Psychological Market Research™

We want to form a close collaborative relationship with you and your staff.

Our first step is to meet with you to determine the possible scope of the project, what has been done before, and what your time-line is.

We want to develop a clear and well-focused understanding of exactly what you would like us to find out. Once we frame the question, the answer usually lies in wait.

Here Is What We Delivered For Our Client

Insights into what its customers were thinking when they made the decision to cancel. What happens at key choice-points, during those few split seconds of decision-making, can make or break a product or service.

A better understanding of the image and impact of the paper, as compared with its obvious and non-obvious competitors - and, therefore, who its fiercest competitors really were.

• Recommendations for changes in the paper's content, format, circulation and promotion practices based on data.

• Drafts of scripts for responding to objections developed from what we learned through our work with its ex-subscribers.

• A long list of possible themes and slogans for moving in new advertising directions.

• Concrete suggestions for how to remove the principal triggers to cancellation.

• Identification of serious threats from new entrants - which the paper needed to take seriously.

What The Psychologist Adds

Any good market research textbook contains chapters on such topics as the use of the incomplete-sentences method. it might even say something about "projective techniques."

But coming up with a few psychologically-oriented questions is a long way from knowing how to design a sophisticated battery of psychological market research instruments -and what to make of the data once you collect it.

Even more subtle, and important, is the need to vary your methods along the way, so that you can track down the answers you need. Doing psychological market research is a lot like doing clinical psychological evaluation. The diagnostician has to after his or her procedures, sometimes on the fly, to come up with valid conclusions.

We have spent a long time learning our craft, through years of education and even more years of experience. This expertise is what we sell, along with the motivation to get the job done - correctly and on time.

No Mystic Magic

We get results, but not so much from mysterious methods as through hard work. Sure, we have people tell stories to pictures now and then, and we use a lot of other professional psychological techniques and methods. But our controlling assumption is that all our work should have conceptual validity.

Conceptual Validity

A person should not have to be a psychologist to understand our conclusions, or to agree that they make good, logical sense. our mission is to provide you with recommendations, and supporting data, that are clear and convincing.

Our job Is To Make You The Hero

Our reward is in helping you. We want enduring business relationships. We will do whatever it takes to help you, and your company, succeed by better understanding your customers.

More About Methods

Besides traditional market research methods, such as focus groups, we use the following techniques:

• Choice-point probes

• Forced-choice dilemmas

• Projective interviewing

• Word association tests

• Incomplete sentences

• Customized TAT story cards

• Free-response scenarios

• Triadic reflection

• Telephone depth verifications