Voices: the CMB Blog

In a few weeks I’ll be taking a cruise to the Caribbean—a cruise that I have spent 9 months planning. Needless to say, I’ve been a little preoccupied making sure everything is in place to ensure a flawless vacation. And as I sorted through all of these details, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between vacation planning and how we at CMB prepare for a smooth, successful research project. You might be thinking “this is a woman who really needs a vacation.” But hear me out.

The first step of vacation planning is to put together a list of possible locations for a trip and select an appropriate timeframe. Planning a successful research study works on the same principles, every project starts with taking the time to define and understand the main decisions that need to be made from the research—we use tools like our Business Decision Worksheet—which directly ties the questionnaire, analysis and reporting to the business decisions, letting us identify and gain consensus on the most pressing decisions, and ensuring the results are actionable.

We also know how critical it is to develop (and stick to) a schedule that aligns with our clients’ needs. One of the first things that we at CMB do at the beginning of each project is put together a schedule outlining each key milestone of the process, all the way up to delivery of the final results. Putting together a detailed schedule helps us align resources and ensure we stay on track to meet our client deadlines. Knowing how much our clients rely on our research makes the scheduling a crucial part of the process and an important key to our success in executing projects.

Once the schedule is set, the project kicks off and the exploratory phase begins. I personally did lots of exploratory research before selecting my specific cruise line, ship, and date. Through this exploratory research, I was able to drill down and identify what aspects were most important in making my decision. Exploratory phases are also crucial for determining what will be most important to measure in the questionnaire and which areas are “nice to haves,” but not necessary to be included for the project.

Exploratory research also helps generate new ideas that may not have been previously considered. Similar to the many resources available for cruise planning (cruise line website, message boards, etc.), exploratory research for a project can span several platforms, including a review of secondary research, conducting in-depth interviews or focus groups, or hosting online discussion boards.

Sometimes the exploratory phase of a project gets less attention/recognition than is deserved because it doesn’t come across as being as “glamorous” as the analysis and insights that will come from the quantitative research. However, all market researchers know that the level of planning can make or break a project. CMB’s focus on planning allows us to try and anticipate what potential issues may come up down the road so that we can troubleshoot effectively and properly set expectations with our clients. Of course just like you can’t predict a rogue wave, there are times when the unexpected happens. When this happens we know we need to remain flexible enough to make course corrections and steer us back to the business decisions that our clients are trying to make.

I know we can only take the analogy so far; when all is said and done, often the only tangible evidence of having been on a vacation are the pictures. While the deliverables we produce for our clients are polished and shiny, they’re hardly the end “goal” of the research. Successful research is useful and used, and that starts well before a questionnaire is designed.

Cara is a Research Manager at CMB. She enjoys spending time with her husband Brett, her dog Nala, and planning her next vacation.

Please join CMB's Amy Modini and UPMC's Jim Villella today at 12:30pm ET for our latest webinar: Using discrete choice to better position your brand in a complex changing market

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The health insurance industry faces an urgent need to prepare for a new competitive market introduced by healthcare reform. UPMC recognized the opportunity to gain competitive strength in the market through innovation and new product development. However, the research supporting these decisions would need to account for a wide range of market changes and influences. To apply a trade-off exercise UPMC needed to address many challenges, including:

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Dear Friends,

It is with an extremely heavy heart that I share that Chadwick Martin Bailey’s co-founder, leader, and my partner, John Martin passed away Thursday morning after a long illness, with his beloved wife by his side. While it’s difficult to put into words what a truly special man John was, I wanted to share briefly what he meant to me.John was a genius—a brilliant market researcher who set the standard for where the company is today. His precision, creativity, and passion will be just part of his legacy. More importantly, he was a tremendous friend.  He was funny, out of the box, loyal, and the ultimate teacher. He seldom wore shoes and used language that would make a sailor blush. 

Personally, John taught me and made me laugh for 35 years. Try as I might, he would not let me take myself too seriously as we faced the ups and downs faced by all businesses. Our essential values were always aligned and this set the open, collaborative tone that our employees and clients value so much.

I know what he meant to me is shared by so many CMBers – both present and alums.  He listened, he taught, he advised, and he truly cared. And those of us who knew him, we felt it. Of course, he was not just my partner for over 30 years; he was also an intimate friend to my family.  He was always there for my husband and was mentor to our two sons who grew up with him, advocating and advising them on life. 

John is survived by his wife Marion, to whom he was profoundly devoted, and his beloved daughter Bronwyn, and son Travis, who are feeling the pain of loss. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

While there will be no funeral, plans for a celebration of life will be shared in the coming weeks. John touched so many lives, and hearing the wonderful, funny stories has been a great comfort, please share your thoughts and memories here: http://john-martin1.muchloved.com/

Donations can be made in John's name to the International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital: https://giving.brighamandwomens.org/IMP

Thank you, John. Your friend, Anne

One of my major motivators in life is receiving free stuff. You can often find me walking around Costco looking for samples or signing up for loyalty programs just for the bonuses. So, when I recently started using Birchbox, a monthly subscription service that sends a box of expensive beauty product samples each month, I was ecstatic to learn that I could earn rewards points for reviewing each product in the box. Birchbox’s use of points seems to be working; with around 400,000 subscribers most of their products have over 2,000 reviews with some nearing 10,000.

This program has two key benefits for Birchbox. It keeps users engaged; reviewers need to go to the website at least once per month to review products. And, it gives buyers more confidence in the products. With thousands of reviews and a 4- or 5-star rating, customers can feel safe they’re buying a good product. This strategy, however, might leave you asking: is it fair to ask customers to depend on reviews when the reviewers are incentivized to write them? If you’re not a Birchbox member you might think the question is purely academic. But chances are you are one of the nearly 700 million people who’ve shopped on Amazon, and in that case, you have some things to think about.

Enter Amazon Vine, an invitation-only program in which Amazon’s top reviewers are given free products to review, sometimes before they’re released to the public. According to Amazon, they welcome both positive and negative reviews, and ask only for honest reviews. Despite the fact that Vine reviews are identified with a green stripe, in the beginning many readers of reviews were unaware of the program, they believed they were reading the reviews of people like themselves, who reviewed a product they bought because they wanted or needed it. Instead, they are written by people who are given products by Amazon (sometimes worth as much as $1,000) with the only stipulations are that they have to write a review within 30 days and they can’t sell or give away the product. It’s fair to wonder whether these two types of reviewers may react differently to products based on the circumstances.

Amazon has actually confirmed that Vine reviewers act differently than non-incentivized reviewers, but not perhaps the way you might think. On average, Vine reviewers give lower ratings than non-Viners. That being said, Amazon research shows that products with bad reviews still sell better than those with no reviews. In the end, it seems to be a win for all parties: Amazon gets reviews from invested reviewers which then boost product sales; The Consumer can read reviews from both Vine and non-Vine members, and decide themselves who to trust; The Vendor may very well see increased sales due to the reviews; and finally, the Vine Reviewer, who ends up with a lot of free stuff.

The key here is transparency, knowing whether the reviewer received the product for free lets the consumer weigh how much that review counts in their decision. For me, when I’m reading Amazon reviews, if I see the “Vine reviewer” stamp on it, I’ll trust that I’m reading the review of an opinionated, knowledgeable reviewer. And if I get an invitation to join Vine, you’ll be reading my reviews in no time.

McKenzie wrote this blog post from Oregon. She managed to avoid both snake bites and dysentery on her trip west from Boston.

Join CMB's Amy Modini on February 20th, at 12:30 pm ET, to learn how we use discrete choice to better position your brand in a complex changing market. Register here.

Many of us aren't just researchers or marketers, we're parents too, which is why this blog from CMB Alum, Josh Mendelsohn really struck a chord. You can check out more of Josh's musings in his blog: Marketing in Real Life.

As a parent of a toddler boy, I've often found myself getting so frustrated, to a place I don't like, that I started doing some real self hard thinking about the causes (it’s the research background!). One of the major realizations I've had is that the frustration is in part because "working" with a toddler goes completely against how I spend most of my day as a marketer. And I know I'm not alone. In fact, I've seen lots of friends and colleagues who work with data struggle with toddler thinking.Don't get me wrong, parenting is obviously hard for everyone, but I wonder if it feels even harder for the modern marketer (or researcher) because of the way we are trained. We take pride in using data to identify what works and modifying what doesn’t.

Unfortunately, my little dude seems to fall outside the realm of data integrity.

Below are four things that are particularly confounding in our dual roles as parent and professional.

1) It's the journey, not the destination. At work we are taught that the outcome is what matters most. We look at the data and decide if something has worked or not, rarely taking joy in the process itself. Unfortunately, toddlers don't give a crap about the quality of the end result.  

Their goal isn't to make the best dinner, it's to make something together, spill ingredients all over the table, and potentially eat something completely different for their meal. And frankly, their version of quality is suspect at best. I mean, when I look at a drawing and say "that looks great buddy," I'm just thinking "I'm not sure that looks like a house with a dog and a monster. People will never get what you're trying to say!"

2) Total disregard for longitudinal data.  As marketers we love longitudinal data.  After all, history generally repeats itself and seasonality is essential to effective planning, right?  Sadly, toddlers can't even put together two weeks of data that makes sense. The journey from "I only want chicken nuggets for lunch" to "I don't want to ever eat chicken nuggets again" is extremely short lived.  When people ask me "what is he into to?" I just chuckle.  This week it's Yo Gabba Gabba, next week could be anything.  Not sure I have chartable trend line there!

3) Rules?  What rules.  Our boy loves playing board games. He just doesn't like playing them the way they were intended. He doesn't see chutes in Chutes and Ladders.  He doesn't believe in only flipping two cards in memory. And he certainly doesn't understand that you take turns in Connect Four.  

While I appreciate that he is figuring out how the world works, his inability to listen to the rules has me taking notes for his next performance review (when do we get to have those?).

4) Efficiency is frowned upon. As modern professionals (or at least hard-driving ones) we all want to get through as many tasks as well as possible every single day. High output = high value.  Dealing with a toddler is the complete opposite. I'd pay good money for an activity that lasted longer than 20 minutes so we're only doing three things on a Saturday instead of 23.   

So what am I doing about it? Other than going even more bald than before, I've been trying really really hard to slow down and leave my work brain at the office. I've found that there's really no fire to run to or from most of the time and that taking a few extra minutes here and there actually makes the day run smoother. (Note: Trying!!)

I was inspired by this blog post - and even attempting to live this way has dropped my stress level considerably. 

I'm not one to give unwelcome parenting advice to people outside of out family, but as they say on my boy's very temporary favorite show "try it, you might like it."

Josh is the VP of Marketing at DreamFund, Inc. You can find more of his commentary on the "world of marketing, market research, small business strategies, and social media based on real life experiences, not stuff you'd get in an MBA class" at his blog Marketing in Real Life.

 

Join CMB's Amy Modini on February 20th, at 12:30 pm ET, to learn how we use discrete choice to better position your brand in a complex changing market. Register here.