Nike, Inc. got it right: Just Do It. Don’t over think the situation, trust your instinct and just take the leap; you might even have fun.

I recently attended several market research conferences. Not yet a clarion call within our industry, above the faint conference whispers could be heard talk of adopting a hybrid approach in using Social Media Research (SMR). While SMR is still being considered “fringe” by some, the trending of its use in market research has appeared, albeit leaning more towards experimentation.

But experimentation does not have to imply high risk. Cost of entry into its use can be surprisingly low, as compared to the sticker shock for the lifecycles of more traditional market research studies. With the use of SMR, you may just reap novel, new brand insights for your clients.

At the recent CASRO Technology conference held last month in New York City, Tim Macer, managing director at meaning ltd, reported on the current state of technology within the market research industry. His report also featured the findings of a market research practitioner survey. Among the respondents, survey results showed:

• 31% of members are experimenting with the use of social media
• 33% of members are considering use of social media in the future
• 12% of members are providing social media insights to a limited number of clients
• 59% of members already engaged in social market research said they would slightly increase their social media investment
• Some larger firms see social media use as an alternative to qualitative research
• Expensive manual research methods continue to dominate industry-wide

Why wouldn’t a market researcher or brand want to factor into their brand innovation strategy unbiased, naturally occurring authentic brand sentiment conversations — conversations that can be automatically processed within 85%-95% reliability?

iTracks Vice President of Research James Longo encouraged the attendees at the CASRO Tech Conference to think outside the box. For starters, he suggested that the market researcher begin to experiment by combining SMR with various traditional research methods. Others have suggested that practitioners should begin exploring the range from brand passion index and trend tracking to theme-mapping or a netnography report, as well as be asking our organizations these two key questions:

• With what frequency do we need to track and report social media brand insights?
• How customized do our reports need to be?

In another industry gathering last month, the MRA Conference in Washington, DC, Alan Chumley of Carma International charted the magnitude of SMR in this way: Every hour in a 24-hour day 500,000 new blog and micro blog posts, status updates, and comments are posted in social media. At the same conference, NetBase Chief Evangelist Malcolm DeLeo framed SMR’s gargantuan proportions like this: The amount of social media content created daily amounts to 420 pedabytes — the equivalent 3600 x all books created in all languages.

A discussion of whether or not to use SMR and, if using, how to use it effectively, also was captured by Conversition’s Annie Pettit, in a round-up of a thought leader’s keynote address.
Does all this discussion imply reckless abandonment of traditional market research tools, a throwing of all caution to the wind scenario for #MRX or its replacement by #SMR? No, not today say our industry thought leaders, although there does appear to be a quantum shift somewhere on the horizon. As The Future Place Managing Director Ray Pointer blogged in wrap-up of a recent gathering of C-level market research executives in the UK:

“The feeling, amongst our thought leaders, was that most of the data companies were very bad at understanding people and very bad at addressing the ‘Why?’ question, and this represents the opportunity for market research.”

It is precisely this “Why” question today’s social media insights technology developers and early adopters of SMR, big and small, are betting on.

Perhaps the analogy put forth by David Carr, technology editor at The New York Times, which was featured in the recent motion picture film Page One — a “collision of two worlds,” describing the current state of print and new media journalism today — could also be applied to the current state of market research and SMR.

SM Brand Equity - July Offer With each new in-language coding or translation order, we will create a social media brand equity index for up to 5 brands in a category, using NetBase Insights Workbench. You can also opt for a US/UK/Canda/Australia cross-cultural passion index for a single brand. See our previous article about this here.   Contact Localspeak: tel 646.370.4987

A French sparkling bottled water company recently conducted a survey in both the France and Canadian French-speaking markets in order to gauge why their consumers selected its brand over numerous others. Our client, the market research company that designed the study, requested that Localspeak code four open-end questions in-language, and then run a frequency analysis for each open-end question in both countries.

Based on the overall combined frequency analysis in both France and French-speaking Canadian marketplaces, results of those respondents surveyed showed:

• The French sparkling bottled water brand provided greater value.
• The sparkling bottled water brand exhibited a more superb natural flavor without after taste.
• The bottled water brand provided additional health benefits such as improving digestion.
• The bottled water brand was preferred over plain tap water.

Broken down by market, these trends were not necessarily equal for each country. As a benefit to digestion, respondents in France were 70% more likely than French Canadians to associate this health benefit to the brand. France respondents also favored attributes such as high mineral content and bubbly aspects at least 5:1 over Canadian respondents. French Canadians, on the other hand, valued the fresh and refreshing attributes of their bottled water with about 60% greater frequency. French Canadians also were more likely in their experience to identify 5:1 exercise or physical activity with the brand than France consumers.

While these survey findings reflect some of the overall consumer brand sentiments, we noticed some national differences in behaviors, emotions, and relationships related to bottled water consumption when we ran a cross-cultural frequency analysis for each open-end question.

When survey respondents were asked what drinking the water does for them on an emotional level, respondents in France were 50% more likely than French-speaking Canadians to associate their bottled water choice with joy, happiness or pleasure. Sample survey comments included:

• “I feel happy and joyful quenching my thirst with water I love”.
• “It makes me feel young”.
• “It’s soothing after a tough day”.

However, when posed the question how the brand fit into their lifestyle, French-speaking respondents in Canada, unlike those in France, did not associate their experience with “fun”, at all.

Kiki Smith-Archiapatti joined Localspeak as a multilingual coder and localization consultant in 2006. During the past five years she has continued to play a pivotal role at the firm, refining in-language coding insights for the increasingly customized needs of our market research clients.

As one of our professional team leaders, Kiki ensures the coding outcomes of complex multi-language research studies successfully meet the needs of the clients with whom we work. She also serves, with great success, as a senior trainer in our dedicated in-house Ascribe in-language coder training program.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Kiki earned her Bachelor degree in English. Throughout her career she has held senior posts with leading companies in a variety of fields and industries, each helping to further hone her impeccable translation and coding skills. Her marketing position at Nickelodeon was first to put her on the client side map of market research. In another position with a publishing conglomerate, her position provided her with expertise and insight into the creation and execution of global advertising campaigns.

Born to an Italian mother and a German-American father, each of whom spoke more than three languages, Kiki grew up with Italian as her first language and a lifelong appreciation for languages in general. Her continuous travels to Europe, including a brief stint living in France, have kept her immersed in language and culture. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she works for the Association for Cultural Equity in addition to her Localspeak duties.