Having moved house recently, I’ve experienced enough home deliveries recently to be approaching a quantitative sample and the results show some real problems. This is a complete list of the last half dozen home deliveries I received. (more…)

Niall and I were decontrolled yesterday. A customer service representative and numerous other staff at Gatwick Airport informed us that we were being “decontrolled”.

What on earth had we done in order to incur this punitive treatment?  (more…)

The ‘internet of things’ is rapidly gaining momentum in the modern digital lexicon and represents the expansion of the internet beyond browsers, phones, tablets, and glasses, and into refrigerators, toilets, food packaging and just about anything you can shove a microchip into. (more…)

I have spent the last two days at the Innovation Enterprise Big Data conference. At first I felt overwhelmed by the barrage of new terminology and acronyms - Hadoop, Hive, Storm, Map Reduce, ETL, distributed nodes, polyglot infrastructure…I could go on. (more…)

The question comes from an essay by philosopher Isaiah Berlin. Berlin divides writers and thinkers into two categories: hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea and foxes who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea. (more…)

In business there are always points when organisations are guilty of treating their customers as just that – a customer.  You take them for granted assuming that, as they come back to you time and time again, you’re providing them with the products and services they want, but how can you be sure that they’ll keep coming back? (more…)

As Martin detailed previously, it’s great to see how Canon are fuelling their PR with relevant, well researched insight into their markets.

Another example of where sharing research can really stimulate commercial relationships is when we support our clients in negotiations with trading partners. (more…)

One of the most frustrating things about being a market researcher is that often we can’t tell other people the details of the work we do. Findings, data and sometimes the methods themselves can be bound in secrecy by client confidentiality agreements and contractual obligations. (more…)

One of the key concepts within behavioural economics is that we humans have two distinct ways of making decisions.  System 1 is quick, intuitive and based on instinctual emotional responses that can act below the level of consciousness.  System 2 is slower, deliberative, based on rational and conscious thought processes. (more…)

I blogged a few weeks ago about the possibilities that the smartwatch might offer market researchers.  Of course there is one bit of kit already – well almost sort of already – out there today. Google goggles …or GoogleGlass as it is more properly known.   (more…)

It’s interesting to see how industry has responded to the horsemeat scandal.  When’s the right time to come clean? When’s the right time to take the glory for a transparent supply chain?  Or shall we just bury our heads in the sand. (more…)

Sustainability’s great, isn’t it?  When you see a product labelled ‘sustainable’ one of the first impressions that springs to mind is ‘it must be good’.  Many companies have latched on to this and proudly display their sustainability credentials on their websites and in flashy leaflets they spent considerable time and money on developing. (more…)

It’s the job of media outlets to cut through the morass of complex data, to interpret and to present the salient facts in digestible chunks.  It’s a shame that many put out material that ignores some of the very basic principles of statistics and good charting.  (more…)

I read an article in The Guardian today about how household appliances are becoming too complicated due to  “function inflation” or,  to use the phrase coined by the author, “setting creep”.   Nothing earth shattering here but it brought a smile to my face. (more…)

Conference speakers! Loads of you have talked to me in the last 12 months. And I have (mostly) listened. I’ve been intrigued and inspired by what some of you, elsewhere in research-land, are doing. I’ve enjoyed talking further with many of you afterwards in the queue for coffee. (more…)

Data visualisation is, quite rightly, a hot topic at the moment for those of us involved in quantitative research. However, in the drive to make our visual presentations more interesting and engaging are we in danger of forgetting the key purpose – to communicate clearly the story the numbers are telling. (more…)

The European horsemeat scandal is rolling on, seemingly implicating another country, another household brand, another retailer each day. (more…)

I haven’t owned a watch for quite a few years, but The New York times are reporting that Apple are apparently playing with loading their iOS software into a wrist watch.  Apple aren’t the only ones investing in smartwatch technology. A great crowd funded start-up called Pebble also has a bluetooth enabled watch. (more…)

One of the hot topics in technology research at the moment is BYOD. Or, in plain English, Bring Your Own Device. This is the much-vaunted idea of allowing employees to use their own, personal smartphones, tablets and laptops at work, rather than rely solely on the technology provided by their employer. (more…)

By now you must have heard that China’s economy is set to surpass both the Eurozone (2012) and US (2016).  Just take a glimpse into the future via this OECD forecast.  So it’s not surprising that  a common theme running through so many of our projects is understanding the impact of Chinese market entrants.   And the common answer is that they are very much underestimated. (more…)

In many Western economies the term “pensions crisis” has entered popular discourse, attributed to a variety of causes including an ageing population, under-funding, apathy towards saving on the part of the public, and poor financial returns.  (more…)

There’s debate around whether Albert Einstein ever did say “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”  But, whoever did actually say this, I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment. (more…)

Working a 9-5 job in an office, it’s difficult to avoid a largely sedentary lifestyle, complimented by a desk drawer full of sugary snacks and a kitchen often containing foods – mostly edible – from colleagues’ travels. So when I was first given the opportunity to participate in a company-led pedometer initiative, I was a little afraid of how embarrassingly poor my results would be! (more…)

Ed Davey, the Energy Minister, recently proposed that each energy company should provide no more than 4 tariffs for each fuel: one fixed, one variable and two more of their own choosing. The stated goal of this policy is to make choosing your gas and electricity suppliers simpler and cheaper for the consumer. (more…)

The BBC recently published an interesting article about how the initial stages of the recruitment process are increasingly being handled by computers, which filter applicants CV’s by using keyword analysis to ensure the candidates are saying the right things. (more…)

The market research industry collectively held its breath last night and hoped that our colleagues working for American polling firms had got it right. Faced with one of the hardest elections in living memory to sample the final average of the polls (more…)

November – traditionally a time of bonfires and fireworks, and latterly the increasingly premature start of the Christmas stampede. In the charity world, it is also the time for two charities to take centre stage, as the flurry of pink ribbons from October takes a step back. (more…)

The thing about decisions – the ones that matter – is it’s often hard to say when or how you made them. Do you remember the moment you chose whether to do A-level Economics? (more…)

Our new CSR initiative across the whole Cello group is called “Talking Taboos” and aims to tackle subjects “where ignorance, fear, or shame can lead to problems going unnoticed and untreated”. (more…)

I saw this the other day and it gave me a spring in my step. I lose count of the number of lost cat/dog posters I see and some really bring tears to your eye.  (more…)

The front page of this week’s Third Sector magazine asks if there is a long-term crisis in giving, focusing on declining donations from younger people.  This follows on from the Mind the Gap report published by CAF in September. (more…)

Last time I blogged on cloud gaming, I was writing about a company called OnLive. They basically run games in server farms while the user streams the video remotely and inputs commands from their terminal (PC, tablet, phone, TV, etc) thus eliminating the need for expensive hardware and having the game installed locally.   (more…)

For years I have been trying to get pensions research, and the need for pension saving generally, higher up the agenda.  Now at last this month, we’ve hit the big time. Every newspaper’s talking about it. (more…)

We’ve just completed a project where channel strategy proved to be the vital piece of the jigsaw. It set me thinking, as researchers we spend a lot of time analysing the way people buy, and working out how our clients can tailor their approach to maximise sales.  (more…)

The US elections provide a lot of fun for data junkies and while we don’t have the talents of Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman to entertain us anymore there is still plenty of fun to be had if you are a researcher. (more…)

Time was when an ugli fruit was a mottled green and yellow citrus fruit that is a hybrid of grapefruit and tangerine, obtained from the tree Citrus × tangelo. (more…)

US Presidential elections, rather like American football, have always provided a rich seam of data for anyone who likes number crunching and with candidates separated by less than the margin of error in almost every poll, this cycle is no exception. (more…)

If you’re anything like me (and I know you are), this year you will have got married, bought your first house, and been counting down to the introduction of Automatic Enrolment on October 1^st. (more…)

Why is ethnic diversity important? Ethnic identity is often a very personal subject that impacts us in our daily lives, but how individuals from different communities function has wider implications for society as a whole—both good and bad. Complex cultural, social and economic factors all interplay to impact how different ethnic groups function in a given area. (more…)

Commuting is competitive and tactical. Seasoned commuters have perfected their strategies, knowing the exact spot on the platform where they can board the train with the minimum risk of getting elbowed in the ribs, safe in the knowledge selecting this carriage will mean they have the shortest walk to leave the station at the other end. (more…)

The basis of independent India post-1948 was, to a large extent, the nurturing and maintaining of ‘unity in diversity’ – seen as the only conceivable blueprint for governing a people divided along regional, linguistic, religious and (far less so now) caste lines by the ruling Congress Party. (more…)

Did you see The Audience last night on UK’s Channel 4?  It’s a new show in which, 50 members of the public follow an individual facing life-changing decisions for a week and decide how they should resolve their dilemmas. (more…)

So given that Facebook is increasingly becoming the benchmark by which brands, and frankly most people, use to determine how popular and worthy they are, it only seems pertinent to have a look at how the big hitters (sponsors) did during the Olympics…am I allowed to say Olympics or will I get sued by the IOC? …during the summer of sport. (more…)

Why did you not win that £10,000 contract? Were your costings poor, was your methodology wrong, do your staff not have the right experience, did the client see that small stain on the carpet by the front door? (more…)

I’m normally irritated by the predictable use of sporting competitions to stir up nationalism. It seems pretty irrational to identify with other people just because you’re from the same place, rather than sharing the same interests: doesn’t a British nurse have as much in common with a French nurse as she does with a British banker? (more…)

On the evening of Friday 27^th July I was sitting in a state of great excitement at Eton Manor near Stratford , the holding area for most of the volunteers who were performing in the Opening ceremony of the 30th Olympic Games.  (more…)

What do customers appreciate more when buying a product, a long menu of options or short list? My immediate reaction was to assume that brands offering more choice would be preferred. (more…)

Echo-boomers, Millenials, the dot.com generation, whatever you choose to call Generation Y (those born between 1980-2000); there’s no getting away from the fact that we are a key generation with our own habits and characteristics (and yes, I am including myself here!). Having grown up during a technology and culture rich period there are certain expectations that we have of the world.  (more…)

Well, you may not be aware, but Comic Sans is a pretty controversial font, still reeling from the online hate campaign unleashed on it in 2010.

But in an exciting turnaround, Comic Sans is having a renaissance.  (more…)

Last week I travelled by Eurostar to a client meeting in Paris.  On emerging from the Channel Tunnel in France we were informed that we would have to swap trains in Lille due of a technical fault with the train, meaning we would be over an hour late into Paris.  (more…)

I’ve always been a strong proponent of cross fertilisation: What can we learn from those around us? What can we learn from parallel markets, parallel disciplines? As researchers you can’t help but be a bit nosey!

(more…)

Over the past month or so I have been reading one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books about decision making. The Blink is all about those instant decisions we make all the time and the subtle factors that influence our responses. (more…)

Union flags, street parties, the Queen just about everywhere (and on just about every conceivable product) – yes, Blighty has gone Jubilee and Olympics-tastic and an outbreak of very un-British pride in being British is evident all around.  Well, almost all-around because we wouldn’t be British if there weren’t a few grumbling cynics hanging about! (more…)

I spent the day yesterday at the MRS food and drink conference – some really interesting stuff about shaking things up, doing things differently including a really interesting case-study from Pepsico snacks and MMR re new innovation approaches and the need to match concept with product early in the process.  (more…)

Earlier this week I attended a Government Communication Network/ Government Procurement Service event on the future of government communications and communications procurement (sounds enthralling, I know!). (more…)

When things at work are tough and you day-dream about your alternative career, what are you doing in it? In my (rose-tinted, ultra-sentimental) version, I run a deli selling cupcakes and artisan goat’s cheese on the high street in Earlsfield. (more…)

Gil Scott-Heron told us “The revolution will not be televised”. He goes on to add “The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.” He should have gone on to say that it would be surveyed, segmented and tracked though! (more…)

Exhibitions and trade shows are a great idea in principle – bring lots of buyers and suppliers together, talk about the hot topics, meet new people and show off your wares. They’re a great leveller, too – a rare opportunity to compare brands head to head. (more…)

A recent trend on Twitter has been the reliving of historical events as if they were happening in the here and now. A couple of examples include @RealTimeWW2, a ‘live’ account of World War 2, and @TitanicRealTime told from the perspective of a passenger on Titanic’s fateful maiden voyage tweeting as if they had just boarded the ship. (more…)

When we write research publications for Government clients, the golden rule we operate by is “Assume that any sentence you write can be taken out of context by the Daily Mail and used as a headline”.  That way, you can avoid any, er, ‘unintended political consequences’. (more…)

As researchers we’re often charged with considering different pricing offers and the impact of different discount structures on consumer behaviour.  For example is a BOGOF or a half price deal more appealing?  Which causes the greatest uptake in sales?  Which can switch the customer from A to B? (more…)

Cloud Computing – it’s one of those buzzwords that gets technophiles’ pulses racing, and keeps futurologists in beer money. But what about the general public? What do they make of the cloud revolution? We set about finding out. (more…)

One of the great pleasures in the life of a researcher is having the opportunity to be involved in the creation and development of new products and services – from those first sparks of ideas, when those first little seeds are germinated right through to the detail of packaging, pricing or communications.  (more…)

Often organisations find it extremely difficult to see themselves clearly, to take stock of their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Whilst we are happy to congratulate ourselves on a business win, successful project delivery or a bumper year, true introspection at a company level can be a struggle. (more…)

Have you seen the poster ad for UK’s Spectator magazine? “Most Germans own a second property. It’s called Greece” the ad reads. Reactions vary, but for me it’s not in great taste or even particularly well-worded and I’ve heard better. (more…)

I spent yesterday at the MRS Conference which was full of great papers, reflecting on recent developments and pointing the way ahead for research in the coming years. One speaker joked that his job title is, “Head of Customer Insight, or what we used to call market research.” Delivering greater insight into the consumer is what the industry aims to deliver and why this title is so widespread these days. As can be expected, how to gain these insights in the first place is the challenge. (more…)

One of the advantages of running a global market share study for a protracted period of time is that you get see how macro-level trends affect a product segment you have great familiarity with. (more…)

So, is innovation relevant to commodities? Hell yeah! Not only to the traditional commodity markets, but to those markets where products are falling into the commodity trap – like mobile phones, for example. (more…)

I’m at the Economist Big Rethink conference today. A whole day focusing on consumers, how their role has changed as markets have evolved and, more importantly, what their role will be in the future. (more…)

I’ve recently returned from a week in South Africa so I am trying to get used to the cold weather and ‘normal’ life.  I always enjoy visiting new places and I love getting the chance to explore and experience cultures so different to those I’m used to in the UK.   (more…)

In his recent initial public offering letter (IPO) Mark Zuckerberg provided us with two interesting insights into the Facebook philosophy – “Done is better than perfect” and “Move fast and break things.” For me these two statements represent a more general shift in how software is developed and rolled out. (more…)

I blogged a few months ago about the differences between academic and real-world research.  I referred indirectly to two pretty textbook-ish terms in that blog: iteration and triangulation. (more…)

Last week, the Mail Online ran a “controversial” article entitled “Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study”. Thousands of furious commentators predictably rushed to throw more heat than light on the issue, and left-wing luminaries such as George Monbiot and Charlie Brooker were soon gleefully rubbing their hands at the commentators’ unwitting confirmation of the verdict they decried. But why would the world’s most successful news website show such wilful contempt for its target audience? (more…)

Over the last 12 months we’ve been taking a detailed look at cloud computing, and in particular how it is going to impact both businesses and consumers around the world. (more…)

A campaign that’s really grabbed my attention this new year is the Time to Change initiative to get people talking about mental health issues and end the stigma around mental health. (more…)

It goes without saying that the technological paradigm shifts of the last 30 years have had, and continue to have, a massive impact on the way we live our lives.  No part of our day to day existence remains untouched by the digital revolution.  (more…)

There has been a lot of press coverage recently on the Congressional attempts to pass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) bills. (more…)

From March Londoners will have a new way to pay for travel.  If you’re lucky enough to have a contactless bank card you will be able to use it when travelling by bus. (more…)

It was great to follow Martin and Ken’s reports back from CES – I’d love to have been there too. It got me thinking about the role of research in the innovation process. (more…)

Hello again from the CES show in Las Vegas, where we’ve been checking out new consumer products being launched and showcased by leading global tech companies. (more…)

Greetings from CES – the world’s largest consumer electronics show, which kicked off today with a whole host of new product announcements from the likes of Nokia, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Ford, Audi and many other leading brands from around the world. (more…)

To complement the recently published Portas Review on the British high street, we conducted two focus groups to gauge sentiment and find out what improvements could be made to make the high street more relevant to local residents. (more…)

This week the Guardian started reporting on the findings of its Reading the Riots research project, which was a joint endeavour with the LSE to learn more about the causes of the riots that took place across English cities in August. (more…)

As my colleague Martin recently blogged, the cloud is rapidly becoming the key focus area for technology innovation nowadays. I was brutally reminded about this when I trialled a cloud gaming service recently.  I’ll come back to the “brutally” bit in a moment. (more…)

I blogged a few weeks ago about my experiences at IP EXPO and just how much IT experts are evangelising about cloud computing. (more…)

Vanessa and I have been immersing ourselves in the delights of the Plaza de la Technología and Plaza de la Computación in Mexico City.  Along with Santa Ifigênia in São Paulo – it’s a must-see sales environment and critical to understand for any technology company selling into Latin America today. (more…)

In November thousands of blokes eschew the clean-shaven look and grow moustaches to raise funds and awareness for Men’s health issues in particular major killers, prostate and testicular cancer. (more…)

Do you timeshift?  Go on, I bet you do!  I did it just the other day and while we’re on the subject of confessions, I also did a bit of vosdal over the weekend and it was great. (more…)

The Guardian recently took the bold step of raising the price of their daily print edition from £1 to £1.20.  The price increase was clearly made after much soul searching at the paper, and the new tariff was accompanied by a full leader article and prominent justification from the paper editor Alan Rusbridger. (more…)

With the recent death of Steve Jobs, the way innovation can drive change in societies has once again come into sharp view. Innovation is a hot topic, especially in the area of consumer technology, with the rate of product development and a seemingly insatiable demand from customers increasing at an ever-growing rate. (more…)

A lot of the research we’ve been doing this year has touched upon cloud computing in one way or another. This made me think: what exactly is cloud computing? I, for one, struggle to define it in just a sentence or two. (more…)

Walking through Victoria station recently, I have seen a number of different charities collecting donations using ‘buckets’. Given the recent announcement from the government of an Innovation in Giving Fund whereby there will be £10 million available to use technology to encourage giving I wonder how the way in which we donate to charities will develop over the next couple of years. (more…)

There remains a part of me that wants to protect my 4 year old daughter from the digital world for as long as possible.  What’s wrong with dolls’ houses, Lego and responsibly sourced wooden toys that inspire imagination and creativity in their good old-fashioned ways? (more…)

A great example I learned of recently is the solar bottle bulb, developed by students at MIT in association with the Appropriate Technology Collaborative.   Check it out, it’s inspiring stuff. (more…)

On 30th September we hosted the annual RS Consulting – Macmillan Coffee Morning.  As usual the event was a celebration of home baking, our resident bakers provided a delectable selection of cakes, scones and cookies to make the mouth water and the waistband stretch.  (more…)

Of course it depends on how you look at it, but, for me, one of the very few upsides to the financial doom and gloom these days is that business decisions are being placed under ever more scrutiny – gone are the days when companies can base their strategies on hunches and whims, gone are the days of commissioning research for research’s sake. (more…)

All together now ladies, 1,2,3: “One Fenerbahce, there’s only one Fenerbahce, one Fenerrrrbahhhhce, there’s only one Fenerbahce! “ I could really get into this! (more…)

Last weekend a few of us junior RSers were exploring the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam as part of a three-day sojourn in the city. At the exit point of the museum was an interactive exhibition entitled Free2choose, which gives visitors the opportunity to register their opinion on a number of different contemporary human rights dilemmas. (more…)

Because I have a lot of time on my hands (joke), I’ve spent two and a half years of weekends studying towards an MSc in research methods. I’m hardly the first person to draw attention to the different worlds that academic and commercial researchers inhabit. But since I live in both of them, here’s how I’d summarise the main differences:

(more…)

As is the way with these things, at the end of 2010 a list of the world’s 10 “greenest cities” was published.  In fact various lists of this type are regularly published and with a little blur around the edges, the main candidates remain the same with a strong representation from the Nordic nations plus a few entries from Europe and the US.  Curitiba in Brazil (a city that bases its identity on being green) is the only regular Latin American entry. (more…)