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What Some First Time Attendees Said in 2002: Thanks for such a wonderful conference. I had a great time and found most of the papers very interesting and very helpful. Alice Page, Citigate DVL Smith As a first time attendee at the BIG Conference I was impressed with the overall quality of the speakers and with the broad range of business research topics covered by the papers. It was also a great opportunity to socialise and I certainly plan to become a regular BIG Conference attendee in future. Simon Glanville, Ronin Corporation I enjoyed having the chance to present at BIG. A great conference with a lively and interactive approach. Dr Roger Palmer, Cranfield School of Management Quick Links
A CD Rom of the 2002 conference papers is available in Acrobat .pdf format for £40.00 + VAT + £1.50 p+p. To order, please contact Pene Healey [tel: 020 8864 2638] Quick Links Session 2 – Data Collection and Solutions The second session of the BIG conference was kicked off by Phil Hearn from MRDC who used a football analogy to start the session with his paper “Research may be IT driven but is it IT led?” Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal were three of the top four clubs 20 years ago today they still are at the top. However in IT the situation is very far from the same! Phil gave some of the history of IT in market research from the humble beginnings of punched cards and running jobs overnight to the current day where Microsoft dominate and enable easy communications between users. The IT issues are hardware software and us, now referred to as skinware. Cost of hardware is no longer an issue it is the implementation and systems that take the time and money. Software has gone through the Tab phase, the CAPI/CATI phase and now the web data collection phase. Tabulations are still the corner stone of market research and a quick demonstration of new software showed the way ahead but we still need to catch up with the rest of the world and embrace the new technology ready for 2010, as for Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal they will still be the top three teams. Phil was given the red card and Sofie Mallick of Experian Micromarketing took centre stage with her paper “Getting the non-responders to respond”. Sofie in conjunction with the Office of National Statistics looked at the impact of non-response on various household types so that the survey estimates could be weighted to fully reflect the national population. Sofie described the range of variables used to analyse non-response. The system takes into account refusal, failure to complete the diaries and population demographics including age, gender and region. Using Experian household and postcode data it was possible for the ONS to develop weighting models to allow for different response weights. The data were then used to analyse the difference in behaviour of the employed and self employed. The final paper of the session was entitled “Mustn’t put my foot in my mouth” and presented by Yvonne Taylor of Abacus Research. The paper looked at the technical aspects of estimating the impact of foot and mouth on businesses in the South East. The key sampling issues were geographical, business sector and size sampling. The sample needed to be statistically reliable and representative. A good response rate was also essential and was achieved – over 80%. Almost three quarters of businesses were unaffected by the crisis and less than 10% were affected quite a lot. Where businesses were affected the main possible actions were to reduce working hours or lay off staff. Yvonne summarised how the survey could help the central Government operate at a regional level. She closed with a few graphic pictures of the crisis, but thankfully we were off for a buffet lunch rather than a barbecue. Quick Links Session 3 – Clients’ Needs Towards 2010 Pene Healey chaired the afternoon session which addressed the needs of clients going towards 2010. The first speaker, Nicky Perrott of the Illumination Business, described ways in which clients could get a quart out of a pint pot. Having explained what a quart was in metric terms, Nicky summarised the position most companies experienced when research budgets were cut in an economic downturn. Companies still expect answers to questions without any budget increase. Market research managers have always had to fight for their budgets, unlike marketing departments, because the direct benefits are difficult to prove. Where budgets are tight MR managers resort to reducing the frequency of regular projects or reducing sample sizes and often have to abandon planned ad-hoc ones. Buyers have to look to pay less for work and may have to sacrifice quality in doing so. On-line research is cheaper and particularly suited to B2B research but it has not taken off mainly because of lack of awareness and confidence in new methodologies among internal clients. Omnibus and panel research are obvious choices for customer research as they are cheaper. MR managers find it difficult to choose which projects to cut as there are many influences within the company from the seniority of the commissioning manager to those who shout the loudest. Nicky concluded by saying that clients could make much more of money saving solutions by using on-line research and customer omnibuses and panels; on-line is the present and opt-in is the future. Tactical research is not necessarily the right way to get best value for money. Agencies should look to adding value by increasing the circulation of reports internally and by broadening the scope of the research at the proposal stage. By broadening the scope of the research to deliver value and insight beyond the immediate product, beyond the tactical question, and beyond the here and now clients can be directed towards the longer term strategic position. Dr Roger Palmer from the Cranfield School of Management began his paper on ‘Knowledgeable Uncertainty – Paradox or Paradigm’ by explaining that paradigm to him meant “breaking outside of the box and thinking the unthinkable”. Marketing in the sixties was straightforward, then progressed towards increased consumer awareness, finally arriving at today’s climate where managers have to address the needs of very demanding customers. Managers today have to make more decisions, better quality decisions and make them faster with more degree of certainty. There is no room in today’s environment for failure so the element of risk must be reduced. However, most managers spend their time responding to their in tray and urgent issues rather than spending their time thinking and acting on the big picture. He then described the present cult of the management fad which focuses on paying management consultants a lot of money to develop new sets of three letter acronyms to describe new company initiatives. Initiatives such as MBO (Management By Objectives), TQM, BPR and many others sweep through companies in a succession of waves. When one initiative has passed, another comes along. (The average length of an initiative is about three years). Managers have become used to this and adopt the BOHICA position (Bend Over, Here It Comes Again). This brought the house down !! Roger explained that managers’ roles should be to create strategy, not to respond to urgent issues, and that this should be based on good research and a well thought through implementation plan. Managers tend to focus on what the competition is doing rather than getting to know more about their customers. They should be focussing on using knowledge as a competitive tool and to look at research results with qualitative insight – sensing rather than modelling. Roger believes that in the future what is going to be more important for managers is knowledgeable uncertainty; we cannot prove it but we know it to be reasonably true and it will back up our insight, intuition and judgement and it will help us discriminate between uninformed uncertainty and ‘guru’ speak (interesting stories told in a convincing way, but which have no validity and which are generalised beyond the context in which they're made). There have been significant changes in the business environment and managers are hard put to make decisions today and that value is increasingly difficult to find. His view is that value today resides in the customer and not in the product and that we need to uncover that knowledge about the customer using different and alternative research techniques. Roger concluded his very stimulating presentation by stating that we have got to become more customer focused rather than competitor focused to ultimately improve the quality of managerial decisions. In the last paper of the session, Dr Marianne Highwood from Portex Ltd, told us what she really, really wanted from agencies. The issue was how to convey the company’s needs to agencies. The agency should have a clear understanding of both the macro and the micro needs of the client. The working framework should be a positive, creative and balanced relationship between clients and their research agencies, with delivery of timely and cost-effective results to enable the client to anticipate change and respond accordingly. The research brief should convey all the client's needs on a project. Agencies should feed back their understanding of the brief and question any uncertainties or assumptions made by the client. If awarded the project, the agency should meet the key stakeholders in the research before the project starts and the briefing meeting should include all relevant details. As the project progresses, the agency should give the client a regular update on all stages of the work. This includes discussing the analysis and presentation charts before the presentation so that results can be put into context and errors corrected. It is also important to make the presentation as interactive as possible and allow the research to come alive. The report should reflect the feedback from the presentation and recommendations, however critical, should be made. Marianne also felt that although there is seldom time post mortem meetings can be very constructive and would benefit all. Quick Links Quick Links Session 5 – Qualitatively Thinking – Towards 2010 The final session on Friday morning began with Ray Poynter from Europinion giving a paper on using Bulletin Board Focus Groups (BBFG). This is, he argues, especially useful for the busy executive, and Ray pointed out the “double whammy” of increased time pressure for the target respondents and the increased numbers of research requests being placed on them. Ray contends that the BBFG can assist in the task (emphasizing the complementary nature of this technique) with a 2-3 week “interview” period and up to 20-25 respondents, allowing opt-in/out to this busy group. This presentation covered the asynchronous group i.e. where the moderator is not on line at the same time as the respondent and compared this to both traditional in person groups and MEGs, (Moderated E-mail Groups). The concept of on-line groups, notwithstanding the advantages takes some getting used to, for the more traditional qualitative researchers in B2B, but there is no doubting the logistical benefits they offer In addition to being a thought provoking paper in its own right, Ray’s contribution was also to denude the technique of some of its mystery and the fear factor of using a new technique was substantially reduced by his knowledge of the subject and his obvious enthusiasm. It also allowed the second paper of the session to be seen in counterpoint, as Frances Hoskin from NOP Financial, offered a more traditional route to qualitative research, taking us on a selective tour of some key “new” techniques. Frances is a past Best Paper winner from the 1993 IMRA Conference, and returned to the platform to describe, with Humpty Dumpty’s help, to discuss and review the importance and significance of language and meaning. The contention that B2B respondents are also human beings, and that they use language in just as complex a way at work as they do at home was well explained, and NLP, Semiotics and Projective techniques were the themes she chose to discuss though the full paper covers a wider field. The approach was well thought out and struck the right note with the audience, explaining complex notions of communication clearly and in sufficient depth, that the benefits to be gained from such insights were not clouded in jargon and obfuscation. It must have worked as Frances won joint Best Paper, which is good going against such stiff opposition, and she is to be congratulated for a second Best Paper out of two goes! The session concluded with a Speaker Virgin, but few would have guessed it, as Chrissie Agnew from Infocorp gave a presentation on “Dare you develop your B2B researcher?” The value and importance of the people in the research industry had been a theme throughout the conference and it was apt that the concluding paper of the session should bring us back to this, particularly in the context of Qualitative research where people are the absolute key resource. Chrissie argued that proof existed that people development led to increased productivity, and cited NOP, who invested in 1360 management training days in 2001. The extent to which this terrified or pleased Phyllis Macfarlane (CEO at NOP) who was sitting in the audience, is not clear, but having just seen Frances Hoskin doing her stuff, it must have made some kind of sense! Chrissie went on to describe the findings of her own original research, conducted amongst a sample of UK, B2B research agencies, and while Training is high in importance there is evidence that budget support is still lacking, There was some evidence also that agencies tend to see self training as okay but provided, specific training as (?) too expensive, and we were left with a nagging suspicion that training was a great idea as long as it did not cost too much or interfere with getting work done! Congratulations to Chrissie for having raised the subject in such a thorough way. Quick Links Workshops a) Best Practices in Making Presentations This workshop was led by Bill Pilley of Pinnerton Video Systems and was a good reminder to some and a whole new ball game to others. Particularly interesting since it was essentially based around the PowerPoint presentations and how to make them more interesting and decisive. It was Challenging since the group was split into two and we had to present using the techniques we had just learnt at the beginning of Workshop. The agenda consisted of:
After the introductions, all our senses were put through the paces with a variety of sounds and images that clearly illustrated the importance of Multimedia content in message retention of a presentation. One of the KEY points that are generally overlooked it the Background colour of presentations and the contrasting colours of the text used. It appears simple, but can easily be overlooked in a presentation preparation as can consistency of slide templates and effects. It was very useful to have a back to basics over view as well as looking at other points most people never really consider. The PowerPoint section was extremely useful for those of us that use the product but who have never been formally trained. Highlighting simple and highly effective functionality that can bring more to a presentation through the usage of images and tricks. Perhaps if the groups had been split into experienced users and non-experienced users, we could have benefited more from the part of the Workshop. Group syndicated work was very interesting and fun, but we were limited in terms of time available. We were split into two groups, and given two different case studies that we both had to present using PowerPoint. This was a learning curve, since we effectively had to split into 2 further groups, one for the content on the presentation and the other for the PowerPoint and imagery to be deployed. After 25 frantic minutes preparing and implementing our nominated presenters delivered with precise accuracy, incorporating the techniques that were taught earlier. Overall, the majority of the group benefited from the tips and tricks shown, and perhaps could have benefited even more if we had been given more time on the group work aspect. At times, it was a bit like being back a college, but than “back to basics” is never a bad lesson, in a world where one lives and dies by client deadlines and can often forget the true purpose of a presentation. b) W(h)ither Market Research? The insight route secures our futureThis workshop led by Kate Dann, KD Consulting, and Patricia Driver, American Express, considered how the market research function on the client side was changing. The suggestion being that the project management focus of a traditional research manager was changing into the more dynamic role of an ‘Insight Manager’ or Planning Manager or whatever. The ‘Insight function’ was defined as: "The synthesis and effective delivery of appropriate information and perceptions, gained from a wide variety of internal and external sources, that influences strategic decision-making." The ‘Insighter’ draws reference from a whole range of sources including:
Insighters are proactive; they put themselves around the business; they network; they guide; they influence. They also commission market research. They ensure that research is action or utilised: a)mat all. b)msensibly (as possible). The hypothesis proposed was that ‘researchers’ and ‘insighters’ have a quite different skill set, which makes finding a good Insighter difficult.
Debate centred around the possibility of one person having all the necessary researcher/insighter skills and how, if at all, the insight skill, could be ‘trained in’ (probably not, and yes maybe, in case you were wondering). Balance in the team, recognising the different needs were pinpointed as critical. What does this mean for (B2B) research? Well nothing suggested that the nature of research would change, but perhaps the way companies viewed and used it might. If the insighter prevails and operates effectively, research (as part of the wider information base) will move up the agenda. It will (more directly) be reaching board rooms. It could increase demand. It might even make the board relish the thought of the next research presentation, but then again‘. c) Information Security Management – a practical viewpoint Those delegates who successfully passed the initiative test of finding the venue experienced the interesting workshop provided by Jackie Megahey, Information Security Manager of NOP Research Group. All aspects of information security management (ISM) were reviewed. Starting with issues relating to Compliance and moving on to Protection both of the environment and of the actual information. Finally, the Practical applications of ISM were touch upon, including the use of awareness, training and identifying the responsibilities of the users. As you might expect, the session on Compliance mainly concentrated on the 7th and 8th Principles of Data Protection Act of 1998, which outlines the rules for the processing of (and protection of) personal data. The 7th Principle talks about taking appropriate technical and organizational measures against unauthorized or unlawful processing or personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. The 8th Principle covers the rules relating to the transfer of personal data. Personal data may not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data. European Economic Area is:
The USA is a country is not considered by the EU to have adequate levels of data protection, to overcome this there is a system known as Safe Harbors. By registering under the Safe Harbor rules, US companies can sign up to comply with EU levels of protection and receive data from the European Economic Area. The Computer Misuse Act of 1990, which outlines the laws relating to preventing unauthorized access to computer material and the equally important Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of 2000 were also mentioned under the subject of Compliance. Jackie then led us through areas that require ISM, firstly Physical Security of both matters relating the location and the people. Then we moved on to the use of new technology (such as email, SMS text messaging and the Internet) and protection of data on databases developed and authorisation levels. There is an ever greater need to protect our computer systems from viruses, hackers, fraud, espionage and human error. Much of this lies with an increased level of exposure as we become more dependent on IT. With more exposure comes less central control and additional entry points for intruders. The other driver behind the need for ISM is expectation – managers, business partners, auditors and regulators demand new improved protection. As one might expect, there is a specific code of practice relating to ISM, which is BS7799/ISO17799. This is known as the C.I.A. Model as it covers the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of data. The code of practice also states that a company should have both an Email and Internet Policy. Jackie proceeded to lead us through the items that should be covered by the policies. The workshop closed with a brief overview of the MRS guidelines on Information Security and a comprehensive list of websites of useful information sources. Quick Links Best Paper Awards The best paper award in 2002 was given to two speakers who, for the first time, scored identical marks on presentation, content and relevance. Frances Hoskin from NOP Financial and Dr Roger Palmer from the Cranfield School of Management were the worthy winners. Extracts of some of the papers are reproduced in B2B Interests A CD Rom of the 2002 conference papers is available in Acrobat .pdf format for £40.00 + VAT + £1.50 p+p. To order, please contact Pene Healey [tel: 020 8864 2638] Quick Links |
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BIG Conference Secretariat |