Market Research 101

Right..I've been in this industry for as long as I started working...over 15 years to be exact.


When we design questionnaires for our clients, as a Neutral party, our job is to understand the client's objectives and find ways to gather consumers' feedback in the most neutral and un-bias way.

One of the many learnings or rules we had while designing questions, particularly to check customers feedback or satisfaction, is that we should never mix positive and negative statements in a list.

A perfect example below, the scale goes from Disagree to Agree.  I personally find the questions very confusing, both as a respondent / consumer and as a market research specialist.  Note, how the positive and negative statements were used inter-changeably.

One has to be really alert to be able to answer accurately, don't you think?


Makes me wonder..if this is a new methodology that I've not been exposed to. Or am I too out-dated?

If I am to re-design this using what I've been taught, the list should go something like this:

Stories from xxx in my xxx...

...are not disruptive
..are interesting to me
..are not misleading
..are relevant to me


This way..respondents whom most of the time are layman consumers do not have to keep switching their mindset from positive to negative state and it's so much easier to apply the Disagree - Agree scale in the same flow.

What do you think?  Agree?

Selling too Hard

Recently, I wrote an email to a shoe brand site asking for some advice about the suitability of the shoe that I'm using both for indoor gym cardio work and outdoor running.

Reply came promptly within the same day:


Thank you for your interest in xxxx!

Flat feet does not necessarily mean that the Model X is the correct model for you. If your foot does not pronate, perhaps the Model Y or Model Z is more suitable for you.

Model Y retails at RM529, and Model Z retails at RM459. In conjunction with this month's ABC campaign, we can give you a RM150 rebate. You can have the Y for RM379, or the Z for RM309. Delivery is free! Valid only for online purchases from xxx.

Payment can be made to A Bank. Upon confirmation of payment, the shoes will reach you within the next working day.

May we have your US size, contact number and delivery address please?



Do let us know how we can help you further.

What do you think?

I wasn't impressed.

U.S.P

I've written about myBurgerLab - HERE after my very first visit where I tried the Beautiful Mess.

Beautiful Mess - beef patty, fried Portabello mushroom, sunny side-up and mozzarella cheese 

I went back again recently and we tried the Jam with Elvis and The Seattle.

Jam with Elvis -  beef patty, blueberry and peanut butter jam, cheese and caramelized onions 

I never thought that Blueberry Jam and Peanut Butter will go so well with a savoury beef patty and cheese.

I'm kind of allegic to peanut butter or anything with nuts now but..this is way too hard to resist!

The Seattle -  cheddar melted beef patty, espresso spiked umami mayo and a sunny side-up 

The Seattle is also something very unique. Couldn't really taste the espresso but it was still very yummy.  However, with Felicia and her Jam with Elvis on the opposite..comparatively, I think I'd prefer the Elvis.  Gastric or no..I'll take the Elvis in my next visit. 

We got there around 5.30pm, they open at 5pm.  Yes, kiasu we are! But the queue had already built up.  The seats were all taken up.  We finally got to order after queueing for about 15 mins, we were no.35, serving no.16 (around there).

We stood around observing the crowd and crew while eyeing potential seats.  We got our seats after about 10 mins and our burgers arrived shortly after. Not too bad after all.  

So..why the craze?  Such long wait..but why do people still come all the way despite the trouble?  How long will the craze last?

The Economist stated:

A unique selling proposition (USP) is a description of the qualities that are unique to a particular product or service and that differentiate it in a way which will make customers purchase it rather than its rivals.

I believe the creators of myBurgerLab had successfully (and worked real hard too) to come out with a few USPs.

• The unique charcoal buns
• The special names of the burgers
• The unique recipes and ingredients
• The limited serving hours from 5pm till stocks lasts

I'm not sure if the above are available elsewhere in town or in the world, but they are definitely something very new and fresh in the worlds of McD, A&W and KFC.  Heck..I won't even order any burger at Chilli's now.

Well done. 

Whether or not the momentum will sustain, we shall see.

Nike : Marketing Hype

I ain't no marketing expert, I'm writing this from a viewpoint of a sports enthusiast, a casual runner, a consumer and of course an all time "hype-monkey".

A Hype-Monkey is defined as A person who quickly buys into and acts on media or marketing hype  by the Urban Dictionary.


Alright..here's what happened:

The largely popular and long awaited annual Nike We Run the City event for KL, Malaysia finally opened it's first day of online registration today at 9am after putting everyone on suspense for at least a month.  Me and many thousands of others eagerly logged on after 9am to register ourselves. I was supposed to register for five other persons..guess what..I couldn't even get myself in after an hour!

The comment stream on its Facebook post reached over a thousand comments by noon, 99% were complaints about not being able to get through the registration process.  Well, two of my friends managed to get through. So I kept trying on and off..but all I got was a blank page or black page, sometimes error message, sometimes it says registration is full.

At about 4pm, they announced that registration is CLOSED - https://www.facebook.com/NikeRunningMY
While I'm writing this, comments for that announcement reached 511 comments within an hour, again 99% were angry and frustrated participants who felt cheated by all the hype.

I don't blame them. I felt like a fool too.  I don't believe that 15,000 slots can be gone in an hour.  And how can a huge international brand like Nike have an oversight on not making sure the registration site doesn't get jam up?

Adidas didn't have problems.  SCKLM didn't have problems.  Energiser didn't have problems.  So did many other runs.

Was it done on purpose?  Was it all a marketing gimmick to create that Hard to Get effect?

In the first place, the whole programme was very much targeted to the younger group.  Under 25 year olds gets a cheaper rate.  Under 25 year olds gets to sign up in pairs at a even cheaper rate.  And there were rumours that says that manual registration begun way earlier in school and colleges.  And some also said that registration for the Under 25 category was smoother than the Above 25 category.

It's probably some marketing decision ..to go for the youngs.  To educate the youngs about sports and running. An of course..they have higher purchasing power..bla bla.

Well, good luck....

May be it's true that there are volume from the younger group.

But seriously, I think Nike just pissed off the entire running community.

Hmm..or may be they realised much earlier that serious mature runners won't spend on Nike?

When I started running no one recommended Nike.  In fact, even its own in-store promoters were not trained to give me proper advice on which model to get (I have complicated feet).  So I never bought a Nike for serious workout.

However, being a hype-monkey, I'm still very much a Nike fan.  My gym bag, my walking shoe, my wrist band, my cap, my socks my sports bras are all Nike.

And I just declared openly in Facebook that I'm not buying anymore Nike.

Hmm....now I need a new cap for this Sunday's Adidas run!