congeries

Dec. 28th, 2002

сочинил первую трудноговорилку:

- кукушка кукушонку одела капюшон - как кукушонок в капюшоне смешон!

[ну, не совсем всё он - "кукушка укусила кукушонка" он знал, но очень к месту был добавлен "капюшонный" элемент]

чего там только уже на наложили, на этих фотках... бесконечные какие-то груды информации...

Majority of Israelis think U.S. attack against Iraq would be good for Israel: opinion polls

...61 percent of Israelis surveyed said a U.S. attack against Iraq would be good. Only 33 percent of those polled disagreed, and 6 percent gave no answer.

каждый третий не согласен, но все равно пишется "only"...

ВСЕХ ДРУЗЕЙ (И ПОКА ЕЩЁ НЕ) - С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ!

С НОВЫМИ ПОСТИНГАМИ И НОВЫМИ КОММЕНТАМИ, НОВЫМИ КРАШАМИ, ФРЕНДАМИ, ФРЕНДОФАМИ, ВИРТУАЛАМИ И ЛЖЕПРОЭКТАМИ!

ХОРОШО ОТДОХНИТЕ - И ЗА ДЕЛО: РАДОВАТЬ ДРУГ ДРУГА РОСКОШЬЮ ОБЩЕНИЯ.

и не убивайтесь тут все без меня, пожалуйста... а то ишь.

я вам ещё картинок покажу, у меня много есть...

FOR those intent on leveraging the Internet for market measurement and consumer insight, Rob Monster and Raymond Pettit have answers in "Market Research in the Internet Age". Such as:

- Four forces in the business world have combined to drive home the importance and viability of investing in building a web-based, technology-enabled research and delivery channel. These are
rise of e-business, analytical CRM/Insight delivery, industry convergence, and desk-top knowledge management.

- Web- and data-mining tools handle extremely large quantities of data - too large for a human analyst to consider - and search for patterns, associations, and relationships. Increasingly, data- and web-mining are being integrated into a larger process termed "knowledge discovery in databases".

- If you were to study 50 different operational/ analytical CRM models in existence today, not one would mention or include "market research" as a function of the system. Either CRM thinkers or developers aren't aware of the importance of the market research function, or they don't think it's a real necessity.

- As VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol) networks continue to evolve, it will be possible to make phone calls from an interviewer's computer to any phone line in the world, based on local telephone rates. Thus, the cost of a connection with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) will increase slightly to accommodate an additional fee for a networked Internet Telephone Service Provider (ITSP) connection.

- A logical next step for the market research industry would be to pursue the objective as the primary provider of business information; that is, enable the collection, analysis, and dissemination of results and insights across the continuum of information available within and without the corporation, and delivered directly to the client via the EIP (Enterprise Information Portal) or through a KM (Knowledge Management) system as needed.

- The business information industry, as it is now called, readily supports so-called "scientific data-collection and delivery houses" - in deference to their statistical heritage - that carry on with time-honoured tracking studies.

And the final test of research would be how it impacts the bottomline - not in the long run but in the short.

Net-deep and market-wise
D. Murali
Business Line - India; Dec 26, 2002
(Book courtesy: Landmark. www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Sir, Public participation is a vital component of good policymaking so it is heartening to see that local authorities are using new ways to involve people ("Council research bears New Labour stamp", December 19).

But local authorities are right to be concerned that participation exercises may be capturing the views of dominant but unrepresentative groups. Consumers on low incomes and other disadvantaged groups are often stereotyped as "hard to reach". But this is not true. Such groups are simply "hard to hear".

National Consumer Council research has found that those on low incomes are more likely to think that getting involved is a waste of time than consumers who are better off. And this view was shared by younger people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The remedy lies in a positive approach that tackles the needs of disadvantaged groups by actively encouraging their involvement and making sure that their interests are equally represented alongside those of other groups. Local authorities must be prepared to involve people on their own terms and convince people that their participation is wanted and valued.

Effective and appropriate consumer involvement of this sort is essential for building consumer confidence, improving service efficiency and enhancing the quality of decision-making.

Gill Bull, Head of Corporate and Public Affairs
National Consumer Council, London SW1W 0DH

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Disadvantaged consumers must also be listened to
By Gill Bull
Financial Times; Dec 24, 2002

The trade and industry secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has decided not to refer the Tesco purchase of T&S stores, operators of several hundred convenience stores nationally, to the competition commission (Tesco wins T&S go-ahead, December 18). This decision follows hot on the heels of the "ghost town Britain" report by the New Economics Foundation, which drew attention to the difficulties of maintaining vital and viable local retail systems.

The real problem which this decision reflects is an incremental and inconsistent approach to retail regulation. The "big five" supermarkets now account for about 70% of the market. Key ingredients in their success are the influence they exert on the food chain and on competition and planning authorities. Assessing particular retail initiatives requires clear and consistent thinking.

A useful mechanism for developing consistent policy is to look at the issue in the same way as the retailers - in terms of whether or not they are giving consumers "what they want". Consumer experiences of competition ought to be a crucial "anchor point" for the government's approach to retail policy but beg a fuller understanding of how different groups of consumers use and experience multiple and independent stores. Looking at retail competition through the "lens" of consumer choice, as we do in our current ESRC-funded research, will provide the guiding insight necessary to achieve a delicate balance across varied policy-making arenas. It should be possible to extrapolate from this un derstanding to assess the implications for consumers of what might happen next - a few examples being the effects of 24-hour trading, of additional road congestion on the competitiveness of those retailers able to maintain extended hours, and of large retail multiples taking over smaller convenience operators. At the heart of this idea is a more proactive approach to planning, rooted in the experiences of consumers making retail choices within constantly changing local competitive situations. The key question is whether consumers feel they have sufficient choice and, if not, how can policy be used to address such situations?

Prof Ian Clarke
Give customers more say on the future of shopping
Lancaster University Management School and four colleagues
The Guardian - United Kingdom; Dec 24, 2002

CRAM International and Second Sight International have launched QualiQuant (QiQ) International to add the measurement of consumer emotions to the group’s resources for clients around the world.

"The quest to measure emotions", said Peter Cooper, Chartered Psychologist and CEO of CRAM International, "has been the ambition of market research for many years. With developments in IT this has become more and more achievable. QualiQuant blends in-depth sensitivity with the rigour of quantitative sampling, to meet client needs for metric insights into consumer brands, images and behaviour which have become more critical in today’s fast-changing, uncertain and highly competitive world. The QiQ approach is summed up in the equation: Q2 > Ó (Qual+Quant)."

"Count the beats of your heart not the fingers on your hand" was the challenging message Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, gave to the world’s market researchers in his recent keynote speech to the ESOMAR Congress in Barcelona. "I want market researchers to find new ways of measuring emotion, love, desire. I want them to do this in the same accurate and quantifiable way they measure awareness and recall..."

John Pawle, Managing Director of QiQ, commented "This is precisely the direction QiQ is taking. What has changed in recent years is our ability to use different media, particularly the computer-interface to interview consumers. Our recent research shows that computer interviewing has many advantages and gives different and in some ways better quality responses. QiQ measures of consumer emotion are adapted from qualitative in-depth techniques such as word and picture associations, collages, guided dreams, ‘bubble’ pictures, etc., which work very well in the interactive computer-interviewing environment. Also in the absence of an interviewer, consumers feel more spontaneous, more honest and willing to tell us things they may not say in front of an interviewer. Therefore we get closer to measuring real consumer feelings and emotions".

Simon Patterson, Managing Director of CRAM International, added "the link between CRAM and QiQ is an exciting new development for us because it allows CRAM to extend the range of services we offer to clients for getting inside the consumer mind." - Measuring Consumer Emotions

Consumers will adopt broadband telecommunications, widely seen as the key to the e-commerce revolution, only when the cost is roughly equivalent to what they are already paying for conventional telephone services, a study suggests.

The finding discredits the view that residential customers can be persuaded to pay for high-speed services on promises of faster connection to the internet or films delivered on demand over telephone lines.( Read more... )

The Yankee Group's 2002 Technologically Advanced Family (TAF(R)) survey ranks BellSouth at the top in overall customer satisfaction among residential customers, compared to its peers. The TAF Survey, conducted by the Yankee Group since 1985, tests over 100 products and services, in addition to customer service and satisfaction ratings.

In this year's survey, customers of local phone companies rated their providers based on 12 metrics, including access to customer service and value of service provided. BellSouth ranked first in 10 out of 12 customer satisfaction categories. BellSouth excelled in the categories of customer service and problem resolution and truly distinguished itself in the areas of trustworthiness and customer loyalty. SBC ranks in second place this year.

"Customer satisfaction rankings are even more critical now than before, given the competitive nature of voice services, the declining market for local voice, and the reality of wireless displacement," says Aurica Yen, Consumer Technologies & Services senior analyst. "The incumbent local exchange carriers cannot afford to ignore dissatisfied customers. The RBOCs have to maintain and improve customer satisfaction metrics, as they defend themselves against strong competitive players, including AT&T and cable providers now offering telephony services."

These customer satisfaction ratings are discussed at length in a recently released Yankee Group research note. The research note, available to clients of the Yankee Group's Consumer Technologies & Services planning service, also examines the video and long distance provider categories and compares results from 2001 and 2002.

THE YANKEE GROUP (www.yankeegroup.com)
Aurica Yen, ayen@yankeegroup.com.
Kim Vranas, kvranas@yankeegroup.com, 617/880-0214

BellSouth Ranks First in Local Customer Satisfaction,
According to the Yankee Group's Technologically Advanced Family Survey
Business Wire; Dec 23, 2002