Bureau West

Since I’ve been giving presentations about online research methods, some people assume I’m saying these new methods are better than the traditional, face-to-face methods, such as in-person focus groups.  That’s not the case.  Which is better?  Unsurprisingly, the answer is: “it depends.”

In some cases, logistics make online methods the clear choice.  For example, if we want to talk to people who are so rare that we can’t find enough in one location for in-person focus groups, then we might consider webcam focus groups or online bulletin boards.  Or sometimes online bulletin boards are the only research method that can fit into some busy professionals’ schedules.

But in many ways, in-person focus groups just can’t be beat. A good moderator can develop a group dynamic that gets us beyond the “politically correct” answers to how people really feel.  Once the people in the room have bonded, they can “let their hair down” and open up about their emotions regarding the topic being discussed.  Is that easy?  No.  And a lot depends on the moderator’s skill.  But it’s well worth finding the right moderator who can elicit those deeper insights.

When choosing among research methods, we really have to start with the research objective.  Are we trying to understand the emotional motivators in the purchase of a certain product, or are we just looking to make sure that people understand an ad campaign?  Do we want to find out if people can navigate a website, or do we want to know if people have any interest in coming to the site in the first place?  Choosing the best research method for a given project really depends on weighing all the factors: the type of information we hope to uncover, logistics, timing, costs – they all have to be considered together.

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

Sources: Bureau West research; “In Praise of Focus Groups and Moderators,” researcharts.com, January 20, 2011

In marketing circles, “social media listening” or “social media monitoring” refers to the practice of collecting and analyzing comments made in various social media outlets (such as facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) that are relevant to a company or a product.  There can be a great deal of value in those comments, since they enable us to learn how people discuss a topic among themselves in a natural and unprompted manner.  This type of analysis also enables us to see the rise and fall of “buzz” around a certain topic.   Dell, for example, has allocated significant resources to the practice; a few days ago, it opened its “Social Media Listening Command Center,” which will track 22,000 daily topic posts related to Dell.

That’s impressive, but also highlights one of the challenges of social media listening: handling the great volume of data.  Several providers have developed software that attempts to automate the process of analyzing the data.  Dell is using a popular tool provided by Radian6.  These tools are very helpful, but it’s important to understand their limitations.  For example, one of the functions provided by the software is measuring the volume of positive versus negative comments.  But how would the software classify the following comment?  “I hate when people say they don’t like Dell computers.”  Most likely the comment would be classified as a negative, because of the phrases “hate” and “don’t like.”

This is not to say these tools don’t have value.  But it’s important to remember that social media listening provides qualitative data on a quantitative scale.  So the quantitative analysis provided by the software should be done in conjunction with a real live person reading a good sampling of the comments.  It’s also important to remember that the people posting comments online may not be a representative sample of your target market.  They tend to skew young.  And they tend to be people who are particularly happy or particularly unhappy with your product, who have strong enough opinions to take the time to post their comments on the topic.  While those opinions can be valuable, we need to keep in mind that they usually represent the ends of the continuum rather than the middle.

To utilize social media listening for your market research, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Social Media: A Game Changer for the Qualitative Industry?” Kathy Doyle, presented at QRCA Annual Conference, 2010; “Dell To Launch Social Media Listening Command Center,” Mashable, December 8, 2010; “Is Social Media Monitoring the Next BIG THING in Research?” SmartPoint Research Blog, December 13, 2010

Vitamins are nice to have.  They’re good for your health.  But when you have a headache, you need an aspirin.  It’s a must-have.  In an article in this month’s Fast Company magazine, Dan Heath and Chip Heath discuss turning vitamins into aspirin.  Changing the market’s perception of your product from “nice-to-have” to “must-have” can mean the difference between success and failure.

Netflix is an example of a company that did just that.  When Netflix started out, its fee structure was the same as Blockbuster’s: you paid a fee for each movie you rented, and if you didn’t mail it back within a few days, you’d rack up late fees.  Sales were weak.  But the business turned around when Netflix eliminated late fees and moved to their subscription model.  That was the “aspirin” that eliminated the “pain” of the late fees.

Another example: NetApp was offering digital storage to large companies. Their offer wasn’t significantly different than their competitors.  They were a little cheaper, but that wasn’t an important enough motivator for their prospects to switch to them.  NetApp conducted in-depth research with its existing clients, and discovered that reliability and redundancy were their urgent needs.  For them, lower prices were a vitamin, but reliability and redundancy were an aspirin.  NetApp responded by creating storage systems in pairs so that if one failed, the twin could take over. And they built in enough redundancy that even if a data center burned down, the client’s data would still be safe.  Their business from enterprise clients shot up.

When marketers get too close to their products, it’s easy to mistake a vitamin for an aspirin!  How can you make sure your target market regards your product as an aspirin rather than a vitamin? Learn about what’s important to your prospects.  Ask about their pain points.  Find out how your customers actually use your product and why.

To learn about your market’s “must-haves,” give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Source: “Turning Vitamins Into Aspirin: Consumers and the ‘Felt Need,’“ Fast Company, November, 2010