Shelley-Ann.com | Living On Creative Juice » research

What you need to survive going into the field…it’s not just your research plan.

Shelley — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:41:13 +0000

Heading out into the field to conduct interviews? Besides a research plan you’ll need other stuff…like food for example.

Below is a mindmap to get you started. You might need all or just a few of these items.

(click to enlarge)

What does your checklist look like?

View/download mindmap on Biggerplate

Advertising Week – Day 2

Shelley — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:35:50 +0000

Today I attempted to attend 4 seminars for the second day of Advertising Week. Well I failed in my mission because one of them started and ended late.

The seminars I was actually able to get to were Facebook: Knowing is Better, Speaking 50+ and The Future in 4D: Brands, Communities, Content and Technology.

I missed the Forbes Economic Summit which covered the present and future state of the global economy as it relates to its impact on advertising and media industries.

Here are some highlights from the seminars I did attend:

Facebook: Knowing is Better – The presenters were Facebook, COO, Sheryl Sandberg, – Nielsen Online, CEO, John Burbank and Sony Pictures, CEO, Michael Lynton. This talk was about how to engage users in a meaningful way, scalable and measurable way. If a company can’t measure results in some fashion getting budgets approved for projects is indeed tough. Facebook now has about 300 million users with the average user having about 130 friends according to COO Sheryl Sandberg. The number of user accesses Facebook via mobile devices is currently growing as well. The current estimate is that about 65 million users access Facebook via a mobile device.

Facebook has partnered with Nielsen Online to generate market research that can be used by companies and the entities that represent them. The data collected is anonymous and users have the option of opt-ing out of any market research. Demographic information is collected as part of the research.

Facebook doesn’t consider itself a web destination but a technology company. It’s goal is to be a platform for creating connections and also allow users to interact with marketers the same way they interact with friends.

Speaking 50+ – This seminar was presented by Grandparents.com. The speakers were Jerry Shereshewsky, CEO, Grandparents.com, Brent Bouchez, Creative Director, Agency Five 0 and Matt Thornhill, President, The Boomer Project . During this session a lot was made of the fact that people who are 50+ are dead to marketers who fail to recognize of the size of this market. They only seem interested in the 18 – 49 demographic of consumers. A mistake according to the panelist because on average consumers 50+ have more income to spend on products and service. This they say holds true despite the current economic climate.

The 50+ consumer makes up about 40% of the marketplace yet most advertising focuses on younger audiences. Most marketers it seems believe that people 50+ are only interested in health and age related products. Matt Thornhill mentioned that More magazine, a publication geared towards women 50+ has a hard time getting advertising for items such as luxury cars, etc. Interesting fact is that most luxury cars are bought by people 50+. Something that is definitely not clear by watching the commercials for these items. The average buyer of Mercedes is 61.

During The Future in 4D: Brands, Communities, Content and Technology seminar a few things struck a chord:

Every product should have a back-story
Consumer data yields power (have a purpose for collecting it and use it wisely)
Every product must resonate on a human level
Be brave! Make mistakes. Course correct if necessary

Groundswell – How do your customers connect?

Shelley — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:59:45 +0000

If you are anywhere online these days knowing who you serve is important to your bottom line. Forrest Research has published a book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies that helps you do just that. The book’s key message is that it helps you better understand how social technologies like YouTube, Twitter and blogging impact your business.

Forrester’s Social Technographics® classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation

The six participant types are the following:

Creators – responsible for generating content on the web. They blog, tweet and create YouTube videos
Critics – respond to what others post. They review products and services.
Collectors – organizers of content for themselves and others. They might use sites like digg.com, RSS, tags, etc.
Joiners – have profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
Spectators – don’t actively participate in the conversation but read blogs. Listen to podcasts. Read product reviews.
Inactives – ignore it all! online interaction just isn’t their thing.

These profiles are important to note to make sure your message is getting heard. If the clients I wanted to serve for example didn’t actively use Facebook then setting up a Facebook fan page would not be a good strategy for my business. An email newsletter would probably be better to get my message to the right people.

Check out the tool below to create a consumer profile and to see if your strategy aligns with the research.