Watch out for the order bias in the long list of responses when designing an offline pen-paper diary.
We should wait for all data to be collected and tabulated before studying the summary statistics to get a more reliable estimate. This is a practical application of the Law of Large Numbers.
It's almost impossible to try to understand the market, the category, your brands, and users of your brands from just one marketing research project only.
You must really think way out of the box to design a brand health check study covering 4 different categories in 7 different cities with a budget of only IDR 100 million.
In an online or mobile survey, the layout of a grid question must be designed well to avoid confusing & tiring respondents.
It's just discouraging that some business folks still don't understand that marketing research must go through a proper process to extract good insights from the respondents.
Marketing research can't perform witchcraft. You can't just ask respondents directly & then come up with a new positioning concept.
Asking too detailed purchase habit in a survey is really problematic since memory fades very quickly.
A mobile panel can provide a quick, simple, and cheap solution to screen out non-critical options.
A boutique research agency doesn't mean a cheap research agency.
Procuring market research services is not the same as procuring tangible goods.
Product performance must be evaluated in a proper context. A concept & product test methodology provides it.
There're several variants of the implicit association research method. Beware of what you're buying from research agencies.
A little knowledge is indeed dangerous. However, it's even more dangerous if you ignore experts' advice.
It's critical that the different panels in product testing projects are matched as closely as possible in all aspects.
Without access to retail audit and consumer panel data, it's just extremely difficult to monitor the market movement and develop the appropriate growth strategy for the brand.
A tool should be selected not due to its sexiness but due to its ability to answer the research objective.
To obtain the most cost-efficient proposal from a research agency, you must provide a concise specification including your detailed expected deliverables.
In every research project, it's of the utmost importance to define very clearly in advance the expected outputs.
It's a bad practice to cover many different topics in one research project.
A good branded evaluation should take into account the competition.
A new method takes time to create, develop, evaluate, test in a real situation, and implement commercially.
In marketing research, the devil is also in the detail as well.
Each tool / technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. There's no perfect tool / technique.
Think of market research as your payment for relevant information to reduce risks in new product management.
If you can't accept the findings, then you'd better not conduct any marketing research in the first place.
Business objectives in a marketing research project must come from the brand team.
When business is good, you don't value research and data. When business is poor, you suddenly realize that you've got no data to guide you in the right direction.
Churn is a good example where data mining and marketing research can complement each other.
In the restaurant business, ingredients determine the quality of the foods served. In MR, field quality is the key success factor.
Qualitative researchers must also understand the principles of experimentation like randomization and rotation to minimize bias.
There are only two informative open-end questions in product testing projects; i.e., spontaneous likes and dislikes.
The acceptance of a product should be based on the evaluation by common consumers, not an expert panel.
Plan the analysis early, even at the proposal stage. Envision the end results as early as possible.
Online or offline is only a data collection strategy. In the end, research objectives should dictate which one is better suited.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to see a difference in awareness level when comparing two tracking waves with a one year gap.
To date, 2017 was the peak of the marketing research business in Indonesia. Hopefully the positive trend would continue in 2018, the "election year" (Tahun Pilkada).
Excellent fieldwork execution is a must in every marketing research projects, and also in Sea Games 2017.
Qualitative research asks "why" while quantitative research asks "what".
All specific research questions must be specified by all stakeholders before embarking on a marketing research project.
Always prepare a proper table specs before you start your data analysis.
Variance of measurements from regular respondents can't be expected to be as low as that from trained panelists.
Always focus on the research and business objectives when analyzing your data.
Big data project can be considered as providing the "inside view" while marketing research provides the "outside view".
You need to put yourself in your respondent's shoes when asking him/her to fill in a diary you've created.
"Faster, cheaper, better" must be compensated by a very focused, short, and to-the-point questionnaire.
A census will collect information from all relevant participants in the population, not just from a subset of the population.
To be able to extract some consumer insights for decision making purposes, you need to conduct some research. Doing a consumer research does require some investment.
It's just an overkill to invite 6 research agencies to pitch for a standard concept-product test project.
Research design determines the analytics that can be applied, and vice versa.
Sample size determination is in the end a function of research budget or stimulus availability.
Behavioral economics covers a lot of topics; e.g., judgments, heuristics, biases, and choices.
Marketing research should be indispensable in an "evidence-based decision making" process.
Creating a rate card is a futile exercise if the project specifications are vague.
In this environmentally friendly era, it's just a shame to demand research agencies to submit a hard copy of the proposal.
Business insight is only as good as the quality of data it's based on.
Beware of the few outspoken respondents representing only the minority in the actual population when conducting Qual Research.
Research is valuable if it can be translated into tangible marketing actions (in Steven A. Silbiger. The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed. 2012).
A quality research proposal can be written if clients can provide agencies with a quality research brief.
Newness of a methodology doesn't guarantee its validity and usefulness. Older methods have their own merits to be able to survive the test of time.
Changing the layout and planogram of a store without any proper research could run the risk of alienating the loyal shoppers.
A Usage & Attitude study is intended to capture a snapshot of the current market condition.
Manipulating fixed format ASCII data is a dying skill in marketing research.
A good research would provide a guidance in your company intentional growth plan.
Data collection strategy depends strongly on the research objectives and project constraints like time and cost.
If a research project is unplanned and there is only a limited budget, don't expect a comprehensive research design.
Don't confuse research methodology with operations excellence.
Marketers who don't fully understand their own business issues can't write accurate research briefs.
When commissioning a large scale quantitative project to a fieldwork supplier directly, make sure your supplier has a strong enough financial resource to be able to complete the project.
All people involved in the business of consumer insights must really master the fundamental of marketing research.
Qualitative research results in general are not supposed to be generalized to the wider population.
In the self-completion mode of data collection, each question must be very precise without any double interpretation.
Survey length should be determined by the number of questions asked, not the length of interview.
Marketing research can't guarantee any sales increase; probably only a price discount can.
It's just a waste of resource when clients rush you for a proposal but at the end the initiative gets postponed indefinitely since the brand team can't produce the stimulus.
Performance of a recently launched product should always be evaluated via a post launch check survey.
Data collection method depends on the research objectives, analytics, cost & time constraints, and country specific limitation.
Testing a new product branded but unpriced is dangerous since in the end price does matter.
Quantitative research tries hard to shorten the length of interview to under 30 minutes while a focus group discussion can easily last for 3 hours.
It's a cardinal sin to tweak your data to fit your story.
"If you don't have a point of difference, you'd better have a low price." (Jack Trout)
The huge amount & different types of data in your disposal are relevant only if they help you achieve your business objectives.
A quick reminder. Changing the methodology slightly might change the end results significantly.
Once the data and tables from the Data Processing Department are ready, always check & recheck for errors.
Questionnaire design & writing should really be left to professional marketing researchers.
Brand Managers, research will be just a waste of valuable resources if you, yourselves, are not sure what you're trying to sell to consumers.
Is there any correlation between the involvement of Procurement and the decline in the quality in the marketing research world?
A new product launch shouldn't be left to an inexperienced brand team with only a limited knowledge about marketing research.
When you've got a predetermined bias favoring a particular research method, you just can't see that another research method would be more suitable to achieve your objectives.
You must not use marketing research to try to elicit confidential information from respondents.
Marketing research can help business owners to identify potential consumers.
It's just unfortunate when research is used only to support an argument in an internal political debate within a company.
Marketing research can only provide a prediction via a simulation. The actual results must be confirmed via an experimentation.
In a quantitative research, diagnostics would cause the questionnaire to be longer and the project cost to increase due to the additional analyses incurred.
It's futile to ask respondents what they want directly in a marketing research project.
Conducting a proper product testing project takes time since we need to give enough time to the consumers we've recruited as respondents to experience the product and form their opinion.
A poorly designed research is worse than no research at all.
R&D should also understand well the basics of marketing & marketing research to be able to support the business effectively.
Fieldwork cost can be reduced by hiring inexperienced interviewers and letting go the proper field training and the various standard quality control checks at the expense of quality.
Brand managers should have a mastery of marketing research principles to be able to write a proper research brief.
"It is worth repeating the truism that research methods should be chosen based on the specific task at hand." (in Doing Qualitative Research by David Silverman, 5th Ed., 2018)
In this digital age, marketing research is still all about excellent operations.
An "evidence-based decision making" process must start with a clearly defined business objective.
Randomness shouldn't be a determining factor when deciding to conduct mobile surveys.
When writing a survey questionnaire, avoid creating an imagery attribute in two sentences joined by the conjunction 'or'.
You must have a clear definition for every possible answers in each question in your questionnaire.
Consumers are not brand managers. It doesn't make sense to expect them to think like a brand manager in a survey or focus group.
The proposal writer(s) must get involved in executing the project to ensure common sense is upheld in designing the study.
Sometimes, the best way to understand why customers did what they did is to ask them directly instead of trying to model it.
A customer experience survey must be conducted not too long from the actual event for customers to recall the experience well.
Software package is only a tool to help you solve business problems.
Research agencies, don't ignore the intangible high mental cost dealing with poor operations when calculating your gross margin.
A well executed segmentation exercise will depend heavily on pre-determined crystal clear business objectives.
Members of Consumer Insight Department should master Marketing Research principles to collaborate well with research agencies.
It's surprising that some researchers still don't understand that different data collection methods could yield different results.
Sampling theory makes it possible for us not to collect data from every location / area.
When testing your new product in a marketing research project, make sure you benchmark it against an existing product in the same class.
When developing close-ended questions in your questionnaire, make sure to include "Not Applicable" as one of the possible answers.
You must not mislead respondents by providing a wrong description about your competitor's product in an unbranded product test.
Volume forecast in the FMCG world requires that we talk to all potential buyers to obtain the most accurate number.
Like Christmas which gives hope, market research casts light on the right direction businesses have to take.
The proliferation of small research agencies, originated from fieldwork suppliers, with only barely minimum technical competencies but offering a full marketing research service might deteriorate the quality of research in general.
It's surprising that a test market is still being considered instead of a proper marketing research initiative in the 21st century.
Unless the questionnaire is very simple and short, interviewing by street intercept is to be avoided.
It's a wishful thinking to expect fieldwork to be 100% efficient. Even machinery can't be 100% efficient.
In a volumetric exercise, it's implicitly assumed that the concept & product are already optimized in the previous research stage.
A questionnaire administered face-to-face by an interviewer must be designed differently from a self-completion one.
When designing a face-to-face interviewer administered questionnaire, try to put yourself in interviewers' shoes.
Before conducting a post launch check, you need to wait and give enough time to the consumers to be aware of your brand and buy it.
No matter how big or small your data are, the appropriate research design and methodology will always depend on your objectives.
Marketing research can help business owners to understand their current consumers.
Cost Per Interview is a function of many factors; e.g., project type, sample size, respondent's criteria, no. of visits, interview length, and data collection method.
Preventing a disease is much better than treating it. Conducting a concept product test must precede launching a new product.
When you're creating a new product or service and want to test it on your prospects, make sure you set aside a big enough budget to finance the research.
It must be made a standard operating procedure that the R&D team must attend every product testing marketing research presentation.
In an unbranded product test, it's just too good to be true if respondents can guess the flavor or fragrance perfectly.
A better way to measure the length of interview in a survey is to count the number of questions.
In this digital age, it's unfortunate that some clients still consider doing a 3 to 4-hour usage & attitude study.
Before adopting a cheaper ingredient in a product, test it among the loyal users to avoid alienation.
Before discussing sample size requirement, check first the size of the universe population.
The conclusions are only as good as the data they're based on.
Every question in the questionnaire must have one and only one meaning.
A good researcher must act as a trusted advisor for the client, not as a slave.
Faster, better, cheaper is a myth! (Robert G. Cooper, in Winning at New Products: Creating Value Through Innovation, 5th Ed., 2017)
In the end, comparing the quality of field service providers is like comparing SQ to Air Asia.
Software and tools can't replace the skills possessed by a well trained Statistician.
Having more participants in one focus group discussion doesn't necessarily yield better insights.
The validity of the result of a marketing research project depends on the unbiased research design, not on the size of the sample.
Volume forecast follows a branded test like a concept test or a concept-product test, and not an unbranded one.
The number of questions in a mobile survey via a smartphone must be really limited to get good quality data.
When doing data collection via an online or mobile panel, you need to let go imposing various quotas on your sample to be able to complete fieldwork within a reasonable time frame unless your panel database is extremely huge.
Respondents' fatigue must be taken into account seriously when designing a questionnaire.
It's just insane if you choose a particular software tool to boast only.
Small businesses can conduct a simple market research just by interviewing their own employees who may already know customers' likes, dislikes, and preferences.
When your Discussion Guide covers everything from A to Z, it indicates that you have no clue what you want to get out of the research and you are just on a big fishing expedition.
Marketing research can help business owners to identify potential consumers.
It's expected that branded and unbranded product tests may yield different results.
Garbage in, garbage out. Fancy analysis and graphics can't cover up poorly executed field operations
Very small businesses can also benefit from market research by asking for a simple feedback from their customers before launching a new promotion.
Qualitative research is useful in an exploratory study since the moderator has the flexibility to change the flow of questioning and the questions during a focus group discussion
Research objectives determine the data collection strategy, not the other way around.
It's more important to reach the right target respondents than to be fast.
Marketeers must master the market research principles to be able to collaborate well with MR agencies to solve business issues.
Research proposals are supposed to be evaluated comprehensively, not only the investment section.
A CEO should understand well and fully what marketing research is all about before condemning it useless.
Without explicitly written criteria in the research brief, no marketing research agency can prepare a complete questionnaire.
Even in data mining projects, the data in the customers database can still contain errors.
Market research agencies can launch standard projects in a short time. Usually, it's the brand team who's having problem finalizing the stimulus in time.
If an initiative is important enough, then there should be a proper written research brief.
Think of sample size as a magnifying glass. You need a bigger sample size to detect a smaller difference.
Principles of behavioral economics can help designing a survey questionnaire which minimizes the inherent biases of respondents. They can also be used to nudge consumers to prefer your brands.
An "evidence-based decision making" process would rely on the solid data sensemaking skills of the analysts to be able to be completed successfully.
Completing a 60-question mobile survey is an experience you don't want to repeat.
Technology still can't replace basic marketing research skills like designing and writing a good questionnaire.
Forcing customers to voice their opinion is not a good way to conduct a customer experience survey.
In a self-completion mode of data collection, researchers should from time to time try out the questionnaires themselves to empathize with the respondents.
If a particular brand image is problematic within an organization, then it'd be better to exclude in from the survey questionnaire.
A "sexy" method should be selected because it can answer the business objectives well, not because of its "sexiness" only.
Marketing is not an exact science. A proper scientific experiment, if possible, would help supporting or refuting a marketing theory.
In an online survey, use a grid question sparingly since it actually counts as multiple questions.
Avoid asking two questions with highly correlated answers.
An "evidence-based decision making" process should be augmented by good technologies to run smoothly and efficiently.
Statistics can help in providing guidance to assess if the observed difference between two scores really matters.
A New Year wish: leave managing research to the research professionals.
Calculating a rate card makes sense only if the specs are clearly defined & the variation from project to project is very small.
Ignoring light and non-buyers of a brand is no recipe for growth (Byron Sharp).
Users of marketing research services must acknowledge that each analytical solution has its own limitation.
