Research Rockstar Introduces New Market Research eLearning Classes

All classes meet in Research Rockstar’s virtual classroom. All single session classes are $249 per student. Upcoming topics: questionnaire design, survey scales, social media research, in-depth interview projects.

A Blatant Sales Pitch for Market Research Training

What better way to prepare for 2012 success than to plan for some training? Research Rockstar’s training options have been expanded, and now include 4 options: Online Training: Self-paced, Flash-based… Continue reading A Blatant Sales Pitch for Market Research Training

3 Quick Tips for 2012 Market Research Success

December can be a nice, calm month for market researchers. Typically a month with little data collection, few presentations and no travel, it’s an ideal time to do a little 2012 planning. Here are three tips to keep in mind:

Kathryn Korostoff to Present a Quirk’s Webinar: “Think Outside the Survey”

Kathryn Korostoff will be presenting a one-hour webinar on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm (CST). This webinar is ideal for anyone interested in learning emerging market research techniques.

Think Outside the Survey: 14 methods to change how your colleagues and clients perceive market research

How to Select Scales & Answer Options for Your Next Online Survey

In our new class, “Ask It Right: Choosing Answer Types & Scales”, Research Rockstar covers Likert Scales, Semantic Differential Scales, Constant Sum, Ranking Questions, Rating Questions and more. We specifically highlight examples of how to structure answer options for common research market needs, including customer satisfaction, product concept testing and more.

Market Research Training: Principles of Market Research Project Management

Join your Research Rockstar friends for an exciting day of free market research training at MRXU, the free market research Twitterversity on July 28, 2011 (7am-3pm EST).

Are You a One-Man Market Research Juggling Act?

Recently I’ve had the experience of working with several clients who are in the not-uncommon position of being a one-person market research department. And across all of them, I have noticed a recurring challenge: they get stuck in reaction mode, much like a juggler. Let’s look at this challenge and some tactics to address it.

Spring Training for Market Researchers

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:

SANTA DOESN’T LIVE HERE: Don’t Oversell Market Research

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.

Market Research Challenge: Analysis Bias

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.