Versta Research Blog

Versta Research Blog

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Versta Research is a marketing research and public opinion polling firm that helps you answer critical questions with customized research and analytical expertise.

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Versta Research Blog

Explore industry trends, research methods, and tips for your own research projects in the Versta Research Blog. All opinions are our own, and some may change over time.

First time reader? Check out the Best of the Blog for the most popular posts from almost 10 years of blogging. We’re glad you’re here.

Versta Research Post

Dilbert’s Actionable Deliverables

If you ever feel like strangling the next research consultant who promises to deliver “actionable insights” then you can join me and the Dilbert team in making fun of it instead.  Not only is it a horrid phrase, but it is unfortunately meaningless now that every research firm claims to be different from others by…

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Versta Research Post

Dilbert Does Predictive Analytics

We love this cartoon because it raises such interesting issues about probability and prediction in market research. Here’s a quiz.  Suppose you own a retail store and want us to help predict which customers that come through the door will buy.  You want to focus your sales efforts on the best prospects.  We do our…

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Versta Research Post

Wait! Wait! Don’t Dump That Data!

The first lesson I learned in one of my graduate-level research methods class was surprising and simple:  You need variation in your data if you want to do statistical analysis.  In other words, you cannot identify the causes, predictors, or so-called “drivers” of an outcome unless you have a whole variety of different outcomes in…

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Conjoint Analysis Helps Apple Win $1B in Lawsuit

If you ever have trouble convincing your managers and executives about the value of market research, tell them this:  The one billion dollar settlement that Samsung will pay Apple for patent infringement was based on a carefully designed market research study using conjoint analysis. According to colleagues at Sawtooth Software, a company that develops the…

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Versta Research Post

13 Threats to Survey Accuracy

Way back in 1944, Edwards Deming published an article in the American Sociological Review that could be required reading for anybody who does research today.  He outlined all potential (and unfortunately, common) sources of error in survey research. Apparently our contemporary obsession with sample sizes, random samples, response rates, and margins of error is not…

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William Playfair's Pie Chart

Why You Should Avoid Pie Charts

The New York Times Magazine runs a weekly feature called “Who Made That?” It provides a history on the origins of oddities like fly swatters, soy-sauce dispensers, clothespins, Kraft Singles, and … pie charts.  They attribute it to one William Playfair, a Scottish engineer who created and published a pie chart in 1801.  He is…

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Versta Research Post

Doing Market Research with Social Media

When all of the hype and uncertainty around social media settles down, market researchers will likely see it as “merely” another useful channel through which to gather data and opinions from the audiences they care about, just like surveys, focus groups, or ethnographies. In the meantime it is good fun to read articles, like this…

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Versta Research Post

High Response Rates May Hurt Your Survey

A couple weeks ago we presented new data showing that response rates continue to decline.  You can now expect that a typical, rigorously executed phone survey will yield a response rate in the single digits. Scientific evidence over the last decade has shown that high response rates do not necessarily yield more accurate surveys.  In…

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