Our market research company keeps the pulse on the latest and greatest in the industry so you don't have to. We don't just talk market research, we live it, we write about it, and we share it. Our fingers hurt because of it. Often. Learn more about market research basics, tricks, trends, and ideas. Grab a fresh coffee, there is so much here, you'll need it.
Market Research Company Blog
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Phone Survey or Qualitative Executive Interviews? | Market Research Company
Posted at: 10/29/2016 3:15 PM
Choosing between qualitative and quantitative market research can be a tricky choice. Although surveys and in-depth interviews (IDIs) can both be conducted by phone, decision-makers often wonder what the difference between the two is? What insights can be gained from one that cannot be gained from the other? When should you choose the qualitative (IDIs) and when should you choose the quantitative (survey)? Let's take a unique look at both methodologies so you can determine which is most appropr
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6 Social Media Benefits for Small Businesses
Posted at: 10/28/2016 3:12 PM
Many small businesses are afraid to take the plunge into social media. The anxiety to social media revolves around setting up accounts, which relates to set up, what to post, how to manage feedback, and even how often to post. It is so overwhelming for some small businesses they choose to avoid it completely. It's a costly mistake for businesses. Growth in e-commerce and mobile usage cannot be ignored. Lat/Long targeting and in-store mobile app surveys are just a few of the recent trends catc
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4 Dangers of Micro-Managing Employees in Market Research
Posted at: 10/27/2016 3:09 PM
Micro-management. It's a business cliche that gets tossed around offices across the world and sends shivers down employees' spines. No one wants to be called a micro-manager as it generates a strong negative connotation. At some point, we have all displayed micro-manager characteristics in our lifetime either inside or outside of the office, myself included. Don't believe me? Have you ever called your pharmacy to follow-up on when your prescription will be ready? Have you ever hovered over a fam
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5 Takeaways from To Sell is Human | Book Reviews
Posted at: 10/26/2016 3:05 PM
Dan Pink, author of To Sell is Human, will make readers believe no matter what job function they have within an organization, sales are part of their everyday tasks. Much of your time is spent persuading someone else to give something up, in exchange for something they value. In market research, this can be as direct as a client giving up budget in exchange for data insights. Or it can be something as indirect as having your staff each give up an hour of their workday (time) to meet as a team to
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A Career in Market Research | Firm in Upstate NY
Posted at: 10/25/2016 3:00 PM
A while back I was contacted by a follower on Twitter who was interested in learning more about a career in market research. We connected on Twitter and I passed along my email address to her to send some questions. If you are considering a career in market research, like this particular candidate, these questions may be something you were considering yourself so I thought I would share on the Drive Research blog. Here is a recap of her questions and my responses below about a potential caree
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Building Your Personal Brand | Marketing Research Firm Syracuse NY
Posted at: 10/24/2016 2:57 PM
Companies across the world spend millions and even billions of dollars exploring customer decision-making processes. These companies are attempting to measure how much price matters and how other specific features of a product or service matter when people are making a purchase. It's not to say all of this data is vital to guiding a business in the right direction with its marketing efforts but in a service-based industry, I argue, it really just boils down to people. When making a decision to h
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Survey Writing Tips | SONAR | Online Survey Company Buffalo, NY
Posted at: 10/23/2016 2:54 PM
Survey writing is a science. However, there is no "right" way to design a survey draft. What one person designs can be completely different from what another person designs but in many circumstances, both can be useable. So when it comes to survey design, it's often more about "what not to do" than "what to do". As I wrote about before on this site, one of the first and most important lessons I learned in survey writing was a simple tip called MECE (mutually exclusive collectively exhaustive), r
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9 Sites to Bookmark if You Work in Market Research or CX
Posted at: 10/22/2016 2:34 PM
Not all market research websites are created equal. In a digital world where business professionals are flooded with information it's difficult to understand which sources to trust. With new content being posted every second, your job as a researcher will not get any easier. But with all of these new insights at your fingertips, it will get more enlightening. Here are 9 key resources and websites I have bookmarked and find myself checking often during my morning cup of coffee (or 3.) These site
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8 Career Tips for Rookies in Market Research
Posted at: 10/21/2016 2:29 PM
First off, congratulations on starting a career in market research! I may be biased but I think you made an excellent choice. Market research is a perfect blend of creativity with science and stories with statistics. Following these 8 tips will help you get up to speed quicker and build your own personal brand in market research. Suit up market researcher. Use these 8 tips to set yourself apart: Ask questions All good researchers know how to ask the right questions to get the information ne
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7 Benefits of Fantasy Sports in the Workplace
Posted at: 10/19/2016 2:24 PM
I read about the growth of fantasy sports (of all places) in Quirks magazine. For those of you unfamiliar with Quirks, it's a marketing research review magazine published monthly. The article discussed how technological advances in mobile technology has contributed to the growth of fantasy sports due to the increase accessibility of statistics and data for users. More than 10 million fantasy sports users accessed information from their smart phones in 2013, up 12% from 2012. Mobile is not only a
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Pairing Big Data with Traditional Market Research | The What and Why?
Posted at: 10/18/2016 2:20 PM
Big data. You've all seen the term. You've all read about the term. You're all probably sick of hearing the term at this point. In fact, half of you already stopped reading this post at this point because you're tired of hearing about big data. When it comes to market research, analytics, and metrics, is there any term less personable than big data? Let's face it, analysts working with big data are taught to not view people as people but as data points. Big data is analyzed to better understand
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6 Tips for Predictive Analytics | Feasibility Study Company Syracuse, NY
Posted at: 10/17/2016 2:16 PM
Predictive analytics is fun. No really, it is. The predictive part of analytics in research has always been of interest to me. It's like placing a bet or forecasting the stock market. Statistical modeling and algorithms are nothing new to market research but with the recent big data push and more attention from big money businesses being paid to analytics, this structured form of ROI-like decision-making is growing in the industry. Much of this is driven by the sheer amount of data at our finger