Agency Selection

Snake Oil and Popcorn: Market Research Meets Social Media

The market researcher who clings to conventional surveys and focus groups like a life raft on a turbulent sea is going to drown. Those who judiciously add various social media and ethnographic-based methods along with some of the other fabulous new qualitative research tools out there will be able to navigate through the storm—and best help clients choose the methods (or mix) for their unique needs.

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Best Practices

Wanted: A Fresh, Competitive Edge

Talking to competitors’ customers is a great form of market research and it is surprisingly feasible in many markets.

In Uncertain Times, Embrace Scenario Planning

Have you found yourself needing to forecast a new product’s adoption potential? Sales volume by region for the next 3 years? How about the potential upside of a new distribution

Confessions of a Market Researcher: The Day I Beat My Data to Death

The day I beat my data to death: I poked it, pulled it, pummeled it. I sliced, slashed and skewered it. I tore it up into a thousand pieces and glued it back together into a Frankenstein mess. I abandoned it. I restarted from scratch. Seven times. I created 43 new variables, each of them a total waste. It wasn’t analysis any more; it was an act of violence.

8 Ways to Spend Less on Customer Satisfaction Research

Has your market research budget been cut? If so, one of the programs most often impacted is Customer Satisfaction tracking. For firms accustomed to tracking on a continuous or quarterly basis, cutting back on this program is often a necessary, though unfortunate, reality.