Rock Research Blog

How 1 Week Turns into 5 Months

Jared Bothwell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:43:51 +0000

Wow! It has now been 5 months since my last entry on the blog. Something that was supposed to be a weekly exercise has now really lapsed. While a brand new baby in the family has had a lot to do with my tardiness, summer weather has also got in the way. Unless I throw the gauntlet down I suspect a new entry will be some time away. So be prepared for next week for some new hard hitting rocking commentary on the wonderful world of marketresearch. See you then!

Crowdsourcing and Market Research

Jared Bothwell — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:12:43 +0000

The Internet has helped to create a language of its own, a language which is hard to keep up with. The great thing about 'crowdsourcing' is that you can kinda figure out what it means just the word its self (unlike names like twitter, google, bing). Obviously it has something to do with sourcing something with crowds. Turns out when I looked a bit closer 'Crowdsourcing' isn't that new and it means a little more than sourcing from crowds.

Why won?, Why lost?, Why missed?-Surveys for Greater Customer Insight

Jared Bothwell — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:27:28 +0000

Customer satisfaction surveys tend to dominate thinking when it comes to surveying customers. Yet, there are plenty of other ways to gain insights into your customer base by asking a few quick questions. 'Why won?', 'Why lost?' and 'Why missed?' surveys are just one example. And if you don't have any customers they are also quite useful for dating. 'Why won?', 'Why lost?' and 'Why missed?' surveys are a series of customer insight surveys that are practically guaranteed to give you the information and insights that any business requires in order to retain existing customers, win back old customers and win new business. I first came across 'Why won?', 'Why lost?' and 'Why missed?' surveys in my first job as a market researcher when I was straight out of university. I was immediately stuck by the simplicity of the concept but like most things often it is the simple ideas that are the best (excluding factor and conjoint analysis).

Why Won?

Gaining a new client may mean the popping of champagne corks and a flurry if high fives all around the office.

When DIY Customer Satisfaction Surveys Go Horribly Wrong

Jared Bothwell — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:22:49 +0000

Customer satisfaction surveys are a great way to find out how you are performing in the eyes of your customers. With the benefits of customer surveys generally well understood, many organisations have employed market research companies to undertake the work for them while some opt for the DIY option. I imagine the DIY option is generally chosen because of the associated cost savings. I mean, why pay someone when you can do it yourself? That's why I mow my own lawns, it's not because I love lawn-mowing, it's because I prefer not to pay someone else when I can do it myself (not to mention the degree of discomfort I feel when watching TV while having the lawn-mowing man sweating outside - dam you lawn-mowing man for making me feel guilty!). Yet, there are sometimes when the professional touch is required, something which my experience below demonstrates.

10 Best Songs to do Market Research to

Jared Bothwell — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:01:41 +0000

Below is a list of the 10 best songs (IMHO) to do market research to.

10. Listen To What The Man Said - Paul Mccartney & Wings

9. Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles

8. Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys

7. Cant You Hear Me Calling - Ricky Skaggs (This one goes out to all telephone interviewers)

6. I Can’t Be Satisfied - Muddy Waters

Google Makes Online Surveys Easier with Google Docs

Jared Bothwell — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:40:51 +0000

Just saw in TechCrunch that Google have enhanced some of the Google form features which have improved Google Forms survey capabilities. Just last week I ran a quick tutorial on how to build a survey using 'Google Forms'.

NZ Marketing Magazine – Under New Management

Jared Bothwell — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:15:33 +0000

I was kicking myself after subscribing up to New Zealand Marketing for two years to find out a week later that 3media (the magazine publishers) had gone into liquidation. To be frank I wasn't actually that keen on subscribing to the magazine but it was a pretty good deal (now I know why) and is really the only industry magazine that we have so felt duty bound to support it. The beef I had with NZ Marketing (and a lot of other business magazines) is that a great deal of the contributors are industry participants who clearly have a vested interest in the topic they are writing about. The problem I have with a lot of the articles is that often they read more like advertorials or at best tip sheets (i.e. six steps to a better brand etc.) What the articles often are not are well balanced, objective or particularly that interesting. If you look closely you will often find an advert by a contributing writer in the same edition. Off course this is not always the case but often it is.

Using Google Forms for Online Market Research

Jared Bothwell — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:59:49 +0000

Previously I wrote about using Google Apps for online surveys, I though I would take a closer look and find out just how easy it was. The first step is to setup up a Google account. I guess most folks for have one by now but if you don't it is a fairly easy process and can be done when you sign up for Google Docs. By the way if you haven't heard of Google Docs it is essentially a bunch of office tools that are available online. The great thing is that they are based on cloud computing so the software and data is not stored on your system but stored on severs somewhere in Google land meaning you can access your documents from anywhere. Being online means it makes document collaboration a cinch too. To demonstrate how Google forms can be used I have set up a basic survey in order to get a feel for it. Click here to have a look.

How to Set Up A Survey Using Google Forms

Once you have your set up your account you create your first survey.

1. Select form from under the 'New' tab

You can see that you can also select other documents including spreadsheets, word documents and presentations.

2. Select Question Type

The question types available are fairly basic but should suit the requirements for most simple surveys.

3. Design Your Survey Questions

From here on in building your survey is pretty straight forward. The interface is clean and straightforward making it possible for most people to build a fairly simple online survey.

Phone Surveys – is this the end?

Jared Bothwell — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:24:26 +0000

Jeffrey Henning in his article Do phone surveys have a future? argues that while phone surveys have suffered at the hands of online surveys there is still a place for the telephone in the market research process. A point which I completely agree with. While online surveys are essentially our bread and butter we have recently completed a number of recent projects where telephone interviews have been used successfully to capture the type of data that an online survey could never get.

Dilbert and Market Research

Jared Bothwell — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:14:23 +0000

One of my favourite market research strips from Dilbert.