Market Research Glossary
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What is Data Mining? | Market Research Company Buffalo, NY
Posted at: 12/8/2016 9:08 PM
What is data mining? Data mining is a quantitative process where hidden trends and patterns in databases are pulled by an analyst to generate insights. This type of analysis is becoming more commonplace today, as big data continues to grow. In the field of marketing research it is often an easy first step and extremely valuable process for an organization. Virtually all companies both small and large have multiple and sometimes countless databases. A simple example of this is a customer data
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What is the Hawthorne Effect in Market Research?
Posted at: 12/5/2016 8:56 PM
The Hawthorne Effect is a type of bias in market research that you’ve probably come across but may not have known the exact term for labeling it. What is the Hawthorne Effect in market research? Essentially the Hawthorne Effect is where a person participating in research acts or behaves differently than he or she normally would because he or she is aware their behavior is being observed. This is a fairly common criticism of focus groups and survey research particular, especially if the moderator
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What is Interviewer Error? | Market Research Firm Upstate NY
Posted at: 11/24/2016 7:40 PM
Virtually all types of marketing research methodologies incur some type of bias. Whether it be sequence bias, the halo effect, acquiescence bias, or self-selection bias the options are endless. All have an impact on your data quality and are often an accepted limitation in the industry. Another type of bias is often called interviewer error. What is interviewer error? Interviewer error is a form of bias in which the interviewer administering the survey in-person, by phone, or through chat
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What is Text Analytics? | Market Research Company in Buffalo, NY
Posted at: 11/18/2016 7:18 PM
Market research is always evolving. The challenge is finding new ways to analyze data, text, and information to generate actionable insights and outcomes. A new technique and term that has grown in popularity in the past 5 years is text analytics. What is text analytics? Text analytics is simply a way of analyzing text and generating insights from patterns, trends, and ways of speech. Without text analytics, your open-ends might look something like this: A simple application for text analy
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What is Margin of Error? | Market Research Firm in Central New York
Posted at: 11/4/2016 3:34 PM
Margin of error is a term commonly used in market research. It's the accepted standard for reliability of data with probability and random sampling. It tells us within a certain confidence, how accurate our data really is. But it is often a difficult concept to explain to those not well-versed in statistics or market research. Margin of error typically coincides with three different confidence levels in statistics - either 90%, 95% or 99%. For example, let's say the report you are reading say
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What is Sample Contamination? | Market Research Firm Syracuse, NY
Posted at: 10/30/2016 3:17 PM
Market research can experience its own zombie-like virus through sample contamination. What is sample contamination? Much like it sounds, it's sample of people who do not represent the traits of the intended population surveyed. Market research involves two groups of people - a sample and a population. Let's say a company wants to launch a new widget product. The company wants to find out how appealing the new widget is to people across the country and understand their likelihood to purchase.
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What is a Micro Survey? | Market Research Firm Syracuse, NY
Posted at: 10/20/2016 2:26 PM
A micro survey is an extremely abbreviated form of surveying where less than 5 questions are asked and it typically takes the respondent a minute or less to answer. Although the number of questions and the length of a micro survey varies, the common theme is the survey is extremely short. Short to construct for the survey writer and short to complete for the survey taker. Other benefits of a micro survey include quick turnaround times for fieldwork because it usually results in a higher particip
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What is the Halo Effect? | Market Research Firm Syracuse, NY
Posted at: 10/16/2016 2:13 PM
The Halo Effect is the result of a respondent in market research having a generally positive or negative feeling about a company, experience, or product impact other and more specific criteria asked elsewhere in the survey. Basically it means if a person is a Coca-Coca loyalist, and they are asked to take a survey on Coca-Cola, they will rate Coca-Cola strong on price, store location, design of can, etc. Their overall generalization of loving Coca-Cola trumps more specific criteria regardless
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Acquiescence Bias in Market Research | Aiming to Please
Posted at: 10/14/2016 2:10 PM
What is acquiescence bias in market research? Acquiescence bias is favoritism which occurs in both qualitative and quantitative research in which the respondent aims to please the moderator or interviewer by being overly-friendly, showing a tendency to agree with whatever concept is presented to them. This most commonly occurs in qualitative research because exploratory research using in-depth interviews (IDIs) or focus groups allow for more rapport to be built between interviewer and intervi
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What is Snowball Sampling? | Market Research Company Upstate NY
Posted at: 10/10/2016 1:55 PM
Market research involves many different types of probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling methods. I previously covered how the industry as a whole is warming up to directional research using convenience and other non-probability samples because of the budgetary and timeline benefits. Another form of convenience sampling is called snowball sampling (often referred to as referral sampling). What is snowball sampling? Snowball sampling is a form of sampling which begins by randomly selec
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What is a Quota? | Market Research Company in Syracuse
Posted at: 10/7/2016 1:45 PM
Quota is a term that is commonly used in both qualitative and quantitative market research. What is a quota? A quota is a project management term which stipulates the targeted number of interviews or completes that must be obtained through recruitment or fieldwork. A quota could be as simple as the total number of completes for a massive quantitative study but quotas can also be specified for segments within the total sample. Here are some quick examples of quotas in market research and how
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What is a Nested Sample? | Marketing Research Company Syracuse, NY
Posted at: 10/4/2016 1:14 PM
With so many different samples to choose from in market research (from probabilistic to non-probabilistic) it's easy to lose track of your options. In some cases in market research you may have used a nested sample without even knowing it. What is a nested sample? A nested sample is a series of stages in which people from each new sample are selected from a prior segment of sample. For example, here is an application of a nested sample using clusters. Let's say Girardi's Grocery Store wants t