Meeting the Challenges Ahead

This half-day conference, organized the MRIA Ottawa Chapter, was a great success. Succinct and thought-provoking presentations were followed by a facilitated discussion with an expert panel. This conference addressed tough questions straight on. Presenters and participants brainstormed with the audience to find creative, leading-edge solutions. The PowerPoint presentations are attached as a memento to attendees and added values to members who could not attend. However be aware that if you were not present for the discussions and networking, you missed the best parts.

The Panellists

Norman Baillie-David, CMRP
Vice President—Public Opinion Research
TNS Canadian Facts
norman.baillie-david@tns-global.com

Norman Baillie-David is Vice President and Director of Public Opinion Research for TNS Canadian Facts, and leader of the Canadian firm’s public sector practice. Norm is a well respected marketing researcher and management consultant with more than twenty years of experience in qualitative and quantitative marketing research and strategic management consulting in Canada and around the world. Norm is an accomplished qualitative researcher and bilingual (English/French) focus group moderator. He is one of those rare marketing research professionals who can work in a seamless manner among both English and French Canadians, with each group believing that he is "one of their own". Prior to recently merging his firm with TNS, Norman was Managing Partner of the research and consulting firm The Antima Group here in Ottawa. Norman also spent many years with the Pricewaterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand organizations. Norman is a frequent guest lecturer in marketing research and international marketing at the University of Ottawa. When he is not sitting in an airport somewhere in the world, he lives in Ottawa with his wife and three boys.

Cam Davis, PhD, CMRP, FMRIA
Managing Director
Social Data Research
camdavis@sdrsurvey.com / http://www.linkedin.com/in/camdavis

Cam Davis has worked in the marketing research area for over 25 years providing insight and analysis to decision makers of Canada’s top 100 companies. His educational background in sociology provided an excellent foundation to understand social behaviour in the context of marketing innovative and novel products and services. He is currently the Managing Director of Social Data Research. Cam has conducted hundreds of focus groups around the world including the Mekong Delta, Gobi desert, the Andes, Europe and the Baltic states and truly appreciates the cultural diversity found in group settings. He pioneered online focus groups as an effective way to collect data on why and how people will respond to various scenarios. He is currently the Dean of the Institute for Professional Development for the Canadian market research industry. Cam is also an instructor of the Institute where he offers courses in major cities across Canada. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo. He teaches the MRIA Online Research course across Canada. Cam is a strong believer that one should have a qualitative and quantitative background as they will inevitably intersect throughout one’s research career. He is an avid snowboarder and has a Whistler office.

Keith Neuman, PhD, CMRP
Group VP – Public Affairs
Environics Research Group
keith.neuman@environics.ca

Keith Neuman is Group Vice President – Public Affairs with the Environics Research Group, Canada’s leading public opinion and social research firm. He leads the company’s Public Affairs and Environment-Energy research practice areas, which provide leading-edge public opinion research for public, private and non-profit sector clients in such areas as energy and environment, natural resources, public health, municipal services, justice, transportation, social policy and aboriginal issues. Keith is an established research professional, with more than 20 years of senior level experience with leading research organizations in Canada. His specialization is in the area of social dimensions of environmental, energy and resource issues, and has launched two national syndicated studies in this area. Keith holds a Ph.D. in Social Ecology from the University of California. He is a member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA), through which he holds the credential of Certified Marketing Research Professional (CMRP). He is a frequent media commentator on social trends and public opinion, including a regular guest column in the Canadian publication Green Business.

Abstracts and Presenters’ Bios

KEYNOTE
Don Mills, CMRP, FMRIA
President & CEO
Corporate Research Associates Inc.
dmills@cra.ca

The Future of the Marketing Research Industry: An Insider's Perspective
Tough economic times are opportunity times as well. A time to rethink business basics, look for efficiencies, develop new approaches to old problems, look to creative solutions and challenge the status quo. There are many challenges in our industry that present great opportunity, whether it is the use of new technologies, re-examining how our businesses are organized, refining our human resource development strategies, developing products and services that provide increased value to our clients or simply raising the reputation of our companies and our industry.

Don Mills, President and co-founder of Corporate Research Associates Inc., is one of Canada's leading public opinion and marketing research professionals. He has been involved with all aspects of public opinion and market research both nationally and internationally, and has been personally involved in thousands of studies for nearly thirty years. His broad research experience qualifies him as an expert witness in the field of public opinion and market research and he has appeared before numerous boards, commissions and judicial courts. Don is also a frequent guest commentator on radio and television on public opinion issues. Don has been a leader in the marketing industry for many years. Most recently he was the founding President of the Marketing Research & Intelligence Association (MRIA). Selected as one of The Top 50 CEO’s in Atlantic Canada by Atlantic Business Magazine every year since 2001 Don was inducted into the Top 50 CEO Hall of Fame in its inaugural year in 2005.

Nat Stone, CMRP
A/Director, Public Opinion Research Directorate
PWGSC—Government of Canada
nat.stone@pwgsc.gc.ca

Marketing Research at the Turn of the Decade: Four Key Trends that Affect Your Research
Our first speaker set the context from the perspective of conducting public opinion research in Canada.
The discussion focused on four major trends affecting POR:

1) socio-demographic: immigration, non-official languages, Canadians who don't speak English or French, lack of literacy and numeracy

2) the telephone survey, change is in the air: declining response rates, cell-only households, landline households that don't use the landline often

3) the rise of the Internet

4) rethinking the Internet: problems with sampling, incomplete coverage, literacy and numeracy

Nat Stone has been active in public opinion research for approximately 22 years and previously served at Communication Canada, Statistics Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He has been responsible for outreach and knowledge management at the Government of Canada's Public Opinion Research Directorate of Public Works and Government Services Canada since 2006. Previous to that, he was Associate Vice President responsible for quantitative marketing research at Fleishman-Hillard Canada. In his work at Public Works and Government Services Canada, Nat convened the Government of Canada’s Advisory Panel on Online Public Opinion Survey Quality and the Advisory Panel on Telephone Public Opinion Survey Quality. He has developed an active program for training and development in public opinion and marketing research for the Government of Canada. Nat has a Master of Arts in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and an International MBA from the University of Ottawa. He is an instructor in Algonquin College’s new Marketing and Business Intelligence Research program and serves on the Board of Directors of Americas Barometer.

Rick Hobbs, CMRP
Vice President – Ottawa
Léger Marketing
rhobbs@legermarketing.com

Forget the Margin of Error Debate – What About Focus Groups?
The technologies and techniques for qualitative research on the Internet
Rick Hobbs discussed the current state of affairs for conducting qualitative research on the Internet. Starting with the current technologies (including some old technologies) that help researchers use the Internet to gather deeper and richer data. His discussion included traditional techniques that work well on the Internet, techniques that work better in front of the two-way mirror, how to adapt and modify techniques when using virtual focus groups and a discussion on the future of qualitative research on the Internet.

Rick Hobbs is Research Vice President for Leger Marketing in Ottawa. He conducts virtual and traditional focus groups, as well as, phone-based and Internet-based quantitative research. Rick manages Government of Canada projects including those with Health Canada, Department of Indian Affairs, Transport Canada, and Parks Canada, along with various crown corporations and high technology companies. He uses his knowledge of public opinion and business/marketing strategy to build customized research designed to create actionable solutions. When solving complicated issues he uses a tool box full of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Rick has conducted research on the most sensitive issues in Canadian public policy today. He is a Past President of the Ottawa Chapter of the MRIA and is currently the National Chair of Education. Rick has spoken at numerous industry events concerning research solutions including innovation in qualitative research.

Natasha D'Souza
Digital Media Strategist
Virtual EyeSee
natasha@virtualeyesee.com / http://www.linkedin.com/in/natashadsouzadotcom

New Media Tool Kit for Marketing Research
Using social media and crowd sourcing to conduct marketing research
New Media, social media, web 2.0 are commonly used terms for social interactions on the Internet. Some of the tools used to make this happen are blogs, social networks, photo sharing and video sharing. Globally there are millions of people participating socially on these sites therefore making it a great place for businesses, not only to have a presence, but also to observe, monitor, and learn from these conversations etc. These tools and, more importantly, the way people use them change at a pace that we could not imagine. Is the research community ready to face the challenges? This discussion was about how to use social media and crowd sourcing to conduct marketing research and seize the amazing opportunities presented to us.

Natasha D'Souza is the founder of Virtual EyeSee, a social Media consulting agency serving North America. Being creative, a visionary and a trend spotter, Natasha helps key decision makers understand: these new technologies and trends in these online social spaces, and; how web 2.0 or social media principles can enable them to connect with their customers, thus increasing their bottom line. She also: helps define user and community needs; links these needs to business goals, and; identifies relevant web technologies to launch successful social web programs for companies. Natasha's passion for new trends in social media keeps her exploring these new and emerging technologies. Of course, she is herself a passionate blogger and participant in these social spaces. Natasha has over 13 years of hi-tech experience working for fortune 500, mid-sized and startup companies. Her experience in the private and public sectors has given her the opportunity to work in marketing, project management, business development and sales.

Randa Bell, CMRP, PRC
Vice President
ASDE Survey Sampler Inc.
rbell@surveysampler.com

To cell or not to cell, that is the question! Come see if we have the answer…
Current RDD sampling for conventional telephone surveys in Canada currently does not include cell phone numbers. With cell phone usage and cell phone only households on the rise, how can we ensure representative sampling of the population? Randa talked about what is available regarding cell phone sampling in Canada, as well as presented two studies conducted by ASDE’s clients: one calling into cell phones without any prescreening, and another calling into cell phone only households using ASDE pre-screened cell phone samples. She talked about what the calls yielded, compared to sampling by RDD, and gave us a glimpse of what the cell phone respondents are like. The studies were conducted to assess response rates and consider issues unique to these households. Are we ready to incorporate cell phones into our telephone studies. In other words, “Are we there yet”?

Randa Bell is Vice President for ASDE Survey Sampler, the leading sampling company in Canada - serving North America for sampling and related services. Randa has been in the Market Research industry in Canada since 1987 when she came from Cairo, Egypt, after graduating from the American University with a BA in Economics, and having worked in the Middle East in the Market Research industry. She has been field director and operations manager of several important survey research organizations, including: Starch Canada, NPD Group, and Creative Research International. She joined ASDE in 2002 as director of client services. In April of 2005 Randa was promoted to the position of Vice President Marketing and Client Services, as well as serving on the ASDE Board of Directors. In 2008 her role expanded further and she is also in charge of sampling and methodology, new product development as well as company operations

Special thanks to...

Viewing and printing PDF files requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. If Adobe Acrobat Reader is not installed on your computer system, you can download it at no cost by clicking here: