May 27
To celebrate Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary last year, Google embedded a special version of the game on its launch page. This awesome little Easter Egg, understandably, went viral immediately, and was enjoyed by millions of people. The game included 256 levels (including the legendary glitch that brought the game to an end on the final board), …
May 19
There’s a lot of confusion in the world of marketing about the difference between market research and marketing research. Market research is an important subset of marketing research as a whole. The purpose of market research is to gain a better understanding of a new or existing target market. This is often done by looking …
May 12
In the field of marketing research, there tend to be two techniques that are associated with the research that we do. One of those techniques is the humble survey. This tends to be associated with quantitative research, though I’m not always certain that the association is a good one, since it tends not to include …
Mar 12
Yesterday’s piece on the pitfalls of mystery shopping brought, I hope, some important perspective on the dangerously deceptive data that a poorly-designed mystery shop can bring in. So, how does one conduct a proper mystery shop? STEP 1: Develop a management problem statement. Mystery shops, like any other sort of research, should never be …
Mar 11
When I was working in retail, one announcement I absolutely dreaded was that sometime in the next few weeks, my store would be mystery shopped. Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t have anything to hide. But I’d been through enough mystery shops to know that they almost always yielded bad things for me as a …
Mar 01
During my Master’s degree program in Marketing Research, I took two classes where we discussed the drivers of buyer behavior. And I’m sure it comes as no surprise that emotion was cited as one of the chief reasons that customers buy. This isn’t exactly revolutionary stuff; in fact, it was a central theme of Gerald …
Feb 23
Prior to a presentation the other day, I was presented with an allegory that I think perfectly sums up the reason marketing research is so necessary for businesses. We were in a fairly large conference room that had been set up to accommodate around 40 people. During the first session, only around 15 people were …
Feb 03
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a member of a social network that is all about the things you’re buying. Every time you make a purchase with an online retailer such as iTunes, Amazon, eBay or Netflix, that purchase (and the amount you spent) is broadcast to every friend on the network. Your friends can, …
Feb 02
At least once a week, I stumble on to a site that reminds me why I love the Internet so much. The sheer number of people online, combined with our endless need for novelty as a culture, often results in the creation of Web sites that are almost cultural commentaries. And failin.gs, a free service …
Jan 21
Retail is a tricky business. It’s not just enough to offer an interesting mix of products anymore; unless you’re in a high-traffic location with lots of travelers, retail is increasingly about developing customer relationships. And as we move into the 21st century, customers in the US are expecting more out of retailers than they ever …