Tips Archives - InsideHeads

What Would You Do?

Below is a RFP we submitted to a B2B farming company a few years ago. I just recently came across our proposal again and wondered what you might propose. Different methods? Different tools? Different process? And did we get the job?

The Background for this study was provided by the client in the RFP and the Objective was identified after a detailed conference call with the client, including their internal marketing department.

Background

RM Co. sells industrial farm tools to wholesalers around the world and wants to expand their collection of products to sell. Currently they make commercial irrigation and fertilization systems and want to get into the fertilizer products farmers spread using their machines.

Objective

Identify unmet needs with RM Co.’s current clients, the unmet needs of both customers and prospects with fertilizer products, the most useful and appealing characteristics and features of a better fertilizer, biggest pains, and any others areas prospects and customers would like to see improved regarding their fertilizing process.

Plan of Action

Obtain list of RM Co’s best clients in different industries. Research and identify their farming specialties, volume of fertilizer and brands used, prices for sale, and delivery methods offered. Additionally, identify list of RM Co.’s current and future competition (direct & indirect), and list their farming specialties, what makes them a competitor, their fertilizer machinery, their volume of fertilizer and brands used, and delivery methods offered.

Secondary Research: Amount used/year, brands used, price ranges paid, and delivery method choices.

Competitive Questionnaire: Design program, administrator, and analyze survey questions among farmers across the globe to quantify unmet needs, work priorities, and potential new fertilizer features. Survey will be designed in English and translated in 6 other languages to accommodate the varied geography of RM Co.’s clients.

Tour multiple RM Co.’s global plants in-person, take notes/videos/pictures. Interview farmers on-site, take notes/videos/pictures.

Ethnography: Go to the client to observe workers and go on-site to observe farmers using fertilizer and fertilizer machines.

Interview RM Co. employees, RM Co. stakeholders, and RM Co. product users.

IDIs and Online Focus Groups with employees off-site, stakeholders online, & farmers on-site about challenges identified in the survey. Analyze the transcripts and provide insights into attitudes, behavior, and values of all segments.

Work with RM Co. & their advertising agency to design effective ad strategies and tangible concepts for consideration/testing among the different target segments identified.

IDIs and online focus groups with segmented farmers and show new concepts developed by RM Co.’s advertising firm.

Analyze the transcripts and provide insights into farmer feedback received.

Present results as live actionable findings that directly address RM Co.’s research objectives, including an overview of the fertilizer Industry, aerial view of methods used, brands preferred, unmet needs, etc., with suggestions for next steps, improvement, and landmines to avoid.
Data Handover: RM Co. will receive all the research materials, including the written survey, the discussion guide, raw survey data collected (spreadsheets, media files), cross tabulations, infographics, and the final slide deck (w/speaker notes).\

We did get the job and the client was thrilled to be able to get InsideHeads. That said, we know there are many (good) ways to address a challenge, so we’re curious, how would you have done it?

Battle of Word Pronunciations

Do you ever hear a word that you pronounce differently than others? Do you make note? Ask? Give a rat’s patooty? Another hobby of mine is to bring the offensive pronunciation into the ring. I love this kind of battle, where common word pronunciations are positioned against each other.

The following stories are all true. The names and places have not been changed to protect the truth.

Eat Your Fruits + Vegetables

A good friend of mine likes to say tow-MAH-toes, poh-TAH-toes, and even BAH-zil. Since this word debate actually has a battle song, they seem to be the most socially acceptable pronunciation discrepancies in American English. Despite the way we say it, we both agree, surprisingly, that tomatoes are fruits and potatoes are vegetables. <Ding> Round Two…

You Mean, Annoy

I was in my late twenties and vacationing in the oh-so-creative Cancun. Hey, it was the 90’s. I never could have guessed that this trip would haunt me for life. For Life.

Put yourself in a fine hotel retail store, the one that sells 2-3 overpriced yacht outfits , suitcases for some reason, and other bawdy accessories we know today that we never really needed. So, it’s the mid 90’s and I’m in the store because I unfortunately also had the decade’s mentality of more sun means beautiful tan. I burned like butter in pan. I knew I needed relief and I knew what I needed to do to get it. I asked the now-I-can-say snotty woman behind the counter, “Do you have any aloe?” I pronounced it correctly. Let the court make note of that solid memory backed up by diary entries, Exhibit D.

The saleswoman replied, “You mean, “ah-LOY”? It was fate that my travel buddies entered the store at this exact moment heard the woman’s response. Knowing me well, they removed me from the potential verbal crime scene quickly. I never did get that ah-LOH lotion. The “Ah-LOY” experience never leaves me. I mean, come ON. Look at that sha-LOY stream? What’s in the ha-LOY log? Did you have any mah-LOY-mars? I need to find that woman.

Howda Hell

My BAH-zil friend was over and she had brought gouda cheese, a favorite of both of ours. As she pulled it out, she called it “GOW-da”. Now… I can be overly confident and wrong, but c’mon, gouda? It’s GOO-da and everyone knows it, so I felt good about challenging her to the dictionary pronunciation and smiled as I typed in gouda (not just a cheese, also a town).

On the gouda reference page there is one little speaker icon, revealing the proper way to say what I knew was goo-da. I tap the little icon and we both lean in, and the damn voice comes back, “GOO-da…. or sometimes HOW-da”. I think I heard the man’s recorded voice even spit a little when he said it. WTH? While my word war is still 0:0, as my friend was close-but-no-cigar with GOW-da I have to admit my friend not only was closer, she knew it wasn’t just GOO-da. Pass the poh-TAH-toes, BAH-zil.

Not Pot

Ahh, another joyous workplace experience with words.

[Scene] The company meeting and the issue had been that storm waters had made the city provided water unpotable. I said “un-POH-ta-bul” and an elderly woman in the meeting corrected me and declared it was “un-POT-uh-bul”. Get those Oxford folks on the horn.

And the answer for how to pronounce unpotable <insert winning drum roll> is “un-POH-ta-bul”. Score! Let the games continue.

With what words have you disagreed on pronunciation?

More Tips & Joy

Geek Out On Statistics

Have you seen the enormous volume of publicly available data, as well as written analyses, tables and maps? Whatever stats make your skirt fly up, you’ll find them at the US Census Data website.

2020 Census Data is still coming in. You can signup to receive updates as new information becomes available

You may find some interesting bits of info to share with your client or maps to to add depth to your next pitch or proposal. I could go down the Census Data rabbit hole for days, literally. In addition to raw data, they provide analysis tools as well as written analyses on a ton of topics. Quick Facts, cross-tabs, and even infographic maps can be conjured up with a few clicks.

Play time with Population Pyramids

Megalopolis. Seriously.

Have you heard of Megalopolis? Thanks to this jaw dropping visual, it’s easy to see why this population dense region was so named. It’s also fun to say. Megalopolis.

Jean Gottmann penned the term in his 1961 study about urban trends. He determined Megalopolis to be a region within the northeastern United States that extends from northern Virginia to southern New Hampshire. The area includes popular cities like Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

Today, approximately 50 million people live in this band of 103 counties, representing about 15% of all Americans.

Oh-so-much more available to you at the US Census Bureau website.

More Tips & Joy

Truth Telling Tips

In an informative blog online at Quirks.com, Market Researcher Maxwell Wang lays out the 4 basics of a good interview.

I don’t want to spoil it for you, Mr. Wang does a great job of explaining each step in detail. Here are the highlights from his tips:

Establish equality, not superiority

Diplomacy in differing opinions: Be confident, not arrogant. ie., Be thoughtful & inquisitive, and firm on following the agenda. Wang notes that non-verbal cues can be helpful here, though I can attest that his tip is equally applicable to audio or text only interviews.

Show Respect

Another helpful reminder is to offer a high level of respect for the intreviewee. Communicate it truthfully, abundantly, and reiterate how valuable their time and opinions are.

Substance over performance

We’ve all seen folks tank on this one and it’s cringe worthy. Pride in your excellent work and career is not the point. The client is all that matters. What does the client need. Understand the ultimate objective of the research, the client’s past experience and current beliefs, and aim accordingly.

Prepare to Improve

As your interviews begin to tally up, remember that it’s ok to regroup and discuss improvements to the discussion guide questions and flow. Concious iterations and acknowledgements where things could be done better are what make the results of a good study a great one. Learn as you go, adjust accordingly, and keep moving forward. Call it “agile”, call it “iterative learning” – we call it continual improvement of the process so we hit that bullseye objective.

Expect the Unexpected

My dad coached my softball team when I was a kid and he would always tell the infielders to crouch with bent knees, because “you never know which way the ball is going to come at you. You want to be able to pivot left or right.” The best players learn to react quickly to the ball’s impending trajectory. A good interview rolls the same. The keenest insights come from what you didn’t know you didn’t know. Stay alert out there!

Oh Crap, The Incentives

And while we’re on the topic of getting to the heart of the matter, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about incentives: what participants are paid to share their time and opinions. There are different schools of thought on this one, with some believing incentives bias results. Personally, I believe participants should be fairly compensated. Tom Rich wrote a insightful article about how incentives drive outcomes. Good stuff.

What strategies do you apply in your research to ensure truthful responses?

More Tips & Joy

Marketing on the Move

“Target market”, “SWOT”, “Unique Selling Proposition”, “Influencer” and whatever comes next – if you’re in the field of advertising, marketing, or market research, you best hop on the bandwagon and learn your client’s love language.

While promotional fields of study have been around longer than you probably realized, the popular words used to describe the practice change over time. Time moves forward. Culture changes. People age out of the business as new ideas from younger professionals enter into the ring. Whatever you want to point to as the reason, the fact is: change happens.

Over time, we have learned to use the terms our clients are using. We also are quick to ask them to describe and define what their words mean to them. The latter is the key. The different perspectives are vast.

Brand positioning? Brand identity? Graphic identity? Brand image? Brand Building? Brand repositioning? So many variations of intent. As a result, we move forward with what the client needs to move forward, all the while using their marketing love language. When in Rome.

“Full service or DIY”, “user experience or usability”, “iterative learning or agile research”, “unmet needs or voice of the customer” – the terms are definitive to those using them, and it’s up to us to be curious, fluid, and purposeful.

What marketing terms have populated your world and why?

More Tips & Joy

Spring Shake

Daylight Savings is over in the US and whether you schedule it or not, somehow we see grime more clearly after the cold. Blame the angle of the sun, the current Swiffer advertising strategy, or other more logical reasons for Spring cleaning, humans are wired to clean up this time of year. Whether you DIY or contract out the cleaning services, there’s a certain need to start the warmer season with a clean slate.

Why Spring?

One logical reason to clean your house in the 1800’s was because every piece of the interior was covered in soot, the result of burning coal and wood to light the home. Add to that the heating and cooking, and you have yourself a home that resembles the underbelly of a barbecue grill, the covered area we all pretend isn’t there. I imagine living in that time and rejoicing at the first opportunity to open all the windows and begin the cleansing.

Another reason is based in religion. The Jewish tradition of cleaning in preparation for Passover has long been known, as they want to rid their homes of all yeast in support of eating unleavened bread to celebrate the holiday. Christians are also known to “clean house” before Lent and the Persian New Year includes cleaning, or “shaking the house”, for the first day of Spring.

Even today, the simple transition from cold to warm prompts our eyes to see the dirt through the windows we are opening. So the tradition continues, let’s be careful out there.

Spick & Span Success

Whether you have 5 minutes or an entire weekend, you can find ways to get your cleaning done. We tapped into the superior tips from Better Homes & Garden and found a great plan for deep cleaning.

Here are some of the best tips EVER on how to keep your sneakers white. Who knew?? Leather or canvas, there are tried & true methods out there that really work.

And what would a blog offering Spring Cleaning tips be without the tips from the master herself, Ms. Martha Stewart. She starts from the beginning and ends at the finish line, leaving nary a crumb. So if you’re looking for some adult supervision in this area, this is the website for you.

More Tips & Joy

Take Note

Do you have notes everywhere? Sticky notes? Napkin scribbles? Thoughts to remember? It’s OK. Really.

If you’re one of those people who writes notes by hand, technology is here to help. You can continue to jot down ideas that are then digitized into typed, searchable form.

Moleskin & Neo Smartpen use their own special pen and paper to digitize your handwritten notes.

Wacom Smartpad and Bamboo Slate digitize your writing and doodles using a highly sensitive tablet on which any kind of paper or pen can be used.

Livescribe uses a special pen to digitize both your vocalized and handwritten notes.

Evernote and One Note are platforms that can convert written words inside to text, which covers everything from written notes to typed documents to wine labels – whatever printed items you want to easily recall at a future time.

How do you decide which tools, if any, to buy?

More Tips & Joy

Break Time

As humans, we make hundreds of choices throughout the day. Drive here. Eat this. Answer that. We choose where to be, when to be there, and what we’re going to do when we get there. Many of us live in this cycle of decisions like we’re running in a hamster wheel.

Taking a break from work is proven to benefit your outcome, as well as your outlook. Like this guy. Be more like this guy.

More Tips & Joy

Step Away from The Work

Did you know that taking a break from a task is just as important as practicing a task? Tally one for the break-takers, water cooler visitors, and coffee pot fillers.

Stepping away requires your brain to fire differently, allowing it process what you have actively been doing. Our brains compress memories and then replay them in our heads faster than if we were actively conducting the same activity.

So next time you’re practicing that important presentation and desperate to learn it all quickly, step away and do what the NIH calls “wakeful rest”, because your brain continues to practice. In fact, it learns at a faster rate than if you continued to slog through. Nice!

So take a moment. You deserve it. Your brain’s got this.

More Tips & Joy

How We Learn

Note taking. It’s like breathing. I can’t imagine life without it. Mind to hand to pen to paper. That is how incoming information sticks.

But alas, people assimilate data differently. A LOT differently. In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of theories and frameworks of how humans learn.

Bottom line? Success lies in process, not time. In addition to penning (no pun intended) the term “effortful learning”, the folks over at Princeton equate learning to weight lifting, or in other words, it takes more than just a gym membership to get shredded. You need to work at it.

They also believe challenges (“desirable difficulties”) enhance the learning process. So next time you find yourself preparing for an important presentation, try getting through it without your notes. Try writing it down without your slides. Try speaking it without any slides. Tackle it from every angle. It’s practice and you’re going to mess up. Keep at it and you’ll prove Princeton right. Again.

What’s your process for learning?

More Tips & Joy