Posts Tagged ‘Market Research’
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
An article in the most recent issue of the Harvard Business Review (“Rethinking Marketing”) argues that marketing is shifting from being product-centric to being customer-centric. The old method was to develop a portfolio of products, build a team around each product, find the customers who need that product and market it to them. The emerging method is to build teams around customer relationships, continually learn about what those customers need, then design and deliver solutions to them.
Not only will this shift from product marketing to customer marketing enhance the ability of businesses to deliver value to their customers and shareholders, but it will likely help market researchers bring higher levels of value to the work they do for their clients. Why? (more…)
Tags: brand equity, brand tracking, Market Research, product marketing, research, social science, Survey Design
Posted in Future Trends, Market Research, New Products and Innovation | No Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Getting your research findings heard, understood, and used should always be your goal. That means more than putting findings into a report deck, presenting results to the marketing team, writing up press releases, or getting media placement for a PR story. It means having your audience engage with it by thinking, sharing, and taking action.
What do we know about the kinds of stories and research reports that can achieve this? A recent study reported in The New York Times provides some clues. (more…)
Tags: communication, Market Research, media, news, research, stories
Posted in Market Research, Presenting Research, Public Relations, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Years ago I watched a film that documented how a new product developed. The idea was to create a pre-packaged sandwich for quick and easy lunches. As the idea made its way to the final product launch, it became something entirely different: a round tubular pretzel with a soft gooey interior – now a snack food instead of lunch. What happened? The existing machinery could not extrude and package a workable sandwich, so in effect, the machine forced them to create a “new product” rather similar (but with a new twist) to all the other products it was creating. So much for the sandwich.
Something like this happens in the market research industry. (more…)
Tags: benchmarking, concept testing, Market Research, new product development, product innovation
Posted in Market Research, New Products and Innovation | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
One of the devilish problems with statistics in market research is that we deal with probabilities rather than simple yes/no answers. But you, as a business person, need to make clear-cut decisions: Should you launch the product, yes or no? Which one name should you choose for your new service? Which three areas should you focus on to drive customer satisfaction? (more…)
Tags: Market Research, mathematics, satisfaction research, statistics
Posted in Market Research, Methods & Tools | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
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…)
Tags: charts, data, Data Collection, Focus Groups, Market Research, research, survey technology, visualizing data
Posted in Charts and Data Visualization, Data Collection, Focus Groups, Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools | No Comments »
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
As an industry driven by data and information, market research and public opinion polling has seen dramatic changes in the last ten years and will no doubt change quickly and in big ways during the next ten.
Looking back, here are what we consider to be the five biggest changes that shaped current challenges faced by market research and opinion polling: (more…)
Tags: communication, data, Data Collection, data quality, Market Research, mathematics, media, online, Online Surveys, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, research, Sampling, statistics, stories, survey, survey respondents, survey technology
Posted in Data Collection, Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Online Surveys, Presenting Research, Public Polls, Public Relations, Sampling, Turning Data into Stories, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
For some reason I’m always a little surprised that people tell the truth on surveys. I like to think of my “healthy skepticism” as a professional asset, because it forces us to check and double check, corroborate and triangulate. Before we commit to the findings of a research effort, we need to feel 100% sure we’re right and that our findings are based on solid data. (more…)
Tags: data, Data Collection, data quality, insight, Market Research, Online Surveys, research, Sampling, survey respondents, trust
Posted in Data Collection, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Online Surveys, Sampling | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Two paragraphs can be exceptionally thought provoking when they get right to the point. In a simple introduction to the New York Times Book Review last week, the editors highlighted two ideas about statistics and stories that we want to share. (more…)
Tags: communication, journalism, Market Research, statistics, stories
Posted in Market Research, Presenting Research, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Versta Research fields omnibus surveys, and we often recommend such surveys for our clients. But omnibus surveys do no not always save money or offer the insights that are needed, and so we often recommend inexpensive alternatives as well. (more…)
Tags: Data Collection, Internet, Market Research, omnibus, Online Surveys, Public Polls, value
Posted in Data Collection, Online Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
The U.S. Census is one of the most useful tools for research and marketing because it tells you how many people fit specific demographic profiles and where they live. It started out as a simple count of how many people live in each state in order to allocate congressional seats. But it has since become a rich source of insight, with information about Americans’ age, family composition, work status, income, education, housing, and more.
While the Census provides basic tabulations and counts on its website, you can also query the data yourself to answer specific, customized questions that you are unable to find otherwise. In fact, using this data is so easy that Versta no longer uses the Census’ rather difficult and ever-changing “fact finder” features. We have downloaded the data along with a codebook, and use a statistics program to run specific queries and counts of anything we need. (more…)
Tags: census, demographics, Market Research, population, statistics, survey
Posted in Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Uncategorized | No Comments »