnes handicapées de l’Ontario (LAPHO), de sa portée et des exigences imminentes de conformité est, au mieux, faible partout dans la province la plus populeuse du Canada, puisque le gouvernement n’a pas fait un bon travail de communication. Le 1er janvier 2012 est la date limite imposée aux organisations de l’Ontario pour se conformer à la première de cinq normes de la LAPHO – la Norme pour les services à la clientèle – conçues de manière à ce que leur mise en vigueur soit échelonnée d’ici 2025. La Norme pour les services à la clientèle s’applique à toutes les organisations en Ontario, des secteurs public et privé, qui (1) fournissent des biens ou des services directement au public ou à d’autres organisations en Ontario et qui (2) emploient au moins une personne. La LAPHO applique la même définition de « handicapé » que celle du Code des droits de la personne de l’Ontario. Bien qu’il incombe aux personnes handicapées de « s’autoidentifier », la loi exige que les organisations créent un environnement où ces personnes se sentiront à l’aise de le faire. En fait, la LAPHO vise à éliminer les obstacles qui pourraient empêcher une personne handicapée de participer pleinement à la société. La Norme pour les services à la clientèle exige que tous les employés et bénévoles d’une organisation qui font affaire avec des clients (clients, fournisseurs, acheteurs, distributeurs et, dans le cas d’une association, ses membres, et pas seulement le public externe) doivent être formés de manière à communiquer
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the case of an association, its members, and not just the external public) must be trained to communicate effectively with persons with disabilities. And organizations with twenty or more employees must have in place written policies, procedures and practices for dealing with persons with disabilities, covering such things as training, reporting to the government, support persons, assistive devices, service animals, disruption of services, communication, and a feedback process. Among Canada’s provinces, Ontario is leading the way in implementing accessibility legislation. However, several U.S. states have had accessibility laws in place for over twenty years, and Manitoba is on the verge of following Ontario’s lead. The AODA is the law in Ontario, and organizations will be monitored and subject to financial penalties if they are found to be in non-compliance with the province’s Customer Service Standard. Penalties are as steep as $50,000 per day for organizations in the case of an offence under the Act. MRIA is currently negotiating with diversity training organizations that have significant AODA expertise, with a view to providing webinar and/or face-to-face education opportunities to help our members quickly get up to speed on the AODA and achieve compliance with the Customer Service Standard by January 1 of next year. We’ll soon be communicating directly – with corporate representatives, principals, and human resources directors of member companies – on the subject of this hothouse learning opportunity. In the meantime, if you operate in Ontario, have more than one employee, and are not already well along the AODA compliance path, start your orientation today by visiting the Ministry of Community and Social Services website at www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility
Brendan Wycks, BA, MBA, CAE Executive Director Marketing Research and Intelligence Association bwycks@mria-arim.ca (905) 602-6854 ext. 8724
efficacement avec les personnes handicapées. Les organisations de vingt employés et plus doivent avoir des politiques, procédures et pratiques écrites pour faire affaire avec les personnes handicapées, couvrant des questions telles que la formation, les rapports au gouvernement, les personnes de soutien, les appareils et accessoires fonctionnels, les animaux d’assistance, la communication et le processus de rétroaction. Au sein des provinces canadiennes, l’Ontario est un chef de file dans la mise en vigueur des lois sur l’accessibilité. Cependant, plusieurs États américains ont mis en vigueur des lois sur l’accessibilité il y a plus de vingt ans, et le Manitoba est sur le point de suivre l’initiative de l’Ontario. La LAPHO a force de loi en Ontario et les organisations seront surveillées et assujetties à des pénalités financières si on trouve qu’elles ne se conforment pas à la Norme pour les services à la clientèle de la province. Les pénalités peuvent être aussi élevées que 50 000 $ par jour pour une organisation qui contrevient à la Loi. L’ARIM négocie actuellement avec des organisations de formation en matière de diversité possédant une grande expertise dans les domaines de la LAPHO afin d’offrir un webinaire et/ou des occasions de formation en personne pour aider nos membres à se familiariser rapidement avec la LAPHO et à se conformer à la Norme pour les services à la clientèle d’ici le 1er janvier prochain. Nous communiquerons directement sous peu – avec les représentants corporatifs, les dirigeants, et les directeurs des ressources humaines des sociétés membres – au sujet de ces possibilités de formation cruciale. Entre-temps, si vous êtes une entreprise en Ontario et avez au moins un employé, et si vous n’êtes pas déjà bien engagé sur la voie de la conformité à la LAPHO, commencez votre orientation dès aujourd’hui en visitant le site du ministère des Services sociaux et communautaires à www.mcss.gov.on.ca/fr/mcss/ programs/accessibility/index.aspx.
Brendan Wycks, BA, MBA, CAE Directeur général L’ Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing bwycks@mria-arim.ca (905) 602-6854 poste 8724 vue July/August 2011
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The Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, 2009, directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by Jonathan Darlington. Photo: Michael Cooper
The Canadian Opera Company’s Journey into the Digital Age Through the use of data and analytics, the Canadian Opera Company has adopted a customer-centric approach toward the creation of a digital experience that was designed to showcase the richness of the opera, to connect with its client base, and to drive online sales for performances. Adam Froman 12
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S P EC IAL F E AT U R E
Digital technologies are constantly changing. So, too, are the ways in which consumers are communicating, researching, and transacting with products, brands and organizations. As researchers and marketers, we need to embrace rather than fear this reality. Technology is ubiquitous in all of our lives, and we have a wonderful opportunity to evolve and adapt our approach to digital media. The ability to collect and access data is greater today than ever before, and the opportunities for using such data to inform insights that maximize the potential of new technologies, while creating meaningful connections with consumers, are unlimited. Yet researchers, marketers, and particularly CEOs often struggle with the decision to invest in digital technologies, and question whether such an investment can positively impact their business. But, rather than rushing headfirst into the digital realm, organizations first need to pause and consider how they can apply their business, marketing and research knowledge to help them apply digital technologies. Acquiring an understanding of the digital habits and behaviours of consumers is the first step. It results in the creation of well-informed strategies and the development of relevant and more engaging digital experiences, which meet clients’ needs and help achieve business goals. Failing to embrace a data-informed, consumer-centric approach to designing a digital strategy is a missed opportunity. By overcoming the fear of change and embracing digital technologies from a consumer point of view, researchers and marketers will reap huge rewards. This is something the Canadian Opera Company understands. The COC is an arts organization. It is dedicated to being one of the greatest opera companies in the world. It is committed to creating and delivering a live experience of the highest quality, to reflect the passion and vitality of operatic theatre. But that’s not all. Even though the company’s raison d’être is to present world-class opera, the COC recognizes the strategic importance of creating experiences that are relevant to its audience. As an arts organization reliant on government funding and private donors to meet its budget needs, the COC cannot afford to waste scarce resources implementing solutions that don’t achieve the company’s organizational objectives. When I was first introduced to the COC three years ago, what initially struck me about the organization were the immediate willingness to embrace a strategy involving digital technologies, the desire to place its customers at the centre of this strategy, and business acumen and discipline that most for-profit organizations would aspire to having. At Delvinia, a digital strategy and customer experience design firm, we believe that digital platforms can create deeper connections between companies and consumers by
focusing on relevancy, utility and ongoing engagement. We also believe that great experiences are built in collaboration with the people who use them, and we continually evolve to meet their changing needs. The COC embraced our philosophy of digital strategy and customer experience design, and allowed us to take the organization on a journey into the new digital age. Whether you are an opera lover or not, the COC’s journey illustrates the organization’s open-mindedness, its passion for continuous development and growth, and its uncompromising drive for excellence. The COC is truly a model for any organization that wants to embrace digital technologies to achieve its business objectives. Sharing the COC’s journey will hopefully provide you with a fresh, new perspective about the role that data, market research, and insight play in developing and implementing a customercentric digital strategy. Act I: The Introduction
In 2006, the Canadian Opera Company embarked on a new chapter in its then 57-year history. The COC was experiencing a period of incredible transformation and growth. In June, the company moved into a new home, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts; and in September, the new opera house was inaugurated with the premiere of Richard Wagner’s complete Ring cycle. Subscriptions were at an all-time high, and performances were 99 per cent sold out. It was an overwhelming success story for the COC and the arts community in Canada. Delvinia’s relationship with the COC began that fall, when we were asked to provide e-marketing support for the company’s upcoming Operanation fundraiser. The COC had a huge appetite to do more online, but with funding primarily allocated toward performances and the new theatre, resources for digital were scarce. The COC’s website, the organization’s main digital touchpoint, was dated and not being used to its full potential. It was time for the COC to design a new and fresh digital experience – one that matched the company’s standards of excellence and the level of excitement surrounding the new venue. Act II: Seeking Insight
In August 2007, I was elected to the Canadian Opera Company’s board of directors, and Delvinia began working with the COC as the company’s digital marketing sponsor. From the outset, the COC – under the leadership of newly hired general director Alexander Neef, executive director Rob Lamb, and director of marketing Jeremy Elbourne – recognized the opportunity to create an interactive digital experience that was seamlessly integrated with the COC brand and would inspire people to engage with opera. We embarked on the journey with the COC with three goals in vue July/August 2011
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The Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Flying Dutchman, 2010, conducted by Johannes Debus and directed by Christopher Alden. Photo: Michael Cooper
mind: to optimize the digital customer experience, to empower opera-goers to share their passion for opera, and to build relationships and brand advocacy among the most committed subscribers and donors. But, rather than rushing headfirst into the creation of a new website, the COC had the foresight, open-mindedness and patience to step back while we applied our insight process and examined the company’s customer base. To meet its business objectives, the COC first needed to gain a better understanding of the digital habits and behaviours of its audience. Our approach was twofold: first, to understand the digital habits and behaviours of the COC’s best customers and, from there, to create a digital experience that not only engages those customers but fits into the opera company’s overall business objectives. Like many transactionally oriented organizations, the COC had extensive data about its customers, but very little information about their digital behaviours. What it did have was a file that included 41,000 transactional records for customers who had purchased tickets through the website, at the box office, or by phone. Working with that file – and the fact that only 7,600 of those transactions had been conducted online – we assumed that the majority of opera-goers were well over 65 and not particularly digitally savvy. But that wasn’t the case at all. 14
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To begin the analysis, our team overlaid the postal codes from the COC’s data onto our insight engine – a database of Canadian digital behaviours that was built from a 2006 survey of more than 25,000 members of Delvinia’s AskingCanadians™ online research panel. Utilizing the prediction methodology developed by Generation 5 Mathematical Technologies, we can project data across all Canadian postal codes. We then use SAS Business Analytics data mining software to analyse the findings, enabling us to identify the digital behaviours of a customer file – faster, more efficiently, and more cost-effectively than ever before. (Not only do these data allow our insight team to gain an understanding of digital habits and behaviours – in days as opposed to weeks or months – but we are able to do it at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.) When we performed our analysis of the COC’s customer postal codes, we discovered that, relative to the average Canadian, the COC’s customers had faster Internet connectivity and were online more frequently. More than 42 per cent of Canadian Opera Company customers had a cable high-speed Internet connection – 7 per cent more than the Canadian average. The COC’s customers were connected! And when we compared the 20 per cent of its customers who were transacting online with the 80 per cent who weren’t, there was virtually no difference between their digital behaviours. Another key insight.
S P EC IAL F E AT U R E
Armed with this analysis, we proposed an initial strategy that was focused on migrating more communications and transactions online, thereby providing the company with more control over its customer interactions. This initiative would also enable the COC to significantly reduce the future costs to communications and sales. The next step in the process was conducted through the use of Delvinia’s Digital MOSAIC – a segmentation model created in partnership with Generation 5 by combining and modelling our proprietary digital behaviours with data from the Super Census, Canadian Media Habits, and a variety of other data sets. Delvinia’s Digital MOSAIC identifies twenty segments or persona groups that exist within the Canadian population. The segments are differentiated based upon individuals’ social usage of technology versus their ownership of technology. This segmentation model helps us understand the composition of a customer base – whether customers are highly social users of technology, digitally inclined but timestarved, conservative, or technological laggards. The data can be used to create highly detailed profiles, or personas, describing demographics, attitudes toward technology, product ownership and buying behaviours, lifestyle choices and preferences, and other variables of interest. These descriptions, or personas, inform our “experience design” specialists with much of what they need to begin the experience design process. Once again, this analysis occurs in days rather than weeks or months, allowing us to meet our clients’ timelines. When we combined the Digital MOSAIC with the COC’s customer postal codes, we determined which digital segments were most prevalent within the customer base and how best to communicate with them. We discovered that the company’s customers were distributed differently than the Canadian average for reasons that make sense (access, affluence). And, not surprisingly, Canadian Opera Company customers over-indexed in affluent urban Ontario segments with higher disposable incomes. We also discovered that more than 30 per cent of COC customers fell into the younger, tech-savvy segments known as “City Clickers” and “Single Metrotechs.” In particular, there were two segments that captured both the highly social segment (“City Clickers”) and those that were time starved (“Loaded and Overloaded”). These two segments accounted for almost 40 per cent of the COC’s customers. By designing for these two segments, we would capture the needs of the seven segments that made up 85 per cent of the company’s customer base. This understanding allowed the COC to tailor its digital strategy and experience design, ensuring their relevance for the target audience. In addition to using profiling data, we also conducted some additional qualitative and quantitative primary
research through a combination of in-person interviews and an online survey of COC customers. Doing so allowed us to validate our strategy and answer some of the more dynamic questions that our profiling data could not provide. Act III: The Migration Begins
In January 2009, the COC launched its newly redesigned website. The new home page provided an improved user experience, and the website architecture was designed to be easily navigated from anywhere within the site. To address the desires of the more socially inclined visitor, the site included a series of highly engaging elements that offered a rich user experience. Features included a timeline chronicling the Canadian Opera Company’s history, a photo illustration highlighting the company’s production of Madame Butterfly, a redesigned email newsletter, and ecards featuring magnificent imagery from the COC’s performances. An inexpensive, yet critical component of the website redesign was the integration of Google Analytics into every page on the site, thereby providing a means to continually measure the website’s performance. By the end of 2009, online transactions as a proportion of overall transactions grew to 29 per cent, from 20 per cent in 2008 – a 45 per cent increase. Single ticket sales grew from 38 per cent of overall transactions in 2008 to 47 per cent in 2009; and the revenues from online ticket sales reached 43 per cent of total dollar sales of single tickets. In December 2009, the COC created its first-ever digital brochure, to coincide with the January 2010 launch of an email-only subscription renewal for the 2010–2011 season. The introduction of the online renewal process resulted in a 20 per cent increase in online subscription renewals over 2009 for both the percentage of online transactions and the dollar value. When we ran the postal codes of the customers who renewed their subscriptions online in 2010 against our Delvinia Digital MOSAIC, not only did the results validate our strategy in designing for the Loaded and Overloaded as well as the City Clicker segments but, in fact, the City Clickers had now become the number one segment that was transacting with the Canadian Opera Company. Armed with the promising results from the redesigned website and the fact that the migration strategy was well on its way, the COC was ready for the next stage: creating an optimized digital customer experience for its audience. Act IV: The Journey Continues
The COC kicked off 2011 by unveiling a new brand and logo design. Since the website had to be updated to accommodate the new logo, and because we had two years vue July/August 2011
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The Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Magic Flute, 2011, conducted by Johannes Debus and directed by Diane Paulus. Photo: Michael Cooper
of data on hand, the COC decided that it was a great opportunity to give its site a refresh. While the architecture of the website remained intact from an experience perspective, we had a great deal of insight about how visitors were using the site, including what they liked and what they didn’t like. The website refresh provided the Canadian Opera Company with the opportunity to refine and enhance the digital experience that had been created two years prior. On March 30, the COC unveiled a website refresh that updated the user experience based upon the learnings of the past two years. While the entire website refresh occurred within a three-month time period (from planning to launch), the COC was still able to employ data-informed design enhancements, demonstrating that its website was not a static site, but an evolving digital experience that continues to change and evolve along with the changing habits and behaviours of its audience.
first, but it has become a true innovator in applying digital technologies in the arts. The Canadian Opera Company now has the data tools and insight capabilities to continue to understand and evolve with its audience. It has adopted a strategic perspective and recognized the value of data-informed insights, not only to migrate customer transactions online, but to further engage key customers as advocates. Many of our clients, for obvious reasons, prefer that we don’t publicize their digital strategies, so I would like to acknowledge and thank the COC for its willingness to let us tell its story. The Canadian Opera Company embraced our strategy and approach, and allowed us to take the company on this journey of insight, experience and inspiration. Digital is as important to the Canadian Opera Company as the quality of the productions and the operatic theatre it performs.
Act V: The Finale
Adam Froman, an award-winning entrepreneur and pioneer in the interactive industry in Canada, is the founder and CEO of Delvinia and AskingCanadians™. He and his team deliver effective solutions to clients in the financial, government, media, education and cultural sectors. Adam is a director of MRIA’s Research Agency Council and can be reached at afroman@delvinia.com
The COC strives for excellence in all that it does, so it is no surprise that the company had high expectations in creating a digital experience. Under the leadership of management, a committed board of directors, and forward-thinking and open-minded staff, not only has it embraced the value of investing in digital experiences that put its customers’ needs 16
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Bring Consumer Insights Closer to the Boardroom Customer demand drives profitable growth, and so a successful business requires that its board of directors understand human behaviour and imaginatively promote consumer insights. Yet boards all too often ignore the market research that is available to them.
Alex Batchelor
According to my wife and children, I have become something of a bore on many topics. One of them, undoubtedly, is about company boards and consumer insights, the subject of this article. The fundamental task of growing a business is actually relatively simple, and I am indebted to a great book by Phil Stern and his co-author, the late Peter Doyle of Warwick Business School, for helping me realize that fact. Their book, Marketing Management and Strategy (Prentice Hall, 1994), illustrates that what is needed to grow revenue is acquiring more customers, or for your existing customers to use more of your products, or for potential new customers to find completely new uses for your products. Profitability requires managing both price and productivity. The book goes on to articulate that success requires you to really understand your customers and their behaviour – so that you can better serve them. After a twenty-year career – in which I have worked in advertising, in brand consultancy, and as a marketing director for Unilever, Orange, Royal Mail and TomTom – it is disappointing to report that I have met only one
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CEO who spontaneously asked me about market research. I wasn’t that convinced that the marketing directors with whom I was working as a consultant were bothered about market research either. This state of affairs is even more surprising when you consider how much money is being spent on market research: globally, the market research industry was worth $32.5 billion in 2008, and it has been growing steadily for the past twenty years. Why is there such lack of interest in market research? The easiest place to start is board reporting. As a result of six years doing brand valuations at Interbrand, I have seen the board papers and the financial plans of a lot of companies; I have also sat on a few boards. All the board packs I have seen included historical profit and loss and, in most cases, a balance sheet and cash flow. All included some projections and an evaluation of performance on key financial metrics versus budget and the previous period. The good ones also included a lot of operational data – about factory efficiency, sales channel effectiveness, or whatever else was appropriate for the industry. Very few, however, included any real metrics on customers and their behaviour that weren’t reduced to the financial metrics already covered. Even fewer contained any of the market research. I remember one finance director saying, “Everything we need to know about our customers is covered in the revenue line – they are either buying or they aren’t.” Insights into Behaviour
In every company I have worked for, I have agitated for the inclusion of basic customer information: how many customers, buying how often, in what quantities? Longterm trends on these metrics, using twelve-month moving annual totals, can give the lie to many projections and plans, and are very useful for boards. Wherever possible, you want to include operational data that give insights into customer behaviour – how many calls to the call centre, how many complaints, what the complaints were about. However, the monthly cycle of most board meetings can be a problem, and it’s important to choose metrics carefully. Some tracking data are slower to change than other customer metrics. Choose one that is too volatile and people stop trusting it. Choose one that is too stable and it has no function as a predictive tool. A question that particularly interests me is just what it is that consumers can usefully tell us. The “wisdom of crowds” work is showing us that we are better at judging the behaviour of others than we are at giving truthful answers about our own motives. Sometimes we don’t know why we do things; sometimes we simply dissemble and give socially acceptable answers.
I am sure that shareholders at Marks & Spencer or British Airways would have been better served by metrics assessing whether people thought these companies were getting better or worse than by many traditional metrics looking at more usual measures of awareness and consideration. I am also sure research would have made many of the issues for Royal Mail a lot clearer if it had been able to distinguish between the views of those who pay for most of the services (large and small companies) and those who receive the mail but do not directly pay for it (all of us). Many of the advances in research in the past twenty years seem to have come from behavioural economics rather than market research. Like many other people, I have enjoyed reading Freakonomics, as well as The Wisdom of Crowds, and works by Malcolm Gladwell and others. It seems that understanding customers and their behaviour is enhanced more by these works than by conventional syndicated and tracking research studies. Sometimes, you have to be creative about how you present the data. The story of how the Dove brand–agency team sold in the Campaign for Real Beauty is a classic one of taking research to the boardroom in an imaginative way. The team members knew from their extensive research that young girls feel huge pressure to be beautiful. They also knew the Unilever board making the go, no go decision was made up entirely of men of a certain age. So the team put together a film of interviews with the daughters, and in some cases granddaughters, of the board members talking about the pressures they felt, as well as their joy at what Dove was planning with the Campaign for Real Beauty. When the board saw the film, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The rest is history. I do not see how you can claim to run a successful business – with sustainable, customer-led demand driving profitable growth – without using market research. Although there is an onus on market researchers to make their data more accessible and relevant, the key responsibility lies with marketing directors to more imaginatively promote consumer insights to the decisionmakers on the board. There is also a need for board directors to make sure that they really understand the human behaviour that underpins the profitability of the companies for which they are responsible. Alex Batchelor, is the COO of BrainJuicer. He was vicepresident, Global Brand, at Orange; marketing director at Royal Mail; and chief marketing officer at TomTom. Alex is the former chair of the Marketing Society and has been a member of its management board since 2003. Outside work, his main interests are rugby, golf, and acting as a figure of fun to his wife and four children. vue July/August 2011
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Interview with Manon Gauthier, CEO of the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, in Montreal Manon Gauthier talks about her work in transforming Montreal’s Segal Centre into a meeting place for all performing arts. She tells us how community-wide market research revealed what people wanted: a place that offered music, theatre, cinema and dance.
David Hamburg
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Manon Gauthier, please tell us your story and how it led you to a career in the performing arts.
For many years, I worked for a talent agency that represented artists in many fields. We did everything: representation, promotion, and the marketing of our clients. I did this in conjunction with many events, such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs, and many others in Quebec, in the rest of Canada, and abroad. But at one point, I felt that I was missing some business experience on which to build and lead a cultural institution. I was later recruited to join Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s leading global public relations firms, which had offices across Canada but not in Montreal. They wanted to break the traditional pattern, where leading accounts were managed out of Toronto. I later did the same thing with another agency, Cohn & Wolfe, in Montreal. This gave me a strong understanding of the importance of networking and the power of collaboration, particularly from a marketing perspective. Now tell us about the evolution of the Segal Centre and your role in its success.
A couple of years ago, I met Alvin Segal, one of our community’s leading philanthropists and businessmen, and he approached me to take an arts centre that had been strongly rooted in the community for over forty years – it was formerly called the Saidye Bronfman Centre. Mr. Segal wanted me to help grow the centre by applying a stronger business model. Arts organizations were traditionally run by artists, who are essential in developing an artistic vision, but a strong business model is needed to sustain an organization’s viability. His dream rapidly became mine. This was a challenge, because the centre had traditionally been both an English and a Yiddish theatre. The Saidye Bronfman was known as a strong theatre centre, but people did not know, at the time, that we were transforming it by opening the doors to more cultural partners across Quebec and the rest of Canada. In the past, the centre was basically sustained through philanthropy; but for an arts organization to be sustainable, you need a balance among arts, business and philanthropy. The dream was to broaden its scope by showing what different communities can do by coming together. When I talk about communities, I mean the people who have been coming here for over forty years. We basically asked them what they wanted. Don’t try to sell people a product that they don’t want. We first studied what had been working and what they wanted in terms of the arts. We had the potential to develop a more inclusive model of the performing arts. The centre had previously built its reputation on English theatre,
and very gradually started offering other programs like music, and then we built a cinema base. Our first hurdle was to see whether our patrons would gradually embrace this challenge. We asked them what other programs they wanted to see. Consequently, we conducted a community-wide market research program to ensure that our investment would meet their expectations. We found that while people loved the English theatre, music was becoming increasingly important in establishing a broader audience, one which was aging. We needed to encourage an intergenerational dialogue. Music does this, so we developed this program, first with a jazz series. Then we learned, through speaking to our audience, that they had a liking for chamber music. We then brought in a resident chamber music ensemble. Montreal is one of Canada’s most diversified cultural neighbourhoods, something we viewed as an opportunity. We decided to build on this. We found that our centre was a very strong cultural destination in Montreal. We wanted to be a centre that creates, produces, educates and presents the arts in all shapes and forms. We studied how we could become a meeting place for all performing arts. This was to become our claim to fame. We found that our community wanted music, theatre, cinema and dance, which is what we always had the potential to deliver, and so we transformed the centre’s offerings accordingly. There’s an old marketing adage that says you should develop your product to suit your audience. In our case, the audience was diverse, so we developed a diversified program around our audience, within defined parameters. We wanted to create dialogues among the audiences, something we were able to do because our venues are organized around our lobbies. We actually defined our offer through our studio, where we could directly engage our audience. What exactly do you mean when you say you spoke to the community?
There is a very strong interactive component here with everything that we do. We engage audiences in talk-backs and through surveys. But how did you figure out what other audiences wanted, especially those who were unfamiliar with your centre?
We asked those communities what they wanted, but we also created awareness. We wanted to know what people knew about the centre, and it turned out to be theatre. We also did focus groups and community-wide surveys. After we compiled the information, we were able to draw conclusions. It was a long process that lasted more than three years. vue July/August 2011
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Change doesn’t come easily. We knew that our organization was a jewel; the question was how to make it work for a diverse community. This is why we always refer to our endeavour as a prime example of collaboration. Our centre is a cultural legacy for all of Montreal. In fact, there was no other full performing arts centre like ours in Montreal at the time we were founded. We redefined our organization through this market research. Next, we consulted with other cultural organizations in Montreal. Since we were firstly a theatre, we looked at the Centaur Theatre for collaboration. We asked ourselves whether we have to compete with them or, instead, offer a complementary program. Quebec is too small to sustain a competitive environment.
became the official residence for contemporary dance in Montreal. Before the artists perform in Place des Arts, we give them a roof, a creative platform, where we have several renowned choreographers. In order to engage our audience, we decided to introduce them to a pre-program, a work in progress, where the audience would be invited to comment on it. So the audience becomes part of the creative process. For example, just last week we held one of these sessions before a live audience and, based on the comments of the first night, a program for the second night was developed. Furthermore, our choreographer shared with the audience on the second night how the program was changed based on the first night’s audience.
We wanted to walk the talk. We reached out to emerging French theatre companies and offered them our studio so that we could develop new audiences. Then, we saw that we had the potential to become a full cultural performing centre. There is Place des Arts, but it is on a much larger scale. We set out to define a unique profile for the Segal Centre. Of course, we are still first and foremost an English theatre: that is our pillar. But answering to our diverse community, we then decided to produce some French theatre using our own studio lab. We wanted to walk the talk. We reached out to emerging French theatre companies and offered them our studio so that we could reach out and develop new audiences. We also increased our music series. Our jazz series was tremendously successful; not only did it appeal to our theatre audience, but it attracted people who had never visited our centre before. Then we started seeing the full picture. We went on to produce a chamber music series, and then our message really picked up traction. Our next move was to develop new artists, so we partnered with the CBC, and with Roots Montreal, which had existed for years but needed a home. Consequently, Roots Montreal came here. We became a platform for young local talent, and this allowed us once again to give the audience an educational experience in the performing arts. We gave them the chance to experience, in an intimate environment, a live taping that would subsequently be broadcast coast to coast. Moving on, we wanted to develop dance, so we partnered with Dance Dance. We understood that we can’t be Place des Arts, so we asked ourselves what was missing in Montreal, what we could do to introduce our audiences to dance. So we 22
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Audiences used to be passive but, with the proliferation of the web, that has changed. Now, there is an interactive component to an audience. We are engaging audiences in a totally different way. They are becoming more demanding, more difficult to please. You have to empower them and make them feel that they are part of the product. We are almost at the point where the audience becomes a part of the production. So in addition to redefining the Segal Centre to embrace diverse communities, you also had to react to the impact of changing technologies on audiences. Seems like quite a task.
That it was, but the payoff has been significant, and the end result is that the Segal Centre is thriving. Indeed, and a model for other performing arts centres to emulate. Thank you very much for your time, Manon Gauthier; it’s certainly been an education in the performing arts for me.
Manon Gauthier is CEO of the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. A gifted communicator and visionary business leader, her career spans twenty years of executive experience in communications and public affairs in the fields of arts, business, community relations, education, environment, health care, issues management, and not-for-profit organizations. She can be reached at mgauthier@segalcentre.org and at (514) 739-2301 ext. 8311.
F E AT U R E
The Art of Competitive Intelligence
Competitive intelligence, like visual art, can be understood in terms of focal point, texture, perspective, scale and proportion. As a discipline, it often requires intellectual courage, but the results can provide invaluable foreknowledge of changing market demands.
Enrico Codogno
In keeping with the theme of this edition of Vue, I have decided to present competitive intelligence as art. This discussion will look at various elements of art and apply them to CI. The elements that will be discussed are focal point, texture, perspective, scale and proportion. Focal Point
The focal point in art is the place to which the viewer’s eyes are drawn. In competitive intelligence, the focal point is the key area (or areas) upon which most of the research effort is directed. Very often in CI, the focus is on the marketing and selling of products and services: What are the competitors charging for their products and services? How are they bundling products with services like technical support, warranties, terms and conditions?
A painting may have a number of focal points or focal areas. The eye is drawn to one area and then moves around the painting to other areas that draw its attention. In competitive intelligence, the focus of the research should be drawn to other areas of the business process, such as target markets (domestic and foreign), suppliers, strategic partnerships, distribution, employee training and retention, research and development, disruptive technologies, impact of new legislation, hiring and firing of key personnel, and finances. Understanding of these and other key factors helps the CI professional to see the texture of the competitive environment. Texture
In art, texture is what a surface feels like, or the representation of a tactile sense. vue July/August 2011
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F E AT U R E
In competitive intelligence, experience of texture is the awareness and understanding of the constantly changing nature of the competitive environment. What is important is to avoid being blindsided by unexpected changes in competitor capabilities and weak points in your own company. Many companies develop images or myths about themselves. They tell the world (their customers, their competitors, and their employees) that they are best at what they do, that they are the best employers, that they have the right strategy to succeed, that they are always prepared to meet all challenges, and so on. (Anyone remember Eaton’s, Pan American Airways, Countrywide Financial, Lehman Brothers?) The objective of competitive intelligence is to break down the images, to disprove the myths, and to point out the potential for growth as well as the vulnerabilities of the players in an industry. If a competitor decides to enter a market that no other company in your industry has entered, should your company do the same? Or would it be a fool’s errand? What are the likely costs to entering that market? Will it be profitable for your company? What is the likelihood that the competitor will be successful – and why, or why not? What if the competitor is successful? Can you replicate that success or improve upon it? If a new technology or business practice used in another industry or business sector is successful, can it be transferred to your industry and be a game changer? What will be the costs and risks of adopting this technology or business practice? Are your competitors thinking of adopting it? Perspective
Perspective is point of view. In art, it can be aerial, atmospheric, one-point, or two-point. In competitive intelligence, perspective can be seen as bias – in reference to the sources of information a CI professional uses during a research project. Internal sources of information include salespeople, customer service representatives, the legal department, the human resources department, finance, purchasing, corporate librarians, corporate travel, operations, investor relations, media relations, information technology, market research reports, strategic partners, suppliers, distributors, product/account managers, and senior executives. External sources of information include senior executive biographies, financial statements, patents, visits to competitors’ locations (including mystery shopping), third-party market research reports, journalists, industry experts, lobbyists, senior management, advertisement/PR firms, competitors’ suppliers and distributors, executive search firms, frontline personnel, and government. 24
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Keep in mind that each source of information has its own bias but can also come up with unexpected information. The view of salespeople, for example, is skewed insofar as salespeople want to give the clients what they ask for (so they may claim that the company is lagging behind the competition, even though this may not be true). However, they also come across competitors’ salespeople and, in casual conversations, may find out new information about the competition – for example, that a certain company is on a hiring binge to get new salespeople because (a) it wants to drive out competitors in a specific geographical location by enhancing its presence, or (b) it is losing or firing salespeople. In short, theirs is a ground-level, near-horizon view of the competitive environment. On the other hand, these salespeople are often the individuals most impacted by changes in the competitive market place. They are less likely to believe the myths the company has created for itself. In this regard, they have a sharp understanding of how the client is impacted by management decisions. The perspective of those in management positions is that of an aerial point of view, with a more distant horizon. Their interest is in developing the products and services needed to compete in the changing market. For them, strategic partnerships, suppliers, distribution, and R&D are the main focus. Sometimes, however, they do not have an understanding of how their decisions impact the customer. CI research takes these different, often competing, views into account. Scale and Proportion
In art, scale is the size or mass of the portrayal in relation to the object portrayed, and proportion is the size relation among portrayed objects. Sometimes, an artist will represent objects in disproportion to achieve a desired effect. In competitive intelligence, scale and proportion can be used to state whether the research has tactical or strategic objectives. Tactical CI deals with short-term issues and objectives. It is focused on the here-and-now, on what competitors are doing in the present. The focus is on the gathering of information on such things as pricing and bundling, number of sales reps or locations, target markets, and strategic partnerships. This type of CI research concentrates on reacting to competitor actions on a short-term basis. On the following page is a table illustrating tactical competitive intelligence that compares competitors according to product and service bundles, capabilities, and pricing. Strategic competitive intelligence deals with long-term, existential issues. It can be reactive if the focus is on developing foreknowledge of a competitor’s long-term strategy and putting in place resources to counteract that strategy.
F E AT U R E
Table: Tactical Competitive Intelligence Comparing Server Co-location Providers according to Products and Service Bundles, Capabilities, and Pricing
Products/Services
Telco 1
Telco 2
Telco 3
Geographic Coverage
west & central
national, with 17 co-location sites in major Canadian cities
nationwide, with data centres in Toronto (2) and Vancouver
Term: 1-year MRRC
yes
half locked cabinet for $367
1-year terms
Term: 2-year MRRC
yes
half locked cabinet for $348
Term: 5-year MRRC
no
half locked cabinet for $257
Term: Other
yes, 3 years
none
Setup Fees
$999 range: $995 (for half and full rack), $1,000 (for an 8’ x 8’ cage), $2,000 (for an 8’ x 12’ cage), $3,000 (for an 8’ x 16’ cage)
Half Cabinet Space: 24" (w) x 36" (d) x 38" (h) $1,150/month, $1,035/month and $920/month (for 1-, 2- and Connectivity: One 10Base-T 3-year contracts, respectively) Ethernet port Power: One redundant AC power circuit with 12 outlets
two 15-amp circuits
Connectivity: One 10Base-T Ethernet port
refer to details in co-location sheet
Full Cabinet Space: 24" (w) x 36" (d) x 77" (h)
Bandwidth Option 1: Top bandwidth used (per Mbps, 1 MBps minimum)
$367 for half cabinet; special package includes space half cabinet, AC power, 10Base-T circuit for $695
half of the cabinet price, therefore ranging from $162.50 (for a quarter cabinet) to $275 (for half cabinet) and $400 (for a full cabinet)
37" x 34" x 19": $550
15 amps yes, for $94
$624 $1,875/month, $1,688/month and $1,500/month (for 1-, 2- and 3-year contracts, respectively)
100MB Fast Ethernet
78" x 34" x 19": $800
T1 access provides for 1.5 MBps and up to 10 MBps
from $350/MBps to $150/MBps, depending on volume
for quarter cabinet, prices range from $350 (for 25 MB) to $525 (for 200 MB)
Option 2: Data transferred (per GB, 100 GB minimum)
unlimited
$400/100 GB, additional GB at $3.80/GB
refer to separate pricing sheet
Business-day hourly rate?
$100/hour, billed in 15-min increments, minimum $50/ session
$85
monthly rates only
Minimum charge?
$50/session
$85
price per server: $600/month
Off-hours hourly rate?
$100/hour
$125
Minimum charge?
$50
$250
Strategic competitive intelligence can also be a proactive process whereby a company might consider changing its entire business model. Extreme examples are Nokia (which started off as a manufacturer of paper, pulp and communication cables, and is now famous for its wireless communications devices) and 3M (which started off as a miner of abrasive minerals, and is now known for its adhesives, laminates, medical products, and optical films). Conclusion
Competitive intelligence is a versatile set of research approaches that are limited only by the imagination and skills
of the CI practitioner. It is a discipline that often demands intellectual and intestinal courage to promote and exercise. The results, however, can guide a company through difficult economic times by providing foreknowledge of the changing demands of the market. Enrico Codogno became a research professional in 1984. In 1999, he established Customer Foresight Group Ltd., a research firm providing customized competitive intelligence and market research services to private sector clients from North America, Europe and Asia. He can be contacted at enrico@customerforesight.com or 1-877-350-0143. vue July/August 2011
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F E AT U R E
Using Research to Generate Media Attention Lessons from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants: Generating media attention from research involves choosing the right topics, designing media-friendly questions, gaining credibility with the media, developing a good release, choosing the right timing, and engaging the right advisors.
John Tabone The generation of media attention has been an objective for numerous research projects that I’ve worked on over the years. In that time, I’ve learned many lessons that have resulted in ever increasing media pickup for the research that the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) has released. The CICA consumer finance study released in January 2011 set a record for the most media attention the CICA has ever gotten from a press release. This release generated over 23 million media impressions and over 145 media stories. So how did we do it? Following best marketing research practices was a good starting point, but that alone would not capture the attention of the mainstream media. We’ve learned that generating media from research involves choosing the right topics, designing media-friendly questions, gaining credibility with the media, developing a good release, choosing the right timing, and engaging the right advisors. I’ll explore all of these points in this article. A topic that is interesting to your company or your business sector may not necessarily be interesting to the mainstream media. As someone who is immersed in the topic, you may sometimes find it difficult to assess how media-worthy the story is, so it is important to get a third party perspective. Internal and external media relations consultants are excellent sources of advice. They know the media well and will not want to pitch a story that isn’t newsworthy, because they don’t want to lose credibility with their media contacts or fail to deliver on your expectations. Internal media relations will also ensure that the topic is consistent with your company’s media relations objectives. Our internal and external media relations consultants worked with us collaboratively on the CICA consumer finance study, and their expertise ensured that our release was successful. A research agency with experience and success in releasing research to the media is also an excellent source of upfront advice. We used Harris-Decima, whose experience 26
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and advice played a critical role in the success of our release. Looking at the stories that are published in the media outlets you are seeking to reach is another good way to determine how good a fit your topic would be. In the case of the CICA consumer finance study, we had a topic that was of broad interest, particularly in an uncertain economic environment. In marketing research, questions are designed to aid decision-making, but these same questions might not work that well as news headlines. The key to getting research into the media is to develop questions that can be turned into a strong media hook. Statements on an agree-disagree scale often work well. One of the key statements in our financial literacy release was this: “Today’s youth are not well prepared to deal with financial matters when they first enter the workforce.” It is usually better to avoid questions that reach only a subsample of your population, because it can come across as awkward in the release (it is better to say “x per cent of Canadians” than “x per cent of Canadians who answered y”). It is also best to avoid questions where the answer is too obvious – remember it has to be news. You will want to have “multiple hook” questions, in case the results for some questions turn out differently than you expect. You should also include questions that aim to cover both positive and negative perspectives on the topic so that you will have a balanced release. Although the negatives (“youth don’t have financial skills,” “Canadians are taking on too much debt”) likely caught the media’s attention, the positives (“Canadians want to improve their skills”) permitted a more balanced story for the CICA consumer finance study. Sometimes the questions sound more interesting than the results will be, so try writing a news headline based on what you expect the result of each hook question to be. If it doesn’t sound like news, you are probably right. Again, involving media relations consultants, as well as research
F E AT U R E
agencies with media experience, will improve your chances of success. One of the best ways to ensure that your release doesn’t get into the media is to have a bunch of findings that show how great your product or brand is compared to the competition. Even if customers like your brand best and that preference is newsworthy, the media aren’t going to trust the finding if the release comes from you. You will want to avoid anything in the release that plugs your products or services as the solution to the issues identified in your survey. As a trusted, professional not-forprofit company, the CICA does have advantages in establishing credibility over for-profit companies; and partnering with a not-for-profit on a survey can help forprofit companies boost a survey’s credibility with the media. Reporting margins of error also increases the credibility your research has with the media, so using a methodology that allows you to report margins of error is highly recommended. Working with a research agency that has media credibility is also important, as an agency that the media know and trust will lend much credibility to your release. For our study, we did not include the finding that CAs are a trusted source of advice, because that would have negatively impacted the credibility of our release. Once you have a newsworthy survey, the next step is to turn it into a newsworthy media release. For our financial literacy release, this process was a collaborative one that included our internal media relations department, our external media relations consultant, and our research agency. In addition to involving all these parties, it is important that a release be short and concise, with a strong,
newsworthy headline. You’ll want to avoid a release that is overloaded with stats. Instead, develop a release that reads like a story. Much like a good research report, your release should do more than just list the findings; it should provide insights and solutions. As noted earlier, those solutions should not be ones that relate specifically to your products and services, or you will lose credibility. As a result of the recession and changing media environment, many media outlets have fewer staff to create content. If you can save them time by creating a release that looks like a story, it is more likely that your release will become one. You should also embed the name of your company in the title of the release (we called our survey the “CICA Consumer Finance Study”). Doing so reduces the risk that the media will run the story but name only the research agency – and that does happen in some cases. Finally, the timing of your release is important. It is best if you can tie it to other events. In the case of our release, we chose January – because it was post-holidays, when consumer debt is top of mind, and because it was pre-RRSP season. While it is impossible to predict what world events will be newsworthy on a particular day, it is a good idea to try to anticipate any other major releases that could compete for the media’s attention. John Tabone, MBA, is the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants’ manager of Member Value & Research Services, overseeing a team that is responsible for marketing research, webinars, career services, sponsorship, and the CA Member Savings. John is an MRIA board member and co-chair of MRIA's Client Side Research Council. John can be reached at john.tabone@cica.ca
DATA COLLECTION AT IT’S BEST State-of-the-art CATI call centre Online surveys Elite B2B interviewing team Multilingual interviewing capabilities Remote monitoring capabilities Mail and data entry services Data tabulation and analysis
GET THE REAL ANSWERS YOU NEED…
1.866.667.9352 www.elementaldci.com
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I N D U ST RY N E W S
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY (QRR) In accordance with federal privacy laws, MRIA’s Qualitative Research Registry (QRR), or Registre de la recherche qualitative (RRQ) in French, was created to provide an ongoing, user-friendly vehicle for tracking those who do not want to be contacted or should not be contacted for qualitative research studies.
QRR is a comprehensive do not call list of those who have recently participated in qualitative research studies, those who have asked not to be contacted further, and those felt by recruiters and moderators to be best served by not being contacted. These respondents are marked as “do not call” in accordance with established MRIA Standards. All field and full-service companies are encouraged to submit a list of their qualitative respondents for entry into the QRR system each month, including those who do not wish to be contacted.
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE SUBMITTED NAMES TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY FOR DECEMBER 2010: ATLANTIC R.I.S. CHRISTIE
ONTARIO BARBARA C. CAMPBELL RECRUITING CONSUMER VISION
Participating firms will receive monthly updates of respondents to be screened from qualitative recruitment samples. QRR works effectively to increase the quality and integrity of the qualitative research process, by serving as a control to ensure respondents are not contacted more frequently than is necessary.
DAWN SMITH FIELD MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC.
However, the ability of the system to function effectively is directly related to the co-operation received from firms who provide recruitment services. If you are a full service research firm or field supplier that is currently participating in the Qualitative Research Registry program – thank you very much and keep up the good work!
RESEARCH HOUSE INC.
If you are not currently participating, please get involved! If you are interested in submitting to QRR, please visit the MRIA website at
CRC RESEARCH (QUEBEC)
mria-arim.ca/QRD/QualResearchRegistry.asp
for further explanation and guidance on how to submit qualitative research participants’ names, along with the required electronic forms.
I & S RECRUITING NEXUS RESEARCH OPINION SEARCH QUALITY RESPONSE R.I.S. CHRISTIE RESEARCH PROFESSIONALS TANN RESEARCH VALYRA RESEARCH
QUEBEC MAYER, BOURBONNAIS & AUBE OPINION SEARCH R.I.S. CHRISTIE
WEST OPINION SEARCH
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO: QRRQ@mria-arim.ca
SMARTPOINT RESEARCH INC. TREND RESEARCHH
Submission templates and payment forms can be found at mria-arim.ca/QRD/QualResearchRegistryForms.asp
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice for Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007), Section C Rules Specific to the Conduct of Qualitative Research: 20. Recruiters should provide accurate data to the Qualitative Research Registry, where such exists, on a consistent basis and check all respondents against the Registry.
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21. Moderators buying recruiting services should give primary consideration to recruiting agencies which submit to the Qualitative Research Registry, where such a service exists, on a regular and ongoing basis.
I N D U ST RY N E W S
Joe Doyle, who founded PMRS in 1960, will celebrate his 90th birthday on August 17. Below is a summary of his long and distinguished career in Marketing Research.
MILESTONES
Joseph B. Doyle 1921
Joseph Bernard Doyle was born in New York City on August 17, and grew up in Westchester County, New York.
1939
Graduated with Honors from A.B.Davis High School.
1940-41 Employed in the Securities Department of J.P. Morgan. 1942-45 Not drafted into the Armed Forces for medical reasons. Volunteered to work for the FBI as a translator in Washington and New York. 1943-46 Completed a variety of night courses at New York University and George Washington University while employed full time. 1945-48 Joined Marketing Research firm Stewart, Dougall & Associates in New York. 1948
1960
1965
1965
Promoted to Marketing Services Manager at General Foods Canada, with continuing responsibility for Marketing Research.
1967
Joseph and Margetta Doyle took out Canadian citizenship.
1969
Promoted to Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, by General Foods Canada.
1971
Created the Consumer Dialogue Program for General Foods, a series of consumer forums in every Province and Territory across Canada.
1978
Joseph Doyle retires from General Foods Canada.
1986
PMRS Fellowship Program created to honour individuals who had made “Distinguished Contributions to Marketing Research in Canada”. Joe Doyle named first Fellow of the Society.
1987
PMRS creates the Joseph Doyle Award, to be presented each year to the outstanding student in courses offered by the Society.
2005
A merger of PMRS and two other Canadian marketing research organizations is announced, resulting in the creation of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association.
Married Margetta, his colleague at Stewart, Dougall.
1948-58 Joined the Marketing Research Department of General Foods Corporation in White Plains, New York. 1958
1965
Asked by General Foods to transfer to Toronto to form the first Marketing Research Department for GF Canada. Created the Professional Marketing Research Society, a unique Canadian institution, and became the Society's Founding President (while continuing to manage GF's growing Research Department).
Joe Doyle is named the first Fellow of the Association, at a Banquet held in his honour.
Co-authoured (with Dr. A.B. Blankenship) the book “Marketing Research Management”, published by the American Management Association, New York.
2010
Joe Doyle is honoured at a special Conference and Dinner celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his founding of the PMRS.
This is one of the first books on marketing research management anywhere in the world.
2011
Joe celebrates his 90th birthday on August 17th.
Spearheaded the creation of the first formal Certificate course in Marketing Research in Canada, offered by The Institute of Marketing at the University of Waterloo. Joe Doyle was one of the instructors.
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RRS
RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM Since 1994, the RRS has allowed respondents to verify the legitimacy of a research project; helped legislators and regulators differentiate between legitimate survey researchers and unscrupulous telemarketers, phishers and scammers; and protected the industry from unnecessary and unwanted regulation.
MRIA’s Research Registration System (RRS) has long been a cornerstone self-regulatory mechanism for the marketing, survey and public opinion research and market intelligence industry in Canada.
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE REGISTERED RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH THE RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM DURING DECEMBER 2010:
Combined with other self-regulatory initiatives such as our Code of Conduct and Good Practice and our Charter of Respondent Rights, the RRS has paid huge dividends in protecting the industry’s positive reputation and good name with Canadians.
GOLD SEAL CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES Advanis Inc BBM Analytics Campaign Research Consumer Contact Consumer Vision Ltd. Corporate Research Associates EKOS Research Associates Inc. Harris/Decima Inc. Ipsos Reid Corporation Maritz Research Canada Market Probe Canada MarketQuest-Omnifacts Research Matrix Research Limited MBA Recherche MD Analytics Inc. Nanos Research NRG Research Group Opinion Search Inc. R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd. Research House Inc. Research Now Synovate Ltd. Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus The Logit Group Inc. TNS Canadian Facts Trend Research Inc.
RRS
All Gold Seal and Basic Corporate Research Agency members of the Association are obligated to register all of their research projects with the RRS, and Client-Side Corporate members are encouraged to require their agency suppliers to do so. MRIA’s Research Agency Council provides strategic, policy-level oversight of the Research Registration System, and receives aggregate data-only on the System’s performance. Questions about the Research Registration System should be addressed to Sylvie Corbeil-Peloquin, Manager, Member Services, at 1-888-602-6742 or 905-602-6854, ext. 8726 or scorbeil@mria-arim.ca or, in her absence, Executive Director Brendan Wycks at ext. 8724 or bwycks@mria-arim.ca.
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice For Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007):
Section A (5) Members must uphold the MRIA Charter of Respondent Rights.
Charter of Respondent Rights, Article 2 You can verify that the research you have been invited to participate in is legitimate in one of two ways. You can either obtain a registration number and the MRIA's toll-free telephone number for any research registered in the MRIA's Research Registration System or you can obtain the contact information of the research director who is conducting the study.
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BASIC CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES concerto research inc. Illumina Research Partners Justason Market Intelligence Network Research Field Services Inc Nexus Market Research Inc. Panoptika Inc. Quality Response Inc. Research Professionals Starch Research Services Limited Sylvain Laroche, Consultant, Inc. Tann Research Services Inc. Winning Research
mria-arim.ca/RRS
P RO F E SS I O NAL D E VE LO P M E N T
Education and Certification Q&A We at the MRIA’s Institute for Professional Development, regularly receive questions about training, certification and maintenance of certification. We hope that sharing some frequently asked questions and providing the answers in Vue will be of use. As a CMRP candidate or a CMRP designation holder, you probably will want to know the answers to these questions. When did the Maintenance of Certification Program (MCP) come into effect?
The MCP came into effect on January 1, 2011. To allow for an easy transition, you are allowed to transfer up to 25 points accumulated in 2010 and apply them to the 2011–2012 cycle.
MRIA Institute for Professional Development
chapters. The chapters have to be completed in sequence. Do online courses count for the CMRP the same way as physical ones?
Definitely. Completing a core course online gives you the same credit (and MCP points) as completing the same course in class. If I pay for my courses personally, can I write them off for tax purposes?
No, you cannot. How can I save on the course fees?
There are many ways to save: If I am a retired CMRP, do I need to worry about the MCP?
1. Register for the course before the early bird deadline to save $100 per course!
No, retired members are exempt from the MCP requirement. When can I take an online course?
Any time you wish! Online courses are available 24/7, for your convenience. “At your fingertips, any time and anywhere” is our motto. Is there a time limit to completing an online course?
Yes, one month from the date of enrollment.
2. Register for more than one course in the same portal transaction to benefit from our multi-course bundle savings (10% off for 2 courses, 15% off for 3 to 5 courses, and 20% off for 6 or more courses). 3. Become an MRIA member and get the member price.
What is the format of online courses?
4. Take advantage of webinars and online courses, and benefit from lower fees.
Online courses or modules have the format of a slide presentation with instructor voice-over, short quizzes after each chapter, and a final test at the end. The total length of one course is about six hours, delivered in 15- to 20-minute
We look forward to receiving your questions, requests and comments on professional development and certification. Write to us at education@mria-arim.ca
Your Sampling and Data Specialists • • • •
35 years of fast and accurate service Targeted sampling, modelling, profiling Analytics, data appending and enhancement Advanced media analytics
SMRinfo@smres.com 905.474.5271 www.smres.com
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P RO F E SS I O NAL D E VE LO P M E N T
MRIA INSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – 2011 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM CANADA’S LEADING PROVIDER OF MARKETING RESEARCH EDUCATION FOR PROFESSIONALS
SUMMER SPECIAL! Take Some Courses this Summer and $ave 10%, 15% or 20%! Advance your career through online learning! COMPLETE THESE CORE COURSES AT THE TIME CONVENIENT FOR YOU, WITHOUT HAVING TO LEAVE YOUR DESK! • 101-Introduction to Marketing Research • 102-Ethical Issues and Privacy in Marketing Research • 201-Marketing Research Design: An Applied Course • 202-Questionnaire Design • 204-Qualitative Marketing Research COMING THIS SUMMER: • 203-Marketing Research Statistics & Data Analysis • 303-Marketing Management for Researchers • 401-Online Research, Best Practices and Innovations • 403-Advanced Qualitative Marketing Research Techniques
MEASURING BRAND EQUITY MCP 5 PD Webinar Recording Format: three 2-hour webinars Instructor: Alan C. Middleton, BSc, MBA, PhD Purchase the recording in the MRIA Portal MCP = Maintenance of Certification Program
REGISTER TODAY AT THE MRIA PORTAL! WEBINAR SERIES “ASK AN EXPERT” The MRIA Institute for Professional Development will be launching an “Ask an Expert” webinar series. Each webinar will be presented by an industry expert who will answer your specific questions by sharing their knowledge and expertise. Please submit your questions and/or topics of interest to us by emailing education@mria-arim.ca, Subject Line: Ask an Expert
2011-2012 Course Schedule The schedule for physical courses for the 2011-12 academic year will be posted on the MRIA website soon. Please check back.
MRIA Institute for Professional Development
Online courses are available year round!
Wishing Everyone a Great Summer. For more details or to register online, visit our website at www.mria-arim.ca 32
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CO LU M N I ST S
CO L U M N IST S magic, spontaneous and discovery. In terms of the creative process itself, the vocabulary is punctuated with active Beyond the Conventional descriptors like free-flowing, stretching, boundless, risk-taking Lindsay Porter and ground-breaking. And how does the creative vocabulary Ipsos Camelford Graham describe outcomes of a process? With words like unconventional, expansive, uncharted, brilliant and innovative. Thinking outside the box is that crucial ability on which You’ll notice, in the creative vocabulary, that there is a market researchers pride themselves. But an especially effective notable absence of judgmental and performance-directed approach is to take this thinking one step further – fostering words. You don’t often come across success factors, results or the same lateral thinking in respondents by having them action standards in the creative process. engage in artistic activities and methodologies. So how is success defined in the creative vocabulary? It is The art of creativity yields different perspectives. Developing characterized as uncharted territory, empowering, limitless and nontraditional, artistic methods allows our respondents to innovative, to name a few terms. engage in research by thinking about, and seeing themselves Take some time to reflect on how the creative vocabulary outside of, their conventional ways of thinking – stepping might inspire you to embrace some of these principles. outside of what Gestalt psychology calls their “functional fixedness.” THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION Market research methods that are designed to facilitate Common Sense May Be as Good as a Survey – creative and artistic expression can allow a respondent’s and Cheaper thoughts, emotions and attitudes to be expressed more holistically – verbally, visually or behaviourally. Through these Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP unconventional means, we can uncover those key insights that CorbinPartners Inc. might otherwise remain hidden. Many respondents do not see themselves as being artistic or The Supreme Court of Canada, in its recent “Masterpiece” creative, as we have come to narrowly define these categories to decision (Masterpiece Inc. v. Alavida Lifestyles Inc., 2011 SCC 27), sent a strong message to the legal and social science communities artists, designers, writers, musicians, and the like. Yet when with respect to survey evidence. granted permission and liberty to create art through specially The case involved a dispute between two companies designed activities and methods, respondents can think outside operating in the retirement residence industry, one using the the box, allowing us to learn new things about how they think trade-mark “Masterpiece the Art of Living” (among others), and feel about a category and/or specific products and services. and one using the trade-mark “Masterpiece Living.” The The resulting data are unconventional, yet highly useful to Court determined that there was likely to be marketplace developing successful strategies, communications and confusion between them and ordered the latter expunged advertising. from the trade-mark register. The expert evidence in the case had included a small-scale THE INNOVATION ACCELERATOR survey, as part of a broader opinion, illustrating that The Creative Vocabulary confusion would likely exceed 70 per cent. The Court found Margaret Imai-Compton, CMRP the survey portion of the opinion unnecessary, saying that the Imai-Compton Consulting likelihood of confusion could have been determined as a matter of “common sense.” It expressed dissatisfaction with When you think about it, every discipline has a proprietary the acrimony of the criticism that had been made in reply. language complete with acronyms, shorthand and exclusive The decision contained unexpected implications for descriptors. When I first started at Apple, without a techie sampling and questionnaire design, implications that are background, I felt totally illiterate. What were male sheep explained in more detail at the following link: doing in computers when techie types boasted about RAM? And what the heck did WYSIWYG stand for? Apple and the www.iposgoode.ca/2011/06/whithersurveyevidencewhatthesu premecourtofcanadasaidinmasterpiece/ world of the personal computer had their own quirky MRIA’s Litigation Resource Committee will be considering language, exclusive to that industry. Like other disciplines, creativity has its own language, full whether MRIA should issue a published commentary on this of words like flow, fluid, crystallization, authenticity, wonder, high-profile decision. The committee has also undertaken to
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draft guidelines for professional conduct when MRIA members are engaged to evaluate the work of another expert witness. If you have any comments for the committee on the issues raised by the Masterpiece decision, please send them to me at rcorbin@corbinpartners.com
STANDARDS Market Research Standards for Mobile Surveys Donald Williams NADbank
Standards and guidelines for mobile surveys in market research are relatively new. Most of the existing standards are related to fieldwork protocols for dialing cellular phones. These guidelines were developed early in the new millennium. Since then, the world has changed drastically. Many of today’s mobile phones – those known as smartphones – possess functionalities similar to those of desktop computers. The number of people using these mobile devices has grown exponentially, and technology experts are predicting that, in a few years, mobile phones will surpass desktops as the primary device in North America and Europe. Market research standards applying to surveys conducted on cellphones. MRIA’s current Code of Conduct does not offer any specific details on cellphone interviews. In 2007,
however, the Field Management Group Committee submitted the following basic guidelines: • Avoid using autodialers (including self-dialing modems and predictive dialers) to place calls, unless the cellphone owner grants permission. • Avoid using text messages to make advanced contact with opt-in permission, as doing so may breach privacy laws. • From an ethical standpoint, review fieldwork protocols, including time of day for calling, maximum number of callbacks, and frequency of callbacks. Issues for emerging standards in conducting mobile surveys. First, there is sample frame. Most countries lack a definitive list of mobile phone subscribers. There are now list providers who supply mobile phone numbers for market research purposes. Even in cases where there is a credible list, the ability to limit a sample frame to a specific geography is a challenge. Another issue is eligibility. Most surveys are based on “qualified” age criteria (e.g., adults 18 and over). The owner of a mobile phone could be a child or an adult, and therefore a confirmation is required to ensure that the respondent is eligible to participate in the survey. Other issues are also important. Interview length, nonresponse, cost, and other issues are being considered by ESOMAR and similar organizations around the globe.
Summer is a great time… to join MRIA Starting on July 5, new members can join at the following pro-rated rates for a membership valid until December 31, 2011: • Regular member: $209* • New practitioner with less than two years of work experience in the industry: $119* * plus $65 activation fee, plus taxes
HOW’S THAT FOR A HOT DEAL! To join MRIA as a new Individual member, visit the MRIA Portal at www.mriaportal-arimportail.ca 34
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