Market Research Training from Research Rockstar

Embrace Crowdsourcing As A Market Research Option

Two categories of software tools are available to turn crowdsourcing into a practical market research option: idea management platforms and prediction markets. While these categories are distinct, they have a common theme: creating web-based destinations to generate, prioritize, and assess ideas (or predictions). IdeaScale, Infosurv, and Inkling are just three of the platforms that offer trials. Again, new technologies are allowing remarkable researchers to gain customer insights, collaboratively and quickly.

• Tip: Watch out for all of the confusing semantics flooding the twittersphere and market research journals. Collaboration, crowdsourcing, cocreation, open innovation are all popular words that in reality overlap a lot. The idea is simple: inviting a “crowd” (a broad public network, a list of customers, employees, or a set of business partners) to easily share and vote/comment on ideas. The mechanics may vary but the fundamental concept is the same: engaging a group of people of your choice to participate in virtual brainstorming sessions resulting on a prioritized set of ideas. The ideas may be product options, tag lines, sales forecasts, or just about anything else you can think of.

[This is the seventeenth article in a series of 20 mini-posts titled, “Principles of Remarkable Research.” Don’t want to miss this series? Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS.]

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Becoming a Remarkable Researcher Means Letting Go of Dated Assumptions and Embracing Change

Let’s not miss the boat clinging on to old dogma! Instead, let’s challenge old assumptions and the industry’s tired dogma of research being “great, cheap, and fast – pick any two.” Why can’t research be great, cheap, and fast? Low-cost survey tools have automated reporting (some are quite good). New sample sources reduce the cost per complete and in some cases give access to more qualified participants. New methods allow us to conduct “phase 1” research in days instead of weeks. This is all truly remarkable. Let’s embrace it!

[This is the sixteenth article in a series of 20 mini-posts titled, “Principles of Remarkable Research.” Don’t want to miss this series? Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS.]

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Remarkable Research is Well-Defined Research

Documenting an agreed upon, and small, set of precise objectives is vital to the remarkableness of your market research. Don’t let conflicting agendas or a broad, unrealistic scope with too many objectives put your project at risk.

• Sometimes this means that the remarkable researcher has to be tough. You may have to say “no,” diplomatically of course, to the client who wants too much from a single project. A good way to handle these sticky situations is to offer the client options: “We can do all of this, but it will require a second phase of research….here is the time and budget implications.” Or, “Some of these objectives require a different population—so can you provide the extra $10,000 we will need to increase our data collection budget?” There’s nothing like being precise about the budget impact to get people to prioritize their needs!

[This is the fifteenth article in a series of 20 mini-posts titled, “Principles of Remarkable Research.” Don’t want to miss this series? Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS.]

[The Market Research Project Management course starts next Tuesday! Click here]

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Remarkable Research Can Result in the Potential for Remarkable Publicity

Fresh research is excellent fodder for press releases. The media love pretty charts, cool graphs (especially when they come with a catchy hook), and data-infused soundbites. Conduct a fresh piece of research and then interview someone about their take on the results. Maybe a consultant, a business partner; maybe your own CEO. Then package the results as a news release, podcast, blog posts, newsletter fodder, or YouTube video. Original research is excellent fuel to position your brand as a “thought leader” or expert in its field; some companies have formal thought leadership initiatives which include original research as a key component.

[This is the fourteenth article in a series of 20 mini-posts titled, “Principles of Remarkable Research.” Don’t want to miss this series? Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS.]

[The Research Rockstar Market Research Project Management course starts next Tuesday! Click here]

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Remarkable Research Can Be Simple Research

A simple approach is often a kinder approach for online survey participants, which means they will be less likely to reject your next research request (you don’t want customers who receive your research requests to think, “Oh no! Not again! These surveys are nightmares!”). Here are two examples:

• For brand perceptions, a quick and easy way to collect data is to ask, “Which of the following words would you use to describe our company?” Then give them a list of varying words and allow them to pick up to three (better still, ask this open-ended). It’s a simple format and gives you useful insights into how people perceive your brand’s personality.  There are many similarly simple questions that can be asked, that feel easy to participants. Too many brand perception studies force participants through a lengthy barrage of grid-style questions.
• For product concept testing, do you really need to drag participants through 15+ screens of brain-numbing trade-off choices? Unless you really need that level of data to create a simulator, you may find a simpler approach sufficient. Try a monadic approach. Or, if in reality, there are only 3 ways your product would be configured (in terms of features, style, or price), ask for feedback on those items. A simple “mock” trade-off can give you great information at a fraction of the cost and without torturing respondents.

Do some projects require a more complex approach? Yes. But not all. Consider the options.

Bottom line: Tis a Gift to Be Simple (as the song says) applies, and it isn’t “Stupid” (even if KISS is a handy mnemonic). Just because we can jam a lot of questions into a single grid, just because we can create complex trade-off exercises, doesn’t mean we should. Sometimes a simple approach is just fine.

[This is the thirteenth article in a series of 20 mini-posts titled, “Principles of Remarkable Research.” Don’t want to miss this series? Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS.]

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