Last week I attended the Corporate Researchers Conference (CRC) in Dallas, organized by the Marketing Research Association (MRA). It was an outstanding event. I had considered having Versta exhibit at this conference, but I’m glad I did not. Why? Because instead of being in a booth talking about Versta, I did the opposite. I went…
If our last newsletter convinced you there are insights to be found in academic journals, we hope our fall newsletter will convince you of another source: Henry Brockman, organic farmer friend extraordinaire and keen observer of consumer behavior. During market season, I volunteer for and work alongside Henry at the Evanston Farmer’s Market. Here are…
Ever wonder what all those big data companies, who make tons of money selling information about you, actually know? With newly heightened concerns about data privacy, some companies will finally give you a peek. And it’s not too impressive. Maybe it’s good enough for mass marketing, but for those of us in research who sometimes…
As a citizen and voter, I am appalled to learn that our government routinely spies on the phone and digital communications of ordinary people and businesses and now harasses the journalists who are bringing it to our attention. And as a business owner in the market research industry, I am deeply concerned that government spying…
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…
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…
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 rarely miss the world of academia after having jumped ship twelve years ago, but one thing I always appreciated was that teaching involved distilling ideas down to their simplest and most essential form. Students often led the way for me, asking questions that forced me to clarify, deepen, and condense. So it was again…
We’re all for ditching research when you have strong intuitions about your business and have no pressing questions that need to be answered. But too many business leaders are now following in the footsteps of Steve Jobs who was notorious for believing that consumers can’t tell you what they want. Aggressively ignoring market research has…