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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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
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
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
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."
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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."
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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.
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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.
Monday, August 8, 2011
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
Thursday, August 4, 2011
"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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
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.
Learn about our company and the services and products we offer: http://www.marketresearch.com
Monday, August 1, 2011
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.
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.
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