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Hey there…have you heard of me?
In consumer and B2B market research circles we are often asked to assess market awareness and/or familiarity with brands, products and spokespeople or causes. These two related, but separate constructs, represent the first steps on the pathway from prospect to customer. Awareness should be measured in two ways – unaided and aided. Unaided awareness is […]
Census Regions – What it means for Hispanic Sample
Census regions are probably the last thing you think about when procuring Hispanic sample. Language, acculturation, and country of origin are likely at the top of your list. However, census regions are linked to all of the above. The Hispanic population distribution in the U.S. is considerably different than the rest of the population. For […]
Sampling and Other Considerations for Mobile Research
In a prior post I highlighted an interesting statistic – for any given project market researchers can now expect up to 40% response on smartphones. This percentage will continue to increase. The question then becomes one of what do we know about mobile responders and can this be applied to our sampling plans? First and […]
Three keys for designing effective mobile surveys
At the recent MRA Corporate Researchers Conference the training organization Research Rockstar presented a course on designing device agnostic surveys. The trend is clear that more and more surveys are being taken on smartphones and tablets. Desktop computers still account for the majority of responses, but for any given project market researchers can now expect […]
Top 2 Box Score – Avoid the Pitfall
Recently when giving my desk a much needed cleaning I came across an article by Jerry Thomas with the firm Decision Analyst. His whitepaper focused on the use of the top two box score as a measure for conveying scores to survey scales. The top box score is the sum of percentages for the top […]
More from Research Access
“How To” Posts
Customer Segmentation – An Overview
This information is useful for people who are interested in matching the best messages or products possible to those customers or prospects most likely to buy them. Why Segmentation? If you make a product, have a service, market or sell, customer segmentation is important to you. The days of one-size-fits-all approaches are long over, and […]
The Importance of the Voice of the Competitor (VOTC)
Why do so many organizations fail to listen to the voice of the competitor? Hubris. And while hubris is not new, whether we are talking about Roman Emperors or Business Leaders in the 21st century, it is clear that Hubris is still an organization killer. But what can inoculate us from the disease? I believe […]
Improving the Preference Question
Community image studies have changed over the years with the advent of online technology as well as new analytical techniques. One thing that has not changed much over the years is the age-old preference question: “Overall, which hospital do you prefer most?” No matter how you word it, that question has seen a great deal of action in community image studies and is often […]
Review of Salesforce: Throw Away Your Prospect Spreadsheets
This post might be a little outdated for some of you, but I know that there are many small marketing research agencies out there that are still maintaining their client and prospect lists in Excel. I know because I’ve been there, I’ve lived it, and I’ve talked to some of you who are still living […]
Asking Questions When You Should Know the Answers
One of the best ways to have respondents (e.g., customers, students, employees, members or others whose feedback you need) ignore and delete your surveys is asking questions for which you should already know the answers. Here are excerpts from a survey a friend received some months ago (with her approximate thoughts noted): “Dear Alumna/Alumnus:”… Gee, that’s […]
How to Increase Product Development Success with Ghetto Testing
In the movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays a farmer living in rural Iowa, who hears a voice while walking through his cornfield; “If you build it, he will come” (often misquoted “If you build it, they will come”) and sees a vision of a baseball field. Kevin’s character Ray Kinsella plows under his corn […]
How To Create Infographics: Tips & Tools
Not since the invention of online surveys has something sparked the imagination of our industry like Infographics. Sure, we haven’t mastered the art of making them, and we aren’t quite sure how to define them. Yet most of us know a good infographic when we see it (or think we do). I want to take a few […]
Maximum Difference Scaling Provides Better Importance Data
On October 28, Survey Analytics provided a glimpse behind the curtain into a not so new technique for getting into the mind of the respondent. We have long used rating scales to get at what consumers and prospects see as important, yet this approach is fraught with peril. This is where maximum difference scaling comes […]
10 Things Survey Researchers Should Know About Twitter
We’re counting down our Top 10 blog posts of 2013. Coming in at #4 is this post originally published July 31. Over the last couple years, I’ve been looking at Twitter’s potential in survey research. Why Twitter? Because it’s vast, it’s fast, and it’s cheap. Recently, at the 2013 FedCASIC Workshops, I presented ten things survey […]
MR 101: Validity and Reliability in Surveys
Confession: I don’t have formal training as a market researcher. I came to market research late in life by way of my training in information technology and computer science, and it’s something I’ve had to study – and continue to study today. And trust me: I’ve studied a lot in my life, and learning about […]
Marketing to Lapsed Customers to Prompt Repeat Business
Though brand switchers are often the target of sales, I find that the biggest boost can come from brand loyals. What are ways to bring back customers whose interest has waned? As part of a project with a medical supplies company, I took aim at just that group. At the time of the study, the […]
