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Conducting a Survey? Don’t Provide Respondents With Too Many Choices

Wed, 07/23/2008 - 01:00 — anne

Conducting research is important---as well as time consuming and even costly. That’s why companies conduct research infrequently, which contributes to the pressure to do it exactly right.

One mistake to avoid, if you're planning to conduct a survey, is including too many response choices for each question.  Why? Research shows that respondents are less consistent in their responses when faced with “too many” choices.  Inconsistency erodes the likelihood that a sample size selected to yield statistically signifcant responses, will deliver the confidence level and margin or error you are seeking. 

In “Too Many Choices Can Spoil the Research,” published in the Journal of Consumer Research, ‘choice experiments’ were disguised as questionnaires that sought to learn which brands or products consumers prefer. Participants were asked to choose among a number of options (such as delivery time and quality of ingredients) for ordering pizza. Twenty two questionnaires, with varying numbers of response choices, were administered.

Although the questionnaires that displayed many different choices allowed more precise or “efficient responses,” they also increased “cognitive load” on the participants (requiring more thought for each response). This caused their responses to decrease in consistency.

How many response choices are too many?  For the most consistent results, focus on providing only the response choices that are critical to your analysis. Stay focused on the primary objective of your research and resist the temptation to throw in additional responses just to ‘see what happens.’

Source:
Journal of Consumer Research


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Trends: CareerBuilder.com Survey Says 78% of Workers are Burned Out

Mon, 07/21/2008 - 01:00 — anne

Downsized staffs paired with increased workloads may be causing a rise in stress levels around the workplace. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 7,600 workers nationwide, (78%) reported feeling burned out at work.

Forty-six percent of workers said their workload has increased over the last six months and approximately the same percentage (45%) describe their current workload as heavy or too heavy. Close to a quarter (23%) of workers report they are dissatisfied with their current work/life balance.

More than half (54%) of workers said their companies offer some sort of flexible work arrangements to help manage stress levels and work/life balance and two-thirds indicated that they take advantage of at least one of the programs offered. When asked which benefits they take part in the most, workers said:

1. Alternative schedules (72%)
2. Compressed work weeks (24%)
3. Telecommuting (15%)
4. Summer hours (14%)
5. Job sharing (6%)

"Unmanageable stress levels in the workplace can seriously impact an employee's productivity and home-life," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.com. "Employers today are being much more proactive in offering a variety of programs that promote a healthy work/life balance, and companies and workers alike are reaping the benefits. Sixty-one percent of workers said taking advantage of flexible work arrangements has made them more productive and 21% said it actually improved their career progress."

Source: CareerBuilder.com/PRNewswire

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Deloitte Study Says Social Media Tools and Online Communities Help Companies Engage With Customers & Employees.

Wed, 07/16/2008 - 21:28 — anne

Benefits include “tapping into new talent, helping design products and services, providing customer support and, most importantly, building the brand with the customer.” But the true value of online communities has yet to be realized.

A Deloitte survey of companies sponsoring online communities shows that they are using social media tools and online communities to engage with customers and employees for brand discussions, idea generation and product discovery. Communities can extend the edge of the corporation in truly transformative ways -- tapping into new talent, helping design products and services, providing customer support and, most importantly, building the brand with the customer," said Ed Moran, director of product innovation, Deloitte Services LP. "The survey data points to some growing pains, but companies are starting to see that online communities should be nurtured and leveraged for real business gain."

But while these online initiatives are having a positive impact, they haven’t yet reached their true potential.

Deloitte's '2008 Tribalization of Business Survey,' conducted in conjunction with Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research, says building community critical mass is the primary barrier to reaching their true impact; most communities have less than 500 active members. Fifty percent of respondents said the biggest obstacle to making communities work is getting people engage.

In spite of this challenge, 35% of companies surveyed said they have seen an increase in word-of-mouth for their brands, 28% have seen their overall brand awareness increase and 24% say they’ve seen increased loyalty and quicker adoption of outside ideas.  According to survey respondents, the community features that most contribute to community effectiveness are:

-- Ability for community members to connect with like minded people: 53 %
-- Ability for members to help others: 43%
-- Community focus around a hot topic or issue: 41%

Conversely, poorly managed online communities are a critical barrier to their effectiveness. Forty-five percent of respondents recognize that finding enough time to manage the community is one of the biggest obstacles to making communities work. Survey respondents also see facilitation (25%) and quality of the community manager (34 %) as two features that greatly impact the community's effectiveness, making it critical for companies to devote the necessary resources to this important role.

How Communities are Driving Innovation

The respondents recognized that communities can be used as a seedbed for innovation: 39% of the companies that participated cited "idea generation" as the purpose of their online communities, and 19% cited "new product development" as the key goal.

A leading technology company is also using communities as a means of
customer support by monitoring communities as an early warning system for
product issues that can be expected to hit the help desk and prepares to
respond accordingly.

"Communities provide insight into new features and opportunities, identify customer needs, and enable open innovation," added Moran. "By participating in these communities and facilitating a bi-directional
conversation, companies can help engage top prospects and influence
purchase decisions."

The rich interaction and knowledge sharing typical within communities also allows for talent development and retention within organizations. Social media tools offer unparalleled visibility into employee sentiment
and expertise, thereby helping organizations to better leverage and develop
their talent.

CMO 2.0: The Chief Marketing Officer's Office Has Become the Community Manager's Office

The survey indicates that the role of the CMO is being revolutionized through communities, with the CMO often becoming the lead transformative agent, empowering the sales, customer service, and product development functions with the community's intelligence and participation.

According to 42% of the survey respondents, the marketing organization is now responsible for driving online communities. With communities becoming a central focus, marketing is now required to participate in non-traditional functions such as customer support, idea generation and employee communications.

Communities Require New Thinking by Management

While the Internet has produced unprecedented levels of insight into the size and demographic makeup of audiences, the survey reveals significant gaps between community goals and how success is being measured. For instance, while the top business objectives of the communities were "generate more word of mouth" (60%) and "increase product/brand awareness" (48%), what is most measured to assess success are less helpful metrics like "number of visitors" and "page views."

Not surprisingly, marketers often remain hard-pressed to identify areas where online communities are achieving their goals. Management also needs to rethink in some cases how business value can be extracted from sponsored communities.

"The survey reveals that there are several disparities between companies' goals, how to measure success, and appropriate investment," said Francois Gossieaux, a partner at Beeline Labs. "The companies that commit the dedicated talent and resources to driving customer centric communities will be the winners."

The survey measured the responses of over 140 companies, including Fortune 100 organizations, which have created and maintain online communities today. Participating companies include leading computer manufacturers, software, insurance, online auction, media companies, hotel chains, and start ups. The communities ranged from fewer than 100 members to more than 10,000 members.

Source: Deloitte

Be an Expert at Interpreting Survey Results

Wed, 07/09/2008 - 04:00 — anne

A critical aspect in the development of an effective positioning strategy is the marketer’s ability to glean insights from various syndicated or proprietary data.

You don’t need to be a statistician to understand the data. But it helps if you have a clear understanding of some basic concepts.

The posts that follow provide you with a quick primer on a few of the most common terms you'll encounter when interpreting research results to help you get the most benefit from the analysis.

Margin of Error

Margin of error, also referred to as sampling error, describes the potential deviation of a survey result from the actual result had the entire audience, rather than a sample, been measured. Usually reported as plus or minus a particular percentage.

For example, a + 5% margin of error on a result of 75% means that if the survey was repeated the response could vary between 70% and 80%.

Margin of error is typically provided in conjunction within a confidence level. For example, a result of 75% + 5% margin of error at 95% confidence means that if the survey was repeated 100 times you could expect that 95 out of 100 times (confidence level) the response would be between 70% and 80% (margin of error.) 

See also Statistically Significant.

Statistically Significant

When someone says that the results of a poll or survey are ‘statistically significant,’ what they mean is that the results are within an accepted margin of error at an accepted confidence level.

For example, a statistically significant result of 75% + 5% margin of error at 95% confidence means that if the survey was repeated 100 times you could expect that 95 out of 100 times the response  would be between 70% and 80%.

When the results of a survey are said to be statistically significant, the margin of error and the confidence level should also be provided.

Confidence Level

Confidence level describes the percentage likelihood that the results of a survey, for example, will fall within a certain margin of error.

For example, suppose you conduct a survey to find out from consumers what color of car they would be most likely to buy at their next purchase.  The research firm tells you that 75% of consumers said they would be most likely to buy a red car. They tell you that the margin of error is + 5% with a confidence level of 95%

That means that if the survey was repeated 100 times you could expect that 95 out of 100 times (confidence level) the response would be between 70% and 80% (margin of error.)

Confidence levels are typically provided in conjunction with margin of error. In marketing research, confidence levels of 95% and a + 5% margin of error are standard.

See also Statistically Significant.

Volumetric

A measure of the total amount of product usage or spending by a specific target segment.

For example, the spending volumetric for women 25-54 who purchase Brand X shampoo is $1 million dollars.

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