Voices: the CMB Blog

For those of you living in Siberia, I have a news flash: Boston had a nasty winter. Fortunately, spring has sprung, which has put an extra pep in my step for the past few weeks. That glorious feeling, coupled with an engagement I’ve been working on for Electronic Arts (EA), has inspired this blog. Martha Stewart says that “there are few rites of spring more satisfying than the annual clean.” Well, I’m no Martha Stewart (and for those of you who know me, the comparison is downright comical), but I do appreciate the general sentiment. 

Martha’s extensive list of spring cleaning projects can be found here. But, instead of the proverbial laundry list, I’m going to focus on three of Martha’s tips that have implications in the world of insights, analytics, UXR, and consulting.

1. Organize files. Sure, there is also a tactical “file management” analogy here, but I’m talking about something more powerful and fundamental. I’m advocating that you step back and ask yourself whether you are appropriately allocating your resources to the right initiatives. Take a look back over the last year (or more) at all the work you have completed with a critical eye. Which projects have had true business impact? Which ones could have had impact, but weren’t adopted appropriately by your business partners? What types of work are you consistently conducting that either can’t or won’t have true business impact? Conversely, what could you be working on that would really move your business forward? When facilitated correctly, I bet that most of us would learn that we should shift at least some of our focus elsewhere. 

2. Swap out heavy curtains, throws, and rugs for lightweight ones. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but we live in a “Mobile First” world. A world where consumers have more choices and are harder to pin down and our business partners need fresh insights faster than ever just to keep up. This reality provides both challenges and opportunities when it comes to “old” methods of designing studies and collecting data. There’s still room for “heavy” (strategic/foundational) projects and amazing storytelling deliverables. However, we also need to make plenty of room for methods that provide insights quickly, utilize mobile data collection (with modules “stitched” together scientifically when longer questionnaires are required), and use workshops to get key results to business partners faster rather than waiting for a beautifully packaged final product. Innovative companies (many of whom will be attending the Insights and Strategies Conference in San Diego next week) continue to create exciting new tools. We’re excited to launch EMPACT℠: CMB’s Emotional Impact Analysis methodology next month—our solution to measuring the emotional payoffs consumers experience, want, and expect from a brand, product, or ad.

3. Ensure Fire Safety. Admittedly, this analogy is a bit of a leap, but I find that spending extra time to make sure that my family is in no danger from fire analogous to spending time with my team to ensure that we are all on the same page, working towards the same goals, and that I am providing the support I can to ensure their happiness, balance, and high performance. I was lucky enough to participate in EA’s Global Analytics and Insights Conference offsite last month, and these few days provided a great blueprint for doing this well. In a nutshell, Zack Anderson (EA’s VP of Marketing Science) leads a team of more than 60 Consumer Insights, Analytics, and UXR professionals. The 3-day agenda he developed included a mix of motivational speaking, priority setting, cross-team pollination, and good ole fashioned bonding activities. The theme of the conference was “Ideas. Relationships. Execution.”—and I think it delivered brilliantly on all three counts. 

I suggest you all spend time pondering these three tips and finding the right way to execute them in your professional life. While none of them are as fun as playing a round of golf, I bet they’re all more fun than some of Martha’s other tips, such as resealing grout lines and dusting refrigerator coils.  

Brant Cruz is our resident segmentation guru and the Vice President of CMB’s eCommerce and Digital Media Practice.

Want to learn more about EMPACT℠: CMB’s Emotional Impact Analysis? Watch our recent webinar as CMB's Brant Cruz and Dr. Erica Carranza share how we capture emotional payoffs to inform a range of business challenges, including marketing, customer experience, customer loyalty, and product development. 

If your brand were a meme, would it look like the one on the right? At the 2015 Yale Customer Insight Conference in New Haven, Connecticut, we heard a lot about the evolving marketplace, powerful consumers, and how to get it right.  We’re living in an increasingly customer-centric world—a world where businesses are taking cues from their customers like never before.  Deepak Advani, GM at IBM Commerce points out that more than three-quarters of customers think brands don’t understand them.  So, if you are doing it wrong…how can you get on track?

1. Visual language first.  Facebook’s Director of Global Agency development, Patrick Harris says that rather than talk about a good book/trip/movie, people are posting a picture of it to “show not tell.” Facebook estimates a 75% global increase in visual language.  Are you wasting time on content no one will read or resonate with?

2. Be loved by Millennials.  Millennials aren’t fighting the power…they are the power and they know it.  If they don’t love your brand, it is game over, you just don’t know it yet.  Anne Hubert over at Viacom’s Scratch asked us to consider a generation that’s 86 million strong and demands an emotional connection to your brand. You can call them raging narcissists with their heads in their phones and unprofitable for your business model, but if you think they aren’t a factor in your business, Hubert says they might be ignoring your brand.  And all that equity you’ve banked can disappear if they don’t want to work for you and they don’t care about your products/services.

3. Curate good (not branded) content.  GE may be among the largest companies in the world, but Linda Boff, GE’s Executive Director of Global Brand Marketing, is under no illusions that they need to curate exceptional content— allowing their values of optimism, innovation and flexibility to shine. For instance, GE created 100 pairs of sneakers to celebrate their role in the moon landing. The kicks had everyone from sneaker-heads and fashionistas to museums talking.

4. Self pace.  Ossa Fisher, CMO at ISTATION showed us the power of pacing and 1:1 learning. A child having trouble with a subject can self-pace their learning on smartphones and tablets, avoiding the embarrassment of being too slow (or too quick) in a larger classroom.  Without the stigma, the child can focus on what they know and don’t know, and work at a comfortable pace.  Even the classroom instructor is excited because she can monitor progress toward a goal without slowing down the class.

5. Share.  Richelle Parham (Former CMO of eBay) and Bob Adams (Senior Director at Visa) talk about the rise of the sharing economy. Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and many others are disrupting entrenched businesses and focused on customer needs. For example, dog owners love their dogs and it feels very wrong to leave the dog in a small cage while the owners go off on vacation.  In the sharing economy, dog lovers can be matched to other dog lovers and can ensure their dog is also going on a great vacation in a loving home.

As you head into the summer months, recognize the ways your company may be “doing it wrong” and take strides to sharpen and grow your brand.

Do you have plans tonight?

If you’re like me, you’ll be snuggled up on your couch with a glass of red wine in one hand and Twitter pulled up on your phone in the other, ready and waiting for tonight’s Scandal finale. I’ll admit it: I love all Shonda Rhimes’ shows. I’ve watched Grey’s Anatomy since season 3 and How to Get Away with Murder after it premiered last fall. But as much as I love these two shows, I know I can DVR them and avoid spoilers. There’s one of Shonda’s shows, however, that I will move mountains to watch live because I just know that if I don’t, I will be spoiled the minute I go online. That show, ladies and gentlemen, is Scandal.

Since its premiere in 2012, Scandal has positioned itself as “event television”—the kind of can’t-miss show that needs to be watched live to get the full experience— which, if you think about it, is a pretty amazing feat. Just a few years ago, event television was thought to be dead with few exceptions (award shows, sporting events, etc.), but Scandal has resurrected it. How? Through cliffhangers, top secret plots, and brilliant marketing campaigns. But none of these have contributed more to this positioning than the show’s masterful use of Twitter.

The community the show has built on Twitter has been key to Scandal’s success, and this success story has a lesson that all brands should remember: loyalty and engagement are key. So, how has Scandal been able to do this? Through an immersive campaign that integrates organic fan-generated content with participation from cast and crew members. Each Thursday night, I am one of the #Gladiators scrolling through Twitter to read live tweets from fellow fans as well as cast members. The actors on the show are not the only people participating—fans can chat with Scandal’s writers (@ScandalWriters), prop master (@scandalprops), makeup department (@ScandalMakeup), and others.

In addition to live tweeting, Scandal has also brilliantly incorporated hashtags into its social media strategy. For instance, in 2012, the show was one of the first programs to advertise on Twitter and to feature a promoted hashtag (#WhoShotFitz) in advertising. The show uses a variety of hashtags for different purposes. For example, the show used #ScandalRecruitment during one month in season three to attract new viewers, and it often promotes #AskScandal, which viewers can use to ask a cast or crew member a question about the show.

All of this has culminated in a massive social media following. The show’s fans send out over 350,000 tweets per episode and, until recently, Scandal had the highest average tweets per episode during live airings of any broadcast drama this season. The show that beat Scandal? Newcomer Empire, which has based its social media strategy (live tweeting, promoted hashtags, etc.) off the success of Scandal’s strategy.

You’re probably asking yourself: why does this matter? First of all, after watching Olivia Pope shut someone down with a scene-stealing speech, is there anything more exciting than getting to directly interact with Kerry Washington about that exact scene? (The answer is no, people.) More importantly, Twitter released a study last May which found that after seeing TV-related tweets, 90% of people take “subsequent action such as watching a show they’ve never watched before, resuming a show that they’d previously stopped watching, and/or searching for more information about the show online.” Let this be a lesson to all brands (not just television shows): building a passionate fan base on Twitter generates loyalty and engagement, which in turn generates increased revenue.

So, fellow Gladiators, cancel your plans and settle in, because tonight promises to be another adventure—both on-screen and on your Twitter feed.

Kirsten Clark is a Marketing Associate at CMB who one day aspires to be like Olivia Pope. . .except without all torture, murders, and Presidential affairs.

After a brutal winter, many of us in the Northeast are glad to finally begin our annual spring-cleaning, but we’ve noticed we aren’t the only ones looking for a fresh start. With confidence in the economy growing, there has been an uptick in established brands taking a fresh look at their brand strategy, an area they may have neglected during the recent tough economic times.For most, a brand refresh means creating a stronger platform for growth. To see evidence of this, one need look no further than recent TV commercials. Domino’s eliminated “Pizza” from their name, allowing for new items beyond their foundational menu offering. Meanwhile Buick promotes their redesigned cars through commercials with actors stating in disbelief, “That’s not a Buick.” Even Southwest has jumped on the bandwagon, highlighting that customers not only receive low fares and free checked bags, but some TLC when flying on one of their planes: “Without a heart, it’s just a machine.”

Some common triggers that appear to spur brands down a new path:

1. The product and service offerings have fundamentally changed. That is not to say the brand has transformed at its most basic level, but needs to be updated to better reflect what the company is currently offering.

2. The target audience has shifted. The brand may no longer be reaching its intended audience due to that audience aging, narrowing, broadening, or otherwise changing. Legacy brands may need to create a fresh image to become more relevant to younger audiences.

3. The company is outgrowing its old brand. Recent company growth from geographic expansion, mergers and acquisitions, or internal structural changes may necessitate a shift in the brand or a split into sub-brands in order for it to stay true.

So with spring in the air and a little more life in the economy, now might be a good time to re-examine your core brands. A thorough market-based review may confirm your brand positioning remains strong and remind you of the core tenets that keep the brand motivating, distinctive, and believable. Or it could reveal opportunities for renewal and reinvention.

Lindsay Maroney is a consultant at South Street Strategy Group where they combine strategy and marketing science to uncover insights that help clients grow their business and strengthen their brands. 

Back in 2005, Malcolm Gladwell told us that focus groups are dead. Just last November, Jim Bryson, CEO of 20/20 Research, questioned whether qualitative research was thriving or dying: “If we take a narrow, more traditional view that qualitative is defined by the methods of face-to-face focus groups or interviews, particularly those held in a qualitative facility, then the case can be easily made that qualitative is dying.”

To all of this, I say: wait, what?! Qualitative is dying? I refused to believe it, so I embarked on a journey to explore where qualitative has been, and more importantly, where it’s going. During my research, I found plenty of evidence to support the fact that qualitative is not, in fact, dying. Great news, right? (Especially for me, because if it were true, I just might be out of a job I love.)I took a look at the fall 2014 Greenbook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) Report and focused on the data from Q1-Q2 of 2013 and Q1-Q2 2014. In this data, I learned:

• The use of traditional in-person focus groups increased from 60% (Q1-Q2 2013) to 70% (Q1-Q2 2014).
• Within the same time period, the use of in-person, in-depth interviews increased from 45% to 53%.
• Interviews and groups using online communities increased from 21% to 24%.
• The use of mobile qual (e.g., diaries, image uploads) increased from 18% to 24%.

Yes, it’s important to note that not all qualitative methodologies saw an increase in usage within this timeframe. In fact, there was a decrease in the usage of telephone IDIs, in-store shopping/observations, bulletin board studies, both chat-based and webcam-based online focus groups, and telephone focus groups.  All this notwithstanding, I think it’s fair to say that qualitative is still very much alive and well.

So why do people keep talking about qualitative dying? We can’t deny that there are a number of factors that affect how and when we use qualitative methodologies today (technology, access to big data, and text analytics are a few). But, this doesn’t mean qualitative is disappearing as a discipline. Qualitative is evolving at a rapid pace and feels more relevant than ever. Sure, we need to keep up with client demands for faster and cheaper research, but there will always be a need for the human mind (i.e., a qualitative expert) to analyze and synthesize the data to provide meaning and context behind the way people think and behave—and that is where actionable insights are born.   

Now that we know qualitative really isn’t dying, what does 2015 (and beyond) hold for us? The future is about truly integrated research—in which qualitative and quantitative are consistently, thoughtfully, and purposefully used together to provide well-rounded, actionable insights. We’re poised to do exactly that with our dedicated analytics team and network of expert industry qualitative partners. By using two equally important disciplines that are both alive and well, we can provide our clients critical insights they can really use. Far from killing off qualitative insights, technology and an evolving marketplace are helping make qualitative insights even stronger.

Anne Hooper is the Qualitative Research Director at CMB. After recently finding out that her 13 year old daughter did a quantitative assessment of her Jazz Band’s upcoming Disney trip itinerary, she’s determined that an intervention may be in order.