Prince Mabandla, Kanadpriya Basu, Kyung Lee (L-R)

MFour has added a new Data Scientist and Software Engineer who will help refine and innovate processes for obtaining the efficient, quality data clients need, as well as a new Controller. 

Dr. Kanadpriya Basu joins as Data Scientist. He’s transitioning to the tech and market research sector from a previous career in academia, most recently as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he conducted research in Machine Learning and Data Analytics. Kanad, as he likes to be called, has been published extensively in academic and professional journals, and received a 2015 Early Career Award for great promise in mathematics, conferred by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He holds multiple degrees: a Doctorate in Computational and Applied Mathematics from the University of South Carolina, Columbia; Master's degrees in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Texas – Pan American and in Applied Mathematics, with a specialty in Operational Research, from the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology in Shibpur, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Presidency University in Kolkata. Food and travel with family are his leading leisure interests.

Prince Mabandla joins MFour as a Senior Software Engineer, having previously led teams and built systems at Adobe, Rue La La, NameMedia and the University of Notre Dame. He holds a Master’s degree in Software Engineering from Andrews University in Berrian Springs, Michigan, and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. Prince’s other credentials include reaching the finalist round for seed money and support from Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley organization that incubates startups and mentors their founders as entrepreneurs. 

Kyung Lee brings more than 20 years’ experience with companies both gigantic (Toyota and KPMG) and small to his position as MFour’s Controller. Kyung, who is a CPA, has a track record of finding new efficiencies in financial processes. He will expedite smooth transactions with clients, and provide oversight of internal budget and financial operations. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with an accounting emphasis, from California State University, Long Beach. In his free time, Kyung likes to snowboard, hike, and watch movies and sports. 

Welcome aboard, Kanad, Kyung and Prince!

Here’s a statistic consumer insights professionals might consider memorizing: Pew Research Center now reports that 20% of adult Americans rely solely on smartphones for their internet access. That’s up from 13% who reported relying on mobile phones alone in a Pew study in 2015.

Your own data needs to be representative across whatever demographic you’re trying to understand. Which means you need to reach the public where it lives. Just as railroad stations gave way to airports as the main hubs of physical journeys, personal computers are giving way to mobile for consumers' digital journeys. That’s especially true for crucial, traditionally “hard to find” Hispanics, African Americans and young-adult consumers. Reaching out to them on a personal computer for consumer surveys is barking up the wrong device. Data from Pew studies conducted in January, 2018 and in 2015 shows why:

• Hispanics: 35% are now smartphone-only, up from 23% in Pew’s 2015 study.

• Ages 18-29: 28% are smartphone-only, up from 19% in 2015.

• African Americans: 24% are now smartphone-only users, up from 19% in 2015.

• Whites: 14% are smartphone-only in 2018, up from 10% in 2015.

• Age 65 and older: Even among these slower adopters, smartphone-only use is now at 10% of the senior population, up from 7% in 2015.
  

One obvious takeaway is that in order to reach the representative slices of the public that market research requires, it has be done with mobile. But what you need to know is a bit more nuanced than that. We'll tell you why in our next blog post, so stay tuned. In the meantime (or at any time), you can have a personal, one-on-one info session and demo on state-of-the-art mobile research capabilities, simply by clicking here. 

Are you ready to join the wave of consumer insights professionals who are diving deep into mobile research? If the answer is yes, then congratulations on making that transformative decision.

But taking the dive is just the first step. No methodology will work if the execution is poor. With that in mind, here are eight key questions any savvy mobile-insights buyer should ask. And be sure not to settle for anything less than answers that are authoritative, assured and completely specific to the kinds of projects you need to accomplish. 

• Is the mobile research you're selling the same as your online research, only more portable?

• What specific research capabilities does mobile bring to the table?  

• Where's the sample coming from?

• What level of representation and responsiveness can I expect? 

• Is it true that mobile surveys need to be kept extremely short? 

• I've heard the way to go is "mobile optimized." What exactly does that mean? And is that really true?

• There's lots of talk in the insights industry about how important it is to give survey-takers a quality experience. How does your mobile system accomplish that?

• Can you give me some validation about response rates and respondents' satisfaction with your mobile surveys?

You can get the fast, authoritative answers you need to these questions and more by setting up a one-on-one demo that will focus on meeting your projects' specific needs, and how they align with mobile research capabilities powered by proprietary technologies such as GeoIntensity^® and GeoNotification^®, which enable state-of-the art location-based surveys.

We'll talk about tailoring solutions to your needs, whether it's a custom-research project where MFour provides everything from design and programming through analysis, or taking advantage of the fast insights you can get from a proprietary, mobile-only automated research solution such as Path-2-Purchase™ Platform and  MFourDIY^®. Just get in touch by clicking here.

If you’re talking to the wrong consumers, consumer data and consumer insights suffer. A recent GreenBook webinar called “Working Together To Improve Respondent Experience” reminded us of the deeply inadequate state of online consumer panels, and the threat it poses to your ability to do your job and secure your standing in the decision-making process.

Kristopher Sauriol, Senior Director of Global Research Insights for Visa, was one of the participants, and he summed up the problem and what’s at stake in just a few words:

 “Your data is only as good as the people who are taking your survey….[But panel quality] is not always something research agencies  are forthcoming about….you either should ask, or you should look at some other agencies that do consider this a factor.”

We’d take it just a step further. Accessing validated consumers who are fully engaged in sharing what you need to know is not just “a factor.” It’s the factor. Finding them is a matter of reaching them in their preferred environment, via their preferred technology, the mobile app.

MFour’s story, in a nutshell, is that we built the app, 2 million representative U.S. consumers have downloaded it, and these are the consumers who are best situated to give the insights industry “data…as good as the people who are taking your survey.”

You may have heard the story of the football coach who decided his team needed to get back to fundamentals, so he gathered all the players and began at the beginning: “This is a football.”

Today’s Mobile 101 installment is about the fundamental of all fundamentals, beginning at the beginning: “This is a native app.”

Dictionary.com defines “native” as “natural, hereditary, connected with something in a natural way.” So a “native app” is one whose natural and sole environment is a smartphone. It’s been created strictly with smartphones in mind, and designed to give perfect performance on a phone.

Researchers who use mobile have to choose between going with native app survey technology or a “mobile optimized” approach that ignores the smartphone’s own native environment and takes place in the same online space as traditional surveys designed for desktops and laptops.

By going the native app route, you get mobile-specific technology that loads your entire survey instantly into respondents’ phones, enabling them to answer without a connection to the internet. It’s like downloading a gaming app and proceeding to enjoy it without interruption because of the app’s fast-twitch functionality.

Researchers who choose “mobile optimized” over native app are asking their respondents to use their phones like ping-pong paddles. It's not exactly an efficient way to harness one of the most powerful consumer technologies ever devised.

• Mobile optimized surveys don’t load into respondents’ phones. Instead, they depend on users clicking on email notifications to connect with the web page where the survey is housed.

• Questions are served from the web to the phone one-by-one, and respondents volley their answers back, one-by-one. This back-and-forth continues until the questionnaire is complete.

• Each volley can fail if the internet connection vanishes or slows. The predictable result is frustration, dropped attempts, and inattentive responses.

• Surveys take longer, completion rates are lower, and consumers’ overall engagement with survey-taking suffers.

These are the fundamentals of today’s research game. Choosing the right mobile method is up to you – and you need to remember that in-app surveys aren’t just a little different, but different in kind from other mobile approaches. For more information about in-app mobile panel and technology, just contact us at solutions@mfour.com.

MFour is pleased to announce new hire Kevin Yonzon as project manager. Kevin graduated from University of California, Irvine and previously worked at UBL Interactive as a product quality specialist. His project manager role at MFour will entail assisting with the creation and programming of surveys for our mobile application. Welcome to the team, Kevin!