Well, here we are at the beginning of 2012. 2011, with all of its twists and turns, is behind us and we start the New Year looking ahead to see what might be in store. Here at Revelation, 2011 was a wonderful year of progress, challenge and growth. We see 2012 filled with immense opportunity. The wonderful thing about working in a dynamic, rapidly changing industry like market research is that each day represents a new opportunity to learn and find exciting new ways to create value for our customers. 

So as we look forward into 2012, here are some of the things we are keeping an eye on:

1.    Technology continues to reshape MR

No doubt about it, technology will continue to have an immense impact on MR, on both methodology and the business of MR itself. Technology enabled offerings will be the price of admission to stay current in the business, and more technology companies (especially around big data, marketing automation and mobile) will enter the market research space.

2.    Hype versus reality

That said, technology is not methodology in itself, and new technology-enabled methods will need to prove out against methods that have been normalized over the past decades. In 2012, researchers and clients will be putting social media research, gamification and other buzz-y methods to the test. 

3.    Lighter weight engagement at key moments

Given that the attention span of potential MR participants for MR activity is constant shrinking, and more MR moves to the less expressive mobile medium, lightweight collection methods that engages quickly at key moments will become more widespread. Getting the right question to the right person at the right time will start to take on as much importance as the depth of information.

4.    Delivering more value

We are not out of the economic woods yet by any means, and that means that budgets will continue to be tightened and a premium will be placed on delivering value. Ultimately the mission of market research is to understand people to answer business questions, and getting that mission accomplished faster, more cost effectively and just as reliably  (if not more so) will continue to be a huge imperative.  New methods, no matter how flashy, will be measured by how effectively they enable clients to get the answers they need.

 5.    Watch for new business models

While all the attention is on technology and methods, there is an undercurrent of disruption of current MR business models (for example, Usamp not charging for SurveyWriter to enable sample and other forms of revenue). Which traditional models will come under stress from a confluence of methodology and technology is yet to be seen, but inevitably, there will be a leap from applying technology to current methods and models to technology enabling new MR business models. 

Here is to a great 2012! To learn more about Revelation’s Immersive Research, we have a few options for you:

• Webinars
• Resources
• Demo

All About Revelation Mobile

By: Elizabeth MacLaughlin, Client Services Manager

I recently hosted a mini-webinar to demonstrate the functionality of our Revelation Mobile App and discuss best practices in using mobile technology to capture in-the-moment data.

Here is a link to the recorded webinar and a PDF of the presentation, please click here.

Also, don't miss out on the follow-up webinar: Revelation Mobile Case Study. Click here to view the recording or download the presentation.

There were so many great questions that a few of them didn’t get answered. So, I put together the following Q&A series:

A: The Revelation App currently is supported on:

• iPhone Apple iOS 3.1.3 or later

• Android 1.6 (Donut) or later

• iPad 1 and 2 (keep in mind that iPad 1 does not have photo-taking capability)

Other mobile smartphone and tablet devices are not yet supported.

A: Currently, if a text pops up while the participant is in the middle of answering an activity on their Mobile device, they can either continue the activity and finish (submit) it before looking at their text…or they can click away from the Revelation App to view their text (or answer their phone, or anything else that might distract them from their in-the-moment responses), in which case their responses will be lost when they return to the Revelation App.

This is why we recommend structuring mobile activities to be short, and recurring. That way the activity is continually available to the participant so they can easily return to it and answer questions, and if they do happen to lose a few responses, they can re-enter data quickly and easily.

A: Revelation Mobile functions as an asynchronous tool, and researcher follow-up probes only show up on the desktop interface. Therefore there will be some time between the participant responds to his/her in-the-moment activity and when they see and respond to follow-up probes.

Utilizing the “Record, then Reflect” Immersive practice is most effective for our tool, which allows participants to capture their in-the-moment documentaries on their mobile device with short texts and photo responses, and then to elaborate later from home with more reflective detail.

A: On the Revelation Platform, the participant must first login to the online study from their desktop and create a password. Only after doing so are they able to use the Revelation App to access their Mobile activities. So to some extent, a desktop is currently required.

In addition, there are currently certain functionalities, such as ability to see and respond to probes; and certain activity types, such as an activity requesting video or a discussion activity, that are only available using a desktop computer.

On the whole, layering mobile activities in with non-mobile activities provides more rich data. However, if your goal is to run a study to collect primarily short, in the moment, response capture, you can certainly tailor a study that guides participants to primarily use their mobile devices to enter data. Just keep in mind that they potentially can respond to questions from their desktop as well, so setting participant study guidelines will be paramount.

A: Certainly! Our example for the webinar was a consumer shopping experience study, but one could use the same methods to capture B2B data, such as in the moment feedback from a tradeshow, conference or marketing event.

We are so proud! Revelation’s customers are out in force at The Market Research Event.  This week a number of our customers will be presenting. Of course, while the achievements of our customers are their own, we can’t help but feel a bit of pride in supporting their success.

If you are attending The Market Research Event (TMRE), please consider attending the following sessions in support of our customers.

Monday, 11/7 at 2:15
Illumination Research presents American Woman: A Deep Dive into Segmentation

Monday, 11/7 at 1:30pm
KL Communication presents The iPad is Changing the Way Americans Consume Media: Learning from the Time Inc. Innovation Panel

Tuesday 11/8 at 1:30pm
C+R Research presents Teens and Their Money: A Deep Immersion into Teen Spending Behaviors Using Social Media Research Technology

Tuesday 11/8 at 1:30pm
Nicole Freund of Coleman Outdoor presents Succeeding as a One-Wo/Man Army: Creating Value When You Are the Only Resource

Tuesday, 11/8 at 2:15pm
Stephanie Balderrama of Consumers Insights Group presents Creating a Brand Defining Presence in Unfamiliar Territory

Tuesday, 11/8 at 3:00pm
Dave Lundahl of Insights Now presents Breakthrough Product Innovation through Behavior-Driven Research

Congratulations to all of these amazing research companies!

There has been quite a bit of sadness around the Revelation office since the news of Steve Jobs’ passing. We are a company of Apple fan boys and girls, and our office is a veritable showroom of Apple stuff – iMacs, iPhones, and iPads. And yet, the rows of sleek, immaculately designed devices on our desks represent only the most superficial impact that Steve Jobs has had on Revelation.

In fact, it could be argued that Revelation may very well not be here today without Steve Jobs’ influence. When I founded Revelation, my goal was for us to be the Apple of the market research business. I wanted to create a business that not only helped researchers understand consumers, but also offered a new kind of research experience.

I looked to Apple as our model. Beyond shiny surfaces and elegant interfaces, Apple embraced the notion that the whole experience had to be considered. The iPod had iTunes and access to the music and content and it all worked together seamlessly. The iPhone had apps and the App Store so you could make your phone do all kinds of useful things. (And of course, if you desired, useless but entertaining things.)

For Revelation, the idea was to not just create a piece of software, but to look at the whole process of going from business questions, to insight, to understanding. At Revelation, we looked not just at technology, but we also developed an activity-based approach that would get the most out of the technology and the online medium. The confluence of the two became Immersive Research.

Steve Jobs said that Apple lived at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. I believe that qualitative market research lives at the intersection of the liberal arts and business. And we’ve always thought of Revelation living at the intersection of technology and market research.

When we started Revelation, we had no idea how immensely challenging it is to become ‘the Apple’ of anything. While we are proud of what Revelation has accomplished, we know we are still only at the very beginning, striving to that elusive ideal.

Beyond all the shiny devices, that’s the biggest impact Steve Jobs has had on Revelation -- the idea that having ideals in our work is important, and there is nothing more worthy of effort in our lives than working vigorously towards them.

And for that we thank you, Steve. You will be missed.

We had a tremendous response to our Blended Reality Research^TM (BRR) webinar and wanted to follow up on some of the questions that we didn’t get a chance to explore and answer during the Great Research Thinking webinar hosted by Revelation in July.

Q: What do you learn from the face-to-face ethnography as compared to the online study?

A: We find Immersive Research – an online, activity-based approach  really useful to get a deep understanding of how people feel and think about a particular topic.  Because we spend more time with them, they have time to reflect on their own attitudes, behaviours and ideas, often coming to interesting and insightful revelations on their own.  Online platforms are also fantastic for learning about something that takes place over time – days, weeks, months - which is very expensive to replicate using ethnography.

In our work, we spend a lot of time thinking about user journeys and systems of interactions and connection points and we still find it difficult to get a clear read on this using online platforms only.  Participants can only report and document behavior that they’re aware of so it’s incredibly helpful to be able to watch them complete a set of tasks.  We usually start this learning online and deepen it when we’re in the field.

Q: Were the experts you spoke to during the BRR project case study you presented engaged in person, online or over the phone?

A: When we engage experts to help stimulate our own thinking, we engage them in whatever way is most convenient for them.  Some we spoke to by phone or Skype and others we met in person.  We don’t usually engage experts using online platforms as they have very limited time to spend with us and we tend to get the best insight from them when we’re engaged directly in conversation and/or show + tell.

Q: How do you manage/mine the tremendous amount of data generated from multiple weeks online followed by ethnographic fieldwork?

A: When we first started using online research tools, we definitely made the “more is more” mistake.  We still battle this on every project because we’re a curious bunch and it’s so easy to ask more, add one more activity tack on a few more days to explore this really interesting bit…

But in most cases more isn’t more, it’s just more.  So, we’re really rigorous in our project and research design and think about how we’re going to analyze the data generated by each phase, activity and question from the outset.  We also schedule analysis and downloading time throughout the project so we’re thinking with the data as we go, rather than have it to pile up to be dug into and dealt with at the end.  This can be very overwhelming.

And although we’re really rigorous about our project and research design, we do build in time and budget for what we call “rabbit holes”.  You just never know what surprises are lurking about on discovery-based projects and it’s important for us to have the time and means to explore the unexpected.  This is often where the juiciest insights and opportunities lie waiting.

Q: You talked about posting content from the digital environment to your physical project space.  Do/how do you package this as a deliverable for your clients?

A: The content and artifacts that find their way into our physical project space aren’t packaged as a deliverable for clients per se.  However, we do design the project space and populate it so that we can use the contents as stimulus for some of the divergent thinking and co-creation work we do with clients at different stages of the project.  It’s also incredibly helpful for the project team to be “steeped” in the data throughout the project.  It’s critical for pattern recognition, collaborative thinking and concept development.

Q: You could spend endless time analyzing all of this data.  How do you know when it’s time to stop analyzing and start synthesizing and reporting? 

A: Truthfully, it’s usually the project timeline that dictates when we stop!  We schedule analysis time throughout the project and our analysis/synthesis is quite iterative.  When it feels like that iterative process isn’t generating new insights and ideas, we know we’re ready to move onto reporting or concept/prototype development.

Q: To what extent do your clients participate in reviewing and commenting on the raw data?  Do they have an appetite for this level of engagement in the data?

A: We actually insist that our clients dig into some of the raw data with us and build this into the project design.  They usually do this in a few ways…

(1) We strongly encourage clients to do some reading while we’re online.  In our experience, the client teams that get the most out of BRR actively schedule reading time throughout the online study;

(2) We strongly encourage them to come in the field with us; and

(3) We immerse them in curated data when they join us in our project space for ideation and collaboration work sessions.  We design these sessions so they have time to browse and interact with the data so we can use it to think and create together.

Q: Have you found that clients want to eliminate face-to-face “in-context” time with online research?

A: No, not really.  Sometimes we don’t think “in-context” research is required so we’ll recommend online only.  But most of our projects benefit from a more integrated approach because BRR creates incremental value that is so much greater than 1 + 1 = 2.  A BRR approach really does deliver a 1 + 1 = 5 level of insight.  Our research design is very purposeful and we take the time to educate our clients on our recommended approach and why/how it will deliver the learning we need. 

Q: What are the time and costs associated with planning and implementing a BRR project like the one you presented?

A: A full Research + Concepting project that includes BRR tends to take at least 3 months, more depending on the complexity of the challenge and the number of markets we need to learn in.  And cost, well, it really depends.  Let’s say more than $100,000 and less than $1,000,000!

Q: Does the BRR approach work for projects with much shorter timelines (2-4 weeks)?

A: In our experience, it’s difficult to integrate digital and analog methods and have time to learn and leverage the various phases to maximum effect in less than a month.  The smallest scale BRR projects we do tend to take 6-8 weeks.  We’ve actually never had a client come to us and expect turn-around in 2 weeks.

Q: How do you determine which projects are a good fit for BRR?

A: We ask two key questions when we’re designing the research phase of our projects: (1) what can we get people to do for us digitally; and (2) what do we want to do with them in context?  If the answer is “nothing” to either of those questions, a BRR approach probably isn’t appropriate.  We are finding, however, that most of our Research + Concepting work includes a Blended Reality Research^TM approach.

Q: Do you find that access to and comfort with digital world skews to a particular demographic?  How do you accommodate groups who have limited access to digital technology?

A: Using online platforms and digital capture tools is not always appropriate.  There are some populations that simply don’t have access.  If we need to learn from and work with a group that has limited access to digital technology, our research design reflects this.  However, we have done online studies with people of all ages and from a variety of backgrounds.  In our experience, as long as someone is using email and able to attach a picture or document to an email message, they are usually able to participate in one of our online studies. 

Q: Do the participants you engage normally participate in online studies?  Or do you have to recruit people who are familiar with online tools/platforms?  

A: Not at all.  Many of the people we recruit for the online portion of our BRR projects have never participated in an activity-based online study before.  They love being able to do it on their own time and most really enjoy being asked to think creatively in a way that is rarely asked of them.  They also appreciate the “deep listening” we do when we’re with them online.  We read every word and probe and ask for follow up so they feel acknowledged and heard.

Q: How did/do you keep the participants engaged over the span of the project?

A: You can not communicate too much.  When a participant has been accepted into one of our online studies, they are emailed right away by the Project Manager to welcome them to the project.  Within the first 24 hours of the online study launching, every single participant is contacted by the Researcher who will be reading and responding to their work.  All participants receive a daily email from their assigned Researcher that provides thanks and kudos on the previous day’s work and advises what is expected of them that day.  We think of ourselves as cheerleaders and coaches as much as researchers.  We want participants to feel our presence online and to feel appreciated and acknowledged.  It can sometimes feel like overkill on our end, but the more we communicate and congratulate and actively moderate, the better the learning and level of engagement is.

Q: Do you ever do larger online samples to get more quantitative data to support the qualitative learning?

A: No, we don’t.  Our focus is qualitative research, though we will sometimes work with a client’s existing quant partner (or one that we recommend) to determine the size and strength of the various opportunities that have been identified by our qualitative Research work and Concepting that emerges from it.

Q: Packaging is a very physical type of innovation.  Do you have examples where you’ve applied this BRR approach to more conceptual types of innovation?

A: Absolutely.  We have used BRR in Research + Concepting projects that have led to brand/positioning concept development and service and/or experience design concepts.

If you have any further questions about Blended Reality Research ^TM and how it might help you tackle your most pressing curiosities, please get in touch.  We can be reached in Toronto at +1-416-531-7222 or at karen.ward@curiosityinc.com

The blog post below has been written by Karen Ward of Curiosity Inc.  Karen is going to be presenting the topic below in our Great Research Thinking webinar tomorrow, July 28.

Blended Reality Research^TM: Bringing Online and Real World Methods Together for Insight and Innovation

We’ve been working and learning with Revelation and a variety of other online research platforms over the past 5 years.  This surprises some of our clients who know us as a research and innovation company that is positively evangelistic about the power and importance of in-context, ethnographic research. 

However, as our lived experiences as individuals are becoming more “blended”, so too must our research methods and tools as practitioners.  And with the dramatic improvement of online platforms and digital capture tools, there has never been a better time to embrace what we call Blended Reality Research. 

In the early days of our online research adventures, we primarily used online platforms like Revelation to administer “online homework” assignments leading up to our ethnographic field visits, thus replacing the physical homework assignments that we would previously send out to our participants. 

This worked well as it gave us an opportunity to review and probe the responses to the online homework in advance of our ethnographic work, which made for much richer learning once we got in field.  It also gave us the opportunity to build rapport with participants before we met them in person and that led to more openness and intimacy.

In the spirit of full disclosure, it must be said that while we had early success with online platforms, we also made a lot of mistakes.  The most significant of the many was trying replicate what we were used to doing in a analog way in an online, digital environment.  We did a lot of “failing forward” as we figured out how to best leverage what digital tools and online platforms made possible.

As a result of our ongoing experimentation with online tools and unwavering commitment to in-context discovery, we developed an approach and practice called Blended Reality Research (BRR).  And on many levels, it’s as simple as it sounds.  BRR weaves together digital learning platforms and tools with context-based discovery, collaboration and co-creation in physical environments.  When we are designing a Blended Reality Research project, we ask ourselves 2 key questions:

1.  What can we get participants to do for us and report back on digitally?

2.  What would we like to do with them in context?

As much of our project work involves the development of new product and service concepts, we like to do mapping and sketching work with participants to help us understand event sequences, emotional journeys and relationships between objects, systems, etc.  We still find that this kind of discovery and co-creation work is best done with low-tech tools like Sharpie markers and some of our paper-based tools in a physical environment.  Similarly, a 3-hour in-context discovery session with 6-8 people is not a substitute for a national, 2-week online study where you have deep and daily contact with a larger group of participants. 

For us, it’s not a question of online or in-context.  The richest insight and innovation opportunities are surfaced when we take an integrated or “blended” approach to designing research and concepting projects.  When we think deeply about what the various online and offline tools and methods in our kit can bring to a project, our learning and the experience we provide to our participants and clients gets better.

If you’d like to know more about our Blended Reality Research approach and how it comes to life in practice, please join us for our webinar on July 28 at 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT.

By Karen Ward, Curiosity Inc

Revelation Project, our Immersive Research platform, is designed to help our clients get deep insights by using an Activity-Based approach.  Within Revelation Project, researchers have access to our Activity Library, which is a collection of online activities designed to unlock elusive Aha! Moments. 

Below are some quick tips for getting started! 

1. When our clients first start a study, we recommend that they take time to get to know the participants and do an introduction activity.  At Revelation we call this a Warm-up or Welcome activity.  The Activity Library offers some great examples that you can copy into your project.

A good Warm-up/Welcome activity should include the following:

• Clearly lay out what is expected of participants throughout the project
• Confirm incentive amounts and payments
• Provide an opportunity to introduce yourself
• Give respondents an opportunity to tell you a little about themselves and insure they are able to use the technology

2. Keep each activity short. 

For both technology and methodology reasons, we recommend short activities.  

• Completion rates are stronger in projects that have short activities
• Break longer assignments up into multiple shorter activities
• From a technology perspective, short activities ensure participant data is uploaded to the site successfully

3. Video assignments

Video assignments can be labor-intensive for the participant and the researcher.  Below are tips for improving activities with video assignments.

• Consider asking for multiple short videos instead of one long video
• Provide clear guidelines for each video

These tips will help keep the activity focused and short, which benefits the participants when creating and uploading videos.  This also is beneficial for the researcher when it comes to organizing, analyzing and reporting on the videos.

To learn more about our Activity Library click here.  If you have not attended a demo we have weekly product demos on Wednesday’s at 10 AM.  To register click here. 

If we think about a consumer experience around a product or brand, we can divide it into three distinct layers: Behaviors, Context and Emotions.

Revelation’s Activity-Based approach can help you get at each of these layers, and today I’m going to focus on Behaviors.   Behaviors represent what actually happen, what consumers do. 

But behaviors don’t exist in a vacuum.  Behaviors occur within the context of people’s lives; their processes, beliefs, environments and day-to-day life.  Contextual activities fill in the backdrop to which behaviors occur.   Contextual activities include: 

1. Tours
2. Show Me’s
3. “Getting to know you’s”
4. Deprivations 

“Tours” tend to focus on physical environments, like the refrigerator example above. They can use photos or videos to bring to life the physical context of a particular behavior. 

“Show Me’s” concentrate on understanding how people do the thing they do. They often have people describe step by step their process for accomplishing something. How someone does their laundry or makes their coffee would be good examples of “Show Me” activities.

“Getting to Know You’s” focus on learning more about the participants themselves as part of the context for understanding their behaviors and emotions. They make good warm up activities as well.

“Deprivations” are a powerful way to understand what a product or services means to a consumer.  In a deprivation activity, the researcher instructs the participant to go for a prescribed duration without using the product or service and records the impact.  An example of a deprivation activity would be to ask consumers to go a day without using their mobile phones.

Revelation fully supports the Contextual activities described above. Best of all, you can find examples in our Activity Library – at your fingertips as you build your project.  

Contact us to get started!

Earth Day began in the United States back in 1970 when gas guzzling V8 sedans, water and air polluting factories and toxic dumps were the norm.  By 1990 Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage and Earth Day became the modern environmental movement worldwide. A lot has been done since 1970 and there are still many things we as a society and people can do to help take better care of Mother Earth.

In honor of Earth Day, April 22^nd, we would like to share our Avoided Carbon Calculator.  We teamed up with Portland-based sustainability consulting firm Fluid Market Strategies to answer the question: are there environmental benefits to using of Revelation’s Immersive Online software? 

What we learned was by clients using Revelation’s online immersive research vs. traditional in-person focus groups we averted 2.5 times less gas emissions than if the studies were conducted in the traditional method.  What does that equate to?  It would be equivalent to cancelling two business trips via plane, not consuming 96 cheeseburgers, or avoiding 9 business trips (roughly 1.1K miles) via car. 

To read the complete report and learn more on how you, your company and clients, can help contribute to a cleaner, healthier environment too, please click here.  

Here’s to taking better care of Mother Earth!  Happy Earth Day!

The Revelation Team