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Archive for the ‘David Ward’ Category« Previous EntriesData Day JobFriday, February 18th, 2011  This week David Ward gives us an insight into his world of data processing. I thought this week I would take the opportunity of a Thursday Night Insight to talk about data processing at B2B International. It’s not something that often gets a lot of mention and I thought a few brief words wouldn’t go amiss. To start with, I should say that I didn’t want to be involved in data processing when I left the University of Salford. Let’s just say it wasn’t my top career choice. I had my eyes set firmly on a career in coastal management. I wanted to design sea defenses and manage coastal erosion. If it wasn’t for the sums of money involved I would have gone to the University of Maryland where I’d been accepted onto a course to complete a Masters degree and, in time, a PhD. However, things don’t always turn out how we would like. From a job working in quality control of EPOS data, to analysis of CRM databases, I slowly made my way into market research and data processing. On the whole it’s been an enjoyable, challenging and, at times, quite an entertaining career. In the eleven years or so that I’ve been in the data processing business, I’ve seen my role in processing the data collected in market research change and evolve. I suppose one of the key areas of change is the diversity of skills that are now required. I think to be successful in the world of data processing it isn’t enough to just focus on one key area now. I used to just focus on producing crosstabs of varying complexity. Then it was crosstabs, data entry and online surveys. Then crosstabs, data entry, online surveys and programming telephone interview scripts. Now at B2B International we have, for some time, been using Confirmit as our data collection tool and so I can now add online reporting into the mix. I wonder if at some point there will come a time when all that is required of someone working in data processing can be provided in one package. Just like the mobile phone with its multiple functions, there seems to me to be a definite trend to try to accommodate all DP requirements in one place. With the likes of Confirmit, Voxco and Globalpark to name but a few, I believe we will get an all-encompassing data processing software package. However, we’re not there yet. These packages do some things very well, and others just about adequately. They are fine for running online survey and CATI projects but would I want to produce a set of complex tables using the same software? Currently I would have to say no; they don’t do everything well enough. I suspect it won’t be too long before I would answer yes. However, until I can answer yes to this question, data processing at B2B International will continue to utilise whatever combination of different but complementary tools we need to provide a first rate service for our researchers. Data processing is something we at B2B International take very seriously. We invest in the tools we need to do the job well and we invest in the skills needed to get the most out of these tools. It’s an important piece of the market research pie and, as head of data processing, I get a lot of satisfaction in knowing that it’s service we can provide to the highest standards. So, whether you want to run a customer satisfactioncustomer satisfaction study, a segmentation study, a multi country or a multi wave tracking project, your data is in safe hands. The Tale Of Two Soggy LadiesFriday, November 5th, 2010
In this Thursday night insight David Ward discusses the curious behavior of humans and what drives their decisions. We’re a funny bunch we humans. We’re really rather strange at times. We make decisions that often leave me baffled. That’s not to say I’m flawless. Far from it. I probably make decisions and do things that seem equally as unfathomable to other people. However, what I saw today really was odd. Picture the scene if you will. A very rainy, dark and unfriendly looking night in Bramhall. Cars, with their headlights dazzling in the gloom, splashing water up on to the pavement as they went through puddles that had been growing throughout the day. Across the road from work stood two women. One was looking wet and a little fed up. The other looked wetter and even more fed up. They were trying in vain to cross the road. Maybe they were on their way home from a hard day’s work. Perhaps they were heading to the pub for a restorative tipple. Whatever the destination they seemed in limbo. Stuck between having one foot on the road to start to cross back to having both feet on the pavement going nowhere. So far all seems fairly normal. This scene gets a little unfathomable when I tell you that 10 yards to the left of them is a crossing that when the big button on the lights is pushed the traffic will magically stop allowing a safe and speedy crossing. What was it that made these two ladies decide it was preferable to stand in the rain trying to cross a busy road than to walk 10 yards and push a button? I’m actually shaking my head in disbelief as I write this contribution to the Thursday Night Insight feature of the B2B International website. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out something comes along that doesn’t quite fit what you thought you knew. Logically you would have thought that faced with the choice of either navigating across a busy road and getting out of the rain by using a pelican crossing, or standing in the rain like a drowned rat failing to go anywhere, the decision would be a foregone conclusion. The pelican gets it every time. After tonight’s demonstration I have been shown that the logical path isn’t always the one to be chosen. At B2B International we spend a lot of our time looking at what drives decisions in various different markets, and fitting respondents into segments based on their behaviour. Sometimes, after analysing the data or transcripts of an interview you think you have the themes or story of the research formulated when out of the blue comes something different. Something equally valid but slightly out of the ordinary. We need to always keep an open mind when conducting research. Just as our customers keep an open mind when commissioning a project. They don’t assume they know everything there is to know about their customers. After all, just when you think you’ve seen it all, two soggy ladies from Bramhall come along. Without the research, you just never know. Spelling It Out For YouFriday, July 30th, 2010 David Ward’s Thursday Night Insight this week reminds us all about the importance of making the right impression in front of our prospective customers. Last weekend my family and I took a short trip to Sandbach, Cheshire. My wife’s hairdresser has taken a new job at a salon there and, since it’s only a short hop over the M6 motorway, she has decided to start to frequent that salon instead of her usual haunt. Sandbach is only 10 miles from home and I felt somewhat embarrassed about the fact that, in what will soon be six years in this area, I have never visited it. On Saturday I put that right. We arrived in Sandbach with a feeling of anticipation and interest as to what this little town had to offer. My wife and daughter attended their appointments and afterwards we (my wife, not my daughter) decided a nice cold beer in the sunshine was just what the doctor ordered, so we settled down for a refreshing drink at a very nice looking pub established in the 1600s. With its ageing façade adorned with enormous planters festooned with colourful flowers, it really did look a picture. This was a place full of character in the heart of all that was happening in the town that day, including a bustling farmers’ market. It was also a place that was home to a simple slice of marketing. A sign by the door hoped to entice passersby into the pub by declaring that they should “Come and relax in our beautifull secret garden.” Now call me an old-fashioned chap but unless the spelling of “beautiful” that was used dates back to the 1600s and the original owner is still running the place, I find this kind of simple error unacceptable. Did the owner not read the sign before it was displayed? Doesn’t he care? If he doesn’t care about what is presented outside his pub, what else doesn’t he care about? Sometime later on that same day… Just by chance (and I’ll explain the link to my initial ramblings shortly), my daughter attended a local carnival with my wife and, with pocket money burning a hole in (not surprisingly) her pocket, she (my daughter, not my wife) set about spending it. At six, she’s not quite a shopaholic yet but she did seem to enjoy the experience. This is what she bought:
Item number 3 is where this becomes relevant. On the front of the packet we were informed that the toy was “design for Childrenall. Are fangled and in the high quality welcome you use our product.” “Huh?” I hear you ask. Well, that was my initial thought too. On two separate occasions on the same day I had my Thursday Night (or should that be Saturday afternoon?) Insight sewn up. And here’s the punch line, so to speak… Sometimes there is very little to distinguish between products, companies or services. One simple thing that can be done is to avoid making your offering stand out for the wrong reason. It can be the small things that make the difference between success and failure. Don’t let something as simple as poor presentation of messages, communications, or an eye for the finer details be one of them. Think about what sort of impression you leave with your prospective customer. If you don’t care about the details of spelling and grammar, what else don’t you care about? Potential customers will ask themselves whether their needs will be treated in the same lackadaisical way. I’m sure most businesses do care about this kind of detail but I’m convinced that over time it’s gradually getting worse and worse. Don’t fall into the same trap and don’t underestimate the impression given through a lazy use of language. The Eternal Question of How to Target Our CustomersThursday, May 27th, 2010 David Ward this week reflects on what the many implications of our aging populations may be. In developed countries life expectancies are steadily on the increase. We live longer now than we ever have. According to the Office for National Statistics, life expectancy in the UK increased from 73.4 years to 77.5 years for males and from 78.9 years to 81.7 years for females between 1991 and 2008. An interesting fact is that of all the 65 year olds that have ever lived, over half of them are still with us today. This fact is quite a stark illustration of the increasing life expectancy we can all hopefully look forward to. Couple this increasing life expectancy with decreasing birth rates and we’re left with an ageing population. Of course the UK isn’t the only country experiencing these types of changes. Japan is an excellent example of where the population distribution is changing. The following website – http://www.wwq.jp/indexfr.html – shows how the age distribution of Japan’s population has gradually got older since the 1880s. Starting off with the typical pyramid shape, by the 1960s it is clear that the base is narrowing and the age groups with the largest populations are migrating up the pyramid. With a current fertility rate of around 1.2 (a rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain a steady population), Japan’s population distribution shows no sign of changing. It has been reported on a regular basis that this change in population structure will bring with it problems for generations to follow. Who will look after this ageing population? With such a low number of births, who will work to keep our economies running? We will have problems with provisions for the population too. Will it be a case of too many people taking out of the system and not enough people putting something back? These are just a few examples of the issues that could face the developed countries. This ageing population will also pose an interesting dilemma for marketing and market research. A change of tack will be needed to tailor the marketing approach to suit the requirements of those people with the most spending power that have been gradually creeping up the population pyramid. They will also have to adapt to the changing attitudes of people as they age. Perhaps the population as it gets older will be less driven by consumerism, less inclined to want to have the latest tech gadget, and less influenced by the commercials as they are shown to us today. It may be the case that fewer whistles and bangs, and more substance and depth, might become the order of the day to sell your latest product to perhaps a more discerning customer. To me, as someone who studied geography at university (although admittedly I was more interested in geomorphology and remote sensing), the population changes we are seeing are interesting. This is not only for the impact they will have on our societies but also from a marketing point of view. I for one will be interested to see how this one pans out. Seeing RedFriday, February 12th, 2010
This week, David Ward explains how a little extra thought could go a long way for some of our prospective clients. I am colour blind. To be honest, I am so colour blind that my 6-year-old daughter takes great pleasure in telling me I’m getting my reds, greens and browns, my blues, purples, pinks and greys all of a muddle. As we sit down to do some drawing together, more often than not the scene taking shape on the page is eclipsed by the alien-looking purple sky or dry, parched-looking brown grass as though some prolonged drought has been in full swing for several months. I’ve lost count of the number of fouls I’ve given away playing snooker when I’ve inadvertently potted the brown thinking it was a red. I’ve long since given up looking for red tees against the green grass on the golf course. I long ago got used to the strange looks that shop assistants give me when I ask them what colour a particular item of clothing is. In short, it’s a frustrating problem. However, it’s hardly a life threatening one and to my nearest and dearest it’s a source of some entertainment. Depending on where you look for the figures, between 8% and 12% of the male population are colour blind to some extent and a very small proportion of females are affected. One way of testing for colour blindness is the Ishihara test. Here are a few examples from that test. 
I’m no expert on eye-related problems so I tried to find a simple explanation of the reason for colour blindness and http://www.wisegeek.com/what-causes-color-blindness.htm provided a good one, I think. Colour blindness is a result of certain cones on the retina misinterpreting the wavelengths that correspond to their respective colours. Red, green and blue colours have corresponding wavelengths. Red wavelengths are longest, green colours generate medium wavelengths, and blue colours are made of shorter wavelengths. If the green cones, for example, only respond to slightly longer wavelengths, green will be interpreted by the brain as red. I don’t need to tell you that the web is an established way of advertising, reaching new customers and selling products, but how much consideration is given to the design of the colour schemes? Being faced with a website that hasn’t used a well-thought-out colour scheme that takes us colour blind folks into consideration could be costing you. For example, according to the last census in 2001 there were 28.6 million males in the UK, and with around 12% of males being colour blind that’s potentially 3.4 million males that may be put off from using a website purely because of its colour design. The message for my Thursday Night Insight this week is simple. Although it’s often not a serious issue, please don’t forget about people like me that struggle when it comes to the world of colours and making distinctions between them. It’s not a difficult thing to take into consideration and there are 3.4 million in the UK alone that may just thank you for it. « Previous Entries |
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