This post was written by our guest blogger Mark Dengler, President of Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS), a market research firm in Syracuse, NY. What is mystery shopping or secret shopping? Mystery shopping can come in all forms – from phone calls, online inquiries and most commonly, in-person visits. Typically, a script or checklist of Read more

Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) is a market research vendor in Upstate NY with an available focus group facility in the Buffalo, NY area.  QualiSight is located in Syracuse, on the fringe of Western NY.  The Syracuse market is very similar to the Buffalo market on a number of key demographics and market characteristics.  So, if you 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

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

Here in the Bunker, we believe market research is for everybody and can apply to just about every situation. To prove our point, and to continue our annual tradition of celebrating the Fourth of July holiday with a snarky blog post, we have come up with a list of significant figures from American history and Read more

A while back, we came across this video about writing a market research RFP: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh7U04rzz8M] Obviously, the video presents a worst-case scenario for comic effect, but frankly every point on there rang true with us and is something we had already encountered or might encounter in the future. The reason for this, we think, is NOT (as Read more

A couple of weeks ago, I was part of a conference call with a potential new client. At one point, one of the people on the other end of the call said, “Tell us why we should hire RMS over another research vendor?”    It’s rare that someone states the point so succinctly, but that Read more

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

Since 2002, Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) has maintained our onsite, state-of-the-art call center in Syracuse, NY that continues to grow.  In March of 2011, the QualiSight call center is expanding yet again into a larger space located in the Village Commons in Baldwinsville, adjacent to the RMS offices.  This new space will allow for more CATI Read more

When people think about market research, they often think of it in terms of an organization looking outside itself for insights into their customers or markets. That is a large part of it, but an often overlooked (and sometimes feared) application of market research involves turning the lens around and looking inside your own organization. Read more