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
Determining Price: The van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter
Determining the best price for a product or service is a common marketing research question. I usually start my conversation with a client asking whether their product has all of its features set or if they also need to test a range of features other than price. If they are testing variable features in addition […]
Standardizing UX Feedback with the System Usability Scale
Usability testing fills a critical need in understanding users’ responses to your website’s UX, but the inherent subjectiveness of the video/audio feedback format means that it can be difficult to distill meaning from a large number of responses. Your testers are writing you a novel with their words – the plot is no secret, but […]
How to Ensure a Great Customer Experience: Keep it Simple
In my previous post, I sang the praises of OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service that I believe has helped both diner and restaurant by establishing such an easily managed relationship between the two. I’m still praising OpenTable, but this time around, I’d also like to offer the company a gentle admonition: Stick to what […]
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 […]
4 Kinds of Survey Error: Sampling, Measurement, Coverage and Non-Response
There are 4 generally-accepted types of survey error. By survey error, I mean factors which reduce the accuracy of a survey estimate. It’s important to keep each type of survey error in mind when designing, executing and interpreting surveys. However, I suspect some of them are more ingrained in our thinking about research, while others […]
Use Data Imputation When Modularizing Mobile Surveys
The Problem The market research industry is at a crossroads as client demands push survey length longer while respondents increasingly take survey from smartphones (see Brian Jones’ previous blog on mobile market research trends and best practices). Many advanced analytical techniques require ~15-25 minutes (or more) worth of questioning to function, but many smartphone survey […]
Voice of the Competitor Research Must Listen to Partners
Outside of the competitor’s customers, what other voice do we need to hear from when conducting Voice of the Competitor (VOTC) research? A competitor’s partners. This may seem an interesting choice given these organizations are not strictly customers per se. However, the role these organizations play as an information broker is vital. The ability of […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
The Beginner’s Guide to No-Cost Market Research
I have a client I’ll call Sandy, who is starting a new business. She’s been running a successful non-profit organization for 4 years and she’s been freelance writing for at least a decade, but as she was moving into a more product-centered business, she was floundering. She scheduled a couple events that didn’t fill and […]
