I’m really looking forward to May 5th rolling round as I’ll be presenting at the MRS Retail Conference with Frances Williams from Next, talking about some recent work we’ve done utilising existing social media platforms and bespoke research techniques to great effect. There are more details of the event at the link below. http://www.research-live.com/events/one-day-conferences/programme-retail-research-5-may-2010/4002087.article As can often be the case with these Conferences, [...]

Lots of the sites we use every day – Twitter, YouTube, Google – have a layer of functionality for gaining up to the second consumer insight that isn’t immediately obvious… or wasn’t until I attended a Webinar hosted by Marketing Week and Google. This session really opened my eyes to ways of harnessing more of the [...]

So, to search is “to ask” – but it’s also more frequently also “to tell”. Analysis of aggregated Google search data can show many things  – the current information buzz topics, which celebrities are in vogue, the words we collectively can’t spell – but had you considered that it might also be predictive? Well, an interesting piece [...]

by Karen Schofield NPS* has been widely adopted as a key performance indicator by many organisations since Frederick Reicheld published an article about it in the Harvard Business Review in 2003 (‘The One Number You Need to Grow’). Reicheld claimed that NPS not only reduced the complexity of survey implementation and analysis, but that changes in [...]

Here is a summary of 2009 from a Virtual Surveys perspective. CLICK TO ENLARGE. [let me know if you want to make any changes]

…spend on online advertising surpass TV advertising spend for the first time, with one report claiming that the online advertising industry is now worth £1.7 billion. In response to this trend, companies are becoming increasingly interested in assessing the impact of their online advertising – not just in terms of click through, but understanding issues such [...]

Research conducted for Shaw Trust by YouGov, shows that almost one sixth of the population (17%) have a health condition* which could make it difficult for them to access and transact on many websites. This is of immediate importance for all central government websites as they strive to deliver accessible websites as part of their obligation. The [...]

So that was 2009 & the noughties. Passed in a flash didn’t it? And with a New Year and a new decade (the oneties?!!) no longer looming, but here & started, thoughts turn to New Year’s Resolutions. So what are my research resolutions for 2010? What’s looming for me in the New Year? And why [...]

So, consumers are behaving differently. Research measures are behaving differently (see my previous blog post on NPS). And I think our research should be responding to these changes. That’s all well and good, but how do we do it? The key is that we need to be really listening to consumers when we’re asking them [...]

There is a wealth of evidence suggesting that consumers are behaving differently during this recession. A number of articles and papers have been written describing new trends in customer behaviour. Trends which point to fundamental changes in the retail landscape and a need to re-examine our understanding of how consumers make choices. For example: The rapid switch to [...]

I recently listened to an interesting paper from one of BTs resident futurologists. It was a really illuminating insight in to how social network techniques and platforms are being utilised to help what can only be described as a ‘gargantuan’ organisation deal with the demands of everyday business…and particularly making the customer experience a joined [...]

I jotted down an interesting note to myself the other day while listening to a client discuss their experiences with moving a Panel to a Community. They were discussing the issue of ownership of the Community and “not wanting it to run too far out of control”. Ceding, but not ceding too much to keep it [...]