Research methodology is so critical that Stealing Share created Resultant Research, a leading marketing research firm that has gained prominence for its unique approach to understanding consumer behavior, brand positioning, and market dynamics.
As an innovative player in the industry, Stealing Share has consciously chosen to eschew traditional focus groups, considering them less effective in providing valuable insights.
Instead, we embraced diverse research methodologies that have evolved significantly over the last decade, allowing them to offer their clients more accurate and actionable findings.
How do you choose a research methodology? Here is our advice.
We don't believe in focus groups
Focus groups have long been a staple in marketing research, gathering a small group of participants to discuss their opinions on a particular topic or product.
However, Stealing Share believes that focus groups suffer from several critical shortcomings. These include the possibility of groupthink, dominant personalities influencing outcomes, and a lack of genuine, unbiased feedback due to social conformity.
Moreover, focus groups are time-consuming and expensive, often involving logistical challenges in assembling the right mix of participants.
Instead of relying on such subjective and limited data, Stealing Share has explored a more extensive array of research methodologies, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of consumer sentiments and preferences.
Ethnographic research
Stealing Share has embraced ethnographic research as a powerful tool to delve deep into the lives and habits of consumers.
This methodology involves immersing researchers into the natural environments of their subjects to observe behaviors and attitudes firsthand.
By understanding the context in which consumers interact with products or services, Stealing Share can identify unmet needs and pain points, leading to more innovative and relevant solutions.
Panel surveys and questionnaires
The digital age has revolutionized how data is collected, and Stealing Share has harnessed this change by conducting extensive panel studies and questionnaires.
These tools enable the company to gather data from a large and diverse sample of respondents, providing statistically significant insights into various markets. The ease of data collection, cost-effectiveness, and real-time analysis further enhance the value of this methodology.
Social media listening
With the advent of social media platforms, consumers now share their opinions and experiences more openly than ever. Stealing Share uses advanced social media 
listening tools to monitor conversations and sentiments about our client’s brands.
Analyzing this wealth of unfiltered data enables the company to capture authentic consumer feedback, identify emerging trends, and gauge brand perceptions in real time.
These tools enable the company to gather data from a large and diverse sample of respondents, providing statistically significant insights into various markets.
The ease of data collection, cost-effectiveness, and real-time analysis further enhance the value of this methodology.
Eye-tracking and biometric analysis
Incorporating cutting-edge technology, Stealing Share employs eye-tracking and biometric analysis to gain deeper insights into consumer responses to advertising and brand experiences.
By tracking eye movements, facial expressions, and physiological reactions, the company can identify which elements of a brand message resonate most with consumers and which aspects may need improvement.
Over the past decade, Stealing Share’s research methodology has witnessed remarkable advancements, driven by technological innovations and a deeper understanding of consumer behavior.
Big data analytics
The explosion of digital data has given rise to big data analytics, allowing Stealing Share to process vast amounts of information from diverse sources. This enables a more comprehensive understanding of consumers’ preferences, behaviors, and brand interactions.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has revolutionized marketing research. AI-powered algorithms can analyze data with unprecedented 
speed and accuracy, uncovering valuable patterns and trends that would be otherwise difficult to detect manually.
This has empowered Stealing Share to make data-driven decisions and provide more precise client recommendations.
In the past, traditional marketing research methodology was often time-consuming, delaying critical decisions for companies. Stealing Share has adopted agile research methodologies to gather and analyze data rapidly, provide real-time insights, and facilitate quick responses to market changes.
The importance of marketing research methodology
Your research methodology is EVERYTHING. The method you use to collect data is as crucial as your questions.
Market research must be projectable for you to take the results of quantitative analysis at face value. That means your sample must be mathematically projectable to the whole audience within an acceptable margin of error.
That kind of research methodology forms the basis for the most effective strategy and should be used as a benchmark research study to measure your effectiveness over time.
It is essential to pay attention to your marketing research methodology.
Marketing research methodology is essential
How you conduct market research is crucial (the very definition of research methodology). While we all continue looking for more cost-effective ways to conduct projectable research, there is simply no acceptable substitute for the traditional telephone (cell phone) survey method or panel studies.
Online studies, expert panels, and studies conducted at the urge of an email have some uses and limitations.
At Resultant Research, we insist that the findings that the strategists at Stealing Share base their brand strategy on are projectable.
Types of marketing research methodology
To accomplish projectable research, Resultant Research conducts double-blinded quantitative studies, meaning neither the respondent nor the questioner knows who 
is sponsoring the study, which might otherwise color the outcome.
The list of possible respondents is generated and accessed randomly utilizing an RDD sample methodology.
This limits bias in the responses and allows Resultant Research to measure incidence. Incidence, in simple terms, is a record of the percentage of respondents that finished the study.
For example, if 90 out of 100 randomly contacted respondents finished the study, you would say you had an incidence of 90%.
If the incidence were too low, the study’s confidence would be questioned. The study may create a bias, and rather than being random, the market study itself may be self-selecting.
Incidence matters
One way to increase the incidence is to pay an incentive for finishing a study. Incentives increase the incidence and allow the researcher to control randomness.
We prefer to use CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) systems, which automate the activities of the interviewing facility as our preferred marketing research methodology.
The system controls the questionnaire, ensures random calling, rotates the questions to account for fatigue, and collects the data to provide projectable results.
Research methodology mistakes
Many research companies and brands make a litany of mistakes that only ensures the data will not be projectable or valuable in developing a brand.
Many avoid random sampling, choosing online, email, and mail surveys that can be self-selecting and, therefore, are not as projectable to the larger target audience.
Online surveys, for example, are self-selecting because you only get results from those who would most likely fill out a questionnaire from an email request and go online to fill it out.
The research methodologies we engage in regularly
Strategic brand research
Excellent brand research asks more than a traditional usage and attitude study does. Supplemental research, like focus groups and name testing, is misleading and a waste of money.
You must ask the right questions to understand your market and to get them to switch to your product or service. To do this, you must uncover brand belief systems.
Resultant does qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic, elasticity studies, and conjoint analysis.
