Let’s Talk Data

Wow! Time flies. Kids are finally out of school and the summer is really in full swing….

And where is my new demographic data you ask?

You would think that a reseller would be “in the know”…but companies that sell this data are notoriously close to the vest with release dates. I will likely know the day before you do when the new features and new data is available. So much for being a valued partner. I do know that new features are on the way — and that’s good news. But release dates? List of features? Anything? Nada.

I’m learning not to trust what big companies say. I have actually grown to love working with smaller companies — they seem to care more about partnerships and actually respect people who try to make money for them. I like nimble companies that make things work instead of talking about them endlessly and finding excuses why they “can’t” as opposed to investigating how they “can”. It’s universal among big companies. They get so bloated they can’t tie their own shoes… and they don’t apologize when they make mistakes or are slow to respond.

But I digress….

I want to share with you my scoop. I’ve been working on a project where our team is collecting primary data — that is, we’re collecting data from users of particular equipment to help our clients get a better grasp on the market they serve. My scoop is this: web-based research isn’t dead, but the model is going through a dramatic change.

I’ve learned a great deal from this project — and in many ways, am more determined to succeed now than I was when we started over six months ago.

Just four years ago, we did a similar project and achieved great success. We were able to collect enough data to feel confident in our results. This time, the gathering of quality data has been challenging and I believe it is due to the following factors:

1. Over surveying of the target population — this indeed, is a big problem for all researchers –regardless of the instrument and the methodology they choose to execute. Internet-based surveys (once a novelty and now the norm (with estimated statistics ranging from 40-60% of all market research surveys being conducted on the web. ) have taken a great hit. Plainly put, any idiot with a copy of Survey Monkey or one of the myriad other online packages can easily craft a thing that looks and feels like a survey, but doesn’t really meet the criteria for being true “market research”. As a result — consumers and businesses are bombarded with requests for participation in market research. I am sad to say that most of what I see, while good intentioned, is not really well-crafted.
2. Mislabeling legitimate messages as SPAM, and SPAM filters is a huge problem for marketers that use the web. The general rule is to reach out only to people that have given you permission to contact them. Unfortunately, when you are trying to understand the size and scope of an entire business segment, there is no way you can estimate factors without getting data from the entire spectrum of users. And, the only way to reach out to a broad segment of the population is to rent lists from media and trade associations that cater to those end users. So, even if you legitimately rent a permission-based list, and have the organization/magazine/site, mail on your behalf, some end users perceive your invitation as spam and subsequently blacklist you. Additionally, with so many word patterns sending off flags in tools such as “SPAM ASSASSIN”, no matter how direct your subject line — you can be dumped into your recipients junk folder and they might never get a chance to even see your message and judge the merit themselves.
3. Misuse of sweepstakes and prizes as incentives for participation. Not too long ago, before everyone was on the survey bandwagon — you could offer a premium such as a branded mug or $20.00 to get 20 minutes of someone’s time for a survey. Now, the competition is fierce. For the past few years a few companies have grown big by building panels of consumers so that companies could have statistically balanced samples. The way they quickly built up their numbers was to solicit respondents using banners that promise free large screen TV’s and PC and ipods. Most consumers had no idea just how many hoops they had to jump through to get the big prize. After several steps, many just dropped out — and left feeling as if the whole thing was a scam. The consequence is that you have to incent people to come to your site, to complete the survey, and to come back if you wish to work with them again. That involves lots of coordination and re$ources — and the right choice of incentives. Choose wrong and your response rate suffers.

There are likely a zillion other reasons that I could come up with if I had to…and as I do a post mortem on this project as we gear up for the next phase….I’ll write about them.

The main lesson learned is that things aren’t working the way they used to just two to four short years ago. We as marketers and researchers have to devise new ways to pay consumers and businesses back for their input. More thoughts on that later….

Wendy

“So what exactly are you working on now?” people say to me when they learn that I am a market researcher.

I explain that we’re pretty tactical (and practical) researchers. We have a lot of fun solving data related problems in ways that give us what our clients need.

My team considers good data to be the “prey” if you will, and the game is all about hunting for it, using all and any means possible.

And, right now? We’re in the middle of our largest game!

Let me explain. I haven’t had much time to blog in recent weeks, as I have been actively involved in a big project for one of our favorite clients — a big technology company. They are fun to work with because despite their size, they are incredibly flexible and imaginative and let us really work without being shackled by some old time practices.

We are collecting primary data for this client — (I hate that term, client — because we’re all like one big team — but some of us are internal and some are external.) Primary data is just what it sounds like — first hand information — collected in this case, with a massive, industry-wide survey effort.

We’ve thought through the process carefully, and have really spent a lot of time setting up the “net” for the data. Better yet, the project that we are working on allows all of the participants (and respondents) to get access to the results — which makes it even more rewarding — and challenging.

Writing surveys to collect specific data is probably the most difficult task market researchers have to do. Ask too much and you lose respondents. Ask too little and you don’t get enough information to make good decisions. Follow the rules too closely when recruiting respondents and you get low response rates. Be too avant-guard and people think you’re trying to scam them. And the questions — oh the questions. Can’t be leading, but can’t be too vague. Must anticipate all the options, yet be sure to leave room for the ‘other’ that someone is sure to think of! Writing surveys — while seemingly simple, is a deceptively difficult task.

We are also of the mindset that information is power — and one of the best things about this project is that we’ve created an online community to serve the people that surround the industry we are researching so that we can share the information. We hope to empower businesses that use the equipment we measure by letting themselves benchmark their practices against others in the community.

Our focus is on specialty printers — (what you say??? ) These are printers designed for particular tasks such as high volume mail addressing, labeling, barcoding, etc. While we’ve spent most of our time over the last several years focusing on inkjet — we’re learning about all the different types of printing technologies out there and it is facinating.

Sometimes, I sit back and laugh. Here we have The Catosphere — access to demographic data in any shape and form we wish — plus mailing lists, too, for just about any consumer target you can dream up. But with our printing community project ThinkPlaza, we need to be more like “guerilla marketers” — because the equipment we are measuring doesn’t follow any particular firmographics (like industry, size of company, etc.) and there are very few lists that contain the right people for our surveys. Kind of like being in the ocean and not being able to drink the water!!! Not that I’m complaining — I’m fortunate to have a team that LOVES challenges like these. Keeps it interesting. Makes me leap out of bed some mornings at 4:00am with an “aha” moment…

Anyway, that’s the scoop.

(My first love is demographics and visualization of patterns on maps. So, soon, we’ll be starting our “Let’s Talk Data” newsletters..and hopefully, we’ll be able to demystify all kinds of things about demographics, geographic information systems, and yes, research.)

Night!