Doing Business in an Expanding Reality

Datamining at Repères

2008-08-01T15:28:48+02:00

During the last fifteen years at Repères we have developed a high level of expertise in the analysis of market research data for the modelling of consumer preferences. Our work has been based on Trade-Off analysis models and on Preference Mapping tools. From services that were only initially proposed within the framework of market studies conducted exclusively by Repères, we progressively evolved towards services involving customised modelling, by working on data from a variety of sources that our clients provided us with: sensorial evaluations, physico-chemical measurements, panel data, client data-base extractions...

In order to further develop this expertise and to promote it more widely we decided to create within Repères a department dedicated to Datamining, which intervenes either independently, based on client data, or in synergy with Repères research projects. The management of this department has been entrusted to Fabien Craignou, previously in charge of quantitative Senior studies at Repères and a specialist in research involving preference modelling.

As a complement to the Trade-Off and Preference Mapping models referred to above, the team now has extensive expertise in the use of Bayesian networks, an especially effective learning and modelling technique, that we have applied successfully for the development of typologies and scoring based on client data.

In compliance with the vision of Repères, the objective of this department is to take part in the development of new tools for the profession and the dissemination of new practises. Hence Fabien's presentation, in partnership with Lionel Jouffe from Bayesia, of our work on the identification and modelling of the appreciation of a product at the latest Sensometrics seminar in St Catharines in Canada:

view presentation (tags: bayesian networks drivers sensometrics product optimization)

Also attached is another presentation from our Datamining department, again in partnership with Bayesia, conducted during the SKIM conference in Barcelona last May. The objective was to present the advantages of Bayesian networks for defining consumer typologies, namely within the context of the ‘Uses and Attitudes’ studies. Among the advantages of the method a key point is that we analyse links of all variables 2 by 2 without establishing any principle ex ante – contrary to the usual approach of canonical typology, which requires dividing variables into two groups, for example, on one side uses and on the other attitudes, a method which is at times highly arbitrary (“I use this product every day”, is that a behaviour or an attitude, or both?).

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For more details concerning these services, or more generally on Datamining services, please contact Fabien Craignou.

Repères Winner of the 2008 Silver Trophy for Innovation in Marketing Research

2008-06-16T21:42:44+02:00

The Repères Community Hub was created in the autumn of 2006 with the aim of devising and implementing new marketing study approaches, and to do so by activating new web platforms (collaborative sites, virtual worlds, online communities…).

To this day the contributions of the Repères Community Hub consist of the implementing of co-design protocols or more generally speaking collective intelligence collaboration procedures.

To our great satisfaction these initiatives have provoked a positive response from the profession which has acknowledged them. After last year’s Gold Trophy for our introduction into Second Life, we are proud to have been awarded another prize by the jury of professionals assembled by Marketing Magazine.

The prize-winning project this year concerns a Jean-Paul Gaultier Parfums “Research Community”: we have worked for the brand to set up and moderate the community of sellers in permanent contact with the marketing team.

This community:
. provides access to knowledge, with a constant relay of information from the field,
. provides opportunities for exchanges, with the sellers who are able to react in a qualitative manner to the new product launches, and point-of-sale projects,
. provides an opportunity for collaboration and co-design for new offers and marketing operations.

This prize is all the more gratifying since it relates to a new field high in potential, namely in BtoB: the deployment of procedures aimed at activating the collective intelligence of networks.

I would like to thank the Repères Communities team, Emilie Labidoire, Christophe Desgouttes and Stéphanie Hahn, as well as Jean Paul Gaultier Parfums, and more particularly Fany Péchiodat who entrusted us with this project.

Repères at the Esomar Congress: 2006, 2007 ... and 2008!

2008-05-22T14:04:46+02:00

For those who do not know the Esomar Congress it is probably the most prestigious event in the field of market research where professionals from all over the world present their most recent research.

We were therefore delighted to learn that we were selected to present a paper at the next Esomar Congress; this is the third time in a row (which to my knowledge, is a first for a French research institute:- ):

. in 2006 at the London Congress, with Moët Hennessy we presented the Emotional Monitoring tool, a real disruptive innovation for the understanding and monitoring of the imaginary perception of a brand, and which has now become the object of a licence with partners in the United States (PERT) in Germany (OPINION) and in Spain (ADVIRA) who now offer Emotional Monitoring to their own clients .

. in 2007 our presentation at the Congress in Berlin concerned our presence in the virtual world of Second Life,

. and finally, in 2008 in Montreal, with Danone Research we shall present a paper on the inclusion of non verbal communication in our research methods, via VideoEtude, a concept developed by our partner Franck Saunier. It concerns a whole field of research aimed at approaching the consumer from a holistic point of view by never separating verbal from non-verbal communication at any stage of the study. Beyond the theoretical aspects, we shall present very concrete examples in two areas that seem especially promising: The detection of unconscious insights able to help anchor disruptive innovations, and the measurement of the emotional involvement aroused by a stimulus (concept, communication, product...).

Brand and Virtual World Experiences: The results of a Repères Second Life study

2008-05-21T15:46:14+02:00

Beyond implementing the Co-design process, the purpose of Repères in Second Life is of course to explore these new digital words to gain more knowledge of them and to advise our clients in their marketing strategies in these virtual worlds.

We also want to play an active role in the Second Life community and to participate in its development, namely by disseminating the results of studies we conduct on our own initiative, or by making research organisations benefit at cost price from field studies conducted by our panel of avatars.

It is within such a framework that we are publishing the results of a qualitative study we conducted last year on the perception by the residents of Second Life of the first launches of brands in SL.

The investigation, under the form of an "in world” focus group (via avatars in SL) and in Real Life, concerned the automobile sector which already presented a certain diversity in marketing terms. The aim of the study is to determine the key factors of success for a successful launch in a virtual world.

You may download all of the findings here, which you may also view in a slide presentation below (given the density of the text, I recommend the option “view on slideshare / Full”)

For further details, please contact Emilie Labidoire, project manager at Repères Communities.

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The Metaverse : Towards the Integration of the Digital world in Our reality

2008-04-04T16:24:27+02:00

The development of virtual worlds about which we regularly communicate is a part of the more global process of the massive integration of digital technology in our reality.

This new reality we are moving towards, where the border between the virtual and reality will become less and less discernable, is sometimes referred to as the metaverse.

In the spring of 2007, a group of experts, researchers and players in the field of virtual worlds published a remarkable study on this subject : the metaverse roadmap overview. The authors identify four leading trends which, through their convergence, lead us to the metaverse:
. Virtual Worlds
. the mirror worlds, the digital reproduction of reality (Cf. Google Earth)
. enhanced reality : the integration of the digital in the real world, for example via enhanced reality glasses (you walk in an Antique site and thanks to these glasses you have a completed view of the buildings instead of the ruins)
. lifelogging, which consists of recording all the events of one’s life on a digital medium.

You will find here the support materials from a talk I gave on this subject at the summer university of a consulting company. In addition to the 4 trends of the Metaverse Roadmap, you will find some elements concerning another change I believe is fundamental: the notion of the enhanced body (exoskeletons, cyborgs and brain-computer links) where, here again, the visions of science-fiction writers are confirmed.

To finish with this theme of the metaverse and immersion, here is a video in which a system for measuring brain waves makes it possible for a person to move his avatar in Second Life mentally:

There are many surprises in store for us.

Best whishes from Reperes

2008-01-17T12:07:40+01:00

Happy new year, and please see the film below to discover our wishes for 2008.

Happy New Year 2008
envoyé par reperes2008

Understanding and mobilizing the consumer 2.0 via communities

2007-11-25T20:16:26+01:00

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For approximately two years at Repères we have been engaged in the process of updating the tools used in market research. Our objective is to look for better ways of accompanying our clients, in a context in which society is undergoing major changes: traditional tools are less and less able to provide an accurate picture of reality today, whereas new approaches, previously inconceivable for technical and budgetary reasons, now provide access to a wealth of new and highly relevant information.

Among these new approaches, we are investing especially in all the “collaborative” techniques which represent a change of position within our profession. The citizen consumer is moving from the status of respondent to that of participant.

Hence, on the occasion of the last SEMO trade show, Emilie Labidoire, in charge of Repères Communautés, and I presented a series of collaborative approaches aimed at the following:

. mobilising consumers and involving them in designing the offer:
- co-designing, namely by using the Second Life platform,
- a concept test under the form of a collaborative blog, with 60 to 80 respondents alternating during a fortnight between collective exchanges and individual questionnaires
- a prototype test via the Home Use Blog, previously mentioned in this blog

. but also at gaining a better understanding of consumers via the creation of Virtual Communities of Interests, making it possible for a company to get a better understanding of its target and to continuously exchange with this target in a real spirit of partnership.

In addition to this new position as a “participant”, clearly in line with that of the consumer-citizen today (Cf. the book, “Génération participation” by Thierry Maillet), the strong point of these approaches is that they are based on new time frames: We are no longer working with 15-minute quantitative questionnaires or 3-hour focus groups, but with a collaborative experience over one or two weeks (collaborative concept test, Home Use Blog) or even several months (Communities), thus providing a definite opportunity for ideas to ripen and for the experience to be integrated. Another important aspect is the advantage of asynchronous communication limiting leading effects (each participant integrates the opinions of the others, but with a "distance" which enables him or her to evaluate these opinions and to preserve his or her individuality) and also makes it possible for the respondent to express himself/herself in a very personal way.

At Repères, we are continuing to develop and experiment with these collaborative methods which hold great promise, naturally for general consumer issues but also in the field of BtoB (for example: the development of a co-design protocol with certain key customers, or the creation and moderation of communities of retailers…)

In short, we are fortunate to be working in a fascinating profession offering a host of new prospects!

The Home Use Blog at Pangborn

2007-09-20T18:43:41+02:00

With the Danone Research team we had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the prestigious Sensory Science Symposium Pangborn, which was held in Minneapolis in August.
On this occasion, Michel Rogeaux and I had the opportunity of presenting the Home Use Blog to the scientific community involved in the field of sensory studies and consumer tests.
As a reminder, the Home Use Blog is a protocol by which consumers test an innovation and exchange impressions in a community blog during the entire experience. This dual immersion of the product experienced by each respondent and within a community proves to be an extremely rich source of information and insight. At the same time, the possibility for the project team of monitoring the test day by day allows for a great deal of adaptability and is very motivating.

This approach is also highly flexible: Since November 2006, when we presented the methodology for the first time at SEMO with Danone Research, we have had the opportunity of using Home Use Blog (for Danone and for other manufacturers) in a great variety of configurations:
. in different countries, over varying periods of time (with a project in the very short term for a HUB during 3 months).
. by combining the Home Use Blog with other approaches, for example by organising at the end of the blog a Focus Group with the participants face-to-face to work in a more creative manner on the elements of the product mix.

In a nutshell, we are convinced that this method will become firmly established as part of marketing research practises in product development processes. The enthusiastic response on the part of the participants at the Pangborn conference backed us up in our conviction.

You will find here the slides of the Home Use Blog presentation at Pangborn.

Results of the Jardin des Halles Competition

2007-07-11T20:41:07+02:00

Joshua Culdesac and Piper Pitney are the winners of the competition "Call for collective design for the Jardin des Halles" initiated by the association Accomplir, the agency Pourquoitucours and Repères. The jury found the creative approach in the design of the Garden of Islands proposed by Joshua Piper especially appealing.

The garden proposed by Yaox Bruner awarded the “public prize” following the votes of the Repères Second Life panel:

Lastly we would like acknowledge the quality of the proposals of all the participants, which may be seen during the whole summer on the Repères Second Life Islandor on video youtube.

This competition was principally aimed at accompanying the Accomplir Association in its fight against the project selected by the Paris City Hall. The objective was not to create the future Jardin des Halles but to prove that other designs were possible which associated creativity and compliance with certain spécifications. The final objective of the members – volunteers – of the association Accomplir being to convince the Paris City Hall to abandon the project and to launch an official competition for the garden.

We do not yet know what will be the outcome of this process but it is clear that Accomplir has made a clear statement in favour of its case thanks to Second Life; the association has benefited from wide media coverage enabling it to express its views (articles in Le Parisien, Paris Obs, Matin Plus, Lemonde.fr, lexpress.fr , BBCnews) ...And has effectively countered any criticism as to its alleged support of the status quo or rejection of innovation.

As for Repères, our action as a sponsor of this competition has enabled us to validate once again the relevance of Second Life as a platform for co-design, even for Real Life uses.

Repères wins the Marketing Magazine Innovation Trophy

2007-06-11T19:33:06+02:00

On May 22 last, we had the pleasure of receiving the Marketing Magazine Innovation Trophy 2007 in the Studies category.

The profession rewarded our installation in Second Life, Repères having accomplished a world premier by developing a market research activity in a virtual world.

Obviously we are very happy and proud of this award, and I take this opportunity to once again thank the whole Repères Second Life team: Emilie Labidoire, Christophe Desgouttes, Hailong Xia and Moragh McVicar.

This award is timely in that it comes as a crowning achievement following a very fruitful first six months of Repères in SL:
. We are now well established within the SL community, following the exploratory studies we have conducted and published (cf. the Repères Second Life site) and following the organisation of design competitions (Repères showroom, Fabrique du Future Building, The Halles Gardens in Paris)
. our panel includes 8000 original residents from all countries ready to take part in qualitative and quantitative research as well as in co-creation projects,
. within the next few days we will be launching our first research project commissioned by a customer (in our initial plan, we expected our first order only after a year in activity...)
. And more generally speaking our presence in SL has given us the opportunity to take part in many events in France and abroad and to present the different tools used by Repères.

In conclusion I would like to stress that our presence in Second Life is perfectly consistent with the strategic vision for the next 5 years that we have defined for Repères – Passion for Research:

To be in 2011 the research institute:
connected worldwide and constantly renewing and updating the tools of the profession by being a reference in terms of methodology and innovation

An entrepreneurial vision that is indeed ambitious, but also clearly has the power to mobilize… and is rather fun.