Syracuse, NY has enjoyed a long history as one of the nation’s top test markets. The metropolitan area’s use by marketers as proving ground of eventual product success or failure has been well documented for decades. Products both famous and obscure, ranging from ice cream to alcoholic beverages to baby carrots have been tested in Syracuse Read more

This post was written by our Guest Blogger Susan Maxsween who is our Healthcare Transformation Manager at RMS. Nationally, healthcare delivery is undergoing significant change and reform.  Locally, individual practices are being asked to join this movement, with the expectation of creating  more effective provider communities that: Engages the patient, as a whole person, in Read more

Trying to locate a focus group facility in Upstate, NY? The RMS facility named QualiSight is located in Baldwinsville, just outside the heart of Syracuse, NY.  2010 wrapped up a busy year for QualiSight. We had clients visiting our facility from all over the country.  A few of our clients came from Columbus (OH), Waltham (MA), Fort Worth (TX), Read more

Those of us here in Bunker, always on the lookout for anything research-related, have taken note of a trend in television commercials. It seems that many commercials now feature focus groups as a setting. In some cases, the focus groups are fictional, as in these lighthearted spots for Pepsi Max and Snickers: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfmXYmoCElY] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e0Gsn4khss] In Read more

Many clients have their own market research department in-house, while others have gone through the process of selecting a market research supplier.  Depending on whether you are looking for a long-term retainer firm who works as your consultant or a short-term one project supplier, the process is usually the same.  You have to select a Read more

As a follow up to yesterday’s post on probability samples, I will be going over non-probability samples.   These methods don’t provide the same level of fair representation, but certainly serve their own purpose in the market research industry.  These types of samples lend themselves to preliminary forms of research, removing the need for them to Read more

There are many types of sampling methods available in a market researcher’s toolbox.  Each method has its pros and cons.  Some methods, much more so than others, are suitable for specific types of marketing research.  Some sampling methods are truly random in that each member of the specific population has an equal chance of being Read more

Customer satisfaction research is one of the most basic forms of market research.  It’s a course of research that virtually all businesses have considered, and in a lot of cases implemented.  Customer satisfaction surveying is a linchpin in process improvement, offers a portal to customer feedback, and is used to evaluate products and services.  Yet there are many Read more

We recently read an in-depth article posted in the December 2010 issue of Quirk’s.  The author is Mark Goodin, President of Aaron-Abrams Field Support Services in Las Vegas.  Goodin makes an impassioned plea to those who recruit respondents for qualitative research to improve the quality of their service by not taking shortcuts, offering excuses instead of Read more

At RMS, we are frequently asked by our clients what kind of response rate they can expect from their survey research, or after the fact, if the survey response they did receive was “good.” Usually, the most honest answer we can give to those questions is “It depends.” The truth is that survey response rates are Read more