Seth Godin’s blog post yesterday was about a topic I have been thinking about a lot lately. It’s inspired by the aphorism, “…to a person with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
Some of the pain that market research is going through right now is precisely because of this. In the field of market research, we have hammers we are very comfortable with…
A Research Rockstar client shared a great story yesterday, one that I just have to pass on. I have sanitized it a bit, to “protect the innocent.”
Theresa is a market research manager at a consumer electronics company. Her team of 4 researchers used to be a team of 7, so workloads are pretty rough.
She recently had an executive from another department share his concern that customers were being over-surveyed. He knew some non-research employees were using SurveyMonkey and similar tools to conduct customer surveys. He asked Theresa to recommend a course of action.
Knowing that the issue is a lot more complex than just telling people to “stop,” she recruited six people from the different departments involved in the rogue activity. Once gathered in a conference room, she showed them the Research Rockstar class, “Embracing Rogue Research.” The 1-hour class acknowledges the pros and cons of decentralized research, suggests policy options, and even tools to make everyone’s life easier.
While at the Marketing Research Association’s First Outlook conference this past week, I listened to some interesting stories from people using their online communities as both research and marketing vehicles. This dual-purpose approach leaves me feeling, quite frankly, conflicted. And a little ignorant; apparently this is a widespread practice. Until now, I had thought most communities were primarily focused on listening to customers to uncover…
I’ve been attending the MRA’s First Outlook conference in San Diego this week. From conversations with other folks here and some of the sessions I have attended, I’ve learned some interesting things. Here are just a few highlights before I hop on the plane home.
In Search of Useful Market Research Displays: Don’t Forget Venn Diagrams. Bored with bar and pie charts? Maybe it’s time to rethink the types of graphics you are using to display key research findings.
One graphic display that makes rare appearances in market research reports is the classic Venn diagram. It’s a wonderfully intuitive way to show overlapping groups. Attributed to John Venn, the Venn diagram was first introduced in 1880.
People like contests. I don’t know why. Must have something to do with why so many people like gambling.
People generally don’t like surveys. And it’s getting worse. How I long for the days when 20% response rates were considered “low.”
Calling on customers as consultants also has a hidden benefit: if your topic of interest is something that people may find too personal, too hard to be honest about—asking them indirectly can be most revealing. Jack may not be willing to tell you bluntly that he thinks your product is hard to use—that might make him feel stupid. But if you ask him how your product could be improved, he will be more comfortable suggesting that “some people” will find the product easier to use if the dials were just a little larger. It’s a twist on the old ploy, “It’s not for me, but…
CloudMaker is a word cloud tool that can draw input from web pages, Twitter feeds (though, alas, restricted to Twitter’s self-imposed 20 tweet limit), and CSV files. The CSV files part is the important one—since this is what allows you to import any text you want…like open-ended responses from a survey you were loathe to tally the hard way.
…given a choice between having a disciplined approach to discovering and measuring customer attitudes and behaviors versus taking wild-ass guesses? I’ll take a market research approach 95% of the time.
I recently had the opportunity to serve as a guest speaker for a Vovici webinar titled, “It’s Greek to Me: Multilingual Surveys.” It’s a great topic, and one that researchers… Continue reading Essential Tips for Market Research in Multiple Languages
