Tag Archives: StrategySteven

Want to be a Research Analyst? Then read Sarah!

Fine blog below; the articulate, diligent Sarah Schmidt (I recommend you follow her!) gathers multiple points of view on the role of Research Analyst.

imo one surprise is how many times you see the same sentiments echoed.

Analysts are talented people and, over the next few years, the industry needs many more of them. Have you got what it takes?  If so, the jobs will be there!

http://blog.marketresearch.com/the-market-research-analyst-role-an-inside-perspective

Demographics: Change is Gonna Come

Will your  staffers be humming Dylan? There’s a growing chance they will.

Demographic ‘changes are coming’ -it shouldn’t be a shock.  Are those changes working in your favour? your organization’s favour?

Demographics move so slowly & are so well monitored that some organizations are unhurried to act; they prioritize reacting to short term market change instead. Managers/Marketers/Retailers tend to be recognized, rewarded, feted for ‘reactive’ skills such as acting on shifts in daily public sentiment (which can ‘turn’ on a brand in a moment) or fashion taste (crocs in, uggs in, crocs, out, uggs out,…) or labour swings (outsourcing to freelancers, crowdsourcing, etc).

However, demographics are key b/c they’ll affect who will be on your team, who will be your customers, how you convey your message, which kinds of products & services are more likely to succeed.  And demographic changes, being so comparatively slow paced & inevitable, play the role of the warm water in a soon-to-be boiling pot. Just cuz change is slow doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be recognized and dealt with. Yet many otherwise-smart organizations fail to make fundamental necessary ‘evolutionary’ changes.

One college I know of, has seen it’s ‘Full-Time’ education arm add more & more in-demand ‘applied’ graduate certificates. The college now emphasizes a faculty’s  industry experience & contacts, ensures students earn industry accreditation  and even makes some courses available on Friday evenings & Saturdays. That shows some demographically-inspired smarts! Such traits have relevant appeal for the rising (& demographically driven) number of ‘mid-career re-education’ seekers. But this same college remains reluctant to face an ever-warming-water fact- ie THIS IS THE NEW REALITY! They won’t admit that consumers seeking mid-career retraining see the college as 1 brand, not 2 schools: ‘Continuing Education’ and ‘Full-Time’??? What dat?!?! At present, the public must navigate two completely separate systems- course calendars, websites, faculty are all 100% separate. The left hand & the right hand of 1 college brand don’t know the other exists. Consumers just want the college’s retaining/ reeducation options to be clear; why must they face a brand with 2 completely different bureaucracies, advertisements, sets of faculty, etc- when courses are offered by the same brand, on the same premises, at only slightly different times of day, days or the week? To consumers seeking re-education option clarity, this is baffling.

But, just b/c that organization won’t react to the ever-warming water, that doesn’t mean YOU should ignore demographic & long term societal changes. Ergo, a few highlights on this fine CBC story:

  • Atlantic Canada (now joins parts of Vancouver Island as) Lead Market for Seniors.
  • More people 65+ than children in Canada now.
  • Boomers are gobbling up jobs, and working later into life.

Enjoy! And consider what changes are a coming for your organization given these slow-churning shifts.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/job-market-older-workers-1.4101163

Steven

 

Research Trends to ponder

Key #Research Trends listed by Sarah Schmidt below, are pretty much the same as the ones about which I’ve cautioned students on for years. Nice to see an engaged, connected, objective professional also say these things!

http://blog.marketresearch.com/predicted-market-research-trends-for-2017

Among my longstanding favourites on her list (Sarah: pls pardon my paraphrasing):

  • Human filtering of data: the value of brevity in a sea of data detail!;
  • a growing role for Qual to answer the key question“Why?”;
  • the ‘Quantification of Qual’ -sentiment analysis, seeded online stimuli, digital ethnography,…
  • the growing potential role of Artificial Intelligence to help find meaning, identify relationships, predict behaviour,…
  • growth of geo-targeted mobile research (& ethical issues it raises!);
  • growing role of Observation (& the Ethical issues THAT raises);
  • the need for ‘poll’ oversight (too Motive-susceptible & sloppy; thankfully MRIA is onto this!);
  • online LIVE research reports (Q-Fi does a fine job here);
  • Continuous / longitudinal research (beyond panels);
  • Agencies and software that offers customizing over canned; and
  • The Growing need to (still!) invest in Secondary (Desk) Research

It’s this last point I’d like students & alumni to pay close attention to. For your career’s sake, stay atop your industry by carefully monitoring lead markets – eg Watch Vancouver Island, Italy or Japan for products & services targeting the Elderly. Watch Japan for Vending. Watch South Korea for Personal Tech. Watch California for Electric Motor Vehicles.

What makes these places become Lead Markets can be factors that are demographic (aging pop), social/lifestyle, economic policy/investment (California’s  state-wide vehicle plug & drive network), related-Industry expertise (AI, programming, entertainment,…) or a combination of these factors eg Japan leads Vending not just due to demography (few young people, hence wage costs escalate) and not just industrial policy/expertise (Auto sector automation –> halo effect on Vending) but also due to Busy Work/Commute Lifestyles (busy to work, busy at work, busy commute—> life’s too busy to wait for store staff, and so Vending’s time-saving is key).

My Reco: 1. Identify the Lead market in your industry. 2. Do desk research on it to find what factors brought it to be at the apex. 3. Monitor it & be ready for the moment you see the boss’s boss’s boss in the elevator & she asks: “So… you’re one of the new cohort- got any new ideas for us?”

Your moment is coming; be ready! Be dedicated to proactive Secondary  research!

SL

 

What does it take for a new platform to become the norm?

Some fine lessons here on why 3D TV – after an exciting start 7 years ago- has expired without ever becoming ‘the new normal’.

http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-tv-is-dead-2017-1

To make that critical shift, a new platform must have a ‘certain magical mix’ of:

  • improved performance or experience over current/new breaking formats;
  • a sufficient, unique supplier content feed;
  • premium but affordable pricing (delicate balancing act!);
  • doesn’t hurt if it gets positive ‘buzz’ eg celeb support; and
  • ..is relatively free from inhibiting negative news/reviews.

3D didn’t cut it, but 4K just might. Consider why betamax, LaserDiscs, Digital tape etc failed to become the norm, but CD’s did. Why Clean Diesel seems doomed to lose out to hydrogen /hybrid engines. Streetcars seem posed to lose out to ‘clean buses’. Why Natural Gas replaced Oil home heating furnaces. Why Netflix replaced Blockbuster-type video stores. Why Blackberry smartphones lost out to those by Apple & Google. Why AltaVista, WebCrawler & Yahoo search lost out to Google. And why Bing hasn’t got Google shaking in its boots.

SL

Is Uniqlo unique enough to make it?

Japanese giant clothing retailer Uniqlo is arriving in Toronto’s Eaton Center.

https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/09/29/uniqlo-opens-its-first-canadian-store.html

It’ll be intriguing to see how they go about carving out a slot for themselves. Whether their USP resonates with enough customers, is yet to be verified. In the GTA, imo

  • Fast Fashion is owned by Zara and H&M.
  • Classic style by Michael Kors, The Bay.
  • Elite designer style by Nordstrom, Saks, Holts.
  • Discounted ‘badge’ apparel by hr2, the Rack,  Marshalls, Winners.
  • Men’s quality affordables? Moores, TipTop (they sell Calvin Klein!).

Uniqlo is destined to be a provider of durable, well constructed ‘new classics’ in multiple colour shades; in the GTA market, they may be in a similar space as Joe Fresh or perhaps Le Chateau. A step above Reitmans or TipTop or Moores. And what about Simons? Arriving (in Mississauga this past March) this savvy Quebec-based banner has a proven ability to offer quality in-style pieces, and decades of success servicing our (more style-conscious) brethren in so-French Canada.

Watch this market battle closely! I don’t expect Uniqlo to mess up inventory selection and logistics the way dearly departed Target did, yet, even with superb execution, Uniqlo’s success is not a foregone conclusion.

They need Marketing impact; watch for them to select homegrown Canuck celebs & to generously bulk up next year’s TIFF swag-bags. What if they were to play a role as primary investor bringing back the defunct World (formerly MasterCard) Fashion Week, to Toronto? THAT would certainly buy them some goodwill and be an attention-getting move for a style-conscious audience.

SL

 

Price & the Law: e-commerce forces a review

Thought-provoking article in today’s Toronto Star (from NYT’s DavidStreitfeld) on Price & The Law. https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/07/04/amazon-gradually-eliminates-list-prices-from-site.html

‘Sale’ prices used to require an actual reduction vs regular prices; the mere word onsalenowliftarns-CC‘sale’ makes some consumers salivate. Now, Amazon is rethinking its ‘permanent sale’ approach; it’s selectively removing some ‘list’ or MSRP prices, against which it shows consumers their ‘savings’ or ‘sale’ discounts. Amazon’s own suppliers’ sites ( eg Breville)  and other etailers pricing practises have laid waste to ‘regular’ or ‘MSRP’ prices’ relevance.

A ‘Manufacturer’s Suggested List Price’ was always fraught with credibility and enforcement issues; the Law says a supplier can’t FORCE a customer to resell for the MSRP price. Many suppliers are initially delighted when resellers sell for less than MSRP, as long as that boosts short term unit volume more than it undermines brand value credibility &/or causes conflict? flashback with other retailers who helped the supplier by bearing the risk to carry an item first (loyalty matters!) &/or carry more overhead or expect higher unit margin, to offset what they invest in selling it (eg resellers who ‘add value’ with merchandising, displays, personal sales staff, etc).

If discounting is everywhere, though, then discounting is … no where. A sale was only a great idea for the short term, and in select situations.

UpShot? The word ‘Sale’ has lost some value; Consumer  Protection Law needs to be updated to re-set the rules on if/when a situation calls for the word ‘sale‘; or else it will be used to mislead ie especially to beguile the naive.

Steven Litt

Brexit’s a big lesson in poll power

You’ll be unable to escape this topic in Research circles this week, this summer, this year.  What happens if conduct research, yet aren’t open-minded to the outcome? As per my video ‘When To Do (and not do) New Primary Research’: if you’re NOT prepared for the consequences, don’t do Primary Research. The British government waived ‘representative democracy’ (we presumably elect qualified people to focus & thoroughly assess /investigate complex  long term decisions), instead opting for  ‘poll/plebiscite democracy’, wherein potentially uninformed masses cast their views and wherein every votes is an equal vote.

Now you need not be a dictionary devotee to see ‘democracy’ and ‘demon’ share a word root. Researchers saw it coming; we know everyday consumers don’t handle (understand, consider, evaluate) complex New Product/ Service proposals well in ‘impromptu’ research situations. When we seek consumer input on complex new ideas, we warm’em up, inform them, focus their attention ie get’em ‘zoned in’. Then we typically deploy an array of detailed response options, such as scales, rather than blunt polar opposite forced choice.

We ensure we have consumers’ undivided attention and we aim for maximum understanding in advance. We provide them complex audio-visual concept description tools before we ‘pop a question’.  And we’d then STILL hesitate to used a forced choice ‘Buy or No Buy’ – there’s richness in asking an array of detailed response queries eg – identification, uniqueness, intent to buy within next X weeks, etc.

Wise to distrust  the use of a straight-up ‘ Stay-Leave’ – surely a blunt instrument forced upon uninformed respondents. How uninformed? The day AFTER the vote, a 250% jump in Google search queries in BRITAIN for: “What’s the E.U.?” 

Ouch.

Brexit by GDJ

Brexit by GDJ- CC 2016

‘Nearby’ or not, how will the data be used? Ready or not, here it comes.

Blog – ‘Nearby’ is a sign that location based will revolutionize targeting, messaging, offers. http://www.eweek.com/mobile/androids-nearby-feature-debuts-helps-users-find-whats-nearby.html

This tech is going to be huge- but it’ll raise tons of issues

  1. Privacy issues, EVEN THO most consumers will inevitably ‘opt-in’ this type and level of personal-location data is going to tempt requests for access by eg disgruntled employers, spouses in divorce cases, legal defense and prosecution, etc.
  2. Storage! Storing this location-based data will multiply the need for storage, much of it inevitably cloud based
  3. Security: firewalls for cloud firms and for retailers downloading it to use. The temptation (& commercial upside) to hack it, will be huge.
  4. Competitiveness: Jury’s out whether this will help big retailers dominate, or allow small nimble retailers to better compete. But if you don;t play, you certainly won’t win.

One thing seems certain: inevitable winners will include consulting firms, beacon makers, Apple/ Google platforms, cloud storage firms.

Read it and weep- we know where you are (and where you go, and when you’re close, and when you pause, and …).

Steven