Aussie Researcher

The launch of my new blog - http://peteraharris.wordpress.com/

2010-01-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

I have finally decided to re launch my blog so I can better connect with people that, like me want market and social research to be more important to business and government.

I know that marketing can make a difference if decisions are made based on strong customer understanding. The internet can deliver entirely new and engaging experiences to people that want to have a say, and I want to assemble a tribe of people that think the same and then work on communicating this to the business world. If you want to join me and contribute to the conversation check it out on:

http://peteraharris.wordpress.com/

A year of listening and learning

2009-12-08T03:16:00.000-08:00

2009 has been an amazing year for me personally and professionally.

It has been a year that I have been reminded about the importance of listening (inspired by Vanilla Ice), the amazing resiliance and thirst for learning within research professions (inspired by the record numbers at this years AMSRS Conference and Summer/Winter schools) and I have seen real change in the way information is being communicated and shared (inspired by MC Hammer's performance at UTS Social Media Club http://bit.ly/4yncsA). I will write about my weird allegiances to 80's Rap artists in my new blog that I plan to launch later this month.

2009 has been tough however I have learnt alot, i have turned 40 in style with my family and friends and it has forced me to take control of my career.

to read my full Presidents Point of View in December Research News, here is a link http://bit.ly/91m0uN

Can Market and Social Research deliver the ultimate aphrodisiac?

2009-11-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

The AMSRS delivered an outstanding National Conference in October of 2009 in Sydney. Over 600 people interested in marketing, advertising and market and social research from around the world gathered to what became the largest and most successful AMSRS conference ever.

What made it great was that is was very different than the ones before, more stories, more speakers from outside of research and more discussion and different opinions on the future of the research profession.

What made it different I feel is that we are all realising that our profession is changing again and will continue to do so. There are so many opportunities for the profession of research and during the conference it ocurred to me that we have the opportunity to deliver the ultimate aphrodisiac to business and government. Read my November article in Research News to find out more. http://bit.ly/2pPW8N

Welcome to the 'new normal'

2009-10-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

Last month the US was reported to be moving out of recession but globally and more importantly in Australia, is it possible that there has been a dramatic and permanent chang ein the way that business and government across the world have started to purchase and use research?

Here is my article from the October's Research News, the 100th edition!

http://bit.ly/meJjd

40 years in the making

2009-09-26T00:00:00.001-07:00

I turned 40 this year and one of my personal aims was to become a more powerful and effective presenter. I identified 5-6 conferences across marketing, advertising and research and wanted to have fresh ideas, the best slides and to speak simply and confidently without reference to notes.

Working with @michaelbatistic and @raypoynter i feel that i have achieved most of what I wanted to with my 5 best decks found here:

http://bit.ly/yDZKI

I presented within Australia and Overseas, at research conferences (AMSRS, ESOMAR Asia Pac, Consumer Insight) and Marketing (Marketing Week) and Advertising (Digitec, The Future FAce of Marketing) conferences. Look out for the next 12 months where I am wanting to explore how we put the marketing back into Market and Social Research.

2009-09-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

Click below to my article today in Research News September 09 which discusses our role in determining the reputation and image of market and social research in Australia.

We need to produce questions and topics that we would be prepared to answer ourselves! I hope you enjoy and please send me your thoughts

http://bit.ly/12jLw1

2009-09-04T04:32:00.000-07:00

This time last week I was taking part in Oxfam TRAILWALKER Sydney 2009 with my team.

The challenge was to complete 100kms of rugged bush trail in less than 48 hours as a team of four. The event is a fundraising challenge. Our team committed to raising at least $5000 to help some of the world's poorest people. Colmar Brunton had 20 teams entering this year’s challenge.

My team included friends Tor, Lou and Adrian and we proudly completed the 100km's in just over 33 hours. It was slower than we planned and trained for however we toughed it out as a team and had a ball at the same time. It was the third time I had completed the walk and I am proud that I have finished 3 times each with my full team of 4.

This year, I learnt alot about teamwork, roles within a team, sticking together, helping each other and appreciating the amazing trail. Each team needs a leader, an organiser, a guide and a joker at times. Over 33 hours, roles within the team can change and each of us need to be flexible enough to switch roles when required. If you ever want to create a life long connection with another, walk 100km with them.

If you would like to find out more or sponsor my team please visit: http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Sydney/team/130

2009-08-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

Research News - August point of view: Lost in translation

Wikipedia informs me that the 2003 film Lost in Translation explores themes of loneliness, alienation, existential ennui and culture shock. I don't admit to being a fan of existential ennui (what is it?) however as we explore this month's Research News theme of PEST (political, economic and social trends), I see both risk and opportunity looming for our profession as we move through the current change cycle. The risk is that we remain somewhat lost in translation to public policy leaders and business leaders; the opportunity is for re-thinking, re-invention and renewal.

for more garble click on http://bit.ly/7KFZP

WOW What a Conference Agenda

2009-07-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

Maintaining a learning culture and AMSRS Conference 2009

As we tough it out this year, it is reassuring to know that despite the tough economic climate, over one third of the AMSRS membership have already undertaken some form of training or personal development this year via our professional PDP programmes. This is not the case with other professional societies that I have come into contact with lately, so there is clearly a strong learning culture present that will ensure that we keep developing as a research profession in Australia.

If you have not already taken advantage of the early bird rate for Conference 2009 you should do yourself a favour and at least check it out today http://bit.ly/17lJeH.

The National Conference Committee have really thought this one through, with discounts available for QPMR’s, YRG and Operation specific session, a fantastic list of speakers and papers and incorporating for the first time the Asia Pacific Research Conference, which is a stream of winning papers and speakers from Japan, Korea, China and Australia. I am particularly looking forward to listening to Andy Dexter who will be leading the rallying call for seeing recession as a time of re-thinking, re-invention, and renewal. If you have seen a more exciting conference on paper send me the details!

The Australian profession being recognised on the world stage

2009-07-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

I noticed in the July issue of Research News this article from John Marinopoulos, the aussie ESOMAR council member and managing director of Strategic Intelligence Group.

John represented Australia at last months World Industry Network (WIN) meeting of senior market researchers in Amsterdam. This was hosted by ESOMAR and included participants from over 20 countries.

http://bit.ly/VuP0U

It is great to see that the World is starting to appreciate the job that has been done in Australia in the areas of quality, being qualified and our professions' attempt to create more client conversations. We now need to ensure that our own members and clients in Australia clearly see the value of QPMR. Stay tuned as there is a plan in place!

Providing Meaning is What Matters

2009-07-07T03:30:00.000-07:00

I am hoping that it is meaning that matters most in market and social research. Check out my article on this topic in the July's Research News. http://bit.ly/6RHi1

Encouraging young research champions of the future in Australia

2009-06-08T03:16:00.000-07:00

Check out my latest Research News article for June 09 entitled "Giving young researcher's a voice and making them the heroes"

http://bit.ly/QyNWB

Nokia is back for me

2009-05-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I picked up a new phone - a Nokia E71. It is fantastic and it has been 6-7years since I have had a Nokia. I have had the phone for 24 hours and have worked out 90% of what I need to know.

In the early days of mobile phones I was extremely brand loyal and loved Nokia phones. I would not consider anything else. Somehow i ended up trialing lots of different phones and PDA's, Samsung and HTC mainly, between 2000 to present. I think tried something different because everyone seemed to have a Nokia and it was nice to be a bit different. I was not however really happy with any of these phones.

How things have changed in 2009. When I needed a new phone, i was advised to get a new HTC, IPhone or Blackberry. Something about these phones didn;t feel right for me and I decided to go back to Nokia. Why? I think it is because this phone was not common and every person you see has a blackberry or new Iphone.

So back with Nokia, its a little different than the pack but its a great handset (so far)

Who is tinkering to get the engine right?

2009-05-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

I recently read in the UK based RESEARCH magazine that WPP Boss Martin Sorrell, described his groups Insight capability as one of their "engines of growth". Good news for the research profession if he is right which I suspect he is. It will only work however researchers (both part of WPP and everyone else) are able to deliver the insight in an engaging format, suitable for business in 2009 and beyond.

In the same magazine, there was an article titled "Research Skills must evolve with consumers", from the Advertising Research Foundations, Chief Research Officer, Joel Rubinson. He challenged the research industry to learn and incorporate a new set of skills to gain insight from consumers online. Hearing the unexpected and paying attention to the new vocab were mentioned. His view said that insights gathered from Social Media sources need to be merged and integrated with insights gained from more traditional research data collection methods.

We have a big job to do to ensure we are being trained to do this to ensure the growth engine is well tuned. When I look at training being offered by most professional societies now, i see more of the same courses that have been present for 20 years. We need to invest now. Any thoughts on what we can do?

Precious Time

2009-05-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

check out my May contribution to Research News entitled "Time is precious so stand up for it"

http://www.amsrs.com.au/index.cfm?a=detail&id=3206&eid=161

Lets not waste time, there is too much in the world to do, see and experience!

99 Design Brief

2009-04-22T23:00:00.001-07:00

Hey designers, here's the photos of me I was talking about in the brief. Also here is the banner of Colmar Brunton and it's associated colours.

Cheers,

Aussie Researcher

daily clutter buster

2009-04-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

i am finding that it is easier to get responses from senior people or people you see infrequently by using linkedIn vs traditional email (i think it is a facinating fact that we can now refer to email as traditional). why is this so?

Maybe its the spam filter updates!

Could it be that LinkedIn is relatively new for many or are people concerned about getting a poor reputation on LinkedIn or maybe worse, a recommendation rejection? I think many people including me are struggling to keep up with the daily email deluge, holding emails in drafts for later when you have time to think. i deal with 150+ emails a day and probably only 2-3 issues to deal with in linked in.

I am becoming a big fan of linked in, although starting to find the LinkedIn groups contact too frequent. What do you think ?

2009-04-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

Check out my April article in Research News, the brilliant monthly magazine of the AMSRS. The article is entitled "The C word that is here to stay"

http://www.amsrs.com.au/index.cfm?a=detail&id=3181&eid=160

C of course is for collaboration. I think that when times are tough, collaboration becomes more important than ever. Do you agree?

Will business ever be the same again?

2009-03-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

I presented at a AMI breakfast seminar this week, talking about Australian consumer sentiment and its impact on the recession. The key metric in all of this is to track how confident people are in keeping their job. When there is a growing number of people that are most concerned with losing their job, they are more conservative in their spending.

Link

When things level out, which brands will be the ones that win?

What role do you want to play?

2009-03-06T02:27:00.000-08:00

See my article in the March 09 Research News.

Link

We all have a job to do right now to talk about the important of investment in market and social research. So what are you doing about it?

linkedIn i like it

2009-02-11T03:31:00.000-08:00

I have not been sure about LinkedIn for a while now. People ask to connect to me and I always accept, i have been asked to answer short suveys using linked in and it is interesting that you can be linked to people from all around the world. Last month, i contacted on of my contacts and set up a meeting in Sydney. I felt brave but it worked a treat. I was able to schedule a coffee with a really useful contact at reasonably short notice and i am confident it will result in us both receiving business. Barack Obama is the only name i recognise in the top50 linkedIn people - so its not about celebrity or how famous you are. Linked, connection, will it make business easier or less personal?

Reshaping the game in 2009

2009-02-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

check out my presidents report for February in Research News.

Link

Let me know if you agree or have a different view

Where is the middle ground?

2009-01-28T03:53:00.000-08:00

There is so much media and opinion on what 2009 will bring to the business world and unemployment and consumer confidence prove to be key indicators. Inflation in Australia is now down to 3.7%.

The financial media is full of job losses, profit downturns and requests for Boards to be transparent with results. I find it interesting that the marketing and advertising media are talking positive and suggesting that gloom and doom talk in the media creates the downward spiral in confidence. The marketing and advertising media and business/financial media are poles apart right now. Where is the middle ground?

What will 2012 look like for research?

2008-11-09T01:59:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop last month in Montreal discussing the future of market and social research. It was expertly facilitated by a team of young researchers but i am not sure it went far enough. The key future trends that I took out included:

1. more passive monitoring of behaviour
2. multiple data sources being brought together to develop the story
3. the importance of India and China
4. more time on analysis less time on data gathering
5. media, research and advertising working more closely together
6. Consumers to become more demanding and choose when and how they want to talk to us
7. random sampling under enormous pressure
8. client databases will be at the centre of everything
9. blurrred qual and quant
10. Greater demand for ROI and accountability, leading to more effective designs

I am not sure we are pushing it far enough with the above. I think i can safely say that the single methodology is almost gone, but what big shifts are others seeing and predicting for 2012?

Good leaders understand people

2008-10-04T03:31:00.000-07:00

There are lots of management and leadership books you can read but this week I saw a great example of good leadership and vision with my own eyes. I visited Port Sunlight in the UK, which is on the Wirrell not far from Liverpool. It is a whole village built by William Lever of Unilever fame to house his staff close to his Soap Factory. Sunlight Soap was one of his brands, hence Port Sunlight.

His view was happy and healthy staff make better employees.Lever wanted his workers to be in decent housing and to have plenty of room. He wanted each house to have a garden and he also wanted to look after their welfare, so medical facilities, insurance, social clubs, churches and other facilities were built. He wanted what was called a ‘garden suburb’ that also had other buildings such as a post office, a bank and a village hall.

This was all good thinking but the really interesting thing was that he suspected his staff liked being inviduals and his master stroke was that he did not build hundreds of homes that all looked the same, he employed teams of architects to design 268 different cottages and homes. How is that for really understanding human behaviour and your staff. It would have been so easy to build a big block of flats but without having to ask, William Lever knew.

This staff obviously loved it, and even though the factory at Port Sunlight now produces detergent instead of soap, Port Sunlight still stands there today as private housing but many Unilever employees still live here. Incredible leadership and vision

Lessons from the current financial meltdown in the US

2008-09-19T05:20:00.001-07:00

I am a simple person but I read today an article from Zac Karabell in the National Post entitled "Why AIG Fell" and wonder what lessons our profession can take from this debarcle that has cost tax payers billions of $.

It seems that AIG had floated under the radar screen of the business media because its business model was so complex and opaque that it was impossible to describe simply! Among many of its products was insurance on derivatives built on other derivatives built on mortages (what the hell is going on when something so intangible can be sold so many times?). AIG priced those according to a computer model that no one person cold have written. When default rates and home prices moved in ways no model had predicted the whole pricing structure was thrown out of wack. It seems however the assets being insured only shifted by 10-20% but the cumulative impact has imploded many companies that have been successul for 90 plus years.

So what are the lessons for market and social research?

1. further validation that we need to shape the future not try to predict it
2. lets keep our business models simple and tangible
3. our models need to be clearly understood by users and not masked in complicated science that cannot be clearly articulated and understood by all
4. does this mean black box solutions are no longer appropriate?

Is it time for art and science to merge more closely in market and social research and how?

2008 AMSRS National Conference, Melbourne

2008-09-17T21:54:00.001-07:00

I have just spent 3 days at the 2008 Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS) National conference in Melbourne. It was a fansatic demonstration of old and young research professionals challenging each other, with the ultimate aim of creating a more effective product for users of research.

There were many highlights and it truly had an international flavor. A few messages really jumped out that i will not forget easily

1. We need to listen more instead of always asking in todays connected world
2. Film is the new currency
3. Measure, measure, measure
4. Lets consider culture and context more in developing research outcomes
5. Shape the future don’t rely on predicting it
6. Good insights are wasted unless you can tell a compelling story

Another observation I made is that everyone is nervous before a presentation to your peers, even the most experienced speakers.

The 2009 conference will be in Sydney in October.

Networked Individuals

2008-08-31T05:19:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to this video on youtube by a friend, mentor and colleague Ray Poynter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

It is 55 minutes but worth the time investment. It highlights the role that youtube has played in linking people like never before. There appears to be a loss of community within society, less trust built between individuals and government or corporates. As humans we crave connections, deep connections with others. Youtube has provided an avenue for many people to create connections we can't seem to establish any more in real life. We are now building our social networks online and these networks are shaping our decision making. The new currency is about how connected or networked you are.

This obviously has massive implications on marketing and communications right now and for market and social research into the future. Over the next month i will be attending the AMSRS National Conference in Melbourne, Australia and the ESOMAR World Congress in Montreal, Canada and I plan to use these forums to develop my thinking in this space via my blog.