2/22/10
Customers: The ultimate judges
It’s funny to me that, watching the Olympics, I suddenly feel as though I am an expert on whatever sport I happen to be watching, even though it’s usually something that I only really ever watch, oh, once every four years. Let’s take ice skating, for example. There is nothing about my interpretation of what […]
By Holly RussoRead More
2/15/10
Good data = smart decisions
Did you take a recent vacation this winter? When did you start planning? 6 months before? 3 months before? 3 weeks before? When it comes to ski vacations, Vail resorts, through their own research, discovered that the lead time for planning a vacation has greatly decreased. No longer are people planning and researching in the […]
By David KennedyRead More
2/12/10
Domino’s’ “Focus Group” Advertisements
By now you’ve probably heard that Domino’s Pizza has “fixed” its recipe. Through “research” done in focus groups it was revealed that people didn’t like Domino’s pizza. (I put research in quotations since I have heard CPB – the agency who did the ad – has a great disdain for focus groups. Plus, I don’t […]
By David KennedyRead More
2/8/10
Ad for Microsoft Office tools would have benefited from use of Microsoft Office tools
Marketing FAIL? You decide. Microsoft is running a print ad for Microsoft Office 2007, which proclaims, “Things have a way of piling up. Here’s some tools to keep it all sorted.” Every time I see this ad (primarily in my subscription to Newsweek), I cringe. Seriously?! “Here IS some TOOLS”? As Microsoft’s grammar checker (hopefully), […]
By Beth MulliganRead More
2/4/10
2010: The Year of the Census
In China it may be the Year of the Tiger, but in the U.S. it is the year of the Census. It’s like an Olympics for marketers only it happens once every 10 years. And its effects are far reaching — from government needs (distribution of congressional seats, federal funding, etc.) to consumer goods (where […]
By David KennedyRead More
2/1/10
Twitter for market research – depends who you ask
We’ve mentioned using Twitter for research before as well as other tools such as Google Insights (love the name!). Two opinions on the subject that I read back-to-back had slightly conflicting viewpoints. The first made broad, sweeping arguments for using Twitter as a real-time source for information on your brand, products, and research (since this article […]
By David KennedyRead More