Tapping into a phenomenon: Who’s your favorite Muppet?

Posted November 23, 2011 by Elizabeth Taddonio | Permalink

It seems like whenever I ask anyone about the Muppets, their eyes light up and they start to laugh. “I’m a Grover fan. Not super Grover, though. Just loveable, furry old Grover.” or “My heart belongs to the Swedish Chef.,” said a few of my Facebook friends.  People love talking about the Muppets so much that I decided I needed to take my research to GutCheck. In light of two new releases this month — “The Muppets,” a full-length, fictional feature about the adventurous puppets and “Being Elmo,” a documentary focused on Kevin Clash, the iconic puppeteer who voices Elmo — we at GutCheck thought we’d take the opportunity to ask respondents who their favorite muppets are, and what kinds of family experiences they’ve had with the creatures.

Our screening criteria was wide open, with the only custom question verifying that the respondent was familiar with the Muppets or Sesame Street. We talked to 10 respondents, making sure we found at least a couple from different age groups (18-29; 30-39; 40-49; etc up to 60). We found 10 respondents in no time, and while they all had varying degrees of enthusiasm (from “I loved them they were my FAVORITE MUPPETS!!!” to “i don’t know, he just seems fun”, for example), the chats were very fun to conduct and we ended up with some great insights.

Overall, it seems like Kermit and Miss. Piggy are the front-runners, with 8 out of 10 of the respondents mentioning the pair when asked “What first comes to mind when you hear ‘Muppets’?” Why do people like Kermit so much?

“hes funny and demonstrates thinking logical to some extent” – 24 year old female, NY

“[I like] his can do personality” – 52 year old male, VA

The other sleeper pick was Fozzie Bear; half of the respondents mentioned him as a favorite as well.

“he’s just cute and goofy” -47 year old female, MO

“Fozzie! haha! i love d way he has his mouth open! lol! too funny! i like his orange get up and his phrase ‘ Wocka Wocka Wocka!! lol” – 26 year old female, NY

“he just seems fun and he looks kind of goofy, which adds to the humor of him” – 30 year old male, PA

Every respondent mentioned having memories of watching the Muppets with their families — ” it used to be a tradition on christmas to watch the muppets christmas with my family when i was younger” said our 24 year old female respondent. Another 23 year old female respondent said, “at Christmas we had these special muppet dolls for each of me and my siblings.”

All of my respondents either had children or were expecting (my pregnant respondent was THRILLED to talk about showing her new baby Sesame Street). Not surprisingly, 7 out of the 10 respondents said they were planning to see the Muppet movie, and would try to bring their children. We heard things like:

“my girls have been begging since they saw the 1st preview” – 41 year old female, Pennsylvania

“Yes even though they keep saying that they are ‘too kiddish’ to go I know they will love them, the muppets are timeless and have that magic twinkle that seem to get into your heart” – 37 year old female, Georgia.

One mentioned that movies were too expensive right now, but they might rent the DVD. Another one who wasn’t planning on going said, “I might [take my stepson]. I try to get him to watch the muppets, but he says they scare him.” (!!!)

Overall, we had a great time hearing people’s enthusiasm for the Muppets. One woman called Statler and Waldorf, “an ‘old timer’ version of “beavis and butthead” and said “I had a best friend that we would pretend to be them and make fun of lots of things… I really enjoy them.” We were thrilled that the tool allowed us to spend an afternoon discussing characters we loved with people who were happy to oblige.

We’d love to hear your feedback as well! Who are your favorite Muppets?

Posted in Just for fun | Bookmark Bar

Highlights from TMRE 2011

Posted November 11, 2011 by Adam | Permalink

On Tuesday November 9th, our CEO Matt Warta gave a presentation at The Market Research Event regarding the evolution of new technology in the qualitative research world. Matt was joined by Katy Thomas, PhD, who was representing one of GutCheck’s earliest and best partners: (r)evolution.

During the session, Matt asked the audience to write their comments on two key topics:

1. What are the most significant barriers that keep people from exploring new technologies for their qualitative projects?

2. At next year’s TMRE conference (2012), what are the new technologies that audience members will have started to explore.

The responses from the attendees were fascinating, mainly because the comments were so diverse. Here are some highlights…

BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENT NEW TECHNOLOGY

>>The number one barrier noted for keeping people from exploring new technology was simply the need to get familiar/comfortable with it.  Over 21% of audience participants noted that response.

>>After familiarity, nearly 11% mentioned either security, quality concerns, getting moderators familiar with using it, and the perceived loss of capturing emotional/non-verbal feedback online.

WHAT’S NEXT TO EXPLORE IN 2012

>>The only answer mentioned frequently was simply “I don’t know/unsure”.  To us, that shows that there is still a significant amount of education needed to help qualitative researchers understand al of the options and how to use them.

>>Several respondents did mention exploring mobility with qualitative research efforts in the coming year, as well as concurrent qualitative interviews online.

>>While there weren’t clear winners, we loved some of the focused responses.  Here are some of the specific projects on the horizon for our audience members in 2012:  Bulletin boards with multi-media integration, Skype for face to face IDIs, concept exploration/optimization in multiple international markets, video ethnography, and hybrid in-person/online qualitative studies.

Thanks to all of the audience members that took the time to provide us with feedback. We think that 2012 will be a pivotal year for growing new/online technology into qualitative research and look forward to see all of the innovation to come.

What barriers do you find to implementing new technology in market research? What technologies will you be exploring throughout 2012?

Posted in (r)evolution, DIY Research, Events, Technology News, TMRE | Bookmark Bar

“Tweakers” and revising the vision, research and otherwise

Posted November 7, 2011 by Elizabeth Taddonio | Permalink

Last weekend, Mona Simpson’s eulogy for her brother, Steve Jobs, was published by the New York Times. It made the rounds on the Internet, and was especially pertinent for containing Jobs’ last words: “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”

I have to admit, these are awesome last words and the eulogy is very moving. If you haven’t read it go read it. Really. It’s beautiful.

In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell reviews Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Jobs, and Gladwell’s review/essay provides much more honesty and color than the eulogy. Simpson’s eulogy paints Jobs as the ultimate aesthete, while Gladwell and Isaacson go a step further: What does being an aesthete mean to the people around you? What does it mean for your work? How did it shape the world of technology as we know it?

Jobs was a tweaker — a person who took an existing idea and revised until perfection. Revised until exhaustion. Took years to find the right clothes dryer. Was an editor over a visionary. Gladwell compares this approach to that of Bill Gates — a person who now uses his imagination not to perfect what he has already envisioned and created, but to create something new in a different realm. Both men are brilliant, and both ways of seeing are vital to technological progress. We need the imagination and we need the tweakers, too.

Market research, to me, works the same way. We need both Gates and Jobs mentality to make progress — we need the imagination and the perfection. We need people to build new platforms and we need people to perfect methodologies within those new platforms — people to communicate with the builders and tell them what works and what doesn’t. Editors and makers.

At the same time, we also need people on the same wavelength. Both Gates and Jobs wanted to change things; both men wanted to keep the world evolving. The same has to be said of people interested in the evolution of the research industry, including academic research. In order to keep progressing we need people willing to make the change. Otherwise, it will all fall flat.

Posted in Technology News | Bookmark Bar