Archive for March, 2011

What People Think of Surveys

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

One resource that we give far too little thought in market research are the people who offer their time and thoughts about the stuff we are researching.  They are truly the lifeblood of market research.

An article in the spring 2011 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly looks at trends over the last thirty years in Americans’ view of polling and market research surveys.   The news is mixed.  While the vast majority feel that public opinion polling is generally a good thing, fewer feel that market research surveys serve a useful purpose, and trust in the industry is not so great.  The most worrisome news (but not surprising, given the number of truly bad surveys flooding our lives nowadays) is the steady decline in people saying that participating in research is interesting and in their best interest:

Declining Satisfaction with Surveys

In addition to the chart above, key statistics outlined in the article include: (more…)

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Posted in Data Collection, Future Trends, Market Research, Public Polls, Public Relations, Survey Design | No Comments »

What You May Need Is Marketing, Not Market Research

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

One of the most powerful pieces of advice our clients sometimes hear is to stop researching and start marketing.  In fact, a client told us yesterday that our presentation of findings last year was good, useful, impressive . . . all that.  But it was when we said, “Stop worrying about the next level of precision and rigor that you could get with this data if you had more money and time to invest.  These data are strong.  They’re based on sound methods.  We have good answers to your questions.  Go put it to use.”  They did, and their business is blossoming.

It’s an oddly common situation we find ourselves in these days: advising our client against more research.  For advocates of information and fact-based strategies (including us), the increasingly central role for market research is gratifying.  But too many surveys and research-for-research’s-sake can’t sustain itself, nor should it.  Market research only matters if it is acted upon and used in smart and strategic ways.

How do you know if, instead of research, you should focus on a full-force marketing effort or at least a better strategic plan before launching research?  Here are three situations we typically see: (more…)

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Posted in Market Research, Turning Data into Stories, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Overcoming Your Math Curse

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Learning the math behind market research is not easy because there is no programmatic way to master it as a body of learning.  It is not like algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics in high school or college.  It is complex and multifaceted and draws upon nearly every area of theoretical mathematics, but it must be continually adapted to the needs and practical problems of measuring and predicting customer behaviors and attitudes.

So it requires both (1) a rigorous foundation in mathematics and (2) years of experience to understand how it gets re-worked and applied to the real-life questions of market research.  And even the rigorous foundation needs to be continually reinforced and expanded as the scope of our capabilities expands.  Twenty years ago, who would have thought that Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo simulations would become so central to our work? (more…)

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Posted in Data Analysis & Analytics, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Survey Design | No Comments »

The ABC’s of CBC: Understanding Conjoint for Market Research

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Our March 2011 newsletter focuses on conjoint research, which we consider to be one of the most clever and powerful techniques of survey research.  Why?  Because it allows us to build working models of decision-making.

Conjoint works by presenting people with scenarios that are more like the real-life trade-offs they always make.  For example, instead of just asking a respondent about the importance of price, we ask them to make decisions about price, where price varies based on other attributes that are important to them. (more…)

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Posted in Data Analysis & Analytics, Market Research, Methods & Tools | No Comments »

When to Use Paper Surveys

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

One might think that with evolving technologies, the old-fashioned ways of doing research, like using paper and pencil, might disappear.  But it turns out that paper surveys are not dead, and here is a nice example that dramatically illustrates their value.

As newly-appointed director of market research for the American Marketing Association in Chicago, I oversee efforts to develop and organize events related to market research.  I also oversee efforts to measure, track, and analyze customer satisfaction for all other events and activities sponsored by the AMA.  For the past few events, the AMA collected feedback via an online survey sent by e-mail immediately after the events.  They were also using a less-than-stellar do-it-yourself survey tool that promises to deliver “actionable insights!” at the click of a button.

The results were abysmal.  (more…)

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Posted in Data Collection, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Online Surveys | No Comments »