Men are from Mars: Gender differences in word choices in social media
VUE-JUNE-2015
1. the magazine of the
Marketing Research
and Intelligence
Association
JUNE 2015
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4. 4 vue | JUNE 2015
COMMENTARY / COMMENTAIRE
Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer / Directrice de la recherche, Peanut Labs
Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédactrice en chef, Vue • Email: annie@peanutlabs.com • (416) 273-9395 • t @LoveStats
Please share your opinions about Vue articles and columns, or submit your cartoons and infographics to the Editor.
La rédactrice vous invite à lui faire parvenir directement vos commentaires, opinions, caricatures ou infographies.
Annie Pettit
EDITOR’S Vue
I learned a great new word just a few weeks ago:
p-hacking. I’ve always had an intuitive sense for
what p-hacking is, and that it’s a very bad thing,
but I never had a word to describe it. With that
word, it’s a lot easier to recognize and talk about it.
P-hacking refers to situations where a researcher
picks and chooses from their data such that their
results are more likely to be statistically significant.
For instance, you might collect another ten
responses so that a t-test or chi-square becomes
significant. Or, you might ignore a treatment that
turns out to be insignificant and decide it was
never truly relevant to begin with. Or, you might
simply fail to report on insignificant tests and
instead report only those that were significant.
It doesn’t matter whether you have a qualitative
or quantitative bent. The theory of p-hacking
is relevant to every researcher. Most researchers
would probably deny doing it but the problem is
that it isn’t always a conscious activity.
We need to be consciously aware of p-hacking.
At the beginning of each study, we must remind
ourselves that we have predetermined biases and
hypotheses based on past experience and intuition,
and we must take firm steps to prevent it as
much as possible. Write down every one of your
hypotheses. Write down every variable, treatment,
and the characteristics of each one. Write down
all the specific tests you plan to conduct. Not only
will this help to prevent p-hacking, this advance
planning will make your analytical process run
more quickly and smoothly.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about p-hacking,
have a quick read here:
False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility
in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting
Anything as Significant by Joseph P. Simmons,
Leif D. Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn. http://pss.
sagepub.com/content/22/11/1359.full.pdf
Il y a quelques semaines j’ai appris un nouveau
mot : “p-hacking”. Je connaissais déjà le
phénomène intuitivement et je savais que c’était
à proscrire, mais je n’avais pas de mot pour le
décrire. Mais maintenant que je sais comment cela
s’appelle, je peux vous en parler plus en longueur.
Il se fait du “p-hacking” quand, par exemple, un
chercheur pige dans ses données pour obtenir des
résultats qui, statistiquement, sont plus significatifs.
Il pourra ainsi collecter 10 réponses de plus, de
façon à ce qu’un test t ou un khi carré devienne
significatif. Ou il décidera qu’un traitement dont les
résultats ne sont pas significatifs n’était pas pertinent
de toute façon. Ou encore : il ne fera pas rapport des
tests qui se sont révélés sans signification mais fera
état de ceux qui étaient significatifs.
Le phénomène du “p-hacking” menace autant
les chercheurs qualitatifs que quantitatifs – tous les
chercheurs sont à risque. La plupart des chercheurs
nieraient probablement qu’ils font du “p-hacking”.
Le hic, c’est qu’ils le font peut-être sans même en
être conscients.
Nous devons tous être vigilants face au
“p-hacking”. Avant d’emtamer une étude, nous
devons donc songer au fait que nous avons tous
des préjugés et des hypothèses qui se fondent sur
notre expérience et notre intuition, et prendre
des mesures pour les neutraliser. Je vous suggère
de dresser une liste de toutes vos hypothèses et,
pour chacune d’elles, de ses variables, traitements
et caractéristiques. Décidez à l’avance des tests
ou contrôles que vous ferez. Cette démarche
vous évitera probablement de tomber dans le
“p-hacking” et, du même coup, accélérera et
facilitera votre processus d’analyse.
Si vous souhaitez en savoir plus, je vous invite à
lire l’article qui suit :
False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility
in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting
Anything as Significant by Joseph P. Simmons, Leif
D. Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn. http://pss.sagepub.
com/content/22/11/1359.full.pdf
5. vue | JUNE 2015 5
Zeynep Aydin, CMRP
Consultant
Kantar
Salim Barghouth, CMRP
Senior Communications Advisor
Environment Canada
Phyllis Beckford, CMRP
Director, Business Intelligence
Hudson’s Bay Company
Erin Brown, MBA, CMRP
Research Associate
Corporate Research Associates
Louis Dutaud, CMRP
Senior Research Analyst
GfK Canada
Lynne Gillis, CMRP
Senior Research Analyst
Corporate Research Associates
Dan Jackson, CMRP
Member Development Officer
MRIA
Ling (Lynn) Li, CMRP
Research Manager
McCain Foods
Karl MacIsaac, CMRP
Social Media Coordinator
MRIA
Kara Mitchelmore, MBA, FCMA, CMRP
Chief Executive Officer
MRIA
Denver Redman, CMRP
Senior Client Advocate
Environics Analytics
Samantha Robinson, CMRP
Project Manager – Digital Services
Environics Research Group
Maria Cristina Snook, CMRP
Self Employed
Charlotte Tonge, CMRP
Research Analyst
Corporate Research Associates
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW CMRPs OF THE 2015 WINTER SESSION!
FÉLICITATIONS AUX NOUVEAUX PARM DE 2015!
Successful Completion of Pathways 1, 2 or 3
Successful Completion of Pathway 4 - Experienced Practitioner
Douglas Anderson, CMRP
Principal
The Earnscliffe Strategy Group
Joseph Chen, CMRP
Consumer Insights
The Hershey Company
Stephanie Constable, CMRP
Principal
The Earnscliffe Strategy Group
Rick Nadeau, CMRP
President
Quorus Consulting Group Inc.
Retraction
In the March 2014 Issue of Vue and during the recent National Conference, we mistakenly indicated as a new
CMRP, Christine Snook, rather than the full and correct name as Maria Cristina Snook. We regret the error.
6. 6 vue | JUNE 2015
Carolyn O’Keefe, CMRP
MRIA Members,
I am both excited and honoured to
be the Chair of the MRIA Board of
Directors for 2015-16. MRIA has
played a significant role in my career as a market researcher from
helping me build my business, creating professional networks,
and conducting research with integrity and confidence. I am a
proud holder of the CMRP designation, certification that is very
important to the future of our industry.
The goal of my monthlyVue letter will be to inform members
about key happenings at the MRIA such as decisions made at
board meetings, the implementation of new systems/processes,
and information on current events or policies which affect
members.
At the board meeting in March, we reviewed and approved
the audited financial statements for 2014. MRIA received a
clean audit report. 2014 was a tough year for the MRIA, one
of much change, and, as a result, we ended the year with an
operating loss of $380,630 and a depleted reserve fund. On a
positive note, things are starting to turn around and this year
we are anticipating a small profit and the start of replenishing
the reserve. The National Conference in downtown Toronto
provides positive momentum for generating revenue this year.
Keeping with finances, the Audit and Risk Committee
prepared an operational and strategic risk framework which was
reviewed and approved by the Board. This framework allows for
risk mitigation strategies to be developed to ensure continuous
operation of the Association.
In the past year, we experienced a shrinking membership base
with a decrease in both corporate and individual membership
renewals. Obviously this is concerning, and member value is
something that we as a Board must address. This will involve
looking at the entire membership and fee structure.
I’d love to hear feedback from members. Please reach out to
me with any issues or questions. I can be reached at carolyn@
mqoresearch.com.
Talk next month!
À tous les membres de l’ARIM :
Je suis honorée d’avoir été nommée au poste de présidente du
conseil d’administration de l’ARIM (2015-2016). L’ARIM a
joué un rôle capital dans ma carrière de chercheuse marketing.
Elle m’a ainsi aidée à bâtir mon entreprise, à créer un réseau
de contacts professionnels et à faire de la recherche en toute
confiance et avec intégrité. De plus, je suis fière d’être agrée
PARM, un agrément important pour l’avenir de notre secteur.
Mon message mensuel aura pour objectif d’informer les
membres au sujet des choses importantes qui se produisent à
l’ARIM : les décisions du conseil d’administration, par exemple,
la mise en oeuvre de nouveaux systèmes ou processus, les grands
événements, de même que les politiques qui touchent les
membres.
À la dernière réunion du conseil d’administration, au mois
de mars, celui-ci a passé en revue et approuvé les états financiers
vérifiés de 2014, dont l’audit s’est fait sans histoire. L’ARIM a
connu une année 2014 plutôt difficile, au signe du changement.
Résultat : une perte d’exploitation de 380 630 $ et un fonds de
prévoyance dégarni. Nous prévoyons cependant un revirement
de situation en 2015, qui devrait se terminer avec un léger
bénéfice et la capacité de renflouer quelque peu le fonds de
prévoyance. À cet égard, le congrès national, qui aura lieu à
Toronto, nous aidera certainement à générer des revenus.
Toujours au chapitre des finances, le Comité d’audit et de
gestion des risques a présenté un cadre d’exploitation et de
gestion des risques qui a été examiné et approuvé par le conseil.
Ce cadre autorise la détermination de stratégies d’atténuation
des risques pour assurer la pérénnité de l’ARIM.
L’année dernière a vu une baisse du nombre d’adhésions, tant
d’entreprises qu’individuelles. Cette situation nous préoccupe
et le conseil d’administration devra évidemment se pencher
sur la question de la valeur aux membres et passer en revue la
structure d’adhésion et du règlement des frais.
Je vous invite enfin à me faire part de vos commentaires,
suggestions, questions et opinions à l’adresse courriel qui suit.
Je suit tout oreilles : carolyn@mqoresearch.com.
À bientôt!
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Carolyn O’Keefe, CMRP / PARM, MQO Research
Chair, Marketing Research and Intelligence Association / Présidente du conseil, L’Association de la recherche et de l’intelligence marketing
Email: carolyn@mqoresearch.com • 709-753-5172
COMMENTARY / COMMENTAIRE
7. This year’s award winners were announced and celebrated at the 2015 Excellence Awards Gala and Dinner held at the
Marriott Eaton Centre, Toronto, Ontario, as part of MRIA’s national conference,
on the evening of Monday, May 25, 2015.
Previous winners are also posted online here
The eminent members of the 2014-15 Judging Panel for the Excellence in Research Awards represent research practitioners from many different areas:
Chair: Kara Mitchelmore, CMRP, MRIA CEO
Judges: Ed Gibson, CMRP – CRC Research • Gail Tibbo, CMRP – Incisive Marketing • Kimberlee Niziol Jonas – Instar Research
2015
Awards and Recognition serve critical functions within a professional association. They provide motivation for the many
volunteers upon whose efforts the association depends. They provide an opportunity for the self-promotion within the
association that puts a positive face on our activities and makes people feel good about belonging to the Marketing
Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA). They also serve to highlight leadership and examples of excellence, in all
areas, which are powerful ways of communicating the ideals and direction of the association.
AWARDS RECOGNITION
STUDENT CASE COMPETITION AWARDS
BEST IN CLASS AWARD
Canadian Tire, Vision Critical
“Tested for Life”
BEST INTEGRATION AWARD
AstraZeneca, IMS Brogan,
InSync Research, Angela Tsui
“Brilinta”
BEST MULTINATIONAL AWARD
Ritchie Bros Auctioneers
“Buying Journey”
EXCELLENCE BEHIND
THE SCENES
Rogers, Rogers Research
“OTC Medication”
GRASSROOTS VOLUNTEER
LEADERSHIP AWARD
Deborah Klotz
JOSEPH DOYLE AWARD
Highest Mark Achieved
2014 – 15 CMRE
Kara Mitchelmore, MBA, FCMA,
CMRP
PUBLIC POLICY IMPACT AWARD
CorbinPartners, Questrade
Wealth Mgmt
“Changing the regulation of wealth
management”
CLIENT-SIDE RESEARCHER
IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS
AWARD
Rob Redford
AWARD OF OUTSTANDING MERIT
Adam Froman
AWARD OF DISTINCTION
Isabelle Landreville
VUE MAGAZINE – BEST PAPER:
2014
“Google and IBM get it. Do you?”
John Willis
CHAPTER MERIT AWARD
Prairie Chapter
1ST PLACE
ALGONQUIN COLLEGE
Justin Ramsay
Matthew Reichert
Colleen Wang
2ND PLACE
CENTENNIAL COLLEGE
Xue Ju
Heather Ryan
Yueying Wang
3RD PLACE
GEORGIAN COLLEGE
Jasmela Murati
Chelse Chan
Alecia Dretzkat
8. 8 vue | JUNE 2015
FEATURE
I
n the first leg of a strategic marketing project,
we recently encountered some research results
that elicited a certain “wow” factor. For the
purposes of this case study, I will refer to
this company as ABC Consulting. Prior to our
engagement, ABC Consulting was about to hit
“go” on several online marketing tactics, including
a heavy investment in the launch of several social
media networking sites and a new website installed
with interactive capabilities. These days, it may
seem as though engaging your customers is as
simple as choosing what social networks you want
to appear on, and then posting as the need arises.
As it was in this case, this is often a misguided
approach.
Social media should be considered a tactic, and
consequently should be considered last rather than
first when developing a marketing strategy. Why is
that? All things considered, tactics are volatile and
constantly changing. For example, there was a time
when Netscape and Yahoo both seemed invincible.
MySpace was once the reigning social force. Falling
in love with tactics will mean constant, chaotic
changes in direction, so long as tactics come first
instead of last. Unfortunately, many businesses
have taken this approach of using tactic before
strategy and the results are often unsurprisingly
poor. A tactical approach to social media is
guesswork at best, and lacks focus, position and
direction, all of which are the crucial first steps a
business needs to drive its success.
Marketing Research:
Asking the Right Questions
Digital and social media are marketing tactics
much like websites, advertising, special
promotions and campaigns. Like any tactic, before
implementing them, their value must be validated
with the people they are actually targeting.
Embarking on a strategic direction requires high-
quality, unbiased information that identifies who
and what the targeted customers in the industry
value, and what they perceive in relation to
competitors. To this end, qualitative research can
be a useful start.
ABC Consulting lacked qualitative data in
order to validate its outcomes and objectives
when using social and digital media. It is true in
most cases, as it was in this research study, that
finding the truth lies in identifying and asking
the right questions. It is helpful to develop a
research process. The first step for us is to list the
competitors and the customers to be contacted,
and then ask the ABC to contact their customers
to let them know that we would be calling.
Again, when focusing on the target audience, it is
important to develop interview questions tailored
for the customer or competitor. In this case,
questions for the customers were tailored for either
C-level or management level, as these were the
primary points of contact for ABC.
Here are some examples of useful qualitative
questions for customers:
SPECIAL With the social and digital media bubble ever
expanding, there is high pressure to conform to
whatever new marketing trends pop up, and do
so first. For most business owners, the visibility
and connectivity accessible through social
media and other online platforms makes them
automatically seem worth their while. What is
less obvious, however, is how to measure what is
working and what is not, and when to drop a platform
that could be a waste of time, money and energy.
YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA: WHEN IS IT A WASTE OF TIME?
Doug Hohener
9. vue | JUNE 2015 9
• How long have you known ABC?
• Why did you choose ABC vs. other competitors?
• What type of relationship do you have with this company?
• How does this organization communicate with you?
• Have you been on its website? If so, please tell me about it.
• Do you use social media or watch the videos on this company’s
site? If not, why not?
• Do you feel it provides you with an avenue to address concerns?
Following customer interviews, competitor analyses should
be performed. For this type of research, it is advantageous to
have a way of finding out what customers look for when seeking
products or services from a certain business or competitor. For
example, we discussed with ABC what types of questions it
receives from potential customers and, based on their feedback,
created similar questions to ask its competitors while posing
as a type of company that would be seeking their services.
We contacted competitors in three different areas of business,
developing a separate set of questions depending on the service
we were seeking. As an additional indicator, a competitor’s online
presence, websites and other collateral often provide cues as to
how a competitor communicates its unique value propositions to
its respective customers, and the types of methods that it uses to
capture the attention of the target audience.
• With some modification depending on the industry, here are
some aspects of the competitors’ activities are particularly
useful to know:
• To what extent does this competitor deliver the exact same
services?
• What level of customer service does it provide?
• Is this company easy to deal with or, alternately, difficult to
track down?
• What value-add does its services offer versus your client/
company?
• How transparent is this company with pricing?
• What sort of communication methods and follow-up does it
employ?
Marketing research, specifically customer analysis, can be
the most powerful tool marketers have for finding out firsthand
details of what customers value and why they choose one
company over another. Leveraging the right tools and tactics in
order to better understand the target audience will clarify what
sort of messages and content are most likely to increase loyalty,
drive sales, and help a company attain its goals as a whole.
Outcomes: Letting Go of Online Tactics
Despite ABC Consulting’s readiness to invest in online tactics,
no customer who participated in this research expressed that
they valued online communication and/or social media, stating
that they rarely visited ABC’s website, and had no need for social
media. What did they value? As it turned out, these customers
placed high value on personal calls, face-to-face meetings, and
other direct interpersonal communication methods. The result
of this research was a 180-degree shift from what this client had
assumed its customers wanted. This case study presented a classic
instance where proper research and asking customers “why” and
“what” were of critical importance. To reiterate: tactics are not a
solution that should be implemented before understanding who
your audience is and what they value.
In the end, ABC narrowly dodged a common mistake
that could have cost it thousands. It could have spent money
on a social media or digital platform that would have ended
up stagnant, thanks to a customer base that does not rely on
websites, and potential customers that would rather seek out the
same service via non-digital means.
This case study emphasizes the need for research in order to
generate a strong strategy. In effect, a good marketing strategy
dictates the need to understand your unique brand and audience
before moving onto the tactics. With competitor and customer
research revealing that a strong online presence and social media
sites were not the key communication tools with this particular
audience, the tactic selected instead was personal, face-to-face
interactions. Before pursuing a new tactic, make sure you know
how to choose the right digital platform, or perhaps ask yourself
if you should choose one at all.
A Recap
Always put strategy before tactics. Tactics only work after
determining a strategic direction. Without research and
strategy, the effectiveness of social and digital media will rely on
guesswork that could waste both time and money.
Ask the right questions. Get to know your audience and
your industry. Create a process to collect qualitative data,
tailor your questions, and find out what your customers value.
Leverage your unique values by comparing yourself to your
competitors.
Match your tactic to your audience. Weigh your tactics
based on customer and competitor feedback. Social media
and websites provide brand awareness and instant two-way
interaction, but they can be expensive and lack value for
somebody who is an exclusive telephone user.
The digital trend may be booming, but the tactics that go
along with it are also fluctuating with rapid speed. Meanwhile,
within every industry and customer base there are unique
differences and perceived values that may or may not determine
the success of certain tactics. Before jumping into the digital and
social media trend, take advantage of marketing research and
check if your customers are on board. It may turn out that the
old-fashioned way works even better.
Doug Hohener is the president of CreativeWorks Marketing, an
award-winning agency based in Markham, Ontario. He can be
reached at dhohener@creativeworksmarketing.ca, or follow him @
CW_Mktg and creativeworksmarketing.wordpress.com.
SPECIAL FEATURE
10. 10 vue | JUNE 2015
I
t wasn’t one change, but a variety of trends and innovations
that led to the Big Data phenomenon, including: the
democratization of technology via increased data volumes
and access to technology at a lower cost; the impact of
smartphones and tablets thanks to their ubiquitous use among
adults and enterprise users and even children accessing mobile
technology at a young age; and the sheer volume of data created
and captured as we go about our everyday lives.
This democratized technology – mobile phones, social media,
telemetry and more – is generating billions, if not trillions, of
data points every day. Hidden in the data are signals that, when
captured, add value and make life better. The challenge in the
past has been to store and analyze this data, quickly and cost-
effectively. Rapid innovation and lower-cost technology have
lowered this hurdle.
When we search and navigate the web, we access and are
instantly presented with relevant information. Behind the scenes,
companies such as Google, LinkedIn and Facebook are taking
all these data points, storing them, and using them to empower,
predict, provide recommendations, and interact with us in a
contextually relevant way. As consumers, our lives are data-
driven. As employees, that often is not the case.
We have data-driven decision making available to us every
day in our personal lives thanks to the work of consumer-facing
companies. Yet, Monday to Friday it seems we struggle to make
decisions at work as the result of the data our businesses collect.
Most organizations focus on hindsight as opposed to leveraging
new data to make forward-looking and optimized decisions.
In 2011, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) published
“Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition
and Productivity.” The study discussed the financial impact of
Big Data on businesses. Four years later, in 2015, McKinsey
found that “achieving the level of impact MGI foresaw has
proved difficult.” It’s clear the opportunity is real. But, to date,
organizations have struggled to become data-driven. Now is the
time for business leaders and marketers to unlock value from Big
Data.
Over the years, numerous business journals and white papers
have been written on the state of analytics in business. What’s
interesting is many of these show that the vast majority of
business leaders still make decisions on gut feeling as opposed
to trusted information generated by their systems and people.
So, despite technology and a renewed focus on analytics, we’re
still operating blind. In recent years, we’ve made progress on
this but the race to an analytically driven business culture has
been more of a marathon pace as opposed to a sprint. In fact,
business intelligence and enterprise data warehouse technologies
have existed since the 1990s, promising to create the data-
driven organization. Yet we still struggle to manage data and,
more importantly, turn that data into meaningful, actionable
information. It’s not a technology problem; it’s not a people
problem; it’s not a process problem. It’s all of the above.
Market-leading enterprises are using innovations in Big Data
and analytics to extract that information. Hadoop, data science
and data visualization are powerful tools and concepts that allow
enterprises of all sizes to become data-driven.
In 2015, we see:
• Cost-effective storage and processing of huge volumes of data
with technologies like Cloud, Hadoop and MapReduce.
• User-friendly interfaces to search, navigate and analyze data.
• In-memory computing, providing real-time access to the data
to answer any question.
• And, most importantly, powerful analytic minds that make
data come alive.
In 2015, agile access to vast amounts of data is no longer a
dream, it’s a reality. How can your organization take advantage
of it?
Find a champion. The world of Big Data changes quickly,
and organizations must have executive alignment to ensure
success and focus. At times, the landscape can be complex,
technical and filled with jargon. This has led to the creation
of the role of chief data officer (CDO). The CDO is usually a
senior executive with a foot in both technology and business. A
FEATURE
Steve Holder
Big Data is a big deal. We’ve named it, and it’s gone mainstream. In the past,
management and storage of data and its analysis was a black hole of arcane
terminology and technology. It was exclusively the realm of technology
professionals and statisticians. Now, Big Data is on our minds and is even in the
daily news. It has seeped into our everyday vocabulary. What’s changed?
BIG DATA IS (STILL) A BIG DEAL
11. vue | JUNE 2015 11
CDO helps educate the business about Big Data, while keeping
IT aligned to business goals. A CDO creates and supports
the vision and makes sure analytics deliver insights that are
meaningful.
Start small. The very definition of agility is the ability to move
quickly and easily. The Big Data approach of the past was
slow, cumbersome and costly. As you begin your journey of
building a data-driven culture, it’s best to start with high-value,
well-defined, quick wins that the business can rally behind.
These small victories open the floodgates. Starting small allows
organizations to build the skills, the infrastructure and the
process rigour required to move people to an analytic state of
mind.
Fail Early. Failure can be a bad thing. In the past, the cost
to wrangle technology and business requirements into a
meaningful solution caused organizations to shy away from
failure. With this new Big Data world, we should adopt an
iterative approach to projects that allows an organization to
weed out early approaches that don’t work. In other words, save
time and resources by failing early and often.
Define success. Once you have your champion and your
charter, it’s key to determine what success is and align that to a
business goal. The lower cost of entry to Big Data analytics and
an agile approach to development can lead to quick wins. But
teams have to ask themselves so what? And who cares? Defining
success helps the quick wins become projects that show value as
opposed to just science experiments. Over the years, I’ve seen
situations where analytics has been implemented and the teams
declare success. Yet it never went anywhere beyond a proof
point. In nearly all the cases, these proof of concepts lacked a
goal aligned to a problem. In 100 per cent of the cases, these
proofs had really smart people who did cool things behind
them who found the business leaders responsible viewed what
they did as novel at best, or at worst a distraction from more
meaningful projects. This may sound obvious to most people.
However, as organizations embark on a Big Data journey they
need to double down on what defines success, because the use
case and value is there, but you need to know where you’re
going.
Take care of your brains. Data scientists deliver on Big Data
and analytics. They’re scarce. They’re in demand. They’re
creative. Recognize their value; give them the tools to succeed.
Don’t saddle them with mundane tasks like data preparation
or be protective of their process and insights. The new world
makes them partners with the business through deep analytics.
Organizations that focus on attracting and developing data
scientists will create a data-driven culture.
While Big Data is important to every line of business and
industry, marketing is a key passenger on the Big Data bus.
In some ways, marketing was doing Big Data before Big Data
was cool. Concepts like segmentation, offer management and
propensity to turnover have always required data and analytics.
Big Data doesn’t change the marketer’s role. It makes it evolve.
It allows marketers to use all data, not a just sampling, to do
what they already know how to do while giving them the ability
to do things they only dreamed about. Take Vail Resorts. By
embedding radio frequency (RF) technology in every ski lift pass,
the company captures, stores and analyzes real-time data, starting
with the very first lift ride of the day. The data is accessible in
real time at the company’s digital customer experience and
loyalty platform, EpicMix.com, and through the resort’s mobile
applications, and used to enhance customer experience in real
time.
Throughout the day, EpicMix tracks what guests are doing
– such as how many vertical feet they’ve skied – and it delivers
statistics guests can use for “bragging rights.” They have delivered
on Big Data for both the consumer by giving them information
about themselves they can use, and for their marketing group by
being able to see how the consumer interacts with the mountain
and the associated services. Ultimately, they are able to use the
data generated by guests to deliver better services and bottom
line to the business.
It’s a win-win. In its first season alone, nearly 100,000 guests
activated their EpicMix accounts. Forty per cent downloaded the
mobile apps and nearly six million digital ski pins were given out.
Plus, 45 per cent of the users shared their accomplishments on
Facebook and Twitter – resulting in more than 35 million social
impressions.
Canada’s very own Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation is
another great example. This organization is responsible for 250
campgrounds and 14,000 campsites that receive more than 1.8
million overnight visitors every year. It implemented analytics to
tease insights from its customer surveys in an effort to improve
satisfaction ratings from visitors to its sites.
In the past, the organization would spend weeks at the end
of the season inputting the text data, manually assigning a code
to each comment. Now Alberta Parks is using SAS Text Miner,
which applies information retrieval and data mining techniques
across a variety of feedback channels – phone calls, email, surveys
and social media – with both structured and unstructured data.
Instead of waiting for an end-of-season slideshow, Alberta Parks’
regional and district management get weekly feedback based on
those text comments.
That feedback leads to midstream operational changes with
an immediate impact on the customer experience. Alberta Parks
can respond throughout the season to customer feedback about
everything from the cost of firewood to the timing of caretaking
operations. And the results from the analytics also assist park
managers in prioritizing their capital spending.
These are just two examples of how technology and data
have delivered new and unique outcomes. With analytics and
Big Data we need to reevaluate how we measure success and, in
some cases, what we measure. The possibilities are endless and
the impact of Big Data is real. It’s here to stay, and it’s a big deal.
Don’t get left behind.
Steve Holder is the national lead analytics for SAS Canada. Steve tweets
at @holdersmTO and can be emailed at Steve.Holder@SAS.com.
FEATURE
12. 12 vue | JUNE 2015
FEATURE
I
t is easy to make assumptions about who belongs to these
groups. Perhaps CI practitioners have to work to change
the misconceptions of the general public. However, there
may be a lack of clarity about the definition of CI, even
within the industry itself. Then the solution would entail more
than merely educating the general public about what CI is in
theory, but developing guidelines and best practices for the
industry to follow, and then spreading the word.
The Problem
The typical conceptualization of CI is that it involves legal
actions, in contrast to CE, which involves illegal acts. Here is
one definition from the web:
Competitive intelligence research is
distinguishable from industrial espionage, as
CI practitioners generally abide by local legal
guidelines and ethical business norms.1
However, understandably, this distinction is not so clear
in everyone’s minds. While the law does make boundaries
regarding certain practices, there are others for which the law
fails to make a distinction. Also, law or not, there are practices,
although the law may not deem them illegal or to be spying,
about which people may still hold negative opinions. This is
the realm of ethics. As long as people have ethical issues with
CI, and ethical preferences regarding the collection of data,
they may still consider CI to involve spying, especially if it
involves some kind of deception.
The difference of opinion among practitioners
themselves demonstrates this. One matter of contention is
misrepresentation of self, whether it is acceptable to:
1. Omit certain details regarding one’s identity.
2.Keep one’s identity a secret while in public when
overhearing confidential information.
3.Lie about how information will be used.2
One well-known example is in the case of Procter
Gamble. Its CI team members hired “spies” who
misrepresented themselves in a number of ways, and practiced
“dumpster-diving” in order to obtain documents detailing
competitor Unilever’s three-year business plan for a line of
hair products. A number of people, including then CEO John
Pepper, voiced their opposition to these practices. This can
happen in CI: the original assignment may support using CI in
theory, but the practitioners may end up using practices that,
on the ground, end up being ethically problematic.
Indeed, there is often a distinction between CI and CE
in theory that that is quite different in practice. There is
plenty of grey area where the law does not shed any light on
the appropriate thing to do. Additionally, ethical standards
vary, and so there is room for practitioners to be creative and
deceptive within the confines of the law. (And tight deadlines
and firm directives from above to get results may inspire them
to push the rules.) But worse, in Canada, there are no laws
specifically identifying corporate espionage, as there are in the
United States (see Economic Espionage Act).
In order to develop the public’s trust, there must be a clear
definitions of acceptable practice and practitioners should be
held to specific standards, and should be held accountable.
Then, the discourse surrounding CI can involve not just
aiming to be distinct from CE, but continually develop and
demonstrate strategies that make clear this distinction in
practice, both legally and ethically.4,5,6
Lisel Douglas
Some members of the general public believe competitive intelligence
(CI) practitioners in the marketing research industry are “corporate
spies.” To develop an industry program that addresses misconceptions
about CI and also corporate espionage (CE, which by definition is
spying), it is important to understand the true nature of the problem.
Who has these misconceptions? Where do they come from? Who do
they affect? Who has to overcome them?
NAVIGATING THE GREY ZONE – AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY FOR
PROMOTING POSITIVE PERCEPTIONS OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
13. vue | JUNE 2015 13
FEATURE
Strategic Plan and Initiatives
Figure 1 presents, based on the discussion of the problem, a
theoretical map of the process towards overcoming perceptions
of competitive intelligence.
Below are recommended approaches in the form of various
initiatives. Each step corresponds to an aspect of the theoretical
process in Figure 1.
Obtaining an Accurate
Understanding of the Source and
Scope of Problem
Determine what misconceptions exist, both internal and
external to an organization, and where they originated. Ideally,
this should involve all of the organization’s stakeholders, as well
as members of the general public.
The organization should conduct qualitative research that
would explore the following issues:
• Conceptualizations of CI. How do particular stakeholders
define CI?
• Perceptions and opinions about CI. What do particular
stakeholders think about CI?
• Knowledge of and opinions on how the law may impact CI.
What knowledge do stakeholders possess regarding how the
law applies to CI and CE, and what do they think about it?
• Awareness of scandals involving CI. What do they know
about past incidences where CI practitioners were involved in
scandals, or conducted research in a way that they disagreed
with?
• Sources of information about CI. Which sources of
information have they used to form their opinion about CI?
• CI in practice and ethical dilemmas. What are their ethical
preferences regarding CI in practice, and regarding the
decisions that should be made in questionable situations?
Expressing Understanding
and Concern
Acknowledge that the problem exists,
and that such concerns may be valid. It
is important to engage with an important matter that affects
the practice and success of CI. This tells stakeholders that their
concerns are being considered.
• Make contact with CI-governing bodies such as Strategic and
Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and MRIA to
learn more about ethical CI and legal developments affecting
the industry.
• Produce online content or media that demonstrates awareness
of concerns, and organizational perspectives on relevant
issues.
• Engage with the government and champion the need for
law specific to CE, emphasizing how this can make CI more
trustworthy and provides more clarity to stakeholders.
Creating Clarity, Consistency,
Accountability in Organizational
Ideologies
Deal with misconceptions head-on by initiating organizational
changes and implementations related to this issue. Develop and
further strengthen the ethical stance of the organization on CI
practices.
• Consult with CI authorities such SCIP and MRIA
Canada to develop specific best practices and policies
as well as a code of conduct that is explicit about what
the organization believes is ethical action in a variety of
specific situations.
• Develop a process of penalization for violation of any
policies.
• Establish an ethical and disciplinary committee in charge
of research methodology integrity evaluations.
Demand rigorous disclosure of information sources and
research techniques (encourage disclosure reports) from
researchers and practitioners.
Figure 1: Theoretical Process for Changing Perceptions
Research
Acknowledgement
Development
14. 14 vue | JUNE 2015
FEATURE
Facilitating Consistent and
Accountable Practice
Educate and train CI practitioners and
other employees in accordance with company policy and ethical
guidelines or stipulations outlined in the organization’s newly
developed code of conduct.
• Regularly assess the knowledge and awareness of practitioners
about appropriate ethical practice and legal practice, as well as
the code of conduct.
• Conduct regular evaluations of employees’ CI practices.
• Hold regular workshops and training programs so that
employees can develop skills and continually learn new
analytical approaches and techniques and seek new sources of
information.
Addressing Perceptions
Inform stakeholders and the general public
of the changes within the organization, why
they are happening, and where they can get information about
the firm’s CI practices.
• Collaborate with industry stakeholders to hold a
meeting – or piggyback on an industry conference –
with presentations on relevant topics. Allow various
stakeholders to speak and share their perspectives on the
topic or provide feedback.
• Create press releases about organizational changes
regarding your organization’s approach to CI ethical
practices.
• Print, share and provide public access to any new polices.
• Make information sources available to stakeholders online
or in print to encourage trust through transparency.
Any organization that employs these strategies will be well
on their way to making a positive impact on the perceptions
and conceptualizations of the CI industry.
Conclusion
Since negative perceptions and misconceptions pose a challenge
to any industry, it is the responsibility of CI firms to take the
lead in informing employees, stakeholders and the public about
their approaches to this sometimes controversial approach to
marketing research. It is necessary for any organization that
aims to be perceived positively to engage actively and openly in
a dialogue about the grey areas of this practice, especially as the
nature of data collection and research adapts to an increasingly
technologized world. Clarifying this issue will help CI
practitioners raise their profile in the industry – in a good way
– and help the marketing research industry overall maintain a
good name with industry and with the public.
References
1
Competitive Intelligence vs. Espionage. Mirium Net. Retrieved: Jan. 27, 15.
Source: http://competitive-intelligence.mirum.net/gathering-information/
competitive-intelligence-vs-espionage.html.
2
Trevino, Linda; Weaver, Gary: Ethical Issues in Competitive Intelligence Practice:
Consensus, Conflicts, and Challenges; Competitive Intelligence Review, Vol. 8,
No. 1, Spring 1997.
3
Finkelstein, S; Jordan, J. The ethics of competitive intelligence. Tuck School
of Business at Dartmouth. 2005. Retrieved: Jan. 27, 15. Source: http://mba.
tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2005-1-0095.pdf.
4
Horowitz, R. The economic espionage act: The rules have not changed. Legal
and Investigative Services. 1998. Retrieved. Jan. 27, 15. Source: http://www.
rhesq.com/CI/CIR.pdf.
5
“Canadian companies lose billions a year to spies.” CBC News. 2011.
Retrieved: Jan. 27, 15. Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/
canadian-companies-lose-billions-a-year-to-spies-1.1059284.
6
Crowne, E; DeFreitas, T. Canada’s inadequate legal protection against
industrial espionage. Journal of Intellectual Property. 2013. Retrieved: Jan. 27,
15. Source: http://studentorgs.kentlaw.iit.edu/ckjip/?attachment_id=1278.
Lisel Douglas is a student at Algonquin College in the Marketing
Research and Business Intelligence program, and an intern at
the Public Opinion Research Directorate of Public Works and
Government Services Canada. This paper won the Jim Matthews
Award and Fellowship 2015 sponsored by Aurora WDC. Lisel tweets
at @LiselErienne and can be reached at lisel.douglas@gmail.com.
Education
Dissemination
15. CONGRATULATIONS TO
JOHN WILLIS, CMRP
for winning the Vue Magazine Best Paper 2014 -
“Google and IBM Get It - Do You?”
To view the article, click on the cover image
Visit mria-arim.ca/publications/research-buyers-guide/renew-edit-buy-listings
MRIA PUBLICATIONS
VUE MAGAZINEMRIA’s official monthly magazine is now all digital!
Read insightful articles with over 2,600 in our archives.
Reach hundreds of market researchers each month.
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2015 Research Buyer’s
Guide
Online and on time, with up-to-date contact infomation
on research service providers in eight different categories.
Exclusively for MRIA members to post and advertise year
round, and for everyone to view.
The database is fully searchable by company name, contact,
city, services offered and keywords.
Ask us about special half year rates and other offers.
Write us at rbg@mria-arim.ca or call 1-888-602-6742 x8723
16. 16 vue | JUNE 2015
Think carefully about which projects you
take on.
Focus on those projects that are most clearly aligned
with important business issues such enhancing customer loyalty,
identifying cross-selling opportunities or detecting fraud.
It’s tempting just to dig around in your data for awhile, but
exploring problems on the basis that they sound cool, ethereal
or challenging is a risky business. Once you’ve disappeared
down that rabbit hole, you could be there for a long time, whilst
adding nothing to the profit margins of the business.
Use data from as many places as possible.
When you’re modelling customer behaviour patterns,
it helps to have access to data both on customers who
are very influential and also those who may currently be less
influential but are susceptible to being influenced. Over or
underrepresenting either group in your population will skew
your model and may cause you to overlook key variables found
in the underrepresented segment.
Don’t just use internal customer data.
If you’re limiting yourself to your internal customer
data, you may be overlooking external data such as
social media activity that could contain the variables you need
to build into your churn, cross-sell or acquisition model. Even if
you’re looking at the right population, building your training set
from the wrong sources means you may be inadvertently skewing
your model to the most convenient variables, not the most valid
variables.
Rachel Clinton
In my career, I’ve seen many examples of successful and unsuccessful data mining
projects. I’m often asked how clients can maximize the chances of their project
being successful and, based on the many projects I’ve been involved with over the
years, I think there are nine things that really help. When these factors are in place,
it always suggests to me that the project has a much higher likelihood of success.
NINE TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE DATA MINING
17. vue | JUNE 2015 17
FEATURE
Have a clear sampling strategy.
You may have a powerful analytics platform that enables
you to train your model from the entire population
dataset. Typically, though, you’ll train it from a much smaller
sample. Your sampling might be simple, focused on ensuring
that you extract a representative subset of the total population
or complex using more advanced techniques. Either is fine as
long as you’ve considered it and have a clear strategy as to which
approach you’re going to use, and why.
Always use a holdout sample.
A holdout sample enables you to check the predictive
performance of your model over time. If you’re
building models from old, inaccurate and inconsistent versions
of data, then they will need extra, scrupulous testing on new
and unseen data to make sure they stand up in the real world.
Testing ensures you haven’t built a model to make a point-of-sale,
cross-sell recommendation on a piece of data that isn’t actually
available at that point in the process (an example I have seen) or
that you haven’t overtrained a model into perfectly learning the
nuances of one set of data.
Spend time on “throwaway” modelling.
Identifying the best predictors from a wide range of
independent variables is the first part of the modelling
process. Throwing all the information in, testing multiple models
and then refining the selection process down, all in the first
day of your project, gives a leap forward in productivity. This is
known as throwaway modelling. It’s a valuable part of the process
because throwing out the things that don’t work and keeping
the cream from the top means that the bias of the analyst or the
slowness of programming a new routine will not interfere with
the accuracy of the results. If you skip this part of the process,
there’s a risk that you’ll miss an important relationship in your
data that you hadn’t thought of or that doesn’t fit with your own
pet theory.
Refresh your model regularly.
If you think that the predictive model you’ve just built
will always fit your real-world data perfectly, think
again. Model quality often vanishes in an instant. You may need
to score your models with fresh data every month, week, day or
even every hour. Choosing the scoring and iteration frequency
is essential if your models are going to retain their predictive
validity over time.
Make sure your insights are meaningful to
other people.
Translating your insights across the organization into
pictures or patterns that can be easily understood by non-
statisticians is vital. The elegant model you have created may be
extremely complex under the hood, but knowing this will not
help lesser mortals to understand and use the insight you have
gained. Confuse people with statistical jargon and they won’t be
able to make practical use of your findings. Make your findings
clear, accessible and usable and you’ll be asked for more.
Use your model in the real world.
If you don’t deploy your model into the frontline and
use it to affect your business’s performance in some way,
then you have spent a lot of time and expertise on an interesting
research project that’s has no practical impact whatsoever. Make
sure you have clear deployment routes in mind right from the
start. You need to ensure that marketing can use your cross-
sell model, that contact centre staff can see your churn-risk
scores and that your acquisition modelling is being applied to
new prospect campaigns. If you don’t ensure your models are
deployed, then you’ll never be able to demonstrate the power of
your work.
Rachel Clinton is a business development director at Smart Vision
Europe Ltd. She tweets at @RachClinton and can be emailed at
rclinton@sv-europe.com. This article originally appeared on Data
Science Central (www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/9-tips-
for-effective-data-mining).
Mark your Calendar
September 2015 - Toronto Golf Tournament - details to follow
October 7-8 2015 - CMRE Prep Course - Toronto, ON
November 7-8 2015 - CMRP Exam - various locations
November / December 2015 - event TBD - Vancouver, BC
January 2016 - QRC Conference - Toronto, ON
18. 18 vue | JUNE 2015
story
telling
INDUSTRY NEWS
Paul Long, CMRP
The 10th MRIA National Conference was held in
Toronto on May 24-26, at the Eaton Centre Marriott. As
in previous years, the conference started out on Sunday
with a speed-networking session that gave respondents
the opportunity to speak with other researchers for
six-minutes on various research topics. I have always
found this part of the conference to be a lot of fun, as
you can meet people that you otherwise would not
necessarily meet.
MRIA 2015 Conference Summary
The conference was jam-packed with fascinating keynote
speeches, and a wide variety of breakout sessions. Most of the
breakout sessions were brief, at 25 minutes long, meaning that
presentations were succinct. Many of the presentations focused
on how to present research to clients through the frame of
storytelling, to help insights be impactful and memorable. The
conference also included presentations on social media and its
impact on research, ways to address challenges in research, the
impact of shrinking budgets on researchers and the role of big
data in research.
In keeping with the spirit storytelling, at many of
the presentations an artist drew a story to represent the
presentation that was being given.
As is always the case at MRIA conferences, it was not strictly
about presentations. Along with the Sunday night opening
party, the Monday night gala and the Tuesday night salsa party,
there were activities during the day to let attendees unleash
their competitive nature at both a ping pong table and Rock
Paper Scissors competitions.
Two new awards competitions were added to the conference:
student researchers were invited to work as teams, and come
up with a way to address a hypothetical research problem, and
exhibitors gave their best 90 second “elevator pitch.” In both
cases the winners presented in front of conference attendees,
Welcome to the Conference! You Think Live Blogging Is Challenging? What About
Drawing a Story Live?
2015 Gala Awards Dinner – Carte Blanche
19. vue | JUNE 2015 19
INDUSTRY NEWS
and in the case of the student winners, the groups judged as
one of the top three were presented with a cash award at the
Monday night gala.
Also, at the Monday night gala a total of 18 new CMRP
designates were announced, with 10 of them in attendance.
Congratulations to all of the new CMRP holders, including
MRIA CEO Kara Mitchelmore and MRIA staff members Karl
MacIsaac and Dan Jackson.
The Presentations
Keynote speakers Paul Smith and Kristin Luck spoke of
the importance of using storytelling to engage people
in presentations, and help the audience remember key
information. Each gave examples to illustrate the point:
Paul gave six reasons why he thought storytelling worked well
(simple, timeless, demographic-proof, contagious, easy-to-
remember and inspirational). He also provided a story about
students in Florida who were tasked with improving the jury
process within the state. They looked into many different
elements about the process, but finally realized that rectangular
tables led to faster trials, as one person at the end of the table
often led the conversation – with a smaller amount of input
from other jurors. The students came to the conclusion that this
should change, and that round tables would provide fairer trials
as input from jurors would be more evenly provided. When they
presented this finding, the decision was made to use rectangular
tables to improve the speed – and therefore cost and efficiency
– of trials. Paul suggested that conference attendees would
likely remember this as an example of the power of storytelling,
though they would likely not remember the six steps.
Kristin shared personal information about herself: growing
up in Oregon, sibling rivalry with her brother, as well as
being diagnosed with and fighting breast cancer. Kristin
demonstrated that providing this information to the conference
attendees helped to build a bond with the audience. Kristin
then mentioned giving her first sales presentation, and failing
to get any type of interested reaction from the person she was
speaking with whatsoever. Finally in desperation she started
trying to talk to ask about his summer vacation, and found
out that he had gone to a guitar camp for his vacation. While
she knew nothing about guitars, Kristin made a reference to
a Simpsons episode involving a guitar camp. After making
this reference Kristin and the potential client began to have
a conversation. Kristin was successful in making a sale that
day, and the man that she was speaking to became one of her
biggest clients.
Algonquin College students won first place in the case
competition.
New CMRPs being giving their designation at the MRIA
2015 Conference gala.
Keynote Speaker Paul Smith.
Keynote speaker Kristin Luck.
20. 20 vue | JUNE 2015
INDUSTRY NEWS
Using A Story to Solve a Business Problem
Paul Smith spoke of a situation in which PG was trying to
determine why growth rates for Pampers diapers sales stagnated
in the early 1980s. It turned out that it was because transition
from cloth to disposable diapers that had started in the 1960s
had fully taken hold. Once everyone he had presented to
understood this, the recommendations from his presentation
were acted on. Smith mentioned that for this to work
successfully, you must take the audience on your discovery
journey.
Keynote speaker Lisa Ritchie (Sun Life), spoke about role
storytelling played to solve a business problem in her previous
role at Scotiabank. Eight years ago they were trying to solve a
problem that Scotiabank had regarding attrition rates among
young account holders, after noticing that there was a high
level of attrition once account holders went to university. In
conducting qualitative research with young customers, research
that Scotiabank conducted uncovered that young customers
were interested in going to see movies in theatres but found it
too expensive to do so.
Qualitative research further found that focus group attendees
were voracious users of loyalty programs, as attendees had
stacks of loyalty cards in their wallets. This suggested that
creating a loyalty program on a credit card, with credit toward
being able to view movies, might be a potential product to
attract millennial customers. Scotiabank then had the idea
tested through quantitative research, which backed up that the
idea had potential. Based on this Scotiabank came up with the
branded Visa Scene credit card that gave loyalty points toward
seeing movies.
The Changing Role of Market Research
Lisa spoke about how research had changed over the 15 years
she led Scotiabank’s research team. One of the most dramatic
pieces of evidence of the increasing importance of market
research over that period is that the department grew from 2
people to there currently being approximately 180. Beside the
growth in the function however, Lisa mentioned several other
changes that have taken place:
• research now includes data warehousing, data support,
campaign execution, analytics and insights, brand and
communication research
• at one point market research was the core of information,
however, as companies started to get repositories of data,
other sources of information also became relevant
• with respect to big data, Lisa argued that the volume of data
is not new, though it has been presented as new by vendors
According to Lisa the real change is the velocity with which
the data can be evaluated, examples Lisa gave are the ability
to know how many times people have walked into a specific
branch or made a savings deposit or what channel they use to
deposit.
What Do Market Researchers Need to Do Now?
Lisa argued that internal clients have become more demanding
and now “want it all”. They know that big data is at their
fingertips, but do not know what to do with it. They need
to be trained by client-side market researchers to know what
questions to ask about research. Clients now want 2-3 page
reports, and need to have market researchers that can synthesize
information.
Keynote speaker Marie Wolfe (Unilever) spoke passionately
about market research as a profession that is in need of being
“re-launched”. According to Marie the profession is challenged
by a quickly changing pace, and shows no sign of slowing
down. These changes are due to trends such as the Internet,
artificial intelligence and
mobile access. At the same
time, marketers want
researchers to act more
strategically. However,
much of research:
• emphasizes the process
and not the potential
of what researchers can
do to transform their
businesses
• is focussed on
researching the past
• is perceived of as boring
by young talent entering
the industry
Marie argued that to move research forward researchers need to
take steps such as:
• ending reliance on norms and trended data
• search to find what people are talking about now
• leverage the best in new methods to unveil new ideas
Keynote Speaker Lisa Ritchie interviewed by Julie Sylvestre.
Keynote speaker Marie Wolfe.
21. vue | JUNE 2015 21
It’s a vast market out there,
but we can help you get to know it better.
Putting your finger on the human pulse.
Any numbers. Any time.
We get what you need.
888-323-3651
www.surveysampler.com
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Social Media and Research
Luke Stringer (Twitter) and Alexandra Cohn (Google)
originally came from Ipsos, and now work with online
companies that are defining and changing the nature of the
internet. Both spoke about the role research plays at their
companies and how it differed from when they worked from
a traditional research company. One of the key similarities is
that each talked of working in very collaborative environments,
with an overwhelming amount of data. Despite this amount
of data though, both mentioned that since the data was strictly
behavioural it was not possible to tie it to specific users. Twitter
for example, still needs to use traditional research techniques to
be able to understand the individual.
Alexandra spoke about Google Consumer Surveys,
and mentioned that they partner with full service research
companies strictly because Google is not a research company;
they provide the data and the platform but they still need
researchers to interpret the data that they collect. Behind this
is the understanding by Google that asking the appropriate
questions is a skill held by researchers.
Best Practices
Kamal Sharma (Hersheys) and Susan Innes (BMO Financial
Group) spoke about best practices that researchers should follow,
focusing mainly on client-side researchers. Regardless of the
changes in the research environment for researchers, they stressed
that researchers need to work strategically with internal clients
and work co-operatively with suppliers.
In the process behind creating an RFP, for example, both
spoke of the importance of ensuring researchers ask their internal
clients questions to ensure that the request that goes out to
suppliers both accurately captures the scope of the research,
and ensures that the resulting research will be useful to the
organization.
Perhaps most importantly, during the presentation Susan
cited research that internal clients should take note of. She
indicated that senior executives are increasing the information
sources they are using in making decisions, meaning that
market research is playing less of a role. Another study she cited
indicated that market researchers are far more likely to be viewed
by research users as technical, and not strategic thinkers.
There were many other fascinating presentations during
the conference, but of course space limits the ones that can be
included. Of the ones I saw, all were quite engaging, and well
received by the attendees viewing them. It will be interesting to
see what the theme will be for the 2016 Conference in Montreal.
Notes:
• All photographs taken by Annie Pettit and Paul Long
• Author has supplemented his conference notes with blog
posts from Annie Pettit’s blog posting
Further reading:
Paul Long’s conference blog posts
Annie Pettit’s conference blog posts
22. 22 vue | JUNE 2015
Former Harris Poll Leader Launches Own Firm
In New York, former Harris Poll head Regina Corso has
launched her own full service research company, focused on
research specifically designed for public release. Regina Corso
has more than twenty years’ market research experience,
including more than a decade at Harris Interactive, working
on high-profile opinion survey The Harris Poll – and eight
years heading it up. She also worked for public relations firms
on research for use in campaigns, including studies among
specialised audiences such as children, teachers, IT decision
makers, corporate counsel and small business owners. While
at Harris, she also served as the firm’s Head of Corporate
Communications. Read full article
MediaCom Australian CEO Steps Down
Mark Pejic, the CEO of Australia’s second largest media
agency MediaCom has left after four years leading the
WPP firm, which was recently embroiled in a controversy
over faked campaign reports for three major clients. The
departure adds to a number of key roles already vacant at the
company. According to Australian media site www.mumbrella.
com.au Asia Pacific CEO Mark Heap will stand in until a
successor is appointed. MediaCom already has vacancies for
a Finance Director, Sydney MD, General Manager and Head of
Insight; while parent company GroupM has lost its CEO John
Steedman. The two firms have stressed that none of the recent
departures relate to the misreporting scandal, in which the
personnel concerned were not implicated. A dozen executives
left the agency last year when an audit by consulting firm EY
began, with at least one being fired and the rest resigning.
Read full article
Ipsos ProductQuest Adds Neuroscience Feature
Ipsos’ product testing wing ProductQuest has integrated the
neuroscience technique known as Implicit Reaction Time
(IRT) into its evaluations, to help clients probe consumers’
non-conscious perceptions of their products. The firm says
traditional approaches can overlook attributes which hold the
key to meaningful product improvements. IRT measures how
strongly consumers feel about a product, versus a benchmark
or competitive product, by ‘succinctly capturing how much
time it takes a respondent to associate multiple attributes with
the product’. Read full article
AskingCanadians Builds on a Strong Performance in
2014 with New Hires, Promotions
Online data collection company continues to experience
double-digit growth this year – Following a strong year in
2014, AskingCanadians, one of Canada’s leading online data
collection companies, is continuing to experience double-digit
growth into 2015 and positioning its team for the future with
new hires… Read full article
MRIA Members Health Insurance Benefit
MRIA has partnered with LMS PROLINK Ltd. to provide Member
Insurance Programs tailored to the marketing research and
intelligence industry. These Insurance Programs are available
exclusively to MRIA members.
GROUP HEALTH DENTAL BENEFITS FOR 1 OR 2 LIVES
• Group Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Extended Health
Insurance, Dental Plan, Critical Illness Insurance and
Members Assistance Plan.
23. vue | JUNE 2015 23
• Access to large group extended health coverage rates –
savings of up to 20 to 30%.
• Programs offered and accessed through LMS PROLINK Ltd.
• If you have additional questions please contact Frank
Palleschi, Group Benefits Coordinator, at LMS PROLINK. Toll
free at 1 800-663-6828 ext. 7725 or email FrankP@LMS.ca
Research Now Launches Dermatology
Panel for Online Market Research
Research Now today announced the launch of its Dermatology
Panel, providing a resource for deeper insights into the
practices, treatments and sentiments related to dermatology.
This is the seventh market research panel based around
therapeutic areas to be launched by the company. Researchers
now have access to a targeted audience of hundreds of
thousands of deeply-profiled panelists who have been
diagnosed with one or more of the following: skin cancer,
acne, psoriasis, eczema, nail fungus and rosacea. For a more
holistic approach, Research Now also provides access to hard-
to-reach healthcare experts including dermatologists, plastic
surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, histopathologists and
general practitioners. Read full article
New Name and Broader Focus for Communispace
Boston-based consumer collaboration specialist
Communispace has changed its name to C Space. With a
new focus on ‘Customer Inspired Growth’, the firm says it
has expanded its consulting and innovation teams, and its
capability in storytelling and creative services. Founder and
Chairman Diane Hessan, who as CEO led the firm’s sale to
Omnicom Group in 2011, comments: ‘It’s exciting to have all of
our global brands under one new name. More importantly, this
shift is a reflection of our broader set of capabilities. Where we
were once known mainly as a community provider, we have
real depth in many new areas’. The company is headquartered
in Boston, London and Shanghai, with offices in Chicago, New
York, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Mexico City. C Space
is a part of Diversified Agency Services, a division of global
marketing and corporate communications company Omnicom
and is online at www.cspace.com
Obituary for Keith Bull
At Kingston, Ontario, April 19th, 2015 in his 93rd year. Beloved
husband of Primula Bull. Dear father of Catharine, Avril and
Owen. Grandfather of seven, and great-grandfather of nine.
Uncle of two nephews. Memorial Service was held at St.
George’s Cathedral, Kingston on Saturday, May 23, 2015.
AskingCanadians Corby Spirit and Wine Ltd.
recognized as 2015 Confirmit ACE Award winners
Awards honour companies that successfully use the Voice of
the Customer to drive business results AskingCanadians, one of
Canada’s leading online data collection companies, and Corby
Spirit and Wine Ltd., a leading Canadian marketer of spirits and
imported wines, have been jointly awarded… Read full article
Research Now Sweeps the Online Sample Categories
for the Second Year in a Row
Unprecedented topping of the charts solidifies its standing
as an industry leader in five categories PLANO, Texas – April
29, 2015 – Research Now Group, Inc., the leading digital
data collection provider powering analytics and insights,
swept all five dimensions among online sample providers for
the second consecutive year in the recently released “2015
Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals.” Sponsored
by MarketResearchCareers.com, the tenth edition surveyed
customers of online market research suppliers to identify
the top firm along each of the following five dimensions:
is a thought leader; offers unique methodologies; provides
quality deliverables; has the best employees; and effectively
uses technology. For an unprecedented second year in a row,
Research Now received top honors across all five categories.
Heather Milt Manager, Public Relations Tel: | Mobile: +1 206
200 8207 Research Now | Seattle, WA, United States … Read
full article
Georgian College NOW ACCEPTING JOB POSTINGS FOR
FALL INTERNS
Dear Industry Partners: Consider hiring a student intern this
fall. The internship period is from September 8 – November 27.
Students must complete a minimum of 12 weeks to graduate
from their post-graduate program. There is no obligation to
continue employment after the 12 weeks, however, students
can continue in a contract, part-time, or full-time role. Please
contact me for more information. You can submit your
posting to me or post it directly on our job portal: https://
careerandcoop.georgiancollege.ca/home.htm
P.S. If you have immediate hiring needs, please let me know.
I can connect you to students and grads who are looking for
work.
Pat Roberts Career Consultant, Co-op and Career Services
(B110) Georgian College, One Georgian Drive, Barrie ON L4M
3X9 705.728.1968, ext. 1226 | GeorgianCollege.ca
Interested in sponsoring People and Companies in the News?
Contact Anne Marie Gabriel at 416-642-9793 x8723
or amgabriel@mria-arim.ca
n To read more news online, or to submit your “People
and Companies in the News,” simply fill out our online
form at http://mria-arim.ca/news/people-and-company-
news
n The Vue editorial team reserves the right to select and
edit your submission for appearance in Vue.
n MRIA is neither responsible for the accuracy of this
information nor liable for any false information.
24. 24 vue | JUNE 2015
Recognizing the contribution of
Gold Seal members
MRIA’s Gold Seal members make significant contributions to
upholding industry standards, and display their commitment
to the future health of our industry. Organizations that have
earned the MRIAs Gold Seal go above and beyond MRIA’s
Code of Conduct and Good Practice, adhering to an MRIA
audit of their practices.
As an appreciation of this commitment we have instituted
an event celebrating Gold Seal members annually at the MRIA
national conference. This new tradition was kicked-off at the
54th annual conference in Saskatoon held in 2014, where the
MRIA recognized 29 corporate research agencies that have
continuously held the MRIA Gold Seal since its inception in
2006.
Gold Seal members who have continued their commitment
to the certification will receive recognition at each 5 year
milestone. This year, at the Gala Awards dinner on May 25th,
the MRIA celebrated 22 Gold Seal members with 5 or more
years of continuous certification.
Get to know the updated MRIA Standards
January brought the announcement that our professional
Code of Conduct had been updated…for the first time since
2007! This long-awaited revision aligns our Code with the
principles of the ESOMAR Code on International Market and
Social Research. This will allow us to leverage global resources
to provide regular updates in areas that are developing or
advancing rapidly.
The new Code continues to cover the same areas as the
prior code and retains regulations and customizations specific
to Canada. The purpose of the Code also remains consistent:
fostering public confidence and demonstrating practitioner
recognition of their ethical and professional responsibilities.
The most notable differences are:
• Principle based structure, moving away from the more
prescriptive nature of the old Code, but covering similar areas
(i.e. honesty, professional responsibility, transparency, and
data protection/privacy).
• A dedicated Qualitative Code, not included in ESOMAR,
but updated in Canada.
• Change in definition of child to 14 years and under (from 13
years), to match global definitions.
• Up-to-date guide for online research plus specific focus on
methodologies such as passive data collection, social media,
and mobile to name a few.
• Finally, the Complaints procedure is revamped and includes
mandatory non-disclosure for both parties, prescriptive
sanctions, and most importantly a defined (and shorter)
timeline to make the whole process more efficient.
MRIA’s Annual Financial Activity Survey – your
window to the Canadian MR industry and its
trends
Each year the MRIA’s Financial Activity Survey provides
corporate members with a view into the health and evolution
of the industry. After consultation with corporate members,
the MRIA and your Research Agency Council updated
this important industry survey to make the process easier.
In addition, a webinar was created to help organizations
understand how to complete the survey. As in the past, the
results from the survey will provide information about the
overall annual revenue and related breakdowns by specific types
of research services to help gauge the direction of the industry.
Results are presented at the MRIA annual general meeting.
Gold Seal members will also have exclusive information about
staffing positions and levels of compensation.
The MRIA’s Research Agency Council (RAC) is focused on
identifying opportunities to increase the visibility, value and
importance of the MRIA and support the Gold Seal as our
industry’s symbol of best practices. RAC members represent MRIA
member suppliers, big and small, across Canada.
OFF THE RAC
Paul Long, CMRP
Updates from the MRIA’s Research Agency Council
INDUSTRY NEWS
25. vue | JUNE 2015 25
The purpose of AODA and accompanying standards is to
achieve accessibility for people with disabilities in Ontario by
2025, which began January 1, 2012 for the private sector. The
goal is to identify and remove barriers within the government
and organizations in the province of Ontario that keep people
with disabilities from fully participating in activities such as
employment, shopping, going to restaurants, accessing services
and goods, applying for government and other services on the
Internet etc.
The AODA includes every person in the public and private
sector and provides standards and enforcement procedures.
Under the AODA the government has been developing
mandatory accessibility standards to identify, remove and
prevent barriers for persons with disabilities in key areas of
daily living. These Accessibility Standards are meant to aid
organizations to achieve accessibility for the largest number of
people with disabilities.
The AODA requires the persons or organizations named
or described in the standard to implement those measures,
policies, practices or other requirements within the time
periods specified in the standard.
Businesses with fewer than 20 employees do not need to
prepare written documents based on the requirements found
in the standard, or file annual accessibility reports with the
government. Nonetheless, as of January 2012, organizations
with fewer than 20 employees still have responsibilities to
perform, they are still obligated to comply with the law and
must make policies, practices and procedures. Although
businesses do not need to document them, the best practice is
to document accessibility policies, practices and procedures to
avoid workplace confusions and legal complications.
So what does this mean?
The AODA is about understanding that people with disabilities
may not be able to access your goods and services unless
barriers are removed. The AODA is about being willing to be
proactive by anticipating those barriers and taking measures to
reasonably remove those barriers. For the barriers that cannot
be anticipated, the AODA allows you to be reactive once
you have been made aware of these barriers and be willing to
deal with them. MRIA believes this Act impacts the way you
conduct your day to day operations in providing your products
and services to the Ontario public.
Please note that MRIA does NOT govern the rules and
regulations relating to AODA, but the Provincial Government
of Ontario does. As such, this is a notice to our MRIA
Members to ensure that they are compliant to the standards
and requirements of the enacted AODA Act.
For more information on implementation of the AODA to
your organization please visit http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/
programs/accessibility/understanding_accessibility/aoda.aspx
AODA: A MESSAGE TO MRIA MEMBERS
INDUSTRY NEWS
The Government of Ontario created the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA)
with the goal of developing standards that would improve accessibility for people with disabilities
across the province. The AODA allows the Provincial Government to develop specific standards of
accessibility and enforce them. The standards are made into regulations pursuant to the AODA.
Naturally, this Act applies to marketing research companies.
26. 26 vue | JUNE 2015
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY
In accordance with federal privacy laws,
MRIA’s Qualitative Research Registry (QRR), or Registre de la recherche
qualitative (RRQ) in French, was created to provide an ongoing, user-
friendly vehicle for tracking those who do not want to be contacted or
should not be contacted for qualitative research studies.
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice
Effective January 1 2015, MRIA announced that the Association has updated its professional Code of Conduct, to align with the
fundamental principles of the International Code on Market and Social Research (the “ESOMAR Code”).
ESOMAR is a worldwide association of research professionals. It promotes standards for research and professional ethics endorsed
by members in over 130 countries who share and uphold the conviction that “market research depends for its success on public
confidence – that is carried out honestly, objectively and without unwelcome intrusion or disadvantage to its participants.”
MRIA’s Code of Conduct is self-regulatory and intended to reflect the standard of “best practice” in Canada, providing explicit
assurance of consumer protection in how the industry interacts with and serves the Canadian public. MRIA’s newly introduced
Code of Conduct replaces MRIA’s previous Code of Conduct and Good Practices (dated December, 2007).
THE FOLLOWING CORPORATE MEMBERS HAVE SUBMITTED NAMES TO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH REGISTRY UP TO JUNE 10TH
Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Inc. (BCCR Inc.)
Dawn Smith Field Management Service
Decision Point Research
Head Count
Nexus Market Research Inc.
Quality Response Inc.
Research House Inc.
Decision Point Research
MBA Recherche
Quality Response Inc.
Decision Point Research
Quality Response Inc.
Trend Research Inc.
Quality Response Inc.
ONTARIO
QUEBEC
WEST ATLANTIC
QRR is a comprehensive do not call list of those who have recently
participated in qualitative research studies, those who have asked not to be
contacted further, and those felt by recruiters and moderators to be best
served by not being contacted. These respondents are marked as “do not
call” in accordance with established MRIA Standards.
All field and full-service companies are encouraged to submit a list of
their qualitative respondents for entry into the QRR system each month,
including those who do not wish to be contacted.
Participating firms will receive monthly updates of respondents to be
screened from qualitative recruitment samples. QRR works effectively
to increase the quality and integrity of the qualitative research process,
by serving as a control to ensure respondents are not contacted more
frequently than is necessary.
However, the ability of the system to function effectively is directly related
to the co-operation received from firms who provide recruitment services.
If you are a full service research firm or field supplier that is currently
participating in the Qualitative Research Registry program – thank you very
much and keep up the good work!
If you are not currently participating, please get involved! If you are
interested in submitting to QRR, please visit the MRIA website at mria-arim.
ca/about-mria/qualitative-research-division/qualitative-research-registry for
further explanation and guidance on how to submit qualitative research
participants’ names, along with the required electronic forms.
If you have any questions about or wish to submit to the QRR please send an e-mail to: qrr@mria-arim.ca
Information regarding the QRR can be found at mria-arim.ca/about-mria/qualitative-research-division/qualitative-research-registry
Starting in 2015, all QRR fees are included in MRIA’s Corporate Membership Fees.
To view the fee scale, visit
mria-arim.ca/membership/join-mria/corporate-memberships/corporate-dues-fees
INDUSTRY NEWS
27. vue | JUNE 2015 27
FROM THE CLASSROOM
Unilever and the Georgian College RAP are very excited to announce a Market Research workshop for RAP’s post graduate
students in July. The workshop will provide future marketing research professionals with a more complete picture of the
marketing research function and how each internal/external stakeholder impacts the growth of a business. With speakers from
Unilever’s CMI and Brand Marketing teams, Millward Brown, the Nielsen Company, and Vision Critical, it is shaping up to be
a very informative, thought provoking day for all involved. Contact: Tim Krywulak, Professor, tim.krywulak@georgiancollege.ca
MRBI teams assessed proposed locations for a four star T-Hotel in Ottawa, and shared their findings with a planning
committee including Windmill Development Group, who have partnered with Algonquin College on the eco-revitalization of
former industrial lands on the riverfront. At Applied Research Day in April, MRBI students showcased client projects exploring
users’ experiences with learning management systems, the college recruitment process and the student’s association. Four MRBI
students have been hired into full time positions with Abacus Data, iTracks, Phase 5 and Ramius (Recollective). Thank you to
our industry partners! Contact Nancy Johansen, MBA, CMRP, Program Coordinator at johansn@algonquincollege.com
GEORGIAN COLLEGE RAPP PROGRAM
ALGONQUIN COLLEGE MRBI PROGRAM
Each of these RAP Program Colleges along with Lambton College, Centennial College, and Sheridan College sent teams of
students, to compete in the first-ever, live at conference.
Congratulations to Algonquin College for winning first prize! For a full list of student winners, see page 7 of this issue.
INDUSTRY NEWS
COLUMNISTS
Les funambules de la publicité préventive.
Les usages et objectifs de la publicité se sont multipliés de
façon exponentielle depuis les premiers balbutiements du
domaine au début de l’ère du marché de la consommation.
On ne fait plus de la publicité que pour vendre des produits
de nos jours. L’objectif qui m’apparaît encore à ce jour le
plus difficile à exploiter correctement est celui de la publicité
préventive. On a qu’à penser aux publicités qui cherchent à
encadrer et décourager l’abus d’alcool, des jeux de hasard et
d’argent, de drogue ou encore les multiples campagnes visant
la vitesse excessive au volant.
À chaque année il semble que les messages se radicalisent,
tant par les mots choisis que par les images utilisées pour
convaincre le public qu’on ne plaisante pas avec l’abus.
L’aspect qui me dérange des publicités de ce genre ne vient
pas du contenu et de son objectif mais plutôt du contenant
et de son effet potentiellement négatif. Est-ce que quelques
secondes de l’attention d’une personne suffisent pour faire
la différence? Mais, surtout, malgré que le message soit
apparemment clair dans ce type de publicités, quel est l’effet
réel sur ceux et celles qui reçoivent ce message?
Je doute qu’une personne avec une propension à abuser
de l’alcool reçoive une publicité qui l’accuse de ne pas
considérer les conséquences de ses gestes accepte sagement le
message en faisant le vœu de ne plus jamais abuser d’alcool.
Je doute aussi que l’amateur de voiture fasse la réalisation
soudaine qu’il joue avec le feu en conduisant au-delà des
limites permises parce qu’il a vu une publicité lui expliquant
ce qu’il risque en agissant de la sorte.
Finalement, je doute principalement de ce médium qu’on
dirige vers des problèmes sociaux si complexes. La publicité
a beau pouvoir nous mettre des jingles en tête pendant des
heures, je ne crois pas qu’elle soit au stade de propagande
positive.
Stéphane Drapeau
Analyste chez Ad Hoc recherche
La Belle Vue
28. 28 vue | JUNE 2015
INDUSTRY NEWS
Facebook’s New Patent: Influence is only
part of the equation
This came over my newsfeed this morning [February 17,
2015]: “Facebook Patents Clever Way To Advertise Just To
Important People”. The TechCrunch article elaborates:
“The idea is that Facebook could watch the rate at which
a piece of content like a link is shared, then figure out whose
posting led to a sudden increase in share rate in their network.
Those people are the influencers, and the people that they
discovered the content from are the experts.”
Facebook could then target those people with ads and
presumably charge businesses a boatload to reach them. It
makes perfect sense. Why would it cost the same amount to
reach someone famous, powerful, or widely cited as someone
whose endorsement won’t sway people?
In essence, Facebook is looking at marketing to
“influencers” with a hope to stimulate (and no doubt measure)
virality. Based on our research and experience, this is only part
of the “secret sauce” in using social media influence.
As per our [zinc tank’s] Canadian Social Media Segments
(click above to expand), this will be akin to targeting Front-
Liners. Thus, akin to the Diffusion of Innovation, the Front-
Liners are the “early adopters” of ideas/products/services
worth sharing on Facebook. However, such mavens only have
influence over a certain categories and types of information.
Reality: Influence is contextual
As I outlined in an earlier post about Snapchat, the success of
this platform (and its evolution as it is currently pivoting its
business model) was its ability to connect with the Socializer
segment. Thus, the collective action of members of this
segment was able to stimulate rapid adoption of this platform.
Another example is social media in emergency management
(#SMEM). Given my experience in the Calgary floods of
2013, I have had the opportunity to connect with the SMEM
community. In times of crisis, the challenge of authorities is
to connect with the Friendlies (i.e., those whose primary form
of social media is anchored to Facebook). These are people
who may have a low involvement and/or connection with a
crisis, but play an important role in sharing and amplifying the
message of authorities. And only when this has taken root, do
Front-liners, who have a strong contextual relationship to the
crisis, and bring their influence to the situation.
It is my educated guess that this is a start for these new
marketing tools. Over time, Facebook will get a better handle
on influence and context, and refine their targeting algorithms
and ad sales accordingly.
Related: Facebook Fears, Way Back in 2010
Editor’s note: this blog post was originally published February 17, 2015, and can be found here
In this post Brian Singh, President of Zinc Research, writes on the “Identify experts and influencers
in a social network” patent that Facebook was granted earlier this year. Singh points to the
implications that it has for Facebook to be able to niche-target “influencers” and charge ad rates
appropriately based on their Facebook profiles and activity.
Chosen by Paul Long, CMRP
BEST
OF THE
29. vue | JUNE 2015 29
Academica Group
Advanis Inc.
Advitek Inc.
BBM Analytics
Bond Brand Loyalty (Formerly
Maritz Research Canada)
Campaign Research
Canadian Viewpoint Inc.
Cido Research
Consumer Vision Ltd.
Corporate Research Associates
CRC Research
EKOS Research Associates Inc.
Elemental Data Collection Inc.
Environics Research Group Limited
GfK Canada
Ipsos Reid
Leger, The Research Intelligence
Group
Market Probe Canada
MBA Recherche
MD Analytics Inc.
MQO Research
Nanos Research
Nielsen Consumer Insights
Nielsen Opinion Quest
NRG Research Group
Numeris
R.A. Malatest Associates Ltd.
Research Dimensions
Research House Inc.
Research Now
The Logit Group Inc.
GOLD SEAL CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES
MRIA’s Research Registration System (RRS) has long been a cornerstone self-regulatory mechanism for the marketing,
survey and public opinion research and market intelligence industry in Canada.
The following companies have registered research projects with the Research Registration System in 2015 up to June 10th
Rules of Conduct and Good Practice
Effective January 1 2015, MRIA announced that the Association has updated its professional Code of Conduct, to align with the
fundamental principles of the International Code on Market and Social Research (the “ESOMAR Code”).
ESOMAR is a worldwide association of research professionals. It promotes standards for research and professional ethics endorsed
by members in over 130 countries who share and uphold the conviction that “market research depends for its success on public
confidence – that is carried out honestly, objectively and without unwelcome intrusion or disadvantage to its participants.”
MRIA’s Code of Conduct is self-regulatory and intended to reflect the standard of “best practice” in Canada, providing explicit
assurance of consumer protection in how the industry interacts with and serves the Canadian public. MRIA’s newly introduced
Code of Conduct replaces MRIA’s previous Code of Conduct and Good Practices (dated December, 2007).
RESEARCH REGISTRATION SYSTEM
Since 1994, the RRS has allowed respondents to verify the legitimacy of a research project; helped legislators
and regulators differentiate between legitimate survey researchers and unscrupulous telemarketers,
phishers and scammers; and protected the industry from unnecessary and unwanted regulation.
http://mria-arim.ca/about-mria/research-registration/research-registration-overview
Combined with other self-regulatory initiatives such as our Code of Conduct
and Good Practice and our Charter of Respondent Rights, the RRS has paid
huge dividends in protecting the industry’s positive reputation and good
name with Canadians.
All Gold Seal and Corporate Research Agency members of the Association
are obligated to register all of their research projects with the RRS, and
Client-Side Corporate members are encouraged to require their agency
suppliers to do so. Starting in 2015, RRS fees are included in MRIA Corporate
Membership Fees.
MRIA’s Research Agency Council provides strategic, policy-level oversight of
the Research Registration System, and receives aggregate data-only on the
System’s performance.
Questions about the Research Registration System should be addressed to
Erica Klie, Manager, Member Support Services, at 1-888-602-6742 or
(416) 642-9793, ext. 8727 or eklie@mria-arim.ca.
INDUSTRY NEWS
GOLD SEAL AGENCY -
PENDING
Illumina Research Partners
CORPORATE RESEARCH AGENCIES
Barbara C. Campbell Recruiting Inc. (BCCR Inc.)
Decision Point Research
30. 30 vue | JUNE 2015
CONFERENCE OVERALL
The highest rated items in this category were staff helpfulness
and networking opportunities, while value for money was rated
lowest (see Figure 2. Conference Overall). Furthermore, 62.5%
of respondents reported the conference met their expectations,
33.3% reported their expectations were exceeded, and only
4.2% did not have their expectations met (See Figure 1.
Conference Expectations).
TED TALKS
Delegates would have liked time between each session so they
could move to different rooms if needed. This prevented them
from seeing all of their most preferred talks. “Need time to
change rooms.” Others commented that the Ted Talks “were
great”. Overall people seemed to like the Ted Talks format, with
an average score of 4.26 out of 5.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Of the keynote speakers, Paul Smith was the highest rated,
followed by Marie Wolfe, then Kristin Luck (see Figure 3.
Keynote Speakers). Comments praised the keynote speakers in
general, calling them “great” and “exceptional”.
SNAP AFTER PARTY GALA
SNAP after party had the lowest score of any section, 2.83
whereas the Gala had one of the highest scores of all items on
the questionnaire, 4.59.
VENUE FOOD
The food and beverages had scores in line with other items
on the questionnaire. Food quantity and variety scored higher
than food quality (See figure 4. Food Beverages). Other than
parking, people rated the venue highly (See figure 5. Venue).
STORYTELLING CONFERENCE QUESTIONNAIRE – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Paul Long, CMRP
INDUSTRY NEWS
Figure 1: Conference Expectations
Figure 2: Conference Overall
Figure 3: Keynote Speakers
Figure 4: Food Beverages
Figure 5: Venue
31. 31 vue | JUNE 2015
The Alberta Chapter hosted its annual General Meeting on
Friday June 19th at 10am. Both members and non-members
were welcome to attend this free event.
Those who could not attend in person were able to participate
by teleconference (conference bridge details provided when
you register).
OTTAWA CHAPTER
TORONTO CHAPTER
ALBERTA CHAPTER
On June 17th, the Ottawa Chapter hosted
an event called “We Want It All: Conjoint
Analysis in Public Sector Research”, exploring
how discreet choice can be applied in
a public-sector setting. Will Daley, Vice
President, Public Affairs, Ipsos Reid (pictured
left), reviewed a few examples where
Ipsos Reid has used the approach to help
Government of Canada clients learn more about how citizens
respond to key program and policy elements and offer a few
creative suggestions on how the approach might be used in the
future.
Over 70 people came out for
the MRIA Toronto Chapter
Summer networking event on
Tuesday June 16th. Students
and alumni from local
marketing research programs
came out to mingle with
members of the Toronto Chapter
and the Emerging Leaders Task
Force. Several MR students
and graduates managed to
establish important networking
connections, all while enjoying
the Ballroom’s games area and
patio. Ain’t summer grand? Stay
tuned for the Golf Tournament
planned for September.
Have any news or photos you want to share? Contact associate editor Jeff Hecker (jeff.hecker@athenabrand.com)
Members and guests are welcome at all MRIA events.
Check our online calendar at mria-arim.ca/events-awards/calendar for more information on all events and how to register. Members receive emails
directly with event updates, so please check your inboxes for instructions on how to register for all upcoming events!
MRIA Portal: www.mriaportal.ca
Opt-In to Communications. If you would like to opt-in to receive MRIA communications, click here and fill in the form.
![THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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Visit the MRIA National Conference website at http://conference2015.mria-arim.ca/news/index.php or write events@mria-arim.ca
Over 96% of attendees said the conference met or exceeded their expectations – see survey results on page30.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS for the 2016 National Conference, happening in Montreal, PQ from June 1 - 3, 2016.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)