Earlier this month I had the chance to present at the Market Research Technology Event in Las Vegas. Beyond the fact I just could not get accustomed to watching people walk by conference rooms swigging beer and wearing in flip flops; for me the event raised more questions than provided answers.
During the conference, one of the most quoted reports was McKinsey’s: Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. For me, one of the most striking takeaways from the report was a prediction that by 2018, the US will have a shortage of talent necessary for organizations to take advantage of big data—the US alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis to make effective decisions.
After we market researchers take a moment to celebrate our job security, we should consider that skilled market researchers will be asked to fill the space by taking on more tasks and working longer hours. As the gap widens between the influx of data and the analysts we need to make sense of it, are 80 hour weeks inevitable? Certainly workforce globalization will be a key to filling “big data” needs, but I was very surprised to hear little discussion of how technology will help us deal with this shortage.
I left the conference with the theory that the “new technology” we need is the yet-to-be-realized application of a tool to change a process to yield a quicker, lower cost, or better quality outcome. I think market researchers have yet to focus on how technology can act as a surrogate for the role they play within their organizations
So what might the future hold? I expect technology will allow market researchers to develop “analytical bots” to make sense of the vast ocean of data to answer specific business questions raised by internal clients. Watching Watson and Siri answer questions of fact with extremely high accuracy makes me wonder what our role will be. If these machines “have all the answers” then what purpose do we have? I don’t believe technology will replace market researchers; their skillset and output are still critical for companies to be competitive. The purpose is to create the rules and algorithms that convert the facts into relevant information. This is where market research skills will combine with technology to fill the resource gap.
We’ve heard a lot about expert systems—computer systems that emulate human decision-making. It’s my view that the market researchers who will lead in the next 5 to 7 years will be those who are setting up and managing expert systems, that take all of the facts and computations within large sets of data and apply what is relevant, to make decisions quickly, anywhere, and at any time.
Did you miss us at TDMRE? We'll be at the Audience Measurement Event in Chicago from May 21st to the 23rd. Register for a 25% discount by entering CMB2012 here.
Posted by Jeff McKenna, Jeff is a senior consultant at CMB and team leader for Pinpoint Suite-our innovative Customer Experience Management software. Want to learn more about how Pinpoint Suite can help you make sense of your "Big Data," schedule a demo here.
If you live in Eastern New England, I am willing to bet you’ve seen a Jordan’s Furniture ad. Like Giant Glass (1-800-54-Giant!) and Bernie and Phyll's (quality, comfort and price—that’s nice!), it’s a brand we New Englanders recognize instantly. For those of you outside the Northeast, Jordan’s is a 5 store chain in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. And while
they are known for their creative ads, the store's core message is always the same:
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We have a wide variety of products at low prices
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We’re local and we serve the locals
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We offer “shopper-tainment”—an experience above and beyond a typical store
Our work with brands at CMB tells us that defining the brand promise and how it matches up with a customer’s experience is more effective than measuring satisfaction in a vacuum. And when CMB works with clients to measure and understand customer experience we take the components of the brand’s value proposition and measure them for all the possible ways customers experience the brand—from how customers research products, to the promotions, to the in-store shopping experience.
A recent trip to Jordan’s with my husband and 2 year-old, had me thinking about the multiple elements that make up the customer experience. I hadn’t been to Jordan’s in years, but I remembered a lot of activity, including a trapeze. Back then, I walked right by and did what I needed to do. But this time the “activity,” which was a bit distracting the first time around, was a welcome addition for entertaining my daughter. There’s an enormous Wally the Green Monster, mini-cars for the kids to drive, ice cream, and a ton of other fun stuff that allowed me to shop – dare I say—leisurely.
My trip to Jordan’s highlighted how the different elements of shopping have changed for me over the past few years—I’ve gone from single girl to married with a 2 year old and another baby due any minute. Long gone are the days of casual shopping. But now the experience is a greater consideration for where I will shop, and the shopping experience is something Jordan’s has mastered.
I can’t ignore the big question, did I buy anything? Not this time, but let’s just say that Jordan’s is high on my list the next time I need to shop for furniture. Would this type of experience deter the singletons who could do without the trapeze and fountain show? Maybe, but, Jordan’s knows their market, how to speak to them, and how to deliver. They kept their brand promise and have increased my likelihood to return. Well done.
Tara Lasker is Director of Project Operations at CMB, she welcomed a brand new baby boy on Monday, and will no doubt have many more opportunities for buying furniture in the future.
It’s not the size of the venue; it’s the quality of the content. That was the case for a local 
conference I attended last week at Babson College. Using Social Media to Redefine the Customer Value Proposition, was held by the Retail Supply Chain Institute in partnership with the Babson Alumni and Friends Network, and had an impressive lineup of speakers including executives from Google, Hubspot, Staples, Radian6, GaggleAMP, and EMC. The event was an opportunity for companies to share how they are leveraging advances in social media, mobile, and other online technologies to engage customers and increase loyalty. Here are a few of the highlights:
Dhruv Grewal, Toyota Chair of Commerce & Electronic Business and Professor of Marketing at Babson College, moderated and kicked off the event with an overview of how social media helps companies redefine their customer value proposition, moving it from a static proposition to a dynamic value proposition that is able to respond quickly to market changes. According to Professor Grewal, companies need to utilize the 4 E’s of social media to:
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Excite customers with interesting offerings to align their needs with your company’s offerings
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Educate them with information about your product offerings to increase share-of-wallet
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Engage in a dialogue with them and their network to help differentiate your products from competitors’offerings
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Help them Experience how your company’s goods/services are better aligned with their needs
Mike Gottfried, Head of Industry, Retail at Google gave a great overview of the company’s vision for the future and debunked the idea that Google+ was developed to be in direct competition with Facebook. He talked about Google’s approach to mobile (predicting that soon more people will own smartphones than computers) and their commitment to launching new products and innovations, first on mobile and then on traditional platforms. He suggested that we not think of Google+ as a channel, but rather as a “common thread” for their product and services. Their mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. According to Google, currently 1 in 5 desktop searches and 1 in 2 mobile searches are related to location. Information must be discoverable (meaning fast and relevant), local, mobile, social, and personal.
Mike Ewing, Senior Inbound Marketing Consultant, at Hubspot gave an overview of inbound commerce and how it is driven by three components: content, search, and social media. According to Mike, it starts with responding to how customers make decisions—when they show interest and a readiness to buy. He suggested that it is optimal for a company blog to be updated 2-3 times a week and create effective content by starting with the questions your customers are asking.
Kevin Biondi, Director of Digital and Technology Marketing, at Staples reviewed some of the elements of Staples’ successful approach to digital marketing. Specifically, Kevin discussed the tremendous growth and impact of daily deals. In an effort to optimize their deals, Staples continually uses experimentation. Kevin suggested that while most companies tend to be risk averse, when it comes to social media, experimentation is the key to success.
Keith Paul, Chief Listener, at EMC, spoke about how they structure social media listening. EMC has a “spoke wheel” structure—and he heads up a social media center of excellence and provides guidance to several internal groups that use social media data. He spoke about ECN, a network that EMC created to connect 250k+ customers with product help. On the ECN site and YouTube, EMC has successfully utilized video to communicate their corporate social media policies in a highly engaging way. Another example Keith gave was EMC One, an internal network they use for collaboration. Keith shared that product launches are now announced online via social media and they “listen” to the market’s response and increasing interest.
Thanks to one of our methodologists, Scott Motyka, who served on the conference planning committee and kindly invited me to attend.
Click here to read about more of our upcoming conferences, webinars and events
Posted by Cathy Harrison, Cathy is CMB’s social media research maven. Follow her on Twitter at @VirtualMR
A recent report from Starwood Hotels made the provocative claim that: “73% of travelers would choose loyalty-program benefits over a spouse if they could take just one on the road.” It's a great headline, but speaking as a member of three airline loyalty programs, I would choose my husband over any benefits.
Travelling back and forth to Japan with my daughter since she was an infant has only reinforced this. For example, my loyalty program gives me the following benefits (this includes the family loyalty program benefits that I get from using my father’s points):
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Possible upgrade to business class (depending on dates and vacancy)
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Being able to bring more luggage
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Use of the airline lounges in Tokyo before boarding
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Priority boarding
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Connecting to an agent faster on the phone
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Earning of duty free “points and gift certificates” that can be used to buy duty free products, extra food, and alcohol on the plane
These loyalty benefits sounds pretty appealing, but of course they are not nearly as exciting when you are travelling alone with a small child, when there is absolutely no time to enjoy your extra benefits. I've had the following experiences more than once:
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When I go to the lounges I’m greeted with the why-are-you-bringing-a- screaming-toddler-in-here-face.
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I can get priority boarding having a toddler traveling with me anyways, so I don’t need the loyalty benefits to board earlier; I usually wait until the last moment to board anyway so my daughter uses up as much energy as possible before we board.
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I never have the time to flip through the duty free magazine to shop, and by the time my daughter is finally asleep, the on-board duty free service on board is over.
So, it seems I’m part of the 27%, according to this research. I would much rather bring my spouse on the long flight to Japan. In fact, I would give up all of my loyalty benefits just so I can take some time to sleep, rest, go to the bathroom alone, not have to walk back and forth to walk my daughter on the plane, and not have to chase her all over the airport during transition.
The article also claims three-quarters of respondents would take extra trips to bump up their loyalty status. I would definitely consider taking extra trips to bump up my status to get free daycare at transitioning airports, and maybe a nanny to watch over the kids and change diapers on the flight. But for now, I wouldn’t trade my husband for any of the loyalty rewards they could offer; especially since I'm taking my 5 year old and a newborn to Japan this summer.
So what do you think, what loyalty rewards matter to you?
Posted by Tomoko Shimizu-Brennan, Tomoko is a data manager at CMB; she welcomed an adorable baby boy on April 3rd. She is very excited about the new direct flight from Boston to Tokyo in April.
R
emember the heyday of the music industry? Remember how the big music companies pulled off a nearly unthinkable feat—convincing consumers to re-buy previously purchased products (vinyl) on a new medium (CD)? That’s what can happen when you’re the only game in town.
In addition to generating “found” revenue, the move from vinyl (including vinyl 45s) to CD had another profound impact—it solidified the album as the industry's unit of purchase. Hear a song you like? Hand over ten or fifteen dollars and you can own it. We’ll of course throw in other songs; maybe you'll like them, maybe you won’t. But you really have no other choice.
Somewhere along the line, young consumers—college students especially—got it into their heads that they no longer wanted to pay for music. And, as hard as it is to believe, they were even less interested in paying for music they didn’t want in the first place. File-sharing sites like Napster were happy to oblige. Not only did consumers begin downloading music for free, but perhaps more significantly, they also embraced a new type of music business model—an à la carte, unbundled model, where they could choose only the music they wanted. How quickly did the music industry adapt? Well, you know how that played out….
Young consumers appear to be at it again, poised to disrupt another industry that's built its fortunes on a bundled-service business model and on being the only game in town: the pay TV industry. The numbers aren't huge yet, but 5% of consumers in our recent New Age of Television study say they've never had a pay TV subscription. If you’re thinking that these are the folks with aluminum-foil rabbit ears on their TV sets, think again. Half of these "never had pay TV" household decisionmakers are 22-30 years old (more than double the percentage in the study’s total sample) and 63% have college degrees (also higher than the norm) Their income is lower than average, but they've chosen to spend their money on broadband service (they had to have broadband to be included in our study), and not on cable and satellite.
And yes, they are watching TV and movies. They're just accessing that content the same way they presumably learned to do so in college—on their laptops (72% watched on a computer in the week prior to the study), and finding content from aggregators like Hulu (43%), network TV sites (33%), and file-sharing sites (10%). They’re accessing the specific programs they want without paying for unwanted programs or networks in a bundle. They may have to wait a year to watch the first season of Homeland, but that may not be a huge deal, considering how much they'd need to pay for that privilege and how much other content is available online.
The multimillion-dollar question: Will these young consumers eventually get pay TV? The answer: unlikely, at least based on what they told us. Only 15% said that they would definitely or probably sign up within the next 3 years.
Three years is practically an eternity in today’s TV world; who knows what will happen between now and then? Once these consumers settle in to a more stable life, start a family, and make more money, they could decide that the convenience of picking up a single remote for access to a ton of content is too attractive to resist. But then again, by that time someone may come up with an online solution that's just as, or even more, convenient. And maybe it will be less expensive.
We're going to keep an eye on "never had pay TV” consumers in future waves of our study. And the industry will probably want to as well. After all, it’s not as if college graduates—looking for places to live, comfortable accessing content online, and with limited finances—are going to be in short supply any time soon.
Posted by Peter Fondulas. Peter is co-author of the New Age of TV study, a CMB consultant, and President of Fondulas Strategic Research.
Download the summary report The New Age of Television: How Consumers Make Choices in a New Era of Entertainment Options
As I prepare for my 14th Boston Marathon, I find myself thinking about food a lot, and when you’re on training runs there is no shortage of candy to keep you fueled. I have come to find our candy stations reveal a little known fact about us runners— we DO NOT like green apple Jolly Ranchers. How did I come to this revelation? I didn’t interview my teammates, convene a focus group, or field a questionnaire— it was obvious from seeing dish upon dish of lonely green candies.
This type of observation, also known as an unobtrusive measure, can be pretty handy. Museums can look at wear patterns in the carpet, in front of exhibits, to see which are the most popular, and social media researchers can get a good understanding of what people think about a brand using social media listening. I was comfortable concluding my group of runners does not like Jolly Ranchers. But when I took a look at CMB’s 5th floor candy bowl—almost empty—except for five or six green Jolly Ranchers, I wondered, does NO ONE like these things?
I needed to investigate a little further. On Friday, I asked my fellow team members why the apple Jolly Ranchers were always the last to go, and I got some feedback that helps explain why that is. One person cited that apple was actually her favorite “because they are the most tart” but that she didn’t know about the candy dish. I realized that she joined CMB after the advertising blitz that took place when I launched the dish. Another team member said she found apple “a little bit too tangy” but that she liked them better than the cherry variety. She explained that she loves fresh cherries, but hates the cherry flavor because it reminds her of the cough medicine she had to take as a kid.
While my unobtrusive observations accurately recognized that apple was definitely the last standing in the candy dish, the feedback I garnered from my colleagues not only helped me to identify an awareness issue but also highlighted a weakness of cherry Jolly Ranchers. Even if my census of my 5th floor colleagues didn’t provide too much insight into the whole Jolly Rancher market, it does remind me what unobtrusive measures can and can’t do and why asking questions can uncover things simple observation can’t.
Posted by Lynne Castronuovo, Lynne is a Senior Project Manager at CMB, guardian of the 5th floor candy dish, and will run her 14th Boston Marathon on Monday April, 16th.
Interested in learning how quantitative data and online conversation can lead to richer insights? Watch our Tools and Tricks Webinar with CMB's Jeff McKenna and iModerate's Christine Tchoumba. Watch here.
The recent NY Times’ article about people's exhaustion with customer satisfaction surveys made the CMB email rounds in record time. The gist of the article is that people are tired of being asked to fill out customer satisfaction surveys before, after, and during every minor transaction they have with a company. They especially don’t like being pressured by a pleading cashier to “please help me out” and take a survey.
As a company with specialties in customer experience and loyalty—analysis that is dependent on customer feedback—the piece hit a nerve. And the takeaways from the article are worth discussing in a bit more detail:
Surveys that are too long exhaust and annoy people
On the surface there’s not much news here, asking screen upon screen of questions is going to negatively impact more than just response rates, it makes people cranky. The article mentions an excellently titled blog post Infant Who Begins Babies “R” Us Customer Satisfaction Survey Dies of Old Age from a woman who wrote about her displeasure at being asked to complete a questionnaire of more than 45 questions. And it certainly matches up with our findings that ideal survey length is 3 to 6 minutes—any shorter and you may not be giving the respondent enough time to answer, too much longer and you risk making them feel like you don’t value their time.
To incent or not to incent...
that is the question. The answer is a bit more complicated than the Times article suggests. The article quotes Vanderbilt University Management Professor Robert Oliver: “The frequent requests to fill out these surveys, especially with no incentives, have been so annoying that people just stop doing it.” And while it’s true that a subset of survey takers are motivated primarily by monetary incentives or free gifts, the top motivation for more people is a desire to improve the company, its products or services. Saying thank you and letting people know that the collected information will improve service is an effective incentive in itself.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
As the article says, the availability of online surveys, free apps, and mobile platforms, means anyone can administer a survey pretty much anywhere. This is problematic, not only because good questionnaire design and data analysis requires specialized skills, but because a constant barrage of questions can feel like harassment.
I love surveys and I will take one anytime I can, but even I don’t like the feeling of being pressured by cashiers, or forced to answer questions before I complete a transaction. There is a difference between asking people for their time to help improve the company and browbeating them into providing data. A moratorium on forcing customers to answer questions before their card goes through at the register would be an excellent start.
Make a plan before you survey
One of the problems we see, that the Times article doesn’t cover, is the distressing fact that two-thirds of companies report problems with managers not knowing what to do with the data. Many companies are collecting data with no idea how to apply it or improve the customer experience. Without a focused plan for addressing and applying customer feedback, companies are just going through the motions, and that's a loss for customers and companies alike.
Learn more about our strategic approach to customer satisfaction surveys and best practices in our free download: Putting the Customer First in Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Posted by Megan McManaman. Megan is CMB's Content Marketing Manager. She is having a lot of fun with the 1940 Census data and recently realized her dream of taking the American Community Survey.
Imagine a company whose principle mission is to treat clients fairly, one that operates, not at low-cost but “at-cost,” and is beholden only to its clients—not Wall Street or wealthy shareholders. At a time when a social movement, based largely on deep displeasure with the financial industry, has exploded across the country, these are very attractive attributes.
Vanguard, doesn’t need to imagine that company, it’s been operating as a client-owned investment management company since 1975. But, to spread the word about their offerings and what differentiates them from other firms, they needed to get creative. TV, print, and social media all have their place, but explaining the “at-cost” concept isn’t easy to do in a static ad or 140 character tweet. Moreover, when you are owned by your clients, spending tens of millions of dollars on an expensive TV campaign runs counter to your mission. And so the Vanguard At-Cost Café was born, a traveling coffee truck, serving investment information, and coffee at-cost…for 28 cents!
Today, I grabbed 84 cents and two of my colleagues to check out the Café for myself. Aside from the almost irresistible allure of 28 cent coffee, the At-Cost Café is an excellent example of how a company can make an impression when so many of us have become expert at tuning out ads. Vanguard did this by connecting one of the most appealing, but least understood, aspects of their company to a concrete, easily grasped concept like really, really cheap coffee. In addition to the coffee, Vanguard had baristas, video monitors, QR codes, and printed materials readily available to further enlighten the many thankful coffee drinkers about the company, its values, and its financial offerings in more detail.
The At-Cost Café is a success because it feels like much more than a marketing gimmick. As the company described the effort, the Café is: "...a part of Vanguard’s ongoing effort to educate investors on the impact of investment costs, the At-Cost Café will be touring select cities to demonstrate how investors can save thousands of dollars simply by paying attention to the price tag on their investments." From my perspective Vanguard accomplished this mission and raised the bar for connecting with customers and prospects by being innovative, straightforward, and informative—that and 28 cents will get you way more than a cup of coffee!
Posted by Jim Garrity. Jim Garrity is VP of CMB's Financial Services practice, never wears blue jeans to work, enjoys a reasonably priced cup of coffee, and always makes a point to ask "What Would the Dowager Countess Do?"
In 6th grade, my teacher sent home a survey to parents about “What motivates your child.” My mother wrote down three things: candy, money, and anything free. I remember this so vividly because I was mortified. I wanted her to say something meaningful like, “positive praise” or “a creative academic environment.” But no, she laid it all out on the table; that I was a greedy, Twix-loving, free loader.
Here at CMB, we spend a considerable amount of time investigating what motivates consumer behaviors. We want to know what the consumer is doing and why, and we want realistic and actionable insights. Keeping this in mind, I have considered my mother’s response to that long-ago survey and realized she probably should ditch being a nurse and consider a career in marketing.
To take an in-depth look at what motivates consumers to “Like” a company on Facebook and subscribe” to e-mails we partnered with Constant Contact to survey 1,481 Americans over 18. The top motivators to these two strategic means of engagement are: to receive special discounts, or take part in special promotions. This concept of free giveaways, deep discounts, and being privy to special information is a major driver of customer engagement.
While the understanding that consumers enjoy receiving deals and free gifts may not seem like breaking news at first, it’s an important finding for companies looking to get the best return on where they decide to spend money on special deals, discounts, and giveaways. In a recent Consumer Pulse exploring the motivations of customer satisfaction survey takers, we found many consumers were motivated by the desire to improve the company and service rather than free gifts and incentives. Yet this doesn’t hold true for consumers “liking” brands on social media or subscribing to email lists.
Many consumers don’t particularly care about the bottom line of their favorite brands or businesses. They want to know “what can you do for me?” Businesses who utilize e-mail and social networking to engage with their consumers need to heed this opportunity. More often than not, consumers want to know how they will benefit from a long-term business to consumer partnership. Organizations that best understand the underlying intentions of their consumers have the key to turning special promotions and discount programs into lasting customer relationships.
Long-term engagement is essential to solidifying a brand in any market. With the volume of communication and information sharing ever growing, businesses need to be prepared to meet their markets’ expectations. Consumers spend a lot of time on these outlets and businesses must be able to find a way to provide something meaningful so they’re not lost in the noise. Facebook pages and informational e-mails are only as good as what they can provide to their audience.
Download the full report: 10 Facts about Why and How Consumers "Like and Subscribe here.
Posted by Keri Ibbitson. Keri is an Associate Researcher with the Travel and Entertainment team. She has found her motivational drivers have grown since 6th grade, and they reach well beyond candy, money & free stuff.
After spending the last few days at Loyalty Expo in Orlando I heard no shortage of different points of view on the future of loyalty and loyalty programs. From conversations around NPS scores and measures to a great panel discussion on the Socialization of Loyalty run by CMB’s Judy Melanson (@Judy_LC), there’s never been a more exciting time to tap into this topic, and never been more opportunities to create stronger and deeper connections between your brand and your customers.
For me one thing remains clear, points and rewards, while very important, are about transactional marketing, where as true loyalty runs much deeper and is harder to come by. It takes a different approach to create this kind of connection and penetration into your customer’s rituals. It is a deeper commitment to the brand regardless of what one gets in return.
Think of brands you go out of your way for or even pay more for. I think of Dunkin' Donuts; I am a Dunkin’ fan through and through, as is my husband. When he travels the first thing he does is go online to see where the closest Dunkin' Donuts is. He even picks his hotel based on the proximity to a Dunkin' Donuts. Why? We run on Dunkin'. It is part of our morning ritual, it has become habit. That kind of loyalty runs deep, and it’s driven by behavior and brand preference rather that points and rewards.
One of my favorite presentations from Loyalty Expo talked a lot about creating this kind of connection. It was from Michael Grasso of TXU Energy (@TXUEnergy) and Zain Raj (@Zain_raj) of Hyper Marketing. They presented a great case study on TXU Energy’s use of behavioral marketing to create that deeper connection and brand ritual in a very competitive commoditized market. Hey-if an electric company can do this so can you! In their presentation they outlined these four steps to create a Brand Ritual:
1. Getting the first transaction: Everyone has to start somewhere. The first step is to understand the value equation has changed. Zain says the new value equation is:
Product features + Customer Service+ Added Value
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Competitive Price
2. Invite customers into your brand: I think a great example of this is personalized gift cards. Putting a picture on a gift card makes it much harder to throw away and increases the likelihood of reloading the card.
3. Building connections with relevant experiences and innovations: TXU created online and mobile tools to educate their customers about not only how much electricity they used, but ways they can save money on their bill. This move led to the last key to building Brand Ritual for TXU.
4. Align with key values: TXU understands the values that are close to the hearts and wallets of their customers. They created a feeling of partnership by aligning themselves with their customers' values.
As marketers and researchers there has never been a better time to tap into the behavior of our customers, align with their values, and connect with their emotions to create a deeper, richer and more meaningful connection and become a ritual.
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's VP of Marketing, a mom of two, and the top three brands that have won her heart and wallet are Dunkin’ Donuts, Jet Blue, and Apple. Follow her on Twitter: @KristenGarvey