Types of Research

Attitude & Usage Research

Competitive Intelligence

Consumer Research: General

Customer Satisfaction: Customer Loyalty / Value

Customer Satisfaction: Customer Satisfaction Studies

Marketing Research: Full Service

Marketing Research: Qualitative Research

Marketing Research: Quantitative Research

New Product Research: General

Strategic Research: General

Strategic Research: Market Opportunity/Evaluation Studies

Strategic Research: Market Segmentation Studies

Tracking Research

Research Techniques & Services

Analytical Services: Data Analysis

Analytical Services: Statistical Analysis

Consultation: General

Consultation: Consumer Research

Consultation: Marketing Research

Qualitative Services: General

Audiences, Industries & Market Specialties

Financial: General

Financial: Banking - Commercial

Financial: Banking - Retail

Financial: Insurance

Health Care / Medical: General - Healthcare

Health Care / Medical: General - Medical

Telecommunications

Travel / Tourism: Travel

Utilities / Energy

Online Research Tools and Services

Online Surveys: Surveys

Online Survey-Related Services: Survey Reporting and Analysis

Cluster Analysis Gets Complicated | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Segmentation studies using cluster analysis have become commonplace. However, the data may be affected by collinearity, which can have a strong impact and affect the results of the analysis unless addressed. This article investigates what level presents a problem, why it's a problem, and how to get around it. Simulated data allows a clear demonstration of the issue without clouding it with extraneous factors. | Read White Paper »

Non-Response Bias In Survey Sampling | White Paper

TRC

Market research accounts for many scenarios to ensure high quality of data. One of the most overlooked problems is non-response bias. TRC describes ways to reduce its effects through survey design and data adjustment in this white paper. | Read White Paper »

How to Measure the Value of a Brand | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Brand name evokes an inherent value; finding a way to reliably measure that value is crucial in determining product development. A technique called discrete choice conjoint analysis is described in this paper by TRC. | Read White Paper »

Conjoint Analysis versus Self-Explicated Method: A Comparison | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Determining feature importance in a product can be divided into two techniques - top-down methods where a customer evaluates the whole product at once, and bottum-up methods where features are evaluated individually or in sets. The former method, Conjoint Analysis, is more common while the latter method, Self-Explicated Method, is not widely used but has practical advantages. TRC compares the two methods in this white paper. | Read White Paper »

Better Questions For Segmentation: Use of MAX-DIFF | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Using Maximum Difference Scaling as a method in designing surveys may ensure more useful results in your market research. It is a comparative method based on importance that sidesteps the problems associated with traditional importance scales. TRC explains the mechanics behind this method through a detailed example in this white paper. | Read White Paper »

Asymmetry in Product Features: Use of the Kano Method | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

The presence or absence of product features strongly affect consumer satisfaction with the design. Comparing these features using asymmetry analysis can help identify satisfiers and dissatisfiers from among the features of a product. The Kano method is similar but results in categorizing each respondent's answers. TRC presents this essential method of deciding new product features in detail. | Read White Paper »

Want better product ideas? Try smart incentives | White Paper

Rajan Samandam, TRC

Idea generation from survey respondents is strongly dependent on incentive. Introducing competition strengthens the quantity and quality of creative responses. TRC provides examples of smart incentives in this white paper. | Read White Paper »

An alternative method of reporting customer satisfaction scores | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam and George Hausser of TRC

Though customer satisfaction evaluations are widely used, reporting of these scores has varied from one study to another. This is likely the result of each method’s advantages and disadvantages, as well as the personal preferences and habits of the researcher. We recently had the opportunity to report customer satisfaction scores in a unique format that assimilates the advantages of various methods and provides the manager with a clearer picture of where to take action. In this article we review various reporting methods and outline our method with an example. Further, we also discuss a type of reporting that is becoming increasingly common especially in the health care arena, i.e., the issue of comparing the performance of various facilities or centers that belong to a single network or organization. We show how our method can be applied for this purpose and why it is advantageous. | Read White Paper »

Database Scoring with Object Based Segmentation | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Segmentation created from company databases are often lacking the rich segmentation schemes formed by attitudinal surveys. A new approach is Object based segmentation that uses database variables at the basis for forming attitudinal segments, leaving both markets classifiable with clear demographic segments. TRC compares traditional segmentation analysis with Object based. | Read White Paper »

Product Configurator | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

To help customers purchase the right product, companies often use product configurators - tools that let customers design their purchase before ordering. This method is employed as a market research technique, similar to conjoint analysis but without some of the constrictions. This white paper from TRC explains an appropriate use of the product configurator method. | Read White Paper »

Identifying Feature Importance: A Comparison of Methods | White Paper

TRC

Understanding what customers want is fundamental to the new product development process as well as to the process of keeping existing products fresh and relevant. To be successful in this area we need to be able to correctly identify what features are important to consumers. Feature importance can be measured using a variety of methods of differing effectiveness. In this paper we will deal with the following methods: Importance Scales, Pick data, Pairwise Comparisons, and Max-Diff. | Read White Paper »

Segmentation Success | White Paper

Michael Sosnowski, TRC

This paper explains the basic building blocks of the segmentation process and its implementation. | Read White Paper »

Market Segmentation: One Method, Four Examples | Case Study

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Effective market segmentation requires an understanding of the market and the skilled art of finding the appropriate segments. TRC gives four examples of this method's application with results. | Read Case Study »

Understand Choice in Banking: Use of Discrete Choice Conjoint Analysis | White Paper

TRC

Conjoint analysis provides incentive for survey respondents to determine which features must not be omitted in their final purchase. The method closely mirrors decision-making in the real world, and as shown by TRC in this white paper, is applicable to many situations including how customers choose their bank. | Read White Paper »

Asymmetry Analysis | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Asymmetrical relationships among variables in satisfaction research have been increasingly investigated in the last decade. However most of the work has been published in academic journals (such as Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research), which may not always be accessible to practical market researchers. The objective of this article is to both provide a simple introduction to this topic and add to the existing body of knowledge. | Read White Paper »

Monadic Price Testing vs. Price Laddering | White Paper

TRC

Compares two popular pricing methods to understand the difference in take rate information. | Read White Paper »

TURF: New Methods for Implementation | White Paper

Westley Ritz, TRC

TURF is a long-established and quite useful marketing research tool, but not everyone is familiar with how it works, or with the latest developments that can make TURF even more effective. The purposes of this paper are twofold: (1) to explain the technique and (2) to describe the latest methods for implementation. | Read White Paper »

Deriving Value from Research: the Use of Conjoint Analysis for Product Development | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Marketing research has been used by firms over the last several decades to provide information for decision making. Over time, increasingly sophisticated statistical methods have been developed and deployed in the service of this goal. This article focuses on one such method - conjoint analysis - and its application to product development. We will briefly look at what conjoint analysis is and a real life example of its application that provided true value to a company. | Read White Paper »

New Product Development: Stages and Methods | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

TRC identifies the best methods for each stage of the product development process, from Idea Generation through Feature Development, Product Development and Product Testing. | Read White Paper »

Improving Claim Satisfaction: A Case Study | Case Study

TRC

A case study on applying full-service market research to help an insurance company improve their client satisfaction with claim handling. | Read Case Study »

Improving Call Satisfaction: A Case Study | Case Study

TRC

TRC presents a case study of analyzing and improving a call center as an on-going data collection process. | Read Case Study »

Survey of Analysis Methods Part I | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

Practical marketing research deals with two major problems: identifying key drivers and developing segments. In this two-part series TRC looks at key driver analysis and segmentation. | Read White Paper »

Survey of Analysis Methods Part II | White Paper

Rajan Sambandam, TRC

This is Part II of a series looking at aspects of practical marketing research: identifying key drivers and developing segments. This content describes specific segmentation methods: cluster analysis, neural networks, self-organizing map (SOM), and mixture models. Included is a discussion on ideas for developing good segments. | Read White Paper »

Identifying the Key Drivers of Brand Image | Service

TRC

Measuring brand image requires looking at direct effects as well as indirect effects of a company's performance. TRC compares traditional multiple regression with SatiscanTM, a method that can review all possible path models. | Read Service »

Validating Satiscan Using A Split Sample Approach | Service

TRC

TRC's SatiscanTM model is tested for validity using call center data and a split sample approach. This shows that SatiscanTM produces similar models when run on random halves of an energy industry dataset. | Read Service »

Satiscan and Regression Analysis: A Comparison | Service

TRC

The comparison shows the advantages of SatiscanTM, an analytical method from TRC, over regression in identifying the correct and cost efficient action steps. | Read Service »