All marketers who conduct research should know that in order for findings to be of value and use, they must be both reliable and valid. But how well do you know these terms?
Whether you're writing a questionnaire for marketing research or building a five year company strategy, you must start with a clear, sustainable target (avoiding a "moving target"). As obvious as this seems, the lack of a well defined target is a critical mistake we see time and time again. Learn why the execution formula - set a sustainable target, align your strategy to the target, and execute according to your target - is critical to success.
The way we experience something is not the way we remember it. According to peak-end theory, we don't remember our feelings throughout an event or experience, but rather our emotions at the peak and end of that experience. By utilizing the peak-end rule, you can take customer satisfaction into your own hands and influence the way your customers remember you.
Conducting Marketing Research is something that nearly every successful company does. But not all research is equal - some companies are much better at thinking strategically and getting the most out of their research than others. In this article, we'll arm you with the 5 important questions to ask when conducting marketing research in order to fully maximize your research plan and objectives.
One of the most difficult (and in certain times, the most difficult) aspects of research is the need to draw conclusions from results. Sometimes the difficulty lies in the “Monday Morning Quarterback” assessment: we asked the wrong question. Other times, the results are counterintuitive, and speak to the opposite spectrum of accepted theory and practice.
Then there are simply human errors of perception and judgment, notably relating to results interpretation and the expectation of research outcomes. Sometimes we have lofty, and even unrealistic, expectations of our research. What we often do not realize is that, when unmet, this in-and-of-itself is a spectacular outcome.
All this noted, let’s explore four interesting paradoxes of research.
As we here at Sparks Research begin to reflect on 2024, we are thankful that our existing relationships continue to grow, and that our new relationships allow us to grow.
We are blessed with friends and family like you.
All of us here at Sparks Research extend our very heartfelt gratitude as we venture into 2025!
May God continue to bless you and your families.
Cheers!
The Sparks Team
I have a buddy that has one child – a son – with a unique, yet familiar name. His son’s name is Bayes. At the time my buddy and his wife named him Bayes and ascribed it to his birth certificate, social security number…and pretty soon after, 529 plan, he then became the sole proprietor of the first name Bayes. I guess that makes his mother and my buddy original. Weird, too, I guess, but who asked you, anyway?
They could be original, weird, or it could mean that not enough people know about the legend of Thomas Bayes, and how a paper he wrote (An essay towards solving a problem in the doctrine of chances) and the discovery of said paper by good friend Richard Price two years after Bayes died, and later was greatly extended by the genius mathematician Pierre Simon Laplace, how would we ever have the advances we have in medicine, evolutionary biology, environmental biology, manufacturing, criminology, and the hundreds of other applied applications.
If you are one of my graduate students currently or wear Nirvana shirts and have never even listened to Nirvana, you likely never had to deal with the spam epidemic. When I was in undergrad, it was out of control. To the point where checking email was a complete waste. Then came the Bayesian Spam Filter.
So any spam filter these days applies from millions and millions of observations of email messages. These messages were coded as Spam or Safe. Once these email observations were coded, we could then go back and run some models to identify what content is more likely to be indicative of Spam (using an Explanatory Model, of course!). But, do you and I, who check our email between one and three-hundred eighty times a day care? No, we just want the model to choose the best predictor, and give me a reasonable probability or odds that an email coming through my mailbox is legit or otherwise.
So why did I name my son Bayes, you might be asking. Well, let me first explain to you how Bayes Rule works in simplistic terms.
First, we need an event. Let’s say the event we are considering is whether or not our favorite football team will win their game this weekend. That’s our event, and what we have in this event is a level of uncertainty, because there are multiple things that could happen. Your team could win, could lose, the game could be postponed, forfeited, etc.
Second, we need a probability target. This is called a prior, or prior probability. It is also often the same as the term base rate. We could scour the web for all types of places to get a proper estimate. Odds makers will set their thoughts based on stringent criteria. Or you could be a typical fan and look at how your team has fared so far this season, how your team has performed against the other team in other years, look at the rosters and the like and come up with the chances you think your team will win.
Great. So the coin is tossed, your team wins the toss. Your team elects to kick. The other team picks an arbitrary side to start from which is virtually meaningless and would be better switched for what food should be served after the event.
So your team kicks. The opponent rumbles the kickoff to their own 40. OK, not ideal, but let’s GO DEFENSE. First and 10. The opponent completes a pass for 30 yards, now to your thirty. Then two long runs and your opponent is first and goal. WHAT ARE WE DOING! You are probably yelling. Two plays later, the team punches it in for six. Makes the extra point. 7-0 Bad Guys.
The Bad Guys kickoff to the Good Guys. The returner for the Good Guys fumbles the football! HOW DO YOU FUMBLE THE BALL ON YOUR OWN 24 YARD LINE! Not good….Not good.
But it’s OK. This is how defenses build character, right? Until three plays later and the Bad Guys score AGAIN! As the ball sails through the uprights, it is now 14-0 Bad Guys with only two minutes into the first quarter.
Ouch. You still feeling good on that 75% change guess? What about when your quarterback drives the ball to the 50, then throws an interception, and the Bad Guys return it for a touchdown. A PICK SIX! SERIOUSLY!
For what it is worth, if you ever watch any level of football, this is how Game Probabilities work. With every play, the inflection changes. The score remains the same but the clock is winding down, and it’s going to favor the winner more so than it did two minutes ago. A 14-0 game goes to 14-14, we are going to see the GP come close to even.
All of this discussion about football gets us closer to closing out Bayes Rule. The third thing we need is a new observation. Or even set of observations. It might confirm the probability target, or completely speak against it. Regardless, this is important, because once the calculation comes out of Bayes Rule, we get a more realistic probability that your target will occur.
Because out of the Bayes Rule calculation, which takes your initial event, your probability target, and new observation, and generates that more realistic outcome, often referred to as posterior probability.
So let’s first go through some examples of how Bayes Rule works. One of the most commonly used examples is the probability estimate that someone has a certain disease given a positive test.
Let’s call this hypothetical disease QC Disease, QC, of course, standing for Qualitative Chemistry. Those diagnosed with QC Disease are trapped forever in a career in Qualitative Chemistry.
So, let’s say your cousin goes in for a routine check-up, and the doctor says, there is a new disease floating around and it is simply awful. It’s called….QUALITATIVE CHEMISTRY DISEASE! Your cousin gasps. No, no way will I have QC Disease!
So the doc puts your cousin through this battery of tests, putting those weird colored molecular models in front of them, checking cognitive logic for dots behind letters connected to other letters with or without dots, etc. It’s a grueling process, but worth it to discover that she, does not in fact, have QC Disease.
Your cousin is back in the waiting room. Knees buckled, mind racing, heart pounding, ears thrashing. I can’t be a qualitative chemist! I just can’t be!
Then the nurse calls her back. The doctor is waiting in Room 2. He doesn’t look happy. So your cousin says, “just give it to me straight, doc.”
The doc leans in, face white. That’s when your cousin knows. I can’t believe it. I am going to be a qualitative chemist.
The doctor confirms. The test came up positive for QT Disease. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
After an hour of slow-mo reactions of the five stages of grief. The head shaking NO, IT CAN’T BE of denial. Then the anger, turned to rage, at which point the doctors are considering the tranq, But thankfully, the cousin has given into the bargaining before sinking deeply into depression. As the doc returns, acceptance sets in. This is a part of my life now. This IS my life now!
Until she remembers something that you told her. That beautiful something is called the base rate. “Doc, how prominent is QC disease?” she asks.
“QC only affects about 1% of the entire population,” the doc returns.
Then the other thing you told your cousin about something seemingly random but was highly relevant now. “Doc, how often are these tests wrong?” she asks. As in, what is the false positive rate, meaning the percentage of when the test said you have the disease when it was, in fact, wrong!
The doc consults his notes. Turns out, 5% of those that tested positive did not have QC disease.
Your cousin smiles now, asking the next question. “Well, what about the people that don’t have the disease? How many test positive?” The true negative rate.
It might seem like the same question, but it is not, but I will get there. So, the doc consults his notes, and he says the rate is 10%.
She rushes out the door to call you. Run some calculations for me. 1% of everyone has QC disease, which means 99% of people don’t. When the test comes up positive, it is wrong 5% of the time. And when the test is conducted, it comes up wrong 10% of the time.
So you do some quick math. There are 500,000 people in this town. If 1% have QC disease, that means 5,000 have the disease. Which also means 495,000 don’t.
Now to those that have the disease. 95% of those with the disease test for it. That means 4,750 people in that group.
On the other side, among the 495,000 people who don’t, 10% are going to be told they have it. That’s 49,500 people!
WOW! So only 5,000 people have this ridiculous disease. Yet they are telling nearly 50K people that don’t have it that they do, and are correct on only 4,750!
This is important to consider. First, tests are flawed. They miss on both ends. Second, the false positive end makes this whole thing ridiculous, and really skews this whole thing pretty big time. Not to mention, how could we ignore the base rate, and how rare this thing really is?
So you do the calculation. What are the chances your cousin is doomed to a life of Qualitative Chemistry? Is it 95%, like the test suggested?
No. The answer, according to Bayes Rule, is about 9%. The math goes like this:
We take those that had the disease conditioned on testing positive, which is 4,750 people. That’s the denominator (the one on top of the division sign).
Then, we have to add that 4,750 to those that did not have the disease conditioned on testing positive, which is 49,500, and we get 54,450.
We finish the equation like so: 4,750/(4,750 + 49,500) = ~9%.
With Quantitative research, open-ended verbatim response questions have always been a part of the equation. They can provide additional clarity and dig deeper on larger KPI questions; for example, “Why do you rate your overall satisfaction with your recent hotel stay a 4?” If you are using a 10-point scale, a 4 is probably considered “not that great.” If this was my study, I would love to know a few facts around why the respondent decided to give a rating of 4. Letting the respondent further define their reasoning is very beneficial and will help in the analysis of what drives higher and lower scores, BUT most of all… how to improve as a company/organization.
Technology has advanced in many ways to allow for faster and easier ways to capture feedback. Online survey capabilities have opened up new and exciting ways to go deeper…especially with verbatim comments. Sure, you can still have open-end text capture in an online survey…. but what if you could allow respondents to freely verbalize their thoughts? And beyond that – what if you could put these comments together (in a video fashion) to help tell that story? It is common for us to watch videos that capture our attention.
Video verbatim feedback, within an online survey, can encourage respondent commentary because they now have the luxury of talking instead of typing. Using the illustration above and the “normal” typing method, a respondent can then type in their reason for a less than satisfactory hotel stay. “Well, the check-in was slow and the bathroom wasn’t great.” Ok…that helps, and it provides a little clarity around the check-in process and the state of the room, but I would love to know more. These days, when we type, we truncate and cut down our thoughts. Hey – long text messages anyone…with my fat fingers they take forever, so I don’t go as in-depth.
Now imagine the ability for your online survey to ask the respondent to click a button and talk freely…just like a selfie video (using their mobile phone or camera on their computer). Guess what typically happens? The length and depth of the feedback is now significantly longer and more descriptive to the tune of 6x given simple word count analysis. Now with video capture ability, the example could look like this, “Well, we were so tired when we checked in and there were so many people that we had to wait and wait and wait. When we were finally greeted the associate had to answer two phone calls! Ugh…the waiting! We just want to shower off and go to dinner and not stand around. And by the way, don’t get me started on the bathroom. Geez, the shower had no water flow, and the hot water was never hot enough. This was not the perfect way to start my vacation let me tell you!” We all do this – when given the chance to talk we go on and on – especially if there was something significant. Sure, there are instances where too much talk may be a bad thing, but I would rather make that decision at the backend. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. The example above simply showcases what we typically see.
You have video comments now, and how will this help? Don’t worry – you still need to code all comments into themes for quantitative measures like “bathroom dissatisfaction” and “slow
check- in experience.” But now imagine that you can harness several different respondent videos and splice them together into a Show Reel. You place the reel into your analytic report and boom – you can see and hear how people feel by watching an impactful 40 second video! Remember the check-in process example and the general feeling the respondent had? Now imagine you can hear their voice and watch their face when they speak about this negative experience.
In conclusion, business leaders want to understand what drives customer behavior. By offering an easy-to-use method for respondents to elaborate and provide deeper meaning behind how they feel can really impact the storytelling of your data analysis. Videos are compelling. They are tangible and allow us to see and hear how someone really feels.
And oh, by the way – I still don’t understand/get the allure of TikTok’s, but I know that my daughters watch these a lot. I digress!
Many utilize this metric to continuously measure customer loyalty. Next, analytics is incorporated to correlate those independent drivers that move the needle to better understand the ups and the downs of loyalty. Then, internal changes are implemented to further enhance the customer experience…which increases customer loyalty.
Makes sense, right???
Well…There is a current beneath the surface of this mode of data collection. These days – most data collection is online…and there are many great reasons for this (don’t get me started). That said, this does create some bias and doesn’t always tell the whole story.
Our founder, Dave Sparks, always said – individuals who complete mail surveys (not entirely the same as online, but these days it kind of is) are older…and madder.
As we looked at four years of actual real consumer monthly satisfaction and loyalty tracking survey data, we dove deeper to see if this held true by looking at various loyalty, satisfaction, and ease questions by survey methodology: Telephone vs. Online.
Well, guess what we uncovered…
NPS, Ease of Working with the brand and Overall Satisfaction of the brand Top Two Box (9’s and 10’s on a 10-point scale) scores are significantly higher for telephone when compared to online….to the tune of roughly 12% to 14% higher at the aggregate level. THAT is a lot and VERY important.
Significantly higher proportions of respondents 55 years old and older complete online surveys when compared to those under 55 years old.
So, why is that? Before we answer– I’ll bet you have received an online survey for a car rental, or a hotel stay and I’m sure you received that survey in the form of an email asking for your opinions. If all was “fine” with your recent interaction…did you complete the survey??? I’m guessing probably not, because…well it is work per se.
Now imagine if you received this email survey request when your hotel room had no hot water or smelled like something very unfriendly. This experience could leave you feeling angry/grumpy because I know it would do that to me. So now you get a chance to give them this feedback…angry feedback.
As researchers we find conducting online surveys fairly easy, fast, and inexpensive. But for respondents – completing a survey is work and can be time consuming. Telephone surveys on the other hand almost fall in your lap. You don’t have to do anything – you listen and answer questions.
Side Note: Telephone surveys will ALWAYS capture richer verbatim feedback. Typing a long response online about why you rated your satisfaction as a 7 usually results in a “It was good” type of response.
Now this is where we believe the mode of data collection is so important because, again, we have seen it happen with actual real data. If you don’t include telephone surveying as part of your data collection methodology, you aren’t receiving a true representation of customer feedback. Now, let that sink in for a moment.
If you are tracking customer experience metrics with online surveys only, I’d invite you to test to see if this holds true. Perhaps blend online and telephone surveys (what we call Mixed-Mode) for a month or two and analyze the results. You may be very happy you did. Remember, what we found is from several years’ worth of data!
The consideration of how you collect your data is just as important as the metrics that you are measuring and analyzing. If given an opportunity to propose a customer experience program for any client, I’m always going to strongly recommend a mixed-mode (telephone AND online) survey methodology if it is feasible. Don’t forget – based on our findings, your customer sentiment may actually be higher than you think! Now, let that sink in for [more] than a moment.
According to Wikipedia…
George Edward Foreman (born January 10, 1949) is an American former professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister and author. In boxing, he was nicknamed "Big George" and competed between 1967 and 1997. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist. As an entrepreneur, he is known for the George Foreman Grill.
We don’t always have control over our workload. Ideally, our day is full of fulfilling, interesting, meaningful, and enjoyable tasks. However, at times our work can be stressful, irritating, overwhelming, and/or boring. Most of the time I can handle all tasks with a calm, composed demeanor and a smile on my face because I’m nothing if not a complete professional. I’ll share some tips on setting up your environment to improve your mood and insulate yourself against negative reactions to work stress that have been helpful to me.
It helps to set up my environment in a way that is sensorily pleasant and comforting. Here are some ideas to use your six senses to reduce stress, increase calm, and/or self-soothe when you feel upset.
Your office should have comfortable lighting to minimize eye strain.
Have pictures or other items near your desk that are pleasant for you to look at. For example, I have Frank Costanza taped to my monitor, and looking at him keeps me from screaming out loud.
Adjust your display settings to reduce blue light and/or wear blue light blocking glasses.
If you can, listen to music while you work. Make playlists to improve your mood and/or help you concentrate. Music with lyrics can be distracting, as it engages the same parts of your brain that you need to retain and comprehend information, but it can be used to elevate your mood! For concentration, classical and instrumental music without lyrics is best.
Turn on white noise to drown out distractions.
Have favorite snacks, drinks, treats, or gum on hand.
Have strongly flavored gum or candy to distract yourself from an unpleasant situation.
Have a fan or heater nearby if the office temperature is not optimal.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
Have a swatch of material and/or some stones that are pleasant to the touch.
Wear your favorite perfume.
Spritz your face with rose water.
Keep a diffuser or scented candles at your desk.
Note: Be careful with this one if you share office space with others, as your favorite scent may not be pleasant to others (or even trigger a migraine). In this case if you need an olfactory boost, see if you can step outside or keep a scented item in your car.
Have some fidget toys to play with.
Stretch your muscles.
Do some jumping jacks.
There can be certain vulnerability factors that make us more susceptible to stress, making negative emotional and/or physiological reactions more likely to occur. People may react to stress with strong emotions (ex. anger, worry, sadness), or they may feel physically ill (ex. racing heart rate, sweat, pain).
When we feel emotionally overwhelmed, we may not be able to interact with our colleagues in a professional or productive manner, and we are prone to making mistakes. Dialectical Behavior Therapy suggests using TIPP skills to manage extreme emotions quickly and effectively.
Decreasing the temperature of your face has an almost immediate calming effect.
Fill a bowl with cold water, hold your breath, and dip your face in.
Put an ice pack on your eyes and cheeks.
Splash cold water on your face.
If your body is revved up by emotion, a short burst of intense exercise will expend your body’s physical energy. Don’t overdo it – 10-15 minutes should be enough.
Go for a run or a brisk walk.
Jump rope.
Dance.
Do some jumping jacks.
Go outside with a bowl of ice and throw ice against a (windowless) wall or at the ground.
Breathing out more slowly than breathing in can reduce agitation and slow down your heart rate. Inhale for 4 seconds, pause, then exhale for 5 seconds. Repeat several times. If you feel lightheaded, take a break to breathe normally, then resume paced breathing. Try to focus fully on your breathing.
Tense and relax each muscle group, one at a time, from top to bottom. Tense the muscles for 5 seconds, focusing on the sensation of tension in your muscles. Then fully relax the muscles and note the difference in how that feels.
Practice doing paced breathing and progressive muscle relaxation when you’re not distressed, and you’ll be able to recall and perform these skills with more ease when you need them.
We spend so much time working either on-site or remotely. It’s a fact of life and not necessarily a bad fact as we are all in this together. We never know what one person is going through by reading an email, text, or seeing them on a computer screen – let alone in-person. As stated earlier, most of the time we can handle all tasks with a fairly calm and composed demeanor, but it’s important to remember that some days/hours/minutes can be challenging…and that is okay – really okay.
Seinfeld Image ©Netflix
Sparks Research marked its 51st year in 2022 with a number of projects that highlight the hallmarks of our approach: precision, insight, and timeliness. We provide companies of all sizes and in all industries with data comprehension and insights powered by best-in-class analysis, cutting-edge and flexible methods, and high-touch customer service.
Indeed, since our founding, we have translated marketing research findings into marketplace solutions for our clients. These findings include global Fortune 100 companies and leading national and regional companies in industries such as financial services, retail, automotive, professional services, utilities, higher education, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing and general services industries.
In short:
The answers are here.
2022 Endeavors
We have been busy and 2022 was a great year! We added several new clients to our growing list in the higher ed, healthcare, energy, and financial services industries. Our new initiatives spanned the globe with several international and national survey engagements (consumer and B2B). We’ve also supplied some regional needs related to CX and brand health.
Our methodologies continue with online, telephone, mixed mode (online and telephone), QRE onsite surveys, online qual research and managed services (we are your Qualtrics programming experts). Our analytic offerings continue to grow as well, with CX/CES benchmarking and drivers, new product development (conjoint), pricing elasticity and defining ever-changing brand personas through segmentation analysis.
Our 6 Core Solutions
Our high-level and all-encompassing solutions allow Sparks Research to cover the range of the marketing research field for our clients.
We would welcome the opportunity to share more and to learn about how we can help you.
As we here at Sparks Research begin to reflect on 2022, we are thankful that our existing relationships continue to grow, and that our new relationships allow us to grow.
We are blessed with friends and family like you.
All of us here at Sparks Research extend our very heartfelt gratitude as we venture into 2023!
May God continue to bless you and your families.
Cheers!
The Sparks Team
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Change is the only constant.
Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
You can’t boil the ocean (Ok, that is quasi-internal at Sparks, but you catch my drift!)
Oh Maxims! It seems like they all are begging us to improve. We are on the constant search for our best selves. If we aren’t, then we should be! Now there’s a thought.
Here is a great example of a company striving to be better through change…
In 1991 Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its official name to KFC. The biggest reason that the company changed the name was because the public, starting in the 1980s, was becoming more health-conscious and they wanted to play down the “fried” part of the name. The research suggested that people did not want to be reminded that what they were eating wasn’t as healthy as what the fat-free craze was suggesting/screaming to them!
What a brave move - right?!?! Well, you can bet they did a lot of research to come to this conclusion. Yes, it was a big move, but they knew it was a good move because they tested it through research. They did not run around, “like a chicken with its head cut off.” They had direction from the data.
A question for us all… do we need a brand refresh on some level?
Let’s end this the way we started. Oh Maxims…
“Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets.” - Henry Ford
Cheers to your personal and business successes.
- The Sparks Team
About a month ago I got an email from someone that I haven’t chatted with in a long time. Actually when I saw his name, I thought, “Wow — it has been too long!”
The email was odd, though. All it said was “Hello! Please email me as I have an opportunity.” Well, this long-ago friend was a former client, so technically this could have been a new opportunity. But because I had not talked to him in a long time I thought the email seemed fishy. So instead of responding, I decided to email him directly.
I went to Linkedin and emailed him to say hello and tell him that an email I received “from him” looked a little weird and within a minute I got a reply. Ok, I thought, lets see what he is up to — a new opportunity could be on the horizon.
The reply was also weird. It said, “Hi, Rich. How are you? I sent it.” But, maybe he is busy, I thought, and that explains the truncated response. So I replied, “Things are good with me. How can I help you?” The reply was then, “I’m glad to hear that. Can you reply on my email. I am in a meeting.”
Now, I was obviously convinced that was weird, so I went a step further and called him. He answered and I immediately asked, “Did you email me today?” First thing out of his mouth was that he was hacked.
So – imagine this: I get a weird email that seemed too short and odd AND THEN through LinkedIn, his network was also hacked. I could even see the little emoticons would light up within LInkedIn to show that “he” was typing his responses to me in real time — only it was NEVER him!
I guess what really came to me is this: even though I feel like I have a good read on what is real and what isn’t, I learned a lot from this example and shared this story with everyone at the office. People can be hacked through multiple sources and while you think you are safe in chatting on one platform to verify that person sent an email, that isn’t enough anymore. This really blew my mind. Just imagine if I took the LinkedIn reply as legitimate and then emailed back like he asked? What then?
This entire situation encapsulates my biggest fears today for online research. Each and every day there is someone learning how to better scam and impersonate a friend, colleague or a company. Who can you trust? And, if people have more experiences like this, they are going to be less and less likely to participate in research needs — and that greatly concerns me.
Aligning with customers to define better ways to communicate is imperative for research assignments. Sending a pre-survey communication is best served by identifying that a survey is coming, defining what the survey is about, introducing the survey company and then having a true contact name and email address from the company. Going a step further, identifying the upcoming survey internally so that all client relationship associates are also aware will help prevent panic from a legitimate request (if internal team members aren’t aware, things could become a mess). If budgets allow, the best way of all to communicate is through good old-fashioned mail correspondence (but when was the last time you received something in the mail?).
Lastly, it can become even trickier when companies attempt to collect data “inhouse” as well as carry on with their regular job responsibilities. Who has time to do this and watch out for sneaky scammers AND do real work? Be safe out there.
