Many marketing people have been promoting the value of QR codes for quite a while. After all, the promise seems obvious - post a targeted code somewhere, make it easy for someone to reach the website, and track the results [...]

James Murray is principal of Seattle IT Edge, a strategic consultancy that melds the technology of IT with the business issues that drive IT solutions. When James gave me a list of things that are central for IT professionals, I thought it might be fun (and hopefully useful) to connect these terms with online surveys for market research. [Warning: if you are a technical type interested in [...]

Why survey creators need to pay more attention to the details of wording, question types and other matters that not only affect results but also how customers view the company. A recent survey from Sage Software had quite a few issues, and gives me the opportunity to share some pointers. The survey was for follow up satisfaction after some time with a new version of ACT! Call me a dinosaur, but after experiments with various online services, I still prefer a standalone CRM. Still, [...]

We asked entrepreneurs, consultants and small business owners how they were spending their time over the holiday period. The question asked about the TOP activity, so people needed to prioritize. The most popular [...]

Whether you are a political junkie or not, recent articles and analysis about mobile phones as part of data collection should be of interest to those who design or commission survey research. Cost, bias, and predictability are key issues. In years gone by, cell phone users were rarely included in surveys. There was uncertainty about likely reaction of potential respondents (“why are you calling me on my mobile when I have to pay for incoming calls?”, “is this [...]

A recent article in the Seattle Times covering a poll by Elway Research gives me an opportunity to discuss statistical testing. The description of the methodology indicates, as I’d expect, that the poll was conducted properly to achieve a representative sample: About the poll: Telephone interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers with 405 voters selected at random from registered [...]

I saw the oddest question in a survey the other day. The question itself wasn’t that odd, but the options for responses were very strange to me. 1 - Not at all Satisfied 2 - Not at all Satisfied 3 - Not at all Satisfied 4 - Not at all Satisfied 5 - Not at all Satisfied 6 - Not at all Satisfied 7 - Somewhat Satisfied 8 - Somewhat Satisfied 9 - Highly [...]

A tale of three types of cheating. If you are going to fudge the numbers, you’d better be very clever. Last December’s Annual Year in Ideas issue of the New York Times magazine included an idea titled “Forensic Polling Analysis” describing how Nate Silver analyzed results published by a polling firm called Strategic Vision. Silver decided to take a look at the results because Strategic Vision had been censured by the American Association for Public Opinion [...]

I came across a published report recently that made me wonder why people persist in reporting that there is a causal relationship when the data doesn’t justify the assertion. Actually, the reasons aren’t all that hard to figure out. Usually, it’s because the relationship seems obvious, and sometimes it is when the person writing the report has a bias they wish to share.But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s start with a couple of definitions: A [...]

The press release for a study by Mintel, a world-wide market research firm, states that "people still prefer real-life recommendations to online". The study was intended to test the idea that real-world referrals are still more important than those received online.  Mintel's results show that only 5% of people buy based on suggestions from bloggers or chatrooms, while over 5 times as many buy on recommendations from friends, relatives, and spouses or partners.

I don't [...]