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 »

Anyone who’s moderated knows that a difficult respondent can bring you down while good respondents can refresh you just as fast. Unfortunately, there’s no absolute field guide out there on how to classify and tackle all these individual personalities from a qualitative perspective. So while I don’t have all the answers, I can offer you a simple and fun evaluation, one that reflects what we see day in and day out, personified through a Marvel™ous display of super egos. That’s right, the first ever Avengers Guide to Qualitative Respondents. Continue reading »

While different in scope, the market research industry faces its own “global warming.” And, like its climatological cousin, it too carries warnings of an impending crisis that will shake the foundation of our discipline. Continue reading »

Why do some panel owners treat respondents like a commodity? The obvious answer is that they want to get as much data out of them, at the lowest possible cost and achieve the largest possible profit. They are not interested in sending fewer surveys, paying better incentives, compensating for disqualifications or closed surveys. This is in large part because there is little incentive to do so (other than having a genuine regard for treating people fairly) when researchers who purchase sample do not demand this, and in fact demand ever lower sample prices. Continue reading »

We talk a lot about declining response rates and the crisis of sample quality in market research; it’s one of those perennial issues that comes up year after year without much real action being taken to fundamentally address the issue. I believe the real issue is our relationship with those that we rely on to share their opinions and experiences with us. Things have to change, or else. Continue reading »