Market Research
8/4/08
Be Careful What You Ask For
It’s the season for political polling, which is a convenient occasion for illustrating the many potential pitfalls of conducting opinion research. Last week there was a particularly good example of biases in opinions caused by the way a question is asked. There is currently a bill (House Bill 1366) in the North Carolina State Legislature […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
7/30/08
Obama’s Super Marketing Machine
I should first start off with a general disclaimer. We’re a neutral market research firm with no affiliation with any political party. Oh, and another disclaimer, we do market research for a living, so we are biased in that respect. With all that out of the way… I read an article today on Obama’s Super […]
By David KennedyRead More
7/25/08
Don’t Stop….Graphing?
I’ll admit it — I’m a graph nerd. I tend to obsess over the minutia of tables, charts, and graphs, in search of the best ways to present different types of data. I’ve fully accepted the idea — popularized by Edward Tufte and others– that many of the advances in graphing technology lead to pretty, […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
7/14/08
Three laws of Great Graphs?
What graphs should you use in your presentations? Marketing uber-guru Seth Godin recently posted an interesting set of guidelines (and a follow-up coda) on his website. As is customary for our culture, Seth’s rules were three: 1. One Story 2. No Bar Charts 3. Motion His rules quickly were a lightning rod for controversy, so let’s […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
7/8/08
Which Starbucks will close?
To many Starbucks patrons out there, the news that Starbucks is closing 600 stores may be a cause for panic.Around the office, a few of us thought about starting an office pool to bet on which ones near us might close.So, I began to wonder what factors will go into their decision to close a […]
By Joe FitzlerRead More
6/30/08
Market research for the individual
Ran across this site today, thanks to a Google alert. FaceStat – which allows you to rate (and be rated on) attractiveness, occupation, political leanings, and several other characteristics of random individuals who post their picture – seems to be one more twist in social networking sites that bills itself as “market research for the […]
By David KennedyRead More
6/18/08
Polling at the POP
I have been offered short surveys during checkout (i.e. POP: Point of Purchase) several times in the last few months at several retail stores. One such example is at Wal-Mart (okay, they could have been doing this for a while, but I don’t shop there frequently). The screen just asked one question: “Was the cashier […]
By David KennedyRead More
6/11/08
They get one right
In a recent post, Auto Dealers and their Research, I chastised businesses that try to sway customer surveys in order to look good, without trying to learn anything from the research. Well, to be fair, I want to offer some praise for something they recently got right.I recently made several trips to my auto dealer […]
By David KennedyRead More
6/6/08
Guess we won’t be getting a call from Apple
Steve Jobs was recently quoted in Fortune’s America’s Most Admired Companies, as saying, “We do no market research.We don’t hire consultants.” Guess that explains why they haven’t called. I know that innovation often means going out on a limb—revolutionary products don’t come from asking consumers what they want next—but some basic research can prevent costly […]
By David KennedyRead More
5/28/08
Sugging and Frugging
A comment on yesterday’s post brought up how telemarketers have impacted the credibility of market research. Being able to conduct valid research is our life blood and if we were ever unable to get people to participate in our research, we would be unable to provide accurate results to our clients – at least in […]
By David KennedyRead More