We all know what the most common survey design mistakes are: having surveys that are too long, too onerous, or that have questions that are leading or biased in some… Continue reading Three Common Survey Design Mistakes You Can Avoid
We all know what the most common survey design mistakes are: having surveys that are too long, too onerous, or that have questions that are leading or biased in some… Continue reading Three Common Survey Design Mistakes You Can Avoid
Let’s get a few facts on the table, shall we? We all have non-researcher friends, colleagues and acquaintances who are writing their own online surveys using one of the many… Continue reading Survey Design 2011: NEW REALITY, NEW RULES
Once you have taken the time to craft a fantastic questionnaire, the challenge becomes: how do you get people to actually take it? Of course, having a great list (or… Continue reading Please Take My Survey: Getting People to Accept Your Invitation
Technology is fundamentally changing how, when, where and with whom we do research. buy wellbutrin online buy wellbutrin no prescription generic These changes fundamentally challenge the market research industry’s tired… Continue reading Technology Ran Over Our Dogma
The final presentation, when we deliver market research project results, feels like a huge accomplishment. The project is finally done! Or is it? Alas, our goal is not to deliver the results–it is to make sure our audience actually uses them.
If you throw “social media” and “market research” into a blender, what do you get? It depends on the exact recipe you select. The good news is that whatever you decide to try first, you can start with some free samples.
Is your organization doing more market research? Are people outside of the market research department becoming increasingly involved in research, either as “do it yourself” researchers or as members of cross-functional project teams? Imagine a baseball team made up of three professional ball players and six middle-aged guys from the local coffee shop. Wouldn’t those well-intentioned coffee drinkers need some practice before that first game? Well if you want your whole research team to play at their best, here are a few things to keep in mind:
We get a lot of questions from people evaluating online survey platforms. And given that there are now more than 50 options available (see partial list at the end of this article), it is a bit confusing. Before you start evaluating options, consider these checklist items:
Be careful not to oversell market research. Those of us who do market research professionally tend to get enthusiastic. We are typically people who enjoy designing and implementing research methodologies, who like to dive into mounds of data and extract meaningful results. In our enthusiasm for research, we have to be careful not to over-promise. Realistic expectations are the key to satisfied clients, especially for riskier types of projects.
Even if a market research project produces a pile of perfect data, we still face the fundamental challenge of analysis — making sure that we’re analyzing the results comprehensively and objectively. In other words, without bias.
Let’s say you’ve done an online survey. You identified your objectives, thought carefully about sampling, and designed a great questionnaire. You monitored data collection and carefully cleaned your dataset. Even after all this painstaking work, risk still exists. You still have to analyze the data, and it’s here that unexpected errors often creep in.
