SURVEY

SURVEY

market research bulletin

5

Ways to be a more effective

Project Manager

wearable

connectivity...

The next great

idea?

Discrete Choice

MODELING

Powerful and Realistic Tools for Marketing Decision Making

FEBRUARY 2014

Google Glass, & the innovation towards wearable

connectivity, is the next great

idea.

It has enormous potential to draw producers of goods and services closer to the consumers. Imagine a world where everything a consumer sees and hears is captured (with permission!), along with the buying and shopping behaviors that follow.

Where all of the devices a consumer uses are connected and the data is integrated to connect all of the purchase triggers. Where questions are used to understand why, but the what and when are observed in the wild.

To achieve This potential, wearables need to make strides in usability and wearability. The current product struggles with intuitive connectivity, and it requires behavioral shifts, which often take time to penetrate into society. Those shifts will only come if the user benefits supercede the short term discomfort. But when that value exchange is achieved, our data world will change. Again.

- Melanie Courtright

Google Glass, & the innovation towards wearable

connectivity, is the next great

idea.

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SURVEY SOFTWARE PLATFORM

by

SURVEYMAGAZINE

D E PA R T M E N T S

CONTENTS. F E B R U A RY, 2 0 1 4

International Research

Global Happiness Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6

F E AT U R E A n a l y t i c a l S u r v e y To o l s

Discrete Choice Modeling: Powerful & Realistic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4

Research Best Parctice

Keep Calm & Send Along: Email Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0

PR Campaigns

Failed PR Campaigns How to Ensure Success in the Fut u r e . . . 4 2

Good Feelings are Not Enough to Win at Super AD Bowl

Adventures, Puppy Love, Heroes and Linebackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

5 Ways To Be a More Effective

Project Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6

SCompany URVEY Showcase

Page

50

NEW THIS MONTH

COMPANY SHOWCASE CONFIRMIT

Confirmit SODA 3.0 Pushes Market Research Operations Management to New Heights.

Confirmit today announced Version 3.0 of its award-winning mobile App, SODA. The Survey On Demand Application.

Confirmit SODA enables enterprises and Market Research agencies to capture in-the-moment feedback from respondents, whether they are consumers or employees, providing unbeatable insights into experiences.

SURVEY NEWS . . . . . . . . 5 3

S URVEY

MAGAZINE

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING

“

GLOBAL HAPPINESS SURVEY

Indonesia scores the happiest out of “Nationally, the 24 countries surveyed with over half (55%) of

citizens reporting they are ‘very happy’ followed by India (41%), Mexico (38%), Brazil (33%), South Africa (26%), United States (26%) and Canada (24%).

“

There is a learningcurve with every new undertaking, but it does not have to include initial

failure.

“

01 Russell Trahan

“

Remember to consider emotional and behavioral feedback at least as strongly as rational results in qualitative research.

“

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MEASUREMENT 01

02

06

09

08

“Satisfying Customers is Not the Same as Understanding Them”

03

“This year, the only reason for a nonSeattle fan to watch the Super bowl past the first half was for the ads.”

07

10

“One of the first

27%

steps in the design of a

GROWTH IN 2013

Discrete Choice

“We’re always looking ahead, anticipating what our clients and the industry as a whole will need next from a technological and a services standpoint,”

task set is to

determine attributes and levels to be studied.”

“ FEBRUARY 2014

Keren Gottfried Senior Research Manager IPSOS

Michael Allenson

the number of

008 SURVEY MAGAZINE

02

03

05

04

President PR/PR

Strategic Consulting Director Maritz Research

04 Jim Bryson CEO & Founder, 20/20 Research

05 Russell Harley Director PMO

06 Janet Standen QRCA Member Director of Consumer Insights Instant Insights Lab

07 Joel Weinberger Professor of Psychology Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies Adelphi University

08 Annie Pettit, PhD Chief Research Officer, Peanut Labs

09 Jamin Brazil Co-CEO Decipher, Inc.

Disruptive technologies are expensive. It costs real money to buy devices that track eye movements, brain activity, and skin

“

10

responses. Indeed, it costs $1500 per research participant to

Karin A. Ferenz

outfit them with a pair of Google Glasses.

Principal Customer Lifecycle, LLC

SSI Means Business.

Introducing SSI B2B inSSItes sample.

TM

Reliable B2B sample, blue-chip sources, phone verification via SSI CATI, realistic estimates, accurate profiling and genuine business opinions from the people who matter to you. Let’s talk business. Call 1.855.477.4726

ÂŽ info@surveysampling.com surveysampling.com

S URVEY

ESSENTIALS

On Our Cover

SURVEY

market research bulletin

SURVEY

essentials.

5

Ways to be a more effective

Project Manager

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE

wearable

connectivity...

The next great

idea?

Discrete Choice

MODELING

Powerful and Realistic Tools for Marketing Decision Making

SURVEY

tip

FEBRUARY 2014

Look for SURVEY TIPS in our featured articles and briefs throughout the issue. Guaranteed to keep your surveys in tip-top shape.

Wearable Connectivity?

S U R V E Y EVENTS

webinar lineup

for a complete list of webinars, go to surveymagazine.org/webinars

Page

22

trade-off techniques 3

PART SERIES TRADE-OFF TECHNIQUES CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE, LLC

This is the first in a series of three (3) articles that we will explore the different trade-off techniques frequently used for different marketing decisions.

First, we will explore Discrete Choice Modeling, then Full Profile Conjoint Analysis, and lastly Paired Trade-Off Analysis.

Page

34

Innovation is in the air! We’re moving into 2014 with entirely new web platforms. Yes it was time... FULLY MOBILE AND ADAPTIVE WEBSITES.GET SURVEY ANYWHERE - ANY TIME - ON ANY DEVICE. www.SurveyMagazine.org

info@SurveyMagazine.org

010 SURVEY MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 2014

Is Google Glass, & the innovation towards wearable

connectivity, the next great

idea?

SURVEYMAGAZINE

CONTENTS. F E B R U A RY, 2 0 1 4

COLUMNS

with Michael Allenson

Satisfying Customers is Not the Same as Understanding Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MEASUREMENT

QRCA Qualitative Research Consultants Association

Customers want better engagement from the companies that they do business with.

Our survey shows that customers expect to reward companies who better engage them with greater loyalty.

T h e Stra te gy Gu y

Mi c h ae l A l l e nson

@MaritzResearch

Provide Quality In-Person Insights Quick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8

By Janet Standen

New Orleans

Following Annie: The Listyen Lady

QRCA 2014

From Dinosaurs to the Jetsons . . . . . . . . . 2 3

October 15-17 Learn, connect & Let the good times roll!

Janet Standen is a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) and Director of Consumer Insights at Instant Insights Lab based in San Francisco. She has spent 30 years in strategic marketing roles for companies such as Nestle-Europe, Coley Porter Bell and CCD Innovation, earning the title of Chief of Curiosity at her company.

Jane t Stand e n, QRCA Me m be r

Thos e w e r e t h e “ da y s w h e n dat a

@QRCA

“

q ua li t y t e c h ni qu e s w er e s i mpl e .

Jim Bryson: The Qual Guy

T h e L ist en L ady

ANNIE P ETTIT

@LoveStats

“7 Deadly Sins” Key to Brand Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4

T h e Q u a l Gu y

J im B ryso n 012 SURVEY MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 2014

@JimBrysonTN

WEBINAR EVENT Join Pete Cape on February 27th at 12:00 PM EST as he presents:

The True Meaning of Representivity A Free webinar, hosted by Survey Magazine with guest speaker, PETE CAPE, Director, Global Knowledge at Survey Sampling International (SSI).

Register at: SurveyMagazine.org/webinars

MISSION Pete is on a

to optimize your sample in Brazil, Beijing or British Columbia.

SSI is committed to a robust international presence. We sample in 78 countries; we maintain 27 offices worldwide; and our staff is fluent in 36 languages.

The result: every time zone is our comfort zone.

This commitment enables experienced professionals like Pete Cape to adjust questions and modes to fit the culture, and deliver the most meaningful samples available in every province, arrondissement, and canton. And better samples mean better results.

Pete Cape. Just one of the people working for you at SSI.

速 info@surveysampling.com surveysampling.com

THE LATEST

SURVEY BUZZ NEWS

75%

Generally Happy

55%

Somewhat Happy +

Confirmit SODA 3.0 Pushes Market Research Operations Management to New Heights.

+

+

20% Very Happy

Happiness

ON - DEMAND

Global Happiness Report

NEXT PAGE >>

Confirmit SODA enables enterprises and Market Research agencies to capture inthe-moment feedback from respondents, whether they are consumers or employees, providing unbeatable insights into experiences.

Google Consumer Surveys

Easy answers to every business decision.

Act now and get $75 off your first survey! www.MarketResearchBulletin.com

Research Now Healthcare Launches Autoimmune Panel in North America Consumer Ailments Panel Provides Access to Over 80,000 Respondents with Autoimmune Related Diseases.

014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 2014

SSI Launches

‘B2B inSSItes New B2B Sample has Innovative Sourcing and Quality Control Features.

75% Majority of Global Citizens are Happy Despite Gloomy Economic Sentiments.

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75%

Global respondents appear to be generally happy – 75% very happy (20%) or somewhat happy (55%) – according to a new poll by global research company Ipsos. This general happiness is contrasted by four in ten (37%) who assess the economy in their country to be good – 5% very good, 32% somewhat good. Even despite this gloomy outlook, seven in ten (70%) of those who

Majority of Global Citizens are Happy Despite Gloomy Economic Sentiments.

assess the economy in their country to be bad also report they are happy.

Happiness Global Happiness Report

Global Trends STUDY These findings reflect data gathered

75%

Generally Happy

55%

Somewhat Happy +

+

as part of the new Global Trends Survey, a study that aims to build

+

a more comprehensive picture of

20% Very Happy

what matters to people globally. The

‘Very Happy’ Cohort (20%) Down Two Points Since December 2012

survey has hundreds of questions covering a diverse range of subjects including perceptions of government, our deeper values, views of some of the key challenges facing the world and measures of a wide range of behaviours. Reports on these findings will be released in detail throughout 2014.

016 SURVEY MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 2014

Who are the Happiest People?

To determine who might be the ‘happiest people’, special attention is paid to those who report they are ‘very happy.’ The proportion of those who indicate they are ‘very happy’ – rather than only ‘somewhat happy’ – represents a key measure that identifies comparative depth and intensity of happiness among country citizens and the world.

BRIEFS FEBRUARY 2014 GLOBAL HAPPINESS REPORT

YOUNGER PEOPLE ARE HAPPIER

Two in ten (20%) indicate they are very happy, down two points from the same time one year ago (22%).

Young people appear happiest on a global aggregate level, as those who are under the age of 35 (24%) are more likely to say they are ‘very happy’ than those who are 35-49 (18%) and 50-64 (16%) across all countries surveyed.

SOCIO-ECONOMICS

Furthermore, socioeconomics play a role as those with a high education (24%) and those with a high household income (22%) are among those most likely to be ‘very happy’.

MARRIED COUPLES

no statistical difference in happiness across

gender

Married people (23%) are more likely to be ‘very happy’ than those who are unmarried and there is no statistical difference in happiness across gender (20%).

MORE >

FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

017

Regionally, Latin America has the greatest proportion of people saying they are ‘very happy’, with one third (31%) of their population responding this way.

North America is next with 25% followed by the Middle East and Africa (23%), Asia Pacific (22%) and Europe (13%).

National Differences Nationally, Indonesia scores the happiest out of the 24 countries surveyed with over half (55%) of citizens reporting they are ‘very happy’ followed by India (41%), Mexico (38%), Brazil (33%), South Africa (26%), United States (26%) and Canada (24%).

On the other end, South Korea (6%), Hungary (8%), Italy (9%) and China (10%) have the lowest number of ‘very happy’ people, followed by France (11%), Germany (11%) and Russia (11%).

018 SURVEY MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 2014

Happiness Despite Economic Gloom Global happiness overall, with 75% saying they are at least somewhat happy, reflect three quarters of the global aggregate while only 37% who assess the economy in their country to be good – 5% very good, 32% somewhat good. Indeed, seven in ten (70%) of those in 19 countries who assess their national economy to be bad still report they are happy.

Still, economic confidence correlates positively to happiness overall. The gaps between the happiness levels of those who rate their national economies to be good versus those who rate it to be bad is substantial. Globally, the gap is 19 points as 89% of those who say the economy is good also say they are happy while 70% of those who say the economy is bad say they are happy. The gap is largest in Spain (37 points), Germany (27pts), South Korea (27pts), Great Britain (25pts) and Poland (22pts). It is smallest in South Africa (10pts), Brazil (11pts), Canada (15pts), Russia (15pts), France (15pts) and the United States (16pts).

BRIEFS

% Very Happy Total

20%

FEBRUARY 2014

55%

sia 01 Indone

Keren Gottfried

38%

o 03 Mexic

Senior Research Manager Global @dvisor +1.416.572.4481

33%

04 Brazil a

Afric 05 South TOP 5

keren.gottfried@ipsos.com

26%

About Ipsos Ipsos is an independent market research company controlled and managed by research professionals. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has grown into a worldwide research group with a strong presence in all key markets. In October 2011 Ipsos completed the acquisition of Synovate. The combination forms the world’s third largest market research company.

BOTTOM 5

11%

20 Russia

10%

21 China

With offices in 85 countries, Ipsos delivers insightful expertise across six research specializations: advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, public affairs research, and survey management.

09%

22 Italy

08%

ry 23 Hunga a

Kore 24 South

06%

These are findings of the research conducted by global research company Ipsos. The research was conducted on the “G@52”wave between December 4-18, 2013. For the happiness and economic crosstabulations, data from the “G@49” wave, fielded between September 3-17, 2013, was used. The monthly Global @dvisor data output is derived from a balanced online sample in 24 countries around the world via the Ipsos Online Panel system.

Ipsos researchers assess market potential and interpret market trends. They develop and build brands. They help clients build long-term relationships with their customers. They test advertising and study audience responses to various media and they measure public opinion around the globe.

Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999 and generated global revenues of €1,789 billion (2.300 billion USD) in 2012.

Visit www.ipsos.com to learn more about Ipsos’ offerings and capabilities.

Happiness Global Happiness Report

FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

019

GLOBAL HAPPINESS REPORT

41%

02 India

Good Feelings are Not Enough to Win at Super AD Bowl By: Joel Weinberger is Professor of Psychology Adventures, Puppy Love, Heroes and Linebackers This year, the only reason for a non-Seattle fan to watch the Super bowl past the first half was for the ads.

They blend beautifully with decades of associations to Bud as the good time, party beer and take it to a new level. They also perfectly match the new Bud tagline: “The Perfect Beer for Whatever Happens.“

Typically, Super bowl ads are evaluated by the reactions of critics, by how many people like them, and/or whether or not they go viral.

These are the wrong metrics. The purpose of an ad is to further the brand, specifically sales of the brand.

Then, late in the game, we were treated to an ad with a puppy and a Clydesdale who love each other. This was a wonderful ad, beautifully shot and choreographed. Everyone loves puppies and who wouldn’t be moved by an intimate friendship between two animal species? But what does this have to do with beer generally and Bud specifically? Further, the brand was never mentioned until after the story had been told. After seeing the ad, my wife and I wanted to adopt a puppy (as did my children) but neither of us had an urge for a beer or a Budweiser. So, although the ad generated positive emotions and wonderful associations, these had nothing to do with Bud. People may talk about it, they may send it to their friends but, because of how unconscious processes work, this will not lead to furtherance of the Bud brand or to greater sales.

The opinions of critics and the number of people who like and/or view the ad is irrelevant if the ad does not capture and further the essence of the brand. What does matter are the unconscious associations people have to the brand and to the ad attempting to further that brand. What we need is to know is what associations the brand generates and whether the ad moves these associations forward. We can’t ask this, as associations are unconscious. We can measure them using modern psychological science methods. For iconic brands, advertised for so many years in the Super bowl, we can make educated guesses to approximate such measurement.

A Tale of Two Buds

Let’s look at two kinds of Budweiser ads shown in this Super bowl. In the first two, holding onto a bottle of Bud leads to an amazing series of upbeat adventures for an average Joe. The ads perfectly match the Bud brand.

Don’t believe me? At last year’s Super bowl, Bud aired a similar ad about the friendship between a horse and a man (Brotherhood).

It went viral and was universally lauded. How did sales of Bud do? They were down about 3% for the year. Now a lot of things go into sales and this ad certainly did not depress sales. But it clearly did not enhance them either.

Bud’s Hero’s Homecoming

And then there is the third Bud ad, “A Hero’s Homecoming.”

Another wonderful ad. It seems to be in the spirit of the puppy love ad. We have a reunion and we are tugging on the heartstrings. But in terms of unconscious associations related to Bud, the two ads could not be further apart. In A Hero’s Homecoming, Budweiser is not telling a fictitious story. This is actually happening. The brand is engaged in an actual good deed. Lt. Nadd is a real person and deserves the homecoming created for him. The audience feels happy for him, a real person.

Further, this ad presented the Bud brand in a tasteful, understated way. It was not front and center. People were not shown ostentatiously drinking Bud or holding it aloft. But it was there and visible in signage and in the coloring of the ad. Clearly the homecoming is to be associated with Bud without taking the spotlight from the story. The product placement was brilliant.

The Case of Terry Tate, Office Linebacker

Need another example? In 2003, Reebok aired “Terry Tate Office Linebacker.” It was hilarious. A linebacker tackled and screamed at office workers not carrying their weight at work. A CEO commented on how this increased productivity. The critics loved it.

People talked about it. It was downloaded seven million times.

As with the Bud puppy and Clydesdale ads, the brand (Reebok) was never mentioned.

It was not even mentioned after the story.

Associations? Clearly there are associations to football. Also to slapstick. What are the associations to footwear? To Reebok specifically? None.

So what happened? First, 55% of people polled did not even realize that Reebok had created the ad. That’s not good. And sales?

Sales in 2004 were flat, or even slightly down, when constant dollars were calculated.

Again, we can’t say that the ad adversely affected sales. But, again, they certainly didn’t boost sales either. Seven million downloads and constant chatter about the ads did nothing for the brand.

Further, we can easily imagine the celebrants hoisting a few beers at the party to come. And what would they drink, if not Bud? Although this is not shown, it is the logical next step. It is where our mental associations take us. This ad is a true win/ win. Bud gets good will from doing a good deed. A deserving person benefits; positive associations are generated. The associations are related to the product. Beer is drunk at celebrations and parties. Everyone feels good; let’s toast with a Bud. To summarize: positive emotions and wonderful associations only affect sales and behavior towards a brand when they resonate with that brand. And the viewer has to know that the brand is involved. Bud has had it both ways. Perhaps it was to their advantage that the puppy love ad ran when fewer were attending to the game.

Joel Weinberger is Professor of Psychology at the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University. Prior to that he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in human motivation at Harvard University. He is author or co-author of more than 80 articles and two books. His interests include unconscious processes, personality, motivation, political psychology, and effective components of psychotherapy. His work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and he was awarded the Ulf Kragh award (University of Lundh, Sweden) for his work on unconscious processes. He is a founding member of Implicit Strategies, an organization that assesses unconscious processes. Dr. Weinberger is also a practicing clinical psychologist.

020 SURVEY MAGAZINE

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February 2014 / Web Roundup

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Coming in March...

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Top Technology Trendsetters

2014

3

This article written for last months issue of SURVEY by Leslie Townsend is getting a lot of attention from our online readers. Get step-by-step guidance on why as researchers, we should “Embrace the Love” of mobile devices. Featured on our homepage in our January issue: www.SurveyMagazine.org

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We’ll select 10 candidates from the list of nominations and prepare a detailed profile of the “Technology Trendsetter” and his/her Company as well as the trend-setting innovation that the candidate brings to the market research community as a whole. www.SurveyMagazine.org/nominate

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for a complete list of webinars, go to surveymagazine.org/webinars Value of Employee Engagement on the Customer Experience

Join us February 27th at 12:00 PM EST as we present:

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The True Meaning of Representivity A Free webinar, hosted by Survey Magazine with guest speaker, PETE CAPE, Director, Global Knowledge at Survey Sampling International (SSI).

To Catch A Thief: Fighting Respondent Fraud

Combining the Power of Predictive Analytics and Survey Data Catherine Frye – Business Analytics Solutions Manager, IBM Joseph Mahoney – Client Technical Professional, Business Analytics, IBM

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The research industry struggles with three data quality challenges: poor questionnaire design, respondent inattention and fraud. We hear a good deal of industry talk on the first two; now SSI lifts the lid on the third. !!"#$%&'()&*+,! "!#$%&!!'()*+,!'-./0123!425+)2-672-0#

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The Case for Using Dashboards to Decode Survey Data Dashboards

Businesses rely on online surveys to collect firsthand information from their customers and employees, so they can make decisions that positively shape their customer and organizational strategies.

However, data is only as powerful as the insights you are able to draw from it. If your insights are weak or unfounded, you won’t be able to exercise the sort of sound decision making that positively impacts companies.

www.MarketResearchBulletin.com >

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NEWSLETTER: MARKETRESEARCHBULLETIN.COM

COLUMNS FEBRUARY 2014 SUR VEY MAGAZINE FEATURED COLUMNIST

Those were the “ days when data

“

quality techniques were simple.

The Listen Lady

A N N I E P ET TI T

@LoveStats

From Dinosaurs to the Jetsons Disruptive technologies are expensive. It costs real money to buy devices that track eye movements, brain activity, and skin responses. Indeed, it costs $1500

Annie Pettit, PhD

Chief Research Officer, Peanut Labs

per research participant to outfit them with a pair of Google Glasses.

Disruptive technologies are also annoying.

They steal time from employees who should be focused on core business that generates cash. They require prolonged time-outs for businesses to completely rethink how every single task is planned and carried out.

These technologies are called disruptive for a reason. It makes more sense to let the workers work and the innovation teams play with their new toys.

But every task you do is actually a small cog in the disruptive technology trend.

Consider the lowly grid question. We used to write them with ten point scales and fifty or more items. Oh yes we did. Over time, we realized that data quality suffered and something different needed to be done.

It wasn’t simple and it wasn’t instant. We stopped what we were doing and rethought the grid question. We rethought how to get the data. We rethought how we use the data. Disruptive? Yes.

And what about data quality techniques?

We used to throw a red herring on a survey and instantly fail anyone who chose it. We’d fail anyone who straightlined and anyone who selected ‘3’ when we told them to select ‘4.’ Those were the days when data quality techniques were simple. And wrong. We paused what we were doing and rethought why data quality was poor, where the blame for poor quality really lay, and how to legitimately track and identify poor responders. Disruptive? Annoyingly so.

Whether you work in the dinosaur era of paper and pencil surveys or the Jetson era of Google Glass, research methodologies disrupt you every day. If you can handle the disruptiveness of improved survey designs, then you can also handle the disruptiveness of different data collection methods.

Annie Pettit, PhD is the Chief Research Officer at Peanut Labs, Vice President, Research Standards at Research Now, and Editor In Chief of Vue magazine. She specializes in listening research, survey methods, and data quality. Annie is a sought after conference speaker, and has published numerous refereed and industry articles. She won Best Methodological Paper at Esomar 2013, and the 2011 AMA David K. Hardin Award. Annie tweets at @LoveStats and is the author of The Listen Lady, a novel about social media research. She can be reached at annie@peanutlabs.com.

FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

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The Qual Guy

J i m B ryso n

@JimBrysonTN

“7 Deadly Sins” Key to Brand Building I had the opportunity to go to the ESOMAR Qualitative Conference in Valencia Spain recently.

They put on a good conference. Kudos to ESOMAR and the Conference Committee for an excellent

Jim Bryson

CEO & Founder, 20/20 Research

conference. I also discovered a wonderful city in Valencia. If you ever get a chance to visit, do it.

One of my favorite presentations was, “The Power of the Dark Side”

by Shobha Prosad. Congratulations to Shobha as she was awarded “Best Paper” for the conference.

Essentially her premise was that the seven deadly sins are the key to brand building. Since branding is essentially emotional and personal, these emotional characteristics are central to the brand. Indeed, a central theme running throughout the conference was the need to capture emotional as well as rational content when conducting qualitative research.

The seven sins can be divided into two categories: 1. Psychological: Pride, Greed and Envy 2. Physical: Lust, Gluttony, Anger and Sloth

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She believes that these are the 7 “sins” that drive brand building.

However, she also stated, “For every behavior there is an equal and opposite expiratory behavior.”

Therefore, she identifies opposite motivators or needs. She distinguishes the two types by the descriptors “Devil” and “Angel.”

Shobha states that successful brands stand strongly in one or more spaces. In fact, in each of her examples, brands occupied at least two spaces a “Devil” space and an “Angel” space. This is consistent with the notion that brands often have a core driver that is most often self-serving to consumers (Devil motivator) and a secondary driver (Angel motivator) that is often used to rationalize purchase.

Though there was nothing groundbreaking in her overview of the “7

Deadly Sins” and their corresponding “Angel” motivators, the clarity of the concepts and admonition to keep these in mind during our brand research was a strong and needed reminder.

In summary, the presentation encouraged me in several ways: 1. Remember to consider emotional and behavioral feedback at least as strongly as rational results in qualitative research.

2. When confronted with an altruistic or “Angel” motivator behind a brand or action, look a little deeper for one of the more self-serving “Devil” motivations that might be the actual driver while the “Angel” is the outward rationalization.

3. How are the various brands that I am responsible for represented here? Time for a little self-analysis.

Jim Bryson is Founder and CEO of 20|20, a qualitative research firm with global online services and research facilites. He has personally moderated over 2000 focus groups and in-depth interviews.

Jim currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Marketing Research Association. Previously, he was President of the Qualitative Research Consultant’s Association. In his spare time, Jim serves as President for The Joseph School, a secondary, leadership school for orphans in Haiti.

COLUMNS FEBRUARY 2014

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MEASUREMENT

SUR VEY MAGAZINE FEATURED COLUMNIST

Customers want better engagement from the companies that they do business with.

Our survey shows that customers expect to reward companies who better engage them with greater loyalty.

The Strategy Guy

Mi c h a e l A l l e nso n

@MaritzResearch

Satisfying Customers is Not the Same as Understanding Them In the world of Customer Experience Measurement (CEM) there are lots of satisfaction studies being conducted. It seems like everywhere you go (both online and off) there’s a customer satisfaction study.

What did you think of your experience buying a new car? How was the service on your flight? Did the person on the phone resolve your problem with your internet connection? You might think it’s a sign of how much companies care about their customers and the experience they are having. Not necessarily. Recent research conducted by Maritz shows there may be a lot more to making customers happy than meets the eye.

Consider the satisfaction of automobile and banking customers as measured in Maritz CE Benchmarks program which measures the satisfaction of consumers across about 40 different types of transactions. In general, most banking customers think highly of the performance of their bank on recent transactions with 60% giving a top-two box (9 or 10) rating in 2013. Satisfaction with the performance of automotive dealers after a recent purchase is nearly as strong, with 57% giving a top-two box (9 or 10) rating in 2013.

Strategic Consulting Director Maritz Research I am Michael Allenson and I am

Ra(ng of Overall Sa(sfac(on with the Experience Among those who visited bank in the past week Rated on a 10-­‐point scale

75%

Michael Allenson

a Strategic Consulting Director within the Tech, Wireless Tele-

50%

com and Retail practice within Maritz. When I first entered

25%

college at the University of 0%

Q1

Q2 Q3 2011

Q4

Q1

Banks

Q2 Q3 2012

Q4

Q1

Automakers/Dealers

Q2 Q3 2013

Q4

This performance level for both industries has been pretty steady over the last several years.

Our recent Banking and Vehicle Customer Engagement study provides a whole new perspective on understanding how customers feel and the challenges and opportunities facing banks, automakers and auto dealers that they do business with. Relatively few customers in either industry feel completely valued as a customer and just under half of customers in each industry say they are either somewhat or not at all valued. That’s a pretty large chunk of the population!

Chicago some years ago (more than I want to admit), I was a math major. What I quickly realized was that even though I was good at math, I didn’t want to be a professor or an actuary.

When I took my first Sociology class, I was excited. It allowed me to combine my math chops with a desire to study human behavior. Ever since I have been a market researcher.

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025

Haven’t most or all of these customers received a customer satisfaction survey at some point during the time as a customer? Surely they have. Customers just don’t see a satisfaction survey as checking in with them. So what does this

Finding out how customers feel requires a different approach than just gathering one or a handful of ratings and an open-ended response.

Customers may not feel they’ve been asked how they are doing because they don’t think being asked a bunch of rating questions is really trying to understand how they feel. This feeling may be exacerbated when the very first question asks not about their feelings but about whether they’d be likely to recommend the company. If you were asking a friend about an auto dealer or a bank, you wouldn’t ask them for a rating, you’d have a conversation. Perhaps, to understand customers and what they want, companies need to have a conversation too.

Satisfying Customers is Not the Same as

If customers are expected to continue providing feedback and the goal is to improve their experience, then companies and their CEM programs need to begin understanding how they are serving the customer’s current and prospective needs, not just those in the past.

Understanding Them

S U R V E Y S AY S

Customers interact with their vehicle, as well as their bank accounts almost every day.

What’s more is that these products/services are at the center of so much of the daily activities of their customers.

Therefore, the experience with the product/service is not just about transactions, but about small experiences that happen on a regular basis (like going on a weekend road trip with your vehicle or paying for a home renovation with your home equity line of credit), including transactions, each of which has an impact on over perceptions of the collective experience.

Transactional customer experience studies by nature ask customers about an experience they had in the recent past. If it is about opening an account or buying a car or even calling a call center, the feedback they give can only serve to evaluate those delivering the service and to identify opportunities to improve that process to better serve customers who will have that transaction in the future. That’s all well and good, but for the customer providing the feedback, they may not have that same experience again for years or even ever. Unless they had a major problem that is unresolved and will trigger a hot alert, there is nothing the company will do to help that customer going forward.

FEBRUARY 2014

How the customer feels is a lot more than any one or even the sum of transactions they have with their bank or automaker/dealer.

SURVEY MAGAZINE

Transactional satisfaction studies measure the effectiveness of processes, not the effectiveness of serving customers.

mean?

Overall, would you say that your dealer and/or vehicle manufacturer treat you as a valued customer?

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Not at all

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Not at all

These employees need to be evaluated, as do the channel organizations they are part of.

Companies also need to be able to identify any systematic changes needed in their organization. Transactional CEM helps companies accomplish this.

If this result is combined with the results shown above from our CE Benchmark study, you’d have to conclude that some of those customers rating their experience a 9 or 10 don’t feel particularly valued by their bank or vehicle manufacturer/dealer. Our Banking and Vehicle Customer Engagement study provides further context for this seeming conflict with what CE Benchmarks tells us. Nearly half of customers in each industry say their bank or their vehicle manufacturer/dealer has not checked in with them EVER to see how they are doing. How can that be?

Never been contacted by their primary Bank to see how things were going

Never been contacted by their dealer or manufacturer to see how things were going

49%

44%

ENGAGEMENT & LOYALTY If a bank put in a program which spends more 6me ge7ng to know and support you throughout the 6me you are a customer, would you be more likely to keep your accounts there?

If a car company program focused on spending more 6me ge7ng to know you and supported you all throughout ownership, how likely would you be to repurchase from them?

By likelihood to Purchase from same Dealer again

By percep6on of being valued by primary bank Completely Mostly Somewhat Not at all

54% 38% 36% 49%

77%

Definitely

67%

80%

A lot more likely

Probably

79%

Somehwat more likely

Maybe

41%

Definitely Not

45%

87%

51%

92% 81% 81% 76%

However, there is a significant need to understand customer needs and communicate and help them with their customer experience in a more holistic way. At a time when companies’ products and services are less and less differentiated, more and more of them are saying they differentiate on the customer experience.

Yet at the same time, this enhanced customer experience is increasingly delivered through technology, applications and communication that do not involve a human interaction. This means companies that want to measure the customer experience and help customers have a better one, need to transform their measurement programs to understand the customer throughout their journey and the many ways they interact with the brand.

SUR VEY MAGAZINE FEATURED COLUMNIST

Overall, would you say that your primary bank treats you as a valued customer?

It remains important for companies to understand how they are performing for customers on certain processes like a sales, service or call center experience.

FEBRUARY 2014

DO CUSTOMERS FEEL VALUED?

COLUMNS

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customers want better engagement from the companies that they do business with. Our survey shows that customers expect to reward companies who better engage them with greater loyalty.

S

o, at a time when every business or organization you touch wants you to complete a satisfaction study, how do you break through and get customers to provide honest, valuable feedback to you?

Make sure that customers feel they are valued and that engaging with you helps them have a better experience. What’s in it for them? Customers should feel that engaging with you is worth their time.

END FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

027

New Orleans

QRCA 2014 October 15-17 Learn, connect & Let the good times roll!

Janet Standen is a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) and Director of Consumer Insights at Instant Insights Lab based in San Francisco. She has spent 30 years in strategic marketing roles for companies such as Nestle-Europe, Coley Porter Bell and CCD Innovation, earning the title of Chief of Curiosity at her company.

Jan e t St a n den , Q R C A Me m b e r

@QRCA

Provide Quality In-Person Insights Quick How many times have you heard this? You’ve just finished four two-hour focus groups over a couple of days. Thirty-two consumers have just evaluated a new brand identity, tried a new product or discussed how a new technology will impact their lives.

Now your client wants an accurate Top-line Debrief that captures everything you have learned and key insights. Not in two weeks. Tomorrow!

The key elements of the research process are recruitment, fieldwork, debrief and analysis. Can you speed up all these steps and deliver an in-person qualitative study from briefing to Top-line Debrief in under a week, without sacrificing quality and depth of insights? Yes, and this is how.

Start by using same-day recruitment of qualified respondents, screened on the spot using live-recruitment. Find up to 36 respondents, taken from a busy street in a downtown shopping and business district that offers access to a diverse cross-section of consumers. Bring them to a comfortable environment, only steps away, for an immediate interview lasting about 30 minutes.

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Before their session starts, pre-brief the respondents on the basics so that the experienced moderator can dive straight to the heart of the topic. Use small groups of only two or three respondents so that each respondent has the chance to express his or her views in depth. In the more traditional large focus group of eight or ten, the respondents have to wait their turn to share their opinions, losing their spontaneity, and sometimes their personal reaction, which can be influenced by fellow respondents.

By observing the interviews from a back room through a one-way mirror, your clients will actively participate in the learning process, as well as influence any written stimulus or shift of emphasis for the interviews as the day progresses. The clients and a backroom facilitator capture learning, as it emerges during each interview, onto note cards. The facilitator immediately organizes and clusters the notes on a “Learning Wall” for instant same-day analysis. Of course, you will also have a recorder to make a transcript

of the interviews for accurate reference.

After the interviews, the backroom facilitator will lead an immediate, interactive debrief discussion. The team will review and discuss the critical findings to identify insights that are relevant and directional.

The experience and knowledge of the client or agency team will be immediately merged in real-time with the fresh consumer input to develop “Key Learning, Insights & Next Steps” output that is both comprehensive and actionable.

The moderator can then combine this information with the other key components of the report, such as objectives, profile of respondents, record of stimulus and so on, to deliver an accurate, insightful and actionable Top-line Debrief by the end of the next day.

Voila! In-person qualitative research in real-time without any compromise of depth or quality of insights, in less than a week. This is entirely possible. We’re already doing it in San Francisco.

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

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Your annual subscription includes ten (10) exciting print issues of SURVEY Magazine and full online access to the magazine, special offers, discounts to events and the Market Research Bulletin e-Newsletter.

Subscribe today for only $10.40/month and enjoy the most trusted magazine in research, featuring industry leading columnist and highlights on marketing strategies, survey questionnaires, market analysis, survey techniques and methodologies for research.

To subscribe, call +1 484.478.2774 or visit surveymagazine.org/subscribe

FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

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KEEP CALM SEND ON

&

Best practices from the email front lines

by Don Wasylyk

8

BEST PRACTICE RULES SURVEY

tip

Do your best to determine list sources, frequency of use, and last time used.

DON’T HIT THAT BUTTON

SEND PRACTICES

The split second after approving an email for distribution can be one of relief, fear, or even regret. Too many times, the email lands in the junk folder or goes unopened and is reported as spam.

It is possible to recover from most mistakes made in market research, but pushing the “Send Now” button is something that cannot be revoked. Before the dread sets in, there are several best practices that are recommended so that you can send on.

There are two general situations where survey invitations are sent. The first is for one-time, occasional, or very intermittent campaigns.

WHAT ABOUT SPAM? Sending spam is not something we in the market research industry generally perceive ourselves as guilty of; however, the respondent perspective is often quite at odds with our own. The lines between what is and is not spam is something of a “demilitarized zone” – there is a murky region which is not technically illegal, but to be safe, you just don’t go there. Instead, following some best practices will keep your respondent’s engaged and your emails out of the junk folder. Believe it or not, survey invitations are considered spam by a significant percentage of the population, yet there are ways to avoid being seen as purely such.

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The second is for panels, or in a panel-like approach.

In this article, we are primarily addressing sending practices around lists, because lists are much more likely to produce erratic results than are panel invitations.

BRIEFS FEBRUARY 2014 KEEP CALM AND SEND ON

01 DETERMINE SOURCE When using lists, do your best to determine its source, frequency of use, and last time used. Email lists ideally should be sent by the original list aggregator whenever possible. Any list sent from a third party is automatically suspect these days, and even when opting in to receive emails from a third party, the emails that arrive are not always appreciated. When delivered from the original sender, the recipient at least understands that they did legally opt in to the list.

HIGH BOUNCE RATE It is also important to know how often the list is used. A list that is not used regularly will have a high bounce rate, and bounce rates above 3%-4% will begin to trigger some ISPs to â&#x20AC;&#x153;blacklistâ&#x20AC;? sending of the list. Even if the list is from a legitimate opt-in source and is used frequently, If your email solution does not manage bounces and opt-outs automatically, they should be carefully removed before any reminders or additional uses are made of the list. If these details are not known, sending a test batch to a small portion of the list is advised. If the bounce rate is above 3-4%, it is not recommended that the list be used as blacklisting will occur. If the list has not been used in the past three or four months, the bounce rate is almost certain to be in this range, and the list may not be usable and should be tested. Lists require ongoing utilization to remain viable.

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KEEP CALM SEND ON

&

Best practices from the email front lines

CONTINUED

Email Best Practices

02

Formatting of the email is also important in spam scoring. A high ratio of HTML to text, poorly formatted HTML, excessive use of punctuation (especially exclamation marks), unusually large or brightly colored fonts, or misspellings can be reported as spam even before the email makes it to an inbox. Additionally, and admittedly more difficult, using the word “survey”, dollar signs, or mentions of sweepstakes and anything that connotes financial offerings will also lead to deliverability issues.

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SUBJECT LINE Carefully craft your subject line.

When preparing a subject, it should be enticing, and should avoid the keywords and formats of the emails we see in our own junk folders. Consider inviting potential survey respondents instead by “compensation,” “honoraria,” “points,” “rewards,” or “incentives.” Invite them to provide their opinion, feedback, or concerns, instead of inviting them to a survey. These are more acceptable terms from a respondent’s perspective anyway – many of us will respond to an offer that “values our opinion” over one that wants us to “take a survey.” While we all struggle to minimize bias in the invitation design by conveying too much, words such as “tell us about your recent experience,” “rate your recent service from us,” and similar terms, are general yet still convey a sense of importance, and avoid the use of negatively perceived phrases.

04 CONSIDER YOUR DESIGN

DESIGN Consider your design.

Just as you spend time crafting the background image of a survey, the invitation design should be equally considered. If at all possible, it should be consistent with the invitation design. It should look visually appealing and well-crafted.

Plain text emails should be avoided, except for respondents who specifically request them.

SURVEY MAGAZINE

How can we avoid being blocked or perceived as untrustworthy

by ISPs? First and foremost, an opt-out mechanism must always be included in a message as a legal requirement, but using a link and the text “unsubscribe”, rather than a phrase like, “Click here to be removed,” will result in a lower spam score than if a reply to the email is required.

03

KEEP CALM AND SEND ON

Avoid email “red flags” that can easily be caught by spam scoring, and always spam score your invitations before sending. Spam scores measure the likelihood of an email being sent or not based upon its content. Subject lines, greetings, punctuation, formatting and spelling, message content, and how opt-outs are handled all determine spam scores.

from the front lines

FEBRUARY 2014

AVOID RED FLAGS

TESTING

SURVEY TESTING Also, an email may be reported by a recipient who completed the survey, but found the incentive was not a reasonable compensation for their participation.

For this reason, we include Best Practice #6: Test your survey programming thoroughly as well.

KEEP CALM AND SEND ON

Of course, this isn’t where the credits roll and the end is written.

Even if everything is executed perfectly, recipients can still mark an email as spam. This isn’t any more cause for panic than the automated spam-bots, but does require additional considerations. While the email may be ready to meet all of etiquette requirements, more than just the design and content of the email can cause a recipient to report it. Recipients may block an email if the sender is unknown to the recipient, which often happens with lists, or when sender names are inconsistent, even from the same company. An email may also be flagged by a recipient who opens an excessively lengthy survey, one that is poorly designed, or a survey that is not formatted for their device – because emails can be reported as spam even after completing a survey.

06

FEBRUARY 2014

Test, test, test! After the invitation is designed, email format is approved, and a subject is established, the email must be tested.

Most of the anxiety about sending an invitation can be alleviated by seeing exactly what your recipients will see. Just as a survey would be tested, review all embedded links, as well as the appearance on both web and mobile devices. While many tools automatically embed opt-out links and any legally required compliance information, it is especially important to ensure that these are included. At this point, it should be fairly clear if the email is ready to distribute, and if it passes all of the points that were covered, it should easily arrive in the recipient’s inbox.

BRIEFS

05

Keep calm, and send on.

While a simple email can seem like an overwhelming task, understanding internet regulations as well as recipient preferences can relieve all that stress.

An invitation should entice the recipient, without being an overpowering display. The days of websites with midis, scrolling banners, and brightly colored text on a dark background have long been forgotten, and the same should be said for survey invitations. Spending time utilizing an invitation design, and working to determine the most effective aspects should be favored over emails with busy designs. Consistent emails and testing will ultimately be more effective in the long run. Keep calm, and send on.

07 A/B TESTING As you have time, and in general, use A/B Testing on invitations. A/B Testing can be used as a method to determine individual company success.

Subject lines, invitation text, design, link placement, and incentive types can be adjusted to help determine their impact on respondent actions, click rates, response rates, completion rates, etc. A/B testing is used far too infrequently. The best emailers test every campaign.

08 CONSIDER PANEL APPROACH Consider a panel approach for frequently targeted lists. Panels offer double opt-in, legally documented, options, specifically for the purpose of participating in surveys. This allows the recipient to establish a relationship, and increases the chance they will be familiar with the email sender and recognize the sender domain when an email arrives. Furthermore, panels allow for more careful respondent targeting based upon relevance to research and stored background criteria. Panelists won’t receive surveys that do not pertain to them, reducing the chance that they will report an invitation as spam or opt out.

END

FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

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3SERIES

PART

ES

NIQU

ECH

T -OFF

DE TRA

R OME CUST LE, LLC CYC LIFE

FIRST, IN A THREE PART SERIES

This is the first in a series of three (3) articles that we will explore the different trade-off techniques frequently used for different marketing decisions. First, we will explore Discrete Choice Modeling, then Full Profile Conjoint Analysis, and lastly Paired Trade-Off Analysis.

COMPLEX DECISION MAKING PROCESS Discrete Choice Modeling is a trade-off and simulation technique useful for studying these types of questions: Product design and pricing issues such as what features maximize share, revenue or profit or whether buyers value features enough to pay their incremental cost The effect of line extensions (e.g., self-cannibalization) Whether and how to bundle product or service offerings Market sizing and potential growth The effects of situations or occasions on purchase decisions Combinations of all these issues, as needed.

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FEATURE

processes which incorporate many data points from various sources. Depending on the type of decision you need to make, some statistical techniques will be more useful than others.

Did you know?

Discrete Choice

MODELING

DISCRETE CHOICE MODELING

Discrete Choice Modeling offers substantially more flexibility than Conjoint.

FEBRUARY 2014

Many marketing decisions require complex decision making

Powerful and Realistic Tools for Marketing Decision Making DISCRETE CHOICE MODELING

CONJOINT OR DISCRETE CHOICE?

Some of these issues can also be addressed by Full Profile Conjoint Analysis.

DCM can accurately reflect very complex markets without technical constraints that may require Conjoint to oversimplify real-world issues.

DCM presents survey respondents with a realistic and natural purchase decision task.

These tasks not only make data collection easier and provide more reliable data, they also make

However, Discrete Choice Modeling offers substantially more flexibility than Conjoint.

intuitive sense to non-technical end-users of the research results.

DCM extends the general capabilities of Conjoint to many types of problems such as market sizing or situational effects that Conjoint cannot handle.

MORE >

FEBRUARY 2014 SURVEY MAGAZINE

035

CASE STUDY:

GAMING CONSOLES Consider the following example. A manufacturer of hightech recreational products (e.g., gaming consoles) wants to expand its product line to new audiences who are not as technically sophisticated or as experienced as its current loyal customer base.

AUDIENCE EXPANSION They have conducted enough preliminary research to identify a selection of product features which are feasible to develop within current research and development budgets.

However, they want to know what combinations of features at various price points will be most attractive to consumers.

They also want to know whether they should develop one entrylevel product or a small portfolio of entry-level products. Lastly, if multiple lower-priced products are developed, to what extent will these new products cannibalize existing share of their current mid-range product line?

These questions are best answered in the context of a Discrete Choice Modeling design.

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Design of Discrete Choice Modeling Choice Task Sets One of the first steps in the design of a Discrete Choice task set is to determine the number of attributes and levels to be studied.

Attributes are the statistical equivalent of product features and levels are the variations within a particular product feature.

For example, in our game console question, attributes may include the number or

style of controllers which can be attached to the unit, the extent an individual can play games with an online community of gaming â&#x20AC;&#x153;friends,â&#x20AC;? and the availability of a package of parental controls for the unit.

FEATURE

SURVEY

tip

FEBRUARY 2014

ATTRIBUTE SELECTION Levels may be two, three or four controllers of varying types, ranges on the number of online “friends” allowed in a gaming session, and parental controls on content ratings, “friend” identification, and automatic shut-down after screen-time limits have been reached. The attributes of price and brand name are also commonly included.

DISCRETE CHOICE MODELING

In situations where competitive products are included in the design, performance potential against competitive products can also be estimated, particularly in regard to cannibalization of one product over another.

DESIGING ATTRIBUTES AND LEVELS One of the most important decisions to make in the design phase is to find a balance between the number of attributes and levels needed to answer the objectives of the research and the number that a respondent in the targeted market can be expected to react to in a meaningful way without becoming overwhelmed by the task.

These criteria vary depending on the product and market being studied. In studies involving many attributes and levels within attributes, the number of choice tasks to complete the design may be much more than a single respondent will be able to handle without abandoning the survey.

In these situations, one sampling strategy to be considered is a fractionalized design.

MORE >

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3

PART SERIES TRADE-OFF TECHNIQUES CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE, LLC

Once these decisions are made, the graphics of the choice task set are programmed into the survey. The attributes are arranged in rows and competing product choices are arranged in columns with the levels for each attribute populating the cells in each column/row intersection. Graphics are included as appropriate to provide more information to the respondent.

FRACTIONALIZED DESIGN In fractionalized design, the number of choice task sets in the overall design remains the same and is structured to fully answer the research objectives of the study. However, the number of choice task sets any individual sees is a statistically derived subset of the total number of choice task sets.

fractionalized

design

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In fractionalized design, the number of choice task sets in the overall design remains the sameâ&#x20AC;?.

Discrete Choice

MODELING

Powerful and Realistic Tools for Marketing Decision Making

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This strategy does involve larger sample sizes to make sure that each choice task set is seen by a statistically appropriate number of respondents.

However, it also helps to ensure that the DCM design and data generated from it completely explore the attributes and levels necessary without compromising data collection efforts through respondent fatigue or unrealistic market simulations of buying decisions.

the respondent with a realistic comparison of

Figure 1: Example of Discrete Choice Task

products in the category

Number of controllers Number of online friends in gaming session

Respondents are then asked which of the available options, as they are currently configured, they most prefer and how likely they are to purchase the option they selected. If none of the current configurations are appealing, the respondent may select none of the above. A simplified sample choice task is shown in Figure 1.

Powerful & Realistic

Tools

for Marketing Decision Making

“

4

4

Content rating

Parental controls available

3

2

3

3

3

2

Content rating

Content rating

Timed shut down

Price

Content rating Timed shut down

“Friend” ID

“Friend” ID

$400

$300

$200

DISCRETE CHOICE MODELING

RESPONDENT COMPARISON

Client Brand Client Brand Competing Brand Client Brand “A” “B” “A” “C”

FEBRUARY 2014

available or potential being explored.

“

FEATURE

The goal is to present

$350

Thinking only of these four products, which of these products do you most prefer?

Client Brand Client Brand Competing Brand Client Brand “A” “B” “A” “C”

+

+

+

+

None

+

How likely would you be to purchase the product you selected from among these four products?

Not at all Likely

Extremely Likely

+ + + +

Each respondent is shown a series of these tasks, the number of which is determined by the numbers of attributes, levels, and products included in the design.

It is in the design of the choice tasks that the main differences between Discrete Choice Modeling and Full Profile Conjoint become apparent. DCM allows for the presentation of many choices simultaneously rather than one-by-one in sequence as in Conjoint Analysis. This gives respondents a much more realistic shopping experience in the survey process. It also avoids the problem of having to test “every attribute/ level with every other attribute/level” which is regarded by many researchers as the best known limitation of Conjoint Analysis. Each product configuration represents a realistic product that could be on the shelves. It avoids the situation of ascribing to competitive brands the benefits associated only with your product. Conversely, it avoids the situation of claiming benefits provided by competing brands than your innovation can’t realistically honor simply to fulfill the requirements of the Conjoint Analysis design specifications. Simply put, Discrete Choice Modeling allows you to study very complex markets and problems without having to oversimplify real issues to fit the artificial design requirements of Conjoint Analysis.

MORE >

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What Does Discrete Choice Provide as Results?

Discrete Choice Modeling yields valuable information about potential share of preference, estimates of purchase intent, estimates of revenue, and can yield important information about competitive products, depending on the design of the choice tasks. Share of preference refers to the percentage of respondents who chose a particular product configuration over others in the design. For example, you would be able to identify what proportion of the potential market is likely to prefer a game console with four ports for controllers, access to four online game “friends” per session, and a full parental control package at $400 over all other product configurations. This is helpful to develop estimates of demand in the marketplace.

Estimates of purchase intent refine these findings further by identifying how likely potential customers are to actually purchase the product (or products) they like the best. Just because a product is most highly preferred among alternatives does not necessarily mean customers will purchase it. Looking at interactions between shares of preference and purchase intent helps to provide more guidance into potentially profitable research and development decisions.

By looking at variations in price, share of preference, purchase intent ratings, and additional information from clients and other sources, Discrete Choice Modeling studies often yield estimates of market revenue. We all know that no study can take into account all factors not included in the research design, such as advertising, product availability, changes in competitive products or competitive landscape, manufacturing costs, or other strategic initiatives. While these revenue estimates shouldn’t be expected to allow for all conditions in the marketplace, they can provide accurate estimates based on the quality of the design of the choice tasks themselves and the quality of information made available from clients.

In situations where competitive products are included in the design, performance potential against competitive products can also be estimated, particularly in regard to cannibalization of one product over another. For example, let’s assume that one of the competitive products being evaluated is actually a higher-end product currently being made by your company. By comparing respondent choices when this higher-end product is included in the mix of products in the choice tasks versus when it’s not, we can estimate to what degree the new product may or may not cannibalize existing market share from existing products.

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The presence or absence of specific attributes at specific levels can also be used to estimate both direct effects and indirect effects on share of preference for a specific product. Direct effects show the effect the presence or absence of an attribute has on the product itself. For example, holding all other product features constant and lowering the price of a specific product is widely assumed to make the product more attractive in the marketplace.

This test of perception of value can be quantified by looking at the direct effect of price on share of preference for a specific product.

In some cases, we have found that lowering a price too much serves to reduce preference for the product, a finding of great importance in pricing strategy discussions. Similarly, offering a low-cost but highly attractive feature at the same price may have enough of a positive effect on preference for the product that the additional manufacturing cost is more than offset by the potential increase in revenue.

Indirect effects show the effect the presence or absence of an attribute has on other products being examined. That is, indirect effects help to answer the question of what happens to Product B if Product A is altered in a specific way. These indirect effects are also very helpful in answering questions about cannibalization.

Written By: Karin A. Ferenz Principal Customer Lifecycle, LLC

About Customer Lifecycle, LLC www.customerlifecycle.us Customer Lifecycle is a global research-based consultancy committed to helping our clients avoid costly mistakes by focusing on thorough front-end planning, appropriate support for research execution, and in-depth deployment consulting and implementation at the back end. Outcomes are rigorous and balanced customer-focused performance metrics, improved financial results, and a superior total customer experience. Its mission is to provide companies with insight into their industries and staff by deploying sophisticated analyses to answer tough business questions, and intelligence that clients can act on with confidence, thereby offering an edge in understanding customer choice, engagement, loyalty and advocacy.

Each stage in the customer lifecycle—acquisition, service, growth, retention—has its own unique challenges and solutions to address specific business issues. Customer Lifecycle helps both B2B and B2C focused organizations plan and conduct research to accurately identify and measure customer requirements for satisfaction, loyalty, and retention at every stage of the relationship and to deploy and integrate customer requirements for performance into the processes and internal performance metrics of the organization.

FEATURE

Discrete Choice

MODELING

Powerful and Realistic Tools for Marketing Decision Making

FEBRUARY 2014

+

Simulators More often than not, one of the deliverables of a Discrete Choice Modeling study is an

DISCRETE CHOICE MODELING

interactive simulator.

A snapshot of a simplified simulator is

shown here.

Discrete Choice

MODELING

Powerful and Realistic Tools for Marketing Decision Making

The simulator shows the same information as was presented to respondents in the choice tasks with the interactive ability to change the levels within the attributes (see the down arrow next to the level of “Three” in the attribute row for “Number of controllers”). Changing the levels automatically updates the results which populate the three graphs at the bottom of the page. These graphs display estimates of share of preference, purchase intent, and estimated revenue for the data set being explored. The blue buttons to the right activate the instructions and documentation features of the simulator as well as the ability to print the page. Simulators can be customized in a variety of ways depending on your needs, of course; this example is intended as a mock up only. Our simulators are designed using Microsoft Excel and can be run in either PC or Mac environments. They are very easy to use and require virtually no training or set-up time for you.

Real-World Applications The tangible results from a Discrete Choice Modeling study also come in a spreadsheet format to accompany the simulator. The spreadsheet starts with calculated metrics for a “base case” set of assumptions. The base case is usually a depiction of the

current market, or of the “most likely” configuration for the new products. However, it can be any set of assumptions that form a convenient reference point. The remainder of the spreadsheet shows how many share points, units of revenue, or other measures of interest to your business are gained or lost by each product, relative to the base case, when changes are made to each product’s attribute levels. Our programming automatically changes every attribute to every one of its possible levels, one at a time, and summarizes this information in an easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet. In this way, we can clearly show which attributes make the most difference in performance on the metrics of greatest interest to your clients and which levels are best in each one, without your having to manipulate the simulator to identify all scenarios in the analysis design.

In Conclusion…

In short, Discrete Choice Modeling retains much of the look and feel of traditional Conjoint Analysis studies, while removing many of its constraints and disadvantages. Furthermore, it adds to the range of types of problems that can be studied and provides elegant and easy-to-use deliverables which help to enable you to make profitable business decisions.

END

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There are a few common mistakes that beleaguer the efforts of public relations newcomers and impede the achievement of their goals, but by employing certain strategies, these stumbling blocks can be avoided altogether.

FAILED PR Campaigns Why Your Last PR Campaign Failed And How to Ensure Success in the Future

Every turn of the calendar, new quarter or product launch, countless companies and individuals jot down a resolution to launch a public relations campaign for numerous reasons: Enhanced corporate visibility, increased bookings and fees and audience expansion, among others.

From time to time their PR endeavors fall short of anticipated expectations, and leave many executives and experts alike wondering, “What went wrong?”

“What went wrong?”

1

The Inch/Mile Mindset

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2

Anti-Social Media

3

Unavailability

4

Topic Rigidity

+

Anti-Social Media

Social media platforms have redefined the way people connect and communicate, and have become an integral component to running a business.

+ The Inch/Mile Mindset

At the outset of every public relations campaign is an establishment of aims and objectives, and a roadmap of how to achieve them

+

Unavailability

When it comes to providing an analysis or informed comment on a circulating news story, the most imperative rule is to remain available.

+ Topic Rigidity

Stretching expertise is essential for expanding name-recognition and growing an audience, but a problem can arise when a company or i ndividual cannot see the application of their expertise to other areas.

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FAILED PR Campaigns Why Your Last PR Campaign Failed And How to Ensure Success in the Future AIMS &

IA PR SOCIAL MED

OBJECT IV

ES

... and a roadmap of how to achieve them

Is your social media cache a virtual

ghost-town?

2 Problem: Anti-Social Media

1 Problem: The Inch/Mile Mindset At the outset of every public relations campaign is an establishment of aims and objectives, and a roadmap of how to achieve them. The path to increased name-recognition and brand-awareness is best achieved on an upward gradient, with a steady stream of media placements and informed quotes in news stories, both in print and online. By reinforcing this initial roadmap, goals remain practical and concentrated, with an individual or organization working to ascend this gradual incline.

Issues arise when expectations suddenly shift, which can sometimes follow interviews in largecirculation publications, and cause a refocusing of efforts solely on features in outlets of the same caliber, abandoning the preliminary plan altogether.

This inch/mile mindset, where one massive placement sends all realistic expectations askew in pursuit of only similar opportunities, can be the death knell for a successful public relations campaign.

Solution: Stick to your chosen strategy, and don’t lose sight of the goals you set from the beginning. Set feasible benchmarks on a timeline, and work to achieve them. The best public relations operations involve repetition and media attention that you build on progressively, not some meteoric rise from a solitary placement in a major publication. The more your name is seen, the more it is remembered.

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Social media platforms have redefined the way people connect and communicate, and have become an integral component to running a business. With check-ins, online reviews and posts serving as public comment cards, if your social media cache is a virtual ghost-town, it will reflect as a stagnant or dwindling customer-base.

PR blueprints today incorporate a social media element, but building your presence online is only the first step. Without engaging potential clients or customers, editors and reporters, your Facebook or Twitter account is the equivalent to an empty suit. The advantages of social media sites are they allow you to cultivate relationships and consolidate customer-service efforts. If you’re not engaging with other users, you’re practicing Anti-Social Media, where your presence does not include participation.

Solution: Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn are not static websites that you can simply construct and put on autopilot – they are the extension of your business or persona online. Would you attend a convention or banquet and remain secluded and silent? Of course not – you’re there to network. The same principles apply to social media.

Make a point daily to monitor your various accounts and their activity. Initiate a dialogue with other users through thought-provoking content, and respond to any questions, compliments or complaints. Update your status at least three times a week and partake in the conversation that unfolds – you’ll be surprised at how simple (and enjoyable) it can be, and the boon it provides to your business.

“What went wrong?”

There is a learning-curve with every new undertaking, but it does not have to include initial failure.

By utilizing some of these solutions to typical public relations problems you can allay risk and foster a strategy for success.

REMAIN AVAILABLE

“you must ensure that you’re available at the drop of a hat”.

3 Problem: Unavailability When it comes to providing an analysis or informed comment on a circulating news story, the most imperative rule is to remain available.

Too often, when a reporter is attempting to reach out to a business or individual, they are greeted by voicemail messages or inordinate lag-times between email correspondences. The result?

They move down to the next name on their list, and potentially exclude you from any further story contributions due to perceived unreliability.

4 Problem: Topic Rigidity

Solution: If an aspect of your public relations campaign includes interviews, you must ensure that you’re available at the drop of a hat. Editors and reporters are on strict deadlines, and failure to provide your expertise in a timely manner will cause this facet of your strategy to collapse.

The prevailing issue with many who embark on PR campaigns is that their efforts are complementary to their professional endeavors. Increased business and growing profit-margins are the aim of any public relations enterprise, so a packed schedule is a positive – but the news media is indifferent toward the reason of the delay in reaching you. In this scenario, nominate a pointperson who can speak on you or your company’s behalf if you are unavailable. Inform them of your company’s position on certain topics and ensure that they are well-versed in these areas in the event of your absence.

Stretching expertise is essential for expanding name-recognition and growing an audience, but a problem can arise when a company or individual cannot see the application of their expertise to other areas. This narrowing of the professional scope can limit public relations opportunities and prevent development in many previously untapped markets.

Solution: Say you are in the insurance industry, formulating strategies for corporations and individuals to mitigate risk and keep costs at a minimum.

While your initial instinct is to only comment on stories relating to insurance or articles that specifically cater to this professional sect, by doing so you are limiting the eyes that can view – and learn from – your expertise. A wider PR net can be cast on this focus, such as financial planning tips or shifting trends in healthcare policy, for example, which will amplify your reach and promote maximum exposure to your prospects.

Russell Trahan is President of PR/PR Russell Trahan is President of PR/PR, a boutique public relations agency specializing in positioning clients in front of their target audience in print and online. PR/PR represents experts of all kinds who are seeking national exposure for their business or organization.

Russell and PR/PR will raise your business’ awareness in the eyes of your clients and customers. For more information, please visit www.prpr.net or email mail@prpr.net for a free consultation.

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01

Be a Leader â&#x20AC;&#x153;Your only goal is the completion of the project.â&#x20AC;?

While this should be pretty obvious, it is very easy to get caught up in personalities and the normal socialization of the workplace. Especially if the project is a long-term one, or one that the team needs to work long hours together on. As a project manager, the important thing to remember is that your only goal is the completion of the project. It is not to be friends with everyone or have them all like you.

Projects can easily get into trouble if things start sliding due to the project manager not wanting to hold people accountable. Of course, if you can get the project completed and everyone still loves everyone, then you may be canonized at some point.

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Ways to be a more effective

Project Manager

There is a wide range of abilities in the Project Management field.

However, there are always ways to become better in our profession.

So here are a few suggestions that may help in this endeavor.

Delegate 02

What is the point of having a team if you are doing most of the work?

Stop Multitasking â&#x20AC;&#x153;multitasking is bad for everyone.â&#x20AC;?

You have a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) plus others on your team. So ask them to help or assign tasks to them that they should be doing versus you. Yes it is easier for you to do it, but what is the point of having a team if you are doing most of the work?

This may be the hardest one to do effectively. It has been proven by numerous researchers that multitasking is bad for everyone. Yet we still try and do more than we really are capable. So how do you control this? In a word:

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With the increasing need for Project Managers, we should all want to improve our skills and abilities as our projects become larger and more complex. Hopefully one of these suggestions will help you in becoming a better project Manager.

If it does, then this article has done what it was intended to, help.

03 Have Effective Meetings

As project managers a lot of time is spent in leading meetings.

To make sure the time spent in these meeting is used efficiently, a key tool, which is underused, is a Team Charter. This is a simple one-to two-page document that details the protocol of the meetings that everyone agrees to. Items in the Charter, are everyone agreeing to be on time, no cell phone usage, etc.

Using something like this will not only help the existing team, but will also allow new people that join to know exactly what is expected rather than them having to guess on their own.

Process and procedures are great for keeping everything running smoothly, especially on difficult projects. However, one thing the team should be doing is making sure that these are helping the project versus hurting it. If you or someone on your team can improve a process, then speak up and let it be known. Showcase how the change will make this project be done faster, cheaper, etc. The change that is proposed may actually impact multiple projects versus just yours (or even the entire company).

However, if the change will only be a benefit to your team/ project, be sure to explain that this is just an exception for this project and not a global one. If you can accomplish this, your team (and sponsors) will thank you.

05

Breathe

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04 Be an Agent for

Change

Showcase how the change will make this project be done faster, cheaper, etc.

An important thing that project managers sometimes forget is that the project(s) they are responsible for are not theirs. Project Managers normally do not â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; projects, the sponsors do. Project Managers are only responsible (and most of the time that by itself is a huge task) for managing the project, not owning it. So if massive changes occur for the project, including canceling, it is not you it is them. So do not react or stress out as if this is something you or your team were doing wrong.

About the Author Russell Harley, PMO

Russell Harley is a veteran project manager and PMO director, passionate about helping organizations embrace world-class project manage- ment practices and “climb out of the quicksand” in terms of gaining control over complex, ever-changing project portfolios. The best practices he advocates stem from key learning’s acquired from his M.S Degree in Project Management, combined with over 20 years of hands-on PM experience in the high tech- nology, telecommunications, and clean energy sectors.

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Company Showcase

NEWS Confirmit SODA 3.0 Pushes Market Research Operations Management to New Heights.

Confirmit today announced Version 3.0 of its award-winning mobile App, SODA – The Survey On Demand Application. Confirmit SODA enables enterprises and Market Research agencies to capture in-the-moment feedback from respondents, whether they are consumers or employees, providing unbeatable insights into experiences.

Version 3.0 features extensive new program and field management capabilities that can radically optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of Market Research operations. Additional enhancements include an expanded push notification system to help field researchers stay in constant contact with their home base, and real-time views of staff location based on continuous GPS tracking.

This development signals a change in the mobile research arena, as the channel matures and client fieldwork and mobile agent programs grow into the tens of thousands, with consumer mobility at an all-time high. SODA 3.0 powers seamless program management and improved productivity, ultimately optimizing the speed and quality of data collection and analysis.

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Danni Findlay, Director, Marketing Sciences Limited, comments: “We have every confidence in Confirmit’s SODA mobile App and are currently using it to optimize work flow and drive efficient operations in one of our major projects.

We use MobileMR to implement one of the UK’s largest Customer Experience programs with Tesco, which provides each individual Tesco store with insight into how its store performs on key measures. With 1 million interviews under our belt in the last year, we know that using MobileMR, based on Confirmit SODA, has allowed Tesco to react quickly to customers’ wants and needs.”

“The key to a successful mobile research program is the ability to have a comprehensive view over a multitude of projects, and to be able to balance

effort and resources across ever-shifting priorities,” explains Terry Lawlor, Confirmit’s EVP Product Management.

“With SODA 3.0, Confirmit provides managers and lead researchers with unprecedented real-time insight into their networks of agents and their devices, including how teams are progressing against targets, and with sophisticated quality checks on the work being completed.”

Confirmit is the leading global software provider for Market Research, Customer Experience and Employee Engagement. Its leading-edge mobile applications power millions of surveys each year, with over 15 million survey responses gathered on the SODA platform in 2013 alone.

ON - DEMAND

What is Confirmit SODA? Confirmit SODA is the Survey On Demand Application - a mobile App that enables leading enterprises and Market Research agencies to capture in-the-moment feedback from respondents regardless of their location, providing unbeatable insights into their experiences.

As well as providing an immediate channel for standard survey questions, Confirmit SODA provides a streamlined approach which enables respondents to provide rich media files, including audio, photo and video clips, regardless of whether they’re onor offline. And GPS data means that you can get a clearer picture than ever before about where your customers and respondents are, creating incredibly deep insight.

“The ability to carry out lifestyle studies in the format of a multimedia diary that also uses GPS to gather location-based data to map critical variations in geographical data has dramatically improved our ability to capture relevant and immediate ‘in- themoment’ data.”

— Mizuno Toshisada Managing Partner at SurveyMy

Interviews and retail audits: Capture in-the-moment views from customers to enable deep

What can Confirmit SODA be used for?

Capturing feedback on-the-go lends itself to a wide range of Market Research and Voice of the Customer activities.

More than an additional data collection channel, it provides a unique way to engage with customers, opens up hardto-reach audiences and adds depth to existing programs, including:

profiling. Replace paper-based processes for significant cost and time savings.

Diaries and ethnographies: Travel with people to capture their experiences as they go about their day (auto-ethnography). Use rich media in longitudinal studies to capture insights about day-today activities of consumers to provide lifestyle data that drives effective decision- making.

Consumer panels: Enhance your panels and maximize engagement by enabling panelists to participate on the move, regardless of the device they use.

Voice of the Customer programs: Access hard-to-reach groups, and add mobile to your wider marketing mix, by enabling customers to engage with your brand via an interactive App.

Voice of the Employee programs: Provide a channel for employees to provide feedback about their training, facilities and requirements so you can retain your best people. And you can enable your front-line staff to comment directly on the customer experience to uncover new ways to improve.

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Company Showcase

How Does it Work?

Creating research and feedback programs in Confirmit SODA is simple. Your survey authors simply log into the Confirmit SODA solution and follow an intuitive process to create your mobile program.

Generate Tangible Business Value Confirmit SODA allows you to radically increase the value from your feedback and insight programs. For in-person interviews, it offers increased efficiency, reduction in data entry challenges and costs, and a higher control over field operations. For consumer research, it allows you to be at the point of experience with your customers to capture fleeting attitudes and opinions as they make critical decisions. For employee programs, you give staff a dedicated tool to deliver front-line insights directly to stakeholders for immediate action.

Secure, stable, reliable mobile solutions Confirmit SODA is used by businesses around the world to capture tens of millions of responses every year. We run the most stable, secure and reliable mobile research and feedback solutions available, so you know that your data is safe, and that your programs are in good hands.

Make it your own with Confirmit MyMobile Your brand is critical to your feedback and research operations. Confirmit MyMobile enables you to completely rebrand the Confirmit SODA App to include custom logos and colors to reflect your brand. We have the expertise required to develop, manage and publish your App across all of the app stores so that employees and respondents can easily gain access to your custom research app. To find out more, review our Confirmit MyMobile material, or speak to a member of our Sales team.

See it in action for yourself Contact mobile@confirmit.com to see a demo and learn more about what mobile applications can do for your business today.

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There are 6 stages: O1 Design: Simply drag and drop your custom questions

into the survey. A range of question types, branching, randomizations, range validations and more are available to ensure you capture the right feedback.

O2 Publish: Publish your survey to a central server where

an elegant interface enables you to manage all your projects, invite team members to participate in testing and deployment, download data, schedule exports and more.

O3

Deploy: Users and customers download the App from the relevant App store (iTunes, Google Play, BlackBerry World, etc.), and connect with your custom surveys by entering their username and password, or you can automatically generate a short custom survey code.

O4 Communicate and Collect: Invite respondents to

take your surveys and inform Interviewers about updates via email. Confirmit SODA also offers push notifications, text-message notices and on-device alarms and reminders for diary studies. Whatever your preference, we have it covered.

O5 Report: Keep track of whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening in the field with beautiful online dashboards, geo-location views and more. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have the clearest view possible of what your respondents are telling you.

O6 Manage: Project Management: Confirmit SODA

helps you manage a changing world by enabling you to host test and live revisions simultaneously so that you can manage survey updates and push them to field when they are ready. In addition, Confirmit SODA offers data cleaning and robust backchecking for quality assurance.

Field, Staff and Interviewer Management: Managing fieldwork requires productivity, efficiency and quality assurance. SODA offers full Quota control and Interviewer Management options, including quality review (backchecking) capabilities, background audio recording for spot checks and more.

New B2B Sample has Innovative Sourcing and Quality Control Features.

MORE > Next Page

Top source for market research news, research topics, research methods, research studies, research papers and the resources driving market research best practices.

Research Now Healthcare Launches Autoimmune Panel in North America

NEWS

SSI Launches ‘B2B inSSItes

Market Research Firm Decipher Experiences 27% Growth in 2013

Consumer Ailments Panel Provides Access to Over 80,000 Respondents with Autoimmune Related Diseases.

Leading comprehensive market research services firm reports significant yearover-year revenue and new employee growth.

MORE > Next Page

“We’re always looking ahead, anticipating what our clients and the industry as a whole will need next from a technological and a services standpoint,” said Jamin Brazil, co-CEO for the market research firm. “The ability to meet and exceed the research needs of our quickly evolving industry has allowed us to continue to grow, hire new people and stay ahead of the curve.”

MORE > www.MarketResearchBulletin.com

GONGOS EXPERIENCES 12% ORGANIC REVENUE GROWTH IN 2013 Company Financials Illustrate 70% Revenue and Staff Growth Since 2009.

Gongos, Inc., the newly named parent company of Gongos Research and O2 Integrated welcomes organic growth, both in revenues and talent expansion. According to president & CEO Camille Nicita, the company experienced 12% revenue growth in 2013 and its full-time employee roster rose 15%. Upon the close of its 2013 fiscal year, Gongos charted 70% five-year revenue growth and matched with 70% in full-time employee expansion.

“This news is rooted in our ability to maintain a growth cadence through

>>

TWITTER: @MRBONLINE

>>

12%

the Great Recession and building on that,” said Nicita. “By leveraging our core competencies, we are creating new forms of value for client organizations beyond traditional market research. And that opens the door to opportunities for our company, and our people.”

Gongos’ expansion stems from its clients’ strong investment in research and innovation, and an acknowledgment that the customer story must influence decision-making. Its fiveyear growth was largely tied to four sectors. Within the financial industry,

PINTEREST: PINTEREST/SURVEYMAGAZINE

>>

Gongos’ revenues grew by 130%. Its automotive business—largely OEM research and development—increased by 120%, while its consumer products (CPG) and health care work increased by 94% and 54%, respectively.

In addition to the company’s staff expansion, retention was at a five-year high at 94%, a noted distinction as the company navigated its first fiscal year under the leadership of Nicita. Like Nicita, 17% of its staff has worked for the company for ten or more years, illustrative of employee loyalty and the foundation for building client loyalty.

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NEWS

SSI Launches ‘B2B inSSItes

New B2B Sample has Innovative Sourcing and Quality Control Features.

SSI announced the launch of a new business sample source for researchers. SSI B2B inSSItesTM sample highlights include: 1. Respondents from SSI’s millions of proprietary panelists and a growing portfolio of blue-chip partnerships via SSI’s award-winning partnership program; 2. Precisely segments respondents’ demographic, geographic and professional data; 3. Is the first business-to-business sample to combine live telephone interviewing with LinkedIn® data and other proprietary procedures for respondent verification; 4. Delivers even rarer targets by combining SSI’s online and live telephone business sample reach.

“SSI has reinvented the way business people are recruited to give their opinions, and how they are managed, verified and rewarded,” said Bob Fawson, SSI chief access, supply and engagement officer. “Top brand loyalty managers have chosen to join our partnership program because we offer their members a new and different membership benefit, and a better surveytaking experience than older models. Partner enthusiasm for SSI’s innovative approach has enabled us to build a large, high quality, and robust sample.”

One of the clients to have used the new B2B sample on several recent projects is Brian Aden, Manager Market Insights at the management consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting who commented, “We are very pleased to have this new source available when we need business opinions. SSI doesn’t overpromise – they give us reliable business respondents, on time and profiled to match our specifications. We’re delighted with the results so far.”

Several blue-chip brands have already signed up to recruit their members to SSI B2B inSSItes and a number of partnership announcements will be made during 2014. SSI recognizes the need to engage research participants more fully and protect our industry’s most valuable asset. This approach aligns perfectly with loyalty managers’ mandate to promote and increase member engagement. As a result, SSI has found a very receptive audience among loyalty managers and SSI’s program recently won first place for the program judged to have the best revenue potential by senior loyalty managers in the Lions’ Den contest at the Ai Mega Loyalty Conference in November 2013.

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SSI provides B2B inSSItes respondents with relevant surveys and rewards them with airline miles, Amazon® or iTunes® gift cards, information and other options meaningful to business professionals. SSI’s new approach to partnerships enhances member loyalty and survey engagement, which in turn drives higher quality research results.

“The combination of partnerships plus SSI’s large, robust proprietary panels creates a diverse business sample, comprised of engaged research participants, providing reliable data,” said Fawson.

SSI B2B inSSItes offers precise targeting using only questions designed by methodologists. Members include decision-makers and influencers in areas such as information technology, human resources and advertising; senior executives, small business owners and professionals of all types. Respondents are selectable by company revenue, employee size, geography and vertical market.

When the B2B target population is very rare, or the geography very precisely defined, SSI delivers results via a combination of SSI online panels and SSI CATI live telephone sample and interviewing. SSI CATI is a powerful verification vehicle for respondent information via live telephone interview. Member information is additionally validated against trusted sources like LinkedIn and monitored using SSI’s own proprietary quality control techniques.

SSI B2B inSSItes is available in the United States and will expand to major markets in Europe and Asia Pacific in 2014.

SSI is the premier global provider of sampling, data collection and data analytic solutions for survey research, reaching respondents in 86 countries via Internet, telephone, mobile/wireless and mixed-access offerings. Additionally, SSI staff operates from 25 offices in 18 countries, offering CATI, questionnaire design consultation, programming and hosting, online custom reporting and data processing. SSI’s 3,300 employees serve more than 3,000 clients worldwide. For additional information, please visit www.surveysampling.com.

NEWS

Research Now Healthcare Launches Autoimmune Panel in North America

FEBRUARY 2014

Research Now Healthcare, a portfolio company of Research Now, today announced the launch of its Autoimmune Panel, providing a resource for creating a better understanding of the concerns of Americans and Canadians who suffer from autoimmune related diseases.

RESEARCH INDUSTRY NEWS

As a result of the launch, researchers now have access to a targeted audience of over 80,000 deeply-profiled panelists in the U.S. and Canada who have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis or Psoriasis. This is the third market research panel based around therapeutic areas to be launched by the company. Research Now Healthcare also provides deeply-profiled panels consisting of diabetes and arthritis sufferers.

“Data collection on the topic of autoimmune diseases is particularly complex as it covers a broad range of diseases with symptoms that are often misdiagnosed or ignored. This is why an all-inclusive approach to healthcare research with multiple perspectives is crucial,” said Senior Vice President of Global Healthcare Vincent DeRobertis. “With the launch of our Autoimmune Panel, we are able to offer researchers a more holistic solution for gaining a deeper understanding of each of the conditions as they relate to one another.”

To allow for multi-country research projects, Research Now Healthcare plans to launch its Autoimmune Panel in select European markets by the end of 2014. The company’s condition-based healthcare panels also include hard-to-reach physicians, nurses, pharmacists, hospital executives and administrators.

About Research Now Research Now, the leading digital data collection provider, powers market research insights. We enable companies to listen to and interact with the world’s consumers and business professionals through online panels, as well as mobile, digital and social media technologies. Our team operates in over 20 offices globally and is recognized as the market research industry’s leader in client satisfaction. We foster a socially responsible culture by empowering our employees to give back. To find out more or begin a conversation with us, visit www.researchnow.com.

Vincent DeRobertis Senior Vice President of Global Healthcare Research Now

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International Strategic Alliance: FIVE Research

The Marketing Workshop Announces Addition to its Senior Management Staff US-based research and consulting firm The Marketing Workshop –MW- has recently announced the hiring of Catherine Nodar to the position of Vice President – Client Services.

Nodar will assume the leadership role for one of the MWs account teams. Catherine has 18 years of professional experience. She has honed her skills with client and supplier organizations. In addition, her experience has allowed her to work across business services and consumer packaged goods.

Most recently she served as the Director of Marketing Research at Central Garden & Pet, building research and analytic capabilities and delivering insights to support the Pennington, Amdro, and Sevin brands. Prior to that, she held research management positions with client organizations including Georgia-Pacific, Russell Athletic, EarthLink, McKesson and supplier organization TNS. “This position allows me to take my depth of experience working with internal clients to elevate insights by placing the research we do into the context of the client’s business and industry so the client may focus on activating these insights, as well as working on their many other time-consuming responsibilities. In other words, Marketing Workshop elevates so they may activate”. Nodar said. “I’m looking forward to working with an experienced, best-in-class team that makes Marketing Workshop the leading edge research partner of choice” said Vice-President Nodar.

“Without wavering from our goals and growth strategy Catherine will be accountable for retaining/growing established accounts and the acquisition of new accounts. She is an experienced research practitioner with strong business acumen. The Marketing Workshop family is very excited to have Catherine on board and we look forward to facing new professional challenges together.”Scott Layne, President of MW said.

About Marketing Workshop: Marketing Workshop is a WISE and strategic market research consultancy that utilizes a fully integrated approach to providing business solutions. Forty years of experience having in-depth conversations with their clients and their target audiences yields valuable insights and develops considerable wisdom that enriches every business opportunity they support. MW is a research based and analytically driven firm to get swiftly at the answers customers need to guide their decisions with confidence. For more information, visit www.mwshop.com

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Marketing research industry leaders Fieldwork Network, i-view London, Viewpoint Europe and Estudio Silvia Roca, join forces to create an international strategic alliance: FIVE Research. FIVE provides seamless service and support offering complete global coverage for any city, any methodology, anywhere in the world.

FIVE Research. www.fiveresearch.com Fieldwork Network is a leader in global project management for marketing research; i-view London provides field services through a new state of the art viewing facility in the heart of London; Viewpoint Europe, in Germany, is an expert in automotive, B2B and consumer studies; Estudio Silvia Roca, is a qualitative & quantitative fieldwork specialist in Consumer, B2B and Healthcare located in Spain and Central/South America (LATAM).

The goal of FIVE is to offer clients high quality studies delivered through first rate facilities in different countries that actually have a connection: companies that are bound together by a common set of standards and research procedures to make multi-market international studies seamless in a way that has previously been difficult due to the vast diversity in operating practices and experience levels in different cultures.

“We want clients to feel that Five Research is a partner they look forward to working with for all their project needs; the preeminent choice for worldwide marketing research service and support” says Bob Qureshi, Co-Founder, i-view London.

With 23 studios owned and operated by the members of FIVE (Fieldwork in the US, i-view London in the UK, Viewpoint Europe in Germany, Estudio Silvia Roca in Spain and Latin America) and a well- established history of isolating and working with leading research service providers in over 40 countries, FIVE is a one stop opportunity for first class service.

“We are delighted to announce the formation of FIVE Research providing global project management for all clients made seamless thanks to a well-honed understanding of multi country research projects” says Michelle Borea, President, Fieldwork Network, International Division.

“Our experience of managing studies in emerging markets within Latin America is a genuine asset for our clients” says Ivan Bautista, owner of Estudio Silvia Roca.

FIVE Research Atlanta • Barcelona • Boston • Chicago-Downtown • ChicagoNorth • Chicago-O’Hare Chicago-Schaumburg • Dallas • Denver • Fort Lee-New Jersey • Florence • Frankfurt • Hamburg Madrid • Mexico City • Minneapolis • New York-Westchester • Los Angeles-Orange County London • Phoenix • Sao Paolo • San Francisco • Seattle-Kirkland • Seattle-Downtown

“We’ve done several rounds of first-hand research on mobile survey access and completion rates, representing nearly two million respondents, so we knew it was vital to evolve and enhance technologies that specifically serve the mobile respondent,” said Kristin Luck of Decipher.

“We’ve made it easy for clients to integrate a mobile offering into their survey outreach, and have those results feed seamlessly into their overall research practice. This means that they are getting a true, platform agnostic picture of respondent preferences in order to make better informed business decisions.”

With more than 20 percent of respondents currently accessing surveys from smartphones and other mobile devices, Decipher has made it a priority to serve mobile survey takers by implementing new technologies that allow foolproof rendering of surveys on these devices.

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Uploading of rich media, such as video and photos, via smartphone Expansion of dynamic question types available for the mobile survey user Ability to collect geolocation data to analyze geographic and mobility usage Complete replacement of Flash (incompatible with many mobile devices) with HTML5

Beacon is Decipher’s survey and reporting software suite that features an easy-tonavigate, user-friendly interface and a comprehensive suite of custom survey tools for authoring and deploying professional online and mobile surveys. It allows numerous question formats, multiple languages and branding customization. It provides advanced features like integrated digital fingerprinting, quality control review tools, email campaign management, mobile field reporting, interactive reporting dashboards and more. Beacon is a TrueSample-certified platform, and has integrated iModerate qualitative conversation technology for both online and mobile surveys.

Merger brings together best of breed companies to create unparalleled insight opportunities.

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Decipher, a comprehensive market research services firm, has implemented new mobile technology within the Beacon survey and reporting platform to allow uploading of rich media via smartphone, among other core improvements. Researchers are using this new technology to enhance traditional research with features like in-the-moment online diaries (avoiding sometimes faulty traditional recall measures), in-store shopping experience recording, integration of photos and videos taken by respondents and more instantaneous feedback methods.

Specific technology upgrades that help ensure data collected on mobile platforms contributes accurately to the overall research results include:

Confirmit Acquires Social Intelligence and Text Analytics Innovator Integrasco

FEBRUARY 2014

From new capabilities for uploading rich media to expansion of data collection methods, Decipher’s technology solutions bring mobile surveys into to the future.

NEWS

New Technology from Decipher Allows Enhanced Mobile Data Collection

New York, NY and Oslo, Norway and London, UK: January 22, 2014: Confirmit has announced the acquisition of Integrasco, a leader in social intelligence and text analytics. The acquisition brings advanced technologies for capturing social insights and analyzing unstructured text into the Confirmit portfolio of software offerings for Customer Experience, Employee Engagement and Market Research.

About Decipher

Integrasco is a leader in analytical technology solutions and has helped many blue-chip companies track the performance of their brands, products and services, across social media, traditional media and customer channels to extract significant commercial value from mining unstructured text and insights.

A marketing research services provider, Decipher specializes in online survey programming, sampling, data collection and data reporting. Utilizing proprietary Webbased applications, Decipher integrates state-of-the-art technology with traditional research techniques. Decipher is all about uncovering opportunities in whatever territory is explored with clients. As a true partner, Decipher isn’t interested in just data, but also about what that data represents for each client. The company focuses on technology and research systems that bring data to life, and in doing so, helps reveal how even seemingly small discoveries can yield meaningful insights.

Henning Hansen, President and CEO, Confirmit explains, “The acquisition of Integrasco underlines Confirmit’s commitment to providing customers with the most comprehensive product suite for intelligence-driven action. Customers will be able to take full advantage of text-based feedback from almost any data source, including social media and survey verbatims, enabling them to keep pace with the rapid growth of this type of data and achieve greater competitive advantage.”

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continued from previous page The move, which follows the previous successful acquisitions of CustomerSat in 2012, Techneos in 2011 and Pulse Train in 2007, will enable businesses to gather relevant social media feedback at the point of experience.

They can then tightly integrate this data with information gathered through the wide range of other channels supported by Confirmit, and generate new and valuable insights using the advanced sentiment analysis.

Customers will be able to achieve new levels of insight from wider Voice of the Customer and Market Research programs.

“In our experience, Integrasco is the only company that can deliver outstanding analytical solutions of this type alongside world class technology,” said Olle Hagelin, Head of Field Quality, Sony Mobile Communications.

“They’ve allowed us to master the big data space to deliver huge benefits to our business. We have achieved significant Return on Investment in our field operations through the investment in Integrasco solutions, and I am excited about the opportunity the integration with Confirmit solutions will bring.”

Terry Lawlor, EVP Product Management adds, “This move is a significant development for both organizations.

Integrasco has created some of the most innovative and effective social intelligence and text analytics solutions on the market. Adding these capabilities to the Confirmit product suite is a huge step forward in enabling us to take these solutions to a wider audience. We’re delighted that both Confirmit and Integrasco’s customers will have the opportunity to achieve greater insights through integrating social and text analytics with their Voice of the Customer and Market Research programs.”

Confirmit plans to release the Integrasco technology integrated with its Confirmit Horizons version 18 software in Q2 2014.

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Contact Center Satisfaction Index Drops 10 Percent in 2013, Reports CFI Group Study In its seventh year, CFI Group’s Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI), finds customer satisfaction with company contact centers dropped a whopping 10 percent in 2013. With a score of 69 (on a 100 point scale), the 2013 score reflects an eight point pull back from the record high of 77 in 2012.

The only ongoing national study of its kind, the 2013 CCSI collected data from more than 1,500 consumers across six major industries: banking, cell phone service, health insurance, property insurance, retail, and cable or satellite TV. “With such a large drop in customer satisfaction, companies need to focus on improving their contact center’s policies and procedures currently in place as they look for ways to return to prior year’s satisfaction levels,” says Terry Redding, vice president of marketing and product development.

“This focus will aid more than just scores; it is vital from a company profit perspective as satisfied customers buy more and recommend the companies to others more frequently, all of which contributes to the bottom line.”

Beyond basic policies and procedures, CFI Group advances two hypotheses for the large drop coming from the larger world environment. The first is that consumers have low confidence with the economy and government and are generally fatigued as the economy continues to stall, leading to the score backlash. The second is that after years of steady growth in performance, consumers have built an expectation of great service, and contact centers failed to meet it this year.

While overall satisfaction is dropping, the research identified an opportunity for contact centers to increase satisfaction through non-call channels. In 2013, the desire for self-paced or instantaneous service continued

to grow. Almost half of respondents indicated their preferred method of contact would be a non-call communication, such as email, chat or via the company’s website.

Chat as a preferred customer service tool has remained steady at nearly 10 percent for the past two years. The adoption of chat and its growing preference is evident as 63 percent of this year’s respondents indicated that they actively look for the chat function when visiting a company’s site.

“As non-call channels continue to grow in use and popularity, now is the time for contact centers to begin training, testing and monitoring these channels for improvement in the customer’s experience,” says Redding. “To better serve customers, companies need to continue to look at the service aspect of their website with an eye towards customer self-service and not just traditional marketing and sales activities.”

The CCSI also found that social media is growing as an avenue for customers to share and voice opinions in a community setting and for businesses to conduct damage control. Nearly 40 percent of respondents turned to social media to voice a concern, increasing from 17 percent of respondents in 2012.

“Successful companies are monitoring this channel and reaching out to consumers through the same social media to address consumer issues.

When done successfully, companies are seeing the payback as the study shows significant increases in customer satisfaction, loyalty and likelihood to recommend as a result of these efforts,” says Redding.

To obtain a report on the 2013 Call Center Satisfaction Index, including specific detail on industries, visit www. cfigroup.com

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2014 Predictions for Top Social Media Trends in the Retail Industry Holistic strategies, increased adoption of social technologies to help retailers gain deeper customer insights.

Global research and analytics firm Blueocean Market Intelligence released its predictions today for the top social media trends in the 2014 retail industry.

Blueocean Market Intelligence analyzed the online data of the nation’s top 100 retailers (as defined by the NRF) from September through December 2013 as part of its “Social Media Effectiveness Index for Retailers” (SEI Retail), an on-going global study assessing the business impact of top retailers’ social media efforts.

Based on the analysis, Blueocean Market Intelligence predicts the following top social media trends for the retail industry in 2014: 1. The traditional shopping experience is evolving as more consumers move online. While the holiday season still provides many opportunities for shiny marketing promotions and campaigns, digital advances have changed the game. Retailers have more flexibility on how and when they approach customers. Last year’s Black Friday was not just limited to Friday – retailers offered deep discounts days before to gain more customers. Increased competition and customers’ lack of patience with crowds and long lines will continue to push them online, away from brick-and-mortar storefronts.

2. Pinterest will emerge as a stronger alternative to Facebook and Twitter. During last year’s holiday season, Twitter referrals experienced the most growth with a 24 percent increase year over

Social shopping will not just occur on independent platforms, but will be integrated into social platforms. With a quick click, share or Tweet, customers will be able to purchase a product or service, impacting how organizations track their logistics, customer verifications and inventory management.

“In 2014, we can expect to see increased adoption of next-generation, interactive social technologies that will help retailers gain deeper customer insights and identify new market opportunities. Digital marketing strategies will be more holistic in nature to enhance customer engagement and increase sales, not only during the holidays, but throughout the entire year,” said Senior Vice President Anees Merchant.

To learn more about Blueocean Market Intelligence’s social intelligence services and to download the latest SEI Retail Report, including special Thanksgiving and Christmas editions, visit www.blueoceansei100.com.

About Blueocean Market Intelligence Blueocean Market Intelligence is a leading next-generation services organization with a deep focus on data analytics, digital intelligence and market intelligence. Combining the talent, speed and cost benefits of a flat world, with vast experience in scalable delivery, Blueocean Market Intelligence delivers richer, more actionable insights to multi-nationals across all major industry sectors.

Blueocean Market Intelligence is part of the Cross-Tab group of companies (CrossTab Marketing Services, Informate Mobile Intelligence and Borderless Access Panels) that includes more than 700 professionals specializing in data analytics, social intelligence, market intelligence, mobile and emerging markets. To learn more, visit www.blueoceanmi.com.

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RESEARCH INDUSTRY NEWS

Last year, retailers largely surpassed sales goals, despite a relatively short shopping season, poor weather conditions and weak consumer confidence. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), total online holiday sales grew by 9.3 percent – amounting to $95.7 billion – due to proactive social media campaigns, deeply discounted deals, free shipping and lastminute customer rushes.

year, followed by Pinterest (17 percent) and Facebook (12 percent). While Facebook led the battle among social influencers in the online space, Pinterest emerged as the top social channel for “top of the funnel” advertising with its fast-growing referral traffic and higher conversion rates.

3. Successful retailers will integrate omnichannel communications. Cementing an omnichannel strategy will continue to be crucial, and onlineplus-mobile will equal strong sales.

According to the Adobe Digital Index 2013, consumers shopped 40 percent more from their smartphones this past holiday season than in 2012. Retailers that identify opportunities to create a more a seamless experience with consistent communications across all platforms, as well as improved inventory and transparent pricing, will create a more fulfilling experience for customers.

4. Content marketing will increasingly rely on social media to drive engagement. Brands will move away from a one-way content marketing push, instead leveraging social media to drive engagement, timely conversations and personalized customer interactions.

However, 2014 will also bring a shift from text to more visually oriented elements such as video and pictures, affecting data storage requirements and even broader types of content.

Organizations that want to harness data from social intelligence will need to acknowledge unstructured data and determine how it can be converted and made relevant for today’s business strategies.

5. Social shopping will become a reality.

Social media engagement has traditionally focused on customers in the consideration phase of the purchase cycle. However, we can now expect companies to launch greater social shopping initiatives by leveraging virtual currencies such as Bitcoins.

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BLOGS FEBRUARY 2014 RESEARCH INDUSTRY BLOGS

A list of marketing and research industry TOP BLOGGERS is featured below. Scroll through our list of blogs to find your favorite blogger, interact with them on social media and get plugged-in to real-time information flow from these thought leaders.

Take a moment to get to know some of the bloggers we feature each month. It’s fascinating how much innovation occurs from the passion that these bloggers bring to their profession. Sometimes, they’re pretty funny too.

Find Your Favorite Blogger

We’ve carefully selected some of the most active and prolific thought leaders in the research industry to include on our Blog Board. Take a few minutes to scroll through our list of bloggers and get caught up with their most recent posts or use these blogs as an instrumental resource to better understand the inner workings of research best practices and thought leadership. You’ll be glad you did.

Interact on Social Media

Each of the blogs we’ve listed below include the social media buttons and blog feeds for these bloggers. Take advantage of the opportunity to connect with these leaders in the social media forums they use most. It’s a great way to interact with these bloggers and keep plugged in to real-time information that interest you most.

Meet Our Featured Bloggers

Each month, we highlight three (3) bloggers from our list and give you a more in-depth understanding of these authors and what drives them towards innovation. You’ll be fascinated to learn about these broad and diverse backgrounds, experiences, their passion for the market research industry and the craft that they’ve devoted their professional lives to.

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The New Research Directory The Market Research Directory (www.MarketResearchDirectory.org) connects marketing research buyers and suppliers through online solutions that make it easier to find and do business in the market research industry.

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