Category Archives: Blog

Spring and cherry blossoms in Japan

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Our Sales Director for Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Baltics just arrived back from his yearly trip to Japan. Inspired by the country and the ambiance he wanted to share a note with us:

As the saying goes, ”All good things come in three.” I recently had the opportunity to enjoy becoming middle-aged (over age 30), closing out the best quarter ever for my team at Cint (including the best month ever and record growth) and on top of that, spent the best part of the year in Japan watching the cherry blossoms arrive during what they call hanami.

Having a Japanese wife and the good fortune of spending time in this amazing country every year, it always strikes me how much spirit and pride they put into everything they do! Regardless of what the task is, ambition always seems to complete it with the best possible quality while at the same time remaining humble. This makes it a great place to visit and enjoy as you can experience world-class food, clothes, gardens etc. at reasonable prices and hardly make a bad choice as there are virtually no poor products available (although there are some rather pricey options like a room at an inn for one person for 1300€/night or a steak for 100€/person).

Seeing hard work going into producing the best possible solution for your customer/partner in what is an extremely competitive environment, makes me proud to work at a company where I truly can say that we strive to do the same. Our mission is to create something relevant; an interesting opportunity for regular, every day people to do market research. We want to build a community where everyone can participate in it and earn some extra money on the side.

To me, this pride in what you do separates great organizations from the average ones. Also, I do believe that it is this drive that allows you to actually make something great, beyond just good enough to meet targets set by a manager.  Customers can feel that sentiment, the same way as I do when interacting with great organizations repeatedly offering me more than I expect from them.

Lauri Löfveblad is watching cherry blossoms in Tokyo

To all colleagues, partners and clients,  I wish you a great spring, even if Stockholm had a snowstorm last weekend, and look forward to working with you as we keep making online market research better and better!

Best regards,
Lauri Löfveblad

 

 PS. If you want to learn more about research in Japan, visit our knowledge center!

 

Notes from CASRO Online 2012

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By: Lindsay Veling, VP of Global Quality

Wow – what an incredible two days at the CASRO Online annual conference in Las Vegas! Sitting in the airport with a two hour delay (don’t worry they have slot machines here to keep me busy), I have a chance to reflect on the last few days. Having attended the last five conferences CASRO has put on, the content, people and energy at this year’s show far exceeded all others! 

The papers presented were of exceptional quality this year.  As more suppliers and clients work together to establish industry-wide guidelines for online research some of the major themes presented:

  • How do we measure data quality? Papers spoke of respondent engagement, validation and ‘satisficers’
    • The industry needs a better way of figuring out who professional respondents are beyond their speeding behaviour – a few papers presented findings that suggested no relationship between how fast/slow respondents go through surveys and the responses they give. Survey Monkey offered a new way to detect professional respondents
    • The use of automatic outlier follow up through online surveys has the potential to improve data quality by reducing respondent error
    • We need to consider respondent consistency rather than talking about individual respondents.  Respondents who are ‘engaged’ will provide more consistent data
    • Name and address validation provides an immediate impact on data quality

 

  • What impacts Respondent Engagement?
    • Cint and Federated looked at the impact that routers have on panelist satisfaction and found respondents who were given the option to route are much more inclined to do so than not and panel owners will benefit from routing by maintaining higher future response rates
    • Common perceptions of what drives panel attrition (survey incidence,  length of interview, long screen out process and incentives) were shown not to have a significant impact compared to the importance of customizing the experience according to a panelist’s lifecycle: the test drive (1st week on a  panel), leasing period (up to 4 months) and the lifelong customer (after four months).

 

Talking to Real Panelists

So the best part of the conference? Well this year, John Bremer from Toluna put together a panel session of real panelists. If you were at the conference, this was THE SESSION not to miss (aside from mine of course). The 1 hour session began with an introduction to the panelists who had been recruited to come partake in this ‘focus group’ type discussion in front of 200+ market researchers.  John did a great job of moderating the group of panelists, (who, I might add were far from shy) and helped moderate the session addressing issues on:  what keeps them engaged – both with a panel and individual surveys as well as what frustrates them about the process and how panel companies can best fulfill their expectations.

So what was the most shocking thing a panelist said?

Was it that some panelists take the same survey a number of times (up to 10) through different panels (clearly if all panels joined OpinionHUB, this wouldn’t be the case)?

Or maybe it was the fact that some screening criteria are so bad that some retired, +70 year olds end up being asked whether they’re a CEO?

What about the fact that the majority of the panelists in this group were only answering surveys for the money (I think 2 out 10 said they actually mentioned they wanted to give their opinion – but they also wanted the money)…one panelist actually mentioned that taking surveys allows him to pay for his second mortgage!  But what forced the audience to drop their jaws to the floor was definitely the moment a researcher asked the question: ‘how many of you belong to the same panel more than once?’ One panelist got so excited because he didn’t know he could do that.

Do I think this session will be run again? Definitely NOT! It was the best part of the whole show but I think the candidness of the panelists shocked us so badly that we would rather turn a blind eye to what real panelists actually think and do, than address some of their very real concerns (poor questionnaire design and length, technical mistakes, validation of panelists and incentive models). Well, at least those of us that were there got to see the show!

It is a little scary to think these 10 panelists were actually ‘screened’ to come into the session. I can’t begin to imagine who the non-responders are!

Other themes presented that remain ‘hot topics’ in the industry:

  • Survey blending and routers offer the most effective and flexible means for combining sample and giving the best results at an aggregate level
  • Toluna offered a new ‘propensity score’ method for ensuring that rather than focusing on which individuals we invite to our surveys, we focus on what really matters, the sample source itself.
  • Ipsos showed that the diversity and size of routers impact results
  • Emerging Techniques in the Industry looked at:
    • How to get the most from the vast amount of ‘big data’ that we all sit on
    •  a call for a questionnaire revolution by creating modular surveys for tracking studies rather than giving respondents long 25 minute surveys will ensure better quality of data and appeasing the new set of ‘informational snacking’ panelists
    • Using new online technologies (virtual collages, laddering and emoticons) helps integrate the use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies; and
    • The examination of the predictive validity of various social media sources and how this impacts our data 

If you’d like more information on the material I presented, please click here.

MIE12 in the Hague

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Last week was the MIE event in the Hague. The first event we got to show off your new brand! The show was great and before we write a summary, we’d like to share a few pictures:

Anita at Cint's MIE boothShowcasing OpinionHUB at MIE12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011: A Year of… Rapid Growth??

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I’m a political junkie. I read all kinds of papers, blogs and opinions on both sides of most issues here in the US. Throughout 2011, there was actually a remarkable level of agreement from both major political parties in the States on one key point: the economy is going to hell in a handbasket (or is already there). The only level of disagreement was over which President was to blame- George W. Bush or Barack Obama. (I won’t ask you what you think!)

High unemployment rates, wild stock market swings, inflation, deflated tax revenue, record-level debts are the themes of major news outlets. There is so much philosophy and theory behind what and who spurs job creation and what actually sparks economic growth. I’m not usually the least educated guy at the bar at any given happy hour, but I can tell you that the more I read these days, the less I truly grasp how to right the global economic environment.

So, as with all things, I try to focus just on what is in my own control in my little world. Fortunately, my little world involves working for Cint, which began 2011 as a newer name (at least for the American market) with a big idea. If Cint USA had its own dedicated news coverage, the headlines this year would be a stark contrast to what I described earlier. They might read something like this:

“Cint adds more talent in 5 North American Markets”

  “Cint triples the global respondent reach in the Cint Panel Exchange”

  “Cint achieves record revenue months”

  “Cint breaks previous record revenue month- again”

Here at Cint, we’ve had so much to celebrate it’s almost become standard. I try to make sure our team members, particularly the recent College grads understand how counter-cultural our success in 2011 has been in context. I also try to find a way to celebrate these successes even if it takes the form of a sushi lunch or Bagel Fridays.

So, what have I learned from our successes this year? Well, the key to our success, I think, stems from having a real commitment to finding a “better” way for our clients to do their jobs through creative technology. It also relates to our level of disarming transparency (even about our own areas of need) and visibility into the process. I also think the fact we have a strong offering for good value doesn’t hurt either.

I would be remiss if I left out an extremely important element. I believe our incredible increase in new clients and revenue in 2011 ties deeply back to client partnership. I tell our team that sometimes we sound like the “dog quacking” because of our innovative approach. But, without clients testing out our abilities and pushing us hard to achieve our goals, we’d never be where we are today.

So, there you have it. Not sure I’ll be invited to DC for the next State of the Union address. But, I am proud to have been part of the team success here at Cint USA in 2011. We grew revenues, managed costs and created jobs all while trying something “new.” Not too shabby.

Time Travelling

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Last weekend, I took an early Saturday morning flight over to the “new world.” My aim was to visit both a market research conference and an advertising technology event to clearly see the differences between the two industries. It’s almost like accomplishing time travel.

Cint is in the borderline between market research and cutting-edge technology. Naturally the MR industry can’t jump on every new thing like in the ad industry. The representativeness and volume of research in niche audiences adapted for new technology is way too low. This causes the focus on topics and products in the different industries being completely different. The MR industry appears to still be in the Stone Age, still wanting to peak at social media, mobile and integration over platforms, etc.

For Cint, we feel very much at home in the advertising space since ad exchanges have been around for a long time and this is the way to reach out to audiences. In the research industry, it is still something new and different. Although, as it’s getting tougher to generate value through traditional online panels, reasons most due to exhausting them by not treating respondents with respect, companies turn to river. Most river sources are the same ad exchanges that we see at the ad technology conferences out there.

The difference for Cint to run an exchange in the MR industry compared to the advertising industry is quite large since we have to follow the rules of engagement; pay out incentives and frequency of invitations are a couple for example. There are a lot more “quality” aspects one has to think about which makes it far more complex. We still generate a lot of value from our panels though due to the level of respect we show them, always pay incentives, etc.

I do think the MR industry has a lot to learn from the advertising industry and vice versa. There are effective ways to integrate systems to expand your reach which we take from the fast moving industry. Although you have to understand your audience not to bias your sample frame in the data you collect where the MR industry is far more advanced.

I think there is a threat we stay too much in our own bubble so I invite our colleagues in the MR industry to wander out to other industries to learn what synergies we can get. Cint is in the business to have as a wide a reach as possible and to reach out to consumers in their natural environment. We do this by utilizing trusted brands to which respondents have a high affinity and give them as a high motivation as possible to respond to reach the other 95% that do not belong to traditional access panels. We can all learn a lot from the ad industry and new technology.

STOP This Madness

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Guest blogger Charles Pearson, Managing Director of EasyInsites, Ltd.

There is a lot of talk about new market research methodology. More specifically, how we all need to get involved in doing things differently, thinking in a new way, monitoring social networks to understand consumers, abandoning our old ways and the big one – stop fielding surveys! However, correct me if I am wrong, but the main requirement of companies today (which is not much different than in the past) is to be able to quantify a result that is accurate and reliable in order to make better business decisions. In most companies, these business decisions are associated with new product development, programming content, pricing, promotions, positioning, advertising, communication and the like. These business decisions and the resulting research requirements have not gone away, so how is it that we are somehow going to walk away from running quantitative surveys which are the most reliable and robust way in which to obtain these answers?

Small panels are good, but not a golden ticket
Further, when it comes to custom panels and research communities (I use these terms interchangeably), some in our industry advocate small panels — with 300 to 500 members – claiming that this is the ideal number to gleam insights. My question is what kind of insights? These same small panels are often being used for quantitative research and because of the various profiles contained within these panels, and the need to select from these depending on the research objectives, the total number of completed interviews on which interpretation and decisions are being based is often in the single digits! There is a natural inclination to use these small research communities for this purpose because these type research communities which involve a substantial amount of active and on-going moderation and management on the part of the supplier and client are very costly so because of this very large investment, clients want to use them for as many purposes as possible. However, this is very dangerous and likely results in a lot of misleading conclusions being drawn.

Engagement is the key
I am not sure why clients are at all concerned about having panels that are too large. There really is no rational reason for concern if you use the Cint Panel Exchange (CPX) platform to build and maintain your panel database and, if desired, open your panel to other researchers.
This serves two key benefits:

1. Keep panelists sufficiently engaged and active so that they are ready and waiting when the panel owner itself has research they would like to conduct with them.
2. Revenue share helps to offset any on-going costs associated with the maintenance of their panel and their own research needs.

Custom panels are built on engagement
Custom panels can still be highly targeted and specialised even if they seek to be large enough to accommodate a broader base of research needs and requirements. For example, one of the more recent panels that we at EasyInsites have built is for Premier Foods (the largest independent food manufacturer in the UK) – the Premier Chefs panel. It is comprised of chefs across the UK – over 1300 of them currently – who are interested in voicing their opinions regarding their needs and preferences across a wide variety of food and food ingredient/preparation categories.

How the Premier Chefs panel is engaged

Premier Chefs members also enjoy being able to see what other chefs think, something that is accomplished through both quick polls as well as feeding back results including how these results are being used by Premier Foods. Members are also able to obtain other value-add features on the website such as access to a recipe database and the opportunity to view and comment on a Chef’s blog, all of which contributes to improved engagement and therefore responsiveness to research invitations and reduced attrition. Although Premier Foods has and continues to use this panel extensively, they are continuing to invest in further recruitment to double or even triple the panel size in the coming months. They have also now decided to make it “visible” on CPX for those who are interested in running research with this specialty audience. Premier has made the investment, and now the vast array of other companies operated in the Food Service sector within the UK market can benefit by procuring sample from this panel.

Market research as an industry has expressed concerns about relevance and contribution. Whilst it is worthwhile to continue to explore new ways in which we can contribute, I for one think that we should not abandon the tried and true and that we need a shot in the arm of pragmatism and realism. Custom panels that are built to a size that makes them fit for purpose can and should become every company’s reality.

Indonesia & Research Evolution

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Some stats…

Indonesia consists of more than 13,000 islands with a population of 230 million people. Approximately 10% of the population has Internet access according to records published in 2007 & 2008. Back then, local market research and field agencies had only begun to look into investing in the online environment.

Using the above figures, Internet access, made up of dial-up, fixed or mobile broadband connections from home, businesses, Internet cafes or smart phones, reaches about 23 million individuals. That’s more than Australia’s population today. In addition, the recently announced affordable and reliable broadband investment plan by the Ministry of Economy will put Indonesia at 30% Internet penetration by 2015.

Moving to 2011, whilst the speed of the Internet is mainly at around 1 Mbps in densely populated areas, its penetration consists of multiple levels of society (i.e. by age, gender, income, education, etc) and now the Internet penetration has reached around 14%. Checking emails is still the dominant online activity and now perhaps spending time on Facebook or other social network websites would make up the bulk of online population activities. Already, Indonesia is arguably at the top of the list when it comes to Twitter’s penetration back in June 2011. Go figure.

So what?

As more people are aware of market research as an industry and realize the importance of it to shape Indonesian lifestyle, politics and economy, more locally owned companies are now turning and investing in market research. From my perspective, we are no longer restricted to servicing customary clients from industries such as FMCG, automotive and so on. Ever since Indonesia’s second president stepped down in 1997, it opened up new categories of clients such as political parties or campaigners, government bodies and media where they often need fast reliable results; an opportunity for online research to fill the void of the older survey method siblings.

Being an optimist, I envision that online-based research will gradually sink in the mind of the local researchers. Face-to-face interviews will probably continue to be the preferred survey method for some time in the future as its traditional values, accessibility and even cost benefits (such as lower rate per interview) remain affordable. I imagine now it’ll be around Rp. 23.000,00 – 30.000,00 (USD 2.6-3.4 on today’s exchange rate) per 10-20 minutes for a face-to-face interview on general population, please don’t solely quote my word for it.

With the above general awareness, I see opportunities where we may further educate the local population about online research even if existing online panel population in Indonesia maybe skewed to a particular gender, age group or even regions. But, to be fair, which single online panel represents true general population?

I believe this is where Cint’s ingenuity via Cint Panel Exchange (CPX) plays the perfect role in providing faster results with more competitive pricing, quality and representative aggregate samples.

Cint Insights in AdAge Global!

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We have some exciting news! The Monogram Group, with insights provided by Thumbspeak & Cint, made it into AdAge Global. Even though we weren’t specifically mentioned in the article, this is a great example of how agencies can use our solutions to gain valuable feedback from everyday consumers. In terms of this particular study which targets US consumers and how they feel about Chinese goods, the responses provided by our panelists will help shape the products from a country on the other side of the planet.

If you’d like to read more, please see the link below:

Why the U.S. Marketplace Is Prime for Chinese Products
http://e.ccialerts.com/a/hBOjhJgAHJQfmB730PGNsfla$y0/clck214

The press release is copied below:

Americans’ Comfort with Chinese Brands
Sharply Increases

Agency’s Third Study Captures Trend Reversal

Chicago, Illinois (August 21, 2011) – The Monogram Group Inc., a Chicago-based market research, branding and advertising agency, today announced surprising results of their third nationwide survey of U.S. consumers’ attitudes towards China and Chinese brands. The study shows perceptions of Chinese goods being high quality increased by 50%, while perceptions of low quality decreased by 30%, giving China Inc. its best quality ratings since the survey began.

Previously conducted in 2007 and 2008, the new study captured inputs from over 5,000 U.S. respondents during the week of May 23-27, 2011, using Thumbspeak’s innovative mobile market research platform.

In addition, China also had its strongest showing in the overall price/value ratio, with an increase of 18% in the perception of Chinese goods being low priced.

“Clearly, the lack of high-profile, damaging news in the last few years regarding Chinese product quality deficiencies has led to these improved perceptions,” said Jackie Short, Monogram’s Director of Market Research. “But also, Americans understand that many of the products at mainstream retailers are made in China and provide perfectly acceptable quality…especially for the price.”

Even more encouraging news is that a broad range of products, from computers to toys to soaps to sporting goods, all showed sharply higher numbers in Americans’ openness to purchase Chinese goods in these categories.

“This is a leading indicator for consideration and eventual trust in Chinese brands across many categories,” said Scott Markman, Monogram’s President. “While Lenovo and Haier have been the forerunners, now is an excellent time for many Chinese manufacturers to consider going up the value chain in the US market under their own label.”

About The Monogram Group

Founded in 1990, Monogram (www.monogramgroup.com) is a market research, branding and advertising agency that specializes in repositioning brands to enable high growth opportunities. With offices in Chicago and Charlotte, their clients include Associated Bank, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fiskars Brands, GE Antares Capital, Life Fitness, Mintel and Swingline Staplers. In addition, the agency has the leading U.S. practice in creating branded entry strategies and programs for Chinese manufacturing companies. Its Chinese clients include Goldwind wind turbines, GreenShip flower pots and Donghua Chain.

About Thumbspeak

Thumbspeak is the leading do-it-yourself (DIY) Mobile Relationship Marketing platform. It is the perfect way for researchers and businesses to connect with people on their smartphones! Mobile connectivity is pervasive and businesses benefit by getting valuable insights and encouraging advocacy. Questions are easily entered through our intuitive, easy-to-use web interface and sent to specific smartphone users. The audience enjoys responding because it lets them shape the products and services they care about and our mobile platform makes it fast and fun. Thumbspeak is the leader in mobile marketing research and is now available for iPhone and Android. For more information, please visit thumbspeak.com <http://thumbspeak.com>.

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For further information, please contact:
Scott Markman – President
T: 312 726 4300
smarkman@monogramgroup.com