Perception Analyzer Dial.Log

The Power of the Herd (aka Groupthink)

Research Magazine has posted an interesting article on the truthfulness of respondents. One of the concepts in the article is called "the power of the herd" where respondents knowingly or unwittingly make decisions based on influence from others in the group or in order to better fit in. This concept is also knows as "groupthink," which is how we position it here at MSInteractive.

The Perception Analyzer offers many benefits in qualitative research settings and greatly reducing groupthink (or the power of the herd) is one of the most significant. Rather than asking questions and only having respondents give feedback aloud (thus immediately influencing each other), the Perception Analyzer allows each respondent to respond individually and privately before engaging in group discussion. These private responses, collected by the Perception Analyzer and made instantly available for real-time review, allows the moderator to know what each respondent really thinks before engaging the group in discussion. If the discussion doesn't map to the private responses, the moderator then has the opportunity to dig deeper and try to understand why. The reasons why someone might give one response privately and another publicly is as important (if not more so) than even their truthful response alone.

Commercials May Make Television More Enjoyable

A new study, as reported by The New York Times, shows that watching television programming with commercials make the shows seem more enjoyable to the viewers than watching straight through without commercials.

It's interesting research and I understand the whole delayed gratification angle, but from my own experience it is such a pleasure to buzz through commercials that I get more frustrated than ever when I have to watch something in real time and sit through the ads. While me sitting in my overstuffed leather chair drinking a beer and continuing to marvel at the awesomeness that is TiVo is far from scientific, I sure can't imagine more enjoyment derived from bringing television commercials back into my life.

You?

Perception Analyzer Around the World: KEEVOON, Israel

KEEVOON Research, Strategy & Communications is a survey research and strategic communications consultancy based in Jerusalem, Israel. Founded by Mitchell Barak, KEEVOON specializes in consumer research and political consulting throughout Europe and the Middle East. MSInteractive is fortunate to have KEEVOON as one of its clients and below Mitchell tells us a bit about his business, the current political climate in Israel, their viewes of U.S. politics, and how he uses the Perception Analyzer in his business.

DP: Hello, Mitchell. What is your background and how did you get into political research? 

MB: Hi, David. I studied Political Science at George Washington University before moving to Israel in 1991.  Since arriving here I have worked in various Government offices serving 3 Prime Ministers; Yitzhak Shamir, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon.  I was always involved in speech writing, developing messages, and writing talking points for media interviews and appearances.  About 5 years ago I left Government service and moved into the private sector utilizing my experience in messaging and combining it with survey research.  I conducted surveys and focus groups with both Arthur Finkelstein and Frank Luntz.

DP: What is the current political climate in your region of the world? How has it changed in the last five years and how do you see it changing in the next five years? 

MB: The political climate in Israel is always changing.  Governments here lack stability and are not broad based enough to stay in power.  Governing becomes secondary to keeping the coalition alive.  As far as the region, Israel is a democracy in a sea of dictatorships, monarchies, and entities headed by terrorist organizations.

DP: What do people in your region make of the U.S. political system since 2000 and what is the impression of our current election cycle? 

MB: Everyone in Israel is very interested in the elections in the US.  For some reason Israel is a campaign stop during all election campaigns by all major candidates for national office.

DP: How did you become familiar with the Perception Analyzer and how is it being received in Israel and other regions in which your work? 

MB: I was first introduced to the Perception Analyzer by Frank Luntz who used in the 1988 election campaign here.  Since then I have seen how it has developed and improved.  Israelis are excited about the Perception Analyzer and in a short time I have done sessions for Channel 10 News on one of the political parties and for one of the largest Israeli consumer product companies. While it's in Hebrew, here is a news story about recent work I did utilizing the Perception Analyzer for the Kadima Party Primaries for Channel 10 news.

Perception Analyzer Around the World: Posicione Market Research, Brazil

Something people are often surprised to learn is that the Perception Analyzer is used for market research in more than 30 countries around the world. To shine a spotlight on regions of the world where the system is used and some of the more interesting applications, I’ll be posting a series of interviews with international clients of MSInteractive.

 

For this first installment I interviewed Eugenio Giglio, founder of the political research firm, Posicione Market Research in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Below Eugenio talks about the political climate in Brazil, how they perceive the U.S. political system how his firm uses the Perception Analyzer in its research.

DP: Hello, Eugenio. Please describe your firm and the work you are doing in Brazil as well as your background and how you got into political research.

EG: Hello, David. My research firm, called Posicione Market Research, was launched last year and belongs to a Elipse Communication group that was founded 11 years ago. Our company was created and is run by two associated professors of ESPM, the most widely known Marketing School in Brazil. Personally I have conducted market research for over a decade.  Posicione conducts several kinds of research using the available methodologies: quantitative and qualitative as well. Our clients are basically private organizations.  We decided to get into political research in 2007 after observing the great opportunities in this field. Brazil has more than 5,500 cities across 27 states and as you know, the electoral process demands a lot of research effort.

 

DP: How did you become familiar with the Perception Analyzer and how is it being received in Brazil?

 

EG: I discovered the Perception Analyzer while working with Frank Luntz, who uses the system. Here in Brazil we have used it in four campaigns and been victorious in three of them. It helps us a lot in refining TV and radio spots as well as live speeches.

DP: What is the current political climate in Brazil? How has it changed in the last five years and how do you see it changing in the next five years?

EG: We are now the in electoral process of choosing the mayors of all 5,564 Brazilian cities. Things are running at a calm pace considering all the changes this process represents. In two years we will be electing the next president, after two terms of Mr Lula da Silva. It’s also expected to be a calm process, different that we are experiencing in the other countries of South America.

DP: What do people in Brazil think of the U.S. political system since 2000, and what is the impression of our current election cycle?

EG: Brazilians are following the American process with special interest. Maybe because Barack Obama seems very sympathetic and represents a big change in the presidential field. This is how the people in Brazil are interpreting his performance. Your process sounds strange to us and is very different from here. In the first election of George W. Bush the process was very complicated and unclear to us, but seems more clear now.  Some candidates here have copied Obama’s slogan for change. It is ridiculous in some cases as they clearly represented no change at all.

CNN continues Perception Analyzer dial group for final debate

As was done for the first three debates, CNN continued its live, on-air broadcast of real-time moment-to-moment feedback from undecided voters via a Perception Analyzer dial group. As with the other debates, these groups were facilitated by Professors Rita Kirk and Dan Schill from the Division of Corporate Communications & Public Affairs at Southern Methodist University.

A replay of the debate, along with a full transcript and the moment-to-moment results, can be watched online at CNN.com.

Undecided women in Ohio dial in

A Perception Analyzer dial group with 50 undecided women was conducted in Columbus, Ohio, during the third and final presidential debate. The group was conducted by Lake Research Partners with support from MSInteractive and the findings from the group have been summarized in The Columbus Dispatch.

Perception Analyzer dial groups in battleground states

Democracy Corps, a project by James Carville and Stan Greenberg, conducted Perception Analyzer dial groups with 50 undecided voters during all three presidential debates in the key battleground states of Missouri, Nevada and Colorado. Their findings from those groups, plus additional commentary, can be found at www.democracycorps.com.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in

Today's edition of The Wall Street Journal has an article that weighs in on CNN's on-air display of Perception Analyzer moment-to-moment results during the presidential debates. I was interviewed for the piece and provided a lot of background information (though neither I nor the Perception Analyzer were credited by name) and feel it's an interesting look at what viewers are seeing during this political season. Many thanks for San Schechner for an interesting and balanced piece.

Squiggles

Moment-to-moment overlay. That's what we call the real-time line graph generated from Perception Analyzer results as seen on-air during the presidential debates on CNN and other networks. "Moment-to-moment" because the dials used by focus group respondents are polled once per second and "overlay" because the results are often superimposed over the source material.

Until the other night, the most entertaining name I'd heard given to the line graph was "the worm." According to our clients down under, that's what it's called in Australia. Then on October 7, during the CNN focus group discussion following the second presidential debate, Soledad O'Brien referred to it as "squiggles at the bottom of the screen." Alrighty then.

Then a comment was made in a very interesting and thoughtful post on Daily Kos - "...if one can really call squiggly lines created by a PA dial data..." I'll reply to that by pointing out that with dials being polled every second during a 90 minute debate, and with 30 focus group respondents turning dials, 162,000 data points were collected and shown to viewers.  And that's just for the benefit of creating an interesting viewing experience on television. In research projects around the world that have been conducted with the Perception Analyzer for nearly 25 years, it is most often considerably more respondents delivering a significantly greater number of data points that are helping organizations of all kinds make critical decisions.

So yes, whether you call it the worm, squiggles or a moment-to-moment overlay, the results are data, and pretty useful data at that.

BTW, I want to thank Daily Kos for the thoughtful post, the link, and the proper use of our product name and trademark. You'd be surprised how rare that is and it's much appreciated. And while I'm at it, I'd also like to thank CNN and MSNBC for trying something new and creating what many feel is a very interesting experience (both during the debate and in post-debate discussion and analysis). Of course, opinions vary (and some even change their mind...oy, again with the squiggles...), but that's what makes it all the more fun and interesting.

Perception Analyzer is a funny name

In addition to whether or not people like seeing real-time dial results on-air during the presidential debates (as seen on CNN) or during post-debate discussion (as seen on MSNBC and FOX News), much has also been made about the name "Perception Analyzer." So I'll just admit it...Perception Analyzer isn't the world's greatest name.  It's just one of those names that says what the product does. Much like the Bedazzler bedazzles and the In Sink Erator erates (yes, I know it's not a word) anything (well, almost anything) in your sink, the Perception Analyzer helps analyze perceptions.

The Perception Analyzer^® (yes, MSInteractive has a registered trademark on the name) was named in 1984 and clearly didn't undergo the rigor of naming research that we advocate for our clients today. While that was long before my involvement, I assume the process consisted of the inventor saying to himself, "Hmm, wonder what to call this analyzer of perceptions?" Enough said...

So yes, it's a bit of a funny name, but I bet Steve Jobs got some looks in the early days over Apple and the Google guys certainly had some splainin' to do and look how well those turned out.

So judge the tool not by what it's called, but rather by how bedazzlingly well it has helped organizations conduct research, collect feedback and make critical decisions for nearly 25 years.