Adult learners, sometimes called nontraditional students, have long been a part of the market for higher education, but in recent years the segment has grown in importance. In fact, a 2002 special analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that there were roughly the same number of nontraditional undergraduate students studying at American Read more

With Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday, the day after Saturday (yes, it’s this Sunday, May 8th – yet another reminder!), we put together a few things we have heard our mothers say.  Although they probably didn’t have market research in mind as they were trying to teach us valuable life lessons, we always have market research on the 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

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

Here at Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS), a market research company in Syracuse, NY – we often hear that little to no market research is done by businesses for new product development or before a major marketing campaign is undertaken.  Have you ever heard the phrase “any advertising is good advertising?”  It seems like a Read more

When it comes down to researching a brand, more often than not you’ll see a lot of the focus being spent on perceptual information.  When researching a brand through a survey or focus group, businesses will ask about awareness of the brand, familiarity with the brand, and impressions (all perceptual statistics).  These are all-powerful metrics Read more

Some people treat market research the same way many approach going to the dentist – they know they should do it, in theory, but ultimately tend to put it off. There are a lot of reasons research gets put off as it takes money, time and effort, things most of us like to conserve when Read more

A prior market research blog post (authored by our guest blogger, Mark Dengler, President of Research & Marketing Strategies) gave the following explanation of qualitative research. Qualitative Research is used to explore and understand people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behavior and interactions. It generates non-numerical data – for example a customer’s explanation of “very satisfied” rather than a “10” rating using Read more

When people think of your company, what image comes to their mind?  Many people think of branding as simply a logo or the company name, but the fundamental nature of a brand is to create an identity for your company – that people can identify with.  This includes the image you create for all aspects Read more