Bad (Survey) Monkey - Garbage in Garbage Out

I have made many comments before about how I feel that there should be a total ban on Survey Monkey and its usage by unqualified users.

In today's world of validation at every turn - just in case we make a slight mistake - we now have tools to track our every move and there seems to be an obsession with asking the customer or user or audience a question at every turn.

However this is bad.

Comparing Survey Data to Actual Behaviour is like a night and day revelation.

Let me cite a specific example.

BTC - who is a one man publishing machine from Radnor PA - uses survey money or rather abuses it. Just take their latest survey...http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ancillary_fees

It distorts the true nature of the actual results. Indeed today the effectiveness and value of surveys are now far less. Yet users and marketeers continue to use Survey's as a surrogate for behavior tracking.

Let me cite a recent study by ASTA on GDS. In the survey - the share of systems bares no relation to actual traffic through those systems.

Thus you get what you pay for... garbage in and garbage out.

But perhaps the best question of all on the BTC survey is the last one:



Hardly a survey question would you think?

Cheers

May ARC figures better but still down

May 2011 should be the month where we see an improvement in the numbers from ARC. Expedia settled with AA so we should be seeing a better set of numbers all round. Or should we?

We have been hearing a consistent story that the US market is stagnating. Further the US market is seeing a channel shift to direct from the Agency community.

With the US economy looking like it may be in a mild double dip recession - the nature of the beast is that the agency based transactions are not moving ahead. Further things are not looking good for the rest of the year for the corporate budgets. With many companies showing that their budget share is now spent higher than was anticipated due to the rising cost of air fares I think we are going to see corporate budgets quietly cut after Labor Day.

You have been warned.

Cheers

Cell Phones InFlight

There seems to be a big plot out to fight mobile telephones (cell phone to Americans).

First we hear that they really do cause cancer in Laboratory Amoeba - now they cause Autopilots to disengage all by themselves.

Could this be the real cause of AF447's demise in the middle of the South Atlantic?

So listen to ABC's Dianne Sawyer describe the situation for you in her best gravitas voice.

if you sit in the front of the cabin on a conventional plane - you should be more careful and turn the darn things off. If you have a GPS turned on - that could definitely cause an abnormality.

However just think of that Microwave oven right behind the cockpit - its working on the same frequency.

Cheers

The Web's Had an Impact - Yes Really Here's Proof.

Has the internet changed our lives?

Yes

Any questions?

What - you still don't believe. Where have you been hiding? Under some rock in the Gobi desert I would think.

OK but to what extent has the web changed our lives, our enterprises, our future and that of our kids?

In a very detailed and actually quite compelling piece of reading - McKinsey has done a nice piece on this. Entitled Its quite long 70 Pages but worth the read. I have skimmed through it and on one of the next flights I take I will try and labour through the whole document. In the mean time - I recommend that you read it and reflect.The report titled Internet Matters can be downloaded for free after signing up. Click the link and follow the instructions.

Now about that Betamax machine everyone has been talking about.

Cheers

737 Option for 1/2 point upgrade

It seems that Boeing is making noises to prepare the market for a re-engined 737 NG rather than the entirely new plane that has been mooted.

The logic is inescapable. The majority of users are the new low cost category who are using A320s and 737NGs. Therefore the cost of acquisition plays a big role. But with oil stubbornly stuck in the $100pbl and above - the case for fuel efficiency is decidedly there.

With both the C Series and the A320NEO now on firm path for delivery in 2015 (actually most of the 2016 slots are sold out already) Boeing needs to stop the rot.

With the new aircraft not having an EIS of 2020 or later - this is too much of a gap for the Chicago based firm

So Boeing makes noises to try and stop people defecting.

Well it will be interesting

Cheers