Online Marketing Research

surveydepartment.com moves to a new server

2012-01-21T09:32:00.001-06:00

We've been moving our services to a new stand-alone survey over the past few days. It's been going well, but I've missed a few emails from people.

The new server will be much faster and enable me to update several services.

There are some forms that are linked to my website that are being recreated using new software. I'll update the most important ones first. It won't be long until everything is better than before.

I wish to thank my clients for their support in 2011. It was my best year ever. This year will be even better.

Do you have marketing research anxiety?

2011-08-10T14:47:00.002-05:00

You may have recently suffered marketing research anxiety. The symptoms include: excessive worrying about whether you know how to pursue a marketing research project, whether you can complete your job assignment on time, and if your supervisors will believe the results. Sometimes marketing research anxiety is a result of realizing that you should conduct marketing research but knowing you don't have the staff or budget to handle it.

So what do you do? Often people suffering this disorder just ignore the problem hoping that it will go away on its own. Of course like with other disorders, if you ignore it, the problem will just emerge again sometime in the future. Surveydepartment.com has a remedy for marketing research anxiety. For treatment just make an appointment. We'll help you relax, and be enthusiastic about your marketing research project.

Of course this disorder isn't recognized by the psychiatric community. I just made it up. However, I think many of you have encountered some anxiety when you know a marketing research project is around the corner. We really can you feel better about conducting marketing research. You might find it to actually be fun.

Online marketing research 2011

2011-01-26T17:02:00.001-06:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Online marketing research 2011

View more presentations from surveydepartment.com.

Have you had your GutCheck lately?

2011-01-26T14:16:00.000-06:00

I plan to us the new GutCheck.com service on my next marketing research project. GutCheck allows you to set up individual chat interviews. Then you can develop a script and conduct the interview. So if your exploring a particular issue during the problem definition phase of research you can conduct a few interviews to discover as many variables as possible. GutCheck can be used if you just want some quick feedback from the marketplace even by non-professional researchers. However, be careful not to jump to conclusions. It is not intended to be used for quantitative data collection. You definitely won't be able to project anything about a universe.

Many of us have known what questions to ask when building a survey but we may not know he most important variables to use as response categories. Often we run surveys with open end questions until we have enough response to know what the response categories should be. Maybe we could use GutCheck to close those response categories before we launch a survey instrument. (Just an idea)

But like I said, I'm going to try to use GutCheck during the problem definition stage of my next project. This is probably the most important phase because it defines the entire project. If issues are not turned upside down it is possible to miss variables of enormous importance.

So go visit http://www.gutcheckit.com. They even have a video tour.

New Campaign for Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel

2010-12-12T14:06:00.000-06:00

During the week of December 13th, a new Internet campaign will be launched promoting the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel. The campaign should almost double the size of the local campaign. Respondents must be residents over the age of 18 to become a panel member. Also, to obtain the incentive for joining the respondent's email campaign must be included in the list of the company performing the email campaign on behalf of surveydepartment.com, L.L.C. Following the campaign, other techniques will be used to demographically balance the panel to match the demographics of Sedgwick County. It will be necessary for surveydepartment.com to constantly promote the panel to replace members due to churn.

Why offer incentives to respondents?

2010-11-06T16:38:00.000-05:00

I can't remember how many times I've heard managers say something like this. "If we give respondents an incentive, aren't we just encouraging them to say favorable things." They could have said what was really on their mind, "Can't we save money by not offering an incentive for response?"

I agree that in many situations it is not appropriate to offer incentives. Especially customer satisfaction surveys. But those should be short or replaced by loyalty surveys with one question. I think my time is valuable. Also, what I know is valuable. I don't have any academic proof on what others think, but I have the sneaking suspicion that time is valuable to everyone. We only have a finite amount of time to live so it must be valuable. I also think it shows respect to the respondent to offer an incentive.

Now all incentives aren't created equal. Many, if not most panel companies, don't pay people very much for their opinions. They may lure respondents in with false promises of extra income but they typically pay pennies for participation in research projects. Point systems used by panels often hide the real value of responding to a survey.

I think that respondents deserve to be treated better. If we don't reward respondents fairly as an industry, very few people may respond to online surveys in the future.

Recently, I've been developing a panel composed of people living in Sedgwick County, Kansas. I know many of the panel members are growing impatient with me because the panel is not large enough yet to market to my clients. Next month, I am going to launch another recruitment campaign. When we do start using the panel for research, respondents will be paid fairly for their time, not in points or pennies, or prizes. They will be paid money in the form of gift cards. They can choose the gift card they want. Also, the minimum incentive will be $5.00. I think their time is worth that much.

Members of the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel will trust surveydepartment.com to give them what they deserve for providing quality survey responses. Hopefully they will be enthusiastic enough to remain members for many years. I hope you will understand when I explain why there is a cost to use the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel. The entire incentive will be paid to the respondent.

Twitter campain launched to recruite local panel members

2010-10-07T18:14:00.000-05:00

The following tweets were made today to create some attention for the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel. We still need to recruit about 400 more members to reach our goal.

Today look for 10 reasons why you should join the #Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 1: Business owners should join because they are customers of other businesses: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 2: Members can earn $25, $35, up to $50 for participating in online focus groups: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 3: Help local businesses by participating in #surveys with projectable results: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 4: Help #Sedgwick County businesses provide better products and services: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 5: Learn about the opinions and attitudes of other people living in #Sedgwick County: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 6: Most of our #surveys pay members $5 when they complete a #survey. No confusing points: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 7: Support our community by helping organizations learn about who they serve: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 8: #Surveys and focus groups using the panel are legitimate research projects: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 9: Members can earn extra money in the form of gift cards that they select: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Reason to join 10: Member’s identity is secure. We don’t share personal information with anyone: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Join the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel so we won’t have to send you anymore annoying tweets: http://www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Watch for a email recruitment campaign in November. When we reach our goal, we may have a party!

Referral Contest Underway for Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel

2010-08-10T12:59:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, we started a new contest to boost recruitment to the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel. Response has been good so far. Each member who refers a non-member gets one entry into the contest. Members can't refer themselves even though many have tried. We have allocated $1,000 in prize money. The first selected will win $350, second selected $250, third selected 200, fourth selected $150, and the fifth person selected will win $50. The drawing will take place on September 30 which is the end of the contest.

Prior to the contest we have had about 340 people sign up. We need to get to about 1,000 before the group can be come very active. Also, about 70% of the group are women. We need a better balance. Hopefully members will refer lots of men. I will be sending out newsletters to remind members about the contest about every 5 days until the deadline.

I was contacted by one person who had some concerns. Since the panel was started so close to the recent primary elections in Sedgwick County, the person associated the panel with politics. Surveydepartment.com does not conduct political polls. We occasionally do surveys about social issues for non-profits. Most of our surveys and focus groups are for companies and organizations about their products, services and communications. And as stated in most of the recruitment materials, the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel is not associated with the government of Sedgwick County. The panel is a way surveydepartment.com can survey panel members online and have a response large enough to be statistically projectable. The name of the panel was selected so that prospective panel members would understand that they must reside within Sedgwick County to be a member.

I wish to thank the person who was so concerned and had some missperceptions because I'm sure there are others who have the same impression. I will try my best to address these issues as we go along. I want feedback from the panel and we move into the future.

You can enter the contest too. First register at https://www.surveydepartment.com/panel
Then ask the people you refer to sign up at https://www.surveydepartment.com/panelcontest

Have a great week!

I wanna iPad for Christmas

2010-05-24T21:31:00.009-05:00

I finally went to Best Buy one afternoon and tried out the iPad. At first I thought this thing would be another Barnes and Noble Nook or something. I also thought it might be a big iPhone with the phone missing. But I have to say that I'm enthused with they new technology. I really want one to play with but just can't justify the expense. First I need to replace My IPhone that was stolen a couple of weeks ago. I hope it did self-destruct. I certainly cancelled the service before anyone could use it to call Tibet or some other far off place.

I love the way the iPad has things that swoop sideways, and rollers for selecting things. And there is an "App" for just about everything. I could see carrying one of these things around everywhere. I could read all my books; and donate the hardcovers to the library. I could read and write email with ease, chat, look at what's going on inside my house through a remote video camera. I can't think of anything that the thing can't do. Well, I guess you can't fry and egg on it or use it to swat a fly.

I think this new technology is really going to take off. Security will always be an issue, and certainly figuring out how to find lost and stolen iPads needs to be high on my list of issues. For marketing research it will be the next step past Internet methodologies. Really it will just be another communications receiver that will empower people even more than they are now. I remember going to a Wichita State University MBA luncheon event back in the mid-80s. A communications professor stated that everyone was excited about the calculation power of computers. Then he predicted that the real power was going to be when they were connected together as a means of communication. Boy did he have it right. And I think the iPad will be another gentle leap in that continuing momentum. I can't wait to use an iPad for survey distribution or even person-to-person interviewing. Way to go Apple. I wish I hadn't sold you stock years ago when things were looking bad. I know I would be a lot happier in this down economy.

Please Santa, I wanna iPad for Christmas. But maybe I'll want the next iPhone ithat has enough memory to support iPhone OS 4 multitasking instead. Now that sounds really cool.

Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel is launched

2010-05-08T17:35:00.006-05:00

The Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel was launched earlier today. This online panel will be used by companies and other organizations for conducting marketing research projects like online surveys and online focus groups.

Even though Sedgwick County will soon reach a population of 500,000, it is often difficult to conduct online surveys with statistical significance in the Wichita area because residents of our area are under-represented in national online marketing research panels. Local businesses will benefit from the regional research panel because soon they will be able to survey people within Sedgwick County to learn about the products and services customers opinions. Businesses will have confidence survey results are statistically significant at the level they desire.

People who register for the Sedgwick County Community Panel will also benefit. They could earn $25, 35 up to $50 for participation in online focus groups. Survey respondents will earn somewhat less for online surveys. Usually incentives will be paid in the form of gift cards. Respondents will be able to select the gift card they want.

It will take a few months for the panel to grow to the size required. We hope that local businesses will encourage their customers to join the panel because membership will benefit both business and their customers.

People can register for the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel at:

www.surveydepartment.com/panel

Information provided by panel members is stored on surveydepartment.com’s secured dedicated computer server. Names and email addresses are never sold or supplied to clients or any other organization. The Sedgwick County Community Opinion panel is not associated with Sedgwick County government.

Surveydepartment.com is a marketing research consultancy that conducts marketing research using online distribution. Online surveys and focus groups have become so common that they are now considered to be traditional marketing research techniques. Surveydepartment.com also specializes in special techniques like online depth interviewing, online extended focus groups, choice based conjoint analysis, MaxDiff analysis, latent class analysis, product development and segmentation research.

For more information about the Sedgwick County Community Opinion Panel call, Fritz Robinson, MBA, PRC at 316-258-6442, or email fritzrobinson@surveydepartment.com.

For more information about surveydepartment.com please visit, www.surveydepartment.com.

Text analysis is the next great MR tool

2009-07-27T10:17:00.006-05:00

I guess I shouldn't say "next" great tool in my headline. It's is already used globally in the marketing research industry. It is also used in many other areas as well. I recently talked with a representative from Eaagle. I was surprised how helpful this software is for the analysis of open-ended responses. It does much more than count repeated words. Eaagle's text mining software graphically provides what the marketing research analyst needs to find meaning from a large number of textual responses. You can find specific statements were groups of key words are found. It's like doing cross-tabs of descriptive words and then showing the results graphically. The program is much to sophisticated to describe in this short post. I know there are other software packages available, but I haven't explored all of the options yet. I'll eventually get around to it.

I can see a great application for text analysis of this type. I'm sure many of you have built your surveys by writing down the questions you want to ask first. Then, using your own logic and intuition writing categorical answers for those questions to use as multiple choice responses. Sometimes marketing researchers find far to many respondents answer, "other" when they complete a question. Even with open-end text explanation, it is upsetting when you missed an important closed-end response. Also, text analysis can help if you don't want to spend all the time and expense to manually code open-ended questions.

Why not create a survey that uses primarily open-ended questions first. After text analysis you can "close up" the responses. You will even find many more issues to explore. Use the results of the open-ended survey to create a second survey that is practically written by the respondent. In that way you find out what is important to the response base and not just thrown on the table by management or clients.

Delivering such surveys online is essential. Telephone surveys depend on interviewers to write what they think they hear. With online surveys you receive exactly what respondents type.

Since online surveys are often less expensive than other methods, you might even be able to conduct the two surveys for the price of one using a different method. Also, using the "two survey" method you will have both qualitative and quantitative data to use when trying to explore complex issues.

I'm considering this technique for a syndicated study in the Kansas market. My concept is not developed enough to discuss here. But when it is, I'll let you know.

SNS Site Sampling

2009-05-25T12:24:00.004-05:00

Peanut Labs and LinkedIn Research
May 22, 2009

Innovations in Social Networking Sites (SNS) are leading to new marketing research opportunities. Peanut Labs is offering Sample 3.0. The system reach ages 13-64 including Gen-x, Gen-y and Boomers. Sample 3.0 uses social networks to reach 37 million members with a profiled audience size of 3.7 million. Within in one 60 day period they reached 853,000 research respondents. Their average response rate is 26%. Over, 81% of social networks are in Sample 3.0.

Surveys that occur within social communities are considered to be “fun” activities. Responses are gathered in hours not days or weeks. Peanut Labs incent respondents in real time with virtual currency “Peanuts” unique to each social network. You can now reach 90% of the entire Internet universe through social network environments. Facebook members use “Muny” to feed their pet or with other Facebook applications as survey incentives.

Peanut Lab’s Optimus proprietary technology uses digital fingerprints to make sure respondents are who they say they are and are not professional survey takers. They eliminate duplicates, speeding, spoofing, and survey bots. Algorithms are used to eliminate suspect survey respondents.

More than 30 of the Honomichl Top 50 research firms are using Peanut Labs to find hard to reach survey demographics. Revenues at Peanut Labs grew 300% in 2008.

It is often difficult to use a panel to reach qualified online survey participants in medium and small size markets. Is it possible that the products offered by Peanut Labs and LinkedIn Research will help this situation? Peanut Labs is focused on consumer sampling while LinkedIn Research targets B2B sampling.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network. It helps researchers conduct B2B research using 28 million professionals. Now we can reach large populations of quality B2B professionals. Besides selecting potential respondents by demographics, they can also be selected by keyword. The network is opt-in only. They cover about 150 industry segments. LinkedIn conducts member authenticity screening, survey programming and incentive delivery.

A study by Anderson Analytics (November, 2008) found that there are four types of LinkedIn users:

Savvy Networkers – likely to be early adopters and be tech savvy. They are more likely to use more SNS services. They have an average of 61 connections. They use LinkedIn for a wide variety of reasons other than job searching.

Senior Executives – Less tech savvy. They have the highest personal income of LinkedIn users. Use to explore corporate networks.

Late Adopters – Had invitations from friends and coworkers when they were not yet members. They are less technically savvy, connect to close friends and colleagues and have the fewest number of connections. (Average 23)

Exploring Options – They are working but maybe looking for other jobs. They are more likely to be using Careerbuilder.com. They are tech savvy.

I’m a “Savvy Networker.” That’s the first time I’ve been called “savvy.” Hopefully I’ll be given the opportunity to use one of these services to conduct an online survey. I’ve been concerned about using SNS sampling in the past. It seems logical to assume that people using social network sites like Facebook and Twitter might be a little more narcissistic than others. Even though you can match the demographics of a population using one of these methods, I wonder if unknown psychographic variables might bias results. Peanut Labs uses a combination of so many different social networks that this bias might be minimal. When you think about it, basic marketing research techniques don’t change that much, but where we find respondents will always depend upon how potential respondents communicate with each other.

Research from Facebook?

2009-02-02T16:44:00.004-06:00

The Buzz is a blog that shares and discusses the best in alternative marketing campaigns like: viral, blog, influential, worm, buzz marketing, and branded content.

A recent article entitled, FACEBOOK’S INSTANT MARKET RESEARCH TOOL they stated that a Facebook team presented a new tool at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland that would allow Facebook to poll users and get instant feedback. The system would allow companies to target people based on their profiles. The question is, will Facebook users stand for it. Much may depend on potential compensation for respondents. Facebook could be the next super panel. I also think a big PR campaign prior to launch of such a campaign would be appropriate. Otherwise Facebook users could boycott. Who knows?

Anywhere on the web where big numbers of users gather seems to be a target of marketing researachers. User groups of product users are often a great way to recruit research participants for both online surveys and focus groups. But make sure that group members have an intense interest in the product and that you ask for permission from the group moderator. It is best that the moderater distributes URLs for surveys and URLs for focus group screeners.

Can you believe it..1 billion Internet users

2009-01-24T20:15:00.002-06:00

There was an article in the Wichita Business Journal on Friday that stated that in December comScore reported that the total global Internet audience surpassed 1 billion users. China has the largest percentage of Internet users at 18%, followed by the United States at 16.2%. Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom follow the US. As you might expect, Goggle was the most popular Internet "property" in December followed by Microsoft sites and Yahoo sites.

It seems most of my friends and family are turning to Facebook, and they are not alone. According to comScore, Facebook has grown by 127% this year. wow!

The impact of the Internet on communication just keeps accelerating. Online marketing research is likely to also expand as the number of Internet users continues to grow.

Many companies cut their advertising budgets during recessions. But often they use the break to redesign their marketing strategies to be ready when the business environment improves. It is also the perfect time to pay attention to product development. Online marketing research techniques can be efficiently used during the product development process with great success.

Good luck in 2009.

You can't have positive results without keeping a positive attitude. (I just made that up)

Those Boring Online Surveys

2009-01-15T16:10:00.000-06:00

When you look at typical online surveys from the respondents’ point of view, I have to admit that most online surveys are not very interesting. It is especially the case if the respondent is not a member of the intended audience and has no interest in the subject matter.

In the November 2009 publication of Quirk’s, Deborah Sleep from Engage Research, discussed some research they conducted about respondent behavior when taking online surveys. They looked at how survey length and question type impact dropout rate and many other issues. Solutions for problems with respondent boredom were discussed in the second part of the article in the December issue. They suggest making online surveys more interactive, like the rest of the internet. Basically, we should look at how our surveys communicate with the respondent. The study showed how using more graphic content makes surveys more interesting. It also suggests questions using more Flash elements. Like dragging photos to positions on scales rather than using check boxes. It seems that to keep people interested more “movement” in online surveys is suggested. The article supported my view that sometimes we use questions that are too “formal” and much more “wordy” than they need to be.

I agree that marketing researchers need to make surveys more interesting to respondents. If people continue to experience boring surveys the industry runs the risk of lower and lower response rates, even when incentives are used.

However, how far should we go? If graphic elements are not applied consistently wouldn’t the validity of responses be in question? How about the cost/benefit of creating more interactive online surveys? Most survey packages used in the marketing research world are not very friendly to flash elements. If they are, employing a programmer to create the flash programming can be expensive. One of the major benefits of the online survey methodology its economical advantage. Then we add a custom built panel to insure data quality and now we add interactivity. Whew, maybe we should go back to mail surveys even with high postal, printing and data input costs.

I suggest that if you go the interactive direction that you have question styles programmed that you can reuse for many clients. I have one survey package that is much more like a layout program than most survey packages so interactive elements can be added. I’m sure the software originator could come up with some templates for more interactive questions. Also there is a firm that provides a system only to marketing research firms that includes a number of interactive question styles.

There are more limitations. What if you’re conducting discrete choice conjoint or max diff? I suppose you could add some simple illustrations. They would have to be similar to each other to avoid having an impact on individual responses. The survey software you use may limit how much cool stuff you can include.

What does this all come down to? Maybe we should think about making our online surveys more attractive, engaging and interesting. Just writing a good questionnaire isn’t enough. We should put more effort into thinking about how surveys actually communicate with respondents. But we shouldn’t forget to think about cost effectiveness. I think if we do a good job sitting in the respondents chair, we can keep their interest until they hit the submit button.

Fast and furious leads to lower quality data

2008-10-07T09:28:00.001-05:00

Today’s nervous companies want information to be available in real-time. If it has to be generated using a primary data gathering technique, speed is an important consideration when choosing marketing research vendor. When we are pressured to provide information under-the-gun, researchers often skip some steps, or rush through them. Now that so much research is done on the internet, it becomes convenient to test research instruments insufficiently.

In the past, when mail surveys were the only game in town, the testing phase was taken very seriously. A substantial number of surveys were sent to members of the sample and responses were studied very carefully. Then research instruments were edited to make sure questions were understood, skip patterns functioned, and information was provided in the correct format. Often surveys that needed a lot of work were retested until perfected. Testing surveys took a lot of time. The objective was to obtain the highest quality of raw information from the respondent as possible to minimize editing and database cleaning prior to tabulation.

When using telephone surveys, vendor supervisors listen to their interviewers during survey testing to discover problems with the survey. Supervisors also ask phone interviewers directly about stumbling blocks and questions that are being misunderstood by respondents.

My suggestion is to add two or three days to the research process when conducting online research. Since response is usually so fast, it doesn’t take that long to adequately test an online survey instrument. I have often suggested that clients have co-workers look over and take online surveys prior to the survey launch. I also personally complete the survey many times to look at survey in several browsers and make sure the output is in a format I can use for analysis. However, I’m now suggesting that online surveys be tested by a small portion of the survey sample, or a group that is very similar to the sample to be used for the study. Look for questions that are not being answered and responses in open ended questions that don’t make sense. I have written a checklist of over 100 items to be considered prior to launching a survey into the field. Items are added to that list as I discover additional problems that can occur. A survey that is well designed and tested will provide a higher quality of data. Higher quality data leads to better decision making. As researchers, we desire users of our research to have confidence that our research is dependable. Adequate survey testing is still an important part of the research process. Just calm down and take things a little bit slower and you’ll be happy with the results.

surveydepartment.com hosts first podcast

2008-07-02T19:18:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, Online Marketing Research Podcast.

Click this link to check it out:
Podcast #1: Start out with observation.

- Fritz

Physical Observation: Describe This Family

2008-06-19T11:31:00.003-05:00

While looking through Zikmunc and Babins textbook "Essentials of Marketing Research," I found an interesting section about observation. It seems people have actually searched trash to conduct marketing research. Apparently Charles Coolidge Parlin counted garbage cans at the turn of the twentieth century. Parlin wanted to demonstrate that the target for Campbell's soup wasn't just for affluent people. Campbell's didn't want to advertise in the Saturday Evening Post because they thought that the Post was read by people who wanted to make soup from scratch. So Parlin designed a sample of garbage routes in Philadelphia. They dumped the garbage on a floor of a National Guard Armory and counted the number of Campbell's soup cans. There were a large number of cans that came from blue-collar areas. So Campbell's advertised in the Saturday Evening Post. What a stinky project? It would have been a lot easier to send them email purchasing journal surveys.

Can you describe the family's that generated the trash shown in the picture above? I bet you can come pretty close if you try? Use the comment section to profile the mystery family. Have fun!

Panels Are Not Easy To Build

2008-06-18T14:54:00.005-05:00

Over the past two weeks I tried to see what would happen if I built my own panel to use for online marketing research. Usually, I purchase services from panel companies whey I'm doing work for clients that require target lists. After figuring out how to create a double-opt in system which would stand up, I placed advertisements using Google. Over two weeks I spent about $350 in click-through charges and generated about 8 panel members. That makes me think that panel companies must spend an enormous amount to solicit panel members when most advertise that they have 100's of thousands of members. I think I'll stick with purchasing opt-in panel members from reputable panel companies.

Respondents Police Online Survey Panels

2008-06-13T14:46:00.004-05:00

Over the past few years so many online survey panels have sprung up that it's impossible to know which to use. Some claim to have 100's of thousands of participants, even millions. It is often the only way to obtain a focused list of survey participants. Many of the large online survey companies have their own panels and spend a great deal of money and care marinating them. It's also interesting that their is a website that panel members use to rate panels. This creates a good list of panels as well. You can look for yourself at www.surveypolice.com.

Social Media and Marketing Research

2008-05-22T14:45:00.003-05:00

Over the last few weeks I've been studying the implications of developments in social media upon marketing research techniques. A couple of weeks ago I attended a local AMA meeting about social media. It was presented by David Kamerer, Phd. from Envision. During the presentation I learned a great deal about social media and applications to public relations and marketing. While searching the Internet, I found a company that offers a great white paper on social media. I would encourage those who are interested in the marketing implications of social media to download this white paper at http://www.vocus.com.

I'm particularly interested in using blogs and social sites to recruit online focus group respondents that have specific interests.

Sign up for our newsletter!

2008-05-22T08:41:00.002-05:00

I've started a newsletter distributed to those people who sign up for it on my website, http://www.surveydepartment.com. Online newsletters are typically shameless promotion, and honestly this one is no different. However, I do provide information and observations that you probably won't find anywhere else. So I encourage you to go to my website and sign up. You have to double opt-in to receive the newsletter, so no SPAM is involved.

Don't Miss the Wichita AMA Marketer of the Year Awards

2008-05-20T11:55:00.001-05:00

Date: Thursday June 5
Time: 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Where: Century II
The Speaker: Jeff Manning on " Building Brand Potency"

Purchase Admission: http://www.wichitaama.com

Don't miss this big event. This year's Marketer of the Year will be announced and Jeff Manning will address the chapter. As Executive Director of the California Milk Processor Board, Jeff led the creation of the GOT MILK advertising campaign. The tag line has become one of the most well know tag lines ever. See you there.

What is a PRC?

2008-05-20T09:20:00.002-05:00

A couple of my clients have asked about the PRC following my name. Several professional organizations have initiated certification programs for their members and the Marketing Research Association is one of them. The purpose is to identify marketing research professionals at various levels. The PRC certification can be at the Practitioner or Expert level. I am at the Expert Owner-Data Collection level. A review of an applicant's resume, a test, and continuing education credits are required for the PRC. I obtained my PRC because of my belief in continuing my marketing research education. Even thought I've been in this field for 20 plus year, the industry is always changing. Also, there are a lot of good ideas out there that I wouldn't hear about working in isolation. If your interested in the PRC, or want to view a list of PRCs, you can visit the MRA's website using the link on this blog. (I'm listed as Fred Robinson, which is my legal name)

The Communications Revolution and Marketing Research

2008-05-02T07:57:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Online Marketing Research Blog.

This blog is sponsored by surveydepartment.com. We offer development and deployment of online surveys and focus groups. I have at least two decades of experience in marketing research and am approaching my third decade. It has always been challenging to keep up with new techniques. This is especially the case when you work as a corporate marketing researcher. Much of my experience has been in the communication and financial industries. Those who have primarily worked in full-service marketing research firms have really had to study to keep up with changes in the industry. The communications revolution has transformed marketing research. Don't get me wrong, traditional techniques still work. It is just that many businesses demand use of techniques that are as advanced as their products.Keeping up also means keeping up with just about all new forms of communication. So I have a couple of blogs, a FaceBook account, a MySpace account, a Linkedin account, a cell phone, PDA, a digital camera and a mp3 player. I've even lost track of online accounts that I've signed up for. I hate text messaging because it's like going backwards. Speech is just so much more personal and seems more efficient. It's tough just to stay ahead of my kids. World of Warcraft just isn't my thing. All of this innovation takes a lot of my time which is becomming more scarce as I age.I'd like to know what you think about the communications revolution? It seems like things have come a long way from when I worked in the cable television industry.