Posted on October 15, 2009 by Alison
Robert Bain of Research Magazine has a blog post today about the way that business people pick on market research as a way of underlining their modern business credentials. He quotes a piece by Marc Babej, a marketer writing in Forbes magazine who fixes the passing blog reader with a flinty stare and declares: ‘You [...]
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Posted on October 1, 2009 by Alison
This morning, news came in from the inquest into the death of a 14-year old girl, Natalie Morton, who died shortly after receiving a vaccination against HPV (human papilloma virus). In short: the poor girl had a malignant tumour in her chest which was undoubtedly the cause of death.
This hasn’t stopped the anti-vaccination squads from [...]
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Posted on August 11, 2009 by Alison
Back from holiday. I’ve been sceptical of the whole value of the ‘brand conversation’ movement for a while now, and if my recent holiday taught me anything, it’s that brands are about the harsh (or sundappled) reality of the brand experience…
So. Ryanair.
Is there such a thing as a toxic brand? Ryanair seems to embody the [...]
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Posted on June 24, 2009 by Alison
I just spent 2 days at the British Science Association’s Science Communication Conference. I haven’t been to this particular shindig in quite a few years; it’s quite a mixture of folk: academics, science popularisers, PR officers, evaluators, artists, you name it. Five highlights:
1. Tackling obesity through an evidence-based campaign
The ‘Behaviour and Choice’ plenary examined the [...]
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Posted on May 13, 2009 by Alison
I’ve been pondering a few of the discussions I’ve seen on online versus offline research approaches: Zebrabites’ thoughts on the need to understand users in person as well as hypertext; Matt Rhodes of Freshnetworks’ recommendation that we understand people in natural online communities as well as specially-constructed research communities. People share themselves and their opinions [...]
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Posted on May 7, 2009 by Alison
On Tuesday I went to Freshnetworks’ session on online communities in retail. Incredibly interesting morning, with 3 different speakers talking about the use of social media from different perspectives: Helen Trim from Freshnetworks giving her top tips on what to do (and what not to do) in terms of social media; Joanne Jacobs on measuring [...]
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Posted on April 21, 2009 by Alison
In the introductory lectures for my master’s in organisational behaviour, we heard a great deal about paradigms. Indeed, we heard so much about paradigms that several of my classmates were quite keen to go back and get a refund on the course.
We – researchers, embryonic management consultants, careers counsellors and human resources managers – wished [...]
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Posted on April 16, 2009 by Alison
About 4 years ago, I did a master’s degree in organisational psychology. I started off with the intention of changing career quite radically; I ended up (in the manner of many career changers) by making a more gentle change, to focus on science, new technology and (where possible) applying all that newly-updated knowledge of psychological [...]
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Posted on March 25, 2009 by Alison
I started using Twitter properly a couple of days ago, prompted by some of my friends taking it on, and so far I’m enjoying it way more than I expected. It’s also thrown me into contact with various market researchers working in new media. It is brilliant to uncover some kind of community in this [...]
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Posted on February 5, 2009 by Alison
I love snow. It has been wet and slushy today, but very early on Monday, with snow falling softly under sodium streetlights, it was quite magical.
Once a decade we get enough snow to build a proper snowman. Some of our neighbours went all out – if you look closely, you’ll see that [...]
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