vue
the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association MAY 2013
MIND THE (ETHICS) GAP
STRUCTURAL COLLABORATION WITH CONSUMERS: AN EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932
“BRIDGING THE GAP” 2013 MRIA NATIONAL CONFERENCE AS SEEN BY CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHERS
THE POWER OF STORYTELLING
SPECIAL MRIA CONFERENCE INSERT INSIDE
vue MAY 2013
June 2 – 4 2013
5875 Falls Avenue I Niagara Falls I Ontario
June 2 – 4 2013
5875 Falls Avenue I Niagara Falls I Ontario
VUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE MARKETING RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION TEN TIMES A YEAR
In this month’s features: (L to R) Diane Hessan, Tom De Ruyck
SPECIAL FEATURE 14
The Power of Storytelling Diane Hessan
FEATURES 18 MIND THE (ETHICS) GAP Holly Longstaff and Alice Hawkins Virani 29 STRUCTURAL COLLABORATION WITH CONSUMERS: AN EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION Tom De Ruyck “BRIDGING THE GAP” – THE 2013 MRIA CONERENCE: CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHER COUNCIL Kamal Sharma
COMMENTARY 4 Editor’s Vue 6 Letter from the President 10 Message from the Interim Executive Director
MRIA CONFERENCE INSERT INDUSTRY NEWS 36 Research Registration System (RRS) 37 Chapter Chat 38 Qualitative Research Registry (QRR) 39 Off the RAC, Looking BAC 40 People and Company in the News
COLUMNISTS QUALITAS
ADDRESS The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L’association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing
2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg. 4, Unit 104 Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Tel: (905) 602-6854 Toll Free: 1-888-602-MRIA (6742) Fax: (905) 602-6855 Email: vue@mria-arim.ca Website: www.mria-arim.ca PRODUCTION: LAYOUT/DESIGN LS Graphics Tel: (905) 743-0402, Toll Free: 1-800-400-8253 Fax: (905) 728-3931 Email: info@lsgraphics.com CONTACTS CHAIR, PUBLICATIONS Stephen Popiel, PhD, CMRP, Vice President, GfK Custom Research NA Tel: (905) 277-2669 x 242 Mobile: (416) 358-5062 Stephen.Popiel@gfk.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer, Conversition (416) 273-9395 apettit@conversition.com MANAGING EDITOR Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA amgabriel@mria-arim.ca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP (647) 855-5088 christianmuellerphd@gmail.com COPY EDITOR Siegfried Betterman Interested in joining the Vue editorial team? Contact us at vue@mria-arim.ca 2013 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: May © 2013. 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
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
Editor’s Vue Annie Pettit
Researchers take on many different roles every day.
Tous les jours, les chercheurs jouent plusieurs rôles différents.
When clients decide on a study objective, it’s up to the researchers to read between the lines and tease out what the real objective is. We use our years of experience and education to quickly and correctly transform often vague objectives into the most appropriate method, a focused survey, or a clear discussion guide – in order to generate the results the clients really want to see.
Lorsque les clients décident du but et de l’objectif d’une étude, ils se tournent vers les chercheurs pour les aiguiller pour déterminer quel est l’objectif réel de l’étude. Grâce à notre vaste expérience et notre parcours académique, nous parvenons à transformer des objectifs souvent vagues en une méthode appropriée, un sondage pertinent ou un guide de discussion clair – ce qui permet aux clients d’obtenir les résultats qu’ils désirent voir.
We listen closely to consumers. We do our best to hear their ideas, watch their actions, and read their contradictory words so that we can best translate hundreds of random consumer responses into organized and coherent data. With hundreds of pages of tables and transcripts and charts before us, we discover the hidden stories and figure out how to explain them – so we can move the minds and hearts of our clients.
Nous écoutons attentivement les consommateurs. Nous faisons de notre mieux pour tenir compte de leurs idées, nous observons leurs actions et nous détectons les discours contradictoires afin de traduire des centaines de réponses aléatoires des consommateurs pour les organisées et en faire une base de données cohérente. En consultant des centaines de pages de tableaux, de transcriptions et de diagrammes, nous découvrons les histoires cachées et parvenons à les expliquer, inspirant les esprits et les cœurs de nos clients.
Researchers are engineers of a different kind. We don’t build bridges between cities separated by waterfalls. We build bridges between people separated by culture and experience. We see the gaps between words and problems, and bridge them with research objectives. We see the gaps between stated opinions and consumer behaviour, and bridge them with insights. We see the gaps between mind-numbing Excel sheets and dazed stares, and bridge them with clear summaries. We seek to reduce and eliminate gaps by building bridges made of great methodologies and smart thinking.
Nous, les chercheurs et les ingénieurs sommes des gens différents. Nous ne bâtissons pas des ponts entre des villes au-dessus des chutes et rivières. Plutôt, nous bâtissons des ponts entre les gens séparés par leur culture et leur expérience respective. Nous reconnaissons les écarts entre les mots et les problèmes, et nous les faisons correspondre pour établir des objectifs de recherche. Nous observons les écarts entre les opinions déclarés et le comportement des consommateurs, et nous parvenons à tirer des conclusions et une vision. Nous aidons nos clients éberlués devant des chiffriers Excel époustouflants en leur fournissant des résumés clairs des données. Nous cherchons à réduire ou éliminer les écarts en établissant des ponts bâtis sur d’excellentes méthodologies et de bonnes idées.
In just a few days, we will congregate at the amazing gap that is Niagara Falls. We may not be able to bridge that gap, but our annual conference will offer researchers many new and intriguing ways to help bridge the gaps we encounter in our work every day. To the PeopleMover!
Dans quelques jours, nous nous réunirons à Niagara Falls, ce grand écart naturel. Nous ne parviendrons peut-être pas à remplir cet écart, mais notre conférence annuelle offrira aux chercheurs plusieurs nouveaux moyens intrigants pour réduire les écarts que nous observons dans notre travail quotidien. Allons-y sur l’autobus PeopleMover!
Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer / Directrice de la Recherche, Conversition Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédactrice en chef, Vue • Email: apettit@conversition.com • (416) 273-9395 • t @LoveStats
4
vue May 2013
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
Letter from the President Anastasia Arabia
I am extremely honoured to become president of the MRIA. You’ll be pleased to know that your National board is a vibrant, knowledgeable, hard-working and deeply considerate group of people. I am in very good company for the tasks at hand and excited by the progress the year ahead will hold.
Je suis très honorée d’avoir été nommée présidente de l’ARIM. Vous serez heureux de savoir que votre conseil d’administration national est composé de personnes intenses, averties, travaillantes et attentionnées. Je suis en très bonne compagnie pour accomplir les tâches qui m’attendent et je vois d’un bon œil les progrès qui seront accomplis au cours de l’année à venir.
Notre but cette année est de poursuivre les efforts entrepris en 2012 pour définir le plan stratégique de l’ARIM – y compris l’amélioration des normes, de Our goal this year will be to further the MRIA l’éducation et des relations entre les membres et le Strategic Plan, as laid out in 2012 – including gouvernement. En plus des progrès sur ces fronts, mes buts personnels visent l’examen de l’ensemble de notre furthering Standards, Education, Membership and industrie en renforçant nos liens avec nos associations Government Relations. In addition to this, my sœurs ainsi qu’en mettant l’accent sur l’aspect local, accordant une attention particulière à nos racines personal goals include looking at our industry qui représentent notre plus grande force – soit les globally, furthering our ties to sister associations, as chapitres.
well as focusing locally, highlighting our roots and our greatest strength – the chapters.
Our overall focus this year will be to continue to execute the MRIA Strategic Plan, as laid out in 2012 (and posted on the MRIA’s website, www.mria-arim.ca/PDF/ MRIAStrategicPlan2012-14.pdf). This will include focusing on these key areas:
Standards On Sandy Janzen’s recent President’s Tour, I visited some of the chapters with her. I was struck by how passionate members continue to be about the MRIA’s standards. They continue to be the backbone of our association – whether you are client-side or supplier, qual or quant, full service or field, what unites us all is our standards. Members from coast to coast spoke eagerly and enthusiastically about the importance of our standards (and especially when asked what motivates them to continue being a member). We have some work to do in this area. We must continue to discover ways in which 6
vue May 2013
Nous nous concentrerons cette année sur la réalisation du plan stratégique de l’ARIM tel que défini en 2012 (affiché sur le site Web de l’ARIM : www.mria-arim.ca/PDF/ MRIAStrategicPlan2012-14.pdf). Ce plan stratégique met l’accent sur les éléments clés suivants :
Normes Lors de la récente tournée de la présidente Sandy Janzen, j’ai visité certains chapitres avec elle. J’ai été agréablement surpris par la passion qu’ont exprimée les membres concernant les normes établies par l’ARIM. Ces membres sont l’épine dorsale de notre association – que ce soit du côté de la clientèle ou des fournisseurs, qu’il s’agisse de la qualité, de la quantité, de services complets ou de services sur le terrain, nous agissons tous conformément à nos normes. Nos membres de partout au pays parlent avec ferveur et enthousiasme de l’importance de nos normes (particulièrement lorsqu’on leur demande ce qui les motive à demeurer membre de notre association). Nous avons tout de même du travail à faire sur ce plan. Nous devons continuer à chercher de nouveaux moyens d’adapter les activités de notre association pour répondre au changement d’environnement dans lequel nos membres exécutent leurs tâches – entre autres en ce qui a trait aux nouvelles méthodologies de recherche et
COM M E N TARY / COMMEN TAI R E
we can adapt the association to meet the changing environment in which our members operate – specifically as it pertains to new research methodologies and technology being employed in place of the traditional survey methodology that many of us are most familiar with. The MRIA has been working through the standards committee to bring new rigour to the practice of mobile research, social media, and qualitative standards. Moving to implement these with appropriate adherence to monitoring and disciplinary measures will be a start. Moving forward, I will also be looking for opportunities through our communications and events portfolio to engage members with webinars and events like Net Gain to demonstrate our commitment to this new world in which we operate.
Membership The second of these areas of focus laid out in our strategic plan is member development which ties into this new focus for our industry. We stand to gain an increase in membership through a variety of initiatives that would reach outside our traditional backyard to gain increased individual and corporate membership from companies in emerging industries such as social media, CRM business, database mining organizations, analyticalbased businesses and field houses. We also will continue our work in member value to make sure we are aligned to the needs of our members, and that they are well supported.
Education MRIA must continue to develop courses, conferences, symposiums and webinars that are relevant and innovative to both new audiences and our existing membership. Our online courses need a review and possibly an update. Also, the CMRP is under a formative review. The CMRP designation is extremely important to members and we are committed to having it thrive. However, status quo is not an option. We do not have the critical mass needed for the designation to survive. Given this reality, last October the board voted to allow the education committee to come up with options for increasing CMRPs. We all know exceptional practitioners in the industry that should have the CMRP designation but do not. What will motivate them to embrace a CMRP designation? Is a seven-hour, full-day exam the only valid approach to provide a CMRP designation to a seasoned senior practitioner? These are the types of questions we are wrestling with. The education committee is developing some options to present to the board for consideration.
aux nouvelles technologies utilisées en remplacement de la méthodologie de sondage traditionnelle avec laquelle la plupart d’entre nous sont familiarisés. Le comité des normes de l’ARIM travaille à l’amélioration de la rigueur dans l’établissement des normes sur les pratiques en matière d’unités mobile de recherche, de médias sociaux et recherche qualitative. Assurer une conformité appropriée pour maintenir une bonne surveillance et l’application des mesures disciplinaires est un bon début. Ensuite, nous chercherons des possibilités dans le cadre de nos communications et de nos événements pour inciter nos membres à participer à des webinaires et des événements comme « Net Gain » visant à leur démontrer notre engagement dans ce nouveau monde qui se présente à nous.
Adhésions La seconde priorité de notre plan stratégique est l’augmentation des adhésions associée à la nouvelle orientation de notre industrie. Nous pourrions augmenter nos adhésions par une variété d’initiatives à l’extérieur de nos champs d’activité traditionnels, incitant l’adhésion de personnes et d’entreprises des industries émergentes comme les médias sociaux, les firmes de gestion des relations avec la clientèle, les organisations d’exploration des données, les entreprises d’analyse des données et les bureaux sur le terrain, à se joindre à nous. Nous poursuivrons notre travail sur la valeur des adhésions pour nous assurer d’aligner nos besoins sur ceux de nos membres et de leur fournir un soutien approprié.
Éducation L’ARIM doit continuer d’élaborer des cours, des conférences, des symposiums et des webinaires pertinents et novateurs destinés à de nouveaux auditoires et à nos membres existants. Nos cours en ligne doivent être examinés et mis à niveau au besoin. La désignation PARM (professionnel agréé en recherche marketing) fait également l’objet d’une évaluation formative. La désignation PARM est très importante pour nos membres et nous nous engageons à ce qu’elle se développe. Le statu quo n’est pas une option pour nous. La masse critique nécessaire à la survie de la désignation n’est pas au rendez-vous. Dans ce contexte, le conseil a voté en octobre dernier pour permettre au comité de la formation d’élaborer des options pour augmenter le nombre de PARM. Nous connaissons tous les praticiens exceptionnels dans l’industrie qui pourraient se prévaloir de la désignation PARM, mais qui ne le font pas. Qu’est-ce qui les motiverait à convoiter la désignation PARM? Une évaluation d’une journée complète, soit sept heures, estelle la seule approche valide pour délivrer la désignation PARM à un praticien aguerri? Voici le type de questions que nous nous posons. Le comité de la formation élabore actuellement certaines options qui seront présentées aux membres du conseil pour leur considération. Comme le vue May 2013
7
As the MRIA’s LinkedIn group (www.linkedin.com/groups/MRIA-113690) and a call for member feedback have illustrated, this is a very important issue for members. I can tell you CMRP admission requirements have been on the agenda of every board meeting I’ve been in. One thing that I know to be true – whatever your opinion about the evolution of CMRP – in your National board you have a group of people who care deeply about it surviving and thriving.
démontrent les messages du groupe LinkedIn de l’ARIM (www.linkedin.com/groups/MRIA-113690) et un appel aux membres pour recueillir leurs réactions, cette question est très importante pour nos membres. Je peux vous dire que les exigences d’adhésion à la désignation PARM sont à l’ordre du jour à chaque réunion du conseil. Une vérité que je sais indéniable – peu importe votre opinion concernant l’évolution de la désignation PARM – votre conseil national est composé de personnes qui se préoccupent grandement du maintien et du succès de la désignation PARM.
Relations gouvernementales Government Relations We must continue our outreach and communication initiatives with the various levels of government, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and with the CRTC. These bodies regularly consult with the MRIA, and we are given the opportunity to comment on proposed regulation and legislation that may affect our industry. This is of vital importance to the MRIA, as we are proud to be self-regulated and in a position to provide our opinion and perspective to these groups. Our government relations portfolio is working now on ensuring that the new Anti-Spam legislation will not adversely affect our members or the general public. Every President also has a few particular items that he or she would like to focus on throughout their term. I have two – they include strengthening the MRIA’s position GLOBALLY and LOCALLY. The MRIA is well poised to advance our presence globally. There are many reasons why this is of critical importance. Our members work globally; strong relationships with sister associations around the world will allow us to develop common standards, learn from each other, provide cross-member benefits, share the cost of major initiatives, and expose us to what is happening in marketing research outside of Canada. We need to reinvigorate our relationships with some organizations, and continue to foster (and in some cases provide a leadership role) to others. We often play in our own sandbox, but are realizing more and more that we are very far ahead of other organizations and should be taking on a leadership role. We are looking far afield to maintain our alliances and have a voice with other global associations, such as ARIA and ESOMAR in particular, but with other individual MR associations in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. We want to bring the best practices that they have developed back home while providing support to many who lag behind us. I also believe it is time to shine a greater light on the foundation of our association – the local chapters. Our seven regional chapters are the key to the success 8
vue May 2013
Nous devons poursuivre nos initiatives de sensibilisation et de communication avec les divers paliers gouvernementaux, le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada et le CRTC. Ces organismes consultent l’ARIM régulièrement ce qui nous donne l’opportunité de commenter la réglementation et la législation proposées pouvant affecter notre industrie. Ceci est d’une importance vitale pour l’ARIM puisque nous sommes fiers d’être une organisation d’autoréglementation et que nous avons la possibilité de présenter nos opinions et nos points de vue à ces organismes. Notre portefeuille des relations gouvernementales travaille actuellement pour s’assurer que la nouvelle législation antipourriel n’a pas d’effets néfastes pour nos membres et le public en général. Chaque président préconise certains points qu’il ou elle aimerait défendre durant son mandat. Pour ma part, j’en ai deux – soit le renforcement de la position de l’ARIM au niveau MONDIAL et au niveau LOCAL. L’ARIM est bien positionnée pour améliorer sa présence au niveau mondial. Ceci est d’une importance capitale pour plusieurs raisons – nos membres travaillent partout dans le monde avec nos associations sœurs pour nous permettre d’élaborer des normes communes, d’échanger nos connaissances, de s’offrir des avantages entre les membres, de partager les coûts d’initiatives majeures et d’être à l’affût des avancées dans la recherche marketing à l’extérieur du Canada. Nous devons revigorer nos relations avec certaines organisations et continuer d’encourager les autres (et dans certains cas, jouer un rôle de dirigeant). Souvent, nous jouons dans notre propre cour, mais nous réalisons de plus en plus que nous avons une bonne longueur d’avance sur d’autres organisations et que nous devrions assumer un rôle de dirigeant. Nous cherchons beaucoup trop loin pour maintenir nos alliances et joindre notre voix à celle d’autres associations dans le monde, comme l’ARIA et l’Association européenne pour les études d’opinion et de marketing en particulier, mais également avec d’autres associations individuelles de recherche marketing aux États-Unis, au Royaume-Uni et en Australie. Nous voulons importer leurs meilleures pratiques au pays tout en offrant un soutien à ceux qui tirent de la patte.
of the MRIA. I will look for opportunities to increase the National board’s engagement with our chapters. Furthermore, we will develop tools for chapters to more easily share information so that opportunities for multi-chapter events or educational courses can be implemented. We need to continue to gain the local exposure we have been successfully growing over the past year. Members state that the second most important benefit of MRIA membership is local chapter events – getting out there and connecting with fellow members. I am truly looking forward to serving as your President, and I welcome your suggestions and comments as we move ahead in the MRIA’s 2013–2014 year. Let me conclude with a special note of thanks and gratitude to those who are working alongside to make this year exceptional. Our board is filled with bright, innovative, insightful people who deeply care about our association and our industry. Our interim Executive Director, John Ball, who is passionate about the marketing research industry and is himself an MRIA past president, stepped in and took over the running of the office and is supporting all the work the board is undertaking. The office staff is a team of dedicated professionals who care about our members. Our past presidents and fellows, who are so generous with their time and always available for a quick phone call or some sage advice, truly are the keepers of the history and legacy of our association. And most particularly, Sandy Janzen – our immediate past president. Sandy embraces the spirit of change and innovation. She strives for excellence in everything she does, and has been an exceptional MRIA President and mentor. I am so pleased that she will continue to be active on the board as our Past President. It is an honour to be the incoming national president of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. I welcome any comments or suggestions as we move forward into MRIA’s 2013/2014 year. You can reach me at 780-485-6558, x2003 or anastasia@trendresearch.ca. I look forward to hearing from you.
Je crois également qu’il est grand temps d’affirmer haut et fort que les chapitres locaux sont le fondement de notre association. Nos sept chapitres régionaux sont la clé du succès de l’ARIM. Je cherche des moyens d’améliorer l’engagement du conseil d’administration national envers nos chapitres. De plus, j’élaborerai des outils facilitant l’échange de renseignements avec les chapitres pour permettre l’organisation d’événements ou d’ateliers pédagogiques dans plusieurs chapitres simultanément. Nous devons continuer d’augmenter notre présence localement comme nous l’avons si bien fait au cours des dernières années. Les membres ont indiqué que le deuxième avantage le plus important de l’adhésion à l’ARIM est l’organisation d’événements locaux – sortir et rencontrer les autres membres. J’ai bien hâte de vous servir à titre de présidente de l’ARIM et je vous invite à me faire part de vos suggestions et de vos commentaires au cours de l’année 2013-2014. J’aimerais conclure en remerciant et en exprimant ma gratitude aux personnes qui travaillent avec nous pour faire de l’année à venir une année exceptionnelle. Notre conseil d’administration est composé de gens intelligents, innovateurs et sages qui ont notre association et notre industrie à cœur. Notre directeur exécutif par intérim, John Ball, un passionné de l’industrie de la recherche marketing et lui-même ancien président de l’ARIM, s’est offert pour assurer le bon fonctionnement du bureau et appuie tous les travaux entrepris par le conseil d’administration. Le personnel du bureau est composé d’une équipe de professionnels dévoués qui s’occupent bien de nos membres. Les anciens présidents et associés, offrant généreusement leur temps et toujours disponibles en répondant au téléphone et nous offrant leurs sages conseils, sont les véritables gardiens de l’histoire et du legs de notre association. J’aimerais remercier tout particulièrement la présidente sortante, Sandy Janzen. Sandy est habitée par l’esprit du changement et de l’innovation. Elle recherche l’excellence dans tout ce qu’elle fait et elle a été une présidente et un mentore exceptionnelles pour les membres de l’ARIM. Je me réjouis de savoir qu’elle demeurera une membre active du conseil d’administration à titre d’ancienne présidente. C’est un honneur pour moi d’assurer la présidence nationale de l’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing. Je vous invite à me faire part de vos commentaires et de vos suggestions alors que l’ARIM entreprend l’année 2013-2014. Vous pouvez me rejoindre au 780-485-6558, poste 2003 ou à anastasia@trendresearch.ca. J’ai hâte de vous entendre.
Anastasia Arabia, Partner / Partenaire, Trend Research Inc. President, Marketing Research and Intelligence Association / Présidente, L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing Email: anastasia@trendresearch.ca • 780-485-6558 ext./poste 2003
vue May 2013
9
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
Message from the Interim Executive Director John Ball, CMRP
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Bien, c’est ton anniversaire!
There is a tradition at the MRIA office that we regularly observe around our staff birthdays and it involves cake. Discussions at these events typically revolve around various celebrations planned but also meander comfortably to include extended family who may have birthdates close to the lucky birthday boy/girl or those gathered. However, what is typically never discussed is the year of birth, in deference to the privacy rights of the celebrant and to protect other staff members from the knowledge of how impressively young their colleagues actually are. In fact, even when asked in general conversation, I find myself, as I imagine others do, simply imparting the month and date without mentioning the year, just in case there are those of the astrological persuasion in the vicinity who wish to characterize us according to our sign (personally, cusping between Scorpio and Sagittarius, for those keeping score). I think most would agree that this is a fairly copacetic and comfortable way of having a conversation about birthdays at any time during our everyday lives.
Il existe une tradition au sein de l’ARIM lors de l’anniversaire d’un des membres de notre personnel. Nous lui offrons un gâteau! Lors de ces événements, nous discutons habituellement des célébrations prévues entre nous, mais nous incluons également les membres de la famille dont la date de naissance se rapproche de celle de la personne célébrée ou qui connaissent les personnes présentes. Cependant, il est important de ne jamais discuter de l’année de naissance, par respect pour la vie privée de la personne célébrée et éviter que les autres membres du personnel sachent à quel point leurs collègues sont jeunes. En fait, lorsqu’on me pose la question, je ne fais que mentionner la date et le mois sans mentionner l’année, comme beaucoup d’autres sans doute, au cas où le sujet du signe astrologique est soulevé par ceux qui aiment nous définir selon les caractéristiques de notre signe astrologique (pour ceux que ça intéresse, je suis à la limite entre le scorpion et le sagittaire). Je crois que nous convenons tous que c’est un moyen formidable et confortable de tenir une conversation au sujet d’un anniversaire dans la vie de tous les jours.
“Public opinion research firm must better inform survey respondents about their personal information use; refrain from collecting full birth dates.” Canada’s Office of The Privacy Commission (OPC) However, from time to time as researchers, we find it necessary to confirm with more clarity the demographic profile of our respondents by asking for a person’s full date of birth. Well-intentioned, we do so to group our respondents with like-aged individuals or to confirm that they are of a particular age to qualify for certain studies that require a minimum age of majority to participate when the topic is of a sensitive nature. In doing so, we also typically reserve the right of respondents to refuse to answer. If this means they cannot move forward in a 10
vue May 2013
Malgré tout, en tant que chercheurs, nous trouvons parfois nécessaire de confirmer avec plus de clarté le profil démographique de nos répondants en leur demandant leur date de naissance complète, y compris l’année. Sans malice, nous le faisons pour regrouper nos répondants avec des personnes du même groupe d’âge ou pour confirmer qu’ils ont l’âge pour être admissibles à certains cours exigeant au minimum l’âge de majorité pour étudier un sujet de nature délicate. Ce faisant, nous donnons aux répondants le droit de refuser de répondre. Si cela signifie qu’ils ne sont pas admissibles à des champs d’études particuliers, nous acceptons de respecter leur droit et leur vie privée, nous les remercions et nous passons à un autre répondant pour la recherche en question. Une décision récente du Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada (CPVC) met en lumière cet échange anodin en apparence ainsi que les règles régissant les droits accrus en matière de protection de la vie privée de nos répondants en tant que citoyens
COM M E N TARY / COMMEN TAI R E
particular study, we accept their right to maintain their privacy, graciously thank them for their time, and move forward with another candidate for the research in question. A recent ruling by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) brings this seemingly innocuous exchange into focus and shines light on the rules governing the extended rights of privacy of our respondents as citizens protected under Canada’s private sector privacy law (PIPEDA). The case in question pertains to a complaint received by the OPC, in January 2010, from an online panelist who was asked her date of birth as part of a profiling exercise and then again as part of an online ad hoc request to provide further information which, in addition to repeating the request for date of birth information, also happened to ask questions regarding personal use and behaviours pertaining to financial services and products. Concerned that this engagement was not part of the expected nature of exchange of information and that the nature of the re-asking of her date of birth along with some financial data would possibly form the basis for fraud or a potential theft of her identity, the panelist first contacted the company directly and, being dissatisfied with its response, contacted the OPC to lodge a formal complaint against the company. While this case dates back to 2010 (two or three birthdays ago), the OPC’s findings have only recently been published under the heading, “Public opinion research firm must better inform survey respondents about their personal information use; refrain from collecting full birth dates.” After reviewing the particulars of this case, the OPC resolved that the key issues from a privacy standpoint were covered by three questions it posed to ground its investigation. These are as follows: • I s it necessary for the company to collect, at registration, all three elements of the date of birth? • I s it necessary for the company to confirm, in profiling surveys, all three elements of the date of birth? • D id the company adequately inform the complainant of the purpose of the profiling survey? In other words, was consent meaningful? In defending its position, the research firm claimed that the collection of all three elements of the birth date was required to ensure adequate demographic profiling, confirmed that these details would be collected by the company only for accuracy and identification purposes, and that they had explicitly communicated, as they do with all panelists, that this information would be used only to qualify them as appropriate for various future research the firm might conduct. Further, it contended
protégés en vertu de la loi canadienne sur la protection des renseignements personnels dans le secteur privé. Le cas précis concerne une plainte reçue par le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada en janvier 2010 de la part d’un panéliste en ligne à qui on a demandé la date de naissance dans le cadre d’un exercice de profilage et lors d’une demande ad hoc en ligne pour obtenir plus de renseignements qui, en plus de représenter une deuxième demande sur sa date de naissance, comportait des questions concernant son usage personnel et ses comportements par rapport aux services et produits financiers. Préoccupée par le fait que cet échange de renseignements était inhabituel et qu’on lui demande sa date de naissance deux fois ainsi que d’autres renseignements de nature financière qui pourraient être utilisés pour commettre une fraude ou un vol possible de son identité, la panéliste a communiqué avec l’entreprise directement et, mécontente de sa réponse, a communiqué avec le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée pour porter une plainte formelle contre l’entreprise. Même si cette cause remonte à 2010 (il y a deux ou trois ans déjà), les conclusions du Commissariat à ;a protection de la vie privée n’ont été publiées que récemment sous le titre, « Une société de recherche sur l’opinion publique doit mieux informer les répondants à un sondage au sujet de l’utilisation de leurs renseignements personnels et doit s’abstenir de recueillir les dates de naissance au complet ». Après examen des faits en cause, le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée a conclu que les questions clés touchant la protection de la vie privée sont couvertes par les trois questions qu’il s’est posées comme fondement pour son enquête. Voici ces questions : • E st-il nécessaire que la mise en cause recueille les trois éléments de la date de naissance à l’inscription? • E st-il nécessaire que la mise en cause confirme les trois éléments de la date de naissance dans les sondages relatifs au profil? • L a mise en cause a-t-elle informé adéquatement la plaignante de la fin du sondage relatif au profil? En d’autres termes, le consentement était-il valable? En défendant sa position, la société de recherche allègue que la collecte des trois éléments de la date de naissance est nécessaire pour assurer un profilage démographique adéquat, elle confirme que ces détails sont collectés par la société pour assurer la précision des données et l’identification de la personne, et affirme qu’elle a communiqué explicitement, comme elle le fait avec tous les panélistes, que ces renseignements ne seraient utilisés que pour déterminer l’admissibilité pour des recherches futures qu’effectuerait la société. De plus, elle prétend qu’il s’agit d’une pratique habituelle et nécessaire dans cette industrie qui dépend en partie de la précision du profilage démographique, et que cette
vue May 2013
11
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
that this was a usual and necessary practice of the industry that, in part, relies on accurate demographic profiling in practice and has led in the past to very few instances of complaint prior to this occasion. In its written findings, the OPC made the following conclusions with respect to the collection of all three elements of a birth date (month, date, year), in particular, favouring a “two out of three is better” recommendation: “It is easy to understand why age is an important element of demographic research. We are not convinced, however, that collection of the complete date of birth is necessary to satisfy the company’s purposes. It seems to us that little, if any, accuracy would be lost if the company collected month and year of birth – a less privacy invasive metric – in order to target its surveys to the appropriate demographic.” To remedy the situation, the OPC asked the company to make the following changes to its profiling practices moving forward. The firm’s response to each is summarized in bold italics. The respondent (company) will 1. D elete all of the complainant’s personal information from its files. Agreed. 2. R evise the language of consent for the collection of participants’ personal information in profiling surveys so that the purposes for the collection are explicit and unambiguous. Agreed. 3. D elete the day of the week [sic] from the date of birth in all members’ files; furthermore, … cease collecting and confirming the day of the week [sic] in the date of birth – in other words, collect and confirm only the month and year of birth. Disagreed. Given this latter result, the OPC then made the following conclusions in this matter which, in part, led me to include it as the topic for my article this month. We conclude that this complaint is well-founded but is partially unresolved. In particular, the complaint remains unresolved with respect to the recommendations to delete the day of the week from the birth date of all members’ files, and the requirement to cease collecting and confirming the day of the week in the date of birth, and;
pratique n’a provoqué que peu de plaintes avant cette cause. Dans ses conclusions écrites, le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée fait les recommandations suivantes concernant la collecte des trois éléments de la date de naissance (mois, jour, année), favorisant particulièrement la collecte de « deux éléments sur trois » : « Il est facile de comprendre pourquoi l’âge est un élément important de la recherche démographique. Nous ne sommes pas convaincus, toutefois, que la collecte de la date de naissance au complet soit nécessaire pour satisfaire aux fins énoncées. Il nous semble que l’exactitude des renseignements serait peu ou pas touchée si la mise en cause recueillait le mois et l’année de naissance – un paramètre qui porte moins atteinte à la vie privée – en vue de cibler le groupe démographique approprié. » Pour remédier à la situation, le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée a demandé à la société d’apporter les changements suivants dans ses pratiques de profilage à l’avenir. La réponse de la société à chacun des changements proposés est résumée en caractère italique gras. Le répondant (société) devra : 1. E ffacer tous les renseignements personnels de la plaignante de ses dossiers. Convenu. 2. R éviser le message de consentement à la collecte des renseignements personnels des participants aux enquêtes de profils de manière à ce que le but de la collecte soit explicite et non ambigu. Convenu. 3. E ffacer le jour de la semaine [sic] de la date de naissance des dossiers de tous les membres; de plus, … cesser la collecte et la confirmation du jour de la semaine [sic] de la date de naissance – autrement dit, collecter et confirmer seulement le mois et l’année de naissance. Refusé. Ainsi, le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée en vient aux conclusions suivantes dans cette cause ce qui, en partie, m’a incité à inclure ce sujet dans mon article ce mois-ci. En conséquence, compte tenu de ce qui précède, nous concluons que la plainte est fondée mais qu’elle est partiellement non résolue. En particulier, la plainte n’est toujours pas résolue en ce qui concerne la recommandation de supprimer le jour de la date de naissance dans les dossiers de tous les membres, et l’exigence de cesser de recueillir et de confirmer le jour dans la date de naissance.
Given that the complaint is well-founded and remains unresolved, we will be exploring further options for addressing the issues in accordance with our authorities under PIPEDA.
Vu que la plainte est fondée et n’est toujours pas résolue, nous examinerons d’autres options afin de régler les questions en suspens conformément aux pouvoirs qui nous sont conférés par la LPRPDE.
For me, this underscores a couple of key issues that surround the work we do in the public domain as MRIA members. The first is that identity theft and fraud
Selon moi, cette situation met en valeur deux éléments clés de notre travail dans le domaine public en tant que membres de l’ARIM. Premièrement, le vol d’identité et
12
vue May 2013
are currently and will continue to be real concerns for Canadians. What we believe to be clear and unambiguous about the way in which we communicate with our respondents when we conduct research with them is not always so. Secondly, I can’t help highlight the value that all of our members receive by ensuring that all projects and surveys are properly recorded through our Research Registration Service (www. mriaportal-arimportail.ca/mpower8/rrs/portal.action).
la fraude sont une préoccupation actuelle et réelle pour les Canadiens. Ce que nous croyons clair et non ambigu concernant notre manière de communiquer avec nos répondants dans nos travaux de recherche ne l’est pas toujours. Deuxièmement, je me dois de souligner la valeur de tous nos membres qui s’assurent que tous nos projets et toutes nos enquêtes sont enregistrés correctement par notre service d’enregistrement des sondages (www. mriaportal-arimportail.ca/mpower8/rrs/portal.action).
In addition to providing third party validation of legitimate research on a self-serve basis, this service also provides an opportunity for the public to open up a dialogue with the MRIA to make inquiries as to the legitimacy of a particular research undertaking (even those operating in the online space). Through this service, we can communicate to the public that our members adhere to strict standards and privacy regulations, particularly as they pertain to collecting what could be perceived as sensitive information that could be otherwise misconstrued as part of a fraudulent misrepresentation. We need to be vigilant in warding off the misconception by members of the public, as in this case, that they may somehow be engaged in a fraudulent activity by participating as respondents with one of our member firms. The MRIA Research Registration System is designed to permit this engagement with the general public and, had we been involved early on, we might have prevented this particular instance from escalating as it did.
En plus de fournir une validation par un tiers pour donner de la légitimité à la recherche sur une base de libre-service, ce service offre également la possibilité au public d’ouvrir le dialogue avec l’ARIM en présentant des demandes de renseignements concernant la légitimité d’une recherche en particulier (même les recherches en ligne). Par l’entremise de ce service, nous pouvons communiquer au public que nos membres respectent les normes et les règlements stricts en matière de protection des renseignements personnels, particulièrement lorsqu’il s’agit de la collecte de renseignements qui pourraient être perçus comme étant de nature délicate pouvant être utilisés à des fins frauduleuses en raison d’une fausse représentation. Nous devons demeurer vigilants pour contrer les idées fausses que se font les membres du public, comme dans ce cas, voulant que nous nous livrions à des activités frauduleuses par des participants aux sondages menés par nos sociétés membres. Le système d’enregistrement des sondages de l’ARIM est conçu pour permettre de communiquer avec le grand public et, puisque nous sommes là depuis le début, d’éviter que ce type de cause n’escalade comme ce fut le cas.
We will continue to be involved with the OPC in any consultations on this matter moving forward and update our members as things progress. For the detailed findings of the Privacy Commission on this matter, please see www.priv.gc.ca/cfdc/2011/2011_011_0630_e.asp (English) or www.priv. gc.ca/cf-dc/2011/2011_011_0630_f.asp (French).
Nous continuerons de participer à toutes les consultations avec le Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée sur cette question en communiquant les progrès à nos membres au fur et à mesure. Pour consulter les conclusions détaillées de la Commissaire, voir : www.priv. gc.ca/cf-dc/2011/2011_011_0630_e.asp (Anglais) ou www. priv.gc.ca/cf-dc/2011/2011_011_0630_f.asp (Français).
John Ball, CMRP, Interim Executive Director /Directeur général intérimaire Marketing Research and Intelligence Association / L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing Email: jball@mria-arim.ca • (905) 602-6854 ext./poste 8724
vue May 2013
13
THE POWER OF
STORYTELLING
Diane Hessan
As a CEO, I spend most of my time on the road, visiting executives from our 150 client organizations. When I ask what they really need from us, I usually brace myself for a daunting challenge, probably related to their need to master analytics, and for everything associated with the new world of big data. Instead, the most frequent response I get is “I would like more stories.”
14
vue May 2013
Really? In this world, where all the players are competing to be the one who has the best numbers about every move that consumers make, they want stories ? Granted, some of this might be biased. We at Communispace are known for our storytelling, and so perhaps clients would answer differently for someone from another company … and yet I have a feeling many of you hear the same request.
Inundated with data, we are hungrier than ever to make meaning of what we are seeing and learning: to bring our insights to life, and to understand the whys behind our new-found access to overwhelming amounts of information.
S P ECIAL F EATUR E
Think about it. In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, John McCain challenged Barack Obama’s small-business policy, which proposed to levy a tax increase on businesses that took in more than $250,000 per year. “Most of you don’t have to worry,” Obama claimed. “Ninety-eight per cent of small businesses earn less than that amount and are thus not affected.” Obama added more data and details, including the fact that the tax increase would just take rates back to what they had been during the Clinton years. No one seemed to care much about the issue. Enter Joe the Plumber. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher challenged the tax during a town meeting in Ohio and, shortly thereafter, his story became a symbol of a hardworking small businessman who would be crushed by new taxes. Suddenly, the debate changed. Instead of arguing about 36 versus 39 per cent and which rates would benefit whom, the McCain campaign made the story of Joe the Plumber (Wurzelbacher’s new nickname) a symbol of all that was wrong with the Democratic Party. Tales abounded about the industrious American who would not be able to make a decent living under the new plan. Most people don’t remember the tax policy or whether it even passed, but many people remember Joe the Plumber as someone just like them. The same holds in our organizations. If the goal is validation or decision-making, we obviously need all of the data we can find. However, if we are to activate our insights, if we are to mobilize others, if we are to make complex human experiences come alive, we need to be skilled at telling stories. Good stories can transform how executives think about and conduct their business – and, thus, they can transform our organizations.
Spend time with them. Listen early so that you understand who they are as individuals. Tell them about yourself so they feel more comfortable opening up to you. Be honest and authentic. Introduce them to other consumers to foster trusting relationships with you and with each other. Whether you’re online or in person, you’ll need to build a foundation to get you from the transactional to the personal. Once a relationship is established, it’s amazing how consumers will share their dreams, their frustrations, and their deepest, darkest secrets. Recently, one woman showed us on video how she is getting every last drop from a shampoo bottle by diluting it with water in order to make her dollars stretch; a high-net-worth individual laid out his entire investment strategy, including a statement of his assets; and incontinent consumers bravely shared photos of what living in adult diapers is really like.
What Makes for Great Storytelling?
Activate the human filter. Finding the story is as much an art as it is a science. Once we’re fully steeped in the data and have immersed ourselves in the consumer’s world, we start distilling. Sometimes our distillation process is inductive: we have been formulating hypotheses all along, and we start to connect the dots. In other cases, we start with a clean sheet of paper and ask all members of our team to weigh in on what themes stand out for them. We rely both on data and on our own intuition from the conversations in our communities – and that intuition allows us to pick up nuances in consumer language and connect seemingly disparate data points, guiding us through the noise. Along the way, we ask why it really matters to our client’s business, and remove anything that doesn’t get through that filter.
At Communispace, we are often asked to share how we are building our storytelling capability. When we first started to invest in telling great stories, we made an incorrect assumption that the key was to write creatively. Surely, a good writer or a good art director can take a dry story and transform it; but many of the critical components happen much further upstream. Build relationships with consumers. It is much easier to craft a truly great story if you have the right ingredients: rich and textured perspectives from consumers. To get these, you often have to give a little to get a lot. Consumers have to trust you as their advocate and ally, and believe that you have their best interests at heart.
Design early and intentionally. Good stories don’t happen by accident. You have to design for them. People are not robots, and it’s rarely a one-to-one relationship between question and answer. We have learned that when we tackle a business challenge, we need to explore it with consumers – from a number of different angles. Instead of asking a consumer to measure satisfaction with a product, we might have them write the brand’s obituary. Or we might ask them to go without the product so we can really understand its value proposition. Or we might ask them to keep a one-month journal that documents their interactions with substitute products. Using multiple techniques makes it possible to go much deeper, and to move beneath the surface to uncover white spaces, motivations, and unmet needs.
vue May 2013
15
SPECIAL FEATURE
Engage their hearts and minds. It’s not enough for a story to be heard; the story must be felt and internalized if it is to be remembered. One thing you’ll always have in common with your audience is that you’re all human. There’s a lot of neurological science around the importance of appealing to the emotional side of the brain as well as to the rational. When we create stories, we certainly try to use those timetested elements we all remember from when we first heard the words “Once upon a time.” We focus on the time frame, the plot, the setup, the conflict, the tension, the surprises and, of course, the moral of the story. We try to go further by thinking about what will work for our audience. If we have a lot of data to communicate, we’ll represent the data visually, in a way that will evoke an emotion, or by using an image with which the audience can connect. We enrich the data with consumer voices, videos, collages or infographics to help the audience feel inspired by what they are hearing. Or maybe we choose a simple “stat story” format. It all depends on what we have to work with, how complex the message is, and what medium we are using to deliver it. Capturing people’s imaginations in the first few minutes is also key; thus, we think a lot about the first five minutes: Does the audience need something affirming that makes them nod their heads in agreement and digest the goals in the beginning? Or are they more impatient, needing “the answer” upfront as a surprise opening? We’re not handcuffed by traditional reporting and, from the beginning, our storytellers work hand-in-hand with our creative department to identify the right medium to inspire and compel a client’s organization to action. How to Build a Culture of Storytellers
Over the years at Communispace, we have made many storytelling mistakes – from telling a colourful but irrelevant story to telling a story based on a few comments but not grounded in enough data. To really get good at this, you have to have the right people doing the work all along the way. We start by hiring people who are naturally curious about the complexity, messiness and beauty of the human condition and are driven to continually ask why until they uncover the truth. When we interview people, we often ask, “What’s your story?” as a way of seeing whether they can capture our imagination. Once they are on-board, we encourage our people to immerse themselves in their clients’ business until they feel confident that the stories address the most burning issues in the company – rather than just asking our people to get creative about less meaningful chatter. And our teams work 16
vue May 2013
in close partnership with designers to bring it all to life in a way that will get someone to say, “I have never thought about this issue that way before.” Only then does the story become a catalyst for change. Of course, building a storytelling culture requires valuing the skills of weaving together content just as much as the skills of doing the analysis itself, and we continually look for opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other in this arena. We’ve developed proprietary training on how to find and tell stories; as part of this effort, over lunch, we often discuss the work of filmmakers, journalists, authors, and TEDTalks presenters. We continually push ourselves to experiment with new ways to bring the voice of the consumer to our clients’ organizations, and we have a robust internal system for sharing our innovations. We also continue to take risks. In the last few years, we’ve codified a process called Storyforming, which helps our teams unlock the longitudinal perspective and consumer intuition that they have developed over time – and we’re proactively bringing those narratives to our clients. Sometimes, our clients are the ones pushing us out of our comfort zones, or asking us to bring our internal training to their own organizations. We also find that it’s a good idea to share our general story ideas with clients way before we have a final story; the collaboration process often creates the magic because clients know which parts of the story will resonate most with stakeholders. At the root of our own storytelling philosophy is a deep commitment to consumer collaboration. The ability to engage with consumers, immerse ourselves in their lives, and tap into their creativity means we get real human narratives, not just data. Their words, images and actions – raw and pure – can flip a preconceived notion on its head, shining a light on possibilities not yet imagined.
Diane Hessan is the CEO of Communispace, a leading next-generation market research company “with a Blue Chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous,” according to Advertising Age. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers generate consumer insights, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999 – when no one knew what social media were – and hasn’t looked back. Diane can be reached at dhessan@communispace.com or you can follow her on Twitter at @CommunispaceCEO
F E ATURE
MIND THE (ETHICS) GAP Holly Longstaff and Alice Hawkins Virani
As an ethics-based consulting group, we at Engage Associates were very intrigued by Scott Koenig’s article on industry ethics in the January/February 2013 issue of Vue, which outlined some of the ethical challenges facing those who work in the marketing research industry and the usefulness of clearly communicated ethical standards and codes. We wanted to join the conversation and further explore the value of ethical inputs and analysis to marketing research professionals. People often assume that ethicists are a sort of “ethics police,� set on hunting down evil researchers and tying up their research endeavours with endless reams of red tape. But this perception could not be further from the truth. Through our regular work with research professionals and the scientific community, we are keenly aware that most research professionals subscribe to the highest of ethical standards and care deeply about the work they do for their clients. Good ethics collaborators are not interested in judging you or your work. They are, instead, there to help you apply ethical principles to your research practice, ultimately strengthening the process as well as the final products. Traditionally, research ethics in the health arena has provided the most substance in terms of principles and guidance with regard to what constitutes ethical (and 18
vue May 2013
unethical) practice. Consider, for example, the following case: Suppose that your firm has been asked to conduct a study about patient satisfaction levels among those enrolled in a new type 2 diabetes treatment program at a small rural hospital. The hospital plans to use the results of your study in a forthcoming advertisement campaign to raise public awareness of the program. Ethical practice would ask you to consider some of the short- and long-term ethical concerns that should be discussed with your client before you begin this study. These issues might include protecting the anonymity of patient feedback within a small community and small sample; potential consequences to the patient-provider relationship; use of private health information; possible stigmatization of the patients who participate in this program; and appropriate communication of results. Simply put, bad marketing research is unethical. And good ethics collaborators do more than provide you with a list of ethics papers and guidelines to read and follow. They help you incorporate an ethics-based approach throughout the entire life cycle of your research. Principles and concepts from research ethics can help you design better projects, select appropriate methods and representative samples, and report results in ways that serve your research objectives without harming those who have participated in your research.
F EATUR E
Unfortunately, it is possible for good, well-meaning professionals to conduct unethical research. Imagine the harm that could be done to your reputation, the participant group, and your client if you were to release results that unintentionally stigmatized certain groups or individuals. What would happen if you did not recognize or follow the established ethical research guidelines for working with certain vulnerable populations, children, or cultural and religious groups? Are you even aware that such guidelines exist? A knowledgeable ethics collaborator can help you design studies that are culturally significant and relevant to your sample and ultimately produce high-quality results for your client. We all know that speed and efficiency are key factors when conducting professional research. However, ignoring ethical guidance might not only destroy well-intentioned marketing research projects but also significantly harm future research opportunities and relationships. Ethicists can also provide guidance and advice about issues related to organizational ethics. Why is this important? Consider the massive success of companies – like Google, for example – that strive to treat their employees with respect and to project an ethical brand to the wider community. Typically, when we think of organizational or business ethics, we think of how our brand can be served by attention to ethical principles by reducing our firm’s carbon footprint or by paying attention to the triple bottom line. But organizational ethics encompasses much more ground than this and includes important issues such as the treatment of employees and the moral climate that is established within a firm. So why do we need to care about ethical workplace cultures and the moral distress of employees? Suppose for a moment that you have a boss who seems to enjoy picking on one of your colleagues and close friends. This friend has started to call in sick a lot lately and, one day during lunch, you even notice your friend crying in the bathroom. You would like to do something to address this issue, but you aren’t sure what to do or who you should talk to about this kind of thing. You are starting to dread coming into work in the morning. Prominent ethics researchers such as Bernadette Pauly and Jan Storch have shown that unethical workplaces can impact the quality of work conducted by employees, employee retention rates, and a range of other things. (See, for example, the autumn 2012 edition of Communiqué, entitled Toward a Moral Horizon: Nursing Ethics, available at www.uvic.ca/hsd/nursing/assets/docs/research/ communique/08_Communique_autumn_2012.pdf )
It makes intuitive sense that fostering meaningful and ongoing engagement with employees allows you to swiftly identify and address workplace issues (such as bullying) that are impeding individuals’ ability to conduct high-quality and efficient work. Such issues can be ameliorated and managed with ethics training and education. Promoting a respectful environment where your employees can thrive is an ethical issue as well as good business practice. Organizational ethics also draws attention to how employees actually conduct their work. The media have been focusing a great deal lately on the controversy generated by decisions, made by Yahoo and others, regarding telecommuting and flexible work options. While the “right” thing to do from a competitive perspective is subject to intense debate, it is important to consider whether there are in fact circumstances in which flexible hours or locations could work for your firm. Employers need to ask what they might lose, or gain, from not being flexible. What options allow them to best attract and retain a diverse and loyal workforce? Are the anticipated tradeoffs worth the potential benefits? Consider the concept of bringing pets to work. Studies have shown that pets in the workplace can lower stress levels and foster better overall health among employees. As an employer or employee, what are some of the steps you could take to make your firm a more productive, attractive, and even healthier workplace for your current and future colleagues? In closing, mindfulness of ethical principles and practices should influence all aspects of the marketing research industry. Such an approach can help us develop ongoing trusting relationships with our employees, our research participants, and our clients, and will impact all aspects of our research activities, from idea formation to the way in which we treat our colleagues. As professionals, we seek to develop long-term trusting relationships with the communities we research and to do so in ways that will benefit all of us in the long run, including our bottom line. Actively engaging with the types of ethical issues raised in this article will impact both the short- and the long-term success of our research companies. Engage Associates Consulting Group is a Vancouver-based partnership of three consultants. Together, they conduct qualitative and quantitative research in applied ethics for clients across Canada, including research on the ethics of genetic science, neuroethics, the ethics of biofuels, health-care ethics, organizational ethics, public health ethics, and a range of other topics. You can reach Holly Longstaff at holly@engageassociates.com and Alice Hawkins Virani at alice@engageassociates.com vue May 2013
19
vue May 2013
25
vue
the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association
MAY 2013
JUNE 2–4, 2013 SHERATON ON THE FALLS NIAGARA FALLS I ONTARIO
2013 MRIA NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Welcome to the 2013 MRIA National Conference June 2 – 4 2013
5875 Falls Avenue I Niagara Falls I Ontario
June 2 – 4 2013
5875 Falls Avenue I Niagara Falls I Ontario
Conference Chair Tim McCutcheon
Hard to imagine sometimes where the time goes … seems like only yesterday I was enjoying a cold beer at our Annual Conference in St. John’s when Brendan Wycks sidled up beside me and starting talking about the 2013 Conference. By the time the “Rally in the Alley” was complete and Tylenol had made good on its promise of fast (though not fast enough) pain relief, I had agreed to Chair this great event. Our conference theme this year is “Bridging the Gap: Bringing clients and suppliers together to shape business discussions, guide business decisions and drive business growth.” The Conference Committee is of the firm belief that, by more fully exploring and understanding the intimate link between marketing research and business decisions, our industry will be wellpositioned to take a seat in the meeting rooms – and the boardrooms – of the world’s most progressive and successful companies. Given this emphasis on the relationship between research insight and business objectives, we have focused our attention on building a balanced program, with representation from both sides of the research fence. Joint client-supplier presentations will be the norm, not the exception. We’ll be informed and entertained by researchers, marketers, panelists and Keynote Speakers from companies who help to keep us clean, feed and water us, give us a place to lay our weary heads, keep our money safe when we’re not using it, advertise all of the above and an organization that bridges global gaps with the click of a mouse. The sold-out tradeshow will be the gathering place for sage marketing research veterans, the young whippersnappers nipping at their heels, and those of us who fall somewhere in between. We’ll celebrate the deserving with the Excellence Awards, nosh at the magnificent Table Rock Restaurant overlooking the Falls, and likely enjoy a sip or two from the barrels of a local winery during the wine tasting and opening reception. We have organized a golf outing on Sunday, playing at the home of the 2004 BMO Canadian Women’s Open. Once the conference is complete, plan to stay around to take in a play at the Shaw Festival, tour the local wineries and distilleries, or visit one of the sites where battles were fought during the War of 1812. For those who are so inclined, Casino Niagara offers a wide variety of ways to spend your money and bridges the gap between the young-at-heart and the just plain young, with Gerry and the Pacemakers and Russell Peters performing while we’re in town. Please make sure to join us for what is sure to be a conference to remember. On behalf of all the committee chairs and the countless volunteers, we are looking forward to a phenomenal conference, from June 2–4 in Niagara Falls.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS June 2 – 4 2013
5875 Falls Avenue I Niagara Falls I Ontario
June 2 – 4 2013
5875 Falls Avenue I Niagara Falls I Ontario
P I N N AC L E
P L ATI N U M
GOLD
S I LV E R
Reliable, Actionable Consumer Insights by Design.TM
B RON Z E
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS KEYNOTES Don Gloeckler – EVP, Chief Research Office at the Advertising Research Foundation Dhan Kashyap, Director, Consumer Research and Competitive Intelligence, Humana Andy Reid, Founder, President Chief Product Officer, Vision Critical Daniel Speck, VP Sales and Marketing, Henry of Pelham
PAN EL L I ST S AND SESSION PRESENTERS Susan Abbott, CMRP, Abbott Research & Consulting Margot Acton, CMRP, Senior Vice President, TNS Monica Alfonso, Shopper and Media Insights, Unilever Canada Emily Anderson, Director of Client Advocacy, Environics Analytics Dominic Atkinson, Executive Director, DIG Insights Inc. Ahmed Badruddin, Co-founder, WatrHub Lesly Bauer, Canadian Medical Association Tricia Benn, Senior Director, Rogers Connect Market Research Derek Blair, PhD, Managing Director, ATB Financial Maya Bourdeau, Managing Partner, Attune LLC Christian Bourque, Executive Vice-President and Partner, Leger Marketing Margaret Brigley, CMRP, President & COO, Corporate Research Associates Winnie Chan, Director, Strategic Marketing Research, RBC Doug Church, CMRP, Phase 5 Angie Cicciarella, Manager, Strategic Market Research, RBC Sylvie Croteau, VP, Ad Hoc Research Amy Davies, Senior Manager, Wrigley Canada Cam Davis, PhD, CMRP, FMRIA, Managing Director, Social Data Research Catherine Dine, CMRP, President, Dine Discoveries Nick Drew, Head of Research, Yahoo! Canada Lise Elder, President, heads up Michael Ennamorato, CMRP, Managing Director, TNS Canada Adam Froman, CEO, Delvinia & AskingCanadians Jan Fuller, Confectionary Lead, Bars, Nestle Canada Julie Kellershohn, Department Manager, Brand & Menu Insights, McDonald’s Janine Keogh, Vice President, Mondelez Canada Rick Lempera, Capital One Alison Leung, Director of Marketing Foods, Unilever Steve Levy, CMRP, President, Ipsos Gail Livermore, Senior Manager, Guest Insights, Target Canada Bernie Malinoff, CMRP, President, Element 54 Jon Mamela, Director, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts Raj Manocha, Vice President, AskingCanadians Marco Massa, Consumer Insight Manager, Sweet Biscuit Karen McCauley, Managing Director, Fresh Squeezed Ideas Joline McGoldrick, Research Director, Dynamic Logic Accruate at time of printing: April 29, 2103
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS PAN EL L I ST S AND SESSIO N PRESENTERS Sharon M. McIntyre, CMO, Chaordix Inc. Scott Megginson, President, Millward Brown Canada John Morton, President, Market Probe Dr. Stephen Needel, Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations, LLC. Paul Neto, Co-founder, Crowd Science Paul Neumann, Director of Insights and Planning, Diageo Steve Olsen, Associate Manager in Consumer Market Insight, Unilever Canada Anagha Patwardhan, Vice President, Research & Incite Devin Pratt, Research Specialist, Foresters Insurance Kevin Press, Assistant Vice President, Market Insights, Sun Life Financial George Rassias, CMRP, Senior Manager, Ontario Lotteries and Gaming Usha Srinivasan, PhD, Program Director, Business Acceleration Program (BAP), MaRS Stephen Thompson, EVP, Ramius Corporation Brett Townsend, Director of Strategy and Insights, PepsiCo Steve Tile, President, Ignite Lab Vikram Verghese, Marketing Manager – Americas, AB World Foods Cathy Williamson, Director, Brand Development, heads up Carol Wilson, CMRP, Director of Market Research, SPIELO International Cesar Zea, Director, Client Service, Millward Brown Canada
TRADESHOW BOOTHS & EXHIBITORS
3Q Global..........................................28
LMS Prolink Ltd..................................11
ACCE Intl............................................8
MRII / University of Georgia............... TBA
Advitek Research................................24
Marketing Systems Group / SM Research......................................19
Reliable, Actionable Consumer Insights by Design.TM
AIP New York Co..................................4
Network Research..............................30
ASDE Survey Sampler (Providers of the Annual Speed Networking Event)....10
Opinions Ltd.................................... TBA
ATP Canada / Rosetta Studio..................6
Provalis Research...............................23
Canadian Viewpoint Inc.........................9
Research House Inc............................16
Cido Research......................................7
Research Now............................ 17 & 18
CLS Lexi-Tech Ltd...............................15
SSI...................................................22
Confirmit...........................................13
The Logit Group Inc..............................2
Economical Select...............................12
Tellepoll Market Research....................27
E-Tabs...............................................26
Toluna.................................................3
Focus Vision Worldwide.........................1
uSamp..............................................25
THANK YOU TO OUR Conference Volunteers, Suppliers and Staff ORGANIZING COMMITTEE CONFERENCE CHAIRS Tim McCutcheon t.mccutcheon@marketprobe.com
GALA AND AWARDS EVENING CO-CHAIR Cam Davis camdavis@sdrsurvey.com
PROGRAM AND SPEAKER CO-CHAIR Joseph Chen joseph.chen@unilever.com
SOCIAL EVENTS CO-CHAIR Christian Mueller christianmuellerphd@gmail.com
SPONSORSHIP CO-CHAIRS Anu Bhalla abhalla@advanis.net Carolyn O’Keefe carolyn@mqoresearch.com
CONFERENCE COMMUNICATIONS & EVENT LOGISTICS Anne Marie Gabriel amgabriel@mria-arim.ca
TRADESHOW CO-CHAIR Anastasia Arabia conftradeshow@mria-arim.ca
REGISTRATION & LOGISTICS Erica Klie eklie@mria-arim.ca
MARCOMM CO-CHAIR Gera Nevolovich gera.nevolovich@hotspex.com
WEB DESIGN AND GRAPHICS Michael Maske and Louise Maske info@lsgraphics.com
VOLUNTEERS Anu Bhalla abhalla@advanis.net
Katya Matkova katya@rsginc.net
Tabatha Bourguignon tabatha.bourguignon@hotspex.com
John Morton j.morton@marketprobe.com
Connie Classen cclassen@bbmanalytics.ca
Carolyn O’Keefe carolyn@mqoresearch.com
Jeff Cole jeff.cole@georgiancollege.ca Dionne Daley Dionne.Daley@hotspex.com Cam Davis camdavis@sdrsurvey.com Roy Gonsalves rgonsalves@askingcanadians.com Kelsey Hackenschmidt kelsey.hackenschmidt@hotspex.com Lesley Haibach Lesley.Haibach@ipsos.com Fiona Isaacson fisaacson@corbinpartners.com Robert Kolatschek robert.kolatschek@mdlz.com
Zissis Parras zparras@hotmail.com Anagha Patwardhan anagha.patwardhan@riconsultants.com Sarah Paz sarah.paz@hotspex.com Carlos Rubios carlos.rubios@hotspex.com Kamal Sharma Kamal.Sharma@sobeys.com John Snow john.benchmark@rogers.com Margaret Tso margaret.tso@cadillacfairview.com
Marina Korotkikh marina@rsginc.net
Cora Waters coraw@rogers.com
Peter Krelove peter.krelove@hotspex.com
Cathy Williamson cathy.williamson@headsupgroup.com
F E ATURE
STRUCTURAL COLLABORATION WITH CONSUMERS: AN EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION Tom De Ruyck
Co-creation is hot. In recent years, the world has been witness to a whole host of successful co-creation cases. Doritos allowed its fans to develop an advert to be shown during the Super Bowl; Lay’s Crisps asked its customers to help choose a new flavour; and snack manufacturer Mora produced a new croquette in collaboration with its consumers. Co-creation and crowdsourcing are high on the agenda of the majority of today’s marketers. They are seen as quick ways to experiment with a new way of working. There is nothing wrong with the approach but, in most cases, it doesn’t go any further than being just a trendy marketing campaign. The other problem with all of the examples above is that they were all “one-offs.” There is no long-term vision, nor an intention to collaborate with the customer in a more structural way.
20
vue May 2013
Currently, only 3 per cent of all companies have experience with developing new products and services with their consumers. In most cases, this collaboration starts with a pilot project (see InSites Consulting’s Social Media Integration Survey, 2011, accessible at www.slideshare.net/ stevenvanbelleghem/social-media-integration-survey). If the test is successful, the collaboration can gradually be built up in a more structural manner. Fewer than one out of ten companies that co-create with their customers also use this collaboration for the launching of new products. We may say that co-creation is mainly focused on the initiation of new ideas (see Frost & Sullivan’s 2011 R&D/Innovation and Product Development Priorities Survey Results, available at www.frost.com/prod/servlet/cio/246147871). But even if consumers are more or less continually involved in the process of dreaming up new ideas, this involvement is still not enough to be able to speak of “structural collaboration.” Structural collaboration means that the customer is involved in all aspects of your company’s life, including the following. • Getting new insights. Explore the target group. Listen directly to how they perceive the product and service quality in order to optimize the commercial portfolio. Doing so also implies discovering new market trends and unmet needs from your most relevant customers.
F EATUR E
• Development of new ideas and fine-tuning of existing ideas. Work together with customers to create new commercial value. By involving customers in the product, campaign or brand development flow, you create a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The most relevant customers decide almost upfront what they will buy. • Key role during implementation. Include customers during the implementation phase to make sure that your interpretation of their ideas is done in a correct way. • Continuous evaluation and optimization. Use the voice of the customer as a continuous flow of information to improve a number of smaller, tactical issues and to reshape the future of your company with your customer as your primary consultant.
one of their favourite brands around one or more of these issues (see InSites Consulting’s study entitled Social Media around the World 2011, accessible at www.slideshare.net/ stevenvanbelleghem/social-media-around-the-world-2011). Moreover, recent research carried out at the University of Wageningen, in the Netherlands, has demonstrated that products whose packaging is labelled “co-created with consumers” will sell significantly better than equivalent products that are not labelled in this way (J. Van Dijk’s MSc thesis for the Faculty of Social Sciences, The Effects of Co-creation on Brand and Product Perceptionsm). In other words, consumers have more confidence in each other’s judgment than in the judgment of professional experts within a company. And they are probably right to feel that way. In a recent study, we found that new product ideas
Overview of Structural Collaboration and Business Objectives
The figure above provides an overview of structural collaboration and business objectives. And structural collaboration pays off. Scott Cook’s article, “The Contribution Revolution,” in the October 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review, claims that companies are better able to solve all their main business problems if they collaborate closely with their consumers. The good news is that consumers are willing to help companies out with these efforts: more than half of them want to collaborate with
co-developed with consumers score higher, especially on “being relevant” and “fulfilling ones needs” (InSite Consulting’s R&D study in collaboration with Heinz). The goal of the present article is to look into the ingredients that are necessary for a company to get the consumer on board structurally – every single day and for almost all decisions that need to be taken. As a consequence of this intense collaboration between your company and the market, decisions will no longer be imposed from above. And when the majority of your vue May 2013
21
F E ATURE
decisions are taken in this manner, following consultation with the market, you may justly speak of structural collaboration. Consumers are truly represented in the boardroom. Their voice can be heard in every part of your company, a voice that is every bit as loud as the voice of management and staff. You may even want to consider appointing a consumer as an honorary member of your board. Objectives of Structural Collaboration
Companies that are working on structural collaboration with their customers have four clear objectives in mind with this approach. 1. To create better products, improve customer service, and communicate in a more impactful way. This is by far the most important objective for large brands’ collaboration with consumers. By succeeding in this objective, the overall performance of the organization will improve. 2. To become more agile. By involving customers in every phase of a decision-making chain, things move faster. Companies can make better decisions faster and have a better feeling for what will be needed to be as successful in the future – a big plus in today’s fast-moving world. 3. To add consumer feeling to the gut feeling. A lot of managers rely on their gut feeling – a wonderful practice. Structural collaboration should add “consumer feeling.” By collaborating so often, managers develop the ability to put on the consumer’s hat during a meeting and think as the customer would, allowing them to make more consumerrelevant choices. 4. To address marketing & PR. Companies that listen to and involve consumers in decision-making are popular nowadays. Tell all your customers that you take decisions based on consultations with other customers and they will like you more. Leveraging the internal collaboration platforms toward external communication has an impact on the customer’s overall perception. This is not the main goal of structural collaboration, but a very welcome indirect effect. Evolution, Not Revolution
It is clear that structural collaboration with consumers is not about having the right technology to make it happen. It is about a shift in mentality, for most organizations – a shift from a “we know best” attitude toward an open mentality. The most beautiful result for collaborating companies is the creation of what we just called the consumer feeling. Adding the consumer feeling to the gut feeling of companies is the biggest change that can be achieved through structural collaboration. 22
vue May 2013
To reach this situation, there are a number of steps to take. Based on our research among fifteen C-level executives of global companies that practise collaboration with consumers, we learned that all companies started small and evolved toward bigger and bigger collaborative projects. In the end, collaboration was truly embedded in company organization. It was a process of evolutionary change, not revolution change. The evolution toward structural collaboration happens in three steps. 1. Collaboration always starts with a first time tryout. Companies organize a co-creation project in which they allow the customer to participate in one specific project. The most frequently occurring examples are co-creations of a new product, a new package, or new marketing communication. 2. If this tryout is experienced as a success, the second step is to apply collaboration on a project-based level in the organization. At this stage, companies have the habit of involving the customer in every important new project on which they work. 3. After a while, it becomes hard for the companies to take decisions without the voice of the customer during the process, and they decide to collaborate structurally. Five Pillars of Structural Collaboration
Based on our interviews with C-level executives, we conclude that there are five crucial pillars of success in the evolution toward structural collaboration. 1. Fit with the company culture. In our interviews, everyone mentioned company culture as a very important pillar for evolution from co-creation to structural collaboration. It is easier to collaborate with employees and customers if your organization is characterized by an open and positive culture. However, the implication is not that collaboration is possible only in certain companies. Collaboration is possible in every company, but the current culture determines where you can start. To be successful in collaboration, it is important to select an approach that fits the current company culture. Don’t try to change the culture through your first collaborative projects. For example, if you have a culture in which low cost is key, make sure the objective of the collaboration is to reduce the costs of other expenses (e.g., doing less ad hoc marketing research). If you are a company whose connection with its target group is high on the agenda, add consumer connectivity as an objective.
F EATUR E
In other words, let the objectives of collaboration and the way of working (duration, intensity, and level of involvement of different departments) fit with the existing culture. This approach will allow you to start. After a while, the company culture will change automatically, project by project. Employees will be more connected to consumers, resulting in direct feedback, which will allow better and faster decisions and, in the end, bring in more money. As a consequence, the opinion of the customer will increase in value and your company will evolve toward an open, collaborative environment. 2. Select the right participants. There are two types of customer collaboration possible: an open online platform, where everyone can participate, and a closed online community, where you select the people to join in. In the large, open communities, you have little direct control over who joins in and who doesn’t. The members come together in a very spontaneous way to discuss particular subjects that are of interest to them. Your role with regard to these people is simply to listen. Doing so will allow you to discover a series of unfulfilled market needs, potentially leading to new products and services. Of course, you are also free to ask members questions, but you must always remember that these communities are open – anyone else might be listening to the members’ answers! Companies that want to involve the customer in more strategic decisions and have a need for in-depth feedback tend to work with a closed online community, with a limited number of relevant customers. If you want to solve a specific management problem, it is better to discuss possible solutions with a smaller, closed group of between 50 and 150 of people with a keen interest in your category. The community could also be a group of your most ardent fans, whom you have carefully vetted and selected yourself. The major advantage of this approach is that you have everything in your own hands – and this state of affairs is advisable when you don’t want the whole world to know what decisions are being taken. It is important to acknowledge that not every customer will be able – or is suitable – to help you solve management problems. To give your company access to the right advice on a daily basis, you need to listen to the right (and relevant) people; for your communities seek to attract people who can offer an added value. The minimum condition for participation is that the participants have a clear commitment to the company and what it stands for. They might be experts in the sector, knowledgeable and enthusiastic amateurs in it, or just big fans of your brand. Research has shown that, without this kind of emotional commitment, people seldom
have enough interest to contribute effectively to an online community (Ludwig, De Ruyck & Schillewaert, InSites Consulting, & the University of Maastricht’s 2011 study). In other words, you need to talk to people who are interesting and interested. If they don’t have an opinion or the natural motivation to take part, your community will not achieve what you want it to achieve. But natural engagement is not enough; you will need to manage the community well in order to make it a real success. A number of things are important: be open and transparent about the goals of each project; listen in an active way (allow participants to put their issues on your agenda too); make it a fun experience (after all, people are doing this in their spare time); and give enough feedback on what you did with their answers. 3. C-level involvement and support are not enough. One of the critical success factors is the involvement of your top executives. To implement collaboration in a way that is credible to the market, there is need for tangible proof of the results of the collaboration. Consumers want to see a new product, change in service, or improved communication. If they feel there is no impact from their efforts, they will drop out. Consumers participate in this type of project to get recognized by a company, not to get rich. In order to make sure the feedback of consumers is used during implementation, the involvement of your C-level is necessary. Top management support is actually not enough. Based on our interviews, we conclude that the most successful cases of collaboration are all stories in which the CEO has an active role: both internally and externally. Internally, he or she leads by example, using consumer feedback to make important decisions. To the external world, the CEO is the face of the company reporting back on decisions that have been made. CEOs who invest in collaboration want to add consumer feeling to the gut feeling of the organization. Many organizations don’t have a clue about what the consumer thinks. As a consequence, marketing research is needed for every small step. The moment your organization gets a consumer feeling, managers can look at the world through the eyes of the consumer, thereby increasing the speed and decreasing the cost of ad hoc research. 4. Internal communication is not enough: internal = external. Managers show more interest in a project or approach that gets external credits than in a project with a sole internal focus. In other words, make sure your structural collaboration does not take place completely behind the scenes of your organization.
F E ATURE
Sharing your collaborative work with the whole organization and the rest of the world has a number of advantages. In addition to an increase in the motivation of your management, it will also increase the motivation of the participants in your communities. Furthermore, research has shown that consumers have a higher level of trust in, and a better perception of, brands that co-create. So, there is also a commercial benefit to leveraging your efforts externally. 5. Measure impact. To keep the flow of collaboration going, there is a need for evidence that the approach works. Therefore, we advise using a number of clear success indicators that you can employ during the implementation of structural collaboration in your organization. There is no standard list of key performance indicators to use; they differ from company to company, as they are closely linked to a company’s culture and its (long-term) objectives. There are, however, a few KPIs that apply to all companies in following up on the impact of structural collaboration. • Success of innovation, impact of communication and improvement of customer service. By involving customers early in the process, your company will make better decisions. Product launches, new advertising campaigns, and so on, should have a higher success rate than before the collaboration was implemented. • Cost reduction. By integrating the voice of the customer in the entire decision-making flow, the cost of ad hoc marketing research could be reduced. In addition, by creating better products and services based on the input of the market, the impact of word-of-mouth will increase, potentially leading to lower media budgets. • Consumer feeling of the organization. You can measure to what extent your management has a better feeling for the attitude and behaviour of your target market. The goal is for managers to think as a consumer and improve their performance through this newly acquired skill. • Brand perception. Listening actively will humanize your brand and make it more popular. Define your KPIs, measure them, and celebrate success! Conclusion: Need for Change in the Internal Implementation Processes
Collaboration should lead to decisions that are taken through cooperation between the market and your company. The proof of structural collaboration is in the implementation of the ideas. In order to succeed in this crucial step, there is a need to change the internal decision 24
vue May 2013
streams. The challenge is to integrate consumer input and feedback into every phase of the decision cycle. And such integration does not happen overnight. List of Interviewees
In order to get a sense of the state of co-creation and structural collaboration with consumers as a business practice today, we conducted in-depth interviews with fifteen senior executives with experience in this area. Here is the full list of interviewees: Caroline Van Hoff (concept development manager, Heineken International) Charles Hageman (research manager, KLM) Erkinheimo Pia (global collaboration manager, Nokia) Graham Kahr (social commerce product manager, Zappos) Hans Similon (evangelist, Mobile Vikings) Joella Marsman (marketing researcher, HJ Heinz) Marc Fouconnier (CEO, Famous) Marjan Rintel (vice-president of marketing & brand, KLM) Martijn Van Kesteren (Yunomi leader, Unilever Benelux) Pascale Mignolet (international market research director for coffee & tea, Sara Lee) Philip Rogge (CEO, Microsoft BE) Piet Decuypere (CEO, Danone) Pol Van Biervliet (CEO, Cisco BE) Stan Knoops (head of consumer insights for Europe, Unilever R&D) Tormod Askildsen (senior director of community engagement & events, Lego)
Based in Belgium, Tom De Ruyck is head of Research Communities at InSites Consulting and in charge of InSites’ global community research activities. Among others, his awards include the American Marketing Association’s “4 under 40: Emerging Leaders Award,” for those who have made significant contributions to the industry (2010), MRS ResearchLive’s “Tweeter of the Year” (2011), MOAward for the “Innovation of 2012,” and the CMO Council USA & Asia’s “Leadership Award for Contribution to Market Research” (2012). Tom can be reached at Tom.DeRuyck@insites.eu.
F E ATURE
‘Bridging the Gap’ The 2013 MRIA Conference: Client-Side Researcher Council Kamal Sharma Before the study …
Client: “Here are the business objectives for the research we need to conduct. We want to use methodology X to run this study.” Supplier: “Based on our understanding, here are the proposal and our recommended methodology and approach.” During the study … Supplier: “Since field time for the survey is longer than we anticipated when costing, there will be some adjustment in cost.” Client: “We are tight on budget. No scope for additional cost.” After study completion …
Client: “The deliverables are not up to the standards I expected. The report is pages and pages with no real findings or recommendations.” Supplier: “We provide a report with key findings and not recommendations. You are closer to the business and so should provide the recommendations. This is what we promised and delivered.” These are very familiar conversations we have all had or heard in our research career, whether as supplier or client. The closing panel at last year’s MRIA conference in St. John’s hosted by the Client-Side Researcher Council, served as the perfect background for the invitation to the 2013 conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The Client-Side Researcher Council (CSRC) and the Research Agency Council (RAC) conducted independent surveys in 2012 to help understand the gaps between the client’s needs and expectations and those of the supplier. The table above presents the key themes that emerged and which I presented at the conference last year.
26
vue May 2013
Clients and Suppliers: Differing Perspectives CLIENTS’ PERSPECTIVE
SUPPLIERS’ PERSPECTIVE
Positives
Positives
Suppliers make clients’ lives easier.
Suppliers appreciate the team approach.
Suppliers contribute to clients’ success.
Clients consider suppliers valued partners.
Clients, in turn, value the relationship.
Suppliers appreciate their expertise being honoured.
Opportunities
Opportunities
Collaboration needs to be encouraged.
Involve suppliers in the project early in the process and provide sufficient detail.
Highlight the value add.
Be consistent in how projects are awarded.
Feedback leads to improved productivity.
Consider rewarding suppliers based on performance.
We in the marketing research community know that a void has always existed between suppliers and clients. The gap can occur anywhere – in understanding of the business questions, in methodologies employed, and in reporting deliverables. Together, as a community, we have been working in pursuit of improving the quality of research, getting meaningful insights, and building a relationship of trust between clients and suppliers. MRIA has always encouraged driving synergies between the research individuals working on either side of the fence. From a supplier’s perspective, in order to provide actionable insights, suppliers need to have access to more internal information or the context of the research being done. They want to be involved in the research at an early stage. Sometimes they work in a haze where they are considered neither just field and tab
F EATUR E
service providers nor integral partners. Terms are mostly dictated by the client. Clients’ hands are occasionally tied in terms of the level of information that can be shared to suppliers. Sometimes it is due to legal requirements, while at other times it’s just a personal choice. No one is really to be blamed here, but trust and a collaborative effort are needed for a healthy relationship. How is the Client-Side Researcher Council working to help bridge the gap?
Over the past years, the CSRC has been working to provide a platform for sharing best practices in the research industry. It has been instrumental in successfully hosting five Social Connect events in Toronto, events at which client-side researchers come out of their everyday working environment and have an opportunity to interact with peers from the research function in other industries. At these client-side events, we have worked to bring forward the gaps highlighted by suppliers and to get a dialogue going. We are always eager to innovate, and we have experimented with ideas generated by our team and with inputs from past executive director Brendan Wycks. At the most recent event, the CSRC took this engagement to the next level and invited selected agencies to showcase their innovative research methodology tools in ten-minute soapbox pitches. This approach was very much appreciated by everyone who attended the event. We understand that all of our research industry colleagues are not located in Toronto. Our CSRC colleague Anne-Marie David hosted a similar Social Connect event in Montreal back in November 2012. Virtual Social Connect events have also been organized via a web conferencing facility. Keeping all this in mind, we embarked on the journey to make the upcoming conference a very engaging and collaborative event. Our motive was to put forward a program that will be thought-provoking and help answer some of the issues we have been facing. So what does the 2013 MRIA conference have to offer?
Besides being organized against the backdrop of picturesque Niagara Falls, the conference will provide lots to learn from industry folks on how to bridge the gap. For keynote speakers, we have industry leaders with experience in different sectors, including consumer product goods, financial services, insurance, and retail, to name just some. Not necessarily researchers, some of the keynote speakers have touched research in one way or the other, whether working in advertising, marketing or sales. Some, having spent their lives on both research supplier and client sides, bring to the table perspectives from both ends of the spectrum.
The four keynote speakers for this year’s conference are • D on Gloeckler (executive vice-president and chief research office, Advertising Research Foundation) • D aniel Speck (vice-president of Sales and Marketing, Henry of Pelham) • D han Kashyap (director of Consumer Research and Competitive Intelligence, Humana) • A ndy Reid (founder-president and chief product officer, Vision Critical) The program committee (with volunteers from both the supplier and client sides, headed by Joseph Chen) objectively evaluated all the submissions and has selected, for the concurrent sessions, high-quality papers resonating with the theme of this conference. These sessions will showcase projects and case studies in which clients and suppliers have collaborated, innovated and worked as a team for project success. The concurrent sessions have been divided into six key themes at this conference: • Marketing Strategy • Brand Equity and Advertising Impact • New Research Tools and Insights • Client-Side Researchers Drive Change • Digital and Mobile Advancement • Managing Big Data and Data Integration In an economy in which everything is tied to budgets, how do we survive the cut? How do we manage more with the same or fewer resources? How do we identify what impact research has had on the bottom line? We hope that this conference will generate a lot of discussion and lead to understanding and adoption of best practices to reduce the gap between supplier and client-side research communities. Will the conference have a client-side get-together for members only?
At the conference, the CSRC will host a meet-and-greet for clientside researchers only. Registered attendees will be informed of details closer to the date. This event will be another opportunity to connect with research colleagues. I look forward to meeting you all in June. For more details on the conference, please go to www.mria-arim.ca/Conference2013/NEWS/index.php
Kamal Sharma, BTech, MBA, is a seasoned consumer researcher with experience on both the supplier and client side. He is currently marketing research manager at Canada’s leading grocery retailer, Sobeys. Kamal has been a key member of the MRIA Conference Program Committee for the past two years, and he has also been on the board of MRIA’s Client-Side Researcher Council since 2010. Kamal can be reached at kamal.sharma@live.ca vue May 2013
27
IND USTRY N E WS
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.
RRS
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. 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. 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 ClientSide 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 Erica Klie, Member Services & Events Coordinator, at 1-888-602-6742 or 905602-6854, ext. 8727 or eklie@mria-arim.ca or, in her absence, Interim Executive Director, John Ball, CMRP at ext. 8724 or jball@mria-arim.ca.
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice For Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007):
Section A (5)
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE REGISTERED RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH THE RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM DURING DECEMBER 2012: GOLD SEAL CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES Advitek Inc. BBM Analytics Blue Ocean Contact Centers Campaign Research Canadian Viewpoint Inc. Cido Research Consumer Vision Ltd. Corsential ULC EKOS Research Associates Inc. Harris/Decima Inc. Head Count Hotspex Inc. MD Analytics Inc. MQO Research NRG Research Group Opinion Search Inc. Research House Inc. Research Now The Logit Group Inc. TNS Canadian Facts Trend Research Inc.
BASIC CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Inc. (BCCR Inc.) Goss Gilroy Inc. INDIVIDUAL MEMBER ORGANIZATION Burak Jacobson Research Partners Inc.
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.
www.mria-arim.ca/RRS 28
vue May 2013
!
IN D USTRY N E W S
Chapter Chat …
Introducing a new section devoted to items of information that the individual chapters are keen to share with the wider audience of MRIA members from coast to coast to coast. In this, our debut issue, we have submissions from six out of seven chapters. We hope to be hearing from all of the chapters on a regular basis in the months ahead.
The Atlantic Chapter would like to welcome Christina Waddy to the position of Chapter President, effective June 1. Christina has served as Vice President for the past two years and is looking forward to taking over the helm from Carolyn O’Keefe, who will serve as Past President. In other chapter news, members are invited to attend a presentation by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs and the Sobey’s School of Business, entitled Ethics and Technology: Who to Trust? The presentation will take place on May 27 at 7 p.m. in the Scotiabank Theatre at Saint Mary’s University. Admission is free.
The Prairie Chapter has two presentations during May in Regina and Winnipeg on social media research given by Annie Pettit of Research Now and Conversition Strategies. The following month sees another pair of presentations: After the chapter’s AGM on June 13 in Winnipeg, Angela Bohonos of the University of Manitoba will talk about her school’s statistics co-op program and Mike Krywy of Red River College will talk about his school’s Know Your Numbers blog, featuring how to use free web-analytic tools to gauge blog effectiveness.
The Quebec Chapter is pleased to recognize that one of its board members from 2003 to 2009 became a recipient this year of the Commemorative Medal of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Anne Dusseault, an agent of the regionalization of immigration for Arthabaska and l’Erable, was honoured for her work in Southeast Asia and West Africa to promote international cooperation. Many may remember her from Head Research. We’re proud of you, Anne!
In a presentation on February 15 to the Ottawa Chapter, Shane Skillen, CEO of Hotspex, highlighted how some consumer behaviours can be predicted to within 92% accuracy by measuring consumers’ thought patterns. From over 5,000 hours of research and almost 900 interviews, he pointed to specific cases where predictive accuracy was 70% for rational thought and 22% for “emotional thought.” In addition, the Ottawa Chapter showcased students from the Marketing and Business Intelligence Research (MBIR) graduate-level program at Algonquin College.
The Alberta Chapter would like to thank the instructors who have come to Edmonton or Calgary in the past three months to teach Measuring Customer Satisfaction (February), Communicating Insights (March) and Market Intelligence (April). Last month also saw Janine Keogh giving well-received talks in both cities on Giving the Gift of Insight. Co-hosted by the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) in Calgary, her “insightful” presentation in Edmonton was followed by an interview that is now available as a podcast at www.frankonlinemarketing. com/insight. Finally, we congratulate our former Alberta Chapter president, Anastasia Arabia, on becoming MRIA’s national president. Woo hoo!
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the first Toronto Chapter pub night of 2013! A lively group of research suppliers, buyers and Georgian College RAP students came out in the “spring blizzard” to network, chat, and enjoy a pint. Congratulations to the winner of our “Friendly Darts Tournament” – Cary Brown from TD Bank!
vue May 2013
29
IND USTRY N E WS
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. 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. 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! If you are not currently participating, please get involved! If you are interested in submitting to QRR, please visit the MRIA website at www.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.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO: QRRQ@MRIA-ARIM.CA
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE SUBMITTED NAMES TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY FOR DECEMBER 2012 ONTARIO Consumer Vision Dawn Smith Field Management Services Inc. I & S Recruiting Ipsos Reid Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Nexus Research Opinion Search Quality Response Research House Inc.
QUEBEC Opinion Search Ipsos Reid Research House Inc. MBA Recherche
WEST Trend Research Opinion Search Ipsos Reid Research House Inc. Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting
ATLANTIC Opinion Search
Submission templates and payment forms can be found at www.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. R ecruiters should provide accurate data to the Qualitative Research Registry, where such exists, on a consistent basis and check all respondents against the Registry.
30
vue May 2013
21. M oderators 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.
IN D USTRY N E W S
OFF THE RAC
LOOKING BAC Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP RAC is your Research Agency Council, a group of twelve senior representatives of corporate members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. After approximately eight years serving on RAC, the last two of them as chair, I am stepping down to focus on MRIA’s business ambitions for expansion of its Research Advisory services to the regulatory and legal sector. This state-of-the-union article is written to inform you of what your Research Agency Council has achieved in the past two years, as it plans for a new executive and membership roster. The best time to leave a job is when there is somebody next to you who is ready and able to do the job better than you did. As I tell my Council colleagues with sufficient frequency that they are bored of hearing it, I am so impressed with the leadership capabilities, energy, creativity and commitment of current RAC colleagues, that I could slip out the back door and no one would notice for weeks. First, let me list for you and thank the generous leaders who have contributed to RAC since 2011, some having moved on from the Board, some just recently elected: Margot Acton Karen Bradley Margaret Brigley Amy Charles Adam Froman Ricardo Gomez-Insausti Jami Koehl Lorraine Macdonald
Gary Offenberger Rasheeda Qureshi Darko Rakin Elaine Robbins Gini Smith (past chair) Oded VanHam Steve Willson Mark Wood
Imagine the value of the time of all those talented professionals in billable hours! We have also benefitted from the tireless support of John Ball, Brendan Wycks, Sylvie Corbeil Peloquin, Etta Wahab, and Lucy Pizunski. Here is what your outgoing board leaves behind in accomplishments: • A finely-crafted mission statement, with practical objectives used to track progress • A culture of modern-day corporate governance, applied to policies for self-regulation, transparent election processes, and planning for balanced representation by region and company size
•T he instigating recommendation to the MRIA board to hold its first-ever corporate governance training session (a session now completed and by all accounts successful) • U pdating and streamlining the annual financial state-of-theindustry survey, with painstaking statistical analysis, and results presented at a special session of the annual meeting • M onthly tracking of revenue against budget, with recommendations for action steps to get back on budget in time for year-end • A nalysis of a proposal for an online panel registration system for the industry, with identification of needed business planning details • I nput to the Litigation and Regulatory Resource Committee’s communication of industry advice in the wake of the Supreme Court Masterpiece decision • O verseeing the upgrading and administration of the Research Registration System, and addressing related policy issues as they arise • A nalysis of the underexploited Gold Seal designation program, formulation of a ten-point plan to reinforce its standards, prestige, and practical value, and specific new-benefit planning MRIA members who are part of what is informally called the “supplier-side” of the organization should know that RAC represents you and your firm’s interests in business growth, enhanced credibility with the public, and reinforcement of best practices. MRIA members who are “client-side” should recognize that RAC is, perhaps surprisingly, a collection of respectful competitors who cooperate on matters that earn your confidence to invest in marketing research. And RAC members themselves – why do they do it? For all the reasons that come to mind: the opportunity to contribute to industry matters that directly affect them, the occasion to “give back” what they received from their own mentors, and the Toronto-only sandwich lunches enjoyed vicariously by those calling in by phone. But at least one more thing accounts for the interest in standing for election to the RAC board: the privilege of meeting and working with talented leaders and creative personalities who enrich our professional lives. Thank you all. Fast forward to the next year of progress. vue May 2013
31
IND USTRY N E WS
PEOPLE AND COMPANIES IN THE NEWS •T o read more news online, or to submit your “People and Companies in the News,” s imply fill out our online form at www.mria-arim.ca/PEOPLE/People.asp.
• The Vue editorial team reserves the right to select and edit your submission for appearance in Vue. • MRIA is neither responsible for the accuracy of this information nor liable for any false information.
ARF Appoints Fuguitt as First Woman President and CEO – Gayle Fuguitt, formerly research chief at grocer General Mills, has emerged from a short retirement to take the post of President and CEO at U.S.-based advertising research organisation the ARF. Fuguitt will succeed Bob Barocci, who announced his intention to retire in December, after ten years in the post. At the time, the ARF Board said it expected the incoming President to “craft a bold agenda and set an aggressive pace toward defining the future for the ARF and for the industry.” www.thearf.org In response to European and North American demand, Confirmit, the leading global software provider for Customer Experience, Employee Engagement and Market Research, will bring industry visionaries together at the Confirmit Community Conference 2013 to exchange ideas and best practices. Confirmit will hold the conference in two locations for the first time this year: London (June 19– 21, at the Park Plaza Riverbank) and Las Vegas (June 26–28, at the Bellagio). To learn more about CCC’13 and to register for the London or Las Vegas event, please visit www.confirmit.com/community/conference.aspx Susan Abbott Joins Think Global Qualitative as Canadian Representative – Susan Abbott of Abbott Research & Consulting, is pleased to announce the formation of Think Global Qualitative, an alliance of senior qualitative professionals that can provide boutique-style support to multi-country qualitative projects. www.thinkglobalqualitative.com Rudy Nadilo joined Dapresy as their President, North America. Dapresy has established itself in Europe with 100+ clients as the leading SaaS provider of online analysis and reporting solutions for the marketing research industry. He
helped transform the marketing research industry with his pioneering work as CEO of Greenfield Online, and believes he will help transform the industry again by introducing Dapresy to North America. In business for over ten years, clients include firms like TNS, GfK, The Pert Group, Morpace, Rogers Connect Market Research, Ford Motor Company, Blauw, Synovate, Unilever and many more. rudy@dapresy.com [Logit], the GO TO people for data collection, are pleased to announce the appointment of Terry Rawlings as VP, Sales & Marketing. Terry comes to Logit with a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the Research Industry, not only in Canada but also in the USA, Europe and Latin America. He has worked with all research methodologies and truly knows the whole research process end-to-end. www.logitgroup.com Celebrating 15 Years of Delvinia – People are what make the business, and people are its heart and soul. The story of Delvinia is not my story alone. It is made up of everyone who has been touched by Delvinia, who has been a part of Delvinia, or who has supported Delvinia. It is about the journey with our clients, our partners and our employees. It is as important for me to have them share their stories, as it is for me to share mine – Adam Froman, Founder and CEO. www.delvinia.com/15th-anniversary/ Research Now Mobile™ announced the launch of Version 3.0 of its Research Now Mobile™ platform, redesigned to feature multilingual capabilities; a survey launch scheduler; a multi-level nested quota management system; and advanced geo location survey capabilities – all while providing researchers access to a more global array of mobile respondents from around the world. http://www.researchnow.com
People and Companies in the News sponsored by:
32
vue May 2013
IN DUSTRY N E W S
Class Action Possible in comScore Case – Digital audience specialist comScore has suffered a legal setback in Illinois, where a federal judge has ruled it could be open to a class action suit over claims of privacy violations. comScore admits that the software can inadvertently collect personally identifiable information about panelists, but points out that when this happens it purges its database. The firm has said it will “aggressively defend itself” against the claims and had argued that the case was not appropriate for class action because consent issues need to be analysed case-by-case – but Holderman said many of the questions raised were common to all cases. www.mrweb.com/drno/news17073.htm Vision Critical and Dentsu Marketing Insight Announce Partnership to Offer Insight Communities in Japan – The partnership combines Dentsu Marketing Insight’s market expertise and experience working with top Japanese and global corporations in Japan with Vision Critical Insight Community technologies, to offer brands and clients a new and exciting level of continuous customer understanding to support their everyday business decisions. info@visioncritical.com Radix Market Research Announces New Ownership Team – As the result of a long-term succession plan a group of Radix employees John Trumpener, Cathy Ollerhead, Sara Simmons and Chris Lau, have taken over as principal
owners of Radix from its founding partners Fergus Gamble, Jim Dadson and Susan Gamble. The new owners are committed to continuing Radix’s tradition of innovative analytic tools backed by high levels of customer service. www.radixmr.com Spring is a special time for us at SmartPoint Research, as it is also the season our market research company was founded. On April 1, we enter into our seventh year of business, and are looking forward to it very much. We have been lucky to work with great clients, on a wide variety of interesting projects. We are excited about what is to come, and to continue growing. www.smartpointresearch.com Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight, targeting and cross-channel marketing, today announced a multi-national alliance with Research Now, the global leader in digital data collection. Together, the two companies have developed custom research capabilities leveraging online behaviour measurement of Research Now’s consumer and business panelists and the ability to survey the same individuals. The joint offering allows multichannel marketers to receive valuable self-reported insights about select consumer activities from regular surveys with aggregated and anonymous research about their associated online behaviour. matt.tatham@experian.com
EVENTS
MARK YOUR CALENDAR MRIA AGM Monday, May 27, 2013 Registration – 5:30-6:15 p.m. Marriott Toronto Bloor Yorkville Hotel 90 Bloor St. East, Toronto Ontario Best of Canada – ESOMAR Breakfast May 8 in Toronto CSRC Webinar – Lenny Murphy May 9 CMRE Application Deadline May 31 MRIA 2013 NATIONAL CONFERENCE June 2–4 in Niagara Falls MRIA IPD CMRE EXAM June 28 in Toronto QRD Qual in the Fall Conference TBD in Toronto
vue May 2013
33
P ROFESSIONAL DE VE LO PME NT
GET YOUR CMRP DESIGNATION! The CMRP (Certified Marketing Research Professional) designation signifies a high level of knowledge and capability in marketing research theory and practice, and adherence to rigorous ethical standards set out in MRIA’s Code of Conduct and Good Practice.
BY ACHIEVING A DESIGNATION YOU: • Confirm your broad competency and mastery of theoretical and practical knowledge required to maximize value to your organization and clients; • Better position yourself for career advancement and greater earning power; • Demonstrate your commitment to continued professional development and to upholding the highest level of professional ethical standards.
The CMRP can be obtained by writing the Comprehensive Marketing Research Exam (CMRE). The next CMRE will be held on June 28, 2013. Application deadline: May 31, 2013. Apply now!
CMRE PREP WORKSHOP: PREPARE FOR THE EXAM! A Prep Workshop is available for those who want to brush up on material and on exam techniques, to prepare for the CMRE. This two-day CMRE Prep Workshop will be offered in Toronto on June 5–6, 2013 and in Winnipeg on May 27–28, 2013. The enrolment to this unique Workshop is limited to 15 registrants per workshop, so don’t delay and reserve your seat TODAY.
102-ETHICAL ISSUES AND PRIVACY IN MARKETING RESEARCH
This course introduces participants to the key ethical concerns in the management of the research process. The course focuses on the responsibility of researchers to the public, users of marketing research, clients, and suppliers. This is a mandatory course for all CMRE writers, with the exception of RAP and MBIR graduates. This course will be offered in Toronto on May 27.
MRIA Institute for Professional Development
For more information on the CMRE, please visit: www.mria-arim.ca/EDUCATION/CMRE.asp Institut de développement or contact us at education@mria-arim.ca professionnel de l’ARIM 34
vue May 2013
P ROFE SS IONAL DE VELO PMEN T
CANADA’S LEADING PROVIDER OF MARKETING RESEARCH EDUCATION FOR PROFESSIONALS
LAST CHANCE! LAST CALL!!
GET ‘EM BEFORE THEY’RE GONE!!!
This is your FINAL chance to register for these courses before the cutoff! Don’t delay, act today!! Final Registration Deadline: May 13, 2013 Location: Toronto
MCP 20
May 13, 2013 Location: Winnipeg
102-Ethical Issues and Privacy in Marketing Research Course Date: May 27, 2013 CMRE Prep Workshop Course Date: May 27–28, 2013
May 14, 2013 Location: Toronto
MCP 60
Moderator Training: Basic Course Date: May 28–30, 2013
May 17, 2013 Location: Ottawa
MCP 20
202-Questionnaire Design Course Date: May 31, 2013
May 22, 2013 Location: Toronto
CMRE Prep Workshop Course Date: June 5–6, 2013
Online Courses: Available Anytime, Anywhere! MCP 20
101-Introduction to Marketing Research
MCP 20
102-Ethical Issues and Privacy in Marketing Research
MCP 20
201-Marketing Research Design: An Applied Course
MCP 20
202-Questionnaire Design
MCP 40
203-Marketing Research Statistics & Data Analysis
MCP 20
204-Qualitative Marketing Research
MCP 20
301-Competitive Intelligence, Competitor Benchmarking & Mystery Shopping
MCP 20
302-Market Intelligence
MCP 40
303-Marketing Management for Researchers
MCP 20
401-Online Research, Best Practices and Innovations
MCP 20
403-Advanced Qualitative Marketing Research Techniques
MRIA Institute for
Professional Development
Institut de développement professionnel de l’ARIM
For more details or to register, visit our website at www.mria-arim.ca/EDUCATION/default.asp vue May 2013
35
C O L UMN I S T S QUALITAS For the Public Good, but Your Good as Well Kelly Adams Ipsos Reid UU
I ♥ Qual, and I Hope You Do Too A couple of years ago at the annual MRIA Conference, you may have noticed a number of delegates with a snazzy red “I ♥ Qual” ribbon hanging from their name badges. I do not know if these ribbons will be available at this year’s conference. I do know that their presence in 2010 generated some positive attention, but also caught some flak from certain quarters of our shared industry. The consternation stemmed from the fact that the ribbons were not kept exclusively for qualitative practitioners. Looking around, you could spot them on moderators and recruiters, AND on client-side researchers and brand owners, AND on statisticians, consultants, and 100 per cent quantitative gurus.
36
vue May 2013
Because that was the whole point. The ribbon read “I ♥ Qual,” not “I do Qual.” Imagine if the description of a music lover were reserved only for those talented people who create music: how many people would that exclude? All those music lovers who may not be able to create or perform music in some fashion, but who do appreciate music and what it can do. We were making the same statement for qualitative research. Working on the qual side was not the criterion: appreciation for qualitative was. And all the people who wore the ribbon at the conference appreciated what qualitative methodologies can add to the learning and insights that marketing research as a whole works to uncover. The way it lets people tell us their stories, use their words to describe, show us the relevant parts of their lives – it reminds us that what we are investigating are human beings not just data points. Even if the I ♥ Qual ribbon isn’t at the conference this year, still remember to keep room in your heart for qualitative.
COLUMN I STS
In Memoriam DUMAS, Patricia (1943 - 2013) In Ottawa, on March 28th, Patricia succumbed to the after-effects of a cerebral hemorrhage, reuniting with her parents, Angelina McKoy and Johnny Dumas, her sister Evelyn and her brother John Michael. Her extraordinary vitality and her generosity will continue to inspire those who were lucky to know her, and particularly those she loved above all, her children Louis, Jean-Michel (Marie-Maude Fleury Labelle) and Julie Paré, their father Paul, her dear grandchildren Olivier, Mia, Azèla, Léonie, Alexandre, Samuel, Éloïze and Dalia, her sisters Carmel (Daniel Rioux) and Teresa (Claude Couture). A natural achiever, she was successful in the performing arts before becoming a remarkable political journalist and then attaché. After retiring from politics, she became a professional translator for several clients, including MRIA, and was in the midst of completing her doctoral degree in that field when she was struck down so suddenly, to the dismay of her many friends who will miss her lively and authentic companionship. Her remains will be put to rest next summer in the Gaspé, in the village of St-Georges-de-Malbaie where she was born.
vue May 2013
37
2012-2013
AWARDS
& RECOGNITION
Awards and Recognition serve critical functions within a professional association. They provide motivation for the many volunteers upon whose efforts the association depends. They provide an opportunity for the self-promotion within the association that puts a positive face on our activities and makes people feel good about belonging to the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA). They also serve to highlight leadership and examples of excellence, in all areas, which are powerful ways of communicating the ideals and direction of the association.
This year’s award winners will be announced at the 2013 “Bridging the Gap” Conference to be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, June 2-4 2013 - for more information, visit mria-arim.ca/Conference2013/NEWS/index.php or come join us on Tuesday June 4, 2013 at 6 PM at Sheraton on the Falls.
Excellence Awards are generously sponsored by
Previous winners are also posted online at www.mria-arim.ca/AWARDS//ExcelAwards05.asp
BEST IN CLASS
PUBLIC POLICY IMPACT AWARD
MRIA AWARD OF DISTINCTION
Awarded for a research project that serves as a shining example to research practitioners and users.
The MRIA Public Policy Impact Award will be awarded for a research project in the broader public sector that has had a demonstrable public policy impact.
The MRIA Award of Distinction recognizes younger members of the Association who have brought distinction to themselves and to the marketing, survey and public opinion research and market intelligence industry/profession through leadership and achievement in their professional and personal lives.
EXCELLENCE BEHIND THE SCENES Awarded to recognize research practitioners whose efforts, such as data collection, recruiting, data processing and analysis or related areas, while enabling the completion of marketing research projects, are “behind the scenes” and do not have direct client contact. BEST MULTINATIONAL Awarded to research practitioners who have initiated and taken the lead in designing and implementing a marketing research project, which collects data from respondents in more than one country. BEST INTEGRATION Awarded in recognition of a research project that demonstrates successful integration of marketing research with other information sources. THE MURRAY PHILP ALTRUISTIC AWARD Awarded for a marketing research project done on a pro-bono or reduced profit basis, for a not-for-profit organization that has contributed positively to the individuals, groups or communities that form part of our Canadian network, that it was meant to help.
CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHER IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS AWARD MRIA’s Client-Side Researcher Impact and Effectiveness Award recognizes a member, employed as a Client-Side Researcher Corporate member of the Association, for outstanding achievements over the past year which have served to elevate the stature of marketing, survey and public opinion research and market intelligence at senior decision-making levels of his or her own organization. MRIA AWARD OF OUTSTANDING MERIT The MRIA Award of Outstanding Merit recognizes conspicuous and sustained service to or on behalf of MRIA or the marketing, survey and public opinion research industry/profession. Such sustained service may have been rendered to MRIA (or one of its predecessor Associations; or some combination thereof); to related industry/ professional groups; or to the community and society generally.
As the Award is intended to honour younger members of the Association, the age of 40 years has been established as the cutoff for eligibility. GRASSROOTS VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP AWARD MRIA’s Grassroots Volunteer Leadership Award recognizes sustained service to the Association – or, through the Association, to the industry/profession more broadly – which has not been rendered in an MRIA national volunteer leadership capacity. Such service must have been delivered over a period of at least two consecutive years. CHAPTER MERIT AWARD MRIA’s Chapter Merit Award recognizes the MRIA Chapter that has demonstrated the strongest support for one or more elements of MRIA’s current Strategic Plan or its immediately previous Strategic Plan during the past year. This support may have been demonstrated through a new initiative or a special program launched during the year; a single event or Chapter activity; or refinements to an existing program.
To purchase tickets for the 2013 Gala Awards Dinner on June 4 2013, visit http://mria-arim.ca/Conference2013/REGISTRATION/index.php
Summer is a great time… to join MRIA Starting on May 6,
new members can join at the following pro-rated rates for a membership valid until December 31, 2013: • Regular member: $256* • New practitioner with less than two years of work experience in the industry: $119* * plus $70 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