Here is our best advice when it comes to best practices: Be mindful of them, but never be a slave to them. In fact, the better practice is to always start with your own situation. Research “best practices” have helped others solve their problems. But the starting point for you should be your questions and…
Every once in a while we opt for slider scales on surveys we have designed – usually when we want a numeric rating from 0 to 10. It seems easier for respondents than shifting over to the number pad, and it offers a more fun, interactive experience than simply clicking radio buttons. Sliders also allow…
PR gets a bad rap in market research. My data wonk colleagues imagine that PR is about spinning, shading, and manipulating the truth. But it is just the opposite, and that is why I love working with PR professionals. To be sure, they are sensitive to the needs, complexities, and politics of the companies they…
Dilbert could have read one of many articles over the last two decades about employee satisfaction and engagement. There is an abundant literature on (1) how to define, conceptualize, and measure employee engagement, (2) how employee engagement drives business outcomes and improves profitability, and (3) the social-psychological antecedents of employee engagement, like the “sense of…
Recently we’ve been writing about nuggets of gold discovered in the ivory tower – that is, market research insights we find by reading academic journals. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon one such nugget this week. It answered a question posed by Diana Hamann, aka the wine goddess, purveyor of a favorite local…
The best way to stay fresh, interested, and excited about market research is to read, read, read. It’s the same thing I always told my students in social theory classes. Useful ideas come from those engaged with the world around them who read all kinds of books and articles from a huge variety of sources…
Every year the Census Bureau comes under attack from elected officials who unfortunately know little about how immensely valuable its services are. The Census accounts for a miniscule slice of the total U.S. budget, and yet it provides some of the most essential services that bolster good government, political stability, and economic growth. These are…
The New York Times Magazine ran a feature article in June implying that big data and quantitative algorithms are the secret of how Obama won the election. The young, technologically-savvy “Obama-wonks” who toiled in “the cave” writing thousands of lines of computer code, took advantage of huge repositories of data from the likes of Facebook…
I usually feel guilty when returning merchandise to a store—like some over-indulged child, ungrateful for what he has, or unwilling to finish all the nutritious food on his plate. But recent research shows that if people like me can get over the guilt, companies actually make more money from us. How does that work? Research…
One subtle (and false) implication of the beautiful chart we presented showing trends in conjoint analysis is that perhaps you should be using discrete choice modeling (CBC, which stands for Choice-Based Conjoint) because CBC is, by far, the most widely used method among those using Sawtooth conjoint tools. But CBC is not the best choice…