By: Chris Binney, Research Manager

You’ve got two minutes to yourself and what is the first thing so many of us think about doing? Getting out our phone to check our email, post a tweet, update a Facebook status, the list of possibilities goes on. The idea of doing nothing has disappeared almost completely.

We’re always connected with the web.

With smartphone penetration growing at a rate that will see one in two Australians owning a smartphone in the coming few years (if not sooner), the research industry has rightly seen the potential of having a constant internet connection in your pocket. Why not compete for people’s down time by conducting research instead of posting that picture of breakfast to Instagram?

The flexibility of online mobile research platforms give the ability to access people in places and at times that previously were thought too difficult. Think about walking from a supermarket and being asked to rate the level of service that you had just experienced? Why not provide a detailed video review of a product when in the store.  The possibilities that are opened through greater access are huge but how else can mobile benefit over traditional online research?

• Engagement with tasks both quantitative and qualitative is higher when conducting a survey that is relevant to your surroundings. Furthermore, to this,

• Recall when undertaking a task is stronger. We’re much more likely to recount experiences as or shortly after they have occurred.Of course it is widely accepted that a combination of stronger engagement and better recall leads to…

• Better data quality.

By: Tabitha Lucas, Research Director

I love the fact that people continue to surprise me. This particular instance was prompted by the results of a major study we have just completed about consumers and brands on social media called ‘Always On’.

It’s no surprise to me that brands are trying hard to get a foothold in the social media space and harness it’s potential power. But what did surprise me is how welcoming Australian consumers are to connecting with brands on social media. In casual conversation you hear complaints about ads, and irritation about brands filling up your news feed, etc. But when we dug deeper we found that a whopping 82% had connected with a brand on social media.

And even more surprisingly, nearly a third had connected with more than 10 brands.

Australian consumers are actually seeing real benefits from connecting with brands in the social media space – beyond the ubiquitous competition entry. They see the opportunity to be ‘the first to know’ and most interestingly, to actually support a brand they admire and to have a real ‘voice’ with a brand.

So where does all the anecdotal whinging come from?

It seems that despite consumers’ welcoming attitude towards connecting with brands on social media, brands aren’t always delivering the benefit that consumers had hoped for. In fact despite being willing to connect, nearly half have actually dumped a brand on social media as well. While I wasn’t surprised to hear that this was often because of boring content, what did raise the other eyebrow was that brands can actually get the boot for behaving ‘badly’. Consumers want to have a voice with brands, so sometimes that voice is saying ‘not happy, Jan’.

The good news is clearly there for brands. But so is the need to get it right. Hopefully this will raise the collective eyebrows of brands out there – making it clear that social media is a very different space for brands, with different rules for behaviour. And to succeed in social media they need to do more than just have a competition and then try to sell their product.

With these insights, I can see the potential to help brands do great things!

For access to the Always On whitepaper and infographic, visit our website: www.latitudeinsights.com.au

By: Marcail Arbuthnot

Within the retail world, we often hear talk of online stores as distinctly different to and separate from the more traditional physical bricks and mortar stores.

However it seems premium retailer Burberry may be blurring the lines between the two, with the opening of their new high-tech Regent Street store in London.

In the video below, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey describes the merging of the burberry.com website with a physical experience to create their new flagship store…

Burberry’s new digital store concept, which has been 2 years in the making, focuses on bringing the best elements of the retailer’s website into the physical store, to create a richer experience for their customers.

Via the use of large web-enabled screens, RFID tags, ‘smart mirrors’ and iPad equipped staff, Burberry have provided an example of how two previously separate retail channels (online and B&M) can be brought together, to offer shoppers a seamless, engaging and exciting experience.

Burberry’s new store reflects a significant shift in customer expectations – online stores have raised the bar in terms of the opportunities for rich content delivery, customised shopping and a high level of convenience. Shoppers are now increasingly extending these expectations to the physical store environment as well.

The next 12 months will be an interesting period within the industry. Which retailers will respond to this shift in expectations? How will they respond? Who will get it right? What are the implications for those that do not?

Dave Griffin, our shopper and retail specialist, recently blogged about customer service measurement (click here to read that). He cited a study based on just four ‘mystery shops’ which is clearly too few to come to any substantial conclusions about your customers’ in-store service or experience.

But can you go the other way? Can you have too many customer data points?

Consider this – I was recently travelling overseas and during a lay over at Singapore’s Changi airport needed to use the bathroom. But that’s not the unusual bit (at least I hope it isn’t!). What I found intriguing was the interactive screens posted in the bathroom so that as you exit, you can rate the overall service of your bathroom experience. The task used a series of smiley faces – you simply tap on the one that reflects your overall service experience and if things aren’t to your satisfaction, you have an opportunity to report why (e.g. no toilet paper). It even has a picture of the cleaner on duty so you know whose performance you are rating.

Now there are over 42 million passengers that travel through Changi airport every year. If you assume at least 90% of them need to use the bathroom at some point during their visit, then you still have at least 37.8 million passengers who could rate the service. Even if only 10% of those take the time to submit their rating, you are left with nearly 4 million data points to measure the customer experience. That’s extraordinary!

I’ve since learned that this is called the SWIFT initiative – Service Workforce Instant Feedback Transformation – which is a program allowing Changi Airport management to quickly identify issues at various customer touch points (e.g the bathrooms but also at customer service desks and other places around the airport) and to rectify any problems immediately. In this instance, it is used as an instant feedback system rather than a long term strategic insight into customer service levels. That said, it has been used to examine trends in customer service experiences.

Unfortunately, for Changi Airport management, they also had my 10 year old daughter rating her experience several times because she liked the smiley faces on the interactive screen. She was convinced that the more times she rated the service (even though she only used the bathroom once) that the cleaner would get a bonus or a pay rise for good work! So clearly this would be misleading. Then again, when you’re talking about 4 million customer data points, what’s a few extra ratings from an excited 10 year old?

by Anna Clowry, Research Director at Latitude Insights

We often talk about the benefits of depth and breadth achieved by online research. From online surveys, to panels and communities, it’s about helping us get closer to people that other methods might miss.

From farmers in remote cattle stations, to housewives from the Gold Coast, online communities have brought people together in virtual spaces to help companies and organisations understand the bigger picture. Now anyone with an internet connection can have a say, not just those who can come and meet us face to face.

As well as who we reach, we sometimes overlook the impact of how powerful the anonymity of an online community can be. A recent project we conducted with Australians with a range of Anxiety Disorders really brought this point home.

Most of the online community members would have found it impossible or challenging to attend a focus group with a group of strangers, in an unfamiliar environment.

But more importantly, if they had, the level of intense personal detail shared would have been nothing compared to what was shared online.

We were privileged to shape and guide conversations covering extremely sensitive and challenging topics, and were thrilled when our community members fed back to us on the positive experience of sharing their thoughts, with both us and with the other community members.

The combination of a safe and anonymous discussion space, connecting with others with similar experience, and the freedom to share when and where it suited them, in as much or little detail as they liked, made the online community an ideal approach.

So, for marketers and other clients who need to understand topics that are sensitive in nature, from health care, social issues, taboo topics etc, we fully support harnessing the power of an online community.

Having recently joined Latitude Insights and the market research industry as a whole, I was quite interested to hear about something called an “online community”.   I had never learned about “online communities” at uni (certainly not in enough depth for me to remember learning about them anyway!).

Nonetheless, as I learnt more about them, one of the things that stood out to me was this concept that “engagement” and other intrinsic rewards can be much more valuable to members than monetary rewards.

I’ll admit that I was a little sceptical at first to think that people could truly appreciate intrinsic rewards, especially in an increasingly price-conscious world… that was, until I actually experienced an online community for myself!  As I began to invite individuals to various communities, I expected every second person to ask me, “sooo….what are the ‘rewards’ for this research?” (A polite way of saying “show me the money PA-LEASE!!”).   Whilst this is an essential question for some, overall, this question is rarely asked. It is more common to get comments such as, “I’m really looking forward to this discussion, I think it will be very interesting!”

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words can a video buy you? As smartphone adoption rises in Australia, it’s only natural for research to have a presence in this arena.

Latitude has recently completed its first qualitative mobile phone study – talking to 22 mums and their kids. Over a period of two weeks we asked mums for feedback, challenged them to tasks, sent them on shopping trips and had them interview their kids (all done with smartphone in hand!). In total they generated over three hundred video clips for the project.

One of the benefits of using mobile for qualitative research is its ability to effectively collect point in time data. Through this medium we were able to observe behaviours as they happened at home, in the supermarket and during usage occasions, allowing us to better understand the decision-making process.

A new innovation for research – keep posted for more learnings about mobile qual!

Cruising through Dan Murphy’s the other day I was stopped in my tracks after passing a new product display. Backing up thinking ‘did I just see what I thought I saw?’, sure enough. I did see what I thought I saw.

And I still can’t reconcile it:

AC/DC branded wine.
That’s right. AC/DC of ‘Back in Black’ and ‘Thunder’ fame.
Hard living guitar toting rockers…making quality shiraz???

Now don’t get me wrong. I love AC/DC. My hubby is a big time Acca Dacca bogan from way back. And he loves wine. So of course being a market researcher and wondering who would be the target market for such a seemingly strange combination of brand and product, I asked him if he would ever buy it.

He laughed and said ‘no way!’ Then made a joke about ‘maybe if it came in a flagon so that you could scull it!’ And then asked ‘why aren’t they making whiskey or something?’

As a researcher I’m always open to the idea that my attitudes could be quite different to other people’s. So is this a disastrous marketing failure waiting to happen or am I missing something??? Maybe?

In true market research fashion I’ve since asked a lot of people what they think of this idea, because the apparent paradox is driving me crazy! So far the response has been consistently anti. But I still find myself wanting to stalk people in Dan Murphy’s, hopefully spot someone buying ‘Back in Black Shiraz’ and then ask a load of probing questions…

This is why I love research – I have an overwhelming need to ‘get it’. I need to find the person who would buy Back in Black Shiraz, Highway to Hell Cabernet Sauvignon or You Shook Me All Night Long Moscato.… because I want them to explain it to me…!

So if you’re out there. Please get in touch.