What We’re Reading: Sample Size, Mobility, Emerging Practices

September 12, 2011 By 1 Comment
Good Monday to you all. We thought we’d start out the week with a list of some of the articles and posts that have most recently caught our eye. Let’s dive right in!
  • How to Determine Sample Size for Segments – As always, Michaela Mora delivers some terrific educational content over at Relevant Insights. In this recent post, she discusses how to go about determining the most effective sample size for individual segments of an audience in order to get the most reliable results. Michaela walks us through the right questions to ask, as well as two possible approaches to take when adopting a sampling strategy.
  • Mobile Survey Response Rates ROCK – Ivana Taylor over at the QuestionPro Blog calls our attention to a recent study in which a mobile response option was added to more traditional data collection methodologies. The results were impressive: 25,000 text message responses were received from 23,500 unique mobile numbers in reply to a single open question.
  • GRIT Sneak Peek: The Top Emerging Market Research Techniques: Our friend Leonard Murphy over at the GreenBook Blog has a preview of the annual GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) study. The full report will be available in the next week or so, but in the meantime, Lenny takes a look at some of the preliminary data, with a focus on emerging market research techniques in 2011.
What are you reading this week? Be sure to share your favorite articles/blog posts/chat discussions/etc with us, here in the comments or via Twitter (@researchaccess).
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What We’re Reading: GameAccess, Mobility & Market Research Myopia

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Happy Monday, and Happy August as well. Despite the summer lull, filled with vacations, longer lunches, and generally slower-moving business, there’s still plenty to talk about in the world of market research. Here are some of the articles and news items that have our attention this morning:

  • GameAccess is Launched! – We’re very excited to share the news of the launch of our sister site, GameAccess. At the helm is gamification expert Betty Adamou (who you may recall as a past ResearchAccess contributor). Betty is the founder and CEO of Research Through Gaming (R.T.G), and through her efforts heading GameAccess.com, we’ll all benefit from the wealth of knowledge she has about game theory, game mechanics, and how gaming can be used not only in market research, but in advertising, marketing, concept testing and more. Read more about Betty and GameAccess in her introductory note as Editor-in-Chief. Welcome aboard, Betty!
  • “Must Read” List from the Market Research in the Mobile World Conference – We’ve talked a lot about the impact of mobility and mobile data collection on market research. There’s a slew of interesting thought leadership happening in that space right now. Fortunately, our friends over at the GreenBook Blog have put together a terrific list of articles, videos and presentations coming out of last week’s Market Research in the Mobile World conference in Atlanta. Examples include “Using mobile qualitatively to transform insight generation,” “The new era of expressive research: using technology for cultivating insights,” and “Mobile vs. online: modality considerations for data quality.” Go take a look!
  • Market Research Myopia: What the industry isn’t seeing in its own research – Kathryn Korostoff over at ResearchRocks.com has a great piece this week about a somewhat narrow field of vision that occurs when the market research industry looks inward. Specifically, that when the market research industry surveys itself, it tends to leave out a key segment of the audience: technology providers and platforms. Consequently, is the resulting research skewed?
  • The Real Cost of Social Media – Most especially because I enjoy infographics, I wanted to include this piece from MediaBistro on calculating the real cost of social media. As the author points out, the benefits of social media are often well understood, but the true underlying costs aren’t always fully considered.
What are you reading this week? Be sure to share your favorite articles/blog posts/chat discussions/etc with us, here in the comments or via Twitter (@researchaccess).
Filed Under: Gamification, Market Research, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

What We’re Reading – Respondent Engagement

July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Happy Monday to all!

We’re digging into our blog roll this morning, and finding an endless supply of interesting content worthy of your attention. Here are a few pieces in particular that should be on your radar:

  • A New Model for Respondent Engagement - Our good friends over at the GreenBook Blog have nailed it out of the park once again. In this post, they tackle the perennial problem faced by market researchers – that of declining response rates among greater competition for attention, and as a result, declining sample quality as well. Fortunately, as GreenBook editor Leonard Murphy points out, there are new models emerging to re-engage those who’ve become desensitized or indifferent, and the results are encouraging!
  • Does Satisfaction Always Lead to Loyalty? Not Necessarily. - Many companies, my own included, seek out higher customer satisfaction as a way to promote long-term customer loyalty. Rajan Sambandam argues, though, that loyalty does not always increase in correlation to customer satisfaction, particularly for companies who deal in products considered “necessities.” The money those companies spend chasing customer loyalty may be better spent elsewhere.
  • The Limiting Adjective of “Marketing” Research - Be sure to read through this thought-provoking essay by Kevin Lonnie of KL Communications, who argues that the very name attached to our industry – “Marketing Research” – is outdated and limiting, and it needs to go. What do you think?
  • Not All Data’s Created Equal - A terrific article on the danger of quoting “statistics.” Here’s a taste:

I’d far rather we got on with the business of surprising and delighting our clients, rather than ’8 of 10 cats believed’. Show human reactions to things. Proper ones, not some manufactured focus groups. How do people REALLY behave in the juice aisle?

What are you reading this week? Be sure to share your favorite articles/blog posts/chat discussions/etc with us, here in the comments or via Twitter (@researchaccess).

Filed Under: Market Research, News Tagged With: , , ,

What We’re Reading – Mobile Research Galore

June 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We’re back this week with a round-up of what we’re reading. Our focus today is on a number of articles tackling the topic of mobile market research, including the impact of the smartphone, current limitations of mobile market research, and where we go from here.

  • What Smartphones Mean to Researchers – Mobility is creating a sea change in the market research industry, and at the center of that change is the smartphone. By enabling consumers and business to have constant, mobile access to data, smartphones have opened up new frontiers for how we communicate, share and connect with those around us, including our customers. In this article, author and Research Access contributor Vivek Bhaskaran analyzes the impact of the smartphone on our industry, and charges us to seize the opportunity that smartphones provides to deepen interaction with consumers.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Gamification, Market Research, News, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

What We’re Reading: Mobility, Asking Why, Social Media Research

May 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Normally, we’d be going through our reading list on Monday mornings, but given the glorious (and extended) Memorial Day weekend here in the US, we decided to postpone our reading to Tuesday. So without further adieu, here are some highlights from our reading list this week:

  • Mobilizing Market Research, Part 3 – In this third part of a nine-part series leading up to the Market Research in the Mobile World Conference, Carrie Robbins at the GreenBook Blog details the current uses and benefits of mobile market research. If you need to catch up, be sure to take a look at Part 1: Why Go Mobile? and Part 2: Industry Insights.
  • The Insight of Why - This excellent essay by Matt Ridings of techguerilla challenges the value of simple data in the absence of critical thought – specifically, in the absence of real people asking “Why?”  As Matt says, “…if you simply take data alone, and try to parse it in different ways all you really get is ‘filtered data’.  Useful?  Sure.  Interesting? You bet.  Insightful and/or Meaningful?  That remains to be seen and is arrived at only by human investigation *and* the context of the objective.” This piece is a thought-provoking, quick read. Be sure to add it to your list.
  • What is Social Media Research? – Ray Poynter over at the Future Place blog is in the process of writing a journal piece on the current state of social media research. As part of the process, he’s broken social media research down into 3 major “buckets” and he’s looking for your help and ideas to fill them. Go help him out.

What are you reading this week? Be sure to share your favorite articles/blog posts/chat discussions/etc with us, here in the comments or via Twitter (@researchaccess).

    Filed Under: Market Research, Mobile, News, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

    What We’re Reading: Working in Real-Time

    May 9, 2011 By 1 Comment

    Here at Research Access, we read quite a bit – as you can imagine. Personally, I both love and fear opening Google Reader each morning to find 1000 or so unread items from across the worlds of news, media, business, marketing, technology, and of course – research. (I also subscribe to the daily cartoon xkcd; you should check that out.)

    Anyway, as a result of all this reading, I thought I’d make it a regular habit to share some highlights of my Monday morning stroll through the blogosphere. Two articles in particular this morning form a theme that I’d like to expound on a bit: real-time data.

    Here are the two articles:
    [Read more...]

    Filed Under: Market Research, News, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,