Trends and News
3/16/09
2009 forecasted to be a rough year for market research
The 2009 Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals reports that buyers of market research services expect nearly a 10 percent drop in their market research budgets. (The report also has other stats on the state of the industry beyond revenue.) While this may be expected in a down economy, it should not be an excuse. […]
By David KennedyRead More
3/12/09
An interview with a professional respondent II
We recently posted a satirical video of an interview with a professional focus group respondent. Today I ran across this article written by another professional respondent. While somewhat old, I believe it still rings true nearly five years later. For reasons that are probably apparent from watching the video and reading the article, the current […]
By David KennedyRead More
2/12/09
Facebook opening up to research
Facebook is adding another service as a means to bring in revenue. No, it’s not video, applications, or another new advertising system. Facebook is turning to market research as a means of generating revenue. Sounds great on the outside – and like Google Insights, businesses have been drooling over access to that kind of information […]
By David KennedyRead More
1/19/09
Tradeoffs between survey length and cooperation
In a previous post we discussed how survey length can indirectly drive up participation recruitment costs. Another often-ignored consequence of long surveys is poor quality data that may or may not be easy to identify. Even conscientious participants lose the desire to be cooperative as a survey drags on. By the sixth page, or the […]
By Beth MulliganRead More
1/14/09
Is Detroit now asking the right questions?
A few weeks ago there was an article in the Denver Post about the reason for the demise of the US auto industry (thanks to Chuck, our finance manager, for passing it along to me). In the article, Ed Quillen mentioned an age-old anecdote about asking consumers what they want. When US automakers built and […]
By David KennedyRead More
1/6/09
Looking forward to 2009
In the tradition of blog posts recapping the previous year and predicting the next year, Corona offers our own opinions on how the trends of 2009 will shape the world of research and strategy. Response rates are declining and reaching a representative sample is becoming harder. The number of households with no landline telephone may […]
By David KennedyRead More
12/11/08
Cutting through the clutter
As a fun experiment, I’ve kept track of all the chances I’ve recently had to complete a survey. In the past two weeks I’m up to six (conservatively counting). This includes a few invites from research panels, a student’s class project, a mail survey, and a customer feedback form. This doesn’t count “fun surveys” such […]
By David KennedyRead More
12/8/08
Everything is connected (moreso than usual)
There have been lots of interesting political analyses coming out of the recent election, and since we are rabidly non-partisan at Corona we haven’t spent much time covering them (other than the all important donuts and coffee polls). But this amazing analysis of how Obama’s victory was created by the sea level and sedimentaton pattern […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
11/20/08
Long surveys
I heard the following conversation a few nights ago while on the bus ride home between the bus driver and a passenger regarding a survey that RTD was administering to a few riders on each bus. “That survey was like a book.” “It even had chapters.” “I think they get paid by the question.” Of […]
By David KennedyRead More
11/17/08
Importance of market research in an economic downturn
The economy is on a downturn and, with businesses bracing for the effects, you’ve probably been hearing plenty of strategies for how to thrive during this tough period. And the foundation for any good strategy is good information. Market research is just as important, if not more important, during a tough economy. When times are […]
By David KennedyRead More