Market Research

The Data Digest: Online Payment Preferences In International Markets

Reineke Reitsma — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:49:06 +0000

I've been analyzing consumer technology uptake for years — helping retailers, for example, understand the barriers to and drivers of online buying behavior. Forrester's Technographics® research shows that preferred online payment methods differ greatly between countries, and companies need to understand this complexity of payment options and how that affects consumer behavior.

Unlike in North America, where the top payment methods tend to be similar in the countries surveyed (the US and Canada), the payment preferences of online buyers in Europe differ both between countries and from their North American counterparts. For example, the popularity of prepaid cards is unique to Italy: Roughly a third of Italian online users have taken advantage of prepaid cards. Global organizations need this detailed understanding of consumer payment preferences across markets in order to be successful internationally.

For more information: This week, Forrester published a report called “Understanding Online Payment Preferences In International Markets” that examines consumers' preferred payment methods in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific to help eBusinesses identify opportunities for payment localization.

Three Key Considerations On Social Media For Market Research

Tamara Barber — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000

For my current research on social media and market research, I’m interested in listening platforms (and the text analysis that’s usually packaged with them) for the purposes of mining the social Web – be it on blogs, open community sites, social networks or the like.

There’s a lively debate around the value of social media listening for market research, and there are many people willing to share their opinion. Last week, I attended a Webinar on this very subject, hosted by Peanut Labs, with multiple guest speakers from the industry. Here are some of the key points that market researchers should consider when assessing the need for – and effort in -- social media research.

“Process and methods need to be developed to make social media data be another source for Marketing Research” -- From Jean Davis, co-founder of Conversition, and former president of Ipsos Online, North America. This means: Platforms need to be created with the market researcher in mind. They must be able to reliably sift through online conversations to sort out low-quality data; apply weighting schemes to that data reflects that true share of volume that different sources have online; and create constructs so that data from social media can be proxied to represent common measures such as five-point scales and top-two boxes.

Never believe a single data point when forecasting

Ed Kahn — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:28:55 +0000

We often receive questions such as “researcher X’s forecast is much higher/lower.” I always take these remarks seriously – there are many elements an analyst has to take into account in forecasting and I’ve learned over time that the content of these conversations drives the value of the forecast (for both parties).

Recently I had a discussion with a client who was skeptical of our growth projection for digital music subscriptions in our recent Music forecast. We discussed that a key input to our estimate are discussions with companies providing these services and understanding their growth outlook. But these discussions are expectedly biased, that’s why we routinely challenge providers to defend their expectations but we also look for corroborating data to indicate direction and scale of change. Similarly, if survey respondents happen to love a product idea, it has potential but there’s no certainty that consumers will eventually spend money on that product. What we look for is a solid pattern of evidence supporting a growth hypothesis along with a paucity of evidence supporting the alternative (decline).

As part of the forecast process, we as analysts debate various hypotheses and I shared the content of those discussions with this client, which helped him understand that our growth expectation for digital subscription is supported by evidence beyond the confidence of subscription providers.

The Data Digest: The State Of P2P File Sharing

Reineke Reitsma — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:34:10 +0000

This week my colleague James McQuivey published a report called 'Casual Video Piracy Kept At Bay For Now'. Forrester's Technographics research shows that online video piracy is a minority behavior. Just 7% of US online adults regularly engage in peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, and less than half of them use it for video files. In fact, more people have given up on P2P file sharing than currently still do it.

Another data point in this report revealed that everyone prefers a legal alternative. Our respondents were eager to reassure us that they prefer to use legal sites for watching videos, if these would give them a convenient way to serve their video needs.

Introducing our new blog platform

Reineke Reitsma — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:17:18 +0000

It's with great pleasure that I introduce our new blogging platform to you! Please let me know your thoughts.

In this first post on the new platform, I'd like to introduce Cliff Condon, the project manager, who likes to share his thoughts on Forrester blogs and the new functionality with you:

Everyone’s welcome here. Forrester analysts use blogs as an input into the research they produce, so having an open, ongoing dialogue with the marketplace is critical. Clients and non-clients can participate – so I encourage you to be part of the conversations on Forrester blogs.

We still have team blogs focused on role professionals. Our role blogs, such as the CIO blog and the Interactive Marketing blog, are a rollup of all the posts from the analysts serving that specific role professional. By following a role team blog, you can participate in all the conversational threads affecting a role.

And now we’ve added analyst blogs as well. If you prefer to engage directly with your favorite analyst, you can. Look on the right-hand rail of the team blog and you’ll see a list of the analyst blogs. Just click on their name to go to their blog. Or type their name into “Search”. An analyst blog is a place for the analyst to get reaction to their ideas and connect with others shaping the marketplace. You’ll find the blogs to be personal in tone and approach.

Market Researchers Need To Embrace Knowledge Management

Reineke Reitsma — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In the past couple of months I've been working on a document called 'Information Management For Market Researchers', released earlier this month to our dedicated Forrester Market Research Leadership Board Members. Although I can't share all lessons learned with you yet, there are a couple of insights I'd like to bring to your attention.

The most important outcome from my interviews with market researchers and knowledge managers is that a culture of sharing creates better products and helps companies be more successful innovators. Simply said: to innovate, knowledge from various departments needs to come together, irrespective of role or rank.

The Data Digest: How European Teens Consume Media

Reineke Reitsma — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Understanding teenage behavior is an eternal challenge, not only for parents but also for content providers and product managers trying to engage them. Our Technographics research shows that European teens combine two great passions online: enjoying content such as music, video, and video gaming and communicating with friends.

Hispanics’ Use Of Social Media – Is It The New Mainstream?

Tamara Barber — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

It’s been almost 18 months since I wrote Hispanic Social Technographics Revealed, which highlighted this consumer segment’s very strong inroads using social media of all types. And in that time, the volume around how, why, and when companies should use social media has grown even louder. Likewise, Hispanics' engagement in social media has grown.

The Data Digest: US Gaming Behavior

Reineke Reitsma — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Americans spend a lot of time playing games, and not only the young. Our Technographics data show that all generations spend about 7 hours a week playing PC games, but younger consumers top this up with playing games on consoles, handhelds, and mobile phones. Generation Y spends close to 20 hours a week playing games!

Godiva’s MROC Gives Way To A New Product

Tamara Barber — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

I thought I would share a recent MROC case study from an event I highlighted in one of my previous entries. These are the main points of a presentation from Rich Keller, the global business director of Godiva. The real kicker in this story is that Godiva doesn’t even have a research department. The research fell to marketing, and one very passionate leader in Rich.

How should researchers leverage social media?

Tamara Barber — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In a previous blog post, Reineke Reitsma summarized market research in 2010 with one word: Listening. And in today's socially connected world, many researchers are grappling with how to use social media for listening in a way that adds value to the MR role.

The Data Digest: US Online Grocery Shopping

Reineke Reitsma — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Grocery shopping is one of the largest offline retail categories but our Technographics data shows that it has one of the lowest online retail penetration figures in the US: Less than 10% of online adults have purchased groceries online and only 16% of online grocery buyers purchase groceries online more than once a month.

Innovative Research Ideas From Three Vendors

Tamara Barber — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

I recently attended a unique event hosted by three vendors who are, at times, competitors: Communispace, BrainJuicer, and OTX. It was a nice change from industry events, and a place to interact with top executives of each of these companies as well as a very nice mix of their own clients from large brands that any of us in MR would recognize.

The Data Digest: Type Of Video Watched Online

Reineke Reitsma — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

This week the Superbowl earned with 106.5 million viewers the Number One spot of the most watched program ever in the US, which proofs that online video hasn't killed the TV star yet. (Side note: did you know that until now the 1983 M*A*S*H final held this position?).

The Benefits Of Twitter From A Market Researcher's Perspective

Reineke Reitsma — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Seth Godin recently wrote a blog post called 'Modern Procrastination' which caused quite a stir in the twitter community: it got retweeted more than 1150 times!