What event or events would you say have had the greatest impact on the United States during YOUR lifetime? It’s a question put to 2,025 adult survey respondents in a mid-2016 Pew Research Center poll, the results of which were covered by Claudia Deane, Maeve Duggan and Rich Morin. Before looking at the article, try to answer the question yourself. What are the 10 historic events during your lifetime that have had the greatest impact on the country? (more…)
Archive for the ‘Marketing Research’ Category
Gaining a Better Understanding of Where Your Audience is Coming From
Thursday, March 2nd, 2017
Gathering Market Intelligence Online
Thursday, March 31st, 2016Market research is key to any business, big or small. Your market defines the boundaries of your potential sources of revenue. The more you know your market, the more you can craft your products and services to fit that market’s needs. As Shawn O’Connor writes for Forbes, “By doing your homework before starting your business, you can be assured that your product or service is properly priced and positioned and you are offering the most sought after attributes.”
How can you do that homework, especially if budgets are tight? Technology has had a big impact on how market research is conducted, for better and for worse. Here’s what you need to know. (more…)
Twitter: Beyond Promotion
Thursday, March 3rd, 2016Like most forms of social media, Twitter is largely used by businesses to promote a message, product or service. However, there are a number of uses for Twitter beyond purely promotional activities. Twitter, and other social media tools, can actually provide big benefits to businesses in multiple ways. Some of the ways we have used Twitter outside of traditional marketing include the following: (more…)
The Biggest Hurdle to Overcome In Your Brand Building Efforts: Reality
Monday, March 30th, 2015Marketers are understandably concerned about building and protecting strong brands. An Economist article from last year discusses the power of brands. “Brands account for more than 30% of the stock market value of companies in the S&P 500 index, reckons Millward Brown, a market-research company. Everyone knows that a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt costs more than a polo shirt; Coke without the logo is just cola.”
But, brand-building efforts are sometimes misguided– (more…)
Why Your Customer Surveys Just Aren’t Working
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014Customer surveys are one of the most commonly used arrows in a marketer’s quiver. What better way to get an idea of how your customers think than by asking them directly? While the basic idea is sound, the execution of customer surveys is often lacking. (more…)
Common Marketing Research Survey Errors
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014Surveys and polls are two little tools that are widely used and often incorrectly. They’re tools that look easy enough to create and, after all, with apps like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang and others widely available they are vastly easier to prepare than in days gone by.
Yet, despite the ease and availability of tools to help in the process, far too many surveys and polls contain very easy to avoid errors that can cause the results attained to be of questionable value. I work with both students and clients on the development and use of marketing research instruments, and I often review and provide feedback on survey instruments. Some of the most common errors I see include: (more…)
Four Little Words That Can Reveal a Lot: “Why do you ask?”
Thursday, May 8th, 2014A recent experience I had, contrasted with a similar experience my husband had a few years ago, made me consider how easy it can be to not only gather key marketing research intelligence from customers but also to improve the service experience, generate positive word-of-mouth and, ultimately, increase sales. (more…)
Who Needs a Physical Location? You May Be Surprised!
Tuesday, February 25th, 2014Some of my favorite authors/social economists do a great job of cautioning us to beware of “conventionally held wisdom”–Dan Ariely and Steven Levitt are two that immediately come to mind. It’s so easy to get swept up by conventional wisdom and then, unfortunately, to act based on that wisdom–whether it reflects reality or not. (more…)
Marketing Research: It’s All About Answering Questions
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013Can you think of the last time you were engaged in a marketing research project? If you’re like most business people, when you hear that question you’re probably thinking about some long-range, very intensive, data-gathering exercise that involved a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of data analysis. And, yes, that is research. But we’re guessing that you are engaged in research far more frequently than you realize. Importantly, your research efforts don’t have to be full-blown initiatives that involve extensive quantitative research and analysis. Sometimes, yes–but, often, no. The trick is determining when you need to gather more information. And that comes down to two important steps: (more…)
Marketing Strategies: Facebook Campaigns
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013I came across two photos the other day with some ordinary people doing some extraordinary marketing campaigns, and generating phenomenal results via Facebook. (more…)
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