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. Read 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. Read 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’. Read 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? Read 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. Read 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.  Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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.   Read 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. Read 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. Read 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? Read 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. Read 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. Read 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.  Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read more

I blogged a few weeks ago about my experiences at IP EXPO and just how much IT experts are evangelising about cloud computing. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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. Read 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? Read 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. Read 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.  Read 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. Read 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! Read 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. Read 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:

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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. Read more

In recent years, many market researchers have espoused the value of virtual ethnography. Not only is it very useful for gaining a deeper understanding of the attitudes and opinions that drive consumers’ decisions; it’s also an easy and less intrusive way of doing so, compared to other types of ethnographical research. Read more

Kate Downer and I attended a great Critical Eye event last Tuesday, Megatrends: What the Silver Economy means for your business. As the title of the event denotes, the papers focused on the business opportunity that the 50+ represent versus ageing society and its impact for social care and pensions.  Read more

As a somewhat new market researcher I have had to learn a lot of new tools, techniques and best practice methods. But the one concept that seems to own the spotlight is social media. And I don’t just mean within the market research industry. Social media is a tool everyone is trying to understand, utilise and make money from. Including their creators! Read more

I’m glad to see an outbreak of joined up thinking sparking a spate of “you wonder why nobody’s done it before (YWWNDIB)” innovations. – great solutions that use lateral thinking to join together pre-existing capabilities to address long-standing frustrations. Read more

We’ve all heard and probably used the expression ‘a camera never lies’. Whilst it’s undoubtedly true that the camera itself faithfully records the image in front of it we are also aware that that the story it tells can be manipulated by the skilful framing of the photographer (and let’s not get onto the subject of image editing). Read more

One might wonder how charities will sustain their level of donations after the use of cheques will be abolished in 2018, especially since at least 70% of charity donations are made by cheque, according to The Institute of Fundraising. Read more

A couple of weeks ago, Fiona Ellis, chair of the NCVO Funding Commission said in an article in Third Sector magazine that she believes “fundraising should be the job of many more people in the organisation than just the fundraiser”. In particular she highlighted trustees as a group of stakeholders who could do more. Read more

A story on Brand Republic this month makes very interesting reading – more than four-fifths of those buying personal technology products, like phones and cameras, visit websites to research what to buy and where to buy it from. Read more

If you ever watch US cable TV you will have seen that message pop up at the start of a programme, but how many of us have paused to reflect on whether we can say the same about the market research we’re working on?   Read more

We’re loving the new P&G corporate advertising campaign “P&G – Proud sponsors of mums”.  Do check it out. It’s also good to see grans getting some attention with Mumsnet’s launch of Gransnet.  Gransnet will have the same forums format as Mumsnet, providing grandmothers with the opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics from grandparenting to hobbies, relationships and news.  Read more

Online research has become more or less the default option for many quantitative surveys among consumers and, increasingly, micro businesses and research agencies are clearly under pressure from clients to propose that option for reasons of time and cost. However, we (and the industry at large) will ignore at our peril the risks of deploying over-long online surveys. Read more

A regular party piece at industry conferences for the last few years has been one or other of the major web panel providers demonstrating that their sample is consistent with equivalent samples drawn using traditional (telephone or face-to-face) methods. Read more

Yes, sure… but only for the baby-boomer generation.  The rest of us are in for a bumpy, long and expensive ride. As The Economist reported last week, the world’s richest countries are in need of radical reforms, with no obvious example to follow. Read more

1,966,514,816… far too many digits for my qualitative brain to process! One billion, nine hundred and sixty six million, five hundred and fourteen thousand, eight hundred and sixteen! This is how many people are connected to the internet worldwide!! Read more

A love of technology, innate inquisitiveness, higher levels of disposable income and shopping malls should signal great opportunities in India.  Read more

I came across a great web site recently – Flowing Data. It pulls together examples of innovative, interesting and effective ways of visualising data – so, required reading for researchers and marketers whose job it is to neatly summarise and interpret large quantities of data. Read more

Market researchers often struggle to design research tools that truly inspire and engage their respondents. I myself profess that in my pre-MR life, I would click through online surveys absent-mindedly, going through the motions of answering everything required of me but investing little thought in the process. Read more

Guten Tag from the CeBIT show in Germany! For the last 25 years, CeBIT has been one of the world’s major technology trade shows, showcasing the wares of hundreds of IT and telecoms companies, and those of their partners and resellers. Read more

Data collection by the public sector, particularly in the NHS, is a source of infinite debate and contention – is enough data collected?  Too much data?  The right data?  By the right people?  Read more

A major challenge for technology makers is the fusion of what were once distinct product types into new, hybrid categories. Not that this is especially new – all in one printing, copying, scanning and fax machine devices have been around for fifteen years and RS has been doing a lot of customer research around these devices – as much now as in the late 1990s.

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Clearly, the biggest and most important trend in qualitative research over the last few years has been the dramatic increase of online qualitative techniques. E-groups, bulletin boards, diary portals and blogs, research and brand communities – you name it. Read more

Following on from my blog of last week, this week has seen some interesting developments for contactless payments in the UK. Blackberry is getting ready to develop near field communications (NFC) technology in time for the 2012 Olympics, which would enable its mobile phone users to make contactless payments.

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Yes, on the RS Consulting blog we normally try to steer away from the scatological, but today the Government has launched a campaign to make us all a little less inhibited about discussing our number 2s.  The NHS is trying to give us a not so gentle ‘nudge’ to open up about our bowel movements, at least to our GPs. Read more

I listened with interest to the Futures Company at the Financial Services Forum when they told us the new ‘Millennium Generation’ (18 – 31 yr olds) expect a seamless transition between communication channels. The Millenium Generation expect access to service at their convenience any time, any place, anywhere and seem to be more optimistic and trustful of financial service suppliers. Read more

Did you see Gordon Ramsay: Shark Bait last week?  It was part of Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight Season in which Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver and Ramsay highlight the issue of over-fishing and campaign to end the outrageous fish discards which result from the EU Common Fisheries Policy. If you didn’t, then feel free to click on the above hyperlink that will take you to the show on 4OD.

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Starbucks is launching its new logo…or perhaps not. On Monday, in the Economist, Bret Ryder talked about the impact of rebranding and consumers’ resulting metaphorical cold shoulder.

One important detail in all of this was that Starbucks has its trusty online critics to steer its direction, and the majority have spoken.

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I just got back from the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas. What strikes you first is the sheer scale of the event – a series of stadium-sized exhibition halls, filled with the latest technology products and thousands of people networking, striking business deals and playing with the latest gadgets. Then you notice the dominance of two technologies: 3D imaging products and tablet PCs. Since the 1950s, 3D has been tipped as the next big thing.

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Here at RS, we were not surprised by the recommendations made in the recently published Making Automatic Enrolment Work review. Our public policy team has been investigating the pensions industry and the likely impact of the upcoming pension reforms for a few years now. Read more

Right now, I am supposed to be helping my sister sand down her skirting-boards; instead I’m writing this. The absence of central heating at my sister’s house and the fact that I have earned a weekend are, honestly, irrelevant to the reversal of my decision to pitch in. Flinty-hearted soul, aren’t I? Read more

So Gap Inc has withdrawn a new logo just one week after its launch, reverting to its 20-year old “blue box” logo. And the reason for this: “an outpouring of comments from customers and the online community in support of the iconic blue box logo”. Read more

Friday was one of my favourite days of the year as we held our annual coffee morning on behalf of the brilliant Macmillan Cancer Support charity. On this day our employees cast their questionnaires, reports and tables to one side and take up their spatulas, bowls and icing bags to create a magnificent feast for us all. Read more

On Friday we supported our much loved client, Macmillan Cancer Support, by holding a coffee morning in the office. The emphasis for us is always more on the cake than the coffee and true to form, the event metamorphosised into a bake-off with the table groaning under a dozen different and all delicious offerings. Read more

Social media monitoring sites – who are they, what do they offer and are they worth the cash?

Thanks to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and others, social media sites are a researcher’s playground for titbits on what’s hot or not. Luckily, there’s an array of off-the-shelf monitoring tools to help us make sense of the mass of data available. Read more

Last week I spotted a really interesting blog by Brian Tarran that I think is worth sharing. It’s about the ‘lies by omission’ that crop up on social networks: those snippets of personal information and the views we intentionally choose not to publicise. Tarran ties the term in with the ‘like economy’ that tools such as Facebook have helped to create, where people can ‘like’ anything from status posts to brands and particular products. Saying ‘I like this’ is clearly nothing new: but it’s staged on a new level now, and in a more traceable format. Read more

Have you seen the article / video of the Research Magazine interview with VW Group’s Economic and Insight Manager, Steve Gatt? He warns of a “downward spiral of unusable findings” and calls for more inspiring debriefs: “I do not want a 70 or 80 page report, what I want is the shortest report possible that’s got the ideas or insights that will move this business forward. That could be 20 pages, it could be 15 pages and actually we’re down now to 3 as a summary”.

This was heralded by the editor as an article that would leave research agencies “somewhat put out”. I don’t get it, what’s not to like? If you’re ‘put out’ by the idea of having to take the time to distil your research, sort the wheat from the chaff and find the true insight, then time to think about an alternative career.

Amen Steve!

I’m not talking about a black or white thing ….. I’m talking about a green thing. (To usurp the words of Redhead Kingpin and The FBI).

Last week I was reading about plans to make the, Empire State Building greener. “Not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense”. The renovations will cut energy use by almost 40% and annual bills by more than $4m – the project will pay off in 3 years.

Well ok, our operation is on quite a different scale, but all the same, focusing on sustainability has resulted in us cutting operating costs and we haven’t had to wait 3 years to feel the benefit.

Hey, it’ll save you money, it’s the right thing to do and it’s a great way to enhance your social status (see my previous blog) so we can only recommend you follow suit.

Kate Downer and I recently came back from a festival. “Oooh – Glastonbury? Latitude?” I hear you ask. Well, er, no. it was the ESRC Research Methods festival. So yes, to call it a festival might be over-hyping it a bit but at least there were no portaloos!

So what did we learn? Well lots of interesting stuff about best practice in literature reviews, mass observation, researching personal lives and a great insight into the work of the Third Sector Research Centre. But the overwhelming impression I’ve been left with is of the gulf that still exists between academia, commercial researchers and clients. We were almost the only commercial researchers there and client-side researchers were also fairly few and far between. Read more

I have just recovered after losing my voice for 10 days. As a researcher with depth interviews scheduled, it was frustrating to say the least.

As a renowned chatterbox, I found it even harder! I was lucky though – I went to the doctor who not only gave me a diagnosis (“after 10 days you are clearly ill”) but more importantly, a fairly fast-acting solution (antibiotics) which restored me to my vocal self.

But, in the immortal words of SJP, later that day I got to thinking … what about all those people who struggle to make their voice heard on a daily basis? The vulnerable, the disenfranchised and the isolated? Don’t we as an industry have a responsibility to ensure that participation in research is accessible and open, and that it reflects the diversity of the world we are researching? And shouldn’t that be the case for all research, not just those projects that deal with specific social issues?

I read in a recent article in Marketing Magazine that research conducted in March by leading academics confirms that consumers opt for eco-friendly products to enhance their social status rather than just to do the right thing.

And, a far cry from the days when green meant grey toilet paper and muesli munching, Stella Artois’ ‘Recyclage de Luxe’ strategy is finding that sustainability is, in the words of Futerra, Sustainability Communications, a ‘great indicator for premium and luxury’. This is borne out by the fact that those who’ve seen Stella Artois’ eco ads are more likely to name it in their top three lager brands and more likely to see it as trend setting.

Of course, we would think it’s cool to have this confirmed. We’re strong believers in the benefits of green and know how critical it is to eschew greenwash and walk the talk … including, as this blog clearly shows, the judicious reuse of data.

I’m fresh back from speaking at the AQR/QRCA qual research conference in Prague and proud to be part of an industry with such great thinkers and practitioners! But frankly, I’m bemused by the debate raging regarding whether research should focus on depth or breadth and the extent to which online approaches threaten traditional methodologies.

Admittedly, our presentation centered on web ethnography but as seasoned fans of ‘traditional’ methodologies, we haven’t got an online axe to grind, we’re just looking for the right tool for a particular job, in this case web usability. Read more