There is no doubt that consumers are behaving differently from just a couple years ago.  They’re borrowing less and saving more.  They’ve become much more thrifty, spending less time shopping, buying less, and trading down to less-expensive alternatives.  They’re also more suspicious of big businesses.

The question is whether these changes will be permanent.  A recent article in Newsweek cites evidence that when a really difficult year is experienced in early adulthood, fundamental changes occur in people’s core values and behaviors.  Taking into account the ongoing insecurity caused by the current high unemployment (which is particularly high for young adults), it is quite probable that this generation won’t be as free-spending as its predecessors.

On the other hand, as the economy recovers, we expect less profound changes among Americans over the age of 30, since their shopping habits are more ingrained.

The conclusion for marketers: while we expect shoppers to continue to be somewhat more frugal than they used to be, they will open their wallets again soon!  To learn more about your customers’ attitudes, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “The Recession Generation,” Newsweek, January 9, 2010; “17 Ways Consumers Are Changing,” US News and World Report, January 15, 2010

Now that just about everyone has a cell phone and almost everyone sends text messages, it makes sense to use text messages for market research purposes.  We’ve found that when we conduct research using text messages, we are able to get people “in the moment.” This can be particularly useful when conducting research where we want to understand experiences or behavior.

Say we want to know more about retail shopping behavior.  We can text key questions at typical shopping times.  If participants are shopping at that moment, they might respond immediately, or just wait until they’re in the store and answer the question then.  Or we might ask people with diabetes to send a text message whenever they test their blood sugar levels.  Or have people text us when they see a certain type of ad or use a particular product.

People are unusually open and honest when they are texting.  In some cases, it seems that they forget they’re texting responses to our questions, but rather treat the messages as updates to a personal journal!  And unlike research that uses journals, participants don’t have to think back and remember what they were thinking or feeling; they typically send their text message at the moment they’re engaging in the behavior.  Texting can fit into the busiest of days.

Since the method is inexpensive, we frequently combine text message research with other research methods, such as utilizing text messaging before or after focus groups or in online bulletin board focus groups.  To discuss the best method for your research needs, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Executives at Morgan Stanley were stunned – stunned! – by a recent report from a 15-year-old intern that stated that teens don’t read newspapers, hate ads and don’t like to pay for music.  Executives scrambled for copies of the report, much to the amusement of regular people, who weren’t the least bit surprised by these “revelations.”

But the excitement underscores the importance marketers place on understanding teens and marketing to them effectively.  Nielsen recently published a research report about marketing to teens with some surprising findings.  Of particular interest:

• Teens aren’t always simultaneously using several different media channels at once.  In fact, they’re more likely than adults to use their media one at a time.
• They’re not abandoning TV for new media – they’re actually watching more TV than ever.
• While teens remember less ads than adults, once they do notice an ad, they’re more likely to find it appealing.  And they’re not skipping commercials as much as previously thought: only about a third of teens have a DVR, and even those teens do most of their television viewing live.
• And one less surprising finding: teens prefer text messaging to calling.  The report states that “the average U.S. mobile teen now sends or receives an average of 2,899 text-messages per month compared to 191 calls.”

The report comes to an interesting conclusion: teens aren’t that different than the rest of us!  And like most of us, they’re impacted by factors such as social networking and mobile internet.

Just remember: if you want them to spend money, it will most likely come from their parents!

Sources: “Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert,” The Guardian, July 13, 2009; “How Teens Use Media,” Nielsen, June 2009

Many of our clients want to make their websites more effective – that is, they want site visitors to get what they want more easily.  One tool used for this is called “personas.”  A persona is a profile of a specific type of site user.  Personas are somewhat similar to segments, but they go further: they’re based on the goals of different users when they come to your site.  For example, a financial services site might target different segments based on their investable assets.  But within those segments, there might be different personas, such as those who are new to investing, those who want great depth of information and those who just want to know what the analysts recommend.  Once we uncover the main personas among site users, the site can be designed to address the needs of each of them (and make sure not to alienate any of them).

How do we discover the personas for a given site? Unlike website usability research, where we prefer one-on-one interviews, we’ve found that online bulletin board focus groups work particularly well for persona development.  With online bulletin board focus groups, participants log in and answer questions at their convenience over the course of several days.  We provide links to various pages on the site being researched and on competitive sites.  Participants click on the link, and then the come back to the discussion and answer questions about the perceived value of what they saw, what they liked, what they wish were included, etc.  The bulletin board format gives participants the time to answer in depth.  And it allows us to get their individual opinions before they see others’ answers, giving us the benefit of the synergy of group discussion without the drawback of a dominator swaying others’ opinions.

The needs and preferences of the different participants tend to cluster in groups, enabling us to develop personas.

Online bulletin board focus groups are not the newest research method out there, and we certainly employ newer methods such as remote webcam focus groups and video diaries, but in many cases, we find that regular, text-based online bulletin board focus groups are very effective (and cost-effective) for a wide variety of research questions, and not just for websites.  Some examples: we’ve used them to ask patients what they think of an idea for a new medical device and to get movie-goers across the country to react to movie trailers.

To discuss the best way to answer your research questions, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

When conducting research, we frequently want to get at people’s emotions.  What excites people?  What gets their attention?  If we know that, we can market much more effectively.

The question is, how can we uncover people’s feelings when they might not even be aware of their emotional reactions themselves?  One way to do this is to utilize projective techniques in focus groups, using metaphors and visuals to go beyond participants’ rational side. 

But there’s a new way to get at emotions more directly: bio-metric research.  Participants wear a lightweight vest that measures galvanic skin response, heart rate, respiration and movement.  Changes in those measures have a direct correlation with emotional involvement. 

The results are quite remarkable.  When testing commercials, we see the exact points when viewers are engaged and when they lose interest, enabling advertisers to create advertising that is much more memorable and effective.  We also use this method with print ads, websites and new product research to uncover people’s “hot buttons” – when they’re most engaged – as well as understanding which elements are unexciting to people.

We find we can gain deep insights by looking at the discrepancies between what research participants say and their emotional reactions.  These discrepancies can be an extremely rich source of insights.  And since the method is fairly new, we’re still discovering new ways in which it can help marketers.  Give us a call at (818) 752-7210 and we can talk about the best ways to understand what makes your customers tick.