Posts tagged ‘market research’
when market research met social networking
One of my lovely colleagues in the Research team at work introduced me to Facebook Polls the other day.
Having the ability to canvass the opinions of 100 Facebook users for just $26 (complete 
with online results charts) and to turn it around in just 24 hours is A Good Thing. Being able to ask Prison Break fans whether they followed the series from Channel 5 to Sky or Leeds residents what they think about the development of the Headrow shopping centre for this kind of money is amazing.
But:
- you can only filter your audience by age OR gender OR location OR keyword
- obviously, the audience is exclusively facebook users so you aren’t getting a representative sample of the UK population
- you’ve no idea how robust the results are as ‘Facebook will not verify the statistical significance of response data’.
These are all A Bad Thing.
On balance, its going to be a usefull tool for last minute pitching and proving a point generally and its going to be interesting to see how other online brands respond – how about online polling on google based on search terms, using GeoTargeting and invoiced on a pay-per-click basis?
(facebook polls image by Dave & Bry)
Party Bags
I’m doing a internal focus group this week that I’ve recruited from the 100+ strong pool of 
girls at work as I need some quick feedback on a positioning project I’m working on.
Since I’ve asked the girls to give up their lunchtime to attend, I’m giving them mini ‘pamper packs’ as a thank you. But I shouldn’t kid myself – they’re really party bags. I had a lot of fun putting them together. More fun than should really be allowed on a Monday morning…
Shop-Ups and Storegasms
While browsing Trinny and Susannah’s website (for purely professional purposes), I came across this diary entry about sneaking out for a shop up. The idea of formalizing that quick dash to the high street for some top-up retail therapy really appeals to me.
I discovered another favourite new word in a focus group I was running for a fashion client when I was introduced to the storegasm – variously defined as the result of a particularly successful shopping spree or the moment when you lose rational control of your budget in the presence of that must-have handbag/top/pair of shoes.
I love how the English language is constantly evolving – it’s the ultimate in user generated content.
