Qualtrics Blog

The Brand Connection: Brands connect products or services to people. This connection is through the meaning that the brand brings into the lives the people that use it. Brands tap into six modes of communication to convey meaning. These modes are instrumental in determining advertising effect:

• Naming
• Wording
• Describing
• Picturing
• Symbolizing
• Animating

The personal benefits and values of the core product are reinforced and strengthened as the brand meaning grows and it becomes more connected to the person. In the language of a brand manager, the result is a high equity brand that is surrounded by loyal customers.

To flesh out a brand design schematic, researchers often integrate means-end research with other forms of marketing or consumer research.

Hierarchical Value Maps: Hierarchical Value Maps based on the means-end analysis identify the connection between the brand attributes and the market needs. These are expressed as personal benefits of brand use and values that are reinforced and give creative directors a rich set of concepts for producing advertisements.

To sell a product we must "play to strength," but often that strength is not valued by people. Our "strength" is a "so what." The goal of market driven strategies is to change the "so what" into a "WOW." One way of doing this is to use means-end analysis and hierarchical value maps.

The following example shows a portion of a hierarchical value map for a bank considering how to position its credit card.

The means-end study was used to produce a hierarchical map based on a set of attribute statements that were linked to positive and negative psycho-social consequence statements (benefits).

Higher order value statements were also used in the study and appear at the top of the map. This portion of the hierarchical value map clearly shows two psychological values as key to credit card users: "Peace of Mind" and "Self Esteem." Peace of mind is a direct result of the card being broadly accepted by merchants and the support locations available. These credit card attributes are seen to link, in turn, to independence, dependability, and security.

The branch of the hierarchical value map dealing with Self Esteem is similarly interpreted through the linked positive benefits and associated attributes.

Understanding the values behind the brand will help you better conduct your research.

A past article in BusinessWeek analyzes the ultimate goal of business school research. With Qualtrics serving 28 of America’s Top 30 Business Schools, we are the forerunners of quality research.

In the article, AACSB International , an accreditation organization, asks “What is the ultimate goal of business school research?”

They argue that business school researchers should produce work that can be immediately applied to the practice of business.  At Qualtrics, we know that these students often enter the corporate world and encourage their employers to use professional research software. As a result from the push for business schools to explore research, we have seen an increase in business school users.

“[AACSB] is merely hoping to get business schools thinking about the types of research they are conducting,” said Joseph A. Alutto interim president and provost of Ohio State University.

The article emphasizes the requirement of research in the management field. The need for research has been discussed years and years over, while Qualtrics continues to remain a practical solution.

At Qualtrics, we think that the goal of business school research should be similar to every other organization: collect information to make better decisions.

We currently serve over 200 business schools and help them do just that—perform research that can carry over into the real world to increase profits and sustainability.

Early Warning Whistle Blower System

The Early Warning Whistle Blower system is a must for today's corporate environment. Corporate clients can implement an early warning system for employee feedback on the most critical internal issues.

As an employee logs in to the corporate intranet or visits your corporate website, they are able to report on the issues critical to corporate health, including Bias, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Corporate Malfeasance, Theft or Misuse of Funds, and any other topic deemed critical to top management or the employee. It pays to stop problems while they are small.

This anonymous whistle blower tool will trigger an e-mail copy of each complaint to designated individuals inside the corporation. Triggers may be sent directly to the corporate ombudsman, legal department, or executive who has the responsibility to investigate and oversee the health of the corporate employee climate.

Quick, Confidential and Easy

Qualtrics professional services team is now available to assist your company with all HR related surveys. The experts at Qualtrics offer survey packages ranging from simple employee satisfaction surveys, to management style indices,  to sophisticated theft and honesty indices, to exit interview surveys.

You can count on our professionals to develop, host and distribute surveys for your employees quickly and confidentially so that you receive valuable and useful data.

Our professionals have developed a series of rotating surveys that poll employee opinions regarding job satisfaction, benefit program reaction and internal systems.

We recommend rotating selected employee feedback surveys through our system that polls employees on a quarterly, bi-annual and annual basis. All surveys can be branded for your organization or set up under a third party brand to protect the anonymity of your employees and give them the greatest confidence in their responses.

Choose from over 40 pre-built survey that will cover all HR related topics. Our professionals have years of experience in HR research.

Sample Employee Surveys are also available for all users in our Qualtrics Survey Library

Qualtrics offers hundreds of suggestions for superior research techniques. Our last blog series, posted every Wednesday, highlighted some research tips. If you are looking for some more in-depth guidance to improve your research, consider the following resources.

1.      Fundamentals of Marketing Research.

This book covers all the facets of advanced marketing research including method, technique, and analysis at all levels. Our founder, Scott Smith, Ph.D. co-authors this 900-page reference book that is sure to answer your questions about advanced research.

2.      Articles in Marketing Research

Having people describe a brand by picking attributes from a list is a quick and simple way to assess brand performance and positioning. When used for online survey research, such pick data can also save time and reduce respondent dropout rates. This article outlines how best to collect pick data and construct a multi-brand sample in order to optimize pick data reliability and discriminating power.

3. An Introduction to Marketing Models

This book covers the essentials of building marketing models andconsequently has been required in many marketing courses. Some topics include models in marketing, product planning, segmentation, distribution models, and more.

There comes a time when you can throw away training wheels and speed away on that sleek two-wheel bicycle. But let’s not underestimate the time spent using training wheels. During this period, you can make or break the whole experience. If training wheels are faulty, enthusiasm can die.

At Qualtrics, we give you the best training wheels.

We offer anywhere from 35 to 40 trainings per week, designed especially for our customers. We want you to get the most out of the tool so you can improve relationships and better use your assets.

The biggest group we’ve trained included over a hundred people. On average, our weekly webinars have about 60 people and trainings have an average of 7 participants.

If you haven’t had Qualtrics training, don’t worry—we’re here for you. This month we released a training calendar, so you can simply register for a basic session that fits your schedule. With these trainings, users can utilize the tool as effectively as possible. See  http://www.qualtrics.com/wiki/index.php/Basic_Training_Calendar

In a business or a university, assets that go unused can be a detriment to progress. We don’t want this to happen with your Qualtrics account. Whether it is a small training that is tailored to fit your needs or a large training with many questions and ideas, Qualtrics training is an asset that should not be overlooked.

An October 2008 article in Software Mag, discussed training programs and how to provide the best trainings for each step of the process. It suggested that every person in the process needs to be trained to ensure a smooth roll out and increase effectiveness.

If you are one of these people who have not had Qualtrics training, don’t hesitate. Before you know it you could be cruisin’ on your two-wheeler.

Contact training@qualtrics.com for more information.

We know that spell check is almost a necessity these days, so we provide this feature within Qualtrics. It is easy to use and very straightforward.

We can only imagine the embarrassment that could come if there was a simple spelling mistake on a survey. It could damage your credibility and distract respondents.

Our spell check tracker comes up as you design and create your survey. If you mistype a word, Qualtrics will immediately underline it in red. You can fix the mistake quickly and move on.

We also provide a comprehensive spell check function that will ensure your overall spelling is correct throughout your survey. This icon has a green check mark and is found in the Edit Surveys tab.

When you run spell check with Qualtrics, an image like this appears:

We give you suggestions, tell you where the word was found, and allow you to change each word quickly. Qualtrics works hard so you don't have to. What could be better?

Although Qualtrics really seems to do it all, we do suggest reading over your survey to catch those common misplaced words or other mistakes that might slip through the spell check system.