Say Goodbye to Your Mother’s Market Research

Posted by Matt Skobe

Wed, Dec 02, 2015

evolving market researchIs it time for the “traditional” market researcher to join the ranks of the milkman and switchboard operator? The pressure to provide more actionable insights, more quickly, has never been so high. Add new competitors into the mix, and you have an industry feeling the pinch. At the same time, primary data collection has become substantially more difficult:

  • Response rates are decreasing as people become more and more inundated with email requests
  • Many among the younger crowd don’t check their email frequently, favoring social media and texting
  • Spam filters have become more effective, so potential respondents may not receive email invitations
  • The cell-phone-only population is becoming the norm—calls are easily avoided using voicemail, caller ID, call-blocking, and privacy managers
  • Traditional questionnaire methodologies don’t translate well to the mobile platform—it’s time to ditch large batteries of questions

It’s just harder to contact people and collect their opinions. The good news? There’s no shortage of researchable data. Quite the contrary, there’s more than ever. It’s just that market researchers are no longer the exclusive collectors—there’s a wealth of data collected internally by companies as well as an increase in new secondary passive data generated by mobile use and social media. We’ll also soon be awash in the Internet of Things, which means that everything with an on/off switch will increasingly be connected to one another (e.g., a wearable device can unlock your door and turn on the lights as you enter). The possibilities are endless, and all this activity will generate enormous amounts of behavioral data.

Yet, as tantalizing as these new forms of data are, they’re not without their own challenges. One such challenge? Barriers to access. Businesses may share data they collect with researchers, and social media is generally public domain, but what about data generated by mobile use and the Internet of Things? How can researchers get their hands on this aggregated information? And once acquired, how do you align dissimilar data for analysis? You can read about some of our cutting-edge research on mobile passive behavioral data here.

We also face challenges in striking the proper balance between sharing information and protecting personal privacy. However, people routinely trade personal information online when seeking product discounts and for the benefit of personalizing applications. So, how and what’s shared, in part, depends on what consumers gain. It’s reasonable to give up some privacy for meaningful rewards, right? There are now health insurance discounts based on shopping habits and information collected by health monitoring wearables. Auto insurance companies are already doing something similar in offering discounts based on devices that monitor driving behavior.

We are entering an era of real-time analysis capabilities. The kicker is that with real-time analysis comes the potential for real-time actionable insights to better serve our clients’ needs.

So, what’s today’s market researcher to do? Evolve. To avoid marginalization, market researchers need to continue to understand client issues and cultivate insights in regard to consumer behavior. To do so effectively in this new world, they need to embrace new and emerging analytical tools and effectively mine data from multiple disparate sources, bringing together the best of data science and knowledge curation to consult and partner with clients.

So, we can say goodbye to “traditional” market research? Yes, indeed. The market research landscape is constantly evolving, and the insights industry needs to evolve with it.

Matt Skobe is a Data Manager at CMB with keen interests in marketing research and mobile technology. When Matt reaches his screen time quota for the day he heads to Lynn Woods for gnarcore mountain biking.    

Topics: Data Collection, Mobile, Consumer Insights, Marketing Science, Internet of Things (IoT), Data Integration, Passive Data

Dear Dr. Jay: The Internet of Things and The Connected Cow

Posted by Dr. Jay Weiner

Thu, Nov 19, 2015

Hello Dr. Jay, 

What is the internet of things, and how will it change market research?

-Hugo 


DrJay_Thinking-withGoatee_cow.png

Hi Hugo,

The internet of things is all of the connected devices that exist. Traditionally, it was limited to PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Now, we’re seeing wearables, connected buildings and homes. . .and even connected cows. (Just when I thought I’d seen it all.) Connected cows, surfing the internet looking for the next greenest pasture. Actually, a number of companies offer connected cow solutions for farmers. Some are geared toward beef cattle, others toward dairy cows. Some devices are worn on the leg or around the neck, others are swallowed (I don’t want to know how you change the battery). You can track the location of the herd, monitor milk production, and model the best field for grass to increase milk output. The solutions offer alerts to the farmer when the cow is sick or in heat, which means that the farmer can get by with fewer hands and doesn’t need to be with each cow 24/7. Not only can the device predict when a cow is in heat, it can also bias the gender of the calf based on the window of opportunity. Early artificial insemination increases the probability of getting a female calf. So, not only can the farmer increase his number of successful inseminations, he/she can also decide if more bulls or milk cows are needed in the herd. 

How did this happen? A bunch of farmers put the devices on the herd and began collecting data. Then, the additional data is appended to the data set (e.g., the time the cow was inseminated, whether it resulted in pregnancy, and the gender of the calf). If enough farmers do this, we can begin to build a robust data set for analysis.

So, what does this mean for humans? Well, many of you already own some sort of fitness band or watch, right? What if a company began to collect all of the data generated by these devices? Think of all the things the company could do with those data! It could predict the locations of more active people. If it appended some key health measures (BMI, diabetes, stroke, death, etc.) to the dataset, the company could try to build a model that predicts a person’s probability of getting diabetes, having a stroke, or even dying. Granted, that’s probably not a message you want from your smart watch: “Good afternoon, Jay. You will be dead in 3 hours 27 minutes and 41 seconds.” Here’s another possible (and less grim) message: “Good afternoon, Jay. You can increase your time on this planet if you walk just another 1,500 steps per day.” Healthcare providers would also be interested in this information. If healthcare providers had enough fitness tracking data, they might be able to compute new lifetime age expectations and offer discounts to customers who maintain a healthy lifestyle (which is tracked on the fitness band/watch).  

Based on connected cows, the possibility of this seems all too real. The question is: will we be willing to share the personal information needed to make this happen? Remember: nobody asked the cow if it wanted to share its rumination information with the boss.

Dr. Jay Weiner is CMB’s senior methodologist and VP of Advanced Analytics. He is completely fascinated and paranoid about the internet of things. Big brother may be watching, and that may not be a good thing.

Topics: Technology, Healthcare Research, Data Collection, Dear Dr. Jay, Internet of Things (IoT), Data Integration

The Research Hero’s Journey: TMRE Conference Recap

Posted by Julie Kurd

Mon, Nov 09, 2015

I’m back from IIR’s TMRE conference—three intense days spent with hundreds of consumer insights professionals who are charged with supporting the C-Suite in these perilous and changing times. Reflecting on the challenges facing these brave souls, I’m reminded of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the narrative pattern found in millions of stories from Greek myth to Disney films. If it’s been awhile since your last literature class, refresh yourself on the Journey here or with this simple example from Cinderella.

the hero's journey, TMRE conference recap, CMB

Now, come with me as we follow our insights heroes and heroines on the path to re-invent and re-discover the magic that drives businesses forward. 

  • Ordinary World and the Call to Adventure: The world has changed, and the Hero faces a challenge. GfK’s CEO, David Krajicek likens insights folks to calligraphers and 11th century monks who copied manuscripts and whose wondrous artistry was killed by the scalability and speed of movable type. David says that insights folks must find a way to provide CMOs with immediate answers and handcrafted artistry (which requires our patience and focus), but the latter is becoming less frequent. A lot of the time, fast and directional is all decision-makers are willing to pay for.
  • Refusal of the Call: Our Hero balks at the seemingly impossible task. The C-Suite still needs artistry and reflection, but the craft of insights requires varied tools, exceptional rigor, mastery, and time. The swift and violent current of commerce requires insights folks to offer speed. There is a place in a portfolio of insights for short-term efforts as well as more contemplative efforts. Many research suppliers offer fast/inexpensive/directionally accurate solutions, and many others offer more pensive/structured thinking. Each side refuses the call.
  • Meeting the Mentor: Our Hero finds inspiration in disruption. Seth Godin reminds us that the boss keeps begging for more—more ratings, more shelf space—yielding average products for average people. You can’t grow by solving for the average. Brands that are growing are brands that look forward (think: AirBnB). The Hero and the Hero’s Journey must progress to avoid becoming a commodity.  
  • Crossing the Threshold: Our Hero takes the first step into the new world. While everyone in the insights world is talking about data, only 6% report that they’ve crossed the threshold into actually fusing passive (unstructured) data with survey research (structured) data. One company already on its way is LinkedIn. As LinkedIn’s Sally Sadosky and Al Nevarez shared, the site has insourced most of its survey research, and LinkedIn is marrying the survey data to its data sources. The company is using big data to align its offerings with the most impactful opportunities. LinkedIn classifies/segments, ranks drivers, categorizes text, and generates lift for key metrics.    
  • Tests, Allies, and Enemies: Our Hero discovers friends and foes. On to the sessions at TMRE. . .the tests, the allies, and the enemies of the Hero as he/she journeys. Several speakers talked in generalities rather than tell their unique story—they played the middle. Our heroes found the allies and the tests in the other rooms and were rewarded with meaningful insights, including:
    • Remain optimistic, but embrace negative metrics: Poker player Caspar Berry reminded us to embrace uncertainty and to rise to meet the challenge despite the fear of failure. Risk-taking leaders are consistent and successful. They also get conned a lot, but they remain optimistic.
    • Know the game: Heineken’s Joanne McDonough conducted an entertaining and memorable presentation on the brand’s positioning—“behaving premium.” Heineken conducted mobile ethnos and interviews at exclusive night clubs in Miami, Los Angeles, and NYC. The company uncovered insights about the “Champagne Girl,” Table Service, and a lot more about dudes and their nights out.
    • Know the giants by name: Competing in the expectation economy has its impact challenges says @trendwatching’s Maxwell Luthy. It’s critical to understand the Internet of Things (IoT), the sharing economy, the “near me” or localization push, 2-way transparency (I rate the brand and the brand rates me), citizenship (of the world), and more.
    • Show your effort: Dan Ariely stressed that we need to understand that people’s cognition is relative to the time they’re willing to put into it. How can we eliminate friction? Storytelling to make insights actionable. Simple testing of the details. If there’s a way you can eliminate barriers—do it.
  • Approach: Our Hero is joined by allies to prepare for the new world. John Dryden and Kimberley Clark’s Laura Dropp talked about the next generation—Gen Z—who are always connected and never alone. These youngsters (ages 10 to 20) need you to be an easily accessible resource. Gen Zers naturally blend the physical and the virtual, making real connections fluidly, and they want our help to make a difference in the world.
  • Central Ordeal: Our Hero confronts his/her worst fears. The C-suite turnover is great, and the lowly research Hero is cast aside, playing a role perceived by many as not worthy of its own budget. It is here that researchers must make decisions about the level of risk they’re willing to take—breaking away from the tried but tired models of the past.
  • The Reward: Our Hero’s risks are rewarded. Compromises are made, and organizations are restructured to handle fast and directional insight. The budget for the thoughtful, foundational, deeper-diving insights is rewarded as the lightbulb goes on in the C-Suite.
  • The Road Back: Our Hero makes his/her way back, transformed. The marketing we grew up with is going away, and it’s time to get schooled by the world around us—embracing the new connections we must make with one another.
  • Resurrection: Our Hero must prove himself/herself once again. To drive brand zeal and customer loyalty, it’s not enough to provide a tasty meal or a clean hotel room. Consumers want a meal to be instagrammable and the hotel experience to be differentiated. At TMRE, we took clients out to Café Tu Tu Tango. We expected a good meal, but we received much more—excellent tapas and sangria, a great band, two artists painting at desks mingled with the diners (their art for sale on the walls), and a tarot card reader. It was a memorable and differentiating experience and a good example of why we can’t be content with business as usual.
  • Return with the Elixir: The Hero continues on with the power to transform as he/she has been transformed. To grow profitably, all of us need to be memorable, show our artistry or our speed, connect to the IoT, and be authentic. Research that lacks either showmanship or artistry will not suffice. We need the storytelling techniques to make insights memorable, entertaining, and, ultimately, actionable.

Where are you on your Hero’s Journey?

Julie blogs for GreenBook, ResearchAccess, and CMB. She’s an inspired participant, amplifier, socializer, and spotter in the twitter #mrx community, so talk research with her @julie1research.

Are you following us on Twitter? If not, join the party! 

Follow Us @cmbinfo!

Topics: Business Decisions, Internet of Things (IoT), Marketing Strategy, B2B, Conference Insights

5 Questions with GSP's Kelli Robertson on Positioning Cisco's "Internet of Everything"

Posted by Tara Lasker

Wed, Dec 03, 2014

800px Cisco logo.svgGS&P.logo.with.name.1Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’ Kelli Robertson talked with CMB’s Research Director, Tara Lasker, about a recent messaging study they partnered on for Cisco. This study aimed to determine the best way to communicate Cisco’s role in the “Internet of Everything.” 

TARA: There’s been a lot of buzz lately about using data to support strategic thinking. Can you talk a little bit about how you strike that balance between the two in your role?

kelli robertson, GSP, Cisco, CMB

KELLI: Well, I don’t think data just supports thinking—I think it also generates it. There’s nothing more exciting than a table full of data and going through that data to find ideas and the story. I think that’s one of the things we did with this study. I think you always have to start with hypotheses and use the data gathered to prove or disprove them, which is what we did. You also have to be open to the data giving you new ideas. For us, data isn’t just about validating—it’s about learning.

It’s also important to realize that data helps bring consensus. Marketing is hard today because everything is so uncertain, and I think it’s easy for clients to dismiss things you learn from eight or even thirty qualitative interviews. It’s a lot harder to dismiss data. So if you can combine the data with the new ideas, you’re more likely to create consensus and generate buy-in from the people you’re working with.

TARA:  That’s definitely true, and we see that throughout many of our client engagements. Moving on to our study, can you talk about how GSP and CMB partnered to help solve some of the challenges that Cisco faced?

KELLI: The first thing that CMB did really well was to quickly grasp the topic. This includes how technology influences business, the somewhat complicated concept of the “Internet of Everything,” and all of the product and technology solutions that create the “Internet of Everything.” There wasn’t a lot of explaining that I had to do because CMB just jumped in. I think that’s a testament to all of your experience with clients in the technology industry. You also recognized that the “Internet of Everything” might be a complicated concept for respondents to grasp, so you helped us craft a few different ways to talk about it in the survey, which allowed us to better measure true awareness and understanding.

Here’s another example. This was a global study, and CMB had a lot of recommendations including using max diff scaling to prioritize messages and alleviate any global scale bias. These recommendations allowed us to overcome a challenge that I wouldn’t have even known about if it hadn’t been for you. You also recommended that we test a few diagnostics within the top scoring messages. That helped us gain a better understanding of why messages were compelling instead of just showing us which ones were at the top of the list. Those diagnostics helped us feel confident in the messages that stood out.

TARA: We did a lot of secondary research on our end and asked colleagues at CMB with the most tech experience about the “Internet of Everything.” We tried to think from a respondent’s perspective when answering the questions to make sure that we were getting the most useful data we could possibly get and to ensure the respondents were reacting the way we wanted without misunderstanding.

KELLI: I think that background research you’re referring to was what allowed you to help us so much. I live in the “Internet of Everything” world. I have for the past two years. You allowed us to go deep into the “Internet of Everything,” but kept in mind the fact that people won’t view it with the same amount of understanding that we do. That helped us ask questions in a more broad sense and allowed us to have good juxtapositions regarding innovation, business, and technology.

TARA: Exactly. We also looked at the different roles within an organization and how they saw it. For example, the C-suite and technical decision makers understood and liked the more detailed messaging while business managers liked the broader, softer messaging. Speaking of, can you talk about what impact this research has had on Cisco’s brand messaging strategy? What’s happened since we’ve presented the results?

KELLI: Well, as you know, Cisco keeps coming back to get more data, and the study is really being adopted. It helped us form the messaging strategy for Cisco moving forward. For example, it helped us craft the right language to explain how Cisco is making the “Internet of Everything” possible. There’s been this question in the marketplace: what does Cisco do to make the “Internet of Everything” happen? The study helped us answer that question and address the skepticism our audience has had in the most compelling way.

The study also helped us define a sweet spot within our target audience. Prior to this, we talked broadly about C-suite executives, business decision-makers, and technical decision-makers. We summarize our audience as C-suite executives, but the study uncovered a very clear mindset that matched Cisco’s aspirations. Now we’re able to use that data to talk about our audience psychographically. We’ve found an attitudinal sweet spot because of the confidence in the data. Without the study, we could guess that C-suite executives and business decision-makers felt a certain way, but the data is invaluable in changing the way we think about who we reach out to, how we influence them, and the attitude Cisco needs to have. That’s been really invaluable, and it influences a lot of our decisions in tone and placement media.

The study also helped validate some of the Cisco product solutions that we should prioritize in our messaging. In the past, Cisco was primarily a networking company. Now, Cisco is offering a suite of product solutions way beyond networking. This study helped us uncover which of those product solutions triggered the most thoughts of innovation in our audience’s mind, which helped us prioritize where we should focus our product efforts.

TARA: Let’s talk a little more about the buy-in. This is the second time we’ve worked together on a project like this, and we’ve always had a great partnership. You understand your client and the questions they need answered, and we work through the research design and analysis. Ultimately, the goal is to get buy-in and adoption. So, can you talk about the adoption throughout Cisco?

KELLI: We’ve presented this countless times at Cisco, and we’re still getting requests to present it. We also just presented all of the work to the global regions in Cisco to help inform their work. They use a lot of the work we do, but they also do a lot of work on their own, so I’m sharing it with them so that they can use it to help inform what they do. Certain people within the organization are even using the data in their day-to-day work, which is amazing.

One of the things I’ve been most excited about is that we’re working with the thought leadership team at Cisco, who help set the agenda and public relations initiatives around key themes and topics. They’ve spent a lot of time pouring through the results, and they ended up coming back with a huge list of questions that are going to drive their thinking for the next year. So it’s helping set thought leadership, which is great.

One of the biggest things we tested is Cisco’s mission statement—“Changing the way we work, live, play, learn.” That is a statement that has always been on paper, and it has always been referred to as Cisco’s mission statement. The data we got back showed how compelling this statement was to our audience. It came back as one of the top messages if not the top message. I think that’s been giving Cisco a lot of confidence that they need to do more with their mission statement and that it needs to become not just words on paper, but something that drives all action within Cisco. I think this study is going to breathe new life into this big, bold mission statement and give them the courage to use it more overtly to make bolder decisions. There’s a difference between having a mission statement and being on a mission, and I feel like this data gave them the confidence to be a company on a mission—on a mission to change the way we work, live, play, learn.

TARA: Over the years, you’ve been one of my favorite clients for several reasons—one of them being that you really approach the relationship like a true partnership. We really work together. We get to a place where you know the client, challenges, political environment, and research questions that need to be answered. CMB brings research expertise, which allows us to design the study in a way that is going to answer your questions, so you don’t have to worry about the technicalities. I feel like both times we’ve partnered, we’ve ended up in a good, clear place at the end because of the way we work together throughout the process.

KELLI: I agree, and I will say that who we chose wasn’t necessarily my decision. I worked with the head of our research group. When we were going through RFPs, it became clear that few research companies are so thorough. There’s just this reality that not a lot of other research companies are as strategic, bring the breadth of experience, dive in, and ask questions of other experts in the organization the way you do….and these were things we noticed from the first RFP. There’s just something special you have bottled over there.

TARA: Thanks, Kelli! Hopefully we’ll get the chance to work together again in the future.

Tara Lasker is a Research Director at CMB and Kelli is a Group Brand Strategy Director at GSP. They both enjoy good beer, good music, commiserating over the trials and tribulations of motherhood, and telling a great story with primary research data.  

Topics: Technology, Strategic Consulting, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), B2B, Researchers in Residence, Brand Health & Positioning, CMB Spotlight Series

#FEI14 Round Up: 10 Innovators and Companies Disturbing the Continuum

Posted by Julie Kurd

Wed, May 21, 2014

julie kurd,front end of innovation,CMB,Internet of things,#FEI14,#IoT,#Wearables,#3DPrintingIn less than 15 years, your car will drive itself, and education and learning as we now know them will be as unrecognizable as the cassette tapes of old. Look out, because nothing is safe. It will happen in healthcare, in manufacturing, in entertainment, and even in your job.  Everything is becoming more focused on true value creation.  If you want to be ready for what’s ahead, here are the people and companies to follow on Twitter.  If you can’t already see the future, they can help you put it into focus.

  • We’re heading to a “trillion sensor world”—a world filled with smart objects constantly interacting over a network to improve user experiences. For example, Peter Diamandis, co-founder of Singularity University, predicts today's 2-year-olds will probably never drive a car thanks to the dawn of self-driving cars. If you think your industry isn’t being disrupted by the Internet of Things…think again.

    Twitter:  @PeterDiamandis. Hashtags: Internet of Everything, Internet of Things (#IoE or #IoT)

  • Have you thought about how manufacturing can now happen in your own home?  Bre Pettis of MakerBot, heads up a company that’s already bringing 3D printing to us. An awesome example? A group of 12-year-olds in a Massachusetts town made their friend a prosthetic arm on one of these 3D printers.  

    Twitter:  @bre from @makerbot Hashtag:  #3DPrinting

  • There are a billion doctors’ office visits each year, and 80% of those visits do not require physical contact.  Dr. Rafael J. Grossman, surgeon and mHealth innovator, is a vanguard of this emerging medical model. Why not use FaceTime, Skype, and other online platforms that solve the need for medical consults in a less expensive and more accessible way?

    Twitter: @zgjr  Watch his TED talks

  • According to Pepsi’s Chief Design Officer, Mauro Porcini, we can’t innovate in just one dimension.  Today, Pepsi competes with Nike and Apple for emotional relevance. Porcini says that there are three separate dimensions of interaction. The first experience with a brand is visceral—like glimpsing a beautiful woman or man.  The other two steps involve repurchase (which is an interaction that comes from your emotional love of a product or a brand) and recommending (which is the self-expression of a brand through word of mouth). You can’t create breakthrough innovation by addressing just one of these dimensions. You have to address all of them.

     Twitter:  @mauroporcini

  • Kids just hanging out after school are going to discover a cure for cancer, solve world hunger, and create sensors that help previously marginalized and unprofitable subgroups get what they need to live productive lives.  How? Through having fun.  Harvard professor Michael Tushman says corporations have culture and power systems geared perfectly to their existing strategies but that these corporations often aren’t agile enough to shift.  We need to set up creative time to work on the things we want to work on.  Intuit, for example, allows employees to spend 10% of their time on projects they’re interested in, and those hours often yield the innovations of tomorrow.

    Twitter:  @Michaeltushman

  • Those kids I mentioned above are only part of the solution.  According to Kate Ertmann of Animation Dynamics, we need pan-generational partnering to pull it together. Millennials, Generation X, Gen Y, and Baby Boomers all have something valid to contribute, but each generation talks a different language and has different self-motivators (hint: money for the elders and time off for the young’uns). This means each of us needs to learn to be a teammate and learn the language of partnering.

    Twitter:  @GOK8

  • Carlos Dominguez, technology evangelist and SVP at CISCO, says that everything is rebooting.  Business models are totally changing.  Retail stores are no longer mission critical. Distance is dead and consumers are active participants. Now the crowd can conduct piecework for a common goal— the seemingly daunting 100 million hours of development time it took to create Wikipedia equates to what Americans collectively spend each weekend watching TV ads.   

    Twitter:  @carlosdominguez

  • Mike Nelson, Principal Technology Policy Strategist at Microsoft, is a guy whose job is to avoid tomorrow’s policy fights by focusing on global internet governance.  He speaks on behalf of transparency and the need to enlist “teamers” from within and beyond corporate and national walls to solve common challenges.  These sought-after people will have varied skills, learn from their customers, and be led by an executive who supports, rather than manages, them. 

    Twitter:  @mikenelson

  • Even though most things can now be found online, some things remain in the physical world. Let’s face it: we do need to leave our houses sometimes. So follow Johnny Cupcakes—this guy could sell us dirt in the form of a cupcake for $40 and what he’d really be selling us is sustainability, community, and self-love. He consistently delivers “WOW” in the form of customer experience. In a time when retail shops are largely believed to be dying, he’s patented a retail store concept of selling clothes and accessories from bakery shelves. And his fans line up outside his store for hours. Of course he doesn’t ignore online shoppers; he translates this unique experience to his online store too. His products ship in distinctive and delightful packaging.  That packaging costs Johnny extra but those details…well, Johnny knows, just like when it comes to Tiffany’s, we’re buying everything the box represents. 

    Twitter:  @johnnycupcakes

Julie is an Account Executive, she just flew in from the Future of Consumer Intelligence conference where she was in her element connecting with innovative big thinkers on topics ranging from emotion to mobile and complex choice modelling. Follow her @julie1research using hashtag #MRX.

Topics: Internet of Things (IoT), Growth & Innovation, Conference Insights