Posts Tagged ‘product innovation’

Top 5 Picks: Best Articles on Market Research

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Versta Research just hit a magic number: 100.  That’s the number of articles we have written to help our clients and their colleagues keep abreast of important trends in market research.  If your market research supplier is not providing ongoing thought leadership in design, methods, and analytics, then what are the chances they are bringing ongoing and deep insight to your specific research needs?

To celebrate, we’re serving up a sampler of our five best articles.  How did we decide they are the best?  Our clients told us.  These are the articles that they write to us about, forward to their colleagues, and for which they return to our website time and again.  These are also the articles for which we get requests for print-ready PDF versions.  (Just let us know if you want one!) (more…)

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Posted in Data Analysis & Analytics, Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, New Products and Innovation, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »

Entrepreneurial Advice: Rethink Your Research

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Executives who lead entrepreneurial firms have dramatically different attitudes about market research from their counterparts at larger established firms, according to a recent study from Saras Sarasvathy, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia.

The study suggests that entrepreneurs are more focused on immediate and practical questions that will help them get their products into the hands of customers, and that traditional market research may not be the best way to get the right data and answers.  That makes sense.

But according to an article in the February issue of Inc. magazine, “when asked what kind of market research they would conduct for [a] hypothetical start-up, most of Sarasvathy’s subjects responded with variations on the following: (more…)

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Posted in Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, New Products and Innovation | No Comments »

The Myth of Too Many Choices

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Ever since the well-publicized “jam” experiments published ten years ago, product managers have been cautious about assuming that more choices generate higher sales.  The investigators of the research found that more consumers purchased a jar of jam if the sampling table offered six varieties instead of 24.  And there has been a healthy literature and many new experiments since that time exploring what has come to be known as “the paradox of choice.”

How Many Choices Are Too Many?

But there have been a number of studies and a good deal of retail research documenting the opposite as well.  Indeed, it makes sense to think that offering more choice will maximize the chance of meeting individual consumers’ needs.

A recent article published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that idea of choice overload may be overblown.  The authors analyzed results from fifty published and unpublished experiments on the topic.  They concluded: (more…)

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Sampling for Concept Testing and Innovation

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

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…)

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Posted in Focus Groups, Market Research, New Products and Innovation, Sampling | No Comments »

Game-Changing Product Innovation

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…)

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Posted in Market Research, New Products and Innovation | No Comments »