Social listening is one of those buzz words that we hear quite often. But before engaging in social listening, you must first examine your objectives with this research. View our webinar to learn how social listening can be a powerful tool for providing a “third perspective” in your research programs.

A summary of key takeaways from the NY Quirk’s Event which includes thoughts on the adoption and use of machine learning, VR and big data in marketing research.

Between computers, tablets and mobile phones, brands now have the opportunity to reach shoppers no matter where they are and what they are doing. But how does this affect what individuals actually purchase and how they come to make that decision?

Thanks to a generous wife, I am now wearing a Pebble on one wrist and a Fitbit Force on the other. Even though she wasn't generous enough to give me Google Glass, clearly it was a wearable holiday at our house. I felt a bit behind these items by giving her a new iPad - how last year... or even, how two years ago.

"Make sure that we get a good regional representation." That has often been the charge from the marketing manager to the insights director. There has been a belief that different cuisines, climates, and experiences would have an impact on attitudes and tastes that could affect how consumers react to new products. So, we would be certain to conduct focus groups in markets in three different regions or that quotas were set to assure the sample represented the East, South, Midwest, and West equally. This was simply good research practice.

There is much debate over the superiority of online versus face-to-face qualitative research. Online qualitative is not just the latest thing. Discussion boards and communities enable the researcher to engage the consumer in so many ways -- pictures, journals, video, collages -- with all this material available to the participants and the research team in one place. And, consumers can be anywhere -- their home, in a store -- doing anything, when they describe their experiences and reactions.

By Bob Relihan, Senior Vice President

We often encourage consumers to think "metaphorically." In a focus group or interview, metaphors can be powerful. Those who use them open up. They move in new and unexpected directions. Ultimately, the metaphors put us in touch with the unconscious motivations and beliefs of the consumers who create them.

By Bob Relihan, Senior Vice President

Every so often, one runs into a marvelous confluence of avocation and vocation. I love cars. So, I was reading the blog at Car and Driver and discovered a long discussion of the stagnation of the Honda brand. Cars AND marketing. I couldn't resist. Toward the end of the piece, Dave Marble described an example of how Honda got in the position of creating underwhelming products.