Voices: the CMB Blog

This Thursday, CMBers will participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) annual Light the Night Walk. My colleagues first joined the walk when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2008 as a way to support me in my fight against cancer. The family friendly event starts at dusk on the Boston Common, and the walk is only 2 short loops around the perimeter. During the walk, everyone carries one of three kinds of lanterns: a red lantern shows support, a white lantern represents a survivor, and a gold lantern represents the memory of a lost loved one. It is a truly special event and an inspiring sight.

We at CMB, like most others, have colleagues and loved ones who have been touched by cancer. Every year, we walk to raise money and awareness so that research can advance. Including this year’s walk, we will have raised $80,000 over the past 8 years.  As a cancer survivor, it means so much to me that something as negative as a cancer diagnosis could result in such a positive movement by my colleagues.

LLS funds research with the goal of curing blood cancers, and many of the advances made in blood cancer research can be used to treat other types of cancer. It provides support to patients and their families, and I (as well as countless others) have personally benefited from this research. Due in no small part to the advances made from this very research, I celebrated five years in remission this May and am now considered cured. I was the recipient of a lifesaving stem cell transplant and proton radiation therapy…and these are just two examples of the advanced therapies now available because of LLS and other research organizations. Thanks to them, I will be holding my white lantern high this Thursday. I am one of the lucky ones.

From the LLS website: LLS has invested more than $1 billion in research since our inception. Over that time, survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled. Moreover, we have learned how to cure certain blood cancers. And many therapies first approved for blood cancers are now helping patients with other types of cancers and serious diseases.

But more than one third of blood cancer patients still do not survive five years after their diagnosis. So more funding is needed to advance more research and to ensure access to treatments to help save more lives.

Catherine Shannon is the Director of Finance at CMB. She’s a two time cancer survivor, and she looks forward to Light the Night Thursday. 

Hi Dr. Jay,

How many segments should we have in an optimal solution, and how long can I expect my segmentation solution to last?

-Katie M.

Hi Katie,

You’re not the only one who’s been asking about segmentation lately. Here’s my philosophy: you should always have at least one more segment than you intend to target. Why? An extra segment gives you the chance to identify an opportunity that you left in the market for your competitors. The car industry is a good example. If you’re old (like me), you remember GM’s product line in the 70s and 80s: “gas-guzzling land yachts.” Had GM bothered to segment the market, it might have identified a growing segment of consumers that were interested in more fuel efficient cars. Remember: just because you have a segment, doesn’t mean you have to target that segment. GM probably didn’t see this particular segment as viable until Toyota, Datsun (now Nissan), and Honda shipped small economy cars in greater numbers to the U.S. market. By that time, GM had shown up too late to the party with a competitive response.

As for how long a segmentation solution lasts? Segmentation schemes typically last as long as there are no major changes in the market. Why? Because segmentation requires strategic research that affects the full spectrum of marketing activities, including all 4 P’s of marketing (product, price, promotion, and place/distribution). One of the greatest catalysts for change comes from technological innovations. In the case of the car industry, those innovations include hybrid, electric, and driverless cars, as well as new competitors, like Tesla and Google. Tesla stands to change the market around distribution because its distribution strategy is unlike any other auto manufacturer. Many of its locations are in or near major shopping malls—not along the traditional auto mile where most dealers compete. While we often see other manufacturers display vehicles in the mall, potential customers would still have to go to a dealer’s lot to actually make a purchase, but Tesla removes this obstacle. This makes Telsa visible to potential customers who are not necessarily looking to purchase a car—a segment many traditional companies ignore.

Remember, segmentations are powerful tools—they can help your product development team generate products that appeal to your target segments, allow you to create stronger demand, and charge higher prices—but they won’t last forever.

Dr. Jay Weiner is CMB’s senior methodologist and VP of Advanced Analytics. Jay earned his Ph.D. in Marketing/Research from the University of Texas at Arlington and regularly publishes and presents on topics including conjoint, choice, and pricing.

Got a burning research question? You can send your questions to DearDrJay@cmbinfo.com or submit anonymously here.

Want to learn more about segmentation?

Every year, Survey Magazine names 10 “Data Dominators,” who are conquering data in different ways at their companies. This year, our very own Talia Fein was chosen. She discusses her passion for data in Survey Magazine’s August issue, and we’ve reposted the article below.

When I first came to CMB, a research and strategy company in Boston, I was fresh out of undergrad and an SPSS virgin. In fact, I remember there being an SPSS test that all new hires were supposed to take, but I couldn’t take it because I didn’t even know how to open a data file. Fast forward a few months, and I had quickly been converted to an SPSS specialist, a numbers nerd, or—perhaps more appropriately—a data dominator.  I was a stickler for process and precision in all data matters, and I took great pride in ensuring that all data and analyses were perfect and pristine. To put it bluntly, I was a total nerd.

I recently returned to CMB after a four-year hiatus. When I left CMB, I quickly became the survey and data expert among my new colleagues and the point person for all SPSS and data questions. But it wasn’t just my data skills that were being put to use. To me, data management is also about the process and the organization of data. In my subsequent roles, I found myself looking to improve the data processes and streamline the systems used for survey data. I brought new software programs to my companies and taught my teams how to manage data effectively and efficiently.

When I think about the future of the research industry, I imagine survey research as being the foundation of a house.  Survey data and data management are the building blocks of what we do. When we do them excellently, we are a well-oiled machine. But a well-oiled machine doesn’t sell products or help our clients drive growth. We need to have the foundation in place in order to extend beyond it and to prepare ourselves for the next big thing that comes along. And that next big thing, in my mind, is big data technology. There is a lot of data out there, and a lot of ways of managing and analyzing it, and we need to be ready for that.  We need to expand our ideas about where our data is coming from and what we can do with it. It is our job to connect these data sources and to find greater meaning than we were previously able to. It is this non-traditional use of data and analytics that is the future of our industry, and we have to be nimble and creative in order to best serve our clients’ ever-evolving needs.

One recent example of this is CMB’s 2015 Mobile Wallet study, which leveraged multiple data sources and—in the process—revealed which were good for what types of questions. In the case of this research, we analyzed mobile behavioral data, including mobile app and mobile web usage, along with survey-based data to get a full picture of consumers’ behaviors, experiences, and attitudes toward mobile wallets. We also came away with new Best Practices for how best to manage passive mobile behavioral data, as it presents new challenges that are unique from managing survey data. Our clients are making big bets on new technology, and they need the comprehensive insights that come from integrating multiple sources. We specifically sampled different sources because we know that—in practice—many of our clients are being handed multiple data sets from multiple data sources. In order to best serve these clients, we need to be able to leverage all the data sources that are at our and their disposal so that we can glean the best insights and make the best recommendations.

Talia Fein is a Project & Data Manager at Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB), a market research consulting firm in Boston. She’s responsible for the design and execution of market research studies for Fortune 500 companies as well as the data processing and analysis through all phases of the research. Her portfolio includes clients such as Dell, Intel, and Comcast, and her work includes customer segmentation, loyalty, brand tracking, new product development, and win-loss research.

Last week, I attended Hubspot’s INBOUND conference to attend workshops, network with fellow marketers, and hear speakers as diverse as Chelsea Clinton, Aziz Ansari, and Daniel Pink present on topics like disruption, innovation, and how to really connect in an increasingly crowded landscape. Here are just 4 (of many) key takeaways:

1. Adapt to changing SEO. Bill King and Tyler Richer from Hubspot emphasized that keywords continue to lose influence as Google continues to become smarter and smarter. How can you get around this? Start by writing content that’s genuinely useful, and share your content on social media. Sharing it on social media doesn’t directly affect rank, but it does affect distribution (which can affect rank). Finally, remember that there should always be an element of empathy when creating an SEO plan. Searchers have experiences with brands when they search, and you want to make sure every experience with your brand is a great one.

2. Embrace social media ads. They’re here to stay. You might have noticed that Facebook’s organic reach has plummeted. Larry Kim, Founder and CTO of WordStream, pointed out that most of the content people put out on social networks is never seen, and that’s a missed opportunity since 28% of people’s online time is spent on social networks. Social media ads are a highly scalable vehicle for content promotion, so it’s time to embrace the inevitable and boost those posts!

3. Stop storytelling. Start storymaking. David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, discussed the shift from storytelling to storymaking. The phrase might sound jargony, but semantics aside, what Berkowitz is really asking us to do is make storytelling an interactive experience. Below are some of the differences between storytelling as a monologue and storymaking as an experience:

To see an example of this in action, look no further than Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. You can find a bottle of Coca-Cola with your name on it in-store or create your own online. This has inspired a plethora of consumer created content, including this pregnancy announcement that has almost 4.5 million views on YouTube.

4. Be brave. During her keynote, Brené Brown stressed that the path to joy, love, and trust lies in vulnerability. Being vulnerable means being brave and being willing to show up and be seen when you have no control over the outcome. Each of us faces a choice between comfort and courage every day, and it’s about time we start choosing the latter in both our professional and personal lives. How? Don't say you're different—be different. Take a page out of Ben & Jerry's book and dare to be distinct.

Did you attend? Tell us your favorite takeaways in the comments.

Kirsten Clark is a Marketing Associate at CMB. She also had the privilege of seeing the hysterical (no, really, there were tears) Amy Schumer at INBOUND. (Amy, if you’re reading this, please consider being my friend. I make excellent guacamole.)

Parlez-vous emoji? Step aside, French – there’s a new language of the future. Well, maybe.

Since Apple’s release of the emoji keyboard in 2011, the use of emojis has grown exponentially. This past March, nearly half of Instagram comments and captions contained emoji characters. But this isn’t just the language of choice for consumers. Emojis are brands’ latest attempt to appeal to the younger, texting-heavy demographics of Millennials and Gen Z. Brands such as Coca-Cola and Bud Light are using emojis to create unique content to stand out with these younger demographics. Even though these tiny images can set a brand’s message apart, it’s also very easy for the message to fall flat with consumers.Even so, brands are venturing into the world of emojis to develop content as well as to investigate their audiences. Independent shop Big Spaceship is working on technology to develop definitions for brand tracking via emojis. This would be done similar to the measurement of brand sentiment using the occurrence of specific words on social media. The idea isn’t to look at emojis alone, but to examine them within the context of social content. Theoretically, this would allow brands to examine differences as seemingly miniscule as using a red heart instead of a blue heart in a social media comment.  

Instagram considered this very difference in their Emojineering blog, and found that, in fact, blue hearts and red hearts don’t mean the same thing. Instagram took a similar approach to Big Spaceship and studied the occurrence of specific emojis with specific words and hashtags. They examined the hashtags associated with certain color hearts in the absence of a red heart. A blue heart lead to Duke-related hashtags (#goblue, #letsgoduke, etc.) and Autism Awareness-related hashtags (#autismspeaks), while a yellow heart lead to spring-related and earth-related hashtags (#springhassprung, #hellospring, #happyearthday, etc.).

As a market researcher, this use of emojis is intriguing and problematic. I’d love to know the meaning and reasoning behind a consumer’s decision to post a cat emoji rather than the kitten face emoji, but playing Bletchley Park doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll find what I’m looking for. The texting-based language of emojis, while expressive, only brings us a little bit closer to the full picture. There is a much easier way to get an honest read of respondents’ emotions towards a brand—just ask them. At CMB, we use custom market research and our new survey-based approach to measuring the emotional impact of brands, EMPACT℠, to find out how your customers really feel about your brand. . .rather than spend time defining heart and cat emojis.

Blair Bailey is an Associate Researcher at CMB who .