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Mash help another entrepreneur through KIVA

July 13th, 2011 By greg Filed Under: Kiva

As part of Mash’s corporate social responsibility initiative, we provide sustainable loans through KIVA to aid entrepreneurs in developing countries.

For the June Entrepreneur of the month, we have chosen Blandine, from Congo. Mash have funded the rest of her loan amount through KIVA allowing Blandine to pursue her plans in purchasing hair products and to expand her fresh goods business.

Blandine’s father passed away while she was at school and as the eldest sibling, she began working to support the rest of the family. She began hairdressing in 1995 and is now 34 years old with two children, aged sixteen and two.

After receiving her second loan and demonstrating strong management skills, Blandine branched out into fresh goods such as chicken, saltwater fish and sausages. Her strategy is to promote her products, offer affordable prices as well as better quality goods.

She will use this loan to buy hair products abroad and hopes to become a wholesaler for fresh products. Blandine’s ultimate goal is to improve her family’s and her mother’s quality of life. Mash are delighted to be helping Blandine and her family. We hope she succeeds in her plans.

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Mash helps Josephine build a future for her children.

May 11th, 2011 By greg Filed Under: Kiva

JOSEPHINE OMANI

As part of Mash’s corporate social responsibility initiative, we provide sustainable loans through KIVA to aid entrepreneurs in developing countries.

For the April entrepreneur of the month, we have chosen Josephine Omani, from Surallah, South Cotabato, Philippines. Mash have funded her entire project loan amount through KIVA.

Joesphine Omani is 48 years old, married and has five children, the oldest of whom is 23 years old.

For the last 22 years, she has made a living by farming rice and raising pigs. She sells her pigs at the local market and makes about 8,000 PHP a month from her work. She has applied for a loan through Kiva to buy seeds, fertilizers and farm supplies. Joesphine hopes to increase her income because this will allow her to save for her children’s future.

Mash are delighted to be helping Josephine and her family.

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FROM THE MASH FIELD TO OFFICE GLORY…

April 11th, 2011 By greg Filed Under: Brand Champions, Interesting, Weird and Wonderful, Uncategorized

We return to our weekly installment of our top Mashers who after representing us in the field are now displaying their talents at Mash Towers.

Each of our featured Mashers are fantastic evidence of where you can get with hard work, professionalism and no little fun…

Having already featured Seb Haire, who heads up the Digital team in our sister company Dylan. May we introduce to you, our very own Natasha Harden.

i) Why did you like working in the field so much for Mash?

I loved being a Brand Ambassador for Mash. The roles I was offered were always for great brands; and the briefs given by Mash always made you feel passionate about that brand – and therefore the activity. Mash always work on amazing campaigns and you could guarantee to be in an optimistic, hardworking team. Plus everyone in the office were always so friendly, they really made you feel like part of the ‘Mash Family’.

ii) What do you think makes Mash stand out from the rest of the promotional staffing agencies?

From my experience, there is a clear difference between a team of Mashers compared to any other promotional staffing agency I’ve worked for, especially in terms of staff excellence and top organisation. With Mash, you know that everyone is striving towards the objectives of the activity and each person will pull their weight in achieving these. For another agency I worked for, the Event Manager allowed smoking in branded uniform; longer break times for their ‘mates’; and a general lack of care and attention to the activity.

iii) What could Mash do even better?

This is a hard one to answer…I think something that could potentially help both Mashers and Account Handlers is an availability calendar on Moogle. Although you can add an absence, it tends to only be used for holidays, not when working on other jobs etc. It would save Mashers and Account Handlers time calling each other to check if they are free.

iv) “I’m not a politician but if I was………

I would make everyone listen to Glee everyday!

v) “You now know me as a Masher/Dylanite but in another life I’d have been…….”

A princess if I had the choice…but seriously I would love to be a midwife! It’s something I’ve always wanted to be but chose the business route…and very glad I did or else I wouldn’t have ended up working for a great company like Mash!!

vi) “In a nutshell my philosophy is….

‘Dance as if no one were watching; sing as if no one were listening; and live every day as if it were your last’…cheesy but true!

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Giving Superman a run for his money

March 8th, 2011 By greg Filed Under: Brand Champions

Here at Mash, we pride ourselves on our Mash representatives and are delighted with the latest efforts of recent Masher of the month, Cynthia.

Whilst working on a Virgin Media screening activity, the cinema was evacuated due to a fire in the building. Cynthia’s quick thinking and spontaneous creativity shone through as she held an impromptu quiz for the children. Her excellent initiative and organisational skills meant that all customers were kept safe, calm and spirits high.

The head of Virgin Media Customer Experience happened to be attending the activity and sent in a wonderful commendation for Cynthia. To express their gratitude, they are sending a £50 top shop voucher to Cynthia. Here at Mash, we reward excellence and will be matching this kind offer with a £50 shopping voucher.

Well done Cynthia.

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Mash help Moreno build a better future

March 7th, 2011 By greg Filed Under: Kiva

As part of Mash’s corporate social responsibility initiative, we provide sustainable loans through KIVA to aid entrepreneurs in developing countries.

For February as our entrepreneur of the month, we have chosen Moreno Oyag, from Kabankalan City, Philippines. Mash have funded her entire project loan amount through KIVA.

Moreno Oyag

Moreno earns her living through her three business ventures: Barter/buying and selling of rice, fish and food vending. Moreno and her husband have two children who are 14 and 17 years old. Moreno will use the funds for her business operations so that she can continue to save up for her children’s education and family needs. Morena is a Dungganon woman who is following an honorable path toward the achievement of her dreams.

Mash are delighted to be helping assisting Moreno with her dreams and build a better life for her family.

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8 steps to creating a great vision

January 31st, 2011 By greg Filed Under: Interesting, Weird and Wonderful

Step 1: Pick your topic

Because visioning can be used for just about anything, it’s important to start by being clear about what you’re working on. Is it a vision for your organization overall? Or just for a particular piece? For today’s shift? Or your retirement? We do visions for all of the above and everything in between.

Step 2: Pick your time frame

How far out should you look? There’s no right answer, but as a general principle, visioning works best if you go far out enough to get beyond present-day problems but not so far out that you have no sense at all of actually getting there. We have a long-term organizational vision that’s set in 2020. Most organizational visions will probably be set somewhere from two to 10 years out—but five is a typical place to start.

Step 3: Put together a list of “prouds”

Throw down a list of past positive achievements. You might include specific contributions that you or your colleagues have made to past successes, or skills, techniques, and resources that could be assets in achieving your vision. Anything good that comes to mind is fine. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. The idea is just to create a base of positive energy and high-quality experiences on which you can build for future success. The more people focus on the positives, the more likely you are to attain the greatness you envision.

Step 4: Write a first draft

Writing a vision is hugely important. Before you start writing, here are a few technical tips. If you follow them, the work will be way better:

· Put something wild out there. Get past the 59 reasons why it won’t work.

· Put down what pours out, not what other people want to see.

· Write as if your vision has already happened.

· Keep writing for 15 to 30 minutes, regardless of how silly you sound.

· Build your passions into what you write. Don’t write a vision that you aren’t a part of.

Step 5: Review and redraft

When you’re ready to revise, read your draft through from start to finish. Don’t erase anything. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to edit the content and the language. As you read through, keep in the back of your mind: Does this sound inspiring? Do I get excited when I’m reading it? Stay away from vague statements like “We’re busier than ever”; instead, use real sales numbers that mean something. What are the key financial numbers that define success for you? Sales levels? Salary? Savings? Status?

Steps 6A, 6B, and 6C: More redrafts

If you want, you can take this second draft and make additional adjustments. But at some point, you had better get your butt in gear and move on to Step 7. Note that there is no 6D. If there were, the D would stand for Done. More than four drafts, and I think you’re headed down the long and unrewarding road of “I’ve been working on a vision for the past few years, but I still don’t have it finished.”

Step 7: Solicit input

This is where you let the cat out of the bag and get input from people you trust and respect. Whom should you show it to? Folks who have experience, insight, and expertise relevant to your vision. Inevitably, some of these advisers will shift away from talking about the vision into a discussion of the action steps that will have to be in a strategic plan. Just listen carefully, and take notes—some of those ideas might come in handy later.

Step 8: Share the vision

Finally, it’s time to share the vision with everyone who will be involved in implementing it. When you roll out your vision to the bigger group, it’s inevitable that people will ask questions about how you intend to achieve the vision. They’re asking you about the how. The vision, however, is the what. It’s totally fine if you don’t know how you’re going to get there. Later, you will figure out the how.

Source: inc.com

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How to conduct qualitative market research

October 26th, 2010 By sboksh Filed Under: Industry Thoughts, Interesting, Weird and Wonderful, Uncategorized

As seen in Mad Men, fifty years ago, research was collected by having a one-way mirror installed and adverting guys would be on the receiving end. The homemaker would host the meeting with a group of women who would talk about soap or some other consumer product.

Visualize. Just as you head off to work you get a text message asking if you’ve had a cup of coffee. You reply “no.” About 20 minutes later you receive another text asking “did you have your coffee yet?” You reply “yes” this time. Now you receive a series of texts about when and where did you buy the coffee—a corner store Starbucks or company cafeteria. What brand or flavor did you choose—regular or Hazelnut? Why did you choose it? How do you feel now that you’ve had that first cup? Will you have had a second or third cup come lunchtime? Later in the week when you’re at the local grocer, you take out your cell phone to take a picture of the one pound of ground French Roast coffee you just purchased so you can post it online.

Welcome to the brave new world of qualitative research where companies can catch or capture their customers’ behaviors in the moment using modern technology. It could be a single person doing online journaling or a video log about a product or issue, a moderator directing conversations in an online chat room, or webcam gathering of people in Hollywood Squares game show-like fashion.

It’s a different spin on the traditional focus group. Social media is playing a bigger role. ‘We are even monitoring whole online communities; we have a targeted representative find out what selected individuals are saying in their social networks,’ says Peg Moulton-Abbott, a certified professional research consultant and principal of Newfound Insights, a Virginia Beach-based market research firm. Such tech-oriented research is generally skewed towards a younger twenty-something demographic. But more importantly it speaks to how market researchers are sprouting new methods of qualitative study as an outgrowth of old techniques.

Comparatively speaking, fifty years ago qualitative research was done in a big city like New York or Washington, DC with focus groups conducted inside women’s homes, notes Moulton-Abbott. A one-way mirror was installed and adverting guys would be on the receiving end, she explains. The homemaker would host the meeting with a group of women who would talk about soap or some other consumer product.

According to the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, qualitative research can help business owners identify customer needs, clarify marketing messages, generate ideas for improvements of a product, extend a line or brand, and/or gain perspective on how a product fits into a customer’s lifestyle.

Any size and type of business can benefit from qualitative market research, says Moulton-Abbott. However, ‘my job is not to make a sales pitch for your product; my job is to find out how people feel about your product and what you can do to improve it so that you wind up making more money selling it,’ she adds.

Qualitative research can help entrepreneurs to understand their customers’ or clients’ feelings, values, and perceptions of a particular product or service. Once you know the reason “why” people react a certain way or make certain decisions, you can use that feedback to help build your sales and marketing plan, says Moulton-Abbott.

The design and implementation of qualitative research will depend on your particular situation, says Robert E. Stake, PhD, author of Qualitative Research: Studying How Things Work and director for the center of instructional research as the University of Illinois. “The means are different in different situations. It’s what you are interested in that defines qualitative research,” he adds. “It isn’t the style of data gathering, it is whether or not you are interested in the experiences of your customers or clients.”

Business owners won’t have to wrack their brains over how to conduct the nitty-gritty aspects of market research if a professional is hired. But here are some general guidelines and what to expect on how qualitative research is handled.

How to Conduct Qualitative Market Research: Determine What You Want to Study

Do you want to investigate a current or potential product, service or brand positioning? Do your want to identify strengths and weaknesses in products? Understand purchasing decisions? Study reactions to advertising or marketing campaigns? Assess the usability of a website or other interactive services? Understand perceptions about the company, brand and product? Explore reactions to packaging and design?

Qualitative (qual) research is usually contrasted against Quantitative (quat) research. Quat asks closed-ended questions that can be answered finitely by either ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ true or false or multiple choice with an option for ‘other. It is used to collect numerical data, employing such techniques as surveys. Whereas, qual asks open-ended questions that are phrased in such a way that invite people to tell their stories in their own words. Methods used to collect data include field observations, personal interviews and group discussions.

The job of a qual researcher is to design and deliver data that drives results.

Dig Deeper: How to Define Your Target Market

How to Conduct Qualitative Market Research: Understand What Methodology will be Used

Typically qual researchers don’t use experimental methods such as field trials or test markets, Stake maintains. ‘Not many use really highly-developed psychometric (e.g., personality or psychological tests) or econometric (e.g., economic statistics) indicators.’ Qual researchers generally rely on methodologies rooted in ethnography (e.g. field or participant observation) and phenomenology (e.g., understanding life experiences using written or recorded narratives). Market researchers partner with professional recruiters to identify and screen qualifying customers or consumers who in turn receive an honorarium for their participation in the study.

You should rely on a market research firm to choose the best fit for you based on: what is it that you need to learn and who is your target audience demographically, where they are geographically, and what are their lifestyle behaviors or time constraints, says Kristin Schwitzer, president of Beacon Research, a qual firm that specializes in innovative online methods, based in Annapolis, Maryland.

Conducting qualitative research is about asking the right people the right questions in the right format, says Hannah Baker Hitzhusen, vice president of qualitative research at CMI, a market research firm in Atlanta. What qual researchers do is very much on the front end, it is discovery or exploratory work. ‘For a qual study, we generally do a discussion guide to make sure we cover certain topics or issues,’ says Hitzhusen. Qual is generally used for small sample groups, because, ‘you want to spend a lot of time with the participants, maybe 90 to 120 minutes. Quat usually uses a larger sample size of people and a smaller amount of time, 15 to 30 minutes (for someone to fill out a questionnaire),’ she explains.

Source: Inc.com

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