Interesting market research - I wonder who's testing what?

[pombear]

A friend sent me this. They're on a database where they regularly get requests to join various market research groups.

Whilst I totally get that most organisations, including third sector ones, often do research, I thought this was interesting in terms of the client group requested.

And I'm more cynical than I used to be.

Particularly when I think about the demographic of people I'm seeing moving from unquestioning ally-ship to "hang on, of course I'm pro-trans rights but what's going on here?'" in terms of Stonewall, Mermaids et al messages.

(aka often, but not only, people who've already been through the parenting process, know what children's development look like, lived through a period where gender stereotypes were slightly being broken down)

And who has money to conduct this type of research (perhaps those alt-right TERF groups?)

And who might want to understand what influences that particular group of people who are dangerously at risk of having their eyes opened right now?

We have an unusual research were we have a client that wants to get opinions about trans people and gender identity

The main thing to remember is you don’t have to be an expert or even a strong opinion for that matter – just willing to share open minded thoughts on idea’s and things posed by the researcher

Criteria

You need to be a parent where either all your children are 17 or over if they still live at home or they have left home.

If you read any newspaper at least 3 times a week (regularly) please tell us which one and if it’s a paper edition or online:-

If you read any newspaper once a week (occasionally) please tell us which one and if it’s a paper edition or online:-

For the following TV programmes please mark if you watch them regularly or occasionally and leave blank if not at all
Emmerdale
Coronation Street
Doctors
Hollyoaks
Eastenders

Finally we have 6 statements that other people have about their attitude and levels of knowledge about the subject. Please pick 1 statement that comes closest to where you are on this topic

A) It’s something that I have noticed here and there, but I guess I don’t know a lot about the issues really

B) It’s something that matters to me a lot and I do have plenty of conversations about it with family or friends

C) I strongly oppose the idea that a transgender person should be accepted as the gender they say they are

D) I strongly support the idea that a transgender person should be accepted as the gender they say they are

E) I have come across the issue and I am genuinely open minded. I do feel that I’d need to know more about it all before coming to a view

F) More important things to worry about, I couldn’t really care less

Nothing ground-breaking, and not particularly controversial but it's just got me thinking, and I thought I'd share it here for other's thoughts.

Well the grammar and punctuation don't inspire confidence, do they?

They use gender without mentioning sex (rendering the statements virtually meaningless) which tells us who they are not I guess.

So the ''choices'' are;

• I don't care, its not important.
• I don't know anything about it.

• I don't know anything about it - but I'm keen to learn!
• I talk about it a lot to everyone.
• I strongly support it.

• I strongly oppose it.

That is not well written or balanced. I'm surprised they accepted it.

Yes I'm happy for them to be accepted as the "gender" they identify as, whatever that means. But am opposed to them being accepted as the opposite sex.

I would be careful about the degree of anonymity provided by the survey. Can it be linked to your email address or traced to your IP? Are they gathering up info about individuals' pro or anti ness, to sell on to people who would love such a database? The case of Emma Healey and the Mumsnet data breach shows that these issues matter.

Just bumping this thread for the Saturday night crew.

MsTiggy - the email my friend was sent wasn't a request to add their details to a database. The agency has lots of people on its existing database, and regularly emails out to all those on it to find people who meet the criteria for various face-to-face marketing focus groups.

Usually these focus groups are about crisps, perfume, travel, etc. My friend found it interesting that the recruiter also said 'this is unusual research' when they sent the recruiter email out.

Which got me thinking.

What organisation might be fed up of 40+ mostly women starting to open their eyes to the current discussion (via the radicalisaton portal that is mumsnet!) and who might want to try to research why that's happening? (The survey group age-range is very specific - you have to have children over the age of 17, which means, on average, you'll be over the age of 30)

What organisation might want to be researching this, with an aim to try to influence that same group towards a different direction? Stonewall (The market research focus groups my friend has been on as part of this group have all been about registering their thoughts and feelings about marketing campaigns, images, etc. Standard focus groups for commercial campagins. Trans is a new one!)

What organisation would have enough money to set up focus groups for this subject Stonewall

What organisation would be interested in what soaps their potential focus group has watched (ie all soaps who have/are likely to feature transgender issues) -Stonewall-

What organisation may be concerned about 35/40+ parents' views and how they may influence them in the future? (Guess who!)

TL/DR -

I suspect that a national organisation, perhaps Stonewall, but who knows, is currently conducting market research with parents of 'older children' (as they're the ones who we know (because here lots of us are on Mumnset!) are most likely to go 'this gender stuff is shit' and we've parented diverse children') to understand what marketing messages would make that demographic more likely to look favourably on 'transition/mermaids/trapped in the wrong body' etc' stuff'.

This is a business. And businesses need to understand their market. Hence why they're paying market research companies to conduct research into this area.

I don’t know why but the idea of this is really giving me the shivers. It’s so...commercial. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, and I’m not really surprised - I’m something else which I can’t quite articulate but is definitely uneasy. The idea that they might collect data you wouldn’t necessarily want them to have is something to be very cautious about as well. It’s what they might do with this research, so bloody blatantly trying to see where they can influence people. They don’t understand at all that once you see the emperor is naked there is no going back, only a series of higher peaks and grubby internet rabbit holes of horror where you learn more about the sexual proclivities of others than you ever wished to. It’s not possible to go back to denying material reality.

B and C would both apply to me (and most of us probably) equally, so it's not very well constructed.