MRIA VUE Magazine, October 2012 by MRIA

vue the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association OCTOBER 2012

Qualitative Research with Disabled Participants: LESSONS LEARNED You Say Tomato, I Say …………

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932

Do Pictures Bias Polls? AU CONTRAIRE (3) L’insoutenable légèreté de l’achat In Conversation with Gary Bennewies President and CEO of Ipsos Canada

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In this month’s features: (L to R) Sylvie Croteau, George Rassias, Mark Zwelling, Chuck Chakrapani, Gary Bennewies

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

SPECIAL FEATURE 10 Q UALITATIVE RESEARCH WITH DISABLED PARTICIPANTS: LESSONS LEARNED by Sylvie Croteau

FEATURES 14 YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY……… by George Rassias 18 DO PICTURES BIAS POLLS? by Marc Zwelling 20 AU CONTRAIRE (3) THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BUYING by Chuck Chakrapani 24 A U CONTRAIRE (3) L’INSOUTENABLE LÉGÈRETÉ DE L’ACHAT par Chuck Chakrapani 28 IN CONVERSATION WITH GARY BENNEWIES, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF IPSOS CANADA by Christian Mueller

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

INDUSTRY NEWS 13 In Memoriam – Joseph B. Doyle 31 Research Registration System (RRS) 32 People and Companies in the News 34 Qualitative Research Registry (QRR)

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

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

2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg. 4, Unit 104 Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Tel: (905) 602-6854 Toll Free: 1-888-602-MRIA (6742) Fax: (905) 602-6855 Email: vue@mria-arim.ca Website: www.mria-arim.ca PRODUCTION: LAYOUT/DESIGN LS Graphics Tel: (905) 743-0402, Toll Free: 1-800-400-8253 Fax: (905) 728-3931 Email: info@lsgraphics.com CONTACTS CHAIR, PUBLICATIONS Stephen Popiel, PhD, CMRP, Vice President, GfK Custom Research NA Tel: (905) 277-2669 x 242 Mobile: (416) 358-5062 Stephen.Popiel@gfk.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer, Conversition (416) 273-9395 apettit@conversition.com MANAGING EDITOR Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA amgabriel@mria-arim.ca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP (647) 855-5088 christianmuellerphd@gmail.com COPY EDITOR Siegfried Betterman Interested in joining the Vue editorial team? Contact us at vue@mria-arim.ca 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: October, 2012 © 2012. All rights reserved. Copyright rests with the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All requests for permission for reproduction must be submitted to MRIA at publications@mria-arim.ca. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing 2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg 4, Unit 104, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932 ISSN 1488-7320

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Editor’s Vue Annie Pettit

I have a dream …

J’ai un rêve …

A dream of a Vue magazine that celebrates the Canadian perspective of marketing research en français and in English, from coast to coast, from hamlet to megacity. A magazine that represents both client-side and vendor-side researchers. A magazine that celebrates the diversity of researchers, both awe-inspiring and fresh from college.

Le rêve d’un magazine Vue qui célèbre la perspective canadienne de la recherche marketing en français et in English, d’un océan à l’autre, des villages aux grandes villes. Un magazine qui célèbre la diversité des praticiens de la recherche, qu’ils aient des antécédents imposants ou qu’ils soient fraîchement sortis du collège.

I’m excited to take my turn at the editor’s wheel and look forward to a Vue magazine that continues to get better every year. My journey as editor-in-chief begins with this issue focusing on government and diversity – and I’ve just covered the diversity part. Diversity is a vision I’ve had for a long time and one that I look forward to seeing more of here, on the written and digital page. And since we’re talking digital, be sure to post some of your conference pictures on our new Facebook page, comment on one of our lively LinkedIn discussions, and share your thoughts by writing a post on our new blog. As for the focus on government, it’s easy to forget all the interactions MRIA has with the Canadian government on our behalf. Our organization played a role in bringing the long-form Canadian census back into use and, as always, continues to ensure that marketing researchers enjoy special provisions and exceptions, such as the exemption from the do-not-call list. And just a few short months ago, I was truly honoured to be asked to travel with Brendan Wycks, the executive director of MRIA, to speak to members of the House of Commons about our perspectives on ethics and privacy in social media research. If we can continue to demonstrate that we are serious about ethical self-regulation, we can help ensure that new legislative restrictions on how we conduct research in the online space aren’t created. So come away with me and enjoy the Vue.

Je suis enthousiasmée de me retrouver à la barre du rédacteur en chef et de travailler à améliorer le magazine Vue de plus en plus chaque année. Mon parcours de rédactrice en chef commence avec ce numéro qui met l’accent sur le gouvernement et la diversité – et je viens de couvrir la dimension de la diversité. La diversité est une vision que j’ai depuis longtemps et que je désire voir plus ici, sur les pages imprimées et numériques. Et, en parlant de numérique, n’oubliez pas d’afficher vos photos de la conférence sur la nouvelle page Facebook, d’inscrire vos commentaires sur nos vives discussions dans LinkedIn, et de partager vos idées en écrivant un message dans notre nouveau blogue. Quant à mettre l’accent sur le gouvernement, il est facile d’oublier toutes les interactions de l’ARIM avec le gouvernement canadien en notre nom. Notre organisation a joué un rôle dans le rétablissement du formulaire détaillé du recensement et, comme toujours, elle continue de s’assurer que les praticiens de la recherche marketing bénéficient de dispositions spéciales et d’exceptions telles que l’exemption de la liste nationale de numéros de télécommunication exclus. De plus, il y a quelques mois, j’ai été très honorée d’être invitée à accompagner Brendan Wycks, le directeur général de l’ARIM, pour parler à des membres de la Chambre des communes au sujet de nos perspectives sur l’éthique et la protection des renseignements personnels dans la recherche par médias sociaux. Si nous pouvons continuer de démontrer que nous prenons très au sérieux l’autoréglementation éthique, nous pouvons assurer qu’on n’imposera pas de nouvelles limites législatives sur la façon dont nous effectuons la recherche dans l’espace en ligne. Alors, échappez-vous avec moi et ayez du plaisir à lire Vue.

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

Social Media Research and Privacy Rights: A New Area for MRIA Government Relations and Self-Regulatory Advocacy When we ask members what they value most about MRIA, as we do through periodic satisfaction surveys, “government relations and advocacy” always ranks highly, usually a close second to “standards.” Appreciation of the value and benefits of the association’s work in these areas rises with a member’s longevity in the association. Government relations and advocacy is an area of constant strategic focus and significant resource allocation for your association. Over the past eight years, MRIA has achieved a number of significant legislative and regulatory wins for the industry, most notably through exemptions from the national Do Not Call List legislation and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). With the focus of this issue of Vue being on government, I want to report on a recent government relations initiative in which the association has been involved, in support of our members and of strengthening the positive image and reputation that our self-regulatory industry has earned in the eyes of legislators and regulators. As Annie Pettit, Vue’s new editor-in-chief, highlights in her editor’s note, she and I – with the assistance of Greg Jodouin, our government relations consultant – represented MRIA before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on June 5. Drawing largely upon Annie’s expertise as an internationally respected authority on social media research, MRIA presented a brief that responded to the committee’s study of the adequacy of the measures taken by Google, Facebook and other social media to protect the personal information of Canadians who use their programs. Here is an excerpt of some of the key messages we delivered on your behalf: 6

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Recherche par médias sociaux et droits de la protection des renseignements personnels : Un nouveau domaine de relations gouvernementales et de promotion de l’autoréglementation de l’ARIM Lorsque nous demandons à nos membres, comme nous le faisons périodiquement lors de nos sondages sur la satisfaction, ce qui a le plus de valeur dans ce que l’ARIM leur offre, « les relations gouvernementales et la défense de nos droits » se classent toujours très haut, généralement au deuxième rang très près de « normes ». L’appréciation de la valeur et des avantages du travail de l’association dans ces domaines augmente avec la longévité des membres au sein de l’association. Les relations gouvernementales et la défense des droits sont des domaines sur lesquels votre association concentre constamment sa stratégie et des ressources considérables. Au cours des huit dernières années, l’ARIM a remporté plusieurs victoires législatives et réglementaires significatives pour l’industrie, tout particulièrement par rapport aux exemptions dans la loi s’appliquant à la liste nationale de numéros de télécommunication exclus et dans la loi antipourriel du Canada. Étant donné que ce numéro est axé sur le gouvernement, je vais rendre compte d’une initiative récente de relations gouvernementales à laquelle notre association a participé en appui à nos membres et pour renforcer l’image et la réputation positive que notre industrie autoréglementée a acquises auprès des législateurs et des organismes réglementaires. Comme l’a souligné la nouvelle rédactrice en chef de Vue Annie Pettit dans son message, le 5 juin, nous avons elle et moi représenté l’ARIM – avec l’aide de Greg Jodouin, notre consultant en relations gouvernementales – devant le Comité permanent de l’information, de la protection des renseignements personnels et de l’éthique de la Chambre des communes. Puisant abondamment dans l’expertise d’Annie, qui est reconnue mondialement comme une autorité en matière de recherche par médias sociaux, l’ARIM a présenté un mémoire qui correspond à l’étude du comité sur la justesse des mesures prises par Google, Facebook et d’autres médias sociaux pour protéger les renseignements personnels des Canadiens qui utilisent leurs programmes.

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Social media research is the application of traditional marketing research principles to the collection and analysis of social media data for the purpose of better understanding policies and opinions. Where survey researchers decide which people are best suited to participate in a survey, social media researchers decide which websites or other online forums are best suited for better understanding opinions. They incorporate traditional aspects of marketing research, including sampling, weighting, scaling, norms, and box scores to ensure opinions are measured as accurately as possible. Social media research is not a kinder, gentler term for social media marketing. Researchers do not market products. They do not sell products. Like their counterparts working on the traditional side of the survey research industry, social media researchers must comply with the same methodological and ethical guidelines and standards. Our industry has always taken privacy rights seriously, no matter the medium through which we interact with Canadians. In keeping with the high standards we have adopted for more traditional research methodologies, MRIA has been part of a global initiative to develop guidelines around ethical social media research, with a view to protecting the privacy of online Canadians. This initiative has been led by our counterpart organization in Europe, ESOMAR, with participation and input from MRIA and several other industry associations around the world. MRIA is now in the process of codifying those social media research guidelines and building them into our standards code, with which our members must comply. We submit that one of the committee’s main challenges will be in determining whether our federal privacy legislation, PIPEDA, remains current and can still strike a balance between Canadians’ privacy rights and the needs of businesses as they seek to flourish in the digital economy. We believe that such a balance is achievable. It will require an exploration of what constitutes ethical business protocols. It may also require, however, an evaluation of the privacy expectations of online Canadians, and how those expectations compare to those that exist in the traditional offline context. Ten years ago, it seemed incomprehensible that the average person would share intimate details of his or her life online. Today, bloggers are regular people who get excited when strangers, not their friends and family, read their thoughts and share them widely.

Voici un extrait de certains messages clés que nous avons présentés en votre nom : La recherche par médias sociaux est l’application des principes de la recherche marketing traditionnelle à la collecte et analyse des données des médias sociaux dans le but de mieux comprendre les politiques et les opinions. Alors que les praticiens de la recherche-sondage choisissent quels seront les meilleurs participants à un sondage, les praticiens de la recherche par médias sociaux choisissent les sites Web qui conviennent le mieux à une meilleure compréhension des opinions. Cette nouvelle forme de pratique intègre les éléments traditionnels de la recherche marketing, dont l’échantillonnage, la pondération, la mise à l’échelle, les normes et les cotes afin d’assurer que les opinions sont mesurées aussi précisément que possible. La recherche par médias sociaux n’est pas un terme plus gentil et doux pour le marketing par médias sociaux. Les praticiens de la recherche ne font pas de commercialisation de produits. Ils ne vendent pas de produits. Ils doivent respecter les mêmes directives et normes éthiques et méthodologiques que leurs homologues de l’industrie de la recherche-sondage. Notre industrie a toujours pris très au sérieux les droits de la protection des renseignements personnels, quel que soit le médium d’interaction avec les Canadiens. Conformément aux normes élevées que nous avons adoptées pour les méthodologies de recherche plus traditionnelle, l’ARIM fait partie d’une initiative internationale visant à élaborer des directives sur l’éthique de la recherche par médias sociaux dans le but de protéger les renseignements personnels en ligne des Canadiens. Cette initiative est dirigée par notre homologue européen ESOMAR, avec la participation de l’ARIM et plusieurs autres associations de l’industrie partout dans le monde. L’ARIM codifie présentement ces directives sur la recherche par médias sociaux et les intègre dans notre code des normes auquel nos membres doivent se conformer. Nous reconnaissons qu’un des principaux défis du Comité est de déterminer si notre loi fédérale sur la protection des renseignements personnels, la LPRPDÉ, demeure d’actualité et peut encore assurer un équilibre entre les droits de la protection des renseignements personnels des Canadiens et les besoins des entreprises qui veulent prospérer dans l’économie numérique. Nous croyons qu’il est possible d’atteindre un tel équilibre. Pour ce faire, il faudra étudier ce qui constitue un protocole d’éthique en affaires. Il faudra peut-être aussi évaluer les attentes en matière de protection des renseignements personnels en ligne et de quelle façon ces attentes sont comparables à celles qu’on nourrit dans un contexte traditionnel hors ligne. vue October 2012

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Public forums are open social networks where strangers from around the world find and share opinions with each other. Twitter is a newer entrant into the social media space and, for many people using it, the ultimate goal is to write a tweet that millions of people around the world will read. We have reached a stage where social media have become so ingrained in our lives that social media users expect companies to respond to social media comments written in obscure corners of the Internet. People expect their social media complaints to be met with letters of apology. The experience of social media research practitioners tells us that, from the perspective of social media users, most Canadians who publish information online are quite informed about what they are doing; they have a good understanding of the impact of their actions; and they know what steps to take to protect their personal information. For example, they will make decisions about how and where to share information based on the audience they intend to reach – from the world at large, through a post on a public blog, to a targeted, controlled access group of friends on their Facebook page. In light of this, we submit that it might be erroneous to assume that Canadians have the same privacy expectations when they post personal information online as they do when they interact in the offline context. Yet online Canadians still expect that certain levels of safeguards and protocols should exist in the digital environment. This point will be critical in assessing whether a balance exists between individuals’ privacy rights and the needs of businesses; and, in this respect, we suggest that Parliament should review PIPEDA’s regulatory definition of “publicly available information” to evaluate whether it remains current in the online context.

The full text of the brief we delivered on Parliament Hill can be found on our website at www.mria-arim.ca/ INDMEMBERSONLY/SocialMediaPrivacyBrief.asp.

Il y a dix ans, il semblait impensable que la moyenne des gens partage des détails intimes en ligne sur leur vie. Aujourd’hui, les blogueurs sont des gens ordinaires qui sont stimulés quand des étrangers, non pas des amis ou parents, lisent leurs pensées et les partagent largement. Les forums publics sont des réseaux sociaux ouverts où des étrangers de partout dans le monde trouvent et partagent des opinions. Le Twitter est un nouvel arrivant dans l’espace des médias sociaux et, pour un grand nombre d’utilisateurs, leur but ultime est d’écrire un micromessage que des millions de personnes dans le monde liront. Nous en sommes arrivés au point où les médias sociaux sont devenus si enracinés dans nos vies que ses utilisateurs s’attendent à ce que les entreprises répondent aux commentaires sur des médias sociaux dans des coins obscurs d’Internet. Les gens s’attendent à ce que leurs plaintes par médias sociaux reçoivent des lettres d’excuses. L’expérience des praticiens de la recherche par médias sociaux nous apprend que, du point de vue de l’utilisateur, la plupart des Canadiens qui affichent des renseignements en ligne sont assez bien informés sur ce qu’ils font; ils comprennent bien les conséquences de leurs actions et savent quelles mesures prendre pour protéger leurs renseignements personnels. Par exemple, ils choisissent la façon et l’endroit où ils partageront des renseignements et les visiteurs qu’ils veulent atteindre – allant du monde en général, à un blogue public ou à l’accès ciblé et contrôlé à leur page Facebook accordé à un groupe d’amis. Étant donné la situation, nous soutenons que ce serait peut-être une erreur d’assumer que les Canadiens ont les mêmes attentes par rapport à la protection des renseignements personnels quand ils affichent des renseignements personnels en ligne que lorsqu’ils interagissent dans un contexte hors ligne. Cependant, les Canadiens en ligne s’attendent tout de même à ce qu’il y ait certains niveaux de protection et de protocoles dans l’environnement numérique. Il est critique de déterminer s’il y a un équilibre entre les droits de la protection des renseignements personnels des individus et les besoins des entreprises. À cet égard, nous suggérons que le Parlement révise la définition de « renseignements auxquels le public a accès » dans le Règlement de la LPRPDÉ afin d’évaluer s’il demeure d’actualité dans le contexte en ligne. Le texte complet du mémoire que nous avons présenté sur la Colline du Parlement se trouve sur notre site Web à www.mria-arim.ca/INDMEMBERSONLY/SocialMediaPrivacyBrief.asp.

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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Qualitative Research with Disabled Participants:

Lessons Learned Sylvie Croteau As vice-president with Ad Hoc Research, Sylvie Croteau specializes in qualitative research. One of her areas of expertise is research with people living with a physical disability. This article is about some of her experiences in disability research, and provides eight invaluable lessons for disability researchers. A little nervous, I climb up the stairs and ring the doorbell. A tall, handsome, young man opens the door. “Have I seen you somewhere before?” “Err … I don’t think so ….” Double-check spec sheet: Alexandre, 27, blind. No, definitely not. He bursts out laughing. Lesson 1: Relax

Many people I have met joke readily about their disability. And they do not keep their tongues tied for the sake of political correctness. Blind people say, “I see what you’re saying,” and deaf individuals use phrases such as “I hear ya!” Of course, in the context of disability research, respect should be the guiding principle, as it should in any relationship. This is why I specifically make a point of referring to people with disabilities as “people,” not “quadriplegics,” “the deaf” or “the blind.” Their disability does not define them. They are people first. We enter Alexandre’s apartment. I’m struck by how effortlessly he walks around, pulling up a chair for me, pouring some coffee. Lesson 2: Much of the Experience of Disability Stems from the World Outside 10

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This would be the first of my many visits to the homes of people with a disability. Time and time again, I’ve been struck by their resourcefulness and by how little their disability seems to affect their ability to function when they are in adapted surroundings. Marc, an incredibly ingenious quadriplegic man, has dreamt up an array of contraptions to help him function. Everything in his home is either voice-activated or can be operated with a stick he holds in his mouth. The stick falls? No problem. Again using his mouth, he seizes another one from the tablet of his motorized wheelchair. Marc is very computer-savvy, which is necessary these days when you work as an accountant. Of course, that’s when he’s not sailing on a nearby lake. People become so skilled at adapting their surroundings that, at home, disability is often barely an issue. The main obstacles come from the world outside: the design of streets and public buildings, the transit system, shops and restaurants. It often doesn’t take much to make a tremendous difference in a disabled

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person’s life. Research can help by identifying where adaptations are required. Lesson 3: Learnings Can Have Wide-ranging Applications

As customer sourcing becomes a growing trend, the disabled community constitutes a largely untapped source of innovative spark. The creativity of disabled consumers, as they craft their own devices or modify mass-market products to fit their needs, can inspire the creation, development or re-engineering of products geared to the general population. Inclusive design is often beneficial to all. A classic example: the curb cut. The sidewalk slope on street corners means that someone in a wheelchair can cross the street unaided. And it just so happens that getting around becomes easier for preschoolers on their tricycles, tourists dragging heavy suitcases, parents pushing a stroller, …. By the way: It’s so much more efficient to take into account everyone’s needs at the design stage of a project rather than modifying an existing structure as an afterthought. Lesson 4: Don’t Assume

When I first met Allen, I asked my questions very dis-tinct-ly, using simple words, knowing that he was completely deaf and relied on the movements of my lips to understand me. He responded clearly, thoughtfully, with elaborate sentences. I ended up responding in kind, feeling more than a little silly: as long as he had a clear view of my lips, he understood every word I was saying. He must have thought initially that I was a little dense. Allen is one of many proficient lip-readers I’ve met, but I also remember vividly my interview with Farida, a very bright deaf girl who lip-read my questions and very eloquently voiced her opinion on some of the intricacies of closed captioning. Farida was eight years old at the time. Lesson 5: Offer Various Modes of Participation

Asking participants about their needs and preferences regarding modes of contribution to a study is key to conducting successful research with disabled individuals. Often, using a combination of methods is best. In the area of communication, there are some key guidelines to follow. Hearing disability. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people vary greatly in terms of their preferred modes of communication. Some can hear a bit of sound and rely on lip-reading to catch what they missed. Others need a lip interpreter – a person who repeats the essence of what the speaker is saying, but more distinctly and using words that are easier to recognize visually. Others use sign language only or “listen” to sign language and reply orally – or some other combination. When you organize group sessions with participants who have a hearing disability, segment participants in terms of

communication methods: it will be much easier to understand one another. So how do you know what communication mode to use when speaking with someone who has a hearing disability? You don’t. You ask. The only constant: Look directly at the person who is speaking to you, even when you are hearing them through an interpreter. Don’t let yourself forget who your interlocutor is. One mistake I made early on is to assume that the written word would eliminate communication barriers. Hearing or not, how could it matter if you’re writing to one another? Online discussions seemed like the perfect method to gather deaf people’s opinions. It hadn’t occurred to me that for people born deaf, English is a second language, their first being sign language. Many, especially in the younger generation, are completely fluent in written English. Actually, deaf teenagers are often quicker readers than their hearing counterparts, having developed their ability through closed-captioned television. But some others struggle. Sign language and English are completely different languages. Upon reading an online discussion, a Chinese-speaking friend of mine commented that some of the sentence structures written by signing participants were closer to Mandarin than to English. Where did I go wrong? I had never asked participants how comfortable they felt reading and writing in English. As a consequence, participants less proficient in English kept their answers to a minimum. Completing the text-based discussion with Skype or in-person meetings would have allowed those most at ease with sign language to participate more fully. Visual disability. Magnifying and screen-reading software enable many users with a vision disability to work with computers quite proficiently. While many prefer using the spoken word, participants can answer online surveys and join online discussions – provided the applications and websites are accessible. Screen readers sound out everything on each web page. On non-adapted sites, this procedure includes irrelevant HTML codes; and telephone numbers such as 1-888-555-1212 become “eighteen billion, eight hundred and eighty-five million, five hundred and fifty-one thousand, two hundred and twelve.” Users have to filter through the gobbledygook to interpret the contents of the screen. Quadriplegia. If you are asking people who are quadriplegic to participate in an online study, do keep in mind that they will be using voice recognition software. It must be easy to jump from one frame to another with a single voice command (such as “tab”). Ask providers if their online tools are W3C compliant – the current web accessibility standard. And then ask users to test out the tools for you. If your online methodology is well planned, results can be quite impressive. In one study that I organized, people who are vue October 2012

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deaf, blind or quadriplegic “met” on a single forum to share their experiences. Where else but on the Internet could this have been possible? There are also a number of guidelines in the area of transportation, as it is often a considerable constraint. The challenge is obvious for people living with a mobility impairment. For people who are blind, while travelling to a familiar location is more feasible, finding their way in a new environment presents a greater challenge. As Canadians, we know that getting around in wintry conditions is a challenge for all, but consider icy sidewalks and snowbanks from the point of view of someone who is blind or in a wheelchair. If you are entertaining the thought of a wintertime study involving people living with a mobility or visual impairment, you should be the one braving the ice and snow. Also keep in mind that some people who are disabled have serious health issues. The effort expended in coming to you may impede the quality of participation, as they may have little energy left to engage fully in the research interaction. If you must have participants with mobility or vision issues travel to a research facility, ask them about their preferred transportation option and make the arrangements for them. Public transportation services for the disabled are an option but, in many cities, making reservations can be a challenge. Dealing with specialized transportation services can be a learning experience in itself! Consider hiring a specialized taxi company that picks up participants at their home and drops them off at the door of the facility. Lesson 6: Refer to the Experts

People with a disability are natural usability experts. Their unique perspectives provide insights that would not emerge with able-bodied participants. Many people, especially the aging, have to adapt to declining abilities. The shift is often gradual, but sometimes it is sudden. With some individuals, abilities come and go. A solution that worked at some point may lose its usefulness as time goes by, leaving people scrambling for an alternative. I’ve been amazed by how people are able to take some very difficult challenges in stride and are sometimes even driven to excel, not despite, but because of their disability. Witnessing a proficient user of computer screen-reading technology is awe-inspiring. I conducted a website usability– testing interview at Luke’s home. Luke has been blind since infancy and uses screen readers at the highest possible speed. Watching him navigate through the site, I had to ask Luke to slow down. I consider myself pretty web-savvy, but I just could not keep up. He went on to suggest relevant tweaks to the programming that had not occurred to the website developers. Lesson 7: You Need Lead Time – and Leeway

Associations for people living with a disability are a natural 12

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starting point from which to begin recruiting participants. They have lists of individuals who fit your recruiting specs. And part of their mandate is often to ensure that their members’ needs and opinions are heard and valued. They are often eager to help. You should know, however, that associations need advance notice. If you are asking for their help to recruit, factor in at least twice, if not three or four times your usual recruiting time, for a number of reasons: Use of volunteers. A large proportion of these associations are operated by part-time volunteers who come in sporadically. It may take a few days before you receive a reply to your messages. Committee involvement. Many associations function as a democracy: any decision must go through a committee. You may have to wait until their next meeting for your request to be considered. Use of publications. Understandably, associations will very rarely allow you to access their lists. Their preferred method of notifying potential participants is often to post an ad to their members in their publication. Sometimes, it’s a weekly newsletter, but it can also be a bimonthly magazine. You should also give careful consideration to the number of recruits. To compensate for potential cancellations, it is common practice in qualitative research to invite more people than needed, thereby ensuring that enough participants are present. Considering the effort that some disabled participants must invest to attend your session, “pay and send” is not an option. However, given the health issues with which some disabled individuals live, cancellations may be more likely. Your research plan should include some leeway in terms of participant distribution, whether that means allowing for fewer contributions than expected, anticipating more than you were planning for, or factoring in more time to re-recruit should any cancellations occur. Lesson 8: Ask, Listen and Learn

Despite an unparalleled increase in the aging population and the ensuing expectation of a corresponding rise in the disabled population, studies involving people with disabilities are still too few and far between. Just like the curb cut, we would all benefit from adapting the environment to people’s abilities and disabilities. Where do we start? By asking people what they need, by listening – and learning. Sylvie is vice-president with Ad Hoc Research. A qualitative research specialist, she has moderated more than 1,200 focus groups in both French and English throughout her twenty-year career. Sylvie works with various segments of the population but specializes in research with people who are living with disabilities and long-term chronic conditions. She also has strong experience in online research. Sylvie can be reached at sylvie.croteau@adhoc-research.com

In Memoriam Joseph B. Doyle 1921-2012 Joe Doyle, who founded PMRS in 1960, passed away suddenly on September 18 2012. Below is a summary of his long and distinguished career in Marketing Research. 1921 Joseph Bernard Doyle was born in New York City on August 17, and grew up in Westchester County, New York. 1939 Graduated with Honors from A.B.Davis High School. 1940-41 Employed in the Securities Department of J.P. Morgan. 1942-4 Not drafted into the Armed Forces for medical reasons. Volunteered to work for the FBI as a translator in Washington and New York. 1943-46 Completed a variety of night courses at New York University and George Washington University while employed full time.

1960 Created the Professional Marketing Research Society, a unique Canadian institution, and became the Society’s Founding President (while continuing to manage GF’s growing Research Department). 1965 Co-authoured (with Dr. A.B. Blankenship) the book “Marketing Research Management”, published by the American Management Association, New York. This is one of the first books on marketing research management anywhere in the world. 1965 Spearheaded the creation of the first formal Certificate course in Marketing Research in Canada, offered by The Institute of Marketing at the University of Waterloo. Joe Doyle was one of the instructors.

1945-48 Joined Marketing Research firm Stewart, Dougall & Associates in New York.

1965 Promoted to Marketing Services Manager at General Foods Canada, with continuing responsibility for Marketing Research.

1948 Married Margetta, his colleague at Stewart, Dougall.

1967 Joseph and Margetta Doyle took out Canadian citizenship.

1948-58 Joined the Marketing Research Department of General Foods Corporation in White Plains, New York.

1969 Promoted to Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, by General Foods Canada.

1958 Asked by General Foods to transfer to Toronto to form the first Marketing Research Department for GF Canada.

1971 Created the Consumer Dialogue Program for General Foods, a series of consumer forums in every Province and Territory across Canada.

1978 Joseph Doyle retires from General Foods Canada. 1986 PMRS Fellowship Program created to honour individuals who had made “Distinguished Contributions to Marketing Research in Canada”. Joe Doyle named first Fellow of the Society. 1987 PMRS creates the Joseph Doyle Award, to be presented each year to the outstanding student in courses offered by the Society. 2005 A merger of PMRS and two other Canadian marketing research organizations is announced, resulting in the creation of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. Joe Doyle is named the first Fellow of the Association, at a Banquet held in his honour. 2010 Joe Doyle is honoured at a special Conference Dinner celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his founding of the PMRS. 2011 Joe celebrates his 90th birthday on August 17th.

2012 The end of an era. He will be missed.

Our deepest sympathy to the Doyle Family and Friends. Services held Thursday, September 27th, from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm., Britton House is at 720 Mount Pleasant, Toronto

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You Say Tomato, I Say ………… George Rassias, CMRP When the new editor-in-chief of the Vue magazine first approached me to contribute to an upcoming edition, I was a little hesitant to participate. What could I say that would be interesting? How would I come up with at least 1,200 words? As I started to think about it a little more, I became excited to share some insights into marketing research from the government side of the fence. First, a little about me: I’ve spent more than twenty years in marketing research in the public sector, working for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and then the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). (Hmm, beverage alcohol and gaming. I can tell you’re all envious!) While you may have wondered what it’s like to do marketing research in the public sector, I can tell you that I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have worked in the private sector. As I thought about the public and private sectors, and 14

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researchers in general, the more I came to the conclusion that, in the end, a researcher is a researcher, is a researcher. We all deal with projects, clients, time pressures, and internal processes. We all need to deliver good quality research, with actionable insights and value-added service, to help drive our business forward. OLG is a government agency responsible for delivering lottery and gaming services in the province of Ontario. OLG and its affiliated companies employ more than 18,000 people throughout the province. It is responsible for 24 gaming sites and sales of lottery products at approximately 10,000 retail locations in Ontario. OLG research efforts are divided among the corporate enterprise and the lottery and gaming lines of business. We support a business that last year drove $6.5 billion in revenues.

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So What Is a Government Agency Researcher’s Work Life Like?

I suspect that a government agency researcher’s life is not much different than what many of you experience. Each project starts with the completion of a research request form – “the brief.” While OLG’s formal brief has evolved over the years, we still ask the same basic questions at the outset, including these: What do you want to know? Why do you want to know this? What are you going to do with the information? The questions help focus our internal clients and help them accurately define the core business issue that needs to be addressed. While they seem like basic questions, I’m often amazed at some of the responses we get. (Sound familiar?) In the end, it’s all for the best, as we engage in constructive dialogue, identify key issues, establish objectives, and determine success measures – all the while working together as a team. As in any organization consisting of more than one person, process can often overwhelm. I imagine we all have some type of process to follow in order to procure that well-defined research initiative we just identified in our focused brief with help from our internal clients. At OLG, Research works very closely with Procurement and Contract Management to ensure that procedures and policies are followed so we can execute the project to meet the needs of our internal clients. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s better to work collaboratively with these groups than to try to go down your own path. While adhering to process is important in all organizations, government agencies can, inherently, come under greater public and media scrutiny, making it even more critical to build and nurture strong working relationships with Procurement and Contract Management teams to keep everything in order. Leveraging these types of relationships to ensure that processes are communicated, understood and followed is key to successfully navigating through the white waters of project process. It’s my experience that this skill set is often undervalued. What Kinds of Research Does a Government Agency Do?

OLG is in the business of selling entertainment products. Our lotteries and gaming sites compete with many other products for the discretionary entertainment dollars of Ontario’s ten million–plus adults. Outside-the-box thinking can often give you that competitive edge, and OLG researchers are very fortunate to work in an environment that, for the most part, is open to that kind of thinking.

When seeking solutions to help us sell products and stay competitive in the option-filled entertainment field, we like to consider non-traditional approaches. There are times when we need to follow the traditional approach, but generally our internal clients are open to new ways to address business needs. Whether we’re considering the merits of migrating from telephone to online methodology for certain trackers, conducting foundational-type research using psycho-analytics or determining how to incorporate social media research into our research tool box, we have always found a receptive ear and support from within the company. That’s not to say that we move forward on every new idea. And because we operate in a highly regulated environment, we might not be able to entertain certain kinds of approaches. However, the fact that we can have these types of discussions at OLG goes a long way to keeping the corporation in step with emerging research trends. As we deliberate on the merits of various marketing research matters, the talk inevitably turns to best practices, how standards will be applied to new research approaches, and the role of MRIA’s guiding principals. Given OLG’s broad stakeholder base compared to some other corporations, paying attention to these types of issues plays a big role in our day-to-day work. For example, we had to consider a wide variety of factors when determining how best to incorporate social media-generated information into our reporting. Our listening audit showed that there was so much data generated from social media sites that we could no longer ignore this data stream. However, questions regarding what data to use, the reliability of the data source, and how we add this to our understanding of the business issue in a positive way all needed to be investigated. When you take into account the very nature of our business (gambling) and our regulated operating environment, things like the integrity of the source, the application of data collection standards, and MRIA guidelines all matter. We needed to address all of these factors before considering how to regularly incorporate social media-generated data into our reporting stream. Employing an iterative process, we worked very closely with our supplier to ensure that we were bringing reliable and meaningful social media data into our stream. I bet that approach is no different than it is for many of you who are leverage your strong supplier relationships to deliver the best solutions for your respective organizations. As professional researchers, we all need to be project-oriented, and we need to ensure that research is conducted, consumed and communicated with ethics and integrity. vue October 2012

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What Does a Government Agency Research, and How Does Its Research Get Used?

I’m sure the kinds of research we undertake as a public agency are similar to many of the streams of research conducted by private sector companies. Earlier, I mentioned that OLG is in the business of selling entertainment and our products compete with many others for the discretionary entertainment dollars of Ontario’s adult population. As such, we have several types of market trackers and use the complete ad suite of research. Our work covers a broad spectrum, from new product development through corporate image, segmentation, foundational and customer experience, and responsible gambling. In addition, we often represent the customer’s voice in brand building workshops and idea-generation sessions. This shouldn’t be surprising. Although OLG is a government agency, it is a customercentric organization operating in an increasingly competitive entertainment environment. I feel fortunate to have experienced such an array of research projects. A number of the more interesting projects come to mind, like developing the “Good 2 Go” concept to sell lottery tickets in Ontario for a very large global retailer. I’ll leave it up to you figure out which retailer – but know that the name actually did come out of research. I also had the opportunity to design an Internet gaming research plan from the ground up, including psychoanalytics to help develop a more robust understanding of the marketplace in order to make fact-based decisions as we build this new business. I played a role in tracking OLG’s brand reputation to identify key brand drivers and help deal with strategic brand issues. I’ve also assessed many new lottery games and enhancements to old favourites, evaluated

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our advertising from concept to in-market performance, and helped determine the viability of new business models. That’s All Folks …

I stand by my initial conclusion that a researcher is a researcher is a researcher. We are researchers because we have an innate sense of curiosity, a compulsion to try to find out why people behave the way they do, and a desire to use the insights generated through marketing research to help predict future behaviour. I’m sure you can relate to waking up in the middle of the night and wondering if the sampling plan for an important project is right, or worrying that the qualitative recruit isn’t going that well. Then there’s trying to figure out how to balance internal client requests to incorporate new technology-driven information into our reporting while remaining true to the best practices of our industry. These are a researcher’s rites of passage. As researchers, we all want our organization to see us as valued assets that can adeptly synthesize multiple insight sources in order to tell a meaningful story about our respective consumers and how they interact with our products and services, all in an effort to grow our business. We also share experiences unique to our profession. These experiences, combined with our day-to-day trials and tribulations, are the common threads that tie us all together. Whether we are in the public sector or the private sector, in the end, we are all researchers. George Rassias, CMRP, is senior manager, Customer Insights and Marketing Research, with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. He can be reached at GRassias@OLG.ca

NET GAIN CELEBRATES INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION JANUARY 31, 2013 MARKS THE 7TH ANNUAL NET GAIN CONFERENCE The theme is Little, Big Data Little Data refers to the traditional analytics of relatively small samples, be it a sample of 1,000 respondents or interviews with 10 key informants. Big Data refers to the firehouse of information that is produced at warp-like speed emanating from not only people but a multitude of high technology sources such as mobile phones or asset connected devices. The various data points are expanding and Big Data gets larger every second. This conference will explore the impact of Big Data in the context of the traditional market research of “Little Data.”

Questions that will be addressed at this year’s conference are: • • • • • • • •

How can traditional market research take advantage of Big Data? Is Little Data losing its credibility and lustre? Can we mine Big Data with credible and actionable analytics? Is Big Data predictive and with what degree of accuracy? Do we need to train Big Data analysts differently than with current traditional MR techniques? Does Big Data create meaningful insights from which large business decisions can be made? What role does traditional market research play in the emerging Big Data playing field? Will Big Data players join, subsume or ignore traditional market research?

COMING SOON – Opportunities to showcase your brand – through a newly designed Sponsorship Package!

For further information, contact NET GAIN 7.0 CO-CHAIRS Sandy Janzen – sandy.janzen@ipsos.com Cam Davis Ph.D., FMRIA, CMRP – camdavis@sdrsurvey.com MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Anne Marie Gabriel – amgabriel@mria-arim.ca REGISTRATION Erica Klie – eklie@mria-arim.ca

For updates as they become available, visit www.mria-arim.ca/NetGain7/NEWS/index.php

Marc Zwelling, CMRP

Do Pictures Bias Polls? In a poll that Forum Research conducted June 25–28 of this year, 43 per cent of Torontonians backed a plan to spend $30 billion on new subway and light rail transit lines funded by a property tax increase. Another 43 per cent disapproved, and 14 per cent expressed no opinion. A different poll, conducted June 28, found that 80 per cent supported the transit plan before hearing about its cost, while 67 per cent supported it after hearing it would be funded by “an increase in property taxes to a maximum of $180” over four years. The Toronto Star, which commissioned this poll, splashed the 80 per cent figure on the front page of its print editions. What’s the public to think about polls that are conducted at the same time and show support ranging from 43 per cent to 80 per cent? It might be an unfair reaction, but it’s not likely that such wildly different results convince the public that surveys are trustworthy. The poll that found 43 per cent in favour of the Toronto transit plan was conducted over the phone by interactive voice response (IVR), while the poll that found 80 per cent 18

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in favour was conducted online. In the online poll, Toronto residents’ computer screens showed a colour map of the proposed subway lines along with the questions. According to the Star, Jodi Shanoff, senior vice-president of Angus Reid Public Opinion, the polling firm that did the online survey, commented, “People are very excited to see the colours on the map and all those different routes.” Excited, and perhaps persuaded by the map. One of the most valuable tools in the marketing researcher’s kit is the ability to show online respondents alternative TV commercials for the same product or different executions of print ads. When respondents prefer advertisement A over advertisement B, research suppliers can confidently point their clients to better-informed decisions. But can the images seen by respondents sway their feelings about issues and public policy? The marketing research industry has worked to refute suspicions of self-selection bias in online polls. Every polltaker knows the influence of changes in the wording of survey questions. But opinion researchers have not drawn attention to the influence of photos and illustrations in surveys. Pictures persuade.

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Toronto transit riders have seen subway maps for fifty years. As the Toronto transit plan polls reveal, showing respondents a familiar-looking schematic map with new subway lines snaking all over the city may have increased support for the proposed transit megaproject by 37 percentage points. People responding to the IVR survey, of course, saw no map. Marketing researchers are always asking which photo or logo target audiences like better. No one should be surprised to see that graphics have the power to persuade. As the two Toronto transit polls show, even a map can move opinion. An art critic calls the iconic London Underground map – with its beloved routes in pleasing curves, curls and bold, eye-catching colours – “the work of a graphic genius.” Pictures have been the agitator’s tool since the invention of the printing press. The Economist observed last year that when Martin Luther turned to pamphlets, his Ninety-five Theses went viral. “Without images,” Luther said, “we can neither think nor understand anything.” The nineteenth century British novelist and politician Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” But it’s not always mightier than the photo, as the world has learned since the arrival of television. Why are illustrations so persuasive?

People think in pictures. We solve problems visually, not verbally. Think of the route you’ll take to your office or the route back home. What do you see? Not sentences, fonts and text. Our brains make pictures. Neuroscience has also found that we process pictures faster than words. The New York Times noted that a poster “was widely cited as having galvanized votes” in the 2010 Swiss referendum on the banning of building minarets. The poster artist depicted minarets as missiles rising from the Swiss flag, with “Stop” written below in large, black letters. Words we easily forget. But images are much more memorable than words (research proves this). Certainly, words can arouse us. Advisors urge politicians to “stay on message” and repeat the same sound bites to penetrate the curtain around the voters’ attention. Images, however, go straight to the brain, making emotional connections. Images and logos have become emblems for millions of people. Think of the undetailed image of Che Guevara on posters and T-shirts. For people who came of age in the 1960s, the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album is unforgettable. There are sacred images, such as the crucifix, and wordless profane ones, such as the upraised middle finger.

The red cross – the logo and the agency – is recognized nearly everywhere. Canada has its red maple leaf, America its stars and stripes, and Nike its swoosh. To the media, almost anything called a poll is accepted as newsworthy and factual. Reporters, anchors and columnists rarely explain that polls are estimates or that the wording and order of questions can alter a poll’s results. In split samples, researchers have shown that the gender of the interviewer can change the results in phone surveys. In face-to-face interviews, the interviewer’s race can affect respondents’ answers. Marketing research and polling companies sometimes add disclaimers such as the following to their reports to clients: “All surveys are subject to several sources of error. Statements such as ‘the margin of error in this survey is ±3.1 per cent’ can be misleading, because they imply that one can calculate the maximum possible error from all sources of error. The margin of error refers only to sampling error. Even in true random samples, factors such as the wording of questions can compromise precision. The order in which surveys pose questions may lead to different results. Other sources of error include deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse, and interviewer effects when live interviewers are used.” So the online age of research requires an amendment to the marketing researcher’s traditional cautions about survey findings. Survey researchers should add that the images respondents see can also affect survey outcomes. Marc Zwelling, CMRP, is the founder of the Vector Poll (www.vectorresearch.com) and author of Public Opinion and Polling for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons Canada, 2012). vue October 2012

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AU CONTRAIRE (3)

The Unbearable Lightness of Buying Chuck Chakrapani, CMRP, FMRIA There are only two ways to increase your sales. Increase market penetration or increase loyalty. There is no other way. There are only two ways to increase your sales: get more customers or get your current customers to buy more; that is, increase market penetration or increase loyalty. There is no other way. But which is the better way – increasing loyalty or increasing penetration? Marketers, by a large margin, seem to believe in loyalty rather than penetration. Les Binet and Peter Field’s1 review of 880 ads found that loyalty strategy was 60% more frequently used than penetration strategy. Companies routinely concentrate on “high value” customers and have loyalty programs to retain them. This strategy is universally accepted and almost never questioned. It seems much too obvious to think otherwise. Yet it may not always be a profitable strategy if it is done at the expense of increasing market penetration. Most Buyers Are Light Buyers

Increasing penetration means paying as much attention to light buyers as to heavy buyers. It is not intuitively obvious why we should pay attention to light buyers who, taken individually, are not hugely profitable. However, most buyers are light buyers, and they tend to be brand loyal. Far fewer buyers are heavy buyers, and they tend not be brand loyal. For any given period, a large number of consumers of a specific product do not buy it at all or buy it just once or twice.2 Frequently bought products, such as products that can be consumed daily or even more often, are no exception either. Can you estimate how many times a year an average 20

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Pepsi buyer buys Pepsi and a Coke buyer buys Coke? Take a guess. On average, a Pepsi drinker buys Pepsi nine times a year. On average, a Coke drinker buys Coke twelve times a year.3 This phenomenon has been found to hold for most products and services, even for products that can be consumed several times a day, as we noted above. On average, a Pepsi drinker buys Pepsi nine times a year. On average, a Coke drinker buys Coke twelve times a year. Buyers Follow the ‘Long Tail’

It is possible to predict how frequently a consumer will buy a product using a mathematical model known as the negative binomial distribution (NBD). The figure on the next page illustrates this type of distribution. Note how a majority of buyers buy less frequently (left side of the distribution) and, as the quantity increases, we have fewer and fewer buyers. This “long tail” distribution illustrates how consumers typically behave: a huge number of lowfrequency buyers followed by a small number of highfrequency buyers. In hundreds of studies in different countries for different products, this relationship has been found to hold. In the figure, if we define those who buy ten or more units as heavy buyers, they may account for disproportionate sales volume, some consumers buying more than fifty units. If we need to develop a marketing strategy of targeting heavy buyers, we need to understand how much heavy buyers – those who comprise the long tail – actually buy.

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Figure: Negative Binomial Distribution of Consumer Purchases – An Example

cover anywhere near 80% of our sales, but only 50%. We cannot afford to ignore the 80% of our customers who account for the remaining 50% of our sales. Light Buyers Are More Brand Loyal Than Heavy Buyers

Note how few heavy buyers there are (the area under the dotted line on the right side of the graph) compared to light buyers (the area under the dotted line on the left side of the graph).

Does Pareto Have the Answer?

Over one hundred years ago, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas and wondered if this relationship could be applied to economics. After doing some additional work, he observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Since then, this “Pareto principle” has been found to apply in many contexts, resulting in the generalization that 20% of effort yields 80% of results. In marketing, it is often believed that 20% of our customers are responsible for 80% of our sales. Looking at the negative binomial nature of consumer buying behaviour (as illustrated in the figure on this page), we may infer that the Pareto principle may apply to buyer behaviour. Research data show there is some evidence to support a “Pareto-like” principle rather than the Pareto principle of 20:80 as far as buyer behaviour is concerned. Gerald Goodhardt, who has done extensive research in this area for about fifty years, has come up with the following generalization based on hundreds of products: 20% of customers generally account for about 50% of sales, while the other 80% account for the remaining 50% of sales. Customers Top

20%

Sales 50%

Medium

Bottom

This “Goodhardt modification” means that high-value customers are not as tightly clustered as one would expect. By concentrating on 20% of our customers, we will not

There is another reason why we cannot ignore light buyers: light buyers tend to be more brand loyal. Consider, for example, the data on instant coffee in Exhibit 1, which shows that those who are loyal to a single brand buy substantially less of the category than heavy buyers. This observation sounds counterintuitive. However, if we examine it more closely, it is quite logical. Light buyers of a category find a brand in the category and stay with it. If you are a light user and you are happy with your current purchase, you are likely to buy the same brand again, since it involves the least amount of risk. Exhibit 1: Heavy Category Buyers Are Not 100% Loyal; Light Buyers Are

Category Purchases per Buyer Brand

100% Loyal

Less loyal*

Folgers

3.6

8.0

Maxwell House

3.8

8.6

Tasters Choice

2.9

8.1

Nescafe

2.8

9.4

Maxim

4.0

9.8

High Point

2.6

6.5

Brim

2.9

5.7

Extracted from John Bound’s 2009, “User’s Guide to Dirichlet” (available at marketing-bulletin.massey.ac.nz). * The quantity bought by those who are less than 100% loyal was calculated from the data provided in John Bound’s table.

But if you are a heavy user of a category, you are more likely to explore more brands, try different ones, and look for better deals. In general, it is heavy buyers who look for better prices, who can easily negotiate a better deal, and who are likely to be more informed about the alternatives and so more open to switching. They tend to be multiple brand buyers and are less loyal to a single brand. As an analogy, consider Walmart. It tends to buy in large quantities from all its suppliers, even though it has thousands of them. You would, of course, do all you could to retain such a large buyer as a customer and keep the buyer happy. However, the fact that Walmart is a heavy buyer of your product does not mean that it is loyal to your product. It buys a lot from you because it buys a lot from all its suppliers. vue October 2012

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Heavy buyers are less loyal to individual brands. It is the light buyers who tend to be loyal and provide the base that makes heavy buyers profitable. Ignoring light buyers is a risky marketing strategy – like building an edifice without a foundation.

relatively smaller brands such as Brim, High Point, and Maxim have fewer 100% loyal customers (around 26%). Brands that have lower penetration also have fewer buyers. Exhibit 2: Smaller Brands Have Fewer Loyal Buyers Category Purchases per Buyer Brand

Light buyers are important even when they are not hugely profitable, because they provide the foundation for profitability. They create the stability needed to make profit. Ignoring light buyers is a risky marketing strategy – like building an edifice without a foundation. Preaching to the Converted

Even though consumers who very frequently buy our product are far fewer in number, they contribute a lot to the volume sold. For example, 5% of heavy Coke buyers could account for 25% of the total volume. But would it be worthwhile to spend your marketing dollars mostly on heavy buyers of your brand? After all, they buy your brand frequently because the category is important to them. If you are a heavy buyer of Dell, computers as a category are important to you. Heavy buyers of your brand already know your brand, already buy your brand and, because of their “involvement” in the category, are also likely to be aware of your POS and your advertising. Most likely, they value your brand already. Spending most of your marketing dollars here is preaching to the converted. It is unlikely that a heavy user of Dell is unaware of HP and has no opinion on it. The chances are that a heavy user of a brand (hence of the category) is already familiar with and has tried other brands available in that category.

Anyone whose goal is “something higher” must expect someday to suffer vertigo.

Loyalty Follows Penetration

A common assumption is that consumers tend to be more loyal to small-niche brands than to undifferentiated mass-market – Milan Kundera, brands. This is not borne out The Unbearable Lightness of Being by facts. Research data show that loyalty is somewhat higher for brands with a larger market penetration than for brands with lower market penetration. Consider, for example, the data presented in Exhibit 2. It shows that higher penetration brands such as Folgers, Maxwell House, and Taster’s Choice have a greater percentage of 100% loyal customers (around 34%), while 22

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100% Loyal

Less loyal

Larger brands Folgers

36%

64%

Maxwell House

Taster’s Choice

Nescafé

Maxim

26%

74%

High Point

Brim

Smaller brands

Extracted from John Bound’s 2009, “User’s Guide to Dirichlet” (available at marketing-bulletin.massey.ac.nz).

Exhibit 2 once again illustrates the importance of penetration. Contrary to popular belief, niche brands actually command lower loyalty than high-penetration mass-market brands. This pattern holds for many products. We will return to this point in a later article. Contrary to the popular belief, niche brands actually command lower loyalty than highpenetration mass-market brands. This pattern holds for many products. Catering to the needs of high-volume buyers and keeping them happy is common sense. It is an important marketing strategy to increase our profitability. But it is shortsighted to cater to these buyers at the expense of the remaining, more loyal, half of our customers. Yesterday’s Moderate Buyer Can Be Today’s Heavy Buyer

Another common mistake is to treat heavy users as a static group. Customers are not static. They “regress” to the mean. A heavy buyer in this quarter could be a moderate buyer in the next quarter; a non-buyer can become a buyer; a medium buyer can become a heavy buyer. It is not so much that consumers change their mind frequently. Rather, their patterns of purchase can create this illusion. Some consumers may space their purchase

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occasions equally, while others may buy heavily during some periods and not at all during the subsequent period. Customers are not static. A heavy buyer in this quarter could be a moderate buyer in the next quarter; a non-buyer can become a buyer; a medium buyer can become a heavy buyer. The loyalty approach concentrates on heavy buyers and does not pay sufficient attention to light buyers. The penetration approach takes a holistic view of the market. These two approaches are summarized in Exhibit 3. Exhibit 3: Loyalty vs. Penetration LOYALTY APPROACH Focus on large customers What the marketer believes They like us, so they buy more.

What research shows

They are high category

buyers. They buy more of any brand they buy.

We can make them loyal to us.

They are usually multibrand buyers. They are less loyal to a single brand.

They are highly profitable. We should concentrate only on this group.

Yes, but when they leave, it can affect our stability. This will make us too dependent on a few customers.

PENETRATION APPROACH Focus on total customer base What the marketer believes What research shows Light buyers are not loyal to us.

They are more likely to be loyal to us than heavy buyers

A large number of customers are only marginally profitable.

Individually, yes. But collectively, they provide a stable base.

It is too difficult to serve so many customers.

Most light buyers are not high maintenance. Some are, but if they leave, we are not affected.

Customer groups are static. A light buyer is a light buyer.

Customer groups are not static. A light buyer in one period may become a heavy buyer in another period.

Increasing penetration is a difficult strategy.

Yes, but more rewarding and more enduring.

Light Buyers Are Important

Light buyers provide us with stability, and yet they cannot individually threaten our stability by leaving. Their presence in large numbers increases market penetration. Market penetration in turn generates loyalty as a by-product. Given all these advantages of the market penetration approach, one would expect marketers to be keen on increasing the penetration of a brand rather than single mindedly trying to increase loyalty. Not so. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, of the 880 ads analysed, the strategy of increasing loyalty was 60% more frequent than the strategy of increasing the penetration. Here is the punchline: When Binet and Field tested these ads against an effectiveness criterion, ads that attempted to increase penetration were about twice as effective (a little less than 80%) as the ads that attempted to increase loyalty (a little more than 40%). Increasing long-term loyalty is considerably more difficult than it is normally presumed to be. Loyalty is highly desirable. So I am not against any valid attempt to increase customer loyalty – high-volume buyers can contribute disproportionately to our profitability, and we need to retain them. But the attempt should not be made at the expense of increasing market penetration. Unfortunately, much of what is written and practised with respect to loyalty bears little resemblance to the reality of how loyalty actually works. Endnotes 1. L. Binet & P. Field. “The Conflict between Accountability and Effectiveness.” Admap, 2007 (June). 2. A. Ehrenberg. “Two Kinds of Research.” Marketing Research, 2002: 14(2), 37–38. 3. B. Sharp. Based on the 2010 TNS panel “How Brands Grow.”

Note: This series of articles is based on extensive empirical evidence. To keep the material readable, I have quoted only a few studies. I intend, in the not-too-distant future, to put on my website an extensive list of the papers and books on which this series is based. When I have done so, I will provide the link. Dr. Chuck Chakrapani is the chief knowledge officer of Leger, The Research Intelligence Group. He is also a distinguished visiting professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, editor of the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Research, and a member of the board of directors of the Marketing Research Institute International which, in collaboration with the University of Georgia, offers the online course “Principles of Marketing Research.” He is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society as well as of MRIA and has authored over a dozen books and 500 articles on various subjects. vue October 2012

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AU CONTRAIRE (3)

L’insoutenable légèreté de l’achat Chuck Chakrapani, membre associé de l’ARIM, PARM Il n’y a que deux façons d’augmenter vos ventes. Augmenter la pénétration du marché ou augmenter la fidélité. Il n’existe aucun autre moyen. Il n’existe que deux façons d’augmenter vos ventes : obtenir plus de clients ou faire en sorte que vos clients actuels achètent plus. En d’autres termes, augmenter la pénétration du marché ou augmenter la fidélité de vos clients. Il n’existe aucun autre moyen. Mais quel est le meilleur moyen? L’augmentation de la fidélité ou de la pénétration du marché? Les spécialistes en marketing, en grande majorité, semblent opter pour la fidélisation. L’étude de Les Binet et de Peter Field1 de 880 publicités a révélé que la stratégie de la fidélité était utilisée 60 % plus souvent que la stratégie de pénétration de marché. Les entreprises se concentrent systématiquement sur les clients « de grande valeur » et mettent sur pied des programmes de fidélité pour les conserver. Cette stratégie est universellement acceptée et presque jamais remise en question. Elle semble beaucoup trop évidente pour être ignorée. Toutefois, il ne s’agit peut-être pas toujours d’une stratégie rentable si elle est appliquée au détriment de l’augmentation de la pénétration du marché. La plupart des acheteurs sont de petits acheteurs Augmenter la pénétration du marché signifie porter attention tant aux petits acheteurs qu’aux gros acheteurs. On ne comprend pas de manière intuitive la raison pour laquelle il faut porter attention aux petits acheteurs qui, individuellement, ne représentent pas un profit énorme. Toutefois, la plupart des acheteurs sont de petits acheteurs, et ils ont tendance à être fidèles à une marque. Beaucoup moins d’acheteurs sont de gros acheteurs, et ils ont tendance à ne pas être fidèles à une seule marque. Pendant une période donnée, un grand nombre de consommateurs d’un produit particulier ne l’achètent pas du tout ou ne l’achètent qu’une ou deux fois2. Les produits achetés fréquemment, comme les produits consommés quotidiennement 24

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et même plusieurs fois par jour, ne font pas non plus exception. Pouvez-vous estimer le nombre de fois par année qu’un consommateur moyen de Pepsi achète du Pepsi et qu’un consommateur de Coke achète du Coke? Essayez de deviner. En moyenne, un consommateur de Pepsi achète du Pepsi neuf fois par année. En moyenne, un consommateur de Coke achète du Coke douze fois par année3. Ce phénomène a été constaté pour la plupart des produits et services, même pour les produits qui peuvent être consommés plusieurs fois par jour, tel qu’il est démontré plus haut.

En moyenne, un consommateur de Pepsi achète du Pepsi neuf fois par année. En moyenne, un consommateur de Coke achète du Coke douze fois par année. Les acheteurs suivent la « longue traîne » Il est possible de prédire la fréquence d’achat d’un produit pour un consommateur à l’aide d’un modèle mathématique communément appelé la distribution binomiale négative. Le schéma ci dessous illustre ce type de distribution. On remarque qu’une majorité de consommateurs achètent moins fréquemment (côté gauche de la distribution). Alors que quand la quantité augmente, il y a de moins en moins d’acheteurs. Cette distribution à « longue traîne » démontre le comportement typique des acheteurs : un grand nombre d’acheteurs peu fréquents suivi d’un petit nombre d’acheteurs très fréquents. Dans des centaines d’études menées dans divers pays pour différents produits, cette relation a été constatée. Dans le schéma, si nous qualifions de gros acheteurs ceux qui achètent dix unités ou plus, ils pourraient expliquer un volume de ventes disproportionné, car certains clients achètent plus de 50 unités. Si nous voulons élaborer une stratégie de marketing ciblant les gros acheteurs, il faut comprendre les quantités achetées par ces derniers, car ce sont eux qui forment la longue traîne.

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Consommateurs

Schéma : Distribution binomiale négative des achats des consommateurs : un exemple

Quantité achetée

[Légende de schéma] Remarquez le petit nombre de gros acheteurs (la partie sous la ligne pointillée à droite) comparativement aux petits acheteurs (la partie sous la ligne pointillée à gauche).

Les petits acheteurs sont plus fidèles aux marques que les gros acheteurs Il existe une autre raison pour laquelle nous ne pouvons pas ignorer les petits acheteurs : ils ont tendance à être plus fidèles à une marque. Prenons l’exemple des données sur le café soluble dans le tableau 1, qui démontre que ceux qui sont fidèles à une seule marque achètent nettement moins de la catégorie que les gros acheteurs. Cette observation semble inattendue. Toutefois, si on l’examine plus attentivement, on remarque que c’est effectivement logique. Les petits acheteurs d’une catégorie trouvent une marque dans la catégorie et y demeurent fidèles. Si vous êtes un petit acheteur et que votre achat vous satisfait, vous risquez d’acheter la même marque de nouveau, puisque cela entraîne moins de risques. Tableau 1 : Les gros acheteurs ne sont pas entièrement fidèles. Les petits acheteurs le sont.

Pareto détient-il la réponse? Il y a plus de cent ans, l’économiste italien Vilfredo Pareto a remarqué que 20 % des cosses dans son jardin contenaient 80 % des pois. Il s’est demandé si cette relation pouvait s’appliquer au monde de l’économie. Après quelques travaux additionnels, il a observé que 20 % de la population possédait 80 % des terres en Italie. Depuis, le « principe de Pareto » a été constaté dans plusieurs contextes et a donné naissance à la généralisation que 20 % des efforts entraînent 80 % des résultats. En marketing, on estime souvent que 20 % des clients sont responsables de 80 % des ventes. Si on observe la nature binomiale négative du comportement d’achat des consommateurs (tel qu’il est illustré dans le schéma), nous pouvons déduire que le principe de Pareto peut s’appliquer au comportement de l’acheteur. Les données de recherche présentent des preuves d’un principe s’apparentant à celui de Pareto, plutôt que des preuves du rapport 20:80 du principe de Pareto en ce qui concerne le comportement de l’acheteur. Gerald Goodhardt, qui a fait des recherches approfondies dans ce domaine pendant environ cinquante ans, a établi la généralisation suivante en se basant sur quelques centaines de produits : en général, 20 % des clients représentent 50 % des ventes, tandis que les 80 % restants représentent l’autre 50 % des ventes. Haut

Clients 20 %

Ventes 50 %

Milieu

Bas

Cette « modification Goodhardt » signifie que les clients de grande valeur ne sont pas aussi groupés qu’on pourrait le croire. En se concentrant sur 20 % de nos clients, on est loin de couvrir 80 % de nos ventes, car on en couvre à peine 50 %. Nous ne pouvons pas nous permettre d’ignorer 80 % de nos clients qui représentent 50 % de nos ventes.

Achats par acheteur dans une catégorie Marque

100 % fidèle

Moins fidèle*

Marque

100 % fidèle

Moins fidèle*

Folgers

3,6

8,0

Maxwell House

3,8

8,6

Taster’s Choice

2,9

8,1

Nescafé

2,8

9,4

Maxim

4,0

9,8

High Point

2,6

6,5

Brim

2,9

5,7

[Légende du tableau] Tiré du livre de 2009 de John Bound « User’s Guide to Dirichlet » (offert au marketing-bulletin.massey.ac.nz). *La quantité achetée par ceux qui ne sont pas fidèles à 100 % a été calculée d’après les données fournies dans le tableau de John Bound.

Si vous êtes un gros acheteur dans une catégorie, vous risquez plus d’essayer différentes marques et de chercher de meilleures aubaines. En général, ce sont les gros acheteurs qui cherchent les meilleurs prix, qui peuvent facilement négocier, qui sont mieux informés au sujet des autres options et qui sont plus ouverts au changement. Ce sont des acheteurs de marques multiples qui sont moins fidèles à une seule marque. Prenons l’exemple de Walmart. Ce magasin achète en grandes quantités de tous ses fournisseurs, même s’il en a des milliers. Vous feriez évidemment tout votre possible pour conserver un aussi gros acheteur parmi vos clients et pour le rendre heureux. Toutefois, le fait que Walmart est un gros acheteur de vos produits ne signifie pas qu’il y est fidèle. Il achète beaucoup de vos produits parce que c’est ce qu’il fait avec tous ses fournisseurs. vue October 2012

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Les gros acheteurs sont moins fidèles aux marques individuelles. Ce sont les petits acheteurs qui ont tendance à être fidèles et qui constituent la base qui rend les gros acheteurs rentables. Ignorer les petits acheteurs est une stratégie de marketing risquée. C’est comme construire un édifice sans fondations.

Choice, ont un pourcentage plus élevé de clients fidèles à 100 % (environ 34 %), tandis que les marques plus petites comme Brim, High Point et Maxim ont moins de clients fidèles à 100 % (environ 26 %). Les marques qui ont une part de marché inférieure ont aussi moins d’acheteurs. Tableau 2 : Les plus petites marques ont moins d’acheteurs fidèles Achats par acheteur dans une catégorie Marque

Les petits acheteurs sont importants même quand ils ne sont pas immensément payants, car ils constituent la base de la rentabilité. Ils créent la stabilité nécessaire pour faire des profits. Ignorer les petits acheteurs est une stratégie de marketing risquée. C’est comme construire un édifice sans fondations. Prêcher les convertis Même si les consommateurs qui achètent nos produits très fréquemment sont beaucoup moins nombreux que les autres, ils contribuent grandement au volume de ventes. Par exemple, 5 % de grands acheteurs de Coke peuvent représenter 25 % du volume total de ventes. Mais est-ce qu’il vaut la peine de dépenser le budget de marketing en visant principalement les gros acheteurs de notre marque? Après tout, ils achètent cette marque fréquemment parce qu’il s’agit d’une catégorie importante pour eux. Si vous êtes un gros acheteur de Dell, cela signifie que la catégorie des ordinateurs est importante pour vous. Les gros acheteurs de notre marque connaissent déjà notre marque et l’achètent déjà. De plus, en raison de l’importance de cette catégorie pour eux, ils ont plus de chances de connaître nos points de service et de reconnaître nos publicités. Il est fort probable qu’ils accordent déjà de la valeur à notre marque. Dépenser la majeure partie de notre budget de marketing en visant ces gens revient à prêcher les convertis. Il est peu probable qu’un gros acheteur de Dell ne connaisse pas HP et qu’il n’en ait aucune opinion. Il est bien plus probable qu’un gros acheteur d’une marque (donc d’une catégorie) connaisse déjà et ait déjà essayé d’autres marques offertes dans cette catégorie.

Quiconque a pour objectif d’aller « plus haut » doit s’attendre un jour à avoir le vertige.

La fidélité suit la pénétration du marché

Une hypothèse courante est que les consommateurs ont tendance à être plus fidèles aux marques de petit créneau qu’aux marques indistinctes de marché de masse. – Milan Kundera, Cette idée n’est pas appuyée par The Unbearable Lightness of Being les faits. Les données de recherche démontrent que la fidélité est plus élevée pour les marques avec une plus grande part de marché que pour les marques avec une part de marché plus faible. Prenons par exemple les données présentées dans le tableau 2. Elles démontrent que les marques possédant une plus grande part de marché, comme Folgers, Maxwell House et Taster’s 26

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Fidèles à 100 %

Moins fidèles

Grandes marques Folgers

36 %

64 %

Maxwell House

Taster’s Choice

Nescafé

Maxim

26 %

74 %

High Point

Brim

Petites marques

[Légende du tableau] Tiré du livre de 2009 de John Bound « User’s Guide to Dirichlet » (offert au marketing-bulletin.massey.ac.nz).

Ce tableau illustre une fois de plus l’importance de la pénétration du marché. Contrairement à la croyance populaire, les petites marques attirent moins de fidélité que les marques qui détiennent une grande part de marché. Ce résultat s’applique à une grande quantité de produits. Nous reviendrons à ce point dans un article ultérieur.

Contrairement à la croyance populaire, les petites marques attirent moins de fidélité que les marques qui détiennent une grande part de marché. Ce résultat s’applique à une grande quantité de produits. Répondre aux besoins des gros acheteurs et les satisfaire va de soi. Il s’agit d’une importante stratégie de marketing pour augmenter la rentabilité. Mais il est irréfléchi de satisfaire ces acheteurs au détriment de l’autre moitié, plus fidèle, de nos clients. L’acheteur modéré d’hier peut devenir le gros acheteur d’aujourd’hui Une autre erreur courante consiste à traiter les gros acheteurs comme un groupe immuable. Les consommateurs ne sont pas immuables. Ils changent de catégorie. Un gros acheteur dans ce trimestre peut devenir un acheteur modéré dans le prochain trimestre. Un non-acheteur peut devenir un acheteur. Un acheteur modéré peut devenir un gros acheteur. Ce n’est pas que les consommateurs changent souvent d’idée. Mais leurs habitudes d’achat peuvent créer cette illusion.

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Certains consommateurs font leurs achats régulièrement, tandis que d’autres achètent en grande quantité et n’achètent plus pendant une certaine période.

Les consommateurs ne sont pas immuables. Un gros acheteur dans ce trimestre peut devenir un acheteur modéré dans le prochain trimestre. Un non-acheteur peut devenir un acheteur. Un acheteur modéré peut devenir un gros acheteur. L’approche de la fidélité se concentre sur les gros acheteurs et ne porte pas suffisamment attention aux petits acheteurs. L’approche de la pénétration du marché adopte une vision holistique du marché. Ces deux approches sont résumées dans le tableau 3. Tableau 3 : Fidélité et pénétration du marché APPROCHE DE LA FIDÉLITÉ Se concentrer sur les gros acheteurs Ce que croient les Ce que démontrent spécialistes en marketing les recherches Ils nous aiment, donc ils achètent plus.

Ce sont de gros acheteurs de cette catégorie. Ils achètent beaucoup de n’importe quelle marque.

On peut les rendre fidèles.

Ils achètent généralement plusieurs marques. Ils sont moins fidèles à une seule marque.

Ils sont hautement payants.

Mais quand ils partent, cela affecte notre stabilité.

Il faut se concentrer uniquement sur ce groupe.

Cela nous rendrait dépendants d’une poignée de consommateurs.

APPROCHE DE LA PÉNÉTRATION DU MARCHÉ Se concentrer sur les gros acheteurs Ce que croient les Ce que démontrent spécialistes en marketing les recherches Les petits acheteurs ne nous sont pas fidèles.

Ils ont plus de chances de nous être fidèles que les gros acheteurs.

Un grand nombre de clients sont légèrement payants.

Individuellement, oui. Mais collectivement, ils représentent une base solide.

Il est trop difficile de servir tant La plupart des petits acheteurs de consommateurs. nécessitent peu d’attention. Et s’ils partent, nous n’en sommes pas affectés. Les groupes de consommateurs Les groupes d’acheteurs ne sont immuables. Un petit sont pas immuables. Un petit acheteur le restera. acheteur peut devenir un gros acheteur.

Augmenter la part de marché est difficile.

Mais c’est plus profitable et plus durable.

Les petits acheteurs sont importants Les petits acheteurs nous apportent de la stabilité, et ils ne peuvent pas individuellement menacer notre stabilité s’ils nous quittent. Leur présence en grand nombre augmente la part de marché. La pénétration du marché, quant à elle, génère la fidélité comme effet secondaire. Compte tenu de tous les avantages de l’approche de la pénétration du marché, on s’attendrait à ce que les spécialistes en marketing soient portés à vouloir augmenter la part de marché d’une marque plutôt qu’à essayer obstinément d’augmenter la fidélité. Mais ce n’est pas le cas. Comme je l’ai mentionné au début de cet article, parmi les 880 publicités analysées, la stratégie d’augmentation de la fidélité était 60 % plus fréquente que la stratégie d’augmentation de la part de marché. Voici le résultat inattendu : Quand Binet et Field ont analysé ces publicités selon le critère d’efficacité, ils ont constaté que les publicités qui tentaient d’augmenter la part de marché étaient environ deux fois plus efficaces (un peu moins de 80 %) que les publicités qui tentaient d’augmenter la fidélité (un peu plus de 40 %). Augmenter la fidélité à long terme est considérablement plus difficile que l’on pourrait le croire. La fidélité est hautement souhaitable. Je ne suis donc pas contre les tentatives valables visant à augmenter la fidélité de la clientèle. Les gros acheteurs peuvent contribuer de façon importante à notre rentabilité, et il est nécessaire de les conserver. Mais cette tentative ne doit pas être faite au détriment de l’augmentation de la part de marché. Malheureusement, la majeure partie de ce qui est écrit et pratiqué relativement à la fidélisation est bien loin de la réalité. Notes de fin de texte 1. L. Binet et P. Field. « The Conflict between Accountability and Effectiveness. » Admap, 2007 (juin). 2. A. Ehrenberg. « Two Kinds of Research. », Marketing Research, 2002: 14 (2), 37–38. 3. B. Sharp. D’après le TNS panel 2010 « How Brands Grow. » Remarque : Cette série d’articles s’appuie sur de vastes évidences empiriques. Pour que ce texte demeure facile à lire, je n’ai cité que quelques études. J’ai l’intention, dans un avenir rapproché, de mettre sur mon site Web une liste détaillée des articles et des livres sur lesquels s’appuie cette série. Lorsque ce sera fait, je vous ferai parvenir le lien.

Le D r Chuck Chakrapani est le gestionnaire du savoir de Léger, The Research Intelligence Group. C’est aussi un professeur invité éminent à la Ted Rogers School of Management de l’Université Ryerson, le rédacteur en chef du Marketing Research de l’American Marketing Association et un membre du conseil d’administration du Marketing Research Institute International qui, en collaboration avec l’Université de Géorgie, offre le cours en ligne « Principes de recherche en marketing ». Il est membre associé de la Royal Statistical Society ainsi que de l’ARIM et a écrit plus d’une dizaine de livres et plus de 500 articles sur divers sujets. vue October 2012

In Conversation with Gary Bennewies President and CEO of Ipsos Canada Christian Mueller, CMRP

The marketing research industry has become accustomed to mergers and acquisitions of all sorts in the past decade or two. Consequently, it is all the more remarkable when there is a breaking story like the proposed acquisition of Synovate by Ipsos, which made the news last July. The merger of these two industry giants has since taken place. Valued at over half a billion euros, this deal heralded the prospect of an enormous shakeup among those involved. To learn how it has actually turned out, I spoke with the president and CEO of Ipsos Canada, Gary Bennewies. Thank you for offering to talk with me today, Gary. I’m sure that our readers would like to hear what you have to say about recent developments at Ipsos. Could you put into a few words for us what exactly has been happening there recently?

I’d be glad to. Starting last fall when the deal to acquire Synovate closed, on October 11, we launched our combination plan to bring Ipsos and Synovate together to create a better Ipsos. “Better” refers to what we see as the three main reasons for, or advantages of, completing this deal: the first being increased coverage, in terms of both clients and the geographic scope of Ipsos; second, building scale in terms of our research resources; and third, extending our capabilities in terms of talented people as well as research tools and procedures. So would you say that you’re just improving on your strengths?

Well, the Ipsos strategy still remains the same, focusing on our five key areas of specialization, combining Synovate into that strategy and leveraging the resources or the strengths that Synovate brought to the table. Regarding the three advantages you mentioned, could you be a little more specific about how that 28

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has turned out in terms of geography and clients?

I’ll speak more about the geographic scope. What Synovate brought to Ipsos was – and the result has been – increased coverage in areas like Southeast Asia, India, Northern Europe, Africa, and the United States – so, really, in some key developing countries and also some key mature markets as well. In terms of building scale?

It’s really about research resources. Synovate had a number of procedures and processes for executing research that I think were better or stronger than what Ipsos had, so it adds to or strengthens our offer from that standpoint. Then, of course, there’s the talent that comes with it – the people – particularly in these enhanced geographies. Regarding capabilities, are these primarily people skills?

Mainly people skills, but also some really interesting research tools that Synovate developed and that are now part of our offer as well. Is this because you didn’t have anything and Synovate did, or was there an overlap?

In some cases, there were tools or research approaches in the same space, which we’ve looked at and said that either the Synovate tool or the Ipsos tool was better. In other cases, we’ve taken the best of Ipsos and the best of Synovate, which we’ve put together and created something new. What we’ve done has varied from one situation to another in terms of the tools involved and the approach we took in order to improve what we can do for our clients. Were there particular research tools specifically sought after in the acquisition?

That was certainly part of it. But it was also the people – the

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talent that comes with the organization – as well as Synovate’s presence in markets that our clients were moving into, or where they were already well-established and we were underrepresented. These are markets where the combination of the two organizations would allow us to significantly enhance Ipsos’ presence. You can’t look at any one thing and say that’s the key reason for acquiring Synovate. It’s when you put it all together, you now have a package with better coverage in some really important emerging and mature markets; better resources or capabilities for executing research; and – guess what? – more talented people and some really interesting tools.

I will say, though, that once we had closed the deal, which includes having board and shareholder approvals, we moved quickly. We closed the deal on October 11 of 2011 and combined the organizations as of January 1, 2012. Obviously, a lot of work was still in the process of getting done as we went into 2012 but, for the most part, we brought the two organizations together. That’s not to say that we’re completely finished, although we’ve moved relatively quickly in terms of integrating the organizations.

Given your extensive talent pool, did you find that you had to make a choice between people?

I’ve handled three acquisitions for Ipsos and had been involved in another one when I came to Ipsos. Those learnings were paramount in terms of certain details: How did we put this together? How did we interact with the staff, both Ipsos and acquired staff? How did we harmonize our human resources programs? How did we get everybody on the same financial platform? Etcetera. So, for sure, key learnings that we’ve built up over the years were applied in this particular arrangement.

That was part of the exercise that we went through when we were looking at our organization and were combining it with Synovate. There’s going to be overlap in terms of some backoffice functions such as finance and accounting operations or HR. On the research side, there were some cases of overlap, but the magnitude was much smaller than might have been anticipated. In other words, we didn’t go into this process – nor did we carry it out – with the expectation that our client service or our research people would be leaving the organization as a result of the combination. Would it be fair to say that you were going after brain power as much as brand names?

Absolutely! How do we better service our clients? How can we do that more efficiently? How do we gain more insight? How do we help clients to make better decisions? That’s really the job of our client service people. It’s great that we have better resources, but it all comes down to helping our clients and whatever elements of this combination will help us to do that. Backing up just a bit, what about the decision to make this happen? Was it protracted and very difficult, or was it quick and easy by comparison with other major business decisions that Ipsos has had to make?

Of all the acquisitions that Ipsos has made in the history of the organization, since 1975, this has been the single largest one. In total, it is greater than all of the others combined. Consequently, this is a significant development from an Ipsos standpoint. Was it protracted? That’s hard for me to say, because our senior management out of Paris negotiated this global deal. Our president and CEOs dealing with Aegis – the parent company of Synovate, in London – constructed this deal.

You’ve said how big this was compared with past acquisitions. Were there past learnings that could be carried over?

Can you single something out as an illustration?

From a Canadian perspective, we’ve completely integrated our teams in common offices. We have our legacy Ipsos staff and our legacy Synovate staff, all operating out of our key office in Toronto, and the same in Vancouver. Thus, we’ve been able to go to our clients with a combined offer of new research teams, which are combined research teams. It’s been rewarding to see how quickly we’ve been able to do that and to see the reaction from our clients, which has been for the most part quite positive. On the other hand, is there anything that could have gone more smoothly?

Of course, you can always learn something. In any arrangement like this, it always comes down to communication – the ability to communicate to your existing staff and the new staff who will be joining your organization, as well as your clients, what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what it will mean for them. I think we did a good job in terms of communication. But if I were to look for any one thing to improve, it would be in that key area. I can see four audiences for that communication: legacy Ipsos staff, legacy Synovate staff, legacy Ipsos clients, and legacy Synovate clients. Is there any one audience that was the easiest or any one audience that was the hardest?

No, I wouldn’t say that any one audience was more difficult than any other. First of all, from an employee standpoint, we see that vue October 2012

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people have generally the same concerns. For example, how does this impact my role in the organization? What will I be doing? And the same from a client standpoint, whether they’re legacy Ipsos or legacy Synovate: What does this mean for our relationship? Who will be my account manager? Will the types of things we’ve been doing change or remain the same? These are common issues for the two client audiences. Do you think you anticipated most of those things? Or was there a lot that happened on the fly?

I think it was executed fairly well. We had a central team (operating out of Paris) that was code-named “Open World” and basically designed the combination process (which involved me as country manager and CEO for Ipsos Canada) at one level and then worked its way through the entire organization – not only in terms of what was communicated and how it was communicated but also when it was communicated. All of this was designed ahead of time. A lot of work was done, from about August of 2011, to have that program in place so that we could execute on it come January 1. You were the point person for Canada?

I was indeed the point person. Each country or region had such an individual?

Yes. How Ipsos operates … each significant country has a country manager, and that person is the president or CEO of the business. Each of these managers executed the Open World program in their specific country. What’s going to happen next? Are any more acquisitions likely?

Ipsos will definitely continue to look for ways to strengthen the organization, whether through some organic programs – creating new work groups, looking at new ways of conducting research – or through acquisitions. It’s not a question of if Ipsos will make another acquisition, but when and what type. It is fair to say that Ipsos’ focus in terms of future acquisitions will be emerging markets where the organization can be strengthened. The other type of acquisition that could be considered will be something that enhances our research process globally, whether that’s a new tool, or a set of tools or capabilities that can be executed on a global basis. So an acquisition target could be here in Canada or in the United States, or another developed market, provided its acquisition enhances the organization overall. Just how big is Ipsos now?

We’re about 1.8 billion euros, making us the third-largest research company globally by revenue. 30

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Next question: So who’s your competition?

(Laughs.) You know what? There’s always competition, because we can look at the marketplace on multiple levels. On the one hand, we’re dealing with clients who want to work with an organization on a global basis; that is, they want us to execute research programs for them across several countries. But we also have a lot of local work where we’re competing with everybody who participates in the marketplace. Here in Canada, we do a lot of local work where we compete with every other marketing research company that exists, both other multinationals as well as national organizations. In some cases, there might even be regional organizations within Canada that we’re competing with; so there’s still a lot of competition. It’s still marketing research competition, or do you see it coming from anywhere else?

Our primary business is marketing research. But as you know, this industry is changing. You just need to look at the history of, say, CATI work – where CATI is today relative to where it was five years ago. The industry continues to develop. There are non-traditional marketing information–type organizations (which wouldn’t label themselves marketing research companies) that we compete with, but we’re all in the business of providing market insight for our clients. Are there any really big non-traditional competitors?

Not necessarily big. Those organizations tend to be small, more consultant-led type of organizations, with a certain tool, approach or technique, whether it is web sensing or some sort of digital platform, for instance. For Ipsos as well as every other marketing research company in Canada, and globally for that matter, that’s part of our industry going forward. And therefore, we need to figure out how we’re going to evolve in order to continue servicing our clients to the best of our ability. Thank you, Gary, for sharing your observations with us.

Gary Bennewies is the president and CEO of Ipsos Canada, the country’s largest provider of marketing research and consumer insight services. Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP, has made a career of marketing research since 1984 – from 1987 to 2010 at Synovate (formerly Market Facts) – and has most recently initiated the position of chief methodologist at Fresh Intelligence Research Corp. Currently independent, he may be reached at christianmuellerphd@gmail.com or (647) 855-5088.

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 JUNE 2012: Gold Seal Corporate Research Agencies Advanis Inc. Advitek Inc. BBM Analytics Blue Ocean Contact Centers Campaign Research Canadian Viewpoint Inc. Cido Research Consumer Vision Ltd. Corsential ULC Elemental Data Collection Inc. Harris/Decima Inc. Head Count Hotspex Inc. Ipsos Reid Maritz Research Canada MBA Recherche MD Analytics Inc. Millward Brown MQO Research Mustel Research Group Ltd. NRG Research Group Opinion Search Inc. Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc. POLLARA Research House Inc. Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus The Logit Group Inc. TNS Canadian Facts Trend Research Inc. Basic Corporate Research Agencies Algonquin College Ideaspace Research Nexus Market Research Inc. Quality Response Inc.

www.mria-arim.ca/RRS

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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.

Scott Miller to Become Group CEO of Vision Critical – Community Panel and research technology provider Vision Critical announced the appointment of Scott Miller as Group Chief Executive effective Oct. 1, 2012. Miller will be based in the firm’s New York office, and will also be joining the Vision Critical Board of Directors. info@visioncritical.com ‘Shock of the New’ – MRS Call for Speakers – Research has broken through traditional boundaries. It’s time for a conference that explores the new landscape. “Shock of the New” will equip leaders and practitioners for the challenges ahead. We want you to contribute to this unique event. This is a call for adventurers who can help us to create dynamic sessions, thoughtful debate and daring experiments. info@mrs.org.uk Survey Statistics and Methodology Journal Being Launched by AAPOR and ASA – Announcing the launch of a new interdisciplinary journal, the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology (JSSAM). The purpose of JSSAM is to publish cutting-edge articles on statistical and methodological issues for surveys and censuses. It also will publish empirical and theoretical papers as well as applied papers and review papers. The first issue is scheduled to be issued in July 2013 and the journal will be published quarterly thereafter. More information is available at the journal’s website http://jssam. oxfordjournals.org. Prospective authors can submit manuscripts online at http:// mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jssam.

Abt SRBI Chooses Voxco’s Command Center Multi Mode Survey Platform – Voxco, the leader in multi-channel data collection software, announced today that the Voxco Command CenterTM and PRONTOTM Dialer platform were selected as the key technology components of Abt SRBI’s continuing commitment to providing high quality, timely and cost-effective research and analysis. The licensing agreement covers all data collection modes, specifically CATI, Web, CAPI, IVR, Mobile and the integrated PRONTOTM predictive dialing telephony system. Visit www.srbi.com and www.voxco.com. Jim Cravens Appointed to Head Global Human Resources at Vision Critical – Cravens most recently served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources North America with Synovate. His previous roles include global head of HR and corporate communications with Kinetic Concepts, Inc. – a publicly-traded medical technology company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas – and several senior executive roles with ACNielsen in Chicago, Hong Kong and New York, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. www.visioncritical.com Mobile Phone Users Lack Loyalty but Rely Heavily on Services – The world’s 6.5 billion mobile phone subscribers are likely to become vocal and active detractors if they have a negative customer experience, reveals a new global study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Council. Only 34 per cent of 1,660 mobile subscribers surveyed around the globe in the second quarter of 2012 are loyal to their carriers and have stayed with their current communications service provider for more than five years. postoffice@cmocouncil.org SSI Expands in Denmark – Sampling and data collection provider SSI takes the next step in the Nordic market, launching a joint venture, SSI Denmark, with Danish company Interresearch. With the joint venture, SSI improves its presence in Denmark by increasing its sample capacity by 35,000 members, providing a substantially better product for the Danish market. With the joint venture, SSI will take over some staff and clients from Interresearch. www.surveysampling.com Vision Critical Secures $20M Investment from OMERS Ventures – Global technology–based research solutions firm Vision Critical announces a $20 million investment from OMERS Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of OMERS – one of Canada’s largest pension funds. Vision Critical will use the investment from OMERS Ventures to expand its product lines, support infrastructure, and further execute its global growth plans. Please visit www.visioncritical.com. Research Now Expands Its North American Medical Market Research Capabilities with Launch of Canada Healthcare Panel – The initiative which further broadens Research Now’s medical market research (MMR) capabilities,

People and Companies in the News sponsored by:

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follows the success of the company’s U.S. Healthcare Panel, which was launched in 2006. The recruitment mailings to enroll Canada medical panelists began in March, resulting in the enrollment of over 5200 health-care professionals thus far. www.researchnow.com Confirmit Acquires CustomerSat from MarketTools – Confirmit, the leading global software provider for Customer Experience, Employee Engagement and Market Research, has announced that it has acquired CustomerSat™, the Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) software and services provider, previously owned by MarketTools®. Confirmit is a leader in the Voice of the Customer market, and this acquisition of CustomerSat, a recognized EFM and loyalty leader, adds greater breadth and depth to Confirmit’s existing portfolio. Following Confirmit’s successful acquisitions of Techneos in 2011 and Pulse Train in 2007, the acquisition of CustomerSat expands Confirmit’s footprint, particularly in the U.S. where VoC programs are becoming a critical part of business strategy. As a result of the acquisition, Confirmit now employs more than 350 people across 11 offices, and has more than 700 customers. Please visit www.confirmit.com. Canadian Consumer Confidence Holds Steady: TNS – Canadians gave a “collective shrug” to bad economic news showing that the country shed more than 30,000 jobs in July, according to the latest “Canadian Consumer Confidence” survey conducted by TNS. www.tnscanada.ca

Confirmit Raises the Bar with Mobile Research and Voice of the Customer in Second Quarter – Driven by huge demand for mobile research and Voice of the Customer programs, Confirmit hosted two well-received global roadshows. Over 1000 MR and VoC professionals expressed interest in the events in four major cities, which highlighted successful strategies and explained how businesses can improve ROI with a comprehensive endto-end platform. These events featured industry analysts and experts from leading organizations, who exchanged mobile research and VoC best practices. www.confirmit.com Gmail in Google Search Results: Marketers Will Have a Data Gap to Plug – Google has announced a trial which will enable people using the search engine to see search queries feature results from their Gmail account. The search giant also said it is extending Google Knowledge Graph to every English-speaking country. According to Adam Bunn, Director of search engine optimisation (SEO) at leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, the former, if rolled out permanently, would have some drawbacks for marketers data-wise and, whilst it could be viewed as an opportunity from an email marketing perspective, that would be highly dependent on message retention. The Knowledge Graph meanwhile will benefit retailers, brands and digital marketers. According to Bunn, this will also encourage people who currently go digging around in their Gmail accounts for information, to perform a Google search instead, as in the “my flights” example that is being discussed currently http:// searchengineland.com/up-close-the-gmailin-google-search-results-field-trial-130035.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS QRCA Annual Conference: October 3-5, 2012 – Montreal, PQ CASRO Annual Conference: October 8-11, 2012 – Scottsdale, Arizona TTRA Annual Conference: October 10-12, 2012 – Winnipeg, MN AMA Marketing Hall of Legends: October 18, 2012 – Toronto MRIA Net Gain 7.0: January 31, 2013 – Toronto, ON MRIA+CMA Customer Experience Excellence: February 26, 2013 – Toronto, ON AAPOR Annual Conference: May 16-19, 2013 – Boston, MA MRIA National Conference: June 2-4, 2013 – Niagara Falls, ON ESOMAR 3D Digital: June 23-25, 2013 – Boston, MA ESOMAR Annual Congress: September 22-25, 2013 – Istanbul, Turkey

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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 JUNE 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 R.I.S. Christie Research House Inc. Research Professionals

QUEBEC CRC Research Ipsos Reid MBA Recherche

WEST Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting CRC Research Ipsos Reid Research House Inc. SmartPoint Research Inc. Trend Research

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.

MEMBERSHIP PROMOTION

NOW is the time to enroll new staff members and receive

15 months for the price of 12 In October, new members paying MRIA annual dues and fees will receive three 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

P rofessional Development

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This is your FINAL chance to register for these courses before the cutoff! Don’t delay, act today!! Final Registration Deadline: October 2, 2012 Location: Toronto October 3, 2012 Location: Winnipeg

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201-Marketing Research Design: An Applied Course Course Date: October 19, 2012

October 5, 2012 Location: Montreal

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October 9, 2012 Location: Toronto

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October 9, 2012 Location: Calgary

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October 15, 2012 MCP Location: Saskatoon 40

203-Marketing Research Statistics & Data Analysis Course Date: November 12-13, 2012

October 18, 2012 Location: Toronto

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402-Advanced Analysis Techniques Course Date: December 6-7, 2012

November 9, 2012 Location: Toronto

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MRIA Institute for

Professional Development

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

COLUMNISTS QUALITAS Youth, Social Media And Government Kanan Kothari Ipsos Reid UU

The inextricable link between youth culture and social media is ubiquitous. We’re bombarded by it every day. Gen Y uses social media more than any other method to stay connected with friends and family! Twitter helps youth connect and converse with influencers! Young people use platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to express and create! This type of messaging has become frequent and common for anyone who turns on the TV, reads the newspaper, checks their favourite blog daily, or has a young person in their life. Does this drastic change in connectivity alter the way youth access and dialogue with government? Absolutely. But, are there limitations? Increasingly, various levels of government are seeking new ways to best engage with youth through social media. To them, it seems the most obvious and lucrative way to reach this challenging audience. After speaking with young people, it appears the challenge is that social media isn’t yet the preferred avenue where this cohort engages with government issues. Few young people are posting, sharing and commenting on this type of subject matter on social media sites. It’s simply not what they use it for. The cause, initiative or program must compete with the social aspects of these platforms which dominate youth’s usage behaviour. This would suggest that traditional channels remain more fruitful to reach large numbers of young people on these topics, specifically through the school system. This is where they currently get involved with causes, and the school system provides them with a social and infrastructural support system accordingly. Interestingly, however, we see that a notable few – socially and politically engaged, opinion leader types – could be the low-hanging fruit when it comes to social media as they can be conduits for leading a broader social charge, but this isn’t likely to generate the large scale “hits” many clients are looking for. This, of course, may and likely will change over time, but for now we must manage expectations when it comes to youth, social media and government.

Innovation and Creativity Failure as Part of the Creative Process Margaret Imai-Compton, CMRP Principal, Imai-Compton Consulting Inc.

Despite the positive and optimistic attitudes that surround creativity and innovation using techniques that emphasize

possibility, expansion and inspiration, it needs to be stated that failure, and how we deal with failure, forms a key part of the creative process. Because fear of failure is so deeply ingrained in our collective experience, we are often quick to judge and discard ideas if they don’t have an immediate spark appeal or create an “aha!” moment. Think back to situations, meetings or workshops when it was easier to dismiss a solution, than to work on its possibilities. Typical dismissive reactions include: • “We tried that before and it didn’t work.” • “It’s too expensive. Our budget couldn’t support that.” • “It’s too hard to make a business case with that.” If we release judgment (and therefore fear of failure), we are more at liberty to entertain possibilities and the ideas will start to flow. And we know one of the basic principles of creative problem solving is to focus on quantity, rather than quality, of possibilities. The more ideas you come up with, the more good ones are likely to emerge. Two classic techniques to counter dismissive and judgmental resistance, are the “What if…” and “What I like about…” spark starters. Whenever there is resistance to an idea, rephrase it by starting with “What if…” because it immediately injects a more imaginative energy into the idea. If even for a moment, “What if…” will transcend any practical and rational resistance. “What I like about…” is a useful technique to turn resistance into possibility. It’s not saying the idea is viable, and may indeed fail, but it recognizes there may be some part of the idea that has merit. Experienced creativity practitioners welcome failure because they know that by failing, you release the fear of failure. and just go with the creative process.

BRAVE NEW WORLD The Visible Majority Corrine Sandler Fresh Intelligence Research Corp.

Two hundred and fourteen million people live in a country they were not born in, a figure that is equivalent to the fourth largest country in the world and represents a 50 per cent increase since 1990 . Canada is representative of this trend and is becoming a marketplace of minorities with the largest groups of immigrants coming from China, India and the Philippines. These three groups alone account for 35 per cent of all Canadian newcomers. So, is there a typical Canadian consumer today? An even more important question is: How authentic is your brand? vue October 2012

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The buying power of new Canadians has skyrocketed in the past decade and businesses are finally starting to react to shifting populations and putting old-fashioned take-it-orleave-it homogeneity under well-deserved scrutiny. Successful Canadian brands will have to cater to a diversified consumer market, while staying true to its brand promise and values. While marketers look for new opportunities to extend their consumer base by satisfying the needs of “New Canadians” they must above all else remain authentic. The world’s first study into understanding and measuring the authentic equity of brands was conducted in Australia in 2006. It proved that performance on core authenticity drives business performance. The stronger a brand’s core authenticity, the more likely people are to become advocates for the brand, and the greater the share a brand will have of high value customers in its market. It is critical to examine the cultural changes in Canada that are influencing preferences and buying habits and when talking to these ethnic groups, brands should be authentic at heart.

The court of public opinion Support for Advertising Claims – How Much Is Enough? Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP CorbinPartners Inc.

Comparative advertising claims come in many forms: “#1 Doctor recommended vitamins,” “America’s favourite hot dog,” “Coffee lovers prefer the taste of our new coffee to the leading brand.” What is the level of statistical support needed for each such claim? Consider this situation from Unilever U.K.’s TV ad for Flora Buttery butter. Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes is conducting a butter taste test in a grocery store. Offering buttered crumpets to one woman shopper, he says: “Come and have a taste. Which one is your favourite?” The woman enjoys a taste of both and makes her choice. “Shall I reveal?” asks the chef. He lifts up a plate which shows that the woman selected Flora Buttery. The voice-over messages include the statement that “more people prefer the taste of Flora Buttery” while the on-screen text states “out of 200 people tested 48% preferred Flora Buttery Taste, 45% Lurpak Lighter spreadable, 7% had no preference.” Not only a Unilever competitor, but several viewers successfully challenged the claim as misleading, because of the small sample size and absence of statistical significance. In upholding the complaint, the regulator expressed the further concern that although there was literal truth in the statement that “more people preferred the taste of Flora Buttery,” it was also true that the majority of respondents did not prefer Flora Buttery when the no-preference votes were taken into account. Unilever was required to withdraw the ad. 38

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For the facts in this case, and the particular claim being made, it appears that the regulator would have wanted to see a majority of all respondents preferring the advertised brand, to a statistically significant extent. The detailed analysis is available online at http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/ Adjudications/2009/2/Unilever-UK-Ltd/TF_ADJ_45824. aspx. Every claim, every wording, has particular requirements for statistical support. Your advertising clients will turn to you for advice.

TWO SOLITUDES How to Win the Heart of Quebec: A Political Case Study Isabelle Landreville Sylvestre Marketing

You may have noticed that when elections come around, Quebec tends to be rather different from the ROC. We’ve been talking to Quebeckers for a long time and let us tell you, you need to strike a chord. Quebec is all about emotion! There are a few key elements that are absolutely vital to find yourself at the top of the statistics in Quebec: 1) Speak French. This may seem obvious but it makes a huge difference to Quebeckers; it’s hard to vote for someone who clearly has not taken the time to invest their energy into learning the province’s first language. 2) Be close to the people. Again, this may seem obvious but this point is all the more important for gregarious Quebeckers who vote with their hearts. Substance to the person is required but he or she must have the charisma to be relevant to them. Quebeckers must claim ownership of their leaders. 3) Be humble. In Quebec, confidence is valued but arrogance is highly frowned upon. Historically, if a political figure showed signs of living in an ivory tower, Quebec relates with difficulty. Elitism is not the answer for Quebec. 4) Never talk down to your opponents. This ties into #3; respect is a huge component in Quebec. While debates and hard questions must be asked, Quebec respects a political figure who shows respect towards his or her adversaries, even when disagreeing with them. 5) Last but certainly not least, dare to empower. If you’ve accomplished elements 1 through 4, this one is the final key. An inclusive attitude, while maintaining an awareness of Quebec’s differences means to empower the province and make them feel heard. For a perfect success story, one has only to turn back the clock a year and consider Jack Layton’s NDP and its true success story. A lack of such leadership in the latest provincial election made for one that left the heart lingering.

COLUMN I STS

CSRC The Importance of Insights for Great Creative Kristian Gravelle Kraft Canada

Did you see that ad on TV last night...the one with the guy on the horse with the scenery that changes? Chances are you immediately thought of the Old Spice campaign. So what is it that separates great creative from the rest? The recipe is one part insights, one part creative and one part trust and cooperation. Creative should not only be breakthrough but also do something positive for the brand, such as change perception, offer news and/or drive purchase intent. While the Old Spice campaign didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily drive purchase intent, it was effective at changing consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perception of the brand. The difference maker is at the start. Research conducted in collaboration with the marketing group and the research team (internal and external) ensures that the product benefit will solve a consumer need. This provides the agency with a sandbox with which they can work to create a message. Consumer insights will also help provide direction of tone and manner with which the message is to be delivered. Due

diligence on competitive environment will also provide direction in how intrusive the message medium must be. This initial step is critical in the process to great creative. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t shortchange your research dollars here! It is critical to validate the creative against intended audience. Primary message, tone and manner as well as overall creative intent must be measured to confirm consumers comprehend the intent of the message. Forging a strong cooperative relationship with the creative agency ensures that all parties involved understand the purpose of the research. This is often a difficult step in the process. Take this time to adjust the creative based on the insights. Done properly, it will turn good into great. Once the creative has aired, pre-post testing will provide the organization with valuable information on how well the creative was received and measure its impact on the brand/ business. It can also be a critical part in providing insights into the subsequent rounds of creative. It can also guide the business in terms of how to reallocate investments across the business to ensure investment behind strong assets maximize ROI. Maybe not all creative is worthy of an award, but as long as it does what it was intended to do, then you will get a gold star.

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