Do We Agree?

Ok so just what is a Likert scale anyway? If you have been in market research, or any form of survey research, for any length of time you have no doubt come across the ubiquitous Likert scale and its strongly agree to strongly disagree framework. In the years I have been involved in constructing...read more

Using Chapters to Score Assessments

Chapters in a book are self-contained entities which could stand alone, but are better suited to be part of a larger whole. The new revision to the Cvent online survey platform allows the researcher to group questions into a chapter. This new feature is well adapted for scoring sections within an...read more

Philosophers & Market Researches, One in the Same? Dancing in the Consumer's Shoes

Just who we are is a question that has been asked by philosophers since time immemorial. Market research professionals are no different than those wise men from ancient Greece in this regard. Our task is to create an understanding of the consumer’s mind in which we can shape our brand positioning...read more

Keeping an Eye on What is Important

What is statistical significance anyway? The core of our survey data analysis should be directed toward generating consumer insights that are both meaningful and actionable. In order to achieve this joint goal we have to keep our eye on significance, both statistical and managerial.Previously we...read more

Are You Using More Than One Barrel? Tips for Question Writing

When is two not better than one? In survey design two is certainly not better than one. In this case it refers to the use of double-barreled questions. Those with little research training often do not realize they are combining two distinct elements into one question. The best practice is to...read more

A new twist on the one percent concept

There is another side to the ‘one percent’ debate. This presented itself in fine fashion recently thanks to two emails from LinkedIn. In the past year the business networking site surpassed 200 million profiles. In 2012, I received an initial email stating that I was one of the first one percent of...read more

Is Life Really as Simple as Yes or No?

Are questions with dichotomous answers the best use of our online survey design? Answering this question is not as simple as saying Yes or No. Dichotomous questions (those with two response options) may be simple to answer, however they leave one key component behind. Variance allows us to dive more...read more

How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

How much do you know about your customers? I mean do you really know them? At the heart of consumer market research lays a wealth of attitude data that is seldom tapped into. Leading marketers have taken the time to delve into this pool because they realize that attitudes precede behavior. How we...read more

Data 4 x 4

I recently taught a session of introduction to quantitative methods. The students brought up several excellent questions including a series on data types. There is no way of escaping at least a cursory chat on data types if you are involved in either consumer or B2B market research. The...read more

How Optimistic are You Feeling?

Optimism, or lack thereof, is a key driver to both current and future spending. Practitioners in both consumer and B2B market research have known this for some time. There are numerous ongoing tracking studies which measure consumer sentiment and/or sentiment amongst purchase managers. Both have...read more
The Rise of the Smart Phone: Are you Leverging Mobile? 10 Tips for Mobile-Friendly Survey Creation