In last year’s cliffhanger episode of “Can a Focus Group Save Spider-Man?” we pondered whether market research was powerful enough to save a Broadway show from doom and destruction. After crushing reviews from theater critics, the producers hired a market research firm to help them rewrite the show.
Guess what? It worked. (more…)
After spending $65 million and previewing the show over sixty times since the end of last year, the producers of the new Spider-Man musical in New York are turning to focus groups and surveys in hopes that market research can do something…anything…to save the amazing Spider-Man from destruction.
Last week, theater critics roundly panned the show, calling it among the worst Broadway shows ever. The New York Times described is as “so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair.” But days after these negative reviews, a market research firm was brought in, soliciting volunteers to help fix the show: (more…)
Last quarter we wrote about Magic Numbers in Market Research—those arbitrary rules of thumb and cut-off points we use when quoting things like minimum samples sizes or how many people to include in a focus group. Presto! Like magic, the issue appeared in the New York Times a few weeks ago, this time related to a dispute about the best way to statistically test for the existence of ESP.
The backstory: A respected academic journal in social psychology published an article showing data that suggests ESP exists. Horrified, some researchers argued that psychologists were using old-fashioned inferential statistics when they should be using modern-day Bayesian statistics. Here is a link to the article, if you’re interested. Unfortunately, it does a lousy job explaining what Bayesian statistics is.
But fortunately, in response, the editor in chief of The Annals of Applied Statistics submitted a letter to the New York Times clarifying that all statistics ends up relying on arbitrary magic numbers: (more…)
Many assume that rigorous market research always works with random samples or probability samples. This assumption is not true. There are many studies that require purposive sampling instead. Purposive sampling involves finding people with specific characteristics or qualities, even if they do not fully represent the whole population, because these specific people can provide unique insights or data that are difficult to get otherwise.
An article in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Marketing Research offers research to this point. The authors identify a unique profile of consumers who are measurably better at developing, testing, and reacting to new product ideas. The personal qualities these consumers possess include (quoting from the article): (more…)
A client had a surprising experience this week when a member of our multivariate analysis team showed up online to watch a live in-depth interview with a registered nurse about how prescribing decisions are made. “Who is that online with us?” the end-client inquired, not recognizing the name. The qualitative manager answered, “He’s on our multivariate team.”
It must have seemed strange to have a statistician taking a keen interest in the qualitative work. Strange, because too often the qualitative and quantitative sides of research do not inform each other in the rich ways they can and should.
On the very same day, we read this interview with Professor Jordan Louviere in the American Marketing Association’s Marketing News magazine: (more…)
It hurts, but when your customers hate you, you should be listening all the more carefully:
You need to find out the who, what, where, when, and why they hate you. Probe deeply with focus groups, in-depth interviews, social media monitoring, and survey research. Rigorous research done right (our specialty) will give you valuable insight. And if it is communicated expertly to management (our specialty) you can probably fix the problems. Then, the next time you listen to your customers, you won’t need to duck and cover.
-Joe Hopper, Ph.D.
In the previous post we noted that our industry is driven by data and information, which meant huge changes in the nature of our work over the last ten years. Looking ahead, here are what we predict will be the five biggest trends that will shape market research challenges in the decade to come: (more…)
It’s fascinating that new survey technology and easy access to millions of consumers could be affecting the focus group industry more than the quantitative survey industry. But a colleague who has been doing focus groups for over 20 years says that’s exactly what she is seeing.