Posts Tagged ‘insight’

The Beauty of Conjoint Analysis

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

One of the cool things about social science and marketing research is that it brings together mathematics and human behavior.  Mathematics is beautiful, elegant, and abstract.  It is much like art.  Human behavior is messy, contradictory, and frustrating, desperately in need of a way to make sense of it.  Bringing the two together – turning data into stories – is what we do at Versta Research.

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The Market Research Middlemen

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

How to Add Value: Provide Insight and Understanding

In a provocative new book entitled What Would Google Do? author Jeff Jarvis claims that “Middlemen Are Doomed” because the Internet has made information so easy, accessible, and cheap.  He argues that the Internet links buyers and sellers directly, and it allows buyers to get information and access to sellers instantaneously, rendering middlemen obsolete.  Market researchers are middlemen who operate between businesses who need information about their customers, and the people (their customers and prospects) being interviewed about needs, attitudes, and behaviors.  If Jarvis is right, what is the future for market research and public opinion polling?

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