I have a confession to make: I’ve been obsessively following the recent story about NCAA athletic conference realignment, hanging on all the details, developments, and speculation the same way a lot of people did with the Casey Anthony trial or Charlie Sheen’s public meltdown earlier this year. A lot of that is because Syracuse, my Read more

One of the challenges of the market research business is that many of those who need your service don’t realize they need it. Or they don’t understand that you’re the place to find it. Large corporations tend to use a lot of research, and they have internal research departments and they speak the jargon. (We Read more

It goes without saying – some level of pre-testing is a must before launching a full-scale survey. Survey Sampling International (SSI) defines a pre-test as a questionnaire that is tested on a statistically small sample of respondents before a full-scale study.  The benefits of pre-testing cannot be overstated whether you go to the extent of a soft launch or Read more

Syracuse, New York has had a long history of being used as a test market (from past to present).  A 2004 report titled Mirror of America, published by Acxiom, ranked Syracuse as one of the top five test markets in the United States.  There are many reasons for choosing Syracuse as a test market including low advertising Read more

All businesses engage in some form of market research.  Market research comes in all forms – both formal and informal.  One example of formalized market research would be a Fortune 50 company like Johnson & Johnson conducting a series of 16 different focus groups across the country to test three new varieties of Listerine, followed by Read more

A good market researcher will always try to organize a report in such a way that the data tells a story. That’s the main difference between presenting a client with insights rather than just a data dump. One of the most powerful graphic tools at the researcher’s disposal when it comes to making data come Read more

I recently read an article about social media marketing titled Ten Myths About Social Networking for Business by Neal Rodriguez (which I recommend everyone should read).  The article brings up a lot of great points about myths surrounding social networking.  Rodriguez makes points on both ends of the spectrum with regards to myths that we Read more

It’s often the most discussed variable before a market research study begins.  It’s often an unspoken goal of all market research studies in the industry.  It may be the single most rewarding statistic when it comes to survey projects.  It provides you with a 0% margin of error for your analysis (if your sample equals Read more

In a prior post, I wrote about general benefits and concerns of panels.  As previously defined in that post, a panel is a group of recruited survey respondents who have agreed to take part in surveys and/or other modes of market research.  Although many panel houses have extensive pools of consumer and even B2B panels, Read more

Focus groups are designed as a creative and engaging way to hear feedback from a collection of people.  Having participants discuss topics in a group setting often leads to a more productive exchange of ideas than a traditional survey or a one-on-one conversation such as an IDI (In-Depth Interview).  We always talk about better engagement with Read more