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.