Our Top Sources for Innovative Research Ideas
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 and disciplines. Broad reading and learning helps us connect ideas and see problems from multiple angles, and leads to serendipitous discoveries and insights without even trying.
In our June 2013 newsletter we highlighted and recommended three academic journals that we read religiously because these three journals consistently deliver nuggets of insight about marketing and market research that we can share with our clients and that make our work better.
That short list was culled from a much longer list of journals, magazines, digests, blogs, discussion groups, and even catalogs that we read every day, month, or quarter for insight and research inspiration. What else was on that longer list, you ask? Here are the top ones:
The best source for general business news, plus smart commentary and insight
An academic journal published by the American Marketing Association
An excellent daily digest from top business newspapers, periodicals, and blogs related to marketing and public relations
4. R-bloggers
An aggregator of R news and tutorials contributed by 452 R bloggers
5. AAPORnet
A discussion group for members of AAPOR (the American Association for Public Opinion Research)
A daily collection of very short business articles written by a wide variety of contributors
7. Quirk’s
A trade magazine for the market research industry
The AMA’s monthly newsletter
9. Alert!
A quarterly magazine published by the Marketing Research Association
As with academic journals, we do not read everything in each of these resources. Instead, we are in the useful habit of scanning titles, introductions, conclusions, and other content so that relevant and important information grabs our attention. Then we read, read, read and take that knowledge and insight back to work for you.
