Guest Blogger: WFU's Dr. Michelle Roehm Shares Her Experiences Using BlogNog for Student Research Projects

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As a professor of marketing research at Wake Forest University, I regularly conduct audits of cutting edge industry practices. It was in the course of one such review--during which I delved into the marriage of emergent technology and qualitative research—that I found BlogNog. The more I read, the more impressed I became, and before long, I had decided that this was a tool that simply had to be shared with my students.

In reaching out to founder Paul Rubenstein, my initial hope was that he might agree to deliver a guest lecture on the use and utilities of BlogNog. To my delight, he not only accepted my invitation (and was a huge hit!), but he was also kind enough to extend one in return: Would my students, he asked, be interested in conducting their very own live projects on BlogNog, to gain a fuller appreciation of its capabilities? To say I jumped at the chance would be an understatement.

With the help of the BlogNog staff’s expert training, all of the project teams were very quickly up and running, collecting the kind of deep-level consumer data that marketers dream of. As we progressed through the studies, student feedback ranged from enthusiastic to effusive. Several expressed amazement at how intuitive and user-friendly the interface was. Others commented on how intimate their contact was with respondents and how profound the resulting consumer insights were.

One of my students, Kaitlin Fitzgerald (WFU MA 2012), provided the following testimonial describing her experiences: "BlogNog is a wonderful research tool. It helped us uncover and analyze in-depth consumer insights in an extremely cost-effective and timely manner. This tool provided data to affirm previously held consumer insights, as well as to uncover new areas to explore. The research we gathered added a monumental amount of value to our consumer study.

Our participants had an interactive feedback experience where they uploaded pictures, ranked images, and highlighted areas of interest. We used these multimedia tools offered by BlogNog to test new marketing strategies, as well as products, and the company's website. The participants had just as much fun with the study as we did!

The staff at Accelerant Research were easy to reach and eager to help with any questions that cropped up. We deeply appreciate their help and the promptness of their responses!"

We are grateful to the entire BlogNog team for introducing this powerful tool to our curriculum!

Michelle Roehm
Board of Visitors Professor of Marketing
Schools of Business
Wake Forest University

BlogNog Online Qualitative Research: Announcing the Launch of Version 3.0

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From its original design in 2008, BlogNog was built to facilitate the most in-depth qualitative marketing and human resources (HR) research studies. BlogNog V2.0 and its offspring encompassed several advanced technologies to make BlogNog the most comprehensive software platform in the industry, able to accommodate key functions such as:

• Dial testing
• Image tracking
• Text Tracking
• MobileQual
• Story Telling
• Collage Building
• Perception Mapping
• Sorting
• Probing, Filtering
• Tagging
• Multi-lingual
• Custom Branding

We have spent that last year developing BlogNog V3.0 and finally it is here! The improvements that were made are vast and represent a distinct embrace of the global social media phenomenon. Unlike bulletin board layouts that are very much like their name, BlogNog interactions remind users of other sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Ease, intuitiveness, and fun are experienced by everyone involved – moderators, participants, and observers.

In addition, we have programmed BlogNog V3.0 with greater control by enabling moderators to place all types of questions anywhere within the study, providing public and private probing capabilities, and, if desired, control over when participants can see subsequent questions.

BlogNog is the brainchild of Accelerant Research, the only true full-service research firm to have developed its own platform to use for its own clients or to lend to other researchers for their own study needs. Our commitment to enhancing BlogNog is still as strong as when we began and we will remain dedicated to integrating new technologies into its long-term growth and sophistication.

As always, Accelerant Research will continue to offer the use of BlogNog free of charge to any students and faculty for academic-related purposes. We are happy to provide them a demonstration, training, study-related materials, project design recommendations, and all the special features and functions of the entire platform. Feel free to visit the site at http://blognog.com/ and download a brief description of BlogNog in our brochure, contact us directly at info@accelerantresearch.com, or dial 866-683-7407 to schedule a BlogNog test drive.

Using Mobile Insights for Qualitative Research

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The adoption and penetration of smartphones in recent years is staggering. According to recent figures published by eMarketer, more than half of US mobile users will have a smartphone by the end of next year. As a result, mobile technologies are creating a number of great opportunities for qualitative research, and Accelerant Research is excited to offer the ability to tap into these technologies via our BlogNog research platform. Through its mobile Shopper Insights function, BlogNog allows online research participants who own any smartphone or tablet device to provide feedback and respond to research assignments using these devices. In short, BlogNog can capture participants’ feedback at the exact moment that they are experiencing what it is the research is studying.

Rather than tethering participants to a focus groups facility or even their own personal computer, BlogNog allows qualitative researchers to broaden the realm of exercises that can be assigned to participants and the types of data that can be collected.

Additionally, BlogNog’s Mobile Shopper Insights feature makes a perfect complement to traditional offline qualitative research studies. Giving participants homework assignments prior to or as follow-up assignments after focus groups or in-depth interviews is a great way to get participants engaged with your subject matter and ready to share additional insights about their consumption behaviors. For ethnographic research, leveraging participants’ own mobile technologies allows you to immersively “follow” them 24/7 in a very cost effective manner.

Below are just a few examples of mobile applications that BlogNog offers:

TEXT, PHOTO, & VIDEO UPLOADS WITHOUT REQUIRING MOBILE APP DOWNLOADS

BARCODE SCANNER that automatically retrieves product information from an ever-growing database of millions of products. This a great tool for assigning participants to go on shopping exercises or to perform pantry audits. QR code scanning is also available.

VOICE-TO-TEXT FUNCTIONALITY allows participants to dictate responses rather than strictly using their thumbs.

TRAVEL JOURNALS & LOCATION-BASED CHECK-INS utilize GPS function of most smartphones to allow participants to “check-in” at various phases of your study.

FOOD/NUTRITION, PRESCRIPTION DRUG USAGE, & PRODUCT USAGE JOURNALS - these technnologies are great for in-home usage tests and longitudinal studies.

Again, these are just a few examples that we have used recently to collect some great insights. Really, the sky is the limit in terms of the different types of mobile information you can collect from participants using BlogNog. For more information about Mobile Shopper Insights in particular or BlogNog in general, please visit http://www.blognogresearch.com/, email us at info@accelerantresearch.com, or give us a call at (866) 683-7407.