Qualitative Research with Disabled Participants: LESSONS LEARNED

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1 vue the magazine of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association OCTOBER 2012 Qualitative Research with Disabled Participants: LESSONS LEARNED You Say Tomato, I Say Canadian Publications Mail Agreement # Do Pictures Bias Polls? AU CONTRAIRE (3) L insoutenable légèreté de l achat In Conversation with Gary Bennewies President and CEO of Ipsos Canada

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3 In this month s features: (L to R) Sylvie Croteau, George Rassias, Mark Zwelling, Chuck Chakrapani, Gary Bennewies vue OCTOBER 2012 VUE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE MARKETING RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION TEN TIMES A YEAR SPECIAL FEATURE 10 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH WITH DISABLED PARTICIPANTS: LESSONS LEARNED by Sylvie Croteau FEATURES 14 YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY by George Rassias 18 DO PICTURES BIAS POLLS? by Marc Zwelling 20 AU CONTRAIRE (3) THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BUYING by Chuck Chakrapani 24 AU CONTRAIRE (3) L INSOUTENABLE LÉGÈRETÉ DE L ACHAT par Chuck Chakrapani 28 IN CONVERSATION WITH GARY BENNEWIES, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF IPSOS CANADA by Christian Mueller COMMENTARY 4 Editor s Vue 6 Letter from the Executive Director INDUSTRY NEWS 13 In Memoriam Joseph B. Doyle 31 Research Registration System (RRS) 32 People and Companies in the News 34 Qualitative Research Registry (QRR) COLUMNISTS 37 QUALITAS 37 INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY 37 BRAVE NEW WORLD 38 THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION 38 TWO SOLITUDES 39 CSRC ADDRESS The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L association de la recherche et de l intelligence marketing 2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg. 4, Unit 104 Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Tel: (905) Toll Free: MRIA (6742) Fax: (905) vue@mria-arim.ca Website: PRODUCTION: LAYOUT/DESIGN LS Graphics Tel: (905) , Toll Free: Fax: (905) info@lsgraphics.com CONTACTS CHAIR, PUBLICATIONS Stephen Popiel, PhD, CMRP, Vice President, GfK Custom Research NA Tel: (905) x 242 Mobile: (416) Stephen.Popiel@gfk.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer, Conversition (416) apettit@conversition.com MANAGING EDITOR Anne Marie Gabriel, MRIA amgabriel@mria-arim.ca ASSOCIATE EDITOR Christian Mueller, PhD, CMRP (647) christianmuellerphd@gmail.com COPY EDITOR Siegfried Betterman Interested in joining the Vue editorial team? Contact us at vue@mria-arim.ca 2012 ADVERTISING RATES Frequent advertisers receive discounts. Details can be found by going to: Please vue@mria-arim.ca to book your ad. The deadline for notice of advertising is the first of the previous month. All advertising material must be at the MRIA office on the 5th of the month. Original articles and Letters to the Editor are welcome. Materials will be reviewed by the Vue Editorial Team. If accepted for publication, they may be edited for length or clarity and placed in the electronic archives on the MRIA website. The opinions and conclusions expressed in Vue are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. Publishing Date: October, All rights reserved. Copyright rests with the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association or the author. All requests for permission for reproduction must be submitted to MRIA at publications@mria-arim.ca. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association L Association de la recherche et de l intelligence marketing 2600 Skymark Avenue, Bldg 4, Unit 104, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5B2 Canadian Publications Mail Agreement # ISSN

4 COMMENTARY / COMMENTAIRE Editor s Vue Annie Pettit I have a dream A dream of a Vue magazine that celebrates the Canadian perspective of marketing research en français and in English, from coast to coast, from hamlet to megacity. A magazine that represents both client-side and vendor-side researchers. A magazine that celebrates the diversity of researchers, both awe-inspiring and fresh from college. I m excited to take my turn at the editor s wheel and look forward to a Vue magazine that continues to get better every year. My journey as editor-in-chief begins with this issue focusing on government and diversity and I ve just covered the diversity part. Diversity is a vision I ve had for a long time and one that I look forward to seeing more of here, on the written and digital page. And since we re talking digital, be sure to post some of your conference pictures on our new Facebook page, comment on one of our lively LinkedIn discussions, and share your thoughts by writing a post on our new blog. As for the focus on government, it s easy to forget all the interactions MRIA has with the Canadian government on our behalf. Our organization played a role in bringing the long-form Canadian census back into use and, as always, continues to ensure that marketing researchers enjoy special provisions and exceptions, such as the exemption from the do-not-call list. And just a few short months ago, I was truly honoured to be asked to travel with Brendan Wycks, the executive director of MRIA, to speak to members of the House of Commons about our perspectives on ethics and privacy in social media research. If we can continue to demonstrate that we are serious about ethical self-regulation, we can help ensure that new legislative restrictions on how we conduct research in the online space aren t created. So come away with me and enjoy the Vue. J ai un rêve Le rêve d un magazine Vue qui célèbre la perspective canadienne de la recherche marketing en français et in English, d un océan à l autre, des villages aux grandes villes. Un magazine qui célèbre la diversité des praticiens de la recherche, qu ils aient des antécédents imposants ou qu ils soient fraîchement sortis du collège. Je suis enthousiasmée de me retrouver à la barre du rédacteur en chef et de travailler à améliorer le magazine Vue de plus en plus chaque année. Mon parcours de rédactrice en chef commence avec ce numéro qui met l accent sur le gouvernement et la diversité et je viens de couvrir la dimension de la diversité. La diversité est une vision que j ai depuis longtemps et que je désire voir plus ici, sur les pages imprimées et numériques. Et, en parlant de numérique, n oubliez pas d afficher vos photos de la conférence sur la nouvelle page Facebook, d inscrire vos commentaires sur nos vives discussions dans LinkedIn, et de partager vos idées en écrivant un message dans notre nouveau blogue. Quant à mettre l accent sur le gouvernement, il est facile d oublier toutes les interactions de l ARIM avec le gouvernement canadien en notre nom. Notre organisation a joué un rôle dans le rétablissement du formulaire détaillé du recensement et, comme toujours, elle continue de s assurer que les praticiens de la recherche marketing bénéficient de dispositions spéciales et d exceptions telles que l exemption de la liste nationale de numéros de télécommunication exclus. De plus, il y a quelques mois, j ai été très honorée d être invitée à accompagner Brendan Wycks, le directeur général de l ARIM, pour parler à des membres de la Chambre des communes au sujet de nos perspectives sur l éthique et la protection des renseignements personnels dans la recherche par médias sociaux. Si nous pouvons continuer de démontrer que nous prenons très au sérieux l autoréglementation éthique, nous pouvons assurer qu on n imposera pas de nouvelles limites législatives sur la façon dont nous effectuons la recherche dans l espace en ligne. Alors, échappez-vous avec moi et ayez du plaisir à lire Vue. Annie Pettit PhD, Chief Research Officer / Directrice de la Recherche, Conversition Editor-in-Chief, Vue / Rédactrice en chef, Vue apettit@conversition.com (416) vue October 2012

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6 COMMENTARY / COMMENTAIRE Message from the Executive Director Brendan Wycks Social Media Research and Privacy Rights: A New Area for MRIA Government Relations and Self-Regulatory Advocacy When we ask members what they value most about MRIA, as we do through periodic satisfaction surveys, government relations and advocacy always ranks highly, usually a close second to standards. Appreciation of the value and benefits of the association s work in these areas rises with a member s longevity in the association. Government relations and advocacy is an area of constant strategic focus and significant resource allocation for your association. Over the past eight years, MRIA has achieved a number of significant legislative and regulatory wins for the industry, most notably through exemptions from the national Do Not Call List legislation and Canada s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). With the focus of this issue of Vue being on government, I want to report on a recent government relations initiative in which the association has been involved, in support of our members and of strengthening the positive image and reputation that our self-regulatory industry has earned in the eyes of legislators and regulators. As Annie Pettit, Vue s new editor-in-chief, highlights in her editor s note, she and I with the assistance of Greg Jodouin, our government relations consultant represented MRIA before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on June 5. Drawing largely upon Annie s expertise as an internationally respected authority on social media research, MRIA presented a brief that responded to the committee s study of the adequacy of the measures taken by Google, Facebook and other social media to protect the personal information of Canadians who use their programs. Here is an excerpt of some of the key messages we delivered on your behalf: Recherche par médias sociaux et droits de la protection des renseignements personnels : Un nouveau domaine de relations gouvernementales et de promotion de l autoréglementation de l ARIM Lorsque nous demandons à nos membres, comme nous le faisons périodiquement lors de nos sondages sur la satisfaction, ce qui a le plus de valeur dans ce que l ARIM leur offre, «les relations gouvernementales et la défense de nos droits» se classent toujours très haut, généralement au deuxième rang très près de «normes». L appréciation de la valeur et des avantages du travail de l association dans ces domaines augmente avec la longévité des membres au sein de l association. Les relations gouvernementales et la défense des droits sont des domaines sur lesquels votre association concentre constamment sa stratégie et des ressources considérables. Au cours des huit dernières années, l ARIM a remporté plusieurs victoires législatives et réglementaires significatives pour l industrie, tout particulièrement par rapport aux exemptions dans la loi s appliquant à la liste nationale de numéros de télécommunication exclus et dans la loi antipourriel du Canada. Étant donné que ce numéro est axé sur le gouvernement, je vais rendre compte d une initiative récente de relations gouvernementales à laquelle notre association a participé en appui à nos membres et pour renforcer l image et la réputation positive que notre industrie autoréglementée a acquises auprès des législateurs et des organismes réglementaires. Comme l a souligné la nouvelle rédactrice en chef de Vue Annie Pettit dans son message, le 5 juin, nous avons elle et moi représenté l ARIM avec l aide de Greg Jodouin, notre consultant en relations gouvernementales devant le Comité permanent de l information, de la protection des renseignements personnels et de l éthique de la Chambre des communes. Puisant abondamment dans l expertise d Annie, qui est reconnue mondialement comme une autorité en matière de recherche par médias sociaux, l ARIM a présenté un mémoire qui correspond à l étude du comité sur la justesse des mesures prises par Google, Facebook et d autres médias sociaux pour protéger les renseignements personnels des Canadiens qui utilisent leurs programmes. 6 vue October 2012

7 COMMENTARY / COMMENTAIRE Social media research is the application of traditional marketing research principles to the collection and analysis of social media data for the purpose of better understanding policies and opinions. Where survey researchers decide which people are best suited to participate in a survey, social media researchers decide which websites or other online forums are best suited for better understanding opinions. They incorporate traditional aspects of marketing research, including sampling, weighting, scaling, norms, and box scores to ensure opinions are measured as accurately as possible. Social media research is not a kinder, gentler term for social media marketing. Researchers do not market products. They do not sell products. Like their counterparts working on the traditional side of the survey research industry, social media researchers must comply with the same methodological and ethical guidelines and standards. Our industry has always taken privacy rights seriously, no matter the medium through which we interact with Canadians. In keeping with the high standards we have adopted for more traditional research methodologies, MRIA has been part of a global initiative to develop guidelines around ethical social media research, with a view to protecting the privacy of online Canadians. This initiative has been led by our counterpart organization in Europe, ESOMAR, with participation and input from MRIA and several other industry associations around the world. MRIA is now in the process of codifying those social media research guidelines and building them into our standards code, with which our members must comply. We submit that one of the committee s main challenges will be in determining whether our federal privacy legislation, PIPEDA, remains current and can still strike a balance between Canadians privacy rights and the needs of businesses as they seek to flourish in the digital economy. We believe that such a balance is achievable. It will require an exploration of what constitutes ethical business protocols. It may also require, however, an evaluation of the privacy expectations of online Canadians, and how those expectations compare to those that exist in the traditional offline context. Ten years ago, it seemed incomprehensible that the average person would share intimate details of his or her life online. Today, bloggers are regular people who get excited when strangers, not their friends and family, read their thoughts and share them widely. Voici un extrait de certains messages clés que nous avons présentés en votre nom : La recherche par médias sociaux est l application des principes de la recherche marketing traditionnelle à la collecte et analyse des données des médias sociaux dans le but de mieux comprendre les politiques et les opinions. Alors que les praticiens de la recherche-sondage choisissent quels seront les meilleurs participants à un sondage, les praticiens de la recherche par médias sociaux choisissent les sites Web qui conviennent le mieux à une meilleure compréhension des opinions. Cette nouvelle forme de pratique intègre les éléments traditionnels de la recherche marketing, dont l échantillonnage, la pondération, la mise à l échelle, les normes et les cotes afin d assurer que les opinions sont mesurées aussi précisément que possible. La recherche par médias sociaux n est pas un terme plus gentil et doux pour le marketing par médias sociaux. Les praticiens de la recherche ne font pas de commercialisation de produits. Ils ne vendent pas de produits. Ils doivent respecter les mêmes directives et normes éthiques et méthodologiques que leurs homologues de l industrie de la recherche-sondage. Notre industrie a toujours pris très au sérieux les droits de la protection des renseignements personnels, quel que soit le médium d interaction avec les Canadiens. Conformément aux normes élevées que nous avons adoptées pour les méthodologies de recherche plus traditionnelle, l ARIM fait partie d une initiative internationale visant à élaborer des directives sur l éthique de la recherche par médias sociaux dans le but de protéger les renseignements personnels en ligne des Canadiens. Cette initiative est dirigée par notre homologue européen ESOMAR, avec la participation de l ARIM et plusieurs autres associations de l industrie partout dans le monde. L ARIM codifie présentement ces directives sur la recherche par médias sociaux et les intègre dans notre code des normes auquel nos membres doivent se conformer. Nous reconnaissons qu un des principaux défis du Comité est de déterminer si notre loi fédérale sur la protection des renseignements personnels, la LPRPDÉ, demeure d actualité et peut encore assurer un équilibre entre les droits de la protection des renseignements personnels des Canadiens et les besoins des entreprises qui veulent prospérer dans l économie numérique. Nous croyons qu il est possible d atteindre un tel équilibre. Pour ce faire, il faudra étudier ce qui constitue un protocole d éthique en affaires. Il faudra peut-être aussi évaluer les attentes en matière de protection des renseignements personnels en ligne et de quelle façon ces attentes sont comparables à celles qu on nourrit dans un contexte traditionnel hors ligne. vue October

8 COMMENTARY / COMMENTAIRE Public forums are open social networks where strangers from around the world find and share opinions with each other. Twitter is a newer entrant into the social media space and, for many people using it, the ultimate goal is to write a tweet that millions of people around the world will read. We have reached a stage where social media have become so ingrained in our lives that social media users expect companies to respond to social media comments written in obscure corners of the Internet. People expect their social media complaints to be met with letters of apology. The experience of social media research practitioners tells us that, from the perspective of social media users, most Canadians who publish information online are quite informed about what they are doing; they have a good understanding of the impact of their actions; and they know what steps to take to protect their personal information. For example, they will make decisions about how and where to share information based on the audience they intend to reach from the world at large, through a post on a public blog, to a targeted, controlled access group of friends on their Facebook page. In light of this, we submit that it might be erroneous to assume that Canadians have the same privacy expectations when they post personal information online as they do when they interact in the offline context. Yet online Canadians still expect that certain levels of safeguards and protocols should exist in the digital environment. This point will be critical in assessing whether a balance exists between individuals privacy rights and the needs of businesses; and, in this respect, we suggest that Parliament should review PIPEDA s regulatory definition of publicly available information to evaluate whether it remains current in the online context. Il y a dix ans, il semblait impensable que la moyenne des gens partage des détails intimes en ligne sur leur vie. Aujourd hui, les blogueurs sont des gens ordinaires qui sont stimulés quand des étrangers, non pas des amis ou parents, lisent leurs pensées et les partagent largement. Les forums publics sont des réseaux sociaux ouverts où des étrangers de partout dans le monde trouvent et partagent des opinions. Le Twitter est un nouvel arrivant dans l espace des médias sociaux et, pour un grand nombre d utilisateurs, leur but ultime est d écrire un micromessage que des millions de personnes dans le monde liront. Nous en sommes arrivés au point où les médias sociaux sont devenus si enracinés dans nos vies que ses utilisateurs s attendent à ce que les entreprises répondent aux commentaires sur des médias sociaux dans des coins obscurs d Internet. Les gens s attendent à ce que leurs plaintes par médias sociaux reçoivent des lettres d excuses. L expérience des praticiens de la recherche par médias sociaux nous apprend que, du point de vue de l utilisateur, la plupart des Canadiens qui affichent des renseignements en ligne sont assez bien informés sur ce qu ils font; ils comprennent bien les conséquences de leurs actions et savent quelles mesures prendre pour protéger leurs renseignements personnels. Par exemple, ils choisissent la façon et l endroit où ils partageront des renseignements et les visiteurs qu ils veulent atteindre allant du monde en général, à un blogue public ou à l accès ciblé et contrôlé à leur page Facebook accordé à un groupe d amis. Étant donné la situation, nous soutenons que ce serait peut-être une erreur d assumer que les Canadiens ont les mêmes attentes par rapport à la protection des renseignements personnels quand ils affichent des renseignements personnels en ligne que lorsqu ils interagissent dans un contexte hors ligne. Cependant, les Canadiens en ligne s attendent tout de même à ce qu il y ait certains niveaux de protection et de protocoles dans l environnement numérique. Il est critique de déterminer s il y a un équilibre entre les droits de la protection des renseignements personnels des individus et les besoins des entreprises. À cet égard, nous suggérons que le Parlement révise la définition de «renseignements auxquels le public a accès» dans le Règlement de la LPRPDÉ afin d évaluer s il demeure d actualité dans le contexte en ligne. The full text of the brief we delivered on Parliament Hill can be found on our website at INDMEMBERSONLY/SocialMediaPrivacyBrief.asp. Le texte complet du mémoire que nous avons présenté sur la Colline du Parlement se trouve sur notre site Web à Brief.asp. Brendan Wycks, BA, MBA, CAE, Executive Director / Directeur général, Marketing Research and Intelligence Association / L Association de la recherche et de l intelligence marketing bwycks@mria-arim.ca (905) ext./poste vue October 2012

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10 Qualitative Research with Disabled Participants: Lessons Learned Sylvie Croteau As vice-president with Ad Hoc Research, Sylvie Croteau specializes in qualitative research. One of her areas of expertise is research with people living with a physical disability. This article is about some of her experiences in disability research, and provides eight invaluable lessons for disability researchers. A little nervous, I climb up the stairs and ring the doorbell. A tall, handsome, young man opens the door. Have I seen you somewhere before? Err I don t think so. Double-check spec sheet: Alexandre, 27, blind. No, definitely not. He bursts out laughing. Lesson 1: Relax Many people I have met joke readily about their disability. And they do not keep their tongues tied for the sake of political correctness. Blind people say, I see what you re saying, and deaf individuals use phrases such as I hear ya! Of course, in the context of disability research, respect should be the guiding principle, as it should in any relationship. This is why I specifically make a point of referring to people with disabilities as people, not quadriplegics, the deaf or the blind. Their disability does not define them. They are people first. We enter Alexandre s apartment. I m struck by how effortlessly he walks around, pulling up a chair for me, pouring some coffee. Lesson 2: Much of the Experience of Disability Stems from the World Outside This would be the first of my many visits to the homes of people with a disability. Time and time again, I ve been struck by their resourcefulness and by how little their disability seems to affect their ability to function when they are in adapted surroundings. Marc, an incredibly ingenious quadriplegic man, has dreamt up an array of contraptions to help him function. Everything in his home is either voice-activated or can be operated with a stick he holds in his mouth. The stick falls? No problem. Again using his mouth, he seizes another one from the tablet of his motorized wheelchair. Marc is very computer-savvy, which is necessary these days when you work as an accountant. Of course, that s when he s not sailing on a nearby lake. People become so skilled at adapting their surroundings that, at home, disability is often barely an issue. The main obstacles come from the world outside: the design of streets and public buildings, the transit system, shops and restaurants. It often doesn t take much to make a tremendous difference in a disabled 10 vue October 2012

11 SPECIAL FEATURE person s life. Research can help by identifying where adaptations are required. Lesson 3: Learnings Can Have Wide-ranging Applications As customer sourcing becomes a growing trend, the disabled community constitutes a largely untapped source of innovative spark. The creativity of disabled consumers, as they craft their own devices or modify mass-market products to fit their needs, can inspire the creation, development or re-engineering of products geared to the general population. Inclusive design is often beneficial to all. A classic example: the curb cut. The sidewalk slope on street corners means that someone in a wheelchair can cross the street unaided. And it just so happens that getting around becomes easier for preschoolers on their tricycles, tourists dragging heavy suitcases, parents pushing a stroller,. By the way: It s so much more efficient to take into account everyone s needs at the design stage of a project rather than modifying an existing structure as an afterthought. Lesson 4: Don t Assume When I first met Allen, I asked my questions very dis-tinct-ly, using simple words, knowing that he was completely deaf and relied on the movements of my lips to understand me. He responded clearly, thoughtfully, with elaborate sentences. I ended up responding in kind, feeling more than a little silly: as long as he had a clear view of my lips, he understood every word I was saying. He must have thought initially that I was a little dense. Allen is one of many proficient lip-readers I ve met, but I also remember vividly my interview with Farida, a very bright deaf girl who lip-read my questions and very eloquently voiced her opinion on some of the intricacies of closed captioning. Farida was eight years old at the time. Lesson 5: Offer Various Modes of Participation Asking participants about their needs and preferences regarding modes of contribution to a study is key to conducting successful research with disabled individuals. Often, using a combination of methods is best. In the area of communication, there are some key guidelines to follow. Hearing disability. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people vary greatly in terms of their preferred modes of communication. Some can hear a bit of sound and rely on lip-reading to catch what they missed. Others need a lip interpreter a person who repeats the essence of what the speaker is saying, but more distinctly and using words that are easier to recognize visually. Others use sign language only or listen to sign language and reply orally or some other combination. When you organize group sessions with participants who have a hearing disability, segment participants in terms of communication methods: it will be much easier to understand one another. So how do you know what communication mode to use when speaking with someone who has a hearing disability? You don t. You ask. The only constant: Look directly at the person who is speaking to you, even when you are hearing them through an interpreter. Don t let yourself forget who your interlocutor is. One mistake I made early on is to assume that the written word would eliminate communication barriers. Hearing or not, how could it matter if you re writing to one another? Online discussions seemed like the perfect method to gather deaf people s opinions. It hadn t occurred to me that for people born deaf, English is a second language, their first being sign language. Many, especially in the younger generation, are completely fluent in written English. Actually, deaf teenagers are often quicker readers than their hearing counterparts, having developed their ability through closed-captioned television. But some others struggle. Sign language and English are completely different languages. Upon reading an online discussion, a Chinese-speaking friend of mine commented that some of the sentence structures written by signing participants were closer to Mandarin than to English. Where did I go wrong? I had never asked participants how comfortable they felt reading and writing in English. As a consequence, participants less proficient in English kept their answers to a minimum. Completing the text-based discussion with Skype or in-person meetings would have allowed those most at ease with sign language to participate more fully. Visual disability. Magnifying and screen-reading software enable many users with a vision disability to work with computers quite proficiently. While many prefer using the spoken word, participants can answer online surveys and join online discussions provided the applications and websites are accessible. Screen readers sound out everything on each web page. On non-adapted sites, this procedure includes irrelevant HTML codes; and telephone numbers such as become eighteen billion, eight hundred and eighty-five million, five hundred and fifty-one thousand, two hundred and twelve. Users have to filter through the gobbledygook to interpret the contents of the screen. Quadriplegia. If you are asking people who are quadriplegic to participate in an online study, do keep in mind that they will be using voice recognition software. It must be easy to jump from one frame to another with a single voice command (such as tab ). Ask providers if their online tools are W3C compliant the current web accessibility standard. And then ask users to test out the tools for you. If your online methodology is well planned, results can be quite impressive. In one study that I organized, people who are vue October

12 SPECIAL FEATURE deaf, blind or quadriplegic met on a single forum to share their experiences. Where else but on the Internet could this have been possible? There are also a number of guidelines in the area of transportation, as it is often a considerable constraint. The challenge is obvious for people living with a mobility impairment. For people who are blind, while travelling to a familiar location is more feasible, finding their way in a new environment presents a greater challenge. As Canadians, we know that getting around in wintry conditions is a challenge for all, but consider icy sidewalks and snowbanks from the point of view of someone who is blind or in a wheelchair. If you are entertaining the thought of a wintertime study involving people living with a mobility or visual impairment, you should be the one braving the ice and snow. Also keep in mind that some people who are disabled have serious health issues. The effort expended in coming to you may impede the quality of participation, as they may have little energy left to engage fully in the research interaction. If you must have participants with mobility or vision issues travel to a research facility, ask them about their preferred transportation option and make the arrangements for them. Public transportation services for the disabled are an option but, in many cities, making reservations can be a challenge. Dealing with specialized transportation services can be a learning experience in itself! Consider hiring a specialized taxi company that picks up participants at their home and drops them off at the door of the facility. Lesson 6: Refer to the Experts People with a disability are natural usability experts. Their unique perspectives provide insights that would not emerge with able-bodied participants. Many people, especially the aging, have to adapt to declining abilities. The shift is often gradual, but sometimes it is sudden. With some individuals, abilities come and go. A solution that worked at some point may lose its usefulness as time goes by, leaving people scrambling for an alternative. I ve been amazed by how people are able to take some very difficult challenges in stride and are sometimes even driven to excel, not despite, but because of their disability. Witnessing a proficient user of computer screen-reading technology is awe-inspiring. I conducted a website usability testing interview at Luke s home. Luke has been blind since infancy and uses screen readers at the highest possible speed. Watching him navigate through the site, I had to ask Luke to slow down. I consider myself pretty web-savvy, but I just could not keep up. He went on to suggest relevant tweaks to the programming that had not occurred to the website developers. Lesson 7: You Need Lead Time and Leeway Associations for people living with a disability are a natural starting point from which to begin recruiting participants. They have lists of individuals who fit your recruiting specs. And part of their mandate is often to ensure that their members needs and opinions are heard and valued. They are often eager to help. You should know, however, that associations need advance notice. If you are asking for their help to recruit, factor in at least twice, if not three or four times your usual recruiting time, for a number of reasons: Use of volunteers. A large proportion of these associations are operated by part-time volunteers who come in sporadically. It may take a few days before you receive a reply to your messages. Committee involvement. Many associations function as a democracy: any decision must go through a committee. You may have to wait until their next meeting for your request to be considered. Use of publications. Understandably, associations will very rarely allow you to access their lists. Their preferred method of notifying potential participants is often to post an ad to their members in their publication. Sometimes, it s a weekly newsletter, but it can also be a bimonthly magazine. You should also give careful consideration to the number of recruits. To compensate for potential cancellations, it is common practice in qualitative research to invite more people than needed, thereby ensuring that enough participants are present. Considering the effort that some disabled participants must invest to attend your session, pay and send is not an option. However, given the health issues with which some disabled individuals live, cancellations may be more likely. Your research plan should include some leeway in terms of participant distribution, whether that means allowing for fewer contributions than expected, anticipating more than you were planning for, or factoring in more time to re-recruit should any cancellations occur. Lesson 8: Ask, Listen and Learn Despite an unparalleled increase in the aging population and the ensuing expectation of a corresponding rise in the disabled population, studies involving people with disabilities are still too few and far between. Just like the curb cut, we would all benefit from adapting the environment to people s abilities and disabilities. Where do we start? By asking people what they need, by listening and learning. Sylvie is vice-president with Ad Hoc Research. A qualitative research specialist, she has moderated more than 1,200 focus groups in both French and English throughout her twenty-year career. Sylvie works with various segments of the population but specializes in research with people who are living with disabilities and long-term chronic conditions. She also has strong experience in online research. Sylvie can be reached at sylvie.croteau@adhoc-research.com 12 vue October 2012

13 In Memoriam Joseph B. Doyle Joe Doyle, who founded PMRS in 1960, passed away suddenly on September Below is a summary of his long and distinguished career in Marketing Research Joseph Bernard Doyle was born in New York City on August 17, and grew up in Westchester County, New York Graduated with Honors from A.B.Davis High School Employed in the Securities Department of J.P. Morgan Not drafted into the Armed Forces for medical reasons. Volunteered to work for the FBI as a translator in Washington and New York Completed a variety of night courses at New York University and George Washington University while employed full time Joined Marketing Research firm Stewart, Dougall & Associates in New York Married Margetta, his colleague at Stewart, Dougall Joined the Marketing Research Department of General Foods Corporation in White Plains, New York Asked by General Foods to transfer to Toronto to form the first Marketing Research Department for GF Canada Created the Professional Marketing Research Society, a unique Canadian institution, and became the Society s Founding President (while continuing to manage GF s growing Research Department) Co-authoured (with Dr. A.B. Blankenship) the book Marketing Research Management, published by the American Management Association, New York. This is one of the first books on marketing research management anywhere in the world Spearheaded the creation of the first formal Certificate course in Marketing Research in Canada, offered by The Institute of Marketing at the University of Waterloo. Joe Doyle was one of the instructors Promoted to Marketing Services Manager at General Foods Canada, with continuing responsibility for Marketing Research Joseph and Margetta Doyle took out Canadian citizenship Promoted to Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, by General Foods Canada Created the Consumer Dialogue Program for General Foods, a series of consumer forums in every Province and Territory across Canada Joseph Doyle retires from General Foods Canada PMRS Fellowship Program created to honour individuals who had made Distinguished Contributions to Marketing Research in Canada. Joe Doyle named first Fellow of the Society PMRS creates the Joseph Doyle Award, to be presented each year to the outstanding student in courses offered by the Society A merger of PMRS and two other Canadian marketing research organizations is announced, resulting in the creation of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association. Joe Doyle is named the first Fellow of the Association, at a Banquet held in his honour Joe Doyle is honoured at a special Conference Dinner celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his founding of the PMRS Joe celebrates his 90th birthday on August 17th The end of an era. He will be missed. Our deepest sympathy to the Doyle Family and Friends. Services held Thursday, September 27th, from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm., Britton House is at 720 Mount Pleasant, Toronto vue October

14 FEATURE You Say Tomato, I Say George Rassias, CMRP When the new editor-in-chief of the Vue magazine first approached me to contribute to an upcoming edition, I was a little hesitant to participate. What could I say that would be interesting? How would I come up with at least 1,200 words? As I started to think about it a little more, I became excited to share some insights into marketing research from the government side of the fence. First, a little about me: I ve spent more than twenty years in marketing research in the public sector, working for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and then the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). (Hmm, beverage alcohol and gaming. I can tell you re all envious!) While you may have wondered what it s like to do marketing research in the public sector, I can tell you that I ve often wondered what it would be like to have worked in the private sector. As I thought about the public and private sectors, and researchers in general, the more I came to the conclusion that, in the end, a researcher is a researcher, is a researcher. We all deal with projects, clients, time pressures, and internal processes. We all need to deliver good quality research, with actionable insights and value-added service, to help drive our business forward. OLG is a government agency responsible for delivering lottery and gaming services in the province of Ontario. OLG and its affiliated companies employ more than 18,000 people throughout the province. It is responsible for 24 gaming sites and sales of lottery products at approximately 10,000 retail locations in Ontario. OLG research efforts are divided among the corporate enterprise and the lottery and gaming lines of business. We support a business that last year drove $6.5 billion in revenues. 14 vue October 2012

15 FEATURE So What Is a Government Agency Researcher s Work Life Like? I suspect that a government agency researcher s life is not much different than what many of you experience. Each project starts with the completion of a research request form the brief. While OLG s formal brief has evolved over the years, we still ask the same basic questions at the outset, including these: What do you want to know? Why do you want to know this? What are you going to do with the information? The questions help focus our internal clients and help them accurately define the core business issue that needs to be addressed. While they seem like basic questions, I m often amazed at some of the responses we get. (Sound familiar?) In the end, it s all for the best, as we engage in constructive dialogue, identify key issues, establish objectives, and determine success measures all the while working together as a team. As in any organization consisting of more than one person, process can often overwhelm. I imagine we all have some type of process to follow in order to procure that well-defined research initiative we just identified in our focused brief with help from our internal clients. At OLG, Research works very closely with Procurement and Contract Management to ensure that procedures and policies are followed so we can execute the project to meet the needs of our internal clients. One thing I ve learned is that it s better to work collaboratively with these groups than to try to go down your own path. While adhering to process is important in all organizations, government agencies can, inherently, come under greater public and media scrutiny, making it even more critical to build and nurture strong working relationships with Procurement and Contract Management teams to keep everything in order. Leveraging these types of relationships to ensure that processes are communicated, understood and followed is key to successfully navigating through the white waters of project process. It s my experience that this skill set is often undervalued. What Kinds of Research Does a Government Agency Do? OLG is in the business of selling entertainment products. Our lotteries and gaming sites compete with many other products for the discretionary entertainment dollars of Ontario s ten million plus adults. Outside-the-box thinking can often give you that competitive edge, and OLG researchers are very fortunate to work in an environment that, for the most part, is open to that kind of thinking. When seeking solutions to help us sell products and stay competitive in the option-filled entertainment field, we like to consider non-traditional approaches. There are times when we need to follow the traditional approach, but generally our internal clients are open to new ways to address business needs. Whether we re considering the merits of migrating from telephone to online methodology for certain trackers, conducting foundational-type research using psycho-analytics or determining how to incorporate social media research into our research tool box, we have always found a receptive ear and support from within the company. That s not to say that we move forward on every new idea. And because we operate in a highly regulated environment, we might not be able to entertain certain kinds of approaches. However, the fact that we can have these types of discussions at OLG goes a long way to keeping the corporation in step with emerging research trends. As we deliberate on the merits of various marketing research matters, the talk inevitably turns to best practices, how standards will be applied to new research approaches, and the role of MRIA s guiding principals. Given OLG s broad stakeholder base compared to some other corporations, paying attention to these types of issues plays a big role in our day-to-day work. For example, we had to consider a wide variety of factors when determining how best to incorporate social media-generated information into our reporting. Our listening audit showed that there was so much data generated from social media sites that we could no longer ignore this data stream. However, questions regarding what data to use, the reliability of the data source, and how we add this to our understanding of the business issue in a positive way all needed to be investigated. When you take into account the very nature of our business (gambling) and our regulated operating environment, things like the integrity of the source, the application of data collection standards, and MRIA guidelines all matter. We needed to address all of these factors before considering how to regularly incorporate social media-generated data into our reporting stream. Employing an iterative process, we worked very closely with our supplier to ensure that we were bringing reliable and meaningful social media data into our stream. I bet that approach is no different than it is for many of you who are leverage your strong supplier relationships to deliver the best solutions for your respective organizations. As professional researchers, we all need to be project-oriented, and we need to ensure that research is conducted, consumed and communicated with ethics and integrity. vue October

16 FEATURE What Does a Government Agency Research, and How Does Its Research Get Used? I m sure the kinds of research we undertake as a public agency are similar to many of the streams of research conducted by private sector companies. Earlier, I mentioned that OLG is in the business of selling entertainment and our products compete with many others for the discretionary entertainment dollars of Ontario s adult population. As such, we have several types of market trackers and use the complete ad suite of research. Our work covers a broad spectrum, from new product development through corporate image, segmentation, foundational and customer experience, and responsible gambling. In addition, we often represent the customer s voice in brand building workshops and idea-generation sessions. This shouldn t be surprising. Although OLG is a government agency, it is a customercentric organization operating in an increasingly competitive entertainment environment. I feel fortunate to have experienced such an array of research projects. A number of the more interesting projects come to mind, like developing the Good 2 Go concept to sell lottery tickets in Ontario for a very large global retailer. I ll leave it up to you figure out which retailer but know that the name actually did come out of research. I also had the opportunity to design an Internet gaming research plan from the ground up, including psychoanalytics to help develop a more robust understanding of the marketplace in order to make fact-based decisions as we build this new business. I played a role in tracking OLG s brand reputation to identify key brand drivers and help deal with strategic brand issues. I ve also assessed many new lottery games and enhancements to old favourites, evaluated our advertising from concept to in-market performance, and helped determine the viability of new business models. That s All Folks I stand by my initial conclusion that a researcher is a researcher is a researcher. We are researchers because we have an innate sense of curiosity, a compulsion to try to find out why people behave the way they do, and a desire to use the insights generated through marketing research to help predict future behaviour. I m sure you can relate to waking up in the middle of the night and wondering if the sampling plan for an important project is right, or worrying that the qualitative recruit isn t going that well. Then there s trying to figure out how to balance internal client requests to incorporate new technology-driven information into our reporting while remaining true to the best practices of our industry. These are a researcher s rites of passage. As researchers, we all want our organization to see us as valued assets that can adeptly synthesize multiple insight sources in order to tell a meaningful story about our respective consumers and how they interact with our products and services, all in an effort to grow our business. We also share experiences unique to our profession. These experiences, combined with our day-to-day trials and tribulations, are the common threads that tie us all together. Whether we are in the public sector or the private sector, in the end, we are all researchers. George Rassias, CMRP, is senior manager, Customer Insights and Marketing Research, with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. He can be reached at GRassias@OLG.ca 16 vue October 2012

17 NET GAIN CELEBRATES INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION JANUARY 31, 2013 MARKS THE 7TH ANNUAL NET GAIN CONFERENCE The theme is Little, Big Data Little Data refers to the traditional analytics of relatively small samples, be it a sample of 1,000 respondents or interviews with 10 key informants. Big Data refers to the firehouse of information that is produced at warp-like speed emanating from not only people but a multitude of high technology sources such as mobile phones or asset connected devices. The various data points are expanding and Big Data gets larger every second. This conference will explore the impact of Big Data in the context of the traditional market research of Little Data. Questions that will be addressed at this year s conference are: How can traditional market research take advantage of Big Data? Is Little Data losing its credibility and lustre? Can we mine Big Data with credible and actionable analytics? Is Big Data predictive and with what degree of accuracy? Do we need to train Big Data analysts differently than with current traditional MR techniques? Does Big Data create meaningful insights from which large business decisions can be made? What role does traditional market research play in the emerging Big Data playing field? Will Big Data players join, subsume or ignore traditional market research? COMING SOON Opportunities to showcase your brand through a newly designed Sponsorship Package! For further information, contact NET GAIN 7.0 CO-CHAIRS Sandy Janzen sandy.janzen@ipsos.com Cam Davis Ph.D., FMRIA, CMRP camdavis@sdrsurvey.com MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Anne Marie Gabriel amgabriel@mria-arim.ca REGISTRATION Erica Klie eklie@mria-arim.ca For updates as they become available, visit