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February 2008: He Said, She Said: Big Gender Gap Found in Motivations for Travel and Leisure Product Recommendations

CMB's research study into Word of Mouth and Advocacy shows how men and women discuss products, advocate them, and act on recommendations for very different reasons. Learn more about the results here...

September 2007: Segmentation at eBay - Reaping the Rewards

Segmentation has traditionally been a key component of eBay's business strategy. Through segmentation research, eBay has continuously identified opportunities to introduce new services and products based on an in-depth understanding of customer needs. What follows are 5 questions with Meg Sloan, Director - Market Research at eBay, about the benefits of effective segmentation.  Read the interview...

July 2007: Mullen's 2007 DAVID OGILVY Award 

We wanted to share some good news with you about one of our clients. The Boston-area based Mullen Advertising Agency has won the prestigious 2007 Advertising Research Foundation DAVID OGILVY award.  The OGILVY award, which was presented to Mullen and LendingTree for the 'Best of Both Worlds' advertising campaign, represents the best use of consumer research to build marketing campaigns that achieved superior business results.  Read more...

March 2007:  Making Segmentation Work: Six Questions with Westfield Insurance

Creating a truly useful segmentation solution is tricky in any industry, but even more so in the Insurance world. We recently spoke with Lisa Kozlowski and Susanne Wahl about how they conducted segmentation research that is impacting the future of their company, and the steps they took to make it work successfully before, during, and after the research was conducted. Read the interview...

 February 2007:  5 Questions about Loyalty Programs with Hilton HHonors' Adam Burke

The goal of any good loyalty program is to turn casual relationships and trials into more profitable loyalists and advocates; winning as great a share of their spending as possible away from the competition.

In many industries today, loyalty programs are a requirement, not an advantage. For better or worse, consumers have a multitude of memberships, collecting points or rewards with no real connection to the brands they represent.

When it comes to loyalty programs, we're lucky enough to work with one of the best, Hilton HHonors' Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Adam Burke. Adam was generous enough to answer some of our questions about the program, research's role in defining it, and offer some advice for other loyalty program managers.  Read the interview...

Fall 2006:  Maximize Your Data: Find Multiple Uses for Your Internally Generated Data

In recent years, it has become easier for companies to collect information on their operations, clients and prospects. Credit cards, online tracking, loyalty programs, utilization reports, and other metrics are integral parts of the business landscape that fill servers and databases.

But when was the last time you critically reviewed the reports and analysis you receive from your internally collected data? Which of your business decisions could be supported by extracting additional insight from the data (internal or customer) that you already have?  Read more...

Summer 2006:  Three tips for getting more useful qualitative reports

We decided to do a little research of our own on the qualitative research landscape.

Based on this series of in-depth interviews with client-side researchers, we have isolated three ways to ensure that all of your hard work in the planning, design and execution of qualitative projects pays off with truly useful reports.  Read More...

Spring 2006:  Is your brand tracking research telling the whole story?

As agencies are being held to a higher level of accountability, many clients solely judge the success of an initiative by its immediate sales. So, when sales are down, clients quickly lay blame on the agency. Put on the defensive, agencies often point to tracking studies that show higher awareness, favorability, and intent to buy scores.  Read more...

Winter 2005-06:  How you can effectively measure the impact of sponsorships, experiential marketing and word-of-mouth advocacy

It is no secret that throwing money at print and broadcast media is no longer the only (or likely, most effective) way to get your target market to take action. In response, countless articles have been written and presentations given about the changing marketing mix.

Now, many CMOs are pushing their managers to incorporate buzz marketing programs, experiential marketing and sponsorships without full knowledge of how these channels work or what should be expected as an ROI.  Read more...