Reporter's Notebook
Why changes to Canada's census make no sense
Government ministers have railed against “personal and intrusive questions” in the long-form census, hence their call for it to be made voluntary. But, bizarrely, the questions they cited in the press were added on their watch.
The poll truth and nothing but the truth
Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs (pictured) said recently: “We’re too busy to sit around looking at polls.” Yet they’ve spend $4.4m on them in 18 months. Why can’t politicians be honest about their love for opinion research?
The World Cup in words, stats and pictures
All the drama and passion of the world’s most-watched sporting event – distilled into a jpeg.
Think first, then speak
A non-exhaustive list of words and phrases that we are tired of hearing in the MR industry.
Facebook at the crossroads over privacy concerns
Could the row over privacy on the world’s most popular social media site have a knock-on effect for the research industry?
The social media lies we tell
Tech blogger Robert Scoble has an interesting post today about the lies people tell on social networks. To be more precise, these are ‘lies by omission’ – that is, important things about ourselves that we choose not to share in order to maintain a certain identity online.
Ipsos chief talks acquisitions to Bloomberg
It seems Synovate chief Robert Philpott isn’t the only agency boss planning on splashing out on acquisitions this year. Ipsos CEO Didier Truchot tells Bloomberg reporter Matthew Campbell that his company is also eyeing possible takeover targets in certain developed markets.
Not-so-genuine articles
Pity the poor journalist on April Fools Day. Our critical capabilities may be well-honed, but the need to question everything becomes doubly important on 1 April – and doubly strenuous. I’d developed a headache by 10am, accompanied by what can only be termed as ‘parody blindness’. It became hard to tell what was a real news story and what was fake.
BREAKING NEWS: Researchers caught 'conducting research'
Shock! Horror! The Australian Daily Telegraph reports that “children as young as eight are being paid to test new snacks, fast food, lollies and fizzy drinks”.
WOM expert is lukewarm on MyStarbucksIdea
Brand Autopsy’s John Moore feels let down by Starbucks’ big social media experiment, as only six of 53 ideas implemented to date can be credited to consumers. But financially the firm’s form is improving. Is Moore focusing on the wrong metric?
Encouraging co-creation between research and respondents
Getting consumers to co-create products and advertising campaigns is gaining traction – but what about co-creation in a research setting? Can respondents play a bigger role in the design and development of research tools, techniques and projects themselves?
Will the 'perfect' researcher remain out of reach?
Forrester analyst Reineke Reitsma has posted an interesting blog on the qualities that companies look for when hiring researchers. But can any single person embody all that is required of the job?
App development hell
We’d hoped to have got our hands on Siamack Salari’s iPhone-based ethnographic toolkit by now, but word reaches us that development troubles abound.
Gunning for market research
Those creatives are at it again - regaling us with another tale of how artistic bravery and uniqueness of vision prevailed over market research studies intent on forcing a company to play it safe; to stick with the tried and tested and balk at the new.
Between an MROC and a hard place
Flicking through Forrester’s latest report on online communities yesterday, it occurred to me that the term ‘market research online community’ (or MROC) has gained some traction in this nascent area.
The DIY dilemma
Yesterday we carried news of the launch of a DIY on-demand research service. Reader Steve Taylor was far from impressed, however.
