Archive for the ‘Thursday Night Insight’ Category

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If I think this, what do you think?

In this week’s Thursday Night Insight Paul Hague reflects on his thoughts on completing the UK census form.

I have been a market researcher all my life. 40 years in fact. I love the job. It fulfils my intellectual curiosity, it indulges my love of travel, and it satisfies my desire for constant change – and yet I find it really difficult to take part in surveys. In the main I am protected from this by the Market Research Society guidelines that recommend most survey designers screen out the likes of me, knowing that my professional knowledge will bias my answers in some small degree.

However, last week I got my come-uppance. I returned home to find 32 pages of questions had thudded onto our welcome mat, with an introductory letter that informed me I would be incarcerated if I didn’t comply. Yippee – it is decennial census time. I looked at this daunting instrument of torture and I couldn’t begin to think how your average 85 year old, single gypsy, now separated from a same-sex relationship, would cope.

Fortified by three large glasses of sauvignon blanc, I decided to fill it in online. It was so easy I sailed through, congratulating myself and secure in the knowledge that the analysts who look at these things would be able to see that the time I had taken to complete the questionnaire was a world record. That was until I came to question 43, which asked me how many visitors would be in my house on the 27th March. Since I was pretty certain there wouldn’t be any, I looked for the button to say this and move on. However, there was no such button to tick. It seemed I had to have a visitor on the 27th or I was stuck.

I wondered whether Alfie, my 11-year-old boxer, would qualify but I couldn’t see any space for pets and animals in the form. I clearly needed a human visitor and I decided that to get out of the impasse I would invent one (I know, I know – I was risking a jail sentence, but by now I didn’t care). We often do have a couple of elderly relatives stay with us so why couldn’t I imagine that they were on one of their stop overs? In went Rosie’s name to start with, and this prompted a question about her date of birth. I had no idea and this was beginning to look ridiculous. I shouldn’t be making this up and, anyway, the more things I invented, the deeper the hole I dug myself into.

It was at this stage that my conscience was pricked and my head cleared slightly so I decided to work out what was going wrong. As I tracked back through the questionnaire, it became clear that in my slightly inebriated state I had incorrectly filled in question H5, which I thought had said how many people will be in the house on the 27th and it had, in fact, asked how many visitors would there be. Since I had answered 2 people, it was quite clear that this was the reason the computer-aided questionnaire was routing me to the visitor question.

So, what are my insights from all this? The experience of completing the questionnaire was better than the anticipation of doing so – which I was dreading. However, I found myself wondering about the futility of some of the questions. Surely the census is a head count of the people living in households and not much more. If we need to dig deeper on my thoughts and feelings such as the state of my health right now, or how well I can speak English (??), this is the stuff of sample surveys. Over-complication is a crime and we are over-complicating everything, including the design of our questionnaires.

Isn’t it a reflection of the politically correct world that we have to necessitate a special questionnaire for Welsh speakers and weird combinations of answers to which people can say they are British/English, simply British, simply English, British/Welsh, simply Welsh and so on. And please guess how many will actually tick the box that says they are Gypsy or Irish Traveller. Minorities must be looked after in our daily life but, in the case of a census, we should not be designing our process around 0.01% of any population.

I know that we have been keeping tabs on our population since the Doomsday book, but the census as we know it in the UK began in 1801. I don’t think anyone will shed any tears over the fact that this is our last one and from now on we will rely on sample surveys. My saving grace is that my completed form will be kept confidential for 100 years. So, unless I tell you, you won’t know that I am a surviving partner from a same-sex civil partnership, living in a holiday home, of any other Black/African/Caribbean/Black British extraction, holding an Irish passport, actively looking for work over the last four weeks and whose main language is British Sign Language.

Posted in Paul Hague, Questionnaire Design, Thursday Night Insight |
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Life Is A Numbers Game

In his first Thursday Night Insight, Kyle Cockett examines the dangers of taking statistics at face value.

Although I have only been working in the field of market research for a relatively short length of time, I have quickly realised the value of a well executed piece of quantitative research. When correctly designed, using a valid, reliable sample, quantitative research can be used to provide clients with strong conclusive findings, often enhanced by the use of inferential statistical techniques. Correlation analysis, CHAID analysis and factor analysis are all examples of such techniques that can add value to the overall conclusion, for example, to prove or disprove a prior hypothesis the client holds, such as ‘is group x significantly more satisfied than group y’ etc.

Almost every day we come across the findings of various types of research reported in the media, often on a range of weird and wonderful topics – but how many of us actually question the research method utilised and where the findings have come from?

Recently a story made the national news concerning a Plymouth school teacher – Richard Gribble – who found that pupils were finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate in class. The headline read:

Children addicted to computer games ‘unfit for school’

The headline was augmented by a passage of text which stated that ‘games addicted children are missing meals, talking about computer games during lesson times, tired and show poor concentration according to new research’. Upon investigating the story further, I found that the same damning verdict on our nation’s children was delivered by several other media outlets, one, reporting that ‘primary pupils are falling asleep at their desks after playing computer games until 4am’. It was only on delving deeper into the article that it revealed that the sample size of the research was in fact Mr Gribble’s own primary school class of 26 pupils – hardly representative of the population sample, especially when the National Office of Statistics estimates there are around 11.5 million under sixteen year olds! Unfortunately this point appeared to be lost to the majority of online commentators, for whom the power of the headline overshadowed the reliability and validity of the methodology used to arrive at the finding.

Indeed, it seems that the famous Albert Einstein quote ‘if the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts’ has become all too literal when it comes to general media reporting of research findings. In fact, the National Health Service has now dedicated the news section of their website to investigating and reporting the statistical significance and causality between many of the tenuous links often reported in the media – can saucepans really cause early menopause? Can a pill cure your fear of heights? Is breastfeeding linked to school grades?

Michael Blastland, writing in his ‘Go Figure’ column for the BBC, perfectly sums up the problem of taking numbers at face value without reading between the lines. Take a look at the picture above. The picture was taken just prior to the general election. It shows a well known potato crisp company handing out free packets of crisps displaying the image of the three prospective prime ministers. Ostensibly, on face value the image implies that Nick Clegg is the most popular of the three candidates; based on the seeming popularity of his bags of crisps, depicted by the emptiest bin. We might be surprised by this, but at the same time, question why the image would lie? However, further thought raises a number of competing explanations; has the Gordon Brown bin just been refilled? Are the crisps different flavours, with Nick Clegg’s the most popular flavour? Which candidate was supplied with the most boxes of crisps initially?

I guess the point I am trying to make is that anybody can take numbers at face value. Blastland himself professes that ‘clever people – and newspapers and politicians – say outrageously daft things, often, with them and about them’. However, without some form of added insight, figures in their own right are often of little value. Click here to find out how you can use statistical techniques to add value to your research project at B2B International.

Posted in Kyle Cockett, Statistics, Thursday Night Insight |
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Childbirth and How We Delight Customers

This week Matthew Harrison thinks back to the nerve-racking day his wife gave birth, and reflects on what this tells us about the different ways in which we measure customer needs

We headed down a tree-lined avenue and arrived at the hospital, an imposing building in an aspirational Connecticut suburb. A team of uniformed, white-gloved octogenarians ushered us into valet parking, transferred our belongings into a silver trolley and delicately placed my wife into a wheelchair. Our vehicle was whisked away by a Dickensian character in a towering hat. I handed $5 to his fawning colleague and scurried inside the building, behind my wife-on-wheels.

The lobby of this hospital was a thing of beauty. Cherry wood-paneled walls met lush carpets; impressionist paintings vied for wall-space with portraits of benevolent local millionaires. One dry-cleaned footman after another escorted us through elevators and corridors and – finally and breathlessly – into a spacious labour room, our personal home for the next 15 hours.

I reclined on a chaise longue, like many a husband before me. The flat-screen TV piped cheerful music into the immaculate room. I tuned my laptop into the wi-fi system and emailed my family the latest news. This room had everything a man could want. My wife seemed a bit angry about something. Must be the hormones – I’d read about that.

The next days were the most miraculous of our lives, as our baby was born and our every need attended to by this most sumptuous of hospitals. The pièce de resistance arrived the night before we returned home, as the nurses served us a complimentary meal of filet mignon and champagne, before giving our new baby a trendy T-shirt and arranging for us to meet the ‘hospital photographer’.

One sleepless night a few days later, I reflected on how lucky we were to be in America at this crucial moment in our lives. Where else would we have received such 5-star service? The hospital had not only met our expectations, it had exceeded them. The hospital had delighted us.

Speaking to a friend back in England my view was confirmed. Jon’s wife had given birth in a West Midlands hospital, behind a flimsy curtain in a room full of caterwauling mothers and hyperactive visitors. No flat-screen TV, no chaise longue for anxious husbands. Nothing more than a clock radio chained to a concrete wall and a husband that was sent home to bed when visiting hours ended.

I told Jon that his treatment had been a disgrace. The once-great nation I was proud to call home was falling into disrepair. What kind of animal gives birth without champagne, filet mignon and an unusually lush carpet? Jon was quick to correct me, pointing out that his wife was perfectly satisfied with the medical treatment she received, and that he placed more importance on that than on some pretentious undercooked steak. For good measure, he informed me that the UK health service provides a superior service to its US counterpart when it comes to childbirth, with infant mortality 30% higher and maternal mortality 15% higher in America (CIA World Factbook, UN World Population Prospects Report) . Treatment in the UK was less likely to delight but more likely to satisfy.

Our discussion illustrated a frequent dilemma for market researchers and service providers. How do we measure customer needs? If we simply ask customers what their requirements are, they typically reply with top-of-the-mind requirements that any serious player must satisfy in order to survive in the market – in other words, hygiene issues or table stakes. A hospital, for example, must deliver babies and perform operations safely in order to remain ‘in business’.

The alternative way of measuring customers’ needs is to calculate derived importance by correlating respondents’ satisfaction scores on a range of issues against their overall satisfaction with the supplier. This provides us with the drivers of satisfaction. Requirements which correlate strongly with satisfaction are differentiating factors, the non-essential requirements that – so long as basic needs are satisfied – allow companies to pick up market share by distinguishing themselves from the competition.

In order to establish customer loyalty, companies must perform effectively against both stated and derived importance. The company that performs poorly against needs with strong stated importance will not be in business for long, because its offering is simply unacceptable. The company that performs poorly against needs with strong derived importance may survive for a while, but in a competitive market will become commoditized and see its margins erode over time.

Posted in Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, Matt Harrison, Thursday Night Insight |
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Spotting the Changes

In this week’s Thursday Night Insight, Carol-Ann Morgan assesses what is now driving buying decisions

I simply cannot make up my mind! Do I want to move house or not? I have been looking around now for more years than I care to count, but it appears there is a forcefield around my house stopping me from moving. I have been through all the logical processes; compiling lists of the pros and the cons of moving, the things I will miss about where I am and the things I will gain by going elsewhere, identifying the benefits versus the costs of making the shift etc etc. Still status quo! I simply cannot make the decision, and the prevailing economic circumstances over the past 3 years have not helped. The media has taken on the role of my superego; tapping me on the shoulder, reminding of the uncertainty of the future, and the potential risks.

Decision making is not an exact science, though many have tried to unravel the rationale behind it. Indeed, decision science is a discipline on its own. And yet, when faced with making decisions of mini or magnitude, it all appears very personal, linked to the emotions and attitude towards risk.

However, we cannot ignore the current conditions and cultural influences on decision making. In the current economically challenged times, there is a permanent under/overtone of prudence. It is apparent at a high political level, at business practice level and at a personal level. It is pervasive, and, to me, feels as though it is impacting on everyone, regardless of their economic need for it to do so. Governments, businesses and individuals are tightening their belts.

In more affluent times, we think less of cost, possibly attaching a higher value to those aspects of our purchases which are not associated so closely with “hard” product – we value the “nice to have’s”, the “delight” factors, the things that say something about us, or make life easier/better for us. Could it be that in difficult or uncertain times, we feel the need to wear the hair shirt, simply to remind us that we do not know what is around the corner; a fear that we may not always be able to afford the fabric conditioner? Buying decisions at these times, therefore, appear to answer to the practical, rather to than the pleasure. Freud might have said that the ego and superego are holding the balance of power over the id.

Changing consumer attitudes towards cost impacts on buying practices right down the supply chain. With this shift, there is an imperative for suppliers and organisations to understand what is driving buying decisions now, from buyers of the end product down to buyers of raw materials. It is important to know what the key driving factors are, how these have changed, where priorities lie, how customers are reacting to current conditions, and how they are planning for a healthy recovery. Old priorities can no longer be assumed. The supplier that has up-to-date understanding about its customers and its markets is better placed to meet needs now, and in the coming years.

You might ask what this has to do with my own decision about the house move; well, no doubt my situation will rumble on until times pick up and I run out of excuses for my indecision. Either that or there emerges a winner in the battle between my id, ego and superego!

Posted in Buying, Carol Ann Morgan, Thursday Night Insight |
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The Bigger Picture

In this Thursday night insight Cristin Malone, helps fine art photographer Joy Malone, discover that market research is truly a work of art.

A few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised when my older sister Joy asked me – her younger sister- for advice. Maybe it’s the fact I spent my undergraduate career studying to be a psychologist, or the fact that I love to hear myself talk, or the fact that I have been waiting for my sister to ask me about anything, but eagerly I jumped at the opportunity. Before she could get the words out of her mouth, my mind raced as I began to think of what she needed advice on. I conjured up insights on my specialties: love, men, how to find happiness in life, the best places to shop for clothes or furniture… and all of this came to a dead halt when she asked, “Cristin, you’re in market research. What would be the best way for me to market myself?”

For the first time in a long time, I was silent for more than a minute. My sister is a fine art photographer and in all fairness to myself, I am not entirely familiar with the photography industry. However, I did have ample time to prepare for this question. For the past 4 years she has completed her MFA in fine art photography and for months now she has been talking about starting her own business and selling more of her art – nonetheless I was ill-prepared. The only advantage I did have was that I am just as immersed in her art as she is and so I truly understand her goals on how she would like to position herself.

She really has developed a unique style; check out some of her work:(click picture to enlarge)

I remained silent for a few more minutes. Then finally the researcher inside of me shined through. I was puzzled about where she should start to market herself because I didn’t have any information about the kind of prospective buyers she could target. Even prior to gallery representation, my sister has had much success in winning art shows, photography contests, and selling some pieces of her art. So I suggested that she work harder to understand the people that have expressed an interest, judged her pieces, or have purchased her art. I advised (yes I advised!!!) that she develop a loosely structured questionnaire that would fit easily into a normal conversation, but yet pull out key information that would help her to better market herself.

The loosely structured questionnaire included these themes:(click picture to enlarge)

Together my sister and I thought these themes would help her to position herself or create messaging, by determining the feelings that resonated the most with her existing and potential customers. In addition, these themes would help her determine what type of customer she has and the best ways to reach them. Furthermore, it would provide information on the other artists out there and if they are creating art similar to her style. Most importantly, the answers to these questions would also indicate ways she could improve her style and encourage ideas for new pieces of works.

The reality is that market research is needed in any phase of business development – whether it is a sole proprietor taking his or her first big step or a long established company embarking on a new endeavor. Receiving just a few answers to some key questions on: how the product is used; by whom it is used; where it is used; why it is used; the perception of the product; the perception of the company; and the value of the product, can lead to some of the best marketing strategies. That is why taking the time to research is so critical for any company. I hope that my sister continues to work these questions into the conversations she has about her art, as each snap shot of information she gets will help her understand the bigger picture (pun intended).

Hey Joy, here is some free marketing for you!
Interested in her works? Check out her website: http://joymalonephotography.zenfolio.com/,

Posted in Cristin Malone, Questionnaire Design, Thursday Night Insight |
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