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Research Moves Forward

by Ed Bergo

The weeks following the September 11th attacks have raised some challenging marketing research questions. How should we as researchers perform our jobs as responsible US citizens, as responsible business people and as compassionate human beings? We recommend business as usual for most projects, with a few exceptions.

On Tuesday, September 11th, WestGroup stopped all projects upon news of the attacks and did not resume normal interviewing until that Friday. By Monday, our statistics showed that cooperation rates were back to normal and even better in some cases. The day after the attacks we conducted our own special national study on the perception of the media coverage of the terrorist attacks. We found respondents very willing to share their opinions. Take a look at the article in this issue for our study findings.

In addition to the halting and postponement of telephone studies, the entire research industry saw a substantial fall-off in focus group activity immediately following the attack. Moderators and observers could not fly to the cities to conduct and observe focus groups. Participants were more concerned about watching CNN and staying informed than they were about research concepts and new products. The research would have been difficult to do and tough to interpret.

There has been some concern about how to handle on-going tracking studies that need to have a data point for September, October or November of 2001. One of the options would be to skip this wave of the tracking study since the results might be suspect. However, if the wave is conducted, it might tell the client how a time of national emergency affects things. It is another example of business as usual.

Typically, as researchers, we might propose conducting awareness, advertising awareness and usage studies. Results would be compared to previous studies and we would know how positive or negative the public's attitude has become. We know that the overall attitude of the public is depressed and research results will probably reflect that. Behavioral data may be more useful than attitudinal data in this case. What are consumers doing versus how are they feeling? Advertising may be able to generate traffic and sales, even though consumers are deeply saddened by the situation.

What about those companies that are adapting patriotic themes in their advertising? Car manufacturers to bread companies are appealing to consumers' sense of patriotism in its advertising. Will consumers be more likely to remember US flag-waving advertising? Will it translate to increased traffic and increased sales?

One client volunteered the following thoughts on today's research situation, "To me, now is the time to do more research rather than less while maintaining a sensitivity to consumers' feelings about being interviewed. That makes it tough on the instrument design and interviewer — but it can be done."

Those mourning the tremendous loss of life and assault on our way of life are spread all across the country. As a marketing research company, WestGroup has established a policy of halting any data collection, should there be another major terrorist attack. However during the time of US military response in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries, we feel that it is appropriate and important to continue doing needed research. We are working closely with our clients to determine when it is appropriate to do their research and we encourage all of America to do business as usual.

NOVEMBER 2001 Answers:
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