Posts Tagged ‘research’
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
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…)
Tags: conjoint, Focus Groups, research, statistics
Posted in Data Analysis & Analytics, Focus Groups, Market Research, Methods & Tools | No Comments »
Friday, September 10th, 2010
With the sad proliferation of silly surveys, non-scientific interest polls, and downright fraudulent polls, the research industry is stepping up with a number of key initiatives to combat the trend. Versta Research is part of that effort, and in August announced that we are part of the Transparency Initiative being developed by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).
As of this writing, Versta is one of 67 prominent survey and polling organizations currently supporting the initiative. The initiative is designed to create protocols and recognition for regular disclosure of methods when survey organizations conduct public polls. (more…)
Tags: data quality, ethics, omnibus, Public Polls, research, trust
Posted in Future Trends, Omnibus Surveys, Public Polls, Public Relations | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
We are strong advocates of using surveys for public relations outreach. Commissioning surveys that answer interesting questions to help drive news stories and other types of communication can build a credible foundation so that journalists and other audiences take note and listen. But we are not fans of silly surveys that rely on outlandish, sexy, or clever comparisons designed primarily to get quick flashes of attention and media hits.
There are three tiers of survey research common in public relations, only two of which can truly optimize your PR: (more…)
Tags: journalism, media, news, omnibus, Public Relations, research, trust
Posted in Public Relations | No Comments »
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Early this month, David Blackwell, a prominent statistician and mathematician died at the age of 91. For many he is well known because he was the first African American to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. For others, he is well known because he wrote an important and early book about Bayesian statistics, a type of statistics that is becoming central to market research.
For those of us at Versta Research, he is well known for his focus on understanding versus research:
“Basically, I’m not interested in doing research and I never have been,” he said. “I’m interested in understanding, which is quite a different thing. And often to understand something you have to work it out yourself because no one else has done it.” (From an interview cited in the New York Times) (more…)
Tags: insight, Market Research, research, statistics
Posted in Market Research, Methods & Tools, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
The summer 2010 newsletter from Versta Research focuses on how to bridge the gap between quantitative research and qualitative research, whether it be market research or academic research. Both methods give rich insights, and both offer compelling ways to summarize and communicate data. But rarely does each method draw upon the strengths of the other.
How do you bring the two together? (more…)
Tags: Market Research, methods, qualitative research., quantitative research, research, statistics, survey technology
Posted in Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools | No Comments »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
A truly effective research report is both parsimonious and richly nuanced. In other words, (1) it is short and to the point, and (2) it captures the complexity of reality. But how do you do both? (more…)
Tags: charts, communication, research, stories, visualizing data
Posted in Charts and Data Visualization, Presenting Research, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
This quarter’s newsletter from Versta Research focuses on the art of asking questions. We suggest that the importance of business questions far exceeds the importance of survey questions or focus group questions. You can’t do the latter without the former, at least not very well, and research that is not specifically designed to answer clearly articulated business questions usually falls flat.
Here are some great quotes we found to keep in mind as guiding principles: (more…)
Tags: Focus Groups, Market Research, questions, research
Posted in Market Research, Methods & Tools, Survey Design, Survey Tips | No Comments »
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 »
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 »