Articles

Forrester Shows Trend in Online Customer Communities

Technology will have a significant impact on market research this year, according to a new report by Forrester Research.

The report predicts that at least one-quarter of Fortune 100 companies will launch online customer communities to reach higher levels of engagement with customers and prospects. This trend could mean money spent on traditional qualitative research will be shifted to budgets for online research.

Also, Forrester estimates that traditional market research firms will suffer this year as large companies use more do-it-yourself technologies.

Vision Critical has experienced first hand the growth. Between 2002 and 2006 the company has grown 1,586% and was ranked by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America.

We are the world leader in developing custom online panels and interactive research. At a moment's notice organizations can investigate the attitudes, behavior and opinions of existing or potential customers using interactive surveys, discussion forums and 3D environments.  Since 2000, Vision Critical has developed custom online panels for hundreds of leading brands, such as Bloomingdales, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Nestle, NBA, Virgin Mobile and TIVO.

To read the full article about Forrester's report, click here.

Posted on January 21, 2008
Permalink

Strong Business Intelligence Could Increase Your Bottom Line By $500,000

The Wise Marketer reported on how business intelligence systems are not meeting expectations for Fortune 500 in the US and UK. As a result of unsatisfactory business intelligence systems, there is an estimated loss revenue of $478,686. This figure was extrapolated across the market by Dynamic Markets, to an estimated combined total loss of $250 million each year.

Two hundred and eighteen operational executives were interviewed by Dynamic Markets and the key findings showed that the problem is getting timely information to make decision or project future business opportunities. There is too little information for executives when a decision needs to be made, 76% executives reported they have to make a decision before they have all the information they need.

That said, it is acknowledged that the problem is with the tools. Almost all (90%) agreed that with greater intelligence, there would be significant benefits including: more efficient processes, better customer service, increased revenues and profitability and less risk to the business.

Given this research, it became apparent to Vision Critical that these Fortune 500 companies could use a customer advisory panel to gather strong business intelligence. A customer advisory panel is a group of people that organizations can access at a moment’s notice. The panel provides organizations with a solution to the two missing elements mentioned above, timely information and detailed insights from data collected over time. If you would like to learn more, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on October 31, 2007
Permalink

How Marketers Are Moving from Intuition to Fact-Based Decision-Making

Given the complexities of modern marketing, many suggest the days of making decisions based on gut instinct are increasingly impractical. According to a recent article in Advertising Age, research has become a requirement to drive fact-based decisions. The challenge is “many marketers' inability to understand the methodology and calculations behind data they get,” said Greg Stuart, former CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and co-author of the book “What Sticks”.

This lack of understanding has created a catch twenty-two where budgets are cut and researchers are doing online surveys to drive costs down and increase speed. However, some think it is decreasing the quality, and in turn undermining marketers’ confidence in research. Procter & Gamble Co., the largest buyer of research globally, disclosed that online surveys with rented sampled conducted weeks apart last year yielded different results, and were also different from responses done by mail surveys.

“It's becoming harder and harder to get people's attention to do research,” said Tony Palmer, Kimberly-Clark Chief Marketing Officer. "It's becoming clearer and clearer that what people say and what they do is different. So there's a real need to drive research to newer techniques, toward research that deploys anthropology and observation."

Employing or training marketers with research skills could help to find quality trade-offs for better research and knowing how to improve quality issues. Another option is to put researchers in C-level roles. "I like to have a quant jock or a researcher by my side in running a business," Mr. Stuart said. "I like to have direct access to that expertise." However, finding C-level researchers is rare and will take time before that becomes wide-spread in the industry.

The question still remains, how do marketers integrate “fact-based decision-making” into the business? One solution Vision Critical would recommend is to create an online proprietary research panel.  Unlike renting sample (also known as access panels), this is a dedicated group that market researchers can engage with and learn from over time. This enables research to become more engaging with shorter more targeted surveys allowing marketers access to timely data as results stream in real-time.

Vision Critical is the world leader in providing proprietary panels to hundreds of organizations like Banana Republic, Dairy Queen, RIM Blackberry and Virgin Mobile. If you would like to learn more, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

To read the full article from Advertising Age, click here (subscription required).

Posted on September 25, 2007
Permalink

Marketers Be Warned: Understand Consumers Before Going Viral

In all the hype of Web 2.0 and Facebook, marketers and researchers are scrambling to integrate social networks into their campaigns. But despite all the commotion, it’s becoming vitally clear how important it is to understand your consumers before going viral.

Wal-Mart recently launched a Facebook group in the hopes of winning back-to-school sales. The group, “Roommate Style Match,” lets students log on and design their dorm room with their roommate. It’s a great concept that has drawn over 900 members to the group, but whether it meets Wal-Mart’s intention remains to be seen.

The group “wall” is filled with people posting their opinions about Wal-Mart, including strong views on unionizing the big box chain and on how the company has closed community based businesses. Few and far between are supporters of the company, or comments about the service of matching roommate styles.

However, other leading brands are researching before launching an ad campaign, by creating a customer advisory panel where they can learn more about their consumer base. Vision Critical is working with hundreds of companies to create customer advisory panels so they can tap in to the voice of customer and gauge which ads will be most successful. If you would like to learn more, contact Julie Romas at jr@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on August 26, 2007
Permalink

Information Overload Blurring Lines Between Research And Marketing

An Esomar congress podcast posted on Research Talk discusses the challenges researchers face as the lines between market research and marketing blur.

Driven by a need to know consumers on a much deeper level, researchers are getting data wherever they can, whether quantitative or on blogs and chatrooms. The challenge now is information overload: it’s become vital that researchers dig to find the real insights in the data.Also discussed is the challenge busy researchers face in using a mix of methodologies and being expected to present the findings with expertise in all areas. One impressive and economically viable tool noted is the computer interface, for its ability to use visual stimuli and access sizeable samples for deeper analysis.

Researchers from hundreds of leading brands are using quantitative and qualitative methodologies by creating an online customer advisory panel with Vision Critical. The panel enables them to access thousands of their customers and gain the insights needed to make a presentation at the boardroom table. If you are interested in learning how to create a customer advisory panel, contact Julie Romas (e: jr@visioncritical.com/ p: 604.647.3557) to learn more.

Posted on August 23, 2007
Permalink

 1 2 3 >  Last »