I have just come off a Webex online conference titled ‘Serenity in the Storm – How Researchers are Achieving Deeper Insight in Spite of the Chaos’ held by Quirks Marketing Research review.
One of the key market research trends that was identified during the course of the conference call was the growing number of companies that were choosing to develop their own internal market research departments and to ‘in-source’ research requirements. (bear in mind that this is a US persepctive)
One of the main drivers behind research insourcing is the rapid development of survey technology which has made running market research projects much easier. While the pros and cons of this were discussed it seems that market research companies will just have to deal with these developments. To be honest it does not phase us at all.
Here at Rock Research we have recognised this trend and have developed services to support companies complete their own market research. We have the choice of DIY surveys or we are also happy to provide consulting and guidance in the completion of market research projects.
This support can involve:
Survey Design
Questionnaire Design
Survey Sampling
Research Methodology
Data Analysis and Reporting
Research Consulting
This ‘pick & mix’ approach to market research means that companies can have the best of both worlds. The cost efficiency’s of insourcing market research with the expertise of an experienced market research team to provide support and technical expertise.
The surge in popularity of social networking sites has seen an increase in the number of groups dedicated to market research professionals. While some are of interest to the consumers of market research i.e. the client most are of interest to market researchers.
I have to admit I was pretty dubious of these sites and wasn’t really expecting very much from them. To date my main interaction with other market researchers (apart from direct colleagues) has been via the Market Research Society (of which Rock Research is a proud member of) and I have found it a pretty guarded atmosphere.
What I have found with these groups is some really rigarous, interesting and sometimes entertaining debate. One of things I have found really cool and refreshing is the openness and willingness to share information that exists in these networks.
One group that I have found partuclary useful is Next Gen Market Research on LinkedIn. Next Gen Market Research while focused on the US has over 3000 memebrs and seems to be growing strongly.
The market has changed, the customers have changed, why should consumer insight be the same? Marketing Research/Consumer Insights have changed little since the mid 90’s and still offer only 1.0 Insights. This is a group for US professionals with 7+ y/exp who want more than traditional MR Read the rest of this entry »
This may be a first, I saw this on the Unite website where it states that 20 market research workers at Synovate went on a hunger strike.
The researchers are based at the Synovate call centre in Auckland. The strike is focused on the pay difference between New Zealand researchers and their higher paid colleagues in Australia.
Currently market researchers in the Auckland Synovate office are on pay rates starting from $12.50 compared to $21.50 an hour in Australia.
Overall, not a very good look for Synovate. I hope they get it sorted for all concerned.
Business networking site LinkedIn has launched LinkedIn Surveys. This gives an excellent opportunity to tap into the 30 odd million professionals that belong to the site. It is reported that a number of surveys have already been undertaken.
LinkedIn offers the opportunity to survey the type of people that are normally pretty hard to get hold of. The sampling capabilities are quite varied as well. There is the ability to search for business professionals by a wide range of combinations including;
Company. Search for current or former employees. Optionally exclude employees from publicly traded companies or from companies that may present a potential conflict of interest.
Industry. Find professionals in one or more of nearly 150 industries.
Title. Search for professionals by their current or past business title.
Expertise. Look for those professionals with specific expertise in the product or market that you are researching.
Keywords. Use keywords to find professionals by skills, experience, seniority, education, companies, and more.
With the depth of information that LinkedIn has about some very influential people the potential seems enormous. They will need to be careful to manage this service carefully as it could easily irritate and allentate LinkedIn members if used too aggressively.
I see that Apple has sent out a survey to conduct a customer satisfaction with its iPhone 3G customers.
While it seems that iPhone customers are the most satisfied what I am interested in is the possibilities that the new wave of smart phones will have on the market research industry and how surveys are deployed.
With more and more people using their mobiles to check their emails the possibilities that your survey will be completed on a phone increases. This can only mean faster response rates and opens up the possibilities for instant feedback.
There are a number of limiting factors though. Data plans in NZ are currently far from generous and while completing a survey does not generally take a lot of data the survey will be completed by the respondent at considerable expense to themselves.
Also, with the Smart phone war developing rapidly a number of browsers are being used across platforms. The survey needs to be able compatible with those platforms. I suspect it is early days with this technology but I believe that market research and online surveys on mobile phones can only increase.
Recently I have just dug up my lawn and turned it into an organic garden so was quite keen to see what more we could to do to green Rock Research. It turns out that we are doing pretty good already.
Turns out the article is pretty generic really with the main thrust of the article being how you can reduce carbon emissions associated with travel and using less energy when you stay at Hotels (i.e. stay at a Hotel with an LCD panel instead of a plasma).
The one suggestion that did stand out is Increase your use of digital tools. Well it is talking to the converted, here at Rock we love online surveys and it is great to know that we are helping the planet with our efforts.
It stands to reason that when considering a research methodology thought should be given to the impact the methodology has on the planet. When practical consideration should be given to reducing paper intensive surveys like mail surveys and face-to-face surveys which generally require significant travel.
To conclude there a lot of things that businesses can do to reduce their impact on the planet. Where Market Research companies can start to make smart decisions is when recommending and selecting research methodologies. Here at Rock Research our focus is on methodologies that utilise digital technology. Not only will these save you money, they are solution which has less impact on the planet.
Living in the information age means that we are now bombarded with survey results informing us on a huge range of topic from politics to sleeping habits.
What is a Survey? is a booklet taken from the American Statistical Association (ASA) series of the same name which has been edited by Fritz Scheuren. The booklet has one glaring omission which is a section on online surveys. As it was written sometime ago the omission is understandable but does date the article. Still it gives a good insight to telephone and mail surveys.
I came across this segment from the Tom Hanks movie ‘Big’. Tom (playing the role of a child in an adults body) is in a new product demonstration for a toy company and highlights the fact that the toy that transforms from a building into a robot just isn’t fun. The presenter points to the company’s past success in the market therefore asserting that he knows what the market wants. The point is that he is way off the mark and they are guilty of not understanding there market. Read the rest of this entry »
In the the August 2008 editorial titled Customer Service : Can’t Get No Satisfaction published in the the NZ Marketing Magazine analysis undertaken of the disconnect between brand promise and customer experience.
The results of the survey revealed that only 33 percent of respondents were satisfied with the level of customer service they receive. (The remaining 67 percent were either dissatisfied or had neutral feelings.) The survey also highlighted that women were more likely to be satisfied than men (34 percent versus 27 percent) and that the over-30s tended to be less satisfied with levels of customer service.
Customers identifed three key areas where they wanted to see improvements. These were:
A willingness to help
The ability to listen and understand the customers’ needs
Take responsibility and ensure those needs are met
Pretty easy really, the hard part is trying to figure out where to focus your attentions. This is where a customer survey is pretty handy. Survey resulst will enable you to idenitfy your strengtsh and weakness in the deliveri of the customer expereince. We all know that we need to keep our customers satisfied, what we often don’t know is where as an orgaisation we may be letting our customers down. The soultion – seek and you shall find, or more simply put, just ask!
Market Research Space is described as “A place for market and social researchers to share views, to look at new tools, to explore job opportunities, and to simply hang out.”
While relatively new the growth of Market Research Space has been impressive with (to date) 305 members signed up. Members appear to be a good mixture of market research professionals and groupies from around the world. It will be interesting to see how it grows but if the current growth continues I can only imagine the potential is large. Currnelty the site seems active with a number of on-going discussions.
March 26th, 2009 by 
Jared Bothwell 
The surge in popularity of social networking sites has seen an increase in the number of groups dedicated to market research professionals. While some are of interest to the consumers of market research i.e. the client most are of interest to market researchers.
This may be a first, I saw this on the 
