MRGA JOURNAL Volume 1 Issue 2 03.18.11

03.18.11 Volume 1 Issue 2

 Tsunami Relief :: How You Can Help  Exclusive Interview With Toluna, Discussing the Latest Market Research Trends  6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Activate Facebook Fans

MRGA JOURNAL

JOURNAL ENTRIES 5

Welcome to the MRGA JOURNAL

35 New Membership Spotlight

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Music For Relief :: Tsunami Relief

37 6 Steps to Understand, Engage and Activate Facebook Fans

16 Featured Bloggers You Should Follow Now

38 Customer Centricity No Longer an Option

18 Featured MRGA Blog Posts

40 Top Stories 44 Events

19 LinkedIn Conversations

46 Videos 21 Corporate Membership Spotlight

49 Social Media Innovators

22 The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna

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Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

MRGA JOURNAL

Welcome to the MRGA JOURNAL Welcome to the second edition of the MRGA JOURNAL. We believe in the midst of human tragedy that it is our obligation to come together to help protect others from chaos, the cold, starvation, displacement, and give of ourselves. The hardest thing is finding a good cause to get behind. We thought that music would be the perfect way to invite you to give and help those lost in Japan.

We have partnered with Music for Relief to assist in raising money for the devastated in Japan, and the on going effort to relieve the devastated in Haiti.

Eric Bell, Founder & CEO The Market Research Global Alliance

I hope you will join our cause and give what you can on your own. The MRGA will be donating 10% of it‘s profits to aid in this effort through the rest of 2011.

Please follow the articles back to the original bloggers or the MRGA Discussions Forum and comment with your thoughts or write another article if you feel inspired. We have no agenda other than to support what you, our members and readers are interested in. We give all of our members an equal voice as it pertains to market research!

If you are inspired to write a story or publish an article as a professional member, please do it – it only costs your time to participate. If you are a company and want to share ideas about your company brand you just need to become a corporate member. All you need to do to share your news is be a member of the MRGA, and pick one of these areas within the MRGA Community and we will publish it.

Step 1. Become A Free Professional Member (Individual) of the MRGA or Become A Paid Corporate Member (Company Branding) of the MRGA. Step 2. Create Content or Lead Groups of Like Minded Professionals - Pick Your Publishing Destination::

 Market Research Conversations (Industry Announcements:: Post Blogs Commentary, News, Press, White Papers    

etc.)

Forums & Discussions (The best place to gather like minded professionals under industry topics) Groups & Online Product Labs (Join other like minded professionals to discuss topics and follow product innovation.)

Events (Post Your Industry Events, Webinars, Speaking Engagements, Interviews etc.)

Videos (Have media content you want to share with the world? Post it here and share)

Step 3. The MRGA will automatically publish and optimize your content through our one-click publication network as soon as you click submit! Our network publishes to over 17,000+ instantly. Our network is comprised of ::

    

MRGASN ResearchVibes GreenBook Blogs (Selected Commentary) Social Media Resources (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and More!)

Our goal is to give you an easy to publish, share, and achievable open platform that opens gives you ownership of your content and indexes for it the industry.

The podium is yours,

Eric Bell, Founder & CEO The Market Research Global Alliance JOURNAL@mrgasn.com

Where ever you see the blue bubble, click to comment. or just visit the discussion forum to see what other industry thought leaders are saying!

Click To Comment

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL

9.0 Earthquake Hits Japan A 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan on March 11th, 2011, causing massive destruction and an enormous tsunami that washed away coastal communities. Thousands of buildings have been destroyed and the death toll is rising rapidly.

Japan's most powerful earthquake since records began has struck the north-east coast, triggering a massive tsunami.

Music for Relief is artists, music industry professionals, and fans working together to create positive change. Their mission is to support disaster relief and reduce global warming. Click here to learn more about Music For Relief.

Cars, ships and buildings were swept away by a wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude tremor, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant, where pressure has exceeded normal levels.

Officials say 350 people are dead and about 500 missing, but it is feared the final death toll will be much higher.

In one ward alone in Sendai, a port city in Miyagi prefecture, 200 to 300 bodies were found.

The quake was the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one which devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, said scientists.

Thousands of people living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate.

Japanese nuclear officials said pressure inside a boiling water reactor at the plant was running much higher than normal after the cooling system failed.

Continued

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL 9.0 Earthquake Hits Japan (Continued) Officials said they might need to deliberately release some radioactive steam to relieve pressure, but that there would be no health risk.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier said the US Air Force had flown emergency coolant to the site.

But US officials later said no coolant had been handed over because the Japanese had decided to handle the situation themselves.

The UN's nuclear agency said four nuclear power plants had shut down safely.

Measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, it struck at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.

The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at 800km/h (500mph) - as fast as a jetliner - before hitting Hawaii and the US West Coast, but there were no reports of major damage from those regions.

Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

The biggest waves of more than 6-7ft (about 2m) were recorded near California's Crescent City, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

A tsunami warning extended across the Pacific to North and South America, where many other coastal regions were evacuated, but the alert was later lifted in most parts, including the Philippines, Australia and China.

Strong waves hit Japan's Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, damaging dozens of coastal communities.

A 10m wave struck Sendai, deluging farmland and sweeping cars across the airport's runway. Fires broke out in the centre of the city.

Continued

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL 9.0 Earthquake Hits Japan (Continued)

Deadliest earthquakes :: 27 July 1976, Tangshan, China: est.

655,000 killed, 7.5 12 Jan 2010, Haiti: 222,570 killed, 7.0 8 Oct 2005, Pakistan: 80,361 killed, 7.6 31 May 1970 Chimbote, Peru: 70,000 killed, 7.9 Source: USGS History of deadly earthquakes How to measure earthquakes Animated guide: Earthquakes Animated guide: Tsunamis

Japan's NHK television showed a massive surge of debris-filled water reaching far inland, consuming houses, cars and ships.

Motorists could be seen trying to speed away from the wall of water.

In other developments:  Four trains are missing along the coast, says Japan Railways; and a ship carrying 100 people was swept away.  Fire has engulfed swathes of the coast in Miyagi prefecture's Kesennuma city, one-third of which is reportedly under water.  A major explosion hit a petrochemical plant in Sendai; further south a huge blaze swept an oil refinery in Ichihara city, Chiba prefecture.  Some 1,800 homes are reported to have been destroyed in the city of Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture.  A dam burst in north-eastern Fukushima prefecture, sweeping away homes, Kyodo news agency reports.  At least 20 people were injured in Tokyo when the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony.  In a televised address, Prime Minister Naoto Kan extended his sympathy to the victims of the disaster.  As aftershocks rattled the country, residents and workers in Tokyo rushed outside to gather in parks and open spaces.  Many people in the Japanese capital said they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.  In central Tokyo, a number of office workers are spending the night in their offices because the lifts have stopped working.

"This is the kind of earthquake that hits once every 100 years," said restaurant worker Akira Tanaka.

Click To Comment

Train services were suspended, stranding millions of commuters in the Japanese capital.

About four million homes in and around Tokyo suffered power cuts.

Courtesy of BBC News Come alongside Music for Relief in responding to this tragedy. Text 'MFR' to 85944 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by this disaster or click here to donate online.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL About Music For Relief Music For Relief is a grassroots effort comprised of musicians, music industry professionals and fans who believe that together we can create positive change.

BACKGROUND: Established in 2005 to provide aid for those affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the idea for Music For Relief originated amongst the members of the band Linkin Park who wanted to do something to help those affected. The idea was that if they made a donation, and then asked their musician peers and their fans to make a donation as well, a huge impact could be made in assisting relief efforts.

With this in mind, they started reaching out to others in the music community to get involved and became the founders of Music For Relief.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: • Over $3,900,000 in donations • 810,000 trees planted to sequester more than 270,000 tons of CO2 • Our programs have helped survivors of: • 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami • Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Hannah, Ike & Gustav • Cyclones Nargis in Burma, Sidr, and Aila in Bangladesh • Wildfires in Southern California & Victoria Australia • Typhoons Ketsana, Parma, Morakot and Lupit in Southeast Asia • 2010 Haiti Earthquake • Zimbabwe Cholera Outbreak • Tornado in Mena, Arkansas • China’s Wenchuan Earthquake • 2009 Earthquakes in the Pacific Islands and Indonesia • Monsoon Flooding in Pakistan MFR Environmental programs have helped educate artists and fans about how they can reduce their carbon footprint also how climate change impacts weather related disasters.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MUSIC FOR RELIEF 2009 ANNUAL REPORT PROGRAMS: Pakistan Flood Relief MFR is raising funds and awareness to help the 20 million lives affected by severe flooding in Pakistan, the worst in living memory. In partnership with The UN Refugee Agency, 100% of funds will help provide shelter and other lifesaving aid.

Download to Donate For Haiti v2.0 It’s been a year since the devastating Haiti earthquake, but the crisis continues today with nearly one million people living in temporary shelter and makeshift camps. Since the earthquake Haitians have endured a Hurricane, flooding, and a cholera outbreak which began in October.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL About Music For Relief (Continued) Music for Relief has re-launched Download to Donate for Haiti with Causecast in an effort to support another year of recovery efforts and keep public attention on this critical situation.

To participate, make a $10 donation with your mobile phone: text RELIEF to 41010 or with a credit card or PayPal at downloadtodonate.org. and receive a one year music subscription featuring 60+ songs donated by outstanding artists. New songs and updates from the ground in Haiti will be added each month.

The program will support the medium and long-term challenges of reconstruction, including delivery of food, clean water and medical care, as well as the rebuilding of schools for children affected by the earthquake.

Music for Relief Green Home As a part of our ongoing partnership with Habitat for Humanity, MFR is funding and building homes for families in need of safe, decent, affordable housing. Homes are built using environmentally sustainable practices to help the environment, save the homeowner family money and help eliminate substandard housing. Learn more at www.musicforrelief.org/habitat.

One Million Trees MFR has planted over 810,000 trees to date to restore forests that help clean the air, water and provide habitats for wildlife. Our goal is to reach 1 million trees by the end of 2011.

Programs Disaster Relief :: Zimbabwe Cholera Outbreak Funded the air freight of critically needed medical supplies and pharmaceuticals worth $2M (wholesale) to Harare Hospital in Zimbabwe during the cholera outbreak in January of 2009.

Australia Bushfires Contributed to help individuals and families displaced in Red Cross shelters following the 2009 Australia Bushfires as well as people whose homes were destroyed.

Mena, Arkansas Tornado Recovery MFR supported the clearing of trees, debris and roof repair through a donation to partner organization Hands On Disaster Response. MFR also helped recruit volunteers who completed this work with HODR staff and residents in Mena, AK. Haiti Long Term Hurricane/Flood Recovery Funds contributed by MFR helped provide food, clean water and reforestation including a fruit tree distribution program to benefit impoverished people in the Central Plateau and La Gonave, Haiti.

Cyclone Aila in Bangladesh This program provided clean water, meal packets/dry food packages, and plastic sheets for temporary shelter in partnership with BRAC in response to Cyclone Aila in Bangladesh.

CA Wildfires In partnership with Direct Relief International, Music for Relief provided funding for face masks and other supplies for firefighters. Additionally MFR contributed to the American Red Cross for food, clothing, and other necessities for evacuees in shelters during the wildfires as well as the general emergency fund for future needs.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL About Music For Relief (Continued) Typhoon Morakot Supported the distribution of food, clean-up supplies and relief kits to 700 people living in emergency shelters in Taimali Township and Jiadug Township following the deadly Typhoon Morakot. *Funds contributed directly to World Vision Taiwan Indonesia Earthquake Recovery Following two major earthquakes, heavy rain and landslides MFR funded and helped recruit volunteers for HODR’s clean up and reconstruction efforts. This project included the reconstruction of 20 homes saving 20% of the materials to rebuild new houses.

Past Programs Environmental Protection and Restoration Send Dirt With funds raised by MFR throughout the summer of 2009 on the Vans Warped tour, in January of 2010 6th and 7th graders from Southern Louisiana transferred 600 plants to the wetlands of Terribone Parish in Louisiana to help restore and protect the states valuable wetlands. Plants, tools and equipment were funded by the Send Dirt campaign.

Tree Planting in China’s Inner Mongolia Desert Funded the planting of over 8,000 trees with the Jane Goodall Foundation’s Shanghai Roots & Shoots Million Tree Project to offset 2200 tons of CO2 and reduce dust storms coming off the desert. *Funds contributed directly to Shanghai Roots & Shoots.

Hurricane Katrina/Rebuilding the U.S. Gulf Coast In February of 2008, Music For Relief volunteers, Linkin Park, and Coheed and Cambria traveled to New Orleans to help build homes with Habitat for Humanity for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Thanks to generous donations from supporters, Music For Relief fully funded two new homes in New Orleans.

Cyclone Nargis/Myanmar/Burma Music For Relief responded by contributing funds to the humanitarian response of World Vision which provided aid to over 100,000 survivors of the disaster. Nargis, the severe cyclonic storm which struck the Burmese coast on May 2 and 3, 2008 caused catastrophic destruction and is estimated to have claimed 135,000 lives including those still missing.

Reducing Global Warming In 2008 Music For Relief raised awareness about global warming and the connection between climate change and increased strength and frequency of natural disasters like storms, floods and droughts. We provided information and tools to help our supporters decrease their carbon footprint and become active in reducing global warming in their own communities. We sold carbon offsets at live music events offsetting 750 tons of CO2 through Native Energy and collected donations specifically for environmental initiatives. Music For Relief planted over 332,000 trees with partner organizations American Forests and Tree Canada in an effort to clean the air and water, provide a necessary habitat for wildlife, and sequester C02 emissions.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL About Music For Relief (Continued) 2008 Hurricane Response in the U.S. Gulf Coast and the Caribbean Responding to Hurricane Ike (and other 2008 Atlantic hurricanes Fay, Gustav, and Hanna) to help victims in Texas, Louisiana, and Haiti Music For Relief made a contribution to Direct Relief International. This contribution enabled the shipment of medical and health supplies for displaced people in shelters as well as clinics and hospitals in the affected regions. Haiti and areas of southeastern TX and Louisiana were devastated by flooding leaving tens of thousands of people stranded.

Earthquake Recovery in China Music For Relief and Emma Ticketmaster in China donated $100,000 for recovery efforts following the devastating 5.12 earthquake centered in Wenchuan; the World Bank matched our donation. This partnership funded four postearthquake recovery projects described below; all were proposed by grassroots organizations in China and chosen via China World Bank’s 2nd China Development Marketplace (CDM).

Eco residence and community recovery: Utilizing an earthquake resistant design and environmentally friendly materials, this project will rebuild homes for those left homeless after the 5.12 earthquake.

Residential primary school recovery: Many children in the earthquake affected region live at residential schools while their parents travel to cities to work. This project provides funding to a residential school to help replenish books, toys and other supplies as well as train volunteers to provide psychological counseling for children affected by the earthquake.

Fanbei village medical center support: This project will provide necessary equipment and training to a rural medical clinic in the earthquake affected area which will improve immediate conditions for local residents’ medical care as well as preventative care.

School support social work: This project provides funding for children who lost one or both parents in the earthquake so that they are able to live at the residential school which they had been attending.

Music For Relief was honored to participate in the 2nd China Development Marketplace (CDM) in Beijing on Oct 2122, 2008. At the CDM, grassroots civil society organizations from all over China proposed innovative ways to address many social and environmental issues including earthquake recovery.

Zimbabwe - Cholera Outbreak Responding to the Cholera Outbreak in Zimbabwe which began in August 2008 as a result of the collapse of the health system in that country, MUSIC FOR RELIEF made an initial contribution to Direct Relief International covering the cost to airlift a shipment of water purification tablets, cholera medication and oral rehydration solution to Harare Central Hospital for immediate use. We are monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe and determine if there are effective ways in which MUSIC FOR RELIEF can provide further assistance.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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The Research Club is an industry renowned series of International networking events for everyone involved in market or social research. The Research club provides the opportunity to make new contacts, develop national and international business opportunities and keep up to date with the latest industry developments.

It’s fully endorsed by ESOMAR with several joint events held worldwide.

Events are held in London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Milan and more recently in Dubai. Key locations in Asia Pacific, North & South America and Africa are also planned for 2011. Los Angeles, Melbourne, Mumbai Hong Kong and Singapore in the first quarter! Each event is an opportunity for delegates to meet with like-minded research professionals and create and maintain national and international networks – all within a relaxed and informal setting whilst enjoying complimentary drinks and canapés.

The Research Club is a great opportunity to promote your brand and your company capabilities as well having an enjoyable evening.

We think The Research Club is great, but then again you might be thinking that’s what you’d expect us to say!

What really matters is what the people who attend The Research Club have to say and also those that sponsor the Research Club. What do they think?

So don’t just take our word for it, here are a few words from some of the folk that have attended The Research Club.

“Wow, great event in Los Angeles yesterday! It was wonderful meeting you, as well as discovering the Research Club. Thanks for working hard to put on such a great event. I really enjoyed it, and have to say it was the best marketing research mixer I’ve been to’. KK Holland, The Pollux Group Inc. ‘The turnout was great and the event was awesome’.”

Mike Brezner, uSamp Inc. “The Research Club night in Paris was great! There I met many new colleagues some of whom I spoke with during the day at the SEMO Salon. With all these researchers we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves chatting about life, and “of course” about opportunities of partnership. I can’t wait for the next Research Club!”

Federica Sacchi, Lorien Consulting “Good gathering of senior members of the market research industry in Italy, mainly representing market research agencies and fieldwork providers. The excellent location and the relaxing atmosphere helped to make of this networking event a successful one. An experience to repeat in the future.”

Marco Gastaut, Toluna South Europe Sales Director “The Research Club was the best thing that happened at SEMO this year.”

Patrick George, Askia

Click here to view upcoming events!

MRGA JOURNAL

Featured Bloggers You Should Follow Now Kathryn Korostoff The founder and president of Research Rockstar, a company that delivers online and in-person training to busy professionals seeking to get the most from market research investments. Prior to Research Rockstar, Kathryn completed the transition of Sage Research—an agency that she founded and led for 13 years—to its new parent company.

Market Research Trends: What's Out Posted by Kathryn Korostoff on February 18, 2011

In late December/early January, many of you participated in Research Rockstar's MR Predictions site. Several people posted predictions (35 in total), and many more cast votes for or against those predictions. By the time I closed voting, over 700 votes were cast.

I have finally written up the findings as a paper, which you can download (see below).

The results point to some important changes for the way market research is sold, conducted and reported. No surprise there—we all know that the rate of change in our industry is swift these days.

Still, some of the predictions are debatable. So how might one draw conclusions given all of this uncertainty? I made my best attempt in the paper, including my list of ―what‘s out‖, which I have copied here: Assuming one project=one data collection approach. I think this is self-evident given some of the top 10 items discussed in the paper.

Assuming that every MR project is either a focus group or a survey. Again, obvious.

Market Research agencies controlling sample access. Let‘s be honest: one of the reasons clients have relied heavily on agencies in the past is because they had access to the most qualified participants. But panel companies will start catering to end-clients (or new panel companies will seize the moment), and the rise of MROCs as a substitute sample source means the middle man (agencies) no longer has that control.

Market Research as a silo. On the client side, this means that research will be coordinating more with IT or operations functions, like it or not, for access to CRM and other data sources. On the agency side, it may mean tighter partnerships or at least coordination with ad agencies, client-side IT departments and new sample source owners.

Conventional surveys as the primary mode of customer feedback. Newer methods, including those that focus more on observation, will cannibalize traditional survey-based projects. Not completely, but it will hurt.

For the prediction results and more conclusions, please download the paper: Get Predictions Paper Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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Featured MRGA Blog Posts The Million Dollar Market Research Question The market research industry is currently facing some big challenges. New technologies such as mobile and social media are being rapidly adopted by research participants, and therefore dramatic changes to our processes and methodologies are required. At the same time, research budgets and project timelines are shrinking, making it difficult to quickly and effectively implement the necessary changes. With mobile and social media development moving faster and faster, and other new and valuable…Read More. By Kinesis.

Food Service Industries Spotlight 2011 The food service industry is one of the largest industries in the United States. Statistics by the U.S Bureau of Labor state that food preparation and serving related sectors combined to be the third largest employer by occupational groups in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Read More. By Ruth Stanat.

What do you think of the MRGA JOURNAL? What do you think of the first MRGA JOURNAL? Is there anything missing that you think is important, or anything we can do better? By Eric Bell.

Has Market Research Waited Too Long (To Evolve)? It's always interesting to observe how my brain indexes and cross references information. I seem to have my own "tagging system" for sensory input, often audio based.

So, if I am reading something that strikes a chord what usually happens is that a line from a song or dialogue from a movie or TV show will pop into my head, creating a reference point for whatever I am reading. It makes for some interesting connections, or in this case (hopefully) an interesting blog post. Growing up as a child…Read More. By Leonard Murphy.

MRC Awards recognize innovation in conducting research through mobile phone - Still time for mobile The 2011 Mobile Research Conference introduces its inaugural award ceremony next month, recognizing innovation in mobile marketing research. The ceremony will take place April 18th at the May Fair Hotel in central London, as part of the two day event. After years of debate, practical applications of mobile research are really taking off. Submission guidelines are available and entries will…Read More. By Corinna Staedel Research Now Relocates its Auckland Office to Accommodate Growth Sydney, Australia – February 17, 2011 – Research Now, the leading global online sampling and data collection company, today announced the relocation of its office in Auckland to a bigger facility that will better support the group as they ramp up new business in the Asia-Pacific region. Effective immediately, the new office is located at Level 4, 34-36 Barrys Point Road, Takapuna, Auckland 0622, New Zealand. Read More. By Research Now. 6 Steps to Engage, *Understand* and Activate Facebook Fans Having an authentic and engaging voice in social media is critical for most every organization these days. One of the first steps is creating a Facebook page where consumers can go for information, post their thoughts, and even ―like‖ you, thereby becoming a fan. But even for brands that have several thousands of fans, many questions remain unanswered. Who are these fans? How do they compare to my customer base? How can we form mutually beneficial interactions?

Can we…Read More. By Globalpark.

If video isn‟t superior, why didn‟t you listen to the Super Bowl on radio? Now that we‘ve had time to vote on the ads, grimace at the botched National Anthem lyrics, and argue about whether the halftime show was excessively gaudy, or merely excessively long, we‘re relegated to the last details to talk about with this year‘s Super Bowl. One thing we heard about was a ballyhooed ―mobile ethnography study‖ in which some research companies had fans describe and photograph their ―Super Bowl experience.‖ Read More. By Guadalupe Pagalday.

18 Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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Conversations MRGA on LinkedIn :: The MRGA group on LinkedIn is comprised of almost 8,000 members globally.

Tanvi Gupta :: How would you "advertise" your online survey to a potential respondent? We have seen that the response rates to online surveys have been declining.

What do you think would make an email invite to an online survey most effective? What would 'nudge' the recipient of the email to click on the survey link and answer the survey instead of ignoring it.

Joel Hooper :: What are the implications for market research of emerging information technologies that integrate information management, analytics, and... Is it primarily a relationship of competition? Do these new platforms threaten to take over some or all of the market for MR? Or is it some other kind of relationship? What are the threats to and opportunities for the MR industry in an age of abundant information with …

Stephen Daniel :: Does the increasing importance of digital social networks require new forecasting approaches and methods?

I've started a new blog (Understanding the Future) that addresses this issue and others related to forecasting technology markets. The blog is at: http://danielresearchgroup.wordpress.com/ Rill Hodari :: How should we as a professional community address the issue of ethnic representative sample? Under representative sample is a long-standing and persistent problem which affects our ability to tap into innovative cultural bases, get an accurate read on any mass consumer brand or advertising or even effectively estimate the volume for a new product launch? No one...

Leonard Murphy :: Can We Stop Arguing Over What‟s The “Best” Methodology? Ron Sellers explores the online debate regarding "best" methodologies and posits that there is no ―best‖ methodology or approach, other than the fact the ―best‖ methodology is the one that will be most ideal for the specific project at hand.

Diane Hagglund :: Conducting International Research: Overcoming the Language Barrier My French is still not very good, but I‘m finding that there are certain people here that I can easily communicate with because they create an environment that makes it possible. Any researcher can have a more successful conversation with a participant that is not a native...

Asha G :: What are the behaviors that drive you crazy at the workplace and how do you to handle them? Hostility, uncooperative behavior, yelling and gossiping are a few of the undesirable behaviors seen at workplaces that can negatively impact. Many a time, a hostile behavior may have its cause elsewhere and may have been simply misdirected. So, how to get out of this...

Jessica Groopman :: Is market research a necessary component in measuring brand equity? How important is conducting qualitative or quantitative research when measuring brand equity? Given the relatively ether…

Ron Wright :: Sands Research Announces Superbowl XLV Neuromarketing Winners See neuromarketing in action with videos from Sands Research on the winning Superbowl ads.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight

Company Description :: Toluna, is the world‘s largest online sample provider, delivering sample of unrivaled reliability and representation from millions of panelists worldwide. Offices around the globe ensure local expertise for projects.

Toluna provides online sample and online research panel building expertise to over 1,500 of the world‘s leading market research agencies. Get in touch with 4 million active panel community members across 34 countries. 16 specialist research panels reach niche segments to provide quality survey research data. Respondents can be delivered to your programming or ours. Toluna also offers custom panel and community building and management.

Toluna plc is a leading global online market research panel and survey technology company. Toluna offers market researchers access to the world's most highly profiled, responsive and rigorously maintained online panel for sample only and full service projects.

With an online research panel of 4 million active members covering 34 countries, Toluna has won the support of over 1,500 of the world‘s leading market research agencies.

Products and Services :: Toluna sample only services Toluna offers panel building services to market research professionals and is widely regarded within the industry as the primary source of panel creation and management expertise. Toluna has successfully created panels for niche B2B and B2C targets from hundreds to tens of thousands of members.

Toluna questionnaire programming services After more than eight year's of running surveys for clients, Toluna is highly experienced in creating truly engaging questionnaires through the use of flash animation, video and audio files for your respondents. Many of our customers rely on our advanced questionnaire programming expertise to deliver such methods such as virtual shelf tests and card sorts.

Toluna custom panel building and online web communities Toluna is uniquely placed to help you build and manage your own online panel community. Using our panelist communications, social media and recruitment planning expertise we are able to offer clients a completely flexible level of consultation where needed.

Toluna has also created PanelPortal™, the worlds most intuitive online survey and hosted panel management solution. Designed for those organizations wishing to build their own online research panels, PanelPortal is a thoroughbred solution and requires minimal training, and IT support and can easily integrate with differing data repositories.

Toluna QuickSurveys Toluna QuickSurveys is a self-service online tool that enables you to launch easy and affordable surveys via Toluna's online panel community (www.toluna.com) and receive real-time results in less than 24 hours. This recent innovation also enables you to add your own company logo, images and YouTube video and also invite people you know to participate in your survey i.e. your existing customers.

BrandSpector - online panel ad tracking Toluna in partnership with nurago has developed a new online ad tracking service that enables online advertisers to gain more insight than ever before into responses to their marketing campaigns across Europe.

Using members from Toluna‘s online community (www.toluna.com) we are able to provide you with structural data for those panelists that have come into contact with your online ad. By doing this we can find out if your campaign reaches the intended target group.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George H. Terhanian Ph.D. President North America and Group Chief Strategy Officer Toluna

The Latest Trends In Market Research Aired: 3/8/2011 Host: MRGA Live Chatter Description: Join Eric Bell for another Live Chatter interview with Special Guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D., Toluna's President, North America and Chief Strategy Officer to Discuss the Latest Market Research Trends.

This is a Live Radio Interview that will cover ::  Excellence In Sampling  Future Market Research Trends  Focus On The Past Eric Bell (0:52): Hello, everyone! Welcome to Live Chatter. This is Eric Bell, of course. Today, we have a very special guest, George Terhanian, President of North America and the Group Chief Strategy Officer for Toluna. Just to give you guys a quick background about Toluna, they enable organizations to generate valuable customer insight by combining its online market research panel and industry-leading technology. Toluna provides companies the ability to answer questions of their target audience quickly and efficiently and leverages a unique approach to respond at recruitment and engagement with its online community and proprietary real-time sampling methodology. Toluna guarantees that the data their clients receive is of the highest quality and has built a setup standard operating procedures called Sample Safe, that ensures respondents are validated and de-duplicated before participating in your surveys. Furthermore, Toluna provides the industry's leading online market research technology suite, enabling hundreds of market research organizations and agencies worldwide to create surveys, manage panels, and build online communities. Toluna's products include PanelPortal, AutomateSurvey, IVR, WAP, and SMS surveys, BrandSpector, and QuickSurveys. Toluna also boosts several practices focused on meeting, the specialized needs of specific sectors including healthcare, media, and tracking work. Welcome George! Thank you so much for joining us today.

George Terhanian (2:51): I'm very happy to be on the call today and I'm grateful that you've invited me.

Eric Bell (2:58): Great! So, let's hop into it. Everyone that's on the call, feel free to ask questions as we go along. This is, I think, the way we want to set this up as kind of like a discussion or a coffee-break scenario, to where you can ask George any questions as we go through. Does that sound good George?

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (3:19): It does sound good. I don't have any coffee with me right now but I'll do something about that.

Eric Bell (3:26): Fair enough. So, let's hop into it. So, George, you came to Toluna after having worked in Harris Interactive for a number of years. What attracted you to the company?

George Terhanian (3:37): The first part is exactly correct, Eric. I worked at Harris for almost 14 years, even before it was called Harris Interactive, and early on after the Gordon Black Corporation bought Louis Harris and Associates then rebranded as Harris Black International, then rebranded as Harris Interactive and went public. Early on one afternoon in Paris, Gordon Black was the Founder and the Chairman of Harris Interactive and I had a lunch with Frederic Petit, who at the time had just started up Toluna and I think the annual revenue of Toluna at that time was probably, substantially less than Gordon's salary, and at that lunch, Frederic shared with Gordon and me his vision for the company. And, you know, his ambitions and aspirations, and hopes for the future, and you know, through the years, Harris became a client of Toluna's, and I know that I and Gordon, before he left Harris, we watched very closely as Toluna continued to grow and expand and as it continues to do a better and better job of not only understanding it's the client's expectations but meeting the expectations and to innovate, and Frederic always and still does have a passion for creativity and innovation, and software development and something that Gordon and I both admired and appreciated, and low and behold, Toluna suddenly were excess of a hundred million dollars in turnover, and then a couple of years ago in Australia, Frederic and I were talking and we continued talking and then eventually, he offered me a position. I accepted that position and I have had a great -- about five months since I joined. And I'm very, [Crosstalk] I expect for the future‌yeah, yeah.

Eric Bell (5:52): That's fantastic. I remember the press release on the exciting news. I kind of came through to us and we were able to announce it to the industry. So, just out of curiosity, we would love to hear a little bit of the vision moving forward and how you guys plan on taking over the sampling universe.

George Terhanian (6:11): Well, I don't know if world domination is our ambition, but we do want to -- we did a great job of, as I said, understanding our client's expectations and also meeting those expectation, and even introducing to them new ideas or new procedures or policies or methodologies or products that we have, that we think we'll help them do a better job. When I, Frederic and others looked at Toluna, what we see is a company that is young, that's dynamic, that has grown quite remarkably through the years, and now we find ourselves in a similar space, other companies like us that make available respondents or panelists for mark of research companies to them, interview them and the success for us hinges heavily on our ability to reliably and affordably make available those panelists or those respondents who absolutely have to reflect the target population of interest. And if we do that well and when we do that well, we do well and that is, you know, that's part of our focus, ensuring that we have access to the right respondents in any country in which our client's operate. Ensuring that we are consistent. Ensuring that we are providing the value and if we can simply do those things that sound simple, though I think it's a bit deceptive on how simple on making themselves. But if we do then well, then it will be a very successful company because our online research is continuing to grow and we play out, you know, a role in helping to facilitate and support that growth. To having said that, we also -- I think do things that are a little bit different from most companies that make available respondents; for example, we have a community if you would ever visit Toluna.com, you would see and you can do it, and I think 14 countries this days.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (Continued) You would see what we call a social voting community where by members can ask other members questions and then they can receive the responses right away and the responses can be close-ended or open-ended, and there is value there for a participant, and we think it's important to provide our respondents or our community members with that kind of value, and the stickiness of that, I think, you know, from an objective perspective and this is what I used to think when I worked at Harris, if we envied it because we thought that retaining and attracting respondents is a little bit easier for Toluna then for other companies in the space because it offered something above and beyond the chance to win a sweepstakes or to exchange points for cash or cash itself, and so expanding that community and then imbedding with it additional products and services is something that, you know, we think is very important. So, even today if you would have visit our Tulona.com site, you might see questions that our clients have supplied and they're looking for answers in real-time from 200 or even 2,000 respondents in one or even 14 countries. And that type of service and that type of capability, I think is very important if you can wait, I don't know, five or six days or seven days for multi-country omnibus to produce the responses that you are looking for. You know, if we're talking online or if you can't wait six months, if you're commissioning offline research to get the answers to those questions. And so, I think that type of capability that is embedded, you know, within our community is very important, not so much for us but to our clients that are looking for information fast because they have to make decisions quickly. I think when they work with us, they don't have to make any trades off on representativeness or those types of issues either. In my own experience has had a very strong focus on ensuring that the people who take part in the surveys that we commission represent the target population of interest. Even taking into account the fact that they might be part of a community or they might be online and we are looking to represent, not only the online but at times the offline population, and overtime within the Toluna.com site and within that product, QuickSurveys, will embed those types of simple selection and even waiting capabilities that I think will help to reduce or eliminate any biases that people might think or associated with online research when respondents are self-selecting into surveys.

Eric Bell (11:27): That's great. So, going onto one of my other thoughts, you know that discussed kind of your focal point, ondemand questions, can you tell us a little bit about what Toluna was known for, specifically its community model in the unique approach to respond interactions. What are you thoughts about this and do you think it's working?

George Terhanian (11:58): Absolutely. I think it's working. I think it's something that we're looking to build on and expand in the countries in which we're operating, and in countries where we're not operating currently. I think that your question suggests that they're two components. One is that, you know, for the community site, Toluna.com., you know, there are attractive features for people who participate. So, the ability to have your questions answered by others, if you're community member is important.

Just the interactions that might take place on that site, that's important as well. It makes a little bit easier for us and a little less expensive to build our panels through that way then if we were paying some partner a $3.50 for a confirmed opt in or $9 or $10 for a confirmed opt in, in addition to a completed survey and those tend to be the going market rate. A different way of thinking about survey respondents, where you have a community on a one hand, a sampling statistician might assert that you want to minimize interactions among respondents within who eventually take part in your surveys because that might lead to some type of distortion or bias but our experience having conducted an empirical research and parallel research suggest that the biases introduce it's trivial as this exist at all and the risk of introducing bias relative to the return of the information faster and more affordably is a risk that many of our clients are willing to take. I was going to describe it as a trade off but it's not really a trade off. Actually, it's not even a risk. It's a sound business decision based on empirical evidence and based on good value. And we love that model as one means of identifying and accessing people who can take part and surveys for our clients. There are other methods and approaches that we've been using for sometime as well that I might speak about little later, and I don't want to jump the gun so I might turn it back to you.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

Eric Bell (14:23): Okay. Yeah, fair enough. So, you know, with all the different sample companies out there, one of the things that your costumers are looking for and especially our MRGA members is excellence in sampling, and through the acquisition of Greenfield Online, I know that Toluna was one of the first companies to introduce routing and blending sample as a mean for sampling. How has that evolved over the years?

George Terhanian (14:54): Well, you're right. Greenfield was one of the first companies that introduce routing. Actually, I think the very first was DMS when they were partnering with AOL in the late 1990s. And you know, back then there are only four or five of us who were actually conducting online research and that model, you know, the river sample or the real-time sampling or whatever you want to call it. That was one of the models that was around then and the second was the Harris Interactive, NFO NPD Greenfield model which amounted to recruiting people who takes part in surveys going to a double up in process, building up a profile of their characteristics, using that information to select people for additional surveys. Sending out enough invitations so that you could fill the motives of interest for clients taking into account, response rate, and that sort of thing and other things that I was just describing, we still do that and our competitors and the others in the industry still do that, and routing and actually what's called real-time sampling where you intercept people on the web or where people self select into a survey and then they're directed into one for which they qualify based on their characteristics. Increasingly, we are seeing more and more companies offering that type of service and it invites a question why, and I think the simple answer is that the companies that have been conducting online researching and building panels through the years. In some ways, they are victims of their own success.

In 1997, 1998, and 1999 at Harris, it's very difficult to sell online research to anyone especially if the outset because of the criticism that very vocal critics are making among other things, they were asserting that Harris and others like us were setting back the public's opinion polling industry 50 years or even you know 70 years of the days before, you know the Gallup, Crossley, and Roper organizations failed to forecast the outcome of the 48th presidential election or to the days when the literary digest reign supreme before towards Gallop and 1936 demonstrated that a more scientific way of selective respondents would probably produce better information. So, in the 1990s, we heard a lot of that and we had all kinds of people who are willing to take part in the surveys, not a lot of demands but then that began to change, especially after Harris was so successful forecasting elections in 2000, and now when I look around, I find that demand for certain group.

Younger -- I don't know, younger males or younger females, clients who sell cosmetics might be interested in interviewing.

They are in high demands right now and it's very difficult to find one panel they can support all the demand, you know, or really summer, even all the clients that are commissioning research these days and so that invites the question, what do you do about it and I think the answer is that you will get alternative sources of sourcing respondents for surveys, and one source are people who are on the internet, on various websites anywhere who may or may not be members of panels, but at the time when they received an invitation, not by email but somewhere on the web for a survey, they might be open to the possibility and that type of real-time sampling has tremendous possibilities that are beginning to be realized right now.

Although, there are potential challenges as well.

One of the challenges that you don't know as much about people who come to your website to take part in the survey, as you do a panelist who take in part in three, four, or five and assumed you have collected or from whom you've you we've collected lots of information over time. So, there are challenges on ensuring that person is who he or she said she is, and the challenges can be met.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (Continued) We work with a company called Emperian who do real-time of validation checks based on a person's first and last name and their address and that helps up to ensure that person is who he or she said she is, we then collected additional demographic and sometimes other information from this folks who are coming in by means other than email invitations, and then based on the response as they give to our questions and based on the needs of the different surveys that we have available, we will assign them to one, usually randomly, every person will have a known and positive probability being assigned to any survey that is available, as long as he or she have the characteristics that are required for that survey and what we found and I imagine that other market research companies that are in our space and are offering the service, I don't know if they found this, I know that what we've found is that the responses that these respondents who come in by means other than email invitations give to the same questions that we might ask people who remembers or panelists who are invited by email, they are more or less exactly the same when you control for the background characteristics of the respondents. And that's great because what that means is that we are able to fulfill as more quickly for our clients. We're able to deliver a more information faster to their own clients and we're not introducing any bias at all and that's exciting news for us because we think we can do a better job then if we are relied exclusively on email invitations.

But having said that, we believe there's tremendous value in learning more and more and more really as much as we can about people who joined our panels because then we're able to identify the needle in the haystack, and that capability is important to our clients as well. So, imagine if you are market research buyer and you suspect through multiple sources of information, that 6% of all American adults own an iPad. The problem you then have, if you want to; for example, learn more about those iPad users and interview, let's say ten thousand to a huge segmentation study. The problem that you have is that you would need to screen about a hundred and seventy thousand people, in order to identify six percent or the ten thousand iPad owners, unless you would already screen those hundred and seventy thousand or more. So, the implication is that if you want to meet your client's expectations and demands and create opportunities and possibilities for them, then screening your panel remains a paramount importance. And real-time sampling, river sampling, or whatever you want to call it, it can augment panel-based approaches but I don't really see it as a replacement and I think companies begin talking about it, it is a replacement. They're really, coping out in some ways because it's easier to use that kind of approach than a panel-based approach but there are drawbacks to the approach and the main drawback is that it's harder to find, you know, the iPad users among other people commented. It's hard to be efficient. It's hard to match a person who comes into a routing system when you know less rather than more about them and if you know less rather more than the chances of your signing them to a survey for which they qualify or if all go down and if you assign them to one or two or three and then they don't qualify then four, five, or six and they don't qualify. And principal, you can assign them to a hundred, that might work for you but it won't work for them because nobody wants to try to fail to take part in a hundred surveys.

They are new and different approaches or actually there are approaches that have been in existence for many years like river sampling but over the past two or three years, I think we've seen several companies investing more heavily on them and developing them. At the same time, I actually think that, as an industry we're spending less time focusing on profiling the panelists that have already agreed to take part in surveys and that is a necessarily good thing for end clients or buyers, and that I actually think that we, in our industry that have to re-evaluate our priorities moving forward.

Eric Bell (24:33): That makes a lot of sense. So, thank you so much for that overview. A couple of things that I carried away really sound that the process you're following is a little bit cleaner and targets the rate audience and helps eliminate survey fatigue. Would that be a fair assumption?

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (24:56): Yeah. I think for us, to me my background before I -- when I was a graduate school, I was a school teacher for five or six years and then later in graduate school what I learned was what I actually experience when I was teaching. One of the keys to having a successful relationship whether it's a teacher-student relationship or the survey of respondent relationship is that the mix is good, the mix is right, and if the mix is not good, if the combination is not good, it doesn't work.

So, there where years when I was teaching and I was the same person, but depending on who is in my class I would be more or less effective and there was some years and some classes where I was fantastic but that's because the combination was right. If the combination was wrong I would be less fantastic. I think if you look at the educational system in the US and even worldwide, you'll see the same sort of thing. It's the match between the teacher and kids that's a crucial importance if you want to ensure that kids are learning as much as possible. I look at surveys in the same way. If you don't match the respondent to the right surveys, the one for which here she would qualify for the one that isn't 90 minutes or 120 minutes because nobody wants to take part in 90 minutes or 120 minutes survey you're going to run into difficulties. And the more thought that's given ensuring that that match is good whether it's the match between survey respondent or teacher and students within a classroom. I think the more effective and successful education is going to be and also survey research. It's a little bit too easy for, let's say a low incident study where you know that only 1% of the population will qualify.

It's a little bit too easy to assign everyone into that survey and have 99/100 people fail. I think it is easier to execute that type of survey if you have already pre-screened people and you know who will qualify and you then invite them. Better for the respondent, more efficient, better for the client, and you can also put in steps to ensure that whoever those folks are who do qualify the 1% or the 6% of iPad users or whatever. There are ways to ensure that their characteristics were flagged at the target population.

Eric Bell (27:27): That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for that explanation. So, what do you think the biggest challenge for online sampling company today and it's kind of a two-part question. How will the process for obtaining survey response change over the next few years? I apologize, I'm asking you for a statement today and then having you look a little bit into the future.

George Terhanian (27:55): When I look at the way that surveillances were designed in 1997, 1998, and 1999, I look at the way that they're designed now. They look very similar. They are very heavy on words. They are less heavy on pictures or images that sort of thing and the words that are being used within survey research, they tend to be a lot of them. I think that's problematic. I don't think that in general companies that design surveys think of them the way that an artist or a designer might think about what he or she is drawing or designing, and our business minimizing ink on screen is important and we wanted and we encouraged our clients to use fewer words rather than more words if they're trying to describe a concept or if they're asking a question or offering response to it because in general the more words that you offer that are unnecessary or scrupulous or redundant, the worst it's going to be and I haven't really seen or noticed or witnessed major changes overall in the surveys that are being written and designed for online. A lot of them still looked very much like the ones that were written or designed for, you now imprint center or mail or telephone approaches and I think that has to change because respondents don't love reading words. It's like reading a PowerPoint presentation that has 20 bullet points on each page and a thousand words, it just doesn't cut it and you squeeze everything on there by making the font smaller. So, one thing that I think needs to happen is to just be more careful about the number of words that you use. Second opportunity I think is to use images rather than words when possible without getting carried away by the images with the use of a video that you used. And then the third opportunity, it might be the biggest opportunity is to not repeat questions to which you already know the answer. I think that is a challenge for market research companies.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (Continued) Unless every survey that I see will ask people what their ages or what year they were born, and what they're gender is and a handful of other questions to which they have already responded time and time and time again for person who is taking part in multiple surveys as part of the panel. I don't think anybody really appreciates that or enjoys that. I don't think that market research companies that maintain panels have done a great job of really creating a history of the respondent collecting information maybe in the background and then making that information in the background I mean separate from a survey that is being conducted for a particular client then making that auxiliary or ancillary information available along with the question that the client is interested in asking during the session. I see it periodically but I do not see it on a consistent basis and that's a bit of a problem because if you are a respondent and you're answering the same question over, and over, and over again, I think you'll get a little bit bored you'll probably get a little bit lazy and you will start answering questions incorrectly, and fatigue sets in. The best way to minimize fatigue is by reducing the complexity of questions and by reducing the number of questions by not repeating or not asking questions again when you already asked them before especially when you know something is not going to change.

Eric Bell (31:38): Yeah, that makes a lot of sense especially in an age where you only have a split second to engage a respondent with distractions like social media, instant messaging, and all the things that's happening between and with that thought in mind, let's talk a little bit about the future. New technologies and communication trends that has people buzzing, everyone is trying to better understand how to incorporate Twitter or Facebook into their research programs. What‘s your take on it?

George Terhanian (32:08): I love the idea of knowing everything I can about a person if I am creating services with that person or products for that person. I am trying to accommodate that person's need. And one way to learn about a person is simply to ask him or her questions and that's what survey researchers have been doing for the past 75 years or even longer. The second way to learn about a person is to watch him or her in the settings in which they live and that's what ethnographies about, observational research is about. On the internet, it's a bit different because you can't watch a person directly as you would watch, you know, a kid interacting with his colleagues on the playground or his friends, his classmates on the playground or classmates on the playground but you can use other means to learn what websites a person visits. You can instrument his or her machine with a cookie or some type of software with their permission and know what website they visit and how long they spend there and maybe whatever advertisements they see and in that way you learn about their behavioral patterns and you can probably figure out what they like and what they don't like and what their preferences are, especially if you link that information to the survey information. You can also, at times with permission, link information on a person's loyalty card, with the hotel or a supermarket or an appliance store or any other with survey information. I think that helps you understand a person better, figure out why he or she does what he or she does. With regard to social media in particular asking a respondent to share his or her panelist or community member to share his or her hosting on Facebook or Twitter or other media sites. The technology is available for that purpose but I don't really see a lot of companies. Sometimes, but not a lot of companies going down that road despite the opportunity that it affords. Being able to capture comments and capture conversations that are linkable to the exact person is important because you don't have to make assumptions over who said why, you'll know who said why. You're understanding how people converse with one another on the internet through Facebook, through Twitter, understanding the size of their own personal network. Understanding how many people actually react, respond, or take some sort of action based on whatever it is that this people post. That's fantastic information and I look and then start adding it up and I think, "Wow, this is unbelievable!" You have survey responses. You have customer databases or CRM programs. You have the footprints that people take on the internet that you can observe.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (Continued) You have the postings that they make on the internet. You know something about the networks that they are a part of, and then we can even add offline information through the GPS in the person's mobile phone, you can track their offline footprint and at least in theory, you can know whether they went into a Starbucks or whether they traveled across the country or whether flew across the world and the challenge then becomes in figuring out how to put all those pieces together in a way that creates a picture. That picture has to be more informative than the responses from a survey in order for it to be valuable and whoever can figure out how to do that and do it well, I think we will have competitive advantage of understanding why people do what they do.

Eric Bell (36:05): Interesting. So, looking forward in a few years. Do you envision seeing other changes that have an impact on the way we obtain research?

George Terhanian (36:14): I think so. We're seeing changes even today. If I were to go out and commission telephone study using a random digit dial approach, I know that I am going to miss a sizeable portion of the population and those would be people who are cell phones mostly or only and they will tend to be anyone who is non-white, younger people in particular and that's a bit of a problem. And at least in the past couple of years, it's fantastic that the public opinion research community has began to embrace alternative ways of contacting respondents and specifically, they are dialing cell phone numbers now. I have to dial in more or less by hand, you can't use a random digit dial approach but I think that's better than simply assuming that the people that you interview via random digit dialing to landlines will be represented the target population of interest when so many people are mobile these days and increasing percentage of the people that don't even have a landline. Then I think, "Well, you have mobile phone interviewing, you have telephone interviewing, you have online interviewing, and then you have less intrusive ways of collecting information by not asking people questions but by simply observing. So, it's tracking where they go on the internet, tracking where they go off the internet. It's understanding what TV shows they watch through set-top boxes or other technology and on, and on, and on, and on and just see its multiple sources and different sources of information, of how I think it's likely a different story and I think over time, they'll be data collection modes not yet invented that we'll begin to use and again, the challenge will be in how you put them together because sometimes, the people who you are able to contact or learn about her one mode are much different from the people whom you contact or learned about through another mode and really, the challenge and the opportunity and, I am obviously repeating myself but it's figuring out how all those people fit together.

Eric Bell (38:36): That makes a lot of sense. So, focusing a little bit on your past, George, you know, at Harris you helped pave the way for mass migration to online research, specifically the work that you did with data waiting. Though, firms will begin migrating to new methodologies over the next few years. In your opinion, what's important for them to keep in mind to ensure a successful transition to any methodology?

George Terhanian (39:07): There are few questions that you have to ask. The first question is, is there a gold standard and there may not be a gold standard. Ideally, when you compare one method to any other and that method is a competitor or an alternative, the base or the reference group will be a gold standard and you can trust that information.

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (Continued) The definition of bias that played like is the difference between what a survey respondent will report and what a mission observer believes is true and that's why pre-election polling because you do a forecast and in the next day you find out if your forecast is accurate and if it is accurate, there is no bias. But, it's a little bit more difficult when measuring opinions or attitudes. So, the base, the reference group has to be credible and trustworthy. The base or the reference might be government statistics or the percentage of people who possess a passport, who have a driver's license, with a base might be information on a loyalty card. But whatever you decide on as your credible reference group or set of norms or it could tracking data, it could be just about anything. You have to be absolutely certain that you have confidence in it and then when you test an alternative, I'm not talking about a compliment but an alternative to that sample. So, let's say your base is a telephone survey and you absolutely know or the mission observer absolutely knows that the question to you ask will produce answers that are true in every case. Then, when you're testing a new approach, it might be online research or might be mobile research. If you ask the same questions at the same time to people who have the same characteristics as people who are in that reference group, you would expect to get the same responses if you know that there are no motive effects or anything that is sort of unique or differentiating associated with the device through which you contact a person or the device that used to take part in the survey.

And another way of thinking about that is that people are the same and the responses are the same but the motive is a little bit different then the mode doesn't matter, it's almost ignorable. And what Harris did in, you know the late 1990s and even through today, was to try to make motive interviewing ignorable so they didn't have to worry about it. So, all of the waiting or even the sampling that Harris did, the aim was to produce the same information through any new mode as you would through that base mode, whether it was a telephone survey or face-to-face survey or something that Harris believed was true and I think when we look at the future, when people start talking about mobile as a replacement for online or even mobile as a replacement for random digit dialing then the mode, in a lot of ways has to be ignorable in order for that method or those new methods to really fly. So, that's what we're looking at now at Toluna. We're wondering if the same person will give the same responses to the same questions no matter whether we source them via targeted invitations through our panel via Real-Time sampling, via advertisement then we post on Facebook or an invitation with them at Toluna.com community or by mobile phone or by any other method. We are trying to understand if the mode of contact, the method of selection are ignorable. If so, we can put all the information together. I want to be a little bit careful because I think that sometimes people, they mistake a commonest or consistency for accuracy and that's not necessarily true. If we have a couple of more minutes and maybe I will end with this short story.

Imagine that it's 1998 and the race for nomination to be the Democratic candidate is heated. You know it's on, it's Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama competing intensely and intensively against one another. And then New Hampshire primaries are coming up and on the night before the election when media do their poll of polls, they see that there have been nine polls conducted and the poll suggests that Obama will win the primary by anywhere from 3% to 13% points and each of those polls done by phone has a margin of error of 5% or so. So, you're 95% sure that the true estimate or the true difference between Obama and Clinton will be plus or minus four and so, that would mean that Obama went to bed thinking that the lowest estimate was a three-point victory and that there is some chance that he might lose the race by one but the highest estimate was 13 and there were some chance that he would win that election by 13 plus 4 is 17. And so then, assuming that one of his advisers is good with numbers, that advisor then says, "Well, soon to be President Obama, we've done the math and there is only a 5% chance for each one of those polls that you'll lose and because their nine, what we can do is to multiple those probabilities to give you an overall probability of losing the race to Clinton. They do it so it's 0.05 to the ninth power and that's about one in 500 billion.

Continued

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MRGA JOURNAL

Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

George Terhanian (Continued) That's probably a little bit less than winning the lottery in New York, let alone New Hampshire. Barrack Obama probably goes to bed feeling pretty good that night. Then, another one of his advisors are looking at the polls and heresy is saying, "Well, the difference between 3 or 13, the poll post suggests six." I think it would be better in the future if we eliminate the outliers the way that they used to do in the Olympics for figure skating where you throw out the high score and the low score and we just choose those in the middle. We think that the true victory tomorrow will be six points, maybe seven points for Obama. So, what they would have done would have been to select a polls based on their consistency with a commonest between them and then the advisors would have gone to bed. Obama would have gone to bed, would have been resting pretty peaceful I think. Having great dreams. Hillary Clinton probably didn't go to bed. She is probably worried and anxious because she knew she was going to lose. Then the next day, the forecast -- the actual race is over. The returns are in and Hillary Clinton wins by three percentage points. So, it's just a great example of how consistency or the commonest isn't the same as accuracy, and I think that, you know, increasingly, companies are saying to Toluna, the same companies like us, "Wow! We want to use you but we've been using three or four other companies. We want to make sure that the estimates or the answers are exactly the same. Well, they might be exactly the same but they might not be accurate unless steps are to ensure accuracy and I think at Toluna, we not only want to be able to put together respondents who enter a survey through multiple sources whether it be through other panels and the Toluna panel or through a real-time sampling in the community sites. But we also want to offer advice to our clients on how they can ensure that the information will be accurate because, you know, if they go to bed at night, we want to make sure that when they wake up, they are feeling pretty good and they don't look in the newspaper, walk into their boss's office and find out that they recommended a method that produced the wrong answer and they were then sent packing.

Eric Bell (48:14): That's never good. I think they just add a flashback to marketing statistics. Thank you so much for that example, that was fantastic.

George Terhanian (48:25): Oh, you're welcome.

Eric Bell (48:26): So, what I think I'll do right now, anyone that wants to answer a question, let's take a look at the chat lines here and, does anybody have questions for George? And maybe to help get things going, if it's okay, I'll ask a couple of pretty easy questions that I know is on everyone's minds. Feel free to answer, if you don't have an answer it's okay. It seems like you hear a lot about privacy issues going on around the world. Do you have any thoughts around sampling and privacy on how people are notified and how does Toluna manage privacy for sampling?

George Terhanian (49:09): We don't mention privacy without mentioning transparency. If we ever ask a person to take part in surveys, if we ever ask a person to share personally identifiable information, we explain why we're requesting the information and we also explained how it will be used and we let them know that they don't have to provide that information. And so, you know, I very much appreciate and respect and value that the need for personally identifiable information could be home address. It could be name. It could be phone number. It could be anything. It could be access to the people's Facebook postings or Twitter postings. But, unless we're also asking people for their permission then we're doing it in a transparent way then we might as well not be asking for their permission at all and I think that would be horrible. And I think survey companies or any companies that collect information without may complain why they are collecting or what it will be used for, are they going to run into trouble and they could, you know blacken the eye of the whole entire industry if they don't watch it.

Continued

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Corporate Membership Spotlight The Latest Trends In Market Research :: MRGA Interviews Toluna (Continued) Hosted by: Eric Bell Special guest: George H. Terhanian Ph.D.

Eric Bell (50:17): Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So, for whatever reason, we've got a number of people on the lines but nobody is asking any questions. One final question that I have is what are your thoughts about the different certifications for sampling processes? There's a number of organizations going through the sample quality side of it. Do you have any take or thoughts on how Toluna proceeds? Do you support any third party or do you follow consistency through your own product, just for people that are listening. Do you want to talk about that?

George Terhanian (50:52): Yeah, I see certification is really minimum standards that are out there and I think those types of programs will be very good in ensuring the companies that don't meet the standards and do meet the standards, but you know we have higher aspirations and lots of goals at Toluna and we've set the bar very high for ourselves and we expect our clients to set the bar very high as well. So, it's not that I don't value or appreciate certification efforts but I see them really as the minimum and I think we can do a little bit better than that.

Eric Bell (51:37): Thank you for the time today. Also, for listeners out there, Toluna would love to get your feedback. Feel free to post on their MRGA profile which is www.mrgasn/profile/Toluna or feel free to contact Toluna directly. They would love feedback on any educational sessions they could provide our community on sampling or any other thoughts that you could have around sampling whether it's setting up a lab for thoughts. Did you have any other thoughts or comments, George?

George Terhanian (52:19): No. No. I just wanted to thank you again Eric. I appreciate the invitation and I appreciate your questions and enjoyed them. I hope you enjoy the rest of the day.

Eric Bell (52:31): I will and you too. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

What do you think the latest market research trends are? Share your thoughts or ask Toluna.

Click To Comment

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upcoming webinars

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 – 11AM Strategies & Best Practices for Building a Successful Custom Research Panel Join this FREE live webinar as Bonnie Sherman, VP, Custom Panel Development, introduces you to Decipher's custom panel build capabilities.

Bonnie will cover:

• • • • •

Strategic Benefits of Custom Panels When to Build vs. Buy Custom Panels & Online Communities Best Practices for Panel Development Bid Elements & Cost Drivers

If you haven't had the opportunity to meet Bonnie yet, this is your chance to pick her brain!

She has over 13 years of custom panel development experience at Ipsos Interactive, Angus Reid and NFO. To sign up for this webinar, Click Here » Wednesday, April 20, 2011 – 11AM Mobile Surveys: Techniques & Best Practices Join this FREE live webinar as Kristin Luck, President, introduces you to Decipher's mobile surveying capabilities. Over 60% of US marketers are using, piloting, or expecting to use mobile marketing in 2010. When you consider the ubiquity of mobile phones, their presence in the daily lives of users, advances in the wireless networks and improved handset technology, it is easy to see why marketers are becoming hooked on the idea of mobile marketing. In fact, mobile marketing is one of the fastest growth areas in media adoption.

Mobile marketing and advertising will grow almost ten-fold over the next five years, from $1.5 billion to $11.5 billion according to eMarketer. This session will give an overview of mobile research techniques as well as Decipher's mobile surveying capabilities and sampling strategies.

To sign up for this webinar, Click Here » © Copyright 2011 decipher, inc. | all rights reserved.

MRGA JOURNAL

New Membership Spotlight New Membership Spotlight

Welcome some MRGAS‟s newest members…

Welcome someofof MRGAS‟s newest members…

Ksenia Denesuik Odessa, Ukraine Company: Amry Research Member Since : February 15, 2011 I am a market research: Market Research Solution Provider

William D Ratcliffe Toronto, Canada Company: Collected Conscience Member Since: February 23, 2011 I am a market research: Full-Service Market Research Firm

Erica M Ruyle Portland, OR United States Company: Market Strategies International Member Since: February 18, 2011 I am a market research: Full-Service Market Research Firm

John Mackay Amersham, Bucks United Kingdom Company: The Research Club Ltd Member Since: February 27, 2011 I am a market research: Market Research Solution Provider

Abdel Haq Lecheb Dubai UAE United Arab Emirates

Alena Jule Portsmouth, NH United States

Company: Market Advantage

Company: Sentient Decision Science

Member Since: February 9, 2011

Member Since: February 18, 2011

I am a market research: FullService MR Firm, MR Solution Provider, MR Media Provider, MR Education Provider

I am a market research: Market Research Solution Provider

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MRGA JOURNAL

6 Steps to Understand, Engage and Activate Facebook Fans February 28,2011

By Kelly Anson

Having an authentic and engaging voice in social media is critical for most every organization these days. One of the first steps is creating a Facebook page where consumers can go for information, post their thoughts, and even “like� you, thereby becoming a fan. But even for brands that have several thousands of fans, many questions remain unanswered. Who are these fans? How do they compare to my customer base? How can we form mutually beneficial interactions? Can we glean any insights from them to improve our products and business strategy?

This is now possible by giving marketing and research teams a private channel with consumers directly within a Facebook fan page.

Essentially it is a "VIP room" within a Facebook page to exchange information and ideas:

4. Measurement of KPIs. Other activities - surveys, interactive forums, threaded discussions or diaries - can be added to measure brand KPIs just as they are done measured for "real world" customers.

With consistent instruments across modes, its then easier to compare the two groups.

5. Segmentation. With the data captured so far, instead of a mass of "Facebook fans" there is a newfound ability to segment and group individuals based on any number of factors, for any number of uses not the least of which might be to inform future interactions.

With this connection in place, there are essentially six simple steps to better understand, engage and activate fans to participate in activities that match their interest and availability: 1. Invitation. Just as you would do for any campaign, create an invitation and direct fans and would-be-fans to the special section of your Facebook page.

2. Registration. As has become commonplace within Facebook, a click authorizes information sharing across parties. The fan has full control over whether they want to join or not.

3. Qualification. Brands can set up post-registration activities to better understand their constituents' sociodemographics, behavior and opinions. Most often done through surveys, these can be fun for fans to complete and useful information for marketers and researchers.

6. Mobilization. And once you know who your fans are and most importantly what they like to do and how (if!)they want to contribute, you follow their lead. Creative and critical groups might be used to advise on product development or marketing campaigns pre-launch. Well-connected and enthusiastic fans might be enabled to share their enthusiasm more easily - through special events, inperson parties or simple coupon sharing.

As you've no doubt discovered: this isn't rocket science. It's what marketers have been doing for years, with increasingly innovative approaches and analyses! What's new is applying it to the social media world and turning very public exchanges into insights for better business, from all sides. Better for business with ability to measure feedback and inform strategy; better for fans who have their voices heard and may even have a hand in shaping the future of the company/product; better for consumers who stand to benefit from the collective "voice of the customer" whether or not they themselves are vocal.

Have any of you been doing this already in Facebook or other social networking sites? What do you think?

For those interested, a video going through these in more detail with visuals is available: February 24th Webinar Recording.

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MRGA JOURNAL

Customer Centricity No Longer an Option

By Ken Powaga It used to be that product-centric brands dominated sellers' markets. But now, and for the foreseeable future, customers control buyers' markets. This means that customer centricity is an absolute requirement and no longer optional.

In 1995, Michael Tracey and Fred Wiersema's "The Discipline of Market Leaders" formula for business success and market leadership was to excel in one of three disciplines: operational excellence (low cost producer), product leadership (best-in-class innovation), or customer intimacy (strong customer centric relationships). Furthermore, market leaders who excel at one discipline only need to meet industry standards for the other two disciplines. In the pre-internet era, total commitment to a customer centric business model wasn't required as long as low cost or product leadership was maintained.

However, a lot has changed in the past fifteen years to increase the importance of customer centricity.

1.

Treat different customers differently. This is especially important for the customers you value most and can least afford to lose. This requires a thorough understanding of their needs and wants so that you can deliver products and services that exceed expectations. It means less emphasis on "one-tomany" mass marketing approaches and more reliance on targeting customer segments and "one-to-one" business strategies.

2.

Empower employees and create communications and systems to help consumers buy. Productcentric brands sell while customer-centric brands help buyers buy. It is necessary to mine and understand customer history and use this information to provide simpler, more personalized experiences. By doing so, you create a trusting relationship where customers feel that you have their best interests in mine. Today's consumers demand value and convenience on their own terms. If you don't demonstrate a willingness to deliver value and convenience in every interaction, customers with take their business elsewhere.

3.

Use social media to engage consumers. In product-centric, sellers' markets of the past, consumers were isolated and uninformed. The growth of social media has made today's consumer connected and knowledgeable. They build communities and rely on word of mouth to find value and convenience. To be customer-centric, you must actively listen and learn from complaints and criticisms raised in online forums. Establishing a positive dialog that demonstrates real concern and willingness to provide real solutions is a great way to build strong trusting relationships.

Technological advancements and the information age have resulted in new market realities with smarter, more nimble competitors and smarter, more demanding customers. For most industries, competition is more global and has more access to state-of the-art technological information than in the past. This means that productivity improvements and innovation adoption are implemented at a much more rapid pace, making it very difficult for anyone to sustain a true low-cost or product innovation leadership for long.

More importantly, customers are more connected and knowledgeable than ever before with greater access and availability to more choices. Customers no longer have to settle for a suboptimum product or service. Because customers have more power and rising expectations the standards for an acceptable level of customer intimacy are continually rising.

So, in order to survive and prosper, companies must build strong customer relationships and evolve from product-centric to customer-centric organizations. What do companies need to do to shift from product to customer-centricity? The following three principles are a good start:

This fundamental shift in power from sellers to buyers requires tactical and strategic decisions that build trust and strengthen long-term customer relationships. Sometimes, this may come at the expense of short-term profits.

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Top Stories Hear Me Out: Let's Give Away More Research For Free :: February, 2011 Ever had an idea that you know is genius, but everybody else thinks is crazy? Here is your chance to share it with the world of research. This month, Chloe Fowler of Razor Research argues for more freebies.

What‟s the big idea?

Why not give away more research for free? Think of all those start-up brands – they‘ve done the hard work to get to launch and they‘re embarking on the harder work of making the brand stick. Why not give them just a smidge of help right when they need it – but can‘t afford it?

Didn‟t your mother tell you not to just give it away?

Yes, but my mother also told me not to talk to strangers… and I went out and became a qualitative researcher. Most consumer research agencies work with brands and companies that can afford hundreds of thousands pounds of research a year, or at least thousands. But there are increasing numbers of start-up brands who either can‘t afford it or frankly, don‘t even know that qualitative research exists.

What do you get out of it?

With a lot of clients it‘s not always possible to get right up close to the top-level business realities that are driving research objectives (though we ask as much as we can), let alone briefings with the chief executive. The smaller and newer brands are hungry for as much advice and help as possible, and they‘re always the people who have germinated their brand idea and made it happen. They‘re honest, assertive and have as much to teach us about business as we have to show them about their consumers. Let‘s be honest, the cost to an agency of recruiting and incentivizing a few groups of respondents isn‘t going to break the bank and there are still some nights a year when we‘re not already doing two nights of fieldwork. If you‘ve got the time, can afford a little generosity and know you‘re really helping a great start-up, there‘s nothing to lose. And what goes around comes around.

Sounds too good to be true.

In an ideal world, start-up brands and entrepreneurs should commission expensive usage and attitude studies, work with leading brand consultants and conduct qual research around the planning cycle. But let‘s face it, they just can‘t afford to. And to be honest, should they even if they could? Should Innocent have commissioned eight focus groups to tell them what a bin of empty bottles for ‗yes, quit your jobs‘ and a bin for ‗no, stick with the day job‘ did? Should Levi Roots have paid for a series of ethnographic interviews to figure out that the world really did need another spicy sauce? Not necessarily. Research for start-ups isn‘t (and shouldn‘t be) used solely to provide answers to massive yes and no questions. It should be about giving them a sensitive but honest bit of feedback from brand new consumers, rather than their wives or mates.

Would they do it if they had to pay?

If I‘m honest, probably not. When you‘re a start-up the cliché is true, every penny counts. These brands don‘t need qualitative research in the same way that they need their pack designers, their manufacturers and a distribution process. But it doesn‘t mean they don‘t value it when they have it. By giving them the chance to experience the power of market research early on in their lives we‘re giving qual a good name too - and I‘ll bet you that Innocent is happy to pay for research now that they‘re able to afford it.

Don‟t the clients who do pay feel cheated?

Let‘s be clear – giving away research for free has to be selective and there has to be a reason for choosing one brand over another a few times a year. All clients benefit from working with researchers who have experience with many different types of respondent across many different categories. Researchers should always seek to broaden their horizons and if you can choose to dip a toe into an unfamiliar category and get to know a fab new brand then why not? If offering a few groups for free gives you the chance to get to know and even become friends with savvy, assertive and communicative brand owners, what‘s the problem?

Web sites: www.razorresearch.co.uk and www.linkedin.com/in/chloerazor

Courtesy of http://www.research-live.com.

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MRGA JOURNAL

Top Stories Spend Money. Deliver Better.

February 24, 2011 :: By Brian Tarran Walmart‟s investment in a new global customer insight team stands to significantly boost its understanding of consumers and hand it greater leverage in dealings with suppliers, making sure the right products are on the shelves at the right time and at the right price.

Walmart‘s topline fourth quarter sales growth of 2.5% to $115.6bn, reported this week, is an acceptable result masking a more worrying trend in its US business – seven straight quarters of declines in comparable store sales. Bill Simon, the retailer‘s US chief executive is disappointed, but he said: ―I‘m confident that we can improve sales throughout the rest of the year.‖ That confidence is partly based on research. ―We spent the last six months analyzing our [stock] assortment and presentation and delving into customer insights about their shopping habits and their preference,‖ said Simon. And that‘s just for starters.

Earlier this month Walmart announced the creation of a new global consumer insights team, led by Cindy Davis (pictured). Davis was previously senior vice president of membership and marketing for the company‘s discount online shopping site Sam‘s Club and as such ―she understands the importance of putting the customer at the centre of everything we do, and the power insights have on business decision making,‖ said her boss, Sam‘s Club CEO Brian Cornell.

Walmart has long understood the importance of consumer research – one doesn‘t get to be the world‘s largest grocery retailer without knowing what customers and potential customers want and expect of you – yet its consumer insight capabilities have lagged behind those of competitors like Tesco and Kroger, who‘ve made huge gains by getting to know their shoppers through loyalty card data analysis partnerships with Dunnhumby.

Natalie Berg, global research director for Planet Retail, suggests Walmart has not kept pace with its competitors‘ advancements in this area because of its strong cost-control ethic, which helped establish the company‘s reputation for offering ―extreme value on well-known brands‖.

It has made good use of its Retail Link system, which provides data about what is going through the tills – but that‘s not the same as customer insight, Berg says. The new customer insight team, she believes, is a sign that Walmart really needs to understand its customers ―to make sure they get the right product on the shelf at the right time‖. ―Walmart has taken its eye off the ball,‖ says Berg, distracted by a well-intentioned rationalization of the SKU range. They ―picked away too much‖ while attempting to clear shelves of unpopular product lines, meaning shoppers have struggled to find the brands they want, and so have taken their entire shopping baskets over to the competition. Hence the decline in the US store business.

A key part of the retailer‘s US turnaround plan is to deliver ―the broadest and most relevant assortment possible at the lowest price in the market‖. This includes a ―continued focus on adding merchandise back on the shelves‖, the company said.

One would expect the relevancy part of the assortment equation to be handled by the consumer insight team. Gartner analyst Don Scheibenreif says Davis‘ people will ―help the company spot global trends across multiple product categories early and respond with new products, merchandising and marketing programs‖.

But Scheibenreif also expects the consumer insights team to hand Walmart – already a notoriously tough negotiator – greater leverage in its dealings with suppliers, to haggle for better prices that should more than offset this new investment in its research capabilities. ―Advanced analytics offer cross-category insights; coupled with technology-enabled trend-spotting, these could potentially become Walmart‘s proprietary insights, which help the company know more about consumers than consumer goods manufacturers do,‖ says Scheibenreif.

E

That‘s reason enough for US CEO Bill Simon to be confident for the future.

Post Your Event Courtesy of http://www.research-live.com.

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MRGA JOURNAL

Top Stories Community Buy-In

February 8, 2011 :: By Tamara Barber Yesterday‟s big news was Omnicom‟s purchase of online community firm Communispace. Here, Forrester analyst Tamara Barber looks at what lessons the acquisition has for the MR industry and what it means for the future of Communispace.

After months of speculation, Omnicom Group officially announced this week that it acquired Communispace. This announcement came on the heels of Omnicom‘s Friday announcement of the acquisition of The Modellers, a research firm specializing in advanced analytics and predictive modeling. Acquired through the firm‘s Diversified Agency Services (DAS) group, these two companies will sit among the likes of other niche market research firms such as M/A/R/C Research and Hall & Partners‘ brand and communication research. This announcement is significant because, in the context of the MR industry it:  Confirms the importance and value of client relationships. Communispace is the 800 pound gorilla of market research online communities (MROCs), and they have built a strong business by being innovators around how to use communities, paired with stellar client services. They are especially adept at catering to large brands with significant research budgets and deep partnerships with vendors. While financial terms were not disclosed, my bet is that Communispace was able to garner a price tag well above the over $40 million in revenue they were on track to bring in for 2010. This reflects the value of the team and the client relationships they bring on board.  Opens up global expansion possibilities. Clients are putting more pressure on community vendors to come to the table with truly global capabilities. With Omnicom resources and personnel, Communispace will have the budget and organizational structure to expand globally. This also offers the flexibility of spreading their training and ‗secret sauce‘ across other parts of the Omnicom umbrella, allowing them to scale up or scale down services based on demand.

Although the Communispace business continued to do well during the recession, this access to resources will make them even more agile in economic ups and downs.  Speaks to client pressures to integrate different data sources. By acquiring two companies that are fully at different ends of the research spectrum – one being highly qualitative and the other very classically quant – the announcements reflect the need that clients are feeling to be able to mesh both kinds of data together. Going forward, the reliance on traditional methods will be significantly enhanced by newer methods such as those used in communities.  Highlights the continued trend toward „conglomeratisation‟ of research vendors. While WPP has greater inroads into traditional MR with companies like TNS, Kantar, and Millward Brown under its umbrella, this recent news demonstrates the strength of new market research methods and the way in which large marketing and research companies are going to access innovation in this space. With the economy turning around, expect to hear of more deals from big players – including management consultancies – snapping up specialist research agencies.

The big question that remains is: how well will Communispace – and The Modellers for that matter – integrate into other Omnicom businesses? Typically this kind of integration within such a large organization is a difficult path to navigate. Expect these services to remain separate for the short term, with likely some ad-hoc integration as the need arises. However in the long term, formal integration of the community model across other business lines at Omnicom – rather than continued organic growth through new clients and new talent acquisition – will be the most profitable path to growth.

Tamara Barber is an analyst at Forrester Research where she serves, and contributes to the Forrester blog for Market Insights professionals: http://blogs.forrester.com/market_insights.

Courtesy of http://www.research-live.com.

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Events INSIGHTS 2011 A :: ASIA PACIFIC 2011 INCREASING VALUE THROUGH SIMPLICITY MELBOURNE/20 - 22 MARCH March 20, 2011 to March 22, 2011 – Australia Asia Pacific 2011 will offer several preconference workshops in addition to round-table discussions and engaging presentations from top international speakers and clients all over the world such as…Organized by ESOMAR WORLD RESEARCH | Type: conference

MOBILE RESEARCH CONFERENCE (MRC) 2011 April 18, 2011 at 12pm to April 19, 2011 at 6pm – Mayfair Hotel The third annual gathering of researchers, end-clients and academics interested in capturing insights through mobile phones! This 2-day event will highlight opportunities and innovations, debate best…Organized by Kelly Anson | Type: conference

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IIR TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN MARKET RESEARCH May 2, 2011 to May 3, 2011 – Hotel Allerton Chicago Starting things off is the Technology Driven Market Research conference scheduled for May 2-3, 2011 at the Hotel Allerton Chicago in Chicago, IL. The theme for this year‘s conference is ―Capture I…Organized by IIR | Type: conference

WEBINAR: SIX REASONS TO CONSIDER WEBCAM FOCUS GROUPS March 24, 2011 from 2pm to 3pm – http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event ?llr=n5n6drcab&oeidk=a07e3hdys530f2e1d4f Online research of many types is growing in demand. Join us for this live webinar where we will cover the different types of online research and go into an in-depth discussion of Webcam Focus Groups.…Organized by FocusVision World Wide | Type: live, webinar

BURKE INSTITUTE - MARKET SEGMENTATION & POSITIONING RESEARCH June 7, 2011 to June 9, 2011 – Chicago In this 3-day seminar, you will learn how to segment your markets and select the best target markets for your products and services. Specifically, you will learn: Why it is critically important to segment your markets, select the most profitable targets, and position your…Organized by Beverly Schalk | Type: seminar

MARKET RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS IN ACTION April 12, 2011 at 2:45pm to April 14, 2011 at 7pm – New York MARKET RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS IN ACTION is a connecting platform where global leaders meet to discuss strategic and key topics, exchange most recent experiences, and brainstorm on future developments…Organized by Connecting Group | Type: conference

2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARKET RESEARCH IN THE MOBILE WORLD July 19, 2011 to July 20, 2011 – Atlanta, Georgia The GreenBook Marketing Research Directory, in Collaboration with Merlien Institute and the Center for Business Innovation and Creative thinking at the Coles College of Business are pleased to announce…Organized by Leonard Murphy | Type: mobile, research, conference

Click here to view all of the upcoming events.

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Videos

FocusVision InterVu Webcam Focus Groups :: An online qualitative research solution for respondents at different remote locations with full two-way audio and video capabilities…. Added by FocusVision World Wide

Valentine's Day Spending :: According to a recent report by the National Retail Federation, the average Valentine‘s Day spending will be up 12.8% this year over last year ($103 in 2010 and $116.20 in 2011). Added by iCharts.

Robert Winston on public engagement with science :: ―We have something of a crisis on our hands in understanding how the research that we do as scientists… is actually relevant to the population in general.‖

A tasty MROC case study from Ben & Jerry„s :: Unilever‘s consumer shopper insight manager Martijn Van Kesteren and InSites Consulting‘s Tom DeRuyck present an overview of the research community built for the Ben & Jerry‘s Ice Cream brand, explaining how fans were given the opportunity to become future-shapers.

Courtesy of http://www.research-live.com.

Courtesy of http://www.research-live.com.

Linkin Park Teams With U.N., Facebook For Haiti :: Linkin Park teamed with the United Nations and Facebook to bring light to the continuing struggles of Haiti, as Chester and Rob talk about the experience of ...

Courtesy of http://www.musicforrelief.org.

P Publish Your Blog

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Where Market Research Brands Deploy Their Social Media Strategy Corporate Membership Make your social media presence known. The MRGA has spent years defining the art of social media presence. After all we were the first social media platform for market researchers. We know what works and what doesn't. The MRGA's Corporate Membership is your out of the box social media advertising kit designed to give you a basic branded social media experience from day one.

This is a recurring annual membership, and the first step into the MRGA AD::CHATTER 360 Social Media Network. This membership is designed to give your corporate brand a social media presence on all major social media platforms that market researchers follow.

Benefits Include :: • On-Boarding with the MRGA Social Media Starter Kit with Bench Mark Review (New) • Access to 16,000+ MRGA Members Globally • Access to the MRGA Publishing Network (Organize & Publish To All Social Networks Once)Publish to MRGAsn, ResearchVibes, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. & synchronize all of your blog posts on the MRGA to over 25+ Blog Search Directories.

• StudyBounty Access & Registration (New) • Corporate Bloggers Linking Package (New) • Unlimited Press Submission through Press Chatter (New) • Unique URL to MRGA Corporate Membership • Corporate Archive Publication Unlimited :: Press Releases, Whitepapers, Webinars, Podcasts and Video Submission • Unlimited Employee Directory Linked to Professional Memberships • Branded Conversations with Logo • MRGA Membership Seal • MRGA Sponsor Recognition • Social Media and Search Engine Optimization • Opportunity to Access Premium Sponsorship Opportunity Have Questions? Call 1.888.250.8779 email membership@mrgasn.com, or visit http://invite.mrgasn.com/corporate-membership/

Request Your Online Grade :: Learn About InBound Leads :: Monitor Your Competitive Landscape

Want to know how to optimize your brand's market research social media presence? We help Brands Deploy and get found by more prospects and convert more of them into leads and paying customers with our services strategy.

The MRGA has partnered with HubSpot to help with a no-obligation Inbound Marketing Assessment that evaluates your current social media participation areas open to improvement. You can learn more about your competitors by finding out the number of inbound links, search engine indexed pages and how they stack up against you. Plus, you'll be able to make better decisions with your marketing dollars.

We offer an unbeatable combination to help you spread the word about your market research brand and services.

We would like to offer you the MRGA Corporate Membership in Combination with Hubspot Software! Get your free 30 day market research focused evaluation today.

We can help you track your presence on :: Your Website :: We will help you measure your SEO measurement and the marketing effectiveness of your website. Website Grader has graded over 1,000,000 sites and won numerous awards.

Your Blog :: Measure the marketing mojo of your blog.

Facebook :: Did you know that there are over 500 million active users on Facebook? Or, that thousands of businesses are setting up Facebook pages to help reach their potential customers...

Twitter :: Twitter Grader is for measuring the power, authority and reach of a Twitter user. How do you stack up on Twitter?

Press Releases :: Evaluate your press release. Get the most of your investment in press releases.

Fill out the Step 1. Form and get started today!

MRGA JOURNAL

Social Media Innovators ::

Company Description ActusMR™, Inc . is a world class provider of strategic sales solutions, specializing in the marketing research industry. ActusMR™ is known as a resource to any firm wanting to increase sales exposure. Whether clients are leveraging our sales representatives, working with us to refine your sales process, or leveraging our virtual sales team management, ActusMR™ can help you grow, as well as gain stronger name recognition. In the race for market share, you need to have your strongest team running. Clearly an endurance race, we'll help you develop a strategy to outlast the competition. Go for the gold with Team ActusMR™!

Email: info@actusmr.com Website: www.actusmr.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/ActusMR

Company Description THE OTHER SAMPLING COMPANY IN CONNECTICUT™ - Call for competitive quotation. Quality online and telephone samples since 1991: exact age, income, new mothers, ethnic, businesses, tract/block groups, radius, RDD, many low incidence categories (product users, etc.), radius, census tract/block groups, many others, standard formats, email delivery, survey/sampling expertise. Survey programming and hosting.

Email: sales@affordablesamples.com Website: www.affordablesamples.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/AffordableSamples

Company Description The American Marketing Association (AMA) is the professional association for individuals and organizations who are leading the practice, teaching, and development of marketing worldwide. Our principal roles are:

• The AMA serves as a conduit to foster knowledge sharing.

• Providing resources, education, career and professional development opportunities.

• Promoting/ supporting marketing practice and thought leadership.

Through relevant information, comprehensive education and targeted networking, the AMA assists marketers in deepening their marketing expertise, elevating their careers and ultimately, achieving better results.

Website: www.marketingpower.com MRGA Profile: Coming Soon

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Social Media Innovators :: Company Description The Internet is the greatest data source we have ever seen. Always changing, expanding and evolving at a pace faster than we can digest. In order for the Internet to be a great business information source, we must be able to able to identify the information we need, aggregate it efficiently, review it effectively and take action.

Since our inception in 2002, Broadlook Technologies has focused on delivering innovative software solutions and services to empower business professionals to ―Leverage the Internet‖ as a real-time source of contact, company and business intelligence and information.

With well in excess of 10,000 users across 23 countries, Broadlook has emerged as the leader in helping B2B sales, marketing, specialty information publishers, talent acquisition departments, professional recruiting and staffing turn the Internet into an optimal sources to generate leads, source talent, power marketing campaigns, develop business, drive revenues and grow.

The future is brighter than ever. Several core applications have been architected for the SAAS and mobile platforms. The award-winning Contact Capture application is available on the major mobile platforms and has over 250,000 downloads. Profiler will be SAAS enabled and distributed through strategic integration partnerships with leading Applicant Tracking and CRM partners.

Website: www.broadlook.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/Broadlook

Company Description We gather millions of opinions everyday. We organize these opinions and deliver them to you in real-time.

CivicScience Inc. is a team of career idealists that includes world class economists, scientists, software engineers, leading pollsters, former elected officials, media personalities, and accomplished entrepreneurs.

Website: www.civicscience.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/CiViCSCIENCE

Company Description A marketing research services provider, Decipher specializes in online survey programming, data collection, data processing/reporting and custom technology development. Utilizing web-based applications, Decipher integrates state-of-the-art technology with traditional research techniques. Decipher's survey tools and data reporting suite provide users with the ability to automate post-field production, significantly increasing the accuracy and quality of research reporting.

Email: info@decipherinc.com Website: www.decipherinc.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/decipher

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Company Description: Founded in 1995, DMS Insights leverages its full-service heritage to provide a level of research knowledge and expertise unseen with other online sample providers.

Experts in Online Research: Our team has extensive full-service research experience from both client and supplier-side companies. The benefit to you will be obvious -executional excellence based on greater research knowledge and a deeper understanding of your objectives.

The Highest Quality Sample: Our pioneering work in creating the innovative ―river sampling‖ methodology resulted in the development of Opinion Place, the online industry‘s first and largest portal for reliable survey respondents. Opinion Place is the right choice when quality matters.

Precision Targeting: Specialty panels we offer include: Hispanic (Tu Opinion Latina), B2B, and Health Conditions.

Our level of research experience, in combination with the quality of our unparalleled samples, makes DMS Insights an excellent choice to meet your online sampling needs.

Email: info@dmsinsights.com Website: www.dms-insight.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/DMS

Company Description EFG is the U.S. subsidiary of the Paris-based MV2 Group, one of the European leaders in international Market Research. EFG is a fullservice one-stop shop for quant/qual fieldwork and mystery shopping worldwide on behalf of US-based Market Research and consulting firms.

We provide quotes within 24-36h, coordinate your fieldwork worldwide, provide daily updates, and answer any questions you might have. EFG‘s global network counts 9,500 Face-to-Face interviewers (CAPI-equipped), 2,000 in-house CATI Stations, 75 Focus Group Facilities, and 35+ proprietary panels across EMEA, APAC, and LatAm. EFG is ISO 9001 quality certified since 1995. EFG covers all types of industry. Special units dedicated to specific industries such as Healthcare, IT, B2B, C-Levels, Finance, Automotive, and Sports.

Email: contact@efgresearch.com Website: www.efgresearch.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/EFG Company Description

Company Description FocusVision is the leading global provider of live video transmission, analysis and archive solutions for the qualitative market research industry.

With transmission solutions for all venues, including the largest global network of focus group facilities, FocusVision delivers the highest audio and video quality, security and reliability for the most advanced research organizations in the world. FocusVision solutions increase key stakeholder participation, avoid the hassles and costs of travel and accelerate the review, analysis and reporting process to make smarter decisions, faster.

Email: info@focusvision.com Website: www.focusvision.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/FocusVision

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Social Media Innovators ::

Company Description Gazelle is the trusted resource chosen by leading market research firms since 1993. Services include domestic and international field management in all methodologies, online programming and hosting, sample acquisition, data processing, coding and foreign language translations. When you partner with Gazelle, we put you in touch with our extensive network of global providers in Europe, Asia, Africa, plus North America, Latin America and the Middle East. All work is prepared in compliance with the International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practices. Gazelle Global Research Services, LLC is certified as a women‘s business enterprise through the Women‘s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Professional affiliations: PRC certified by the MRA, AMA, CASRO, ESOMAR and AIMRI. Email: info@gazelleglobal.com Website: www.gazelleglobal.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/GazelleGlobal

Company Description Globalpark offers panel, community and feedback management solutions that drive loyalty, product innovation, and marketing reach. We help organizations like Citi, Daimler and Nintendo, and top MR and HR agencies, to ensure the voice of the customer/employee informs daily decisions. We offer web-based solutions for: - Online Research including mobile, for instant ―in the moment‖ feedback - Research Panels with the most open, efficient panel management platform available - Private Feedback Communities fusing quant and qual research - Advocacy Networks to build reach, reputation With 10 years experience, we offer a proven, cost-effective solution to help organizations manage what matters and fuel bottom-line growth.

Email: community@globalpark.com Website: www.globalpark.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/globalpark

Company Description Every month, thousands of companies, organizations, governmental agencies, and market research firms use the GreenBook to find partners for research projects. These prospective buyers of research services find GreenBook to be: - Reliable: information is provided & verified by listed companies - Detailed: provides clear direction and confidence - Practical: standardized, uncluttered and user-friendly format Email: ncardenas@greenbook.org Website: www.greenbook.org MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/GreenBook

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Company Description Founded over a decade ago, Hotspex helps the marketing world discover the hidden truth behind consumer behavior – emotions, feelings and relationships towards brands and marketing ideas. Leading manufacturers, retailers and service providers continuously rely on us for our insights, innovation and technology. We differentiate ourselves from other research companies by: 1) focusing on emotions to understand subconscious associations and drivers of behavior, 2) engaging millions of consumers to help us shape products and experiences through our interactive and enjoyable surveys, and 3) providing business-focused analysis of all results.

Email: gera.n@hotspex.com Website: www.hotspex.biz MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/HotSpex

Company Description HubSpot's vision is to provide a (killer) marketing application and provide great advice to small businesses enabling them to leverage these disruptive effects of the internet to "get found" by more prospects shopping in their niche and to convert a higher percentage of prospects into customers.

Most small businesses have a website that behaves like their old paper-based brochures, but just sitting online. It is rarely updated, is not given significant visibility by the search engines, has low traffic levels, does not encourage return visits, does not enable/track conversions, etc. What HubSpot does is transform that relatively static website into a modern marketing machine that produces the right leads and helps convert a higher percentage of them into qualified opportunities.

For more information about what we are building, see our products page and see this article on our strategy for success.

Email: jmahtani@hubspot.com Website: www.hubspot.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/HubSpot

Company Description iCharts offers a fully integrated, web based solution that allows you to visualize any kind of data online and easily distribute it to any audience. No Software to download. No Programming required. iCharts has solutions designed for researchers that: allow users to visually experience, consume, analyze and reuse your data; create dynamically updated interactive charts and dashboards; integrate data across multiple sources, including surveys and databases; automatically update iCharts wherever they are on the web with no manual effort; and improve productivity by going from raw data to charting and online distribution with no aggregations or crosstabbing required. iCharts - your online resource for data visualization, publishing and information distribution.

Email: dstanley@ichartsbusiness.com Website: ichartsbusiness.com/solutions MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/iCharts

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Company Description InsightsNow is the leading product design and development research company whose unique consumer behavior frameworks, powerful technology platform, and rapid delivery of relevant insights provide a rich, integrated, and scalable research environment that accelerates the development of products for major consumer packaged goods manufacturers. Through the company‘s advanced real time research and analytic solutions, such as profilesNOW and reportsNOW, InsightsNow provides faster, deeper, and more insightful results. InsightsNow‘s headquarters are in Corvallis, Oregon with offices throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.InsightsNow.com or call 541-757-1404.

Email: info@InsightsNow.com Website: www.InsightsNow.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/InsightsNowInc

Company Description Kinesis Survey Technologies™ provides powerful survey and panel management solutions for building and maintaining web and wireless survey communities with two available versions -- Market Research and Enterprise editions. Kinesis Survey™ is a web-based, survey programming application with intuitive user interface for rapid training and minimal programming time. Kinesis Panel™ is a query, sample distribution, and invitation solution that supports small communities or large. Kinesis Panel includes a customizable Panelist Portal for creating panel and community websites, and API for extending to third-party and in-house applications. Reporting tools provide visibility to all aspects of survey launch and panel management, with branded options for third-party access.

Email: sales@kinesissurvey.com Website: www.kinesissurvey.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/Kinesis

Company Description The Market Research Event unites the world's most influential researchers to share best practices, industry innovation and showcase the business value of market research. This years event is November 07 - November 09 2011 in Orlando, FL. MRGA members receive a special discount.

Brought to you by IIR USA: Our events provide you with laser focused content, unique experiences, access to people & ideas that create innovation, relevant connections, & generate business.

IIR USA has identified and branded 5 critical factors necessary to meet changing customer needs . It's through the unique combination of these imperatives that IIR USA events continually set the standard for which conferences in general are measured.

Email: aioannou@iirusa.com Website: www.themarketresearchevent.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/tmre

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Company Description Founded in 1979, Mktg, Inc, is the online SampleAnalysts™ to the industry with the largest global research on research effort covering 35 countries. The Grand Mean Project™ tracks hundreds of panels globally. Our consistency modeling is a new measure of quality.

Offering unique online sample quality measures through: The Grand Mean Project™; Optimum Blending Solutions™; Consistent Track ™; QMetrics™: Crop Duster™. State of the art programming/hosting & 160 CATI stations.

Email: customercare@mktginc.com Website: www.mktginc.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/grandmean

Company Description The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) is a Canadian not-for-profit association representing all aspects of the market intelligence and survey research industry, including social research, competitive intelligence, data mining, insight, and knowledge management. Members include over 1,800 practitioners, small to large research houses, and the many buyers of research services, such as financial institutions, major retailers, insurance companies and manufacturers. The industry accounts for almost three quarters of a billion dollars in market research activities annually.

The MRIA was founded on November 21, 2004, after the membership of the three Canadian associations representing the industry voted overwhelmingly in favour of merging. The newly-created body, which began operations on January 1, 2005, presents a unified voice for the industry; pulling together all of the products and services formerly offered to the public and the respective members of the now dissolved Canadian Association of Market Research Organizations (CAMRO), the Canadian Survey Research Council (CSRC) and the Professional Marketing Research Society (PMRS).

Email: FBorok@mria-arim.ca Website: www.mria-arim.ca MRGA Profile: Coming Soon

Company Description Successful qualitative research techniques begin with understanding the specifications of our clients. Our professionally trained in-house staff can tackle the most difficult recruiting assignments in a timely and cost effective manner utilizing client supplied sample, our computerized database, location intercepts or random calling. Mars Research has an extensive field department that offers our clients the opportunity to conduct mystery shops, store audits, and exit interviews on a local, regional and/or national level Quantitative research studies are implemented with a team approach. This gives us the ability to complete projects on schedule and within budget.

Every interviewer is thoroughly trained, briefed, supervised and monitored to ensure accurate and valid data collection. Our research provides reliable and concise data on consumers, professionals and businesses, as well as a full range of special target audiences, including seniors, physicians and baby boomers.

Email: ron@marsresearch.com Website: www.marsresearch.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/MARS

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Company Description Missing from this new economy is an intermediary to unite organizations and service providers. Mavenlink is that connection.

Organizations and service providers that use Mavenlink can tap into trusted referral networks to contract specialized talent without the cost, barriers or time-consuming processes of traditional staffing companies and recruitment firms. The Software as a Service platform enables organizations and service providers to conduct business while simplifying communications and promoting transparency among collaborative work teams.

Email: support@mavenlink.com Website: www.mavenlink.com MRGA Profile: Coming Soon

Company Description Mindwave has in-depth experience in several quantitative and qualitative methodologies, but it‘s our ―think beyond the assignment‖ mentality and our vast global knowledge that differentiate us as a premier research company.

When you need research, you want more than a stack of quotes or a bunch of numbers. You want a better understanding of your customers. You want to know what they‘re thinking, what they need, what drives them.

Our teams have designed and executed some of the most innovative studies for a broad range of demanding clients from around the world – and the services we provide are a reflection of in-depth expertise in applying methodologies and techniques that help you see your customers in a clearer light. Plus, our suite of fully-owned, in-house services and expertise means you get seamless integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and techniques.

Email: info@mindwaveresearch.com Website: www.mindwaveresearch.com MRGA Profile: Coming Soon

Company Description We are the insight discovery company. Founded by innovators Jonathan Spier and Michael Osofsky, NetBase develops and markets a next-generation semantic technology that reads and understands the English language. This technology is the basis for solutions that help our users answer complex questions faster, more accurately, and with greater confidence. And we do this at scale. NetBase finds and extracts the most relevant information from billions of public and private sources of online information. Our advanced technology combines with patent-pending lenses to provide context for search results and intelligently guide users to highly relevant answers.

At NetBase we have a team of seasoned high-tech executives and a teamwork environment. Our solutions assist market researchers at Fortune 1,000 companies with netnography and social media understanding, and enable science, technology and medical (STM) publishers to make searches of their proprietary content much faster and more productive, thereby increasing the value of their content.

Five of the top ten consumer packaged goods companies, including Procter & Gamble, and two of the top three STM publishers, including Reed Elsevier, depend on NetBase to find answers faster.

Email: info@netbase.com Website: www.netbase.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/NetBase

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Company Description The Enterprise, Engaged.

The key to better engagement is personalization. Netvibes for Enterprise is the perfect daily interface for organizations to engage customers and employees alike with fully branded, yet individually personalized startpage portals. Widget-based Enterprise Portals deliver your unique content, relevant industry feeds and multiple enterprise tools—all from a single, unified dashboard—alongside the user‘s favorite search, weather, email, news, blogs, social networks and widgets. Netvibes for Enterprise adds a personalized face to the front of any enterprise system, with a user-friendly dashboard that‘s more customizable, productive and engaging.

Email: chris@netvibes.com Website: http://business.netvibes.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/netvibes

Company Description Online Market Intelligence (OMI) provides high quality online fieldwork in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the Baltic states.

With OMI online panels you can access over 300k consumers, 85k vehicle owners, 15k IT professionals, and 5k Physicians recruited from a wide variety of local Web-portals and professional websites.

OMI manages 4 proprietary online panels: Consumer Panel Automotive Panel B2B IT Panel Physician panel OMI consumer panel in Russia holds the Silver Certificate for data consistency in tracking studies that is awarded by the international panel auditors Mktg Inc. Email: rfp@omirussia.ru Website: www.omirussia.ru/en/ MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/omi

Company Description OnePoint Surveys offers a complete mobile research solution encompassing the creation of mobile surveys which support multimedia content and location based services (LBS), recruiting and profiling mobile communities and panels, through to rewarding participants with cash and other incentives directly to their phone. The OnePoint mobile survey platform enables research to be deployed across 193 countries via multiple mobile channels; SMS, WAP, choice and mobile websites, using any type of mobile phone handset.

Email: tellmemore@onepointsurveys.com Website: www.onepointsurveys.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/OnePoint

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Company Description Peanut Labs enables organizations to gather quality data for market research by embedding surveys into social networking applications and communities. Users complete a preliminary profile questionnaire that enables Peanut Labs to target users with the most relevant surveys. Information collected from the profiler includes basic demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, geography and household income.

Those who meet the required criteria receive highly targeted survey invitations in real time - as they log in to their application - and are rewarded with virtual currency upon completion. Peanut Labs offers community-based incentives that are different for every respondent think of it as a customized incentive based on personal preferences and affinity. These incentives are controlled by the social network or community partner, of which the respondent is a member of. This form of engagement provides a better user experience, ultimately allowing for better quality of data.

Email: sales@peanutlabs.com Website: www.peanutlabs.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/PeanutLabs

Company Description Qualtrics is an industry-leading provider of enterprise feedback management and survey software solutions. We provide a platform for designing, distributing and evaluating survey results to keep the research process in-house and immediately actionable. Qualtrics is the most robust and easy-to-use online survey tool on the market. Our products are unique in how they offer a straightforward, sophisticated option for professional research.

Qualtrics makes sophisticated research simple. That's why industry leaders and Fortune 500 companies choose Qualtrics.

Email: sales@qualtrics.com Website: www.qualtrics.com MRGA Profile: Coming Soon

Company Description Research Now is the leading global online sampling and data collection company. With over 6 million panelists in 37 countries worldwide, Research Now enables companies to listen and interact with real consumers and business decision makers in order to make key business decisions. Research Now offers a full suite of data collection services, including social media sampling, and operates the Valued Opinions™ Panel and e-RewardsŽ Opinion Panels. The company has a multilingual staff located in 22 offices around the globe and has been recognized for three consecutive years as the industry leader in client satisfaction. Visit http://www.researchnow.com to learn more. Research Now is part of the e-Rewards Group which also includes Peanut Labs and e-Miles.

Email: info@researchnow.com Website: www.researchnow.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/ResearchNow

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Company Description Research Rockstar delivers training, tips and tools to busy professionals seeking Market Research excellence—and we offer it all online or in-person. Our clients are the actual users and buyers of market research services—people who need to find, buy and manage market research resources. In some companies, this is a full-time researcher. In others, it is a person who is using research as part of another job.

Market Research is an investment, and a large one for many companies. But like any investment, it can be risky. Research Rockstar provides precise, actionable information to make sure your investment is optimally managed. We want the actual buyers and users of market research have a positive experience with it—so that they can complete research projects, apply the results to real-world business decisions, and feel, indeed, like a Research Rockstar.

Email: support@researchrockstar.com Website: www.researchrockstar.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/RESEARCHROCKSTAR

Company Description Interview & on-site surveys: Rapidly develop and deploy complex and multilingual surveys on a variety of mobile devices. Interviewers engage people at the point of experience to ensure that the insights collected are timely and accurate.

Diary research: Arm any group with a cost-effective survey appliance. Customizable alarms, photo capture, and an elegant interface give you infinite abilities to customize how, when and where people share their lives and experiences with you.

Mobile panels: People have never been so connected yet so unreachable. A mobile-enabled panel will allow you to engage your audience on their own devices to provide feedback and insights that are meaningful and convenient--on their own terms. The result: more accurate, timely information and reduced churn of your valuable panel asset.

Consumer engagement: Mobile marketing isn't just about smaller ads, and traditional surveys don't equal engagement. Techneos is your ideal partner to build sticky applications that not only enable 2-way dialogues that deliver insights, but also provide value to your mobile community.

Website: www.techneos.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/techneos

Company Description With a cumulative 200 years of championship work, Thoroughbred Opinion Research has a rich pedigree in market research. We are lifelong researchers who have dedicated ourselves to what matters most – working with you in the spirit of collaboration to provide data that is valid, representative and replicable. Every client has a dedicated team of senior leadership. The partners are hands-on and accessible. The team communicates with you daily throughout the project providing insight, objectivity and balance. We have six call centers with 330 CATI equipped stations, and conduct a variety of quantitative telephone and online studies.

Email: vic.walsh@torinc.net Website: www.torinc.net MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/ThoroughbredResearch

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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MRGA JOURNAL

Social Media Innovators ::

Company Description Toluna, is the world‘s largest online sample provider, delivering sample of unrivaled reliability and representation from millions of panelists worldwide. Offices around the globe ensure local expertise for your projects. Contact us to learn more about how we can serve your online research needs.

Toluna provides online sample and online research panel building expertise to over 1,500 of the world‘s leading market research agencies. Get in touch with 4 million active panel community members across 34 countries. 16 specialist research panels reach niche segments to provide quality survey research data. Respondents can be delivered to your programming or ours. We also offer custom panel and community building and management.

Email: toluna@toluna.com Website: www.toluna-group.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/toluna

Company Description Since 1986, 20|20 Research has been providing the tools, services and support to help our clients conduct the best in qualitative research. In addition to our ―Top Rated‖ Focus Group facilities and local recruiting, 20|20 has grown to become a worldwide leader in online qualitative research solutions. We currently offer five different software platforms, qualitative recruiting in the U.S. and around the globe, as well as the best project management, service and support in the industry. Let us know how we can help you with your next qualitative project.

Email: Sales@2020research.com Website: www.2020research.com MRGA Profile: Coming Soon

Company Description uSamp (www.uSamp.com), formerly United Sample Inc., is one of the world‘s fastest growing online panel companies, providing survey panelists and technology for use in market research. Founded in 2008, uSamp has 90 team members worldwide and more than 2.7 million global market research panelists. The company‘s web-based panel platform is transforming the management and delivery of online panel for market researchers, offering unprecedented access over their panel. uSamp‘s deep well of proprietary technologies includes cutting-edge solutions for accessing, branding and managing panels. Established by the creators of the renowned goZing™ online panel, uSamp is based in Los Angeles, with offices in India, Connecticut, Dallas and London.

Email: sales@uSamp.com Website: www.uSamp.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/uSamp

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

62

MRGA JOURNAL

Social Media Innovators ::

Company Description At Vision Critical, change is something we do often. We don‘t tend to stagnate. We operate in a way that‘s counter to bureaucracy because we‘re blessed with exceptionally talented people – people that we trust. It‘s as simple as that.

When you work with your Vision Critical team, you‘ll take advantage of the most adopted online market research software in the world.

You‘ll work with smart, high-energy people who make interactive technology, strategic research and global panels into something that sparks – and you‘ll turn that potential into marketable reality.

We believe in a vigor of personality, and in quirks and -isms of all kinds. In discovering new talent, it‘s this seeking out of like-minded souls that assembles an eclectic, more genuine team.

We feel the same way about our clients. Vitality, like new ideas, thrives in a brainstorm.

In some companies, the bid to present an executive front lends an almost solemn air – but that‘s a tone that keeps people from connecting with one another beyond the constructs of quotas and budgets. In contrast, enthusiasm ripples through Vision Critical not because it‘s mandated, but because it‘s infectious.

Our client relationships feel like friendships. Candid, unconventional, and open to anything new. We‘re proud of our creativity, and of our humanity – and of all the people and brands connected to our family. Software is not often that kind of business. But that‘s how it is with us.

Website: www.visioncritical.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/VisionCritical

Company Description How can we help with your next research project? With Zoomerang Sample™ you get the highest quality means of conducting online research. MarketTools, our parent company and a leading market research firm, manages the Zoomerang survey panel through an innovative management process that aims for 100% survey respondent authenticity. That authenticity is crucial: our research has shown that your risk of bad information can double if your survey group contains even 30% bad respondents.

Email: samplesales@markettools.com Website: www.zoomerang.com MRGA Profile: www.mrgasn.com/profile/MarketToolsZoomerangSample

Interested in becoming an MRGA sponsor? We have many different options to help your company thrive in the social media space. Contact us today at 1.888.250.8779 or e-mail membership@mrgasn.com.

Volume 1, Issue 2 :: March 2011 MRGA JOURNAL by MRGA Members is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

63