Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all things that make our lives rich and rewarding, and my friend and colleague Henry (the farmer for whom I work on Saturdays) got me thinking about what I am thankful for in my work specifically, and in a new way. He asked us to think about who…
I never speak ill of competitors. In fact, I like them and value them. Whenever I am able to partner with them, I learn a great deal, and they make my work better. So this article might seem like a departure, except I’m not sure if this company is a competitor. I will refrain from…
In our fall newsletter we purposely glossed over the “standard” best practices in writing surveys that one typically reads about in text books or learns in research methods classes. We wanted to give you a deep-dive into our own five last steps in writing a questionnaire that focused on advanced topics like randomization, programming logic,…
What do you do when faced with a skeptical audience of business executives who are predisposed to disagree with your research findings? It is tempting to leave out the boring methodological details of how your research was conducted, who you interviewed, your assessment of the data’s validity and reliability, and so on (“Toss all that…
In quantitative survey research, the questionnaire affects nearly everything else that is critical to a study: the data, the analysis, and the findings. And because of this, writing surveys is the component of research that requires more on-the-job experience than any other. It requires thinking on multiple levels about all other aspects of the research…
In just the last thirty-five years, response rates for telephone surveys have been plummeting. In the 1980s, response rates of 70% or higher were common for well-designed and carefully executed phone surveys. They decreased into the 60% range in the 1990s. And then by the end of the decade, response rates of 30% to 40%…
Like other professionals, those of us in marketing and market research sometimes fall too much in love with our specialized and often ridiculous language. It is mostly okay when we communicate with each other. But if we are communicating with customers or consumers, beware. Our words may not be their words. And since our research…
Believe it or not, there are still plenty of phone surveys being done out there, especially for local needs assessments and evaluation surveys. Often these surveys are mandated by state or local governments to ensure that the right services are reaching people who need them. But phone surveys are extremely difficult to field anymore, as…
Every client we have—no matter what industry—will find something important to think about in looking at polling data on food. These polls touch on some of the “universal” questions we ask in market research, such as: How much do consumers trust the safety of products they buy? How much do they trust the companies that…
The Economist ran an article a few weeks ago from which I have borrowed the title of this post. It puzzles over British politicians railing against focus groups for message testing and trying to understand voter sentiment, while continuing to rely on them as heavily as ever. “In an era when voters are monitored, tracked…