Brands are living entities. They rise and fall according to consumer interest in them, which is driven in part by marketing’s efforts to extend the life of the brand. This is where market research comes into play. Whether you are a brand manager for a multi-million dollar consumer brand or the owner...read more

Pricing is one of those tricky P’s that we speak of in marketing. Getting the right price can add serious coin to the company’s bottom line. Missing the mark could lead to lost sales, lower earnings and the proverbial albatross around the neck of being the “high” price player. So, can marketing...read more

Market research, and by association survey research in general, was not designed to be a random fishing trip. This is not to say that randomness isn’t important to our cause, but is not the key driver if you will. Yet, it seems as if so many projects occur at the whim of a CMO who may or may not...read more

As a fact of daily life we are confronted with choices and options. Some of these decisions are easy to make and take little of our precious time. However, there are those decisions that take considerable time and resources to resolve. As survey researchers we put our respondents through choice...read more

Making decisions can be a challenging process. Understanding how customers navigate their decision process is a key function for both consumer and B2B market research professionals. One technique that is useful for understanding the decision matrix is CHAID analysis or known formerly as Chi-Square...read more

I’m goin’ mobile as Pete Townsend once sang. The trend toward all things mobile continues to cruise down the highway unconcerned by high gas prices. Does this mean market research should follow along? I say so with a cautious yes! Why the caution you ask? When we go mobile we should do so with open...read more

There are a few go to techniques that we use for survey data analysis. The primary tool used for analyzing survey data is the crosstab. There are fancier multivariate techniques, and those have their place, but for everyday use the crosstab is the preferred method for analyzing nominal and ordinal...read more

In a previous post we examined the fundamentals of Likert scale development. In case you missed it, Likert survey questions are designed to measure attitudes using a five or seven-point scale agreement scale (e.g. strongly disagree to strongly agree). These scales and their derivatives continue to...read more

There comes a time when all professions begin to question their purpose. Consider it therapy for the profession. Market research is no different. Since the new millennium started, the MR profession has seen the rise of data mining, social media, online survey platforms, big data, gamification, The...read more

Not long ago, I learned some startling statistics: The loyalty of employees who work for small businesses has dropped by almost 20% since 2008, and currently stands at a paltry 50%. Although I have never experienced any serious turnover in my own venture, I decided to take preemptive action by...read more