As part of the upcoming Festival of NewMR we’re going to begin a new initiative to recognize innovation in the broad market research space and give budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to bring their visions to life. We’re also going to try to make that fun, engaging, and collaborative. On Friday, November 4th we’ll hold the first Insight Innovation Competition as one of the “Fringe” events associated with NewMR. This event will showcase new concepts and ideas in market research, business intelligence, and consumer insights. The website for both submitting ideas and voting for them is: http://insightsinnovation.ideascale.com Continue reading »

If everything we’re meant to support is changing, then how will that impact the way our industry operates or the tools we bring to the battle? To be honest, I’m not sure. In theory, you could just continue to use the same tools we always have and simply modulate the sample to reflect the new target. But with the land under our feet literally changing, it seems clear we need to account for not only where the consumer stands today but where they will be tomorrow. Continue reading »

Several marketing research trade groups have been exploring online research privacy issues, in the hopes of establishing common standards and a code of conduct to govern how “responsible” researchers should treat consumer data. An earlier debate on privacy practices in the social media age can be summed up (in my opinion) in two words: losing battle. This is particularly true as it relates to games research — console, handheld, casual, or any other. Continue reading »

The inspiration for this cartoon is the Hindenburg, an archetype loaded with calamitous inevitability. The marketing team portrayed here is ready to launch something big, and we already know the outcome. Continue reading »

I often wonder whether, in research, we spend so much time navigating the complexities of gathering the data that we neglect the all-important field of communicating what we find. Issues such as online representativeness, phone response rates, and newer forms of data collection (mobile MR, social media sampling, etc.) take up so much of our mental bandwidth that it can be easy to give short shrift to clarity and accuracy in reporting. Continue reading »

Ah Conference Season! That time of year when all of the myriad organizations within the market research space all vie for the attention, dollars, and attendance of everyone in the industry. For those of us who tend to get invited to participate in these things a lot one of the critical questions we have to ask is which organization has a mission that I want to support and will also best serve my business interests. Continue reading »

Of the 1,352 unique links shared on the Twitter #MRX hashtag community last week, here are the 10 most retweeted. Continue reading »

Decades after marketing has entered “the age of the consumer,” it’s startling how little we do know—at any given time—about what’s truly motivating consumers to choose or advocate for brands. And it’s marketers who have to endure the pressures and pain points of this information gap. Continue reading »

Change is something that is inevitable and many people are risk adverse when it comes to accepting it while others are not. That being said, I believe that seeing change, accepting it and adopting it are three different things. What I saw today as I looked again at the data of how providers and clients feel change is coming to the market research industry is that there is misalignment. Continue reading »

Earlier this month it was announced that Steven H. Cohen, Co-founder & Partner of In4mation Insights (www.in4ins.com) had been named the recipient of the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) 2011 Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award. Continue reading »