Upcoming NorthWest MRA Events

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work" – Vince Lombardi

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President’s Message Continued: Collaboration, by Amanda Durkee

In the Spring, we’re delighted to bring the Educational Conference back to the Seattle area (after being in Portland and the Bay Area the past three years). We are partnering with the PSRF to bring you this event…with their help we already have a strong lineup of potential speakers, and plan to offer PRC credits for the full day of events. Stay tuned for more details…

I look forward to meeting all of you at one point or another…please come up and introduce yourself! And don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas or questions about our plans for the year.

Kind regards,

Amanda Durkee

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Guest Article Continued: Capturing Personal Perspectives in Focus Groups, Roger A. Straus, Ph.D.

As a best practice, prepare “self-completion” sheets in advance. Design your self-completion sheets as carefully as you would a survey instrument – taking into consideration things like the nature and age of group members. For example, use larger type (e.g., 14 point or more) for middle-aged and older respondents, and leave enough space for people’s actual handwriting. Alternatively, if individual computers are being used in the group, you can create a form and have answers keyed in.

Some elements can be quasi-quantitative – anything from ratings/rankings to tables with cells for group members to fill in. While clients like to get “numbers,” and you can obtain a rough, ordinal sense of how these fall within or across groups, treat the results as directional. Remember that the real value of numbers, ratings, rankings and other quantitative information is as a springboard for discussion, a stimulus for probing, a way to get at underlying thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and – above all else – at the “whys.” Beware of reporting small sample numbers as “data” (e.g., showing means down to one or two decimal places), as this misuse of information is likely to mislead your clients.

You can also use short answer questions, such as the classic “elevator story,” in which you get group members to summarize how they think and feel about a product (or service, brand, company, concept) in their own words. The spiel usually goes something like “If you were to run into a (friend/colleague) on an elevator and they asked you to tell them about (offering/company/concept) and you had only 30 or 40 seconds to do so before you get to the next floor, what would you say to him or her? Please write down what you would tell him or her in the space provided…” I find that it works best to provide two to three double or triple spaced lines on the sheet for answers. In addition to providing insight and a stimulus for discussion, these individual responses can be used in the final report, or even subjected to formal or informal content analysis.

You can also obtain individual-level responses, through listing and voting, using hybrid qual/quant methods, computers and other technology (like those dials to indicate interest for evaluating movies, advertisements, and TV programs), etc. Always, however, keep in mind the value of using any such responses as stimuli for group depth interviewing – and so getting the “best of both worlds.”

Background on the author:

Roger A. Straus, Ph.D. has over twenty years of experience as a qualitative and quantitative marketing researcher, consultant, and strategist. Currently conducting an independent marketing research practice in the Portland, OR area, he has served as a senior-level researcher, team leader, and executive with some of the nation’s leading custom research houses. Roger has been responsible for over a thousand focus groups, individual depth interviews and other qualitative studies, plus quantitative projects ranging from univariate studies through advanced analytics (e.g., market modeling, choice/conjoint, segmentation, customer satisfaction). Roger has also served as head of Market Insight for Zymogenetics, a Seattle biotech firm. After receiving his Ph.D, in Sociology from the University of California, Davis, he co-founded the Association For Applied And Clinical Sociology. Dr. Straus has published many articles on marketing research and social science, an eBook, Focus Group Principles and Practice (www.atheath.com), two textbooks on sociological practice, books for clinicians and the general public, one of which has been a best seller. He currently teaches marketing and marketing research in the MBA Program at Marylhurst University. In his spare time, he serves as marketing director for two Indie labels specializing in Americana music.

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Q & A with our New Chapter President by Brian Fowler Continued

Amanda: Market research professionals typically deal with proprietary information, so it’s not always our first instinct to reach out to other researchers about industry trends or methodologies. But in the advent of social networking, we need to continue to share ideas in order to keep quality research valued and relevant.

Brian: How were you introduced to the MRA?

Amanda: My colleague, Carole Wiedmeyer, was on the Board and asked for my help with the marketing committee. I wasn’t shy about offering my opinions about the organization, so I suppose that contributed to being asked to join the Board the following year.

Brian: What kind of value have you experienced by being an involved member of the NorthWest Chapter of the Marketing Research Association?

Amanda: I have benefitted so much more than I could have ever imagined! I have met many wonderful, brilliant people who care deeply about our industry. Being involved helps me stay connected and learn about best practices and new tools that help me provide the best service to my clients. Attending webinars and reading the Alert magazine are educational as well, but there’s no substitute for making personal connections.

Brian: What is the number one goal you hope to accomplish this year?

Amanda: In addition to creating opportunities to network and learn, I would like to see us add more members. Our members have done a fantastic job of inviting colleagues and friends to events—-let’s see if we can get them involved on a more regular basis. The more, the merrier!

Brian: What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

Amanda: I love to ride my bike in the mud. I picked up a habit of Cyclocross racing a couple of years ago, and am hooked. Fall in Portland is very rainy, so it’s a way to have some fun in the puddles.

Brian: If you could choose only one of the following super powers, which would you choose: flight or invisibility?

Amanda: Invisibility. I really enjoy working behind the scenes or with a group to get things done. I also have a mischievous side, so it would help pull off some fun practical jokes.

Brian: You chose “Collaboration” as the theme of this year’s Board of Directors. What inspired that choice?

Amanda: Collaboration is so essential to any endeavor! In my past 2 years of serving on the NWMRA Board, I’ve really noticed how the best ideas for events come about when we put our heads together. I think we provide better opportunities to our members when we work as a team to pull them together. I also think that we benefit from partnering with other chapters or organizations, such as the PSRF and AMA.

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