I submitted a letter to The New Yorker about some statistics they published regarding prenuptial agreements. The numbers were obviously suspicious and most likely incorrect. They chose not to print my letter, though I believe it is worth printing here because it highlights the power of dramatic, plausible numbers and the importance of taking a…
Silly surveys, in all their forms, have long been a thorn in the side of authentic, truth-seeking research. When I see silly surveys, I roll my eyes and complain (to anyone who will listen) about the myriad ways in which they subtly damage the reputation and findings of good research. But here is an example…
In this article we revisit a 15-year old article in the Harvard Business Review (“Rethinking Marketing”) about the transformation of marketing. It relates directly to an important theme of Versta Research’s recent talk at the AMA in Chicago—namely, dissipation of the research function. The article argued that marketing was shifting from being product-centric to being…
The word “material” points to a useful concept, and provides a welcome corrective to an obsessive and misguided focus on statistical significance.
Personas are fictional representations of customer types, but they reflect the demographics, behaviors, goals, and motivations of people derived from real data.
This article outlines the six measurable dimensions of brand authenticity — established in academic research — that you should include in any survey of brand authenticity.
Imagine a class of undergraduate students in business marketing taking their first—maybe their only—marketing research class. What is the toughest part of research for them? After one lecture and an assignment, we asked them, and nobody said math or statistics. We’ve just published the Versta Research Summer Newsletter and our feature article, What Do Gen…
Last week we showed you a survey that might convince you to think twice about hiring a super high-end consulting firm for your survey research and insights. Fancy business consultants may know a lot about business, but they know little about gathering good data to answer their business questions. So this week, instead of focusing…
Ever wonder what you get if you hire a fancy schmancy consulting firm for your survey research and marketing insights, instead of Versta Research? Every once in a while we have a potential client who insists: “Give us IBM! Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” I got a view into what those surveys look…
As of today, more than one-third of Americans are unaccounted for in the 2020 decennial U.S. Census. If they remain uncounted, we will not know who they are (their demographics) and where they live. The data your business relies on to understand U.S. consumers and your customer base is at risk. Even worse, the foundations…