It turns out that not all trade associations are what we may think they are – fighters for truth, justice, etc. Some exist for the benefit of its members only, rather than for the benefit of the industry as a whole, with the members reaping the benefits thereof. Continue reading »

And another piece of the future of research puzzle is in place. Twitter announced today that they were partnering with Nielsen to introduce brand surveys directly into Twitter. Continue reading »

Not only is engaging with fellow market researchers on twitter fun – it can also be a rewarding and learning experience. While I agree with Reg Baker’s criticism of the online echo chamber to some extent, social media is nonetheless a great setting for ideas to make out on a continuous basis and for fostering crowd accelerated innovation within our industry. However silly it may sound, I can’t begin to tell you all the things I’ve learned about market research through the #mrx community on twitter and LinkedIn over the past couple of years. I’d encourage you to join in, share your knowledge and engage in meaningful conversations for at least a few months before you judge for yourself. Continue reading »

Wrapping up my “newsmaker” interview series is a discussion with Jeffrey Henning, CMO of Affinnova. Jeffrey made news a while back when he left Vovici for Affinnova, and then again when it was announced that Text Analytics firm Verint had acquired EFM provider Vovici, the company that he had helped lead for so many years. Enterprise Feedback Management is a great example of the convergence of the market research and business intelligence industries so it’s a topic that I and other industry observers follow closely; the recent wave of consolidation in that space is indicative of what we may see happening in other segments in the future. Since Jeffrey is arguably one of the most respected thought leaders in the industry on EFM, I feel pretty lucky that I had a chance to talk with him in-depth about it. Continue reading »

I have been studying game theory deeply over the last few weeks in my quest to work out how to effectively gamify surveys and I have started to see game play mechanics embedded into all sort of activities.

Just for a bit of fun, well as an invented game in-fact if you look at it this way, I tried to identify and compare the game play mechanics embedded into Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to work out which was the best game. Continue reading »

Overall, this event reminded me of the importance of taking our online relationships into the real world. I certainly love being able to connect and collaborate with colleagues via the MRGA, this blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Quora, etc… but something special does happens when you shake hands with friends old and new. I love the intersection of online and offline as well as global and local that re:Think 2011 was an example of. It certainly inspired me to take advantage of local opportunities to engage and interact with others and I hope that we see the continuation of this trend at other events this year. Continue reading »

In the fifth installment of our series of interviews with presenters at the IIR Technology Driven Market Research event, I go head to head with renowned industry business leader, blogger, speaker, and founder of the “Next Generation Market Research” social network: Tom Anderson, CEO of Anderson Analytics. Continue reading »

I realize it’s a bit problematic to link to specific LinkedIn groups; if you are not a member of the group, you can’t see the content. That said, there are several interesting discussions occurring that deserve some attention if you …