Blog Title: Inside Market Research

Restaurants on the Web – Part 1 of 3

I love good food. Bestowed with a metabolism that allows me to eat until full, three meals a day without blimping out, I consider it a true blessing.

So, with that in mind, I tend to hold in high value the restaurant industry, though I wouldn’t know the first thing about managing a restaurant. I probably know a bit more about Internet marketing, though; and that's going to be the topic of discussion in this post. Specifically, why do some restaurants fail to market themselves on the Internet?

CASE STUDY: The Georgia House Restaurant

My in-laws live in Lower Delaware. This affords me the opportunity to visit Sussex County every 4 or 5 weekends, and that thrills me because I never miss the chance to have a dinner at The Georgia House in Millsboro, DE. It's my favorite restaurant in Delaware. There isn’t a fancy thing in the dining room or the kitchen -- it is simply unadulterated Southern-style and Chesapeake regional "family food". You can sample a catfish po'boy sandwich, Memphis BBQ ribs, Miss Vicky's meatloaf, prime rib (try the Cajun-spiced version!), or my trusted go-to dish, the buttermilk fried chicken. Chicken is the area's primary agronomic business, so of course Georgia House has to know how to prepare it well. Whatever you do, don't miss the "soup that made them famous", a cream of crab concoction that you'll regret having ordered only a cup. Upgrade one of your two side dishes to the classic green salad, and you've got your fiber for the night. Finish off with another salad, the Eastern Shore picnic favorite Jell-o pretzel salad.

Sounds like a perfect restaurant, huh? But it has no website. Why, then, doesn't co-owner Sean Hall publish a website about his Millsboro restaurant and its several satellite locations in Selbyville, Milford, Laurel, and Georgetown (take-out counter only)? I can't figure that out, and Sean was unavailable for my call. Just a couple of years ago, people would pack the place and wait 45 minutes for the next available table, but now business has dropped off to a relatively slower "at capacity" pace. I have to imagine there are tourists traveling to the area who have never heard of the Georgia House, or may have been referred to it only by name but would like to see the menu before trying. Most of the clientele is over the age of 50, so maybe Sean doesn't think this market avails itself of the Internet. Think again, though -- seniors constitute the fastest-growing Internet demographic. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, those age 50 and over experienced a 26% growth rate in home broadband adoption from 2007 to 2008, with half of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 having broadband now. Some 19% of those 65 and older had home broadband access as of April 2008.

Consider the following possible web searches a hungry diner might conduct. For the tourist who has never heard of Georgia House, but happens to be rambling through Millsboro and has a craving for the regional favorite soup, they might go to Yahoo! on their mobile web browser and type 'millsboro delaware crab soup'. Here's their search result:



In the top 9 results, there's not one hit for the Georgia House, despite it being founded in Millsboro and famous for its cream of crab soup. Is it just me? Wouldn't that be maddening if you were the owner of this restaurant?

On the other hand, consider the diner who may have had a local resident advise them, "You should go to the Georgia House in Millsboro," but they’d like to see the menu, evaluate prices, get directions, and perhaps confirm whether the establishment accepts Discover card. Their Google search might be constructed as '"Georgia House" Delaware menu map'.

In the top 9 results, four of the links do contain info about the Georgia House restaurant, but these specific links are not particularly helpful or flattering to the business.



I don’t understand why the Georgia House would settle for these various pages representing (or, failing to represent) their establishment on the Internet. Maybe some of my readers will have some thoughts why.

Later in this 3-part series:
Part 2 – The imagery of Hamburger Hank's
Part 3 – Can a wiki directory change the web landscape for an unpublicized restaurant?

Internet users per household

I'm looking for data that would help estimate the number of Internet users per household (or, rather, "per Internet-connected household") in the United States.

If you perform a web search for "Internet users per household", you get a bunch of sites -- all of which are addressing this question in a country other than the United States.

Isn't this the sort of information our government should track in some way? There's a bill that wants to mandate a study of applying net neutrality regulations to high-speed Internet access services, but we don't know how to count Internet users per household.

Somebody help me!

Bradley Joseph atop Wikipedia

The featured, front-page article on Wikipedia today is about musician Bradley Joseph.

His musical talents include "hired by Yanni", "lead keyboardist for Sheena Easton", and "included in multiple various-artist compilation albums, most recently the 2008 release of The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II".

I can't imagine how many iterations of smooth jazz from the Weather Channel will ultimately be necessary to exhaust the genre, but apparently we're already up to Volume II.


There is some debate on the Wikipedia talk page about whether this article is truly encyclopedic, as it seems awfully self-promotional, and it lacks even one mote of negative criticism.

"Taking a look at the references it appears Joseph doesn't seem to register outside of the musical circles in which he is appreciated, a very unique situation which causes the article bias."

Joseph's music is backed by 15 talented musicians, some playing three or more different instruments, that make up a symphony of sounds ranging from quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth. "
—Ken Moore, Naples Daily News

Multi-level marketing research

One of my favorite marketing research vendors is a San Diego firm that specializes in Internet panel surveys. The panel is SurveySavvy.com, managed by Luth Research. What makes SurveySavvy different from most other online panels is that they pay a small amount of cash to every survey respondent, instead of entering them all into a sweepstakes drawing that leaves 99.5% of the respondents unrewarded. This has the effect of boosting SurveySavvy response rates to an amazing 25%-30%, rather than the 1%-2% other panels might achieve.

There's one other cool thing about SurveySavvy's panel rewards. Panelists who invite other people to join the panel also receive a cash incentive ($1) when those referrals complete surveys! What a fantastic way to build a panel with the "snowball" method.

When I was employed by ICR, I never promoted the SurveySavvy panel here. While we partnered frequently with Luth Research, they were still our competition in some ways.

However, now that I'm no longer on the vendor side of research, I have no hesitation to invite my readers to take advantage and sign up for Luth Research's SurveySavvy panel and start getting paid regularly for EVERY survey you complete with them. If you click this link, you may register for SurveySavvy as my referral, so I'll also earn a dollar when you complete a survey!

If you like the experience SurveySavvy offers, you can then start to build your own pyramid of referrals, so that you too will earn money even when you're not personally completing research surveys.

(Disclaimer: I have already earned a few hundred dollars over the years with this program, and Luth Research has not asked me personally for this endorsement. It is my personal recommendation.)

How not to sell market research

I couldn't believe this one when I saw it. My superior at Comcast is responsible for millions of dollars of market research budget allocation. He's someone I've known and respected in business for about 15 years now.

Recently, a marketing research vendor with whom we're not currently working got about 10 minutes of our time on the telephone. My boss informed them that any business that seeks to win a new spot on our Approved Vendors list had to complete a request for information, after which they may be invited to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a general services contract. Apparently that was too much to ask for this particular researcher, who replied by e-mail with:

Thanks for the time, but truthfully, you're not interested and you'll be a waste of my time. I'm sure Comcast will continue to be successful simply based on the cable component. It won't be based on your consumer research and product offerings that you'll bring to the table.

Job change

Just a quick post today to let my readers know that I've left my previous employer (ICR / International Communications Research) to take a position with Comcast Corporation, as the Senior Research Advisor. I'll be working on video, high-speed Internet, and digital voice product categories.

Through my observation of 15 years in marketing research, I've found that the most versatile professionals have both vendor and client-side research experience. Heretofore, I had no client-side experience, so turning down an offer from a Fortune 100 company would have been awfully difficult to do. I'm still getting settled in on the 17th floor of 1500 Market (West Tower), waiting for a dedicated phone line and voicemail, etc. But, already, I'm heading up some pretty important research initiatives.

And, don't worry dear readers, I'll share those insights that I can, which aren't proprietary.


Tags: Comcast, ICR, International Communications Research

Prevalence of geography in SEO & SEM

I witnessed a discussion on a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) message board that just didn't sit right with me. The self-appointed SEO and SEM experts were holding sway, that important business-related search terms are almost exclusively searched without appending a geographic qualifier. That is, far more people will search for "barber shop" than "barber shop cincinnati".

Well, of course this is true, as a specific example. However, by so dismissing geographic qualifiers, the "experts" are missing a couple of really key points.

(1) I would contend that at least half of the people who type in "barber shop" and hit "Search" will almost immediately see the millions of results returned, slap their forehead, then re-enter a modified search, such as "barber shop in Beverly Hills" or "barber shop 90210" or even "barber shop on wilshire boulevard".

(2) If you're a barber on Wilshire Boulevard in the 90210 zip code, you may be resigned to have your web page come up 478th in a Google search for "barber shop", but you damn well better not be satisfied if your website comes up 478th if the search is for "barber shop in Beverly Hills".

I say to ignore the impact of geographic specificity in search engine strategy is to ignore your best prospects.

Take a look at this spreadsheet I created, examining the most frequent searches related to "plumber", "real estate agent", and "landscaper", according to the Yahoo! Overture keyword selector tool. This data tracks how many Yahoo! searches (in February 2007) were conducted with these words as part of any search phrase. The results are ranked by frequency.

The data shows that, admittedly, the majority of searches for these terms are just for the term alone. However, remember my point (1) above -- many of these searches were likely modified in the next couple of seconds to include more descriptive objectives, such as geographic reference points.

The evidence is equally clear that locational modifiers play a very big part of business-related searches in this manner:

• 27% of searches with the word plumber included geographic qualifiers
• 17% of searches for real estate agent were narrowed by location
• A whopping 44% of landscaper searches specified a locale (most of them in California)

Trending the news with Trendio

Web 2.0 sites that users enjoy for entertainment can sometimes be useful tools for the savvy business person, too. One example that comes to mind is Trendio.com, a site that claims to be the first current events stock exchange. It is an online "play money" stock exchange where words from the news are the equities. The values of the words are calculated according to their presence in thousands of media sources, from newspapers to blogs.

One way that Trendio could be used by marketing and public relations professionals would be to counsel senior management -- in a quantitative way -- about how quickly certain "crisis moments" are fading from the public sphere.

Take for example the following three corporate case studies:

Remember when Hewlett-Packard was involved in various hearings regarding the "Board spying" accusations?

These seem to have peaked back in mid-November, if you believe the Trendio chart. This might be a case where a PR or communications manager at H-P would be, at least for the time being, relieved that H-P's exposure was on the decline.





The following chart is interesting in that Wal-Mart seems to have had a big climb in news mentions between November 23rd and December 2nd. What transpired during that time? Nothing but the launch of the "official" Christmas shopping season, complete with a sober warning from the retail giant, predicting its December same-store sales gain would be no better than 1 percent.




As a final example, do you recall
when Merck won a significantly important case regarding Vioxx? With this chart, do I even need to tell you that the jury put in its decision on November 15th? It seems the lesson in today's media world is that bad news (or the possibility of bad news) is what drives impressions.

Even if you don't end up using Trendio for business reasons, it's still pretty fun to play. I know I'm holding some really attractive, ground-floor shares in "Christmas", "Boxing Day", and "New Year's Day". Get 'em while they're still cheap!


Tags: Hewlett-Packard, Merck, Trendio, Wal-Mart

Surname distribution in the United States

I came across a delightful mapping tool on the web today. It is a simple mash-up of surname data from the Census Bureau and white pages telephone directories on the one hand, and a map of the 50 states on the other. It's a lot of fun and rather informative to look at how certain last names have "traveled through time" across the United States.

Here are a few of my favorite examples:

A common Amish (Pennsylvania Dutch) name, like Yoder:


A surname with strong ties to the Mormon faith, such as Larsen:


The predominantly Hispanic surnames of Gomez:


...and of Sanchez:


Or, there is Olson, a common Scandinavian surname popularly found in the northern plains:


It's interesting to note the wide distribution of the Vietnamese name Nguyen, but the only significant record begins in 1990:


Many thanks to the Hamrick Software company for devising this useful tool. (Hamrick's primary product is photo scanning software, so if you're in the market for that, check them out.)


Tags: Census, genealogy, Hamrick Software, maps, surnames

Maps on your web page

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cartographer.

So, it's not surprising that one of my favorite things to come out of the "Web 2.0" evolution (I refuse to call it a "revolution") are the various mash-ups between Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps and user-provided content. Let the masses geocode, and watch the magic begin.

Two of my favorite such sites are Placeopedia and Wikimapia. Unfortunately, Placeopedia doesn't seem to have active customer support any more, and they don't do a good job of updating their "auto-fill" registry with the most recent entries from Wikipedia. But, Wikimapia seems to be going strong, and users are making hay, filling in interesting spots all over the globe.

You can even use Wikimapia to create a map that you can plug into your own web page!

This is an example:



Note that the orbiting satellite took a picture of ICR when we still didn't have grass growing around the building -- meaning the photo is at least 4 years old.

Tags: geocoding, geotagging, maps, Placeopedia, Web 2.0, Wikimapia

You know your friend, "Cheese"?

One of the best television ads I've ever witnessed ran in January 2005. Yeah, I'm only writing about it now, because in all my searching of the Internet recently, I have not been able to find reference to this particular commercial.

I know it was produced by Wieden + Kennedy of New York, and I believe the creative directors were Todd Waterbury and Kevin Proudfoot. The ad featured two of those "singing fish plaques" that were all the rage about six years ago. They were promoting the angling programming on ESPN Outdoors.

The ad went like this:

LEFT FISH: You know your friend, "Cheese"?

RIGHT: Yep.

LEFT FISH: That's a nickname, right?

RIGHT: Yup.

LEFT FISH: Does he smell, or somethin'?

RIGHT: Nope.

LEFT FISH: Does he eat a lot of cheese?

RIGHT: No. In fact, he's lactose intolerant.

LEFT FISH: Well, what's his first name?

RIGHT: "Mike".

LEFT FISH: What his last name?

RIGHT: "Jankowskowicz".

LEFT FISH: {Deadpan turn to the camera, pausing for comedic effect}
That just doesn't make any sense!

RIGHT: All right... One time we were out on the boat, and Mike pulled out a big ol' hunk of Limburger. Put it on a hook. Apparently, catfish like stinky cheese.

LEFT FISH: {After a pause}
Catfish are so dumb.


Tags: advertising, commercials, ESPN, Wieden + Kennedy

Comparison of churn rates

One of the most closely guarded secrets in business seems to be the churn rate. This is the rate of attrition, over a period of time, that subscriber-based customers "churn out" (unsubscribe) of the customer base. Churn rates are often measured in monthly terms, especially in the cable and satellite television and the wireless telephone industries. Business analysts will often look at the churn rate on a quarterly basis. Likewise, an annual rate of churn is a commonly used measure.

Recently, I got to searching the Internet for a comprehensive list of churn rates, if such a thing existed. A churn rate table, across industries. But alas, nobody seems to have compiled a database measuring the percent of customers who churn out of various companies, across sectors. So, I had no choice but to create such a table.

If you try to discover reported churn rates, the first thing you'll notice is that companies will use various time periods as the basis. Monthly, quarterly, annually. I even found one study of lawyer retention rates that spanned a four-year period. So, to try to make this an apples to apples comparison, I converted all of the churn rates I found to "per year" terms. Note, however, if a company reported a 2% monthly churn rate, I did not say that equates to a 24% annual rate (2% times twelve months). Rather, I calculated a sliding count, such that in the first month, 100 customers would dwindle to 98. But in the second month, the 98 customers would decrease to only 96.04 customers (98 minus 2% of 98).

The table below expresses 67 different churn rates at different companies in different industries at different times. As I discover more churn rates in my travels, I will update my spreadsheet and occasionally edit this chart. I'm quite certain that I will get feedback in the Comments section, pointing out the perceived errors in my table, or suggesting new data points worthy of adding. I look forward to that! For verification, I have placed a link at the bottom of the table, showing the source material for this table. It would be fantastic if this post became the Internet's number-one repository of publicly available churn rates.

Since I've put in some backbreaking coding work creating this table, I would at least appreciate that if you use it and get value out of it, please return a favor by subscribing to my blog via FeedBlitz. Just type your e-mail address into that form over there, on the right. That way, you'll be updated when I have something new to report.

And now, without further ado, Inside Market Research presents the...

BIG LIST OF CHURN RATES

Top Ten sources

How are you doing, blogosphere? The weather for the past two days has been impeccable here in southeastern Pennsylvania, and it looks like it will continue for a couple of days more. Simply perfect late Spring weather.

As if that weren't enough to lift my spirits, my blog received the very flattering distinction of being recognized as a "Top 10" marketing research blog by the editors at "Top Ten Sources". You can check it out yourself, or just look in my righthand sidebar for the list.

Exxon challenge

For the past few months, the news media has been tearing up ExxonMobil, at first for the enormous profits the company has been reaping of late. Then, the crowning touch came with the news story that showed Exxon's retiring CEO Lee R. Raymond as having been compensated to the tune of $144,573 for every DAY that he led the company (from 1993 through 2005). Even more scandalous was the fact that in 2005 alone, because of a lump-sum pension handout and rising stock price, the amount was much more -- over $1.1 million PER DAY.

During a period when every oil company is making money hand over fist, does any one individual really deserve to be compensated over a million dollars a day? Do we think that Exxon would have gone bankrupt these past few years, were it not for the management expertise of Mr. Raymond? To me, I'm not sure anyone really needs more than $25,000 a day to live a decent life as a corporate CEO operating a company that essentially extracts liquid from the ground, refines it, and sells it on the commodity and retail markets. Go ahead, brand me a Communist, or worse, a Liberal.

That got me to thinking. If Exxon's CEO could have scraped by on $25,000 a day, that would have freed up nearly $120,000 a day for the company. They could have run one hell of a consumer promotion with that budget. They could have called it the "Exxon Challenge". Here's how it might have worked:

First, Exxon would conduct an internal database query of their ExxonMobil SpeedPass Card holders. To minimize anomalies of small samples, they would filter out any ZIP codes with fewer than 5,000 total households (according to the U.S. Census). Exxon would then calculate the current market penetration (household incidence) of their SpeedPass product, within every major ZIP code.

Then the "Exxon Challenge" would begin. For the first 3 months of the year, the company would promote a "membership drive", encouraging households in the largest ZIP codes to apply for and obtain an ExxonMobil SpeedPass Card. At the end of 3 months, the ten ZIP codes that most substantially increased their market share of Cards would be named "Finalist" ZIP codes. (The Fox Broadcasting Company or the Game Show Network could get involved at this point, with a "reality" series.)

For the next 6 months, those ten ZIP codes' SpeedPass Card holders would be encouraged to buy gasoline exclusively at Exxon and Mobil stations, using their new Cards. They would be encouraged to buy, buy, buy! Use as much gas as possible!

Then, Exxon would analyze the customer traffic volume across the ten Finalist ZIP codes to determine the one winning ZIP code that bought the most gas during the 6-month buying frenzy. The grand prize? Every SpeedPass Card holder residing in that winning ZIP code would get $5,000 deposited into their SpeedPass account! All paid for by Mr. Raymond's pay cut.

This promotion would elevate to a new plateau all of the things we Americans love about oil and gas companies -- greed, excessive depletion of limited resources, consumer debt, pollution, and (potentially) fraud. What's not to like about the "Exxon Challenge"?


Tags: CEO, compensation, Exxon, ExxonMobil, Exxon Challenge, Lee Raymond, promotion, SpeedPass

That's one messed-up scale

Ahem. Getting back to marketing research, now.

I received an e-mail at work last week, inviting me to participate in the "Research Industry Trends 2006" survey. It was being sponsored in part by the NY-AMA (American Marketing Association), publishers of the GreenBook Marketing Research Directory, with which obviously I am familiar. Addtional sponsors were DialTek (vaguely familiar), Pioneer Marketing Research (not familiar), and the mysteriously named Rockhopper Research.

I almost always participate in surveys directed at our own research industry. I like to voice my opinions (obviously), and I'm always hopeful that a top-line summary of the research might be made available to me as "compensation". I think our marketing research industry could use some more objective research about what makes the most successful companies hum. What are clients looking for? Is the industry truly polarizing to the extremes of crude data collection (order takers) offset by consultative strategic partners, leaving those in the middle on tenuous ground?

But then I get a survey like this, and I'm just disappointed. Take a look at the following graphic (click it to open in a larger view), a screen-shot of one question in the study that made me shake my head:


What was bothersome about this question? Let me count the ways!

First, the respondent is supposed to have a strong enough idea about the growth potential in each of ten different global regions to be able to form an opinion about each. You're not allowed to "Don't Know", because that's just not an option.

Second, what if I anticipate that there will be a decline in one of the areas? Again, that's just not an option. I guess the survey authors felt that there couldn't possibly be a retrenchment in research anywhere in the world, even the Middle East. I'm sure they'll just be pouring out the marketing research studies over in Baghdad throughout 2006.

Third, look at the five-point scale. At the top end, a "5" reports "Very High Growth" (nevermind that we seem to be forgetting about "potential" any more). At the bottom end, there is "1" anticipating "Little to No Growth". So, what would you expect in the middle, at point "3"? The survey says "No Change". WHAT?! If you're going to have "No Change" in the middle of the scale, then 4 and 5 should be positive change, but 2 and 1 need to be negative change. They're not! It's all growth, growth, growth.

Fourth, I have to marvel that, when a question is this patently awful in design and execution, how did it POSSIBLY pass through the quality checking process of (presumably) all FOUR sponsoring research entities? Were they all asleep at the wheel, or was this the disasterous result of a project by committee, where this rating scale was the queer result of some kind of compromise among disagreeing sponsors?

It just looks bad for them, either way.

That's my criticism. How about making it constructive? What should they do now? In my opinion, the study should be pulled from the web and sent through a more thorough review process. Additional completes then can be solicited on a second, better version. Heck, with the right mea culpa, those who already completed the survey could be invited to take another crack at it.

I would always rather have 50 completed interviews on a well-designed question than 150 completed interviews on one that is seriously flawed. I guess I'll notify GreenBook, DialTek, Pioneer, and Rockhopper about this now.


Tags: AMA, DialTek, GreenBook, marketing research, Pioneer Marketing Research, rating scale, rating scales, Research Industry Trends

Strumpette's decline

Ever since the "Strumpette" got off the ground, blog readers far and wide have discovered that "she" is probably a "he", and that the site is less of a "naked journal" of the PR industry and more of a low-brow attack on Edelman Public Relations. I think intelligent readers want objective commentary from real-life people who aren't hiding behind a fake persona.

Me, I learned not to wrestle a pig. You both end up dirty, but the pig enjoys it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this will be my parting shot:


Goodbye, Strumpette.


Tags: Amanda Chapel, Brian Connolly, Furthermore, Strumpette

Garfield's too big

I recently came across an amazing list. While this might not have much to do with marketing research, it does underscore how incredible the power of "the masses" can be -- often trumping the power of the intellectual elite.

The list was generated by the Online Computer Library Center. They're the folks who, along with their member libraries, cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat -— an electronic catalog of books and periodicals (not to mention a few stone tablets and MP3s). If you've ever spent time searching for library books online, chances are you were using a WorldCat database.

Anyway, about the list... It's the 2005 edition of the Top 1000 works that are owned by 53,000 libraries in 96 countries. They started with nearly 495,000 WorldCat items, then counted how many libraries had how many copies of each item. The top five listings shouldn't be a surprise to anyone:

1. The Bible
2. U.S. Census
3. Mother Goose
4. Divine Comedy
5. The Odyssey

The next five should present no surprise, either: The Iliad, Huck Finn, Lord of the Rings, Hamlet, and Alice in Wonderland.

Furthermore, I have no beef with numbers 11 through 14 -- Don Quixote, Beowulf, The Koran, and The Night Before Christmas.

Number Fifteen, however, I had issues with. Garfield.

That's right. Garfield. The orange cat.

In terms of library dollars allocated to assure the institution had a copy available, Garfield beat out Tom Sawyer, Romeo & Juliet, Treasure Island, The Scarlet Letter, and Last of the Mohicans. In fact, there are over two times more copies of Garfield books in the OCLC libraries than Last of the Mohicans!

If you love books, or if you love lists, you'll probably enjoy browsing the complete list.


Tags: books, library, libraries, OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, Top 1000, WorldCat

What is "fair use"?

Sometimes I get into these "comment battles" with other bloggers with whom I may disagree. A recent such dialogue I had was with a new voice in the blogosphere, someone specifically dealing with "breaking news about PR and marketing communications". Her blog is certainly irreverant, which is borne out even in her background photo, shown here:


Now, I'm not going to say who this blogger is. I'm not going to give you her web site. I'm not even going to attribute this photo to her or her photographer (if this photo even depicts "her" -- there's extensive speculation about the real identity of this person/woman/nom de plume/Brian Connolly/Furthermore character). I know full well that I am not the creator of the above image. Am I violating a copyright? I think so.

The sassy lady blogger in question, however, says otherwise. Fair use, she would claim.

I'm trying to make a point. The point being, she copied an image from The Economist online magazine and used it in a recent blog post (without any permission, or even attribution). Then when three different people leaving comments questioned her about whether she had the "rights" to use the drawing in the manner she did, she replied in each case that she did. She's not an attorney. She didn't have the time to explain why she was right and the field was wrong. She only cited that there is a "four factor fair use test", and that this image use was covered by such a test, and that there should be no further discussion on the matter.

That's what frosted me the most. A subsequent comment of mine was notably "not approved" by the saucy blogger. She deemed that no more discussion on the topic of copyright needed to make its way to her blog comment form. Visitors, purportedly, would only be allowed to comment on the topic of the original post, not the underlying legal/ethical question of copyright. I think that's a pretty lousy policy for someone to have on their blog -- especially one that claims to be a "naked journal".

Before I open a big can of worms, I've checked out the images that I have ever posted in my own blog, and I sincerely believe that all of the photos are either: used with permission, used for the purpose of parody, or being re-used as the product of a public relations campaign where the original authors would be delighted to see more exposure for their product. I hope.

If you really, really must know the identity of my opponent, you can probably figure it out in my Technorati tags, below.


Tags: Amanda Chapel, Brian Connolly, copyright, fair use, Furthermore, Strumpette, The Economist

How to promote heartburn

Over the past few years, I've had the pleasure of working with public relations firm Manning Selvage & Lee, helping them promote various products and services with some news-generating public opinion polls. One such client of theirs is Prilosec OTC, the famous over-the-counter heartburn treatment for those who suffer from frequent heartburn (on a self-reported basis, about 13% of the American adult population).

Last year, MS&L had ICR run a quick survey in our Excel Omnibus program, asking over 1,000 adults about what type of music is their favorite. We found that, nationally, seven listed styles of music stacked up as follows:

Country was most popular, the favorite among 26% of adults

Rock was next, tops among 17%

Pop / Top-40 was favored by 15%

Classical at 10% (however, 22% among senior citizens)

Rhythm and Blues at 8%

Hip-hop / Rap at 7% (however, 18% among 18-34 year olds)

Jazz at 5%

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time ever, the Country Music Association (CMA) is bringing Country to New York City for the presentation of the 2005 CMA Awards, and several events have been planned from November 10th through November 15th to help New York City celebrate.

...On Friday, November 11th at the historic Roseland Ballroom, Country Music performers, including the legendary Charlie Daniels, will join together with athletes and dignitaries in a variety concert to raise money and awareness for the veterans of America's armed forces and their families. Prilosec OTC will introduce the grand prizewinner of The Prilosec OTC Burning to Sing Your Heart Out Contest, Dallas Burnett, at the event. As part of his prize, Dallas will perform on stage with Charlie Daniels during the concert.


..."Prilosec OTC and Country Music have something in common -- they are both #1 with people who suffer from frequent heartburn. We have had so much fun working with the CMA to celebrate Country Music and educate consumers about frequent heartburn. This was an exciting venture for us as we connected with so many different types of people and Country Music fans from all across the country," said Kip Olmstead, Brand Manager of Prilosec OTC.

Mapping with Frappr

Okay, I admit it. I'm a Geography nerd. I've always loved maps. I even went so far during my Ph.D. candidacy at Temple University as to take on a minor topic in "Quantitative Methods in Geography". (If you must know the other 3 topics I chose, they were American Military History from 1898 to present, European Diplomatic History from 1800 to 1945, and Naval Warfare from the Spanish Armada to present. I left all that behind for a career in Marketing Research!)

So as not to bore you with a treatise on the value of cognitive space, let me just ask you this:

Whether you are a regular reader of Inside Market Research or whether you are a first-time visitor, whether you practice in the field of Marketing Research or whether you do not, won't you please "Add yourself!" to the Frappr map you see at the bottom of my right sidebar? I really don't ask much of my readers, yet I pour forth all of this excellent free content to each and every one of you. So, please, won't you give a little back by mapping your visit?


Tags: Frappr, geography, mapping, maps, Temple University

They love us in China

Many hits have been coming to my recent blog post, entitled "Usable research". Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a Chinese blogger who goes by the name of 'Heart5', asking if he could re-copy and re-post my "Usable research" article -- into the Chinese language!



I figured, "Sure, why not?" I consented to my material being re-posted.

Thus, so to speak, I'm syndicated in two languages now. I hope my hit counter goes to a billion!


Tags: China, Chinese, heart5, Usable research

Bad profits - case #1

People are going to think I'm the new step-child of Fred Reichheld, creator of the loyalty concept called Net Promoter Score (NPS), a simple index that subtracts those who aren't strongly likely to recommend a company from those who are.

Reichheld is pitching another concept in a new book. It's the notion of "bad" profits. How can a firm call any profit "bad", you might ask? Well, bad profits are earned at the expense of customer relationships -- when a company makes the customer, member, or client feel like they've been misled, mistreated, coerced, or abused. Bad profits are the bank's $35 overdraft charge on a check for $9.75. Bad profits are (were) Blockbuster's late fees on video rentals. Bad profits are when your $89 hotel room bill also comes with a $12.50 surcharge for using the telephone, even to call 1-800 numbers.

Bad profits are especially harmful to a corporation because, while they may momentarily please Wall Street shareholders, bad profits actually undermine the foundation of customer loyalty (or "preference formation", as ICR's Dr. Steve Ballou likes to say). And typically, only firms with strongly loyal customers can capitalize on the long-term profitability benefits of word-of-mouth referrals and implementation of premium services. Companies that regularly exercise their right to earn bad profits are unknowingly creating a customer base that is so ready to defect, that when they do switch brands, they take 3 or 4 other customers (their family, friends, and co-workers) with them.

Very recently, I had one such experience on the receiving end of bad profits. We took our annual vacation to Key West, Florida. We love the drive down the Overseas Highway, so our airline flight was into and out of Fort Lauderdale.

When I chose a rental car, I knew our family would want a nice minivan, to carry our luggage and little Maddie's innumerable supplies, as well as have the opportunity to shuttle my wife Stephanie's sister and two cousins, who were also going to be in Key West that week. I used Orbitz to shop for and reserve a rental minivan.

Orbitz does a nice job of displaying all of the comparable rental rates from various car rental firms. In my mind, over the years I have built the following price/value images of the available car rental firms, when it comes to minivans:

Hertz is almost always the most expensive option, and I don't see the value benefit of their services, which seem to cater to executives in a hurry.

Avis does "try harder", but this apparently means that they have found a price-point that lies just below Hertz's, but above everyone else's.

Then, we have the free-for-all among the remaining car rental agencies: Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, National, and Thrifty. They are typically competitive with each other on price, service, and airport facilities.

You also can find a lower tier of local or regional rental companies, like Advantage, E-Z, Fox, and L&M. They are almost always just a bit cheaper than the free-for-all companies, but you usually compromise on the location of their car lots and/or the extensiveness of their roadside service.

Anyway, for this particular trip, we chose National Car Rental -- it was a brand that I trusted, and they were offering an American-made minivan for only $239 for an 8-day rental. My contract was for Friday evening through the following Saturday afternoon. I didn't read or notice the fine print that said, "Rates are subject to change if vehicle is not returned on the date and time agreed upon at time of reservation and rental."

On February 11th, the Philadelphia area was due for a major snowstorm in the evening, and on that morning, we were still in Key West. Fortunately, I had called our airline (Southwest) the night before, and we got our evening flight seats changed to an 11:00 AM flight. (Believe me, my wife and daughter were not pleased to depart Key West for the drive to Fort Lauderdale at 5:30 in the morning! But, in the end, it was the right decision -- we got 15 inches of snow in my neighborhood.)

In the rush to drop off our minivan at the National return area at the FLL airport, it never occurred to me that there would be any inconvenience on National's part, to take back our vehicle at 9:45 AM, rather than at 5:00 PM as contracted. Well, apparently this was a major hassle for National, because they took the liberty of charging not $239 for my rental, but an amazing $515! I didn't even notice this on the heat-transfer receipt that the check-in agent in the garage gave me. Indeed, I wouldn't have even noticed it a couple of weeks later, had I not carefully looked at our credit card statement for the month.

How dare a company MORE THAN DOUBLE an already substantial bill, just because a customer did not use a product or service for an additional "expected" seven hours? When I called National to complain, they were indeed quick to refund the overcharge, and they weakly explained that "their computer system" recalculates rates based on the most expensive daily rate if a return time is not within an hour of expectation. I wondered aloud to them, "How many of your loyal customers simply don't notice this overchage, and furthermore, how angry do those observant ones become?"

The representative I spoke to sheepishly said that this is something that agents have been complaining to management about for some time. It's just not fair to the customer. It's not abiding by the Golden Rule -- treating others the way you would want to be treated. Do you think if customers of National Car Rental found a way to fleece the company for over $300 just by manipulating the clock a little, the firm would stand by idly without changing the system? Of course not!

So now, here I write. And about 15 people per day will read this article. And they, like me, will now place National Car Rental (and perhaps even its sister company, Alamo) at the bottom of that "free-for-all" class of car rental agencies. I'm not saying I would never use National's services again, but I am saying that I will not forget this experience when I'm choosing my next rental car.


Tags: Alamo, Avis, bad profits, Ballou, Blockbuster, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Fred Reichheld, Hertz, Key West, National, National Car Rental, Orbitz, Overseas Highway, Net Promoter Score, Reichheld, Steve Ballou, Thrifty, Southwest

Usable research

One of the really enjoyable people I work with at ICR is our VP of Marketing, Michael Brenner. Recently, he pointed me to an article in B2B Online that discusses how General Electric has rolled out an internal performance measurement system called Net Promoter Score (NPS), a fairly simple index that indicates whether customers of a particular division would recommend GE to other businesses or colleagues.

The thing is, this isn't something that GE cooked up. NPS is the brainchild of Fred Reichheld, whose concept was adopted by Satmetrix Systems, on whose board of directors Reichheld sits. Does GE like it? I would say so, being that General Electric's CEO Jeff Immelt says, "This is the best customer metric I've ever seen."

The Net Promoter Score probably couldn't be any simpler. To calculate a company's NPS, take the percentage of customers who are promoters (those who are highly likely to recommend the company or its products), and subtract the percentage who are detractors (those who are less likely to recommend the company or products). That's it.

Can customer growth and profitability really be this simple? I suspect not, at least not in all cases. There are some companies that have probably had profoundly high NPS ratios -- off the cuff, I can think of Saturn, Apple Computer (pre-iPod), and Iridium as having very high ratios of promoters to detractors among their customers -- but these companies have had a somewhat notorious track record of translating that customer loyalty to financial success.

Similarly, I could think of a few successful companies that might not generate the highest NPS ratios. (I'm imagining that customers of Playboy TV, Hummer, and Microsoft would pan out with low NPS readings.) In the case of Playboy, I'm not sure customers are actively advocating to friends and relatives their private relationship with that enterprise. In the case of Hummer, one would think that most owners have discovered that talking with acquaintances about their monster truck (in this day of $2.69 per gallon gasoline) brings them more pity and scorn than praise and admiration. Furthermore, part of the mystique of owning a Hummer is that you're probably the only one on the block who drives one, so why recommend it to a neighbor or a friend? And, in the case of Microsoft, I'd bet that the company has more true "detractor" customers than promoters. Yet, Microsoft is valued at $275 billion.

If I may come back to Michael Brenner, he has voiced to me some criticisms of our market research industry. One point of his is that in business (not so much in academia or in public policy), market research is being driven by usability. Usability refers to a low amount of effort required to translate a research finding into an action or a decision. In Brenner's opinion, this is also what is driving the growth in Internet-based research methodologies. The other side of this argument is that accuracy is becoming less important, based on budget and time pressures -- something Brenner and I have already discussed and agreed on.

Brenner concludes that CEOs speak to the masses, so if a research finding is simple and explainable, it will be used by CEOs, CFOs, Marketing, and other business influencers to drive their business.

In light of that, we in the research industry need to think more about making our findings usable.


Tags: accuracy, Apple, Apple Computer, corporate identity, Fred Reichheld, General Electric, Hummer, Iridium, Microsoft, NPS, Playboy, Playboy TV, Reichheld, reputation management, Saturn, usability

Benchmark your B2B survey response

Within my account group at ICR, about 40% of my research portfolio is directed toward B2B audiences; that is, business owners and CEOs, IT directors, middle managers, and other "daytime" respondent sets. The other 60% are typically consumer audiences, contacted (if by telephone) at nighttime and on weekends.

Over the past few years, my once limited exposure to B2B research studies via the Internet has blossomed into quite a robust research function. Recently, I was working with a client of mine in the financial services industry, fielding a web-based satisfaction survey among their clients in the retirement plan services sector. The client asked, "Greg, it's been over 24 hours since our e-mail invitations went out, and we've gotten about a 9% response rate so far. How does this stack up against other studies' response rates, after the first day of activity?"

My reply noted that survey research response rates are highly variable, so there are no hard and fast rules about benchmarking them. For example, our client on this occasion had mailed its contact list a pre-notification letter by U.S. Mail about a week before the e-mail invitation went out. That certainly reduced the e-mail deletion rate, helping the response rate. Not every client would take that important step, thinking that 39 cents is too much to pay to increase response.

The retirement plan study included 950 outbound e-mails to the customer-side decision-makers and day-to-day managers of the plans. Sixty-nine of them were returned immediately as undeliverable. Thus, the net sample included 881 records.

Let the music play

You may recall a while back that I experimented with a "music radio" feature on this blog, powered by the folks at Audioscrobbler and Last.fm. Technically speaking, it didn't work out too well for me.

I'm happy to report that I've found another solution for playing my favorite music on this web site. Using a plug-in by Gcast.com, I've assembled a short playlist of songs (copyrights authorized) that I happen to like. If you care to listen, scroll down to the bottom of my righthand column, under "Other Stuff", and press the Play arrow button.

You'll notice that Mr. T has graciously endorsed my playlist, too. Listen to Mr. T.


Tags: Gcast, Last.fm, music, radio, songs