The most recent government estimates of cell phone usage among U.S. households were released a few weeks back, and the pace at which landline usage is disappearing is astonishing. Here are just some of the numbers: Thirty percent of U.S. households do not have a landline telephone An additional 16% have a landline telephone, but…
These days most researchers agree that if you want to do a random sample phone survey of the U.S. population, you ought to include cell phones. More than one-quarter of the population do not have landline telephones at home. Those who do have landline telephones are less likely than ever to answer them, and less…
An issue we continually struggle with at Versta Research is how to automate the research process and leverage new technologies without losing the essence of what good research does. Good research does not report data, build charts, or generate dashboards. It learns, answers new questions, interprets data, and helps users focus on information and findings…
This year Ogilvy & Mather is launching a unit within its agency that focuses on cross-cultural marketing as opposed to multicultural marketing. This is an important shift in how to think about multiple markets and segmentation, and consistent with what we at Versta have been seeing in our research for quite some time.
Versta Research just hit a magic number: 100. That’s the number of articles we have written to help our clients and their colleagues keep abreast of important trends in market research. If your market research supplier is not providing ongoing thought leadership in design, methods, and analytics, then what are the chances they are bringing…
This past week the American Marketing Association in Chicago held its 2011 annual BrandSmart conference, bringing together top-level marketers from companies such as Groupon, Motorola, Allscripts, Cars.com, Deloitte, Coldwell Banker, Accenture, Hospira, Walgreens, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Grainger, Morningstar, and many others, all of whom shared the newest strategies and case studies for brand building…
Executives who lead entrepreneurial firms have dramatically different attitudes about market research from their counterparts at larger established firms, according to a recent study from Saras Sarasvathy, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia. The study suggests that entrepreneurs are more focused on immediate and practical questions that will help them…
One resource that we give far too little thought in market research are the people who offer their time and thoughts about the stuff we are researching. They are truly the lifeblood of market research. An article in the spring 2011 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly looks at trends over the last thirty years in…
Yesterday nearly one hundred marketers and researchers met in Chicago to talk about new directions in marketing research. Our topic: Measuring the Un-Measurable. The event was organized by the AMA’s market research group in Chicago, headed by Joe Hopper, president of Versta Research. The event brought together professionals from companies such as Cargill, Allstate, US…
The technology to field surveys via mobile devices has been around for a while, but has not yet gained much traction (and for good reasons). But with smartphones now proliferating at a remarkable pace, we may be in for a change. Deloitte released their 2011 IT and technology predictions last week, arguing that smartphones are…