Archive for the ‘Research Methods’ Category

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Worlds Apart But Not Much Different

In this weeks Thursday Night Insight, Simi Dhawan finds a stark difference in the Inuit daily routine when compared to her own, but also finds undertones of universal similarity.

I’m turning into my dad. Not quite the revelation that a twenty-something female should readily admit, but there it is. I accept this statement on the grounds that I thoroughly enjoyed watching “Human Planet” on the box this evening – gripping stuff indeed. The content could not have been more apt as I watched how men and women across the globe wondrously survive Arctic conditions – whilst my mind flipped back to the photos emailed by colleagues in our New York office this afternoon displaying the 17 inches of snow that had fallen overnight!

It’s often easy to accept your daily routine as you instinctively follow a set pattern of behaviours day-in, day-out. Get up. Brush your teeth. Get dressed. Eat breakfast. Go to work – and so on. In doing so, it’s no wonder that you can forget about the bigger picture and fathom that human beings across the globe live a completely different lifestyle to your own. Today, I watched in awe as I learned of how an Inuit’s dogs are more than merely “Man’s Best Friend” in Greenland, but are their only reliant means of transport to source food and other resources for their survival. Whilst we grumble and curse if our boiler breaks down, there are those who can within minutes create warmth in dangerously freezing conditions by building an igloo with just their hands for tools – now that’s resourceful.

Whilst the programme unfolded and I watched mesmerized by how “different” life in other corners of the world is, perhaps the most interesting revelation was that, in fact, it isn’t much different at all. This occurred to me as one Inuit turned to his brother during a hunting expedition and grumpily requested that “he stop snoring so loudly this time!”

Whilst I don’t claim to be sledged to work every morning by 12 Greenlandic dogs across sea ice, what I can profess is that as human beings, our basic needs for survival do not change. How we go about achieving these needs in our everyday existence is merely a product of our environment and heritage, but in essence, these are universally the same.

In B2B market research, some of our prospective Clients would feel reassured to learn that we’ve previously worked within a similar industry to theirs. However, in truth, whilst this logic stands to reason, I’m confident that my colleagues would agree that whether we have or not makes little odds when compared with what really matters; the question or objective that the research is seeking to address. When we’re designing a study that will shed meaningful light on an issue, we don’t worry so much about the sector as we do about the research method we’ll adopt and the specific questions we will ask. If we’re product testing, then we know a demo within a focus group is likely to ascertain the most meaningful results – whether the industry is education or sanitaryware, what matters is that the audience is the right one and the questions we ask will give us the answers we need.

As people, we enjoy the possibility that we are unique, but yet feel reassured when we are backed by others. In the same way, whilst businesses thrive on standing apart from their competitors, they equally enjoy keeping a keen eye on their competition. A risk assessment could be carried out before an important decision is made. However, in simple terms you have two options: you take risks and lead the market by innovation or you opt for a more sensible approach and wait for others to take the leap first. If the market reacts positively, you can jump on the bandwagon and strike whilst the iron’s hot (to win market share of a market which you now know exists) or you go back to the drawing board if the market is not forthcoming.

As a researcher, the most rewarding aspect of what we do is knowing the value that you can add to such a decision. I don’t say this with any agenda, but from experiences that I’ve repeatedly encountered. During a project brief, you are completely at the mercy of those responsible for informing you about their business and the particular product, service or market that is being explored. However, post-research at the project de-brief, it never fails to intrigue all involved how much more insight is warranted from research – from the voices of the market as it stands now, rather than an assuming perspective that is slightly out of sync.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that I have the fundamental demeanour to call myself a risk-taker, simply because, by genetic default, I like to think things through and take measured decisions. However, given the right tools, information and intellectual ammunition, there would be no reason why I wouldn’t take a risk to try and reap the rewards in doing so! Indeed, this is what market research gives you. It’s the balance between a blind-sighted gamble and a calculated risk. It’s realising that to know your market you need to listen to what it wants and stay close to it. Like our fellow human Inuit’s across the globe, it’s imperative that to survive any condition (however extreme), you need to keep alert of every changing aspect of your environment – only taking risks once you have acquired all the necessary skills and resources you can pool together to do so.

Posted in Questionnaire Design, Research Methods, Simi Dhawan, Thursday Night Insight |
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Could Neuroscience be a New Research Method?

 
The Holy Grail for the market researcher is to find out what people really are thinking. When we ask people in interviews what is the importance of a brand, or how much they value a trustworthy supplier, we can’t always believe we have got the right answer. Throughout our education we are taught to think rationally and therefore when we are asked questions in a market research survey, we are likely to answer rationally. This means that we are in danger of overstating the importance of the rational factors such as price and technical performance at the expense of the emotional factors such as appearance, imagery, brand and the like. For this reason our attention was grabbed by an article in the Financial Times this week which scarily tells us that scientists are close to being able to tap into our innermost thoughts by putting on our heads a red bathing cap with wires attached. Apparently without asking any questions, they can work out what emotions are most successful in persuading us to take action. Read on…
 

Why marketing minds have turned their heads to mind-reading

By Hannah Kuchler
Financial Times April 12 2010 03:00

Last month, I surrendered my subconscious to analysis. A red swimming cap was stretched over my head, long grey wires stuck to my skull and my innermost thoughts fed into a computer as I nervously watched an advertisement for Volkswagen.

In turn, the computer told a team of researchers which scenes I paid attention to, what I responded to emotionally and what I would go away remembering.

It was a far cry from the marketing industry’s traditional method of finding out what consumers think about their brands: asking them.

The problem is, when gathered in traditional focus groups, respondents can be swayed by those sitting next to them or by the presence of researchers. Alternatively, they may be unable to articulate their responses accurately. As a result, a rising number of marketers now prefer to analyse the response of peoples’ brainwaves to brands and advertisements by using the latest developments in neuroscience.

In recent months, these techniques have not just been applied to the marketing of finished products, but also to product development. “It’s about uncovering new undiscovered needs,” says Martin Lindstrom, author of Buyology , who has been studying the development of neuromarketing since its inception seven years ago. “A lot of manufacturers are struggling as it’s easy to come up with ideas consumers don’t feel they need.”

He cites the example of dishwasher tablets. Consumers are attracted to tablets embedded with a blue ball because, subconsciously, they believe they clean better. However, when asked in the context of traditional marketing methods, they claim no preference about colour.

“The main reason why [traditional market research often] fails is that we look at things from a conscious point of view,” says Mr Lindstrom. “We ask: ‘Do you like the brand?’ We ask the consumer to be incredibly rational and we know today from neuroscience that 85 per cent of the decisions we make are made by the unconscious part of brain.”

Neuromarketers believe their work will be especially useful for products consumers find hard to describe – particularly when they need to know consumers’ reactions to smell, taste and touch.

According to Neurofocus, the global market leader in neurological testing, consumer goods companies are even creating their own in-house testing units that mock up supermarkets. They can use them to change everything from shelf positioning to point-of-sale advertisements with the flick of a switch and monitor the shopper’s brain during the few seconds it takes to select a product.

Professor Gemma Calvert, co-founder of UK-based Neurosense, believes the future for neuroscience lies beyond products: “I see the spread of these tools into things like the financial sector - to understand how trust is built and broken down for the banks – how do you make us feel safe and secure?”

Anantha Pradeep, Neurofocus’s chief executive, believes the possibilities for neuroscience are almost limitless: “The challenge for us is to be focused because we could use it in any area of life which needs emotion and persuasion.”

But some advertisers fear this adherence to science could stamp out “light bulb” ideas and destroy creativity in the industry.

Neurofocus argues that mind-reading actually helps sell original thinking to companies that would otherwise stick with tried-and-tested methods.

“The principles [of neuroscience] are like the keys of a grand piano – you can do a lot with them,” says Mr Pradeep. “And we’re adding keys all the time.”

Perhaps a larger concern is that consumers will find it increasingly difficult to resist the pressure to buy.

“We believe we’re incredibly clever, but in reality we’re less and less immune,” says Mr Lindstrom. “There’s an urgent need to create ethical guidelines. It’s like a hammer: it can be used to put a beautiful painting on the wall or to hit someone on the head.”

Posted in Customer Insight, Financial Services, Focus Groups, Market Research, Research Methods |
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Ethnography In B2B Markets – What Does It Really Mean?

Ethnography research is a technique that is being used more and more in business to business markets and in the last month B2B International has carried out numerous ethnographic projects looking at getting into the mind of the trade (both plumbers and builders).

Ethnographic research must surely be among the most misunderstood, misrepresented and misused of the currently used qualitative research techniques, and this is true whether it is within a B2B or a B2C context. This article below by Neil McPhee and taken from this month’s BIG Times spreads some light on the technique.

What is Ethnography?

Ethnography is a research process that is rooted in the anthropological and sociological traditions of understanding that places a researcher within the context of the research setting they are studying. Through the process of first hand observation and participation in people’s lives, a process known as cultural immersion, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of individuals and their cultural belief systems. Ethnography represents more than mere observation, it involves direct participation into the lives and the culture of people. Its strength is its attempt to get at the underlying meanings of actions and beliefs within the context of a cultural group/ setting. In order to leverage ethnography to generate new insights, commercial research organisations have uniquely adapted ethnography to fit the needs of commercial business practice.

My friend and co-tutor, on the ESOMAR Ethnography and Observation workshop, Hy Mariampolski PhD, from the USA, calls it Marketing Ethnography. I tend to call it Research or Commercial Ethnography, but in any event, it has a number of characteristics which make it a very different animal from an interview. Commercial ethnography is a movement away from the study of ‘native cultures’ and a movement towards the study of consumer cultures, this including a B2B context here. The principles are the same: a quest to understand people within the context of their natural environment.

Due to both consumer and business pressures we spend much shorter periods of time than would be ideal with people but our aim is still to participate directly in people’s lives in order to gain access to social situations that help us to better understand their world. We then take this understanding into the realm of business to better design products and services that will in turn better meet the needs of our constituents.

How do we recognize “ethnography?”

There are a number of attributes that constitute its practice.

1. Ethnography: describes the behaviours, values, beliefs, and practices of the participants in a given cultural setting. This is important, as the notion of Culture/Values etc, are prerequisites for “real” ethnography. We need to identify, and then understand,
the rules and their symbolism and significance within the respondents’ worlds.
2. Context: Thick and Thin descriptions (Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures). We observe, analyse and report on contextualized behaviour and symbolism, and we tend to seek the broader definition of context. Simply observing office workers, say, eating in the staff restaurant, tells us little about the company, but placed in the context of employment policies, working
culture and management attitudes, we learn a lot about the personality of the company, the pressure on staff to minimise lunch hours etc. This leads us to “thick” and “thin” descriptions:
i. A thick description of a human behaviour is one that explains not just the behaviour, but its context as well, such that the behaviour becomes meaningful to an outsider 2. It provides context that interprets observed actions and provides meaning to these actions. In this way analysis can fuse with description.
ii. A thin description describes only the event/act itself, and would only detail events whereas a thick description would try to analyse possible intent and the interpretation of events by participants.
3. Ethnographer role and conduct: A key principle of the method is that the researcher must not just observe, but must find a role within the group observed from which to participate in some manner, even if only as “outside observer.” The creation of a non-threatening role and presence, and the creation of virtually instant rapport, is one of the critical dimensions of effective ethnographic
work. Instant “rapport” is essential. Simply turning up with a video camera and a script and asking questions as in a quantitative questionnaire, or assuming that respondents will behave naturally, with no further guidance, is naive and useless. We must establish our “presence” in a way that allows people to become oblivious, as far as possible, to the presence of the researcher.
4. Time and duration: Realistically, we cannot often spend months or years living with our subjects, as did the ethnographers of old. Spending two or three years on an island was possible in the past but few clients would wear that in a proposal. However, time and duration is still a crucial dimension. I would argue for a full day (8-10 hours) as a rule of thumb, and a real half day (4- 5 hours) as being a minimum time to spend with someone/someplace. In reality, by the time you have arrived, got established, created some rapport and done a basic “fact find”, you have probably been there for two hours already! To go further, to become an accepted part of the furniture and to achieve that critical blend of visible but invisible presence, you really cannot expect to be there for LESS than half a day, and to be around long enough to observe a range of behaviours more than once ideally, and to observe the context, simply takes longer. A 2 hour visit simply is not long enough for any measure of real ethnography.
5. Participant observation: This is a critical element, as it is, in practice, what we spend a lot of a session doing. We watch what is going on, we note (film) critical elements of behaviour and context, and often follow up with a “conversational narrative” (the forms and functions of storytelling in everyday conversation), this being the sort of everyday and nonscripted exchange that goes on between people: it is not a formalised interview. • In reality, the conversation between ethnographer and respondent should seem like the usual conversation between friends, or acquaintances, at least. Asking structured questions, sounding like a “researcher” is not the way to do it, though many clients have asked for very specific questions to be asked – or have asked them themselves while on accompaniment. However, this is not the way it works best.
6. Video ethnography: This is often thought to be “ethnography”, where in fact, it is simply one aspect and one format of it and refers to the video recording of the sample of targets in their natural environment and context, and feeding back footage of practice to clients. Implicit in this is that no analysis or decoding is offered: it is simply recorded footage, with no significant editing, analysis, selectivity or contextual reference made. It is well short of the requirements for a full ethnography.
7. Analysis and Data Collection: Analysis and data collection are not distinct phases, they occur simultaneously. Both are ‘messy’ and involve the use of human beings as the unit of observation. Ethnography relies upon detail to convey the feel as well as the facts of an observed setting. During analysis, we often use some form of measurements, not simply impressionistic reportage, and these could involve:-

• Symbolism, what something (behaviour, function or artifact) stands for
• “Nerve centres”
• Functions – the role or purpose of activities
• Underlying rules implicit in the observation findings
• Language, jargon, slang
• Observing order/process/li>
• Counts
• Length of time
• Measure – weight, distance
• Interactions with and between others
• Evident but unspoken feelings and emotions
• What’s really happened vs. the story of what happened
• Etc

In summary
But above all, we are looking to see/understand the bigger, more conceptual issues about their culture and environment, using cultural and social theories to make sense of what we see.

Posted in B2B Marketing, B2C, Culture, Market Research, Research Methods |
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Research and Acting – The Tip of the Iceberg

Matt Powell this week draws some interesting conclusions between his parallel lives as both a market researcher and an actor.

As some of you may or may not know, as well as my career as a market researcher I am also a keen actor, and have been ‘treading the boards’ for some years now. Over the years that I have been immersed in the industry of research and marketing, I have noticed that much of what we deal with as researchers in our day-to-day job is particularly relevant to the job of an actor – from research techniques that come in useful when researching a role, to certain useful business and marketing models. For this Thursday Night Insight I have decided to look at a couple of the similarities between the job of an actor and the job of a researcher.

Due to our business-to-business focus at B2B International, many of the research projects that we conduct incorporate a number of research methodologies that complement each other in order to answer the overall research objective(s). Indeed, many of our questionnaires and discussion guides are much longer than the typical consumer research project. Many projects can include a phase of desk research, followed by in-depth interviews, followed by an e-survey or a quantitative telephone survey. The data from these individual phases are then analysed and a report developed that is presented to our client upon completion of the project. That, of course, is a very brief summation of the job, but I mention it in order to highlight the point that for most research projects, we have a huge amount of varying types of data that need to be analysed and distilled into the few slides where our recommendations are made.

As researchers, when presenting the findings from a project, we may sometimes feel the need to display the results for every question, as much of the desk research as possible, and as many quotes as we are able – sometimes we feel we need to show that we have indeed gathered the data that we said we would. Of course, we always try to steer clear of this – the presentation, in the end, is our means of communicating to the client our answer to the research objective, and therefore the more concise it is the better.

Whilst working as an actor, I have noticed how similar the processes of a research project and bringing a role from script to stage can be. By the time an actor takes to the stage, or steps in front of the cameras to perform a role, he or she will have done huge amounts of work in order to bring the role to life. Hours, days and weeks will have been spent on absorbing the text, researching particular areas of interest, and rehearsing before the actor even steps onto the stage. As well as learning the lines for a part, an actor will also conduct large amounts of research on elements such as: historical period in which the play/film is set, specialist trades of a character, accents, cultural trends, technologies used, and many more. This research enables the actor to deliver a role that is grounded in truth, and ultimately believable to the audience.

This process struck a chord with me recently as I realised the similarities between how an actor delivers a role onstage following an extensive phase of research and preparation, and how the findings from a research project are delivered to answer a specific objective. In both instances, the final outcome (whether the research presentation, or the actor’s performance that an audience sees) is only the tip of the iceberg. As an audience in a theatre we do not wish to see an actor’s heavily annotated script, their rehearsal process, or the large amounts of research that have been done – we want to watch the performance. Indeed, with market research, the final presentation that we see is simply the tip of a much, much larger iceberg – we know there is a huge amount of data that has been gathered, but we do not wish to see a chart for every question, or a quote slide for every open-ended question; we wish to see the information that is relevant to answering the research objective. As researchers there may be questions that influence our decision and choices for recommendations, but in many cases (as with an actor’s research portfolio) we do not need to see these – the bigger picture is what counts. However, I hasten to add, without the information that is not seen – the main body of the iceberg, if you will – we are unable to fully make our recommendations or draw our conclusions. Likewise, an actor would not be able to deliver a believable, truthful performance without his or her unseen work.

Indeed, the comparison between the job of a market researcher and an actor is also true when we think of the differences in how a research objective may be answered by one researcher compared with another. Of course, all competent researchers will be able to design a project that answers the research objective – though there may be many different ways of achieving this, different methods, and different means of presenting the data. In the same way, we know that if we see Ian McKellan performing Hamlet, the words spoken will be the same as the Hamlet that we would see Kenneth Brannagh perform. However, we also know that the performances will be very different.

There are many more similarities between the jobs of a market researcher and an actor that could be touched upon – however, these two seem to resonate quite clearly to me as good examples. After all, in both jobs we seek to fully understand a particular problem, issue or situation, before analysing what we know and then delivering a well informed interpretation of it. Just rest assured that the tip of the iceberg is usually, and I say ‘usually’, the most interesting part.

Posted in Market Research, Matt Powell, Research Methods, Thursday Night Insight, Uncategorized |
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Swines for distorting facts

In her Thursday Night Insight this week, Emma Flood warns us what market researchers can learn from the ongoing handling of the swine flu epidemic.

Have you heard of swine flu?  No doubt, like the rest of us, you have been poring over the alarmist messages in the newspapers about how deadly the virus is and how we’re all going to contract it. 

The alarm caused by the reportage of this strain of flu no doubt caused a rise in hypochondriasis and a serious peak in sick days.  So how did the government and the media help the general public on this, and try to avoid the panic which exacerbated these circumstances?  Did they carefully communicate a number of select messages to those most in danger?  And did they ensure that their messages were consistent?  No.  We were faced with a series of conflicting advice and information – some of us were told to stay indoors, others to avoid public transport.  Some commuters took to extreme measures of wearing face masks, whilst others (like myself!) stocked up on antibacterial hand foam to ward off any potential infection.

Suffice to say, thankfully neither I nor any of my family have been struck down with this illness.  This caused me to think, however, about our choices when presented with new information and data – what does it mean?  What do we do with it?  Who is it relevant to?  How do we interpret it?

In this instance, journalists were provided with a series of often conflicting and misleading “facts and figures” from the government and associated bodies, and of course this was reported in an alarmist fashion – to generate interest and sell more column inches.  What I find interesting is the selective reporting of facts.  We were provided with a daily update on the number of deaths which had tragically occurred, and this was often reported in true scaremongering fashion with the headlines “swine flu death toll rises again” and “fears of pandemic”.  Very little emphasis was placed on the prior underlying health concerns of these victims, and we were all herded into the same risk group, thus further heightening our concern and attempts to avoid contracting the virus.  Had the media helped in communicating that those most at risk were those with existing health concerns, we might have avoided such a swine flu frenzy.

As researchers, it is our duty to effectively interrogate and deconstruct data, in order to communicate the real findings back to our client.  We have to be skilled in drawing out the real facts, and confident that the picture we are portraying is a true reflection and communicates the right messages.  We know that our recommendations can lead to strategic change for an organisation, and behind that is often a significant budget.

To put your business in the hands of experienced research professionals, get in touch with B2B International’s Research Team, or read on to find out more click here.

Posted in Communication, Current Affairs, Emma Flood, Research Methods, Thursday Night Insight |
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