5 Common Mistakes in Google Analytics Configurations
Google Analytics (GA) is the most popular digital measurement and reporting tool in the world[1]. The data collected and measured in GA is used for standard activities…
read moreGoogle Analytics (GA) is the most popular digital measurement and reporting tool in the world[1]. The data collected and measured in GA is used for standard activities…
read moreOnline testing of marketing concepts is now an established and proven practice. Numerous methodologies are used to test copy points, features and benefits. One methodology, MaxDiff, is…
read moreBusiness Scenario: You currently offer a premium product in the market place. A competitor recently launched a “knock-off” version of your premium product at a lower price…
read moreThe mail must go through… I’m reminded of an inscription from the James Farley Post Office in New York City that reads: “Neither snow nor rain nor…
read moreWhy are we so enamored with precision? Why is it that if we can’t get an exact number, then we don’t want any number at all? There…
read more“As an industry we pay so much attention to average ratings and we don’t talk about the effectiveness of the media enough. Reach is important, but the…
read moreDo you know what Conjoint Analysis is? Well, you should. Every business should be doing Conjoint Analysis on a regular basis. Why am I so passionate about…
read moreI’ve been working in the predictive analytics (“data mining”, “big data”) field for several years and have noticed a few trends: Clients have better (more, higher quality)…
read moreWhat are you trying to solve for? What is your business objective? These are questions we regularly ask in order to make sure the research we’re doing…
read moreWe often tell people we’re in the idea business. The ideas we work with primarily help shape two things: 1) New product development and 2) Messaging/communication. The…
read moreFormula for a Successful Tracking Study According to the last few GRIT reports, tracking studies are in decline. Although this trend has been reported for years, we’re…
read moreGood/Better/Best – Product Bundling Business scenario #1: You have a series of tiered products within your category. You would like to prioritize the features and benefits (value…
read moreThere are many different views on the varying levels of analytics. We’ve found the best way to break this down is by the type of insights you…
read moreHave you ever wished you could estimate the size of a market before investing? Perhaps you have a new product idea and you’re not sure if the…
read more“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” ― Confucius It seems that simplicity has always been embraced. Confucius, Leonardo da Vinci (“Simplicity is…
read moreLast month, Advertising Age asked marketers and agency execs to make predictions about upcoming business-to-business trends in 2015 (Seven B-to-B Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2015). One…
read moreYour market conditions are constantly changing so it’s important to understand how these changes impact your marketing effectiveness. What do we mean by “changing market conditions?” A…
read moreWe talk a lot about measuring the effectiveness of marketing investments here on the blog. For one, it’s something we’re passionate about and enjoy doing. Secondly, and…
read more“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker Advertising is a continuous guessing game. Doing…
read moreWhen streaming video services on mobile came onto the scene people started predicting the death of television. To be honest, I was one of them. Many people…
read moreDISCLAIMER: We fully respect the integrity and confidentiality of our clients. Our case studies do not include any real client data. We want you to know that…
read moreDan Quirk recently started a thread in his LinkedIn group and asked for everyone’s favorite research-related quote. We thought the quotes were so fantastic that we had…
read moreData Mining FAQ For those not familiar with data mining, simply mentioning the term ‘data mining’ often leads people to mentally check out. The term is carelessly…
read moreThanksgiving is a great time of year. Most of us, unless you work in retail, take the time off to be with family and share a good…
read moreStimulus response is a measuring technique that traces all the way back to experiments done in the late 1800’s by Ivan Pavlov. Stimulus response is all about…
read moreIn our previous blog we touched on the most important thing in market research – answering specific business questions. Today we’ll keep the same theme and look…
read moreIf you’ve spent any time in market research or are a buyer of research, then you’re fully aware of the perceived friction between “traditional” methods and newer…
read moreThe funny thing about obvious solutions is that they’re only obvious after they’ve been pointed out. We had a call last week with a company who was…
read moreMessaging research is most commonly used in advertising – where the goal is to understand what messages would maximize interest in taking a certain action (e.g. buying…
read moreA recent article on Fast Company discussed the trends in neuromarketing, a new area of market research that utilizes electro-chemical technology such as EEG’s to read and…
read moreI’m still relatively new to market research compared to my colleagues and most of the industry folks I interact with. As a result, I often have a…
read moreSocial networks like Linkedin and Facebook once offered polling features. Within the past 2 years, both social networks have removed polls. Linkedin’s was a slower death. The…
read moreEditor’s note: As a research company, we could easily tell you we’re the best and we know what we’re doing, but you would just be taking our…
read moreLet’s start by stating the obvious – the internet can be an extremely valuable and educational tool. However, it can also be inaccurate and destructive. Then social…
read moreIt’s Friday night and you finally have the opportunity to lie down on the couch and binge on your favorite TV show. This particular episode is riveting…
read moreWhat is the definition of “quality?” Well, that’s a question the Department of Commerce had as well. The following is a quick case study on how better…
read moreWhether you’re new or experienced with concept testing, it’s always nice to be familiar with some of the “tricks of the trade” or best practices. Below, in…
read moreSmart watches are nothing new. They even date back to as early as 1972. On Tuesday, Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone 6 launch party unveiled their “next big…
read morePrediction markets, a.k.a. predictive markets, collect and aggregate the knowledge and judgment of a random, diverse group around a specific event or concept for the purpose of…
read moreUnderstanding The Social Data Landscape Social media ROI is a hot topic. As you may know, one of our strengths is rigorously measuring the return on marketing…
read moreSituation Optimization Group had previously conducted analyses with a branch of the U.S. Military to estimate how media spending (both investment levels and media mix) contributed to…
read moreAfter years of successful contracting with federal agencies, Optimization Group is now an approved GSA vendor. What does this mean for you? Federal agencies can now order…
read moreOver the last few years, we’ve combed the literature on the creative process. Our goal was to better understand how an effective creative process works in order…
read moreTHEY’RE THE SAME THING, RIGHT? WAIT A MINUTE, NOT SO FAST… Business Intelligence and Business Analytics vendors have their definitions. Consultants have theirs. Senior management has yet…
read moreWe talk about Conjoint Analysis quite often. Partly because it’s something we know very well but mainly because it’s such a powerful technique. The core principle behind…
read more“What is the ROI of my Marketing?” – every CMO A great way to start answering this question is by looking at the data you already have.…
read moreWhy do Pre and Post Ad testing? Advertising research is a staple of market research. It allows you to measure and improve marketing effectiveness, determine if an…
read moreSurprise! Facebook is making headlines again for something negative. Earlier this month, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a study conducted by Facebook…
read moreWhat Is The Most Motivating Message? One of our clients recently came to us hoping to answer a couple important business questions. Although their brand was founded…
read moreUnderstanding the Irrational Side of Decision-Making Focus groups are a time honored method of gaining a deeper understanding of customer preferences and what drives buying decisions. One…
read moreThe short answer is…it depends on where the brand name is mentioned. The two places where the brand name can be mentioned are: In the research study…
read moreDIY Tools Increase Value of Research Professionals I recently attended an American Marketing Association (AMA) power luncheon in Nashville. The topic for the day was the “new…
read moreThe Question Every Marketer Must Answer Recently, Optimization Group’s Director of IT, Jim Kenyon, was featured in an edition of Quirk’s Magazine. Jim took the opportunity to…
read moreScanning For Opportunities I am not a “Trekkie,” but I know more about Star Trek than a healthy, self-respecting adult male should. If you’ve ever watched the…
read moreSocial Media’s Kiss of Death It’s hard to remember what life was like before social media. What did people do before they could share their every thought…
read moreHitting Your Marketing ROI Measuring marketing ROI is a top priority in every business. For some, they don’t know where to start. For others, they don’t know…
read moreTapping Into Consumer Perception Before we explain how to shift to a Value-Based pricing strategy, we must first address why companies are using a Cost-Plus pricing strategy…
read moreCase Study: American Heart Association A picture is worth a thousand words. Similarly, so is a powerful case study. A few years back we attempted to achieve…
read moreA Creative Director’s Dream What if you could present a creative brief that showed you could increase consumers’ intent to purchase by 18% if you communicate XYZ?…
read moreBreakfast Wars The battle lines are drawn. A large amount of blood has poured out upon the battlefield….well at least a large amount of maple syrup. The…
read moreData Mining Strategy In the business world, the buzzword “Big Data” has a feeling of opportunity surrounding it. The term is often used in a business conversation…
read moreThe Sweet Sounds of Good Research This January Marcia Wasser, EVP/CMO at Source Communications, was the winner of the Ad Agency Hub Contest. The contest asked people…
read moreMobile Conjoint Analysis Conjoint analysis, aka Trade-off analysis, is a popular research method for predicting how people make complex choices. Conjoint asks people to make tradeoffs just…
read moreMeasuring The Potential Splash Before Jumping In The Water As the economy is slowly recovering, new opportunities are opening up for businesses. Those organizations that uncover and…
read moreThe Marketing Cloud War Marketing mergers and acquisitions in 2012 and 2013 told two different stories. In 2012, only two marketing industry mergers were above $1 billion…
read moreCrowdsourcing Strategy If Crowdsourcing is on your company’s list of things to explore this year, then be prepared to take the time to understand the nuances. For…
read moreData Modeling Prep In the data-crazed world we live in, companies are interested in leveraging their data more than ever. On the surface, people tend to view…
read moreFacebook’s News Storm Facebook’s been in the news more than usual lately. Mostly for all the wrong reasons. First, we had the news about their data mining…
read morePrice Elasticity “What is the right price?” This is a question every business has to answer. For some, this issue is extremely complicated. Perhaps you operate in…
read moreEvidence Based Messaging Wouldn’t it be nice to present a creative brief to your client/boss and be able to say, “Here’s what we KNOW.” vs. “Here’s what…
read moreThe ROI of a Super Bowl Ad The Super Bowl is the time of year that everyone turns their attention to the T.V. It’s not just for…
read moreMultilingual Marketing Guest Post by Mark Mitchell of Whizard Strategy To be an effective building material marketer, you need to be multi-lingual. I don’t mean you have…
read moreContest Winner/Agency of the Month Proudly announcing the winner of the Ad Agency Hub contest ….drum roll…. Marcia Wasser- EVP/CMO at Source Communications! Marcia’s excellent submission beat…
read moreMarketing trends, behavioral economics, social media, text analytics, key interviews, and much more! It’s been an exciting year on the Optimization Group blog. We’re extremely thankful to…
read moreThe Privacy Debate Today when people talk about the plethora of data available it is often from a positive perspective. This viewpoint is focused is on the…
read moreWhich Flavor is Right For You? Conjoint Analysis has become one of the most powerful quantitative methods in Marketing Research. Conjoint Analysis answers the question of which…
read moreCreating an Audible Affinity for Your Brand Ask a marketing professional about how to sell more or how to build consumer confidence in whatever it is that…
read moreSeeing the whole picture Today we have so much data at our fingertips that it’s hard to determine which variables to focus on. When measuring your marketing…
read moreFive, five dollar, five dollar…world? In September McDonalds announced they plan to revamp their ‘Dollar Menu’ to include $5 items. We’ve seen other food-chain giants push five…
read moreCrunching the numbers At Optimization Group, we take Data Security very seriously. To show you how serious, we took time to document a recent group security activity.…
read moreNaming the “Power of the Crowd” Over the past 10 years the term crowdsourcing has increased in popularity. More people use that term each and every day.…
read moreText Analytics Distraction Text analytics is a fascinating space that people are eager to understand. Many leading text analytics influencers suggest that we’ve only reached the “tip…
read moreNew Applications for Existing Technology Have you ever felt like you weren’t getting the full potential out of a product or technology? A large Building Products manufacturer…
read more“Based on a true story” The first thing that brought your attention to this article was most likely the picture above. Perhaps the reason you clicked to…
read moreBuilding Materials Case Study We often look at different market research techniques broadly across many industries but today we’re going to switch gears and focus on a…
read morePositioning Strategy Developing a positioning is an analytic problem-solving activity. The objective is to solve for two simultaneous, desired outcomes. These two outcomes are association and differentiation.…
read moreA Simple Introduction to Conjoint Analysis Each day we experience many “trade-off” scenarios such as “Where should I go to eat?”, “What flight should I choose for…
read moreBenchmarking Consumer Participation in Research One aspect of research that can never be investigated enough is the role of consumer participation. Without it, the research industry is…
read moreIdentifying the “Why” in Consumer Choices Last month David Forbes published an insightful article on Greenbook titled “All Emotions Are Not Created Equal.” Forbes made the argument…
read moreDon’t Buy The Coffin Just Yet It seems like everyday I see another article published about the inevitable death of market research or how the research industry…
read moreResearch Solutions for Everyday Client Objectives Have you ever been asked to solve a problem but didn’t have a clue how to solve it? Well, good news,…
read moreFeature Friday: Mobile Marketing, Meet Geofencing Guest post by Gina Yeagley Quickly evolving mobile technology brings many questions to the future of market research. It is becoming…
read more2013 ESOMAR Congress Tweetable Takeaways I love conferences, specifically for the networking aspect, but unfortunately due to a limited number of hours in the day I’m not…
read moreMaking sense of the changing advertising landscape I recently read an article by AdWeek that suggested the definition of Advertising has never been more unclear. The author,…
read moreWhat is the Value of Your Data? Johnny “Football” Manziel has made quite a name for himself over the past 15 months. From winning the Heisman Trophy…
read morePromote your Agency and get tickets to your favorite concert We love success stories and seeing the power of research in action. We also love music. Combine…
read moreGo-to Resource for Advertising Agencies We are very excited to announce the launch of the Advertising Agency Hub. It’s a place designed for agencies to gain knowledge…
read moreLOOMIS: the voice of the underdog Today we are excited to honor LOOMIS as the Advertising Agency Hub’s first “Agency of the Month”. The Advertising Agency Hub…
read moreParadigm Shift: What is “Positioning” in Marketing? The “Positioning Era” can be traced to an article on the subject published by Jack Trout in 1969. In 1972,…
read more4 Strategic Operational Functions You Must Consider Reviewing Guest Post by Jayne Heggen Your Agency business can change from year to year depending on a variety of…
read moreReasons Why Market Research Gets Left Out of the Huddle With football season upon us I’ve been dying to use a football analogy. A good number of…
read moreFeature Friday: Finding New, Influential Partners in Your Social Media Marketing Guest post by Mark Meloon Studies have shown that staggering 90% of people rely on peer…
read moreFuture of Mobile Advertising We’ve all read about the data-privacy outcry, especially in the case of Jay-Z and Samsung, but when we sit back and analyze the…
read moreBig Data Struggle If you regularly follow business news, no doubt you’ve encountered several articles about “big data.” In case you haven’t, “big data” refers to the…
read moreBrand Impact Analysis It’s widely been documented that a brand name has an impact on purchase decisions. We’ve all been guilty of choosing one product over another…
read moreFeature Friday: Optimizing Your Marketing With Voice-Based Marketing Automation Guest post by Olivia Cole Marketers—or at least marketers who are interested in improving their campaigns—are always seeking…
read moreMarket Research on Linkedin As someone who spends a significant amount of time on Linkedin, I understand the value of a quality discussion. On Linkedin, these discussions…
read moreFeature Friday: The Evolution of Agencies and Market Research Guest interview with Andy Prakken We often write about different ways agencies can use market research, all from…
read moreThe ROI of Marketing Let’s be real. Measuring your Return on Investment (ROI) can sometimes be a scary thing. It takes away all the “glitz and glamour”…
read moreFeature Friday: Market Research as We Know it is Unsuited for the Digital Economy Guest Post by Michalis Michael Market Research, as we know it, is perfectly…
read moreHave your creative juices run dry? Or have you realized that you may not be able to solve a problem on your own? Whether you’re looking to…
read moreUnderstanding The Buying Process Emotion plays a big part in our daily lives. For marketers, sometimes emotion can impact marketing strategy. Marketing teams are always trying to…
read moreFeature Friday: 3 Ways a Luxury Jewelry Brand Can Gather Market Research Guest Blog by Michelle Adorjan Chila We all want our marketing messages to shine bright…
read moreThe goal of marketing in its simplest form comes down to getting the right message, to the right people, at the right time. If you’ve figured out…
read moreFeature Friday: The Art of Project Management Guest Blog by Alison Andreoff Do you ever think to yourself as you’re leaving work for the day, “I could…
read moreFocus Groups vs. Phone Surveys Guest Post by Josh Collins When conducting market research, how you gain information can be just as important as the information you…
read moreTop Advertising Agency Demands Whether it’s economical or not, sometimes advertising agencies are asked to be the “ultimate handy-man” and fix any problem (regardless of whether it’s…
read moreFeature Friday: Jay-Z and Your Phone: a Magna Carta for Tomorrow’s Mobile World Guest Post by Cole Hanson Anyone who is a fan of pop culture has…
read moreMessage Testing Strategy Messaging is a continuously evolving “game” between marketers and consumers. Marketers communicate a message to their audience – which they believe at that time…
read moreMarketing Mix Recipe What comes to mind when you think of chocolate cake? Maybe it’s your favorite dessert (or guilty pleasure). Does it remind you of a…
read moreInstagram Video for Marketers In case you were camping or living in a cave last week, you’re fully aware of the release of Instagram Video. I think…
read moreFeature Friday: Are Millennials Redefining Data Privacy? Guest Post by Gina Yeagley We have all heard it before, that mobile is tomorrow. According to the Pew Internet…
read moreTwo Different Approaches to Product Launches Anyone involved in product development knows that it can be a high risk game. No company launches a new product with…
read moreMarketing Measurement on the Rise For those who frequently read our blog, you well know that we talk a lot about Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). We…
read moreThe High Cost of Cheap Surveys Recently I was shopping online and came across a website that featured knock-offs – famous brand name products that are made…
read moreMarketers Struggle With Analytics Research firm, Gartner Inc., recently conducted their 2013 Data-Driven Marketing Survey. Gartner surveyed 242 marketing analytics professionals from November to December 2012 to…
read moreUtilizing Concept Testing We all love happy customers right? We also know that a satisfied customer is a happy customer. So how do we know the best…
read moreFeature Friday: The 15 Year-Old Marketing Research Time-Capsule? Guest Post by Chris Ruby More than 30 years ago while I was in the 3rd grade, our entire…
read moreConjoint Analysis Applications More and more, I’m seeing businesses utilize the power of conjoint analysis to improve their business and marketing strategy. Well, what’s all the hoopla…
read moreThe Marketer’s Dilemma: Data Limitations Precise response data like leads, click-through rates, conversions and sales is valuable in making decisions about future marketing efforts. But what do…
read moreFeature Friday: Google Helping Bring Research to Emerging Markets Guest Post by Jim Bryson Google is bringing research to the developing world! No, its not their highly…
read moreMarketing Survey Research Survey Research is a commonly used methodology in Marketing. In its most simple explanation, Marketers use Survey Research to know their customers better and…
read moreFeature Friday: Understanding Consumers: When Analytics and Ground Truth Collide Guest Post by Steve August Recently, I was involved in a project where the client brand had…
read moreDid you know that roughly 86% of marketing messages fail to motivate their audience? The odds of your campaign succeeding are sobering. This realization begs the question,…
read moreFeature Friday: How Behavioral Economics Impacts Marketing Strategy and Research Guest Post by Allison Vale As a woman, I don’t always take too kindly to being called…
read moreMeasuring Marketing ROI: The Truth The Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) recently held a meeting to discuss the important research being done about the financial impact of…
read moreFeature Friday: Three Opportunities to Stay in Tune with Your Core Audience Guest Post by Jessica Dewell You’ve heard this before: know your audience in order to…
read more20 Tweetable Market Research Stats As the Market Research industry has been thrust into the social media universe, what better way to celebrate than to give you…
read moreCustomer Satisfaction Best Practices The importance of measuring customer satisfaction and its related construct, customer loyalty, continues to grow. Also, the “State of the Science” has improved…
read moreImportance of Market Research Remember back when you were in the 5th grade and your teacher said “We have an important history quiz on Friday, make sure…
read moreLeveraging Marketing Analytics I think it’s safe to say the importance of Marketing Analytics is widely understood. A recent MarketingSherpa study, 2013 Marketing Analytics Benchmark Report, really…
read moreFeature Friday: The Marketing Talent Gap—And How To Overcome It Guest Post by Jessica Donlon Are you a marketer feeling pressure to learn new technologies; integrate with…
read moreFeature Friday: Fatal Flaws of the B2B Marketer Guest Post by Heather Hinman Do you feel like your monthly marketing meeting is like the blind leading the…
read moreImproving Marketing Effectiveness I think it’s safe to say that every Marketer is always looking to improve the effectiveness of their Marketing. However, sometimes we don’t know…
read moreBig Data Analysis “Big data, big data, big data.” If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media lately, you’ve most likely seen an article (or…
read moreHottest Marketing Trend: Weird is the New Cool? As with all great marketing ideas, many imitators soon follow. Who would have guessed 5 years ago that the…
read more3 Ways Agencies Use Market Research to Win in 2013 People often ask us, “So, how is Market Research being used successfully today? …Can you give us…
read moreThe Future of Text Analytics With the outburst of social media and content marketing over the past 10 years, text analytics has become not just a “buzz…
read more“Black Box” Marketing If you’re like every other Marketer on the planet, you’ve wrestled over the task of planning your Marketing Communications budget. Questions like “Well, what’s…
read moreFacebook Phone Marketing Impact According to TechCrunch, the social media powerhouse, Facebook, has invited the press to “come see our new home on Android.” Rumors suggest that…
read moreNew Product Strategy To stay ahead of the game, companies are always creating new products or optimizing their current products. Developing a new product strategy can be…
read moreMarketing Communications Budgeting Deciding where your Marketing Communication dollars will go comes down to one simple question, what’s actually working? Sounds simple, but a great number of…
read moreGreenBook’s 2013 Market Research Report For the past 12 years GreenBook, a Market Research directory, has released their annual GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report. This report is…
read moreCustomer Profiling As today’s consumer becomes increasingly complex, Marketers need to find new and creative ways to better know and understand their customers. Not just their average…
read moreBrand New Website! We’re very exciting to announce the launch of our new website! We’re not big on self-promotion here on our blog but we thought we’d…
read moreA recent report on MarketWatch, an NPR business news program, examined how we make buying decisions based on the number of choices we are offered (Choices: Too…
read moreOver the past decade, the complexity and sophistication of the marketing function has grown by leaps and bounds. And, the pressure on the Chief Marketing Officer has…
read moreRecently, one of our team came across a blog post by Christine Champagne at FastCo.Create. It talked about a research study on subject near and dear to…
read moreMy bank knows a lot about me. They how much money I have with them, how much of that I spend (too much), what I spend it…
read moreEarlier this week a client joked that she is working on her Black Belt in IdeaMap®, an online message optimization tool popular with our clients. For those…
read moreThis month’s Harvard Business Review features an interesting article on the value of conducting business experiments (A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Business Experiments). It’s a topic that…
read moreMotivating Customers through Message Optimization Our work with message optimization suggests that persuasive messaging usually contains two essential elements, emotion and logic. While each element can be…
read moreOne of the great things about the holidays is that almost everyone celebrates them. We come together to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or other traditions. By participating…
read moreMarch Madness Analytics For sports fans, the end of March is a highly anticipated time of year. Fans spend hours struggling over which team(s) will be this…
read moreSeveral LinkedIn Groups have been discussing the effect of the various Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tools now available to those who want to create online surveys. Many of those…
read moreRoughly 100 years ago, Thomas Edison was credited with first defining genius as “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” It seems to me that he may have had…
read moreConsumer confidence has long been looked to as a bell weather of the health of the economy. Yet no such index exits to measure the confidence of…
read moreThis morning, I spotted a link to an article on LinkedIn® entitled “The Old Marketing Methods Are Dead.” And, I clicked on the link – I guess…
read moreDaniel Burstein recently published an article in The Marketing Experiments Quarterly Research Journal entitled Anti-Crowdsourcing: On (Not) Getting Marketing Ideas from Your Customers. The author critiques the…
read moreRecently, it seems as though every time I turn around, there’s another new catch phrase or technology demanding to be seen as the centerpiece of marketing: mobile…
read moreRegression Modeling Regression Modeling can be quite confusing if it’s your first time at the rodeo. The history of Regression Modeling is fascinating and its applications continue…
read moreOmniture, an online optimization company has released the results of an Online Analytics Benchmark Survey (Omniture Survey Reveals Significant Opportunity to Measure Marketing ROI and Increase Effectiveness…
read moreThe Baldrige National Quality Program announced recently that, based on research provided by the Optimization Group, the program is changing its name to the Baldrige Performance Excellence…
read moreMy Mom always said that the best parties are the ones where people do not already know each other. If they are all “office people” they will…
read moreTraditionally, non-profits have been viewed as “following the pack” when it comes to marketing innovation. Commercial marketers tend to have bigger budgets which allow for greater access…
read moreRecently, there has been much discussion that social media may drive down the use of surveys and focus groups. Some have claimed that surveys could become obsolete…
read moreA simple question from a client at a recent research presentation. And I’m sure they expected a simple Yes/No answer. But (as you may guess), the right…
read moreWe have tested thousands of marketing messages and campaigns over the last ten years. Why so many? Simply put, marketers want to have confidence that their marketing…
read moreOptimization Group was recently invited to participate in an important meeting held by the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB). The Board’s mission is to “Establish marketing measurement…
read moreUPDATE: MONEYBALL starring Brad Pitt almost wins the Oscar for Best Picture! Imagine that you are a movie mogul looking for the next big hit. Two screenwriters…
read moreThe Coca Cola Company’s vice president of marketing strategy and insights Stan Sthanunathan opened last week’s American Marketing Association Marketing Research Conference with news that he plans…
read moreRecently, I was in the car, half listening to talk radio, but mostly in deep think mode trying to develop a topic for this column. Since this…
read morePrecise response data like leads, click-through rates, conversions and sales is valuable in making decisions about future marketing efforts. But what do you do to if you…
read moreI was recently asked by Analyst Lauren Carlson to comment on a blog post discussing the new concept of Revenue Performance Management (RPM). As stated there and…
read moreOver the past few years, organizations have realized the importance of effectively tracking and managing customer interactions. Customer Relationship Management systems capture critical information about each individual…
read more