Weekend Thinking: Five Things I’d Like to Learn Next Year
As the old year ends and a new begins, a lot of folks are looking back. I’d rather look forward. So rather than another “top ten things from last year” list, here are five things I’d like to learn or learn more about next year. Is this the year we finally kill RDD? In case [...]
Netflix and Customer Satisfaction
The importance of customer satisfaction is becoming increasingly important again, thanks in part to platforms for voicing opinions on the web, such as social media sites. The importance is highlighted this week as we saw Netflix in the news again for its tremendous drop in customer satisfaction ratings, which plummeted along with stock prices over [...]
2011: Less Change Than They Thought
Year’s end is usually a time for introspection. At the end of every year my wife and I, as do many people, review where we thought we’d be at the beginning of the year and compare it to what actually happened. It might be a useful task to apply the same introspection to a very [...]
Economic Concerns Continue to Dominate
Throughout 2011, an average of 17% of Americans said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the United States. That is the second-lowest annual average in the more than 30-year history of the question, after the 15% from 2008. Satisfaction has averaged as high as 60% in 1986, 1998, and 2000. The [...]
Understanding Customer Sentiment
Water issues are becoming more important across the country and it is important that water companies survey customers in order to sustain public confidence when rate increases are required. Throughout the country water utility companies have submitted rate increase requests to the Public Utility Commission, which has caused public concern in many cities and communities. [...]
Data Visualization (or why pretty pictures matter)
As researchers, we often find ourselves immersed in numbers. We’re comfortable with numbers because they are our product. We sell them, wage campaigns with them, fall back on them, and are generally surrounded by them all day, every day. So it’s important to step outside that perspective from time to time and remember that not [...]
Almost half of Americans now wireless only or mostly
Today, the National Center for Health Statistics updated our national estimates of the size and characteristics of the population without landline telephones. This new report is based on National Health Interview Survey data collected from January – June 2011. During that time period, 31.6% of American homes were wireless-only and 16.4% were wireless-mostly. In addition, [...]
Republicans Must Stand up to Occupy Wall Street Protests
Several clients and friends have asked for our thoughts on the Occupy protests and their impact on public opinion. This is fueled, perhaps, by the fact that some Republicans and Republican consultants are of the belief that the Occupy protests reflect a real threat to conservatives. Perhaps most notably, Frank Luntz[1] recently claimed to be [...]
Occupy Big Government
While the members of the Occupy (Insert City Name Here) Movement are busying using their “people’s microphone” to decry banks and corporations, the 99% that they purport to speak for doesn’t agree that corporations are the biggest future threat to the country. In fact 64% of Americans say that Big Government is the biggest threat [...]
Values-Centered Purpose Assessment in Donor Research
Determining what donors believe to be the core purpose of a nonprofit organization is important when making appeals for donations. However, in order to be truly effective in development campaigns it is important to understand exactly what that purpose means in rational real world benefits, emotional benefits, and how those tie into core values. We [...]
Gallup: U.S. Job Creation Flat
PRINCETON, NJ — Job market conditions in the United States were flat in November, as Gallup’s Job Creation Index remained at +14, similar to the range seen since May. This is another indication that Friday’s sharp drop to 8.6% in the government’s U.S. unemployment rate may be overstated. Gallup’s Job Creation Index generally has been [...]
What’s wrong in Appalachia (And what do we do about it?)
The early November statewide elections in Kentucky and West Virginia were something of a yawn compared to the excitement of 2009 where big Republican wins in Virginia and New Jersey presaged the 2010 wave that swept Republicans into a dominant position in the House and in states nationwide. In Kentucky, Republican nominee David Williams was [...]
Two More Obama States Sour on his Job Approval
Two new polls out show Barack Obama’s approval rating upside down in another two states that he won in 2008. Add this to recent polls out of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida showing Obama with net negative job approval and the 2012 map looks daunting for the Obama campaign. NBC News/Marist Iowa Poll Do you [...]
Benefits and Trade Offs of “Better” Or At Least Newer Research Methods
Sometimes it seems as if traditional market and survey research practices are under siege these days. Concepts like gamification, neuroscientific research models, and behavioral economics have not just crept into conversations about survey methodology, they practically dominate it. And while that’s partly due to our shorter attention spans and the need to generate product for [...]
‘Tis the Season (for lots of polling)
Posted by Chris Wilson on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 at 12:26 PM
We’re now on the virtual eve of the Iowa caucuses and the busy season for the early contests in the Presidential nominating process in 2012. You’ll be seeing a lot of polls over the coming days and weeks and many will give you wildly different results. Just in the last week we’ve seen polls either [...]