Blog: How Does Research Work, Anyway?
June 15, 2021 | Browse more articles -->As a Maru Voice Canada member, you’re familiar with the survey taking part of the research process, but there’s more that goes on behind the scenes. When clients come to us for research services, there’s a general process we follow.
1. The client has a question or problem.
We work with a variety of clients, from household brands to the government and media. Clients come to us because they need to understand how a population feels about an idea or issue that affects their decision making.
2. Researchers design the research instrument.
Some clients have in-house teams that design and develop research, while others look to a professional research services firm (like us!) for advice and assistance. The research instrument can be a survey, a focus group, a tracking study, etc.
3. We field the study and collect data.
The study comes to our Project Management team and we field it with a representative sample – panel members with demographic information that satisfies the study’s research objectives, carefully balanced to ‘represent’ the views of a larger population.
4. The data are transformed into insights.
Once the study has achieved the required number of responses, research professionals analyze and present the results, offering recommendations and insights that inform the client’s decision-making process.
As we mentioned above, we work with a wide variety of clients with differing research needs. Some examples of the types of research we conduct include:
- Customer Experience – Exploring how customers feel about brands/organizations, how they would react to changes with the brand/organization, etc.
- Product Development – Testing out new product ideas with customers so brands/organizations can decide how to best move forward.
- Message Testing – Examining how people react to certain messaging, for example in advertising, media communications, etc.
- Public Affairs – Gathering people’s opinions on relevant political and/or social issues.
- Tracking Studies – Exploring how people’s behaviour and opinions change over time by asking the same questions in multiple waves.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about the ‘behind the scenes’ parts of our work. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our Support team and they will be happy to help!
Not a member? Join now and start being rewarded for your opinion!
Maru Voice Canada is one of the country’s leading online market research panels. We send you surveys, you complete them, we give you rewards, and you make a difference. For each survey you complete, you earn entries into monthly sweepstakes programs and points that can be redeemed for gift cards from a variety of popular online retailers. We then share your responses with organizations ranging from household brands, government bodies, not-for-profits, and the media who want to better understand the opinions of Canadians. Have your voice heard by joining the Maru Voice Canada community today.
Not a member yet? Visit www.maruvoice.ca to join our community and share your views on a variety of topics like these.
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