MRIA VUE Magazine, November 2012

vue

the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association NOVEM BER 2012

Au Contraire (4) Fifty Shades of Loyalty Emerging Trends in Advertising Research

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932

IN MEMORIAM: Joseph B. Doyle, CMRP, FMRIA (1921-2012)

Bridging the Gap between Consumer and Shopper Marketing Perspectives Ten Psychological Needs That Drive Branding Strategy Trusting Your Qual Partner: L’art de la recherche marketing qualitative de haute qualitÊ

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Cover: Joe Doyle In this month’s features: (L to R) Chuck Chakrapani, Catherine Yuile, Luke Stringer, Joel Rubinson, Lana E. Porter, Isabelle Landreville

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

ADDRESS

SPECIAL FEATURE 10 IN MEMORIAM: NO AVERAGE JOE Christian Mueller, CMRP

FEATURES 12 AU CONTRAIRE (4) FIFTY SHADES OF LOYALTY Chuck Chakrapani, CMRP, FMRIA 16 EMERGING TRENDS IN ADVERTISING RESEARCH Catherine Yuile and Luke Stringer 20 B RIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN CONSUMER AND SHOPPER MARKETING PERSPECTIVES Joel Rubinson 24 10 PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS THAT DRIVE BRANDING STRATEGY Lana E. Porter 28 TRUSTING YOUR QUAL PARTNER: L’ART DE LA RECHERCHE MARKETING QUALITATIVE DE HAUTE QUALITÉ Isabelle Landreville

COMMENTARY 4 Editor’s Vue 6 Letter from the Executive Director

INDUSTRY NEWS 31 Research Registration System (RRS) 32 Qualitative Research Registry (QRR) 33 People and Companies in the News

COLUMNISTS 37 THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION 37 INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY 38 TWO SOLITUDES 38 BRAVE NEW WORLD 39 QUALITAS

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 2012 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: November, 2012 © 2012.

All rights reserved. Copyright rests with the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author.

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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

I am a brand.

Every blog post, tweet, Facebook status, and editorial I write represents both conscious and unconscious attempts to convince you of what my brand represents. I want you to think that I am passionate about marketing research, love statistics, and feel a kinship with MRIA. But try as I might, I know you’ll interpret my carefully chosen words based on your world view and create your own image of the Annie Pettit brand. All I can do is try to assess your interpretation of my brand and adjust my “advertising” efforts appropriately.

Of course, products and services experience this ongoing battle even more so than little old me. Think about British Petroleum, an oil company you probably had fairly neutral opinions about before the horrific explosion in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago. Now, BP is working hard to change its brand image from Earth destroyers to Earth restorers by running a series of carefully managed television advertisements touting their efforts to improve employment opportunities and environmental health in the affected region.

And as I write this, our neighbours to the south are in the midst of two massive branding and advertising campaigns, one more commonly called the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

As each side makes gaffes, from ridiculous PowerPoint slides to implying that no one accomplishes any goals singlehandedly, both must assess the damage to their brand and revise their advertising strategies.

These are just three branding stories among the millions out there, and we’d love to hear one of yours. Why not share one by writing a blog post for MRIA! With sadness and pride, I’d like to dedicate this issue of Vue to Joe Doyle, the founding father of MRIA, who recently passed away. Your amazing brand will live on in MRIA. We’ll make sure of it.

Je suis une image de marque.

Chaque billet de blogue, micromessage, statut sur Facebook et éditorial que j’écris est une tentative à la fois consciente et inconsciente de vous convaincre de ce que représente mon image de marque. Je veux que vous pensiez que je suis une passionnée de la recherche marketing, que j’adore les statistiques et que je ressens une véritable affinité avec l’ARIM. Mais, j’ai beau essayer, je sais que vous interpréterez les mots que j’ai choisis soigneusement selon votre perspective du monde et que vous créerez votre propre image de la marque Annie Pettit. Je ne peux qu’essayer d’évaluer votre interprétation de ma marque et d’ajuster mes efforts « publicitaires » en conséquence. Évidemment, les produits et services font face à cette bataille continue encore plus que ma petite personne.

Pensez à British Petroleum, une société pétrolière à l’égard de laquelle vos opinions étaient sans doute plutôt neutres avant l’horrible explosion dans le golfe du Mexique il y a quelques années. Maintenant, BP s’efforce résolument de transformer son image de marque de destructrice de la Terre à restauratrice de la Terre au moyen d’une série soigneusement gérée d’annonces publicitaires à la télé vendant ses efforts pour améliorer les occasions d’emploi et la santé de l’environnement dans la région touchée.

Au moment où j’écris ceci, nos voisins du sud sont au beau milieu de deux campagnes massives d’image de marque et de publicité, connues plus communément comme étant l’élection présidentielle américaine 2012. Chaque fois qu’un côté ou l’autre fait une gaffe, d’une diapo PowerPoint ridicule à l’insinuation que personne n’atteint des buts toute seule, les deux opposants doivent gérer le dommage fait à leur marque et réviser leurs stratégies publicitaires.

Il ne s’agit là que de trois histoires de valorisation d’une marque parmi de millions dans le monde, et nous aimerions beaucoup entendre la vôtre. Partagez-en donc une avec nous en écrivant un billet de blogue pour l’ARIM! C’est avec tristesse et fierté que je tiens à dédier ce numéro de Vue à Joe Doyle, le père fondateur de l’ARIM qui est décédé récemment. Sa marque extraordinaire continuera de vivre dans l’ARIM. Nous nous assurerons de cela.

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

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Message from the Executive Director Brendan Wycks

2013 Fellowship Nomination and Election Process Now Underway

Nomination d’associés et processus électoral 2013 maintenant en cours

There are several hallmarks of a profession – among them, a common body of knowledge and a related certification process; standards of practice and professional conduct; and related monitoring and enforcement procedures.

Une profession comprend toujours plusieurs caractéristiques – dont, entre autres, un ensemble de connaissances communes et un processus d’accréditation connexe, des normes de pratique et d’éthique professionnelles, et les procédures connexes de surveillance et d’exécution.

Yet another key hallmark of a profession is the conferring of awards and recognitions. All credible professions honour their best and celebrate the achievements of their leaders, luminaries and outstanding contributors.

This month, I want to profile the MRIA Fellowship.

The call for nominations for our 2013 Fellowship election was issued last month, and the deadline for nominations is January 31, 2013.

Fellowship is the highest honour/designation that MRIA can bestow upon one of its members. The awarding of Fellowship status indicates not only that the nominee meets or exceeds the high standards and expectations of a CMRP-designated member, but that his or her accomplishments and contributions include the very highest level of practice which stands as a model for others within the profession.

Fellows are truly exceptional in all aspects that are important to the industry. The honour and exclusivity of the Fellowship designation includes dues-exempt status in MRIA, for life.

Earlier this year, the MRIA board of directors approved several tweaks and improvements to our Fellowship process. In so doing, the board decided to change the frequency and timing of Fellowship elections. They will now occur once every two years.

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Une autre caractéristique d’une profession consiste à décerner des prix et des marques de reconnaissance.

Toute profession crédible honore et célèbre les accomplissements de ses leaders, sommités et contributeurs exceptionnels.

Ce mois-ci, je vous présente un portrait de ce qu’est un membre associé de l’ARIM. Nous avons publié l’appel de mises ne candidature pour l’élection 2013 de nos associés le mois dernier et la date limite pour soumettre les candidatures est le 31 janvier 2013.

La désignation de membre associé est le plus grand honneur que l’ARIM peut conférer à ses membres. L’attribution du statut d’associé indique non seulement que le candidat ou la candidate atteint et dépasse les normes et attentes élevées imposées aux membres PARM, mais que leurs accomplissements et contributions sont au plus haut niveau de pratique et sert de modèle à d’autres membres de la profession.

Les associés sont vraiment exceptionnels dans tous les aspects importants de notre industrie. L’exclusivité et l’honneur inhérents au titre d’associé comprennent l’exemption de cotisations à perpétuité par l’ARIM. Plus tôt cette année, le conseil d’administration de l’ARIM a approuvé plusieurs modifications et améliorations du processus de nomination d’associés.

En ce faisant, le conseil a décidé de changer la

COM M E N TARY / COM MEN TAI R E

Moving to biennial Fellowship elections means that new Fellows will be recognized in front of the largest possible audience of professional peers at the national conference’s gala awards banquet every second year. Our 2013 national conference will be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario; and every two years thereafter, beginning in 2015, the conference will be held in Toronto. Nearly two-thirds of MRIA members are located in the Greater Toronto Area, and conferences in Toronto or its vicinity draw the largest number of attendees.

fréquence et le moment des élections des associés.

Elles auront lieu dorénavant tous les deux ans.

Ce passage à des élections bisannuelles signifie que les nouveaux associés seront reconnus devant le plus grand auditoire possible de leurs pairs au banquet et gala des prix de notre conférence nationale, tous les deux ans. Notre conférence nationale 2013 aura lieu à Niagara Falls en Ontario et, par la suite, tous les deux ans, à partir de 2015, la conférence aura lieu à Toronto.

Presque deux tiers des membres de l’ARIM sont dans la région du Grand Toronto et les conférences tenues à Toronto ou ses environs attirent le plus de participants.

Criteria for Election as a Fellow of MRIA Current members of the national board of directors, along with past-presidents of MRIA and its predecessor associations, constitute the electoral body that votes on Fellowship nominations, by secret ballot. A two-thirds majority vote of the electoral body is required to elect a nominee.

Nominees must have been MRIA members in good standing for at least the past three consecutive years.

While it is not an absolute eligibility requirement, it is expected that Fellowship nominees will normally hold the CMRP designation.

Sitting members of the MRIA board of directors and of the Fellowship Review Committee may not be nominated for election to Fellowship. A past-president of MRIA or one of its predecessor associations may be nominated for election to Fellowship, but that individual will then not be eligible to participate as a member of the electoral body in the current Fellowship election.

Self-nominations are not permitted (either as nominator or seconder). The nominator and seconder must both be MRIA members in good standing and either existing Fellows or CMRPs. In addition, (a) at least one of the nominator or seconder must not be related to the nominee by blood or marriage; and (b) at least one of the nominator or seconder must not currently work at the same organization as the nominee, nor be employed at a subsidiary or the parent company thereof.

Nominators must provide the fullest possible details of the nature and quality of the nominee’s distinguished contributions and achievements.

The following categories are those under which Fellowship nominees are evaluated:

Critères de l’élection d’un associé de l’ARIM Les administrateurs actuels du conseil d’administration, avec les anciens présidents de l’ARIM et de ses associations antérieures, constituent le corps électoral qui vote par scrutin secret sur les candidatures. Une majorité des deux tiers des votes du corps électoral est requise pour élire un candidat ou une candidate.

Les personnes mises en candidature doivent avoir été membres en règle de l’ARIM pendant au moins trois ans consécutifs. Bien que ce ne soit pas une exigence absolue d’admissibilité, on s’attend à ce que les personnes mises en candidature détiennent en général une désignation de PARM. Les administrateurs siégeant au conseil d’administration de l’ARIM et les membres du Comité de révision des associés ne doivent pas être mis en candidature à l’élection d’associés. On peut présenter la candidature de présidents sortants de l’ARIM ou d’une de ses associations antérieures, mais cette personne ne sera plus alors admissible comme membre du corps électoral de l’élection courante d’associés.

Il n’est pas permis de se mettre soi-même en candidature (ni comme proposant ou appuyeur). Les proposants et appuyeurs doivent être des membres en règle de l’ARIM et être déjà des associés ou des PARM. De plus, (a) au moins un des proposants ou appuyeurs ne doit pas avoir de liens de parenté ou de mariage avec la personne mise en candidature et (b) au moins un des proposants ou appuyeurs ne doit pas travailler à ce moment-là pour la même organisation que la personne mise en candidature, ni être employée par une filiale ou une société mère de celle-ci.

Les proposants doivent fournir le plus de détails possible sur la nature et la qualité des contributions et vue November 2012

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• innovation or technique development that has benefited the industry • teaching/dissemination of knowledge that has benefited the industry • career success in the field of marketing, survey, and public opinion research and market intelligence • service to the industry/profession, i.e., MRIA, PMRS, CAMRO, CSRC, and/or related industry/professional association service • community volunteer leadership contributions, i.e., service to the broader community/society which, by virtue of the nominee’s position, has strengthened the favourable public perception of the industry/ profession.

For further information, refer to the MRIA Fellowship Nomination and Election Primer, which is posted on our website at www.mria-arim.ca/AWARDS/ FellowNomination.asp

The deadline for nominations is January 31, 2013.

accomplissements exceptionnels de la personne mise en candidature. Voici les catégories dans lesquels les candidatures au titre d’associé sont évaluées : • innovation ou développement d’une technique bénéfique à l’industrie • enseignement / dissémination de connaissances bénéfiques à l’industrie • succès professionnel dans les champs du marketing, des sondages, de la recherche sur l’opinion et de l’intelligence marketing • services rendus à l’industrie ou à la profession, p. ex. à l’ARIM, l’APRM, l’ACORM, le CCRS et/ou à une industrie ou association professionnelle connexe • contributions au leadership en bénévolat communautaire, p. ex. services rendus à une communauté ou société plus large qui, grâce au poste de la personne mise en candidature, ont renforcé la perception favorable du public à l’égard de notre industrie et de notre profession.

Pour obtenir plus de renseignements, référez-vous au Fellowship Nomination and Election Primer de l’ARIM qui est affiché dans notre site Web à www.mria-arim. ca/AWARDS/FellowNomination.asp La date limite pour présenter des candidatures est le 31 janvier 2013.

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

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SPECIAL FEATURE

IN MEMORIAM: No Average Joe

Joe and Getta Doyle

Back row: Getta D. , grandson AJ, Joe Front row: daughter Kathryn Mandel, granddaughter Theo, son-in-law Gerry Mandel

Joseph Doyle, the founding president of the Professional Marketing Research Society of Canada and its first fellow, passed away on September 18 at the age of 91.

As the direct successor to PMRS, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association is indebted to Joe Doyle for its existence; and the industry it represents (as well as the marketing research profession generally) will forever owe him a collective debt of gratitude for his vision and inspiration.

When MRIA came into being, PMRS was already 45 years old. At the celebration of its 45th anniversary, Joe was a guest of honour. He could have been talking about himself on this occasion, when he said, “There’s something special about research people.”

The MRIA library (available online) contains approximately two dozen articles that reference him, plus a couple of articles that Joe had a hand in writing.

Considering Joe’s longevity, we might use his own words from an obituary that he wrote to say thanks and goodbye: We knew him “for a long time but not long enough.”

A few individuals who knew Joe better than the rest of us have graciously volunteered to share some of their reminiscences about the man.

Christian Mueller, CMRP

You could say that Joe Doyle was my first ‘client.’

When I heard that Joe Doyle had passed away, my initial reaction was one of sadness.

I was a brand new assistant PD at Canadian Facts, and he was head of possibly the largest client-side research team in Canada at the time. Despite the wide gulf in age, experience and position, I remember him always ready to engage with and support me as well as other newcomers to the business.

Joe treated us all with honesty and respect, and gave constant encouragement to those who chose to continue in his beloved profession. It is in part because of Joe’s ethics, leadership and just plain goodwill that marketing research is still, today, such a good place to be.

Once the sadness subsided, however, my thoughts turned to how lucky we have all been to have had this man around for over sixty years after he founded the Professional Marketing Research Society, which later evolved into MRIA – and to how lucky Joe has been to live long enough to see the society that he founded evolve into something much bigger and much broader.

Many people, if they live long enough, are called legends.

But few have the undisputed claim to the title that Joe has. To start a professional society of a relatively small profession in Canada some sixty years ago was not an easy thing to do!

Don Ambrose, chairman at Corsential ULC 10

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S P ECIAL F EATUR E

And this was by someone who had just emigrated from the USA to make Canada his home. Moreover, the association he created was no social club. It was a serious professional association concerned with what were then hot topics, such as mail surveys, telephone surveys, psychographics, psychometrics, motivation research, computer applications, and quality control.

I will not use this space to list Joe’s accomplishments, which were many, except to say that the association Joe started with only 29 members has grown during the past sixty years into an association that is sixty times larger than when it began. And it is just as vibrant now as the day he started it!

I am privileged to have known Joe for many years. He was a kind and gentle person who enjoyed life (and, I understand, Scotch). I also have the privilege of knowing his equally kind and gentle wife Getta. Although I was not in regular contact with Joe, it was wonderful to know that the founder of the first marketing research society was watching over us.

As we mourn his passing, let us celebrate his life and accomplishments.

Two symbols of this achievement meant a lot to him: The first was the Joseph Doyle Award, which was established in 1987 to honour the top marketing research student in the organization. Over the years, Joe was delighted to meet a number of the young people who had won “The Doyle.”

Second was the personalized PMRS license plate that we presented to Joe at the fortieth anniversary conference in 2000. For me, the plate evokes memories of Getta leaving my Accord in the dust as she blasted down Mount Pleasant in the Doyles’ “Research Mobile.”

In addition, I think of the pride that Joe deservedly felt late in his life, when he wrote and published the wonderful series of books that he called Word Sketches.

And lastly, I feel deep pride knowing that this remarkable man was my friend.

Chuck Chakrapani, president at Leger Analytics, The Research Intelligence Group

I knew him not only as the founder of PMRS, who oversaw the growth and maturation of our marketing research industry, but also as a family friend.

Joe and Getta were my neighbours, many years ago, on Lake of Bays. My father and Joe would love to spend time relaxing in Muskoka chairs on the dock, musing over the future of their children. At that point in my life, when I was part way through high school and, much to my father’s distress, without a summer job, I heard Joe tell my father about this wonderful growth industry and how marketing research was coming to the forefront of marketing in Canada.

Joe never lost the opportunity to promote our industry, nor was his advice wasted. Next thing I knew, I applied for a job at Canadian Facts, in their Wellington Street office, mastering the skills of a Friden calculator. I, along with many others, owe Joe for our careers in the industry.

In the intervening years, Getta and Joe never lost touch with my siblings and me. They were always there to congratulate my wife and me on the growth of our own family. At Christmas, there was always a card to look forward to, detailing their latest family news.

Getta, we are so grateful to you for all the years that you supported Joe in his career, family and life. Joe, thank you for more than sixty years of fostering our industry, watching marketing research flourish, and nurturing us professionally.

We will miss you!

s s s When I think of Joe, I think of his pride.

First of all, I think of Joe’s enduring pride in his family – the inestimable Getta, his beloved daughters Kathryn and Lauren, son-in-law Gerry Mandel, and the grandchildren AJ and Theo. Losing Lauren in November of 2009 was a terrible blow.

Secondly, I think of Joe’s pride in his adopted country of Canada. Though proudly “Born in the USA,” Joe and Getta came to Canada with General Foods in 1958 and became Canadian citizens during our centennial year of 1967. I know of no two prouder Canadians!

I also think of his pride in the centre of marketing research excellence that he fostered and nurtured at General Foods.

Under Joe’s leadership, his department became the gold standard in this country, a legacy that has continued to the present day at Kraft.

Of course, I think of Joe’s great pride in the signal achievement of his career, conceiving of and creating the Professional Marketing Research Society of Canada in 1960.

From its beginning with Joe and his twelve “apostles,” PMRS and its successor organization, MRIA, has grown to have almost 1,800 members in seven chapters across Canada.

Chris Commins, senior partner at Commins,Wingrove

s s s Joe Doyle was much more than an industry giant and icon.

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F E ATURE

AU CONTRAIRE (4)

Fifty Shades of Loyalty Chuck Chakrapani, CMRP, FMRIA

Customer loyalty is a topic that is steeped in misinformation and “The gospel of customer wild claims. Anything positive loyalty has been repeated we say about loyalty sounds so often and so loudly self-evident and convincing. The that it seems almost highly convincing argument crazy to challenge it.” goes like this: If we have loyal – Werner Reinartz and V. Kumar customers, we don’t need to worry about the stability of the organization or even its growth.

We will have low marketing costs, because loyal clients don’t need to be marketed to. We don’t need to worry too much about acquiring new customers either, because loyal customers will act as our evangelists.

Quite enticing. After all, having lunch with a loyal client is a far more pleasant occupation than making cold calls and writing endless proposals. No wonder companies spend billions of dollars on loyalty programs. Reading loyalty literature and listening to loyalty experts, one would think that loyalty would be easy enough to achieve if we followed their prescriptions. But how much evidence is there for their claims? Let’s explore the topic of loyalty in this and subsequent articles.

The Fantasyland of Zero Defections

The most extreme version of loyalty is the concept of “zero defection.” Marketing publications often publish articles with zero defection in the title. That is, our consumers will always be 100 per cent loyal to us and will never defect 12

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to competition. The most prominent of such articles was by the reigning high priest of loyalty mania, Frederick Reichheld. His article (with Earl Sasser), “Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services,” was published by the venerable Harvard Business Review in September 1990.

Zero defections happen in a fantasyland where no consumer ever dies. No consumer has changing needs.

No consumer’s life conditions change. All consumers are Stepford wives, devoid of curiosity, with no need to experience new or different things. No competitor can possibly make them a better offer, and no new product can possibly entice them.

Where does this strange notion of keeping all profitable customers for life come from? Zero defections is an inappropriate extension of the concept of “zero defects” in manufacturing, where achieving zero defects using quality control procedures is both possible and desirable. Zero defections, on the other hand, is neither achievable nor desirable. It is not possible because – unlike machines, which have no free will – a consumer can do what he or she pleases. It doesn’t have to be logical or rational.

So no matter what a marketer does, there is no guarantee consumers will respond in the way that the marketer intended. It is not desirable to hold on to customers whose needs have changed so our products may not be the right fit for them any more. The customers could still be profitable but may not be to the required level. Holding on to customers whose needs are better served by someone else is the recipe for customer dissatisfaction.

F EATUR E

The Mythical Kingdom of Cheap Customer Retention

Retaining a current customer is often considered cheaper than getting a new one. How much cheaper? According to loyalty literature, getting a new customer is five times as expensive as retaining a current one. This claim is attributed to a research study carried out by Technical Assistance Research Programs Inc., or TARP, in the 1980s; since then, it has been quoted widely (including by yours truly) and has reached axiomatic status in loyalty literature. Reichheld and Sasser went a step further and stated that reducing customer defection by 5 per cent would increase a company’s profitability by 25 to 85 per “Here’s my number. cent, fuelling the idea that Call me, maybe?” customer loyalty rather than – Carly Rae Jepsen customer acquisition is the royal road to riches.

Time for a reality check.

There is no credible evidence to show that customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition or that reducing defections by 5 per cent will boost profits by as much as 85 per cent. Preferring loyalty over acquisition is not necessarily in the company’s interest. Consider a new product: Customer acquisition is vital, and there is no way for a company to grow by just having a few loyal customers.

Or consider a product which is on the decline: Customer retention could be as expensive as customer acquisition.

Neither is retaining customers cost-free. The cost of retaining a customer could be giving discounts or providing additional benefits for no additional revenue. It could even be giving discounts and other benefits to customers who didn’t seek them, in a proactive attempt to retain those customers. All these incur costs, and they can all add up.

For a product to be 85 per cent more profitable, with 5 per cent reduction in defection, would mean that the 5 per cent who defected accounted for 85 per cent of the profits of the entire brand. It can happen when the break-even point for a company is so high and the marginal cost is so low that it depends on the last 5 per cent of its customers for its profits. Hardly a typical scenario for most brands.

The figures simply don’t add up. As far as I know, there is no credible research evidence to back up this claim.

The Fairytale of Loyalty Always Leading to Profit

The loyalty bandwagon runs on three assumptions: one, it costs less to serve loyal customers; two, loyal customers will pay higher prices; and three, loyal customers act as

evangelists for our brand. None of these assumptions are systematically tested and proved.

Let us look at a study by Werner Reinartz and V. Kumar (“The Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty,” Harvard Business Review, July 2002) that examines these assumptions.

The authors’ analysis uses 16,000 corporate and individual records covering behaviour, revenue and profitability drawn from four diverse companies in three countries over four years: a high tech corporate data provider (U.S.), a mail order company (U.S.), a retail food business (France), and a direct brokerage house (Germany). Here’s what they found.

It does not cost less to serve loyal customers. In their data, Reinartz and Kumar did not find any evidence to support the assumption that loyal customers cost less to serve. Loyal customers who did business in high volume knew their value to the company and negotiated better deals. The disparity in service cost-to-sales ratios was small, even when the authors examined firms as diverse as a French grocery chain and a German brokerage firm. It may look as though it is easier to serve loyal customers, as we already know their expectations, but the cost of serving them is not much different from serving a new customer.

Loyal customers are not willing to pay a higher price. For the companies they studied, Reinartz and Kumar found that long-term customers paid lower prices than newer customers – about 5 to 7 per cent lower. Customers expect to be rewarded for their loyalty and resent companies that try to profit from their loyalty. (See also The Disloyal Company, by Leger Marketing, 2009.)

Loyal customers do not necessarily act as evangelists for your brand. Reinartz and Kumar identified the customers of the French grocery store who recommended it to others (either actively or passively) and linked this information to their actual purchase behaviour on record. The relationship between longevity and the propensity to recommend was not strong. Of the customers Reinartz and Kumar analysed, the positive relationship between profitability and loyalty held for approximately 60 to 65 per cent of the customers. The remaining 35 to 40 per cent of customers were either shortterm but high-profit or long-term but low-profit customers.

In other words, the generally assumed relationship of low loyalty resulting in low profitability and high loyalty leading to high profitability simply did not hold for more than a third of the customers. Many high-profit customers were short-term (low-loyalty), as shown in exhibit 1. vue November 2012

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Exhibit 1. The Four Loyalty Segments – Loyalty Does Not Always Mean Profits

Low loyalty

High Loyalty

15-20%

30-35%

High profit

[Butterflies] [True-friends]

not all of those who are loyal. In terms of the four segments described in exhibit 1, the loyalty approach would also deploy resources on retaining barnacles, who are not profitable, while ignoring butterflies, who are (see exhibit 2).

Chimes of Loyalty Leading to Higher Market Shares

Low profit 30-35% 15-20%

[Strangers] [Barnacles]

The purpose of the above table is to illustrate that there is a large proportion of low-loyalty customers who are profitable and a large proportion of high-loyalty customers who are not. (The figures are approximations derived from Reinartz and Kumar and may not be quantitatively generalizable.)

As summarized by Reinartz and Kumar, “A sizable percentage “No company should ever of long-standing customers … take for granted the idea are only marginally profitable, that managing customers whereas a large percentage for loyalty is the same as of short-term customers are managing them for profits.” highly profitable.” For every – Werner Reinartz and V. Kumar high-loyalty but low-profit “barnacle,” there is a low-loyalty but high-profit “butterfly.” If we pursue only high-loyalty customers, 35 to 40 per cent of the customers we pursue will be customers that do not generate enough profit for the company and even generate loss, while we ignore a corresponding number of customers who are not considered loyal but are profitable.

Loyalty does not equal profitability. A third or more of loyal customers could be unprofitable or even drain a company’s resources. From a profitability perspective, some loyal customers are not worth pursuing, while some fleeting customers may be. It is worth cultivating a subgroup of loyal customers – those who are loyal and profitable – but Exhibit 2. Loyalty Does Not Always Imply Profits, and Profits Do Not Always Imply Loyalty

Higher market shares almost always lead to higher loyalty. But higher loyalty does not necessarily lead to higher market shares.

Another common assumption is that our market share will increase as the number of loyal customers increases. This is not supported by facts either. A glaring example of this is the Mac computer. Since it came out in the 1980s, it has had a fiercely loyal following (see for example, The Cult of Mac, by Leander Kahney, 2004). Yet it had a near-death experience in the 1990s, saved by a change in management and an infusion of capital from Microsoft. Apple did not become the hugely successful company it is today until it introduced high-penetration products such as iPod, iPhone and iPad. Higher market shares almost always lead to higher loyalty, as we shall see later. But higher loyalty does not necessarily lead to higher market shares. Since we already have some evidence that loyal customers don’t necessarily act as our evangelists, we cannot depend on our loyal customers to bring in new customers. Some proportion of our loyal and fleeting customers will recommend us to others. But an organization cannot leave growth solely in the hands of loyal customers.

Exhibit 3 summarizes what we know about loyalty, based on objective data.

Loyalty that does not take into account profitability is a poor business strategy.

Exhibit 3. What We Know about Loyalty

Loyalty is not the same as profitability.

Not all loyal customers are profitable.

Some loyal customers are a drain on the company.

Not all profitable customers are loyal.

Some non-loyal customers are highly profitable.

One hundred per cent loyalty is neither possible nor desirable.

Customer retention is not necessarily inexpensive.

Loyalty does not always lead to higher market share.

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The Strange but True Case of Unearned Loyalty

This may sound strange, but loyalty is not always “earned.”

Every brand has a baseline loyalty. It is unearned in the sense that baseline loyalty is not dependent on a company’s efforts but can be predicted from mathematical models using a brand’s and its competitors’ market shares. Such predictions hold unusually well when we compare them to actual data.

For example, John Bound (2004) tried to predict how many customers would buy a brand of instant coffee once in a given period and how many would buy it more than five times. The data he used were nothing more than (1) the proportion of customers who bought instant coffee at all, (2) the average number of purchase occasions for those who do buy any instant coffee, (3) the proportion of buyers buying each brand, and (4) the average number of purchases for each brand. The information used to predict did not include any other data. Yet Bound was able to predict loyalty (in terms of customers’ buying). Exhibit 4 shows how close the predictions were.

Exhibit 4. Predicting Baseline Loyalty from Market Shares and Average Purchases

Brand

% Bought

5+ times

Actual

Predicted

Folgers

18 19

Maxwell House

20

19

Taster’s Choice

18

18

Nescafe

12 16

Sanka

19 16

Maxim

23 14

High Point

16

Brim

15 14

Average

17 16

Where Does That Leave Us?

So far, research has established the following: • Loyalty can lead to profitability, but not necessarily.

There are as many unprofitable loyal customers as there are profitable non-loyal customers. It is not optimal use of a company’s resources to attempt to keep all loyal customers.

• Some level of baseline loyalty exists for all brands, purely based upon a brand’s market share vis-à-vis its competitors.

If we are interested in our company’s profitability, what should our strategy be, since pursuing only loyal clients appears ineffective? If there is a baseline loyalty for every brand, how do we increase it? Can we generate excess loyalty for our brand – loyalty that is in excess of the baseline loyalty? We will consider these issues in the forthcoming articles.

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You will note that loyalty (illustrated in exhibit 4 as those who bought more than five times during a given period), which is predicted for each brand by a purely mathematical model, fits extremely well for each brand, with the single exception of Maxim. Such exceptions may actually tell us something about the brand. There could be a reason why the actual loyalty is higher than the model’s predicted baseline loyalty for Maxim and, to a certain extent, for Nescafe.

A more recent example is provided by Peter Fader and Jordan Elkind, of the Wharton School, (“Open the Blinds,” Marketing Research, Summer 2012), who tried to predict

share of wallet (a good measure of loyalty) for five online travel firms – Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, Travelocity, and Priceline – using market share as input. Their mean prediction errors (MAD) for share of wallet ranged from an average of 1.5 per cent to 2.2 per cent.

In both the above examples, the loyalty level predicted by the models did not take into account the efforts made by the companies in increasing customer loyalty. The closeness of these predictions (and many such others) clearly shows that a baseline loyalty exists for each firm, irrespective of what the firm does.

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

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Emerging Trends in Advertising Research Catherine Yuile and Luke Stringer

Catherine Yuile and Luke Stringer from Ipsos ASI discuss two emerging trends that we see in advertising research: at one end of the spectrum of the creative development process is the brand’s underlying strategy and positioning; at the other is executing tactical communications directed at the retailer.

In the journey of making a winning creative, there are few things as critical as consumer feedback and opinion. Whether it’s to help ensure that great ideas don’t get killed because someone simply doesn’t “like” them or to help optimize the mood and tonality of a spot before going to finished film (for example), bringing consumers into the mix before going to market is an important step to take.

One of the largest trends in communications research “The problem for too many that we have seen recently is marketers’ increasing desire to brands is not in the getting incorporate consumer feedback there, but in figuring out earlier in the communications where ‘there’ even is.” development process.

– @LeeClowsBeard Too often, ads that are engaging, connected to the brand, and working to deliver the intended message struggle in delivering on one critical area of success: motivation, in the short or long term, for the advertised brand.

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When looking at communications development today, we see that the breakdown happens when we move too quickly from an initial insight to a creative brief without understanding how to express this insight or strategy in an optimal way. In essence, the brand’s position has not been fully developed, or it has not been expressed in a way that connects with consumers and carves out a space for the brand to occupy in their minds.

It is these experiences that seem to be forming the basis of this trend in communications research, and they have marketers asking for better approaches for developing communications strategies. From a research perspective, this trend has created an entire new form of “creative” testing – one that is essentially devoid of developed creative ideas – focusing on testing broad communication platforms and positioning, rather than on end creative expressions.

To help marketers with this approach, Ipsos ASI has developed a method of breaking down these ideas and obtaining the necessary feedback to help inspire the space for a brand to occupy – prior to the briefing process and

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the creative expression of the insight. In our experience, acquiring focused consumer input earlier in the creative development process has helped increase the market potential of ads by ensuring that the fundamental space on which they are based is resonant, differentiating and ownable, and drives a competitive advantage.

Another factor contributing to the trend in early-stage testing is that marketers are starting to see the benefit in understanding whether or not a potential territory can live in a truly dynamic multimedia environment. Often, we see clients believing that a great idea should simply be translated into a thirty-second spot. While a traditional commercial could be considered one of the expressions of the idea, our belief is that a truly powerful communications insight should be able to live and breathe, and be expressed in many different ways.

If an idea is grounded in a universal truth, and expressed in a unique and ownable way, there is no reason for marketers to feel they need to make these media-defining decisions at this stage of communications development.

When we work with clients on the development of communications strategies, this perspective is always something we explore with consumers – to see where they feel the idea could be expressed to them in a meaningful way along their journey in and around the category.

Beyond this, though, in our experience a great communications idea should not only translate well across media; it is also something that should stand the test of time.

A recent and interesting exploration of this trend is Google’s Project Re: Brief. In this experiment, Google took some of North America’s greatest and most iconic ads from yesteryear, worked to distill them down to their essence, and expressed them in new and interesting ways – leveraging media that didn’t exist when the ideas were first brought to life.

As insights and marketing continue to explore this trend in communications testing and development, our experience has shown that testing concepts without visuals is also important. Though visual aids can help consumers understand the territory that a brand is trying to claim, this understanding can also hinder the potential of the idea. By forcing an association of visuals this early in the process, agencies may be further constrained when looking to express these ideas in end creative.

In summary, when looking to take advantage of earlystage testing, remember the following points: • For an idea to be truly powerful and have the most potential to accelerate end creative, it must be relevant, differentiating and ownable, and it must deliver a competitive advantage.

• Be media agnostic at this stage. Exploring ideas for multimedia potential as early as possible is another benefit of early-stage testing. Also ask yourself if this communications insight can stand the test of time (is it based on a fad?).

• If possible, test a brand’s communications territory without visuals to ensure creative freedom.

In addition to returning to the very beginning of the creative development process with a brand’s positioning, our clients are also increasingly paying more attention to the last stop in the consumer journey – in-store communications.

With thousands of stock-keeping units available in most Canadians’ local Loblaws or Metro, and 76 per cent of all purchase decisions being made at the point of purchase itself (according to POPAI, The Global Association for Marketing at Retail), marketers need to ensure that their brands stand out.

Yet while more dollars and more effort are being placed at the point of purchase (POP) than ever before, unfortunately, a lot of that money and effort is wasted. Too often, executions never actually get placed, or worse, they make it to the floor but they don’t get noticed. POPAI reports that out of 150 displays, on average in-store, less than half of shoppers even notice at least one ! Ipsos ASI’s experience suggests that in-store advertising is being retained at a rate that is less than one-fourth of the level of television advertising.

There is no doubt that it is challenging to break through the clutter at the POP and disrupt busy, mission-focused shoppers. Ipsos ASI’s experience in this area suggests more attention is needed to ensure that the quality of these communications functions not only in stopping shoppers but in closing them too. Today, more marketers are seeking consumer feedback on their in-store communications, and many are exploring new ways of obtaining that feedback.

Traditional POP research, like shop-alongs in the field, has well-known benefits, including a real-life environment that enables the most in-depth understanding of shopping behaviour – do shoppers interact with promotional material, try samples, pick up recipes, or watch demos? There are many different techniques that can be used in the field, including videoing and mobile, as well as interviewer observation and questioning. Eye-tracking is especially useful in following where shoppers are looking as they navigate the aisles. The key advantages of traditional in-store research are the depth of insights and the sensorial, “real” experience that can be observed.

As beneficial as field research is, there are also some common key barriers that organizations face when considering it. First, field research is usually localized. Getting a representative national read in order to assess a wide-reaching vue November 2012

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POP campaign is costly, and it is a logistical challenge.

A second, more practical barrier includes getting retailer agreement for testing mock-up communications in their environment or trying to stock and access a mock-up lab.

Today’s technology enables virtual, 3-D renderings that offer incredible custom re-creations of specific retailer environments. Shoppers are sent on an online shopping mission and navigate the virtual aisles, controlling where they stop, very much like a sophisticated, intuitive and interactive video game. And in our experience, respondents love participating in a virtual shopping mission, often commenting that it was fun, interesting, and different from other types of surveys.

When researchers think about doing this type of research, key metrics for testing in-store communications via a 3-D environment include attention tracking to understand where shoppers stop, what they look at, what they pick up, and what they put in their cart. Most test objectives also seek to assess the power of the ad’s sales response, measured by the potential to increase unit and dollar sales per shopper, as well as share of category.

Online virtual 3-D store testing is predictive and has shown incredible correlations with real-store results – upwards of 90 per cent, based on purchase metrics.

There are numerous other benefits to online methodologies, including larger sample sizes, with national and regional representation; cost efficiencies and greater access to low-incidence groups; and the ability to isolate the impact of a single marketing vehicle, with an unlimited variety of retail environments to shop and vehicles to test.

While virtual 3-D store testing can be cheaper than in-retail or in-lab environments, it still requires a decent investment, and there is a need to build more time into the creative development process, as it takes time to construct the custom environments and shelves, reference planograms, and source products.

We find that marketers most often need quick consumer feedback to help them move forward with and shape the best creative option. For this objective, online 2-D methodologies can be a good choice. Ranging from a few days’ to a few weeks’ turnaround time, 2-D is a quick and cost-effective way to obtain consumer feedback in the creative development process. The key thing for the online environment exposure is that the in-store element be presented in context. The visuals should be developed to make sure that they put the communications in the right retail context for the respondent, in regard to both the type of store and the placement within the store.

Ipsos ASI ran a pilot 2-D study in late 2011, with thirty ads across a variety of brands, products and categories amongst 3,000 respondents. Learnings from this study 18

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and our experience in testing in-store communications have shown that, while basic advertising principles apply (simplicity, relevance, uniqueness, and brand integration, to name a few), there are also learnings specific to the retail channel that should be leveraged.

Breaking through the clutter in-store is one of the most challenging channels, and so extra efforts need to be made to stand out in a compelling and unique way.

In-store communications that best address users’ specific needs, linking to usage occasions, help shoppers navigate the overwhelming choices they face in the aisle with regard to product form, feature and benefits. And such communications tend to be the most persuasive.

In summary, when looking to test in-store communications, remember these points: • More than ever, brands need to get their communications at exactly the most critical moment in the shopper’s journey – at the POP. • There are lots of new, innovative ways of testing in-store communications materials; the right one depends on numerous factors, including study objectives, budget constraints, and timing needs.

• In-store advertising faces its own set of unique challenges to engage the mission-focused shopper. Communications need to be unique, simple, and usage occasion–focused to break through and persuade.

Our experience has shown that brands derive benefits when they take advantage of the two emerging advertising trends, focusing on obtaining consumer feedback in the early stage of the creative development process through to the development of their in-store executions: they can maximize brand communications and save significant time, effort and money in the long run.

Ipsos ASI is a leader in advertising and brand communications research. Testing and tracking thousands of ads across categories and media, and for some of the biggest brands in the world, Ipsos ASI has extensive experience in understanding how creative can be optimized to drive stronger returns in market and deliver against brand objectives.

Catherine Yuile is a senior vice-president with Ipsos ASI and heads up one of Canada’s client service teams overseeing both pretesting and in-market tracking. You can reach her at Catherine.Yuile@ipsos.com or follow her on Twitter @cyuile Luke Stringer is an associate vice-president at Ipsos ASI. You can reach him at Luke.Stringer@ipsos.com or follow his blog at www.brandgallery.blogspot.com

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Bridging the Gap between Consumer and Shopper Marketing Perspectives Joel Rubinson

The consumer insights/brand teams and the shopper insights/shopper marketing teams have conflicting perspectives on brands.

The consumer insights team is likely to present a view of the brand in which market share performance is viewed as the result of consumer preference based on beliefs about various brands. Improve performance on driver attributes and share goes up. This relationship encourages the brand team to believe that the brass ring is to engender a strong level of engagement with consumers, implying that engaged consumers account for the (great) majority of brand sales.

In a social age, the marketing teams that follow this line of thinking will try to move as much money as possible out of paid advertising, and place their priorities on social media engagement. Such brand teams aspire to maximize their Facebook fan base as well as their followers on Twitter and now Pinterest. In this worldview, shopping is basically regarded as the chore someone has to get through to acquire the brands they prefer and therefore planned to buy.

The shopper insights teams would temper this enthusiasm about engagement marketing. They know that the most preferred brand is not automatically bought.

The facts: Estimates are that as high as 70 per cent of brand decisions are made in-store; my own research across 19 consumer packaged goods categories showed an average of 50 per cent of brand decisions made in-store. Even for loyal buyers – for example, those buying a brand 50 per cent of the time or more – the retention of loyal buyers over time is suspect. Half or more of those loyal to a brand in a given year are not loyal to the same brand one year later (this finding is consistent between my own brand equity research and analysis of Catalina frequent shopper data).

The implication is that consumers usually have acceptable alternatives to consider, so constant persuasion along the path 20

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to purchase is critical. This worldview leads marketing to realize the importance of shopper marketing and eventually, when it is mature enough, mobile marketing that facilitates the shopping process.

To think introspectively about the limits of brand engagement, keep a one-day brand-use diary. I did so and found the following: 1. I used an astounding number of brands in a day (nearly 100 by 2:00 p.m.).

2. The great majority of these brands have little meaning for me (e.g., the brand of countertop, the maker of the coffee mug, the brand of slippers on my feet).

3. Of those brands that are meaningful to me, most have acceptable substitutes.

4. Only a handful (10 per cent for me) are brands I care about so much that I would have a sense of deprivation if I lost access to them (for me, the short list included Twitter, Facebook, a particular news channel, Dove, Pantene, Diet Coke, The New York Yankees).

If we focus exclusively on brand engagement marketing, we will not create an effective marketing plan to address the 85 per cent of brand buyers who are not going to become extremely attached but who account for half of sales.

If we focus exclusively on shopper marketing, we run the risk of not creating meaningful brand differences that can generate engaged consumers who will be much more valuable to the brand and, ultimately, of fighting commoditization.

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Loyalty Framework: Reconciling the Two Brand Growth Perspectives

How do marketers reconcile these perspectives, each with its own truths, and bring them together into a holistic plan for brand growth?

I propose that we utilize a framework based on loyalty segmentation of consumers, and I will show how this framework brings together the two perspectives, consumer and shopper, around some surprising insights.

The beta distribution is used to model the distribution of probabilities of purchase by individual consumers with respect to a particular brand of interest. For a typical brand with 10 per cent market share, the distribution of its share of requirements (i.e., a brand’s share of purchases by a given consumer) might look like what is presented in figure 1.

Figure 1: Share of requirement distribution for a typical 10% share brand; avg. category purchase cycle of 12x/year

About 15 per cent of “fringe” buyers will buy your brand at least once during the year (at a one-month category purchase cycle). As such, surprising to many, half of a brand’s buyers come from this fringe segment, while less than 20 per cent of buyers are engaged, that is, buy the brand 75 per cent of the time (or greater) and account for less than half of the brand’s sales. If we add together the “preferred” and “engaged” groups, we see that those who prefer a brand still give about 25 per cent of their purchases to other brands.

Now let us consider what happens to this distribution if the brand grows to a 15 per cent share. Figure 2 shows what that would look like.

While the engaged segment must grow the most (the double jeopardy effect), notice that share must increase from each of the loyalty segments, as opposed to an alternate hypothesis which states that the sales increase would come from engaged and perhaps preferred segments, and that the fringe segment contribution would actually go down as people upshift in their

Figure 2: Source of growth for a typical 10% share brand growing to 15%

loyalty. While there is some upshifting, it is not so great, and sales still must increase from that segment.

Pinpointing Media Strategies to Affect Loyalty Segments Now, the next question is whether or not all media touchpoints are effective against each of these segments. The answer is “Unlikely.” A recent analysis of Compete’s data regarding Facebook fan effects suggests that new Facebook fans of a brand are already predisposed to the brand, and therefore the updates or social impressions they see are disproportionately directed to those who are already loyal.

In other words, Facebook appears to be a touchpoint that reinforces the brand beliefs of those in the two most favorable segments, but does little to influence the other segments.

Returning to the discussion of shopper marketing at the start of this paper, about half of purchase decisions, on average (depending on the category and brand), are made in the store.

However, it is likely that such shopping styles are characteristic of the two middle groups (“acceptables” and “preferreds”).

Hence, effective shopper marketing and promotional practices will disproportionately affect those in the middle of the curve, an effect that is illustrated in figure 3.

By looking at a brand’s loyalty distribution, we can see how shopper and consumer marketing frameworks can dovetail.

Shopper marketing operates primarily to win the purchase at retail against the middle of the curve, where consumers have more than one acceptable brand and where their preference for any given brand does not dominate the decision process.

Consumer marketing’s role is primarily to move people into more favorable loyalty segments, and retain them there, based on brand beliefs.

Consumer and shopper marketing share a responsibility that is central to branding and is in common across all segments: the need to give the brand a certain meaning. Brand meaning gives shoppers an ability to anticipate, to predict if a potential purchase will serve their needs. vue November 2012

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Figure 3: Mapping touchpoints to loyalty

Brand meaning, if it is exclusive, can lead to moving consumers into the preferred and engaged segments. In a brand equity study, this effect would be reflected by a respondent’s checking off that a certain brand, and only that brand, stands for a particular attribute. I call this exclusivity owning an attribute.

I have found that standing for an attribute versus owning an attribute is the differentiator between someone’s preferring a brand versus being engaged with it. However, even if not exclusive (e.g., I think your salad dressing is high quality, but I think others are as well), brand meaning feeds the decision heuristics that shoppers use so the brand can raise share among those who only occasionally buy that brand.

Brand meaning also can lead to engagement. Brand meaning can and should extend beyond the functional characteristics of the product. For example, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty gave the Dove brand meaning about beauty and female self-esteem, which reinforced the brand’s values within and beyond the product categories in which it had offerings. Any product with the Dove name would instantly convey a certain meaning, even if a shopper did not previously use or know about that product.

How do you influence brand meaning? The obvious answer is advertising, but there are other ways as well. For example, brand meaning can be built and managed by retail activations where the meaning becomes obvious (e.g., McCormick spices barbeque center, where there is a free-standing supermarket display of a variety of products and spices needed for a successful outdoor barbeque). In fact, in 2009, BASES (the leading marketing research service for forecasting the sales potential of new products) found that in-store exposure was the greatest source of brand awareness for new products.

Summary and Conclusions

By bringing together the perspectives from consumer and shopper insights into a loyalty framework, we see that the 22

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marketing approach that calls for building brand engagement, placing a premium on social media strategies, is not wrong; but it is incomplete in light of the high level of active decisionmaking that occurs in-store.

Marketers need to develop a fully integrated consumer and shopper media strategy that is mapped to address each of the brand loyalty segments. Use advertising and shopper marketing to build brand meaning that will shift less loyal consumers toward becoming more loyal. Use social and owned media to help build a relationship with consumers that will move their beliefs about a brand to exclusive meaning, leading to engagement. Use shopper marketing to win the 50 per cent of purchases at retail that are up for grabs.

From a research point of view, it is important to track the four loyalty segments. Size the segments, understand what the key differentiating beliefs are between segments, and understand how touchpoints map to each of the segments. Set goals for loyalty segment sizes and purchasing levels, toward your brand, such that they tie out to brand growth goals and monitor progress. If one of the segments is falling behind its goals, it suggests that the part of the marketing plan which maps to influencing that segment needs to be dialed up. For that reason, the tracker needs to be timely, and the marketing/ media plan needs to have the flexibility for adaptive course correction.

References Allan L. Baldinger & Joel Rubinson. “Brand Loyalty: The Link Between Attitude and Behavior.” Journal of Advertising Research, 1996 (November/December): 22–34.

Jack Neff. “This Upfront, P&G May Want to Boost Spend on Piggly Wiggly.” Advertising Age, 2010 (May 3). Available at http://adage.com/ article/news/upfront-p-g-boost-spend-piggly-wiggly/143643/ Ooh-tv. “New POPAI Study Shows That 76% of All Purchase Decisions Are Taken In-Store.” Ooh-tv.com, 2012 (May 29). Available at http://en.ooh-tv.com/2012/05/29/new-popai-study-shows-that-76of-all-purchase-decisions-are-taken-in-store/ David Raab. “CMO Council Study: Customer Loyalty Is Fleeting.”

MPM Toolkit, 2009 (July 6). Available at http://mpmtoolkit.blogspot. com/2009/07/cmo-council-study-customer-loyalty-is.html Joel Rubinson. “Surprising New Study on Facebook Marketing Effectiveness for Brands.” Joel Rubinson on Marketing Research, 2012.

Available at http://blog.joelrubinson.net/2012/06/surprising-newstudy-on-facebook-marketing-effectiveness-for-brands/ Wikipedia. “Double Jeopardy.” Wikipedia, 2011 (June 5). Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_jeopardy_%28marketing%29

Joel Rubinson is president and founder of Rubinson Partners Inc., a marketing and research consultancy. He is also on the faculty of NYU Stern School of Business, where he teaches social media strategy. Joel can be reached at JoelRubinson@gmail.com

CALL FOR SPEAKERS We are seeking innovation and transformational thinking. We understand the world is not perfect and in many cases, outcomes are unexpected and sometimes surprising. Share the results with us so we all can learn and grow the industry. Case studies, research on research and those who will bring the client to the podium will be valued more highly.

TOPICS WE ARE SEEKING:

CURRENT SPEAKERS

• Crowdsourcing • Co-creation • Data mining • Predictive modeling • Text analytics • Interesting dashboards • Any methods that utilize and/or integrate large data

Simon Chadwick Managing Partner Cambiar LLC Opening Keynote

The speaker proposals should be no longer than 300 words and should include the topic title and brief description, plus speaker bio. Deadline is November 15, 2012. Proposals that include actual case studies and real life examples would be favored.

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Adam Froman CEO Delvinia and AskingCanadians

PLEASE SEND PROPOSALS TO: Sandy Janzen, President, MRIA – sandy.janzen@ipsos.com Cam Davis PhD, CMRP, FMRIA – camdavis@sdrsurvey.com INTERESTED IN SPONSORSHIP? We have exciting opportunities to highlight your brand – from $250 - $2,500 Visit mria-arim.ca/NetGain7/SPONSORSHIP/index.php or email amgabriel@mria-arim.ca For updates as they become available, visit www.mria-arim.ca/NetGain7/NEWS/index.php

Ten Psychological Needs That Drive Branding Strategy

Lana E. Porter While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have what I call a magic mirror. This magic mirror, or optic lens into the evolving consumer psyche, first developed with my PhD in social psychology and has been finely tuned over my past sixteen years as a global marketing researcher. I’ve conducted countless quantitative studies and interviewed over 30,000 people across 25 countries – more than Oprah!

The field includes both developed and emerging markets, with consumers as diverse as high school fashionistas in Japan, video gamers in Brazil, young families in China, and investment bankers in England. Essentially, I have had a frontrow seat in the theatre of consumer dynamics for most of my adult life.

As any Google search of “consumer trends” will prove, there are hundreds of top-ten lists that identify consumer trends and purchase patterns. While these trend lists can be insightful and thought-provoking, they can rapidly become outdated because they are tied to a specific industry or product sector. As well, these trend lists are often based on consumer behaviour (which is sometimes mapped back to an underlying psychological need).

In contrast, my approach is in the opposite direction – identifying underlying psychological needs and then translating these needs into branding strategies for our clients. Since 24

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psychological needs evolve more slowly than consumer behaviour, building a branding strategy around those needs will prove much more effective and relevant over the longer term.

And unless you have had a front-row seat in the theatre of consumer dynamics for many years (and have watched all the closing credits), identifying these evolving psychological needs, and their impact on consumer behaviour, is quite a challenge.

What follows in this article are global consumer trends that reflect the ten psychological needs we use as a framework to help clients develop a meaningful and differentiating brand strategy.

1. Aging Fusion

Psychological need: Self-actualization. The “age silos” that used to exist are rapidly being eroded. Gone are the days when parents congregated in the kitchen over coffee, teens hung out in their bedroom listening to music, and kids were in the basement watching TV. Now, they can all be found in the living room playing the latest Wii game. These merging age silos allow for self-actualization – that is, the ability to realize one’s full potential in life in all areas relevant to them.

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At one end of the age spectrum, with more access to information, products and services than ever before, kids are growing up faster than ever: toddlers can use a smartphone before they know how to type; the number of young entrepreneurs is growing rapidly; and school-age children are starting their own charities.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the age spectrum, adults in their fifties are sharing playlists with their teen children; women in their forties make up one of the fastest growing segments of online gamers; men in their fifties are trading collectible toys and figurines with men in their twenties. These days, age really is just a number.

2. Gender Blending

Psychological need: Equality. The Millennials are game changers. They are a generation that embraces all things, not just those traditionally masculine or feminine. They are marrying later and, once married, are breaking all the old rules. Two-career households and fathers’ increasing involvement with child care mean that men are putting in their two cents alongside women when it comes to purchase decisions.

We are also witnessing gender blending in terms of shopping habits: women and men are shopping at the same kinds of places. Men are taking more time to browse and, just like women, see shopping as an experience (both online and offline), not just something they have to do. Although women still shop more than men generally, the gap is lessening.

3. i-Merging Identities

Psychological need: Recognition. One of the hottest debates in the retail industry is centred on “bricks and mortar” versus “click and order.” What gets lost in the chatter is that we are, after all, humans with five senses. Online channels do not currently deliver on the touch, taste and smell senses (at least, for now). While consumers will always want the convenience of purchasing products online, they will still want to touch that cashmere sweater, smell that new car smell, and taste that freshly iced cupcake before ordering a dozen online.

I think the desire for recognition as a “complete” human being will ultimately extend online. As our customized 3-D avatar (or “virtual me”) visits shopping sites, gaming platforms, and social media forums, we will be universally recognized. Wouldn’t it be nice to be greeted by a virtual sales associate, escorted to your virtual dressing room (stocked with items based on your collective purchases across multiple visits and sites), and then try on those clothes with your made-tomeasure avatar?

Of course, privacy will always be a concern but, for now, we can dream, can’t we? That, too, is a defining human experience. It’s time to de-frag the brand experience.

4. Wanting to Be Different, Just Like Everyone Else

Psychological need: Self-expression (me). Customization and personalization are big buzzwords in marketing. And for good reason: Consumers’ need for self-expression has been steadily growing amidst perceptions of an increasingly high-tech, faceless and overly commoditized world. Consumers want products to be uniquely their own – from sneakers to car accessories to their “Mii” avatar. Ultimately, this need for selfexpression speaks to the core of personal identity – “me.”

However, what is often overlooked is how a brand can help consumers create a unique identity for themselves by offering exclusive items as well as limited edition items (which require little, if any, personalization effort by the consumer). This potential is especially relevant for larger, mainstream brands that struggle to entice consumers away from smaller, niche brands that cater to their desire for uniqueness and exclusivity.

5. Playing Together, Staying Together

Psychological need: Closeness and intimacy (we). No one can contest the power of social networks when it comes to bringing people together. However, there are growing concerns about whether spending so many (solo) hours online is contributing to a sense of alienation.

This brings us to the next level of personal identity – “we” – and the corresponding psychological need for closeness and intimacy. Successful brands are those that bring people together, whether offline or online, so that they can share, connect and bond.

This psychological need fuelled the popularity of games, both offline and online. In particular, traditional board games provide valuable face-to-face time, although many now have their online counterparts. Video games have evolved from being solo activities to group activities, whether in person or connecting with other players online.

Outside of the game arena, “gamification” – applying game-design thinking and strategy to non-game products to make them more fun and engaging – is becoming a key ingredient of the marketing strategy for a growing number of brands.

6. Intimate Crowds

Psychological need: Belonging to a broader community (us).

The final level of personal identity – “us” – speaks to the psychological need to be part of something bigger and larger than ourselves. This need is driving the increasing prevalence vue November 2012

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of what I call intimate crowds. These are instances when relative strangers gather together in a public place for a specific function or purpose, or simply to enjoy being with likeminded others.

By now, we’re all familiar with flash mobs. But “cash mobs,” inspired by flash mobs, are now growing in popularity: they happen when a group of people assembles at a local business on a designated day to buy items. The purpose of these cash mobs is to support both local businesses and the overall community.

We are also seeing more social “intimate crowd” occasions, like free movies in the local park or sophisticated events like Diner en Blanc (a pop-up picnic event organized in different cities around the world; in August, 1,200 men and women dressed in white recently attended such an event in Vancouver).

7. Doing More with Less

Psychological need: Empowerment. Regardless of product category, consumers demand versatility – namely, multitasking, multipurpose and multifunction. This psychological need for empowerment – to do more with less stuff, to do more in less time, to do more with one item – is driven by the increasing lack of time, money and space that plagues our current society. From a consumer perspective, versatility equals value for money.

The iPad is perhaps the ultimate multitasking device.

Multipurpose products in the apparel world are proliferating, with necklaces that double as belts, skirts that can be worn three different ways, and reversible sports jackets. In a related vein, repurposing old or worn-out items is also an increasing trend. Gap Inc. recently posted an article about using an old T-shirt as a cover for your tablet. Finally, due to the broader societal trend toward downsized living spaces (especially in North America), the demand for smaller and more multifunctional items is rising.

8. ‘Where and How’ – Not Just ‘Here and Now’

Psychological need: Safety and security. No one contests the power of technology to satisfy our “here and now” need for instant gratification. However, consumer purchase decisions are also being increasingly driven by “where and how” needs.

Consumers want to know where the product is manufactured (local, domestic or overseas) and how it is manufactured (including the use of sustainable and ethical labour practices).

As a society, we are becoming increasingly concerned about our environment and the legacy we will leave for future generations. Ten years ago, the average consumer scoffed at the idea of organic clothing and was highly skeptical of 26

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breweries using sustainable business practices. Now, these types of initiatives are major tipping points in the purchase decision for an increasing number of consumers.

9. ‘I Buy What I Am’ Instead of ‘I Am What I Buy’

Psychological need: Authenticity. Brands have traditionally been looked at as external badges that consumers wear to convey who they aspire to be rather than who they actually are. And, historically, this perception was often correct: brands served as communication shortcuts to say who we were and what we valued. However, with an increasing psychological need for authenticity among today’s consumers, this equation is being reversed. In their desire to be more authentic, consumers are first examining who they are and what matters to them, and then choosing brands to reflect their authentic self.

Consequently, consumers are increasingly skeptical about brands and lofty brand promises. They want to connect with brands that truly align with their values, and quickly reject those that do not. In addition to knowing the where and how, consumers want to know the story behind a brand. Why was the brand first created? Who are the people behind the brand? How does the brand differentiate itself on both the brand and product levels? Bottom line: Make your brand a flag, not a badge.

10. ‘Globile’ Shopping

Psychological need: Independence. To be a successful brand in today’s global marketplace, it is imperative to consider two key coordinates of the channel equation: consumer coordinates (where your consumer is located) and purchase coordinates (where your brand can be purchased).

In the good old days, both of these coordinates were firmly planted in local stores. Then, brands leveraged e-commerce channels to transcend the geography and time constraints of traditional bricks-and-mortar stores. Now, instead of waiting for consumers to come to them, brands are actively seeking out consumers wherever they live, work and play.

For example, food trucks bring restaurant brands to people on the street and pop-up stores give brands new exposure in neighbourhoods where they don’t currently have a presence.

New apps, like Square, enable credit card payments via smartphone so that brands can penetrate even the remotest of consumer hideaways.

Lana E. Porter, PhD, is president of Lana Porter Group Inc. and accumulates enough air miles each year to circle the Earth four times. You can reach her at Lana@LanaPorterGroup.com or (604) 637-9000. You can follow LPG on LinkedIn and Twitter (@LanaPorterGroup) and visit her website (www.LanaPorterGroup.com).

MEMBERSHIP PROMOTION

NOW is the time to enroll new staff members and receive

14 months for the price of 12 In November, new members paying MRIA annual dues and fees will receive two free additional months as membership will be valid until December 31, 2013.

SAVE MONEY BY RENEWING OR JOINING BEFORE THE END OF 2012 Renew your corporate and/or individual membership for 2013 or enroll new staff members before December 31, 2012 and PAY THE 2012 DUES AND FEES.

Mark Your Calendar

2013 Membership Dues and Renewal Process The 2013 Membership dues and fees are now available through the MRIA Portal.

The deadline to renew your MRIA membership, both Individual and Corporate is: February 1, 2013 Please note that until February 1, 2013, Individual members working for a Corporate member of MRIA can benefit from a Group Discount on their Individual membership dues.

Visit www.mria-arim.ca/MEMBERSHIP/CorporateDuesandFees.asp To join MRIA go to the MRIA Portal at www.mriaportal-arimportail.ca, where you will be able to join the Association or renew your membership online, simply and efficiently.

For more information, contact us at membership@mria-arim.ca

Trusting Your Qual Partner: L’art de la recherche marketing qualitative de haute qualité Isabelle Landreville

Il y a quelques semaines, on m’a approché pour écrire un article

A few weeks ago, I was approached to write a French article

en français pour le magazine. Vu la thématique de cette édition,

for Vue magazine. In light of this month’s theme, I thought it

j’ai cru bon ressortir une étude de cas des plus classique dans

best to share with you one of Sylvestre Marketing’s most classic

l’histoire de Sylvestre Marketing: une étude de cas qui démontre

case studies – one that speaks to the ROI for both client and ad

une application profitable pour le client et l’agence de publicité

agency in the use of qualitative research earlier on, that is, as a

d’utiliser la recherche qualitative au tout début du cycle de

tool to fuel creation instead of simply as a means of assessing it.

développement publicitaire.

In this undertaking, I joined forces with our founder, M. Robert Pour ce faire, j’ai donc fait appel au fondateur de Sylvestre

Sylvestre, CMRP and MRIA Fellow, to build a case study

Marketing, M. Robert Sylvestre, PARM & Fellow, afin de

(generic in this case, as is often required by the reality in which

m’aider à bâtir une étude de cas générique (parfois la réalité

we operate) that generates highly valuable qualitative research

nous l’oblige!) qui met en lumière l’importance des solutions

solutions. Research solutions can solve unexpected or slightly

que la recherche qualitative peut apporter à des problèmes

uncommon marketing problems if, and only if, we let the

marketing si et seulement si...nous laissons place à la créativité

creativity that is so often associated with high-quality qualitative

dans l’approche et travaillons réellement dans une posture de

marketing research determine the research design in the true

co-création et de collaboration.

spirit of collaboration and cocreation.

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Sylvestre Marketing Case Study: Unusual Marketing Problems Make for Creative Qualitative Research Designs

Setting the stage. Imagine you are a western Canadian brand manager facing the task of introducing a Pauline Marois– branded yogurt in British Columbia, or you are anywhere in Canada and have to build a Canadian image for a George W. Bush beer. This was the kind of challenge that our client had to overcome back in the ’80s. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to divulge the product name, which successfully rose well above the challenge; but we will share with you how breaking some research rules may have contributed to its successful development.

The traditional approach: Creative concept assessment. As a qualitative research firm, we had the privilege of assessing this brand’s TV commercials since its very entry into the Quebec market. The traditional qualitative research design, employing focus groups and creative assessment, had shown its merits.

Good commercials were created to present the product as part of the Quebec environment. For example, there was a young buyer addressing the farmer’s daughter in the early morning hours at the central produce market, and the two of them ended up sharing the product. These commercials were all very professional within their classic structure: they were cute, had a warm and human touch, used characters and environments obviously from Quebec, and resulted in good product identification at the end of the story.

The challenge at hand. Good commercials, yes. But no real impact, no umph, no “It’s us.”

Our relationship with the ad agency and the client team had developed into a mutually respectful one. That trust allowed us to venture out and look at things differently.

We knew the ad agency had all the talent needed to reach Quebec’s heart and that the client was willing to give it free rein in its approach. We suspected, however, that the agency was falling into the subtle trap of trying to address the client’s views and suggestions on how to integrate Quebec life into the commercials rather than address the task at hand. The agency might even have been thinking too much about research results on previous commercials. This is where the piece of the puzzle that we could bring in proved to be very valuable.

Thinking outside the box: Using qualitative research creatively.

Business partner at the time, Alexandre St-Louis, a member of the Creativity Institute, suggested he moderate a few “no holds barred” creative concept testing sessions, with the crazy

condition that only a forward-thinking client would accept: the company would pay for the research but would not be in attendance.

The agency prepared basic concepts, plus a quantity of approaches and variations kept in the back pocket. Any of the ad agency’s creative team members in the backroom were welcome to join Alexandre and play an active role in the research process.

The objective was simple: Search for any means by which to strike an emotional chord with Quebeckers. Both positive and negative emotional responses were welcome, as the extremes were the key to solving the problem – the middle ground would simply take care of itself! Working closely with the creative team, Alexandre moderated a very productive, controlled “free for all” series of what are now referred to as cocreation sessions.

It is this close, tightly intertwined collaboration that helped the ad agency creatives to feel respondent reactions to their ideas. By the end of the experience, they just knew intuitively if they were on the mark or had missed it. The way to Quebeckers’ hearts was no longer a mystery to them.

A case study worthy of an ad campaign. The end result became a classic campaign (one that could be used as a case study), the versatility of which kept it alive for years. The theme was built around a very popular character in a very successful French TV series in Quebec. A number of different commercials saw the character in various slices of life, kidding around with local people, always using the product throughout the episode and, most importantly, enjoying the delicious product.

The advertising weight (i.e., the frequency of play on TV) made the plots more familiar to Quebeckers than the original TV version and quickly made the brand spokesperson a part of the Quebec scenery. This spokesperson became one of our own favourite characters and became part of everyday conversation. People of all ages associated with the settings. A new sketch would naturally be created to support the introduction of new product entries. The frequent updates of creative situations transformed the commercial campaign into what was almost like a popular TV series.

We do not claim to have been the geniuses behind the campaign, but who knows? This creative research design in qualitative marketing research may have been instrumental in facilitating the ad agency’s creative genius to operate freely. Maybe, by throwing overboard the standard way of testing new creative concepts, the agency’s team had a better chance of getting a hold on what made consumers click. vue November 2012

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Key Learnings

Traditionnellement, on fait appel aux agences de recherche marketing qualitatives pour des projets ad hoc; des projets qui d’une part nous permettent de personnaliser l’approche méthodologique, ne nous permettent pas toujours de faire partie de l’équipe de création. Mon objectif derrière l’ouverture des livres d’études de cas de Sylvestre Marketing était de partager avec vous cinq grands apprentissages:

Traditionally, qualitative marketing research comes into play later on in the process, to assess creative work, and only exceptionally is it used to fuel the creative process. The objective I had in sharing a part of Sylvestre Marketing’s case study archives with you was to put forward five key learnings: 1. Building a strong, trusting partnership with a qualitative

1. Bâtir une relation de confiance avec une firme de recherche marketing qualitative augmente le rendement sur investissement en donnant aux chercheurs l’opportunité de mettre toute leur expertise au profit du problème marketing.

2. Inclure l’équipe de recherche marketing qualitative dès le départ, et travailler en étroite collaboration avec le client et l’agence de publicité peut parfois être plus profitable que de l’utiliser comme un moyen de connaître les impressions des consommateurs une fois les concepts publicitaires créés.

marketing research firm increases the ROI by allowing researchers to venture out and truly put all of their expertise and knowledge into solving the marketing challenge at hand.

2. Including the qualitative marketing research team early on in the creative process, in collaboration with the client and ad agency team, can sometimes be far more beneficial than simply using qualitative research as a means to assess creative concepts once they have been developed.

3. Ne jamais oublier que la beauté de la recherche qualitative est sa malléabilité. Ce n’est pas pour rien que l’on dit que la recherche marketing qualitative de haute qualité est un art. A chaque problème marketing, son approche méthodologique qualitative appropriée.

3. Never forget that one of the most valuable strengths of

4. Il ne faut jamais oublier l’importance de la confiance: les résultats d’un projet de recherche qualitatif seront bien accueillis et utilisés uniquement si toutes les parties prenantes croient au processus, et donc font confiance à la méthode.

4. One must never forget the importance of trust: research

5. Dans tous projets de recherche marketing faisant appel à la collaboration, le contexte est clé: celui du problème marketing à solutionner, celui du consommateur ainsi que celui des autres parties prenantes.

qualitative marketing research is its flexibility. That’s why we always speak of the art when referring to high-quality qualitative research work.

findings and key insights will be embraced and leveraged only if all stakeholders believe in the process by which the findings and insights were obtained, that is, the research design.

5. In all cocreation and collaborative projects, context is key: the context of the marketing problem which needs to be solved, that of the target consumer, and that of all other stakeholders.

Isabelle Landreville, MSc, senior partner at Sylvestre Marketing, was born and raised in Ottawa, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree. She then pursued marketing research at ESCP Europe, in Paris. A qualitative researcher since 1999, she started her career as an ethnographer, working across North America and Europe. In 2005, she joined Sylvestre Marketing, where she continues to uncover meaningful insights through contextualization and by engaging respondents in the way they feel more comfortable sharing – live or online.

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R

IN D USTRY N E W S

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 Sylvie Corbeil-Peloquin, Manager, Member Services, at 1-888-602-6742 or 905-602-6854, ext. 8726 or scorbeil@mria-arim.ca or, in her absence, Executive Director Brendan Wycks at ext. 8724 or bwycks@mria-arim.ca.

Rules of Conduct and Good Practice For Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007):

Section A (5) Members must uphold the MRIA Charter of Respondent Rights.

Charter of Respondent Rights, Article 2 You can verify that the research you have been invited to participate in is legitimate in one of two ways. You can either obtain a registration number and the MRIA’s toll-free telephone number for any research registered in the MRIA’s Research Registration System or you can obtain the contact information of the research director who is conducting the study.

THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE REGISTERED RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH THE RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM DURING JULY 2012: Gold Seal Corporate Research Agencies Academica Group Advanis Inc. Advitek Inc. BBM Analytics BBM Canada Blue Ocean Contact Centers Canadian Viewpoint Inc. Cido Research Consumer Vision Ltd. Corsential ULC Forum Research Inc. Harris/Decima Inc. Head Count Hotspex Inc. Ipsos Reid MBA Recherche MD Analytics Inc. MQO Research Nanos Research NRG Research Group Opinion Search Inc. PRA Inc. R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd. Research House Inc. Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus The Logit Group Inc. TNS Canadian Facts Trend Research Inc. Basic Corporate Research Agencies Angela Tsui Management Consulting Goss Gilroy Inc. Ideaspace Research Parallax Research Inc. Strategic Moves Sylvestre Marketing

www.mria-arim.ca/RRS

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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 Submission templates and payment forms can be found at www.mria-arim.ca/QRD/QualResearchRegistryForms.asp

THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE SUBMITTED NAMES TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY FOR JULY 2012 ONTARIO Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Consumer Vision CRC Research Dawn Smith Field Management Services Inc. Head Count I & S Recruiting Ideaspace Ipsos Reid Nexus Research Quality Response Research House Inc. Research Professionals

QUEBEC CRC Research Ipsos Reid MBA Recherche

WEST CRC Research Ideaspace SmartPoint Research Inc. Trend Research

ATLANTIC Ideaspace

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.

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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

PEOPLE AND COMPANIES IN THE NEWS • To 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.

SSI Online Sample Blend Achieves Unmatched Level of Excellence in Independent Test – SSI’s Online Sample Blend in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States has been awarded highest honours for exceptional consistency by auditors from Sample Source Auditors™, a division of Mktg. Inc. After five years of testing more than 300 panels in 35 countries as part of Mktg.

Inc.’s Grand Mean Project™, only 11 panels have demonstrated consistency through the Mktg. Inc. Consistent Track™ audit. www.surveysampling.com Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for futureproof market research software solutions, announces the recent appointment of Kinesis President Leslie Townsend to the TrueSample® Quality Council. TrueSample, a division of SurveyMonkey® – the world’s largest survey company – is a patentpending data quality solution that ensures each survey respondent is real, unique and engaged. TrueSample established the Quality Council to drive data quality standards and best practices, and to enable the collaboration of key thought leaders across the research industry. Since Kinesis provides the leading end-to-end survey and panel management software platform, Ms. Townsend’s appointment to the Quality Council adds significant insight from the market research solution development perspective. http://truesample.com/qc

Understanding a ‘Credibility Interval’ and How It Differs from the ‘Margin of Sampling Error’ in a Public Opinion Poll – The most commonly understood measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll is the margin of sampling error, commonly referred to as the “plusor-minus.” A new term is making its way into the polling lexicon – namely the credibility interval. AAPOR would like to clarify for journalists and consumers of polls that the margin of sampling error and a credibility interval are not the same thing, even though both assign a “plus-or-minus” to the accuracy of a poll.

Consequently, AAPOR urges caution when using credibility intervals or otherwise interpreting results from electoral polls using non-probability online panels. The Association continues to recommend the use of probability based polling to measure the opinions of the general public. A detailed explanation of a credibility interval and how it differs from the margin of sampling error is available at www.aapor.com Marriott and Secret Escapes Check into Hotel Top 10 Sites for Searches as TripAdvisor, Superbreak have dropped off the rankings of the ten most visible sites for hotel-related searches, according to the latest research, “Hotels Sector Report - Issue 13,” by leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight. According to Greenlight, over 1.4 million searches were made for hotel-related keywords in August, down on May’s 1.5 million. www.greenlightdigital.com

uSamp Targets Major Expansion in Europe and Appoints George Llorens EVP, Global Head of Sales to Lead New Growth Initiatives – uSamp, a leader in providing targeted audiences for global consumer insights, announced at CASRO 2012 that the company has targeted Europe as a major growth area achieving a double-digit staff expansion across EMEA. uSamp appointed Llorens to expand his current focus beyond North America to meet client demand in Europe and beyond. With his strategic guidance, Llorens will direct global sales incorporating the newest uSamp products and panel expansions. www.uSamp.com We are delighted to learn that Dr. Ruth M. Corbin has been named among the top “Alumni of Influence” for the University of Toronto (University College), based on all of the alumni since the college opened its doors. Other notables on the list include two justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, Stephen Lewis, Farley Mowat, and Wayne and Shuster! The complete list may be viewed at www.uc.utoronto.ca/100-alumniinfluence. Congratulations Ruth!

Vision Critical Head Office Moves from Yaletown to Coal Harbour – Community Panel and research technology provider Vision Critical has relocated its Vancouver head office, from Yaletown to Granville Square. Founded in 2000 by Andrew Reid, Vision Critical currently serves over 500 clients in the area of online platforms for customer research and citizen engagement through offices across North

People and Companies in the News sponsored by:

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America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The company employs more than 500 people around the world. www.visioncritical.com Our CEO Is an RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award Finalist – We are proud to announce that Corrine Sandler, our CEO, is a finalist in the RBC’s Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award. Corrine was also recently ranked #37 on the W100 and Fresh Intelligence ranked #23 in Profit’s Top 50 Growth Companies in Canada. In her own words: “Creating Fresh Intelligence was the realization of a dream and immense passion for the Industry, so it’s incredible to be recognized for doing what I love. What an honour to be an RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur finalist.” http://FreshIntelligence.com Paul E. Green, Marketing Professor, perhaps best known for the development of conjoint measurement but also a prolific contributor in numerous other areas, died at age 85. He spent his entire academic career at the Wharton School at Penn and influenced the careers of hundreds of marketing research academics and practitioners there and elsewhere. A brief obituary appears at the link below. www.jpmurphy.com AskingCanadians Announces a New Addition to Its Sales Team – AskingCanadians is pleased to announce the addition of Pat Prunskus to our sales team. Prunskus brings 12 years of market research experience to his new role as Senior Sales Manager. Throughout his career, Prunskus has worked with some of the largest global data collection companies in the industry, including Research Now and Sensors Quality Management Inc. www.corporate.askingcanadians.com Fresh Intelligence Is Proud to Welcome Josh Cormie as Vice President – Fresh Intelligence Research Corp., a progressive and innovative market research company is proud to welcome Josh Cormie as their newly appointed Vice President.

Josh Cormie brings an entrepreneurial spirit with an excellent track record of building business. With more than ten years of experience in research, Josh has managed a wide range of research including communication/ad pre-testing, ad and brand equity tracking, as well as employee and customer satisfaction across categories such as CPG, Pharma, Automotive and Financial Services.

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Most recently, Josh was a VP at Ipsos ASI, where he focused on creative and communication strategy pre-testing. www.freshintelligence.com/ e-Rewards, Inc. Announces Exclusive Partnership with Kiva, the world’s first and largest micro lending website, to become Kiva’s exclusive market research survey partner. This relationship will further the work and recognition of Kiva, and leverage the breadth of relationships that e-Rewards has with its 1,200 employees, over 3,000 clients and millions of active survey respondents in 38 countries around the world. As part of this partnership, e-Rewards has made an initial charitable contribution and established a loan fund, which will be funded with a minimum of $450,000, to provide microloans in support of entrepreneurs in developing countries. www.kiva.org www.researchnow.com The Logit Group Inc. – Appointments – Aref Munshi has joined our team as Vice President, Sales & Research Services.

Aref’s wealth of knowledge in on-site, CLT, in-person and medical research further enhances Logit’s profile as the go-to data collection partner. We also welcome Stephanie Reid, in the role of Senior Project Manager, as the newest member to join its growing team. The key to her success is that of being a true client advocate throughout the data collection process, taking ownership of every study... every step of the way. www.logitgroup.com Remembering Bob... – Robert Ronald Rees, a co-founder of Advitek, passed away at his home on Saturday, September 15th.

He is fondly remembered by his colleagues at Advitek, his family and his friends. While working at the Bank of Nova Scotia, he met Joyce, who soon became his business partner. Bob’s computer skills and Joyce’s market research skills were the base of a successful business relationship, which evolved into a highly successful marriage.

One of Bob’s proudest achievements was the development of Tapestry, a sophisticated CAPI interviewing system Joyce, Bob, and his two children, Richard and Katherine, became a close-knit family. A true gentleman, jokester, loving husband, father, son, grandfather and friend: Bob will be missed. www.advitek.ca

professional development

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 February 1, 2013. Application deadline: January 4, 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 January 10-11, 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 is offered both in-class and online!

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

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For more details or to register, visit our website at www.mria-arim.ca/EDUCATION/default.asp

COLUMNISTS

The court of public opinion Internet Surveys Live Up to Litigation Standards One Quality Control at a Time Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP CorbinPartners Inc.

Increased use of Internet survey evidence in litigation may be anticipated in Canada. Given their economics, they are rapidly becoming the research instruments of choice for Canadian corporations. Their quality controls are improving.

Election polls demonstrate reasonable predictive accuracy in many cases. The Copyright Board of Canada appears to have been accepting some version of Internet surveys for tariff-setting purposes as early as 2002.1 In Ron Matusalem & Matusa of Florida Inc. v. Havana Club Holding Inc.,2 the court excluded an Internet survey for its lack of reliability, validity and decisiveness, but not for its methodology.

Quality controls will be the arbiter of the acceptability of Internet surveys as litigation evidence. One quality control that should be imported by Internet surveys destined for litigation is the validation of respondent identity and participation.

The industry standard of 10 per cent validation for other methodologies may be readily applied. In practice it has worked as follows: Internet panel respondents are asked at the survey introduction if they would agree to have their participation verified by follow-up phone call. Those who refuse are discontinued. A validation of 10 per cent of completions is conducted, including verifying answers on a few fact-based qualifying questions that the survey had used, such as the purchase of a target product. Failed validations are not only replaced, but validations continue until failure rate for the entire sample falls below a reasonable target percentage.

In our early experience with incorporating this standard, we have run up against an alarming discovery: phone validations across well-reputed panels have revealed a failure rate of as high as 30 per cent. Various techniques have been needed to reduce it. One thing remains clear.

Without validation or some other solution, clients can not have certainty about whether the target population (panel member, relevant purchaser) is being accurately captured.

Without validation or some other solution, weighting and demographic cross-tabs will yield incorrect results.

It’s a problem, hidden from view. The problem can be mitigated with money. That’s the good news – the problems that can’t are typically the greater tragedy. It is a client’s prerogative to decide whether enhanced reliability is worth the extra investment. When judges are your clients, the answer seems obvious.

1. Public Performance of Music, Recorded Music for Dancing (1998 to 2004), Copyright Board of Canada Decision on SOCAN Tariff 18, online: Copyright Board of Canada http://cb-cda.gc.ca/hearings-audiences/2003/ m28e-e.html.

2. 2010 F.C. 786

Innovation and Creativity Here and Now Margaret Imai-Compton, CMRP Principal, Imai-Compton Consulting Inc.

In our busy and hectic lives, a considerable amount of time is given over to planning for what’s next.

One creativity technique that resists the “next syndrome” is called the Here and Now, which encourages us to discard what went before, and ignore the future, so all that matters is the immediate moment. This technique is very powerful because it dispenses with the “clutter” of judgment, restrictions and boundaries, and allows us to work with what is immediately on hand.

A good example of The Here and Now, is when I was invited to work with a global software company that was overwhelmed with meeting madness (face-to-face, telephone and video conferencing). They asked me to brainstorm on how to reduce meeting time, and make them more productive.

So we dispensed with past meeting formats (in-house, global travel to meeting venues, video conferencing) and ignored future meeting scenarios (more of the same) and worked with what we had “Here and Now.” The exercise went something like this … “Imagine you walk away from this meeting and you say to yourself, ‘That was a good meeting.’ What can you do now, at this very moment (Here and Now), that would make you say that?” vue November 2012

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COLUM N ISTS

Two suggestions coming out of the Here and Now exercise eventually made it into corporate best practices.

1) Shorter meetings. Instead of the conventional one-hour time allotment, we designed 50-minute meetings. This forced participants to be punctual and focussed, and one manager even instituted a 45-minute “buzzer” to indicate that her meeting was coming to a close.

2) Embrace new meeting technology. Instead of using cumbersome in-house video conferencing capabilities, departments embraced Skype Conference which allowed participants to log in from anywhere, anytime with their laptops. This proved especially helpful for department meetings in which overseas regions were involved.

The Here and Now technique is easy, requires no special set-up or props, and is productive because it uses elements of urgency (not yesterday, not tomorrow) and blends them with wishes and possibilities.

will never reflect their real-life, in-store experience of the product. Associations are so powerful in the minds of consumers that there is a strong risk of losing a vital piece of the puzzle in withholding information.

In marketing research, it is imperative that the concept be strategically assessed for permissibility, ownability, expectations, motivational power and overall appeal above and beyond the product itself. After all, many might be quite interested in a chocolate bar until they discover it is being distributed by a pharmaceutical company or under a pet food brand. While this may seem obvious, some examples are less intuitive to the researcher and client…but quite shockingly so to the consumer. For best results, trust your research team to know how to present information; it’s their expertise to contextualize accordingly!

BRAVE NEW WORLD What’s a Brand?

Corrine Sandler Fresh Intelligence Research Corp.

TWO SOLITUDES Brand Perceptions Often Vary between Markets; To Brand or Not to Brand? That is the Question!

Isabelle Landreville Sylvestre Marketing

“There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible.

All you have to do is find it.”

Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference As you know, qualitative marketing research is very often used, by product development teams and ad agencies, to test the waters before launching. In doing so, they seek precisely what Malcolm Gladwell is alluding to in the statement above: that magic bit of information that will make their product irresistible! In doing this, they wonder whether withholding certain elements of information from respondents would push them to accept a concept better or limit their biases. A perfect example of this is branding.

As you certainly know, the examples of brands that are positioned differently from one market to the other are numerous. The question is: To Brand or Not to Brand?

Not branding a product in testing does allow respondents to get an honest read on its benefits and flaws and thus is a very straightforward read. However, this perception 38

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I state very clearly on our website that “a brand derives its value from people.”

It is simply the emotional and psychological relationship you have with people. Brand logos or icons should elicit an emotional response and instantly create thoughts, perceptions and feelings about the company; however, don’t get confused as logos are not brands, they are merely representations of brands and are just the entry point to the brand in one’s mind.

With all this being said, I strongly believe that brands are one of the most valuable assets a company has and therefore must be measured continuously as a key performance indicator within a company. We as researchers call this brand equity. Quantitative brand equity includes profit margins and market share, but fails to capture qualitative elements such as prestige and associations of interest.

At Fresh Intelligence we apply a rigorous methodology to measure brand equity on both an emotional and functional level. Functional perceptions of the brand are important, but are not how consumers make their decisions to buy or not to buy. By analyzing trends in consumer choices, we identify the latent purchase motivators that drive your consumers’ behaviour, and validate it to purchase behaviour in your market here and now.

Not only are equity measures important in understanding the growth of a brand.

COLUMN I STS

When customers start referring to a company by something different from its brand name (think “Tarjé”) this is a great indicator of brand strength. This only happens when customers feel enough of a relationship with a product to bestow it with a nickname.

A brand is not a brand until it develops an emotional connection with your customers.

It’s all about head, heart and hands.

QUALITAS Asking Why Not Why Kelly Adams Ipsos Reid UU

I am about to get heretical here, so brace yourself. There is a school of thought out there that says one must never ask qualitative respondents “why?”. New moderators go through their training coached in more acceptable alternatives, like “how come?” and “in what way?” – mouthing these over so that they’ll never utter the dreaded “w” word as a probe.

Never ever. Verboten. You can’t touch this.

I am here to tell you that there is no good reason why “why?” can’t sometimes be the question of choice. Like being

told to never start a sentence with “because,” the “never say why” rule is an imperfect shorthand masquerading as an immutable rule.

The thinking behind this stricture is that the question “why?” will prompt a short, rational response. It will not get at the deep, underlying touchy-feely things that really motivate people to do what they do, say what they say, and believe what they believe. If all you get is the rational, all you get is the superficial.

But people are predisposed to answer rationally first anyway. Regardless of what the question is, the first response is almost always the reasoned answer – because it feels safe and makes them sound like a no-nonsense, thinking adult.

Asking “why?” clears the ground and gets that rational response out of the way so you can get at the underlying reasons.

The issue isn’t asking “why?”; the issue is just accepting what they answer as “why” and not following up with other probes – the “tell me more,” “how come,” or even another “why” – “why is that important to you?”. In this way, “why?” is used as a ladder to get down to the core of the behaviour.

So go ahead and ask “why.” Just remember to keep asking.

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