by Bob Walker | Jan 5, 2019 | Marketing and strategy, Marketing research, Strategic research
I always tell my children that life is not linear. Neither is business. Things rarely go in a straight line, and companies can never sustain super-normal growth in either sales or stock price. Yet we were somehow surprised this week that Apple reported significant...
by Bob Walker | Nov 13, 2018 | DIY software, Marketing research
So by now many of you have heard the news: Qualtrics is being bought by Germany’s SAP for $8 billion in cash. I also received an email from Ryan and Jared Smith announcing the news. But what exactly did SAP get for its money? For the first nine months of 2018,...
by Bob Walker | Oct 3, 2018 | Marketing and strategy, Marketing research
There is an old joke about sharing research results: management’s response is either “I could have told you that”, or “I don’t believe it”. Humorous, but too often true. Yet if a company has spent serious money on research, perhaps management should listen more...
by Bob Walker | Sep 17, 2018 | Marketing and strategy, Marketing research, Survey research
On August 29, 2018 SurveyMonkey filed an initial registration statement with the SEC (symbol “SVMK”) to float an IPO; the offering is now expected in late September. A recent update to its IPO filing includes a first pass at pricing; it has printed a price range of...
by Bob Walker | Aug 22, 2018 | Marketing research, Research design, Survey research
f you’re a researcher, you’ve no doubt heard about “concepts”. Concepts are ideas that can come from many places, such as R&D, in reaction to competitive activity, or as “blue sky” what-if explorations. Management consultant Peter Drucker...
by Bob Walker | Jun 7, 2018 | Marketing research, Research design, Survey research
Product tests are designed to evaluate and diagnose product performance. When Used Product testing is typically performed (1) after concept screening or testing has identified a winning idea; (2) after a product development phase, in which R&D, sensory tests, or...
by Bob Walker | May 17, 2018 | Marketing research, Qualitative research
Concept/idea screening tests are research designs that reduce (i.e., screen) a large number of conceptual ideas (e.g., 15, 20, or more) into the group worth pursuing vs. those that should be rejected. When Used Concept screening is typically undertaken after (1) a...
by Bob Walker | Apr 26, 2018 | Marketing research, Qualitative research
Focus groups are perhaps the best-known marketing research technique. Focus groups leverage the dynamics of group interaction to generate qualitative (i.e., non-projectable) feedback on marketing-related issues, and to develop hypotheses for future testing. They are...
by Bob Walker | Apr 17, 2018 | Marketing research, Qualitative research
As the name implies, in-depth interviews (“in-depths”, or “one-on-ones”) use a single moderator-single respondent format, and are designed to generate highly detailed feedback at the individual respondent level. In-depth interview techniques vary, but they are...
by Bob Walker | Feb 14, 2018 | Marketing research, Research design, Survey research
Since 1936, the Advertising Research Foundation has been the standard-bearer for unbiased quality in research on advertising, media, and marketing. Over the past 10 years, the ARF’s Foundations of Quality (FOQ) initiative has published 10 peer-reviewed papers...
