Holiday Card

If you are one of the many people on our snail mail list, you probably received our company holiday card. For those of you not familiar with our cards, they have featured a research snowman for the past 7 years. We put great effort into coming up with a new idea every year.

Based on the responses we have received, I think this year's card is our best so far. We have received many positive comments. If you want to take a look at this card, and the entire snowman saga, visit http://www.cooper-roberts.com/snowmen/

My thanks to Brenden Mendoza, our stellar designer, for a great job!

Thank you!

About this time last year, I wrote in my blog that I would be happy to see 2008 go. But I also wrote that things were looking promising for 2009. I’m happy to report that 2009 was indeed a good year for us. Business started picking back up in the first quarter and continued to grow throughout the year. To that end, I would like to thank our employees, clients, vendors, family and friends. Your combined efforts and support made 2009 a good year for us.

At this point, 2010 is looking good, and I am hearing other researchers say the same thing. But I’ll still exercise a lot of caution - holding back on new hires or other expenditures until we are sure things are completely back. I hope 2010 is a good year for all of us.

Some of you have asked where I have been with my postings. Fortunately, I have truly been too busy. But I promise to try to post more regularly next year.

Have a safe and happy holiday.

Attention Panel Companies – Your Panelists Want to Talk to You

In the course of conducting studies, we have inadvertently discovered something about panel companies. They don’t want to talk to their panelists. True to the nature of their online business, they want all correspondence with panel members to be through email or the panel member portal. They make it close to impossible, if not completely impossible for a panelist to talk to them on the phone. I understand being “true to the method” and the cost implications a panel company could have if they actually talked to their panelists, but I still don’t get it. As consumers, and yes panelists are consumers (or we wouldn’t want to talk to them), we all know how frustrating it can be when you want to talk to a real person. Think about the last time you called your bank, an airline, or your cable company. It probably was not a fun experience, but with some diligence, you hopefully did get to speak to a live person.

As a matter of policy, when we place product for an in-home-use-test, we provide respondents with a toll free number. The intent is for them to have a way to contact us if they have any issues or concerns with using the product. But we have noticed more and more respondents are calling us because they want to talk to their panel company. By default, we get the calls.

Panel companies, it is time for you to address this. If you don’t talk to your panel members, it will only be a matter of time before they are talking about you – and not necessarily in a good way.

Research Snowmen

Many of you, who are friends, clients or business partners with our company, have received our Research Snowmen holiday cards over the years. What started as a humorous card in 2003, with a bunch of somewhat geeky Snowmen Researchers, has continued as an annual tradition. The 2009 card will mark our seventh edition.

We had planned for the Snowmen to make a onetime appearance. But they proved to be quite popular, and we have kept them around. The problem is – our designers who originated the idea are long gone. It has fallen on our shoulders to come up with a new idea every year. While I think we have come up with some great ideas, it has become a challenge. So we are turning to you for help.

If you aren’t familiar with our Snowmen, or you need some inspiration, turn on your speakers, and mosey on over to http://www.cooper-roberts.com/snowmen/. There you can experience all of the cards, with the appropriate holiday background music.

The rules are simple: the card must include the Snowmen, they should have some general (non-religious) holiday association, and hopefully have some tie back into marketing research. If we select your idea, you will be given credit for the inspiration on the back of the card.

And BTW, there is no gender bias – it’s just that Snowpeople doesn’t sound right to us. I know for a fact that the inspiration for some of our Snowmen were women.

You can respond here, or to keep your idea secret, respond to snowmen@cooper-roberts.com

Is your research broad enough?

On a recent flight back from Dulles, the twenty something sitting next to me asked me what time it was at least three times. This didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, it frequently happens on flights. I’ve learned that his generation generally does not wear a watch. They count on their cell phone to tell time. An airplane is one of the few places where they can’t use their cell phone to check the time. I wonder if watch manufacturers even considered cell phones to be a threat to their industry. Actually, I wonder if a lot of industries and businesses have considered the competition and threat from outside their core area.

• Hollywood Video was probably worried about other brick & mortar video stores such as Blockbuster, but did they see Netflix or On-demand TV as a competitor?
  
• Did parking meters (yes, they are a revenue stream, so I consider them to be a business) see the impact of debit cards, where people no longer generate the change needed to feed a meter?
  
• Did FedEx realize the impact email would have on their business?
  
• And we all know that most newspapers were blind in terms of the crippling effect the Internet has had on so many aspects of their business.
  

Most research, trying to maximize the information garnered for the minimal amount of the respondents’ time, concentrates on the core category and known competition. Such studies would probably never give an early warning of competition from outside the core sector. But this path of efficiency could be dangerous, if not life threatening. I strongly recommend that at least once a year, and ideally twice a year, your research, whether it be qual or quant, explores outside the box. Study evolving ways that consumers do things. Like the cell phone has hurt the watch business, what is lurking out there that could hurt your business.

DIY Disasters: Part 2

My posting last week about DIY disasters seems to have touched a nerve with quite a few people. People emailed me with their own examples. Given the nature of the topic, they choose to email rather than add a comment. After reading some of the notes, I saw a recurring theme. I had talked about design driven disasters. The examples brought to my attention were all about interpretation disasters. In other words, bad business decisions were made based on the research.

A common problem was the lack of perspective. For example, one fairly new CPG company did a concept test. Based on a 35% “top 2 box” purchase interest score, they rolled out the product. A seasoned researcher would question the wisdom of rolling out a product with such a low score. But they thought it was a great score. They felt they could reach a third of the market, which was more than enough for them. The product went to market and it bombed. A detailed analysis of the original DIY results, by a research professional, easily identified the problem.

Another example was an ongoing customer satisfaction study that a service company was conducting via a DIY platform. Everyone was happy with the consistent 80% satisfaction score they were receiving. Then they started losing subscribers. They did another DIY survey, and could not figure out why. They eventually turned to a professional researcher for help. First, they were advised that rather than gloat about 80% of your customers being satisfied, they should be worried that 20% were not satisfied. The typical company threshold for unsatisfied customers is 5-10%. A little analysis gave them some big insights. They failed to see that the dissatisfied customers were downright irate with the service. They also failed to see that these customers were the heaviest users of their services. Losing 1% in customers from this group equated to losing 5% of revenue. They also failed to see that these irate customers were experimenting with competitive services.

In both of these cases, the execution of the research was fairly strong, but the interpretation was weak. Actions taken, based on these projects, were far more costly than it would have been to call in a professional in the first place.

More DIY Disasters

I have written before about the pitfalls of DIY research. Online tools such as Survey Monkey and Zoomerang make people think that anyone can design and execute a survey. And this is true, anyone can. But many people who try DIY surveys wind up with problems. DIY surveys do have their place, but too many people try to use them when they should not. I think of them as the Draino of research. You reach for the Draino when you have a simple clogged drain, but when the problem is more systemic, you call a plumber.

We hear about many of these disasters because clients call us to see if we can help them salvage what they have done. We try our best to help them, and in most cases some valuable learning comes out of the exercise. But we came across a couple recently that caused real problems.

The first project appeared simple enough. The problem is that the first question has multiple choice answers about product use, and more than one choice is appropriate. In fact, most consumers would have more than one choice. But the client inadvertently programmed the survey to only accept one answer. This meant that when people checked a second or third answer, the software deleted their previous answer. And since the software did not allow for a rotation of the answer list, this meant the survey reported a disproportionate, suspect number of people using the product at the bottom of this list. To complicate this problem, answers to this question drove the logic for almost all remaining questions. We could salvage some of the information, but most of it was lost.

The second project was a DIY survey where the client intercepted respondents on their own website. They hoped to get 400 interviews. They promised all respondents who completely the survey a $10 Amazon gift certificate. One little problem – the DIY software lacked quota control, or at least lacked one the client could find. Within 24 hours, they had about 5,000 completed interviews. Suddenly they were liable for $50,000 in incentives instead of the $4,000 they had budgeted.

So the next time you have the need for marketing research, ask yourself if you should reach for the Draino or call a plumber.

Rachel Ray Taught Me Two Things

Anyone who throws a burger on the grill has probably experienced a problem with the edges of the burger shrinking as it cooks. By the time you are finished, the burger can be almost triangular in shape, with the high peak in the center of the burger, sloping down to thin edges. One may be tempted to squash the center down with a spatula, but any wise grill master knows this squeezes out the good juices and can make the burger dry. This has always frustrated me, but not enough that I ever bothered to figure out a solution to my problem.

Then one afternoon we were lazily channel hopping. We came across Rachel Ray cooking burgers. There was the solution I needed. Very simply, when forming the patty, she instructed us to depress the center of the patty, so that the outer ring of the patty is higher than the center. A process similar to what a kid may do in a sandbox to form a “pond”. I tried this the next day, and miracle of miracles, the finished product was a perfectly shaped burger – a similar thickness throughout.

Now I have to confess that I can barely stand to hear Rachel Ray’s voice. Her annoying chatter, frantic pace, and childish smile get on my nerves. I usually flip right pass her when channel hopping. But the burger had caught my eye. It made me give her the benefit of the doubt and I watched the rest of the show. She still got on my nerves, but she also taught me something besides how to cook a good burger. She taught me to keep it simple. She takes basic steps of cooking and explains them in very simple terms. My first reaction was that she was being too simple. But then I remembered Ginelle from our office, who literally had to learn how to boil water when her and her husband first set up house. And I remembered my good friend Toby, who a few years back called me to ask if she needed to freeze leftovers from a restaurant carryout, even though she planned to eat them the next day. The first time she baked a potato, it was a major triumph. Rachel Ray speaks to these people. I hate to admit it, but she provides a valuable service. And yes Jackie, I know you and your foodie friends will cringe when you read this.

I think this is a valuable lesson that we need to keep in mind when designing surveys. Keep it simple. Too often, we, or our clients, assume the respondent knows more about the product or category than they really do. The next time you write a survey, stop and think how Rachel Ray may approach it.

How's business?

First, my apologies for being absent from my blog postings. I managed to post a new piece the first week of July, while I was on PTO, but nothing since. My excuse is that we are surprisingly, and gratefully busy with new projects. I’m also hearing from some other researchers that they have been very busy this summer. All of this is great news for our industry.

But like many people, I still worry about the economy, and I keep trying to find signs of a recovery. So I ask everyone I meet “how’s business”? During a recent visit to my doctor for my annual check-up, I asked my doctor the same thing. It may seem like a strange question to ask a doctor, but remember they are also in business. They have staff and bills to pay like any business.

I think he was a bit surprised by the question, but he had an immediate answer. Business has generally been good – people still get sick, but he did feel people were deferring preventive visits. The biggest surprise I got was his comment about their best customers – those with insurance. He is seeing that the insured, meaning those who are still working, are so busy (likely due to fellow workers being laid off) that they just don’t have time to get to the doctor. They wait until they absolutely have to go. That has impacted his business.

His observations are in line with a recent report that people who take prescription drugs for preventive purposes (such as blood pressure or cholesterol medicines) appear to be cutting back. They may take the drugs five days a week instead of seven. Over time, this saves them a bit on their co-payments.

So again, I am grateful that business is good for us right now. I hope I can hear more researchers say the same thing.

RII Survey

I have written about the Marketing Research Association’s Research Industry Index (RII) a few times. It is fast becoming the most trusted study measuring the health of the U.S. marketing research industry. It has the largest base of participant’s, across the broadest array of the industry (end clients, full service suppliers, field services, panel companies, qualitative and quantitative). The next wave of the survey, to capture second quarter ’09 results, launches this week.

This is my shameless plug to ask you to participate in the survey. If you are the owner or senior level management of a research company, or a senior level researcher within an end client (basically – you must be in a position to understand budget, research purchases, research sales and revenue), you should be taking this survey. While the survey has achieved reasonable media coverage, only survey participants receive a detailed report.

If you are interested in participating, drop me a note with your contact information. I will forward your information on to the MRA so you can receive a survey invite. As with all surveys, your answers are confidential and only reported in aggregate.

Pabst Blue Ribbon

This past weekend, we bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. While Pabst was part of my college years, back then I was more likely to reach for Cincinnati brewed Hudepohl or Schoenling. Nonetheless, I have not bought Pabst in many years. Honestly, I didn’t even know it was still available. We are more of a Pinot Noir or Syrah household these days. When we do buy beer for our friends, it is usually something like Pilsner Urquell or Peroni. But this weekend we bought Pabst Blue Ribbon. Because we are not a big beer consuming household, this may qualify Pabst as the brand of beer receiving the largest proportion of my beer purchases for the year.

Any of you who follow my blog regularly know that I tell these stores with a hook back into market research. This story has an especially important hook. When conducting a brand health tracker, you usually ask questions such as favorite brand, brand last bought and brand bought most often. If I had been interviewed, no offense to Pabst, but you would have been surprised that someone of my socio-economic status was buying Pabst – and even more so if you discovered it is the brand I bought the most.

The hook is that when doing a brand health tracker, we always recommend asking a critical “why” question to brand bought last or bought most often. Because this requires an open-ended question, it adds cost that some feel is not warranted.

Now I must tell you why I bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. We are big fans of beer can chicken. It is absolutely the best way to cook a whole chicken on the grill. Between now and this winter, we will probably cook a dozen beer can chickens. We have learned that it has to be beer, not coke, not lemonade, not wine. And we have learned that the quality of the beer does not matter. So we decided we should buy the cheapest beer possible. Pabst Blue Ribbon happened to be that beer last weekend.

If you have many respondents like me in your survey, and you don’t ask why, you could have distorted, misleading survey results.

I’d be interested to hear of other such situations where survey results are not what you think they are. And if you want the recipe for a killer beer can chicken, drop us a note.

When the Bad Economy is Good for Research

Ad Age recently quoted Hyatt’s global marketing head John Wallis as saying “throw out your old algorithms.” Economist Chris Kuehl, keynote speaker at the annual MRA conference, said “market research is more crucial now than ever in terms of separating reality from speculation.” Many of our clients are telling us that research completed as recently as two years ago is irrelevant and possibly misleading. We are seeing economic driven aberrations in long term tracking studies. While consumers may eventually go back to their old ways, it is clear that many of them have altered their current behavior. These changes are likely to last at least a couple of years. Bottom line, fresh research is critical.

So in my opinion, this is great news for marketing research. Companies know they are vulnerable. They are starting to ramp up their marketing research activities. Segmentation studies, concept tests, price/value studies, brand image studies, and tracking studies are all needed from this fresh perspective.

Your thoughts?

What is Twitter doing to WOM Tracking?

There has been a lot of recent press predicting the demise of Twitter. The stories all basically claim that Twitter lacks holding power. Statistics show that a large proportion of tweeters have no followers, or they are only following one person. In short, they are failing to build their personal network. Sharing San Francisco with Twitter as our home base, I hope the press is wrong.

But, I do have one gripe with Twitter. It has added a layer of complexity and cost to Word-of-Mouth (WOM) Tracking. With the recent growth in Twitter users, the number of mentions per day on the brands we have tracked has skyrocketed. Because most services charge on a “number of mentions basis,” the cost of WOM tracking is increasing. However, the quality of what we receive is not worth the added cost. Due to Twitter’s 140 character limitation, it is hard to put a brand name in context when it shows up in a tweet. It’s not impossible, but it takes a lot of interpretation.

I know this is a researcher’s problem, and it will be resolved. I imagine tracking services will start allow Twitterless tracking. Or they may charge a reduced fee for the Twitter mentions. It has taken a lot of effort to convince companies that they must do WOM tracking. I just hope this short term, Twitter driven added cost doesn’t scare them away.

Great Conference!

I was in Chicago last week for the annual MRA conference. This has to have been the best research conference of the year.

The conference got off to a great start with a rousing, informative, entertaining and uplifting keynote address on Wednesday afternoon. Who would have ever guessed I would use those words to describe a speech given by an economist from Kansas City. But that is exactly what Chris Kuehl was, fantastic!

The President’s Reception is always a great opportunity to see old friends and to make new acquaintances. It was nice to see friends such as Tom and Peggy O’Connor, Michele Elster and Barbara Peters. Of course there was a strong contingency of San Francisco Bay Area researchers at the conference. I was excited to see the international presence at the conference. I met people from Germany, France, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and even Dubai.

The educational sessions were outstanding. MRA continues to raise the caliber of the content and speakers. Given my involvement with PRC, it was exciting to see so many people waiting to be scanned to get their PRC credits after a session.

And finally, there was the evening glass of wine in the hotel lounge. This is where researcher’s let their hair down and relaxed. It is where new friendships started and old ones were rekindled. We were no longer clients and vendors, or competitors. We were one – there for the good of the profession.

I wish to commend the many MRA volunteers and staff who made this conference what it was. I can’t wait to see what you do this fall in San Diego!

Professional Research Certification

As you may or may not know, one of my many volunteer activities is as Chair of the Professional Research Certification (PRC) Board. This program, under the auspices of the MRA, was introduced several years ago to bring certification to the marketing research industry. A certification program has been a goal of many research associations for at least the past decade. The MRA made it happen.

There was obviously a clear demand for certification. There are now almost 1,100 active PRCers. Individuals are working hard to earn their educational credits that are required to be recertified. Researchers, employers and clients are seeing the value of PRC.

As with most new certification programs, all of the current PRCers were certified through a rigorous open-enrolment process. But the next, and the most exciting phase of PRC is about to roll-out. A committee of dedicated volunteers has been working to develop the certification test. All new applicants for certification must take and pass this proctored test. The test consists of 100 questions randomly selected from a battery of thousands of questions. No two tests will be alike. This phase will be beta tested next week in Chicago. After that, it will be scheduled on a regular basis around the country.

I am biased, but I am also very proud of what PRC has become. I would especially like to thank Jen Cattel, the Certification Manager with the MRA staff, and Ted Donnelly and Peter Van Brunt , two very hard working volunteers.

Cajun Country

Like many marketing researchers, business travel is a part of my life. A lot of people think business travel is glamorous and a real perk of the job. These are usually the people who don’t travel for business. After too many trips to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle; the trips become mundane. And thanks to the un-customer friendly tactics of the airlines, air travel has become a necessary evil.

One of my recent trips took me off of my usual path. Thanks to my friends at TABASCO, I found myself on Avery Island, in the southwestern part of Louisiana, the heart of Cajun Country. If you haven’t been to Cajun Country, you should go. I felt like I had traveled back in time. This is a place where manners are still of utmost importance, the pace is gentle and relaxing, and you are greeted with a sincerely warm smile. Yet business gets done. This trip reminded me that business travel can be a real perk.

Are you Chicago bound?

The annual MRA conference is fast approaching. It will be held the first week of June in downtown Chicago. While I am a bit biased (I sit on the national board of the MRA), this is the one industry conference I most look forward to. It draws a broad mix of end-clients, full service researchers, field services and panel companies.

The educational offerings are diverse, and help me earn the continuing education credits I need to maintain my PRC status. Every time I attend the annual conference, I bring back at least one new skill, perspective or tool that I use in my everyday research life. That one new learning that makes me a better researcher is worth the time and cost of the conference.

The networking opportunities are just as important as the educational offerings. It’s not about immediately gaining a new client. It is about making connections that will last a life time. It is about nurturing the relationship with our vendor partners. And in these challenging economic times, it gives me a chance to talk with my friendly competitors to share business management tips. I find my colleagues genuinely want to help this industry survive and thrive. There is a level of sharing that is unique to this industry.

Will I see you in Chicago?

Ethnography and the Recession: Part IV

I have written a few times about my observations, and those of others, of small signs that indicate how bad the economy really is. Finally, I have an observation that is positive. Perhaps it is a sign that the economy is starting to turn around.

I met a friend for cocktails last night. We wound up at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco (He reads this blog, and he bought the “way too expensive” cocktails, so thanks). Anyway, the cocktail lounge was packed. Every table in the expansive space was taken. We stayed a couple of hours, and the crowd never diminished. It was almost like a fantasy land. Everyone in the place appeared so relaxed, like they didn’t have a care in the world.

I was excited to see this. Have you seen any positive signs of a turn in the economy?

Twitterpated

Some time ago I wrote about how fast the dictionary is growing with new words due to the Internet and other technology changes. For example; words or phrases such as email, zine, esign, text me, webcast, and eblast are becoming part of our everyday vocabulary. Then there are the acronyms like LOL, TTYL and BRB. And sadly, with the current economy, rightsizing has replaced the word of downsizing. Verbs are becoming nouns and nouns are becoming verbs.

But recently, I was surprised to learn of a word that I didn’t even know existed, and it has already been repurposed. That word is twitterpate or twitterpated. As I understand it, when I rub my dog’s belly, and you get that rapid involuntary kick of their legs, they have been twitterpated. Then I discovered twitterpate has a second meaning thanks to the movie Bambi. It describes the giddy, butterflies in your belly, overcoming feeling of attraction and affection for another person. Or in Bambi’s case, when she became twitterpated with Feline.

But now there is a third definition of what I thought was a fairly obscure word. You are considered twitterpated when you are obsessed with Twitter. You can’t stop checking it.

For such a strange sounding word, it is surprising how quickly it has been adopted to three different definitions. Makes my head spin.

In the meantime, I’m off to walk my dog, and I’m sure she will twitterpate when I rub her belly after the walk.

Ethnography and the Recession: Part III

Since my previous postings on ethnography and the recession, several people have sent me their own observations. I thought it was worth sharing them here.

Ed Sugar shares two different observations:

“What I have been noticing as I wait at the checkout line at the grocery, more people are fumbling for change to pay and then ask for a sub-total to see if they can afford certain non-essential items. I am not just talking about little old ladies in the express line at Ralph’s, but affluent dressed/looking people at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.”

“For the last 6 years, I have been going to a local gym for a mid-afternoon workout, in order to miss the “lunch time workout” crowd. I enjoy having access to all the equipment and working out in facility that is not too crowded. Since mid-January, I have noticed that the gym is now packed between my desired hours.”

Ginelle Mills noted the following in fairly upscale Walnut Creek, CA.

“There was an amazingly long line of people waiting to interview for a job at the new Cheesecake Factory opening up in Walnut Creek. People who did not look like they would normally apply for a job at Cheesecake.”

Chris Yoerger notes:

“I now get in and out of Starbucks for my morning coffee in record time”

And finally, my own recent observation.

“While shopping at Macy’s, I had five different sales associates offer to help me within a 5 minute period. This is the same Macy’s where it used to be impossible to get a sales associate to even acknowledge you.”

What have you noticed?

Lousy Research

The San Francisco Chronicle recently gave most of a full page to the review of power toothbrushes. The story is at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/25/DD481635MI.DTL&hw=take+five+toothbrushes&sn=001&sc=1000.

The fact that they showed almost life size pictures of the toothbrushes should have given me the hint that the story was mostly fluff. In essence, this was an IHUT, and their approach bothered me. First, they pitted a high end Sonicare (retail of $169.99) against four lower end brands (retail of $4.89 to $14.19). Then, they had different reporters test different toothbrushes. I know it was only meant as a review, but what an awful approach.

Your thoughts?

Cell Phone Only Households

I have been watching the trend toward cell phone only households for some time. In fact, an article about this appeared in our newsletter about a year ago. If you are interested, the link is http://www.cooper-roberts.com/newsletters/Q108_Newsletter.htm#1. This trend can have a significant impact on the representation of telephone surveys. It is one reason we frequently recommend an online survey instead of telephone.

Many people have felt that this phenomenon was primarily limited to certain areas, like the west coast and the northeast. But a recent estimate by the CDC (I know, it seems odd that the Center for Disease Control would be interested in cell phone usage) claims that the largest proportion of cell phone only households is in Oklahoma and Utah (both estimated at 26%). The next highest states are places I didn’t expect – Nebraska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa and Kentucky.

Who would have figured?

Holidays and Market Research

I wore green this Tuesday, so did 82% of other Americans. I had a corned beef dinner at home last night, 33% of other Americans had some type of Irish meal at home last night. I am not of Irish descent, nor are 88% of other Americans. Still, many of us celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. It fact, Americans were expected to spend $3.3 billion on St. Patrick’s Day related purchases and activities this year. Cinco De Mayo is growing to also be a major day of celebration in the U.S. Celebration and expenditures on these holidays pales compared to the big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

So what happens if I take a survey on St. Patrick’s Day, or on Cinco De Mayo? Will my answers be biased in any way? We only buy and cook corned beef once a year. What if I had been asked to complete a survey on recent meat purchases? Cabbage, potato and Irish beer consumption also indexed high this week. While the foods of St. Patrick’s Day probably don’t see a lot of research (except beer), the foods of Cinco De Mayo see a lot more research. Think salsa, guacamole, tortillas, and beer (again).

If we tried to avoid all holidays, there would be very few weeks that we could do surveys. So that is impossible. Naturally we do avoid the big holidays. Other then that, you have to use some common sense. Ask yourself if the results could have had any holiday bias. Guinness may or may not want to complete surveys near St. Patrick’s Day – depending on their objectives.

Have you experienced any survey bias associated with holidays?

Ethnography and the Recession: Part II

I just returned from an MRA (Marketing Research Association) board meeting in New York. This was my first trip to New York since last June. It was somewhat of a shock for me to discover how depressing the mood is in New York. Clearly the impact of the financial markets is having a huge impact on the psyche of NYC. This led me to add to my list of an ethnographer’s observations on the recession.

• There was only one person ahead of me in the line to catch a taxi at JFK – compared to 40-50 people on my last trip.
• One of my “usual” restaurants, which had always been packed, was about one-third full, and they were running a $35.00 prix fixe meal offer.
• The organic salad, carry-out place that usually had a line out the door for lunch was almost empty.
• Many restaurants were offering everyday 25% to 50% discounts on a bottle of wine.
• The busiest restaurant in Times Square was McDonalds.
• My hotel dropped the room rate twice between my initial booking and my arrival.
• Fellow MRA board members were sharing tips during our breaks on what their firms are doing to cut costs.
  

Now I wonder if these are temporary lifestyle changes, or are Americans permanently changing the fundamental way they do things. Your thoughts?

Let it snow!

The Northeast is being slammed by a late winter snow storm today. Major cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are reporting substantial accumulation, delayed or canceled flights, and school closures. Even our clients in Baltimore could not get to their offices today. Many people stayed home from work today or are telecommuting.

What does this mean for marketing research? I have written before about the impact of sample deployment and the time of day. Without proper sample management, this can distort study results. A big Nor’easter, like the one hitting today, could also impact study results. Because of the storm, and many people staying home, are you likely to get more or less interviews from the Northeast today? Is their frame of mind different today? Will you get a different demographic profile today, perhaps more working moms than usual?

These are all things to think about when deploying sample. I’ve always said “I love a good snow storm, as long as I don’t have to travel in it”, but now I might also say “I love a good snow storm, as long as I don’t have to deploy sample”.

Ethnography and the Recession

Ethnography is a common tool used in marketing research. It generally involves observation of a person or group of people, in their natural environment. This got me to thinking that casual observations of what is going on around you are a form of ethnography. You can’t watch or read any news without hearing how bad the economy is. Putting my ethnography skills to work, I quickly picked up the signs of a bad economy. My approach is at least more entertaining than watching the news. Some examples….

• I can readily catch a cab right in front of my office – even on a rainy day. The last time this happened was during the dot com bust.
• The subway train I catch every morning is packed. This may at first appear contrary to my point. But once you realize they are now running 7 or 8 car trains instead of 10 car trains, you know why they are packed.
• The 3 people ahead of me at McDonalds (yes I do eat at McDonalds occasionally) all ordered off of the $1.00 value menu.
• Grocers are abandoning the “five for $5” or “ten for $10” sale ads and are advertising $1.00 prices.
• There’s no longer a line out the door at the organic salad place.
• Magazines are getting thinner due to less ads.
• There is a subtle trend toward smaller sample sizes for research projects.
  
  
  This list could go on and on. I’d be curious to hear what others have observed that points to a bad economy.

The Greening of Market Research

Like many businesses, we are doing our part to make our office more green. For example:

• We have eliminated plastic water bottles
• 100% of our employees use public transit to get to work
• We keep the office a few degrees cooler in the winter and a few degrees warmer in the summer
• We power down unused or seldom used equipment
• Everyone has a recycling container in their work space
• We have motion sensors in place to control lighting as people enter and leave rooms
  
  

But the biggest difference we have made is due to the fundamental change in the way much survey research is conducted. I did some math on the amount of paper a typical study used when we were still doing paper and pencil surveys. It came out to 11,450 sheets of paper, or almost 23 reams!

Once the industry moved to CATI systems, the paper usage shrunk to about 8 reams of paper per study. But with surveys moving online, and tab and report deliverables being mostly electronic, our average study now uses about 200 sheets of paper – or less than ½ of a ream. That’s a lot of trees saved!

Thank You Sandy Cooper!

Cooper Roberts Research just celebrated our 18th anniversary. It is hard to believe it was over 18 years ago that Sandy (Sanford) Cooper approached me about starting a new marketing research company. I first crossed paths with Sandy when I worked for a research company in Cincinnati. It was the early 1980s and he had recently left Burke, after a very successful career as their President and CEO. He had tired of being an “administrator” and wanted to get back to being a “researcher”. My company hired him on a short term contract to help improve the quality of their consumer research division. By the time he finished, most of the staff was people he recruited from Burke. I was one of only a handful of original employees that remained. Having become a business partner with him about ten years later, I have always found this somewhat ironic.

Sandy eventually went on to found Cooper Research, a very successful firm that specializes in healthcare research. I moved to the west coast with my original company. We stayed in touch over the years. In the later eighties, Sandy approached me about starting my own firm, with him as a founding partner. I would run the business; he would provide guidance and access to resources. Most importantly, he provided credibility. I rebuffed his suggestion for a number of years, but eventually I said yes. I think I would have probably started my own business anyway. But without Sandy, I probably would have waited another 5-10 years.

Sandy has been retired for sometime, but I know he stays informed about the industry. He even reads Merrill Dubrow’s blog. While I have thanked Sandy many times, I would like to use my public forum of this blog to once again say ‘thank you”. The first 18 years have been fantastic!

IHUT

Those of you who work in packaged goods and many other consumer household products probably know what an IHUT is. For those of you who do not, it stands for “In Home Use Test”. Basically, respondents are screened for study participation, then given product to use in their home. Afterwards, they complete a product evaluation survey. When I started in this business, it was just called a HUT, but it eventually morphed into an IHUT. I really don’t know why, and would love to hear from any one that knows the history behind the name change.

I mention IHUTs because the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter is all about IHUTs. If you didn’t receive a copy of the newsletter, the link is below:

http://www.cooper-roberts.com/newsletters/Q408_Newsletter.htm

Now I know many of you work in tech fields or primarily B2B products. You may think an IHUT doesn’t apply for you. But that is not completely true. We have used IHUTs to test video games, software, tech toys, computer devices, and small business products. Many of these frequently include an Ethnography component. And come to think about it, when we redirect a respondent to a test version of a web site, would that be considered an IHUT? After all, they are doing a new product evaluation.

Do you Offshore: Part Two

Last week I wrote about offshoring of backroom marketing research functions. In that post, I mentioned the frequency with which I am contacted regarding a request to send our business offshore.

Ironically, the number of requests I receive has increased substantially this week. Anyone who read my post last week would probably realize I am not a fan of offshoring. So why did the prospecting for my business increase? I am guessing it is driven by two things:

Bots have found my posting. Their users have incorrectly identified me as a good target for offshoring.
We noticed traffic to my blog from countries where much outsourcing happens has increased. So I suspect these people found my post, but again failed to pick up my negative tone toward offshoring.

It will be interesting to see what happens after this post.

Do you offshore?

For the past few months, I have been keeping track of the calls and emails I get from companies offering their offshore marketing research services to us. To my amazement, it has averaged 7 contacts per week. We are a moderate size research company. I can’t imagine how many times the larger firms are contacted. Most of the contacts are from India, but we also get the occasional contact from the Philippines or one of the Eastern European countries.

They use to primarily pitch the backroom operations of survey programming, data processing and tabulation, and occasionally phone interviewing. But these days they are also aggressively pitching statistical analysis, modeling, report writing and data analysis.

I can understand how offshoring of programming and data processing might make economic sense for the larger firms (who would keep a skeletal crew in the U.S. for these tasks). But for us, it just doesn’t make sense. We especially need data tabulation capabilities in-house. Without them, we would not be able to respond quickly to last minute “what ifs” from our analysts or clients. Sure, we could go back to the offshore company with special requests, but we would lose valuable time. In today’s pace, that’s time we can’t afford to lose.

I am, however, astounded to think companies are offshoring analysis and report writing. After all, the report is your final product. It is your depth of knowledge and insights that the client is paying for. Your local experiences with the product category and the culture also help craft your report. I just don’t understand how some stranger in India can produce an actionable report.

Am I missing the point? Are you having success with offshoring or have you faced disasters?

Hello 2009!

Like many people, I’m glad to say “good bye 2008, hello 2009”. Not too many business people have good things to say about 2008. The more favorable things I am hearing is “we survived”, “it could have been worse”, and “it’s behind us”.

“It could have been worse” probably sums up my feelings. It wasn’t a great year for the company, but it wasn’t a disaster either. And we learned from the experience. We found more efficient ways to do things, we realized we had more fat in our overhead than needed, and we reignited the team spirit. I would like to thank our employees, clients, vendors, family and friends who helped us get through such a challenging year. I truly had the opportunity to work with an inspiring group of people in 2008.

But on to 2009… Fortunately, our first quarter is looking very good. At least for now, it feels like the old times. I hope this is a sign of good things to come for us, the research industry, and the U.S. economy. Maybe we can all forget about 2008 real soon.