by March 14, 2013
As winter winds its way down and spring looms on the horizon, I was
reminded recently of a sampling technique used in the old days that
has taken on a new spin. It used to be called snowball sampling.
Just as a snowball gets bigger as it rolls down the hill, this form
of sampling builds up the...read more
by October 9, 2012
Yes my friends we have entered the political silly season. With a
month til the US presidential elections more money will be spent on
advertising and on public opinion polls than any other time of the
four-year political cycle. It is a good time to be in advertising
or research. It is a sure bet...read more
by November 3, 2011
Survey research involves uncovering hidden insights buried deeply
within responses to our questionnaires. Looking at one variable at
a time can provide interesting top-level insight, but it fails to
uncover the relationships between variables. This is where
bivariate (two variables) or multivariate...read more
by September 29, 2011
As US political mania ramps up, one thing is for certain, it will
be a good time for opinion polling. All manner of surveys will be
conducted regarding key issues and the personalities and style of
potential candidates. The desire is to extrapolate sample findings
to the broader market. This is the...read more
by March 11, 2011
The curse of it is… Well the curse of being a research junkie,
particularly in the B2B space, is you come across a great deal of
salary surveys. Everyone wants to compare themselves and see where
they stand versus their peers. I have to admit I fall into this
bucket. In the marketing research...read more
by April 13, 2010
It is incumbent on the survey researcher to clearly define the
target population. There are no strict rules to follow, and the
researcher must rely on logic and judgment. The population is
defined in keeping with the objectives of the study. Sometimes, the
entire population will be sufficiently...read more
by December 17, 2009
How many survey responses do you need to get "statistically
significant" results? This question is often where confusion
happens for many clients asking their survey researchers for
interpretation of results. However, that question only makes sense
in the context of a statistical hypothesis test....read more
by December 14, 2009
Sometimes you need to research the competition, but your budget can
take quite a hit. There are ways to do so without spending a lot.1.
Attend industry trade shows. This can even be a way to fulfill
multiple research obligations with one stone. If you have several
clients in the same industry, you...read more
by December 8, 2009
Whenever you set out to perform a market research study, you need
to select a sample representative of an entire population. It is
impossible to survey an entire population of course – but you need
to work carefully to get a representative sample that truly
exemplifies the target group whose opinion...read more
by December 4, 2009
In prior posts, I’ve described various types of errors and bias
that can result from sampling procedures when executing your
questionnaire designs to get a representative sample. Market
research sampling error will always occur if you’re surveying a
smaller portion of your entire target population....read more
