Rock. Paper. Scissors.

It's a New Year... Meet Our New Team Members!

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:05:00 +0000

We couldn't be more happy than we are to announce that we have three new members on our Blackstone Group team!

If it wasn't for our loyal client base, we wouldn't have the opportunity to continue to grow and mature into the marketing research firm that really and truly puts the "service" in "full service." We think you will come to agree with us that these three new team members fit right in with passionate take on research.

Without further ado...

Anthony (Tony) D'Andrea
Senior Associate

Tony has over 10 years of research experience in a wide range of methodologies, such as ethnography, surveying and hybrid methodologies.

Over his career, Tony has assisted clients in high-tech, higher education, business services, government, tourism and wellness industries in countries around the world, including Brazil, India, Ireland, Spain and the United States.

Tony's fluency in Portuguese and Spanish has been a valuable asset for conducting international, multicultural and subcultural research.

He has authored a number of notable publications concerning a wide range of issues, including cultural globalization and research methodologies.

Tony has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, a BBA in Business and MBA studies in Marketing and Strategy.

You can reach out to Tony at anthony.dandrea@bgglobal.com or via his LinkedIn account.

Snigdha Sah
Assistant Project Director

Snigdha has extensive experience in conducting and managing survey research for a wide range of clients, including government, not-for-profit and education.

She has provided deep qualitative and quantitative research insight for such notable organizations as the Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) and the University of Chicago Survey Lab.

Snigdha is well-positioned to tackle complex multicultural issues and research facing organizations across the world. (Helps that she is fluent in Hindi and Urdu too!)

Snigdha has a Master's in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Chicago as well as a Master's degree from the University of Delhi.

If you are interested in Snigdha's unique background (psst!! she's also a published author of children's books!), please contact her via her e-mail at snigdha.sah@bgglobal.com or her LinkedIn account.

And last, but not least...

Jay Joshi
Business Development Assistant

If you've been one of our clients for awhile, you might remember Jay from a few years back. He was one of our former interns, and we are certainly happy to have him back in the Blackstone family!

Beyond his work with Blackstone, Jay has notable sales and marketing experience working with Fortune 100 companies, including T-Mobile and Nissan. His client-side experience will surely be an asset in identifying the best fit for your team's needs.

Jay has a BS in Finance with a focus on Marketing from the University of Illinois Chicago.

If you want to reconnect with Jay or get to know him for the first time, please contact him at jay.joshi@bgglobal.com or via his LinkedIn account (seeing a trend??).

Please join us in welcoming these promising new members to our team!

For the love of research...

Mobilizing Your Team for Mobile Research

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:54:00 +0000

(First off, let me apologize. I said our next post will be about multicultural and international mobile marketing, but I decided it would be best to tackle that along with international mobile marketing research. So, with your understanding, here’s our take on mobile research from the perspective of research conducted in the United States.)

More than ever, people rely on the Internet and their mobile phones for information and current events and to maintain relationships with those that they like (and to ‘Facebook Stalk’ those that they aren’t so hot on anymore… you know you do it too).

Don’t take my word for it? Here are some compelling results from the 2010 biennial news consumption survey published by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

44% of the public read news from one or more Internet or mobile digital source yesterday
57% of those in their 30s read the news on one or more digital platforms yesterday
31% of the public access the Internet on their mobile phone
33% of the public use search engines as their news source (up 14% from 2008)

What if I also told you that mobile ownership has increased 24% in the Americas during the past five years while landline ownership has decreased 1%? Would it surprise you to learn that 21% of U.S. households are ‘mobile-only’? Those are the shock-and-awe results of the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) 2009 National Health Interview Survey.

If these figures show anything, it is that Americans are increasingly relying on their mobile devices for various daily tasks and, in many cases, are replacing their landlines entirely with mobile phones. As these trends continue, marketing research simply must adapt their methods and include mobile research as part of their arsenal.

Issues confronting mobile research.

Conducting mobile research is easier said than done. Perhaps that’s why so few research firms are touting their mobile research capabilities. We aren’t going to divulge trade secrets in this post (like effective methodologies and all that jazz), but we will touch upon some of the major issues confronting mobile research, of which there are plenty.

Money, money, money.

Like so many things, the main problem boils down to money. While that isn’t the only problem confronting mobile marketing researchers, it certainly is a pressing issue in the United States. I say the United States because, unlike in many other countries, most U.S.-based mobile service providers charge customers for inbound and outbound calls, texts and, well, pretty much everything else under the sun. (Yes, I just got my bill. And, yes, I am a little on edge.) So, when a potential respondent receives a call or text on their mobile phone to complete a research study, they are being charged for that contact. That is different from landline providers, where inbound calls are typically free to the respondent.

I know that I don’t want to be charged for a call that I never wanted to receive in the first place. ESOMAR is (partially) on my side. According to the ESOMAR Code, respondents must not be negatively affected in any way from participating in research. That said, it is the marketing research firm’s responsibility to figure out compensation for those respondents, which is beyond tricky and could potentially become quite expensive, as I’m sure you can imagine. However, it is unclear if potential respondents that do not participate in the survey/interview have to be compensated for their time considering that, in most cases, they are billed for using those minutes. Needless to say, this is a gray area that is still being worked out. That will make the job of the marketing research firm more difficult in many ways because there isn't one 'right' way to proceed.

Your legal team’s least favorite word: liability.

I just got a shiver of fear just typing it, but there are potential liability issues when dealing with mobile research. Unlike landline-based phone interviews, respondents and potential respondents of mobile research can be out and about when they accept your call. They could be driving, walking across the street or about to be jostled into a mash pit at a raucous concert (okay, they probably wouldn’t pick up during the latter).

The point is that the phone call and subsequent interview could not only disrupt their much-needed concentration during potentially dangerous daily activities, and, in the case of driving, could be against the law. If a respondent is injured because they are on the phone, it is possible that you have a lawsuit on your hands.

However, there is a workaround. ESOMAR encourages researchers and interviewers to begin the call by asking if the potential respondent is “in a situation where it is legal, safe and not inconvenient to take the call.” You might still get a lawsuit-inclined respondent (that's the nicest I could say it), but there are various amounts of risk associate with conducting any type of research.

Uncertainty about the confidentiality of the conversation.

This goes hand in hand with the reasons surrounding liability. Users of mobile phones are often in public or semi-public places when they answer the phone. That means that the subsequent interview that a marketing researcher wants to conduct could be mightily inconvenient or downright inappropriate for the potential respondent.

Good thing that ESOMAR’s suggestion for an opening question covers this issue too.

If you ask whether or not the call is inconvenient for the potential respondent, then you are giving the potential respondent an opportunity to gracefully end the call. If that happens, the interviewer should simply inform the potential respondent of a phone number (preferably toll-free) that they could call back at a more convenient time.

In many ways, this is exactly the same as if you were calling a landline phone, but it just seems more relevant to me when I recall all of those phone calls I never should have answered (like that one time when my purse accidentally ‘answered’ during an AMA lecture… not good).

The bottom line.

No matter the potential operational and legal issues that abound when conducting mobile research, mobile research will certainly be a force to be reckoned with during the next few years.

The mobile advertising world is heating up, so be ready to enter that issue-laden 'kitchen' with your eyes wide open. Don't worry. We'll be there to make sure your mobile research is completed with your discriminating taste in mind.

Our next post will dive into the issues and opportunities surrounding international and multicultural mobile marketing and, likewise, international mobile marketing research. We are gong-ho on multi-country research, so this will definitely be an interesting (and fun) post!

For the love of research…

The Web Is Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:07:00 +0000

We aren’t the first to say it (calling Chris Anderson and, er, Prince… well, he said the ‘Internet’ not ‘Web’ but consider the source).

While Chris Anderson talks about the increase usage of video and peer-to-peer (aka social media), we think something else is afoot.

That ‘something’ is mobile marketing.

AISI, mobile is where it’s @

Confused? Us too.

Even though I am one of the many stuck between Gen X and Gen Y, I don’t have a grasp on the text shorthands* used by today’s mobile mavens. (This coming from someone who religiously uses her phone for texting and tweeting.)
*Not surprisingly, this site includes some rather lewd shorthand options. Be forewarned.

Shorthand aside, the age of mobile marketing has arrived… and the plethora of mobile-focused articles of late is just one indicator of this trend.

As Judy Shapiro wrote in her 2010-08-23 AdAge article, marketers need to prepare themselves for the future, and the future is in mobile and mobile computing.

The difference between mobile and mobile computing? 3G versus 4G.

The similarity? By in large, marketing firms and companies across various consumer-facing industries are not ready to tackle the technology of now and certainly not ready to tackle the technology of the future. That is even truer for business-facing industries.

I’m not here to tell you how to effectively market via mobile devices. That’s not our specialty. What I am here to tell you about is the trends in marketing as a call to action.

Sound the trumpets and drums because this is your call to battle!
(summoning Russell Crowe circa “Gladiator”)

Here’s your warrior’s roadmap.
(Okay, it’s just our technology-focused spin-off of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but we think it’s pretty neat… even if it is skewed toward technology usage in developed nations.)

Don’t believe Ms. Shapiro or think our hierarchy of needs is less than noteworthy? We have some compelling (and factual) reasons for you to read on…

Mr. Mobile Marketing, please meet Ms. Mobile Research (and why you should care)

What do you think is the most prevalent technology across the world?

Television? Internet-enabled computers? Heck, computers without Internet access? Radios?

Nope. It’s mobile phones. (You probably saw that one coming.)

Mobile phones are now nearly ubiquitous in the developed countries and are a dominant force in developing nations. In America, over 90% of us have mobile phones. In Hong Kong, it’s a whopping 150%. Source

Wait a tick… 150%?

Okay, so those percentages are calculated by dividing the number of mobile phones by the population of that country or city, as is the case with Hong Kong.

That means that, on average, everyone in Hong Kong has a mobile phone and about half of the population has more than one mobile phone. (Disclaimer: this may or may not be “fuzzy math.”)

Hong Kong isn’t the only mobile stronghold. Here is a list of countries with mobile ownership exceeding 100%:

Bulgaria;
Estonia;
Germany;
Hungary;
Israel;
Italy;
Jordan;
Lithuania;
Netherlands;
New Zealand;
Portugal;
Romania;
Spain;
Taiwan;
Ukraine; and
United Kingdom.

Moving from URLs to UGC (User-Generated Content)

What does this mean for you? There is a huge opportunity to engage a massive number of people when and where they are spending their dollars, euros, yen, pesos or pounds.

We’re not talking about having people texting in answers. We’re not even talking about garnering support or encouraging donations through texting… no matter the subject:

"Oscars - Text "Dolphin" to 44144 (The Cove)"

We’re talking about interacting with users through their mobile devices…

Location-based advertising and communication;
Brand-relevant mobile apps that actually engage the user for more than two minutes;
Mobile-ready videos that are easy to share; and
Enabling the masses to create user-generated content about your brand that is to upload to mobile phones.

The bottom line: you need to provide relevant content when and where the customer is engaged and most likely to act.

In our next post, we will discuss how multicultural marketing and mobile marketing have not yet found a synergistic relationship… and how important it will be to bridge that (profitable) gap. Stay tuned. Stay engaged!

One final note: please… please… be judicious when using texting shorthand. There’s only so much of that we can take.

For the love of research...

EOM ;)

Dawn of the (Industry Issues and Trends) Era!

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:46:00 +0000

First off, let me put a disclaimer on this post (and all other posts, tweets and status updates):

I am an “AdAge” junkie… and proud of it!

Okay, yes… it’s kind of like a “focus group of one,” to repeat an overused phrase. That said, I encourage you to take a look beyond my publishing poison of choice to see the greater lessons to be learned.

In return, I will try my darnedest to weave in other valuable e-sources. Girl Scout’s honor.

And so begins our posts on industry issues and trends! (FINALLY!)

For the love of research…

Cornerstone: Responding to Pakistan's S.O.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:20:00 +0000

We are the first ones to say it... we're behind in rallying support for Pakistan's 15 million+ people that have been displaced or affected by the massive flooding that, one month later, still has 20 percent of the country under water.

Thanks to some BG do-gooders, the call to action has been heard loud and clear!

The Blackstone Group is pulling together to help flood-ravaged Pakistan through a 100% matching program for employees that graciously give to worthy charities with active "troops" on the ground (and just happen to be Four-Star Charities, according to Charity Navigator).

The three charities we identified are:

AmeriCares: AmeriCares is a long-time supporter in Pakistan. They have delivered more than $57 million of aid since 1990, including medicine, medical supplies, equipment, health care facilities and food.

According to AmerCares' website, "the latest AmeriCares airlift contains more than $500,000 worth of critical medical aid to help survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan."

Save the Children: Save the Children has the ambitious goal of providing aid to 2 million children and adults in Pakistan within the next six months. To date, their teams already on the ground have:

helped feed about 85,000 families in cities across Pakistan, including Swat, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Muzaffargarh, Sukkur, Jacobabad and Shikarpur;
provided water purification tablets to families so that they can purify drinking water; and
provided 11,800 people in Swat and 9,600 people in Dera Ismail Khan with tents, shelter kits and other essential materials.

UNICEF: UNICEF is already on the ground and has already:

provided hygiene kits, water tankers and high-energy biscuits;
repaired 73 tube wells benefiting 800,000 people; and
established 24 medical camps treating an estimated 1 million people.
(Source: http://www.unicef.org/media/media_55406.html)

These worthy not-for-profit organizations are doing the heavy lifting of bringing hope and health to a nation torn down by unyielding waters that used to serve as the country's lifeblood. The Blackstone Group is doing what it can to make sure that their admirable strides for change are supported.

We'll let you know how this initiative goes, so stay tuned!

For the love of research...

(Digital) High Five to Our New Research Superstar!

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:44:00 +0000

The Blackstone Group is pleased (okay, downright thrilled!) to announce that yet another research expert has joined our team.

Drum roll please......

Roger A. Straus, PhD
Vice President/Account Manager

Here's a little bit about Dr. Straus' experience:

Dr. Straus has over 20 years experience as a marketing researcher, consultant and strategist during which he has designed, conducted, managed, analyzed and reported qualitative and quantitative programs in the United States and globally.

Equally comfortable with qualitative and quantitative research, he has conducted hundreds of quantitative studies using advanced analytics and moderated over 1,000 focus groups and in-depth interviews.

He has published articles on marketing research and social science, an eBook on focus groups, two textbooks on sociological practice and books for clinicians and the general public, one of which has been a best seller.

Dr. Straus co-founded the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology and has been instrumental in bringing sociological insights and methods to marketing research. He has also taught at universities, such as: the University of California, Alfred University and Marylhurst University.

Dr. Straus has a PhD and MA in sociology from the University of California, Davis.

Please contact Dr. Straus at roger.straus@bgglobal.com.

For the love of research...

Cornerstone: A Is for Auction, B Is for Book

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:43:00 +0000

You can tell a lot about a person by what they read.

That's what our Exec VP Kathi Rose was thinking when she proposed holding BG's first annual book sale.

This is a great example of how to engage your coworkers in your new (or old... I mean, er, seasoned) CSR program. Here's how we attacked it:

Ask your coworkers to bring in used books that they:

have read
were going to toss (into a recycling can, of course!) but just never got around to it and/or
can no longer fit on their burgeoning bookshelves

Take a pointer from the ballparks!

There's something to be said for having a captive audience... hence bathroom advertising!
Yeah, we know, a lot of times we really hate that advertising, but when it is for a good cause then you can't help feel good about reading it (summoning those heart-wrenching, donate-to-this-or-that commercials on TV... who can get mad at puppies... I mean, really...)

Arrange the books in the breakroom (or some other social place)

The more books that they see, the more likely they are to bring in some of their own

Don't forget the name cards

Arguably the best part of this event is looking at what people brought, so arrange the books in piles by former owner
Curious people will spend more time looking over the available titles
Be careful what you ask for... I am certainly rethinking a few of my donated texts that received some, er, company "acclaim"...

A dollar for a dollar

Double the collection by selling the used books for a dollar and have the company to match the total sale
Your coworkers will think they got a great deal on some paper treasures and you'll help build your internal brand

Give the leftover books to a good cause

Rather than recycling the books that didn't sell, give them to a worthy non-profit
We chose The Reading Tree because:

Their main focus is on literacy issues in America and worldwide
The books go to school libraries in low-income communities, after school programs or, if they can't be used, are properly recycled
They have convenient receptacles all over town because those books can get really heavy, really fast (we can't all have superhuman strength!)

Insider's secret: I picked up...

Cover of Night, by Elie Wiesel

I couldn't believe that I had not read this before, so I blazed through this soul-ripping book in a day. (Okay, okay, it's only 100 pages or so, but the content is very heavy.) I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to reading more of Elie Wiesel.

For the love of research...

Cornerstone: To Give Or Not To Give (That's Not Even a Question)

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:37:00 +0000

We love a good not-for-profit, and we love to get together and do some good old fashioned fundraising for worthy causes. Socially focused projects are good for company morale and, let's be honest, a nice external-facing, er, face lift because good citizenship really is good for business.

In our "Cornerstone" blogs, we will be talking about how small to medium-sized business can start their own corporate social responsibility (CSR) program and how ours is going.

CSR programs don't have to be a big production. All it takes is executive sponsorship (HR is usually a great starting place) and a general understanding on what pulls on your fellow employees' heartstrings. For us, it ranges from local animal organizations to international charities helping children in need. For you, it could be inner-city art programs and community gardens. Honestly, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you love doing it.

Seven Steps to CSR Success: (think of it as our little road map)

1) Talk to HR and your boss about starting the program
2) Get a group of three or four like-minded do-gooders together to start a committee
3) Think of one simple way to get your fellow employees involved

Food drives are a great starting point!

4) Make them drink the kool-aid (or at least post the flyer on the ubiquitous water cooler)

It is important to promote your event through e-mails and via flyers in hot spots throughout the office. The more people know about and reminded about the program, the more successful your first event will be!
Oh, and hey, don't forget the company logo. This is a great opportunity to reinforce your brand. We're not talking about selling it. We're talking about making people feel good and do good things... and making that feel good feeling connect with the company's brand image.

5) Make that first event FUN!

People are more likely to stay involved if they have a fun time doing it. You could make it a challenge... like who brings in the most canned goods?

6) Rinse.

Get feedback from your coworkers about the event, and don't forget to ask them how they think it could be better.

7) Repeat.

Try to have at least one event a month. You want to keep the program top of mind.
Here is a good list of potential fund-raising events: http://www.fundraiserinsight.org/ideas/

Have you started a CSR program at your place of work? Share your tips for socially conscious success!

For the love of research...

For All the Marbles: Vote In Our Hand Game Poll

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:42:00 +0000

Vote for what you would throw down in our rock-paper-scissors poll! And, no, glue is definitely not an option. Glue... ha, never!

Insider's secret:
Okay, yeah, we're a little partial to throwing down "rock" here at the Blackstone Group. (I'll give you one guess why!) Whenever it comes down to the next quarterly meeting, it's always a battle to the end as to who gets to plan the next number-crunching party.

For the love of research...

How Our Little (Hand) Game Is Played

noreply@blogger.com (Runs With Scissors) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:29:00 +0000

You might call us nerds or geeks or the occasional obsessive number-lover. We've heard it all before. It's probably because we love what we do. Our friends (aka our clients) get it. We're passionate about marketing research, and we think you might like to know what we have to say about the latest marketing, advertising and research trends.

Soon enough, you'll see. We're "Geek Chic" and, while our humor may fall a bit short at times, we usually have a unique perspective to expand your (research) horizons.

We'd love to hear what you have to say. Here is the playbook for giving us your thoughts:

Rock: Totally solid post! I think it adds value to the e-conversation.
Paper: Worth it's weight, but kinda flimsy at times.
Scissors: If I could, I would cut little digital snowflakes out of this post because that's all it is worth.

For the love of research...
(Oh, and we like parentheses too.)