Kantar's Profiles Blog

Marketing research blends its rich history of data collection with technology-driven methodologies. The ultimate industry goal? To listen and to learn; to create a ‘story’ for our consumers.  

Stories create structure for understanding our world and ourselves. Kristin Luck’s story is unique. With a reputation for innovation, she is recognized as one of the pioneers of multi-media online research. Navigating through a male-dominated industry; Kristin launched Women in Research (WIRe) in 2007. In our two-part series, we talk with Kristin about WIRe, the future of marketing research and her thoughts on gender equality.

As information becomes increasingly accessible, brands rely heavily on surveys for on-demand pulse measurement. Consumer feedback gathered from a properly designed survey can optimize and personalize product delivery. While technology makes surveys easier to create through DIY tools, improper survey design can result in limited or inaccurate data. By following the best practices of survey design you can increase the amount, accuracy, and relevance of data.

Everyone hates data transitions, but sometimes they are necessary. In most of the world, marketing research has undergone the transition to online from either telephone or face to face. When these transitions happen, we typically experience data differences, some of which can be measured, calibrated and explained while in other situations we are less able to explain the root cause.

Technology is changing; devices are providing infinite more ways to connect; but are they creating a disconnected culture?

When I grew up there were no mobile phones, the internet had not been created and our most connected game was a snake eating dots on a BBC Micro. Our life was still about connecting, but without the benefit of ‘devices.’ From a telephone call to face-to-face meeting, any arrangements we made needed to be confirmed, agreed and honoured; there was no option to change on the fly through an email or text. This meant that while it may have been difficult to connect widely, the connections themselves tended to be stronger and more personal.

Will voice technology have a major impact on the collection of data in marketing research?

Surveys are changing. Even with PCs and tablets available, respondents are choosing to complete surveys on their mobile devices. Open-ended questions are often reduced or eliminated as a way to shorten surveys for mobile compatibility; voice technology may enhance the survey experience on a mobile device by having the surveys read to you and enabling you to respond using your voice rather than typing on these small screen devices. Voice technology is quickly replacing both reading and typing on small screen mobile devices. 

Online surveys have become the cornerstone of the market research industry. They quickly and easily allow businesses to gather consumer data, which they can use to: enrich products, alter marketing campaigns, and tailor messaging. Unfortunately, modern technology, which has improved the ease with which companies can generate surveys and analyze results, has also spawned an era where an increasing number of surveys are poorly formulated, limiting responses or skewing data to misrepresent customer intentions. By applying a few basic tenants of survey design, we easily increase engagement and improve data accuracy and overall quality.

Following Wednesday night’s Republican Presidential candidate debate, and a shift in attention away from Donald Trump to Carly Fiorina in the post-debate news coverage, we were left wondering what it says to support (very!) different political candidates. 

When it comes to social psychology and voter personality traits, there is a definite pattern to the trends of Republican vs. Democratic supporters. With non-politician Trump leading the polls, we’re all curious about what’s going on here. We looked at this by surveying a group of roughly 450 fans of the 2016 political candidates and measuring their “Social Dominance” rating.

Everyone knows the numbers and the growth story. 

Online Hispanic consumers are a valuable segment in the US population that is socially engaged. There are 41 million Hispanics online who over-index on key digital behaviors. According to recent research by Unilever and Mindshare, Hispanics are twice as likely to share content as non-Hispanics, and do so five times more frequently. This represents a tremendous opportunity for brands, with an IRI analysis showing that a $1bn+ CPG company can earn an extra $71m in revenue annually by investing more effectively in the Hispanic consumer.

But how many of you have grown your client's business on Facebook? 

According to a spring 2015 study from Microsoft, the average human attention span has fallen below that of goldfish -- and you can blame it on the gadgets we use to watch YouTube videos and play "Crossy Road." The researchers clocked the average human attention span at just eight seconds in 2013, falling four seconds from the 12-second average in 2000, and putting humans just one second below goldfish. (http://www.cnet.com/news/goldfish-the-actual-fish-not-the-crackers-may-have-a-better-attention-span-than-humans/)

We made the transition from CATI to online, but now we need to make the transition from online to mobile. But, how do we keep survey respondents engaged in a way that captures their attention? Can we carry them past the eight second threshold?

From a questionnaire design perspective, we need to balance the marketing research hat with the respondent hat. Yes, we need to ensure our paired comparison questions are all implemented for proper analysis, but let’s grab the attention of our respondents with some color and images, bringing life to our questions. Let’s be their distraction.  

After an initial burst of interest in mobile ‘location’ services, the hubris died down a little. However, there has been renewed interest in location, once again, as technology has made some strides to catch up with the expectations of the marketing research industry.

Location is seen as a piece of the puzzle within the ‘Path-to-Purchase’ process to help understand how consumers react within the store and what might impact them at the point of sale. Simply, where do they finally make the purchase?