by david allan van nostrand | Jul 12, 2021 | How to tell good research from bad, Misinformation traps, Surveys, Using Information
Agatha Christie was a British novelist who wrote the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot whodunits in the 1930s and 1940s. This was the golden era of British murder mysteries, with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson the most memorable of all. Fascinated...
by david allan van nostrand | May 3, 2021 | How to tell good research from bad, Teaching, Using Information
Lake Wobegone is the fictitious central Minnesota town “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” It was the setting of a long-running radio variety show, several novels, and a feature film. The radio show A...
by david allan van nostrand | Apr 26, 2021 | Focus Groups, How to tell good research from bad
The grey-haired, steely-eyed Admiral on the bridge of the flagship, leading a fleet of heavily-armed warships into battle, pointed toward the rising sun and said “Set course at 107.25 degrees.” NO, HE DIDN’T! He said “Take us out, Skipper,” because Admirals...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 7, 2020 | Customer Satisfaction, How to tell good research from bad
McDonald’s aimed its advertising at parents for many years before someone got the idea to advertise directly to their kids instead. Their notion was that the children would relentlessly pester their parents to take them to McDonald’s for Happy Meals, visits with...
by david allan van nostrand | Oct 26, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Surveys
Many readers of this blog are marketers who use research and a good number are people who conduct the research marketers use. People in both groups often ask how to tell the difference between good information and bad. Because most research is privately funded for...
by david allan van nostrand | Sep 14, 2020 | How to tell good research from bad, Items in the News, The Myopia of Experts, Using Information
Andy Devine was a college football player who moonlighted as a professional footballer, using an alias (Jeremiah Schwartz) in order to maintain his amateur status. His father operated a hotel and his mother was the granddaughter of the first Navy officer killed in the...
