Archive for January, 2010

In our recent interview on MRGA radio (thank you Eric Bell) we were asked where our inspiration for the Grand Mean Project came from. We told a couple of stories but this one requires repeating.

In 2008 Ron Gailey brought the first public story of an online train wreck to an industry gathering. It was at Bob Lederer’s IIR. We were lucky enough to hear his tale and readily admit that it kept us on the course toward online quality that we now pursue. So if there is an inspirational force out there, for us it is Ron.

In 2006 and 2007 as head of research for Washington Mutual, Ron completed some 29 studies, including 40,000 interviews using online panel sample. After two years his results showed a drop of some 30% in the demand for WaMu’s financial products. Unfortunately, the results were not confirmed by reality.

Prudently, Ron concluded that sales results trump research results. Before laying his data at management’s door he performed an unprecedented investigation of his sampling frame.

He found, “In all cases…changes in demand were explained by increasing respondent tenure.” Ron was the victim of a time related inconsistency that was not widely, if at all, known. He required deep surgery into the respondent profiles and records of his sample providers. SSI was key (more to come on SSI in our next Blog) among them and after some consternation provided everything Ron requested in an incredible moment of industry transparency.

We heard Ron talk at Bob’s gathering. Our program toward online quality was struggling to get participating companies to be transparent. Ron gave us the inspiration to continue. We will always be indebted to him.

Call it the Russian Revolution, if you will. The Russians are not only coming, they have arrived! For those of you who are too young to remember the fear that such a sentiment might have summoned, it’s a long cold story. It’s winter time here in the states, so cuddle close to the fire and we’ll tell you a tale of a cold place known to be rather ‘unhappy.’ Unhappy you say?
Click here to read full article

Mktg. Inc. wishes you a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year! It’s always good to start off with a laugh!!! This falls under the category of “we think we have online data quality problems!!!”

By Google Alert!, we received some incredible news from hotaweb.com, what a start, it’s big! The folks at hotaweb.com appraised our website as worth a nice round, $1,873,430. Our tiny company has hit the big time. We were now caste into the online hall of fame by hotaweb.com who has declared that traffic on our website has reached the astonishing threshold of 58,544,662 monthly page views! Take a look below. It must be the truth, there are graphs and everything! We’ve decided to accept the data and put it on our website. It’s very convincing you know. After all, how can online data be so wrong?

Click here to view hotaweb.com statistics at mktginc.com
 

“It has been a momentous year, one we will try to forget but long remember” according to Bob Lederer, Editor and Publisher of Research Business Report. I could not agree with him more. I have my own forecast for 2010 and was happy to share my prediction in the 14th Annual Predictions Issue:

‘The sleeping giant shall awaken. As the economy inches towards a slow recovery, end users will become aware that quality is the issue. Unfortunately, confidence in the MR profession will have suffered the ills of being commoditized. Fearful of destructive business errors due to poorly-constructed sampling frames, users of research will enforce auditing measures on those who provide sample. The lack of faith represented by having to be policed will erode research’s position at the decision-making table. Unless we grapple with the problems swiftly, our legacy into the new decade will be a long slow recovery, the product of our own creation.’

There you have it…Happy New Year!