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Tag: Forrester

5 Things You Need to Know About Online Research Panels

Online surveys and research panels go together like…well, milk and cookies. If they are both high-quality, yummy snack. If either is poor quality, the experience is ruined.

These days, there is a lot of awareness of online panel quality issues. So what does a market research buyer need to know?

Here are 5 things you need to be aware of to find the best panel sources for your needs, and mitigate potential risks. Why is this so important? Because panel quality varies. A lot. You can’t assume all research panels are the same.

Market Forecasts: 3 Tips for Useful Predictions

Even if we put aside self-serving forecasts that are patently optimistic, many market forecasts are based on a rather murky mix of supply-side assumptions, total available market estimates, and compound annual growth rate hunches. In some markets, the forecasts rely heavily on input from suppliers to the market (for example, analyst firms ask PC manufacturers how many units they expect to ship).

Great Market Research Blogs, Part 2

I mentioned that I would be writing up some more faves in a Part 2. The cool thing is that while I had my Part 2 blogs already in mind, several readers suggested others that were not on my planned list. Some are blogs I knew of but hadn’t visited recently, but others were entirely new to me! So I took some time to check them all out, and rounded out my favorite Market Research blogs, Part 2, below.

Online Communities for Market Research: Let’s Not Oversell Them

Yes, online research communities have their place. I ardently believe that there are many organizations that can benefit from structured online communities (MROCs or ORCs, as many now call them), or even just well-run, online customer advisory boards (link). In fact, there are some markets for which I think online communities can be one of the best ways of getting honest, objective customer insights. But let’s not oversell it; if we do, we’ll only cause a lot of heartache (and wasted research dollars).

So, please, some reality checks: …