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Online Panels Index Reveals Vision Critical is Leader in Marketplace

Vision Critical stands out in the report on Inside Research’s U.S. Proprietary Panel Index. Showing a total of 531 proprietary panels in year ending June 2007, Vision Critical had 32% of the total with 170 panels.

A proprietary panel is a group of customers (and potential customers) who participate in research so that companies can gain the insights of their consumers and make informed business decisions. The popularity of proprietary panels has grown immensely in the last few years.Up 26% this year, from 420 panels in 2006, the forecast for 2008 is to reach over 700 panels. Not only have the number of panels grown, but so has the size of panels. In 2005, 82% of the panels had over 300 members which increased to 92% in 2006. Almost 60% of the panels have 1000 or more members.

In 2007, there were 163 community panels (three-way conversations) and 369 non-community panels (two-way communications). The forecast for 2008 is to grow to 274 community panels with 452 non-community panels. The value per community panel continues to grow rapidly from $133,000 in 2007 to $168,000 in 2008.

The index includes input from 12 firms: Burke Inc., CommuniquAc Partners, Communispace Corp., GfK NOP, Global Market Insite, Harris Interactive Inc., InsightExpress, Ipsos North America, Socratic Technologies, Synovate, Taylor Nelsen Sofres, and Vision Critical.

Vision Critical is working with hundreds of leading brands to create their own customer advisory panel and help them conduct quantitative and qualitative research. If you are interested in learning how to create a customer advisory panel, contact Julie Romas (e: julie.romas@visioncritical.com/ p: 604.647.3557) to learn more.

Posted on August 13, 2007
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Staying Connected with Today’s Dynamic Consumers

Today’s consumers have a smorgasbord of information and entertainment choices online leaving marketers frantically searching to create the perfect campaign that will engage their customers and stay relevant in their lives.

"Consumers are right now very dynamic in their media habits," said James Stengel, the P&G global marketing officer whose company spends nearly $7 billion a year on global advertising. "If you stay in touch with that and you want to be relevant in their lives, obviously, a lot of things change."Companies such as IBM Corp. and Comcast Corp. have established presences on the "Second Life" virtual reality world; Unilever Corp. just launched an online food/cooking video series on Yahoo, while Anheuser-Busch Inc. this year started its own entertainment Web site called Bud.TV. Crest created a MySpace page for a character called "Miss Irresistible." Four decades after its memorable "Anticipation" commercial, H.J. Heinz Co. has consumers submitting homemade commercials.

"This is really sort of the latest evolution in our strategy to directly engage our consumers," said David Ciesenski, vice president for ketchup for Heinz.

Vision Critical is working with hundreds of leading brands to create their own customer advisory panel and help them gain the insights needed to make relevant and effective business decisions. If you are interested in learning how to create a customer advisory panel, contact Julie Romas (e: julie.romas@visioncritical.com/ p: 604.647.3557) to learn more.

Posted on July 22, 2007
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Teens Want Online Features Not Ads

Marketers looking for best practices to reach kids in social networks have learned to stop using ads as distractions from what teens are doing online, instead enhance their online experience.

A recent study by Alloy Media shows 96% of online tweens and teens have used social networking technologies and 71% of them connect to a social network at least once a week. Of those in the study, nearly half said they engaged with a brand in the online space in the past month.Giving freebees like downloads and exclusive content goes a long way with this group, especially when compared with traditional media habits. TV advertising isn't getting the attention it used to with teens, 9 to 17 years olds are four times more likely to notice advertising online compared to what is on TV.

Vision Critical helps companies engage with their customers through the use of a custom online panel. It is a way of gaining the voice of customer at any time and as often as needed. It gives companies quick hits of research to make business decisions around innovation, share of wallet, concept and product testing. If you would like to learn more, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on July 19, 2007
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High Performance Companies Use Web-Based Consumer Panels

The McKinsey Quarterly surveyed consumer goods companies and found that winning companies are experimenting with new media, new approaches for gathering insights about consumers, and more collaborative relationships with major retailers.

Marketers at the companies identified as high performers were somewhat more likely than the others to perceive insights as central to their culture, working approach, and strategy and to believe that their consumer insights group collaborated effectively across the organization.To gather insights, high performers tend to invest more in nontraditional approaches, such as ethnography, "cool hunters", "buzz" networks or consumer online panels. In fact 80% of high performing companies use web-based consumer panels as a nontraditional research approach.



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Vision Critical just happens to provide the technology and services to help companies create their own web-based consumer panel. To learn how we can help your organization become a high performance company with an online panel, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on June 14, 2007
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Beware Of Opinion Leaders, Look For Accidental Influentials

Companies seem to think if you get a strong opinion leader to talk about your brand, you are in marketing heaven. In a recent InformationWeek article, several experts say that other than Oprah, opinion leaders don’t necessarily act as a catalyst for successful word-of-mouth campaigns, online or off.Michael Shore, VP of worldwide consumer insights for Mattel, takes a much more holistic approach. "We're not interested in opinion leaders. We'd consider that too narrow a focus." Instead, he does a 'cultural assessment' where he watches online discussions for language, behavioral patters, and values. That information is integrated into product ideation & innovation or ad & concept testing.

Lenoard M. Lodish, a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania said he finds most trends are started by a critical mass of people, rather than one person, who talks about your brand or product. He calls these people "accidental influentials".

But it's not easy to identify these accidental influentials. It begs the question, how are companies supposed to know where to focus their efforts for word-of-mouth campaigns? A customer advisory panel is one option that gives companies constant and immediate access to a group of people to ask them any question at any time. It also enables companies to watch discussions and identify trends to consider when making corporate decisions.

Vision Critical has helped hundreds of leading brands to build their own customer advisory panel for quick hit surveys or to watch discussions in forums where they can moderate or let it grow organically. If you would like to learn how to create a group to identify influentials and spot trends, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on June 6, 2007
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