I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

Posted September 23, 2011 by Elizabeth Taddonio | Permalink

Throughout The Princess Bride, the evil Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) states that things are “INCONCEIVABLE!” Eventually, there’s this wonderful part (actually there are about a million wonderful parts to The Princess Bride but this is just one of them), when Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) says:

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

(image via)

Though it’s meant to poke fun at Vizzini, this sentence speaks volumes, and is an important reminder to researchers. Recently, danah boyd and her colleague Alice Marwick wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining that the rhetoric surrounding cyber bullying is missing the mark. After hundreds of interviews with high school students, she noticed that when she questioned them about bullying, they defined that as a very “middle school” issue and not something that happened at their school. Yet this “didn’t mesh with” the team’s observations of clear bullying, so they started to really dig into the way teens talked about their lives.

boyd and Marwick came to the conclusion that teens were using the term “drama” as a defense mechanism against bullying. They write:

While teenagers denounced bullying, they — especially girls — would describe a host of interpersonal conflicts playing out in their lives as “drama.”

At first, we thought drama was simply an umbrella term, referring to varying forms of bullying, joking around, minor skirmishes between friends, breakups and makeups, and gossip. We thought teenagers viewed bullying as a form of drama. But we realized the two are quite distinct. Drama was not a show for us, but rather a protective mechanism for them.

Understanding the linguistic choices of their subjects on their subjects’ terms was incredibly important to the researchers’ ethnographic objectivity. Even simple definitions could not be taken at face value — they needed to dig deeper in order to gain a grasp not only of what the respondents were saying, but why they were saying it in that way.

The same principle should be applied to good market research. As an example, during a recent interview I conducted, a woman stated:

“Well for me personally, I respond more to a more girly approach. Retro figures, colors and more striking visual images.”

Now, for me the use of the phrase “retro figures” conjured the image of a very “Mad Men” silhouette — either that or a pin up. Because I couldn’t make any assumptions, I had to ask what she meant by retro in that context to see if she could better define the image she wanted to see. She responded:

“Well maybe retro isn’t the right word, but more of a fashion girl silhouette, glamour girl with scarf blowing in wind…”

The conversation went on, and I was able to get a very distinct image of the kind of personality this woman associated with the concept. I could have just left the definition to my own devices, but asking for clarification meant understanding the respondent on her own terms, which not only means better, more objective research, but also shows the respondent that I care about accuracy, detail, and him or her.

And research without a focus on the respondent? Inconceivable!
(I had to)

Posted in DIY Research, Just for fun, qualitative research | Bookmark Bar

Checkin’ it out: Fall TV 2011

Posted September 12, 2011 by Elizabeth Taddonio | Permalink

Fall is a magical time — time for heading back to school, wearing cardigans and close-toed shoes, and raking leaves. Plus, that Autumnal air! Wearing costumes for a HOLIDAY! GORGING YOURSELF ON FOOD AND HAVING IT BE PUBLICLY ACCEPTABLE AND ENCOURAGED!

It’s also time for season and series premiers, new TV shows and more bad writing and acting to make fun of! So, we took an afternoon and asked 8 random respondents not only what they were watching, but HOW they were watching it.

With a small sample size, we didn’t see much of a pattern concerning what people wanted to watch. Shows on the CW and ABC Family were mentioned by two respondents, but the tastes ranged from just wanting to see Football to Glee to Sons of Anarchy. However, 5 respondents also mentioned that they enjoy watching shows as an event — especially season premiers and finales — though one respondent said that with the series finale of Desperate Housewives, “I know after the last episode I will be upset so I am also thinking about not watching it.” (Male, 21, South). Ahhh, avoidance. I hear you, bro. I still bawl when I think about how Seinfeld is over.

The one thing that we did see, with 7 out of 8 respondents mentioning it, was that respondents did NOT want to watch television on their mobile phones. A sampling:

“i don’t understand how people watch it on a phone…. and when we watch as a group, it needs to be on a screen bigger than a laptop” – Female, 24, Northeast

“there are not really any ways I wouldn’t watch if it was something I wanted to see. I don’t like watchin on anything smaller than a computer its hard to see if the screen is smaller” – Female, 26, Northeast

“I can’t imagine watching it through a mobile phone because the screen is so small!” -Female, 19, West

As for how respondents were actually getting to the content, out of the 8 respondents, 7 paid for extended cable or satellite dish. This because it was important to see shows as they aired, instead of waiting for them to become available for streaming.

“I prefer to watch the shows as they air. It’s not as exciting when it’s not in the moment. Also sometimes people on Facebook or Tumblr post spoiler-comments about the TV shows. ” – Female, 28, West

However, one of those respondents made it clear that he wasn’t using that to watch stories:

“Yeah, I use cable to watch sports. My movie viewing is done with Netflix streaming. TV isnt all that entertaining to me. I have liked a few shows but I never seem to have a routine that I stick to in order to watch a show on a regular basis. I like having the ability to have things “on-demand” of sorts.” – Male, 31, West

And another, a 23 year old male from the Midwest, said that he was trying to decide whether or not to keep cable or just pay to stream from Hulu and Netflix:

“if i could hook up hulu plus to my tv in the living room, i might end up getting rid of cable. but i’m not sure yet. i might try both for awhile.”

Lastly, a woman after my own heart said she decided to stick with basic cable and pay for streaming to save money and have the ability to watch shows whenever they wanted, at their convenience:

“We use hulu and netflix rather than buying more extensive cable since everything is already on hulu (free) and aslo I don’t usually watch shows right when they air. I have three kids so its easier to watch when they are napping and I have free time (plus fewer commercials and I can pause if I want to).” – Female, 26, Northeast.

I use the same method — while in graduate school, I chose to forego buying cable so I could eat food. Out of habit, I now use a Roku to stream TV, and even though Hulu Plus is a little behind, I only see about 3 minutes of commercials per show and pay a fraction of the cost of cable. Luckily for marketers, advertisers and TV networks, it doesn’t look like this switch to streaming has taken popular hold just yet. The people who paid for extended cable said they watched what they’d missed on network websites every now and then, but they preferred to see shows first run.

How do you watch television? What are your favorite shows? Tell us! WE NEED TO KNOW!

Posted in Checkin' It Out, Just for fun | Bookmark Bar

Our August power user profile: Mark Travel

Posted September 7, 2011 by Elizabeth Taddonio | Permalink

Last month, we kicked off our series highlighting the users that make GutCheck work — users who teach us about the app and give us insight into how marketers, advertisers, creative groups and entrepreneurs make research happen. In August, we noticed Mark Travel did a lot of chatting in a very short period of time, and since we saw them pop up so much, we asked how they used the tool.

Like many of our first-time users the Mark Travel team used GutCheck paying as they went, just to make sure they were getting the results they needed before committing to purchasing chats in bulk. They needed quick feedback on some marcom work — including magazine and online advertising campaigns, a brand video, and a revised homepage. They used GutCheck not just because they thought it would be fast, but also because they had to screen out respondents based on age, income and certain travel behaviors using custom questions.

Lauren Schreiner, the director of Mark Travel’s research department, collaborated with the brand team to develop the chat guide. Though she had a guide entering the chat, Lauren told us she was “pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to pull in questions from the ‘question bank’ – or to slip in an unplanned probe to an unanticipated response.” This kind of on-the-fly editing to discussion guides is crucial to getting good feedback, and editing as you go is an easy way to continue to streamline your process and improve your results.

Since their first chat went well — with an engaged respondent and quality feedback — Mark Travel used Team Edition to conduct 15 additional sessions in 8 hours. Like our July power user, (r)evolution, Mark Travel’s moderators also communicated throughout the chat process, and adjusted their questions and guide as the chats progressed. They were able to deliver their topline report to the brand team the next day, providing direction for each of the materials included in the sessions.

Mark Travel really caught our attention for the volume of chats they were able to do in such a short time. As we saw them on the system again and again, it was really inspiring to see work done so quickly and so well. We’re looking forward to seeing how they use our tool in the future!

Want to be a power user? Let us know how you’re using GutCheck or how can we make GutCheck work better for you. Leave us a comment below, let us know on Twitter, or drop us a message on our community page!

Posted in Branding, Cost Saving, DIY Research, Mark Travel, power users | Bookmark Bar

GutCheck in the news!

Posted by Adam | Permalink

Just an FYI:

GutCheck was mentioned by two publications we admire — Inc. Magazine and Forbes. High fives all around!

Both articles touch on how researchers of all levels can test their ideas and find out how their target market is really going to react.

“How to Learn What People Really think” by Susan Gunelius, Forbes 9/2/2011
“How to Assess the Market Potential of Your Idea” by Darren Dahl, Inc. Magazine 9/6/2011

Check it out!

Posted in Checkin' It Out | Bookmark Bar