Archive for the ‘Research’ Category
The Rise of Focus Groups
Posted by Jason Dunstone on December 8th, 2010 at 5:08pm
It’s nice to discuss and debate issues in marketing strategy. Is digital the silver bullet? Does TV still have relevance? Do consumers care?
In a recent edition of SA Weekend Magazine from The Advertiser [South Australia's News run daily newspaper] Michael McGuire wrote an interesting article about the pros and cons of focus groups from varying perspectives – political, practitioner, academic and advertiser. Yours truly was quoted as below.
“Jason Dunstone is an experienced moderator with Adelaide research group Square Holes. Sporting a disarming resemblance to former tennis player John McEnroe [?!], Dunstone is relaxed in his jeans and shirt – research houses are a bit too funky for boring old suits – as he explains how a focus group works. The analogy he uses is a funnel. It starts out broad but eventually narrows to a single point. “You are trying to synthesise down to a single nub of insight,” he says. “What we do is very much about interpretation and hugely about trust. There are not too many industries where it is so much about trust.”
Posted in Research
Engaging with Consumers via Ethnography
Posted by Victoria Carbone on February 15th, 2010 at 1:44pm
In the most basic sense, ethnography in market research involves watching what people do, rather than asking people what they do.
From this, researchers can make inferences from the observed behaviour.
Three popular forms of ethnography adopted by market researchers include…
- Conducting participant observation in stores, workplaces, and homes to observe real behaviour;
- Giving participants a video/digital camera to record their interactions with the target product [photo-ethnography]; and
- Having participants record their behaviour in a video diary.
Agency, Everyday Lives, adopted another interesting approach which involved filming consumer shopping in supermarket and then listening to the consumer and consumer’s family narrate the film [i.e. explaining what was going on, what they were thinking, etc].
Posted in Research
The Generation Gap/Myth
Posted by Mal Chia on October 2nd, 2009 at 12:01pm
In the second half of 2007, Square Holes worked with AIM SA and SA Great to conduct research into the attitudes and needs of younger workers [aged under 40]. Building on the success of the 2007 study, AIM SA and Square Holes explored broader issues in relation to the needs of differing groups of workers.
Interestingly, the study discovered workplace relations are founded on psychographics rather than demographics. Four different segments were identified in the workplace.
Which one do you think you are?
-Â Â Â Â Â Â The Dynamo
-Â Â Â Â Â Â The Gimme
-Â Â Â Â Â Â The Made it
-Â Â Â Â Â Â The Plodder
Get the executive summary and the full report.
Posted in Research
Think! Digital Session Wrap-Up and Slides
Posted by Mal Chia on September 17th, 2009 at 3:51pm
Last week, Jason and I presented to a room full of clients and agencies about the challenges traditional marketers face integrating digital into their strategy. Taking different yet convergent points of view, we discussed emerging trends in digital marketing through our own observations and experiences across multiple industries.
Integration was the common thread, especially in relation to marketing departments, campaigns and creative ideas. Unsurprisingly, there was a strong interest in social media with many organisations struggling with what tools to use and how best to apply it. We rounded off the session with an ‘interactive’ discussion with Via Media boss, Jason Neave, and AdelaideNow’s David Kuchel getting in on the action with a few interesting questions raised about PURL’s and the need to maintain strategic focus with digital executions (instead of digital for digital’s sake).
You can view and download the slides below…
Posted in Digital, Insight, Research
Jason Dunstone on The Marketing Manifest
Posted by Mal Chia on August 19th, 2009 at 9:09am
The Marketing Manifest is the official podcast of Marketing Magazine.
In this first episode, host David Campbell goes deep into the minds of Jason Dunstone, managing director of Square Holes and Jeremy Ervine, general manager of FNUKY, asking the questions you want to know in regards to market research.
Posted in Research