The Research Chronicles

Has the Marketing Research Industry Recovered?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:37:00 +0000

In much of 2008 and early 2009, I frequently wrote about the impact of the recession on marketing research. There were many clear signs that the industry was experiencing reduced revenues. By the middle of 2009, things appeared to be turning around. I believe we are approaching full recovery. There are many positive signs:

The Research Industry Index (RII) http://www.mra-net.org/news/article.cfm?aID=1073 experienced a strong increase for the first quarter of 2010.
I was just in Boston for the MRA Annual Conference. The mood was very different from a year ago. Instead of talks of surviving or downsizing; people seemed energized, confident and excited. Other positive signs – the conference set a record for first time attendees and the exhibit hall was completely sold out.
Our own company has seen a steady flow of projects from a diverse group of verticals. Yes, clients are still cautious, but they are spending.

Are you seeing the same turnaround?

Hope to See You in Boston!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:59:00 +0000

I am headed to Boston early next week for the MRA’s Annual Research Conference. I have to admit bias, since I sit on the MRA board, but the educational content and speakers for this conference are outstanding. I truly believe this conference outshines all other industry conferences when it comes to the opportunity to learn.

While people go to conferences for many reasons, educational content is frequently a second thought. At most conferences, you usually see large numbers of people milling around in the exhibit hall or refreshment areas instead of attending the educational sessions. Not true for the MRA conference. People are in the educational sessions. They are taking a lot of notes and asking many questions. In other words, they are learning.

Hopefully you have registered and plan to be at the conference. If not, it’s probably too late for most of you. But if you live in the Northeast, a last minute registration is still feasible. You really should be there.

Did Sharp test this ad?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:18:00 +0000

If you have watched much TV lately, you have probably seen the ad for Sharp Quattron technology. They are using this technology as a major point of differentiation for Sharp televisions. Basically, it adds the color yellow to the standard television RGB colors of red, green and blue. They claim the addition of yellow helps create a vast array of colors that you can’t see on your current TV’s three color technology. So far, this sounds like a great improvement. But this is where I wonder if they did any market research. I am watching the commercial on my current TV and I am seeing this vast array of colors that they just told me I can’t see. I just don’t get it.

As a side note, if you are a Star Trek junkie, the commercial features George Takai. It even includes his signature line of “oh my”.

Airline Satisfaction

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:22:00 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of visiting beautiful Glastonbury, CT. It is not an easy place to get to from the west coast. It required a flight to Chicago, then a connection to Hartford. So round trip, I had 4 separate flights.

On this particular trip, I flew United. It is obvious that they are putting renewed emphasis on customer service. While I am happy to see that the flight attendants are a bit friendlier than in the past, I haven’t seen many other changes. I’m hoping this is a harbinger of things to come. Their renewed effort is also clear since I now get an invitation to complete a customer satisfaction survey after every trip.

I am always excited to see research play a role in any customer initiatives. However, I am wondering about their approach. When I entered the survey, they showed me the four legs of my trip. Rather than randomly assign me a leg to evaluate, they let me pick one. This approach is probably good from a customer perspective. After all, if I only had issues with one leg, but I was asked about a different one, I would be frustrated that they did not let me tell them about the flight with issues. By letting the customer pick the leg to evaluate, results probably skew toward those flights that caused some dissatisfaction. Likewise, for customers who had no issues, they are more likely to pick the leg where they had the best experience. This means United doesn’t really get a representative score card. I suspect they know that. This customer satisfaction survey is probably more about giving the customer a chance to be heard. Secondarily, it gives United a report on problem areas.

Research Industry Index (RII)

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:07:00 +0000

As some of you may know, I author the RII report for the MRA. I was very excited to report a strong gain for the index at the close of 2009. This is very encouraging news for our industry. A copy of the press release is available at http://www.mra-net.org/news/article.cfm?aID=1073. Equally exciting is the growing number of industry leaders who are now participating in the quarterly survey. The RII has one of the largest and most diverse respondent bases of any industry surveys.

Invitations to participate in the next wave of the survey will be going out soon. If you already participate, I thank you and encourage you to continue. If you do not participate, I strongly encourage you to do so. As an added perk, only survey participants receive as copy of the full report. The survey is restricted to business owners or high level executives of research companies and end users.

Personally, I feel good about 2010. I hope the next RII report proves I am correct.

Market Based Pricing

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:41:00 +0000

I have been purchasing Girl Scout cookies for almost as long as I have worked in marketing research. So last week when a friend told me her daughter was selling the cookies, I placed my order for six boxes – at $4.00 a box. Like many people, I grumbled that the prices keep increasing and the package sizes keep decreasing. But that was about the end of my snit. Then I happened to mention the cookies to a friend of mine in Colorado. I was shocked to discover Girl Scout cookies sell for $3.25 in Colorado.

Yes that is correct - the Girl Scouts have adopted market based pricing. So like most other products and services, Californians pay a premium to buy the cookies. I am still a bit surprised by this, but I also admire their marketing savviness. After some exploring, I discovered this is a $700 million annual business. This brand has rapidly embraced many new forms of marketing, such as E-vites , YouTube and Facebook . And because the economy is hurting their sales this year, they are using one of the strongest marketing tactics possible – nostalgia (while reducing the average box size by one ounce).

They must be doing something right. While sales are down close to 20% in some parts of the country, they are running 9% ahead of last year in Northern California.

How much did you pay for cookies this year?

Thank You Larry Brownell

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:53:00 +0000

As many of you know, Larry Brownell recently stepped down as CEO of the Marketing Research Association. Larry is an Association Management Professional, so he is not confined to the marketing research industry. He has accepted a CEO position in the film industry. This change in careers also gets him back on the west coast, where he has wanted to be for a long time.

While I spoke with Larry last week and personally thanked him for everything he did for the MRA, I also wanted to publicly thank him. He was the driving force behind much of MRA’s recent success. He was also instrumental in the development of two products very important to me – Professional Research Certification (PRC) and the Research Industry Index (RII). My first serious involvement with MRA was on the PRC task force. This is when I got to know Larry. He has a way of reeling you in, and over time convinced me to take on other volunteer roles within MRA. While I believe volunteering to help your profession is important, Larry played an important role in my decision to make MRA the place I volunteered. His professionalism, enthusiasm, and dedication are addicting.

So thank you Larry. And I’m ready to meet you for that Dim Sum the next time you get up to San Francisco.

Thank you MRA!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:12:00 +0000

I was recently honored by the Marketing Research Association, when they gave me the Shining Star Award at the First Outlook Conference and Expo in San Diego. This particular award is bestowed on an MRA member who has provided outstanding volunteer efforts at the national level for five or more years. Winning this award puts me in the company of many of my esteemed colleagues such as Amy Shields, Elisa Galloway and Kim Larson. The complete list of past winners can be found at http://www.mra-net.org/membership/awards.cfm

I have always felt that it is important to give back to our industry. It is that belief that drives me to volunteer for great organizations such as the MRA. I encourage each of you to get involved as a volunteer with the MRA or any other professional organization that you deem worthy of your efforts. While recognition such as the Shining Star Award is great, it is just a symbol. My true reward has been the friends I have made over the years as a volunteer, the opportunities it has given me for personal development, and the knowledge that I have done good for the industry.

Thank you again MRA!

Holiday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:17:00 +0000

If you are one of the many people on our snail mail list, you probably received our company holiday card. For those of you not familiar with our cards, they have featured a research snowman for the past 7 years. We put great effort into coming up with a new idea every year.

Based on the responses we have received, I think this year's card is our best so far. We have received many positive comments. If you want to take a look at this card, and the entire snowman saga, visit http://www.cooper-roberts.com/snowmen/

My thanks to Brenden Mendoza, our stellar designer, for a great job!

Thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:46:00 +0000

About this time last year, I wrote in my blog that I would be happy to see 2008 go. But I also wrote that things were looking promising for 2009. I’m happy to report that 2009 was indeed a good year for us. Business started picking back up in the first quarter and continued to grow throughout the year. To that end, I would like to thank our employees, clients, vendors, family and friends. Your combined efforts and support made 2009 a good year for us.

At this point, 2010 is looking good, and I am hearing other researchers say the same thing. But I’ll still exercise a lot of caution - holding back on new hires or other expenditures until we are sure things are completely back. I hope 2010 is a good year for all of us.

Some of you have asked where I have been with my postings. Fortunately, I have truly been too busy. But I promise to try to post more regularly next year.

Have a safe and happy holiday.

Attention Panel Companies – Your Panelists Want to Talk to You

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:09:00 +0000

In the course of conducting studies, we have inadvertently discovered something about panel companies. They don’t want to talk to their panelists. True to the nature of their online business, they want all correspondence with panel members to be through email or the panel member portal. They make it close to impossible, if not completely impossible for a panelist to talk to them on the phone. I understand being “true to the method” and the cost implications a panel company could have if they actually talked to their panelists, but I still don’t get it. As consumers, and yes panelists are consumers (or we wouldn’t want to talk to them), we all know how frustrating it can be when you want to talk to a real person. Think about the last time you called your bank, an airline, or your cable company. It probably was not a fun experience, but with some diligence, you hopefully did get to speak to a live person.

As a matter of policy, when we place product for an in-home-use-test, we provide respondents with a toll free number. The intent is for them to have a way to contact us if they have any issues or concerns with using the product. But we have noticed more and more respondents are calling us because they want to talk to their panel company. By default, we get the calls.

Panel companies, it is time for you to address this. If you don’t talk to your panel members, it will only be a matter of time before they are talking about you – and not necessarily in a good way.

Research Snowmen

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Many of you, who are friends, clients or business partners with our company, have received our Research Snowmen holiday cards over the years. What started as a humorous card in 2003, with a bunch of somewhat geeky Snowmen Researchers, has continued as an annual tradition. The 2009 card will mark our seventh edition.

We had planned for the Snowmen to make a onetime appearance. But they proved to be quite popular, and we have kept them around. The problem is – our designers who originated the idea are long gone. It has fallen on our shoulders to come up with a new idea every year. While I think we have come up with some great ideas, it has become a challenge. So we are turning to you for help.

If you aren’t familiar with our Snowmen, or you need some inspiration, turn on your speakers, and mosey on over to http://www.cooper-roberts.com/snowmen/. There you can experience all of the cards, with the appropriate holiday background music.

The rules are simple: the card must include the Snowmen, they should have some general (non-religious) holiday association, and hopefully have some tie back into marketing research. If we select your idea, you will be given credit for the inspiration on the back of the card.

And BTW, there is no gender bias – it’s just that Snowpeople doesn’t sound right to us. I know for a fact that the inspiration for some of our Snowmen were women.

You can respond here, or to keep your idea secret, respond to snowmen@cooper-roberts.com

Is your research broad enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:57:00 +0000

On a recent flight back from Dulles, the twenty something sitting next to me asked me what time it was at least three times. This didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, it frequently happens on flights. I’ve learned that his generation generally does not wear a watch. They count on their cell phone to tell time. An airplane is one of the few places where they can’t use their cell phone to check the time. I wonder if watch manufacturers even considered cell phones to be a threat to their industry. Actually, I wonder if a lot of industries and businesses have considered the competition and threat from outside their core area.

Hollywood Video was probably worried about other brick & mortar video stores such as Blockbuster, but did they see Netflix or On-demand TV as a competitor?
Did parking meters (yes, they are a revenue stream, so I consider them to be a business) see the impact of debit cards, where people no longer generate the change needed to feed a meter?
Did FedEx realize the impact email would have on their business?
And we all know that most newspapers were blind in terms of the crippling effect the Internet has had on so many aspects of their business.

Most research, trying to maximize the information garnered for the minimal amount of the respondents’ time, concentrates on the core category and known competition. Such studies would probably never give an early warning of competition from outside the core sector. But this path of efficiency could be dangerous, if not life threatening. I strongly recommend that at least once a year, and ideally twice a year, your research, whether it be qual or quant, explores outside the box. Study evolving ways that consumers do things. Like the cell phone has hurt the watch business, what is lurking out there that could hurt your business.

DIY Disasters: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:35:00 +0000

My posting last week about DIY disasters seems to have touched a nerve with quite a few people. People emailed me with their own examples. Given the nature of the topic, they choose to email rather than add a comment. After reading some of the notes, I saw a recurring theme. I had talked about design driven disasters. The examples brought to my attention were all about interpretation disasters. In other words, bad business decisions were made based on the research.

A common problem was the lack of perspective. For example, one fairly new CPG company did a concept test. Based on a 35% “top 2 box” purchase interest score, they rolled out the product. A seasoned researcher would question the wisdom of rolling out a product with such a low score. But they thought it was a great score. They felt they could reach a third of the market, which was more than enough for them. The product went to market and it bombed. A detailed analysis of the original DIY results, by a research professional, easily identified the problem.

Another example was an ongoing customer satisfaction study that a service company was conducting via a DIY platform. Everyone was happy with the consistent 80% satisfaction score they were receiving. Then they started losing subscribers. They did another DIY survey, and could not figure out why. They eventually turned to a professional researcher for help. First, they were advised that rather than gloat about 80% of your customers being satisfied, they should be worried that 20% were not satisfied. The typical company threshold for unsatisfied customers is 5-10%. A little analysis gave them some big insights. They failed to see that the dissatisfied customers were downright irate with the service. They also failed to see that these customers were the heaviest users of their services. Losing 1% in customers from this group equated to losing 5% of revenue. They also failed to see that these irate customers were experimenting with competitive services.

In both of these cases, the execution of the research was fairly strong, but the interpretation was weak. Actions taken, based on these projects, were far more costly than it would have been to call in a professional in the first place.

More DIY Disasters

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:21:00 +0000

I have written before about the pitfalls of DIY research. Online tools such as Survey Monkey and Zoomerang make people think that anyone can design and execute a survey. And this is true, anyone can. But many people who try DIY surveys wind up with problems. DIY surveys do have their place, but too many people try to use them when they should not. I think of them as the Draino of research. You reach for the Draino when you have a simple clogged drain, but when the problem is more systemic, you call a plumber.

We hear about many of these disasters because clients call us to see if we can help them salvage what they have done. We try our best to help them, and in most cases some valuable learning comes out of the exercise. But we came across a couple recently that caused real problems.

The first project appeared simple enough. The problem is that the first question has multiple choice answers about product use, and more than one choice is appropriate. In fact, most consumers would have more than one choice. But the client inadvertently programmed the survey to only accept one answer. This meant that when people checked a second or third answer, the software deleted their previous answer. And since the software did not allow for a rotation of the answer list, this meant the survey reported a disproportionate, suspect number of people using the product at the bottom of this list. To complicate this problem, answers to this question drove the logic for almost all remaining questions. We could salvage some of the information, but most of it was lost.

The second project was a DIY survey where the client intercepted respondents on their own website. They hoped to get 400 interviews. They promised all respondents who completely the survey a $10 Amazon gift certificate. One little problem – the DIY software lacked quota control, or at least lacked one the client could find. Within 24 hours, they had about 5,000 completed interviews. Suddenly they were liable for $50,000 in incentives instead of the $4,000 they had budgeted.

So the next time you have the need for marketing research, ask yourself if you should reach for the Draino or call a plumber.

Rachel Ray Taught Me Two Things

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:52:00 +0000

Anyone who throws a burger on the grill has probably experienced a problem with the edges of the burger shrinking as it cooks. By the time you are finished, the burger can be almost triangular in shape, with the high peak in the center of the burger, sloping down to thin edges. One may be tempted to squash the center down with a spatula, but any wise grill master knows this squeezes out the good juices and can make the burger dry. This has always frustrated me, but not enough that I ever bothered to figure out a solution to my problem.

Then one afternoon we were lazily channel hopping. We came across Rachel Ray cooking burgers. There was the solution I needed. Very simply, when forming the patty, she instructed us to depress the center of the patty, so that the outer ring of the patty is higher than the center. A process similar to what a kid may do in a sandbox to form a “pond”. I tried this the next day, and miracle of miracles, the finished product was a perfectly shaped burger – a similar thickness throughout.

Now I have to confess that I can barely stand to hear Rachel Ray’s voice. Her annoying chatter, frantic pace, and childish smile get on my nerves. I usually flip right pass her when channel hopping. But the burger had caught my eye. It made me give her the benefit of the doubt and I watched the rest of the show. She still got on my nerves, but she also taught me something besides how to cook a good burger. She taught me to keep it simple. She takes basic steps of cooking and explains them in very simple terms. My first reaction was that she was being too simple. But then I remembered Ginelle from our office, who literally had to learn how to boil water when her and her husband first set up house. And I remembered my good friend Toby, who a few years back called me to ask if she needed to freeze leftovers from a restaurant carryout, even though she planned to eat them the next day. The first time she baked a potato, it was a major triumph. Rachel Ray speaks to these people. I hate to admit it, but she provides a valuable service. And yes Jackie, I know you and your foodie friends will cringe when you read this.

I think this is a valuable lesson that we need to keep in mind when designing surveys. Keep it simple. Too often, we, or our clients, assume the respondent knows more about the product or category than they really do. The next time you write a survey, stop and think how Rachel Ray may approach it.

How's business?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:09:00 +0000

First, my apologies for being absent from my blog postings. I managed to post a new piece the first week of July, while I was on PTO, but nothing since. My excuse is that we are surprisingly, and gratefully busy with new projects. I’m also hearing from some other researchers that they have been very busy this summer. All of this is great news for our industry.

But like many people, I still worry about the economy, and I keep trying to find signs of a recovery. So I ask everyone I meet “how’s business”? During a recent visit to my doctor for my annual check-up, I asked my doctor the same thing. It may seem like a strange question to ask a doctor, but remember they are also in business. They have staff and bills to pay like any business.

I think he was a bit surprised by the question, but he had an immediate answer. Business has generally been good – people still get sick, but he did feel people were deferring preventive visits. The biggest surprise I got was his comment about their best customers – those with insurance. He is seeing that the insured, meaning those who are still working, are so busy (likely due to fellow workers being laid off) that they just don’t have time to get to the doctor. They wait until they absolutely have to go. That has impacted his business.

His observations are in line with a recent report that people who take prescription drugs for preventive purposes (such as blood pressure or cholesterol medicines) appear to be cutting back. They may take the drugs five days a week instead of seven. Over time, this saves them a bit on their co-payments.

So again, I am grateful that business is good for us right now. I hope I can hear more researchers say the same thing.

RII Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:41:00 +0000

I have written about the Marketing Research Association’s Research Industry Index (RII) a few times. It is fast becoming the most trusted study measuring the health of the U.S. marketing research industry. It has the largest base of participant’s, across the broadest array of the industry (end clients, full service suppliers, field services, panel companies, qualitative and quantitative). The next wave of the survey, to capture second quarter ’09 results, launches this week.

This is my shameless plug to ask you to participate in the survey. If you are the owner or senior level management of a research company, or a senior level researcher within an end client (basically – you must be in a position to understand budget, research purchases, research sales and revenue), you should be taking this survey. While the survey has achieved reasonable media coverage, only survey participants receive a detailed report.

If you are interested in participating, drop me a note with your contact information. I will forward your information on to the MRA so you can receive a survey invite. As with all surveys, your answers are confidential and only reported in aggregate.

Pabst Blue Ribbon

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:01:00 +0000

This past weekend, we bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. While Pabst was part of my college years, back then I was more likely to reach for Cincinnati brewed Hudepohl or Schoenling. Nonetheless, I have not bought Pabst in many years. Honestly, I didn’t even know it was still available. We are more of a Pinot Noir or Syrah household these days. When we do buy beer for our friends, it is usually something like Pilsner Urquell or Peroni. But this weekend we bought Pabst Blue Ribbon. Because we are not a big beer consuming household, this may qualify Pabst as the brand of beer receiving the largest proportion of my beer purchases for the year.

Any of you who follow my blog regularly know that I tell these stores with a hook back into market research. This story has an especially important hook. When conducting a brand health tracker, you usually ask questions such as favorite brand, brand last bought and brand bought most often. If I had been interviewed, no offense to Pabst, but you would have been surprised that someone of my socio-economic status was buying Pabst – and even more so if you discovered it is the brand I bought the most.

The hook is that when doing a brand health tracker, we always recommend asking a critical “why” question to brand bought last or bought most often. Because this requires an open-ended question, it adds cost that some feel is not warranted.

Now I must tell you why I bought a 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon. We are big fans of beer can chicken. It is absolutely the best way to cook a whole chicken on the grill. Between now and this winter, we will probably cook a dozen beer can chickens. We have learned that it has to be beer, not coke, not lemonade, not wine. And we have learned that the quality of the beer does not matter. So we decided we should buy the cheapest beer possible. Pabst Blue Ribbon happened to be that beer last weekend.

If you have many respondents like me in your survey, and you don’t ask why, you could have distorted, misleading survey results.

I’d be interested to hear of other such situations where survey results are not what you think they are. And if you want the recipe for a killer beer can chicken, drop us a note.

When the Bad Economy is Good for Research

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Ad Age recently quoted Hyatt’s global marketing head John Wallis as saying “throw out your old algorithms.” Economist Chris Kuehl, keynote speaker at the annual MRA conference, said “market research is more crucial now than ever in terms of separating reality from speculation.” Many of our clients are telling us that research completed as recently as two years ago is irrelevant and possibly misleading. We are seeing economic driven aberrations in long term tracking studies. While consumers may eventually go back to their old ways, it is clear that many of them have altered their current behavior. These changes are likely to last at least a couple of years. Bottom line, fresh research is critical.

So in my opinion, this is great news for marketing research. Companies know they are vulnerable. They are starting to ramp up their marketing research activities. Segmentation studies, concept tests, price/value studies, brand image studies, and tracking studies are all needed from this fresh perspective.

Your thoughts?

What is Twitter doing to WOM Tracking?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:54:00 +0000

There has been a lot of recent press predicting the demise of Twitter. The stories all basically claim that Twitter lacks holding power. Statistics show that a large proportion of tweeters have no followers, or they are only following one person. In short, they are failing to build their personal network. Sharing San Francisco with Twitter as our home base, I hope the press is wrong.

But, I do have one gripe with Twitter. It has added a layer of complexity and cost to Word-of-Mouth (WOM) Tracking. With the recent growth in Twitter users, the number of mentions per day on the brands we have tracked has skyrocketed. Because most services charge on a “number of mentions basis,” the cost of WOM tracking is increasing. However, the quality of what we receive is not worth the added cost. Due to Twitter’s 140 character limitation, it is hard to put a brand name in context when it shows up in a tweet. It’s not impossible, but it takes a lot of interpretation.

I know this is a researcher’s problem, and it will be resolved. I imagine tracking services will start allow Twitterless tracking. Or they may charge a reduced fee for the Twitter mentions. It has taken a lot of effort to convince companies that they must do WOM tracking. I just hope this short term, Twitter driven added cost doesn’t scare them away.

Great Conference!

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:50:00 +0000

I was in Chicago last week for the annual MRA conference. This has to have been the best research conference of the year.

The conference got off to a great start with a rousing, informative, entertaining and uplifting keynote address on Wednesday afternoon. Who would have ever guessed I would use those words to describe a speech given by an economist from Kansas City. But that is exactly what Chris Kuehl was, fantastic!

The President’s Reception is always a great opportunity to see old friends and to make new acquaintances. It was nice to see friends such as Tom and Peggy O’Connor, Michele Elster and Barbara Peters. Of course there was a strong contingency of San Francisco Bay Area researchers at the conference. I was excited to see the international presence at the conference. I met people from Germany, France, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and even Dubai.

The educational sessions were outstanding. MRA continues to raise the caliber of the content and speakers. Given my involvement with PRC, it was exciting to see so many people waiting to be scanned to get their PRC credits after a session.

And finally, there was the evening glass of wine in the hotel lounge. This is where researcher’s let their hair down and relaxed. It is where new friendships started and old ones were rekindled. We were no longer clients and vendors, or competitors. We were one – there for the good of the profession.

I wish to commend the many MRA volunteers and staff who made this conference what it was. I can’t wait to see what you do this fall in San Diego!

Professional Research Certification

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:18:00 +0000

As you may or may not know, one of my many volunteer activities is as Chair of the Professional Research Certification (PRC) Board. This program, under the auspices of the MRA, was introduced several years ago to bring certification to the marketing research industry. A certification program has been a goal of many research associations for at least the past decade. The MRA made it happen.

There was obviously a clear demand for certification. There are now almost 1,100 active PRCers. Individuals are working hard to earn their educational credits that are required to be recertified. Researchers, employers and clients are seeing the value of PRC.

As with most new certification programs, all of the current PRCers were certified through a rigorous open-enrolment process. But the next, and the most exciting phase of PRC is about to roll-out. A committee of dedicated volunteers has been working to develop the certification test. All new applicants for certification must take and pass this proctored test. The test consists of 100 questions randomly selected from a battery of thousands of questions. No two tests will be alike. This phase will be beta tested next week in Chicago. After that, it will be scheduled on a regular basis around the country.

I am biased, but I am also very proud of what PRC has become. I would especially like to thank Jen Cattel, the Certification Manager with the MRA staff, and Ted Donnelly and Peter Van Brunt , two very hard working volunteers.

Cajun Country

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Like many marketing researchers, business travel is a part of my life. A lot of people think business travel is glamorous and a real perk of the job. These are usually the people who don’t travel for business. After too many trips to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle; the trips become mundane. And thanks to the un-customer friendly tactics of the airlines, air travel has become a necessary evil.

One of my recent trips took me off of my usual path. Thanks to my friends at TABASCO, I found myself on Avery Island, in the southwestern part of Louisiana, the heart of Cajun Country. If you haven’t been to Cajun Country, you should go. I felt like I had traveled back in time. This is a place where manners are still of utmost importance, the pace is gentle and relaxing, and you are greeted with a sincerely warm smile. Yet business gets done. This trip reminded me that business travel can be a real perk.

Are you Chicago bound?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Roberts) — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:00:00 +0000

The annual MRA conference is fast approaching. It will be held the first week of June in downtown Chicago. While I am a bit biased (I sit on the national board of the MRA), this is the one industry conference I most look forward to. It draws a broad mix of end-clients, full service researchers, field services and panel companies.

The educational offerings are diverse, and help me earn the continuing education credits I need to maintain my PRC status. Every time I attend the annual conference, I bring back at least one new skill, perspective or tool that I use in my everyday research life. That one new learning that makes me a better researcher is worth the time and cost of the conference.

The networking opportunities are just as important as the educational offerings. It’s not about immediately gaining a new client. It is about making connections that will last a life time. It is about nurturing the relationship with our vendor partners. And in these challenging economic times, it gives me a chance to talk with my friendly competitors to share business management tips. I find my colleagues genuinely want to help this industry survive and thrive. There is a level of sharing that is unique to this industry.

Will I see you in Chicago?