Willis’ Bag: “My Research”

A lot of responses came in from our feature on cable (broadband television) demand and penetration from last month’s e-Letter. So riddle me this, if you have 2 cable systems or service areas side-by-side with one having the highest per capita income and educational levels in an entire state and the other much more in the middle, which one should have the highest cable demand and penetration?

If you are a media planner, buyer or brand manager try placing your product or service in the same mix and substitute cable demand and penetration – with consumption indexes and market share for rice, mobile or long-distance telephony, beef, sneakers, MP3 players, hi-end audio, or hi-end auto, timeshare purchased, or whatever your ‘bag’.

We also break the cable demand and penetration equation down further in this month’s e-Letter article - A Day in the Life of an Urban System GM, and go way back to first attempt at creating a model for the cable industry at NCTA in 1985. But we don’t stop there, because typically the trick for any good research model is getting and establishing a baseline from related secondary data or from the world, and ideally from both. This is how you discover and see consumer market and media trends that put you ahead of the game.

So we pile on the demand equation in this month’s e-Letter and add several more articles, quotes, and plugs that speak to this baseline validation process and apprach, such as Robert Cooper’s quote in the one of the featured articles Flags -

'capturing the flag is about reaching inside yourself and entering the game, sharpening your senses, so you could notice (see, detect, discern) sooner and from greater distances'.

In another e-Letter article this month, Down, But Not Out In NYC, a quote by John Le Carre’ warns us that “a desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world”, and to that we say amen and give testament. In another feature on our upcoming report Urban Radio: The Power Unlocked!, we hear about urban radio’s struggles with audience numbers that do not adequately reflect ‘what they bring’, as in what they bring to the media and advertising table.

Yet, we go on to point out and talk about how media researchers from Howard University’s Graduate School of Mass Communications starting in the 1980’s pioneered and forged some of the most profound media research methodologies and audience models for capturing diverse audience media behavior. Researchers such as Drs. Howard Myrick (Uses and Gratifications); Oscar Gandy Jr. (Agenda-Setting); John Barber (Content Analysis), Clint C. Wilson (Multiculturalism) and Dr. Robert L. Nwanko.

As a result of their pioneering work, the soon to be released study Urban Radio: The Power Unlocked! by W.G. Smith & Associates "unlocks" the true power behind urban radio by continuing and building upon this rich HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) tradition in media research and cutting-edge audience models and methodologies.

OK, now back to the cable demand and penetration riddle - what ya got? What service area would have the highest cable demand and penetration brand monikers, cable gurus, and round-the-way marketers?

So, I will tell you this, and then I’m gone -- no matter what anybody tells you, consumer or cable demand and penetration (market share for some) comes down to time and money, and not in the order or way you might think, because like life, things are not quite that simple. Human needs, which we all have, also have a cultural context as well. Needs impact your financial resources, and your financial resources influence your time. The time you spend working, playing and socializing, and who you socialize with, and you know who that is.

Culture also influences the way you allocate money and time based on what’s 1) most important and 2) what’s most important to you, and this is greatly influenced by culture. Both need factors and cultural filters and cues help shape and drive the perception, cost benefit analysis, demand, penetration, or market share. This is why cultural diversity should be factored in even during early product development and not just roll-out, or after market.

On the cable side of things - this in part explains Why Diverse U.S. Cable Audiences Are Leading the Way..., which was a research paper that we presented at the World Audience Measurement Conference. It explains why and just how diverse U.S. cable audiences are setting audience trends in broadband television and consumer electronics in the U.S.

The updated Remixed version of this revolutionary cable study will be out in 2010. You can get the original from WARC (World Advertising Research Council) in the U.K. and ESOMAR (World Association of Research Professionals) in the Netherlands, because remarkably it has never been available in the U.S.

For more on the origins of cable demand and penetration market research and models don’t forget to see this months article A Day in the Life of an Urban System GM, and go behind the scenes of the making of the original cable demand and penetration model.