A simple question.  Using some  measures from baseball and football, would your success rate for new products or services  be enough to get you on the ballot for the  Hall of Fame. Surely, batting .300 for a tenured baseball career would earn you a place on the ballot.  And batting .300 in the business world [...]

Coming from a traditional research firm, I was shocked by the speed of research done for clients at My-Take. I am used to a single research project taking several months to complete and at the end handing over a several hundred page document containing all of the findings. Now, instead of wasting weeks recruiting respondents [...]

We all know the value that companies assign to keeping customers happy.  My experience has shown that most companies will bend over backwards to keep a customer happy…even when the customer is wrong.  Companies spend countless amounts of money on customer support teams, loyalty programs, swapping products, etc.  They train their employees to handle customer [...]

Encyclopaedia Britannica announced that this year would be the last year of their printed encyclopedias.  I have to admit when I heard the news I felt a wave of nostalgia, and a bit of sadness as well.  Growing up in a rural area the encyclopedias were an eye to a then less accessible world, and a means [...]

Probably not the best idea to write a blog post under the influence of cold medicine for a nasty head cold.  Maybe I will have added creativity.  Here goes. OK, my oldest daughter is a Junior now and my wife just came off duty of being the cookie mom for the recent drive.  Now, I [...]

Video is Hot If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth?  I would hazard to guess, a lot. Increasingly, brands are using video to tell their story.  A 2011 report by Social Media Examiner indicated 77% of marketers planned on increasing usage of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top [...]

A recent NYT’s article indicated that by the end of January, 36% of folks that make a New Year’s resolution will have already lost their battle.   The article was really focused on personal objectives. Which got me thinking.  How many people make business resolutions?  And as we approach the end of January 2012, how are they [...]

I remember once finding myself in a tense conference room with several other managers.  We were trying to make the decision on a package for a key new product.  We had VP’s, Directors, Product Managers, Channel Managers, Sales, Engineering and a President in the room.  Everyone had an opinion and of course the opinions differed. I’m sure [...]

A recent study by Parks Associates asked 2,000 consumers ages 18 and older about their buying habits within the consumer tech space.  Some people may be surprised by the results. The study suggests that women actually have a higher purchase intent than men for products like tablets, laptops, and smartphones. The study also shows that in 2010, women bought [...]

Increasingly our clients are utilizing the ‘Home Activity’ or ‘Home Use Test’ component of our online insight communities.  The value of attaining the in-home feedback is clear to companies.   Some clients and researchers claim in-home research is the most important research tool.  However, the vast majority of companies simply don’t have an on-going mechanism to gather in-home feedback [...]