Posts Tagged ‘mathematics’

A Statistics Puzzle: Do You Really Have Cancer? Probably Not.

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…)

Top Trends of the Decade: Looking Back

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…)

Forensic Polling Analysis

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Bad pollsters give the market research industry a bad name, so it is encouraging when smart people figure out clever ways of ratting them out.  What is a bad pollster?  One who makes up data to support an agenda, or who asks biased questions to get preferred answers.  The only good reason for doing research or public opinion polling is to learn or share something new.  All else is suspect.

Two researchers recently came up with methods of testing whether polling data is legitimate in a case where a research firm is accused of falsifying publicly released data. (more…)

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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