Category: On Target News
What did Kellyanne Conway know?
There was an interview of Kellyanne Conway toward the end of the 2016 presidential election cycle. “Everyone” of the polls predicted that Hillary would win the election.
Everyone knew it and the polls showed it. As one example, here’s a headline to a story from CNN on October 23, 2016, that showed Hillary up 12 points 2 weeks before the election.
New poll shows Clinton over Trump by double-digits
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7776173333.
Well, everyone knew it except Kellyanne Conway. Kellyanne felt Trump would win and said so. Why? Well, before Kellyanne officially took over the Trump campaign she owned and operated a survey company called The Polling Company.
Kellyanne, knew her survey technology. She knew that respondents will often answer survey questions with a “social” answer.
As he comes into his office one bright Monday morning, Dr. Lawrence Jessup, DDS, walks by his office manager, 27-year-old Margie Swanson, sitting at her desk looking at a computer screen.
“Good morning, Margie,” says the good doctor. “How are you this morning?”
“Fine, Doctor Jessup, just fine.”
Fine is a “social” answer to the question.
Margie had a fight with her boyfriend last night. She is hungover.
“Fine” is a social answer to the question.
And that is what Kellyanne could see in the responses to the surveys being conducted by other polling firms. You have to be a pro to discern the difference between social answers and real answers to survey questions. Kellyanne is a pro and could see that the pro-Hillary or “anti-Trump” responses were social answers.
A pro can see beyond the social answers and discern the true feelings of the respondent.
The real key to this is done by creating survey questions that prompt answers that cut through the social veneer. Kellyanne knows how to write those questions.
And so do I. With more than 30 years conducting surveys for companies in virtually every sector of the American economy as well as Europe, Australia, and Mexico we know surveys.
We know how to create questions that will get you honest answers from your clients and / or your prospects. We also know the proper technology of survey tabulation that finds the “hot buttons” you can use in your marketing. The “buttons” from these surveys also enable us to create positioning surveys, the results of which create an instant familiarity and understanding of your brand.
Just ask our clients.
“Working with Bruce was like working with the Roger Federer of Surveys. The questions evoked exactly what our public was thinking. Now with the button and positioning in place our promotions are like an arrow going through tissue paper rather than a fist into a brick wall. Our copy and imagery say exactly what the clientele is thinking and therefor procures more leads.
You served up an ace Bruce. Thank you.”
We conduct competitor research, survey your customers, survey your prospects all of which enables us to come up with recommendations that will make your cash register sing.
Contact me for a quote. Surveys may be just more reasonable than you think.
Best,
Bruce
Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
www.ontargetresearch.com
Br***@br**********.net
1-818-397-1401
Left-handed golfers in Houston and the Ukraine
Courtesy of cottonbro – Pixels
It was a little while ago that a friend, trying to give an example of how difficult it would be to survey very niche audiences, challenged our ability to survey left-handed golfers in Houston.
He was trying to be funny but was surprised when I told him that we could survey that public today – no problem. Technology has dramatically expanded the ability to survey niche publics in both the U.S. and in various parts of the world.
Truth be told, I could’ve reached and surveyed those left-handed golfers in Houston in “the old days” but it would have taken much more time and been more expensive than it is today.
Most of our clients are based in the U.S. and we can execute surveys for respondents in a city, a region, or the entire country. Having been in the market research business for over a quarter of a century, I can’t think of an industry for which we haven’t conducted surveys.
I’m sure there are some, but I can’t think of any. We have conducted surveys for everything from corporate giants to mom and pops getting critical information that helps drive sales – technology, healthcare, nutrition, real estate, the environment, religion, education, politics, and on it goes.
In recent years, we have conducted surveys around the world: Germany, Mexico, Australia (both sides of the continent – Sydney and Perth), Canada, Russia and have access to conduct surveys in most countries on the planet. Translations are often involved but that, too, is handled smoothly these days.
Though Russians might be reticent to voice certain opinions during these times, Ukrainians would likely welcome the opportunity. We can survey both publics today, but I am going focus on Ukraine and conduct surveys of Ukrainians over the next few days.
If you have questions you would like to ask Ukrainian citizens, send them to me. I can’t promise I will include them as I already have a rough survey constructed, but I will welcome your response and may use your question.
I intend to release the results to key government personnel, the media, through my financial newsletter – StrategicFinancialIntelligence.com – and to those of you in my general database.
Best,
Bruce
President & CEO
On Target Research
1-818-397-1401
1984
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR
George Orwell’s classic novel of a dystopian future overseen by the all-seeing despot, Big Brother, embodied omnipresent government surveillance, perpetual war and historical negationism (the rewriting of history).
It is a portrayal of government power and suppression of individual freedoms far beyond Orwell’s 1949 England and today’s governmental operations… or is it?
If one were looking for a perpetual war, today’s never-ending War on Terror, 18 years old with no sign of ending, would certainly serve. The government surveillance exposed by Edward Snowden makes clear that your every phone call, Internet search and email is washed through Uncle’s digital fingers. And facial recognition software is embedded in cameras now strewn across the nation’s commercial landscape.
If you read 1984, you’ll recall that the protagonist, Winston Smith, worked in the Ministry of Truth, revising history to fit the current political demands.
“Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact. Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.” (Orwell, pp.47-48) “It might very well be that literally every word in the history books, even the things that one accepted without question, was pure fantasy.”
Rewriting the past could never happen here, of course – setting aside the current destruction of statues of Civil War Generals throughout the South. It appears Robert E. Lee never existed, or so the City of New Orleans would have you believe.
I ran into this kind of historical revisionism, working on my 4th fiction novel. I write a detective series (if you enjoy fiction thrillers, my books, under the pen name of John Truman Wolfe, are at Amazon. The fiction titles are Mind Games, The Gift, and Ransom. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=john+truman+wolfe&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
At any rate, Tom McKenna, the protagonist, is a private eye who went to Boalt Hall, the heralded law school of the University of California at Berkeley. So, I was writing something about McKenna and in researching Boalt Hall found that it no longer exists, at least not as the official name of UC Berkeley’s law school, which it had been for over 100 years.
What happened?
The law school was named after John Boalt, a lawyer and sometime judge. In 1906, his widow, Elizabeth, donated land in San Francisco to be sold with the proceeds going for the construction of a new building for the law school at UC Berkeley.
The law school proudly carried this name for more than a century, when some committee at Cal, protecting the feelings of Berkeley’s Generation Snowflake, called for a name change because John Boalt had made some racially insensitive (racist) remarks more than a century earlier.
No one is justifying racist remarks. People who make them are low IQ fools, self-identified by what comes out of their mouth. But the Boalt brand had long ago outgrown and out shown the turn of the century lawyer for whom it was named.
Boalt was a brand. A brand that stood for graduating some of the greatest legal minds of the century.
Brands mean something.
Nike means sports – in all its ramifications.
Google means search. (It has growing PR problems, but the brand still means search).
Titleist means golf ball.
B of A means banking.
But there are also local and regional brands. And having a brand that communicates and stands out above its competitors is valuable, indeed.
Some businesses don’t bother branding their product or service at all.
Some throw a name on what they produce without thought as to its communication value. You know, name a new tech product after their first-born child. Sure, the digital age has spawned some brands that don’t follow the rules – Google itself being an example.
But unless you have some seriously deep pockets to drive a non-sensical brand into the mind of your public, a brand should be descriptive of what you do. It should be memorable.
Some communicate wonderfully. How about the organic/natural food market…Whole Foods? A great brand.
A while ago, a friend recommended a particular health supplement to me. It’s called Organifi.
Huh?
He sent me a link and I got some. But if someone had said, “You ought to get some Organifi…”
Which is a better contact lens brand?
SofLens…? Or Polycon?
Clarity…? Or Paragon?
Descriptive.
I have a brand of reading glasses called Peepers. Cute, clever brand.
There is an exact method of surveying for a name/brand for your product or service. We have conducted naming surveys for a wide variety of products and services.
A naming survey, particularly for a new product or service, can make a world of difference in the acceptance and want of the product.
Naming surveys are fast and quite reasonable.
If you are launching a new product or service, or perhaps are thinking about renaming one that you have, give us a call and I can let you know cost and timing.
Of course, to really boom your sales and income, we should also survey your products for buttons and positioning.
“On Target Research is fantastic. Their ability to extract relevant and powerful data from C-level executives (top execs) is remarkable. In a short period of time we were able to get profound insight into the hearts and minds of our potential clients. Their research is invaluable for all of our marketing, branding and sales initiatives.” MA – President, Asperion, Inc.
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“I can’t say enough how delighted I am with the result. You and your team do a fabulous job. I really do like the positioning. It fits exactly with what we ourselves know to be true about our brand and to have it concisely stated is exactly what we need.” AS – Owner
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“[Before On Target]…I was only seeing 40 to 50 new patients a month. After On Target… we have averaged over 100 new patients a month with a high of 132 (with a 50% raise in income).” MB – DDS
Marketing, advertising and PR should all be based on surveys. Omitting this vital step means you are taking a buzz saw to your own income stream.
Call us. We deliver surveys that drive sales.
Best,
Bruce
Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
ontargetresearch.com
Br***@br**********.net
1-818-397-1401
