MR21C

The Gated Communities of the Internet

2010-05-23T11:47:00.004-04:00

Provocative article today in North America's most popular fish-wrap by Virginia Heffernan re: the death of the open web.

Let's play Devil's Advocate with some of Ms. Heffernan's observations - the kind of AOL-ness that may be flying now for some but not so much in the future re: Apple and others segregating the Net; the here today/gone tomorrow shifting of web economics; the obviously useful features of the long (and open) tail, etc.

Still, let's also assume Heffernan is on a pretty correct course and many out there increasingly prefer the narrowed but "clean" confines of the proprietary over the exciting but unruly character of open web.

Not sure myself , so I'll ask -any observations how this will play out regarding research implications? How much more complicated has the playing field become?

"Pay-wall"...or "Delay-wall"?

2010-03-26T17:08:00.006-04:00

So these are the latest members of the Murdock empire to begin placing their content behind a paywall.

Call me naive or missing the boat on something, but...

You are the writer John Doe and you've just come up with a piece appearing in one of Murdoch's digital fish-wraps...even the WSJ....

While someone can't link directly to the article because of the paywall, what's to stop the reader Josephine Doe from pretty much summing up (in her own words) some bullet points of John's post over at her free blog, while Josephine's cousin Jack Doe goes over (in his own careful, non-plagiarizing way) a few of the specialized summaries over at his page....while musing on his own about the subject(s).

Sure, people will/might pay for convenience and/or specialization and the chance to see an articulate argument spelled out in it's original guise from A to Z...

But, do not paywalls, at best, delay the dissemination on this information and is Murdock not ultimately fooling himself?

Very interesting days, indeed.

UPDATE: I notice Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine has put in his two cents on what he views as a "pathetic" attempt by Murdock to cocoon himself in old world business models. Interestingly, the comments I'm reading below the post are (at this time) more supportive than not of Rupert Murdoch's intentions and attempts at survival. Read for yourself.

More Social Media Soul Searching via Stowe Boyd

2010-03-25T22:17:00.004-04:00

The latest piece that I've seen in the last week questioning the directions the social media compass has been pointing in is this very intriguing post by Stowe Boyd, responding to the Umair Hague Social Media Bubble article I was referring to before.

By way of addressing Hague's positions, Boyd gets into a most interesting intro on his so-called "New Spatialism" - highly recommended reading.

I think Boyd does a particularly good job of attempting to put what has rolled out into a historical context:

"Relatively soon, however, this personal publishing by the fringe lunatics became big business and old media arrived. Now the leading 'blogs' are either run by old media giants, or bloggers who have become new media giants. Social media has been strip-malled. The funky soulfulness of the early days has been replaced by SEO, ad networks, and ersatz earnestness.

The reality is that so-called social media -- even in its earlier, Birkenstock and granola days -- wasn't very social. We didn't call it that until much later, anyway. We thought of it as personal publishing...."

The debate as to what social media is, should be and where it's going has just begun.

More to come, I'm sure...

Honeymoon Over for Social Media?

2010-03-23T21:11:00.003-04:00

On the heels of what I was first noticing the other day about social media cynicism comes this new piece in the Harvard Business Review about the evils of "relationship inflation".

While I wouldn't say that a tidal wave has arrived, I am increasingly feeling a few more drips on my balding head from the leak that seems to be coming out of the social media vessel and its related tools.

I would still take issue with some of the points made by Umair Hauge in his piece - "Not only is Farmville not Casablanca, it's not Kiva either." Maybe so - but we do have a Kiva and I just linked to it back here. There is a lot of positively good mixed in with the annoyingly bad...or untrustworthy.

Still, I am increasingly feeling this cynicism over social media emerging. Joe and Josephine Citizen aren't that clued out - the more they hear about how valuable all this data that is being created about them from the social web is, the more they could/will start wondering whose good is all this really being done for. We'll see.

Two Sides to the Social Media Coin

2010-03-20T12:50:00.000-04:00

My attention was first captured the other day by an Adrian Ott tweet, linking to an article about the death of the Social Media dream, as articulated by Steven Hodson over at The Inquisitr.

Many of the points made in the post are extreme but a few morsels of it touched on concerns that have been dwelling in the back of my mind for some time, and may help to explain the somewhat diminished enthusiasm I have had recently for some of these so called "conversational tools."

On the heels of this was a Gawker offering about the way blogs are starting to resemble newspapers, from the way headlines read, through to the layout and on to the disappearance of the "snark" that first helped to make blogs...well, fun.

Everything old is new again?

Back to the future?

Connected to all of this is the way so much of the recent 2.0 platforms seem to have been "rolled out", rather than discovered.

Facebook snuck-up on people from it's Harvard roots. Twitter pretty much emerged from nowhere. Folks at large (you and I) decided after awhile these were worthwhile tools to use. While true "conversational" properties may have been a bit of a naive pipe-dream, their introduction did not smack of the same more obviously self-serving promotional avalanche that has accompanied it's followers -Wave, Buzz and Foursquare - from within... and outside.

(On that note, sites like Mashable seemed like they used to save most of their cheer leading till after the product/service was introduced....my perception.)

Marshall McLuhan once commented along the lines of the electronic tools of his time only representing a faster form of non-communication. Was he right? How much have we been fooling ourselves to the point where Hodson anguishes over the notion that...

"For the longest time now I have been a firm believer that Social Media at its heart was the platform by which we as individuals could come together and through conversation, effect change like never before. Instead what we get are companies pandering to the lowest common denominator in order to create pipelines of personal information for which they can charge top dollar to companies that just want to sell us some more garbage – social change be damned."

Rather depressing.

Wait, Michael. It is depressing...if one chooses to paint with such large brush strokes.

If one ignores the fact that social media tools have been used and are available to put out messages for those who could not have otherwise afforded to do so... or known how to do it.

If one is convinced most so-called social media exists for increasingly commercialized means that mimic pre-twenty first century values from - call it, if you will - the big view from the West.

This would be unfair and insulting to the definite ways in which there is real communication and action that can result from what is out there now. A case in point that appeared today in the Toronto Star detailed how blogging and other social media tools have given rise to the means of working around government interventions in some parts of the world, to the extent that:

"Blogs are a way these young people can express themselves, interact, say the things a regime-controlled media cannot."

I've come across other examples of such and I'm sure you have too. Still, there is no doubt in my mind that Hodson is right about some "up-i-ness" in marketing/enterprise circles over the ability to amass and crunch data as the raison d'être for being in the Social Media game.

There, I've rambled long enough and I apologize. What I'm dwelling on now is:

-How much of Hodson's sentiment do you share?

-Will the usage of these tools by some (including we in the Market Research world) spark the cynical side of the public at large to the extent that many reduce or even stop playing the Social Media game?

Ideas?

Great Dilbert

2010-01-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

Steve Jobs and Market Research - In Perspective

2010-01-09T20:32:00.000-05:00

2010 seems to have been brought in with a massive wave of gadget-mania, first spurred on by the presence of Google's venture into the hardware end of the Smartphone market with Nexus and now carrying through with Apple's contributions re: tablet fever.

Awhile back there were some simple and superficial chorus calls echoing the supposed belief that Steve Jobs and friends do not conduct market research, per say. The Toronto Star article link conveys opinions that could seem to be adding fuel to that fire:

"Apple certainly didn't invent MP3 players, but they created success (with the iPod) where no one did before. And they didn't invent smartphones, but they reinvented that experience," said Gartenberg, crediting Jobs for leading the way.
"He knows how to bring products to market, he knows how to evangelize and sell those products, and to do so in a way that feels personable to the consumer. You can't argue with that."

That may lead some to conclude that Job's bull-by-the-horns approach would indeed relegate market research to a low priority status, bringing to mind this quote:

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it. " - Alan Kay

While it may be true that Mr. Jobs has a special and unique talent for creating a great deal of positive destiny for himself and his firm, Jefferey Henning put a lot of the Apple/market research issues into a proper perspective some time ago. Jeffrey and David Alison make note of Apple's targeted (and well-executed) customer satisfaction vehicles and also includes a chronology of new product launches that have shown that while Apple's record is impressive, it is far from flawless.

Does the Pre-Transaction Exist in Market Research ?

2009-12-06T17:08:00.000-05:00

The other day Seth Godin had a good post re: the importance of pre-transaction efforts and the folly of expecting a potential client of just "giving money on a first date."

It may be true that the market research world has several cases of repeat clients and well-known reputations that largely lead to solid deals and follow-through; still, I wonder what kind of value-added offerings can be reasonably passed along before any actual sale takes place.

This all took me back to the roof problem my wife and I found ourselves with in the spring. A wicked winter and an improperly ventilated attic had left us with shingles falling and rainwater leaking in. With the help of some local review sites and word-of-mouth recommendations, I proceed to call in five different roofers for estimates.

First guy arrived, used his ladder to climb up and proclaim "you need a new roof".

Genius!

Second guy arrived, climbed up and decided "the roof needs serious repair work".

A shingle blew off and nearly conked me on the noggin' as he delivered this brilliant insight.

Ditto for roofers #3 and #4. "Your roof needs fixin' and this is what it will cost you to get it done. Over and out!"

Things played out differently with Jake, the fifth workman who, upon declaring that my roof needed replacing, followed by mentioning:

"You know, I can see the actual spot where a shingle was blown off...right there...that pinhole seems to be where you're probably getting some of the water in."

A specific problem area identified. Good. Better than nothing.

Jake climbed off the ladder, scratched his facial stubble and said: "You know, I have some spare shingles in the truck. I'm going back up and putting some on that area, just to hold you over. No obligation. I just think it would help."

I was likin' the sounds of that. This blatantly self-serving offer nonetheless put me at some piece of mind that...

a) a degree of amelioration was about to to occur in my roof follies and...

b) someone had made the first true value offering to help forge a genuine, workable relationship between us.

What followed was the best quote I received from the group of five, as well as a glowing face-to-face review from one of Jake's referrals. Who do you think won the job? The Misses and I couldn't be happier with our lovely new house cover.

In the market research world, what kind of pre-transaction offering could you (reasonably and effectively) offer?

Example - pointing out secondary research that you know exists on the potential client's topic/interests...regardless of originating source? Anything else?

What kind of small patch can you provide on the road to bigger things and a hopefully more expansive relationship?

Whether you're a smaller consultant or working for one of the big players, I'd love to hear ideas and experiences on this.

Interesting Take On Freemium vs. Premium Debate

2009-11-14T15:53:00.000-05:00

Nigel Legg, one of the true Social Media aficionados worth following (as I've pointed out here before), has an e-mail course offering on Understanding Social Media that is about to launch.

There are freemium/premium components to the course, which he explains in this way on his Katugas Social Media Services site:

I believe that there is no right or wrong answer to any question of social media use, merely a more appropriate or efficient solution to a problem. Therefore, it is not possible to mark coursework, but for the Premium course, I will provide comments on the answers you give, and you will have access to the sandbox areas specially set up for the course.

What Nigel seems to be offering is a Web 1.0 approach for free (facts, opinions, statements) and a 2.0 slant for financial compensation (adding interaction and collaboration) - which strikes me as being quite honest and fair. Those who are grappling between the "give-it-all-away" option on the one hand and the Rupert Murdoch denial route on the other might be looking for variations of the sensible approach Nigel seems to have taken here.

21st Century Market Research Unspools In Vegas

2009-10-21T22:21:00.000-04:00

I'm not at the roulette wheel, I'm not listening to Wayne Newton...I'm not even in Vegas - but a horde of others are at The Market Research Event.

Not only is there a good, informative and up-to-date blog but also several videos hosted on the IIRUSA Youtube channel for those of us not fortunate enough to be there to take in this exchange of ideas.

I'm planning to go over the contents in detail this weekend - one thing I'm sure not to be surprised by is a constant refrain of CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE.

Now That's Downsizing.

2009-09-21T21:12:00.000-04:00

Social Media 101

2009-09-14T21:36:00.000-04:00

I follow Nigel Legg on Twitter and saw that he had participated in this solid, straightforward description concerning the basics of social media.

In case you encounter someone who still doesn't know a private poke from a public tweet, show them this and there should be a more rounded appreciation of what is going on.

Social Media Interview. from Nigel Legg on Vimeo.

Community Panels And Troubled Brands

2009-08-29T22:42:00.000-04:00

Seth Godin describes the idea of going deep or going wide when it comes to marketing. While in many instances going wide may be preferable, I can see an opportunity in the market research world for concentrating on a particular direction.

On the one hand, online communities will supposedly be in use by 60% of the Fortune 1000 come next year. At the same time it is obvious that old-school thinking prevails in many corporations who may talk the social media talk but are reluctant to walk it. The idea of community panels are probably unappealing to some for an obvious reason - hearing things we don't wish to hear.

And that is exactly what they should be embracing.

I was discussing related matters recently at the office in a discussion we were having about the employment of social media and networking tools. I pointed out that if you head over to the website for the candy company Skittles, you are presented with one of the most extreme examples of turning one's marketing over to content from the community at large. Aside from product line-up and contact pages, the rest of the site has been completely assigned to social med - a Youtube site for the partner to regard the brand and their own vids; a Flickr page to show how people have arranged their multi-coloured candy pieces into rainbows and such; a Twitter page to chat and a Facebook wall to document those who are official Skittle "friends".

Of course, with all respect, candy is candy and it's probably a lot easier for a firm like this to show the bravado to turn their SNS mojo almost completely loose. I did come across one comment some time ago where someone had tweeted that eating a little too much of the candy had given them a bit of a tummy ache.

Not the kind of thing the company wants to hear but hardly the end of the world for them. Regarding this, I turned to our automotive analyst and proposed that a similar set-up for a car company could prove to be very dicey - how would you like to be the CEO of Generic Motors reading a tweet where someone writes "The breaks seemed to short out...I'm convinced this line of Generic Motor cars are death traps!!!"

I wouldn't want to hear it at all...but if I had to, I'd at least want it in an enclosed but responsive community environment where one could sort out and act upon the concerns of trusted partners, rather than waiting for the tweet to hit the fan for the general public to hear and react to.

Community panels will have great applications across the board for all kinds of different companies in all kinds of situations but I can't help but feel it will be of particular benefit to those that have to deal with damaged images, potential controversies and unknown concerns lurking around the corner.

Businesses never want to hear bad things but nowadays they can't afford not to hear them. Do it where it's safe/safer - and then show your "partners" you heard them by responding!

Another DIY Market Research Warning

2009-08-05T19:52:00.000-04:00

Cathy Harrison retweeted this link re: the perils of doing market research on your own and hoping to make chicken salad out of chicken-you-know-what.

Data Without Analysis Is Like...

2009-08-02T21:21:00.000-04:00

It's late Sunday night, my wife is watching a tv show I couldn't care less about and I thought this would be a fun pursuit on Google.

There has been a great deal of conversation going on within the market research community for some time regarding the proliferation of DIY tools that can be used for low/no cost means of acquiring information through surveys. This also ties into the idea of unsanctioned factions within companies and organizations electing to acquire data through such means and possibly proceeding with actionable endeavors based on what they perceive as being their findings through such - "rogue research", if you will.

The limitations of such tools should be apparent in the MR world and were well summarized by Alex Wilke, commenting in a blog post on the subject.

To stick with the analogy, the fact that professional power tools are now readily available at affordable costs does not mean that everyone has the skill to use them.

As tempting as it sounds, hiring a bull dozer and knocking down your wall and building an extension requires more thought, planning and experience than just having the right tools. Similarly, the ability to communicate with respondents doesn’t make someone a great communicator or even researcher.

This of course is preceded by no-brainer concerns re: quality of sample, quality of questionnaire design, etc. Garbage survey = garbage results.

Even if one were to give the benefit of the doubt that all facets of questionnaire design and programming, data and image capture, operations (coding and DE leading up to DP) could be satisfactorily handled, it would still leave the matter of analysis in the hands of those who probably lack the skills to...well, analyze.

This got me to thinking of what the notion of data without analysis could be expressed as.

Lacking the wit and imagination myself, I Googled in the term as such:

"Data without analysis is like"

...so that the quotes would retrieve exact captures. While the results are collected from a number of different disciplines, I'd like to see if they help to reflect the quandary the DIY researcher would face in looking over his or her accumulations.

From Stephen White's book Show Me The Proof comes the observation:

Data without analysis is like standards without expectations.

On the subject of data mining, someone has offered the summation:

...data without analysis is like Roast Beef without horseradish. It just aint worth bothering with!

Okay...what ever you say. How about:

...data without analysis is like buying a boat when you live in the desert

from the Web Handling and Converting Blog

Thanks everyone, but I'm suddenly feeling more confident. I think I can now incorporate something from a previous life to deliver my own analogy.

I briefly worked in the Canadian film industry in the industrial/educational sector. Concurrently, the feature industry was fueled by a tax shelter scheme that dictated that productions that had acquired distribution were really not at risk (a totally ridiculous notion, as history bore out). Therefore, producers using the tax shelter had to manufacture the end product first, often to find there was no one willing to distribute the more mediocre efforts of the government scheme.

Anyway, the movie tax shelter years produced a saying that I think is adaptable to this MR issue. Instead of saying "a film without distribution", I would phrase it as such:

Data without analysis is like a car without wheels - it can't take you anywhere.

Online Community - A Picture Says...

2009-07-23T22:55:00.000-04:00

I have heard some very intriguing explanations of the notion of "online community" in words but this is the most beautiful presentation to watch and listen to...sit back, enjoy and take it all in. Courtesy of Orwell06.

Future Of Online Research Slide Share

2009-07-23T22:30:00.001-04:00

As I was combing through some market research material on slideshare.net, I came across this by someone else working for Synovate and a fellow MR Tweeter. Emiel is one engaging thinker and had his finger on the pulse when he produced this.

Future Of Online Research Slide Share

View more presentations from emielvanwegen.

Selling Cigarettes, Candy...and Community

2009-07-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

Recently the convenience store at the end of our street changed owners. I can't say I was too broken up about seeing this changing of the guard - the store and the building it is housed in have suffered great neglect for a few decades. The store had become a cramped, confusing and not particularly appealing venue - truth be told, I thought the city health officials may have been turning too blind an eye to this establishment.

The new owners seem to have already undertaken a number of needed upgrades to the place - a clean-out of the back storage area, a new front display for the flowers being sold and a less cluttered venue in general. There are apparently several plans for additional renos to the store and the apartments above it. All in all, it would appear this should be making the location into a more desirable destination, and yet...

While it's true the new owners keep slightly tighter hours (open an hour later, close an hour earlier), I was still perplexed by the noticeable drop-off in traffic into and out of the store. It then occurred to me what was also missing, compared to the old days.

It was the milling about. The hanging around. The gossiping. The news about the community that didn't need a newspaper or the Internet to be transmitted.

For all the other faults the previous owners and staff had, IMHO, the one thing they were often willing to give for free was their time.

The older gentleman who opened in the morning would often jab his finger at the headline of the Toronto Sun and engage in a dialogue with the total stranger buying smokes.

The female shopkeeper would sell some flowers to someone, then go into a lengthy checklist of how to maintain the plants in a way I was convinced she would never bother undertaking for herself.

People from both sides of "The Road" would meet and get into discussing how things were going down in their neck of the woods - it would not be unusual to see one of the store owners joining in the conversation while stocking shelves inside or watering plants out in front.

The new owners run a tighter, cleaner, more efficient and visually pleasant ship but business is down. Noticeably. Now it just seems...like a business. The store no longer comes across as being the community hub it once was.

The previous owners were not just selling cigarettes and candy- there was a value-added feature available that was free of charge.

So you are selling a particular product or service. Fine.

What else are you offering?

?????????????????????

Wine, Music... and Cool Marketing.

2009-07-11T14:17:00.000-04:00

I dropped into the local wine and spirits establishment in the Bloor West Village this afternoon, with a particular Italian Merlot in mind as a purchase.

While I left with said bottle in hand, I also made a more impulsive buy while I was there. As I crossed through the area carrying Ontario brands, the packaging below caught my eye:

I have never tried Pillitteri Estates 2006 Unoaked VQA Chardonnay, nor am I familiar with the music of one Dominic Mancuso but I figured that for $9.95, I could end up with at least a pleasant bottle of vino or a pleasant CD of candlelight sounds. If I ended up with both...BONUS!

The wine is in the fridge and the CD player is about to get a visitor. The point is, this appetizing example of cross-promotion created an additional purchase where one wasn't planned before.

Reviews on the wine and the music to follow.

(Update: My wife and I feel that the one problem with the CD is that it isn't long enough. Very relaxing dinner time fare that's a fine match for candlelight cuisine had us looking forward to more than the nine tracks here. Especially liked the Caruso and Favi Amari cuts.

The wine, for an unoaked Chard, had the citrus I was expecting -good accompaniment to the blue cheese and pears we just had - salmon pasta to follow and I'm sure it should fit fine. Would be great as a patio sipper.

This got me to thinking...

...I liked the wine fine.

...I liked the music fine.

...the combination of the wine and the CD induced me to buy the product.

But would that combination deter me from making an additional purchase? Some might look at the shelf in the store and think "but I already have that CD...do I want to have another one?"

If it was me, I'd gladly make the purchase, happily drink the wine, and be more than pleased to pass the next available copy of the recording to friends for their enjoyment.

But that's me - what about others? Would they do it? Market research is a way of checking out these possible outcomes. That's what we are here for.)

The Synovate Corporate Video

2009-07-09T22:10:00.000-04:00

I happen to work for this company and this is my first blog posting about what is happening in market research, so I thought I'd start off with a look at what new promotional tool the corp has produced.

As Ray Poynter points out "For a while now most of the running in the use of online videos to promote market research companies has been done by TNS and Synovate. On Emiel van Wegen's blog I spotted that Synovate has a new video, and it certainly catches the eye."