Online Market Research: Market Research Trends

July 5, 2010

Market Research as an industry is tripping over itself in its rush online. Web surveys, market research 2.0, surveying via social networks, and mobile research applications are the rage. Traditional ways of collecting data have been declared dead. But is the industry simply succumbing to a fad?
On May 1st, the Economist published a special report [...]

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Market Research Consulting: Accurate Market Analysis Must Pass the Plausibility Test

June 29, 2010

Recently perusing posts on market research, I read a blog reporting recent data about YouTube viewership. The blog stated that “American internet users…watched an average of 200 videos a day in the month of May….According to comScore Inc., a globally-accredited Marketing Research company, about 183 million Americans are tuned in YouTube every month watching 34 [...]

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The Real Explosive Power of the Web: B2B Marketing–Part 2

June 21, 2010

Dr. Bob: But what about the bureaucracy that seems to invariably slow everything down? Inspections, custom forms, clearances, shipping manifests and the like?
Chetan:  On the B2B side of e-commerce this is all coming online. It’s an issue of scale. With such large volumes moving literally around and across the world, all the systems are adapting. [...]

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The Real Explosive Power of the Web: B2B Marketing–Part 1

June 14, 2010

One of the fascinating facts about Web commerce is that while marketing and selling to consumers has become all the rage and is soaking up the spotlight, a quiet revolution of much more startling proportions has been happening, unheralded and unnoticed.
Here are the eye-popping statistics:
As of 2007 (the most recent reliable data), business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce [...]

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One Will Get You Five?–Part 4

June 7, 2010

Sometimes management is insistent on working to turn around very dissatisfied customers as an organizational imperative.
“Well,” I have heard, “they are satisfied and they are staying as customers. Why spend money to make them more satisfied?”
Good question.
Here is why: companies need to build positive satisfaction bank accounts, so to speak, with customers. With a positive [...]

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One Will Get You Five?–Part 3

June 1, 2010

My issue with focusing on turning very dissatisfied customers into satisfied one is this: psychology tells us, and qualitative (and I would argue quantitative) market research confirms that there are some people, some small percentage of the customer/consumer base, that simply is never going to be satisfied. No matter what you do for them, they [...]

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One Will Get You Five?–Part 2

May 24, 2010

I have yet to see any definitive research to indicate either the continuing validity or the abrogation of prior market research findings that for every customer with a problem another nine or ten have the same problem but are silent and that an unhappy customer will tell five other people while a happy customer is [...]

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One Will Get You Five?–Part 1

May 17, 2010

Ever heard the old saying in that for every disgruntled, dissatisfied customer who lets you know of their unhappiness with your product or service, that there are nine or ten other customers who are upset but don’t bother to express it? Moreover, these discontented customers would tell five or so other people. On the other [...]

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Market Research 2.0–the Internet: Pomp and Reality

May 6, 2010

As powerful as the Internet can be, marketers and market researchers need to remember that consumer e-commerce activity is only a tiny fraction of total retail activity in the United States, still in single digits.
On the other hand, e-commerce on the b2b (business-to-business) side is booming, with some 35% of activity in the manufacturing sector [...]

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Market Research 2.0?–Part 2

April 25, 2010

The old cartoon of a dog tapping on a keyboard with the caption, on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog still applies. Market researchers have to take careful, considered steps to ensure that in Internet surveying they are really talking to the population they think they are talking to.
For [...]

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