Pollsters Are No Creeps

February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

creepAs election season heats up, I’d like to get something off my chest.

No, I’m not going to go on a rant about politics. It’s something more personal to me.

Over the past forty plus years, our culture has become increasingly infused with a wet blanket cynicism about nearly anything related to politics. That cynicism extends to the people who make politics their business.

I get it; people are frustrated. There are many politicians who have shamed not only themselves but also the causes they support and, indeed, the constituents they represent.

But let’s not paint everyone with a broad brush.

I have a unique perspective here. Many, many moons ago, before I worked in the field of market research, I had the privilege of working for and learning from two of the pre-eminent pollsters in the world – Celinda Lake and Mark Mellman.

I had just come from a very heady first job out of college, as an aide to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Celinda and Mark not only taught me how to be a good researcher, but they also introduced me to a world of professionals – from political consultants to activists to government and association leaders – who generally share one common trait: they care passionately about their work.

I know that passion – and professionalism – are shared across the aisle, as I got to know people not only in the Democratic ranks but also on the Republican side.

The thing that really gets under my skin though is when I hear people suggest pollsters are dishonest, that they “cook the numbers,” so to speak, to support a political agenda.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s quite the opposite. I remember pollsters being very hard on themselves. In fact, one thing that really made an impression on me is that Mark and Celinda consulted Dr. Bob Groves about methodological issues. Dr. Groves is a legend in the field of survey methodology and is now serving as the U.S. Census Director.

So let’s take a more nuanced view – shall we?

We in the market research community should be the first to support pollsters; they’re fellow researchers, after all.

And to the general public, I say don’t bash pollsters until you get to know one.

Filed Under: Essay, Featured Tagged With: ,

The ABCs of CSAT

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

CustomerSatisfactionLoyaltyLater this week I’ll be attending the Net Promoter Conference in San Francisco.  I’m really looking covering this event for Research Access.

Customer satisfaction (or CSAT) measurement is a highly specialized, but vitally important, part of the research world.  

Yet I think there are many researchers and marketers who aren’t terribly familiar with the ins and outs of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement.

Here is a quick ABC guide to what you need to know about CSAT.

S

Satmetrix 

Satmetrix, known as the Net Promoter Company, is the firm that administers the Net Promoter methodology.

A

ACSI

The ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) is a methodology for measuring customer satisfaction.  It factors in the following variables:  customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer complaints and customer loyalty.

T

Tracking

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are fluid; therefore, most measurement programs involve tracking scores consistently over time.

I

Indicator

Customer satisfaction is a leading indicator of business success; that’s why it’s so important to understand it and take action based on it.

S

SCI

The Secure Customer Index is a customer satisfaction measurement methodology developed by D. Randall Brandt.  The SCI combines three elements – overall satisfaction, likelihood to continue using the service, and likelihood to recommend.

F

Future

The purpose of customer satisfaction research is to assess current attitudes toward a company in order to predict purchase behavior in the future.

A

Answering the Ultimate Question

Answering the Ultimate Question is a book by Fred Reichheld which outlines the Net Promoter methodology.

C

Calculating Your Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter score is just what the name implies – the net of customers who are “promoters” minus those who are “detractors.”  The core Net Promoter question asks on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely a customer is to recommend the company to a colleague or friend.  The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of customers who give a score of 0 through 6 (“Detractors”) from the percentage who give a score of 9 or 10 (“Promoters”).

T

Truth

Like all research, customer satisfaction research is a search for truth.  There are different approaches, but the search for truth must continue unabated.

I

Index

Most customer satisfaction methodologies yield an index; a single score which is easy for an organization to understand, and, importantly, can be the basis for positive action.

O

Out of Luck

Firms that ignore customer satisfaction altogether will soon find themselves out of luck.

N

Net Promoter

Net Promoter is a customer satisfaction measurement methodology, developed by  Satmetrix, Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld.  The Net Promoter Score is obtained by asking customers about their likelihood to recommend a company to a friend or colleague.

You can use this link to get a discount if you’d like to join me at the Net Promoter Conference in San Francisco, February 1-3, 2012.

I hope to see you there!

Filed Under: Essay, Featured, How-To, Market Research Tagged With:

The Super Bowl of Research

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

SuperBowl46LogoThe Super Bowl is huge in every way, even when it comes to market research.

It is by far the biggest sporting event in the U.S.  Perhaps more significantly, it is annually the highest rated television program.

The contest is preceded by two weeks of sheer, unadulterated hype.  It’s not just the sports networks and websites making hay.  Other media outlets capitalize on Super Bowl hype in the weeks before the game.  Every commercial is dissected six ways to Sunday.  Even the halftime musical performance gets a huge amount of attention (this year it’s by Madonna).

This hype may excite you or disgust you, but you can’t ignore it.

As a researcher and a marketer, I find the hype surrounding the Super Bowl endlessly fascinating.

This has been true even in years where my team is not in the game.  My beloved New England Patriots are going up against a very worthy opponent, the New York Giants.

This year’s contest, as a rematch of a hotly contested (and wildly disappointing to Patriots fans) game from four years ago, looks to be bigger and badder than ever.  Add in the growth of social media, and you have the makings of a true marketing spectacle.

Awesome!

As a market researcher, I’ve heard endless talk over the past few years about how the poor economy has had a negative effect on our industry.

Well, I say we should be thankful as market researchers that the Super Bowl gives us so many things to measure, analyze and interpret.

The Super Bowl is a great thing for anyone involved in marketing.  Market researchers should be thankful for this bonanza.

Here are some of the many places I can only imagine extensive research has occurred connected to the Super Bowl.

-       Of course, at the National Football League, by widely respected Director of Research Alicia Rankin.
-       At ESPN and other sports media entities
-       At NBC, the television network broadcasting the event
-       By the city of Indianapolis, hosting the event for the first time
-       By the dozens of television advertisers for this year’s game

This list just scratches the surface.  Literally thousands of businesses run Super Bowl related promotions, creating numerous business opportunities for the market research industry.

Yes, it’s a hype-filled marketing event, a spectacle of capitalism that gives a major boost to our economy.

Only in America!

Please share your thoughts on Super Bowl market research in the comments section below.

Filed Under: Essay, Market Research, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Game Over. Let the Tablet Surveys Begin.

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

TabletThere’s some stunning new data on tablet computer and e-reader adoption in the U.S. from our friends at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

According to the center’s director, Lee Rainie, “the share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January”.  E-reader growth was similarly dramatic.

Rainie pointed out that this sharp growth came after a period where there was “not much change” in the growth of tablet computer ownership.  ”As the holiday gift-giving season approached,” Rainie added, “the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted.  In the tablet world, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Table were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets.  In the e-book reader world, some versions of the Kindle and Nook and other readers fell below $100.”

This is a shocking level of growth for any new technology.

Remember, when the iPad first came out, the doubters were numerous and vociferous.  There were many, and there are many still, who feel tablets don’t serve a useful purpose that can’t be served by either a smartphone or a laptop.  To these doubters, a tablet is something of a novelty, with dubious staying power.

This new data leaves no doubt:  Game Over.

People want tablets, and they want them very badly.  And as Rainie pointed out, the introduction of cheaper iPad alternatives – the Nook and the Kindle Fire – is making tablet computing much more accessible. The tablet is here to stay in a big way.

So what should we make of this phenomenon in the context of market research?

Should we drag our feet, like so many of us did when it came to the adoption of online research a mere decade ago?

Obviously not.

The advent of the tablet is a major opportunity for many people in many industries.

For researchers, the appealing features of tablets are as obvious as they are many:

  • Bigger screens = better user experience
  • Multi-touch technology = ease of use
  • Portability = data collection flexibility
  • Advanced computing power = sophisticated presentation of stimuli and interaction with respondents

Services like Survey Analytics’ SurveyPocket have already begun to break methodological ground with innovative tablet-based research applications.  I look forward to seeing the many creative ways researchers think to take advantage of the charms of the tablet computer in 2012 and beyond.

Let the tablet surveys begin.

Filed Under: Digital, Essay, Featured, Market Research, Mobile Tagged With: , , , ,

Was Steve Jobs a Genius about Market Research?

January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

SteveJobsbyWalterIsaacson

When Apple founder Steve Jobs died a few months ago, there was an unprecedented reaction to the death of a business leader.

In the week or so after his death, there was a huge amount of online conversation about Jobs, much of it in the form of tributes and an outpouring of sentiment.

I personally felt sadness at his passing, and I discussed his life and legacy with a number of friends and family members.

I was interested to learn more about the man and his accomplishments, so I just read Walter Isaacson’s fascinating Jobs biography.

One thing that really hit home for me when reading the biography was Jobs’ attitude about market research.  It can be described as nothing short of disdain.

From page 170 of the Isaacson biography:

“On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done.  Jobs responded by scoffing, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”

Here are a few other Jobs quotes from over the years about market research:

“Mr. Jobs’s own research and intuition, not focus groups, were his guide. When asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: ‘None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.’”

“It’s hard for [consumers] to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it. Take desktop video editing. I never got one request from someone who wanted to edit movies on his computer. Yet now that people see it, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s great!’”

I find this all a bit baffling.  The last time I checked, Apple had a market research department.

Don’t get me wrong; I read Blink.  I can appreciate the power of intuition.

But something tells me there’s been a ton of good market research done over the years at Apple. Maybe people just didn’t bring it to Jobs’ attention.

As much as I admire Jobs’ abilities as a business leader, I have to say he was wrong about market research. He was prone to making extreme statements, and this is probably just one of many examples.

It sounds to me like Jobs was referring to market research in its worst, poorly constructed and uncreative form. Bad market research is definitely a waste and a distraction.

But market research done well – and creatively – is invaluable.

What do you think about Steve Jobs’ statements about market research?  Was he right? Was there a grain of truth to what he said? Or was he totally wrong.  Share your point of view in the comments section.

Filed Under: Essay, Featured, Innovation, Market Research Tagged With: , ,

Meet Quizlet: Social and Gamified Studying

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

QuizletMy son, who started high school in September, is “enjoying” a rite of passage this week; he’s taking his first set of mid-terms.

Come to find out, flashcards as a study tool may soon go the way of the Sony Walkman.

Enter Quizlet.

My son had a huge list of vocabulary words to learn.  He logged on to Quizlet, and one of his Facebook friends had already created a quiz where the vocabulary words fly across the screen, inviting the user to race to type the definition as quickly as possible.  With each round, the words got faster and faster.

I was convinced right away that this was a great way to learn – at least the type of learning that involves memorization.

Quizlet incorporates two elements into studying which make it more fun, and ultimately more effective.

These same two elements are on the cutting edge of market research as well.

Gamification:  Students can create a variety of games where the objective is to answer questions relating to their class material.

Social:  They can share the games they created with classmates and compete against them, and they can search for relevant games throughout the Quizlet site.

See for yourself.  Check out this demonstration video to see Quizlet in action.  As you watch the video, think about how some of these elements can enhance your next research project.

 

Filed Under: Essay, Featured, Gamification, Innovation Tagged With: ,

The Nerd with the Dragon Tattoo

January 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

Dragon TattooThis weekend I watched the new American movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the first book of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy.

I’ll try not to reveal too much of the plot, in case you haven’t seen it, or the original Swedish movie, or read the book. Though, if you haven’t by now – really?

I’ve read all three books and seen the Swedish movies, which were very well done, and I was looking forward to the American version. Director David Fincher did the story justice and created a beautiful-looking film. I felt Rooney Mara‘s performance as Lisbeth Salander was Oscar-worthy, and Daniel Craig did a very fine job portraying Mikael Blomkvist.

As I was watching the protagonists search frantically, it occurred to me that they had something in common with any good researcher and any good marketer. They were trying to find the right data!

Lisbeth Salander is a hacker who specializes in getting information by any means necessary. Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who can dig deeper than any other.

They had an important question that needed to be solved. They had an overwhelming amount of information to sift through. And they had very little time in which to find the answers.

That sounds like just about every research and marketing project with which I’ve been involved!

Most importantly, they were super-motivated to scour their environment for the right information. Granted, the stakes were much higher in the movie than they are in our daily lives, but I do feel the most important quality for any researcher and any marketer is a strong sense of curiosity.

The best of us become slightly obsessed with our task and will overturn any stone to find the truth. Kind of like our movie heroes.

So when you watch or read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, feel proud that in your own small way, you’re a badass too.

Photo Credit

Filed Under: Essay, Market Research, Marketing Tagged With: ,

Cool is for Fools

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Burger King

The "Burger King"

[Editor's Note:  This post originally appeared on our sister site, Marketing Access]

I read recently that the creepy-assed “Burger King” mascot has been taken off his throne and sent to the rubbish bin. I was thrilled because I found the ads with that particular “being” crude and frankly, as a father of two young kids, scary. Further, I thought it was a bad piece of Marketing that too many otherwise sane folks extolled as creative and, well, “cool.”

Yep, there we go. Taking out the soapbox now – here goes:

Cool is a stupid word. Trying to be cool is a stupid aspiration.

Let me at this point say that I’m as guilty as everyone else in the sheer overuse of the word. In a funny way, the word is democratic- it’s used by everyone for everything but it unites grungy California ne’er do wells with titans of the tech industry. But that’s where it’s “coolness” ends.

If I wanted to give a benign and thoughtful criticism I’d say that the main problem with the word is that its meaning has been dulled to the point of nothingness by constant use. But that’s not really my point.

My point is that the desire to be cool makes people do silly (and at times bad) things.

Take what the desire to create cool work has done to Marketing.

It’s instructive to look at Burger King because they went the “cool” route. But for the past decade, their business has sucked while McDonald’s is kicking ass. The latter did simple things like, well, introduce coffee and salads. And they advertised them in, well, fairly normal ways. So while cool might have won Crispin, Porter, and Bogusky a ton of awards and got them a bunch of brainless small-dollar acolytes, it didn’t do much for the Whopper boys who, incidentally, pay their bills.

The desire to be cool makes you derivative and a follower. Cool is for charlatans without substance.

Do something real ladies and gentlemen. Please.

Filed Under: Advertising, Essay, Innovation, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

2012 Market Research Crystal Ball

January 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

John William Waterhouse The Crystal BallTom Anderson of Anderson Analytics and Next Gen Market Research recently asked members of the market research community to share predictions for 2012.

At Research Access we recently finished posting an interesting series of excerpts from a recent Survey Analytics webinar on Market Research Trends for 2012.  That’s got me thinking a lot about what will happen this year in market research.

But looking at trends is one thing, and making specific predictions is another.

I accept your invitation, Tom.

Brace yourself!  I’m going really far out on a limb here.

  1. The market research industry will self-reflect and contemplate its place in the business universe.
  2. A lot of people will take surveys.
  3. Corporate market research end users will get lots of cold calls.
  4. Online sample will feel commoditization pressure.
  5. Do-it-yourself (DIY) market research tools will irk traditionalists.

OK, now for the real list!

  1. For most researchers mobile methods will move out of experimental phase and become a regular part of the methodological mix.
  2. There will be a dramatic increase in offline recruitment of panel communities, most notably via QR codes.
  3. One of the following companies will experiment in a more serious way in the online sample business:  Twitter, Facebook or Google.  I wish I knew which one.
  4. Ninety percent or more of the Honomichl 50 companies will experiment with gamification.
  5. Both the number of market research blogs and the number of tweets using the #mrx hashtag will more than double relative to 2011.

Picture Credit:  The Crystal Ball, by John William Waterhouse

Filed Under: Essay, Featured

Cosmo-Style Quiz: How Does Your Internet Marketing Stack Up?

December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Cosmopolitan Cover November 2011Cosmopolitan Magazine has been in the survey business as long as any organization I know. For as long as I’ve been standing in supermarket checkout lines they’ve been posing, er, interesting questions on their cover.

Sure, these quizzes are not actual surveys; in fact, to the best of my knowledge the results are never even compiled. They’re in actuality a clever format for dispensing advice.

The biggest testament to the success of this tactic is that many other publications, including those targeting a wholly different demographic, have followed Cosmo’s successful formula of posing quiz questions to passersby.  Something tells me it’s been working.

So I thought I’d take a page from their book (or magazine, as it were) and pose some self-help quiz questions.

I’m going on memory as to style and format, but here goes:

INTERNET MARKETING QUIZ

Answer “yes,” “no,” or “don’t know” to each of the following questions:

1. Is it obvious to your website visitors why they should do business with you?
2. It it easy for your website visitors to find what they are seeking?
3. Have you defined your target audience in writing?
4. Have you optimized your website to make it easily discoverable by your target audience?
5. Do you offer anything of value on your website to visitors (free consultations, e-books, etc.)?
6. Do you have a regularly updated blog?
7. Does your website help build your email subscriber list?
8. Do you send out regular email updates?
9. Do you regularly add new content to your website?
10. Do you participate actively in social media?

SCORING:

Add up all your “yes” answers, then look at the key below to see how you did!

If you had:

10 yeses: Great job! Others can learn from you.
7 to 9 yeses: Very good. Keep doing what you’re doing.
4 to 6 yeses: A good start, but you have room for improvement.
1 to 3 yeses: Ouch!

Note: This is a satire with, perhaps, a few real lessons mixed in.  Tongue implanted firmly into cheek.

Photo Credit:  Cover of Cosmopolitian Magazine, November 2011.

Filed Under: Essay, Marketing Tagged With:
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