TMRE Poll of the Month

Have you had a chance to vote in our latest TMRE poll?

Have you seen more of your MR budget being allocated to shopper insights?

The Market Research Event LinkedIn Update: March

March's The Market Research Event LinkedIn Roundup is here! Read the newsletter here. If you haven't had a chance to join our Market Research Event LinkedIn Group, join now!

Your view on market segementation

At Ad Age, they ask a very interesting question? Is market segmentation discrimination in disguise? What do you think as a market researcher? If your product will appeal to only one market, why advertise to many others? But, on the other side of things, what if one or two people in another market would like to know about what your advertising? What are your thoughts?

TMRE Poll Results: February

In the February edition of The Market Research Event LinkedIn Roundup's poll questions are new closed, and we'd like to share the results with you:

Has your company downsized because of the economy?
58% Yes
41% No

Has the research sector of your company downsized in the current recession?
83% Yes
16% No

Do you believe your market research budget will be cut further?
58% Yes
41% No

Do any of these results surprise you?

New research into loyalty marketing

At this month's CPGmatters, they look at the new trends in loyalty marketing. Top Shopper Dialog (TSD) found a new approach to tell the "why" in consumer shopping. Consumers volunteer to participate in phone interviews as well as have a loyalty card for tracking their purchases. Read the full story here.

Free Web Seminar: Consumer Segments -- New Online Research Approaches for Better Understanding

Just a quick reminder here, BuzzBack Research in conjunction with the Market Research Event will host a complimentary web seminar presented by Brendan Light, SVP of BuzzBack Market Research. This web seminar will take place on two separate dates and times. For US viewers it will take place on Wednesday, March 18 from 2:00 to 3:00 PM EDT and for European viewers it will take place on March 19 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM GMT. Here’s a brief recap of the webinar:

Here are key takeaways from the presentation.

• Through a case study approach, specific examples will be shown that explore research methods that breathe new life into the way consumer profiles are created.
• Examples of award-winning, projective and enabling techniques that can be used in online quantitative research will be demonstrated.
• Techniques to overcome online research’s traditional problem of eliciting mostly top-of-mind, surface responses will be explored, with side-by-side results that show how these new techniques can demonstrably improve insights
• A new method of navigating open-ended responses based on Web 2.0 technology will showcase ways to highlight consumer learning faster and more efficiently.
• Case study examples will include: consumer goods, personal products and consume healthcare.

Register below. Mention priority code MWS0017IIR

For US Viewers: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/753336057

Mention priority code MWS0017MIIR

For European Viewers: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/767707777

Market Research on a travel budget: Your Responses

A few weeks ago, we asked a question of our The Market Research Event LinkedIn Group. What are people doing to get around not being able to travel to conduct market research? We had some great answers from those managing that very problem.


Ron Schechter at Internationalteam.net has worked around his limited travel in this way:

I am a MR consultant and specialize in healthcare market research in Latin America. I often try to place two projects from different clients back to back, in order to economize for both clients.


Rachel Geltman suggests using the Video Chat Network to communicate with her clients that aren’t in the same geographical location:

Video Chat Network is perfect for these times where travel budgets are getting slashed. There is no travel necessary to access respondents on a global basis, speaking face-to-face from the comfort of their own computers. And it allows marketers to reach the early adopters who set the trends that move businesses. This highly efficient, cutting edge approach, is perfectly suited to the times! Check it out at videochatnetwork.net.

Susan Abbott, a consumer experience specialist, uses a variety of way to get around traveling to conduct her market research.

I would second JC Paradise's comment regarding bulletin board research. I have found these work very well with a wide variety of audiences, including, but not limited to B2B. In fact teens may be more forthcoming using this kind of method.

There are other online qualitative methods, and more in development all the time. Discussion forums (bulletin boards) can be supplemented by individual online diaries or blogs. Live time focus groups (text chat) can be held.

I have also used web meeting software combined with telephone for voice to present and get reactions to stimuli, in both individual interviews (IDI) and small groups.

The use of webcams with web meeting software is also now well established, and several platforms exist that can be rented just as a focus group room is rented.

Other variations that are used in qual include having respondents take pictures or video of themselves and send it in prior to using one of the methods above to ask questions and engage in deeper discussion.

Although these methods may be new to some, there are experienced practitioners in all of these areas, and multiple vendor platforms. when used in combination with traditional methods in the home market, you can get really great results across a large geography.

Skittles: Network the Rainbow

Go to skittles.com. I promise it will throw you for a creative loop. Tagline is “Interweb the Rainbow. Taste the Rainbow.” This line makes sense when you see the site, because it’s not really a Website, but a social media smorgasbord. Initially, you’ll think you’ve landed on a Wikipedia page, because their Wikipedia page is the background of the Site!

To even get permission to view the Site, you have to give them your birth date. Marketing genius! First of all, 90% of people navigate away from a Website within a minute. So if someone takes the time and effort to enter their birth date, their level of interest in learning more about Skittles must be fairly high. Second, by requiring people to enter their birth date, Skittles can determine what age demographic their products reach.

As you surf the Skittles site, it uses various online social marketing tools to pull up information about Skittles. For example, when you click on click on the Media tab, it pulls up videos via the YouTube site, and photos via Flickr. When you click on the products tab, it takes you to the product description on their Wikipedia page. Again, marketing genius.

This bold move is risky, because by turning their Website into a social media hub for skittles, they lose a lot of control. For example, whenever someone twitters about skittles, its shows up in their twitter stream. That means if someone twitters something negative, that’s right-it shows up in its Twitter stream. But this site is causing buzz, and buzz, aka word-of-mouth, is marketing heaven. Looks like the Skittles rainbow is on its way to a pot of gold.

April Bell

Your company and market research

In the latest issue of the TMRE LinkedIn Roundup, we asked several questions of our readers. Now is your chance to weigh in, too! Results will be posted in March's edition of the TMRE LinkedIn Roundup. If you haven't had a chance to join our LinkedIn group, join now!

Do you believe your market research budget will be cut?

Has the research sector of your company downsized in the current recession?

Has your company downsized because of the economy?

Free Web Seminar: Consumer Segments -- New Online Research Approaches for Better Understanding

BuzzBack Research in conjunction with the Market Research Event will host a complimentary web seminar presented by Brendan Light, SVP of BuzzBack Market Research. This web seminar will take place on two separate dates and times. For US viewers it will take place on Wednesday, March 18 from 2:00 to 3:00 PM EDT and for European viewers it will take place on March 19 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM GMT. Here’s a brief recap of the webinar:

Proper understanding of different consumer segments is crucial to success in today’s hyper-competitive environment in order to improve product development, positioning and messaging to your target. Traditional approaches to identifying and profiling consumer segments generally result in flat, two dimensional portraits based on demographic, psychographic and behavioral or purchase data.

New, more creative research approaches now integrate innovative projective and enabling exercises in online studies. This type of approach, the use of newer online qualitative techniques in an online quantitative research, converts a standard online study into one that provides richer and deeper understanding of segments, including vivid consumer language, visual imagery and personal insights and emotions.

• Through a case study approach, specific examples will be shown that explore research methods that breathe new life into the way consumer profiles are created.
• Examples of award-winning, projective and enabling techniques that can be used in online quantitative research will be demonstrated.
• Techniques to overcome online research’s traditional problem of eliciting mostly top-of-mind, surface responses will be explored, with side-by-side results that show how these new techniques can demonstrably improve insights
• A new method of navigating open-ended responses based on Web 2.0 technology will showcase ways to highlight consumer learning faster and more efficiently.
• Case study examples will include: consumer goods, personal products and consume healthcare.
  

Register below. Mention priority code MWS0017IIR

For US Viewers: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/753336057

For European Viewers: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/767707777

Linkage Strategies 2009

Linkage Strategies 2009: Customer Feeback & Action Planning

This event unveils the blueprint for researchers, marketers, product developers and customer strategists to translate data into action. A unique customer event that doesn’t just talk customer-centricity, it provides the measurement techniques to ensure every dollar spent on your customers delivers optimal profitability. In times like these, waste is not an option.

Find out how to bridge the gap between customer strategy and business strategy March 9-11, 2009 in Bonita Springs, Florida at Linkage Strategies 2009.

Gartner Reports 12% Drop in Computer Sales

As computer manufacturers struggle with the changing economic environment, Gartner reports that sales of personal computers are expected to decline by 11.9 percent to 257 million units in 2009. According to the Associated Press, the decline in PC sales in 2009 would be the worst since 2001, when unit shipments contracted 3.2 percent, Gartner said in a statement. Both emerging and mature markets were also set to suffer unprecedented market slowdowns in 2009 with PC sales declining by 10.4 percent over last year in emerging markets and by 13 percent in mature markets.This type of market research is growing more worthwhile as other businesses brace for the residuals of the economic storm.