Radiance Blog

Ran across this site today, thanks to a Google alert.
FaceStat – which allows you to rate (and be rated on) attractiveness, occupation, political leanings, and several other characteristics of random individuals who post their picture – seems to be one more twist in social networking sites that bills itself as “market research for the individual. [...]

The New York Times has a consistently stellar data infographics team, finding ways to clearly and interestingly convey data stories to readers. While I don’t always agree with everything they do, (I’m not convinced that lay individuals are unable to decipher scatterplots), they hit one out of the park with their interactive graph (flash plugin [...]

We’ve completed research on topics for which most people would never imagine that market research could be used (romance writers, pregnant smokers, and mountain lions, to name a few). In fact, I’m sure many people only consider market research to be used for consumer goods.
But, even I was surprised when I ran across this [...]

I first saw this post the other day and since then I have been seeing information on this story pop up everywhere.  In short, Intellisponse, a marketing research firm, appears to have leaked some information about their clients’ potential products.
While its always fun to read about other research, I hate to do so at the [...]

Records from the 1920 U.S. Census

We use a lot of data from the Census Bureau in our work at Corona, from building demographic profiles to weighting surveys, so I love seeing how the census has had an effect on society outside of its nominal purpose.
On the bus this morning to work I started [...]

I have been offered short surveys during checkout (i.e. POP: Point of Purchase) several times in the last few months at several retail stores. One such example is at Wal-Mart (okay, they could have been doing this for a while, but I don’t shop there frequently). The screen just asked one question: “Was the cashier [...]

As we’ve discussed previously, it has become a popular sales technique to get a foot in the door by posing as a no-strings-attached research study, and then transitioning to the hard sell. (This is called SUGGING, or Selling Under the Guise of Research.) I’ve recently moved to a new neighborhood, and I’m finding [...]

In a recent post, Auto Dealers and their Research, I chastised businesses that try to sway customer surveys in order to look good, without trying to learn anything from the research.
Well, to be fair, I want to offer some praise for something they recently got right. I recently made several trips to my auto [...]

I love traveling. And unlike most people, I even like airports. There are few places that give you such an eclectic look at society. This makes them a great place for people watching.
Back when I worked in specialty retail I use to observe people’s shoes at airports to see what brands were [...]

Steve Jobs was recently quoted in Fortune’s America’s Most Admired Companies, as saying, “We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants.” Guess that explains why they haven’t called.
I know that innovation often means going out on a limb—revolutionary products don’t come from asking consumers what they want next—but some basic research can prevent costly [...]