Opposition to copytesting:
-Bland ads
-Can copytests for tv translate to digital?
P&G is one company that has evaluated the effectiveness of copytesting and found it to predict sales impact from ads.
One agency reported that nearly 75% of its clients routinely test ads during development stages.
Single most important question to ask a consumer: "Would you like to see the ad again?"
"Digital is not a single advertising medium, but rather an accumulation of media and should be addressed as such," accoridng to Ratna Ralkowski, research director of Ameritest.
http://adage.com/article/digital/copy-testing-coming-digital-marketing/149100/
In response to the hard economic times, companies emphasized importance on market research. The researchers needed to understand how to connect with customers as welll as observe how the economy decline has affected their consumer decisions. In this year, there was a steady increase in the use of social media to gather and test new ideas.
Researchers began implementing three methods in order to better understand online communities:
1.Using the community to observe and understand (understand voice of consumer, unstructured discussions)
2.Using the community to generate new ideas (cost-effective, brainstorming)
3. Using the community to validate and refine ideas (develop and refine, expose audience to new products)
Engaging with a target audience will give a company a competitive advantage!
]]>The following article I describe is somewhat similar to the previous. The author mentions 7 stages of marketing including know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. "One must intentionally plan products, services, processes, and touches that logically move prospects along each step in a chain."
The ultimate goal is to turn customers into committed partners. In order to reach this goal, one should look at existing products and completely reverse this process. The first step is to ask, "what is the customer feeling about our product or service 180 days after they make the purchase?". From this point, a market researcher should make his/her way through the timeline back to the customer's initial contact/awareness with the product.
http://www.allbusiness.com/sales-marketing-advertising-pr/15613730-1.html#axzz2E7V5JiXN
The charts below demonstrate some of the study findings.
Finding highlights:
-Majority of Twitter users have less than 50 followers
-Majority of users also follow less than 50 people
-Female profile color choice is purple
Since we have been spending time writing surveys questions of our own, I was critical of this survey. This survey is only 2 question, which may allow a participant to be more inclined to take the survey because it is short. However, I do not think the choice of questions is effective for the length of the survey. The technology services department should include questions such as:
How long were you on hold waiting for assistance?
Was the problem fixed after receiving assistance?
How could we better serve your needs?
I think these questions would be beneficial replacements to the current ones because they ask more specific questions. With more specific questions, the technology services team will have a better understanding of how people receive their services and its effectiveness.
]]>According to NIH, large doses of vitamin D can counteract bone loss that occurs as a side effect of an HIV treatment medication. Researchers said children are twice as likely to have a language impairment when exposed to HIV in the womb. Furthermore, the they reported that children receiving little or no treatment were three times more likely to have language impairment than those who receive treatment.
Another finding by World Health Organization and World Bank estimates that 5 million youth are living with HIV.
Even if these findings and predictions are accurate, the article fails to support these claims. The only study mentioned reads: "a longer-term study is being launched to determine if continued doses would eliminate bone loss...". This is the only actual study mentioned and it is not even complete. In order to make these claims, the article should provide support on how the researchers reached these conclusions. Simply stating the institute or organization that conducted the research is not enough credibility for the reader.
]]>The slideshow posted on Slideshare provides numerous methods on qualitative research. It provides details on how to choose the appropriate methods (new and old) based on the desired type of research.
Some of these methods include:
-Online focus groups
-Webcam focus groups
-Online journaling
-Video diaries
-Online communities/social networks
There are numerous slides dedicated on how to begin the decision process to choose a method. The process begins with a series of questions for what the researcher preferences in the study. Near the end of the decision process, it provides a narrowed list of preferred methods.
This is a unique approach to choosing a method and allows the research to weigh the pros and cons of various options.
]]>1. Big data is not having a big impact on marketing yet
-Results from a Columbia University study show that there is a big gap in the use of data to drive marketing decisions.
-91% of senior marketers believe that successful brand use customer data drives marketing decisions. However, 39% say their own company's data is collected too infrequently.
-Biggest issue: marketers rely on historical data vs. understand performance to drive budgets.
2. The mobile research potential is not just online surveys on your mobile phone.
-Facebook adopted the consumer experience for mobile; research should do the same.
3. Making reseach fun gets you better results.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s63gLuO-W0&feature=player_embedded
4. It's not about the data it's about the story
-37% of executives agree their market research groups are strategic.
-Research must translate to into actionable business direction.
5. Data accuracy of social media sentiments is mixed, so plan for it.
-It's hard to measure sentiment consistently given spam, grammar and language issues.
I found this article to be very interesting. The writer who attended the conference learned of the current flaws in market research and how companies can improve research accuracy. If used correctly, mobile research can be an thorough and accurate technique to reach participants. Companies must translate their research results into a strategic business action.
http://www.newqualitative.org/blog/mobile-research-in-the-mobile-world-my-top-5-takeaways/
The findings indicate that as many as 13% of pregnant women currently take antidepressants. Many women have also had infertility treatments which usually is linked to depression.
The article claims there is a high risk but fails to even address the participants in the study. The reader is unaware of how the data was quantified and if the women were taking any other medications at the same time. Also, it is unclear exactly what a defect entails and how to label a defect. This is all necessary information for the study and its claim to be credible.
After the article provides the opposing viewpoint, it states: ...every woman who presents to a clinician has to undergo a case-by-case analysis of the benefits and risks of antidepressant therapy.
http://www.examiner.com/article/new-study-antidepressant-use-while-pregnant-may-heighten-risk-for-birth-defects
]]>According to Science Daily, this was a longitudinal study with smartphones that collected data from men and women for six months. The participants were provided with iPhones to use for the duration of the study but were unaware of what the researchers were studying. Over the course of the six months, researchers analyzed 124,000 texts.
Researchers found that all of the participants used emoticons, but not on a regular basis. Only 4% used emoticons in all of their sent texts. This study addresses that these findings differ from other similar studies regarding the use of emoticons but does not explain how. One researcher of this study said, "our study represents the first naturalistic and longitudinal study that collects real emoticon use from text messages".
Near the end of the article, the writer briefly mentions the psychological aspects of this male and female communication. As a reader, I would like to see more information and background knowledge on this component and how they vary. Also, I am curious as to how the results would change based on the type of smartphone the participants received. Given that the participants automatically received iPhones, it would be beneficial to know if the participants downloaded the emoticon application or if it was previously installed on the phone when they received it. Additionally, the number of male and female participants was not provided nor does the reader know if the participants were communicating with each other for this data.
(For those who are not familiar with emoticons, they are symbols that using punctuation marks and letters to depict facial expressions. These expressions are used to convey a certain mood.)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121011102301.htm
]]>The Pew Research Center first conducted this research in 1997 and then once again in 2007. The results are based on telephone interviews, conducted on a sample of adults (over 18) living in continental U.S. telephone households. The oversample of minorities in the study was created by contacting a disproportionate number of area code-exchange combinatons.
In 2007, 2,020 interviews were conducted between February and March. There was a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
Overall, I was very impressed with this research study. The article provides a comprehensive and thorough summary of the findings. The researchers provide appropriate information regarding the structure and execution of the study. The article also includes an attachment to a complete summary report as well as provides other relevant information and comparisons.
]]>The researchers tested 47 people by placing a cellphone in each ear. In the first test, both phones were turned off. In the second test, the right phone was on a muted phone call. After almost one hour of tests, the brain scans showed increase consumption of glucose, or sugar, in areas of the brain near the activated phone.
This study raises the question of whether there are long-term consequences of repeated stimulation from electromagnetic radiation. This study continues to fuel the debate on the safety of cell phones.
This study proposes a controversial topic to does not result in any definitive conclusions. As the researchers stated in the beginning of the article, they are skeptical to make interpretations of the data because the effects on one's health are still unknown. I think the sample size of 47 participants is somewhat small, but yet still large enough to support that there is a consistent brain activity phenomenon as a result from the experiment. I am curious to know if there was a control group in these tests and if using a land-line phone would produce the same results (granted there is still an internal antenna). This is a topic I am personally interested in but it seems researchers are a long ways away from drawing any conclusions on the safety of cellphone use.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/cellphone-use-tied-to-changes-in-brain-activity/
Even if these results are true, there is no numerical evidence to support the data. The sample population as well as other conditions were not provided by the researchers. Because of the obvious missing information, a reader must be critical and skeptical when analyzing this research study.
]]>Although both Caucasian and African American stressed females tend to gain weight, the stress appears to have a greater effect in the weight of African American girls. However, the African American girls reported less stress overall than Caucasian girls.
In the article, researcher Dawn Turner Trice addresses the epidemic of obesity-related chronic diseases in the United States. She also mentions the level of stress that teens face.
A professor at UCLA said, "the biggest gap in health disparities in this country is in the obesity rates between black and white teen girls." This study was published by Annals of Behavioral Medicine and was conducted from a long-term study by the Nation Heart, Lung and Blood Institute that began in the 1980s. The study analyzed 2,379 girls, half were African American and the other half was Caucasian. The girls came from different regions of the country and various income levels. The researchers have been studying the girls beginning at age 10 until age 19. The research team of psychologists is also studying the emotions that affect health.
Researchers are still looking for ways to explain the results of this phenomenon. The results show that African American girls increase in one unit of stress led to a .8 increase in BMI every two years while one unit of stress led to a .55 BMI unit increase for Caucasian girls.
This study is relevant to our class material because it encompasses numerous variables and units of measurement. The researchers used a long-term structure, measuring the same population at various ages. I find it interesting that the researchers analyzed the emotional factors that influence stress level, although I would have liked to have an explanation of how the emotions affect daily health. I think this a very thorough study, the only concern I have is how the researchers assigned a value "one unit" to stress, and this value was not thoroughly explained.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-x-1017-trice-column-20121017,0,2551270.column