Research Rockstar’s training options have been expanded, and now include 4 options:

• Online Training: Self-paced, Flash-based classes. These fully narrated classes are super convenient—learn the topics you want, from wherever you want, whenever you want. These classes are $129 each, and include 30 minutes of instructor access.
• On-site Training: Have a group that needs training? Want to train them all at once? On-site sessions range from 3 hours to 12 hours, and are available on many topics including Market Research Basics, Questionnaire Design, Market Segmentation, and more.
• Real-time Single Classes: Taught in our virtual classroom, these classes combine the convenience of online training with the power of real-time instructor access. At $245 per class, this is best for students who desire interactivity.  Click here for the current schedule.
• Four-week Power Programs: Also taught in our virtual classroom, these 4-week programs offer a deeper dive into market research topics, and include interactive exercises that boost retention. Oh, and they are also fun. Our January 2012 offerings are Market Research Project Management (starts January 10^th) and Online Research Methods for 2012 (starts January 19^th).  All classes start at 1:00 p.m. EST. Psssst…if you miss a class, they are all available for replay.

What is a virtual classroom? Students see slides, hear the instructor, view a white board, and can ask questions. Plus the whole class is recorded and is available for replay for 30 days.

By taking classes virtually, students avoid the cost and aggravation of travel, while still enjoying instructor access. The classes are each designed to be very real-world; the 90 minute sessions are fast-paced and focus on practical information.  After completing a class and a brief assessment quiz, students receive a certification of completion.

Any questions? Please contact Cathy Leonard 508.691.6004 ext 701 or CLeonard@ResearchRockstar.com.

December can be a nice, calm month for market researchers. Typically a month with little data collection, few presentations and no travel, it’s an ideal time to do a little 2012 planning. Here are three tips to keep in mind:

 
• Get customer feedback on 2011 projects. If you haven’t done it yet, it’s time to practice what we preach. Ask for some honest feedback on recent research. What worked. What might want to be repeated in 2012. What requires further investigation.
  
• Get aligned with 2012 corporate initiatives. Organization planning major international expansion in 2012? Planning to deploy green practices? Reducing time to market for new products? Whatever it is, now is the time to plan proactively for how market research can support key organizational efforts.
• Get sample sources updated. Whether you rely primarily on an in-house market research online community (MROC) or panel, have a regular sample provider or some combination, now’s the time to plan ahead for 2012 sample needs. Does your panel need refreshing? Does your MROC need expansion to cover new market segments? Have you had sample quality concerns in 2011 that need to be addressed before 2012 projects start? It’s a common source of market research headaches, but better to plan ahead.

Kathryn Korostoff will be presenting a one-hour webinar on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm (CST). This webinar is ideal for anyone interested in learning emerging market research techniques.

Think Outside the Survey: 14 methods to change how your colleagues and clients perceive market research

Based on the new eBook, “Think Outside The Survey”, Kathryn Korostoff will discuss 14 specific methods that will change how you and your colleagues and clients think about market research. Too many people dismiss “market research” because they equate it with surveys and focus groups. Our goal is to get them to understand that market research is more, much more. Korostoff will present 14 market research methods that aren’t surveys or focus groups. These are the methods we need to raise awareness of, so that people, won’t dismiss market research – even if they are dismissing surveys.

Some of the methodologies discussed include:

• Biometrics
• Crowdsourcing
• Mobile Research
• Neuromarketing
• Video Research
• + 9 more methodologies

There will be a Q&A session at the end.

Let’s spread the word that it is time to think outside the survey. Let’s start by educating ourselves about the new methodologies. Click here to register.

This webinar will be hosted by Quirk’s editor Joe Rydholm and is sponsored by Zoomerang.

There are a lot of cases where what you are trying to capture, whether it is customer attitudes or behaviors, would be best served using a different type of scale or answer option.  For anyone who designs online surveys and is interested in making sure that they are collecting data that is both objective and complete, a good hard look at how you choose your answer options and scales is critical.

In our new class, “Ask It Right: Choosing Answer Types & Scales”, Research Rockstar covers Likert Scales, Semantic Differential Scales, Constant Sum, Ranking Questions, Rating Questions and more.  We specifically highlight examples of how to structure answer options for common research market needs, including customer satisfaction, product concept testing and more.

The class also includes several examples of “bad” questions, and how they can be rewritten to be better.

In market research, we all know we need to make sure that we are collecting data that is going to give us a complete, objective view of a target population’s, attitudes and behaviors. As important as it is to word the questions carefully, it’s equally important to make sure answer options are going to make sense.

Research Rockstar VIP, Backstage and Tour Bus members all have access to the class now; please just visit your member’s pages. Not currently a VIP, Backstage Pass or Tour Bus member?  The class is available for individual purchase here.

We particularly recommend this class to anybody who has colleagues who are new to questionnaire design. This is a very practical class that will help them avoid the common mistakes made by novice market researchers.

Join your Research Rockstar friends for an exciting day of free market research training at MRXU, the free market research Twitterversity on July 28, 2011 (7am-3pm EST).

This is a Twitter-only event where mini-lessons are released with the hashtag #MRXU. It’s a great way to capture market research facts, definitions, and best practices. This day’s topic will be, “Principles of Market Research Project Management” and will cover practical how-tos (and how-NOT-to’s) for anyone managing a market research process. There will also be a Q&A session at the end of the event.

Come one, come all. You don’t want to miss this free market research learning event!

This next MRXU will be particularly useful for newer researchers, so please do share this info with anyone who could benefit from market research training.

Agenda Details:

Class: Principles of Market Research Project Management
When: July 28, 7 am to 3 pm EST.
All times below are EST.

7 AM: Professor Kathryn Korostoff opens the event with, “A Question of Time: Setting Realistic Time Expectations with partners, colleagues and clients.” How long do different aspects of the research process really take?

8 AM: Professor Diane Hagglund will focus on, “Special Considerations for B2B Projects”, and will be available for Q&A via #MRXU

10 AM: Ten Project Management Tools.

11 AM: Professor Greg Timpany on, “Project Management 101: Tips for Beginners”, and will be available for Q&A via #MRXU

12 PM: Professor Michaela Mora on, “A Step by Step Guide to the Market Research Process”, and will be available for Q&A via #MRXU

2 PM: Hot Topics & Final Q&A. The Twitterversity will close with any follow-up on hot topics from the day. All POVs welcome!

More details coming soon!

If you are not already on the MRXU mailing list, sign up here for updates and post-event summary access. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Have you ever watched a really good juggler practice? When everything is going right, it’s a joy to watch, but once in a while, they get just a little behind, things start to get wild, and there’s that moment just before the balls hit the floor that you’d swear it’s the balls juggling the juggler, not the other way around. I bet a lot of market research managers can relate.

Recently I’ve had the experience of working with several clients who are in the not-uncommon position of being a one-person market research department. And across all of them, I have noticed a recurring challenge: they get stuck in reaction mode, not unlike our friend the juggler. Let’s look at this challenge and some tactics to address it.

THE CHALLENGE: Reaction mode

In reaction mode, the research manager doesn’t have enough time, budget, or even authority (in some cases) to plan strategically. Some of these professionals don’t have annual research plans or budgets. They often have too few resources for too many demands. Not only is it personally frustrating to be constantly distracted by delegated tasks on short or no notice, it’s also horribly inefficient. The market research manager becomes an order-taker, when he or she would best thrive and contribute in an active, creative mode. Call that job satisfaction? I don’t think so.

THE SOLUTIONS: Give Management a Nudge

• Make a plan. One client worked up a brief, 12-month market research plan. That sounds pretty tame, but his particular company had never had one before. The MR Manager identified and recommended some very basic things (like measuring brand awareness and initiating a transaction-triggered feedback program) that the company had never done. It’s too soon to predict the results, but the plan was well received by management, and it started a discussion. With luck, an annual research plan and a decent budget will be forthcoming, but even if not, at least management is starting to become a bit more educated about research’s potential.

• Invest in training. With the disclosure that Research Rockstar is a market research training company (so this may be self-serving), providing some training for the non-research side of the company can pay big dividends. Why not present a “Basics of Market Research for Customer Insight” class, where core concepts are defined and the benefits of good MR are presented? Show your colleagues and managers what other companies do with market research, how they apply it, and how much it actually costs. I did a class like this recently at a client site, and the audience had a few very interesting reactions:
  • They were surprised at how many non-survey methodologies there are.
  • They immediately embraced the idea of MROCs (market research online communities).
  • They heard me describe a type of project that happened to resonate very deeply with them (it related to a specific marketing challenge they are struggling with).
  • They were shocked at some of the cost ranges I gave them (what to expect to pay for different types of projects)—and it was a good shocked.

CONCLUSIONS:

When management doesn’t understand market research’s true potential, they tend to tag the market research manager for one-off projects and urgent needs. The one-man market research department will be picking up the balls that other jugglers have dropped, instead of keeping his own in the air. Stepping forward to say “Look what I can do for you” and providing some exposure to the possibilities can be very effective ways to rise above reaction mode. Being a one-man juggling act is challenging, no doubt about it—but it can be a joy when all those balls are hovering in the air over your head.

Check out Research Rockstar’s Market Research Training Services: We can train your whole team or you can purchase individual classes.

Selecting Market Research Training Topics

When selecting topics for a MR training program, there are three key questions to consider about your audience.

• Do they need to know how to be informed market research clients? Market research clients can contribute more meaningfully to the process and will have more realistic expectations about their role if they’ve received some basic training. If you have cross-functional teams contributing to research projects, this becomes even more important as individuals from marketing, manufacturing, product development, and sales will have different market research knowledge and expectations.

• Do they need to know the basics of how to run small projects start to finish? If people outside the market research department are doing online surveys, Facebook polls, or other small scale research projects from start to finish, it’s useful to have them trained on questionnaire design, project management, basic data analysis, and data reporting.

• Do they need an understanding of specific market research topics? There are a lot of technical terms and best practices in market research, and educating people upfront pays dividends later. You’ll spend less time correcting bad assumptions and you’ll minimize dead weight. Suppose you’ve got some significant research coming up, say a market segmentation study or a new customer loyalty tracker.  This would be a great time to do some training on those topics.  There’s a lot of good information that can be covered in a class on specific market research project types that would bring everyone up to a basic level of understanding before you launch that big new project.

Let’s Play Ball!

By providing some basic training in market research, you’ll not only reduce the overall risk and improve the success of market research projects, but you’ll also encourage valuable contributions from non‑researchers. Instead of yelling at the ref from the sidelines, they’ll be in the game — and that’s what makes for a good season!

For information on specific Research Rockstar classes click here. To learn more about Research Rockstar’s onsite training click here.

Most of us have experienced the feeling of being oversold, whether in business or in our personal lives. It’s painful. And it’s the last thing you want your internal colleagues, team members, or other associates to feel at the end of a market research project. Unfortunately, it happens. Maybe the results were unexpected, maybe the scope or methodology ended up being somewhat different than what they’d pictured. For whatever reason, the people who should have joyfully embraced your research results are unhappy. And after you’ve invested weeks or months of effort, time, and money, unhappy internal clients are the last thing you want.

How can we avoid this outcome? Be careful not to oversell market research. Those of us who do market research professionally tend to get enthusiastic. We are typically people who enjoy designing and implementing research methodologies, who like to dive into mounds of data and extract meaningful results. In our enthusiasm for research, we have to be careful not to over-promise. Realistic expectations are the key to satisfied clients, especially for riskier types of projects.

Product Concept Testing Example: What We Can and Cannot Promise

Product concept testing can be designed to help identify product ideas or feature combinations that have the highest potential share of the market. Key word: potential.

But there are challenges with product concept testing research. Sometimes people can’t respond to particular product concepts that are too new or innovative. They don’t have a frame of reference, so it is just too hypothetical. Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Even in more mature categories, product concept testing research has limits. After all, a lot of research depends on asking people about their attitudes and behaviors, and even well-intentioned participants cannot report such information perfectly.

What can we promise about product concept testing that is realistic? We could design the project and promise we will:

• prioritize features
• prioritize among multiple new concepts
• identify likely tradeoffs between features and price
• estimate a demand elasticity curve
• weed out blatantly bad ideas
• identify potential demand deterrents or sales objections to a particular product concept

We also need to let colleagues know that there are many factors beyond our control. A major competitor may come out with a new product that influences purchase criteria. A new entrant may come out with a big splash and disrupt brand preferences. A shift in the economic environment could change price sensitivities.

Product concept testing research is still very worthwhile (and far better than not doing any at all), but it is an example of the type of project that has inherent limitations. It’s always better to do some research than none, but we don’t want to over-sell it.

Bottom line

If you’re doing market research on a project that is known to be risky in terms of how well it can predict actual customer attitudes and behaviors, you have two key steps to take:

1. Consider augmenting survey research with other methodologies.
   Social media monitoring? A prediction market? Ethnography? Rapid prototype testing?
2. Set realistic expectations. First, be certain that internal clients have realistic expectations about what they can and can’t expect. Let them know that inconclusive, contrary, or contradictory results can come up. If they do, it may require further research or the use of other methods—all of these things are part of the real world.

With realistic expectations, people will have the right mindset. We won’t have to worry about disappointing them in the end, and that saves everybody a lot of aggravation.

So don’t even try to be an all-powerful Santa. If that pony won’t be trotting out from under the tree, make it clear in advance. That city child would be happier with a shiny new bicycle anyway.

For more on Social Media Research, sign up for Research Rockstar’s White Paper on the subject.

Want access to more market research articles and training materials? Sign up for the Research Rockstar newsletter: SIGNUP

Let’s say you’ve done an online survey. You identified your objectives, thought carefully about sampling, and designed a great questionnaire. You monitored data collection and carefully cleaned your dataset. Even after all this painstaking work, risk still exists. You still have to analyze the data, and it’s here that unexpected errors often creep in.

WHAT WE SEE 

Human beings have a natural tendency to look for and see things that confirm our hypotheses, or that are consistent with our personal experiences. The result? It’s as though someone has applied a highlighter to the data so that the things we expect or believe jump out at us.

WHAT WE DON’T SEE 

We tend to overlook things we don’t expect or don’t believe in, and have an unconscious desire to ignore things that are inconsistent with our experience and expectations. Amid the flood of tables, charts and graphs produced by our survey, there may well be unexpected results that are more significant and useful than anything we anticipated, but because we’re not looking for them, there’s a good chance we won’t see them. If you’re a doubter, take a look at this video.

ATTRIBUTES OF A GREAT RESEARCHER

Some people are truly gifted at market research analysis. Some key signs?

• They’re able to challenge their own assumptions
• They’re willing to play devil’s advocate and challenge the way other people are looking at the data too.
• They recognize unexpected themes that sometimes appear in a data set.
• They resist the temptation to embrace the first story the data reveals; they’ll look for multiple stories so that they can determine which ones have truly compelling value.
• They can deliver bad news, such as “You know, your baby is ugly”; meaning that your favorite project, concept, or idea is getting negative results.

The ability to objectively and thoroughly look at data to see unexpected patterns is the key to being a great market research analyst. Even when a research project is perfectly designed and executed, there’s a real risk that it will fall apart at the analysis stage, wasting time, money and an opportunity to profit from hard work.

Market Research Bias Problems

In any analysis project, researchers need to sanity check for the following challenges:

1. Positive Bias: The unconscious tendency to see what we’re searching for or expecting to find.
2. Inattentional Blindness: An unconscious tendency to miss what we’re not looking for or don’t expect.
3. Happy News Bias: The inability to acknowledge that there is some “bad” news.

If these problems are at all evident, consider the following options:

1. Challenge Assumptions: If you see results that closely match your expectations or confirm what you already know a little too neatly, challenge yourself. Embrace the discipline of being objective, or hire people who can be.
2. Develop a checklist: Develop a personal checklist to help you maintain objectivity. With experience, you’ll discover where your own biases tend to surface. A checklist of those biases can help you avoid objectivity traps.
3. Hire those with the skills you lack: Someone on the analysis team has to be able to see what the others miss, and be willing to speak up about it. Hire people who see things differently, and create an environment where they are willing to be vocal about what they see.
4. Diversify Analysts: Different people have different biases and will have different interpretations of a data set. With a team, it’s possible that you’ll cancel out each others’ biases. We each have our weaknesses and blind spots, and a team approach will help to mitigate them.

Market Research Analysis: Did You Catch a Fish or a Boot?

Embarking on a marketing research project is a lot like fishing. You can pick the day, the time, the spot, the lure and the line, but you can’t control what you hook. Before you head back to the dock, take a good look in your hand and see if what you’re holding is a five-pound trout — or an old boot.

[Do you have staff that could use some market research training? Check out our online classes; most are under an hour, and all can be viewed conveniently from any web browser.]

The hostess is rude, the salad limp, the wine warm and the steak unrecognizable. What are the chances you’ll be going back there again? How likely are you to take future restaurant tips from the guy who set you up? Might you even tell a few friends about your horrid experience?

Yes, this has something to do with market research. Or, to be precise, surveys. When bad surveys are circulated, the company that sent them out becomes less trusted. The “consumer” becomes an unhappy customer, and may even tell others about their bad experience—with surveys in general or with the specific company.

WRITING GREAT SURVEYS IS IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE

Anybody who’s had a bad survey experience is likely to have a tainted perception of the process, and that can come out in a number of ways:

1. Participation: They may be less likely to take surveys in the future.
2. Attitude: They might spread negative word of mouth about the company that sent the survey or about market research as a whole.
3. Skepticism: They may be skeptical the next time they see market research results.
4. Investment. If they are business professionals, they may be less supportive of their organization’s investments in market research because they just don’t trust the process.

BEING A GOOD CITIZEN

As good citizens of the market research community, we have an obligation to make sure the questionnaires our organizations are distributing are impeccable. Even those coming from the well-intentioned but usually untrained DIYers. The challenge for many managers is the huge number of colleagues now using low-cost tools for creating surveys. An opportunity, yes. But without proper training and oversight, the chance of creating a bad survey is greater than ever. Here are some low-cost options to help avoid that:

• Examples – Provide a template library of commonly used, approved questions. Demographic questions at minimum, so that your colleagues will be collecting consistent profiling information but avoiding questions that may be too intrusive, or too vague to be useful.
• References – There are some great books out there. The “Handbook of Marketing Scales” by Bearden, Netemeyer and Haws (Sage Publications, 2011) is one favorite. A little technical, but absolutely readable to anyone willing to make an effort.
• Quality Assurance – Appoint one or two people as the Survey Q&A Reviewers, and give them the responsibility (and authority) of sanity-checking any surveys before going live (especially those being sent to your valued customers). Make sure this role is publicized and endorsed by managers.
• Keep it simple – There are a lot of tools out there, and while it might seem counterintuitive, sometimes you’re better off limiting the choices. Instead of many different question types, limit it to a handful (say, multiple and single choice, and Likert scales) to keep the surveys manageable, and therefore less prone to design abuse.
• Training – Basic skills are important. Start with new employee orientation materials and train your workforce. I’m a little biased here since Research Rockstar is an online training company, but there are also others that offer seminars and webinars, including the MRA, Burke Institute and ESOMAR.

SURVEY QUALITY IS CRITICAL

Survey quality is important to those who create them, those who take them and those who depend on their results. It’s in everyone’s best interest to assure that what the public sees reflects the quality and professionalism of the market research industry. As I’ve mentioned in other blogs, having a few good policies is a great place to start. And it might just earn you a nice dinner out come Friday, too.

[Planning to write a questionnaire? Check out a preview of Research Rockstar's questionnaire design process class.]