There are many challenges on both the client-side and the supplier-side to completing a successful research project. However, from working on the client-side there are some practices that can help the different parties work together more collaboratively. Continue reading »

If you believe that technology companies will become major participants in the research economy, then you must also believe that transparency in how these companies do things will be much less than you are accustomed to. Continue reading »

Transparency is a long-held value of the research profession as it is with any discipline that claims to be scientific in its methods. Today we are competing against new entrants in our industry whose values and skills are primarily entrepreneurial and often at odds with the traditional values of our profession. Transparency is one of those values. Continue reading »

Here are 10 of the most retweeted of the 1,623 unique URLs shared on the Twitter #MRX community in the past two weeks. Continue reading »

Cheapness of data is missing the point. The issue is value or perceived value of the impact of the insights generated in most cases. Continue reading »

Are clients somehow less able to discern quality research, or are researchers thinking of the issue wrongly and clients are simply basing their supplier and methodological decisions on other factors that are more aligned with business needs? Continue reading »

As “for profit” researchers, we need to move faster in the direction of producing things that clients truly value. They’ve told us what those things are and nothing is stopping us from building on their thoughts with our own ideas. Any firm that fails to do that will have a tough road ahead. Those that do, however, will dominate the future of market research (or whatever the industry morphs into). Continue reading »

It’s that time again folks! Continuing our strategy of the GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) study being a bi-annual tracking initiative with different focus areas in each wave, I am very proud to present to you the 2011 Fall Report. This is the 10th Edition of GRIT and the study has become one of the most important sources of information on trends within the global market research industry. Continue reading »

There is a lot of talk about “gamification” at the moment in Market Research circles. As well as the proponents there are quite a few detractors. They seem to see research as a “serious” subject not to be trivialized or polluted by “gamificiation”. The problem is that they fail to understand the power of games. They also fail to understand how fundamental games are to human thought. Far from being trivial, games are a fundamental necessity for us in our cognitive development. Continue reading »

I just completed a survey (as a respondent). I honestly have no idea how the client is going to get any valid data from the mish-mash of garbage I just had to wade through in order to complete the study. As a respondent, I felt this was a frustrating abuse of my time. As a researcher, I felt this was a frustrating abuse of our industry. There is enough of this nonsense going on in research that it’s time we stand up and call out the worst offenders, and use them as examples of what not to do. Because it’s hurting the end users of the research, and it’s hurting the professionals who actually know and care what they’re doing. Continue reading »