research arts

About Research Arts

February 13, 2013

Hello. My name is Frankie Johnson and Research Arts is the company I founded as a full-service qualitative market research firm almost 30 years ago. For several years, researcharts.com was also a blog where I shared my thoughts on consumer trends and market research, with occasional rifts on marketing strategy. The most popular of these blog entries are now renamed “articles”. I’ll be adding content from time to time, with the intention of focusing on topics that have a longer shelf life than most blog entries. If you wish to be informed when new articles are added, please subscribe with your email address in the box to the right. If you are already a subscriber, thank you!

Poetry in Research: #HaikuMR

Yesterday was a slow day, slow enough to spend an hour or two browsing my Twitter stream. I came across this tweet from Dana Stanley of iCharts: @DanaMStanley A one-page report can deliver more value than a 50-page report Hmmm. Got me thinking about brevity in research. And being a VERY slow day, that led [...]

Read the full article >

Why do Qualitative Market Research?

You may have heard the quote from that greatest of scientists, Einstein. “Not everything that counts can be counted.” It sums up very nicely why quantitative research will never tell the whole story. And with the advent of social media and its spotlight on the richness of interwoven relationships, this is more apparent than ever.Take [...]

Read the full article >

On a Scale of 1 to 10, how annoying is this survey?

After a number of problems with my home phones, I recently decided to buy a new system – the wireless kind with several extensions. I shopped at the sites where I usually go for this sort of thing, Amazon and Best Buy. The reviews on Amazon helped me choose a particular Panasonic model, but the [...]

Read the full article >

What won’t you do? Ethics isn’t just about methods.

I struggled with whether to write this post. It’s dealing with a subject touching on personal values and I don’t want to offend anyone. But it does seem important. And I’m wondering if I’m an outlier when I fret about what kind of work to take on and what to avoid. We in the market [...]

Read the full article >

Is the iPad mobile? A sample of one.

Many discussions of mobile market research lump together tablets and smart phones into the same category of “mobile devices”. This is understandable when you look at an iPad in terms of its heritage. After all, it looks like an enlarged iPhone or iPod Touch, with many of the same features and apps. But when it [...]

Read the full article >

Market Research: Let’s have less “How” and more “What”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but does the market research community seem to be obsessed with the “how” while virtually ignoring the “what”? Look at any list of topics at a conference, or the contributions to Twitter and LinkedIn, and the focus is clearly on methodology and process. There is rarely a mention of the [...]

Read the full article >

How to reward survey respondents? A little money and a lotta love.

This video is a little longer than usual, but well worth watching. It’s from RSA Animate and features Dan Pink’s talk on what motivates people. (He’s the author of “Drive”). A lot of what is said here can be applied to market research and incentives. For instance, when it comes to basic mechanical tasks, the [...]

Read the full article >

Henry Ford, Faster Horses and Market Research

At least once a week it seems, someone quotes Henry Ford as saying: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’.” In other words, when it comes to new product development and innovation, leave it to the experts – as long as those experts aren’t market researchers. Well, Mr. [...]

Read the full article >

Life is Qualitative Video: Life’s Good

Here’s a short film by LG Portugal. I think it represents an interesting way a brand can be organically integrated into art, taking product placement to a whole new level. We get a glimpse of the LG brand on the TVs, but the deeper message is in the tagline, Life’s Good.

Read the full article >

In Praise of Focus Groups and Moderators

By now you’ve heard it all before. How focus groups are dead. How online tools are thankfully eliminating the need to trudge across miles to a tricked-out facility to meet with a few non-representative people who, gasp, get PAID for spouting their inane group-think. Besides, focus groups are so Yesterday. They are from a time [...]

Read the full article >

Collaborative Consumption and the Other Economy

Just as with market research, economics also has its qualitative side, but one which is largely ignored. This stems from the fact that there is a fundamental flaw in the very definition of “the economy”. Economics, as defined in most basic textbooks, is about the allocation of resources, real resources. It is not about the [...]

Read the full article >

Predictions Past and Present

Tis the time of year for predicting what lies ahead. But it’s also a good time to reflect on the past and to hold ourselves accountable. After all, it’s easy to make predictions if no one ever goes back to check! 2009 So here are my predictions for 2009 from a post I wrote two [...]

Read the full article >

The Fuzzy World of Qualitative Research

Hello again. I’m back from my digital holiday, having lived for a month among normal people who don’t stare at some form of screen for most of their waking hours. Or perhaps they are the ones who are no longer normal. Hard to tell these days. Even my 83 year old stepmother just bought an [...]

Read the full article >

Focus Groups – The Aging First Wife of Qualitative Research?

If you are an avid viewer of Mad Men, as I am, you watched last Sunday as Faye, the focus group moderator and “behind the mirror” lover of Don Draper, was suddenly dumped in favor of the hot new thing. Now, Don doesn’t really know much about Megan, his secretary / soon-to-be-wife. She’s young and [...]

Read the full article >

Context matters – keeping it real

Is it just me or does market research seem to be barely in touch with reality? What’s that you say? New market research is focused on the real. Well, yes, it has moved beyond just asking questions and is listening to the conversations between “real people”. And it’s become rejuvenated, even sexy, since merging with [...]

Read the full article >

Life is Qualitative: a video of words

Here’s another video from Everynone. To me, its meaning is that each simple word needs a context in order to be understood. That’s good to remember when we are listening to someone’s words, yes? The importance of context. WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

Read the full article >

Ten ways the iPad will radically change market research

Less than a year since its introduction, millions of iPads have been sold. It already appears to be cannibalizing sales of low-end laptops and is set to bypass sales of netbooks. And there is a lot more to come… availability of iPads in Best Buy in time for the Christmas season, a variety of Android [...]

Read the full article >

Life is Qualitative: A Video of Moments

Moments from Everynone on Vimeo.

Read the full article >

Would you want your daughter to grow up to be a market researcher?

In September, the American Marketing Association will award the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award at its annual Market Research Conference in Atlanta. This has been given since 1945 to leaders in the field and “honors distinguished academics and practitioners who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and sustained impact on advancing the evolving profession of marketing [...]

Read the full article >