Jackie Nerren answers frequently asked questions.

What do you actually do? My practice is mostly planning and conducting primary market research and communicating the results of that research.  I do:

• Surveys
  • Attitude and Image
  • Awareness
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Advertising and Copy Testing
  • Product Studies
• Focus Group Discussions (Traditional and Projective)
• Small Group Discussions/Triads
• One on one Interviews

I facilitate meetings and brainstorming sessions with groups and organizations.

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What kinds of companies do you work with? I work with a wide variety of companies and will provide you with a client list.  One thing that differentiates my experience from that of many other researchers is that I have more clients in service businesses than in durable goods.

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How do I know what kind of research I need? Call me.  Tell me about it.  What is your situation or problem or concern?  We will talk it over and I will recommend research options for you in a written proposal.  Expect fast turnaround and no charge for the proposal.  And if I can’t meet your need, I will tell you so and help you find someone else who can.

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What if I know exactly what I need and want to do most of it in-house? Same answer — call me.  We’ll discuss the best ways we can work together to meet your research needs, whatever they are.  I frequently work as a team member or partner with the client, doing just certain parts of projects (for example, designing questionnaires or moderating Focus Groups).

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Why should I hire you instead of having someone on my staff do the research? This is a two-part answer:

a)    If you have trained marketing researchers on staff — they can seldom do everything themselves and I am available on an as-needed basis to help.  Also, some projects need an “outside voice”.  This is particularly true if the outcome may not be what management hopes to hear.  It is often easier for them to hear it (and act on it) if it comes from someone outside the company.

b)    If you don’t have trained marketing researchers on staff — I can almost always save you time and money.  I have done research for a long time and have a well-developed and tested supplier network.  I am aware of the possible pitfalls of most projects.  I will give you an up-front price and schedule for the project which you will find is usually cheaper and faster than paying a staff member/members who will have to spend time and effort learning how to do research.

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Why should I hire you instead of another research company? To answer that one, I went to my clients.  They tell me that they work with me because I am:

• Experienced (the phrase “she’s been doing this forever” came up, but I prefer the more subtle “seasoned” and “mature”)
• Flexible (they called it “a good sport,” “creative, looks beyond the obvious to help us get what we need” and “willing to really get into a project with us”)
• A good communicator (the definition of this varies, depending on individual client needs.  For example, when I asked clients to comment, one said: “tells us everything we need to know, doesn’t burden us with a bunch of details.” Another said,  ” knows I worry so she makes sure I know everything that is going on.”).

I suspect that the fact that I have low overhead and thus a very reasonable pricing structure doesn’t hurt, either –  though no one admitted it.

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How do you price? I am able to develop a flat fee up front for most projects.
Because I have been in this business for a long time, I am able to accurately estimate the hours that will be needed and the cost of data-gathering and processing

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Why does marketing research cost what it does? The highest cost in any research is data-gathering — which is as it should be.  The old phrase “garbage in, garbage out” is never more true than in marketing research.  You must ask the right people.

The data-gathering cost is based on the difficulty of reaching the right respondents.  For example, if you want a study with respondents who have health insurance (any) it will be much easier to find these people in the population than it will to find people who have individually paid insurance with a specific company.  So the first study will be much less expensive.

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