Posts Tagged ‘statistics’
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, July 9th, 2010
Telling a story with data is one part finding the right words, and one part finding a compelling visual way to present numbers. Good visualization of data conveys the “big picture” at a glance. At the same time, it includes details so that the audience understands and sees both the whole and the parts. Effective charts also invite visual comparisons so that the viewer sees (without having to think about) the trends and patterns we are highlighting in a story.
We highly recommend learning about theories of presentation, perception, and data visualization, and we are big fans of Edward Tufte’s approach to visual explanations. At the same time, we recommend learning the basics of using simple tools, like pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, and so on. One good source for developing a mastery of the basics is a book called Graphing Statistics & Data: Creating Better Charts, from which we have learned a few tips about using bar charts: (more…)
Tags: charts, communication, data, statistics, stories, visualizing data
Posted in Charts and Data Visualization, Methods & Tools, Presenting Research, Turning Data into Stories | 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 »
Friday, April 9th, 2010
If something works and it keeps on working but you don’t know exactly why it works, what would you do? Our view is that you should keep doing it. Not everyone agrees with us. The American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) convened a task force to study online survey panels, and released their report last month (we posted a summary of findings last week). To us, the most jarring statement in the report was this:
“There currently is no generally accepted theoretical basis from which to claim that survey results using samples from nonprobability online panels are projectable to the general population.”
Even with careful statistical weighting based on demographics, known biases, propensity to be online and partake in surveys, and so on, the report concludes that online panels should not be used to estimate population parameters. Why? Not because this method doesn’t work (in many cases it does) but because there is no statistical theory to explain why it works, in contrast to probability sampling, for which there is solid theory explaining why it works. (more…)
Tags: Online Surveys, panels, Public Polls, Sampling, statistics, survey respondents
Posted in Data Collection, Future Trends, Market Research, Methods & Tools, Online Surveys, Public Polls, Sampling | 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, 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 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…)
Tags: bias, data quality, ethics, mathematics, Public Polls, statistics, trust
Posted in Future Trends, Public Polls, Public Relations | No Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Making sense of data and statistics is not just a matter of being clear and precise, nor is it just a matter of keeping things simple (though all of these are important). To make numbers really compelling, we need to relate them to people’s experiences. If we want our audience to grasp the importance of a number intuitively, then we need to link it to what they already know really well.
(more…)
Tags: communication, data, numbers, statistics
Posted in Charts and Data Visualization, Presenting Research, Turning Data into Stories | 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, November 5th, 2009
In a recent blog post entitled Data-Driven Journalism, Walker Sands, a Chicago PR agency, outlined two ways to get media placement for your company or your client with research. The premise is that journalists and readers are hungry for interesting stories, and in today’s data-driven world some of the most interesting stories come from – of all places – statistics. Ken Gaebler, founder of the agency, notes that there are two effective approaches. In his words, “You can mine data or you can make data.” (more…)
Tags: data, journalism, media, news, public opinion, Public Polls, Public Relations, research, statistics, stories, survey
Posted in Public Polls, Public Relations, Turning Data into Stories | No Comments »