Business Matters
Rethinking Client Deliverables: What Happens after the Research Ends?
For many marketing researchers, expertise can be both a strength and a bit of a trap. The more reliably you deliver a specific type […]
Business Matters
Business Matters
The Moderator Reimagined: Lessons from a Season Away
Veteran moderator Judithe Andre draws on her experience as a national board-certified health & well-being coach and wellness studio operator to reimagine what it means to listen. In this reflective, practice-focused article, she explores how motivational interviewing, mindfulness, and behavioral science can strengthen qualitative research. Her integrated approach—what she calls Moderator Methodology—offers a roadmap for researchers seeking to balance presence with precision, empathy with insight, and human care with analytical rigor. […]
Business Matters
Niche Down to Rise Up: Differentiating Your Market Research Firm in a Crowded Market
Solo and team market researchers: Learn how to differentiate your services and attract ideal clients in a competitive landscape. This article provides actionable strategies for identifying your unique value propositions and crafting compelling brand messaging. Discover how niche marketing and strategic positioning can elevate your firm above the competition. You’ll gain insights into your client needs and your competitors’ tactics to refine your marketing approach. Stop competing on price and start winning with differentiation. […]
Business Matters
Dynamic Systems in Marketing Research: Cracking the Nut of Habitual Behavior
If you’ve ever struggled to understand or shift entrenched consumer or professional behaviors, this article offers a fresh and deeply insightful perspective. The author—originally a cognitive developmental psychologist—introduces dynamic systems theory to explain how habits form, stabilize, and resist change over time. Using real-world examples from healthcare and consumer behavior, the piece explores how marketers and qualitative researchers can uncover the early influences and unconscious motivators behind resistant behaviors—and how to effectively disrupt them. This isn’t just theory—it’s a call to rethink how we frame questions, design studies, and unlock behavior change. A must-read for any insight pro looking to solve sticky behavior problems with new thinking. […]
Business Matters
Why Investment in Your Firm’s Brand is an Important Part of Your Growth Strategy
Insight industry growth expert Paul Griffiths explores the most cost-effective and easily executed ways to grow your research partner brand. Regardless of whether you are a qualitative solopreneur, part of a small qualitative shop, or the leader in a large agency, there are ways you can build brand salience and make sales activity more impactful that don’t require big marketing budgets. […]
Business Matters
Let’s Talk About Side Hustles
Independent qualitative researchers can find themselves riding a financial roller coaster, as the economy ebbs and flows in an inconsistent pattern. Establishing a secondary source of revenue, one unrelated to qualitative research, can offer some stability. This article explores approaches qualitative researchers have taken, as well as key issues for consideration, and unexpected ways in which side hustles can benefit researchers, while keeping the lights on. […]
Business Matters
The Future of Qualitative Research—An Ideation Session: How We Can Dramatically Increase Our Value to Clients and Stay Relevant in the Future
Is traditional qualitative research dead? A provocative question that seems to surface every now and then. With the proliferation of new tech tools and AI, it might feel this way sometimes, but it’s the combination of old and new methods that can help researchers increase their value to clients. Author Len Ferman identifies ideas from a brainstorming session with qualitative researchers to consider in our pursuit to add unique value to brands and businesses. […]
Business Matters
Stop Relying on Others for Your Success… Take Charge of Your Business
Many small business owners avoid sales and marketing because they’re uncomfortable with them and unsure how to implement them effectively. But like every other aspect of business, there’s a process to them. This article lays out that process for you with proven, real-world examples of how to get started. […]
Business Matters
Dealing With Big Change? Don’t Just Survive. Thrive!
Qualitative moderator Kelley Styring offers a provocative look at people who have navigated and overcome significant emotional and physical challenges in their lives and emerged to thrive. Through engaging stories, Styring shares five behavioral and attitudinal operational principles that qualitative researchers can apply to our own lives. […]
Business Matters
Riding the Wave: How the Professional Gig Economy Is Reframing the Independent Qualitative Researcher
From AI to software platforms and dozens of tools in between, Nichola Quail—Founder and CEO of Insights Exchange—shares tips on what, when, and how to leverage technology, and how they can benefit your company, based on her own experiences building her company. […]