Putting PR research in its place

Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science column frequently exposes less-than-stellar research findings that have been subjected upon the general populace. He’s always worth reading, and in the past has even inspired me to vent at some of the ridiculous claims.
But his latest column on PR reviewed data has, surprisingly, caused me to reconsider my stance.
In it, he [...]

Segmentation is not a science

An Advertising Age blog post inaccurately entitled “The Death of Customer Segmentation” (those pesky subs) argues that traditional market segmentations should be combined with “self-segmentation” techniques such as user recommendations, networking groups, opt-in alerts and consumer generated content/feedback.
The author, Michael Fassnacht, finds traditional segmentation problematic because:

It is too static in a fast-paced society
People can belong [...]

Research vs Planning

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkumber/
Preamble
I’ve learned a lot from reading and interacting with various blogs. But something has been bothering me for a while now.
What if it is all complete rubbish?
That’s blatantly trolling and patently not true – I read a lot of fascinating and thought-provoking posts. But the extent to which I should implicitly trust their [...]

Facebook Polls could be pretty useful

At the recent World Economic Forum, Facebook Global Markets Director Randi Zuckerberg demonstrated Facebook polls. This, accompanied by an interview in the Telegraph, has sent the blogosphere aflutter in two separate directions.
In one corner are those excited by the prospect of 120,000 responses in 20 minutes (as a question on Barack Obama’s stimulus plan received). [...]

We Need to Change: Presentation on Market Research

Helge Tennø has created several visually arresting and thought provoking presentation decks and the latest is no exception.
We Need to Change is – in his words – a loosely structured collection of thoughts and references regarding the mediocre but promising state of market research

(RSS readers may need to click through)
I like the general thrust of [...]

Bad research: Compromising the value of PR

NB: The inspiration for this post is Ben Goldacre’s excellent Bad Science column in the Guardian. The book came out this week (here is the Amazon link), and the Guardian has serialised chapters on the MMR jab and miracle pills.
I particularly enjoy the columns where he remorselessly picks apart a PR piece containing some level [...]

Ask questions

Simplifying somewhat, there are two main ways to respond to a research brief

Answer all issues raised point by point in a methodical and thorough way
Question the brief, outline the options and problems and offer a starting point for discussion

The former will be successful where the client knows the answers and outputs he or she wants [...]

How representative are Online surveys?

To answer the above question in three words: I don’t know.
Generally, I have been sceptical about the relative veracity of Online surveys. Working for a media owner, there is a general concern that moving surveys online may reduce the strength of TV and increase that of the Internet. But I am being won around.
After all, [...]

Choosing the right incentives

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisa_yarost/
Not so long ago, I took part in an online survey. My primary motivation for doing so was the incentive on offer – 5 iTunes downloads. And yet I failed to take use my voucher before the deadline passed. This got me thinking about how incentives are formulated, and how they can [...]

Research 2008: The Great Debate (Part 4 of 4)

Go to part 3 here
Part 4 contains (1) Web 2.0: Capitalising on communities, (2) Closing remarks and (3) My conclusions
Day 2 Session 3: Web2.0: Capitalising on Communities
The final formal session of the conference was also the most fun. There was little particularly relevant to my work, but it is a subject I am interested in [...]