Five Research Lessons from the Pandemic Years
Here is a brief summary of the Versta Research Spring 2023 Newsletter, which outlines five research lessons that have transformed marketing research during the pandemic years.
What Do Gen Z Marketing Students Think of Research?
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…
This Is What “Sugging” Looks Like: A Fake Survey that Is Unethical and Hurts Real Research
It really bugged me that I got this “survey” invitation last week, in part because it conforms so well to many of the best practices we advise for designing effective survey invitations. Take a look: It offers a generous incentive. It has a nice graphic saying how long the survey takes. It has a prominent…
Cut the Marketing Jargon from Your Surveys
Like other professionals, those of us in marketing and market research sometimes fall too much in love with our specialized and often ridiculous language. It is mostly okay when we communicate with each other. But if we are communicating with customers or consumers, beware. Our words may not be their words. And since our research…
Help Save the Census Today
It’s the week after Independence Day. You’re doing your best to re-focus on work after the holiday break. If only it could have lasted a few days longer! I can’t bring you a few more days vacation, but I can offer this suggestion for making the holiday last just a wee bit longer: Bring some…
Why Your Neuro-Marketing Might Be 70% Wrong
Who can resist those flashy brain image scans showing that certain words, colors, images, or brands (or maybe your latest marketing message) magically light up consumers’ brains, presumably making them want to buy? Or, if you’re a cynic, who can resist sharing with colleagues the brain image scan of a dead salmon showing brain activity…
Tips for Sales Teams: Ask a Favor
Here’s a market research tip you can give to your sales team without doing any costly research of your own. A seller can close more sales if, during the negotiations, he or she pairs a price concession with a request that the buyer do a favor in return. Why does this work? Because asking for…
Hard-Nosed Managers Use Research More
The next time you find yourself wishing for a kinder, gentler manager or business client to work for, think again. This may be the kind of client who will not make the best use of your research, which for most researchers is one of the most depressing outcomes of all. That is what a fascinating…
Research Reveals When Videos Work
As we put the finishing touches on our recently produced video introduction to Versta Research (see the video below!), I kept wondering whether videos really matter. I don’t jump on bandwagons without strong reasons to believe the wagons are going where I want. So it was a happy coincidence to come across research just published…
A Tale of Data That Got Too Big
Here is a brilliant thought experiment about big data, published as a one-paragraph short story in 1946 by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges: “. . . In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the…