Every year, movie fans pull for their favorite movie to win an Academy Award.  This year, Qualvu is making its own awards – for the best movies ever made that involve some aspect of research.  It’s a narrow category, admittedly, but one ripe with possibility and sure to stir debate.   So without further ado, the envelope please for Movies a Researcher Could Love…   6.  The Conversation. This 1974 film, nominated for Best Picture, revolved around a surveillance expert.  Of course, listening to consumers Read more »

Today’s global market means that anyone can buy anything, anywhere, anytime they want. Consequently, more and more companies are having to develop business strategies that target an increasingly global audience. This has posed unique challenges for not only businesses, but for researchers, as well, who now need to find ways to get into the lives of consumers across the globe so that they can develop a 360 degree view into their culture; their daily routines; their shopping behavior; their attitudes. While once a daunting challenge, Read more »

Is a new array of digital research options better than what we used to have?  Only if they provide a better outcome. That was one of the key lessons that came out of the first Institute of Qualvu (IQ) webinar, which you can view on demand here.   IQ is Qualvu’s initiative to build a comprehensive resource library for those whose jobs involve finding out what consumers think and how they behave. In its debut session, we turned our attention to factors to consider when Read more »

For frog-cookers everywhere, the accepted technique isn’t to drop a frog in a pan of boiling water (because it will jump out and the dog will go crazy trying to catch it) but instead to put the frog in a pan of tepid water and then heat it up so that the frog doesn’t really notice that the water is getting hotter and that he has a future as an entrée. It’s the same with the changes we see in our society and culture.  Incremental Read more »

Since the days of the Luddites (and you remember them from history class as English workers who destroyed machines because they thought machines were a threat to their livelihoods), we have had a more or less ongoing debate about whether technology and humanity are at odds.  The conventional wisdom, as expressed in innumerable, forgettable science-fiction movies, is that technology is somewhere an evil genie and life-sucking cancer.  Every step forward taken by technology means a step backward for humans.  The technology that humans develop ultimately Read more »

Companies aren’t known for having favorite authors, but our vote goes to H.G. Wells.   Wells had an extraordinary imagination. He imagined aliens invading Earth, immortalized it with “The War of the Worlds” and lived to see it scare a nation with its 1939 radio adaptation. He imagined cars and trains leading to what we now know as suburbs. He predicted the European Union. And he is one of our favorites because he imagined the Invisible Man 1897 — and in 2011, Qualvu uses a Read more »

A waiter asks you how your meal is, and you say “fine.”  He leaves, and you confide to your spouse that the vegetable is over-cooked.  At a cocktail party, a neighbor goes on and on about a political issue.  Although you disagree with them, you take a neutral stance because you don’t want to get into an argument.   We’ve all been in situations like that, where we are restrained in one way or another from being open, forthcoming, and truthful.  That doesn’t make us Read more »

Just how accurate does qualitative research have to be?  This is a question in the mind of every researcher and marketer, and in the mind of every executive asked to make a decision based on qualitative research findings.   The simple answer is that the research has to have to a high enough degree of confidence that acting on it will make a positive difference in the marketplace.  But how do you achieve that standard?  It comes down to the “ex” factor.   Accurate qualitative Read more »

Among the attributes we value in our executives is decisiveness – the ability to call the shots, pick from a set of options, set the course.  We equate decisiveness with strength and clarity of purpose, but we overlook or ignore the fact that decisiveness is influenced by our own biases.  That’s one of the reasons we found an article by Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo and Olivier Sibony in the Harvard Business Review so compelling.  Titled, “The Big Idea:  Before You Make That Big Decision…” the Read more »

We have lots of conversations with lots of clients every day.  One thing we pride ourselves on is our ability to listen – which of course is also a key to successful market research.  Yet despite all the listening we do, we’ve compiled a list of 10 things we’ve never heard a Qualvu client say, and we want to share those with you. Why is this taking so long? I really miss doing focus groups. I prefer reading text messages from consumers to seeing candid Read more »

The proverbial wisdom is that if you eavesdrop on people who are talking about you, chances are that you will hear them say unfavorable things about you. The implication is that you should not eavesdrop.   That centuries-old idiom is pertinent to market researchers today, because it underscores the phenomenon that people are more critical of you – and more honest with others – if they think you aren’t in the room.  That’s one of the great weaknesses of focus groups:  People asked to talk Read more »

How many times have you tried to recount an experience to someone – maybe something you thought was really funny – and when you ended your story, it had no effect at all on your listener? And you feel so disappointed and crestfallen that all you can say is, “I guess you had to be there….”   “I guess you had to be there” is how we acknowledge that no matter how good our storytelling skills, no matter how interesting the situation, nothing can take Read more »

An experience in a Colorado classroom holds a lesson for researchers everywhere.   A story on Colorado Public Radio told about a school district’s effort to raise funds by selling advertising space on school buses.  A teacher in a high school media class tried to determine if the ads were effective by asking students if they could recall any specific ads.  One student enthusiastically volunteered that he had noticed the ads for Pizza Hut on buses.  No doubt Pizza Hut would be happy to hear Read more »

…It’s time for you to start seeing more about your customers. Most consumers would never describe themselves as “promiscuous,” but the influence of the Internet and changes in technology, content and the way consumers send and receive information have made them much less loyal to familiar brands and much more open to new influences.   The result is that the traditional marketing practice of spending the majority of marketing dollars into building brand awareness and closing the sale at the point of purchase just doesn’t Read more »

If, as the lyrics of the song go, Santa “..knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good…” well, that makes Santa the envy of all retailers trying to gain insights into their customers at Christmas. If only they knew what Santa knows, they might have to work only one day a year, too!  That’s because knowing what’s in the mind of the customer leads directly to what’s in the bank account of the retailer.   Read more »