Articles: Blogs

It’s been close on 6-weeks since the last article and the main reason for the delay in posting this article is that I have been heavily involved with data collection related activities across various projects. The last article focused on “Questionnaire Design” from a “Data Management” point of view, so it only seems apt to now transition to the next activity area, “Data Collection”. Hope you enjoy the read!

When I first entered the world of Market Research (back in the nineties), the research and data teams roles were very well-defined, and in my view, ruthlessly well-defined. The researcher focussed on the client management, the questionnaire design and the report and the data processor focussed on the collection script, interview management and the analysis. I played along with this black-and-white rule book for a few years, whilst employed at MR agencies in the UK and in Europe, but I didn’t like it – because I didn’t get it! I’d even go so far as to say this is why I created SwissPeaks… curious? I hope so… please feel free to read on and see if through this you start nodding your head in agreement!

SPSS Base, known formally as “IBM SPSS Statistics Base”, is a cornerstone application within the MR industry and personally (and professionally) I can’t do without it! However, it really isn’t a simple market research savvy analysis tool and it’s definitely not a data visualisation tool. SPSS is just one of the applications I use and the reason for writing this article is to share my own best practice advice on using SPSS versus Tabx versus any other applications. I hope you enjoy! Any feedback welcome.

Even if you don’t agree with the statement within the title of the article wholly, I’d like to think that by the time you have finished reading this article that I’ve been able to twist your arm a little more. Also, please note, as much as my content here relates to my work within the quantitative project world, it is still relatable in parts to the qualitative project world. So, let’s start my sharing my 4 rules surrounding “data quality”. 1 = never assume, 2 = ask questions, 3 = you will always find something wrong, so find it and 4 = build a friendly relationship with the collection scripting team!

In an age (now!) where we want access to our survey results very quickly and also on any device, is the MR industry still overly dependent on installed software? The short answer is “yes, in my opinion”!

Over the years I have been presented with data that is painful to look at! CSV files with no accompanying metadata component is the favourite. Opening the CSV files and then seeing every data record filled with the answer category text, not even code values. Sadly, CSV files are still the primary MR data input source for Azure (the “Data Lake”) and its sidekick, Power BI and this is problematic!