The Merrill Dubrow Blog

A year ago I remember feeling a little melancholy, a little emotional after the MRA conference in Chicago. Yes the conference was great, networking was fantastic and yes I even found time to get a burger at the Billy Goat tavern. The reason I was a little melancholy was that at the end of the conference I knew I wouldn’t be on the national MRA board anymore. After six years of sharing hours and days of board meetings with friends like Colleen Mezler Moore, Jon Last, Ed Sugar, Steve Schlesinger, Amy Shields, Kim Larson, Merrill Shugoll and many, many others I knew that those days were over and it was time for new leadership.

Being on an organizational board and representing the industry is one of the most important positions I have ever held. I always took it very seriously and was honored to represent the membership. Over the years I have been on a number of boards which has included:

• A.C.Nielsen Center
   
• American Marketing Association
   
• Baylor University
   
• University of Georgia
   
• University of Texas at Arlington

To me there is nothing like being around total strangers who share a common goal, join together on a board and accomplishing things — it’s a wonderful feeling!

• What boards have you been on or currently on?
   
• How was/is the experience?
   
• What advice would you give people who are thinking about joining a board?
   
• Was the experience as rewarding as you thought it would be?

I look forward to hearing your comments.

Posted in Research | Post Comments (8) »

Today I only need your attention for 30 seconds, 10 seconds to read this posting, 10 seconds to think about your answer and 10 seconds to type in your comment.

Here goes please take 10 seconds and let me know what are the first words that come to your mind when you hear the words marketing research?

I truly look forward to reading all of your comments.

Posted in Research | Post Comments (13) »

I remember when I first started in the research industry I would sit in the back room of focus groups and manually move the video camera. It may sound boring to most of the readers but to me I enjoyed every second of it because it gave me an opportunity to see some great moderators. Even though I never went to RIVA or the Burke Institute for training I feel I received some amazing first hand training from doing that. I also really enjoyed the interaction of the clients in the back room. Most groups would have chatty clients and once in awhile would be evaluating the moderator and allowed me the opportunity to hear what was important to them. I also believe this training has enhanced my presentation skill set and also how to manage a meeting.

I have been around some terrific moderators in my day. That list includes (in alphabetical order):

• Saul Cohen
   
• Reva Dolobowsky
   
• Stacey Hurwitz
   
• Diane Iseman
   
• Louise Kroot-Haukka
   
• Dr. John McNichol
   
• Amy Shields
   
• Merrill Shugoll
   
• John Sibley

Here are my questions:

• What makes a great moderator?
   
• What secrets or best practices are you willing to share?
   
• With so much going on do you manage the back room?
   
• Who has the best moderating training?
   
• How do you handle difficult respondents?
   
• Clients – when you are looking to hire a new moderator what do you take into account?
   
• Do you eat something special before the group?
   
• How mentally tired are you after the session?
   
• What qualitative blogs or websites do you visit regularly?
   
• Are there other people that could be of help?

Here’s something that I think would be a good resource to help people, a book by Robert J. Morais called Refocusing Focus Groups.

Here are links to it on Amazon.com and Paramount Books (the publisher).

I am really excited about hearing from moderators and their experiences and yes feel free to post a little information about yourself and if you are available for subcontracting.

Posted in Research | Post Comments (13) »

I have been in the research industry for almost 30 years. During that time I have had the pleasure to work and associate with so many talented people. The funny thing is many of them are related! Not to me but to each other!

When I think about research families – I quickly come up with:

(Two quick things not to insult ANYONE I put the list in alphabetical order and APOLOGIZE to EVERYONE I left off the list)

• Baldi: Joe, Janet
   
• Iseman: Carl, Diane
   
• Larson: Kim, Steve
   
• Nichols: Mimi, Aaron
   
• Hayes: Bernyce, Andrew, Matthew
   
• Heakin: Pat, John, Patty, Kevin
   
• O’Connor: Peggy, Tom
   
• Schafer: Marianne, David
   
• Schlesinger: Sarah, Debbie, Steve, Alan, Howard, AJ, Eric
   
• Shugoll: Joan, Merrill, Mark
   
• Weinstein: Ann, Adam

My kids are too young to know what they want to do but who knows maybe they will follow in my footsteps and end up in this great industry.

• What research families have I left off the list?
   
• What relatives have I left off the families that I mentioned?
   
• Are you hoping and who knows even nudging a little bit that your children end up in the business?

I really need your help on this and really look forward to compiling a complete list. So THANK YOU in advance for your assistance.

Posted in Research | Post Comments (30) »

Over the past 25 years I have interviewed hundreds of people. During that time I have been involved in filling more jobs than I could count. One of the most gratifying searches to fill a position recently happened. I had the honor and privilege of being on the MRA CEO search committee along with Merrill Shugoll and co-chairs Colleen Moore-Mezler and Steve Schlesinger.

The process was very thorough. We met some terrific and very qualified candidates.

One of the most impressive candidates was David Almy. I personally enjoyed getting to know him and found David to be professional, articulate, had a great thought process and most important has tremendous PASSION!

Recently I had the chance to spend an hour with David one-on-one and came away more impressed than I was during the interviewing process.

He is a very quick learner, asks the right questions and will make well informed decisions.

A few things the press release won’t mention about David:

• He was born in Japan
   
• Played baseball as a kid
   
• Loved the Phillies and Dodgers growing up
   
• Loves pecan pie
   
• Collects cars and owns 5 right now
   
• Has a passion for politics, marketing and aviation
   
• Favorite vacation spot is East Hampton
   
• Likes to take pictures

Last week David was announced the new CEO of the MRA and I for one am very excited about his arrival. I hope you get a chance to speak to him and share my excitement!

So how about it – how about a big heartfelt welcome for David!

• Any questions you have for David?
   
• Anything you want David to be aware of?
   
• Any events you want to invite David to be part of?
   
• Any comments you want to make?

I know David looks forward to hearing from all of you!

Posted in Research | Post Comments (25) »

Lots of the readers of the blog are involved in market research. They sell market research and they partner with market research companies. Here is the million dollar question:

• Do they use market research to move the business forward?
   
• Do they use a formal customer satisfaction program to keep in touch with their clients?
   
• Do they formally follow up after proposals and projects to see how they do?
   
• Do they tabulate the information and discuss it in meetings?
   
• Do they react to the findings and adjust business practices?

All good questions to really think about. With our business we have a few programs in place. After a project is complete we send out an online survey called Client Voices. This is our customer satisfaction tool that has been in place for years. We have tremendous trending information and constantly are discussing it and making decisions based on the feedback. In addition any score that we deem as low, I personally call the client and discuss the project in depth. Also we have company awards given out on an annual basis and one of the awards is a client delight award which is given to the team with the highest customer satisfaction score.  In addition to this program, we have another one called Proposal Voices. This is an online survey that we send out three weeks after we send a proposal. Again we tabulate this information and use this as a key management tool.

• What do you do?
   
• Do you have a formal process in place?
   
• What are the recent learnings?
   
• What decisions have you made based on the feedback?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted in Research | Post Comments (10) »

I thought maybe that would grab your attention. Basically let’s assume that all the research organizations got together on a joint project and were looking for a spokesperson for the industry. We would have one person that could be highlighted in ads, online videos and on TV. That person could be you! This person would be paid $100,000 per year to be the spokesperson and share their thoughts about this great industry and how important it is to the success and failure of companies. You could say whatever you wanted!

• What do you think?
   
• What would you say?
   
• What would you highlight in your message?
   
• Would you mention certain products/services that benefited from market research?
   
• Would you include some of the most famous researchers like Arthur Nielsen, George Gallup and JD Power?
   
• How would you convince people how important market research is to companies?

I look forward to reading your comments and hearing what your message would be as the NEW market research spokesperson!

Posted in Research | Post Comments (2) »

A few years ago when I was on the MRA National Board, we were discussing conferences and I tossed out an idea that I thought had some legs. The idea was a niche conference that focused on developing talent with people who have worked in the research industry for 5-10 years. Almost a superstar in training conference for people between the ages of 25-40. People who have tremendous potential and could benefit by going to a three day conference and be part of a small group of 40 people or so. The conference is similar to the CEO conference–just for a different group of people. The presenters would all be successful business executives from the industry and the topics could range from:

• Being a GREAT leader
   
• Presentation skills development
   
• Understanding financials
   
• Basic knowledge of running a company or division

That’s the concept. I really like it and really want to know what you think.

• What do you think of the concept?
   
• Would you attend or send someone on your staff?
   
• Do you think the industry could support a conference like this?
   
• Is the timing right for this conference?

I look forward to hearing your comments.

Posted in Research | Post Comments (10) »