Robert Bain

• The cheapest way to measure ad effectiveness

  Mediawatch | 23-Feb-2010 5:07 pm

  In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, former Tory MP Edwina Currie suggests that the most cost-efficient way of gauging the effectiveness of public service advertising might be to stop doing any.

• The difference between 'gay' and 'homosexual'

  Mediawatch | 16-Feb-2010 12:05 pm

  Today, a lesson in the importance of questionnaire wording.

• An important point

  Mediawatch | 15-Feb-2010 10:49 am

  The Tories are in trouble today over an errant decimal point.

• Rational behaviour

  Mediawatch | 2-Feb-2010 5:39 pm

  In this Guardian article from last week, shadow chancellor George Osborne shares a byline with Nudge author Richard Thaler.

• Oh, behave

  Mediawatch | 21-Jan-2010 4:49 pm

  In an opinion article in yesterday’s Times, Daniel Finkelstein writes about how “group identity is just as important as economic incentive in the way we behave”.

• Comment on: Focus pocus

  Robert Bain's comment | 9-Sep-2009 12:00 pm

  Hi Simon I agree, and I think it goes beyond bad use of focus groups. I fear that the term 'focus group' has become a kind of shorthand for misguided research – very easy for commentators to knock. That seems to be the case in the MediaPost article - as you say, there's no detail on how focus groups were used by these firms - the simple statement that they used them is sufficient condemnation.

• Comment on: Between an MROC and a hard place

  Robert Bain's comment | 13-Oct-2009 4:52 pm

  Thanks for that Jeffrey – I didn't realise it was Brad that coined MROC. Mike Hall did also make the important point that research represents the 'fusion element' in any branded community – the one business discipline that is central to the use of the community for any purpose, be it marketing, brand building, feedback, whatever. But that still doesn't make it a research community, apparently.

• Comment on: Between an MROC and a hard place

  Robert Bain's comment | 23-Oct-2009 2:17 pm

  Mike - in the light of your comment I listened back to my slightly fuzzy recording of our chat, and I see I misquoted you above as saying 'branded communities' instead of 'brand communities' – a distinction that I wasn't so sensitive to at the time! Sorry – amended now.

• Short story competition: Market research in 2029

  Posts: 0

  In The Open Zone | 17-Sep-2009 2:53 pm

  You might not have expected to see the words ‘short’, ‘story’ and ‘competition’ together on these pages, but here they are. We want you to embrace your inner novelist and give us your vision of the f

• Pronunciation of "MROC"

  Posts: 0

  In The Open Zone | 10-Sep-2009 4:39 pm

  Are we saying "em-ar-oh-see" or "em-roc" ? Or are we still saying "market research online community"? Is it different on different sides of the Atlantic? I am intrigued.

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