Blog
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22Sep
Listen More, Plan Better: Searching For Authenticity In Environmental, Social, And Corporate Governance (ESG) Planning by Sara Sutton and Mai Tolentino
Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues have been at the forefront of the news in recent times.
With environmental consciousness rising, social movements finding greater audiences, and corporate boards being held more accountable for how businesses are run, assessing, planning, and enacting new policies for ESG issues has become increasingly important.
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22Sep
The 411 About Deriving Marketing Claims From Market Research by Sara Sutton and Mai Tolentino
Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues have been at the forefront of the news in recent times.
With environmental consciousness rising, social movements finding greater audiences, and corporate boards being held more accountable for how businesses are run, assessing, planning, and enacting new policies for ESG issues has become increasingly important.
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3Sep
The 411 About Deriving Marketing Claims From Market Research by Sara Sutton and Sheela Avila
Have you heard that the average person has the attention span of a goldfish?
While that’s an exaggeration, it’s true that marketers have just a few seconds to capture a person’s interest in buying or recommending your product. To do this, companies will often use marketing claims, which are typically short, snappy phrases that pack a punch! Including impactful claims, using words and phrases that resonate with consumers, is an easy way to increase your product’s stopping power and ultimately increase sales.
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16Aug
5 Reasons To Think Like A Squirrel by Tom Allen
This is an article about how to think like a squirrel. The inspiration of thinking like a squirrel came from witnessing their behavior, oddly enough.
How should you think like a squirrel? Don’t take the shortest path to your destination. Look for new ways to accomplish your personal or business goals that might lead you to new experiences, relationships, sights, or locations.
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10Aug
Like its in-person counterpart, an online focus group allows businesses to use a moderator to talk directly to consumers to ask key questions, to show a variety of stimulus types, to capture group interaction, and more.
But, in conducting online qualitative, don’t forget the role of, and the importance of being a backroom observer. Here are four ways to use the backroom as a means to get the most from your qualitative research.
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21Jul
The New Kid In Town: Gen Z by Cari Peek
Social, economic, political, and technological advancements made a mark on Gen Z.
Understanding their generational mindset is vital to helping marketers better understand how to reach and communicate with consumers. Currently, Gen Z represents $44 billion in direct buying power in the U.S. – and most don’t even have jobs yet. As you read the details that follow, I challenge you to think about your brand and how Gen Z’s perspective on these events and societal norms may impact it.
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13Jul
Advertising Claims Substantiation by Jerry W. Thomas
Is it a good idea to make a head-to-head comparative claim against a competitor?
Before you rush off to create that great head-to-head commercial, a recommended best practice is to test a number of different advertising claims or messages, to see which types of claims resonate with your target audience. Here are some tips an advice for advertising claims substantiation.
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6Jul
Political Divide Deepens Around the Pandemic by Audrey Guinn, Ph.D.
Republicans, Democrats, and Independents seem to be drifting further apart and these differences are noticeable not only within political ideology but also within more mundane aspects of life.
Decision Analyst’s monthly “Consumer Reactions to COVID-19” tracker finds that these divisions exist within beliefs about COVID-19 and the vaccine, feelings surrounding the pandemic, concern about the pandemic, and even comfort levels with gathering in different situations.
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29Jun
Insights, Not Oversights! (A Market Research Checklist) by Sara Sutton and Stephanie Trevino
As market researchers, our goals and responsibilities are to deliver thoughtful, accurate, data-driven insights to our partners.
To do this successfully, we should always ask ourselves these questions: Is this methodology right for the audience, topic, and objectives? Am I being too narrow or making assumptions about my target population? Am I screening and including a representative set of respondents?
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21Jun
The Bridging Model: Connecting A Segmentation To Customer Databases by Elizabeth Horn, Ph.D.
Segmentation is a very powerful tool. When possible, leverage that power by applying the segmentation to your company’s customer database(s).
Organizations that successfully classify their customers into segments increase the likelihood that their brand communications and new products will meet the needs of those customers. This makes the time, effort, and investment to build the “bridge” worthwhile.
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11Jun
Who’s More Likely to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccine? by Audrey Guinn, Ph.D.
Personal characteristics and situational circumstances are potential explanations for why some people receive the vaccine while others do not.
Therefore, we wanted to understand differences in ethnicity, age, political affiliation, income, gender, area lived in, and occupation with regards to vaccination. To examine these potential demographic differences, we analyzed the data from Decision Analyst’s monthly “Consumer Reactions to COVID-19” tracker.
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1Jun
Consumer feedback. There’s the good, the bad, and the ugly.
When you’re seeking feedback through a survey, the good news is that you’re in control. A well-designed survey can help you answer the “whys” behind negative feedback and even help you understand which low-rated areas to prioritize. Here are three simple but effective ways to get the most out of survey feedback of all kinds.
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25May
Motivators for and Barriers to Getting Vaccinated Against COVID-19 by Audrey Guinn, Ph.D.
As of May 20th, 48% of the population has had at least one dose. However, that leaves a little over 50% of the population unvaccinated.
Using the data collected in Decision Analyst’s monthly “Consumer Reactions to COVID-19” tracker, we did examine what impact, if any, beliefs about COVID-19 and its vaccine have on the decision to get vaccinated.
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27Apr
Delivering bad news is an unpleasant task, but learning to do it effectively (and tactfully) can prevent a costly disaster in the marketplace.
It can also provide you an opportunity to boost your credibility and improve your professional relationship with the client. So, how do you tactfully relay bad news? Here are six tips to ensure your results are not just heard but accepted and acted upon.
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20Apr
Navigating Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Relationships by Julie Trujillo
What if you are one of the many companies whose product or service goes through an intermediary?
And, what if that intermediary has a strong influence on your brand’s relationship with the end customers? Operating in a business-to-business-to-consumer environment creates extra complexity to consider.
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13Apr
Like many of you, I spend a good part of my day thinking about all the ways the near future will (hopefully) be different from the past year.
But what will the future look like? I’m no futurist, but I see a short-term demand boom coming for many industries. This list is not all-inclusive but just a few examples.
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4Apr
Sins of the Fathers by Jerry W. Thomas
The Fathers of Marketing Research invented a number of extremely powerful and valuable tools, methods, questions, and concepts that we all use and benefit from every single day.
But no one is perfect, and our industry Fathers committed sins that blight our industry to this day.
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23Mar
5 Steps To Optimizing The Lifetime Value Of Customers by Sara Sutton
Customer loyalty directly improves the bottom line by increasing the lifetime value of each customer.
This is true in any industry, but particularly in those where the customer will interact with the brand (and its agents) over and over, such as in healthcare, insurance, financial services, travel, etc. Think about the following steps when optimizing the customer experience (and thus, the lifetime value of your customers).
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10Mar
In Search of the Holy Grail Customer Experience by Heather Kluter
Understanding the experience consumers have with brands is more important than ever, especially when attempting to get them to return to an abandoned brand and stick with it.
Traditionally, brands that win have always placed customer experience before everything else, but now understanding the changing, lasting expectations of post-pandemic consumers is more important than ever.
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16Feb
Clear, well thought out study objectives are critical to any market research project's success, no matter the size, scope, or cost.
FA well-written background and a clear set of business objectives establish your study's tone, pace, and direction and ultimately lead to better outcomes as you navigate the different research phases. Here are five guidelines you should follow when writing your research objectives.
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2Feb
User-Centric Innovation: 3 Important Tactics To Help Ensure New Product Success by Felicia Rogers and Hillary Semmelman
Focusing on the consumer is a critical step to ensure new products meet the needs and expectations of end-users.
From a research perspective, there are several ways to engage with potential customers to help guide the innovation process. We’ll address three broad research tactics that many companies use to accomplish their goals: Qualitative Research, Concept Testing, and Choice Modeling.
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19Jan
It’s Time to Put Those Negatively Worded Items Behind Us by Audrey Guinn Ph.D.
In an effort to catch survey cheaters, researchers use negatively worded attributes placed in groupings of positively worded attributes.
This context switching causes respondent confusion, which creates error. It may be time for researchers to relinquish negatively worded attributes. So, how can researchers catch cheaters, speeders, and straight-liners if negatively worded attributes are no longer included in the survey?
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13Jan
2020 and its challenges have been extremely difficult to navigate!
Despite the long list of negatives from 2020, there are several positive trends from the year, including: Strengthening relationships, Connecting with loved ones, Improving communication between teachers and students, Focusing on self-care and mental health, Continuing work-from-home/work remotely, etc.
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2020 Blogs
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11Dec
Newton’s law of inertia: this law basically states that an object at rest will stay that way and that an object in motion will continue with the same speed and in the same direction unless that object is acted upon by an unbalanced force.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unbalanced force that has acted on two objects: consumers and organizations.
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30Nov
“I Know You’re Out There” Engaging Hard-To-Reach Tradespeople And Heavy Industry Pros by Patrick McGill (Managing Directory of Strategy at Two Rivers Marketing) and Mike Humphrey (Vice President at Decision Analyst)
From consumer goods and services providers to business products and services, the audience for a primary research study is more often unique than not.
So, what can we do to best reach these hard-to-find but vital segments? While there’s sometimes a magic panel (where caution is advised) or other freely available list to turn to, there are some best practices and techniques available to increase our odds in the event that’s not the case.
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12Nov
Optimizing Parts Of A Whole by Elizabeth Horn
Commentary on choice modeling is confined mostly to discussions of optimizing an entire product or service, its pricing, and perhaps even its inclusion in the broader portfolio.
So what do we do with those products that are not wholes, but rather some individual component or ingredient? Often manufacturers want to optimize the features and the pricing for their product parts.
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28Oct
We’re Not Just A Vendor, But A True Partner (Blah, Blah, Blah) by Felicia Rogers
As the business world moves faster and faster and demands grow by the day, trusted advisors are needed more than ever.
From my vantage point I see researchers and strategists in corporate positions who are genuinely seeking support and advice from their peers and, more importantly, from those of us in agency-side roles. So, specifically, what should this “partnership” look like?
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20Oct
Fraud in Online Surveys by Justin W. Thomas
The incidence of fraud in online surveys is a growing problem. Fraud rates can be as high as 15% to 25% in some sources of online samples.
The research industry must minimize respondent fraud to protect the integrity of its survey results and safeguard the public’s trust in survey research findings. This blog explores some common types of fraud and outlines some approaches to minimizing fraud.
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6Oct
Brand-Loyalty Roadmap: It Works for Business and Nonprofits Alike by Lesley Johnson
I love the moisturizer I use. There are benefits and attributes I value about it. Each is an important piece of my decision to buy this product, and if any of these attributes changed, I would have to re-evaluate the product.
Both companies and nonprofits derive loyalty by providing benefits beyond just a product or social program. These benefits can be the way a product or organization makes consumers feel, the solution to a problem it champions, the attributes associated with it, or even the cachet of the brand or social cause itself.
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30Sep
The Joy of Innovation by Bonnie Janzen
Remember the joy of discovery?
You are the ‘voice of the customer’ in the organization, you are the starting point for innovation. You will be able to discover the consumer pain points, barriers to trial and usage and purchase journey, which will allow you to help your team and organization move customers beyond those pain points and barriers. You will be able to solve real-life problems for your customers, your employees, and any other stakeholder group that your business serves.
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18Sep
Decision Analyst’s Imaginators®: An Insiders View of the Online Ideation Process by Gretchen Riskind
I’ve been a qualitative researcher at Decision Analyst for a year now, and when in meetings with our clients or when designing research proposals I often hear my colleagues talk about using Decision Analyst’s Imaginators®.
As an experienced ideation leader, I’ve been waiting “patiently” for my opportunity to try it out. A few weeks ago, I finally got my chance when I was asked to lead an Imaginators® session for an internal project.
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31Aug
Three Secrets to Product Success by Tom Allen
There are many factors that go into a successful product: efficacy, price, value, brand, distribution, advertising, competitive forces, etc.
But when push comes to shove at the retail shelf, packaging can make or break a product. Brands need to ensure they are getting the most impact out of their packaging that they possibly can. How do they do that? With consumer research, of course!
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19Aug
At the beginning of 2020, the restaurant industry was thriving. A few short months into the year, this industry, along with many others, was brought to its knees.
While it still has a tough road ahead, the foodservice industry has proven its resilience through innovation, creativity, and reinvention. There was a quick pivot to online ordering/delivery models, and fast adoption of new service ideas.
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21Jul
Let’s Outlaw Marketing Research by Jerry W. Thomas
For almost 100 years, some large corporations have used marketing research to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors.
This is not fair, and does not lead to a fair marketplace. These “marketing research savvy” companies benefit from an “intelligence” or “informational” advantage over their competitors. The whole concept of free enterprise and free markets rests upon an assumption of fair and equal competition in a marketplace, and marketing research undermines this core principle.
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19Jul
Women in 2020 Survey Report by Kathryn Sollmann, Author & Speaker
Will More Women Reach the Top?
A major corporate objective is to get more women to the C-Suite, but a new survey commissioned by Career Coach and Author, Kathryn Sollmann, "Women in 2020: Choosing to Move Up the Ladder—Or Not?", reveals that few women at the mid-level—the pipeline for senior leaders—currently have these career aspirations. The majority of women in the 35 to 44 age demographic say they have reached their career goals and do not intend to advance further.
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14Jul
Enhancing the Customer Experience With Usability Research by Roger Wallace
Usability testing plays an important role in creating a positive customer experience, and the principles applied in this type of research can also be a key part of the development process for many things beyond websites and apps.
The importance of using these principles and testing will only increase for marketers and innovators as our fast-paced world accelerates and demands for significant changes in how people interact with each other and their environment.
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1Jul
Consumer Driven Innovation by Heather Kluter
Heather Kluter, Senior Vice President, discusses how setting up a Consumer Driven Innovation process can fuel a new product development pipeline.
She discusses using Innovative consumers, trend tracking, exploring channels of influence and looking outside your industry for ideas can help feed your new product pipeline with consumer-centric ideas and concepts.
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26Jun
Consumer Reactions to Covid-19 by Decision Analyst
Nearly 9 in 10 Americans now tell us their area is beginning to relax shelter-in-place orders.
Concern about COVID-19 seems to be waning somewhat, though differences are noted across age groups.
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19Jun
Win-Loss Analysis: Understanding Customer Needs by Laura Latshaw
In B2B research, one of the biggest concerns is maintaining and growing business.
Win-Loss research is an excellent way to learn about how well your company does in developing and winning over new customers as well as assessing why customers choose to make a change and go to one of your competitors.
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11Jun
The big question, as we all begin moving forward again, seems to be, “How do we jump-start our business?”
What questions should we be asking? What actions should we be taking? What can we really expect from our customers, shoppers, or consumers? The truth is there’s no easy answer to these questions and no one really knows what the future will look like. But the good news is there are steps we can all take toward answering these big questions.
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4Jun
As stressful as this environment is, it could be an opportunity to evaluate where your company or nonprofit has been and where it wants to go.
Has what you’ve been doing up until now served you well? Is it time to adjust plans, change directions entirely, or double down on your current strategy? Do you have data that can help you answer strategic questions?
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14May
7 Steps Out of the Unknown: Product & Branding Strategy by Bonnie Janzen
There was so much promise and excitement at the start of the year and the decade, but now COVID-19 and its economic fallout has had tragic consequences for many companies and industries.
Now we must pick ourselves up and find our way through what might be the biggest challenge an organization or industry has ever faced. These 7 steps will help you focus on reimaging your brand by focusing on your product roadmap and reviewing your brand positioning.
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12May
The Business World Post-COVID-19 by Heather Kluter
In this tumultuous time many businesses are seeing their teams pulling together and connecting in ways they never have before.
This sense of being “all in this together” is allowing employees to be more of their authentic selves at work. They are now free to admit and share that they are juggling a lot – kids, pets, friends, partners, and general stress. With newfound empathy for each other, companies are reporting a heightened level of team collaboration that has not been seen before COVID-19.
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28Apr
Where’s My Herd? Connecting with Consumers in a Post-COVID World by Clay Dethloff
Regardless of the “when,” watercooler (or more correctly, Zoom) conversations are turning to what the normal will be like in the future.
A key part of our life that may be changed in the future is what a consumer group is, and their associations with “groups.” People by nature seek to belong to groups, and a general sense of community is important and needed, but what will it look like in the future?
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15Apr
Who’s taking my survey? by Julie Trujillo
Panel and sample quality is something all market researchers should be concerned about.
So, with that in mind, I thought perhaps it was time to take a step back and consider what we are doing to make sure we can answer the question, “Who’s taking my survey?”
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7Apr
The New World After COVID-19 by Jerry W. Thomas
Consumer attitudes and perceptions will be changed forever.
Industries, companies, and brands will be forced back to the drawing board to re-learn and re-understand their markets and their customers. Companies will have to reinvent, re-position, and rejuvenate their products, services, marketing, and advertising.
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17Mar
Is That New Product a Cannibal? by Elizabeth Horn, Ph.D.
Companies that expect to survive must introduce new or improved products regularly.
The reasons for this are numerous. With these pressures from purchasers, competition, and distribution channels, companies are faced with the task of rapidly introducing new products, sometimes at the expense of current ones.
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3Mar
Market Domination Via Product Testing, Benchmarking, & Claims by Sara Sutton and Sheela Avila
It’s always a good idea to test your products among consumers prior to initial launch or subsequent product changes.
Unfortunately, because fewer and fewer companies are taking this critical step, they are missing key opportunities to improve their products and, ultimately, their odds of market-dominating success. Home-use testing is a surefire way to find out what consumers think about your product.
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10Feb
Tail Up, Paws diggin’: Escaping the Silo Work Style by Heather Kluter
At the start of my career, I worked with the a top home builder. I joined the marketing and product development teams. When I had been there for about a year, an executive from a CPG manufacturer joined the company and brought much needed knowledge. He commented on our work style – like dogs, we were butts up, diggin’.
Cross-functional collaboration aren’t just nice to have. They are critical to success in today’s environment. Here’s why traditional, hierarchical org structures don’t work.
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10Feb
3 Avoidable Statistical Mistakes by Audrey Guinn, PH.D.
Marketing research is grounded in the scientific method: answering questions by generating a priori hypotheses, collecting data to test hypotheses, and analyzing data to draw conclusions. Adhering to the rules of the scientific method is important to ensure that results are valid and unbiased.
Sometimes marketing researchers are tempted to use undesirable methods, like conducting many single significance tests, performing statistical tests without hypotheses, and rerunning statistical tests until desired results are discovered. Unfortunately, engaging in these methods has unintended, detrimental consequences: namely, an increase in Type I Error.
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4Feb
No matter the product or service type, the most successful innovations are grounded in a consumer need or white space.
Rarely does an innovative and successful idea just appear in someone’s dreams or imagination. It’s typically more of a process of trial and error that can take years to conceptualize, prototype, test, and refine. Many innovations require rigorous scientific experimentation. Often engineering and industrial-design functions are also involved.
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30Jan
Eight Ways to Kick-Start the Decade! by Bonnie Janzen
As you start the New Year, you are not only saying hello to the beginning of a new year, but to a whole new decade!
As you think about your career and your business, how can you have more of a positive impact on your business or career? Much as you approached your personal goals and resolutions for 2020, consider starting a list of your business goals and resolutions.
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7Jan
Developing Innovative Ideas: What a Pain! by Michelle Dodd
Companies must continuously innovate in order to stay relevant and fresh.
This innovation may take the form of a new product, a revised product, new marketing channels, an expanded distribution strategy, a new ad campaign, etc. We frequently look to unmet needs for inspiration, but an often-overlooked source for innovative ideas can come from addressing pain points. Pain points typically impact an entire category, not just one brand. They are a ‘cost of doing business’ with this type of company.
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2019
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19Nov
Diving Deeper Into Diversity—Hispanic Research by José Marrero (President of JAM Consulting) and Mike Humphrey (Vice President at Decision Analyst)
At a conference last year, a speaker asked the audience ‘what is the biggest challenge we face in marketing research?’
One theme rose to the top: sampling. Concerns ranged from fraud to worries over how representative our samples truly are these days. While the prevention of fraud is ongoing and evolving, the issue of representativeness deserves just as much attention. This is particularly true in the diverse U.S. Hispanic market, where the demographics, attitudes, and behaviors can differ from the general population in important ways.
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12Nov
Planning for the Future by Bonnie Janzen
We are taught to plan, to anticipate, to read reality.
We are taught to make adjustments in our plans, and to continually do this as we prepare for the future. We do this every day in business. So how do we read the current state of reality? How do we plan and then make adjustments along the way? What do you do when the future that you had hoped for didn’t quite materialize as you expected? Or didn’t happen as quickly as you planned for?
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15Oct
Going Off The Grid: Not Just For Hippies & Outlaws by Jennifer Murphy
What do you think are the top frustrations for survey-takers?
As a marketing research professional, and a customer who takes surveys, I’m focusing on the over-used and abused question format—the grid question. To ease the frustrations of respondents consider using MaxDiff questions, MaxDiff questions force respondents to make trade-offs (or choices), like they do in the real world.
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2Oct
Optimal Pricing Is in the Eye of Corporate Strategy by Elizabeth Horn, PH.D.
An optimal suite of great products offered at acceptable prices is an integral part of a company’s strategy. But what sounds like a pretty simple proposition is not that easy in practice.
Pricing strategies should simultaneously encourage product purchase, promote customer goodwill, and, ultimately, maximize profit. Evaluating potential pricing strategies with historical or future-looking methods is critical because missteps alienate customers and damage margins.
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18Sep
Workshops: A Conduit For Change by Clay Dethloff
At Decision Analyst we have found that conducting workshops with internal stakeholders after the presentation of the marketing research results can be one of the most effective conduits for change that a business can employ.
Workshops allow all of the relevant stakeholders involved in a brand, a new concept, an existing product line, etc., to come together at one time to begin the process of moving decisions and behaviors through the organization.
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4Sep
My Path To Purchase by Tom Allen
Trying to specify consumers’ purchase paths (the behaviors and inputs that impact shoppers’ decisions) is often very challenging.
In most cases, purchase decisions are unique to each individual and are composed of numerous decisions that take place subconsciously. These subconscious decisions are also influenced by outside factors, ingrained habits, and biased perspectives that consumers won’t admit to. So why do we try?
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13Aug
5 Essentials For New Product Success by Felicia Rogers
How many new products are introduced in the U.S. each year?
I’m sure the number is in the tens of thousands, especially when you count line extensions and other new SKUs. All you have to do is spend some time scrolling through Amazon or take a walk down the aisles of any retailer to get a sense of the number of products that already exist. So how does a new product truly break through?
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13Aug
Distribution Strategy by Jerry W. Thomas
Distribution is often an unrecognized and underappreciated element of strategy, yet it is almost always an important factor in a winning strategy.
In the business world, the term “distribution” refers to the channels, logistics, and processes to move products and services from the point of manufacture, production, or creation to the ultimate end-users. When “distribution” is linked to “strategy,” the question is: How can distribution serve as a component or variable to support a company’s overall business and marketing strategy?
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23Jul
The customer experience is as important as the products and services a company provides.
Any brand’s or retailer’s best path to an optimized customer experience is with its frontlines: their cashiers, waiters/waitresses, store managers, customer-service team members, etc. These are the people who interact with customers every day and can make or break a positive experience. How can you ensure employees take an active role in optimizing the customer experience?
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9Jul
Suppressors are rarely talked about in the marketing research community. They are viewed as the “red-headed stepchild” of statistics: rejected, neglected, and outcast.
Suppressors are variables that when added to a regression model, change the original relationship between X (a predictor) and Y (the outcome) by making it stronger, weaker, or no longer significant—or even reversing the direction of the relationship (i.e., changing a positive relationship into a negative one). What can researchers do when encountering problem suppressors?
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27Jun
Key Strategy Questions by Bonnie Janzen
“To be or not to be, that is the question” famously asked by Shakespeare’s Hamlet as he pondered the value of choosing life over death.
In business, opposing positions (such as Hamlet’s) often lead to asking more marketing-nuanced versions of this question: What does your brand or your company wish to be? Or what does your brand or company not wish to be? The answers to these questions form the essence of your company’s strategy, and the answers can lead to corporate life or death as well.
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21May
Breaking Through Information Polarization In An Online World by Clay Dethloff
What is Information Polarization…
I think of it as basically giving precedence or importance to information or things that you like, things you are associated with, or things that closely match your own values or desires; and sometimes ignoring or discounting those things you don’t. But what happens when Information Polarization is taken out of the consumers’ hands?
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15May
“Segmentation Studies Never Pay Off” Overcoming The Myth by Felicia Rogers
In the business world, we’ve all heard it: “We did a segmentation, and no one bought into the results.”
It’s important to remember that the research and report are just the beginning of the journey. We have found that it’s often vitally important to flank a segmentation initiative with in-person work sessions involving key members of the client organization’s team.
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22Apr
Generational Gobbledygook by Jerry W. Thomas
Magically, every 10 to 15 years a new generational cohort (like Millennials, Generation Z, etc.) emerges from the shadows to transform and revolutionize American culture and the U.S. economy.
We might miss these giant transformative waves of radical behavioral changes if it were not for the book authors, pundits, consultants, and communications executives who heighten our awareness of and shape our minds to the significance of each new generational cohort.
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11Apr
Steps and Suggestions to Avoid the Perils of B2B Research by Laura Latshaw
I have worked in business-to-business research for many years. When I meet with clients, I often find myself having a similar conversation about the difficulties in conducting B2B research.
While B2B research is not easy to conduct, the rewards can be huge. Here are some thoughts and suggestions on improving the quality of B2B research.
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4Apr
What was your day like?
You thawed out tonight’s meal from Home Bistro, digitally ran errands on Amazon, put on your outfit from Stitch Fix. If you hadn’t noticed, you’re pretty entwined in “the Subscription Economy.” Business is shifting swiftly, and the way people consume your goods and services has changed—some say in a permanent way. Challenge yourself to come up with a business that can’t be turned into a subscription.
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26Mar
Risky Business, Statistically Speaking by Elizabeth Horn, Ph.D.
Statistical significance testing is fraught with danger. “Getting it wrong” can translate into suboptimal business decisions at best and financial loss at worst.
Although there are several potential pitfalls associated with statistical significance testing, these are the two main mistakes: Mistake #1 is a false positive and Mistake #2 is a false negative.
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12Mar
Driving Business Success With Market Insights by Sara Sutton
Recently, I attended PMRC, the Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Conference. What struck me most was the discussion about how we, as marketing research practitioners, are not doing enough to drive the use of marketing research.
From my company’s work providing marketing research and analytical consulting services across many industries, I know that this topic is broadly applicable, so I wanted to share my thoughts on the topic.
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26Feb
Product Testing Is Unnecessary—And Other Related Myths by Julie Trujillo
A revolutionary new product. An improved product. A problem product that’s been “fixed.” What do all of these have in common?
All of these products also need to be tested. But if the product, itself, is never put into the hands of potential users, how strong are its chances to succeed?
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12Feb
Is Your Strategy Working? 4 Steps To Help Ensure A Winning Strategy by Felicia Rogers
At its core, a strategy is a plan that is skillfully and carefully formulated and carried out for the purpose of achieving a goal in the future.
It seems appropriate to take a look at some of the tools available to help ensure a brand has a winning strategy. From a research and insights perspective, a number of types of studies can be deployed for a solid understanding of how end users will be influenced by a new strategy or a minor pivot in direction.
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29Jan
Rediscovering Your Customers by Sara Sutton
We all inherently know about this trap. We think we know exactly who our customers are, and maybe even what they want or need. But what is this “knowledge” based on?
Successful market leaders understand that they cannot rely on yesterday’s data to drive tomorrow’s growth. We must constantly seek not only to understand the market, but also to anticipate it, else we risk being yesterday’s market leader.
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21Jan
The Seven Deadly Sins of Online Sampling by Jerry W. Thomas
Online surveys rely primarily on samples pulled from online panels (or access panels, if you live in Europe) or on web intercepts (often referred to as “river” sample).
Online panels vary greatly in quality, with fraud and error rates ranging from 1% or 2% to more than 20%. Most large research agencies employ fraud-detection systems to identify these errant “respondents,” but many small research firms and Do-It-Yourself research departments do not have rigorous systems in place to screen online samples for robotic respondents, respondent factories, etc.
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14Jan
When Results Lie: Tips for Overcoming Questionnaire Bias by Audrey Guinn, Ph.D.
Biased survey questions wreak havoc on the reliability and validity of the survey which produces junk data.
Biased questions increase respondent confusion which then increases error in their responses. This in turn reduces the strength of the relationships between variables. In worse case scenarios, biased questions can return results that may be untrue which favor a specific outcome. So what can we do to avoid bias in surveys?
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2Jan
Upping Your Innovation Game by Heather Kluter
Innovation means different things to different people, and so the notion of instilling innovation in your company can be vague.
Through working with numerous companies, large and small, I’ve seen that encouraging learning and discovery can often be the best way to start if you want to create a culture of innovation. When thinking about encouraging innovation based on customer insights, a couple of aspects to keep in mind for increased learning and discovery follow.
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If you would like more information on Marketing Research, please contact Jerry W. Thomas by emailing jthomas@decisionanalyst.com or calling 1-817-640-6166.
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