Posted on Tue, May 04, 2010
The purpose of the event was to arm college students with extra information to help them get a head start in their careers.
We were honored to be part of this event. We showed students how to create a maximum impact in an interview by researching online beforehand.
Our presentation covered:
- Essential online resources.
- What specifics to look for on corporate websites.
- How to use social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs) to get extra insights and intel about an organization.
- Which online resources to use to fuel interview questions and conversations.
The event was a roaring success, and we were all impressed with the caliber of the students.
Our presentation was only a small contributing part of the event. Jacque LaMar, marketing director of Visual Image, gave the students a tour of their wonderful building, Nancy Entz (marketing director for
Tinker Federal Credit Union) provided excellent interview technique and
Dr. Burt Smith demonstrated how students can effectively network.
The event was organized by AMA OKC's hard working collegiate chair, Lauren Floyd (Tinker Federal Credit Union).
The students had a ton of intelligent questions for us - in which all of the attending AMA OKC board answered.
Posted on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
In the next few weeks, the Age of Conversation 3 will be published.
This unique book, a collaboration of 176 authors, addresses how the global marketing landscape is changing and features a lot of quality conversation about business buzzwords including, of course, social media.
A little nearer the time of publishing I will post more information about the book and my contribution but in the mean time, here are some facts:
Oh yes, to prove I wasn't fibbing about the number of authors involved, here is a full list of them (some of whom you will already be familiar with):
Posted on Tue, Mar 09, 2010
Stuck in an idea-generation rut these days? Why don't you ask your target audience for their ideas? Better yet, why don't you pay them for their ideas?
Incentives are a necessity and the norm for research respondents, but what are you paying for? You're usually paying a flat amount to each respondent to simply complete the survey, focus group, IDI, etc. Complete being the key word here. You're not paying them to give you their best and brightest ideas. But what if you paid more for the best ideas?
A group called TRC in Pennsylvania ran a test with two groups of online respondents. Each group was presented the same two questions asking for new ideas for two different clients. One group was entered into a lottery to win several $20 gift cards, while the other group was entered into a lottery and promised $200 if their idea was chosen as the winner. The winning ideas were chosen by an online panel in a separate survey.
I'm sure you can just imagine the dramatic increase in completion and better quality of answers from the group that was competing for the $200 prize. According to TRC smart incentives work best in quantitative research, but I think it can also work in qualitative studies, albeit a little differently.
Read more about the results in this article written by Rajan Sambandam of TRC.
Posted on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
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Yesterday's Super Bowl was awesome (for the Saints), but how did you think the ads fared?
Can you believe there were a total of 32 in-game ad breaks featuring 116 commercials?
Unsurprisingly, the dominant advertiser was Anheuser Busch who ran 8 spots, followed by Doritos with 4.
As usual, advertisers used humor as a way to get Super Bowl viewers to remember their commercials - the Bud Light commercials ensured there were laughs aplenty.
While there were no wardrobe malfunctions this year, there was controversy surrounding a couple of the ads - Focus On The Family's pro-life commercial aired during the first commercial break and the video game, Dante's Inferno, (featuring the tagline "Go To Hell") both caused a stir.
This Thursday there is going to be a really interesting panel discussion about the Super Bowl commercials at AMA OKC. A hand-picked panel of advertisers will be providing their take on this year's successes and failures. Make sure you hop over to AMOKC's website and register.
In the meantime, let us know which commercials rocked your world and which ones didn't.
Posted on Fri, Jan 22, 2010
Recently the president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America, John Krafkic, was interviewed on the NPR program "All Things Considered" about their popular Hyundai Assurance program. The program, which began in January 2009, allows anyone who purchases a new Hyundai and loses their source of income within 12 months to return the vehicle with no penalty. It has been a huge success, with less than 100 cars returned out of over 400,000 sold.
When asked how they came up with the idea for this program, Mr. Krafkic said it came straight from their marketing research. Hyundai had noticed that new car sales were slumping, so they conducted a series of focus groups in October 2008 among potential car buyers. The goal was to simply understand why consumers weren't buying new cars. They discovered that potential car buyers knew that there were some excellent deals they could take advantage of, but at the same time they were worried about the economy. With unemployment on the rise, people were simply too nervous about buying a new car when they didn't know if they would have a job in a few months.
Hyundai proved that in a year when the automotive industry was hurting, they could come out ahead by listening to their customers. By investing in marketing research, they came up with an innovative idea that brought customers back into their showrooms and purchasing vehicles once again.
NPR Interview Transcript
Posted on Thu, Dec 10, 2009
"Once a week our employees literally leap out of bed,
With thoughts of sugary goodness firm in their heads.”
Donut Thursday is a long established tradition at Evolve – and we know you know. In fact, some of you are quite jealous.
In an effort to reduce envy, we have taken Donut Thursdays to the road visiting you with glazed, chocolate and sprinkly offerings – but that’s just not cutting it.
Therefore, it is with great pride and excitement that we proclaim Donut Thursday is being brought to the masses! On January 14 (that’s a Thursday) Evolve is sponsoring breakfast at AMA OKC’s Personal Branding Seminar.
Of course, learning to represent yourself as an extremely valuable, employable and promotable person is very important – but so is a good breakfast.
Register for the seminar right now and we’ll see you all on Thursday January 14…we’ll bring the donuts.
Posted on Tue, Dec 08, 2009
Customers are the lifeblood of every organization. They spend their hard-earned money on the products and services that best fit their needs and desires. Unfortunately, in these economic times they have less money to spend. This presents a challenge to most organizations because they must work harder to obtain new customers and retain existing ones.
The best defense is a good offense
The best way to retain customers (and gain new ones) is to understand them. Why do they choose to patronize your business? How satisfied are they with your current offerings? What do they think of your new product? How loyal are they to your brand? These questions and more can be answered through marketing research.
Actively seeking the views and opinions of your customers offers valuable insight that will help you make informed decisions and give you a leg up on your competition. Organizations that listen to their customers tend to create loyalists and evangelists; customers who make a conscious effort to purchase from you and tell their family and friends about it. Achieving this kind of brand loyalty will take some time and effort, but knowing your customers is the first step towards achieving that lofty goal.
Posted on Tue, Oct 13, 2009
When you commission a marketing research study, you want answers to specific questions. Whether it’s which advertisement will be most impactful, what consumers think of a brand or how much people are willing to pay for a new product, marketing research gives you powerful information to help you make important decisions.
But the information is only powerful if you understand it.
Marketing research studies often produce an overwhelming amount of data. Unfortunately, many research firms just give their clients the raw data and disappear into the great wide open, without offering any interpretation. You’re left with a binder full of charts and numbers destined to sit on a bookshelf and eventually get sent to storage (wherever that is).
What’s the point of paying for research if you aren’t able to use the data?
Marketing research firms worth their salt stick around after the fieldwork ends. Interpretation of the results as they pertain to your specific objectives is a big part of what you’re paying for, so make sure you choose a firm who takes pride in their analysis and reporting and offers ongoing support.
Ask potential research partners about deliverables and to see a sample report. Make sure the report is usable and the important points aren’t buried in pages of text. PowerPoint-style presentations are much easier to understand and reference later. Conclusions and recommendations should tell you what the data means, answer your original questions and bring forward insights into the attitudes and behaviors of your target audience.
Research results are only valuable if they are used. If you don’t have the time, energy or desire to interpret raw data yourself, choose a marketing research firm that cares about how you use your results.
Posted on Fri, Jun 12, 2009
Julie, Pres, and Stew, winner
Congratulations to our very own Stewart Law for winning AMAOKC’s Volunteer of the Year award at yesterday’s Excellence In Marketing Awards.
Evolve is dedicated to the local marketing community and in the last year Stew has enthusiastically shown this by selflessly serving it.
Every month, Stew is a familiar face to all AMAOKC attendees. He greets everyone with a smile (and a name tag) and a happy “hello” – the perfect ambassador for a professional marketing association.
From all of us at Evolve and AMAOKC – well done! AMAOKC would not be what it is today without your involvement.
Posted on Tue, Jun 09, 2009
Image totally stolen from The Lost Ogle
Stew came across a great post published on The Lost Ogle today. Check out the picture above – there is something most certainly amiss with the chart and the data.
Although 48% of Oklahoman’s approve of Obama according to News Channel 9, the pie chart represents this as 75%. So, at a glance you might be inclined to think that the vast majority, 3/4ths, of folk in OK are in approval. Of course, using a quick visual cue (the purpose of charts, after all) like this could cause you to make a dramatically incorrect assumption.
Had this been some research that you or your company had paid for, a decision could have been made which was not only incorrect but costly.
That’s why we spend a considerable amount of time at Evolve validating and verifying data. Not only do we check that charts represent the actual raw data, we also check (and double-check) that respondent’s haven’t made any mistakes or misinterpreted the questions.
Of course, there is a lot more to it than that: axis checks, statistical checks, verbatim versus qualitative data checks – all play an important part in the reliability and actionability of our data.
No matter which research company you use, always make sure exactly how they, at the simplest level, do not make the kind of mistakes that News Channel 9 did.