Lockerz.com is about to kick your @$$, one question at a time.

This ain't your grandma's social network. And guess what? It's a market research site.

In their own wordz:

Lockerz is the place to go to buy the coolest stuff at the lowest prices, watch exclusive video, discover new music, play the hottest games, hang out with your friends - and get rewarded for just about EVERYTHING you do on the site.

Our mission is to be your daily habit, not a site for your parents or grandparents looking for their long-lost friends from Kindergarten.

All they ask in return is that you answer their daily question. Just one per day. Only on the days when you feel like it.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future of market research via online communities. There is still plenty of time for Lockerz to screw the pooch if they execute poorly, but my gut tells me the model is a winner. Here are some examples of what they're doing right:

• The days of social networks for the sake of social interaction are over. Anyone who wants to manage their social life online is doing it with Facebook. If you want to attract people to your community you better be ready to kick it up a notch. Deals on hot clothes and electronics, premium video content, free games and music are a good start.
• One size does not fit all. Know who your users are, know what they care about, know how they speak. Speak to them about the things they care about, in their own language. Don't fake it.
• Market research on a website has the same appeal as learning about sex from your parents did. So don't make the site about research. Make it about something your users like and care about. Give them something they value and hide the research as much as you can.
• An average 20-something web user's capacity for market research is one question long ... so make your research one question long.
• One question is plenty. Combine one question a day with a rich user profile and all the other data you passively collected as the user shops, consumes media, and interacts with other users on your site ... suddenly the possibilities are endless.

These are all things the MR industry will eventually figure out ... probably right around the time we enter the 14th b'ak'tun of the Maya calendar. This is what it will take to get access to the people who won't take your surveys. Why not do it now while everyone else is still scratching their heads?

Lockerz is led by Kathy Savitt. Her previous gig was CMO @ American Eagle, and before that she was a VP @ Amazon.

Lockerz is owned by Liberty Media. That's right y'all! The people who filmed The Men Who Stare at Goats, owners of the Atlanta Braves, the saviors of satellite radio... are building a market research website.

The question I'm stuck on is why? What's the engame? Is this a private research community for Liberty's companies? Are they going to sell data? I don't know.

So maybe it's too early to say Lockerz is going to kick you ass. There's no question they can if they want to.

Don't wait for them to make up their mind. Learn from their example and get to work on something of your own that will be cool enough to compete.

[later] Bonus points for humor. From the section of their Terms of Use that deals with cheating the PTZ system and hacking their infrastructure: "Remember, pigs get fat - hogs get slaughtered."

Hamburg

Before they tasted success the Beatles spent two miserable years in Hamburg. They played in seedy clubs in the worst part of town. They played day and night, seven days a week. They slept in a store room next to the toilets, and quite often their performances matched their accommodations.

They spent countless hours on the stage, often playing to a virtually empty room. But they were free to experiment and there was no pressure to be good. As long as they were loud and they finished their sets the club owner was happy. As a consequence of playing so much, their playing improved. Over time they mastered their instruments, they learned to play together, they learned to improvise, they learned to play many different songs in many different styles.

By the time they left Hamburg in 1962 the Beatles were transformed. They had a new look, a new attitude, and a new sound. Within months they had their first big hit with "Please Please Me" ... the rest is history. Failure and hardship prepared them for success.

Every success story includes a stop in Hamburg. Malcolm Gladwell claims that almost anyone can succeed with a bit of luck and 10,000 hours of hard work. Seth Godin says the number of hours is not important; you just have to do whatever it takes to become the best in the world at what you do. Both are right. The bottom line is potential + effort = success. Most people have enough potential to achieve great things; very few put in the effort required to cultivate that potential into achievement.

I see plenty of potential for our industry to succeed online, but we're not allowing our people the time or freedom to cultivate that potential. There is no shortage of able people ready to roll up their sleeves and move the industry forward, but they are met with resistance every step of the way. Our best people get frustrated by the closed minds at the top and leave. [later: it's worth noting there are also plenty of closed minds in the middle and bottom of the MR layer cake] The experimenters are labeled heretics by those with a vested interest in the status quo. The MR dinosaurs can see the comet hurtling toward them, but they refuse to evolve while the money is still flowing into their pockets.

Evolution is natural. It's going to happen whether we like it or not. It's simply a question of when and where. Either we open ourselves to it and let it happen within our industry, or we continue to resist it until it takes root somewhere else and displaces us.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? We all need to spend some time in Hamburg.

Phishy, phishy, phishy phish!

Phish: an Internet scam designed to trick the recipient into revealing credit card, passwords, social security numbers and other personal information to individuals who intend to use them for fraudulent purposes. The scam is known as "phishing" and the communications appear as if they come from reputable companies. The e-mails often instruct the recipient to verify or update account information by requesting a reply to his e-mail with updated information, or by providing the recipient with a link to a website where the new information may be entered.



Big brands, especially financial institutions, are the main targets of phishing scams so they tell their customers to be suspicious of any email messages that claim to be from them but don't quite look right.

Now think about the way we survey our clients' customer lists.

To make the example more concrete, let's pretend we've been hired to do an online customer satisfaction survey for a major bank. We email survey invitations to the bank customers. The messages claim to be from the bank, but the sender is either a forgery of the Bank's email address, or some completely strange address belonging to a market research company the Bank customer has probably never heard of. On top of this, the email asks the bank customer to follow a link that is clearly not taking them to their Bank's website, and provide information. It smells phishy, and it's one more good reason for the recipient of our survey invites to ignore them, trash them, or report them as abusive.

Survey invitations often wave several of the red flags web users associate with spam and phishing scams. This hurts participation rates and leads to blacklisting of our email.

There is a simple, no-cost solution to this problem: sub-domain delegation ... but that's another post for another day.

Top Heavy

Is your organization top-heavy?

Think that might have something to do with why there is so much talk and so little action?

Submariners in Space

Our online efforts are not going very well.

Hmm... Let's brainstorm about things we can do to remedy the situation. Better yet, let's appoint a committee to develop a strategy that will get us out of this mess. Fantastic idea! Let's give the whole management team a bonus!

[several weeks go by...]

The committee's report is in: 1) tap into social media, 2) buy or hire a smaller company that knows how to mine the blogosphere ... whatever that means, 3) modernize our websites, 4) make surveys shorter and jazz them up with the latest and greatest interactive gadgets and widgets, 5) do something--do anything--with online communities... just make sure our clients know we do online communities

[lots of time and money is spent...]

Shit! We haven't made any progress. In fact, no one in this company has the slightest fucking clue about how to do any of these things. Oh well, let's just forget about it. The sky has been falling for years and it hasn't crushed us yet. We'll just wait for someone else to figure it out and copy/buy their solution.

Does this sound at all familiar?

Everyone wants to talk about transforming market research, but when it's time to turn words into actions we fall flat on our faces.

Why?

Because we still aren't prepared to do what needs to be done. Because we have the wrong people doing the wrong jobs, using the wrong tools. Because no matter how many times you fill a submarine with submariners, strap it to a rocket and shoot it into space, those people will not magically become astronauts and the submarine will not achieve a stable orbit or return safely to earth at the end of its mission.

If you want to drill through the brick wall that's keeping you on the wrong side of online success I suggest you get yourself some good drills, masonry bits, and professionals who know how to use those tools. Otherwise, you're welcome to keep beating your head against the wall. You might get through it, but odds are your head will crack long before you make a dent.

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

And what should we do with him? Burn him!