Call it the Trump Effect! Polling in Q1 of 2017 was dominated at the national level by issues that are hot-button types of issues that flow out of the politics in the U.S. Think the issues of refugees (13% of the national policy releases), international relations (13%), and trade (11%). In fact, 12% of releases […]
Anyone looking for a good glimpse into the state of the market research industry need look no further than the Open Letter penned by two senior members of Ipsos Reid and the coverage of how other professionals have responded. It shows that (a) the accuracy of political polls continues to be central to both our […]
At the beginning of the year, I made the decision to not renew my membership in the Marketing Research and Information Association (MRIA). The MRIA is the professional organization in Canada for market researchers and it a typical professional organization. Six months later, do I miss it? And, what then are the lessons for member-based […]
Sometimes polls seem to get it wrong. The election result turns out differently than we expected. The product fails at launch despite assurances that it is a winner. The heralded policy proposal is met with scepticism when released publicly. Consider the story that Kim Dedeker told about research failure in 2006: “It’s when we field […]
If you are interested in the evolution of language then Google’s new little tool is a great way to see how the frequency of a word has changed over time. Using the archive of digitized books, it is now possible to see how often we used certain words (at least in the publications Google has […]
We often view the past through rose-coloured glasses, but it does seem like being a market researcher was easier in the past. To put it simply, it is harder to make money. While exacerbated by the global economic downturn in the past several years, the challenge has its roots in the evolution of polling over […]
The future of market research will not just be determined by the data collection modes we will use. The future is not about telephone or online. It is about how we work and how we position ourselves. Size will matter but bigger won’t always be better. Several years ago, while the CEO of the North […]
If market research organizations are going to become more like consulting companies (providing value and added insight) and less like data collection companies, they must shed their inverted pyramid client service models in favour of true teams. Not all firms work exactly like this but too many do. The basic idea that underlies client service […]
It may seem paradoxical but the do-it-yourself (DIY) online survey applications are not all bad for the market research industry. Even if small boutique firms like mine often do not use the tools themselves, preferring to out-source to someone who can manage the whole online field process (from programming to invitation to data delivery), there […]