Hard work and sacrifice? You can check that box for a mother who raised two boys!  Although I certainly didn’t realize it at the time, she was setting an example from as early as I can remember about how to put other people first, and sometimes give up what you want at a particular moment to contribute to something bigger than yourself.  This is just as important in a business as it is in a family environment.    We all have moments when we don’t WANT to do something at work, but that’s really not so important when it needs to get done anyway.

Multi-tasking? Having a full time job, and still taking the time to drive us to soccer practice, work on homework assignments, cook dinner, and a litany of other things fits the bill there.  Add in part time doctor to me and my brother with more bumps and bruises and scrapes than I can count, house keeper, chauffer, and it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day to take care of everything.  Somehow though, mothers get it done despite tight timelines pressures, and the constant variety of demands.

Courage? Perseverance? No question about it.  My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer not once, but twice, in two unconnected occurrences – just her good luck!  Never once did she consider quitting or giving up in her treatments, no matter how hard they became.  Watching her go through those trials left an impact on me that will stay forever, and that translates to business also.  Sometimes, you think that there’s no hope, or no way to get something done.  You want to give up, move on to the next thing on your list, and just accept defeat.  My mother taught me that quitting is not an option, and that if you want to accomplish something, you just need to fight harder than anyone else to do it.

So, from all of us at 6 degrees LLC to all of you mothers out there:  Thank you, and Happy Mother’s Day.

image by Ryan O'Rourke ryanorourkesite.com

His point, of course, transcends basketball (and breakfast) and is relevant to anyone in any industry: whatever you are doing, you need to strive to be the best. Being good at what you do isn’t good enough – you need to dominate. The applications in market research can be listed off just as quickly:

• Dominate client service
• Dominate recruitment
• Dominate moderation
• Dominate facility food
• Dominate reporting

Martin Luther King made the same point: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

In day to day dealings with focus group / recruiting facilities and other top market research companies, it’s easy to tell the difference between those who adopt this mentality and those who don’t.  The extra effort and care ALWAYS comes through in contrast to those who feel it’s enough to just get the job done. Being successful isn’t good enough – you need to pursue “success at success.” And then when you have done that, keep pushing to achieve Success at Success at Success!

To all of the facilities out there: trust me, everything you do is noticed, good or bad. Every above and beyond effort is remembered with a mental (or written) check mark, and every dirty plate left in a back room has a minus next to it. Every tough recruit that you pull off is remembered, and every day without an update is registered as well. The facilities that “get it” are the facilities that try harder and go beyond the scope of what’s expected. It’s not just a tremendous talent or a fancy room or great food (although those things are nice!). The successful facility is the one that tries the hardest to be the best – who doesn’t settle for being good or for being very good or even eventually being the best.

We recently conducted research in eight markets, seven of which successfully filled a relatively simple recruit. The 8th market filled the slots, reached their sample size, but their quality of respondents was seriously lacking. When pressed for an explanation, they replied simply with “we did our best.” Sometimes, that’s just not good enough for us and our clients and when the opportunity presents itself to go back to that particular market, we’ll think twice.

There’s always somewhere that you can push harder – so remember, when Being the Best isn’t good enough and all else fails: Dominate Breakfast.

Companies are making this increasingly possible, and even using it as a differentiator in designing and implementing brand strategies. EZFace, for example, is a technology that allows customers to either upload a photo of their face or take a photo on the spot and “try on” different hairstyles and make-up products. Who wouldn’t like to know what their beauty product colors will actually look like on them prior to purchase? Now utilized globally at in-store kiosks, cellular applications, and by more than 30 internet sites – including L’oreal, Maybelline and Cover Girl – EZFace is certainly allowing the consumer to customize their own experience. Methodically personalizing products also proves effective as a brand awareness strategy.

M&Ms launched “myMMs.com” in 2004, which allowed customers have their own personal message written on M&Ms. In the years since, M&Ms has gradually increased the options for people to make their designs even more self-specific; finally in 2008 allowing us to download our personal photos onto the candies. More than 400 million M&Ms are produced each day.

In 1986, American Girl Company offered a handful of dolls, each having a specific name and representing a particular period of American history. In 1995, American Girl introduced “My American Girl”, which allows customers to utilize a catalogue or the web to design their own doll using 44 different combinations of eye color, hair color, skin tone and personal style (including braces, glasses, freckles, etc). To date, American Girl has sold more than 20 million dolls (which are $100 and up), and americangirl.com receives 68 million website visits per year. Moreover, beginning with a good market assessment will allow a product to enjoy the sales benefits of market research.

Arm & Hammer’s new “My Way Spinbrush” outsold Colgate’s Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob toothbrushes – the previous top sellers – this last year. The brush’s introductory campaign, based on market research of a sample population of girls found that they (Spinbrush’s target) are most engaged with a product when allowed to customize it, enabling buyers to decorate their own toothbrushes. The “My Way” brush is the only non-entertainment licensed product to ever hold the top selling spot among children’s toothbrushes due to its holistic – and therefore effective –marketing strategy.

As downloading photos and printing stickers becomes increasingly affordable, an incredible amount of products that we come into daily contact with have the ability to be personalized. If, for a few dollars more, you could get a squirt gun for your child with their initials on it (instead of plane yellow and orange, e.g.), a phone case with the photo of your choice printed on it, or a watch band with your favorite expression on it, wouldn’t you? Let’s face it: we love to focus on ourselves and indulge in things that mirror our own identity (Facebook being a perfect example). While monogram towels and pencils have been around for years, more and more companies seem to be figuring out that developing items that can be personalized to reflect the buyer – especially if that buyer can assist in the design of those items – can create a much more intimate shopping experience (and plenty of sales). Companies that utilize this brand strategy will foster brand loyalty, because if designed by “us,” a brand becomes a representation of our identity; of course we remain loyal to ourselves.

What do you think? Have companies like those above convinced you that the costs associated with giving the customer more options were worth it?

Traditional Methods of Market Research on Brand Image

Humans are very visual creatures. A large portion of our brain is devoted to visual information processing and we are accustomed to processing large amounts of visual information at any given time. In contrast, verbal/semantic information is processed slower and more sequentially than visual information. And yet, when it comes to brand image research, many companies still use an inefficient market research process using verbal attribute ratings on Likert scales as their main source of brand image information. You know the type of question: “On a scale of 1 to 7, where ’1′ is ‘disagree completely’ and ’7′ is ‘agree completely’, please rate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statement: [insert brand] is [insert verbal attribute].”

The Problems with Traditional Methods of Market Research on Brand Image

This kind of data can be suboptimal for several different reasons. First, it requires an abstraction. Second, different people will likely have different definitions for each verbal attribute and use the scale differently. Finally, this task, when continued over multiple brands and attributes can fatigue the respondent and result in declining data integrity.

Why Brand Visualization is a More Accurate and Sensitive Assessment Tool

One of the best alternative methods of market research we’ve discovered for assessing brand image, both in the absolute and in comparison to competitors, is Brand Visualization. In Brand Visualization, respondents select images from galleries to represent how they perceive brands and attributes. The resulting data is much richer than verbal ratings and can be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Brand Visualization also allows you to determine how respondents perceive verbal attributes and interpret brand image in terms of that definition. Finally, Brand Visualization is more sensitive at detecting changes in brand image (because visuals contain far more information than words), so visualization will register the impact of your branding and marketing efforts more effectively than verbal rating scale approaches.

Learn More About Using Brand Visualization

We have used Brand Visualization techniques successfully with clients in different industries and across multiple languages and cultures, where words are often imprecise or even inappropriate. Download our free video tutorial about how to use Brand Visualization for research on brand image attributes.

The iPad lends itself to presenting rich information in a dynamic fashion about your product or service to potential customers. You can drive, or hand the iPad over to a customer and let them drive. In addition to presenting your product(s) in the most favorable way, you are also sending signals of being savvy, technologically advanced and “with the times.”

The problem is that sales and marketing apps can be costly to develop. Pricing for custom apps can run over $100,000, depending on the complexities of the app. Fortunately, even if you’re not a programmer and you want to create ipad apps for business, alternatives exist for when you just want to take a presentation (e.g., PowerPoint or Keynote) and create an ipad app-like experience. Using this approach can save you lots of money and still provide some of the advantages of an app.

When This Approach Is Too Limiting, Create An iPad App With Custom Programming

When you do need a custom app, original budget estimates can quickly be overrun—usually stemming from one or more of the following sources: 1) not really knowing at the project outset exactly what you want the app to do, 2) using developers rather than designers to create the look and feel, which often results in re-work when the result is not in alignment with your brand, and 3) working with developers who claim to have “lots of experience” in programming iPad apps and then proceed to learn on your nickel. We’ve seen all of these. And they WILL lead to apps that are unnecessarily expensive and don’t hit the mark. Following these three steps will reduce the chance of time and budget overruns while improving the outcome:

1. Clearly define the scope of the project and the goal of the iPad app before engaging in development through proper information architecture and user experience design.
2. Start with content development. Use your marketing agency to create a look & feel and messaging that is consistent with your brand.
3. Use a reputable and experienced developer. This step is often easier said than done. Although Apple’s App Store has over a half million apps, the development of mobile applications is still in its infancy—the App Store launched in mid-2008. Suggestions for finding a reputable developer include referrals from business associates, searching the internet for established developers with experience in your industry and asking developers for references you can contact. Alternately you can allow your marketing agency to design the app and manage the development process using trusted partners.

Custom apps are not cheap, but with the proper approach, you can cut down the risk of paying even more than you otherwise would have to.

Become A New Media Marketer

Download our free video tutorial about how to create an ipad app from a presentation.

When a brand does not have a solid, communicated brand strategy / platform, the creative process suffers. Designers are essentially throwing darts at a board to see what sticks in terms of design. They have absolutely nothing concrete to base their design inspiration off of. Therefore, the end result is based on something that looks good and is the product of subjective “likes” and “dislikes.”

On the other hand when the brand strategy / platform is established there are clear parameters to follow. Which means, different branding strategies are not competing with one another and when evaluating the recommended creative it is never a “like” or “dislike” evaluation. The designs are instead evaluated objectively against the perceptions that have already been deemed credible, meaningful and most importantly different from other similar products in the marketplace.

From the design perspective, a great creative blueprint /strategy clarifies, defines and focuses the project resulting in more impactful and relevant communications. Design is important but Smart, On-Strategy Design is better and more effective. With the proliferation of mediums / platforms the amount of noise continually bombarding consumers is at an all time high. It is more important than ever to know your target, say more with less, and to be clear in what you are asking.

Great Brands require Great Thinking!

Sources: MarketingSherpa, Oct 2010; SearchEngineLand, 2010; SRI, 2010; Hubspot 2011; LeadForce1, 2010;

North America still has the highest penetration of internet use (78.3% of the North American population is online compared the world average of 30%), the fastest growth in internet users is in…Africa at a whopping 2,500% growth rate and the Middle East at 2,000%. Latin America and Caribbean come in third at a still amazing 1,000%.

An interesting question to contemplate in light of the breathtaking growth in some of these newer internet markets is whether the same branding and marketing techniques we’re accustomed to using will be as effective and appropriate for these markets—or whether more unconventional branding and marketing techniques will be more successful. Fortunately, a good marketing research process, insight mining and sensory branding techniques will help answer the question. That said, there will no doubt be plenty of trial and error, too.

Check more interesting stats at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

While it may seem as though B2B marketers are still concentrating on traditional marketing channels, if you add up the expenditures on digital channels, about 1/3 of spending is on these digital channels. The study further states that mobile and online video are growing significantly, which is consistent with our experience at Six Degrees as well. For a copy of the full report commissioned by Google, click here: marketo.com PDF

The Nice! brand is clean and contemporary, and a significant improvement toward a more premium impression. However, if the goal is to appear more premium to achieve a higher price point rather than just increase volume, it appears—at least to this consumer—that of the options below, Target’s Archer Farms comes closest to looking more premium and less like a house brand.

Whether it’s the absence of large blocks of white, the more sophisticated color combination, the brand badge or something else, remains an interesting, open question.

Perhaps more important, as retailers improve their private labels during this protracted economic malaise, “premium” brand marketers should sit up and take note.