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Research Roundup: Hold the Phone, Dial up Facebook

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The most retweeted stories by the #MRX Twitter community this week:

• Descriptive vs. Predictive – Tom Webster takes issue with recent research that says that Twitter users are more likely to purchase from brands they follow than Facebook users are. “In no way should one assume that this data means Twitter is inherently a better place than Facebook for brands to be – especially given the relative sizes of their user bases. Rather, it says more about the fact that Facebook more closely mirrors mainstream populations, which – let’s face it – don’t spend all that much time talking about brands.”
• Facebook says use us for opinion research – Andrew Jeavons finds a quote from Cameron Marlow, the head of the Facebook data science team, where he says, “Given that there's a population of 250 million people or more logging every day, it seems ridiculous that you would try to get in touch with them through a phone...so it seems like it's improbable that social media won't be the way that we acquire opinion research.” Andrew asks, “Is 2011 the year FB will move into MR?”
• A Quarter of US Adults Now in Cellphone-only Households – The Center for Disease Control (CDC), which conducts extensive telephone surveys on health issues, warns that the decline in U.S. households with home telephones creates the possibility of bias due to undercoverage of cellphone-only households, posing a “real and growing” threat to telephone surveys.
• Innovation – The Lifeblood of our Company – This Proctor & Gamble presentation, prepared for stock analysts, discusses the four types of innovation that P&G relies on to grow:
  1. Commercial Innovation – Innovative marketing campaigns that produce growth, such as the Old Spice social media campaign.
  2. Sustaining Innovation – Product upgrades and line extensions that increase the traditional category benefits: Tide with Acti-lift, which now “lifts off” stains.
  3. Transformational Sustaining Innovation - Breakthroughs “on existing brands that reset competitive advantage in a category, resulting in significant share increases, sustainable competitive advantage, and category growth.” Examples include Pampers with Dry Max and Crest Pro-Health.
  4. Disruptive Market Innovation – The final type of innovation leads to new categories altogether. “Many of our billion-dollar brands were created behind a disruptive market innovation. Some examples include Swiffer, Crest White Strips, Febreze.”
• Smart Geolocation added to iTracks – Social media campaign results are tagged with the participant’s location, where available.

As always, we welcome your participation in the #MRX Twitter community.