Following the Footprints

In her fourth and final report from MRS Conference 2008, Phyllis Vangelder joins web analysts on the trail of site visitors, and hears how carbon neutral corporates can accurately gauge the public's response.

Web Analytics Workshop

The Workshops had a familiar format - round tables for small numbers of participants to work together, with the leader setting out the issues. I went to a well-run and extremely interesting workshop on 'Web measurement for market researchers'. Vicky Brock. Co-Founder, Highland Business Research, explained how web analytics can be used for qualitative and quantitative research, harnessing online search term data to wider research and analysis.

This workshop brought two worlds together. Web analysts have been straying into market research territory, but it has been a case of one computer talking to another. However, computers are not people and there is a clear opportunity to understand the data in terms of people and their behaviour. People leave a strong information trail when they use search engines and visit sites and this can be accessed. Researchers have to learn the vocabulary of web analysis, but the approach is analogous to treating data as open questions.


Carbon Papers - Steering Social Responsibility

Gordon Steele, Chief Executive of Guernsey Post, made a suitably sceptical Chairman for this session, beginning with the suggestion that he had been 'green-washed'.

James Boulton, Marketing Director, HSBC, the keynote speaker in the session, pointed out that five years ago a 'green' company felt it was fulfilling its responsibility by giving money to charity and turning off the lights. HSBC now has a philosophical agenda of corporate sustainability. There is a commitment to responsibility from the top.

Boulton is proud of the fact that HSBC was the first carbon neutral bank. In practical terms this meant four key targets for reduced consumption: energy, waste, water and carbon dioxide. With this came a strict programme to measure the bank's carbon footprint and a substantial offset portfolio to cover its CO2 emissions. In 2006 HSBC launched its 'Green Sale' - the green issue was now mainstream, and customers were invited to become part of the Climate Partnership. This involved, inter alia, a green option for current accounts, with the opportunity to eliminate all paper communication with the bank and investments in green projects. James Boulton believes strongly that corporate sustainability changes corporate behaviour and makes good business sense. However, he recognises that a segmented approach must be offered to consumers - not all customers respond to rain forest appeals.

For the corporate responsibility process to succeed it is imperative to have support and commitment from the top and to use expert partners to deliver the specialist services required.

Liz Harrison, Head of Consumer Insight, The Co-operative Group, spoke from the perspective of an organisation which had been founded on concepts of responsibility and shared concern. Her paper, 'When CSR is in your DNA', pointed out that the Co-operative Group has corporate social responsibility at its heart and this drives, and has always driven, the way it does business. The Millward Brown Corporate Reputation Model is used to track the impact of CSR on corporate reputation and it has been shown to have a high competitive advantage.

Harrison discussed the profitability of the approach and is convinced that loyalty, based on shared values which accrue to the company, will drive the bottom line. Three key issues to consider are: the impact of the company's policy on society, the brand fit and whether this policy can be delivered by the brand.

The paper by Ian Brace, Director of Research Methods, TNS, UK and Professor Clive Nancarrow, Bristol Business School, University of West England, 'Let's get ethical: dealing with socially desirable responding online', addressed the issue of social desirability response. Companies with agendas of social responsibility need to measure consumer response to their activities, but people don't always tell the truth. Social research is particularly subject to socially desirable response, whether prompted by 'impression management, ego defence or instrumentation'. The paper presented data from 13 countries to suggest that an online approach, with the ability to use face-saving techniques and reassurance of confidentiality is a more efficient technique in this context. Hopefully the written paper will give further information about the techniques and refute my suggestion that the conference eschewed methodology.


Objective Achieved...

The CDs of the conference written papers are being sent out after the conference. It will be interesting to see if any of them have the intellectual rigour and professional references that characterises traditional conference papers. However, to be fair, that was not the purpose of this conference. On its own criteria of achieving interaction and participation, slick presentations and a responsive audience, the conference was eminently successful.


A model for the future, a one-off... or will future Conferences aim for a synthesis of the new approach and the old depth? We'll wait and see. As ever, our thanks to Phyllis for making us feel like we were there - except of course, that we can't post our comments on a big screen behind the speakers - Damn.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.