Happy New Year

At Ignite Research LLC we're big into reading. And we're very old fashioned about it - no e-readers here. There is something about checking a book out of the library, chatting with the librarian about what's new and interesting, holding that book in a comfy chair, and getting lost in the story. 

Here are a few of our favorite books from 2014. We hope you find something interesting to put on your reading list. 

Our favorites

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

Saga, Volume 1 (Saga #1-6) by Brian K. Vaughan

The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Very good books

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

We Are Water by Wally Lamb

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Ham: Slices of a Life: Essays and Stories by Sam Harris

All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley

The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry

Reunion by Hannah Pittard

Good books

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband by David Finch

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

What I've been reading this week

As the summer winds down, here are a few interesting articles that caught my attention this week. 

In a wickedly smart move to fill the gap left by the shutdown of Aereo, Tivo this week launched Tivo OTA. We're currently using our 'old' Tivo for just this purpose, as our HD antenna picks up a nice strong signal. 

It's always fun to watch how products are made, and here's a great video showing how contact lenses are made. IMHO contact lenses are one of the best inventions of the past century. 

Being in high school in the 80s, I, like a lot of other people, was a massive Kate Bush fan. This past month she played her first show in 35 years and the video clip that leaked out - and I've only found one - is remarkable. Cloudbusting remains in nearly every playlist I build, and to see Kate sing along with her audience to the chorus makes me happy. 

It's been a good summer

It’s been a great summer here at Ignite Research. Trips to the beach, the mountains, and the lakes, along with numerous family bike rides across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

A few interesting pieces I read / watched while enjoying our summer vibe:

I love looking at big sets of data in interesting and innovative ways. Nature published an article that depicts the movement of humanity over the last 2,600 years. It’s particularly fascinating to see how the population of the United States started in a few cities along the east coast and then, with the introduction of the cross country train and then automobiles, moved westward. 

A great read over at W5 on the use of webcam enabled online focus groups. I’m a strong advocate of this approach. Along with reducing costs associated with travel, I believe you’re getting a group of respondents more relaxed and more willing to participant honestly in the discussion. 

My 11 year old nearly lost his mind while watching this video. It's good for your soul to remember how magic can be amazing when viewed from innocent eyes.

I hope your summer as good as this kid's. 

Unpacking

A few months ago, I was talking with a friend about a company I was helping to launch. This company - a disruptive financial services startup - offered an entirely new way to think about retirement planning. It wasn’t an easy idea to communicate, it’s a topic that people generally don’t think about that often, and the core service offering was highly quantitative, which can intimidate people quickly. 

My friend and I reviewed my preliminary ideas on imagery, tone of voice, market positioning, and a tagline that had been proposed for the company. 

I felt that the tagline had ‘legs’ - there were many ways we could extend the line across a marketing campaign. It could work for both B2C communications as well as B2B communications. It could support different types of imagery and convey different meanings. It could be clever and it could be serious. It was, in my humble opinion, catchy.

My friend - a branding expert - cautioned me. “You need to unpack this some more” he advised. 

It was a lightbulb moment. I had made the mistake of latching on to something catchy and relatively easy, without deeply understanding the customer experience. I needed to further analyze this business and break it down into its component elements. While my tagline resonated with the internal team, did it really convey all of the important elements of the business to a potential buyer? The team stepped back, considered our business more deeply, and made changes. 

What has stuck with me is the concept of unpacking an idea, and I’ve used it many times since then. 

Think about your most recent market research project - did you really take the time to unpack your objectives? Unpack your methodological approach? Unpack your findings? Unpack your explanation of the results? 

The importance of objectives

In market research, it’s tempting to consider the methodology before the objectives. I can’t count the number of times a client - either internal or external - has come to me saying ‘I need to do some focus groups’ or ‘I think I need a MaxDiff’. 

In my head, I always have the same response...slow down. 

In practice, my response is to ask my client one or more of the following...

What’s the question you’re trying to answer? 

At the end of day, what do you want to be able to say? 

Do you need a precise answer, or just a sense of which way to go?

It’s amazing how many times ‘I need a focus group’ turns into a survey, or ‘I need a survey’ turns into something more qualitative. 

The approach can seem like the exciting stuff and, don’t get me wrong, it’s an exciting time for market research methodologies. But backing up and carefully reviewing what the ultimate goal of the research effort is provides the solid basis for the rest of the project. 

I’ve found that discussions about objectives help the entire team get on the same page and clearly understand the direction we’re all headed. And it demonstrates to your client that you’re invested in the work, an expert in what you do, and a strong partner for this and future projects. 

A few of my favorite finds this week

The Pew Research Center made its data available to the public for secondary analysis. I always love looking at datasets. Yes, I'm a nerd.

A friend gave me the head's up on a game called One Tap Quest. The name pretty much explains it - you get one click to play the game. It's oddly engaging. (My high score is 18,900. Can you beat it?)

I put together my list of recommended summer reads. Take a look and add your favorites. 

A nice essay over at Greenbook.org by Gregg Archibald on Educating the Market Researcher of Tomorrow. I can't agree more with the need for research to collaborate across functional areas! 

Summer Reading Recommendations

I’m a reader. 

In a typical year, I’ll read between 50 and 60 books. Each year I find I read some books that I love and some that I don’t, some that are more involved and stay with me for months afterwards, and some that are a quick romp - light and fun. 

Light and fun - sounds like summer! 

Here are few books that I’ve read and enjoyed that I’d consider great summer reads. Hope you enjoy them! 

The Brothers K by David James Duncan

I love this coming of age story of a family moving through the 50s, 60s, and 70s. At times it’s profoundly sad, and at other times remarkably uplifting. And the continual use of baseball as a metaphor for family life makes this one of my favorites to re-read in the summer.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

I’m going to guess that this books makes a lot of summer reading lists this year. It’s witty, entertaining, and entirely heartwarming. It will only take you a couple of trips to the beach to read, but you’ll want to spend more time with Bernadette and Bee. 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

While John Green’s other book will likely get more attention this year, I strongly recommend reading this one too. Two teens - both, strangely, named Will Grayson - have a chance encounter puts them on new and different paths. You should read this book to meet Tiny Cooper, and wish you had a best friend like him when you were in high school. 

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

Likely one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, this absurd book will leave you questioning what employee benefits really are. It’s silly, irreverent, and will leave you both shaking your head and laughing out loud

Bringing Home the Birkin by Michael Tonello

Having worked for an online private sale retailer for a few years, this book was almost required reading for the marketing team. If you’re unfamiliar, you’ll be amazed at the lengths some women will go to to get their hands on the elusive Hermes Birkin bag. Michael Tonello figured out the tricks of the trade and established an amazing business reselling Birkin’s on eBay. The book is funny and very well written - a great summertime read! 

Pure by Julianna Baggott

There’s a trend in YA literature right now for post-apocalyptic stories, and this trilogy certainly falls into that genre. However, I liked this series more than the Hunger Games or Divergent series. The character development here is stronger, the story is far more engaging, and the characters, although impossible to believe, are actually more believable. A great way to lose yourself to another world for a while.  

The upside of outsourcing

There's a great article over at bizcommunity.com outlining the downside of internal market research. Having led internal market insights and analytics teams in my past, I agree with many of the points raised in the article. 

Their summary hits the nail on the head for me. They recommend having a good mix of research suppliers. I can't stress enough how valuable I've found my partners at a variety of research vendors over the years in reviewing my work, offering suggestions, and generally keeping me grounded. It's not a matter of pitting one agency against another. To me, it's about establishing relationships and working together. There have been numerous times when I've called a research partner not to bid for a project, but just to grab 15 minutes of their time to bounce around ideas. And I'm humbled by the fact that they've done the same with me. 

This reciprocity not only solves for the immediate need of assistance, but it helps both sides determine how best to work with each other, forming the basis for a long standing and mutually profitable relationship. 

What I've been reading this week

Nice write up over at Age Ad on understanding the value of online communities. Remember, your community doesn't love you like your mom does! http://bit.ly/1l7nldm

For Mother’s Day, Pew provides an overview of American Moms today. One nice finding - 78% of working Moms give themselves a ‘thumbs up’ on the job they’re doing raising their kids. http://bit.ly/1uJD07V

As a cable cord-cutter, I’m always interested in trends related to television viewing. Nielson recently released findings that show Americans view just 17 channels despite having hundreds to choose from. http://bit.ly/1rZoWTv

Have an insight-focused startup? Enter the Insight Innovation Competition for a chance to win $20k. http://bit.ly/1mKf42Q

Social media in marketing research...the conversation continues

Ray Poynter, Director of Vision Critical University, recently published a very thoughtful piece over at greenbook.org entitled "Why has social media analytics met with limited success in market research". 

Social media use in marketing research is an evolving topic, and one that deserves our continued attention and exploration. In this article, Ray does a nice job of highlighting many of the challenges associated with social listening including attribution issues, the lack of comparability over time, and the poor quality associated with automated sentiment analysis. 

For years I've been asked my opinion about the use of social media as a research technique and I've watched the space closely. I believe it provides the most use for PR, whose mission is more about listening than measurement. 

Where I believe social media holds the most value for marketing research is in understanding context prior to a structured qualitative or quantitative study, and as an 'add-on' to traditional studies, adding color and texture to findings. 

Reviving an old friend

I'm excited to re-launch Ignite Research, and look forward to reconnecting with old (and new!) friends. 

I founded Ignite Research so that I could apply my experience in market research on projects that were both interesting and important. I value the opportunity to uncover insights that will drive meaningful decisions and push organization to take risks on new ideas. 

I don't have one go-to methodology that I use. Rather, I listen to what my clients needs are, and design studies that are right for their situation. I've been fortunate in my career to have built a strong knowledge base in both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. This enables me to think broadly about the type of research that will best meet my clients objectives. 

Let me know how I can help you. 

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." - Helen Keller