by Richard Jenkins | Feb 10, 2012 | Company News
Hurrah! Jenkins Research is celebrating three years. So thanks go out to a number of clients and partners who have trusted me with their research and business consulting needs. Year three was the best year so far with several new clients and partners. A milestone is a...
by Richard Jenkins | Dec 30, 2011 | Industry News and Trends
While the industry remains largely healthy in Canada, it is under considerable pressure to define and enforce standards. What is now playing out (partially, in the press) reflects the fundamental tension evident in new ways of doing things as well as the difficulty of...
by Richard Jenkins | Dec 15, 2011 | Company News, Consulting Business
Business is ruthless. Business is ultra competitive. Business is about winning. It is all of these things until it is not. Sometimes it is about collaboration, about working outside of the box, about doing something together. There is always risk involved in...
by Richard Jenkins | Dec 13, 2011 | Industry News and Trends, Survey methodology
As a society we value norms — how is something compared with the “normal”. School starts it off but throughout our lives we seem to find ways to comparing ourselves to some normal. Even online we have developed measures of how we are doing relative...
by Richard Jenkins | Nov 24, 2011 | Consumer and brand behaviour, Public Opinion
Public health authorities are in a significant bind when it comes to persuasion. Encouraging people to adopt healthier lifestyles is key to better individual and social outcomes (from less disease to lower costs). Changing behaviour is, however, not easy as evidence...
by Richard Jenkins | Nov 18, 2011 | Elections
During the last Canadian federal election campaign, there was considerable speculation about the large increase in turnout at the advance polls. At the time I speculated that the media and other commentators were wrong in suggesting the increase was a product of the...
by Richard Jenkins | Nov 14, 2011 | Survey methodology
I received four survey requests today and one glaring thing stood out about the surveys. Some companies value my time more than others. In three of the cases, there was no incentive to go online and complete the survey. Nothing. A presumption that I value the brand...
by Richard Jenkins | Nov 7, 2011 | Survey methodology
In the market research, the first question has incredible magic. Like the first sentence in a paragraph or the first line of a movie, that first question can grab the attention or put the respondent off. In addition it can give us more and better information. The...
by Richard Jenkins | Nov 2, 2011 | Public Opinion
One can imagine the shock that leaders felt when the Greek Prime Minister announced that he intended to have a referendum to let Greek voters decide on the austerity announcement. Here, an elite negotiated compromise, which itself was hard to agree on is being...
by Richard Jenkins | Oct 25, 2011 | Industry News and Trends
In the past several months I have worked with organizations who have, gasp, collected their own survey data using Survey Monkey. In one case, I was able to offer input into the design and in the other I came in after the data was already collected. Other professional...
