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It’s beautifully ugly.

It’s ugly, because colors can’t be changed, because perspective can’t be rotated, because labeling only works when zoomed-in.  LinkedIn depicts my professional network as one big blob and some other separate connections.

But it’s instructive, for many more reasons…

Evidently, I know a bunch of people all of whom seem know each other (the big blob to the right). Those relationships are a result of working at one place for ten years with people who also had been there a long time. The big blob to the right clearly shows that half of my career relationships are a tangled, interwoven, knot of people.

Separately, I know another bunch of people who don’t seem to know the first bunch. The connections on the left represent all kinds of different professional relationships before, during, and after the blob-forming years.

One set of relationships that stands out are the three people near the bottom left. They know each other and me, but they don’t seem to know anybody else I know. The maps very clearly shows how narrow that part of my career was.

It’s hard to say which is more fascinating:  The fact that so many people I know also seem to know each other?  Or the fact that so few people I know also seem to know each other.

Either way, I’m sitting at an auspicious intersection.  2012 is going to be a year of new connections as Synovate joins Ipsos.  I’m eager to see how my map changes.

Meanwhile, what does your own map look like?

Hurricane Noel: Reed, wood, plastic, data; 32"x32"x36", 2010

Reed, wood, and plastic, sure.  But data?  As an art supply?

Yes.

Artist Nathalie Miebach weaves weather data into 3D sculptures.  And these 3D sculptures are also musical scores.

“Every single bead, every single colored band, represents a weather element that can also be read as a musical note,” she says.

Market Researchers are so behind…

Nathalie Miebach gave a TED talk called Art made of storms. (More TED talks here.)

Her TED  bio says, “Nathalie Miebach is a Boston-based artist who translates weather data into complex sculptures and musical scores.”

Her TED bio does not say that Market Researchers would do well to pay attention to her.  So start by reading her  Artist Statement.  It begins,

“My work focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations. Using the methodologies and processes of both disciplines, I translate scientific data related to astronomy, ecology and meteorology [into] woven sculptures.”

Interpreting her work is a highly contextualized exercise.

“This piece here is read very differently depending on where you place it.

You place it in an art museum, it becomes a sculpture.

You place it in a science museum, it becomes a three-dimensional visualization of data.

You place it in a music hall, it all of a sudden becomes a musical score.

And I really like that, because the viewer is really challenged as to what visual language is part of science versus art versus music.”

Where could a Market Researcher place such a piece?  What would it become there?  And what do you really like about your own work?

The financial industry is more creative than the market research industry. Just look at JP Morgan’s use of Lego.

“The debt crisis in the European Monetary Union as seen by a 9-year old” reinforces four topics for market researchers:

1. Data visualization
2. Child labor
3. Crowdsourcing
4. Form follows function

Data visualization

It’s Lego.  How many market research presentations have you ever done using Lego?  Or anything three-dimensional?  Why not?

How did the financial industry beat us market researchers to this type of visualization?

We are in a new space race—not outer space but rather three-dimensional space. Market researchers must rise to this challenge. How can you use three dimensional objects to present data?

Child labor

He’s 9.  Michael Cembalest is happy to enlist 9-year old Peter Cembalest for help with visualizing a complex relationship. And JP Morgan is happy to disseminate the results.

Children see the world differently. You might have overlooked something that is completely obvious to a child.  You might be stuck in your grownup way of thinking. Children often can explain things more clearly than grownups. Children can simplify complex issues. And they have the best toys.

Lego was inducted into the Toy Hall Of Fame in 1998. But children are imaginative. Almost anything can be a toy. Acknowledging children’s imagination, the Toy Hall Of Fame inducted the cardboard box 2005 and the stick 2008. Grownups see cardboard boxes and sticks. Children see racecars, castles, forts, magic wands, and more. Thinking imaginatively will help you turn “dull” material into Hall Of Fame material.

Crowdsourcing

Others improved it. JP Morgan’s Eye On The Market newsletter usually goes to a limited audience. But this issue got much broader exposure than usual. Many people commented on it and, in so doing, made it better.

For example, the original key was dense and difficult to follow. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon streamlined the key in his commentary.

1. The toreador in a floppy hat, and the F1 driver with his helmet, represent Spain, Italy and the rest of the Euro Periphery.
2. The three men with helmets, shields, and medieval weaponry represent the CDU, CSU and FDP parties in Germany.
3. The blue-and-white sailor boy is Finland. Obvs.
4. The woman with an oversized carrot and her friend in overalls with a shovel represent the Social Democrats and Greens.
5. Wotan represents the Bundesbank.
6. The piggy bank is the IMF.
7. The grey-haired Banque chap is the ECB.
8. The chap in the red bib is Poland.
9. The artists are France.
10. The angry chef, the sweeper with a broom, the airline pilot, and the rest of the motley crew at bottom left, represent EU taxpayers in Core countries.
11. The storm troopers are the EU Commission and Euro Group Finance Ministers, chaired by Jose Manuel Barroso and Jean- Claude Juncker.
12. The monocled banker and his assistant are EU bondholders and shareholders.

First, JP Morgan gave more people access to the newsletter by broadening distribution. Then, people made the newsletter more accessible by offering their own commentaries.  So, instead of carefully protecting good content, broaden your distribution to make it great.

Form follows function

Mr. Cembalest says,

“If today’s diorama analysis borders on the absurd, so does maintaining the fiction that accumulation of massive public and private sector claims in Europe can somehow be engineered away.”

This statement clearly expresses how form follows function.

Conclusion

Use three dimensions, retain a child-like wonder, broaden distribution, and remember form follows function. Market researchers have an excellent opportunity to prove that we are at least as creative as financiers—if not more.

Jane Edwards-Hall:  Jim, you told me that you recruit only the world’s misfits – tell me more about that!

Jim Knight: There’s no silver bullet but we do truly recruit for attitude and not necessarily hospitality skills or experience – we can teach that. We look for people who can be themselves and provide an “unpredictable” guest experience – and we take this philosophy worldwide. We want people with a master’s degree in Personality! We have a rigorous process supporting our recruitment methodology. We interview people who are basically square pegs trying to fit into round holes and who honestly wouldn’t get jobs elsewhere – we want the world’s weird!

JE-H: Tell me about the interview process. How does it work? How do you recruit from the Island of Broken Toys?

JK: We naturally want people who have some music interest, since that is what we live and breathe. We ask people to describe their first concert – and how that felt. We ask them to describe how it felt on their first date and if they could deliver on the “butterfly” feeling if they came to work for us. We often recruit people who are tour guides, work at concert venues or even tattoo parlors so they generally “get” what it is we are trying to find out about them.

JE-H:  When someone joins Hard Rock tell me about on-boarding? How do you start the process of delivering that “unpredictable” guest experience?

JK: We do make sure new group members understand that there are policies around getting the basics right. We do have certain standards and compliance protocol. This is what we refer to as our “technical” or “predictable” delivery of the guest experience – so, they have to get this right first. We have corporate pre-determined results in mind that we have to achieve. The food has to be well presented and the right temperature, the sheets have to be clean and comfortable – these are really basic standards as far as we are concerned. Then we work on the “emotional” and “unpredictable” guest experience and we give our staff “permission slips” to surprise our guests in a way that they would see as appropriate to the situation or the individual. Of course we treat all our new staff members as Rock Stars themselves! We make them feel good about joining and we treat them with absolute respect.

JE-H: Tell me more about the “permission slips”. Does this mean that Hard Rock empowers front-line staff more than other hotel brands?

JK: We are very careful about the word “empowerment” as sometimes that leads to a tendency of “abandonment” on the part of management – and that’s not what we mean at all. What we have done is to create a DNA of “free-spirit” and allow staff to feel OK about sitting down with guests at their dinner table, or putting their arm around them if they believe it to be the right thing to do – it back-fires sometimes, so you also have to give people the “permission” to recover a situation if that’s what they need to do. But honestly, it rarely happens that we have to reign staff back in because they have gone too far – and our guests constantly want to have their photos taken with our front-line staff! How many hotel groups can say that about their staff?

JE-H: Tell me about your guest experience research and, particularly, how do you research for the “unpredictable”?

JK: We do conduct brand health studies and some qualitative research on a semi-ad hoc basis and we do take our GSS and our Mystery Shopping scores very seriously. Our President and CEO Hamish Dodds reads these results himself every time they are published. For me, the very last page of my Mystery Shopping report tells me what happened that was unpredictable and that unique Hard Rock experience and this is my golden nugget for peer-to-peer training.

JE-H: Do you believe that Mystery Shopping can be used to harness the emotional?

JK: Yes, absolutely. It’s not just a compliance check; it’s a total brand health check as well. All these findings together give us that holistic picture that we are looking for.

JE-H: Tell me about your CEO. He has an interesting background and did not “grow up” in the hospitality industry per se. Yet he has been hugely successful in the seven years or so that he has been at the helm.

JK: Yes, he took over after 9/11, the most dire time in the hotel industry in decades. He turned our business around mostly through focusing on our core products and services and also through encouraging our approach of “Service That Rocks”. He is very keen to see our research results and he is also very involved in a number of philanthropic activities for Hard Rock.

JE-H: Finally, how do you operationalize emotional experiences and keep the brand delivery aligned?

JK: We do pay a lot of attention to our seven “M’s” – Menu, merchandise, music, memorabilia, media, monuments and memories.

JE-H: Monuments??!

JK: Like our Rome and Hurghada, Egypt cafes!!

JE-H: Got it!

JK: And finally, this is what we believe: Consistency must be achieved first (the technical side) then experiences must blow away the perceived value (the emotional side).

Service That Rocks! Truly a unique experience and insight. “True that” as Jim says, this is the only zoo in the world where you can go and play with the animals and “true that” to the rock and roll philosophy that gives permission for this “irreverent” culture.

Nevertheless, harnessing the unpredictable and operationalizing it across a global network is an achievement to be respected, no?! What do you think?

You probably haven’t ever heard ‘hot’ and ‘mystery shopping’ in the same sentence. But, the world of mystery shopping is spicing up as more traditional researchers deploy mystery shopping programs in ways you would least expect.

Government agencies, hospitals, healthcare providers, and even schools are using mystery shoppers to ensure their service delivery chains are functioning within required operating procedures. As panels become more specialized, more and more professional and B2B services are employing mystery shopping solutions as well.

This may be surprising. Mystery shopping has been traditionally viewed as the quick and relatively cheap ‘child’ of the Operations team – used just to know if Frank smiled and Jenny acknowledged you within 30 seconds. While these measures are still important, the world of mystery shopping has become more strategic, allowing insightful use of the data and feedback. It’s possible to create finely-tuned sampling designs based on business criteria – meaning that you don’t have to visit all locations with similar frequency and volume (we call it SmartShopping at Synovate and it’s based on our SmartSampling methodology). You also don’t have to treat all locations or customer touch-points in the same way. With algorithms that take into account the varied profiles of different locations, it’s possible to measure each location or touch-point in the correct context. Advanced mystery shopping programs make it possible to go beyond brick and mortar store fronts, retail locations, and restaurants. Packaged goods manufacturers are also getting switched on to the benefits of mystery shopping; for instance, mystery shopping can quickly measure the effectiveness of a new promotion.

How is the insight gleaned from mystery shopping turned into action? How do you overcome inertia? The approach is similar to other market research Customer Experience programs. Understanding the objectives, building an appropriate questionnaire, and creating the right scenario design from the start are critical components to success. Participating in interactive insights workshops, rather than just listening to data presentations, is another key to creating actionable initiatives.

Here are a few brief examples:

1. A wireless provider was able to increase sales scores in their mystery shopping program from 35% to 89% over 5 years, leading to a real improvement in ROI.
2. A drug store saw a dramatic reduction in the number of complaints to their customer care line over 2 years, plus proven performance improvement in their front-line staff behaviors. All of this was aided through a dedicated mystery shopping program in every store on a weekly basis which provided an enterprise-wide full-loop feedback solution that made a difference.
3. An express courier and shipment organization was able to understand the value of lost sales and revenue through poor sales experiences, and dramatically improve performance via a mystery shopping program, leading to a real uptake in revenue and sales in the markets under examination

Do you have a mystery shopping program? Have you ever been involved in mystery shopping? What’s your opinion?

This is not news.

But, as a market researcher facing more downtime, I started analyzing the button.  Grammatically, culturally, typographically.  And there are implications for how we present market research information.

Grammatical analysis

Empowered by / burdened with an undergraduate degree in English & American Literature & Language, I started grammatically.  I deconstructed the text with a close-reading of the word sucks.

Intransitive verb: It sucks to have cancer.  It sucks to be treated for cancer.  It sucks to miss work.  Cancer pretty much sucks in every possible way.

Transitive verb: Cancer sucks health.  Cancer sucks energy.  Cancer sucks time, money, and resources.

This simple two-word sentence can have multiple interpretations.  It’s a completely obvious statement that works on many different levels.

Lesson to market researchers:  A short declarative sentence draws your audience in by inviting them to think.

Cultural analysis

The nurse’s uniform had some other buttons on it, but it wasn’t cluttered.  The “Cancer Sucks” button didn’t have to compete with other buttons for attention.  And it stood out for its simplicity.

It was nothing like the “flair” Jennifer Aniston’s character is supposed to wear on her Chotchkie’s restaurant uniform in the 1999 comedy Office Space.  (Coincidentally, the tagline for that movie is “Work Sucks” but more about that at another time.)

Lesson to market researchers:  Less is more.  More is junk.

Typographic analysis

Cancer sucks physically, mentally, emotionally, and typographically as well.

Cancer sucks so much that the word itself is crossed out in the logo for The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

I love this logo.  I love that cancer is crossed out so it reads, “ The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center”.  Cancer sucks, but it exists.  So we acknowledge it as we work to eradicate it.

Lesson to market researchers:  Form can complement, and sometimes enhance, content.  Secondary lesson:  If something sucks, get rid of it.

Grammatical analysis 2

I also love the tagline below the logo.  “Making Cancer History” is brilliant.  The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is making cancer history in at least two ways.

Direct object:  What are they making?  They are making history regarding cancer.  They are adding to the body of cancer research.

Indirect object:   What are they making cancer into?  They are making cancer itself into history.  They are working to eradicate it.

Lesson for market researchers:  Pay attention to multiple meanings.

Conclusion

Cancer sucks.  I am grateful to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for making mine history.

Brand trackers monitor people’s attitudes towards a brand over time using “traditional” survey techniques. Tracking studies are very useful, allowing us to identify changes in attitudes and measure the impact of marketing activities and brand strategy. I have been talking about how buzz tracking can provide brands with valuable insights about what people think and how they react and can be used as an early warning system. But can social media monitoring also predict attitudes observed from brand tracking?  And could these buzz results provide the same level of insight on brand performance without having to wait weeks to get more traditional survey tracking results?

We have found evidence that social media monitoring correlates with changes in key brand metrics around certain events.  Typically the brand metrics change 1-4 weeks after the digital buzz patterns peak, supporting the idea of using buzz as a predictive tool. As an example, we looked at the buzz for a UK utilities provider around three events during 2010: price cuts in Q1, record profit announcement in August and price rises in November and compared this to our survey data. We found a correlation between the social media metrics and brand attitudes. More interestingly, we discovered that the changes in brand metrics vary depending on people’s relationship with the brand and the nature of the event:

• Price rises: This had a very negative impact among people with high brand desire for the company (measured by our Attitudinal Equity score), but low on the rest. Buzz had a correlation of -0.9 on great deals, -0.77 on great customer service, -0.94 on reward customer loyalty and -0.95 on good value for customers. High desire people are more likely to be customers so the effect was higher on them, damaging their brand perception.

As we can see in the below graphic, ‘good value for customer’ perceptions among high desire respondents fall following price increases news.  However it goes back to normal levels once buzz has calmed down and other suppliers also start announcing price rises, therefore becoming the norm in the industry.

• Price cuts: This had some impact on value perceptions among those with medium and low desire for the brand with a correlation of 0.59 for ‘good value for customers’, but no impact among people with high desire. We believe that people with high desire are closest to the brand and most likely to be loyal customers, so they already had positive attitudes and thought that these cuts were things the brand ought to do.

• Record profits: This had a detrimental impact on perceptions of rewarding customer loyalty for all groups, with a negative correlation of -0.8. Making high profits was seen as being at the expense of the customer, but it did not affect other measures.

The bottom line

These results provide evidence that buzz data is reflective of “real world” brand perceptions as measured by survey tracking. It can help us to understand brand performance and enable brands to take action faster and smarter. Although social media monitoring has its limitations and cannot replace the level of insight provided by traditional tracking studies, it is a great addition to any brand tracker to help deliver better understanding.

One of the main questions clients ask us is how they can use social media monitoring for their business. By now everybody recognises the importance of social media, but we need to be aware that there is much more we can do besides listening to and engaging with social media conversations. Used in conjunction with traditional research, buzz tracking can be a powerful tool for any company to generate ‘real-time’ insights about the things that matter to consumers, thereby optimising their communications and developing business strategies that connect with people.

• Early warning system: social media monitoring gives immediate feedback into how your brand is perceived, what is happening right now around your brand (eg: news, PR, a bad review) and how people are reacting to things you do. When Gap released its new logo, it was immediately hit with thousands of comments on Facebook and Twitter criticising the change and this resulted in Gap switching back to their original logo.

• Take action faster and smarter: detecting any negative perceptions early can help you to identify the root causes, address them and prevent it from spreading before they really impact your brand and sales. Gap reacted within days and it never took the new logo to stores, saving lots of money on implementation and more importantly, leaving the impression that it took its customers seriously by listening to them. The company posted on Facebook: “We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers.” And more than 1,700 people clicked that they “liked” that decision.

• It tells you where these conversations are taking place: besides helping you identify who your social media influencers are, knowing the platforms people use to talk about your brand can help you optimise media planning. It makes little sense to focus only on your Twitter and Facebook pages if the majority of the conversation around your product happen in a specific forum.

• Reveals important things about your brand that you may not be aware of: sometimes what people like about a brand and their reasons for buying it might be a bit surprising. For example, a large amount of online buzz around Listerine is about how it helps to fight nail fungus. Buzz can also unveil unexpected consumer concerns; Listerine is also disliked by many because it hurts. This valuable information can be used to inform brand and communications strategy, ensuring that you tick all the relevant boxes.

• Shows how people express their feelings about your brand: not everybody uses the same language when talking about brands; the words, tone and emotions they attach vary depending on many factors, from product category, consumer segment (age, gender, status) to cultural background and consumption occasions. Words such as ‘heavenly’, ‘extremely rich’ and ‘creamy’ are a common denominator in Haagen Dazs’ reviews, whereas ‘fun’, ‘great’ and ‘yummy’ dominate Ben & Jerry’s. Talk to your customers in the same way they talk about you and develop communications that resonate and engage.

• It is predictive of attitudes observed from tracking:  as we have found out in our R&D, buzz correlates with tracking results: negative image perceptions for a leading gas supplier observed in buzz tracking were reflected in the tracker results just a couple of weeks later. Buzz matters and it is not just a bunch of geeks tweeting. I will be talking more about our R&D on buzz as a predictive tool in my next post, so watch this space!

‘The Economist’ To Halt Production For Month To Let Readers Catch Up

LONDON—World-renowned news and opinion magazine The Economist announced plans to suspend any new online and print content for the next month in an effort to finally allow subscribers a chance to catch up…

Seeing my own stack of unread issues of The Economist, I decided to catch up (whilst The Economist went on publishing, of course).

Two articles immediately lent themselves to our topic of data presentation.  One article suggests  a compelling correlation, the other offers a cunning comparison.  Both are relevant for market researchers and how we look at data.

The science of justice article begins, “Court rulings depend partly on when the judge last had a snack”.  The accompanying chart suggests a compelling correlation:  clemency tends to decline until mealtime.

The chart works because of the “meal break” lines.   They add context and clarity to the timeseries data enumerated on the horizontal axis.  Without the “meal break” lines, we see that the 12^th case of the day has 0% favorable rulings.   With the “meal break” lines, we could say that hungry judges don’t grant parole.  Two lessons for market researchers:

1. Add context to your timeseries data.  Say what happened.  You’re not claiming causation, you’re creating a connection for the reader to comprehend your data.  Offer the reader a helpful nudge.
2. Schedule things (presentations/pitches/parole hearings) so you’re first in the day or first after a break. You’re more likely to get what you request.  Ignore the perception that a post-lunch audience is less attentive.  Instead, focus on the fact that a post-lunch audience is more agreeable.

The article on China’s foreign reserves takes us “Window-shopping with China’s central bank”.  China’s central bank has about $3 trillion in foreign reserves.  Instead of  “boring” US government securities, the accompanying table answers the question, “So what else could China do with the money?”

The table does two things really well.  First, it reinforces how huge a number 3 trillion is.  Second, it catalogs what China could own if it wanted to.  The table does both of these things by introducing familiar references.

It is a cunning comparison, because it plays upon nationalistic sentiments.  China could control US crop production by buying every farm in the United States—and still have over a trillion dollars leftover.  Or China could bail out the governments of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain—twice.  The Chinese government could spend one-third of its foreign reserves to own Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and Google—then go on to buy every building in Manhattan and Washington, DC.  This table reminds market researchers:

1. Establish scale. Your data need context.  Beyond benchmarks and norms, offer your readers relevant comparisons.  Your product might cost two days’ wages in your country but two months’ wages in another country.
2. Use provoking examples. Your audience needs engagement.  Add interest, but avoid pandering (or offending).  The Economist says China could buy the 50 most valuable sports teams which is intriguing.  But it does not suggest that Dallas Cowboys could become the Dallas Ma0 Boys which is absurd.  Or is it?  Readers can draw their own conclusions based upon the nudges you give them.

Meanwhile, The Onion offers this Counterpoint…

Oooh, Look At Me, I Read The Economist!
Eeeeeeuuuuuwww! The Economist says! The Economist says! I read The Economist! Aren’t I cool? Aren’t you impressed with me?