MFour Mobile Research welcomes a new member to its Operations team, continuing the rapid expansion that will double the company’s size from about 50 employees early this year to more than 100 by early 2017.

Project Manager Spencer Hall will help push the continuing advancement of MFour’s services and capabilities as it carries out state-of-the art, all-mobile survey-based research for clients who include leading market research firms, corporations and brands.

Spencer previously did consumer and market research for Modern AlkaMe, designer of a digital platform for calibrating dietary supplement regimes according to data collected from users’ biometric devices. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from California State University, Long Beach.

MFour made a big bet at start of this decade that mobile technology would revolutionize consumer surveys, just as it would dominate other realms in communications and information exchange. Everything that’s happened since has confirmed that wager.

More evidence of mobile’s impact on society arrives in the Pew Research Center’s recently-released report on the “State of the News Media 2016.”

Tracking statistics from 110 leading U.S. media outlets, the report found that “mobile traffic continues to gain prominence over desktop traffic across media sectors.” In 2015, the year studied, 99 of those 110 sites received more visits from mobile devices than any other method of access.

• Newspapers: of the 50 top newspaper websites, all but six drew more unique visitors on mobile than on desktops (including laptops, since Pew classifies all personal computers as desktops).

• News magazines: nine of 12 in the study had more visits from mobile users than PC users.

• National television outlet websites: all eight sites in the study had more mobile visitors.

• Digital-only news publications (Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Salon, etc.): 38 of 40 had more mobile visitors.

Probing a bit deeper, Pew found that of the 40 digital-only news organizations it studied, 33 saw gains in mobile traffic over the previous year, while 27 experienced drops in visits via personal computers. The mobile increases were large (defined as 10% or more) for 28 of the sites. Twenty-three digital news sites had large declines in PC traffic.

What does this mean for the market research industry as it grapples with whether to move from still-prevalent but increasingly outdated online/PC methods to new mobile opportunities?

Good news if it embraces the accelerating shift to mobile that the Pew Center documents in the media, and which MFour epitomizes in the realm of market research.  Bad news if it doesn’t.

“After all…tomorrow is another day,” is probably the most famous line ever uttered by a fictitious person in Atlanta -- Scarlett O’Hara, in her tearful finale in “Gone With the Wind.”

MFour’s representatives to the recent IIeX market research conference in Atlanta say they heard something similar from speakers who were trying to pitch outdated online panel methods to the conferees.

By now it’s pretty clear that online methods belong to yesterday, and tomorrow brings them closer to their inevitable eclipse by the advanced, state-of-the-art mobile research that MFour offers.

Ours reps’ takeaway from IIeX is that the market research industry increasingly grasps that fact. People are looking for something better than increasingly ineffective online panels that are dismal on demographics and snail-like in data-acquisition. It’s sinking in that the only smart and sensible choice is to reach respondents where they live – on their smartphones, instead of on the laptops and PCs where fewer and fewer people are hanging out to take consumer surveys. 

At IIeX, said Andrew Fang, MFour’s Vice President of Sales, the idea that online panels remain effective continued to circulate in various presentations. But they seemed to be gaining less traction. Evidence is mounting that new approaches are needed – witness  the most recent Greenbook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) report, which pointedly and emphatically said that panel-quality problems have reached crisis proportions and need to be addressed with a sense of innovation and openness to new and better methods.

Andrew and Jeannette Ceballos, the MFour Senior Sales Executive who joined him in Atlanta, said that the market research clients who came by our company’s exhibit were clearly beginning to understand the importance of jumping aboard mobile, and wanted to learn more.

“It was so much better” than at past conferences, Andrew said. He no longer needed to explain what mobile research is, but spent his time talking to visitors who already knew about mobile methods when the conversations began, and were able to ask informed questions about MFour’s specific approach.

Andrew said that presentations of MFourDIY, the first all-mobile, do-it-yourself survey-building tool, went over especially well.

“Everyone looked at our DIY platform and said, `You can do things with it that you can’t do with other platforms,’” he recalled. “They said they liked it because of its complex abilities, and because it’s intuitive and easy to program.”

We can tell you a lot more as we move farther on down the market research conference trail. MFour will have representatives at OmniShopper, July 11-13 in Chicago, and MRMW North America, July 18-19 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Senior Solutions Executives Alex Colao and Scott Worthge will be our  men in Chicago; in Fort Worth we’ll be giving a how-to workshop on MFourDIY, with DIY Product Manager Andreas Hoelting and Sales V.P. Fang presiding.

In the meantime, if anybody tries to persuade you that online research has a future, we invite you to borrow two other famous sayings from “Gone With the Wind.”

Just tell them “Fiddle-dee-dee!” and “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Continuing its rapid expansion, MFour Mobile Research, Inc., has hired Rebecca Young as Project Manager for MFourDIY, the first all-mobile, do-it-yourself survey-building tool.

Rebecca is helping clients take full advantage of the recently-launched MFourDIY, where users access highly-sophisticated research features, while enjoying cost-effective design functions that are simple and intuitive to use. Rebecca previously worked as an associate buyer for Houzz, an online resource for home-design and home-improvement companies and their prospective clients. She is a graduate of Chapman University who loves birds and plays the piano.

MFour began pioneering all-mobile research in 2011 when it launched Surveys on the Go®, the first app for consumer surveys conducted solely on smartphones and other mobile devices. The Irvine, CA-based MFour recently announced plans to double its staff to more than 100 by early 2017.

MFour Mobile Research, Inc. has added two new software engineers to its Labs & Engineering department in a move that will increase automation and make delivery of data to clients even faster and more efficient.

One of the assignments new hires Brandon Davis and Dennis Nguyen will tackle will be bringing more automation – and therefore more speed – to data transfers, said Chris Monahan, MFour’s Chief Technology Officer.

The goal, Monahan said, “is giving clients access to the data even sooner” as it comes in from respondents in MFour’s million-member active panel – the nation’s only panel that receives and responds to surveys solely on mobile devices.

Brandon arrives from Entrepreneur, Inc., where he devised software that improved content-production functions and optimized digital display of Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously he was at Luxion, Inc., where his duties included developing new features for its Cloud service, KeyShot Cloud.

Dennis comes to MFour from LU Electric, where he was a software developer working on a variety of project management and internal information processing functions. Dennis has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles.

There, while doing Bioinformatics research, he realized he had a passion for the tech and software-creation aspects of his work. Now Dennis will apply his distinctive background to creating market research software.

Brandon and Dennis are part of an ongoing expansion that will double MFour’s full-time staff to more than 100 by early 2017.

With its ongoing expansion continuing apace, MFour Mobile Research, Inc., announces the hiring of Aaron Siefker and Lily Ingrassia. Siefker, a solutions executive, will reach out to inform prospective new clients about the advantages of MFour’s all-mobile surveys, and Ingrassia, an account executive, will make sure clients get top service and results when they field research projects with MFour.

Aaron turned his passion for soccer – he was a midfielder at Azusa Pacific University – into an entrepreneurial endeavor by founding GOALSHOT, a designer of soccer-training equipment that’s licensed internationally. Now he’ll help MFour score new clients and realize its goal of defining and dominating mobile research. Aaron earned two degrees at Azusa Pacific, a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in education.

Lily has a sports industry background, too – she’s worked in marketing for the International Surfing Assn., and also for IMAX Corporation in Santa Monica. She is finishing her coursework as a senior in marketing and international business at the University of San Diego.

Aaron and Lily are part of a hiring wave that will double MFour’s staff to more than a hundred by early next year.

Here’s another reason why it’s important for market researchers to talk to Millennials via a smartphone app instead of trying to get them to open email invitations and take surveys online. 

GlobalWebIndex, which studies trends in communications, social media, and device use, reports that almost 25% of younger Millennials – ages 16 to 24 – are using mobile apps for a crucial aspect of consumer behavior: researching products they’re interested in buying.

That exceeded the overall rate of 18% for respondents of all ages. Only 5% of those over 54 reported using apps to check out product information, according to a survey GWI conducted during the first quarter of 2016. 

Although Google and other search engines remain the most popular conduits for accessing info about products, the study found that their lead is narrowing, with younger respondents, especially, increasingly favoring apps and social networks.

“As search behaviors on networks and apps continue to strengthen, it’s not hard to see why many consumers would prefer one intuitive platform or app in which they can interact with an array of brands rather than having to install and use a separate one for each company,” GWI noted in a summary of a new study on trends in social networking.

In the market research realm, MFour’s business is exactly that – providing a single app through which any number of companies with products and services to sell can communicate with the marketplace to conduct survey-based research.

Pioneering and perfecting all-mobile research is our game. In fact, we invented that game and have played it at a uniquely high level since 2011, when we introduced Surveys on the Go®, our proprietary app that makes the best mobile research happen. It’s obvious that smartphones are the way to reach Millennials – who now represent America’s largest population bloc, according the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimate.

Combined with the million-member, all-mobile active panel of respondents who’ve downloaded the app, Surveys on the Go® keeps MFour on the leading edge in satisfying market researchers’ thirst for reliable, sophisticated data about any demographic's consumer preferences. It particularly excels with the Millennials, Hispanics and African Americans who get left out of conventional online samples because they've gravitated so heavily to smartphones.

The alternative for the market research industry is to stick with the fading approach of recruiting panels with email instead of pushes to a smartphone survey app, and then expecting the few who've clicked on the email to complete surveys that are prone to being slow, cumbersome and frustrating for respondents whenever their phones'  connections to the internet become less than optimal.

Although these restyled online surveys often get passed off as "mobile" because they can be taken on smartphones, usually with LOIs of no more than five minutes, it's important to draw distinctions. Surveys fielded with Surveys on the Go® are instantly embedded inside panelists phones, allowing them to complete the questions offline. That equates to much longer LOIs -- up to more than 20 minutes -- without interruption or frustration. 

To learn more about how all-mobile works, we invite you to explore this website and its sister site, MFourDI, home of the first all-mobile, do-it-yourself survey creation platform.

Alex Colao (L) and Scott Worthge of MFour Mobile Research

Trouble's afoot in the world of market research – witness the title of the CASRO Technology and Innovation Event, Monday and Tuesday in New York City: “The Engagement Crisis.”

The discussion will focus on what CASRO organizers have called a “disturbing trend” -- “As survey participation rates plummet to alarming levels, we need to stop talking around the problem and address it head on.”

MFour Mobile Research’s two-man delegation will show conferees that there’s an effective solution to that problem: all-mobile surveys fielded with the industry’s first and most advanced smartphone survey app, Surveys on the Go®.

Look for these two friendly faces at CASRO: senior solutions executives Alex Colao and Scott Worthge.

Our men in New York will detail how MFour does more than any other mobile option. Our proprietary survey technology, native app and million-member, all-mobile panel combine to create just the dynamic the industry is looking for: an engaged, demographically representative sample of consumers who provide data that’s a fast, accurate and reliable indicator for clients with important business decisions to make.

 “We’ve got Millennials,” is a refrain that conferees are sure to hear a lot from Alex and Scott. Not to mention Hispanics and any other group a study requires.

“The industry finally has realized, `this problem is so severe, we have to  have a conference about it,’” said Scott, a very busy man who teaches market research courses at UC Berkeley and Michigan State University when not evangelizing about all-mobile research for MFour.

“You’ll hear a lot of people at the conference trying to find a solution. We’ve already got a solution.”

So look ‘em up – Alex and Scott will tell you how the beginning of a beautiful friendship with MFour can be the beginning of the end of your research sample woes.

Ramp-up comes amid company’s drive to transform MR industry with all-mobile

Doubling down on its bid to transform the market research industry by bringing it into the age of the smartphone, MFour Mobile Research, Inc. announced today that it is doubling its staff to more than 100 in the coming nine months.

The hiring surge comes as Irvine, CA.-based MFour reaches critical mass with the applied-technology chain reaction it ignited five years ago.

“This is a revolutionary moment,” said Chris St. Hilaire, MFour’s cofounder and CEO. “We’re allowing the market research industry to harness the vast capabilities of smartphones as tools to conduct consumer surveys and generate the kinds of data and insights today’s corporations and brands demand.”

MFour, a privately-held tech venture, made its first impact in 2011 with Surveys on the Go®, the first and still only survey app tailored strictly for optimal function and display on mobile devices.

In April, MFour launched MFourDIY, the first all-mobile do-it-yourself survey-creating platform.

MFour increased its staff significantly in 2015; now the pace is accelerating with six new arrivals in the coming weeks. The ongoing hiring push will allow MFour to extend its technological lead and push the market research field past the tipping point at which hesitation gives way to a full-on embrace of the all-mobile methods MFour has pioneered. The result: a new norm for gathering the consumer data businesses need to thrive.

The hiring wave includes three new software developers who’ll help widen MFour’s technological lead. Two additional sales representatives and an account executive will educate market research firms and corporate research departments about all-mobile methods and bring them on board, expanding a client list of early all-mobile adopters that includes leading consumer brands and entertainment companies, as well as market research firms that already have seen that the best new survey technology and advice on how to use it will help them continue to excel in serving their clients.

“The mobile revolution will unshackle market research from the demographic and technological constraints of the outmoded online studies that are choking off access to fast, accurate and representative data,” St. Hilaire said. “Our lead will continue to widen and our growth escalate as we close in on our goal: to define and dominate mobile research.”

It’s fitting that “The New Face of Consumer Insights,” this week’s conference on the future of market research, took place in the lovely Southern California oceanside community of Marina del Rey.

Members of MFour’s delegation to the conference say the most consistent message they took away is that the industry now recognizes that the tide is going out on MR approaches that no longer work, and coming in strong for new methods. And the best new method – all-mobile research tailored to and optimized for a new mobile era dominated by smartphones – is not only MFour’s distinctive product, but its sole business commitment, its reason to exist.

“You could see people at the conference were open to new approaches. They were talking about new tools they need to meet their challenges and be successful. That’s obviously a great fit for us,” said Alex Colao, who headed up MFour’s contingent of three senior solutions executives.

MFour’s Ashleigh Mann said she was particularly impressed by a talk called “Creating a Research Innovation Ecosystem,” delivered by Marie Wolfe, Consumer & Market Insights Director of Research Innovation at Unilever.

“Her whole speech centered on `if you’re standing still you’re basically moving backwards,’” Ashleigh related. “You need to not be afraid of new techniques, you need to welcome them and understand them. Don’t be afraid to change with the marketplace, or you’ll get steamrolled.”

Next up is the CASRO Technology & Innovation Event, June 6-7 in New York City. We’d like to welcome you in advance to MFour’s exhibit. Let’s talk about how we fit into your future.

The CASRO event’s overview statement makes it clear the conversation we heard in Marina del Rey will be continuing in New York:

 “As survey participation rates plummet to alarming levels, we need to stop talking around the problem and address it head on…We seek to change the trajectory of this disturbing trend…We’ll learn how innovation and technology will provide solutions and lead us down alternate paths to engage the empowered consumer.”

To repeat what Alex, our team leader at the conference in Marina del Rey, said about the ready-for-change vibe that’s in the air: “It’s  obviously a great fit for us.”

In the meantime, see just why that’s the case: spend some time on this website and on MFourDIY.com, the sibling site for the nation’s first and only all-mobile, do-it-yourself survey-creation platform. The solutions you’ll see don’t just beat what the old online approaches can offer – they deliver data that’s faster and better than what online research was able to produce, even in its heyday.