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vue
the magazine of the
Marketing Research
and Intelligence
Association
DECEM BER 2012
vue
DECEMBER 2012
Cover: Betty Adamou
In this month’s features: (L to R) Betty Adamou, Chuck Chakrapani, Ben Smithee, Ray Poynter, Reineke Reitsma,
Richard Evensen, Roxana Strohmenger
SPECIAL FEATURE
12
THE FUTURE OF …
Betty Adamou
FEATURES
16 AU CONTRAIRE (5) PARIS HILTON, KARDASHIANS,
AND LARGE BRANDS
Chuck Chakrapani, CMRP, FMRIA
20 THE MARKETING RESEARCH PANGAEA:
THE FUTURE OF RESEARCH IS IN FUSING THE GREAT DIVIDE
Ben Smithee
22 RESEARCHERS YES, BUT PERHAPS NOT A RESEARCH INDUSTRY
Ray Poynter
26 2013: THE END OF MARKETING RESEARCH AS WE KNOW IT?
YOU DECIDE!
Reineke Reitsma with Richard Evensen and Roxana Strohmenger
VUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE
MARKETING RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE
ASSOCIATION TEN TIMES A YEAR
ADDRESS
The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association
L’association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing
2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg. 4, Unit 104
Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2
Tel: (905) 602-6854
Toll Free: 1-888-602-MRIA (6742)
Fax: (905) 602-6855
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CONTACTS
CHAIR, PUBLICATIONS
Stephen Popiel, PhD, CMRP, Vice President, GfK Custom Research NA
Tel: (905) 277-2669 x 242 Mobile: (416) 358-5062
[email protected]
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer, Conversition
(416) 273-9395
[email protected]
MANAGING EDITOR
Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA
[email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP
(647) 855-5088
[email protected]
COPY EDITOR
Siegfried Betterman
Interested in joining the Vue editorial team?
Contact us at [email protected]
COMMENTARY
4 Editor’s Vue
6 Farewell Letter from the Executive Director
INDUSTRY NEWS
29 Research Registration System (RRS)
30 Qualitative Research Registry (QRR)
31 People and Companies in the News
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
35 Designation Evolution
COLUMNISTS
36 TWO SOLITUDES
37 QUALITAS
37 THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
38 BRAVE NEW WORLD
2012 ADVERTISING RATES
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The opinions and conclusions expressed in Vue are those of the
authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the
Marketing Research and Intelligence Association.
Publishing Date: December, 2012 © 2012.
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Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40033932
ISSN 1488-7320
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
Editor’s Vue
Annie Pettit
You can be scared of the future, or you can embrace the
future. As with every other industry, the world of marketing
research is evolving more quickly every year. Online surveys
emerged in the mid-nineties and took over. Mobile surveys
emerged just a few years later and settled in. Qualitative
methods are becoming more diversified and intriguing all
the time. And now, gamification, social media research,
behavioural economics, and oh so many more new and
previously unfathomable research methods are pushing out
the sides of our already bulging tool box to make room for
themselves.
On peut avoir peur de l’avenir, ou on peut le saisir. Comme
dans toute autre industrie, le monde de la recherche
marketing évolue plus rapidement chaque année. Les
sondages en ligne sont apparus au milieu des années
1990 et ont pris le dessus. Il y a quelques années, les
sondages sur appareils mobiles sont apparus et se sont
implantés. Les méthodes qualitatives deviennent de plus en
plus diversifiées et intrigantes. Maintenant la gamification,
la recherche sur les médias sociaux, l’économie des
comportements et tant d’autres nouvelles méthodes de
recherche inconcevables auparavant sont en voie de forcer
les structures de notre boite à outils déjà bombée pour se
faire une place.
There’s no point in worrying about and shoring up the
method you feel most comfortable using. New methods
don’t simply come and go but rather augment and replace
as we discover their unique advantages. The only way to
shore up your business is to become familiar with and
prepare to work with any mode. Of course, that doesn’t
mean becoming an expert in every method, but rather it
means building a team of trusted researchers and suppliers
around you, each one with well-defined specialties.
Ça ne sert à rien de s’inquiéter de la méthode qu’on
préfère et de chercher à la renforcer. Les nouvelles
méthodes sont là pour rester; elles s’étendent et se
substituent à d’autres à mesure qu’on découvre leurs
avantages uniques. Vous ne pourrez solidifier votre
entreprise qu’en vous familiarisant avec tous les modes et
en vous préparant à les utiliser. Évidemment, il ne s’agit pas
de devenir expert dans chaque méthode, mais plutôt de
créer une équipe de chercheurs et de fournisseurs fiables
possédant chacun des spécialités bien définies.
But what does the future hold beyond what we see
before us? In my world, the future of marketing research
depends not on degraded memories and biased intentions,
but rather on recorded behaviours and unelicited
subconscious opinions. In my world, everything and
everyone carries a microscopic chip that records every
place and every thing we approach, the microsecond we
touch it, the number of milliseconds our touch lasts, and
the electrical impulses created by our bodies in that touch.
This strange yet perfect data set demands our specialized
data and human behaviour analysis skills, and this data set
isn’t too far in the future.
Until fortune tellers can predict the future better than
our carefully designed research plans, we can only embrace
the future. It’s unfolding on the pages before you.
Que nous réserve l’avenir au-delà de ce que nous
pouvons voir? Dans mon monde, l’avenir de la recherche
marketing ne dépend pas de souvenirs désuets et
d’intentions biaisées, mais plutôt de comportements
enregistrés et d’opinions subconscientes non suscitées. Dans
mon monde, tout et tous portent une puce microscopique
qui enregistre chaque endroit et chaque objet qu’on
approche, la microseconde qu’on y touche, le nombre de
millisecondes que dure notre touchée, et les impulsions
électriques créées par notre corps qui y touche. Cet
ensemble de données étranges, mais parfaites, fait appel à
nos compétences en analyse de données spécialisées et de
comportements humains, et cet ensemble de données n’est
pas très éloigné dans le futur.
Jusqu’à ce que les diseuses de bonne aventure prédisent
mieux l’avenir que nos plans de recherche soigneusement
conçus, on ne peut que saisir l’avenir. Il se déploie sur les
pages devant vous.
Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer / Directrice de la Recherche, Conversition
Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédactrice en chef, Vue • Email: [email protected] • (416) 273-9395 • t @LoveStats
4
vue December 2012
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
Message from the Executive Director
Brendan Wycks
Leadership Change at MRIA:
Time to Renew and to Forge Ahead
Changement de leadership à l’ARIM :
le temps de se renouveler et de foncer
As I write this – my final column as MRIA’s executive
director – in early November, significant leadership
change is under way at your association.
Au moment où j’écris ces mots – ma dernière chronique
comme directeur général de l’ARIM – au début de
novembre, un changement de leadership significatif est en
cours au sein de votre association.
After nearly eight years as founding executive director
of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association,
I recently decided that it was time for change and
renewal – for me personally and for the association.
In that connection, I accepted the position of
executive director of the Canadian Association of
Financial Institutions in Insurance (CAFII) where, by the
time you read this, I’ll have started in early December.
I tendered my resignation to MRIA in early October,
with my last day at this great association set for
November 30. I’m pleased to have had the time to
complete several important projects and tidy up loose
ends during my notice period.
As I sign off with this final column, I’ve been asked to
provide some highlights of my time as MRIA’s chief staff
executive, so here are some reminiscences.
This month marks the completion of the first eight years
of MRIA’s story. The association came into existence in
late 2004 – through the merger of three predecessor
associations – but started up operations in January
2005.
Après avoir servi près de huit ans comme directeur
général fondateur de l’Association de la recherche et de
l’intelligence marketing, j’ai décidé que le temps était
venu pour un changement et un renouvellement – pour
moi-même et pour l’association.
Étant donné ces circonstances, j’ai accepté le poste
de directeur général de l’Association canadienne des
institutions financières en assurance (ACIFA) où je serai en
poste lorsque vous lirez ces mots.
J’ai présenté ma démission à l’ARIM au début d’octobre
et ma dernière journée dans cette formidable association
a été fixée au 30 novembre. Je suis heureux d’avoir pu
compléter plusieurs projets importants et régler certains
détails en suspens pendant le délai de préavis.
Étant donné que cette chronique marque la fin de
mon mandat, on m’a demandé de souligner certains
points saillants du temps où j’ai été le principal chef du
personnel de l’ARIM. Voici donc quelques réminiscences.
Ce mois marque la fin de huit ans de l’histoire de l’ARIM.
L’association est née à la fin de 2004 – par la fusion
de trois associations qui l’ont précédée – mais elle n’a
commencé ses opérations qu’en janvier 2005.
As I look back on the past eight years, I marvel at
and take inspiration from how much this association has
accomplished for members, and how it’s matured.
En songeant à ces huit ans qui viennent de s’écouler,
je demeure inspiré et émerveillé par tout ce que cette
association a accompli pour ses membres et à quel point
elle a mûri.
How things have changed from that start-up year
of 2005! That year, I was the lone MRIA staff member,
working out of a home office, but with great support
Que les choses ont changé depuis l’année du
démarrage en 2005! Cette année-là, j’étais le seul membre
du personnel, travaillant à partir d’un bureau chez moi,
6
vue December 2012
COM M E N TARY / COMMEN TAI R E
from a dedicated founding board of directors and other
volunteer leaders, along with administrative support
from two association management companies.
It perhaps goes without saying when you’re involved
with an association that is the product of a threeinto-one merger, and therefore has a very broad span
of control and a high degree of complexity, but I can
honestly say there’s never been a dull day for me these
past eight years.
For perspective on just how far MRIA has come, let
me highlight what the association most significantly
accomplished in its first eight years.
Standards
• developed, launched and promoted the Charter of
Respondent Rights and integrated it with our ethical
code
• participated fully and influentially in ISO’s development
of international certification standards for marketing
research and for research using access panels
mais avec le superbe appui des membres fondateurs du
conseil d’administration si dévoués et d’autres bénévoles,
en plus de l’appui administratif de deux entreprises de
gestion d’associations.
C’est peut-être redondant de le dire quand on participe
à une association qui est le produit d’une triple fusion,
donc ayant une vaste étendue de contrôle et un haut
niveau de complexité, mais je peux attester honnêtement
que je n’ai jamais connu de journées ennuyeuses pendant
ces huit dernières années.
Permettez-moi de souligner les accomplissements les
plus significatifs de l’ARIM au cours de ces huit ans afin de
démontrer jusqu’à quel point elle a évolué.
Normes
•D
éveloppement, lancement et promotion de la Charte
des droits des répondants et son intégration à notre
Code de déontologie;
• Participation entière et influente à l’élaboration
des normes internationales d’accréditation de l’ISO
s’appliquant à la recherche marketing et à la recherche à
l’aide de panels élargis;
• Révision complète et renouvellement de nos normes,
et production d’un Code de déontologie et règles de
standards, and produced a modernized Code of
pratique modernisé incluant des normes sur la recherche
Conduct and Good Practice, including Internet research
par Internet et le renforcement des normes sur la
standards and strengthened qualitative research
recherche qualitative;
standards
• Révision complète de la concordance entre le Code
• completed a full concordance review of the ICC/
international ICC/ESOMAR des études de marché et
ESOMAR Code on Market and Social Research against
d’opinion et le Code de déontologie et règles de pratique
de l’ARIM qui a permis à notre association d’adopter en
the MRIA Code of Conduct and Good Practice, enabling
entier, comme nouveau code, le Code de l’ICC/ESOMAR
MRIA to fully adopt the ICC/ESOMAR code and its
et ses lignes directrices connexes, en y incluant des
related guidelines, along with some Canadian-specific
éléments spécifiquement canadiens.
addenda, as its new code
• completed a thorough review and renewal of our
Government Relations
• secured explicit exemption for marketing and survey
research from the national Do Not Call List legislation
• secured publicly communicated acknowledgment from
the Government of Canada that Canada’s Anti-Spam
Legislation (CASL) does not apply to marketing and
survey research email invitations
• formed a Procurement Working Group, under the
auspices of the Government Relations Committee,
and worked very effectively to develop, communicate
and advocate industry positions on issues related to
government procurement of public opinion research
services
Relations gouvernementales
•O
btention d’une exemption explicite de la loi portant
sur la Liste nationale de numéros de télécommunication
exclus pour la recherche marketing et la recherchesondage;
• Obtention de l’annonce publique du gouvernement du
Canada indiquant que la Loi canadienne anti-pourriel
(LAPC) ne s’applique pas aux invitations à participer à la
recherche marketing et aux sondages;
•É
tablissement d’un Groupe de travail sur les achats, sous
les auspices du Comité des relations gouvernementales,
et travail très efficace de développement, de
communication et de défense des positions de l’industrie
sur des questions portant sur les contrats d’achat de
recherche sur l’opinion publique du gouvernement;
vue December 2012
7
COMMEN TARY / CO MME NTAI R E
• built and maintained effective liaison relationships
and proactive communications with the Government
of Canada’s Public Opinion Research Directorate and
other key players within Public Works and Government
Services Canada; the CRTC; the Office of the Auditor
General; the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of
Canada; and several provincial governments – such
that these bodies now view MRIA as a “must consult
with” source on matters related to marketing, survey
and public opinion research.
Self-Regulation
• overhauled, enhanced, broadened and promoted the
Research Registration System (RRS), and launched a
new online RRS application that makes registering and
verifying the legitimacy of research projects a simple,
user-friendly process
• overhauled, enhanced, and relaunched the Qualitative
Research Registry
• in keeping with the association’s rigorous disciplinary
procedures, managed complaints of professional
conduct processes, some of which resulted in a
complaint panel imposing a sanction upon a member
Communications
• launched and built the successful VoxPop
communications campaign, which has garnered
outstanding media coverage and delivered a recurring
message to the public about the societal benefits of
survey research and how participation gives people
influence over decisions that will affect their lives
Professional Development and Certification
• promoted and strengthened the CMRP designation,
and elevated its cachet and recognition as a highly
credible designation and differentiator
• developed and launched online versions of the CMRP
core courses, making them accessible to members on a
real-time basis, wherever in the world they happen to be
• revamped the Certified Marketing Research Exam
(CMRE) and created resources to help candidates
better prepare to write it successfully
• developed a roster of non-credit professional
development courses for senior professionals
• launched the Maintenance of Certification Program for
8
vue December 2012
•D
éveloppement et maintien de relations de liaison
efficaces et de communications proactives avec la
Direction de la recherche sur l’opinion publique fédérale
et d’autres acteurs clés au sein de Travaux publics
et Services gouvernementaux Canada, et avec le
CRTC, le Bureau du vérificateur général du Canada, le
Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada
et de plusieurs autres gouvernements provinciaux – à
tel point que ces entités perçoivent maintenant l’ARIM
comme étant une source « qu’il faut consulter » sur les
questions de marketing, de sondage et de recherche sur
l’opinion publique.
Autoréglementation
•R
évision complète, amélioration, expansion et promotion
du Système d’enregistrement des sondages canadiens
(SESC) et lancement d’une nouvelle application du
SESC en ligne afin de faciliter et de rendre conviviaux
l’enregistrement de projets de recherche et la vérification
de leur légitimité;
• Révision complète, amélioration et nouveau lancement
du Registre de la recherche qualitative;
• Gestion des processus entourant les plaintes d’éthique
professionnelle conformément aux procédures
disciplinaires rigoureuses de l’association qui a parfois
mené à l’imposition d’une sanction à un membre par le
Comité des plaintes.
Communications
• L ancement et développement réussis de la campagne
de communication VoxPop qui a suscité une couverture
médiatique exceptionnelle et livré au public un message
récurrent sur les avantages sociaux de la recherchesondage et sur la façon dont les gens qui y participent
influencent des décisions affectant leur vie.
Développement professionnel et accréditation
•P
romotion et renforcement de la désignation de PARM et
l’élévation de son cachet et de sa reconnaissance à une
désignation très crédible et distinctive;
•D
éveloppement et lancement de versions en ligne des
cours de base pour l’obtention de la désignation de
PARM, les rendant accessibles aux membres en temps
réel, où qu’ils soient dans le monde;
•R
efonte de l’examen d’accréditation en recherche
marketing (EARM) et création de ressources pour aider
les candidats à mieux se préparer pour réussir l’examen;
•É
laboration d’une liste de cours de développement
professionnel non crédités pour les professionnels de
haut niveau;
• Lancement du Programme de maintien de l’accréditation
CMRP-designated professionals in order to support the
credibility and integrity of the designation
Membership Growth and Diversity
•g
rew Individual memberships to over 2,000 by late
2008, up from the 1,585 that PMRS had in 2004
• grew Corporate memberships to close to 400,
from the base of 22 Gold Seal Corporate Research
Agency members that we inherited from our CAMRO
predecessor
• fostered, and integrated, the Client-Side Researcher
Council, which had not previously existed in any form,
into a prominent role within the association, and grew
Client-Side Researcher Corporate membership to more
than 90
• fostered the development of the Business-to-Business
Research Committee into an Affinity Division, with a
full slate of program offerings
• s trengthened the role and profile of the Qualitative
Research Division
pour les professionnels possédant la désignation de
PARM afin d’appuyer la crédibilité et l’intégrité de la
désignation.
Croissance et diversité des membres
•A
ugmentation des adhésions individuelles à plus de
2000 à la fin de 2008, comparativement aux 1585
adhésions à l’APRM en 2004;
• Augmentation des adhésions corporatives à près de
400 à partir d’une base de 22 sociétés de recherche
membres corporatifs Sceau d’or héritées de notre
prédécesseur l’ACORM;
romotion et intégration du Conseil des chercheurs
•P
côté client, qui n’existait pas officiellement
auparavant, pour jouer un rôle important au sein de
l’association, et augmentation à 90 des adhésions
corporatives des sociétés de recherche côté client;
•S
outien de l’évolution du Comité de recherche
interentreprise (B2B) vers une Division des affinités
qui offre un éventail complet de programmes;
•C
onsolidation du rôle et de l’image de la Division de
la recherche qualitative;
• fostered and supported the association’s seven
chapters, through the Chapter Council, as vital local
presence arms
• Promotion et appui des sept chapitres de l’association
en tant que présences locales vitales, par l’entremise
du Conseil des chapitres régionaux.
Member Services and Benefits
Services et avantages pour les membres
•a
dded new benefits to increase the value of
membership, including the MRIA member insurance
programs
•A
ddition de nouveaux avantages pour accroitre
la valeur de l’adhésion, dont des programmes
d’assurances pour les membres de l’ARIM;
• strengthened and broadened participation in the
Annual Financial Activity Survey
•R
enforcement et élargissement de la participation au
sondage annuel sur les activités financières;
• strengthened and relaunched the monthly revenue
report for Gold Seal Agencies
enforcement et nouveau lancement du rapport
•R
mensuel sur les revenus à l’intention des sociétés
Sceau d’or;
•d
eveloped and launched the MRIA portal, which
allows members and non-members to do all manner
of transactions with the association on a convenient,
real-time basis
•D
éveloppement et lancement du portail de l’ARIM qui
permet aux membres et aux non-membres d’effectuer
toutes sortes de transactions avec l’association d’une
manière commode, en temps réel.
Inter-Association Liaison
Liaisons entre associations
•d
eveloped mutually beneficial, reciprocal relationships
with sister industry associations around the world,
including ESOMAR, CASRO, MRA, QRCA, ARF, CARF,
TTRA Canada, MRS, AMSRS, and AMSRO
•D
éveloppement de relations réciproques
mutuellement bénéfiques avec des associations
sœurs de l’industrie partout dans le monde, y compris
ESOMAR, CASRO, MRA, QRCA, ARF, la FCRP, TTRA
Canada, MRS, AMSRS et AMSRO;
• founded the Americas Research Industry Alliance
along with CASRO from the U.S., AMAI from Mexico,
and ABEP from Brazil (since its inception, six other
•F
ondation de l’Americas Research Industry Alliance
avec CASRO aux États-Unis, AMAI au Mexique et ABEP
au Brésil (depuis sa création, six autres associations
vue December 2012
9
national industry associations in Latin and South
America have joined the alliance)
nationales de l’industrie en Amérique latine et en
Amérique du Sud se sont jointes à l’alliance).
Governance and Staffing
Gouvernance et recrutement du personnel
• successfully transitioned to a new, more effective
•T
ransition réussie à un nouveau modèle de
fonctionnement plus efficace – avec un personnel
propre à l’association fonctionnant à partir de ses
propres bureaux – et désengagement de l’appui
d’entreprises de gestion d’associations;
operating model – with the association’s own
dedicated staff operating from its own office – and
disengaged from association management company
support
• amended the size and composition of the MRIA
national board of directors and executive officers
group in order to accommodate changing needs, and
received membership ratification at annual or special
•A
mendement de la taille et de la composition du conseil
d’administration national et du groupe de dirigeants
de l’ARIM afin de satisfaire aux besoins changeants, et
ratification par les membres aux réunions annuelles ou
spéciales.
general meetings
Thank you to all present and past national board
members, portfolio chairs, chapter presidents, and
chapter board members; to our staff team and our
service suppliers; and to you, our members, for the
important part you’ve played in MRIA’s success in its first
eight years.
The wisdom of the merger has been proven in
spades; associations consultant Jim Pealow points to
MRIA as one of the most successful of the hundreds
of association combinations with which he’s been
involved. All of the specific accomplishments noted
above notwithstanding, making the merger make sense
is probably the most significant legacy I leave behind at
MRIA.
My time at MRIA has been personally fulfilling and
rewarding; and I believe that I’ve had a significant
impact on the growth and advancement of this start-up
association.
It’s also been a pleasure to work with and serve you
in my capacity as executive director. I look forward to
staying in touch. Connect with me on LinkedIn if you
haven’t already.
From everyone on the MRIA staff team and the national
board of directors, best wishes for a festive and happy
holiday season, along with good health and renewed
prosperity throughout 2013.
Merci à tous les administrateurs présents et passés, aux
présidents de portefeuille, aux présidents de chapitre
et aux administrateurs de conseil d’administration des
chapitres, à notre équipe d’employés et à nos fournisseurs de services, et à vous, nos membres, pour le rôle
important que vous avez joué dans la réussite de l’ARIM
au cours de ses huit premières années.
La preuve de la sagesse de la fusion est indéniable.
Jim Pealow, consultant en matière d’associations,
souligne que l’ARIM est une de celles qui a le mieux
réussi parmi la combinaison de centaines d’associations
avec lesquelles il a été impliqué. De toutes les
réalisations spécifiques notées ci-dessus, le fait d’avoir
rendue cette fusion cohérente est sans doute le legs le
plus important que je laisse à l’ARIM.
Le temps que j’ai passé à l’ARIM a été
personnellement gratifiant et enrichissant et je crois
que j’ai eu un impact significatif sur la croissance et
l’avancement de cette jeune association.
Ce fut également un plaisir de travailler avec vous
et de vous servir à titre de directeur général. J’ai
l’intention de rester en contact avec vous. De votre
côté, restez en contact avec moi par LinkedIn si vous
ne l’avez pas déjà fait.
De la part de tous les membres du personnel et du
conseil d’administration national de l’ARIM, je vous offre
nos meilleurs vœux de joie et de bonheur en cette saison
des fêtes et bonne santé et prospérité continue au cours
de 2013.
Brendan Wycks, BA, MBA, CAE, Executive Director / Directeur général,
Marketing Research and Intelligence Association / L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing
Email: [email protected] • (905) 602-6854 ext./poste 8724
10 vue December 2012
The Future
of …
Betty Adamou
There is that wonderful scene in the recently released movie
Looper, similar to the scene in Back to the Future (massive
Looper spoiler alert) where the future self disappears as the
present self is killed or dies. The present self has to be very
careful not to get killed, because the future self will not
exist.
The premise applies for any industry and business (of
any size) and market research is not immune, obviously. I
applaud the MR industry at large for its attempts not to let
its present self die to maintain its future self, but I’m afraid
MR is already way, way, way, way, way too far behind, and
the innovative companies pushing the envelope are too few
and far between to keep the whole industry afloat – if we
can even call it an industry anymore.
I have always said MR was like a leech – sucking the
life out of new technologies which try to make way for
new research methods, until those research methods are
overused and MR has once again bored the life out of
people. But the key to understanding why MR is lagging is
in its nature. It is the leech.
By and large, MR is not the companies out there
inventing new software and means of communications
or creating new and meaningful job titles. MR sits by the
sidelines and waits. It sees the “new” unfold in front of its
eyes but still does nothing. (OK – people will write and talk
about it, but will they do anything?) It waits a few more
years. And then it takes, and continues to take. I’ve seen it
myself with my own eyes and my own company. So Herald
to the individuals and companies who actually do good for
the industry and don’t just talk!
I was asked to write about the future of MR, “the more
opinionated the better.” Wonderful: Someone who doesn’t
12 vue December 2012
S P ECIAL F EATUR E
want glamorization. Someone who actually wants to know
what I honestly think and feel right now.
I wasn’t told how far in the future we’d be talking about
here. In five years’ time? In fifty years’ time? In the year 3014?
Timing to one side, I did start writing something but,
to be fair, it was pretty awful. I was still in “sugar-coat it”
mode. That is, until I got some inspiration from a book I’m
reading and decided to go for it all over again.
As you may or may not know, I am said to be from
the “gaming area of research,” as some people may say.
The truth is, I don’t feel that I am at all. That is, I’m “in
gaming,” but I’m not “in gaming in MR” – like a box
within a box. I feel like I’m in a box all of my own, as are
most technology-based companies these days.
Like a species that knows its planet will die soon, I left on
a little rocket a little while ago now, waving at the little MR
planet getting smaller in the distance of the coldest corner of
the universe.
I don’t feel that I have anything in common with market
research and, if I’m honest, I don’t think I ever have. I think
most people feel like that, though – really disenfranchised
from their MR jobs. But maybe I’m just generalizing.
I remember working in one of my MR jobs some years
ago now and, after a day at work, I called up one of my
best friends. She asked me how work was. I replied to her
quoting one of the most famous scenes in Human Traffic
(Brit movie); I told her that sometimes, I look around me
and it feels like an out-of-body experience: I have no idea
how I got there or who these people are. Who are you all?
What am I doing here?
After feeling like that for a long time, and with some
pretty sound ideas in my head, I left to start Research
Through Gaming. Now, when my friend asks how work
was, I talk excitedly and passionately for hours.
The feeling of being an outsider looking in also blankets
me when I attend MR conferences. Now and then,
something very cool will be spoken about, and it pokes me
out of my slumber (but by that point, I’d have probably
started doing some work); but this is a rare occasion.
So anyway, let’s stay with the image of MR as a tiny
planet shrinking into the distance of a vast expanse of
universe. Let us call the planet of MR “Pluto.” Of course,
as you all know, Pluto has been disqualified as a planet – as
MR is slowly being disqualified as an industry.
There is a plethora of reasons for this disqualification
and for why MR won’t exist in the future. I ask you: What
is MR these days? It is a mixing pot of everything. It’s like
a woman who’s had hundreds of children by hundreds
of different men. MR now is mostly technology in many
forms, such as interactive games, “consumer consulting
boards,” social media, a chip under my skin that beeps when
I come into contact with branded goods; it is augmented
reality, it’s Facebook, it’s Big frickin’ Data, it’s McDonald’s,
it’s Disney, it’s linguistics, semiotics, antibiotics, biometrics
– market research has been taken over positively by hundreds
of seemingly unrelated fields, as if by a virus which will
eventually leave MR as the host, completely empty and
hollow.
The survey doesn’t look anything like the survey
anymore. For example, Research Through Gaming’s
“surveys” are so far removed from what a traditional
survey is, that we had to think of a new name for it –
ResearchGames™ – and indeed a new name for the people
taking part – Playspondents™. My sketchbooks are my
equivalent to survey question programming. Our “surveys”
are completely interactive games, with narrative, goals,
rules, achievements, feedback; we take into consideration
linguistics, semiotics, reaction times, behavioural economics,
psychology, sociology, and more. We make games for
research; and any game you play, especially the more
immersive role-playing games, takes all these things into
account – so why shouldn’t “traditional” research?
And so, market research is no longer market research.
To research the market was once going door to door, like
an Avon lady, asking questions. Sometimes, and in some
countries, it still is and those methods are still the lifeblood
of their democracy. But this is worlds away from the datamining, text analytics, nodes stuck-on-the-head, virtual
supermarket research we know today. And worlds away
from the seamlessly combined virtual and real worlds of the
future.
There is no “market” in market research anymore. It’s just
data, and everyone owns a slice of the pie. MR is not the pie
anymore. Everyone took a slice, copied the recipe, and made
a pie of their own. And made it a lot tastier, too.
If data are everywhere and are collected from almost
everything, then how can we say there is one thing called
the market research industry? We cannot. MR cannot be
so narcissistic that it still believes it is the only industry for
research or data. That would be like believing that humans
are the only creatures in the whole universe – but that’s for
another discussion. MR should accept its fate, take a deep
breath, and disperse into technology companies, software,
marketing and even hardware.
Market research agencies, consultancies, panel companies
– all the good guys and the bad guys we know and love –
will not be around in the year 3000. Why on earth would
the world need a market research agency to help brands with
vue December 2012
13
SPECIAL FEATURE
research? The brands will do it themselves. With the money,
creativity and competitive drive to make more sales, they
will use research – no, sorry – data capturing with marketing
to better their goods and services. You think clients will have
the time or the patience to speak to MR agencies in the
future? Pah! “Research” /data capturing will be conducted all
day, every day, without participants even realizing it. For free.
And willingly.
We’re doing it now. Right now. When I turn on my radio,
data are being collected. I am another listener to the station.
I am one of 130,019 people tuning in. The radio station will
produce stats on its listeners every month. And I am one of
them. Did anyone have to ask me any questions about that
activity? No.
When I log into Facebook, it knows my location, what
I’m doing, whom I’m talking to, how often I talk to them,
if I’m married or not, etcetera. Did it ask me any questions?
No.
When I travel on the London Underground and swipe
my Oyster card, my entire journey and journey times – and
average journey times and destinations – are data that are
being collected. Was I asked any questions? No.
These are incredibly minor examples of how the market
research industry is being skipped altogether.
Brands around the world are already choosing to hop,
skip and jump right over the MR industry to get what they
need to get. No, scrap that – they’re not jumping over MR;
they’re walking right through it like an invisible wall.
With MR growing in the direction of cheaper and faster
for more profit, and losing sight of what is truly important
– for so many years – why would anyone else want to pay
attention in the future? Data collection by any means and
method is the future.
After all, research is data collection. If you know how
to do data collection, you have the power in your hands.
Combine that with a technology platform – whether it
is interactive games or augmented reality projections or
SixthSense technology – it is the people who know how to
program who will rule the world. The developers in your
company should really start becoming your new best friends.
So take some time out to stop team lunching and get on
the phone to your development team (assuming they’re in
another country than you) – or, if they’re in the same office,
take them all out to dinner tomorrow.
Developers know how to manipulate and create virtual
worlds. What can you do? Can you do anything as awesome
as that? I know I can’t program (or code, as some refer to it)
but I’m certainly willing to try.
14 vue December 2012
Data will be collected in every facet of our lives – in
body implants, in our clothing, in our shops, in our handheld computers. Data collection will be synonymous with
living. You cannot live without giving data. And brands will
want to own that data on their own servers, without risk of
sharing and losing it. To give data is to just be.
In the future, I will be able to gain achievements in real
life that are uploaded to my virtual life. As we are endorsed
on LinkedIn and given points on loyalty cards, given +K’s
on Klout, we will “plus one” each other on the things we do
in the real world, too. You helped an old lady cross a hover
bridge? +1 to you. Your son or daughter told you the truth
instead of lying? +1 to them. Your husband did the washing
up? +2 to him.
When I meet people for the first time, I won’t need their
business card or their contact details sent to me virtually; I
will scan their clothes with my very eyes and quickly check
out their names and achievements (business and personal
achievements which can be set to private or public). When
I meet someone for the first time I will know if they’re a
“good person” or not. By the fifth time I’ve met them, I can
look at their stats to see what’s changed. I will also know if
they have a criminal record or not, how much the total cost
of every single item they’re wearing is and where to buy it
(and where the cheapest outlets are nearest to me) and what
functions their clothes and accessories will have. We’ll build
our real selves to reflect our virtual selves – not the other
way around. We’ll realize that the virtual self and virtual
worlds are far more interesting, engaging and peaceful than
the world around us, especially as the real world becomes,
sadly, more economically and socially broken down. I’m a
pretty optimistic person, but there is some truth in those
scarily accurate sci-fi movies.
If you ever see the HSBC adverts, start paying attention.
They’re pretty bang on the money in their predictions of the
future.
From the moment we wake up to the moment we go
to sleep, and even during our sleep, data will be collected.
Whether that brings a utopian or dystopian future is for
another article, but it sure means there won’t be one market
research industry anymore. There will just be data. And it’s
already happening. Wherever you look and wherever you go.
Betty Adamou is the CEO and founder of Research Through
Gaming Ltd. Betty can usually be found drawing new games
somewhere with ink-stained hands or engrossed in a laptop
making graphics. She can be reached at
[email protected]
GOLD SEAL–CERTIFIED
CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES
The Research Agencies listed below have earned the right to
display MRIA’s Gold Seal–Certified logomark. MRIA congratulates
and salutes them.
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distinction. It is earned by Research Agencies
through a comprehensive self-assessment,
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RESEARCH AGENCIES –
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members are in the process of completing
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DIG Insights Inc.
Illumina Research Partners
Northstar Research Partners
Rand Market Research Corporation
Vision Critical
Academica Group
ACCE International
Advanis Inc.
Advitek Inc.
AskingCanadians
BBM Analytics
BBM Canada
Blue Ocean Contact Centers
BrandSpark International
Campaign Research
Canadian Viewpoint Inc.
Cido Research
COMPAS Inc.
Consumer Vision Ltd.
Corbin Partners Inc.
Corporate Research Associates
Corsential ULC
CRC Research
CROP Inc.
EKOS Research Associates Inc.
Elemental Data Collection Inc.
Environics Research Group Limited
Focal Research Consultants Ltd.
Forum Research Inc.
Foundation Research Group Inc.
Fresh Squeezed Ideas
GfK Research Dynamics
Harris/Decima Inc.
Hay Research International
Head Count
Head Research Inc.
Hotspex Inc.
Ifop North America
Insightrix Research Inc.
Insignia Marketing Research Inc.
Ipsos
Ipsos ASI
Ipsos Reid
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
Ipsos Reid UU
Kermode Business Services Inc.
Lang Research Inc.
Leger
Maritz Research Canada
Market Probe Canada
Matrix Research
MBA Recherche
McWhirter & Associates
MD Analytics Inc.
Millward Brown
MQO Research
Mustel Research Group Ltd.
Nanos Research
NRG Research Group
Opinion Search Inc.
Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc.
Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc.
POLLARA
PRA Inc.
Pricing Solutions Ltd.
Quorus Consulting Group Inc.
R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd.
Radix Market Research
Research & Incite Consultants
Research Dimensions
Research House Inc.
Research Management Group
Research Now
Research Strategy Group Inc.
Resinnova Research Inc.
Shop’n Chek Canada
Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus
The Logit Group Inc.
The Verde Group
Thinkwell Research
TNS Canadian Facts
Toluna
Trend Research Inc.
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F E ATURE
AU CONTRAIRE (5)
Paris Hilton,
Kardashians,
and Large
Brands
Chuck Chakrapani, CMRP, FMRIA
A common marketing assumption about small, niche brands
is that they are well differentiated and therefore appeal to a
limited but loyal group of consumers. The reasoning behind
this is that, while these brands may have fewer buyers,
purchasers of smaller brands buy them because they like
them and therefore will be loyal to them. Large, mass market
brands, on the other hand, are not well differentiated, mean
different things to different people, and therefore consumers
of these brands are not as loyal as they are to smaller brands.
Larger brands may have more buyers, but those who buy
them are not nearly as loyal to larger brands as they are to
smaller brands.
Like most marketing myths, this theory of smaller
brands’ commanding more loyalty among their users appears
logical and self-evident. But research data show otherwise:
consumers are less loyal to smaller brands than they are to
larger brands. I already touched upon this point with an
example in an earlier article, “The Unbearable Lightness of
Buying” in the October issue of Vue. We will explore this
phenomenon in greater detail here.
Let’s look at another example that illustrates smaller
brands’ commanding lower loyalty compared to larger
brands. Consider exhibit 1.
16 vue December 2012
Exhibit 1. Smaller Brands Command Lower Loyalty
(Fabric Softeners)
Brand
Buyers Average Purchase Rate
Downy 48%
3.6
Snuggle
34
3.1
Average (large) 41
3.4
Cling Free 8
2.0
Arm & Hammer 5
2.1
Average (small)
7
2.1
Source: IRI, Philadelphia, cited in Ehrenberg, “Double Jeopardy Revisited,
Again,” Marketing Research, Spring 2002.
Using average purchase rate as a measure of loyalty, we note
that large brands such as Downy and Snuggle have a higher
purchase rate compared to smaller brands such as Cling Free
and Arm & Hammer.
Exhibit 2 provides another example from a different
category: retail chain visit frequency.
F EATUR E
Exhibit 2. Smaller Brands Command Lower Loyalty
(Retail Chains)
Chain
Market Share
Visit Frequency
Woolworths32%
7.6
Franklin22
6.7
Foodland16
7.2
Jewel13
5.2
Average (large)21
6.8
6
4.4
New World
BI-LO5
3.7
Average (small) 4.1
6
Source: Byron Sharp & Erica Riebe. “Does Triple Jeopardy Exist for Retail
Chains,” Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science,
2005 (9), pp. 1–9. Brand names are disguised by the authors.
We see a very similar pattern here as well: Smaller brands are
bought by fewer buyers, and those who do buy, purchase less
on average. This observation that smaller brands suffer from
lighter buying in addition to having fewer buyers has been
shown to hold, over and over again.
Double jeopardy has “been
empirically confirmed in
categories from soup to
gasoline, prescription drugs
to aviation fuel, where there
are large and small brands,
and light and heavy buyers,
in geographies as diverse
as the United States, United
Kingdom, Japan, Germany
and Australasia for more
than three decades.”
Why Small Brands Are
Hit Twice: The Law of
Double Jeopardy
The paradoxical phenomenon
described above has a name:
double jeopardy. If we think
about it, it is a curious
phenomenon. Why do smaller
brands suffer from double
jeopardy? Why would users
of smaller brands punish their
brands for being small?
A logical and intuitive
explanation for the existence
– Peter Fader & Jordan Elkind,
of double jeopardy is provided
in “Open the Blinds,” Marketing
by Columbia University
Research, Summer 2012
sociologist William McPhee,
who first identified the
phenomenon (see Formal Theories of Mass Behavior, 1963).
Let us suppose that in a town there are two restaurants,
W (widely known) and O (obscure). Let us also assume that
the town’s residents, who know both restaurants equally well,
consider them comparable in service and quality. Even so,
ratings of W will be higher simply because most people who
know and like W are less likely to know of O (being less wellknown) and therefore will prefer W and rate it higher.
On the other hand, those who do know and like O are
also likely to know and possibly like W. So their ratings
would be equally high for both restaurants. This means that,
other things being equal, larger brands will be favoured over
smaller brands. This phenomenon is what we find when we
analyse brand data. If you look at any research report that
has attitudinal measures, you will note the phenomenon of
double jeopardy.
This reasoning can be extended to loyalty behaviour as
well. A larger brand, by its very nature, is likely to be widely
available, so buyers of these brands can buy them anywhere
and at any time they like. A smaller brand may be less
widely available, and buyers of the smaller brand may have
to buy some other brand from time to time. When they do,
they are more likely to buy a better-known brand. So even
when users of larger and smaller brands like their brands
equally, loyalty behaviour as well as casual buying will favour
larger brands over the smaller ones.
Just as Paris Hilton and the Kardashians are famous
for being famous, larger brands command loyalty for
commanding loyalty, and command penetration for
commanding penetration. Larger brands are rewarded for
being large, and smaller brands are punished for being small.
Just as Paris Hilton and the Kardashians are famous
for being famous, larger brands command loyalty for
commanding loyalty, and command penetration for
commanding penetration.
Is there triple jeopardy? In exhibit 1, we noted that people
who buy smaller brands buy a lower quantity. In exhibit 2,
we noted that people who visit small stores visit them less
often. Is there then a triple jeopardy for smaller brands? They
have lower penetration, and people buy them less frequently
and less on average. While this triple jeopardy phenomenon
is found to exist in some cases, there is no evidence that it is
generalizable (see Sharp & Riebe, 2005).
Customer Churn and Double Jeopardy
One of the problems faced by marketers is customer
defection, or “churn.” Considerable amounts of marketing
dollars are being spent to prevent customer churn. Unless
customer churn is the result of some problem with the
product itself (which probably can be rectified), stopping
churn is difficult because it follows the double jeopardy
pattern as well.
Proportionately fewer customers defect from larger
brands, and proportionately more customers defect from
smaller brands. The market is kept in equilibrium because
vue December 2012
17
F E ATURE
larger brands lose larger numbers of customers while smaller
brands lose smaller numbers of customers. The phenomenon
of double jeopardy is not easy to reverse. It is a better use of
marketing dollars to accept defection as a natural extension
of human behaviour and employ resources bringing in more
customers than it is to stop defections.
The phenomenon also shows why the claims made
by Frederick Reichheld and Earl Sasser in their article
on lowering defection rates (Harvard Business Review,
September 1990) are not really viable. The authors claim
that you can increase your profit by nearly 100 per cent
simply by decreasing the defection rate by 5 per cent. As
we saw earlier, this stretches one’s credulity because, for this
to happen, the five who defect should be responsible for
generating 50 per cent of the company’s profits, a highly
unlikely scenario. However, in the example the authors
provide, the defection rate was decreased from 10 to 5 per
cent, a 50 per cent reduction in defections. They had further
assumed that if an average consumer stayed with the brand
for ten years, and if we stopped their defection, they would
stay for another ten years.
There is no empirical basis for these assumptions.
From the double jeopardy law, which has extensive
empirical proof, we know that smaller brands will have
proportionately larger defections, and these cannot easily be
stopped.
What are the marketing implications of double jeopardy? The
most important marketing conclusion that can be drawn
from double jeopardy is that loyalty depends on market
share. If a brand manager of a small brand finds that users are
less loyal to the brand, such lower loyalty to a small brand is
to be expected. Other things being equal, small brands will
command lower loyalty.
Greater efforts are needed to increase loyalty for small
brands. The surest way to increase loyalty is to grow the
brand. The common tactic of trying to build loyalty
to increase penetration is less likely to succeed than is
increasing penetration to build loyalty.
If a brand manager of a small brand finds that users
are less loyal to the brand, such lower loyalty to a
small brand is to be expected. Other things being
equal, small brands will command lower loyalty.
Are There Exceptions to Double Jeopardy?
Double jeopardy, like all other lawlike relationships we have
been talking about, is subject to exceptions.
The first possible exception to the double jeopardy law
is a small and truly niche brand. Truly niche brands are not
18 vue December 2012
that common. Many brands that are called niche brands
are really small brands subject to the double jeopardy law.
A genuine niche brand is one that meets “a very specific set
of needs, which perhaps many customers have occasionally,
that other brands do not meet” (Patrick Barwise & Sean
Meehan, Simply Better, 2004).
For example, clothing lines that cater to those who are
over 6'2" tall would be catering to a niche market. Even
here, as Barwise and Meehan suggest, it is helpful to think
of the niche brands as separate categories, that is, “clothing
lines” as one category and “clothing lines that cater only to
tall people not catered to by other clothing lines” as another
category.
The second possible exception is a brand with very
high penetration but very low repeat purchase rate. As an
example, consider store brands. They may be bought widely
by price-conscious consumers without their being loyal to
those brands. Consumers may as easily buy a lesser-known
brand, if it is cheaper and prominently displayed. Another
example is the sale of seasonal liquors like Baileys. Such
products are sold in large quantities during the Christmas
season, but much less during the rest of the year.
Why Are Niche Brands Rare?
Niche brands are rare because of the rapidity with which
the characteristics of a niche brand can be copied as brand
extensions are incorporated into the characteristics of larger
brands: Macintosh computers, when first introduced, were
niche computers with pull-down menus, graphic interface,
icons and a mouse. Now, practically every personal computer
has these features.
Niche brands that do not own the niche are not really
niche brands but small brands. Fierce competition, coupled
with advances in technology and communications, enables
rapid duplication of the benefits of any niche brand. A
profitable niche brand does not remain a niche brand for
long.
Sensodyne was a niche brand toothpaste for sensitive
teeth. Aquafresh was a niche brand for freshening breath.
Now, brand extensions of larger brands such as Colgate and
Crest offer similar benefits, making the niche segments of
“sensitive teeth” and “fresh breath” less niche for toothpastes.
Another way to look at this is to consider toothpastes for
sensitive teeth as a separate category. Sensodyne is simply
a larger brand in that category, following the patterns of
purchase we have been discussing so far.
Does loyalty vary from brand to brand? It is generally true that
smaller brands command less loyalty. However, in many
F EATUR E
categories, the differences may be less pronounced. To put
this another way, loyalty levels do not vary from brand to
brand within a category – with one exception: smaller brands
within any category command slightly less loyalty. What is
universally true, however, is the fact that if two brands have
similar market shares, we will not find one brand with high
penetration and low loyalty and the other brand with low
penetration and high loyalty.
What Can We Learn from the
Law of Double Jeopardy?
One reason we have been exploring the nuances of buyer
behaviour – such as showing the relationship between brand
size and loyalty – is to show that, contrary to common
belief, customer loyalty is generally predictable. It does not
vary between brands of similar market shares. So to claim
greater customer loyalty compared to other brands, a brand
has to rise above the loyalty level that can be mathematically
predicted.
The question then arises whether it is possible to increase
loyalty beyond the predictable level and, if so, whether it is
economically viable to do so. If the answer to both questions
is yes, then we need to answer the question whether it is the
best deployment of a company’s resources.
The law of double jeopardy holds some important lessons
for the marketer. When a brand increases its market share,
the buyer base grows along with it. As the buyer base grows,
loyalty as measured by actual purchases grows along with
it. Increase in market share also results in fewer defections.
Assuming that a brand has no potential problems and its
customer retention is comparable to other brands with
similar market share, the best strategy is to acquire new
customers. Your best marketing investment may well be the
next new customer you add to your buyer base. To fully
understand why this is so, we will get back to the topic later
in the series.
Your best marketing investment may well be the next
new customer you add to your customer base.
The most intriguing thing about loyalty is that it is an
automatic by-product of buying behaviour. Loyalty exists
for all brands and is related to the category and to a brand’s
penetration level within that category. The base-level loyalty
for any brand is generally predictable. The fundamental
question then is, can the loyalty level be increased through
generally accepted methods such as product differentiation
and increasing the level of customer commitment? The
secondary question is, if loyalty can be increased, should it
be preferred to customer acquisition strategies?
Before we discuss these issues, we need to explore whether
factors such as commitment and brand differentiation
are related to loyalty. We will discuss these topics in the
forthcoming issues of Vue.
Dr. Chuck Chakrapani, PhD, CMRP, FMRIA, is president
of Leger Analytics. He is also a distinguished visiting professor
at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University,
until recently, the editor of American Marketing Association’s
Marketing Research, and a member of the board of directors
of Marketing Research Institute International, which, in
collaboration with the University of Georgia, offers the online
course “Principles of Marketing Research.” He is a fellow of the
Royal Statistical Society as well as of MRIA and has authored
over a dozen books and 500 articles on various subjects.
vue December 2012
19
F E ATURE
The Marketing Research
Pangaea: The Future of Research
Is in Fusing the Great Divide
Ben Smithee
As the holiday season begins and 2012 takes its final
countdown, we look toward the future and begin to
pontificate about where we are headed. Over the past few
years, we have seen and felt the proverbial winds of change
with the influx of new technologies, methodologies and
theories; and we have ridden the economic roller coaster in
waves across the world. But, what’s next?
While unfortunately I have no crystal ball, I can imagine
and anticipate a culminating shift where the energy of the
past few years of stretching, branching and exploring the new
and uncharted is now focused on aggregating these efforts
and skills into comprehensive solutions and approaches. As
our geographical world has undergone a spreading shift, the
research industry has done the same. It has become more and
more fragmented and segmented, based on approach and
method, and as researchers have begun to gain a more diverse
understanding of the consumer, we will start to see things
realign under a more holistic approach.
20 vue December 2012
I am by no means suggesting that the industry will stop
growing or we will stop expanding our vision and exploring
new opportunities and technologies, but I am suggesting that
the focus of the next few years will be on bringing together all
that we have learned into powerful hybrid approaches.
As we begin to round the corner, there are a few key points
of focus that researchers should both understand and digest:
(a) understanding through observation, (b) multi-faceted
mobility, and (c) evolving media.
Understanding through Observation
As technology grows and researchers are equipped with more
and more tools to observe behaviour in real time, we will
continue to see growth in the areas of research that focus on
observational insights. In-depth discussions, focus groups,
and other Q&A-based methods will likely still exist, but they
will be utilized as supplementary methods to dig deeper into
understanding the why behind observed actions.
F EATUR E
These traditional in-person methods will also be leveraged
in special niche arenas where observational techniques fall
short – for example, in sensitive health-care topics, personal
hygiene, and other areas where observing consumers directly
will substantially bias the results. Traditional methods will
also still play a heavy role in the world of advertising and
messaging, as group feedback and discussion still offer
tremendous value.
While many would now insert Henry Ford’s objection that
people would have asked for “faster horses,” I refuse to believe
a keen researcher would have presented the results as “build
a faster horse,” and wouldn’t have dug deeper into the true
consumer-need state – but that’s a whole different discussion.
In my opinion, the most valuable learnings are those that
come from a point of observing behaviours and then, through
dialogue, uncovering the underlying thoughts and emotive
contexts behind those behaviours. However, a researcher
without some form of observational prowess (in either the
physical or digital environment) will be severely limited in the
future.
Multi-faceted Mobility
Mobile is perhaps the most important factor for the future of
research and the largest contributor to why we are empowered
with greater observational opportunities – although we are
just now scratching the surface of what mobility brings to
the game. But we must think much bigger than surveys
optimized for the smartphone. The smallest of our multiscreen world has become by far the most important. While
we still consume fragments of media through our televisions,
we consume the media that drives our daily lives and actions
through our mobile devices.
By learning how to navigate the world of mobility, research
unlocks a plethora of understanding about consumers’
preferences, their behaviours, and the way they live their lives.
Over the next couple of years, begin to look for
companies to invest really heavily in utilizing mobility
for understanding. Look for things such as mobile-based
communities, advancements in passive listening/tracking
panels, and advancements in mechanisms for direct feedback
from consumers straight to brands. We will see more and
more commerce being funneled through mobile devices, as
well as the integration of mobile into other arenas of media
and advertising – such as second-screen applications, in-store
shopping assistance, and other ways in which brands will
encourage mobile usage.
The typical limitations are still applicable – for example,
mobile WiFi, limited signal strength in certain regions,
penetration of smartphone users, and data speed – but these
limitations are quickly diminishing, opening up a world of
new insights for researchers to understand.
Evolving Media
As brands begin to focus more and more on mobility, it is
no surprise that advertising and marketing will follow and
focus on the trending rise of mobility. However, it is not
only the media channel that will begin to shift; it is also the
way consumers engage with media that will evolve. The
continuation of media’s becoming more web-based allows
for a pivot from a purely or mainly broadcast model to one
that is more engaging and one that incorporates user/viewer
interaction.
The socialization of journalism (whether viewed as a
positive or negative) is a very real transition, and clearly
something that we as researchers must understand. All media
will in some way become “social” media, and researchers will
be tasked with helping brands understand this new arena,
and with maximizing desired effect. Will traditional media
measurement models like Nielsen evolve? Or, will new
solutions and technologies become the norm?
Though we have such a myriad of options and approaches
to understanding people and their behaviours, it is the
combination and hybrid utilization of these options that
will power the researcher of tomorrow. As you evaluate what
research means in the future landscape, you must recognize
that research has grown tremendously in scope, and its value
to brands and organizations has never been greater.
But, to capitalize fully on this opportunity, researchers
must be willing to evolve and grow with the industry. We will
be quicker to the draw on understanding new technologies
and applications, yet we will not lose sight of our need to vet
and evaluate opportunity and bias. It is clear that the research
world of tomorrow is more complex and, in many ways,
confusing. But we have many opportunities to add value, and
I see researchers having a much more impactful seat at the
table.
Ben Smithee is the CEO of Spych Market Analytics and has
been named as one of the top ten youth marketing professionals.
He has appeared on major media channels such as Bloomberg
Businessweek and ABC. He can be reached at
[email protected]
vue December 2012
21
F E ATURE
Researchers Yes,
but Perhaps Not a
Research Industry
Ray Poynter
To hear some marketing researchers speak, you would think
there has always been a marketing research industry and that
there will certainly always be a marketing research industry.
However, the research industry is really quite new. ESOMAR
(the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research)
dates back only 65 years; modern sampling dates back to
George Gallup and the 1936 U.S. presidential election, and
focus groups to the 1940s; while ad tracking emerged with
Maurice Millward and Gordon Brown in 1976.
Most things in society do not last long; and very, very
few new things last long. If we look at the trends, the
technology, and the opportunities, then I think we can see a
positive future for marketing researchers, but one in which
the term research industry may not be meaningful.
Why a Research Industry?
The marketing research industry is estimated to be worth
over $30 billion. Indeed, according to ESOMAR’s Global
Market Research Report 2012, adding in associated business
elements might push the figure over $40 billion.
ESOMAR can make this financial estimate because
most of the companies selling marketing research are easy
to identify: they have it as their main product or service,
and they see themselves as being in the marketing research
business (making them likely to join associations, and
making it straightforward for them to provide figures). This
identifiable group of companies is what we mean by the
research industry.
The marketing research industry came about as the
result of a combination of various factors, some planned,
22 vue December 2012
some serendipitous. Before the 1980s, marketing research
required trained interviewers and trained recruiters to enable
quantitative and qualitative research. The ability to craft
surveys was rare, the software to analyse marketing research
was specific and unfriendly, and the skill set of a qualitative
researcher was uniquely relevant to marketing research. All
of these factors made it relatively unattractive for nonresearch companies to enter the field, and it meant that the
skills developed for marketing research were of limited value
in other fields.
The Challenge of Time
Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, the implicit
boundaries creating the research industry developed, as did
companies’ appetite for marketing research. Qualitative
research was increasingly located in specialist focus group
facilities. Telephone interviewing might have led to a
generalization of research, but the need to have specific
CATI software (often linked to specialist analysis software
and buttressed by codes of conduct), separating marketing
call centres from research call centres, helped create a
coherent industry. The industry also developed new
products, including ad tracking, customer satisfaction,
improved concept testing, choice modelling, mystery
shopping, and shopper panels.
The rise of online research techniques might have
derailed the industry. Initially, surveys were crafted in
hypertext markup language by IT rather than by researchers;
and the new forms of online qual employed general chat
software. However, the first ten to fifteen years of online
F EATUR E
marketing research, in many ways, provided what may turn
out to be the high-water mark for the research industry. The
source of fieldwork shifted from freshly recruited sample
to the use of online access panels, utilized exclusively for
marketing research. Software, for both data collection and
analysis, became increasingly specialized to the research
industry.
The Great Unravelling
However, shortly into the new millennium, the outlook for
the research industry started to change. The first change was
the rise of social media, at first erratically with the arrival of
Friendster and MySpace, but then more emphatically with
Facebook. The second change was the arrival of increasingly
credible do-it-yourself (DIY) options such as SurveyMonkey.
Both of these innovative changes are game changers for the
research industry, especially when they start to work together.
Social media shifted the focus away from small samples,
or people being asked questions in constructed situations,
toward listening to millions of people whilst they take part
in naturally occurring situations. Social media burst on the
scene with such suddenness, and with such a clear indication
of its importance, that the issue of who “owns” social media
in an organization is contested. IT wants it, marketing wants
it, marketing research wants it, PR wants it; and there are
plenty of other claimants, too.
This situation has resulted in many of the software
tools for accessing and working with social media material
being “purpose agnostic” – they can be used for marketing
research, but they can also be used for marketing, PR,
and much more. Some client companies are even saying
that monitoring social media is too important to leave
to marketing research; it needs to be harnessed to brand
management and reaction marketing.
The DIY trend started with simple-to-use, but somewhat
limited, survey tools such as SurveyMonkey. However, DIY
was not unique to marketing research. Disintermediation
is a major theme in modern society – travel agents, for
example, have been disintermediated by travel-booking
websites, and bank tellers have been disintermediated by
ATMs. Whilst most people focused on the cost savings
created by the early DIY packages, a second, even more
powerful force accompanied it: that of control. DIY moves
control away from research agencies and toward clients.
The two strands of social media and DIY have started to
join together, in potentially disruptive ways. One change
relates to new survey options, the most high-profile example
being the relatively recent launch of Google Consumer
Surveys. Another change relates to using communities for
research – from open communities such as MyStarbucksIdea
through to research communities such as community panels
and MROCs (market research online communities).
Communities represent a major shift in power. Before
online surveys, nobody “organized” the respondents; they
were everybody, or at least those members of the public who
could be persuaded to take part in surveys. With the rise
of online research, the control of the respondents passed to
whoever controlled the online access panels.
However, with communities, it is the brands themselves
that control the relationships. A growing number of
communities are run internally, at least on a day-to-day
basis. For example, most of my company’s clients for
community panels do some or all of their own survey
scripting and some or all of their own online discussions.
This internal use is partly about cost – but it is also about
control, it is about speed, and it is about embedding research
within the organization.
The Future
Where next? Marketing researchers based in agencies
are seeing more and more of their work disappear inside
companies as DIY tools are adopted for surveys, for
communities and, soon, for text analytics. New competitors
are coming on the scene; some are small, but they may not
see themselves as marketing researchers and are often not
aware of marketing research’s guidelines and codes of ethics.
Some of research’s potential competitors are very big and
see marketing research as only a tiny part of what they do.
IBM is entering the marketing research space through its
predictive analytics in the area of big data; Twitter, Facebook
and, of course, Google could swallow large parts of the
marketing research industry without it becoming a major
part of what they do.
So where does this leave marketing researchers and the
marketing research industry?
The future for the industry? I think we will see more and
more research done in-house, with ever smarter and more
powerful tools. The race is on to create tools that facilitate
good in-house research. I think we will see more nonresearch companies such as Google and IBM offer services
that would previously have been delivered by marketing
research agencies and vendors. And I think we will see new
consultancies that will blend marketing research with other
skills. For example, I can see more design houses increasing
their research and analytics skills in order to build evidencebased decision-making into their processes.
I think we will see more marketing researchers in the
future, but fewer of them working in companies whose
prime purpose is the provision of marketing research.
vue December 2012
23
F E ATURE
Identifying a Marketing Researcher
If researchers are no longer identified by the sort of company
for which they work, how will we know what a marketing
researcher is? I see a marketing researcher as a consumer
analyst. I see the consumer analyst fulfilling a role for
companies and consumers similar to the role the systems
analyst fulfills for companies and IT. I think the core skills of
the marketing researcher (consumer analyst) are the ability to
• hear a business problem and convert it into a research
problem (i.e., to identify what consumer-related unknowns
have to be answered to allow the business problem to be
resolved)
• select a method likely to answer the research problem (e.g.,
qual vs. quant, surveys vs. social media research, big data
vs. a depth interview)
• design the right research instrument (e.g., the right
survey questions, the right sentiment analysis, or the right
discussion guide)
• interpret the results from the research instrument (for
example, a marketing researcher knows better than to
believe everything that is said in a focus group, in a survey,
or in social media).
These four skills will ensure that marketing researchers
will prosper, and that the world will benefit from a body
of experts and a canon of knowledge. The marketing
researchers of the future may not work in a company
with a thousand other researchers; they will be located in
companies whose purpose is not directly related to the skill
set of the marketing researcher.
The focus for the industry at the moment needs to be
on developing skills for the next ten years, tackling skill
shortage in areas like communities, social media research,
big data and, in all likelihood, new approaches beyond
these.
The key ethical issues are not just about trying to
get companies to buy into new guidelines; individual
researchers, wherever they are employed, need to understand
the guidelines and the reasons why we have them.
Ray Poynter is the chair of the Festival of NewMR and the
director of Vision Critical University. He can be reached at
[email protected]
MRIA RSS Feeds
What is RSS?
RSS is short for really simple syndication – a way of formatting content so it can be
used in different areas.
Updates about MRIA Activities, Events, Publications and Education offerings are
provided in a Feed that is automatically updated when there is news to report.
Using RSS means you can look at content on your desktop, or in your blog. For
example, you can pick your top 10 Feeds from various sites and put them into a
reader so you can find them all in one place.
HOW DO I USE AN RSS FEED?
In order to view RSS Feeds, you will need a News Reader
or News Aggregator. These programs pull all your selected
RSS Feeds into one place -- for instance, onto your computer
desktop, or into your “My Yahoo” page. Newer Internet
Explorer browsers have a built-in RSS Reader, so do Safari
and Mac Mail on Apple Computers.
• If you are using a separate reader or Aggregator:
- Click the orange button for the Feed you want
- Copy the URL from the address bar
- Paste it into your RSS application
TO SUBSCRIBE TO AN RSS FEED,
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS:
• Click the orange button for the Feed you want, and, if you
are using Internet Explorer 8 (or newer versions), the feed
will open in your browser. Using an Apple computer, you
WHERE DO I GET AN RSS NEWS READER?
There are many news readers available. Some are free,
while others charge for more features or options. Web or
downloadable programs that can read RSS Feeds: Google
Reader, Bloglines, Newsgator, Netvibes and My Yahoo!.
24 vue December 2012
will be prompted where you want to receive your feeds,
either in Mac Mail or Safari Bookmarks.
Follow
Twitter #NETGAIN7
Speakers and Program are all finalized! On your Mark! Get set! Register!
This Jan 31, 2013 marks the 7th annual Net Gain conference. The theme is Little, Big Data. While data have always been central in
market research (MR), the proliferation of Big Data creates both an opportunity and a threat to traditional MR. This conference will explore the
impact of Big Data in the context of the traditional market research of “Little Data.” Keep up top date with conference news on Twitter #NetGain7.
Early Bird ends on December 17, so register early and save! We expect this annual one-day conference to sell out again, so register
early - and benefit from reduced rates! www.mria-arim.ca/NetGain7/REGISTRATION/
Early bird deadline: January 15, 2013
TICKET PRICES
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$499
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Regular
$559
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$99**
* HST must be added to all fees
** Limited Net Gain seating for Students (10) and students who are not MRIA members
must provide a proof of full-time enrollment in a post-secondary institution.
Net Gain 7.0 Tickets include keynotes, presentations, breakfast & lunch, networking snack
breaks and closing networking reception.
SPONSORED BY
PLATINUM
GOLD
SILVER
BRONZE
Co-Chairs
Sandy Janzen, President, MRIA – [email protected]
Cam Davis PhD, CMRP, FMRIA – [email protected]
SPEAKERS
Simon Chadwick
Managing Partner,
Cambiar LLC
Opening Keynote
Melanie Courtright
Vice President, Research
Services, Research Now
Kevin Dang
Senior Research Manager –
Advanced Analytics,
Vision Critical
Prince De
Senior Business Development
Manager, Conversition
Michel Girard
Director, Analytics at
Aeroplan
Andrew Grenville
Chief Research Officer,
Vision Critical
Chris Gruber
IBM/Cognos Consumer
Insights Solution Architect
Paul McDonald
Product Manager,
Google Consumer Surveys
R. Scott Evans, PhD
Senior Product Strategist,
Bazaarvoice
Mike Rodenburgh
Vice President,
Ipsos, Vancouver
Adam Froman
CEO, Delvinia and
AskingCanadians
Fabien Rolland
Director, Marketing Research,
Aeroplan
W
e have exciting opportunities to highlight your brand
– from $250 - $2,500
Visit mria-arim.ca/NetGain7/SPONSORSHIP/index.php
or email [email protected]
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or Twitter Feed #NETGAIN7
2013: The End of Marketing Research
as We Know It? You Decide!
Reineke Reitsma with Richard Evensen and Roxana Strohmenger
My team at Forrester Research and I are presently brainstorming
for our annual report predicting the most important trends in
marketing research for the year ahead. As part of this process,
we look at the requirements for our profession, along with the
deliverables, skills, processes, and technology changes needed to
meet these requirements. These are often areas of debate – for
example, on the role of big data. However, what I have started to
realize is that all of the changes we expect to see are technologydriven – and have been for decades!
Unfortunately, what I haven’t seen in the twenty years that
I’ve been in research are improvements in how we approach our
role or how we do our job. As a profession, marketing research
is stuck in the past. No technology can save us unless we fix the
basics. What follows are some examples.
Questionnaires are still too long – and boring. There has been a lot
of debate about questionnaires at conferences and in the social
domain. Nothing has resulted in better, shorter, more relevant
questionnaires. Online surveys are still measured in minutes –
not in terms of relevance nor effectiveness. And a twenty-minute
survey will always run long.
26 vue December 2012
We still deliver results, not insights. I regularly have briefings
with forward-looking research vendors who have developed
and executed very intriguing research methodologies. But
when I ask them how they deliver the results, they show me
Word and PowerPoint documents that lack strategic insights or
recommendations. Our deliverables explain the results, but they
don’t guide or encourage action.
We still focus on price, not quality. We all say that we want to
work with and develop strong relationships with the best
vendors available. However, in my conversations with client-side
marketing researchers, I’ve found that price is still one of the
most important drivers of vendor choice. This is only natural
in a world where marketing research budgets are shrinking and
where there’s increased pressure to show the value of research.
But we are failing to focus on other factors that matter just as
much, if not more – for example, the ability to sync data with
business goals and provide recommendations, or the ability to
think outside the box and recommend the most appropriate
methodology rather than the most convenient one. Let’s be
honest: You get what you pay for. Too often, an RFP process
F EATUR E
focused on getting the best price doesn’t result in the best
insights.
We still waste our time and budgets unnecessarily. We all know of
or have worked on a project (or many projects!) where it was
clear from the start that (a) the product didn’t have legs, (b) the
research wouldn’t deliver the right results, or (c) the research
question was just too broad – but we didn’t push back. The end
result? The marketing research team is seen only as operational
and offering low “value add” (“we knew that already”), rather
than as a business enabler or even as a business driver that works
alongside stakeholders to develop research projects that are
forward-looking and help improve business results.
Most worryingly, at our core, we still don’t like change!
When I started my research career in 1992, I sat through all
the debates around the pros and cons of online research. It
took years for most research vendors and organizations to even
consider it as a viable methodology. I’m now hearing all of the
same arguments about mobile surveys and social media research.
A reluctance to jump on the bandwagon of every new
methodology is not bad, but are we being too cautious? Why do
we require each methodology to go through a ten-year vetting
process? Will our unwillingness to “fail fast” in the short term
result in marketing research’s “failing slowly” in the long term?
Increased workloads, offshored employees, and outsourced
key functions are all major warning signs to market insights
organizations that their power is eroding and they are on a path
to extinction. And each loss makes it all the more difficult to
turn the tide.
Forrester believes that we’re hitting a tipping point beyond
which the marketing research function – as practised by most –
will no longer exist: the backward-looking research that many of
us are currently doing isn’t very valuable, and companies faced
with competitive disruption can no longer wait for months
to get insights. Marketing research is at a crossroads where we
have to choose whether to become predictive … or to become
irrelevant. So what happens if you don’t evolve?
customized offerings, website set-ups, recommendations, and
more – and this role will only grow in the years ahead. Highly
operational marketing research teams that mainly collect a lot of
data get absorbed into a larger intelligence department.
Marketing research gets absorbed into the sales enablement team.
In the current disruptive, competitive climate, the more you
know about your direct and indirect competitors, the better.
Sales enablement teams need constant information in order
to improve and update their sales battle cards and dashboards.
Marketing research teams with strong emphasis on competitive
insight merge with the sales enablement team, especially in a
business-to-business environment.
Marketing research gets offshored. In some organizations, there
isn’t a strong legacy of doing primary research, and marketing
research teams primarily process secondary research, analyst
reports, and data. In this case, the value add of the marketing
research team is the accessibility and distribution of the
information. Many companies have already offshored this
function, and others will follow.
Alternatively, marketing research reinvents itself and becomes
a must-have for executives. However, this direction requires
a major evolutionary change for many marketing research
professionals. The team needs to build out capabilities that many
marketing research teams presently lack, including
• a research framework that acts as the internal radar for emerging
competitive threats
• r esearch programs and methodologies that proactively identify
unmet customer needs and underlying drivers of change
• t he skills and connections needed to fully embed and activate
research results in the organization, and help the team serve as
a true strategic advisor.
Marketing research gets absorbed into the customer experience team.
Customer experience is hot and is currently attracting a lot of
attention, visibility and budget within organizations. Marketing
research departments whose primary function is to understand
the user experience and run customer satisfaction research, could
easily become part of the customer experience team.
Only when we make these changes will we be able to play a
strategic role within companies, and guide business decisions.
Are we in a position to do this? Given the limited change I’ve
seen over the past twenty years, I’m somewhat skeptical about
our profession’s ability to make the big changes needed now so
that marketing research has a future.
That said, we own our future! This is our responsibility.
There’s a role for each and every one of us – but only if we dare
to change, and dare to make a difference.
Reineke Reitsma is vice-president and research director at Forrester
Research; she can be reached at [email protected]
Marketing research gets absorbed into the customer intelligence
team. Customer analytics already plays an important role within
many organizations as the driver behind marketing campaigns,
Richard Evensen ([email protected]) is a senior analyst, and
Roxana Strohmenger ([email protected]) is an analyst
serving market insights professionals.
vue December 2012
27
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vue December
2012
IN D USTRY N E W S
RRS
RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM
Since 1994, the RRS has allowed respondents to verify the legitimacy of a
research project; helped legislators and regulators differentiate between legitimate
survey researchers and unscrupulous telemarketers, phishers and scammers; and
protected the industry from unnecessary and unwanted regulation.
RRS
MRIA’s Research Registration System (RRS) has long
been a cornerstone self-regulatory mechanism for the
marketing, survey and public opinion research and
market intelligence industry in Canada.
Combined with other self-regulatory initiatives such
as our Code of Conduct and Good Practice and our
Charter of Respondent Rights, the RRS has paid
huge dividends in protecting the industry’s positive
reputation and good name with Canadians.
All Gold Seal and Basic Corporate Research Agency
members of the Association are obligated to register
all of their research projects with the RRS, and ClientSide Corporate members are encouraged to require
their agency suppliers to do so.
MRIA’s Research Agency Council provides strategic,
policy-level oversight of the Research Registration
System, and receives aggregate data-only on the
System’s performance.
Questions about the Research Registration System
should be addressed to Sylvie Corbeil-Peloquin,
Manager, Member Services, at 1-888-602-6742 or
905-602-6854, ext. 8726 or [email protected] or,
in her absence, Interim Executive Director, John Ball,
CMRP at ext. 8724 or [email protected].
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice
For Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence
Association (2007):
Section A (5)
Members must uphold the MRIA Charter of Respondent
Rights.
Charter of Respondent Rights, Article 2
You can verify that the research you have been invited to
participate in is legitimate in one of two ways. You can
either obtain a registration number and the MRIA’s toll-free
telephone number for any research registered in the MRIA’s
Research Registration System or you can obtain the contact
information of the research director who is conducting the
study.
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE REGISTERED
RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH THE RESEARCH
REGISTRATION SYSTEM DURING AUGUST 2012:
Gold Seal Corporate Research Agencies
Advanis Inc.
Advitek Inc.
Blue Ocean Contact Centers
Canadian Viewpoint Inc.
Cido Research
Consumer Vision Ltd.
Corsential ULC
Foundation Research Group Inc.
Harris/Decima Inc.
Head Count
Hotspex Inc.
Ipsos Reid
MBA Recherche
MD Analytics Inc.
MQO Research
Nanos Research
NRG Research Group
Opinion Search Inc.
R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd.
Research House Inc.
Tele-Surveys Plus / Télé-Sondages Plus
The Logit Group Inc.
TNS Canadian Facts
Trend Research Inc.
Basic Corporate Research Agencies
Arcturus Solutions/Les Solutions Arcturus
ERIN Research
Network Research Field Services Inc.
Sentiens Research
Sylvestre Marketing
INDIVIDUAL MEMBER ORGANIZATION
Burak Jacobson Research Partners Inc.
www.mria-arim.ca/RRS
vue December 2012
29
IND USTRY N E WS
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY (QRR)
In accordance with federal privacy laws, MRIA’s Qualitative Research Registry (QRR), or
Registre de la recherche qualitative (RRQ) in French, was created to provide an ongoing,
user-friendly vehicle for tracking those who do not want to be contacted or should not be
contacted for qualitative research studies.
QRR is a comprehensive do not call list
of those who have recently participated in qualitative
research studies, those who have asked not to be
contacted further, and those felt by recruiters and
moderators to be best served by not being contacted.
These respondents are marked as “do not call” in
accordance with established MRIA Standards.
All field and full-service companies are encouraged
to submit a list of their qualitative respondents for
entry into the QRR system each month, including
those who do not wish to be contacted.
Participating firms will receive monthly updates
of respondents to be screened from qualitative
recruitment samples. QRR works effectively to
increase the quality and integrity of the qualitative
research process, by serving as a control to ensure
respondents are not contacted more frequently than
is necessary.
However, the ability of the system to function
effectively is directly related to the co-operation
received from firms who provide recruitment services.
If you are a full service research firm or field supplier
that is currently participating in the Qualitative
Research Registry program – thank you very much
and keep up the good work!
If you are not currently participating, please get
involved! If you are interested in submitting to QRR,
please visit the MRIA website at www.mria-arim.ca/
QRD/QualResearchRegistry.asp for further explanation
and guidance on how to submit qualitative research
participants’ names, along with the required
electronic forms.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY
SUBMIS­SIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO:
[email protected]
Submission templates and payment forms
can be found at
www.mria-arim.ca/QRD/QualResearchRegistryForms.asp
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES HAVE
SUBMITTED NAMES TO QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH REGISTRY FOR
AUGUST 2012
ONTARIO
Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting
Consumer Vision
Dawn Smith Field Management Services Inc.
Head Count
I & S Recruiting
Ideaspace
Ipsos Reid
Opinion Search
Quality Response
Research House Inc.
QUEBEC
Ipsos Reid
MBA Recherche
Opinion Search
Research House Inc.
WEST
Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting
Ideaspace
Ipsos Reid
Opinion Search
Research House Inc.
SmartPoint Research Inc.
Trend Research
ATLANTIC
Head Count
Ideaspace
Opinion Search
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice for Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (2007),
Section C Rules Specific to the Conduct of Qualitative Research:
20. R
ecruiters should provide accurate data to the Qualitative
Research Registry, where such exists, on a consistent basis
and check all respondents against the Registry.
30 vue December 2012
21. M
oderators buying recruiting services should give primary
consideration to recruiting agencies which submit to the Qualitative
Research Registry, where such a service exists, on a regular and
ongoing basis.
IN D USTRY N E W S
PEOPLE AND COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
•T
o read more news online, or to submit your “People and Companies in the News,” s imply fill out
our online form at www.mria-arim.ca/PEOPLE/People.asp.
• The Vue editorial team reserves the right to select and edit your submission for appearance in Vue.
• MRIA is neither responsible for the accuracy of this information nor liable for any false information.
Partnership for Voxco and Merlinco
– Canadian research software provider
Voxco has inked a deal for British
survey software developer Merlinco to
distribute its products in the U.K. and
Ireland. Voxco develops applications for
collecting and processing data across
multiple channels, including online,
telephone and face-to-face, while
Merlinco’s software allows both survey
design and analysis. www.voxco.com
and www.merlinco.co.uk
Vision Critical Appoints Public
Relations Veteran Shachi Kurl as
Director of Communications –
Vision Critical is pleased to announce
the appointment of Shachi Kurl as
Director of Communications, based in
Vancouver, Canada. Shachi’s role will
focus on SparqPublic, the new citizen
engagement unit of Vision Critical
Community Panel software.
For more information, please visit
www.visioncritical.com; and follow
Vision Critical on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/#!/visioncritical
Affinnova Ranked 274th Fastest
Growing Company in North America
on Deloitte’s 2012 Technology
Fast 500™ – Affinnova’s chief
executive officer, Waleed Al-Atraqchi,
credits leadership in innovation
and a dedicated, all-star team of
professionals with the company’s 279
per cent revenue growth. Overall,
2012 Technology Fast 500™ companies
achieved revenue growth ranging
from 128 per cent to 279,684 per cent
from 2007 to 2011, with an average
growth of 2,774 per cent. In order to
be eligible for Technology Fast 500
recognition, companies must own
proprietary intellectual property or
technology that is sold to customers in
products that contribute to a majority
of the company’s operating revenues.
For more information, please visit
www.affinnova.com
Decipher President Kristin Luck Wins
Two International Awards – Luck won
the Gold Award for Women Helping
Women because of her commitment to
empowering other women in her field
by founding WIRe (Women in Research)
several years ago. The Silver Award
for Female Executive of the Year was
awarded based on Luck’s commitment
to innovation and leadership for her
company. She has led Decipher to
double digit year-over-year growth for
five years in a row, guided expansion
for the company and launched new
technologies into the marketplace. The
award was also granted due to her
role in Decipher’s onshoring practices,
which is an approach to keeping
work within the U.S. by giving job
opportunities to regional talent.
www.decipherinc.com
PAPERS ANNOUNCED: New Research
to Bbe Presented and Discussed
in March – After an industry-wide
“Call for Papers” we are pleased to
announce fourteen have been selected
for presentation at the 2013 CASRO
Online Research Conference. The
detailed conference program will be
announced in the coming weeks. To
read the entire press release, http://
archives.subscribermail.com/msg/6e7a
bbe8cea54c8daf0beb6f30de375e.htm
American Association for Public
Opinion Research (AAPOR)
Statement on 2012 Presidential
Election Polling – During the past two
months, journalists, partisans on many
sides and the public at large have
focused a great deal of attention on
the accuracy of the presidential preelection polls. At times considerable
criticism was directed toward pollsters
and their polling methods. However,
as was seen last Wednesday morning,
the vast majority of the major pollsters
were highly accurate in their final
estimates for the presidential election,
both at the national and state levels.
The American Association for Public
Opinion Research (AAPOR) would like
to take this occasion to compliment
pollsters who used established,
objective scientific methods to conduct
their polls, rather than subjective
judgments about the electorate to
make their forecasts. www.aapor.org/
ESOMAR Releases Updated
Guidelines for Conducting Mobile
Market Research which provides
a broad coverage of the range of
research methods being conducted
on smartphones and tablets. These
guidelines were developed in response
to the increasing use of smartphone
and tablets to conduct online surveys,
People and Companies in the News sponsored by:
vue December 2012
31
IND USTRY N E WS
passively collect data, rollout of geolocation applications, increasing use
of online diaries using mobile devices
and ethnographic studies that utilize
portable camera and video technology.
The guidelines can be found here :
http://www.esomar.org/knowledgeand-standards/codes-and-guidelines.
php
New eBook from Vision Critical
Reveals Strategies to Accelerate
Consumer Insights addressing the
changing nature of speed in society,
and how this change has placed
increased pressure on market research
professionals to make faster business
decisions based on readily accessible
consumer insights. The eBook will offer
solutions to this fundamental problem
facing the market research industry by
showing how to implement a “built for
speed” approach into insight processes.
To continue reading this release visit:
http://www.visioncritical.com/news/
new-ebook-vision-critical-revealsstrategies-accelerate-consumer-insights
Facebook Readies New ROI Tool –
Facebook is testing a new “conversion
measurement” tool to help marketers
calculate ROI on their ad campaigns, to
be made available via its Ads Manager
service. The new tool will enable direct
response marketers – including online
sellers – to use optimized cost per
impression (CPM) bidding and gauge
the off-line sales which result from
Facebook ads, as well as non-sales
results such as registrations. Facebook
says it should have the tool ready by
the end of November.
Revenu record au premier trimestre
2012 de Voxco – Voxco réalise un
revenu record pour le premier trimestre
de son année financière 2012-2013.
L’acquisition de clients importants aux
États-Unis ainsi que le développement
grandissant de ses parts de marchés
en Amérique Latine et en Australie
expliquent en grande partie).
www.voxco.com
Confirmit Showcases Award-Winning
Solutions at Upcoming Market
Research and Voice of the Customer
Events – Confirmit, the leading
global software provider for Customer
Experience, Employee Engagement
and Market Research kicked off a
busy period of Market Research and
32 vue December 2012
Customer Experience events. Recently
honored with the 2012 TMC Labs
Innovation Award for innovation,
unique features, and significant
contribution toward improving
customer communications technology,
Confirmit’s Horizons platform offers
users the ability to deliver engaging
insights that drive action. To learn
more about Confirmit’s MR and VoC
solutions, visit www.confirmit.com.
AskingCanadians Experiences
Triple-Digit Growth in Q3 – The third
quarter has really been tremendous
for our AskingCanadians team. Our Q3
revenue grew by more than 120 per
cent over 2011 and we’ve seen a 50 per
cent increase in the number of market
research projects coming through our
door, and we have brought on over
25 new clients this year. To read the
entire press release, http://corporate.
askingcanadians.com/third-quartergrowth/
Retirement – Vera Korinek – With
mixed feelings, I want to announce the
retirement of Vera Korinek, Executive
Vice President of Matrix Research. After
almost ten years of service, Vera’s
last day was Friday, November 2. She
has been a great asset to Matrix, and
will be missed by its staff members
and clients alike. Throughout her
years at Matrix, Vera has been central
to the success of the organization,
helping to transform it into a leading
provider of international market
research data collection services, with
a specialization in ethnic interviewing.
Please join me in warmly wishing Vera
the very best as she begins this new
chapter in her life.
[email protected]
MRIA Gold Seal Applicants
pending have reached a record FIVE
under consideration following a
creative sponsorship offering that
was inspired by the CSRC Council
– for more information refer to
page 15 in this issue or online at
http://mria-arim.ca/MEMBERSHIP/
CorporateGoldSealProcess.asp
2013 Excellence in Research Awards
– look for the Call for Nominations
in January!
professional development
GET YOUR CMRP DESIGNATION!
The CMRP (Certified Marketing Research Professional) designation signifies a high level of knowledge
and capability in marketing research theory and practice, and adherence to rigorous ethical standards
set out in MRIA’s Code of Conduct and Good Practice.
BY ACHIEVING A DESIGNATION YOU:
• Confirm your broad competency and mastery of theoretical and practical knowledge required to maximize value
to your organization and clients;
• Better position yourself for career advancement and greater earning power;
• Demonstrate your commitment to continued professional development and to upholding the highest level of
professional ethical standards.
The CMRP can be obtained by writing the Comprehensive Marketing Research Exam (CMRE).
The next CMRE will be held on February 1, 2013. Application deadline: January 4, 2013. Apply now!
CMRE PREP WORKSHOP: PREPARE FOR THE EXAM!
A Prep Workshop is available for those who want to brush up on material and on exam techniques, to prepare for
the CMRE. This two-day CMRE Prep Workshop will be offered in Toronto on January 10-11, 2013. The enrolment to this
unique Workshop is limited to 15 registrants per workshop, so don’t delay and reserve your seat TODAY.
102-ETHICAL ISSUES AND PRIVACY
IN MARKETING RESEARCH
This course introduces participants to the key ethical concerns in the management of
the research process. The course focuses on the responsibility of researchers to the
public, users of marketing research, clients, and suppliers. This is a mandatory course
for all CMRE writers, with the exception of RAP and MBIR graduates. This course is
offered both in-class and online!
MRIA Institute for
Professional Development
For more information on the CMRE, please visit: www.mria-arim.ca/EDUCATION/CMRE.asp
Institut de développement
or contact us at [email protected]
professionnel de l’ARIM
vue December 2012
33
P rofessional D evelopment
Canada’s leading provider of marketing research education for professionals
LAST CHANCE! LAST CALL!!
GET ‘EM BEFORE
THEY’RE GONE!!!
This is your FINAL chance to register for these courses before the cutoff! Don’t delay, act today!!
Final Registration Deadline:
December 21, 2012 MCP
0
Location: Toronto CMRE Prep Workshop
Course Date: January 10-11, 2013
THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM…
AND SAVES $100!!!
Be proactive and save $100 off the regular price! The course stays the same but the price does not!
Early Bird Cutoff
December 19, 2012 MCP
20
Location: Ottawa 101-Introduction to Marketing Research
Course Date: January 16, 2013
December 19, 2012 MCP
20
Location: Toronto 301-Competitive Intelligence, Competitor Benchmarking and Mystery Shopping
Course Date: January 16, 2013
December 20, 2012 MCP
40
Location: Toronto 402-Advanced Analysis Techniques
Course Date: January 17-18, 2013
December 26, 2012 MCP
40
Location: Toronto Communicating Research Results with High Impact Graphs
Course Date: January 23, 2013
December 26, 2012 MCP
60
Location: Ottawa Moderator Training: Basic
Course Date: January 23-25, 2013
December 31, 2012 Location: Toronto MCP
40
Advanced Competitive Intelligence
Course Date: January 24-25, 2013
January 2, 2013
Location: Toronto MCP
20
Introduction to Market Research Semiotics
Course Date: January 30, 2013
January 8, 2013
Location: Toronto MCP
40
303-Marketing Management for Researchers
Course Date: February 5-6, 2013
MCP
20
204-Qualitative Marketing Research
Course Date: February 7, 2013
January 11, 2013
Location: Ottawa MCP
20
403-Advanced Qualitative Marketing Research Techniques
Course Date: February 8, 2013
January 11, 2013
Location: Edmonton MCP
20
Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Advanced Analytical Techniques
Course Date: February 8, 2013
January 10, 2013
Location: Ottawa MRIA Institute for
Professional Development
34 Institut
de développement
vue
December
2012
professionnel de l’ARIM
For more details or to register, visit our website at
www.mria-arim.ca/EDUCATION/default.asp
P rofessional Development
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF MRIA’S EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Designation
Evolution
Fergus W. Gamble, CMRP
It has now been almost a decade since the first Canadian
professional marketing research designation was introduced. The
Certified Marketing Research Professional (CMRP) designation has
provided our profession with a formal standard of knowledge and
professional capability for the first time in the sixty-plus years of the
business in Canada. In this period over 500 MRIA members have
attained this designation and we are adding more and more new
CMRPs each year.
However, there are several issues that still need to be addressed.
Of most concern is the large group of mid-career professionals
who have not obtained a CMRP. Many of them have indicated that
they would like to have the designation. At the same time many
do not see significant benefit in going through the current process
to get the designation. They already have an established career, and
have the professional knowledge of a CMRP and a practice that
adheres to the standards required of a CMRP holder.
Secondarily, there are many whose work in the industry does
not equate to the CMRP standards because they are specialists
in a specific area of the business such as data management, data
collection or qualitative administration.
The MRIA feels that in order for any designation to be of
true value to our members it needs to be widely accepted and
broadly held by our MRIA members. To this end the Professional
Development and Certification Committee has been working
on a plan to achieve exactly that result where the majority of our
members rightfully hold either a CMRP or a specialist designation.
Recently the MRIA Board of Directors strongly approved a plan to
realize this objective within the next two years.
The new CMRP path will require a two-stage approach. The
first stage will be the establishment of clear and concise parameters
by which new applicants will be measured. Those parameters will
be based on skills and knowledge exhibited and required of current
CMRP holders, such as experience, practice, scope and number
of various projects and strict adherence to the MRIA Code of
Conduct. This will be accomplished by conducting a survey of
current CMRP holders, which certainly seems a highly appropriate
methodology! The results will be used to determine the appropriate
standards.
Once the standards are established, the second stage will be
implemented. MRIA members with a minimum of five years’
professional experience in marketing research and intelligence fields
who are current members in good standing of the MRIA, will
be invited to apply for their CMRP by stating their experience,
MRIA Institute for
Professional Development
practice details, and other standards as established. In addition,
Institut de développement
supporting verification by two current CMRP
holdersdein
good
professionnel
l’ARIM
standing will be required. Once they have been judged to meet
the CMRP standards, they will then have to take the appropriate
ethics course and pass the course test. Having successfully met
Institute
for Professional Development
MRIA
Institute
these criteria
they
will beforgranted their CMRP
designation,
and
Institut de développement professionnel
Professional Development
will be required to maintain it by acquiring 50 Maintenance of
Certification points every two years.
This additional pathway to the CMRP will only be available
for a two-year period from its inception which is expected to begin
at some point in mid-2013. Once the specified time frame is over,
the CMRP will only be granted following the previous procedure
of taking the appropriate courses and taking or challenging the
Certified Marketing Research Exam (CMRE), the examination
currently required to obtain a CMRP. The only change to this
process is that the minimum experience level for a challenge will be
set at five years, which is more in line with similar standards in the
US and Europe.
For other marketing research specialists (e.g. tabulation,
qualitative specialists) with a minimum of two years’ working
experience and current membership in the MRIA, specific courses
will be provided by the Institute for Professional Development
(IPD), again including the mandatory ethics course. Upon
successful completion of these courses a specialist designation, yet to
be named, will be granted indicating their area of specialty.
In addition, in recognition of specialised marketing research
or related post-secondary programs offered within approved
post-secondary institutions, graduates of these programs will
automatically be allowed to write one part of the CMRE. Then
upon acquiring two years’ work experience and maintaining their
membership in good standing, they will be able to write the second
part of the CMRE and upon successful completion receive their
CMRP.
It is important to point out that these changes are intended to
provide greater benefit to the MRIA members by firmly establishing
a strong base of accredited research professionals from those in the
business. This plan has been discussed and reviewed to ensure that
those who attain these designations represent the MRIA at a high
level. We should all be able to point to our designations with pride
in our profession and as an assurance to the public and business
leaders that we maintain a high standard of performance.
vue December 2012
35
COLUMNISTS
TWO SOLITUDES
The Future of Focus Groups: Evolving and Certain
Isabelle Landreville
Sylvestre Marketing
“Death of the Focus Group: Research Meets Mobility,” an
article written by Doug Stephens, got everyone at Sylvestre
Marketing thinking…
In recent years, there has been a trend of discrediting
traditional focus group methods, claiming that technology
would make them obsolete, as though human-to-human
interaction has become archaic. In the same way that people
thought books and publishing houses would close when
e-readers entered the market, articles surface suggesting
that focus groups will vanish with the culture of the new
millennium.
As qualitative researchers, we engage consumers through
whichever media and settings put them most at ease while
allowing us to satisfy our clients’ curiosity. Understanding
36 vue December 2012
consumers is our expertise, not that of the media used.
Whether a book is in classic form, a codex, a podcast or an
app, the information remains the same; it is its accessibility
and usage that changes. It is the same for consumers: They
can express themselves differently (online or in real time) but
the insights remain; the key is to avoid interacting with them
in settings they aren’t accustomed to. Seldom do we rely on a
respondent’s memory alone. As any seasoned moderator will
tell you, a focus group facility is what you make of it, as is
the medium. The non-verbal remains key; being able to play
devil’s advocate in a focus group can be as beneficial as texting
with Millennials while they party, having them post videos or
photos online, etc.
Truthfully, everyone on our team is excited these days: We
have so many more ways of building a relationship with our
participants, and so many more tools we can work with to
benefit our client’s research objectives. In our books, it’s not one
or the other – the future is built on the learnings of the past!
COLUMN I STS
QUALITAS
The Future of Qualitative Research – How Would You
View It?
France Bragado – Ipsos Reid UU
Nothing is perhaps more subjective than the future outlook of
qualitative research. Depending on whom you talk to, the future
of qualitative research could be many things. For some, it’s about
going digital and unearthing even greater benefits to conducting
online qual using smarter tools and more engaging activities. For
others, it’s more about “in-the-moment” and how to leverage
mobile to make qualitative research more true to life in terms
of time, environment, and behaviour. While for others still, it’s
about a throwback to times past when the “face-to-face” was
more immersive and observational (think true ethnography and
not just in-home interviews).
Regardless of which school of thought you come from,
one thing is for certain: that the future of qualitative research
may be broader and brighter than it has ever been because
the resources and tools, both old and new, have never before
been so diverse and accessible. So are there any limits for
qualitative research in the future? Well, yes…maybe…
With so many new qualitative tools at our disposal, the only
limits one might foresee is not in the methodology, per se, but
perhaps in the limitations of the people involved in the process:
a researcher uncomfortable in the digital space, or a client
hesitant to be a guinea pig for a new, “yet to be proven” product.
So what might this say about the future of qualitative
research? That we, as researchers, as clients, as individuals
committed to the excellence of understanding, must stretch our
minds and comfort zones, to keep up with the pace of change;
but to also challenge change to ensure it enhances the process,
and is not simply for the sake of change itself. The future of
qualitative research is hard to predict, but it is certainly trying to
push its way forward… How would you view it?
The court of public opinion
Demands for Survey Evidence Now Extended
to Patent Cases
Ruth M. Corbin, CMRP
CorbinPartners Inc.
Invention is in style. Approximately two million inventionpatent applications were filed worldwide in 2010. For
patent-rich countries like the U.S., China, Germany and
others, growth rates in patents exceed the growth rate of
their national GDP.1
Patent infringement disputes are also on the rise.
The high tide of patent disputes is carrying with it an
unprecedented use of survey evidence. Prior to the past
few years, survey evidence had little role in resolving
such disputes. Cases typically focussed on technical
specifications, and expert opinions about “originality.”
As an indicator of just how far survey evidence has swum
into the tide of patent cases, look to the recent case between
Apple and Samsung, Apple claiming that the Korean
electronics maker had copied the designs of Apple’s iPad
tablet and iPhone smartphones. The controversial decision
in favour of Apple, to the tune of $1.05 billion in damages,
was released on August 24 of this year. The trial contained
so many exhibits, including detailed survey exhibits, that
one lawyer quipped to the judge (as reported in the Wall
Street Journal) that the next exhibit should be marked as
“number a million.”
The head of Apple’s worldwide marketing first spoke
about the company’s internal surveys of customers, rating
their satisfaction with special features of the iPhone and
iPad. Two surveys of product confusion followed, complete
with control conditions, submitted by a survey expert
engaged by Apple. Through a second survey expert, Apple
also submitted evidence of “secondary meaning,” that is, the
ability of consumers to recognize an Apple product by virtue
of its distinctive features. Yet another Apple survey was
submitted by an MIT professor and expert on new product
development, using conjoint analysis to demonstrate how
much consumers would pay for three of Apple’s patented
smartphone features, including multi-touch and scrolling.
For its part, Samsung criticized the survey-construction
choices made by Apple’s experts, and commissioned their
own surveys in reply.
The instructions to the jury for sifting through surveys
and other evidence went on for 109 pages – each word read
aloud by the presiding judge.
Even after the proceedings were concluded, the trial
continued to financially support the survey industry. While
the jury was deliberating, an online poll was held, inviting
consumers’ predictions of the outcome on one of the key
issues. Thirty-five thousand people responded. And once the
verdict was released, a consumer website conducted a survey
of young adults, determining that 55 per cent disagreed with
the verdict, most of them claiming that it was “unfair” and
stood in the way of consumer benefit.
Exhausted by all the numbers? Imagine how the jury felt.
Facts taken from a report of the World Intellectual
Property Organization, published at http://www.wipo.int/
export/sites/www/ipstats/en/wipi/pdf/941_2011_highlights.pdf
1
vue December 2012
37
COLUM N ISTS
BRAVE NEW WORLD
You Can’t Drive Forward While Looking in the Rear
View Mirror! Future-Looking Research – Beyond
Reactive Measures
Corrine Sandler
Fresh Intelligence Research Corp.
Going with your gut can get you in trouble! That’s why it’s
imperative for all research initiatives today to have some
predictive analytics built in. We need to stop looking backward
to analyze “What happened?” and use predictive analytics to
help executives answer “What’s next?” and “What should we do
about it?”
But let’s not confuse predictive analytics and data mining.
The latter is an analytic toolset that automatically searches
for useful patterns in large data sets. Predictive analytics is
an analyst-guided discipline that uses data patterns to make
forward-looking predictions. Predictive analytics delivers answers
that guide you to a “what’s next” action.
Let’s take IBM for example, and look at how this company
successfully applied predictive analytics to grow client revenue.
Before applying predictive analytics, their call center reps were
at a loss on how to recommend the right products for customer
needs and did not take into account which products the bank
had previously offered to a customer, or the customer’s personal
vue
Be Heard
Be Seen
Be Vue’d
circumstances, such as age, income and marital status.
By recognizing that their reps were not promoting the right
offers to the right customers, IBM analysts used the bank’s
customer data to create a propensity model that predicted the
likelihood of each customer taking up a particular product
offer. Now when a customer contacts the call center, the system
calculates a Dynamic Propensity Score which presents the top
three products that will best fit the customer’s needs.
Predictive analytics for IBM demonstrated that the use of
available customer information could help the bank increase
its sales revenue by 20 to 25 per cent and improved customer
satisfaction by offering customers products that corresponded
with their circumstances and met their current or future needs*.
By predicting emerging demand and behaviour we can group
people by common future anticipated demand. It’s pretty simple
to know what has happened, but not what to do about it and
what caused it. Both are important to making better business
decisions, but to thrive and grow today you need the latter and
you need to win at all costs.
This is my last column for Vue as I pass the baton over to
my colleague Leanne Bodnar, our client relations manager, who
will continue to deliver our thought leader columns. Thanks for
reading!
*Source: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/multimedia/
analytics_blind_case_study_2012pdf.pdf
2013 E D ITO R IAL
CALENDAR
Thank you for the support you have shown for Vue
magazine over the years and we look forward to counting
you among our print and digital advertisers in 2013. We
welcome inquiries from advertisers, authors, students and
the business community.
Month
Editorial
Submission Deadline
January / February 2013
ETHICS / PRIVACY / STANDARDS
January 8, 2013
March 2013
MOBILE RESEARCH
February 1, 2013
April 2013
CHARITY PRO BONO RESEARCH AND CLIENTS
March 1, 2013
May 2013
THE CONFERENCE ISSUE – Niagara Falls, Ontario
April 1, 2013
June 2013
SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH
May 3, 2013
July / August 2013
CANADIANA June 3, 2013
September 2013
VIEW FROM COLLEGE
August 2, 2013
October 2013
QUALITATIVE
September 2, 2013
November 2013
CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHERS
October 4, 2013
December 2013
CRYSTAL BALL – Neuroscience, Gaming
November 1, 2013
38 vue December 2012
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MRIA 2012-13 Board of Directors
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PRESIDENT-ELECT
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Sandra Janzen
Anastasia Arabia
Shane Skillen, CMRP
Rick Hobbs, CMRP John Ball, CMRP
Ipsos Reid Corporation
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Anastasia Arabia
Kimberlee Niziol Jonas
Fergus Gamble, CMRP
Rick Hobbs, CMRP Shane Skillen, CMRP Cora Waters, CMRP Tricia Benn
Carolyn O’Keefe, CMRP
Tracy Bowman, CMRP
Joseph Chen
John Tabone Margaret Brigley, CMRP
Ruth Corbin, CMRP
Amy Charles
Dave McVetty, CMRP
Kristian Gravelle
Christian Bourque, CMRP
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Ipsos Reid Corporation
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Leger Marketing
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Unilever Canada
Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
Corporate Research Associates Inc.
CorbinPartners Inc.
Ipsos Reid Corporation
Parks Canada
Kraft Canada Inc.
Leger Marketing
Spielo
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Don Mills, CMRP, FMRIA
Roland Klassen, CMRP
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Eleanor Austin
Shane Skillen, CMRP
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Stephen Popiel, CMRP
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Don Williams Shaftesbury Associates
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GfK Custom Research NA
Corporate Research Associates Inc.
CorbinPartners Inc.
NADbank Inc.
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ALBERTA
ATLANTIC CANADA
BRITISH COLUMBIA
OTTAWA
PRAIRIE
QUEBEC
TORONTO
Carolyn O’Keefe, CMRP
Carolyn Kildare
Carolyn O’Keefe, CMRP
Edward van Dam
Inga Petri, CMRP
Tracy Bowman, CMRP
Michel Saulnier, CMRP
Leah McTiernan, CMRP
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Etta Wahab
Lucy Pizunski
Anne Marie Gabriel
Fania Borok
Daniel Borok
Sylvie Corbeil-Peloquin
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MarketQuest-Omnifacts Research
Mercer
MarketQuest-Omnifacts Research
BC Hydro
Strategic Moves
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Saine Marketing Inc.
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