This edition of "Trade Talk" is devoted to clearing some odds and ends off the editor’s desk. First of all, check out my new photo. Nice, eh? See what eight years of deadlines will do to a guy?! Sorry it took us so long to replace the old photo. I remember thinking it was outdated about six years ago, but other more important things took precedence. To see how my photo looked before retouching, check out the "Inside Quirk’s" section at our Web site at http://www.quirks.com.
Speaking of our Web site, we’ve added a new feature to it. If things go according to schedule (how’s that for a jinx?) by the time you read this the QMRR Researcher Forum should be up and running. It’s intended to be a place for you to exchange ideas, bulletin-board style, with other QMRR readers by posting comments and questions. Letus know what you think!
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As you may have noticed, the "War Stories" column took a one-is sue hiatus in October. Due to reader complaints about the content of some of the anecdotes, we decided to cancel the column as of the June/July issue. Well, the readers have spoken again, and "War Stories" is back.
A bit of explanation. The anecdote that broke the camel’s back, to mangle a metaphor, appeared in the May installment. It involved references to a woman’s body - references I thought were G-rated, certainly tame compared to prime-time TV fare. I knew that the story was a bit risky, given previous complaints, but I thought it was fuinny and hoped that the fact it had been submitted by a woman might diffuse its potential to offend.
How wrong I was. We received a handful of complaints- about half from men and half from women. Heeding the maxim that only a small percentage of dissatisfied customers actually take the time to complain, QMRR Publisher Tom Quirk figured these unhappy readers probably represented alarger goup. Not wanting to alienate a portion of our readership, he suggested we cancel "War Stories" after the June-July installment.
Over the summer, readers called, wrote and E-mailed us in support of the column. Perhaps the best missive came from a fellow who said that the decision to cancel "War Stories" reminded him:
"... of the welcome sign posted at the town limits of Puckett, Miss.; Welcome to Puckett - 300 Friendly Folks and a Few Soreheads. Too bad you have decided to listen to the few ’soreheads.’ I urge you to reconsider your decision. The column provides a refreshing, humorous look at ourselves in a day and age when a little laughter is badly needed."
That last sentence sums up the way I feel about the column myself. I think for the majority of our readers, ’’War Stories" provides a welcome bit of relief from worries about no-shows and cross-tabs. After all, it is possible to remain professional while enjoying a hearty laugh over things that happen to you and your peers on the job.
Not so, said one reader who wrote to express her displeasure with the anecdote in the May column. She felt that a feature like "War Stories" has no place in a trade magazine. I disagee. Perhaps more than most lines of work, marketing research can be a funny business. When you corral a bunch of people and plumb their innermost thoughts about mundanities like shaving cream and fat-free fudge brownies, you’re bound to get some crazy answers. They come with the territory, so I think a column like "War Stories" does belong in our pages.
While we certainly respect the feelings of the people who complained, based on reader calls and letters, and unsolicited comments (many of them from women) I’ve received at various industry functions in support of the column, the majority of you really enjoy and look forward to ’’War Stories ." That’s why we brought it back.
Much of the blame for all of this rests with me. As I mentioned, even before the May issue readers complained about the column. As a result, I’ ve either deleted or tried to clean up some of the racier anecdotes while preserving the column’s humor. But in trying to dance on the line of acceptability, it seems I’ve stumbled. Henceforth, with the kinder, gentler ’’War Stories," I’ll try harder to walk the straight and narrow.
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And now for something completely different.., a fictional research anecdote that might fit perfectly in "War Stories." It comes courtesy of an episode of Frasier from a few months back in which Frasier attends some focus groups of listeners to his radio show. In the backroom before the group starts, he fixes a withering eye on the respondents, dismissing them a cretinous lot whose opinions aren’t even worth hearing. His tune changes mightily when they all start saying glowing things about him and his show. (I wonder how many times that scene has played out in real life?) Naturally, there’s one guy who really doesn’t like Frasier. When the moderator can’t draw out the man’s reasons, the radio shrink takes it upon himself to uncover the truth, eventually tracking him down after the group (so much for respondent confidentiality) and confronting him (of course, to tragicomic effect - the poor guy runs a prosperous little newsstand, which Frasier accidentally burns to the ground). I guess the moral of the story is to make sure your moderator is skilled at probing.
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Lastly, a research story that promises to have a happy ending for all concerned. The employees of Pine Company, a Santa Monica, Calif., dataprocessing and research firm, are now its owners, thanks to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).
With an eye to his eventual retirement, company Founder and CEO Ben Pine says the plan is a way for him to realize the value of the company he’ s spent the last 30 years building while rewarding long-time employees for their hard workby helping them build a nice nest egg. "We have several employees who have been with us for along time, some approaching 20 years. And as I was thinking about retirement, I thought, what is the best thing to leave the employees but the fruit of all their contributions over the years," Pine says.
Though Pine, who recently turned 65, is planning to scale back his day-to-day involvement eventually, the veteran researcher wants to stick around to see a few things through. "I'm still very interested in all the processes that have to do with data tabulation and manipulation. We’re working on a number of new and exciting things. We’ve invested a great deal of time and money into optical scanning and it’ s beginning to take off for us and I’ d like to see where we are with it in a couple of years. Then I’ll feel like I’ ve contributed something to the industry and I can comfortably step down."