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Archive for the ‘Quantitative Research’ Category« Previous EntriesThe Wisdom Of CrowdsWednesday, August 15th, 2012  In this week’s Business Surgery, Paul Hague offers an interesting slant on the quantity vs. quality debate. An article caught my eye in the Financial Times recently (24th July 2012). It was by John Kay and called The Parable Of The Ox. It told the story of how, in 1906, the great statistician Francis Galton observed a competition to guess the weight of an ox at a country fair. Eight hundred people entered. Galton, being the kind of man he was, ran statistical tests on the numbers. He discovered that the average guess (1,197lb) was extremely close to the actual weight (1,198lb) of the ox. This story was told by James Surowiecki, in his entertaining book The Wisdom of Crowds. This got me thinking. We all know that 1 million people can’t be wrong – or can they? It seems that in general they seldom are wrong. In the latest copy of the International Journal Of Market Research (volume 54, issue 4, 2012), Martin Boon of ICM Research wrote a paper called Predicting Elections in which he reported on the accuracy of response to a question which asked people what they thought would be the percentage share of the vote given to each party in the forthcoming general election. This was not a question about which way the respondents themselves would vote but a “wisdom of the crowd question” about how they thought others would vote. Without any prompting from the interviewer, a spontaneous prediction was extremely close to the actual result (within 2.2%). Just as people got the weight of the ox right, they correctly predicted the outcome of the general election.
So what does this mean for us in business to business research? It should mean that if we ask informed people what they think is the size of a market or what they believe to be suppliers’ market shares or something of that ilk, we ought to get a fair prediction of actuality. I suppose the emphasis must not be on the word wisdom but on the word “crowds”. In the parable of the ox story and in the ICM survey there were many hundreds of respondents. We need to ask enough people to be able to get a fair prediction. And this may be the problem in business to business markets – often there aren’t many people who have this sort of knowledge. Maybe in business to business markets what matters is not relying on the views of lots of people who have no idea but finding just one person who is in the know. Getting Buy-In To Your Research ProjectTuesday, July 3rd, 2012  More and more clients are coming to us at an early stage in the creation of a research brief to get our thoughts not only on how we can help research the problem but also to get our help and backing to get buy-in to the project from inside and help fight the internal bureaucracy. If you try and battle the red tape you will get nowhere. Instead, follow these 4 simple rules to get your research project off the ground and you will stand a greater chance of business success: • Go against the path of least resistance. Find out who is bought in to your way of thinking and then get them onside. • Use the resources that are close to hand. Don’t go to many lengths to get a large budget straight away. Instead, use people you know, desk research and other resources/budget that you have to help you get the wheels in motion and any evidence you may need to move to the next level. • Secure only the commitment you need for the short term. Don’t try to get the board’s buy-in from the get-go. Instead make sure that everyone is clear to what you are trying to achieve and then get the least amount of commitment you need to take your project to the next stage. • Move quickly. Most good ideas stall because they don’t have the necessary momentum. Put your all behind the project or it will die and atrophy. To find out how B2B International can help your organisation, contact one of our international offices http://www.b2binternational.com/contact-b2b/ or find out about what is important when putting a research brief together http://www.b2binternational.com/publications/articles/market-research-brief/ Global market research grows… but only justMonday, September 14th, 2009
ESOMAR, the world organization for enabling better research into markets, consumers and societies, confirmed this week a slowdown in market research revenues worldwide. Although global market research revenues grew by 4.5% in 2008 to reach US$32 billion, this only equates to a net 0.4% increase when inflation is taken into account. According to the latest ESOMAR Global Market Research Report, market research revenues in 10 of the top 25 market research markets showed a decline after inflation. While the growth rate has undoubted been affected over the past year because of the economic downturn, according to ESOMAR President Gunilla Broadbent, “the sustained growth in some emerging markets, particularly Latin America, is encouraging.” North America, which is responsible for almost one third of all global marketing research revenue, was affected by the downturn with both the USA and Canada posting small declines (of negative 2.1 and 2.2% respectively) after adjustment for inflation. While Europe as a whole showed little growth (slowing to 4.7%, or 0.9% after inflation), both the UK and German market research industries bucked the trend by each posting 2.5% net growth. The strongest performing region was Latin America where market research revenues grew by 5.6% after inflation (13.4% actual). Market research in Argentina, Peru and Panama was particularly strong. Asia-Pacific, which has boasted strong growth in recent years, slowed a little. However, with 6.3% year-to-year growth (2.1% after inflation), Asia-Pacific still fared better than most other regions. The annual ESOMAR Global Market Research Report also revealed some interesting statistics about the market research industry in general. In terms of research methodologies, quantitative research methods account for 80% of global research spend. Qualitative research methods account for a further 14%, with desk and secondary research taking the remaining 6%. Online research and online traffic/audience measurement now account for at least 10% of overall research spend in 22 countries (74 countries are covered by ESOMAR’s report), increasing from 18 countries in 2007. The Growth of Online Market ResearchTuesday, April 28th, 2009
A recent article featured in BtoB magazine – Online market research takes off The article estimates that 43% of all survey research carried out last year was conducted online. Whilst quantitative consumer research has been leading the online research charge, thanks to a much greater number of potential respondents, b-to-b research is believed to be heading in the same direction. But it’s not just quantitative research techniques – the most widely used of which is the online survey – that are increasing in popularity. Qualitative research techniques, such as online focus groups and online panels, are increasing in prevalence too. B2B International Director, Matthew Harrison, was interviewed for the article. He acknowledged that around 15% of B2B International’s overall research happens online, with particularly high usage among our Asian markets, especially Japan. Harrison recognizes that the feasibility of online research is sometimes limited by the availability of qualified contact lists, but if such lists are available, this is a useful data collection method. As well as faster turnaround times, there are often significant cost-savings associated with online market research. Yet in spite of its many benefits, online research is almost always a complement to traditional research techniques. All techniques used in the market research industry have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. For example, online research techniques may not allow such detailed open-ended probing as telephone research, and response rates can be lower than with other methods. When defining the methodology of any market research project, B2B International carefully considers the research objectives, and assesses which technique – or combination of techniques – will yield the best results within a given budget. These include, more and more frequently, a range of online techniques, but not to the exclusion of tried and tested ‘traditional’ methods. Why not read our white paper, Using Online Focus Groups As A Business-To-Business Research Technique? Using Market Research For Product DevelopmentWednesday, March 18th, 2009
A new B2B International white paper – Using Market Research For Product Development – is now available online. In it, Julia Cupman assesses the importance of product development to a company’s growth prospects, focusing in particular on the vital role(s) that market research plays throughout all the different stages of the product life cycle, from initial concept through to product maturity. Product development research serves a host of purposes, such as establishing (unmet) needs, estimating likely demand, setting prices, shaping the specification of the product or determining optimal price points, to give but a few examples. Of course, product development research does not just examine the product alone; packaging, advertising, pricing, service, brand and company reputation are some of the other factors which together make up the complete customer value proposition. Indeed, improvements to packaging, delivery, or any aspect of service support could have just as big an impact as improvements to the physical product itself. Whether establishing potential opportunities for brand new products or trying to breathe life into a former favorite seemingly on its last legs, market research provides insight into the needs of the market, and reduces the risk associated with any form of product development. To read the white paper in full, please click here For further details on B2B International’s product development research services, please click here « Previous Entries |
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