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I read this article today that I thought was a good reminder to always ask questions. As the author writes, many people are familiar with
use the Internet to find an expert. I can learn more in five minutes on the phone with the guy who has just spent 10 years thinking about how to cut electricity costs than in an hour on the Internet.
While the Internet has proven to be a very useful tool, it is still important to remember that other sources may have a better answer.
Yesterday we posted an excerpt from The Market Research Event keynote speaker Dr. Kathleen’s Vohs’s book ‘Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making? A Hedgefoxian Perspective.’ As promised, here’s the 2nd portion of the excerpt from the book. Enjoy!
Of course the foxes are right; each of these polar positions is simplistic in its extremity. But that observation doesn't take us far. In the waning hours of the emotion research party, we have arrived at the point where debates between extreme and obviously untenable positions are not as productive as they once were. In short, we need answers to the when question. When do emotions or cognitions predominate? When are moral judgments driven by reflexive emotional reactions and when by logical thought? And, when are emotions helpful or harmful? The chapters of this book provide nuanced, synthetic, answers to these types of questions.
Decision making is the other half of our topic. It too has seen explosive growth in research interest in recent years. As with emotion, its few early hedgehogs (e.g., groupthink, rational choice, framing) have had to withstand a stampede of foxes. Some decision-making researchers are starting to think that their field’s destiny is merely to develop lists of departures from rationality, without much prospect of integrative theory. Yet others are confident that new grand theories will emerge. The time is ripening for hedgefoxes to impose limited order on decision theory also.
Are hedgefoxes born or made? Most likely, the latter. What emerges from reading this book is common language, a shared understanding of a number of issues, and most characteristically of hedgefoxism, a nuanced theoretical perspective that makes sense of, what had previously appeared to be contradictions.
So what is the answer to the question of whether affect helps or hurts decision making? The hedgehog would argue either that it helps or that it hurts decision making. The fox would argue that both are true, or that the question doesn't make sense. The hedgefoxes who make up the authors of the chapters in this book will tell you, however, that the correct answer is "it depends." If you want to know what it depends on, read on.
Last Friday, we profiled The Market Research Event keynote speaker Dr. Kathleen Vohs. Now we have the opportunity to bring you an excerpt from her book Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making? A Hedgefoxian Perspective.
Here is Part One of the excerpt from her book. Look for part two later this week.
In a perhaps overused metaphor, academics are sometimes classified as hedgehogs and foxes. Playing on a famous, albeit somewhat mysterious, statement by 7th century B.C. philosopher Archilochus that "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing," the prototypical hedgehog is a "system addict" on a quest for a unified theory of everything. Foxes, in contrast, have an appreciation of the complexities of reality that prevents them from even entertaining the possibility of any grand unifying scheme.
Belying their physical image, hedgehogs are the life of the party. They take outrageous positions and push their arguments to the limit, generating heated debate. Foxes, despite their slyness, are party duds; they stand on the sidelines shaking their heads and rolling their eyes at the naivety of the hedgehogs' wild speculations. One more strike against foxes.
As the party extends into the waning hours, however, the frantic repartee of the hedgehogs can wear thin, even to the hedgehogs themselves. That's when the host begins to long for the arrival of a third species of party animal: the hedgefox. Hedgefoxes combine the best properties of their two mammalian relatives. Like the hedgehog, the hedgefox is a synthesizer, but like the fox the hedgefox cares about, and advances theories that take account of, and make sense of, the complexities of reality.
If research on emotions is a party (and the explosive growth of the topic over the past few decades has lent the topic something of a party atmosphere), the time is ripe for the entry of the hedgefox. Research on emotions has made enormous strides, stimulated by debates between researchers who have taking extreme stands on a variety of central issues. There are hedgehog emotion researchers who argue for the primacy of emotions over cognition, and others who argue, instead, that all emotions are derivative of cognition. There are advocates of the idea that moral judgments are the product of emotion, perhaps justified ex post by reasons, and those who argue that morality is a matter of logic. And, most central to the basic theme of this book, there are hedgehogs whose research focuses almost exclusively on the destructive effects of emotions and others who focus as selectively as the first group on the vitally beneficial functions that emotions serve.
I came across this helpful blog post today that gave a list of 25 top market research and analysis tools as evaluated by Tino Triste in Internet Marketing. The author also provides a short description for each tool, and why it is useful. Here are a few of them. I hope you find them helpful!
After checking out the complete list at the i-com blog, are there any others that you would add? What have proven to be the most helpful market research tools that you have used?
With the The Market Research Event quickly approaching, we would like to begin to introduce you to the keynote speakers we will have this year at our event. This year, The Market Research Event will take place from October 13 - 16, 2008 in
Kathleen Vohs specialties include: self regulation, self process, effects of making choices on self regulatory ability, the mere presence of money, heterosexual relations as predicted by the economy. She has published over 70 scholarly publications including: : Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making? A Hedgefoxian Perspective, Self and Relationships: Connecting Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Processes ,and Making Choices Impairs Subsequent Self-Control: A Limited-Resource Account of Decision Making, Self-Regulation, and Active Initiative.
Find the results of some of Voh’s studies here.
Humans and ability to make decisions
Behavior: An Absence of Free Will, a Tendency to Cheat
We invite you to come see Kathleen Vohs at The Market Research Event as she presents his keynote speech on Thursday, October 16th, Money Talks: Even Small Reminders of Money Change People.
(Source: Carlson School of Management)
With the The Market Research Event quickly approaching, we’re taking time to get to know some of the people who are involved in the The Market Research Event. Today, I’d like to share with you the podcast recently conducted with TMRE’s conference producer,
Listen to the podcast here, and check back soon to hear more from our speakers at this year’s The Market Research Event! The Market Research Event will be in
As announced in this article, eBay has decided to “retire” their market research tool in favor of Terapeak’s tool. The official launch date of the new tool, and end of the current is September 15. Terapeak will be increasing the number of reports and features available to better serve the requirement of users of their tools. They already provide information to sellers on eBay listings that have been completed
Fred Speckeen, CEO of Terapeak/AERS, released this statement:
"The transfer of research responsibilities to Terapeak reflects our longstanding business relationship with eBay, and our company's commitment to providing the best market research product possible. Although most eBay sellers know us for our Terapeak product, AERS was the first licensee of eBay data, and also provides e-commerce analytics based on eBay data to the larger Fortune 1000 community. We are proud and excited to be invited to offer Terapeak as an alternative to eBay Marketplace Research."
We’d like to invite you to attend Detecting and Rejecting Duplicate Responses in Online Surveys webinar. Dr. William MacElroy, President, of Socratic Technologies, Inc. will be our featured speaker. He is also speaking at the 2008 Market Research Event. Register to view the webinar on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 -- 2PM - 3PM eastern standard time. Mention priority code: M2028Blog
About the presentation:
Over the past two years, a great deal of concern has been raised about the quality of online sample. A key issue has been the reported levels of duplication within major online sample providers. This session will focus on specific techniques and technologies for detecting duplicate respondents that are freely available to all firms hosting their own online survey applications.
The aim of this session is to acquaint participants with server technology and will discuss best practices for maintaining a duplicate-free online research environment. A straight-forward discussion style will explain technology --making the session accessible to those attendees who may not be familiar with the underlying infrastructure of the Internet.
What you will learn:
- An overview of historical levels of duplicates detected in normal survey procedures and the degree to which data quality is being compromise
- A list of basic requirements for any system being used for detecting and rejecting duplicate survey attempts;
- Advice for purchasers of survey output as to the questions that should be asked of survey data collectors;
- An overview of IMRO privacy guidelines and how certain technological "shortcuts" can violate code-of-ethics restrictions on spyware;
- Specific types of technical solutions, (most available for little or no cost), that can be used by those tasked with hosting surveys; and
- How de-duplicating efforts can be coupled with other cheating control protocols to drive data quality.
About the speaker:
Dr. William MacElroy
President
Socratic Technologies, Inc.
Bill MacElroy brings more than 25 years of marketing management and research experience to Socratic Technologies. His career has included both agency and client-side managerial positions with Corning Glass Works, Memorex/Unisys Corp., Cheskin+Masten, MACRO, Autodesk and Modalis Research.
Bill holds a doctorate in Management Technology & Business Administration from Golden Gate University, San Francisco; an M.B.A. with a concentration in Marketing from Pennsylvania State University and a B.A. in Economics from the State University of New York.
This is a Market Research Event sponsored webinar. The Market Research Event will be October 13 – 16, 2008 in
Register for this web seminar here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/655715869
Today, we would like to introduce you to our next keynote speaker, Billy Beane. The Market Research Event will take place from October 13 - 16, 2008 in
Billie Beane is the current vice president and general manager of the
Beane authored Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. He’s seen as a very talented manager, and business managers often look to him as a guide to using assets that are undervalued to create and maintain a competitive advantage. He also serves on the boards of Bell-Easton Sports, ProTrade, and NetSuites, Inc.
We invite you to come see Billy Beane at The Market Research Event as he presents his keynote speech on Wednesday, October 15th, The Numbers Game: Understanding How Mathematics is Transforming America’s Pastime – and What You Can Learn From It.
For more on Billy Beane read this article How to play Beane Ball by the Fast Company.
(Sources: Executive Profile, CBS Sports)
An important step in online marketing research includes understanding search patterns and visitor behavior. Tino Triste’s latest post on I-com details how you can use Google Insights to help do just that.
Google Insights helps marketers in several ways by finding popular key phrases for your market as well as generating geographical heat maps which shows where there is greater demand for products and services. Tino gives the example of searching for the term “gardening supplies” for a fictitious company called Gardening Outlet Ltd. By searching in the
Tino describes how Google Insights can be used for marketing research, but what are some other applications and methods that your company uses to conduct preliminary research?
Carol Ann Morgan recently wrote a post at the Thursday Night Insight blog citing the importance market research still has during this time of economic downturn. When she was out to dinner with one of her friends in the construction industry, they began discussing his current efforts, and she realized he was investing in marketing and market research. He saw it as a way to keep his business going in the future, not just a temporary fix.
Morgan brought up a very valid point. Marketing and market research are vital in this time of downturn. Not only can it increase your presence in the customers mind, but keeping up market research allows you to better understand the current state of your customer. You can then take their new needs and try to fulfill them, it’s also a way to increase customer loyalty and keep customers satisfied. These little things can be found by doing the research to find out what your customers need.
Is market research still progressing in your company? What effects have you seen the current economic state take on the state of the market research industry?
MobileVerbs was able to develop a plan for NBC to obtain feedback from mobile users surfing their Olympics site, according to this press release at PR Web. Visitors simply click on the banner link that then leads them to the surveys on their mobile phones. Mobile Verbs modeled the web page after the Olympics web page, and the responses obtained from this venture have exceeded expectations. MobileVerbs has been able to target a specific segment of the market with this campaign management tool.
Many businesses toggle between both qualitative target market research strategies, but which does your company prefer? This post on Strategic Market Segmentation outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages of using personas as opposed to target market research.
The advantages listed are that personas allow the marketer to create a more visualized picture of the customer, since they use experiences and instinct instead of research to form the potential customer. Also, personas help provide marketers with an imaginary person that be used to represent the customer.
Many marketers will argue that experiences are more valuable than research but the downside is that traditional research still remains more consistent, reliable, and verifiable. Personas can lead to failed marketing campaign since there is a chance of misinterpreting your imaginary person that is supposed to represent your customer.
Which of these two methods, if not both, is your company using to help visualize your potential customers?
Today, we would like to introduce you to our next keynote speaker, Simon Uwins. The Market Research Event will take place from October 13 - 16, 2008 in
Tesco, a British grocery giant, decided to start preparing market research in 2005 to move a chain of grocery stores into the
Here is a video of Simon Uwins explaining the set up of the Fresh & Easy stores:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/videos/detail/fresheasy0208/
Simon also takes time to write the Fresh and Easy blog:
http://www.freshandeasy.com/blog/
We invite you to come see Simon Uwins at The Market Research Event as he presents his keynote speech on Wednesday, October 15th, CMO Spotlight: Fresh & Easy: Uncovering New Opportunities in Retail Through Research.
(Sources: ABC News, Daily Breeze, Hub Magazine, 7 News ).
Innovation is key to keeping businesses afloat. Market research is a way for companies to identify what gaps they have in their current products and where they can innovate to enhance their appeal to the customers. An article at Strategyn takes a look at some of the downfalls that companies stumble on when using market research to innovate.
Strategyn points out that outcome driven market research was specifically created in order to aid innovation. It ensures that all variables are accounted for in the survey and it also doesn’t limit the number of questions. In addition, rhis market research uses new product research methods to find the hidden markets.
iPerceptions: Online Marketing Research Tool
According to this MarketWatch article, IDG has decided to utilize iPerceptions for many of their “online properties” including Computerworld.com, Macworld.com, and PCworld.com. They feel that this tool will help them
“solicit and analyze user-generated feedback from millions of site visitors in order to discover the issues that matter most to readers and gauge customer satisfaction with its range of content offerings, including multimedia and community features.”
Jonathan Levitt, VP of Marketing at iPerceptions had this to say in regards to IDG
"Media companies need to listen to real consumers, in the context of real experiences, in order to understand and improve the online experience. IDG is a great example of a media titan that is taking the right steps to engage its readers and transform their feedback into tactical and strategic decision support that changes their business."
In what ways are the organizations that you involved with gathering and analyzing customer feedback?
I came across Kari Rippetoe’s latest post from The Caffeinated Blog in which she discusses a couple of social media sites where marketers can conduct their own market research for free. Even though traditional market research can not be completely wiped out, take a look at how monitoring conversations in real-time can improve your market research process. Kari lists 5 ways social media and social networking sites can be used for market research:
The benefits of the internet have blossomed throughout the past decade. One area the internet is making much more efficient, is data collection for market research. According to this case study at Marketing Minds Research, they have found that better research comes when research is polled online.
They also found that the following proved to be benefits when gathering data online: faster results, less expensive, the ability to affordably interview lots of people, better customer insights, better reach, better targeting, better respondent selection, easy to get verbatim comments, able to use multi media, to ensure respondents answer in context, more comprehensive, fewer drop-outs, greater relevancy, no "interviewer effect", and avoiding diminishing returns on research investment.
Today, we would like to introduce you to our next keynote speaker, Marcus Buckingham. The Market Research Event will take place from October 13 - 16, 2008 in
Marcus Buckingham received his masters degrees from
We invite you to come see Marcus Buckingham at The Market Research Event as he presents his keynote speech on Thursday, October 16th: Go Put Your Strengths to Work: Becoming the Best YOU Can Be..
(Sources: The Marcus Buckingham Company, Simon & Schuster, CIPD).
