Marketing Research Blogs 2020 - 2023

02 November 2023

Unlock the Power of Advertising:

8 Steps To Creating Better Advertising

In the hands of skillful marketing executives and expert researchers, advertising gives us the power to change the world. Advertising can change feelings, change attitudes, and change behaviors. So, how can a client, advertising agency, and research agency work together to create effective advertising?

17 October 2023

7 Questions for Successful Concept Testing with Healthcare Professionals

Some of the most important qualitative interviews conducted are with medical and clinical professionals. An hour with a teaching hospital oncologist is more difficult to schedule, more expensive than with a consumer. However, conducting qualitative research with healthcare professionals tends to elicit responses such as: “I’m not an art director,” and “I really don’t like these types of interviews,” numerous times. In many cases this subject has garnered eyerolls, sighs, and groans. So, how do you elicit more productive responses from Healthcare professionals?

03 October 2023

Global Research – Not Just A Numbers Game

If there is one simple truth about global marketing research, it is that “Data gives us the answers to the questions we ask, but insight comes from understanding the truths behind the responses.” While data alone provides valuable information and answers to specific business questions, true insight often goes beyond the numbers and advanced calculations—it requires a deeper understanding of the respondents’ context, underlying motivations, and “culture.”

01 September 2023

6 Strategies to Win Shoppers’ Hearts

It is critical that retailers remain relevant to keep an enduring place in the hearts and minds of consumers. So, how can you position your brand and your retail operation for success in the hypercompetitive and extremely fast-moving environment? When consulting with our retail clients, we focus on strategies in 6 key areas.

24 August 2023

Extra! Extra! AI Will Eliminate Our Research Jobs!

…Not So Fast… We Humans Aren’t Obsolete Yet

AI algorithms are smart and becoming smarter by the day. They’re sure to be able to do some of these tasks now, and perhaps more of them in the future. As we sit here today, relying solely or even too heavily on AI comes with significant risk. We humans have a broad and deep understanding of the business issues—the context of the problems.

22 August 2023

Ask the Experts:

What’s Key to a Successful Segmentation?

Well-conducted segmentation initiatives are highly beneficial, but they also are expensive and time-intensive for the organization. Kelly, has gathered expert advice on segmentation from three colleagues with varied areas of expertise. Here are some tips for ensuring a successful segmentation.

14 August 2023

Fancy Statistics Do Not Equal Causation

In research, understanding cause is often the goal. What is causing a product to sell? What is causing a decrease in subscriptions? Frequently, though, data has been collected using typical surveying methods that will not render answers about causation no matter which robust and fancy statistics are used. The only way to truly determine cause and effect is to control for all extraneous variables by utilizing an experimental design. That way, all other possible explanations for the outcome have been ruled out.

08 August 2023

Branding Models With Textual Data and Deep Learning

How would one develop a branding model using text data and deep learning methods? What steps would one take to build such a branding model based on both structured data and unstructured textual feedback from customers? What kind of modeling techniques could be used?

01 August 2023

The IAT – A Guide for Marketing Researchers

What is the IAT? The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was created by psychologists in 1998 and is believed to measure implicit associations about topics such as race, sexuality, weight, gender, nationality, age, skin tone, religion, and disability (among others). Since marketing researchers have begun to use it in their research, @Audrey has put together this blog that helps marketing researchers draw their own conclusions about whether or not to use the IAT in their research.

18 July 2023

4 Keys To Optimizing ROI From Your Segmentation

Segmentation studies are a large investment, which makes it critical to ensure that your organization will utilize the results to their fullest to justify the ROI. This blog discusses several actions you can take to use your segmentation results.

11 July 2023

The Type Is Right:

Maximizing The Impact Of Segmentation Typing Tools

During the course of most segmentation engagements, a typing tool is developed. This tool classifies future respondents into a segment using fewer questions than used in the original segmentation analysis. Vigorous application of the typing tool is necessary to achieve activation. The more companies integrate the typing tool into discovery and sales processes, the more likely they are to realize the full potential of their segmentation investment.

06 June 2023

To Be (In Store) Or Not To Be (In Store)

That is the question. I’m paraphrasing Shakespeare’s Hamlet, obviously, but this question comes up fairly often when deciding on the best research approach to tackle various marketing or business objectives. In fact, earlier this year we interviewed customers onsite at locations in different markets in order to gain real-time feedback on various store point-of-purchase (POP) features.

25 April 2023

Concept Testing Among Dual Audiences To Help Drive New Product Success

Testing new product ideas among the relevant audiences is worth the commitment. However, when there is an intermediary used for distribution of products to the end users, there are different research needs. For organizations that use an intermediary, it’s important to determine among which audience the research should be conducted. Can you limit yourself to only the end user or only the intermediary? I would advocate for research with both audiences as a best practice for ensuring the success of the product or service.

30 March 2023

You’ve Completed A Segmentation Study. Now What?

Leveraging Segmentation To Drive Business Results

Going into segmentation research, companies usually have firm plans, or at least an idea of how they will utilize the results. If a team is considering embarking on segmentation work without such plans, they’re probably not ready to spend the time or money required to make it happen. The last thing anyone wants is for such a significant research investment to fall flat for lack of planning or vision. The good news is segmentation efforts are, more often than not, successful with the right vision and good planning.

09 March 2023

The Top 5 Question Types to Include in Market Segmentation

In market segmentation, the distinctiveness of the segments depends on the types of questions used in the segmentation analysis. Typically, market segmentation uses 5 question types in the analysis so that segments differ on many facets (needs, behaviors, psychographics, personality characteristics, and demographics), not just needs. Analyzing the data using a variety of these 5 question types gives a holistic view of the consumer market.

01 March 2023

Is Your Strategy Lost In The Trees Or Making A StrategicImpact™?

In today’s world it’s easy to lose sight of the destination, the strategy. You become focused on managing versus leading, and you may be driving hard, but in the wrong direction. Are you organizing resources in the right direction? Is your strategy lost in the trees or making a StrategicImpact™

07 February 2023

Are Your Price Increases Causing Customer Confusion and Resentment?

During tough economic times, companies may often seem insensitive to their customers, causing a loss in trust and loyalty. Price increases paired with decreasing value cut deep. There can be a more artful approach to pricing that can soften the blow for consumers while still managing profitability. Of course, pricing evaluation can be complex, so where should your company start?

23 January 2023

Secondary Meaning: The Measure of Brand Strategy

A brand is some type of symbol, name, or sign that identifies and distinguishes one product or service from competitive products or services (and we can think of “identifies” and “distinguishes” as the practical functions of a brand). There are also intangible elements, such as status signals, values, emotions and feelings, visual imagery, and personality traits that can be linked to a brand name.

27 September 2022

I ♥ Product Testing

Product tests are, at their most basic, some of the simplest types of marketing research that can be done. Which cola do you most prefer the taste of? The one on the left or the one on the right? Take it no further than that and you have something that is arguably insightful. Take it even one step further and the tests can be very revealing. Why do you prefer the one on the left? Just adding that one simple question (and the probes that should normally follow it) takes the implications to the next level.

12 September 2022

Does Your Segmentation Need A Refresh?

Segmentation initiatives are expensive and exhausting. Done properly, by including stakeholder interviews, qualitative exploration, quantitative segmentation, qualitative persona development, and an activation workshop, segmentations can take months and require the ongoing attention of internal business partners. When the research and the initial activation process is finished, there remains the big job of socializing the segments throughout the organization.

09 August 2022

Let Imaginators® Enhance Your Next Research Initiative

Hearing directly from consumers can be invaluable, but what if your research initiatives are a bit more creative in nature? By including creative people, such as the Imaginators, as part of a hybrid (or multi-method) approach to your research often provides a more comprehensive perspective which translates into strategic action.

28 July 2022

6 Steps (Or Hops) To Successful Shopper Research

Research can be a little bit like the game of hopscotch. You take the first hop, then the second (maybe the third at the same time), then the next, then the next, and so on. All the while, you’re gaining momentum and working hard to stay focused on the outcome: THE FINISH LINE! Here are the steps for successful shopper research.

20 July 2022

Virtual Ideation Workshops: 5 Tips For Success

Ideation workshops are a great way to generate innovative ideas for new products, services, or experiences—or enhancements to any of these. Most companies have grown very comfortable with in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted via webcam, an option that provides flexibility and has been relied on heavily since the pandemic began. But what about ideation workshops? When does it make sense to take these virtual? And how can you do so successfully?

27 June 2022

Your Employees are The Key to Your Success!

Employees are the lifeblood of any business. Fostering employee relationships is much like planting and caring for a garden. We want to create, maintain, and nurture each relationship between the company and its managers and its employees. Investing in employees’ growth and training as they take on new tasks and challenges is a crucial element of cultivating a successful company.

11 May 2022

Make Me Comfortable, Please!

What makes a home comfortable? You’re likely to find a wide variety of answers to this question, ranging from soft goods to structural improvements. Based on our recent research, things like home entertainment systems, furniture, and a good heating and cooling system top the list.

03 May 2022

An Overview Of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) For Marketing Researchers

Structural Equation Modeling is a flexible multi-use tool in the marketing researcher’s pocket. Researchers benefit from using SEM due to its multi-functional capabilities. SEM’s benefits are many, such as managing many independent and dependent variables, examining different types of models, accounting for measurement error, and analyzing all relationships simultaneously.

27 April 2022

How To Interview Physicians When You Aren’t An M.D. Yourself

Let’s face it—talking to doctors can be intimidating. The weight of physicians’ work responsibilities and their collective intelligence can be quite intimidating, even for a seasoned researcher. If you lack experience with interviewing physicians, this article includes six questions to ask yourself in preparation for an interview with physicians.

22 February 2022

Brand Equity Tracking Models

All other factors being equal, Brand Equity is the very best predictor of a corporation’s probability of long-term success. In well-managed corporations, senior management stays focused on building and maintaining Brand Equity for all of their brands among the most important target audiences (customers and prospective customers). Once a sound brand strategy is in place, it’s important to track the cumulative effects through repeated surveys of target consumers, employees, and other target audiences.

08 February 2022

Not Wasting Words:

Identifying the Right Sustainability Message

Your company has done the hard work of defining sustainability in your arena, researched the topic, and set goals and created initiatives that have the full support of the board. How do you best communicate your plan to your customers? Does the word "sustainability" mean the same thing to your customers as it does to your organization? How can you assure that your initiatives are seen as more than merely lofty ideals?

01 February 2022

Strategy’s Starring Role:

Don’t Let The Supporting Actors Steal The Show

It seems so simple but brilliant at the same time. Messaging strategy, like any other strategy, should have a singular focus. If the recipient takes away just one key idea from your message, what should it be? High quality? Sustainably produced? World’s most comfortable pants? Guaranteed fun? When we think about brand-building campaigns, whatever your brand’s core promise is, that’s where the messaging strategy should be focused.

20 January 2022

What Do French Press Coffee And Great Consumer Insights Have In Common?

Recently I was thinking about the similarities between coffee made with a French press and great consumer insights. To manage a successful business, you will need customer insights in order to inform the decisions that are being made on a daily basis regarding products, advertising, messaging, pricing, packaging, distribution, shelf displays, promotions, etc.

12 January 2022

Multicollinearity – A Marketing Researcher’s Curse Word

What is Multicollinearity? Multicollinearity (also known as collinearity) occurs when two or more variables are very highly correlated. Singularity, a more serious form of multicollinearity, occurs when two or more variables are redundant, where one variable is a linear combination of the others.

01 December 2021

Getting Comfortable:

An Unexpected Theme During The Pandemic

It’s no secret that when COVID-19 hit the U.S., life changed dramatically. Most people began spending so much time in their homes that desires to spruce things up emerged almost immediately. Here’s a summary of activities from our ongoing Consumer Reactions to COVID-19 research.

18 October 2021

Reliability and Validity from a Scientific Perspective

Both “reliable” and “valid,” are used to mean “robust” or “accurate” in everyday speech. The concepts of reliability and validity are not interchangeable from a scientific perspective. These two words are not identical, and understanding the difference is important when interpreting research outcomes.

03 September 2021

The 411 About Deriving Marketing Claims From Market Research

Marketers have just a few seconds to capture a person’s interest. 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.

16 August 2021

5 Reasons 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.

10 August 2021

What’s Really Going On Behind The Virtual Glass?

Four Tips For Backroom Observers

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 capture group interaction, and more. But, in conducting online qualitative, don’t forget the role of, and the importance of being a backroom observer.

13 July 2021

Advertising Claims Substantiation

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 resonate with your target audience.

29 June 2021

Insights, Not Oversights!

(A Market Research Checklist)

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?

21 June 2021

The Bridging Model:

Connecting A Segmentation To Customer Databases

Segmentation is a very powerful tool. 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.

01 June 2021

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, Come Sit Next to Me:

How Even the Worst Consumer Feedback Can Be Your Company’s Best Friend

Consumer feedback. There’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. 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.

20 April 2021

Navigating Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Relationships

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.

04 April 2021

Sins of the Fathers

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.

02 February 2021

User-Centric Innovation:

3 Important Tactics To Help Ensure New Product Success

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.

19 January 2021

It’s Time to Put Those Negatively Worded Items Behind Us

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?

13 January 2021

Good Riddance To 2020 But Wait...

Eight Positive Trends Worth Keeping For The Future

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.

11 December 2020

Newton’s Law of Inertia Has Struck:

Time to Conduct a Consumer Checkup

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.

30 November 2020

“I Know You’re Out There”

Engaging Hard-To-Reach Tradespeople And Heavy Industry Pros

So, what can we do to best reach 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.

12 November 2020

Optimizing Parts Of A Whole

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.

28 October 2020

We’re Not Just A Vendor, But A True Partner (Blah, Blah, Blah)

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?

20 October 2020

Fraud in Online Surveys

The incidence of fraud in online surveys is a growing problem. 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.

06 October 2020

Brand-Loyalty Roadmap: It Works for Business and Nonprofits Alike

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.

30 September 2020

The Joy of Innovation

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.

31 August 2020

Three Secrets to Product Success

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!

14 July 2020

Enhancing the Customer Experience With Usability Research

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.

11 June 2020

Jumper Cables For Your Brand?

Yes, They Do Exist. 5 Things You Should Be Doing Now To Restart Your Business

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 can we really expect from our customers, shoppers, or consumers? The truth is 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.

04 June 2020

Your Brand Here!

Strategically Assessing Community Engagement for post-COVID-19

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?

14 May 2020

7 Steps Out of the Unknown:

Product & Branding Strategy

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 this challenge. These 7 steps will help you focus on your product roadmap and reviewing your brand positioning.

17 March 2020

Is That New Product a Cannibal?

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.

10 February 2020

3 Avoidable Statistical Mistakes

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 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.

07 January 2020

Developing Innovative Ideas: What a Pain!

Companies must continuously innovate in order to stay relevant and fresh. 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.