Happy holidays!

With the holidays upon us, I am taking a short hiatus from the blog. Like most researchers, we are busy cranking out last minute reports and attending as many holiday parties as possible. I will be back in early 2009.

So best wishes for a joy filled holiday and a happy and prosperous new year. See you in 2009!

How's business?

I recently attended the MRA conference in Las Vegas. Great conference by the way – good content and a good variety of attendees. As I ran into people I knew, the common phrase of “how’s business?” frequently came up. This has been standard conversation filler at conferences for years. No one really expects an honest answer and no one ever answers with much more than “fine” or “we’re swamped”.

But this year was different. I could sense that people really wanted to know. And people seemed to be giving reasonably honest answers. Of course no one gave hard figures, but you did hear a lot of ‘it’s slow”, “we could use more business” or “I can’t wait for this year to be over”. There was also a lot of concern about what next year may bring.

One thing was clear. The economic upheaval in the U.S. and across the world has substantially impacted the marketing research industry. Whether business is up, flat or down; everyone seems to be worried about it.

So how’s business?

Survey Goggles

Google recently announced the beta test of a new email feature called Mail Goggles. Basically it is a user enacted feature that helps prevent you from sending an email that you may regret later. It is specifically intended for late night emails, when a person may have had a bit too much to drink (or some other form of ingested recreation) to think rationally about what they may write to someone. After all, how many people have made the bad judgment to send a hateful email to an ex-boss or ex boyfriend/girlfriend? Mail Goggles requires you to take a simple math test. If you can’t correctly answer the questions within the allotted amount of time, your email “send” is disabled.

This got me to thinking whether we need a similar tool for survey takers. After all, with online surveys, an individual can take a survey 24/7. So I decided to scan the responses to surveys that are taken in the wee hours of the night. Admittedly this was somewhat unscientific. I didn’t know if a response at 3:00 AM was from a person who had been partying all night, or if it was a person getting home from working the second shift. I checked for logically consistent answers. I also checked that open-ended responses were relatively clear and spelling errors were minimal.

Bottom line, I didn’t see anything that made me think we should question the validity of late night surveys. Also, I didn’t find many surveys that are completed in the wee hours of the morning. So, I don’t think we need survey goggles. But this is one of the many things you have to think about with an online survey. One of the many things that did not exist with telephone surveys.

Give Chickens More Rights!

First, my apologies for dropping out of the blog for the past few weeks. We are in that typically crazy fall crunch that is common for marketing research.

Besides being busy with research, a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Most notably the elections. As a researcher, it is always exciting to watch the elections. After all, the returns are like the results of another survey. A very important one that impacts our lives, but it is still a survey or poll. I say this because we do not have a 100% census vote. Therefore results are subject to the same sampling issues as surveys. Except in this case, the citizens self-select on whether they will vote. Therefore, biases are introduced. Much has been written about the impact on results based on who votes. For example, older voters will still show up on a rainy day, while younger voters are less likely to show up when it rains. So it’s not perfect, but unless we force a census vote, it is the best we can do. And the more people who do vote, the less bias.

Now on to California. By now you probably know that Proposition 8, which eliminates the rights of a group of citizens, passed. This proposition writes discrimination into the California state constitution. On the same day, the citizens of California voted to expand the rights of chickens and other livestock. What’s wrong with this picture? I for one am ashamed of my fellow Californians.

What is ABC Thinking?

ABC recently announced “National Stay at Home Week”. I thought it was a clever idea. They made it appear to be a true national event, but it was really a promotion for the ABC family of networks. Great idea! But, I have a couple of problems with it:

1. This is the third week of the promotion. Since when is a week more than 7 days?

2. Retailers are hurting right now. How do they feel about a national TV network telling people to stay home (i.e. don’t be out shopping or dining)? Many of these retailers advertise on ABC. Isn’t ABC biting the hand that feeds them?

Corporate Secrets

I recently read about the extreme measures KFC takes to protect Col. Sander’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices. For example, only two company executives have access to the recipe at any one time, and their names and titles are secret. They use multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients, but they only know a part of the entire contents. If you knew where the recipe was, you would have to open a vault, then 6 locks before getting to it.

This got me to thinking about corporate secrets that companies share with their marketing research partners. Maybe they are not as huge as the original recipe, but they are still significant. We learn about new products, relaunches, reformulations, ad campaigns, expansion plans, and likely retrenchment. Granted, most client firms require signed NDAs from their research vendors. But, you should also be asking them questions such as….

1. Do they have signed confidentiality agreements from each of their employees?
2.Do they require signed NDAs from their vendors and contractors?
3. Do they shred all sensitive documents?
4. Do they limit access to sensitive information on a “must know” basis?
5. Do they have the necessary IT and firewall security in place?

Sound marketing research firms should be able to answer “yes” to each of these questions. But companies also contract research projects to consultants, frequently working out of their home. Are they following these same precautions? Do you really want a copy of your concept being thrown out in their trash?

Customer Satisfaction

I recently mentioned that I had flown on Virgin America for the first time. The experience was much better than what you typically experience on the other domestic airlines. If I had been asked to do a customer satisfaction study, I would have given them a high score. I would have also given them a high recommendation score. Both of these are a marketers and operations dream.

But why was my experience so positive? Sure they have some new toys like the interactive display at each seat, plexiglas dividers instead of curtains, and interesting mood lighting in shades of mauve and violet blue. And I give them extra points for using earth friendly method products in the lavatory. But it is a far cry from the glory days of flying. It is still a fairly stripped down experience.

The difference was the people working at Virgin America. They were happy. They smiled. They had fun. They sincerely liked their jobs! Now United has hired someone away from Disney to help improve the customer experience, but it hasn’t worked. Every United employee I encounter seems stressed and grumpy. This got me to thinking – what is the correlation between satisfied employees and satisfied customers. I think it is huge.

Customer satisfaction studies are big business. They typically measure employee related attributes such as being friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. But I recommend adding one more dimension – happy employees.

Senior Citizens and Technology

I have written in the past about people being tech challenged and how that can impact marketing research. As the industry keeps using technology to develop new ways of data collection, are we leaving some consumer segments behind? I am particularly concerned about senior citizens. While they typically are not the darling of most marketing managers, they are a growing segment of the population. In just the past few weeks, I encountered two instances where senior citizens were stumbling with technology.

Recently, I had the opportunity to fly on Virgin America (an experience much better than most domestic carriers and worthy of a future blog posting!). Virgin America has interactive displays at every seat. You can listen to music, watch TV or movies, or even chat with fellow passengers. This is also how you order food and beverages. You pull up a menu, select what you want, swipe your credit card, and within minutes your order is delivered to your seat. An elderly women sitting next to me was trying to get something to eat. When she finally flagged down a flight attendant, they just waved her off and told her to use the interactive display. It was clear that the women could easily go hungry for the next 5 hours. I offered to help her place her order. In doing this, I realized her biggest stumbling block was touching the screen. When I was younger, we were taught to always use the controls and never to touch the screen. This applied to TVs, computers and anything else with a screen. This woman never got the memo that it is now acceptable to touch the screen. Later on, she wanted to listen to music. This again required touching the screen. She just couldn’t gasp that concept. I had to select her music for her.

Then this weekend, when leaving the San Francisco Farmer’s Market, I noticed an elderly man having trouble using the “pay ticket” machine at the parking garage. Yes, in San Francisco, we even have to pay to park to go to a farmer’s market. When I offered to help him, I discovered he had inserted his credit card and paid for his parking multiple times. I’m not sure what he was expecting, but he didn’t understand that getting back his original parking stub, which denoted it was paid, was all that he needed. He didn’t see how that would ever open the gate for him at the exit.

I suspect that both of these individuals would also be challenged by some of our newer survey tools and methodologies. If senior citizens are a critical part of your market, you may want to consider an old fashioned approach to research. One where there is human interaction.

False Claims in Advertising

The makers of Airborne cold tablets recently agreed to pay a $30 million fine to settle a lawsuit and federal charges that they made false claims about the cold-fighting benefits of the tablets. Sadly, this story is not that uncommon, and is hardly considered newsworthy these days.

So what does this have to do with marketing research? Concept tests are a big part of marketing research. While I suspect the Airborne folks used these same false claims in any concept testing, a diligent researcher should have advised them against it. It is our job to question the content of any concept we test. Are the claims true? Can the product actually deliver them? Are they confusing or misleading? Are they likely to be challenged?

We frequently encounter this problem with the word “fresh”. The FTC has very strict guidelines on when the word fresh can be used to describe a product. Any time a client presents a concept to us with the word fresh, we immediately advise them to run it by their legal counsel.

Remember, companies use concept performance scores to determine a product’s viability in the marketplace. Any claim that can not be used when the product is actually introduced will bias the concept test. The results are useless.

My Olympic Gripe

Like many people, I have spent way too many hours watching the Olympics over the past two weeks. I know NBC was going for the “Media Gold” with the broadcast; but their attempt to cover more, make it flashier, deliver quick sound bites, etc. left me cold. They have eliminated so much of the human element. I wonder where their research was on this. I can’t believe I am the only one that misses it. For example…

• They rarely showed the medal ceremony for any events or athletes. In years past, this was always part of our household’s favorite part of the broadcast. It gave you a chance to see the emotions of the athletes. It helped build your respect for their accomplishments.
  


• My second point uncovers my inner research nerd. Why have they stopped showing individual judge scores for competition such as gymnastics or diving? It was always exciting to watch the returns build as each judge voted. And of course there was always the controversy over whether a judge may be holding any biases. Now, you don’t see the judges and have no idea what countries they are from.
  


• Finally, the closing ceremony was spectacular. I doubt if another country will top that in a long time. But the athletes were an afterthought, almost treated as a nuisance to the performance. There were no close-ups on the athletes. We didn’t get to see the camaraderie that has built over the past weeks – among team mates and across countries. We didn’t see that enemies can become friends, when they interact one-on-one.
  

I love the Olympics, but please bring back the human element!

¿Se Habla Español? Part Two

So as soon as I talk about not being able to find a representative sample of Hispanics online, Knowledge Networks comes along and introduces KnowledgePanel Latino™. As they have done with other groups, they are attempting to fill the void I mentioned by including non-web Hispanic households. They provide a laptop computer and web connection to those who do not have Internet access.

Short-term, I think this is a brilliant idea. I also think they are putting a top-notch effort behind this. My concern is whether giving these individuals Internet access will inherently change them. Will it accelerate their acculturation? Will they start acting differently than Hispanic households without Internet access? I’m sure Knowledge Networks has thought about this and hopefully has safeguards in place.

This reminds me of an idea we had in our office that we dubbed The 24th Street Project ™. Named after the 24th Street section of San Francisco’s heavily Hispanic Mission district, our idea was to open store fronts in major Hispanic neighborhoods around the country. Each site would serve as a computer literacy education center for the community. At the same time, it would give us access to an audience that has not been reachable online. We never got this off the ground, but to this day, I have my eye on a vacant store front.

In the meantime, I congratulate Knowledge Networks. Not only is this progress for the marketing research world, but it will hopefully enhance the lives of the individuals receiving the free laptop and web connection.

¿Se Habla Español?

It was recently reported that the growth of the U.S. Hispanic population on the Internet in recent years has accelerated faster than previously expected. Fifty-two percent of the U.S. Hispanic population is now online, representing 23 million users, according to a new report by eMarketer.

So, is it time to move more research among Hispanics online? I don’t believe so. While their presence online is growing, it is not a representative sample of the broader Hispanic population. Much of the growth is fueled by younger, bilingual, U.S. born Hispanics. A study completed online could result in extremely distorted results.

We have been fortunate to have several clients run parallel studies among Hispanics both by telephone and online. In each case, they threw out the online results and only relied on the telephone study. The difference in findings across the two methodologies was tremendous. And many findings from the online approach just didn’t pass the “gut” test. Some of these differences are likely due to socio-economic and acculturation differences between Hispanics who are online and those who are not.

For now, if Hispanics are part of our research assignment, we are likely to recommend telephone or in-person. I would be interested to hear of others’ experience with different data collection methods among Hispanics.

Tech Challenged

We recently completed an online survey via intercept on our client’s website. Given the nature of the project, I suspect we reached many individuals who have never or rarely completed an online survey (fresh respondents!)

As is typical practice, we included a toll-free number that individuals could call with any questions or if they needed help. We had more calls during this survey than we have ever seen. People were confused about using the next button in the survey, they didn’t understand they can not use the letter “o” for the number zero when entering a numeric value, etc.

Research professionals frequently forget that our respondents can be tech challenged. To this end, I was excited to hear about the introduction of http://www.pc.com/. Kudos to Intel for creating this site. It is a site, minus technical lingo, to help novices and less sophisticated users. Sure it does let visitors shop for computers, all with Intel processors, but it also gives simple, sound advice.

Check it out!

What time should you deploy a survey?

When surveys were mostly completed by telephone, the majority of the calls were made on weekday evenings and weekends. The purpose was twofold – not to over-represent non-working respondents by calling during weekdays, and to introduce an acceptable level of efficiency to the calling. There were strict rules pertaining to the respondents’ time zone.

But with online surveys, how much thought is given to the timing of survey deployment? We hear estimates on the best and worse response times. And we know that the majority of respondents take the survey soon after they receive the invite, and not a few days later. But do panels time deployment to be consistent across time zones? Wouldn’t it skew results if everyone on the east coast responded in the evening, but west coast respondents responded in their afternoon? Do we really trust the opinion of someone responding at 3:00 AM? Could tracking study results be distorted from wave-to-wave if invites are deployed at different times of the day for different waves?

Just some thoughts. Your opinions?

E-words

I received a “nice to e-meet you” message last week from a potential client based in Korea. Then later in the week, a vendor had me e-sign a project related contract. This got me to wondering how many different e-words exist. Remember when the word email was new? I also wonder if people even remember what the “e” stands for. And when does the word become so common that the hyphen is dropped (technically, the hyphen stills belongs in e-mail).

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate® Dictionary recently posted their annual list of new words that will be in the 2008 edition. While words near and dear to a researcher’s heart, such as webinar, made the list (but is still not in the MS Office spell check), I didn’t see any new e-words. But I think it is just a matter of time. After all, edamame and soul patch just made this year’s list.

I would be curious to hear what e-merging e-words others use in their day-to-day vocabulary.

Endangered Species?

A fairly common study request these days seems to be an online survey among 500 U.S. males, age 21-64, with about a 20% category incidence. When we send this request to the various online panel providers, I am shocked to find many of them tell me they cannot fill the request.

I know males are more difficult to interview, but do the math. Taking a 20% incidence into account, assuming a 50% drop-out rate (which is much higher than typical, but these are stubborn American males), and a 5% click-through rate, the panel would need to send invitations to 100,000 males. Given that most companies boast panels in the millions, this doesn’t seem like that difficult of a request.

So what’s the problem? Is the active panel membership significantly smaller than what the panel books tell us? Is the click-through rate even worse than 5% (which I already consider pretty dismal)? Are male respondents in such demand that they are over-interviewed? Are incentives too low?

Someone please help me. The math just doesn’t add up.

Everything to Everyone

There’s a dentist here in San Francisco who everyone knows – but I had yet to meet someone who actually called him their dentist until today. This dentist is widely known for his terrible television and radio ads, his phony smile at the end of every commercial, and the fact that his office will “take better care of you, seven days a week.”

At the end of some of the derivatives of the ad that’s run almost as long as I’ve lived in San Francisco (20+ years!), several different members of the staff are shown on screen as they individually proclaim in many different languages that their office is multi-lingual. A few of the people seem to actually be fluent in the language in which they speak the line – but somewhat disturbingly, most of them seem as though they are speaking it for the first time. The worst offense is spoken by the dentist himself when he states “see hawbluh ess-pan yole.”

My thought when I see this obviously deliberate pandering to every possible audience is, “what would I think if my language were one of those butchered by members of the dentist’s staff?” Would I be thrilled to have finally found a dental office that spoke my language? Or would I be offended by the obvious attempt at snagging my business while butchering my native tongue at the same time? More likely is the latter. But that’s just my opinion.

Looking around, it’s clear that the good dentist isn’t alone. Many businesses attempt the same strategy: to be everything to everyone. I find it obnoxious, but it’s possible that others don’t. Of course, I’m always wondering if there was any research conducted that lead the organization to believe that sort of approach would work. Anecdotally, it would appear that smaller organizations fall victim to the shotgun approach more frequently than larger organizations – perhaps that’s because larger organizations are more likely to have research in their culture, and, in general, smaller organizations are frequently more concerned with just making payroll.

Fortunately, we’re seeing a shift, minor as it may be for now. As research becomes more affordable through web technologies and other developments, small and medium businesses have more access than ever to the opinions of their customers and prospects. Maybe research will become a bigger part of the DNA of smaller organizations in the near future? We certainly hope so – and maybe we’ll even see some changes in advertisements for dentistry.

What’s in a Name?

Most of my family and friends plan to celebrate the Fourth of July tomorrow. But some will celebrate “the Fourth” and other will celebrate Independence Day. This holiday is unique in that it is always celebrated on the fixed date of July 4, unlike most other holidays, which have been scheduled to fall on a Monday. Not all holidays were designated to be on a Monday, but Congress slowly modified them to fall on a Monday. This year the Fourth at least falls on a Friday, giving Americans their beloved three day weekend.

The researcher in me got to thinking about the name of this holiday, and how it had morphed from Independence Day to the Fourth of July. I don’t know the history behind this. I just hope it wasn’t some scheme like the invention of Valentines Day or Mothers Day by a greeting card company. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t much marketing research being done in the colonies in 1776 - door-to-door interviewing would have been a challenge. And given that we declared our independence on that day, the name Independence Day seems fitting. I don’t think it would have justified a full blown marketing research effort to come up with the name. But where has the brand manager been for this holiday? How did he/she let the name of this brand change? Did the brand adopt with the times or fall victim?

Think about it. If the popular name for this holiday had remained Independence Day, Congress would have probably passed the needed legislation to guarantee it would always fall on a Monday. We would never have to deal with a holiday falling on a Wednesday again. Or do you like holidays in the middle of the week?

Professional Research Certification

Today marks the launch of Certification 2.0 for MRA's Professional Research Certification (PRC) program. I happen to chair the PRC Board, so this is a very proud day for me.

In a short number of years, PRC has grown from an idea to a body of over 1,000 certified research professionals. Buzz about this program has been building. The number of individuals seeking and meeting the educational requirements is significant. The day is coming when just like accountants, a serious researcher must be certified.

Certification 2.0 is a simpler, more flexible and much more empowering program than the original version. Yes it takes some effort, but overall, it is relatively easy for a qualified individual to obtain and maintain certification. With the launch of Certification 2.0, there is a 6 month open enrollment period, starting today. If you ever thought about getting certified, this is the time to do it. After January 1, 2009, the only way to get certified is to complete a proctored exam.

For all the details, visit the PRC site.

The End of Data Tables?

Are data tables going away? I know I have been in the industry a long time, but when I’m writing a report, I still want access to data tables. I cross tab everything by my key analytic breaks, and then I usually have a bunch of additional “what-if” crosstabs. I have mostly abandoned printed tables and work with an electronic copy. And occasionally I’m happy with the cross-tab capabilities of the online reporting tools (but not usually). But I still need tables.

Someone on the project team typically prepares a report shell based on the research objectives. But I need to know where the rest of the people are who didn’t give a top 2 box rating. Or is a mean driven by a polarizing skew? Is some sub-group driving the results? Is there a coded open-end response that was too small to chart, but extremely meaningful for the study? Crosstabs give me these answers.

I ask if they are going away because frankly, most clients don’t want them. And when we have sent them to some clients, especially younger ones, they will email back and ask us what they are, and if they need to look at them. Clients count on us to dig into the data and pull out the meaningful findings and insights. And they should. That’s what they pay us for. But don’t they get curious? Am I just a number junkie?

Have you been to Costco lately?

I think all marketers or researchers of consumer goods should be required to visit Costco (or Sam’s or BJ’s Club Stores) at least once a quarter. It is a fascinating place to do observational research. If you are interested in a particular product category, and just hang out in that aisle a while, you can learn a lot. The more expensive the item, the more you can learn.

Last night, I was in the small appliance aisle, where they had two different power toothbrushes for sale: Sonicare and Oral-B. This is actually a bonus for a researcher, because Costco typically only carries one brand of an item. Here I got to see real consumers making side-by-side comparisons. In a short amount of time, I observed a handful of purchases. The first thing I noticed is that this type of purchase is usually a dual decision. It was almost always a couple making the decision. Somewhat eavesdropping on their conversations, I was learning a lot. They were discussing the pros and cons of both brands. And a pro to one, was a con to the other. It was also clear that many of them had already researched the category, but had opted to come to Costco to make the actual purchase.

Now I know this is not a representative sample, and it is only observational data. But, if I was writing a survey on power toothbrushes, what I learned at Costco last night would have helped me craft a much better survey.

Opening Night!

If you read my posting on the annual MRA conference, you will know I recently spent a week in the Times Square area of NYC. My mind seems to still be buzzing with Broadway terms. When I went to write this article; the words dress rehearsal, opening night, stage fright, matinee, and extended run kept jumping to the front of my brain.

Well, Cooper Roberts Research’s first blog, “the research chronicles”, has been in dress rehearsal for a few weeks. Today marks our public debut, our opening night (or opening day – depending on what part of the world you are in).

So we join the other 175,000 new blogs that will be launched today. We hope you enjoy “the research chronicles”, we hope it entertains you, we hope you learn something new, we hope it gives you a flavor for the personality of Cooper Roberts Research, and we hope you keep coming back.

Anxious vs. Eager

I recently had someone in their early twenties correct me on my use of the word anxious, when I should have been using the word eager. I said something like “I am anxious to see your vacation pictures”, when I should have said “I am eager to see your vacation pictures”. A quick Google search told me I should use 'anxious' when I am worried or uneasy about the subject. I should use 'eager' when I have desire, or I look forward to the subject on hand. I’m not sure, but I suspect I have used 'anxious' incorrectly for most of my life.

While I was mildly embarrassed to learn of my error, I was thrilled that someone in their early twenties knew the correct grammar. It turns out they had studied journalism. This brings me to my point. Marketing Research is one of those fields where good writing skills are critical. But we find the youth coming into our industry have poor writing, grammatical and spelling skills. It’s not completely their fault. With spell check, grammar check, auto-fill, and all of the shortcut lingo used for texting, chat and email; they are naturally developing bad habits. The same thing happened to math skills many years ago, when calculators became common.

Unfortunately, my expectations for a college graduate have lowered over the years. They are not entering the workforce with the basic set of skills that employers use to take for granted. We work with our new hires to improve their writing skills. Most of the time, when an error is pointed out to them, they realize the mistake and learn from it. But more and more, they look at us in confusion. They don’t really understand the error, and they don’t understand why it is important. Maybe we will start interviewing journalism majors for new hires.

Fire!

While this is a bit off topic from research, many of us researchers are also frequent business travelers. So I think this topic is worthy of a few lines.

I have been traveling a lot lately. A few days ago, I woke up in my hotel room to the sound of the emergency evacuation message. It took me a minute or two before I realized it was not my alarm clock. Knowing this meant a fire in the hotel, my adrenalin kicked in pretty quickly. Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. But, it took me more than 10 minutes before I was ready to leave the room. Sure, I felt the door to see if it was warm, or if smoke was coming under the door. I even had a wet towel from the bathroom ready. But, if it had been a real fire, that 10 minutes could have made a big difference in whether I survived. I was busy grabbing my clothes, finding my wallet, and trying to remember where I had my cell phone charging. Lesson learned – when you are in a hotel, and settling in for the night, put some thought into it. If I had just been a bit more organized the night before, I could have been out of the room in 2-3 minutes.

MRA Annual Conference

I just returned from the 2008 Marketing Research Association (MRA) annual conference in NYC. And while I am somewhat biased (I sit on the board of the MRA), I was extremely impressed by the caliber of this event. The MRA has grown to be the preeminent organization for marketing researchers. That is the reason I chose to get involved. Some highlights:

• There was a strong international presence – especially Europe, South America and India.
• The special “end users” track is attracting more and more end users.
• The vendor exhibit hall was always busy.
• The CEO/Owner sessions for research companies are extremely popular.
• The caliber of the keynote speakers was phenomenal, yet they were very candid in their discussions about marketing research within their organizations.
• There were ample opportunities to earn PRC contact hours.

The bar has been raised! I’m eager to see what the fall conference, in Las Vegas, holds in store.

Incentives: The Right Ones Can Work!

While many of our online studies source sample from online panels, we also do a substantial number of studies using client provided opt-in customer lists. Not that long ago, customers willingly completed a survey, purely based on their relationship with the client company. But these days, customers have come to expect an incentive – either in the form of a sweepstakes or as an individual gift. Today I want to talk about individual incentives.

Incentives serve as a nice perk for respondents and increase the likelihood that they will take a survey. However, it’s crucial to consider various ramifications that may come into play. Many clients are tempted to give an incentive that appears innocent, and to be a cost saver for them, but that can actually introduce a major bias. For example, if a restaurant chain wants to give a “free appetizer” incentive – what about the customer that is so disgruntled that they would never revisit your restaurant. The free appetizer would not appeal to them, and you would never get their valuable feedback. The same thing goes for the CPG firm that wants to give one of their products as an incentive. These types of incentives are very effective for an advisory panel, but not for your typical survey.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to incentives is to offer something broad and neutral, which can accommodate anyone. Let’s say you were to offer a gift certificate to Bed Bath and Beyond. This prize would most likely appeal to a certain demographic, aka soccer moms, as opposed to young male teens. Thus, you have biased your sample (unless your customer base is only comprised of soccer moms). Something like an Amazon gift certificate would appeal to a broader audience. We have tried other incentives, such as Gap, LL Bean, or Starbucks gift cards. Each of these can have a biasing impact. And of course cash is very neutral, but we have found gift cards much easier to administer.

So the next time your study calls for an incentive, think about any potential bias it could introduce.

"I Want to do a Segmentation Study..."

It is fairly common for me to get a call from a client, or a potential client, saying “I want to do a segmentation study”. Naturally I get excited at the prospect of a new study, and segmentation studies are one of my favorites. But these days, I have learned I need to ask what they mean by a segmentation study.

To a traditional researcher, segmentation means you start with a clean slate. You ask a lot of behavior and attitudinal questions appropriate for your category, along with extensive psychographic, lifestyle and demographic questions. Then you use a multitude of multivariate techniques such as cluster analysis (hierarchical and partition), tree analysis (such as CHAID, CART), K-means and Latent Class segmentation to segment the data. A typical approach may result in 3-4 segmentation solutions. Selecting the final solution requires a mix of art and science. The result is unique segments; with complex, distinctive profiles and personalities. The marketer quickly gets to “know” these personalities. They learn who represents their best opportunity, and the messages that will best resonate with them.

Now quite often, “I want to do a segmentation study” does not mean what I described above. In these instances, marketers typically have pre-identified groups that they want to understand in more detail. It may be as simple as males vs. females, teens vs. adults, brand loyalists vs. brand dabblers, or techies vs. technically challenged. The predefined segmenting is usually on some behavior or identifiable trait, and not based on attitudes or psychographics. Basically, we are just “slicing and dicing” the data by these groups, and doing profiling analysis. To limit confusion with traditional segmentation studies, we typically refer to this type of a study as a Market Profile Study, or Market Analysis.

Both of the above mentioned approaches have their purpose, and can be extremely valuable to a marketer. For now, when I get that call about a segmentation study, I will still be asking “what type of segmentation do you want to do?”

Wow - a first post!

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