Imagine you were going to going to open a business. Let’s say it’s a coffee shop that will try to attract college students and hip, young professionals. There’s an available retail space in a neighborhood that appears to have a lot of the target customers in it and the building looks nice enough. Is it Read more

For an analyst, some market research projects end when the final report goes out the door. But there are other occasions when researchers are called upon to cap off the project with an in-person presentation of the findings to a group. Such presentations are a great way to present the findings in a more accessible, Read more

As we’ve mentioned before, one of the more preferred tasks we are assigned in our role here in the Bunker at Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) is data analysis and reporting.  The day that the fieldwork wraps up for our online survey or telephone work is the time when we kick it in gear for Read more

Data quality – we here in the Bunker are fanatics about it. Without data quality control, the results of a 1,000-complete telephone survey becomes nothing more than noise. Worse still, it is noise that might serve as the basis for a costly decision for people who trust the erroneous findings. There are a number of Read more

Consumer opinion – we all know how important it is, but how much weight does it carry when we compare it to things like advertising and other forms of direct marketing?  The answer is: a lot.  A detailed report by Alterian titled “Your Brand: At Risk or Ready for Growth” shows that only 6 percent of U.S. consumers Read more

Have you ever heard of the term crowdsourcing? If not, you may not be aware of the term, but you are probably very familiar with the process behind the idea. With the emergence of social media and the reinvention of traditional marketing, marketers are turning to new practices to drive strategic brand development. One of these trendy Read more

This week marks the beginning of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. People all over the country will be filling out brackets and cheering on their favorite teams (or at least the teams that will help them win the office pool). Being located just outside of the college basketball hotbed of Syracuse, NY, we here in Read more

Many qualitative research projects, such as focus groups or in-depth interviews, will offer a monetary incentive to entice people into participating. In fact, unless the research is being conducted for a person’s employer or for a charitable organization, incentives are the only way to get them to give up their time. At the beginning of Read more

As a market researcher, our job is often to be the liaison between client and customer.  So, market research firms all across the globe are trying to find new methodologies to access the minds of consumers.  What better way to do that than to be there when they are actually making those critical decisions?  There may Read more

About 10 or 12 years ago, I was in a shopping mall and got approached by a surveyor with a clipboard. She asked if I would be interested in participating in some taste test research involving some sort of food product. I agreed, but strongly suspected that I would be rejected after the researcher ran through the Read more