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Spring Ahead, Fall Back – But Why?

In the US today, the 2nd Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November, most of the country recognizes Daylight Savings Time (DST).

From the human desire to commune with nature to the yearning for a longer golf game, nothing was enough to win the argument for change until the trump card came calling: the great war. It took the need to save energy to officially move the needles.

Despite popular belief, Daylight Savings Time (DST) was not implemented in the US to benefit farmers. It was first used in the US in 1918 for 7 months as a means to conserve energy for the wartime efforts of WWI. It was repealed until implemented once more during WW2, referred to as “War Time”.

DST wasn’t a uniform policy in the US until 1966, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act into law on April 13, 1966. It took 8 years for the law to be fully and effectively implemented across the US.

Arizona and Hawaii have never recognized Daylight Savings Time. US Territories closer to the equator also do not recognize DST, including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Did you know… Daylight Savings Time in the US is called Summer Time in most of Europe.

Did you know…. in 2005, President George W. Bush changed the dates of DST in an effort to further save energy. What had been the first Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October for decades, 2007 began DST the second Sunday in March and to the first Sunday in November.

Did you know… most of the world either never observed, or has since stopped observing, DST.

Did you know… All of China is under one time zone.

Did you know… India is also under one time zone (India Standard Time, IST), yet it’s on the half hour (UTC +5:30) and nobody knows why. Theories include the fact that New Delhi is halfway between meridians, so instead of choosing one over the other, they split the difference and applied it across the country.

Did you know… Newfoundland and Labrador is another location on the half hour (UTC -3:30). Why? Well, Newfoundland, at least, at the time was its own domininion, and hence had the right to choose its own time zone. And alas, in 1935 the Newfoundlandians selected their time zone based on the actual time from Grenwich time: 3:30 hours.

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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.

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Boost Attendance

As a researcher, I conduct a lot of interviews. Some are one-on-one, or “individual” and others are in groups. Some interviews use video, some use audio, and others are group text chats with or without a visual component. Regardless of the means of communication, all human research has the same challenge: recruiting.

Filtering, validating, and setting expectations for the right people is THE most important part of any research study. That’s true whether you’re seeing them in-person or working with them online.

The final chapter to recruiting is go time – the reason you paid a recruiter in the first place. Your participants need to show up!

So what will help make that happen? As a marketing researcher who has been working online since 1996, I’ve relied on these tips that have stood the test of time:

A thoughtful + clear agenda with time commitments everyone sticks to
Manageable objectives, only bite what team members can chew.
Short meeting time commitments. Keep it simple + such.
Start on the half hour. More people will show. It’s weird.

CNBC reported that researchers at YouCanBook.Me revealed the best time and day to have a meeting, and the results are sort of surprising. It’s obviously not Monday or Friday, I can tell you that from personal experience.

Reporter Logan Hailey offers some tips to run a highly effective meeting, all good ideas. Especially now, with the massive increase in virtual meetings and uncomfortable Zoom waves. Zoom themselves has some meeting tips for their own platform, and there are dozens of other means to connect that may suit you, including GoTo/Join.me, WebEx, GoogleMeet, FaceTime and more.

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When Did Online Qual Begin?

The moment people could connect and communicate online, researchers were there. In the beginning the research was technical, paving the way for a vast network of open communication that was to follow.

As this virtual network of people grew, marketing researchers strapped on their boots and began exploring new ways of mining and collecting data. It wasn’t long before social researchers suited-up and started using email, group chats, and bulletin board systems to gather information. All of these initial efforts cleared the way for what is now known as online qualitative research.

While the first online focus group via group text was conducted by Marian Salzman in a pimped-out AOL chat room in 1992, it was actually research boards that came first. As early as 1984, when the “internet” was limited and accessible by only government researchers and universities, one student at Syracuse University was using a bulletin board system over NSFNET to interview students at UCLA.

Learn more about the history of online qualitative research in Qual-Online, the Essential Guide, available on Amazon.

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Pioneer in the Online Survey Industry

“Jennifer Dale is a pioneer in the online survey industry. It’s rare to find someone with such a thorough understanding of the business, so dedicated to her work and responsive to her customer’s requirements.”

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Pioneers of Online Research

Bari Siegel, Strategic Account Executive at Groupon

“Jennifer knew her business and was incredible to work with. After LiveWorld tried for awhile to offer online market research it really became a robust offering once Jennifer and Amy Yoffie at Research Connections became involved. Jennifer is truly one of the pioneers of online research!!”

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March Madness Message to Marketers

Kingsford Charcoal burns the NCAA with #PayEd Campaign

Meet Ed O’Bannon, a talented college athlete whose likeness was used in a NCAA-licensed video game without his consent or compensation. Reports claim there are thousands” of student athletes in the same situation. None too pleased, Ed and others filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against the NCAA, challenging the organization’s use of images of former student athletes for commercial purposes. While the group recently won a landmark case last August, the NCAA appealed and litigation continues.

In all this brouhaha, one clever charcoal company fired off a brilliant David + Goliath like marketing campaign, positioning a brave and popular underdog against the big bad NCAA behemoth.

This month Kingsford Charcoal bags tout a picture of Ed O’Bannon and the company’s familiar tagline, with a searing twist:

“Lights 25% faster, doesn’t burn athletes.”

At the hub of the Kingsford Charcoal campaign is notably the hashtag #PayEd, which when tweeted on March 19th paid Ed O’Bannon $1 each time it was used.

I can’t help but consider the brilliance of this campaign. Clearly Kingsford is burning NCAA bridges, but their choice to ride the “right a wrong” rocket on social media during a month of madness is a keen one. And with #PayEd going viral and the limit set at $25,000, the cost of the promotion, including the new printing on all the bags, must have been… darn appealing, to say the least. All in all, a pretty clear smoke signal showing us the red hot marketing trends of tomorrow.

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