Latest Articles
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
How to Generate Ideas for Names
The following is an excerpt from Stir It Up! Recipes for Robust Insights and Red Hot Ideas by Laurie Tema-Lyn. Published under license from Paramount Books. Mouthfeel This is a great exercise if you are working with a client on a name generation project. Getting the “feel” for a name by saying it out loud is particularly important now […]
Order Bias Is a Larger Source of Error Than You Think
Last week I was writing a questionnaire for a client using their survey software account, and I was chagrined to discover that it lacked the ability to randomize the display of items in a choice list. This is a common capability of all modern survey software applications, including QuestionPro, Survey Analytics, Google Consumer Surveys, and […]
3 Phases of Collaboration Throughout the Innovation Lifecycle
When companies or individuals consider crowdsourcing as a component of ongoing innovation for their organization, they often think that their network is only involved in the initial phase: ideation or idea gathering. This phase of crowdsourcing is often referred to as open innovation. And although numerous innovation software solutions provide this base level of functionality, […]
Ask Me No Leading Questions, and I’ll Tell You No Lies
The most common problem with the draft questionnaires that are sent to me is the use of leading questions. A leading question suggests the answer the survey author is looking for and often unintentionally reflects the author’s bias. As a result, the answers to such questions overstate actual support for the item being researched. Leading […]
How to Plus or Minus: Understand and Calculate the Margin of Error
Sometimes in the day-to-day work of conducting and interpreting market research, it’s easy to forget that many people who work with surveys on a daily basis have not had formal training in statistics. Even for those who have been trained, it can be useful to have a refresher from time to time. UNDERSTANDING MARGIN OF […]
Survey Fail
We’re counting down our Top 10 blog posts of 2013. Coming in at #1 is this Buzzfeed-inspired piece originally published August 10. A friendly reminder that you should always have someone else review your questionnaire. You don’t want to commit the great acts of survey fail that these survey authors did. 10. Make sure your […]
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 […]
A Gentle Introduction to Concept Development
The following is an excerpt from Marketing Concepts That Win! Save Time, Money and Work by Crafting Concepts Right the First Time by Martha Guidry. Published under license from the author. Behind every successful product or service lies a powerful concept. It is really that simple. Product and service offerings that win in the marketplace […]
An Interview with Howard Fienberg About Sugging
One of the pleasures of volunteering on the Board of the Marketing Research Association (MRA) has been the opportunity to get to know Howard better. Howard Fienberg, PLC is the director of government affairs for the MRA and champions the needs of the industry to federal and state agencies and departments. I recently had the […]
Grow Your Business by Focusing on Share of Wallet
At the Marketing Research Association’s Insights & Strategy Conference in Orlando today, Timothy Keiningham of Ipsos Loyalty shared an update on the Ipsos Wallet Allocation Rule method, which won the 2011 NGMR Innovation Award. Traditional customer loyalty measures alone do a poor job of predicting Share of Wallet, the percent of category purchases captured by […]
Think Beyond iPad for Tablet Surveys
Researchers, when you read about companies equipping their employees with iPads, I know you’re dreaming about beautiful, feature-rich, touch-based surveys for the B2B market. In fact, this type of tablet-based survey is already being done today by the likes of SurveyPocket and others. You need to start thinking beyond just the iPad, though. The corporate […]
