RESOURCES

Working With Us On
Market Research

Last Updated: Jan 1, 2025

 
OUR APPROACH: The 5 O's Of Research

Research Requires An Ongoing Partnership

Most market research companies work on a project-by-project basis with their clients. We do not. We believe in partnering with our clients over longer periods of time. From our perspective, businesses, markets, and culture change so fast, there will always be questions you need answered. So we've tried to set our services up to make the partnership approach cheaper than the project-based services. This way, our clients can feel good about continuously tapping us for insights.

Research Requires Objectives

Just as a marketing campaign needs a clear goal - whether that's building awareness or driving conversions - research needs defined objectives to succeed. Before we start gathering data or designing questionnaires, we need to understand what success looks like for you. Are you trying to validate a new concept? Measure user satisfaction? Track behavior change? Having clear objectives shapes every aspect of the research design and ensures you get meaningful, actionable results.
 

Research Requires Optimizations

Like fine-tuning a marketing campaign, research is an iterative process that gets better with each round of refinement. We understand this can feel overwhelming at first, especially if you're new to consumer insights. That's why we focus on optimizing your research based on what matters most to you. Need rapid insights to meet a tight deadline? We'll streamline the process. Working with budget constraints? We'll design cost-effective approaches that still deliver quality results. By understanding your priorities - whether that's speed, depth, cost, or precision - we can optimize the research approach to match your specific needs. However, this requires a back-and-forth process where we'll need to present options, and you'll need to select what matter most to you.
 

Research Requires Options

Every research decision shapes what you can learn and how you can use the results. That's why we provide carefully considered options, each with distinct advantages and tradeoffs. A survey might give you broad, quantifiable insights across thousands of customers, while focus groups could uncover deeper motivations you never thought to explore. We take time to explain these implications so you can make informed choices that align with your goals.
 

Research Requires Open Communication

While we know many clients would prefer a hands-off approach, research works best as a continuous back-and-forth process. You should expect regular collaboration and active involvement throughout our work together.

Our Plans

Our plans allow for different frequency and robustness of research and data services.

Trial Plan

  • 1 survey per month
  • The survey is an Inkblot templated survey
  • The survey can have no more than 20 questions

Basic Plan

  • 2 surveys per month
  • The survey is in an Inkblot templated survey with some allowed modifications
  • The surveys can have no more than 40 questions

Enhanced Plan

  • 3 surveys per month
  • One survey is an Inkblot templated survey, two surveys are custom surveys
  • The surveys can have no more than 60 questions

The above plan descriptions are an abbreviated summary of our existing plans. However, to fully understand the products and services included in each plan, you can see more about our plans here.

But What If I Need More Research?

We get that sometimes your business may require you to run more research than your plan allows. If you've used your survey quota in a given month, but need to launch something else, we will ALWAYS try to accommodate for no additional cost. However, these additional requests are unplanned, and therefore might conflict with current research project schedules. So in an effort to balance incoming requests with other scheduled/planned projects, we may need to decline or charge for the extra research.
  • Research studies above and beyond your plan's quota will be charged at $3500 per project

Our Project Timelines

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The Standard Research Project

(No Additional Fees Required)

For the standard project associated with our monthly research plans, you should expect a 7-week timeline:

  • 2 weeks for survey writing
  • 1 week for survey programming
  • 1 week for data collection
  • 1 week for data analysis
  • 2 weeks for report building
  • Report is then presented to you

Project Specifications

When fielding surveys, we often get asked how big the survey can be. We typically use the following guidelines: no more than 20 minutes or 60 questions maximum (this is also dependent on your research plan).

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The "Rush" Research Project

(Rush Fee required)

For projects that are urgent, our fastest possible timeline is 10 days. This includes:

  • 2 days for survey writing
  • 2 days for survey programming
  • 2 days for data collection
  • 2 days for data analysis
  • 2 days for report building
  • Report is then sent to you

Project Specifications

When fielding surveys, we often get asked how big the survey can be. We typically use the following guidelines: no more than 10 minutes or 20 questions maximum (this is also dependent on your research plan).

Will Timelines Change?

Timelines Can Shift:

Please note that there's three times in which these guidelines will change to include a LONGER timeline:

  • If you have a sample that is hard to reach. This will increase the timeline.
  • If you're asking for custom analytics with the data. This will increase the timeline
  • If you need more time for reviewing survey docs/links, or you need time for other project "checkpoints". This will increase the timeline.

Can I Shorten The Timeline?

There are some cases in which clients have asked us to abbreviate the timeline.  This includes

  • If you're looking to put a rush on an analysis or deliverable of some kind.
  • If you're looking to put a rush on our standard project timeline.
  • If you're looking to put a rush on our "rush project" which would require a timeline of less than 10 days.

Each of these require additional fees, which you can see on webpage here:

https://www.inkblotanalytics.com/additional-fees

Project Deliverables

When you work with us, there are three types of deliverables se sent after the completion of a project:

A Designed Report

This is a "strategic storied report" -- meaning the team pulls out interesting insights and weaves them into a story. This is NOT the kind of report where each question in the survey gets a slide. Typically these decks can be anywhere between 30 and 60 slides, depending on your plan. This is the typical deliverable associated with Standard Research Project.

A One-Page "Results Brief"

For some projects, we do a results brief. This is a 1-page document that outlines the core findings, insights, and recommendations. These are often used for executive briefings or internal workshops that require a brief overview of research findings. You can see an example here.

An Email "Results Summary"

For some projects, we can do an email summary. This will give you the storied insights as well as supporting data points. This can be helpful when you need supporting data for internal discussions or client conversations that don't require a whole presentation. This is the typical deliverable associated with a "Rush" Research Report. You can see an example here.

Other Types of Research Projects

As a reminder, we do a number of different projects. For example, some of the most popular methods we used in 2024 include: standard online surveys, store intercepts, focus groups, interviews, sensory testing, dashboarding and data visualization of internal client data, among others methods and techniques. Please note we do these types of projects and more. So if the need arises, do not hesitate to reach out and ask.

Client Communication

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Project Research Briefs

For each of our clients, we schedule a 30 minute kick off call to discuss a new project. This time will be used for us to take you through a line of questions to get full information on a project. This will be condensed into a document we call "The Research Brief".  The goal of the research brief is to make sure we have all the information before going into a project, so we can craft the best quality deliverable for you.

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Client Status Emails

For each of our clients, we send along a client status email every Monday morning. This email will provide you an update on each of your projects, along with any action items you need to take. This way, you can start off your week knowing where each project is and what Inkblot will be doing each week.

 

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Client Status Calls

For those clients that want it, we typically schedule a 30 minute status meeting on a weekly basis. Status calls allow us to make sure you know what stage your projects are in, as well as for us to talk about anything new that has happened in your business that allows us to focus on what data to capture or what survey to implement in the upcoming months.

 

Intellectual Property

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The Surveys

We have created a subscription model so that customers can get ongoing quality research for an affordable price. To do that, we use a proprietary research process involving a variety of templates and other intellectual property.

Therefore, the surveys we create are owned by us. This includes the component parts of the survey, such as our proprietary tests, assessments, scales, and questions.

 

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The Data

If you've ever seen our reports, we provide additional data points beyond the scope of your project. For example, in a creative test where we test two ads, we might provide benchmarks so you know if the ad does better or worse than other ads we've tested. 

The only way we can provide services like this is by owning the data to the research that we execute in our plans. Therefore, the data we collect are owned by us. 

 

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The Reports

When we complete your research project, we provide you with valuable reports. Think of these like books you buy from your favorite author:

When you buy a book, you own that physical copy. You can read it, share it and use its insights. However, the author retains ownership of the actual content, story, and writing.

Our deliverables work the same way. While we own the report, you recieve a license to use the materials within your organization.

To find out more about intellectual property in the context of our market research subscriptions, click on the button below.

See Our IP Rules

Are There Other Costs?

The biggest thing you need to know around costs is that sample services are not included in our monthly subscription fees. You can buy one of our sample services plans, or pay on a project-basis.

Outside of that, there are some additional requests not included in your service plan that require additional fees. You can find those additional fees on our website by clicking the button below.

See Other Costs