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iPhone Overwhelms Blackberry and Others in Smartphone Loyalty:  Crowd Science Survey

June 23, 2009 - Silicon Valley, California. Four out of ten Blackberry and other smartphone users would switch to Apple's iPhone, as their next smartphone purchase, according to a recent survey conducted by Crowd Science via their advanced audience research platform and open research network. On the other hand, only 14% of non-Blackberry smartphone users would switch to a Blackberry for their next purchase. Meanwhile, a vast majority of iPhone users (82%) are loyal to the iPhone brand.

"These results reflect the great challenges Blackberry faces in stemming the iPhone stampede," said John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science. "They are also a great example of the kind of insight that can be gleaned when rigorous sampling and research techniques are applied to online populations," said John Martin. "In the days ahead, we'll lean on our research platform and continue to gauge the mindset of smartphone users and address the changing mobile landscape, including the Palm Pre, the iPhone 3G S and other up-to-the-minute developments."

Other survey results include:

• iPhone users outpace other smartphone owners in their use of a wide variety of phone functions – ranging from Internet and email to music, WiFi and GPS.
• Compared with Blackberry users, iPhone users report a significantly higher overall satisfaction level with their phone. In particular, iPhone users are more satisfied than other smartphone users with their phones' screen size, navigation, availability of add-ons, and video playback.
• A large majority of smartphone owners (71%) use them for both business and personal usages, with only 3% using them for business alone.

This study was conducted across the Crowd Science open research network, a group of websites from a wide range of topic areas serving over 20 million unique visitors profiled by Crowd Science's audience measurement technology. Through random probability sampling, respondents aged 14 years and older were invited to participate. Those accepting the invitation comprised the final sample of study participants. Data collection was conducted from May 19 to June 8, 2009.

For a complete synopsis of the study, including charts, please see
     Smartphone-Survey-Results (PDF)

About Crowd Science:
Crowd Science was formed by experts in online market research and audience measurement with a mission to "raise the bar" in the measurement of online populations. Their goal is to help web properties understand all facets of their audience through rigorous, verifiable interactive research. The company has developed an advanced platform for audience measurement and real-time survey research. The results are compelling: Crowd Science currently has several thousand active sites within their open research network.

Robert Hooven Becomes a Crowd Scientist - Vice President of Sales comes from comScore

Joins Crowd Science to Help Media Companies and Brands Gain Consumer Insight and Develop In-Depth Online Audience Profiles

Today we're excited to announce that Bob Hooven is joining Crowd Science as Vice President of Sales. Bob comes from comScore, where he was Senior Vice President of Sales for the M:Metrics division. He was motivated by a desire to bring Crowd Scienceʼs audience measurement platform to the thousands of media and corporate web sites needing verifiable, in-depth demographic and psychographic visitor profiles for high-value advertising and product sales growth.

“Bob is a proven startup veteran,” said John Martin, Crowd Scienceʼs CEO. “He is a serial entrepreneur with successful IPOs and acquisitions under his belt. Bob has a customer centric point-of-view that will serve Crowd Science and the companies who use our platform well. He aggressively drove revenue and customer growth at M:Metrics, which led to the quick acquisition by comScore. Before M:Metrics, Bob was head of sales for the Forrester High-Tech Group in the Western Region. During the early internet buildup, Bob started and built the sales organization at Nielsen//NetRatings, where he helped develop the then nascent Internet measurement industry. On top of all that, we especially like that Bob played collegiate rugby and learned the art of full contact sport at a formative age.” Robert has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Norwich University.

You can hear from Bob in July when he's hosting a webinar:

Title: Punching Up your Audience Profiling
- When: 9 July 2009 at 2:00PM EDT, 11:00AM PDT
- Who: Robert Hooven, Vice President of Sales for Crowd Science
- Why: Learn about deep, verifiable audience demographics
- Register online: Click Here to Regsiter

About Crowd Science:
Crowd Science was formed by experts in online market research and audience measurement with a mission to “raise the bar” in the measurement of online populations. Their goal is to help web properties understand all facets of their audience through rigorous, verifiable interactive research. The company has developed an advanced platform for audience measurement and real-time survey research. The results are compelling: Crowd Science currently has several thousand active sites within their open research network.

Reminder: Audience profiling webinar tomorrow

Just a reminder that the second webinar of our three-part series is on tomorrow. We're going to look at ways to amp up your online audience profiling.

Punching Up your Audience Profiling
When: 9 June 2009 at 2:00PM EDT, 11:00AM PDT
Who: John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science
Why: Learn about deep vertical demographics

We still have some space, but registrations are limited.

Click here to register now and assure your seat.

See you then!

Online research webinar series

Over the next few weeks we're going to be running our first webinar series. Spend 25 minutes with a Crowd Scientist and get up to speed on best practices in online research and audience profiling.

Three Things to Fix in Online Survey Research
When: 3 June 2009 at 2:00PM EDT, 11:00AM PDT
Who: John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science
Why: Get higher CPMs with better demographic research

Punching Up your Audience Profiling
When: 9 June 2009 at 2:00PM EDT, 11:00AM PDT
Who: John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science
Why: Learn About Deep Vertical Demographics

Your Ads are Worth 10 Times More with Better Research
When: 11 June 2009 at 2:00PM EDT, 11:00AM PDT
Who: Special Guest Robert Hooven, Vice President of Sales of Crowd Science
Why: Hear the Recipe for Stronger Direct Ad Sales

All webinars are limited to a total of 100 registrations so that people have a chance to get their questions answered.

Click here to register now and assure your seat.

You will hear from the top experts in real-world, applied online research. The webinars are short; the materials are easy to grasp; and the proof is online today.

Crowd Science Launches Research Beta

Today we are launching a new era in online market research sample with the announcement of our market research sample beta program. Addressing the needs of the research industry by providing a new sampling methodology, the Crowd Science {Sample} harnesses the targeting benefits of traditional panels with the reach of river sampling.

The beta is open to a select number of research partners and online publishers that are part of the Crowd Science network.

Interested in finding out more or to join the program? Sign up as we will be taking on new partners as we increase capacity in this program.

Crowd Science Exhibiting at MRIA

Crowd Science will be exhibiting at the upcoming MRIA "In Tune" conference in Montreal this May 24th to 26th. Be sure to stop by our booth!

Seven reasons why everyone should be thinking about site-centric demographics

Seven reasons why everyone should be thinking about site-centric demographics.

1. Know your audience. These are the folks actually on your site: you need to know them inside and out. Beyond basic demographics are visitor psychographics.
2. Profile who is visiting your site. Traffic stats are only part of the picture. Detailed and accurate portraits of online visitors are worth their weight in gold.
3. Tailor your content and offers. Detailed profiles allow you to customize offers based on who is visiting your site at any given time. Or, you could allocate ad space based on categories, interests, and behaviors.
4. React faster to emerging trends. Because you're getting real-time info, you can spot key indicators early and adjust your messaging and offers accordingly.
5. Ensure your advertising spend is hitting the right target. Whether you're a publisher or advertiser, profiles ensure that you are delivering the right message to the right audience.
6. Increase the impact of your research dollars. Site-centric research is very cost-effective. More importantly, the data is richer and allows you to do more.
7. Develop relevant partnerships. Partners are a great way to broaden your reach, as long as you can show them what you've got.

If any of these reasons strike a chord, maybe it's time to consider what site-centric demographics can do for you: all you need to do is ask.

Workplace ‘firmographic’ measurement offers added dimension to audience measurement

Crowd Science has now expanded its profile surveys to include “firmographics” questions, which help to bring a new level to audience profiling. Firmographics offer insight into company size, industry, job role, etc. Looking for executives? People in the construction industry? People in companies with fewer than 50 employees? Our expanded survey provides information like this, and more. This new enhancement is available immediately to current subscribers of the Crowd Science Demographics service.

Crowd Science attending ARF in NY

Crowd Science will be attending the ARF Annual Convention + Expo in New York city on March 30th - April 1st, 2009.

Please be sure to stop by our booth. Hope to see you there!

Questionnaire Design: Response Scales - Part III

Part III: Choosing a Response Scale – Anchors aweigh!

So far, I’ve addressed why to use a response scale, and some things to consider in deciding the number of points in the scale. Now, how to label it?

Do you put verbal definitions on every point in the scale (AKA ‘fully anchored’), or use a partially anchored scale, say, only defining the two opposite ends, or maybe the two ends plus a definition for the mid-point if you have one? 

A picture’s worth a thousand words

Some scales don’t even use verbal descriptions, and rely on diagrams for conveying meaning, such as simple line drawings of faces with various expressions (e.g., big smile, medium smile, straight-line mouth, medium frown, and big frown). These types of scales may be successful with audiences that are pre-literate, illiterate or for whatever reason have difficulty expressing themselves with words – of course these situations may require an interviewer to assist in administering the questions. However, even with respondents who are able to read and understand the language of the questionnaire, such scales may make the experience more fun or engaging, depending on the situation. 

Too many words spoil the broth

However, most scales use words to define their points. A general rule of thumb is that it seems appropriate to fully anchor a scale if there are five or fewer points on it, and for scales with six or more points, a bi-polar anchor can do nicely. There may be cases where 6+ point scales can still be completely anchored on all points, but in some cases this can become tedious for respondents to read through (or in telephone surveys, to have it read out loud for every question).  On self-completed surveys, having so many labels may compromise the visual appeal, and the questionnaire may appear more cluttered-looking, longer, or confusing to the respondent.

Two’s company, three’s a crowd

You may wonder if it is helpful, when using bi-polar anchors, to also label the mid-point in order to provide another point of reference for the respondent. Here, I would argue that you may be introducing risk by calling unnecessary attention to the mid-point: this emphasis on the mid-point may tempt respondents to use it as a ‘way out’ from having to think about their response and provide an opinion. Mid-points can also be a tempting fall-back for lazy or fatigued respondents, and in my opinion the less we do to call attention to that half-way point in the scale, the better.