When it comes to market research projects, how big is too big?
When it comes to market research projects, how big is too big?
Consider these two questions: Can market research departments be profit centers (either by “selling” internally or externally)? Should market research departments be profit centers? I first wrote about this controversial… Continue reading Market Research as a Profit Center? It May be Closer than You Think
7 times when market researchers need to stop. Knowing when to stop is a discipline. But after 25 years in the market research business, I know that some of my best work has been when I stopped doing something—even if just temporarily.
Market research studies often capture and measure attitudes and behaviors, as if they could all be sorted into neat packages. We carefully structure our questions, and in the case of survey research, even our answers. We use quotas, we use weighting. But are we creating the functional equivalent of genetically modified food?
I’m a fan of Google Consumer Surveys’ limitation on question length. Google limits you to questions of no more than 125 characters long, primarily – I believe – for a better experience for readers of the sites of its publisher partners … [Guest post by Jeffrey Henning of Researchscape]
How many points in a scaled question is “enough”? That’s a pretty common question in survey design. If you’ve spent some time with online market research surveys, you’ve probably noticed that they often have five points. “Please rate your satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 5, with one representing ‘not at all satisfied’ and five representing ‘extremely satisfied’.” Sometimes, though, you may see a 7-point scale instead of 5. Is 7 points an improvement? How about 11? Is higher resolution better? The answer is, “that depends”.
Is Market Research a high-stress job?
It certainly can be.
But I can also tell you, after 25 years of doing market research, that there are known strategies for managing project-related stress. My favorite is one Research Rockstar students hear me talk about frequently: the preemptive strike.
In the Sunday New York Times (January 20th, 2013 edition), Matthew E. May wrote about, “The Art of Adding Through Taking Away.” The article points to the strength of this wisdom through ancient proverb and more recently by quoting Jim Collins, who apparently observed that, “A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally important, what is not. It is the discipline to discard what does not fit…
Given that there are now many different skills involved in market research, and that each of these skill areas is increasing in complexity, how can one market research project manager excel? How can a general market research project manager have adequate skills, time and talent? Maybe it’s time to let people do what they do best. Or alternatively, perhaps assign them by the way their work will be applied?
Since we’ve just completed an election cycle, with its flood of political polling data, let’s take a look at what market researchers can learn from our not-too-distant cousins: political pollsters….