Most companies offer sales, special discounts, or rebates to move merchandise, increase sales, bring in new customers, or reward frequent customers. But how often are you testing different options to see which one(s) achieve your goals quicker or more profitably? Do you always run a BOGO (buy one, get one half off or free) sale to […]

Have you had an experience like this? You purchase a product, check out of a hotel, or finish a meal at a new restaurant. The salesperson or other employee alerts you that you will be receiving a customer satisfaction survey and they would appreciate you giving them all 10s if you were satisfied. Don’t let your […]

In business, we often focus on the competition or our bottom line, while assuming that we already know all we need to know about how our customers feel about our services or products. But, according to an article in Inc., two of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make are: Not connecting with customers by providing […]

In a recent American Marketing Association (AMA) article, the authors identified seven challenges for marketing leaders today. The challenge they identified as the top, most-important one? How to effectively target high-value sources of growth. As the AMA article reminded marketing professionals: “With all the fascination with new marketing concepts, digital technologies and new tactics, there […]

In situations where businesses need help predicting how consumers make complex choices and what they value most, we often recommend using conjoint analysis. This powerful quantitative method for market research helps businesses determine how people value different attributes of a product or service in consumer and business-to-business markets. The most powerful part of the data […]

One of the most expensive and critical components of market research is the recruitment of participants. In other words, who will participate in the market research study? In the market research business, determining who to sample and how many to include are key decisions directly affecting the validity and applicability of a study’s findings.  Once […]

Many companies have a set of loyal, primary customers who give most or all of their business to that company. This can be true for small businesses, such as a dry cleaner or design firm as well as large corporations operating across the world. Not surprisingly, these “big fish” usually command the highest level of […]

I recently had the opportunity to speak to some middle school girls about my job through the Open Minds, Open Doors initiative. Sponsored by our local area education agency, this innovative program invites young girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to learn about STEM career opportunities from people employed in potential career […]

As those eager students head back to school to build their skills in reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic, it may be a good time for you to review your own branding 3 Rs.  For many organizations, those key metrics are Recognition, Reputation and Recall.  While these are often critical goals from a brand’s perspective and excellent […]

Whenever we engage our panel to ask what improvements we—as the panel management team—could make to improve their experience, one of the suggestions we nearly always receive is, “Stop asking me for the same information on every survey.” If you maintain your own customer panels or have conducted panel-based research in the past, you’ll likely […]