Content Creation--At What Cost?

Marketresearch.com and Profound were proud to sponsor and host the SLA Europe event—Content Creation—At What Cost? Everyone thinks they have a great panel and begin by telling the audience that. But after a preliminary meeting on the phone a few weeks earlier Jason Ward, the host of the evening and lead sales for Profound, remarked, “we really have a great panel.” There were three speakers and Marketresarch.com CEO Rob Granader Chaired the panel.



David Frigstad, the Chairman of Frost and Sullivan, spoke first. David has been providing industry research for 30 years. He started analyzing trends in the US in 1977 and by 1981 he co-founded Market Intelligence Research Company in Mountain View California. In 1993 that company acquired Frost & Sullivan which now offers a full line of consulting services including competitive benchmarking and corporate training. David talked about the gifts of Steve Jobs and how to look at a market more fully than just the market you think you are in.

Roger Bamkin is the director and current Chair of Wikimedia UK and an administrator of the English version of Wikipedia. He was a leading member of WikiProject Schools and WikiProject Derbyshire. In real life he trained as a mechanical engineer, systems analyst and teacher but has also been a partner in a software company and chaired I.T. standard committees for the UK.

He also co-developed QRpedia codes that provide multi-lingual access to Wikipedia via QR codes. And for the record, as I looked you up, there is no Wikipedia entry for you. Roger spoke about the more than 200 fascinating projects Wikimedia is working on.

Nic Newman’s background is in the news and news content space. He is the former Future Media Controller for Journalism, co-ordinating the BBC's plans for News, Sport, Weather and Local in the Future Media space. He now consults with a number of companies on these issues. Nic was a founding member of BBC News Online, Europe's most visited news website. He was World Editor from 1997 to 2001 and then led the Technology and Product Development divisions.

Topics included the changing customer, “People don’t want to read Word, they want video and PowerPoint.” You can’t connect the dots going forward, get a bigger perspective. We discussed how to be important to Google and in the news business who tells the stories when everyone tells the stories.

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Internet Week Europe

MarketResearch.com was proud to be at the opening ceremonies of Internet Week Europe. We plan to be at many of the events in and around London this week and at the Lovie Awards Friday night.

Join Us: http://www.internetweekeurope.com/

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The Reach of MarketResearch.com

The times when I am amazed by the shrinking of our world seems to be growing.

But when you play “who do you know” you soon realize that in our lives we run in fairly small circles and so the chances of knowing somebody is pretty high.

And when you read Freakonimics or Malcolm Gladwell, you realize that probability suggests strange “coincidences” are on the rise: With just 57 people in a room the chances that two have the same birthday is 99%!

But in the larger world, outside our small geographic or socio-economic realms it becomes more surprising. And I am continually impressed as I travel the small streets, the back alleys, the mews of Europe to find so many people who know, use and rely on Marketresearch.com. It is a perspective you miss from the behind a desk in Rockville Maryland.

I have been in tiny offices in Brussels and office shares in London, picturesque buildings on the banks of Lake Zurich and the top of the tallest skyscrapers in Canary Wharf and found our clients experiencing what we hoped they would when we started the company 10 years ago.

I have spoken to people and watched orders come in from all over the world and am amazed at the impact. When you hear someone at a university in Brussels, in broken English/French talk about things that we created or using our lingo, KWIC, Kalorama, Profound, I still find it remarkable.

But so far this is the strangest twist.

My wife goes on an overnight walking trip to the Cotswold’s and meets a woman who tells us she is moving back to the states. On their 11-mile walk she lets out that there are some things she’s trying to divest herself of. A week later I am in her packed up apartment picking up space heaters, alarm clocks and half empty bottles of Pimms.

Sad to leave London, but overflowing with praise for the three years, her husband enters the room and we begin talking about his return home. The job he has in the UK? Head of Market Research for an international consumer goods company.

And so he volleys back to me "and what do you do?"

I have a market research company, named Marketresearch.com. And he returns, I am a customer of Marketresearch.com and I use Packaged Facts and I know Larry (his sales rep).

Walking home down Maida Vale lugging their leftovers I realize again that in this overlapping/combined world the chances of chance meetings are increasing every day. Although I receive no further discount on the goods I buy, I am reminded that the value of good service to our clients and strong word of mouth is what makes a great company.

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DIY Market Research

George Terhanian writes about the democratization of market research and asks what will happen when market research becomes streamlined and open to all?

Every product you interact with has been filtered through the$32-billion global industry. Every business of consequence values and demands the research because it’s vital to “innovation and competitive advantage.” He says the downside is the complexity, time and cost.

But now he sees a world where “just about anyone could pose questions to a target population and receive unfiltered, immediate answers they could trust.” It’s already happening when you post a picture on Facebook or ask a question on Twitter. The feedback, while lacking scale, coverage and diversity can be worthwhile and influence your decisions.

He expresses admiration for a variety of new tool for the more adventurous including Toluna’s QuickSurvey (Mr. Terhanian runs Toluna) which enables you to select the respondents and write the questions for a small fee, with a credit card, in minutes.

The DIY survey market is in $500 million range, he says, which includes companies like SurveyMonkey and Polldaddy, which sell subscription services to its survey engine. He likes survey more than the first movers because his product gives the customer “access to its community of four million prescreened responders in more than 30 countries. The business model is akin to selling a printer at low to no cost, and making money by selling the ink.”

He sees a lot of growth in this DIY market, but says it will depend on the quality of the information the DIY approach can produce and on whether or not people are willing to change their buying habits.

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Market Research is Necessary Even for Small Local Businesses

A professor at the Jim Moran Institute at the College of Business at Florida State University implores people in a new article to do market research before embarking on new product.

Your feelings, your gut, or those of friends and family are not a sufficient measure of future demand. He also says passion is not enough, saying market conditions should be your guide.

He writes about a couple who went personally bankrupt after launching their pet business without realizing the saturation of competitors in their market.

He calls market research "due diligence," which will decrease your chances of making a bad decision on a new venture. He does admit there is “a price tag,” on this data, but then argues the value of it.

“Knowing the demand for your product or service allows you to accurately assess the viability of a business and limit your risk of failure.”

To prepare an accurate forecast you need to employ a market research firm and follow one of the following three approaches: Phone surveys of potential customers, a focus group or conducting a survey via mail or email.

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Market Research in the Fields

The Indianexpress.com website writes this week about a group of students from the Punjab College of Technical Education who performed some hands on market research in poorly developed areas as they attempted to understand rural business models. They spent part of the week living and watching the people as they struggled to resolve their business problems.

From this work the students developed ideas to provide commodities at cheaper rates for these residents without compromising margins.

One of the students worked on making Indian mattresses by using scrap from the Ludhiana textile market. The student said they will make 100 per cent profit by adopting this model.

Another group designed a solar bulb, another student, after having spent a night at a vehra, where painters and masons live, decided to launch a product with a shaving cream in a sachet with a cap on it. His sachet with shaving cream would last three shaves.

After spending two nights in a village on the outskirts of the city a group decided to launch a soya milk product after noticing gross health neglect of both kids and adults.

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Market Research in the Fields

The Indianexpress.com website writes this week about a group of students from the Punjab College of Technical Education who performed some hands on market research in poorly developed areas as they attempted to understand rural business models. They spent part of the week living and watching the people as they struggled to resolve their business problems.

From this work the students developed ideas to provide commodities at cheaper rates for these residents without compromising margins.

One of the students worked on making Indian mattresses by using scrap from the Ludhiana textile market. The student said they will make 100 per cent profit by adopting this model.

Another group designed a solar bulb, another student, after having spent a night at a vehra, where painters and masons live, decided to launch a product with a shaving cream in a sachet with a cap on it. His sachet with shaving cream would last three shaves.

After spending two nights in a village on the outskirts of the city a group decided to launch a soya milk product after noticing gross health neglect of both kids and adults.

Market Research as Competitive Intelligence

Market Research goes by many names, one of which is competitive intelligence, or CI. A new book pushes the value of CI saying that it’s about staying ahead of the competition.

The book, New Directions: A Competitive Intelligence Tale, is written by CI industry vets David Kalinowski and Gary Maag, who want to help CI analysts over-come the typical problems they face. The book is written as a case study, that according to the authors “reads like a mystery novel.”

A good primer on how to perform competitive intelligence and identifying the necessary components to help your business. Additionally there is a do’s and don’ts section and a process for showing how to integrate it into your business.

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Plunkett on Market Research

Long time MarketResearch.com partner Jack Plunkett was recently interviewed for a nice spread in the Atlantic. Jack is CEO and publisher of Plunkett Research. The topics ranged from Jack’s thoughts on sustainability, transforming his publishing business to a digital one and our fresh water needs.

Publishing more than 20,000 pages a year Plunkett said he is becoming well known “for explaining potentially difficult technical and financial trends in a manner that readers of most types can understand.” These topics include nanotechnology, globalization, solar power and water conservation. Plunkett said the worldwide financial crisis is the most significant factor impacting sustainability because of lack of investment. “There's a growing focus on backing long-term winners, rather than pursuing sustainability simply as a statement about how green and caring a corporation is, or how eco-sensitive a government agency might be.”

One misconception he tackles is that people assume his costs are down because he can deliver his content electronically instead of printed. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Printing a book is a relatively simple, inexpensive process. Building and maintaining a subscribers-only website, with multiple servers, backups, relational databases, custom user tools, redundant power and Internet lines, along with the engineers and experts to keep it up to date is an immense cost.”

The biggest challenge, not currently on the radar screen is the challenge and shortage in sustainable water. “Someone is going to make an immense fortune by solving or improving on this problem, while making the world a better place,” he said.

You can read the whole article at http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/10/a-conversation-with-jack-plunkett-market-research-publisher/246014/

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Market Research Pioneer Nielsen, Dies

Market research pioneer Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., died this week, leaving a legacy that made his name synonymous with television ratings.

The 92 year old rose to run the company started by his father 88 years ago to revenue of more than $680 million. He was introduced to computers during his work in World War II when he constructed a building to house a computer. That building was used to calculate metrics for accurate firing of artillery guns. He recognized the value in this for the Nielsen Company which at that point was measuring sales for food and drug stores and some radio station audience measurements.

The company jumped into numerous markets including tracking subscription data for magazines and oil and gas wells and was a pioneer of scanning technology. However, the Nielsen name is best known in the media measurement world with a near monopoly in the television ratings arena.

A company retirement policy forced him out in 1983. The next year he helped structure the sale of Nielsen to Dun & Bradstreet for $1.3 billion in stock. Dutch publisher VNU has since bought it, but retained the well-known Nielsen name.

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Shiny Happy Market Research Buyers

Market research buyers are much happier with their purchases today than they were just a year ago, according to a new study by a market research career website.

Improvements noted include higher levels of honesty by online panel respondents, research buyers are impressed by the increased depth of analytical insights, syndicated research buyers are much more pleased with price, and online survey tools are much improved.

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Research on Marketing Intelligence in South Africa

BizCommunity.com of South Africa writes about a Bureau of Market Research (BMR) and the Department of Business Management at Unisa study that calls marketing intelligence (MI) an “essential tool for strategic planning and decision making.”  The report focuses on marketing intelligence use by South African companies.

The rise in relevance of the research is because of the increasingly competitive business climate requiring, “sound MI in support of sustainable development goals for South African businesses.”

The study measured user satisfaction and what it terms “value” to the business. The research goal of the project is to provide information on the value of marketing intelligence and how it can improve their business within South Africa.

The 300 company study found the largest market intelligence gaps relate to marketing information regarding customers and competitors.  One of the authors said the study confirms the value of marketing intelligence to South African business that show high commitment toward improved investment in MI in the immediate future.

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Social Media and Daily Deals Affecting Purchasing in US Capitol

Right in Marketresearch.com’s backyard. 

A survey by Capitol Communicator/WB&A market research show consumers in the Baltimore and Washington, DC markets use daily deal websites like Living Social and Groupon, as well as user-generated review sites like Yelp to impact their purchasing decisions.

The study was sponsored by branding and marketing communications agency ZilYen, which asked about a broad range of online activities including daily deal websites, following companies on Facebook and Twitter to scanning QR codes with smartphones.

The Summer survey of 836 households found online coupons through daily deal sites were used about 25% of the time (Baltimore 24%, Washington 30%). Washington, DC residents were more adventurous, buying a daily deal coupon from a merchant they had never tried (25%), as opposed to merchants they had previously used (21%).

Facebook and Twitter are also impacting purchasing behavior with a third of residents using either "friend" or "like" companies on Facebook with another 10 percent using the "follow" or "tag" commands for companies on Twitter.

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MarketResearch.com Partner Toluna Excels

Marketresearch.com partner Toluna was named to the annual Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track awards which ranks British technology companies according to their sales growth.

Toluna came in at 27th in this year's league table with sales growth of 80.79%

Toluna's growth came through organic growth and the acquisition of local and global companies including Ciao Surveys and Greenfield Online.

Frederic-Charles Petit, Founder and CEO, Toluna said: "The success of Toluna lies in its obsession to continually be at the forefront of innovation and pioneering technology. With highly targeted new product developments to meet evolving needs in market research, we have always stayed true to our core; our online community, toluna.com. Today over 1million opinions are posted by members on the site everyday. We are thrilled to be in such good company on the Tech Track 100, it really solidifies the hard work and effort our members of staff have put in to our products, services and solutions across the globe."

MarketResearch.com and it's Publishing brands Packaged Facts and Simba Information use the Toluna data to bolster its reports in the Food and Beverage, book publishing, foodservice and pet topic areas. Because of the unique data the information gives Packaged Facts and Simba Information a perspective that is sui generis.

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Making Market Research Fun

With the stated goal of making market research more fun, a new technology company attempts to help companies solve a market research problem through the gamification "gamification" of the market research process.

Crowdtap  terms itself a network for “Brand Influencer Communities.”  Using technology they allow marketers to “collaborate with and mobilize their targeted brand crowd of influential consumers for real-time research, collaboration or powerful word-of-mouth marketing.” 

Their database of of 150,000 people contribute to polls and online discussions.  They are adding about 5,000 per week to the panel.

To encourage participations the panel receives gift cards, products, or support for favored charities. The more you participate the more opportunities you have to win these prizes.

As the panel shows an interest in a certain product or brand, they are then targeted for their insights on these brands and products.

The two year old New York company  has raised $10,000,000 with which they plan to expand the engineering and sales teams and enhance its gamification features. With the goal of making market research participation into a fun experience, Crowdtap expects to increase its brand influence.

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Ethnography in Market Research

An article in the Globe and Mail nails down the power of Ethnography as a popular topic in market research.  Ethnography is the recording and study of human culture.  However, in the research world it is used, often incorrectly, to describe all kinds of qualitative research.

The column quotes a Marshall Professor who claims it is much more than traditional research, saying ethnography must be more observational, comparative and must use a “cultural frame to provide a deep ‘insider’s point of view.’”

The article follows a case study of a distiller with an ethnographic study of male millennials in the suburbs, their target market.  Previous research attempts had failed to find anything meaningful about the market.  After discussing the limits of previous research the column explains that by focusing on the human behaviour of the target audience and “not on product attributes,” they found “insights on social interactions, norms, (and) habits” that a survey or focus groups would never have revealed.

This approach uncovered a “place” for the product in the lives of those young males.

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Market Research in Emerging Markets

The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka used part of its paper this week to praise the value of Market research, noting it “exists to minimize the risk and uncertainty in the market.”

The article followed a Sri Lankan media roundtable where they discussed the difficulty in predicting human behavior. The article quotes Hilmy Cader of MTI Market Research quoting astronomer James T Adams: “Any astronomer can predict with absolute accuracy just where every star in the universe will be tonight. (But) He can make no such prediction about his teenage daughter”.

A key role for market research in emerging markets, Cader said, is in assessing greater choice in “brands, products, media, channels and financing,” calling them challenges on new ‘social operating’ platforms. It could also help measure the changing perceptions on “ethics, governance, conflict, environment, individualism, social integration and lifestyle.”

Cader said emerging best practices are moving away from large questionnaires to a “single-minded hard question, a one page essence as deliverable."

To make his point Cader used Indian newspaper ‘Dainik Bhaskar as an example, their explosive growth came from a deep understanding of the readership habits, what their readership lacked and what their readers sought. “The readers were made part of the product development team.”

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Five Guys Burgers OR Chik-fil-A

Market research firm Market Force found that Five Guys Burgers and Fries was again America’s favorite quick-service restaurant. The annual consumer ranking comes from a survey of more than 4500 consumers across the country. Second place went to west coast brand In-N-Out Burger, Chik-fil-A was number three.

However, the winners weren’t determined strictly by the number of votes they received. To balance out the larger chains, Market Force took the total number of votes and averaged them according to the number of stores.

Other questions on the survey included features and other attributes that are most important to them as consumers.

Out of 55 potential chains, Chik-fil-A racked up the most votes with more than 10%, Panera Bread came in second with Five Guys in third.

These totals were divided and averaged according to store location numbers giving Five Guys the victory with 7% of the total votes even though that had less than half of the locations of Chik-fil-a or Panera Bread.

The lowest marks for most chains occurred in the friendly service category, McDonald’s ranked bottom for food quality and high marks for speed. Taco Bell won in the Overall Value category, but fared poorly in many areas, the survey said.

In other categories Panera Bread took the best Atmosphere category, Chik-fil-a topped the Accommodating Children, Subway won with healthy choices and Chipotle Mexican Grill is seen as the “most sustainable QSR chain.”

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Trends and Topics Post 9-11

A interesting piece in Foreign Policy by David Rothkopf on the 10 events since September 11th that have been, in his estimation, more important, or had a greater impact on the world than the attacks on America.

Rothkopf doesn’t discount the importance of the day or the lives that were lost, but list the things that rose up while the US was hunting for Bin Laden and spending billions on wars.

In reverse order, 10) The American response to 9-11, 9) the Arab Spring 8) Rebalancing of Asia 7) Stagnation of US and other Developed-World economies 6) Invention of Social Media, 5) Proliferation of cell phones and handheld devices 4) The Crash of 2008 3) The Eurozone crisis of 2011-2012, 2) Failure to address Global warming and 1) The rise of China and other BRICs.

Rothkopf said global warming would have been number one except that we haven’t felt its full effects yet. He notes that the next 100 years will be heavily influenced by “new” powers led by China, India and Brazil.

His point about global warming is that if the temperature rise continues the resulting events will make 9-11 look like “a comparative footnote to an event that could remake the nature of life on Earth and lead to a toll many, many times greater than either 9/11 or the wars it triggered.”

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The August Heat

Not the August we wanted.

With the end of Summer well within our sights this was a Summer to remember, but not for the usual reasons. The hottest places in August turned out to be Wall Street, not Ocean City.

As Summer holidays began in early August, financials started heating up. The US Congress and President Obama barely beat out the default clock on August 2nd by raising the debt ceiling, which was met the following week with a downgrade by Standard & Poors on August 5th sending the markets into a volatile few weeks.

At first markets plummeted with the Dow’s biggest one day decline in 3 years. Next came the UK riots and the FTSE fell below 5000 for the first time in a year.

The heads of France and Germany met to try and fix the debt crisis, but turmoil followed as they were unable to come to a resolution. Unemployment continued to climb, all the while the Arab Spring brought chaos from Tripoli to Damascus.

And to close out the month Steve Jobs resigns from the second most valuable company in the world and a hurricane pounds the Eastern US causing at least $10 billion in damage.

Hello September.

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Steve Jobs: Market Research-Phobe

The obituaries for Steve Jobs are nauseatingly premature; although I am sure he must be very very ill to give up the reigns of the company that is his legacy. And he is an odd person for a market research blog to write about because he is famously against doing market research and focus groups.

Jobs always felt the customer didn’t know what they wanted until he told them. I’m fairly confident this is not a best practice, except for Jobs and other mutants who have the ability to see the future. In many ways that is what market research does, it gives you insight into the future, an insight he was born and blessed with.

And if you’d like some insight into his psyche, you must watch his 2005 Stanford University Commencement speech. It won’t help you see the future, but it might make you understand his past

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Market Research Can Be Fun

The Guardian newspaper analyzed the “extensive market research” just completed on the oh so discerning tastes of young men for as the Brits call it, a “weekly lads' mag” called Nuts.

According to the piece by the Guardian’s media unit, Nuts is “sticking to its tried and trusted formula of girls, humour, cars and sport.”

The magazine is re-launching August 24 after shelving the idea of covering serious news and career tips. Editor Dominic Smith promised what young men seem to want which is escapism and allowing them to "get away from their woes for an hour".

Clearly avoiding the serious stuff Nuts’ content will include a column by Danni Orsi, a star of the show Candy Bar Girls.

Real money is following the in-depth research with a £500,000 marketing campaign created by ad agency Leagas Delaney.

Editor Smith called the market research the most “forensic look at the fundamental content and targeting of the magazine” since its launch.

The research, while in-depth, is not a one-time deal, the magazine works with research groups every two years in an attempt to stay in touch with its changing audience. The most recent survey took six months and spoke with more than 1000 16-20 year olds.

"We found that men have so much more pressure on them these days and it is more important than ever for Nuts to be their escape, to be funny and allow them to get away from their woes for an hour," he said. "We have turned up the heat on that."

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Algorithms Just Want to Rule the Wold

We don’t realize the extent to which Algorithms run our lives until you’ve been tossed around by one. An article by a BBC technology reporter entitled, “When Algorithms Rule the World” sheds some light on this.

Our experience in the publishing world has been the ups and downs of the search engine algorithms; however, they go well beyond this, from Friend finding to recommended items at our favorite shopping sites, algorithms control much of what we see. This is particularly acute on two main thoroughfares, Madison Avenue and Wall Street.

Jane Wakefield, the BBC technology reporter who wrote the story talks of the threats to these computer calculations make including an algorithmic glitch on Amazon that caused the book "The Making of a Fly" -- about the molecular biology of a fly –to be priced at $23.6 million.

The influences are far reaching. Some are benign for the average individual, for example, the Netflix algorithm is responsible for 60% of movie rentals, a group called Epagogix uses it’s algorithm on the other end of the spectrum as it predicts what movies will be a hit.

Google is the king of all algorithms as its code powers what we see and find when we search. And while the impact is big for consumers and marketers, a broader concern comes from the financial markets where computer code runs up to 70% of Wall Street trading on its algo-trading.

“The algorithms of Wall Street may be the cyber-equivalent of the 80s yuppie, but unlike their human counterparts, they don't demand red braces, cigars and champagne. What they want is fast pipes,” article says.

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The 13 Seasons of Shopping

While the world has four seasons, the retail world has 13-30, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, with market research data heavily informing this conclusion.

January is organization and storage month as well as a health and wellness time. With a focus on people trying to keep tabs on New Year’s resolutions the stores focus on exercise equipment, vitamins, organizing bins.

February is the “Big Game,” time for Super Bowl parties, focus on grills, BBQ-friendly foods, chips, etc.

April is Lawn and Garden time, patios, tools, fertilizer.

May/June is Summer time including allergies, tissues, ice-cream—Meijers store actually store Kleenex boxes with ice cream pictures on the box in the ice cream section of the store.

July /August starts the Back to School discussion

October is Women’s health month and lots of pink clothing, cosmetics and women medicines

October is Halloween and Fall with a focus on rakes, sweaters, comfort food, as well as cold and flu season, orange juice, cough drops, etc, and of course preparation for Black Friday.

November/December is Holiday baking season, with Kimberly Clark using cake slice-shaped boxes for the holidays

December is the holidays, the big Kahuna

The goal of these Holidays is to improve “impulse purchases”, which market research shows dropped by half since 2008.

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Other ways in which market research informs these holidays, Target stores did their own research in determining college kids want to personalize their rooms, leading to a change in their back to school marketing.

YPO Global Pulse, a little Weaker

The YPO (Young Presidents Organization) quarterly Global Pulse survey of CEO confidence dipped slightly after the second quarter (and that was before the last week of economic news).

"Debt concerns in the EU periphery and the United States, rising interest rates in China, production slowdowns in Japan and higher oil prices caused by unrest in the Middle East all took their toll on CEO sentiment in the second quarter," according to YPO.

However, despite this decline confidence in the face of sovereign debt concerns and higher oil prices, CEO confidence in the European Union and the United States are not far from their highest levels on record. EU confidence dropped to 57.4 from its high of 59.8, and U.S. confidence dropped to 61.1, just 2.4 points off its high from the January 2011 survey.

Asia remains the world’s most optimistic region, however, the differential among Asia and the rest of the world narrowed.

The YPO Global Pulse represents insights into the global economy from YPO’s network of 18,000 CEOs in more than 100 countries representing more than 15 million employees and US $5.4 trillion in annual sales.

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"Take Emotion out of the Equation"

This is a quote from a commentator on CNBC after a 500 point drop of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It would be great if we could take emotion out of the equation, but most business decisions will be driven by the emotion and not the market research numbers. While markets and emotions lurch and lean, a good market research report dispassionately analyze the numbers.

Ninety Nine percent of the S&P 500 declined just before the CNBC commentator’s pronouncement. Is it possible that every company out there is over-priced? Of course not.

It’s all about the emotion. While the market was plunging the Mid-Year National Small Business Association report found that 88% of small-business owners anticipate a flat or recessionary economy in the coming year, leading to a growing lack of confidence.
Small business owners pointed to the growing U.S. debt as the number one challenge facing their business.

Positive developments from the survey show that small businesses had “modest gains” in employment resulting in the lowest net decrease in employment since 2008. Hiring projections were also up.

When companies look at what they can control -- their business -- they're bullish, when they look at the world around them and the things they can't control, emotion sets in.

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Market Research: The Irrational Crystal Ball

Market Research is all about trying to predict the future. But predicting the future is getting tougher, some suggest, as we get more irrational.

Many look to the past as a guide for the future, but as Henry Kaufman put in the Wall Street Journal, quoting Mark Twain, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

The stock market was tumbling in anticipation of a US debt default, once the deal was announced the market opened 150 points up (as predicted) and ended 10 points down (as no one predicted). The day the Senate sealed the deal the market dropped 265 points on worries the world economy just isn't that healthy.

Everyone in the business of business wants certainty, the unattainable edge, and it's becoming more unattainable as we realize how irrational consumer behavior actually is. Dan Arielly and others have made a career out of it, proving irrational behavior is just human nature.

Economists and politicians, Kaufman explains, are "heavily influenced by behavioral biases," adding that there is a bias against negative predictions. "No president, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Secretary of the Treasury, or chairman of the Federal Reserve has ever forecast a recession," he writes.

Do we want certainty? Honesty? Predictability? History?

The market research field continues to improve helping businesses find a safe, if bold course. Taking into account the irrationality of behavior, however, is becoming an important ingredient in this mix.

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Market Research: A Broader View

Every day across the world there is someone in a news organization--a newspaper, magazine, blog, online report or otherwise--who has the un-enviable task of trying to explain what happened to the world markets on that particular day. And of course to generalize is a near impossibility, yet they try and try to explain what is happening in the market, and therefore the broader economy, based on who reported earnings that day or a breaking news story from another land.

Anyone can do it. Go ahead, you try.

Another way is to take one step back and look at a daily paper (or blog, newsfeed, etc) and mash up the headlines to see if you can tell where things are headed.

Here is a sampling from the Wall Street Journal, what do you make of things?

Nomura announces improved earnings
Verizon is paying a record dividend
Starbucks Enjoys Jolt in Store Traffic
Luring Talent with Perks, Some Companies Return to Offering Pay Raises
Directors See Uptick in Compensation
Exxon Profit Surges

It is impossible to see the broader market view. You look at these headlines from one day and you assume the world economy is booming: Japan’s largest securities company is doing great, you assume things are so great that people are splurging on expensive coffee drinks or that companies have to lure talent with perks, instead of high unemployment.

You can’t see the curve of a trend without some distance. That is the perspective you get from Market Research reports.

Is Your Market Research Dry?

If your market research is dry, it’s not the research, it’s your market.

The CEO of Terlato Wines International and some of his top employees meet weekly for an elaborate lunch and to drink wine. Not his wine, but that of his competitors.

Ad Age recently wrote about Terlato and his unique brand of market research.
According to the article Terlato said: "We just want to know where we stand...And I venture a guess that a lot of wine companies and maybe even winemakers, they make their wine and they know their wine. But they don't spend a lot of time drinking other people's wine. And I think if there is one hallmark that we do, it's that we taste everything we can get our hands on."

With more than 50 brands that’s a lot of competitive wine to drink.

Terlato talks about meeting the changing needs of the customers and he sees that in the wine his competitors produce.

The other insight he talks about is that while his competitors focused on retail, Terlato focused on restaurants. Terlato said they always “felt like people discovered wine in restaurants.” And after going restaurant to restaurant he broadened his business beyond just Italian restaurants, the traditional category for their wines.

And finally market research drove them beyond their core demographic. Their brand grew up with baby boomers, but another brand of theirs focuses on millennials. The college kids used to drink beer, now they drink wine, Terlato said.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

Our Country or Our Company

Small businesses, those with 500 employees or less, are more optimistic about the future of their own company than they are about the future of the US economy.  According to the US Chamber of Commerce survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, 39% of business owners see their company's brightest days ahead, with only 29% saying America's best days are coming.

The “economic uncertainty” and difficulty in obtaining credit are the main drivers for their pessimism.  This gloomy outlook, the respondents said, will lead to modest hiring if not job outright job cuts.

The poll was taken with Congress and the White House still struggling with the budget deficit and debt ceiling.

Small companies often feel powerless to the larger governmental and economic machinery.  Their viewpoint, expressed in this survey, suggest they are still optimistic about their own business model, but they need to navigate whatever the economic and governmental gods throw in their path.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

The Optimism Index

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal, through academics and economists, called this the worst economic recovery in history.  Now we know why, because today's Journal announces that "For Small Businesses, Recession Isn't Over."

Based on low hiring since the recession ended, no plans to make hires in the short term and a low index of Small Business Optimism, the article concludes that for small businesses it still feels like a recession.  Optimism and confidence are the drivers of the economy and as we've said before, MarketResearch.com is in the optimism business as we do our best to see the future for businesses.

The article adds that while higher revenue is projected, a full 78% say that the US is still in recession and the optimism index dropped for the third straight month.

A number of other factors are mentioned for the lack of optimism including tight credit, the inability to access overseas markets (because of company size) and higher commodity costs. 

These broad overviews of multiple markets matter less than what you see in your markets or the markets you want to access.

The article shows areas of growth and areas of decline.  As we've addressed before the economy is not a monolith.  Don't despair, markets go up and markets go down, market research will show you how to find the right side of the economic curve.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

Market Research: Key to Survival in Growing Markets

Market research is not limited to large companies in mature markets.  For companies expanding into new markets or for start-ups in emerging markets, market research can give you the quick knowledge on where that market will go, or even what it's doing today.

The Vietnam News reported this morning, in an article titled "Market Research Key to Survival" that market research was the only way to survive "growing fierce competition," in the pharmaceutical sector.

Chairwoman of the Hau Giang Pharmaceutical Company said "in-depth market research" was required to help them develop new products in a country where businesses only spend 5 per cent of their capital on market research.

The article goes on to discuss other industries where market research is used including apartment sales,

Re-designing product packaging and enhancing new product advertisements. The market research was used not only to decide where to grow, but also to, "avoid losses."

Quoting the President of Global Integration Business Consultants, the article noted that market research isn't the end-game and that while their market research may be good, the "distribution and promotion" may be off target.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

The Recovery of Confidence

The lack of an economic recovery has been a topic of discussion at MarketResearch.com since the end of March.  This is the second year in a row we saw the following trend:  Confidence in Q4 of the previous year, strong sales in Q1 and a pull back in Q2 and Q3.  This occurred in Q4 of 2009 as the recession ended, only to dissipate in Q2 and Q3 of last year.  We speak frequently with our 10,000 customers and we can hear it in their voices and see it in their budgets.  It's all about confidence in the future, optimism in what will be, and market research is all about the optimism business.  And with Q2 fading into memory on the heels of weak economic news The Wall Street Journal today lays out a full page discussion "Inside the Disappointing Comeback."

The chart-laden article shows why the confidence of Q4 could not last and the similarities to the 1980 recession, which was followed by another recession two years later.  Throughout the article economists and academics call this the "worst recovery yet."

The article contends that the current recovery is sluggish because underlying economic problems remain including high household debt, low housing prices, and the lack of political will/interest in more stimulus.

So how should a business to business entity handle the economic news which frankly has been less than positive now for three years? 

They should find the bright spots and head for daylight.  Articles like the one today suggest the world economy is a monolith.  Yes, the world is flat and the economies of the world are inter-dependent, but at Marketresearch.com we see everything from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies buying research looking for trends in areas headed in the right direction and riding those to new successes.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

What is Success with Market Research?

A good market research report can cost you thousands of dollars.  And when I say good, I mean a report that helped you make one of your difficult business decisions:  Should we buy company X, should we invest in industry Y, who are the competitors we should fear, who are the customers we should go after?  Market research is helpful when trying to make an affirmative decision--should we enter this market--and it can be equally helpful when it informs on what to avoid.

The following MarketResearch.com success story describes how a client will often purchase market research reports to understand and identify business opportunities for their technologies:

An example of this is a client that purchased a report, World Membranes, as part of its investigation into the commercial potential of applying nanotechnology to water purification and reverse osmosis processes. The application, if successful, would have implications across virtually all business sectors that that require ultra clean water for production processes.

Their research led to the establishment, several months later, of a joint company to commercialize this technology. As stated in the press release at the time, the client said it “has begun a project to produce nanostructured membranes for water purification. The products to come from this project are membrane plating and membranous roll-fed modules that are used in the process of filtration and reverse osmosis.”

Participants in the project, which was estimated at $63.7 million, include the client, another company and an outside investor.

According to a statement issued by the project participants, “Membrane technology is widely used in all areas of industry that must purify water and/or treat sewage. The use of membrane technology in electroenergy, microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, and the food industry reduces costs in obtaining water that is ultraclean, salt-free, and free of dangerous microbes. Membrane technology is used to reduce costs for sewage treatment and to obtain concentrated solutions in the chemical and milk industries. Realization of the project will permit [companies] to replace imported analogs with domestic products that have better consumer qualities.”

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

Is Market Research Purchasing Counter-Cyclical?

Just when you think the rough waters of 2008 and 2009 are behind you, the economic climate gets murky again. 

So what does this mean for Market Research publishers and purchasers?  At the dawn of Marketresearch.com we were told market research buying was counter-cyclical.  A number of experts told us that in good times people buy market research because budgets are flush, and in bad times companies needed market research as a roadmap to the future.

As with most things these are partial truths. 

As a market research publisher and provider we are in the optimism business.  When people are optimistic, they plan for the future, they make investments, they create new products, they buy companies and they buy market research to help them make the right choices.

We're not that different from the world's stock markets, because they too operate on a plane of optimism.  When people feel good about the future they buy stocks. A company's share price is in fact a measure of their future earnings.

So is market research immune to the up and downs of the economy?  Of course not.  When the economy is strong, budgets are full and investment is high, companies buy market research and stock up on information about all the different directions they want to run. 

So what happens when the economic news turns sour?  Budgets get tight, people get scared and everybody pulls back.  In some ways the need for market research actually increases.  The need is there, but the budget isn't. 

For Marketresearch.com, the calls keep coming, the questions, the need for details, the requests to buy a page, to use our Profound service where you can buy market research by the slice rather than the whole pie. 

So is market research purchasing counter-cyclical?  Marketresearch.com helps the world's companies and entrepreneurs make their most important business decisions.  These decisions exist in good times and in bad times.  Some times short term constraints rule the day, and sometimes the long term needs of the company conquer the near term budgetary fears.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

Librarian the Indispensible

In a few weeks we will be presenting at the Special Library Association, one of the few place left where we can still meet a good chunk of our users. Whether you call them Librarians or Information Professionals or Researchers or Database Gurus, these are the people who link the insular world of a company and the resources of the outside world -- Sometimes they link the inside of your company, with the inside of your company. 

People come to MarketResearch.com to answer their most pressing business issues.  This begins when someone in a company has a business issue, but they don't know where or whether an answer exists.  So the existential question is, if a company asks a question, but doesn't know where to find the answer, does an answer exist?

These librarians are the answer seekers, the problem solvers and are as critical to us information providers as they are to a companies they serve. 

There has been an ongoing discussion about the role and relevance of these professionals in a digital world and we find it almost comical.  Just because you could read didn't mean you could use a card catalog or find a book in the stacks of a libary.  Similarly, just because you can use a search engine doesn't mean you can find the information you are looking for.

Google has made only one significant change to its search page since its inception, it has increased the size of its search box.  Is this because we've gotten better at targeting our searches?  Just because we can boot up a computer or find directions to the nearest Starbucks, doesn't mean we can quickly get answers to our most important business issues without someone leading the way.

We look forward to our visit with our partners at SLA, we'll be there in force at booth 1220, come see MarketResearch.com, we help your company solve their biggest business decisions.

What is the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and Why is it Helpful?

Today we hear from one of our publishing partners and the focus is on franchises and how market research can protect and inform the frachisee.

The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) was previously recognized as the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) and, due to some revisions made by the Federal Trade Commission in the July of 2007, its name was changed and a legal document was created for the benefit of franchisees.

The Federal Trade Commission supervises franchise transactions and it lies within their jurisdiction to ensure that the franchisor in certain states provides the possible franchisee with certain information beforehand so as to ensure some manner of security to the franchisee. Due to some unethical behavior in the 1960s and 1970s, franchisors used their influential market position to hide certain information and franchisees unknowingly fell prey to these franchisors and went into harmful relations. To ensure that the franchisees knowingly enter into an agreement, the Federal Trade Commission made it mandatory for franchisors to submit a UFOC, later FDD, a document with certain information regarding the operations of the franchise.

The Federal Trade Commission makes it necessary for franchisors all across the country to provide prospective franchisees with the FDD prior to any monetary exchange or signing of agreements. However, in certain states it is also required by law that the franchisor must first be approved and registered by the state before it can be promoted to prospective franchise buyers.


Items present in the FDD
The FDD contains extensive information about the franchisor and the franchise organization as well. The information contained within the document is meant to give the franchisee enough knowledge about the organization so that they may make an informed decision when choosing a franchise.
The Items enclosed within the FDD are:

1. The Franchisor, It’s Predecessors and Affiliates
2. Business Experience
3. Litigation
4. Bankruptcy
5. Initial Franchise Fee
6. Other Fees
7. Initial Investment
8. Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services
9. Franchisee’s Obligations
10. Financing
11. Franchisor’s Obligations
12. Territory
13. Trademarks
14. Patents, Copyrights and Proprietary Information
15. Obligation to Participate in the Actual Operation of the Franchise Business
16. Restrictions on What the Franchisee May Sell
17. Renewal, Termination, Transfer and Dispute Resolution
18. Public Figures
19. Earnings Claims
20. List of Outlets
21. Financial Statements
22. Contracts
23. Receipt

How to use the FDD
The FDD is very similar to a securities prospectus. The information contained within it provides the prospective franchisee with the means to evaluate a company and to make an educated selection of a franchise opportunity based on his/her own investment position. People who can best benefit from the FDD include: Potential franchisees, potential franchisors, franchisors, investors, financial companies, and suppliers to franchisees.  Potential franchisees should use the FDD to conduct their due diligence and to compare different franchise opportunities before investing in a franchise.

Follow this link to obtain more information on the FDD available for various franchises.

Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com

Using Social Media for Market Research

As we noted in our White Paper "Beyond Blogs and Tweets" Market Research reports are a better source of accurate and actionable research for your business because it is so hard to discern whether social media information is opinion or fact.  An article in the Monday, April 25th Wall Street Journal illustrates at least one way to leverage social media for market research.

The article on customer feedback explains how language learning company Rosetta Stone Inc, is using Facebook for what I'll call "real" market research.  

Since Facebook allows access to demographic information, Rosetta Stone used this capability to find a new niche market based on those who were fans of mental challenges, a group outside the core of their customer base.

They created new ads targeting this group and found customers in a new place.

That's not opinion.  That's using data to learn about what your customer is doing or how to expand your market. 

Hey, that's Market Research.

Rob Granader

Is There a Hole in Our Taxonomy?

The report category (or taxonomy) structure is a difficult thing to manage here at MarketResearch.com. On one hand, you want to be forward thinking and innovative.  We would like to have a category page up before a trend or topic becomes ubiquitous. On the other hand, there is no need for a category page without any reports to classify under that category. 

Librarians encounter the same problems that we do.  How many new books do you need on a topic before you set aside a separate shelf?

Other times adding a category is such a ‘no-brainer’ that we wonder why we didn’t have that category before. This week we added a new category for Children and Juvenile Books.

When we re-shuffled our titles to account for this new category, we noticed we had 33 titles that fit the criteria to be included. The new category will include topics like comic books, graphic novels, picture & drawing books along with more traditional children’s educational books. The two major publishers on MarketResearch.com that produce reports in this category are Simba Information and Icon Group International.

We try to keep our finger on the pulse of topics and trends in market research. If you feel we’ve missed something, let us know!

Nathan Reel

Vice President of Marketing

MarketResearch.com

Beyond Blogs and Tweets: Market Research Reports in the Age of Information 2.0

The information industry likes to live by the adage “content is king.”  But how is a consumer of professional content to know when the king is a pretender to the throne?

Anyone looking for business information today is confronted with ever-growing options for analysis, data and opinion – much of it free through websites, blogs, tweets, social networks and other repositories of online content. The availability of this content prompts the question for information professionals and novices: “When can I save budget dollars and turn to free sources of information, and when do I need to spend money for published market research reports?”

A new white paper commissioned by my company MarketResearch.com, Beyond Blogs and Tweets: Market Research Reports in the Age of Information 2.0, helps answer that question.

A market research report is an objective analysis of where a market stands and where it is headed. There is some good information on the open web.  But a market research report compactly and reliably provides a range of insight and data, plus the analysis to make that data actionable.  This is what differentiates market research reports from free sources of business information.

Beyond Blogs and Tweets reviews the pros and cons of free information on the web, and contrasts this content with the merits of a market research report. It analyzes the components that go into a market research report—context, detailed market data, competitor information, trend analysis and forecasts—which contribute to the cost of compiling a research study, but also provide the value proposition on which it’s sold. 

Beyond Blogs and Tweets provides information professionals and first-time buyers with a road map to navigate the often confusing array of business content that is now available, and concludes with a handy checklist on the strengths of published reports vs. the Internet or social media as sources of market research. For further information and to download a free copy of the white paper, click here.

Sincerely,

Robert Granader
Chairman and CEO, MarketResearch.com