Industry Speakers - Day Two

Paul established Review Partners with two main ideas in mind: bring together talented people with an unusual mix of analytical and creative skills; and provide clients with clear guidance for marketing and communication.

His professional life has been focused on communication in relation to a broad range of issues, brands, products, services and government policies and politics.

Paul’s background has led him to be a scientific writer, senior policy analyst, Ministerial adviser, market researcher and advertising planner.

On the way to Review Partners, he has taught at Sydney University, worked for CSIRO and the Federal Government, Dangar Research, Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney, London (& Africa), been managing director of Auspoll, and has picked up degrees in genetics and international law.

Paul has set the standard for published analysis in a number of areas of public and commercial interest. These include major studies on climate change for The Climate Institute, the arts for the Australia Council, and Indigenous relations for Reconciliation Australia.

Brian is a thought leader in online research, advocating high quality in online research, specialising in designing, recruiting, calibrating, analysing and weighting data to represent the target populations being surveyed.

Brian’s credentials include:

• Currently Adjunct Professor, UTS Business School, as well as a Fellow and QPMR of AMSRS. He is also the ESOMAR Representative for Australia and on the AMSRO committee.
• Commenced building online panels in 1999 as Managing Director of AMR Interactive, then separating the panel off as the ORU.
• Brian Fine set up Media Metrix in Australia in 2000, to measure online audiences and was an Australian affiliate of Harris Interactive, Jupiter Research and JD Power.
• Was previous chairman of AMSRS, President of AMSRO and chaired the AMSRO Online Research Quality task force which developed and launched QSOAP (Quality Standards for Online Access Panels) and its accreditation system.
• Brian was nominated for best-paper at the ESOMAR Online Conference in 2006.
• He has also presented at AMSRS and other International Conferences, and was awarded ‘best paper’ at the 2009 AMSRS Conference, with Con Menictas.

BARANGAWHO? BARANGAROO – Understanding an unknown future.

This paper explores the challenge of conducting communication research into a major public issue that is virtually unknown to the general public but will soon have a substantial impact on their lives. It shows how research helped the Barangaroo Delivery Authority (BDA) develop a communication strategy for the massive Barangaroo commercial redevelopment. At the time, the BDA was dealing with an environment of ignorance among the general population and hostility from pressure groups. As part of the research approach, the study:
- Gained a fundamental understandng of how Sydney residents related to their CBD.
- Explored underlying attitudes and expectations towards commercial development in Sydney.
- Created a sophisticated, yet accessible on-line approach which helped people make informed choices (in spite of their relative ignorance).
- Employed sophisticated geo-demographic modelling techniques to illustrate how Sydney-siders are not homogenous in their views, but that their experiences and attitudes differ on a micro-regional basis.
The approach and techniques used could help the research industry to deliver better outcomes in issues management research. This has implications for commercial, social and government activities.

Simon Welsh is a highly experienced consultant with expertise in the areas of research, strategic business analysis, cultural change, stakeholder management and marketing communication. Simon joined Andrews Group in mid-2000 and since then has worked with over 90 clients across all tiers of government and the private sector. Simon’s strengths lay in the development of strategic responses to the marketing and communication challenges facing our clients.

Graduating in 1998, Simon holds Bachelor of Science (Psychology) and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Melbourne. Simon also completed post-graduate studies in statistics and research methods.

Simon has led a number of significant projects across the areas of market and organisational research, strategic planning and cultural change, stakeholder management and strategic communications.

Jacqueline joined the Australian Taxation Office in 2009 after completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing/Management) at the Australian National University. Jacqueline is a project manager for the the ATO as a research buyer, assisting the internal client to understand their research needs and communicate these to the market research company. Jacqueline's current focus is internal research within the ATO and as such has valuable experience in questionnaire design. Jacqueline also has experience with managing research projects with various hard to each audiences.

Jacqueline is an Associate Member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS).

Wanting to be heard – The voice of Australian taxpayers with hearing and vision impairments.

In 2010, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) engaged Andrews Group to conduct research with taxpayers who have a hearing or vision impairment and the organisations that represent them. The ATO, the principal revenue collection agency for the Australian Government, provides a wide range of information for a very large number and range of audiences. The ATO recognises that some groups of taxpayers, like those with a vision and/or hearing impairment, require special information and targeted communications. The aim of this research was to explore satisfaction with and needs of the ATO in terms of service provision and accessibility of information and communication.
This presentation will detail our engagement with these hearing and vision impaired taxpayers and the lessons learnt from this. The presentation will describe the approach taken to reach these audiences and some of the difficulties and challenges faced when conducting research with them. The presentation will also explore how the research was received by the ATO and how the ATO intends to use the findings to improve their offerings and services.

Speaker Biography

Jessie Wong, BA (Hons), MA, AAMI, NAATI translator, has been an associate member of AMSRS for over 10 years. She has worked for the Chinese University of Hong Kong researching China’s economic and housing policy, and for the University of Hong Kong researching Hong Kong’s electronic industries.
Since emigrating to Australia 16 years ago, Wong has managed numerous quantitative and qualitative research projects, ranging from developing questionnaires to analysing and reporting results for Tourism Australia, Arts NSW, Heinz, Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, NSW Sport and Recreation, NSW RailCorp, Western Union, Zurich Financial Services, and many others. Her qualifications include:
o Master of Arts in Comparative Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong
o Bachelor of Arts, University of Hong Kong
o Certificate in Marketing, Meadowbank TAFE
o Certificate in French Language and Civilisation, University of Sorbonne, Paris, France
o Certificate in Commercial and Economic French, Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, France

Wong is the Managing Director of Multicultural Marketing and Management, a multi-award-winning cultural communication agency established in 1993.

Presentation

It’s a French mouse – Tips for Successful Multicultural Research

“O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool?” Alice began.
The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.
“Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; “I daresay it's a French mouse.” - Chapter II, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Have you faced similar situation in conducting research with non-native language speakers?
Multilingual research is regularly commissioned and conducted by all sizes of corporations as well as local, state and federal government agencies.
However, simply translating your research instrument may not necessarily mean that your respondents understand your questions and answer them correctly.

Jessie Wong, a veteran multicultural researcher, will outline the steps to turn your multilingual research into a multicultural success.

Wong will cover:

• Importance of demographic analysis of samples
• Selection of the right language groups in research
• Development of culturally sensitive research instrument
• Recruitment of multilingual target audience and fieldworkers
• Reporting with a multicultural perspective

Neer Korn has been researching and reporting on Australian attitudes and trends for 13 years. He has a passion for people and society. He is director of The Korn Group and continues to produce 4-5 new syndicated studies into the Australian consumer each year.
He consults to a who’s who of Australian blue chip companies and organisations.
Neer is a popular speaker at conferences and company away days on social issues and consumer trends. His writing and commentary are regularly published in newspapers and magazines and feature on radio nationally.
He is a frequent commentator of social issues in the media.
He is the author of two non-fictions titles, Shades of Belonging (HarperCollins Religious) examining attitudes to religion and Life Behind Bars: Conversations With Violent Male Inmates (New Holland).

We see people as we are, not as they are.

In these highlights from several recent studies some insights into the lives of others that defy our preconceptions will be shared.

The Truth About Teens - What they hide from their friends

The Truth About Tweens – What they hide from their parents

Home Alone – How those living alone feel marginalised

Beyond non-nuclear families – Self-perceptions and realities of new family structures

Ken Roberts is one of Australia’s leading market researchers, establishing Forethought Research in 1993. Forethought is a leader in customised research, offering methodologies which have been recognised as world leading by the industries leading academics and practioners. The research focus is on research that drives market share including brand, communications, acquisition and retention.
In January 2010, Ken led a Forethought team that were runner-up at the INFORMS Society of Marketing Science: Marketing Science Institute Practice Prize, presented at MIT in Boston, Massachusetts with proprietary methodology Prophecy® Thoughts. In October, Forethought received the Australian research industry’s top award, the Australian Market and Social Research Society’s Award for Commercial Effectiveness. Ken and Forethought have held this award since 2007. Also in 2010 the Australian Institute of Marketing awarded Ken its major award, the Certified Practicing Marketer of the Year.
Ken holds the position of Honorary Fellow and Advisory Board member for the Department of Marketing at Monash University and is a former Associate Professor in Marketing Research at Melbourne Business School. Ken is a Qualified Practising Market Researcher, a member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society and a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute. He has a Bachelor of Business in Marketing and a MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Darren Stein is one of Australia’s leading insights and analytics professionals.

He has Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Psychology and Masters of Psychology degrees and a deep passion for understanding and influencing consumer behaviour through marketing strategy and implementation.

Darren’s marketing background was originally shaped as a supplier of strategic qualitative and quantitative market research before moving to the client side with Optus in 2003. His most recent position there was as General Manager of Insights, Segmentation and Planning across the entire Consumer portfolio where he managed 40 people who were responsible for segmentation and consumer insights (including market research, competitive intelligence, database interrogation and business intelligence) as well as campaign generation and capital project based change delivery.

In March 2011 Darren moved to News Limited as the Director of Market Insights and Business Intelligence, a newly created position to develop the business' capability in these areas for the full suite of companies across the country.

‘Feelings, nothing more than feelings’.

A consensus appears to be building in marketing circles that it is only a matter of time before neuroscience develops the ability to accurately predict the behaviour of consumers in response to stimuli. This rests on the assumption that neuroscience-based techniques can unlock the specific emotions that drive purchase behaviour and test communications against these drivers. However, the idea that specific feelings are limited to one distinct part of the brain, and therefore identifiable via neural imaging technology similar to what we have today, is not borne out in reality.

This article reports the findings of a new methodology based on the Feelings Scale, which uses Hierarchical Bayes and universal metaphors to capture a quantified, emotional profile of respondents at the border of conscious awareness. Research conducted using the Feelings Scale has established seven rules for emotion-based communications. The rules cover:
• How discrete feelings work as behavioural detonators for purchase decisions in combination with rational assessments of value
• The tendency for specific emotions to work as behavioural catalysts or inhibitors
• How emotions elicited by communications transfer to perceptions of the brand
• The emotional communications strategy most suited for retention vs acquisition of customers
• Disparity in emotional responses between population segments
• The result of incongruity between the feelings elicited by a brand and its communications
• The relative effectiveness of implicit and explicit activation of emotions

Sean has held various supplier side roles in marketing research for over 5 years. Originally from the US, Sean worked for Ipsos and Vision Critical in New York & New Jersey before relocating to Sydney through Vision Critical.

He started his career in satisfaction and loyalty research, running large programs for fortune 500 companies. After that, Sean moved to a more generalist research role where he managed a variety of research studies including concept testing & development, attitude & usage and segmentation. Since joining Vision Critical Sydney in October 2010, Sean has consulted for full service research clients helping them to realise their research objectives from proprietary community panels.

Having witnessed the mass migration from CATI research to online research, Sean is really interested in this next evolution to research on mobile devices.

Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Ying has quickly adapted to living and working in Australia, since relocating to Vision Critical’s Sydney office in 2010. Ying focuses most of her expertise on managing custom research projects for a variety of clients, leveraging the latest developments in virtual and interactive research technology to find research solutions for her clients. She is also a dedicated account manager for her custom-panel clients, ensuring that they maximise the potential from their own online community panels.

Unplugged – Research goes mobile.

Smartphone penetration in Australia has increased in recent years and will continue to increase in the future. At the same time, the awareness and presence of tablet computers (e.g. iPad) has grown. These trends will fundamentally change the way that Australians access the internet.

This has major implications for the marketing research industry because of its dependence on online methodologies. While we strive to keep up with recent online phenomenon like social media, we can’t lose sight of the growing presence of Smartphones/Tablet computers and how they will affect the future of marketing research.

How can researchers design surveys that work with these new platforms and do we need to be worried that mobile respondents are different than the average Joe?

Join Vision Critical for a look at the best practices for mobile surveys and a comparison of “mobile” and traditional “online” respondents.

Managing Partner of gordon & mccallum, a consultancy that works with research agencies to improve their business performance and with technology companies to provide applications attuned to the needs of the market research sector. David's knowledge and experience extends over the full gamut of consumer research from ad hoc customised to continuous media and retail tracking. He was previously the Global Head of Custom Research for the Nielsen Corporation, and earlier had managed their business in Japan and Singapore.

A professional statistician by training, David has presented several papers on research methods, industry issues, and case study applications at conferences held by ESOMAR, the Japan Market Research Society, and the UK Market Research Society. He has lectured for the AMSRS, the MRS (UK), the Singapore Institute of Statistics, UNSW, and Westminster University and contributed articles to the ESOMAR Annual Global Research Report.

Managing Partner of gordon & mccallum. One of Asia-Pacific's most experienced market research professionals; he has worked across sectors ranging from consumer goods to telecommunications and social policy. Previously, Alastair was Global Head of Custom Research R&D at the Nielsen Corporation. He has held senior positions throughout Asia at regional (Head of Custom Research in Asia-Pacific) and local level (Managing Director of the Nielsen companies in Philippines and Malaysia).

An experienced market research trainer, Alastair has also been a regular speaker at international marketing and research conferences. Alastair holds an MA (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Canterbury and is a Fellow of the New Zealand Market Research Society and a member of ESOMAR.

Say it to my Face! - Applying Facial Imaging to Understanding Consumer Emotional Response.

Facial Imaging passively records human emotions from facial expressions. It can measure consumer response to marketing stimuli (e.g. advertising, packaging, retail displays) in a robust, repeatable way that

• Overcomes issues of direct and intrusive questioning
• Offers consistent response across cultures and ethnicities
• Is accessible across online and offline platforms
• Evaluates video (e.g.TV commercials) or static (e.g. Press Ads, Logos) stimuli

Conventional research techniques are restricted by respondents' recall and difficulty in describing subtle, unconscious emotional states. This has increased interest in neuroscience-influenced methods. Many methods (e.g. fMRI, EEG) are high cost, intrusive, and difficult to apply across diverse populations or integrate with existing methods.

Methodologies like Facial Imaging, while firmly science-based, can be integrated into existing research frameworks increasing their power. This offers potential for insights into near-term issues, such as emotional response to advertising's creative development and pre-testing, on-shelf brand choice, and so forth. Furthermore, it will also help to create more accurate, consistent measures of emotive response – metrics that can be applied strategically, across brands and categories.

The paper covers recent marketing and advertising case study examples of ground-breaking work undertaken by nViso, the Swiss-based technology company, which has pioneered Facial Imaging.

Scott Taylor is Research Director at leading word-of-mouth marketing company Soup – at the cutting edge of the industry, Scott is uniquely qualified in the field of word-of-mouth measurement and assessment in Australia.
Scott has more than 10 years experience in the industry which began at the forefront of online research in the mid- to late-90s.
Scott spent several years working on customer satisfaction research at AMR Interactive and Jigsaw Strategic Research before joining Soup in mid-2008 where he specialises in the measurement and understanding of conversations relative to brands, media and Word-of-Mouth campaigns.
A member of WOMMA (the US-based WOM industry body) and on several advisory boards of the WOMMA measurement and research committee which guide the industry as a whole Scott was granted the Mike Larbalestier scholarship in 2006 but has only just now got around to paying the industry back by speaking at the AMSRS conference.
He will happily argue that research in all forms should be a source of enjoyment and give a sense of inclusion to participants, just as much as it should provide empirically sound and valid results.

Net promoter score – Accurate, inconsistent, or just a little bit sensitive?

Scott’s presentation will focus on a key measurement of advocacy that has (for better or worse) slowly become industry standard over the past 5 years, the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Net Promoter Score could be considered the Scientology of the research world. Disparaged by some on the outside, adored by those on the inside. As polarising as it may be, the reality is it’s being used more and more often in research circles as a key business metric. So regardless of whether you love or hate it, NPS needs to be understood.

The key question this presentations and paper will answer will be whether NPS actually has a relationship with what it is purported to measure. That is, people talking about your brand.

In other words, are people who say they’ll tell others about a brand actually doing so in real life, and does NPS accurately reflect this action?

Scott will answer this question directly by drawing on Soup’s five years of data collection across NPS and brand-based conversations. In conducting this meta-analysis we can better understand the relationship between:
- NPS and brand related conversations, and
- NPS and brand sentiment

Scott’s intention for this presentation is to, from a neutral standing point, allow the research industry to gain a greater understanding of NPS and the relationship it may or may not have to actions in the real world. Ultimately allowing researchers to make up their own minds about when, where or if at all to use the Net Promoter Score.

Duncan is a social researcher who specialises in sensitive policy issues and public sector evaluation.
As a member of Urbis’s social policy team from 2000-2010, Duncan helped drive the firm’s practice in using market research in complex policy research and evaluated everything from small scale community development projects to national health programs.
In 2011 he embarked on doctoral studies at the University of Wollongong (UoW) under Prof John Rossiter, looking at key methodological and measurement issues in the evaluation of social marketing programs.
Duncan also manages the applied social research consulting arm of UOW’s Institute for Innovation in Business and Social Research, working alongside some of Australia’s leading research methodologists.
Duncan co-chaired the 2009 AMSRS National Conference and in 2011 launched the AMSRS Social Research Network in NSW. He has run training on research and evaluation methods for AMSRS and the University of NSW and guest lectured on similar topics over a number of years for the Australian and New Zealand School of Government.

Lamb stew and behaviour change: Tasty morsels from the 2011 World Social Marketing Conference, Dublin.

The 2011 World Non-Profit and Social Marketing Conference attracted over 600 delegates from 40 countries. Over two days, the world’s leading social marketers shared case studies, theories, practice models, resources and their passion for harnessing the power of marketing to engage, empower and inspire individuals and communities to adopt positive social change.

With less than 40 Aussies there, the onus is on those who went to spread the word, and do a bit of engaging, empowering and inspiring of their own.

This presentation will provide a ‘best of’ tasting plate of the conference program, including: social marketing using web 2.0 technologies, measuring and reporting return on investment; the opportunities and challenges of going ‘grass roots local’; the cumulative effect of threat-based communications; integration of upstream and downstream strategies; the maturation of social marketing as a discipline; the relationship between social marketing and behavioural economics; and new vehicles for social marketers to connect and collaborate.

A range of links and resources will be available to delegates online following the presentation.

Specialising in evidence-based program evaluation and evaluation of quality systems, Mandy has completed more than 50 major consulting assignments for private and public sector organisations. Focussing on health program evaluation, Mandy has conducted reviews of new models of service delivery, education and accreditation practices, organisational governance and performance monitoring, workforce retention and attraction programs, training pathways and clinical outcomes.

Curious about program evaluation?

The presentation will use a case study approach to help buyers and suppliers new to program evaluation to understand the differences between research and evaluation. Many researchers move between social research and evaluation without being aware of the different expectations of the two areas of enquiry. Buyers of program evaluation are often program managers and expect researchers to know how to deliver an evaluation project. The risk for clients is that they don’t get an evidence-based report at the end of an evaluation, while researchers struggle with a different language and seemingly unreasonable expectations.

The introduction to the presentation will cover fundamental principles in program evaluation such as program theory, evaluation questions, indicators, and evaluation frameworks. The notion of ‘evidence’ will also be discussed and what this means for an evaluation.

The presenters will use a case study approach to demonstrate the process of conceptualising the evaluation and developing a proposal. This will be framed around common evaluation objectives such as appropriateness, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. The presenters will identify what these objectives mean and how they may be measured in an evaluation. Implications for evaluation methods, particularly where they diverse from traditional research methods, will also be discussed.

Social researcher Craig Young is a Partner at leading public sector research consultancy ORIMA Research and manages the company’s Sydney Office. He has spent 20 years providing research consulting services to public and private sector clients – and as a research buyer and analyst for a Commonwealth Government department.
Craig has previously held senior positions at ORC International, where he managed the company’s public sector research practice; at Roy Morgan Research, where he was General Manager of Customised Research; and at Nielsen where he worked in the company’s international research business in Hong Kong.
Craig is a methodological generalist (that is, both a quali and a quanti), but is a specialist in applying practical solutions to challenging research tasks in order to assess government communication campaigns, policies and services.

Jenny Taylor is Director of the Market Research Unit within the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

She has been with the Market Research Unit since 1992 and has over 20 years of public sector experience in health psychology and public health communication.

She is responsible for providing expert advice and management of research for development and evaluation of the Department's social marketing activities and social policy development. Her research has covered a wide variety of public health issues. Her role is instrumental in ensuring the Department gets the best value and strategic advice from its research budget.

A better practice approach to Indigenous market research : A case study.

This presentation will describe the approach taken to conducting a major market research program to support a national government communications campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to promote jobs in the health sector as an employment choice for Indigenous secondary school students, as part of the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiatives.
The research faced significant challenges in trying to reconcile conventional research requirements (rigorous, defensible research using robust sampling methods) with the need to collect data from a non-mainstream target audience (Indigenous children).
Some of the challenges faced by the research program included:
• Cultural barriers experienced, especially in remote locations
• Data collection challenges posed by communication and literacy issues
• Issues associated with obtaining consent to conduct market research with children
• Challenges in obtaining approval to conduct the research from various state/territory jurisdictions
• Logistical problems caused by the remoteness of some of the target audience
• Sampling challenges associated with sourcing a reliable sample frame for quantitative benchmarking research
• Logistical challenges resulting from absence of a telephone sampling frame, low literacy levels and geographical dispersal of parts of the target audience
• Challenges resulting from the need to maintain confidentiality of the market research results for the clients, with the ethical obligation to provide information back to research participants.
• The multi-phase research program comprised qualitative developmental and refinement testing research as well as quantitative benchmarking research. The research strategy employed involved the following elements:
• National qualitative developmental market research (64 focus groups and 90 face-to-face interviews)
• National quantitative benchmarking research, employing a stratified random sample of schools and utilising a teacher-administered paper-based self completion survey.

Lachlan is Group Director and Head of Strategy for Newspoll. Prior to joining Newspoll he was a Director of Chant Link & Associates for 10 years, where he worked with major corporates and Government in areas including branding, segmentation, new product development and positioning, among others. He is a past Treasurer of the Victorian Committee for the AMSRS and holds a Masters in Marketing and an Honours Arts Degree in Visual Arts.

Turning Financially Dysfunctional Lives Around: Understanding the drivers of success of ANZ's Saver Plus program by applying Behavioural Economic Frameworks in a social research context.

ANZ has a high level of commitment to financial inclusion and capability for those in the community who have found themselves excluded from more mainstream financial products and services. To this end it has introduced a range of programs including loans for low income earners, adult financial literacy programs and a matched savings program, known as Saver Plus.

Saver Plus was developed by ANZ in partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence and piloted in 2004. It is a financial literacy and matched savings program that helps families on low incomes save for education expenses. Participants receive financial education, personal support and $1 from ANZ for every $1 saved (up to $1,000).

Since it began, Saver Plus has expanded to include other program partners in multiple locations throughout Australia and has seen several thousand people complete the program. It is a best-in-class program, attracting financial support from the Federal Government and international interest from financial institutions and social researchers.

Saver Plus has been a very successful program on a range of measures, including that 70% of participants have continued to save $1,000 or more years after they had completed the program and received their matched savings. But what is driving the success?

Why is it that people, who, in many cases have had no savings history, have been financially disadvantaged, are from lower SES backgrounds and often dysfunctional circumstances can achieve these outcomes?
Chant Link together with ANZ undertook qualitative research with program partners and program participants to understand the drivers of success of Saver Plus. It was hypothesised that Behavioural Economic Frameworks might help explain the success of the program. This paper sets out to explain the drivers of success for Saver Plus, and lessons for similar programs and social researchers.

Nick Agafonoff is a pioneer in developing applications for video ethnography and documentary filmmaking to strategic research and planning challenges. Presently, he is the director of Real Ethnography, through which he offers a range of services from consulting and research design, to specialised production and insight deliverables. Nick began life as a full-tilt ethnographer plunging himself into participatory research projects in military contexts in the mid to late 90s where he worked with some of Australia’s top sociologists to provide consultation on cultural reform. In 2000 he joined Galileo Kaleidoscope where he was given the scope to develop a range of applications for ethnography and video to commercial research constraints. By 2005 Nick had established an industry reputation as a uniquely talented video ethnographer with an impressive resume of real world research and documentary filmmaking credits, including a feature film. What followed was his own ethnography offer – Interloper, which he successfully ran for the next five years. During this time he conducted extensive ethnography and video insights work for everyone from blue chip FMCG companies, to government bureaus and international consultancies. In 2010, Nick partnered with Ruby Cha Cha to set-up their Living Insights department with a focus on making insights live beyond the PowerPoint presentation.

Documentation to representation – When video trace evidence is presented as ethnography.

Real ethnography is a process made up of several vital components. It can be conducted in a shallow and rapid way, or as a deep, longitudinal inquiry. It offers great diversity in the tools of documentation and description, methods and analysis, but there are fundamental principles that need to be followed. From the perspective of an experienced practitioner the paper titled, "Documentation-to-Representation," clarifies the difference between trace evidence documentation and ethnography in commercial research practice, specific to the medium of video. It offers an overview for how to apply video ethnography to an array of insights-strategy challenges and discusses its fundamental benefits to the business. Practical tips are provided throughout for those with ambitions to be video ethnographers. In proceeding to do this a number of prominent misnomers will also be corrected. These include the following claims that ethnography is:
• Any video, photograph, audio or illustration documenting what people say and do in a natural setting or habitat.
• Pure observation involving many hours in the field watching and studying people.
• Deep intellectual cultural and social analysis of human behaviour by anthropologists only.

Tim Bock is Managing Director of Numbers, where he splits his time between consulting and being the team leader for Q, and an Honorary Visiting Fellow of the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales.

Plots that almost talk: advanced plots for tracking research.

Most tracking presentations consist of “spaghetti” line plots with moving averages and clustered bar plots. These basic plot types have been around for centuries. Such plots often fail to reveal key patterns in the data.
Although the last decade has seen many innovations in graphics (e.g., dials, trivial interactivity), they have, by and large, been innovations in computing technology rather than in the true ability of the plots to communicate.
This paper synthesises the seminal works of Bertin, Tufte and Cleveland as they relate to tracking, and identifies how they can be employed to make tracking reporting present information in a way that is both more digestible and more informative. The paper focuses on presenting non-obvious ways of improving plots, including:
• Using small multiples instead of lines charts and clustered bar charts.
• Replacing moving averages with local polynomial regression when smoothing data.
• Optimal selection of the aspect ratio (relative height and width of a plot) to best reveal patterns in tracking data (i.e., banking).
• How best to combine colour and line type selection.
• Re-arranging data by diagonalization.
• Using sparklines to annotate traditional tables and plots.

James joined Colmar Brunton as a Research Director in February 2009. He has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Canberra, and has also been recognized as a Qualified Practicing Market Researcher (QPMR).

James has a wealth of government research experience, most recently as a consultant to government (since 2005) but also through senior research management positions with the Australian Taxation Office and the former Department of Employment & Workplace Relations. He has a passion for bringing the voice of the client to bear in shaping both policy and service delivery outcomes, and specialises in exploring the user pathways of different client segments to identify opportunities to improve public service delivery, equity and efficiency. He notes and applauds the recent shift in government accountability from an ‘outputs’ to an ‘outcomes’ focus, and believes such a focus necessitates detailed and ongoing conversations with all stakeholders - especially with end users.

Doing it better is a journey, not a destination!

Web 2.0 offers all Government agencies the opportunity to engage with customers, clients or stakeholders in ways that can add significant value to both policy development and program or service delivery. Yet these technologies don’t come with a road map. Many either don’t know how these technologies can be leveraged effectively, or are concerned the risks of such unstructured interaction would outweigh the potential benefits.

Yet some agencies are pioneering in this space, showing that the benefits do indeed outweigh the risks. Through the establishment of an online research community, the Australian Taxation Office is forging strong partnerships with its small to medium enterprise membership base, and are using the insights gathered from Web 2.0 applications – such as discussions, video, blogs, polls and live chats - to actively shape their strategies from an informed, customer centric position. This presentation will showcase some of the lessons learned so far, and ways in which the ATO is having to develop new approaches to client and stakeholder engagement in an (almost) real-time context.

Jo feels she is pretty lucky to be able to combine two interests in her job – a love of travel, and being generally curious (some might say nosy!) in what people are doing and why. She has over ten years market research experience, and now heads up the Travel & Leisure team at TNS. Her work encompasses both qualitative and quantitative techniques, to understand the attitudes, needs and behaviour of both Australians and those from a range of overseas markets.

Victoria was first attracted to market research by a desire to understand why people do what they do. Qualitative research allows Victoria to use the skills gained in her university studies of psychology, sociology and anthropology in a practical setting. She has worked in both boutique agencies and the multi-national agency TNS, prior to setting up her own freelance research service in 2010.Since 2004, Victoria has worked to develop online qualitative approaches. Whilst at TNS she sat on the global steering committee for this technique, and has published articles on this approach. Victoria holds a Bachelor of Psychology from the University of Queensland. She is also a Full member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society, and sits on the AMSRS NSW committee.

Taking the conversation online: A researcher’s guide to the benefits and pitfalls of online qualitative research.

Online qualitative research. Many are curious, but there are also many who are afraid to take the leap. This presentation works to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions which prevent researchers from trialing or perhaps re-trialing an online qualitative methodology. Using examples from recent studies, the presentation will provide practical advice for those interested in using this method. We discuss what we’ve learnt, what we think works well and not so well, as well as challenging the popular myths to show how this method can be used to engage with participants and enhance results.

Teri Nolan is a Research Executive at Latitude Insights. With experience in building and moderating market research online communities, she has a particular interest in using new technologies to get closer to today’s consumer. Teri holds a B.A Arts (Media Comm) and Masters in Communication.

The curious nature of user generated content.

Market research online communities are all about fun, vibrant and stimulating conversations. Retaining members is key to the ongoing success of the community. In the online landscape, community members are but a click away from another website, so interest and engagement is key for the moderator. Looking at examples from Wikipedia, researchers can begin to understand what makes people tick…

Feyi has over 15 years experience as a corporate strategist with experience in market and social research, and marketing strategy specialising in the agriculture, education, IT and social media sectors. Bringing with her a wealth of professional experience, Feyi has worked closely with some of the most senior Ministers in the Federal Cabinet and is well known at the adviser level.

Since joining Kreab Gavin Anderson, Feyi has worked with clients including Google, Yahoo, Apple, Australian Pork Limited, TTF Australia, Carnival Australia, Sydney Opera House and a number of major universities.

Previously, Feyi was the Education Marketing Manager for Apple Computers Australia, responsible for national institutional and retail education marketing from kindergarten through to university. Before this, Feyi was an external strategic consultant and marketing manager. Clients included a range of organisations that blended business with services and issues of social value, including the Commonwealth, NSW and Victorian Education Departments, TAFE NSW, leading universities, Australian Electoral Commission, Department of Defence, Qantas, AMWU, NAB, Energy Australia and Microsoft.

Feyi is able to effectively combine her extensive experience as both a corner-office strategist with her understanding of innovative research technologies and marketing.

Damon is a research methodology design specialist with more than 11 years experience in research design, fieldwork and data analysis across all qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
Damon has extensive experience in conducting research into complex social issues focussing on interpreting and applying research findings to provide strategic and practical recommendations to implement effective communications and messaging to shift opinions and behaviour.

Ham holding: Engaging the Australian pork industry on animal welfare issues.

This presentation outlines recent research we conducted for Austrian Pork Limited amongst a range of key stakeholder groups. It demonstrates how research can be used as a tactical tool in dealing with a complex issue facing an industry body, as well providing they key building blocks for industry reform and engagement. Our modular and flexible approach to the research allowed us to address the most pressing issue of animal welfare concerns and then from there develop a comprehensive strategy that allowed APL to bring the industry across on key reforms around farming practices.

We will take a narrative-based approach in outlining the issues facing the particular industry and will use audio and video material to take the audience through the research findings and the eventual outcomes.

Becky started her career at TNS Worldpanel in London, where she worked for key clients such as P&G, Pepsico and British Bakeries. She moved to Australia in 2007 and worked in the Ipsos Loyalty division where she focused on understanding consumer service relationships including loyalty, satisfaction, advocacy and key Moments of Truth. While at Ipsos she worked across many key service accounts, including Integral Energy, The Commonwealth Bank and Optus. From Ipsos, Becky moved to Added Value Becky where she was responsible for many large scale international quantitative studies including assisting the business refine the Vodafone brand tracker. Joining Ruby cha cha in 2010 Becky has continued to refine her service expertise – working across many of Australia’s largest corporations including Westpac, Vodafone and Challenger.

Kristin Hickey is a founding Partner or ruby cha cha Australia and CEO of ruby cha cha UK. She is passionate about bringing qualitative, quantitative and planning expertise together and is an experienced ESOMAR presenter (ESOMAR Congress 2002, best case study “From Brief Taker to Business Catalyst”; ESOMAR Congress 2004, nominated for best methodological paper, “Show Me The Money”; ESOMAR Congress 2005, Best Paper of the Congress and Year with, “The Heart Transplant”; ESOMAR Congress 2007, “Research Alchemy”; ESOMAR Qual 2008, “Anticipation Marketing”; and ESOMAR Congress 2010 “What the Buzz?!!”)
Kristin is the author of two books in the field of Services Marketing which leverage her background and interest in customer satisfaction and experience measurement. She recently started up ruby cha cha – a boutique research-based planning business with her business partner Ellen Baron in Sydney and is now leading the London office of ruby cha cha.

Spread the word: Fresh learning on advocacy and its business impact

Consumer Advocacy has been well explored as a concept and the relationship between brand experiences, customer satisfaction and business profitability well established. So much so that today, organisations across the globe set broad business objectives and use tracking measures such as Nett Promoter Score (NPS) to monitor brand and business advocacy. Whilst there have been some fabulous contributions to our understanding of advocacy recently published, much of the understanding to date has focussed on HOW to drive advocacy or, alternatively, proving the relationship between advocacy and more traditional measures of brand or business experience. As a result, there remains a significant void in understanding the true motivational nature of advocacy and, perhaps more importantly, the psychological and behavioural impact of advocacy on recommendees (or ‘Advocees’ as we propose denoting them).
This paper takes the principal of advocacy and deconstructs it, delving deeper to understand the missing link between the true social and psychological motivations of advocacy and their brand and business impact. The authors explore exciting new findings and illustrate how these insights have been used to drive best practice thinking and execution in a major Australian service organisation.

- BSc Geography (Hons) – Southampton University
- After a torrid merchant banking experience, Howard switched to marketing research specialising in brands, positioning and communications development. After conducting research in the UK, New Zealand and Australia and finding research was too often ‘average’ and not actionable Howard founded Pollinate as an expert communications research company. Eight years on Pollinate employs some of Australia’s best thinkers, developing world class models and launching successful businesses which continue to change the paradigm of communications. Howard is a passionate communicator and dedicated to developing successful sustainable solutions for society.

- BCom Marketing (Hons) – University of Otago
- Seb started his research career straight out of university at NeedScope International in New Zealand where he gained a solid foundation in motivational research techniques. After 6 years of working in New Zealand at various agencies Seb now brings his inquisitive mind and to Australia. He is fascinated by what makes people tick and thrives on tough challenges, always seeking to provide meaningful and actionable outputs for clients. He has worked for a wide range of clients in New Zealand and Australia from Heineken to Telecom New Zealand and MasterCard to JC Decaux. Seb has a wide range of experience working in a range of different clients across New Zealand and Australia including FMCG companies, financial service providers and media agencies among others to help them build a knowledge bank of insights to use in developing new products and services or refining the way in which they communicate to potential customers or clients.

If we build it they MIGHT come, if they help build it they WILL engage - Understanding the value of collaborating with the audience to ensure engagement with online communities.

The gradual societal shift from close knit, neighbourhood defined communities to wider, geographically dispersed, loosely connected communities coupled with the fracturing of traditional media has resulted in a power shift from the media and brand owners to the consumer. The fact that people have never lost their fundamental need to be social has resulted in an opportunity for brands to utilise a new channel and engage with consumers in a more meaningful way through online communities.

Qualitative research was conducted with potential members of online communities (in each case all respondents were recruited to be ‘influencers’ in their social networks and passionate about the category) in order to build the most successful communities possible. The research challenge was two-fold; firstly to leverage the existing brand’s equity (their promises to consumers) to build a meaningful community, and secondly to establish the elements of a brand that can be utilised to make a community meaningful.

The presentation will discuss the research approach undertaken and outline the results using a ‘simplified’ model from Yalom’s theory of strong communities and how to build a purpose for the community that will be relevant, meaningful and motivating for the right groups of people. We will also detail implications for brand owners, what they need to do to build a successful community and the results they can achieve.

Ralitza Bell is a full-time lecturer in Marketing and Strategic Management in the Faculty of Business of the Australian Catholic University, North Sydney Campus. She researches in the field of strategic marketing, services marketing, business-to-business marketing and marketing of professional services.Her research has been presented at ANZMAC, ANZAM and other international academic conferences in marketing. Before becoming an academic she had worked in international advertising, exports of foodstuffs, and FMCG marketing.

Decision-making under incomplete information: A B2B perspective.

This paper describes an empirical study of outsourcing professional business services by Australian organisations. Examples of such services include auditing, legal, management consulting, advertising, and IT services. Professional business services are costly, and often directly impact the performance client’s core business. If executed well the service can add great value to the client’s operations. However, poor service quality could result in substantial financial losses for the service recipient. Hence choosing the right service provider is essential. The problem is that at the time the outsourcing decision is being made, it is not clear, what the future service quality will be, because of the intangible and credence character of these services. Obviously this creates challenges for the buying organisation’s decision makers, since they need to make the important purchase decision under incomplete information about service quality. This research examines how organisational buyers manage the risk inherent in outsourcing professional business services. A conceptual model is developed based on review of the relevant literature. The model is tested using mailing survey data and structural equation modelling. The results provide empirical support for the hypothesised linkages among the research constructs. The findings of this test are discussed and implications for management practice are outlined.

Jannie Mia Adamsen is in the final stages of her doctoral studies at Griffith University, from where she also holds a Master of International Business (2007). Her background is Danish, and prior to moving to Australia in 2004 to study at Griffith University, she worked full-time as an Account Manager in the service and logistics sector (B2B).

Jannie's research interests span around organic food consumption and related sustainable and green marketing practices as well as methodological comparisons with a specific focus on choice experiments. Her research has been presented at a number of national and international conferences. She has tutored and lectured a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the areas of introductory marketing, market research and international business, and is frequently engaged with producing learning materials (resources guides and case studies) for marketing textbooks. She is also involved in a number of industry-related projects with a specific focus on uncovering consumer preferences.

A/Professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele is an international marketing expert who has worked in Universities in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Sweden. She has published over 100 refereed papers, co-authors Australia’s market leading Marketing Principles text book, teaches a wide range of Marketing courses, and been awarded in excess of $1/4 million in research funding.
Prior to joining academia Sharyn worked in the FMCG industry in Australia before moving into the strategic consulting and market research industry where she completed projects in property services, logistics, FMCG, durable goods and infrastructure industries.
Sharyn’s current projects include developing an education intervention to change adolescent attitudes towards excessive drinking, in partnership with QCEC; and a >$100K project to understand consumer preferences (on behalf of an industry client). She has recently completed a 3 country study to benchmark knowledge and attitudes towards alcohol.
As well as developing and coordinating the Graduate Certificate in Social Marketing to be offered in 2012 at Griffith University, she regularly provides tailored social marketing training. Sharyn is co-editor of the Journal of Social Marketing (see http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=JSOCM) and she currently serves on the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy (www.anzmac.org.au) and Australian Association of Social Marketing (http://aasm.org.au/about.htm) Executives.

Trials and tribulations of online best-worst choice experiments.

A significant proportion of surveys used for market research purposes are based on simple ratings scales (such as Likert). However, there are a number of shortcomings of these scales including over- or under-reporting depending on the context, and the tendency of different cohorts (e.g. cultures) of respondents to use scales differently. Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) mitigates the limitations of rating scales. So why is this type of method not used extensively in the market research industry? Having completed nine different online BWS studies over the last 2 years we look at some of the drawbacks of this particular approach (including experimental design and data processing) combined with the overall positive feedback we have received from respondents. Overall, we do believe the BWS method has a significant potential to improve predictability in market research – the response rate and positive feedback from participants speaks for itself!

Samantha is currently a research manager at the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR). The Institute is a joint initiative of WorkSafe Victoria, the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and Monash University. She is responsible for the management and delivery of high-quality and relevant research to the Institute’s partner organisations. For five years Samantha worked in a number of roles at the TAC; Victoria’s compulsory third party insurance regulator. In her time at the TAC, Samantha coordinated research and service improvement programs to develop and improve customer service, staff engagement and maximise outcomes for people injured on the road. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science, Psychology (Hons.) from Deakin University.

Determining futures in occupational health and safety and injury compensation

The Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR) developed a foresight initiative using the knowledge and insights from futures methodologies to address a key question from ISCRR’s 2010/11 Research Plan (“What are the long-term issues facing WorkSafe and TAC that can effectively be addressed by ISCRR?”). The program of work was based on Inayatullah’s six pillar futures methodology and followed the Lavis program logic for stakeholder dialogue.

Using this futures approach within a logic for stakeholder dialogue created a unique multidisciplinary environment that brought together academics, industry experts and senior managers within the compensation schemes. It promoted engagement and the emergence of new thinking across sectors and industries. Scenarios on possible futures for this sector and ideas for research questions were produced, and were one input to the development of ISCRR’s Research Strategy to 2015. This engagement with our stakeholders has helped build and strengthen relationships during the establishment of ISCRR, all of which is critical to the success of achieving real outcomes from research.

The presentation will highlight:
• the learnings gained during this program of work;
• how industry partners were engaged in developing ISCRR’s futures-oriented and evidence-informed research agenda; and
• how this engagement assists with ensuring the translation of research findings and knowledge into strategy, policy and practice.

Con is a quantitative researcher and modeller in advanced analytics and marketing research. His background is in consumer insights, analytics, quantitative modelling and strategic marketing.

Con has held senior research and modelling positions at Woolworths Ltd, Integral Energy Australia, American Express Australia and AMR Interactive and UTS’s Market Research Consulting Arm. Con current role is the Decision Systems Director at Synovate.

The solutions that Con has developed comprise consumer preference modelling, behavioural market segmentation using parametric and non-parametric methods, predictive data mining for consumer needs and new product development and a host of modelling solutions designed to understand the way consumers interact with goods, services and marketing information and make choices.

Con lectures in statistics, pricing, decision modelling, market research and marketing strategy for consumer and B2B at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Con’s Ph.D. contributes to research methodology on how to measure and control brand equity. His academic work focuses on explore and theorizing how consumers interact with market information to evaluate the equity of brands.

Con has published both academically and managerially across branding, brand equity, the modelling of consumer choice, machine learning, marketing research methods, psychopathy and health care and presently is a lecturer at the University of Newcastle.

Brian is a thought leader in online research, advocating high quality in online research, specialising in designing, recruiting, calibrating, analysing and weighting data to represent the target populations being surveyed.

Brian’s credentials include:

• Currently Adjunct Professor, UTS Business School, as well as a Fellow and QPMR of AMSRS. He is also the ESOMAR Representative for Australia and on the AMSRO committee.
• Commenced building online panels in 1999 as Managing Director of AMR Interactive, then separating the panel off as the ORU.
• Brian Fine set up Media Metrix in Australia in 2000, to measure online audiences and was an Australian affiliate of Harris Interactive, Jupiter Research and JD Power.
• Was previous chairman of AMSRS, President of AMSRO and chaired the AMSRO Online Research Quality task force which developed and launched QSOAP (Quality Standards for Online Access Panels) and its accreditation system.
• Brian was nominated for best-paper at the ESOMAR Online Conference in 2006.
• He has also presented at AMSRS and other International Conferences, and was awarded ‘best paper’ at the 2009 AMSRS Conference, with Con Menictas.

End-to-End Online

The marketing research discipline has undergone phenomenal change over time in the way it collects data i.e., the data generation process. We have seen quantitative data generation evolve from face to face and pen and paper, to telephone and recently to online methods. Online methods have even begun to incorporate verbatim responses that can quantitatively mimic qualitative data.

Technological advancement has enabled the proliferation of online data generation methods. However, for us as a profession to tap into the benefits of online data, a paradigm shift in the way that we recruit respondents; the way that we manage sample; and the way that we analyse our data, is required. This paper lays the foundation of conducting quality marketing research by introducing improvements in the end-to-endquantitative research process for online data.

As a profession we need to incorporate these improvements if marketing research is to withstand client scrutiny, now and in the future. Therefore, this paper presents:
1. The ground rules for quality recruitment;
2. The guidelines on managing the data to increase consistency of research outputs in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies; and
3. The analytical methodsthat need to be considered for weighting and modelling online quantitative data.