September 16, 2026

The market research industry continues to evolve through technological innovation. While advances in respondent verification and panel quality have strengthened our ability to gather authentic insights, synthetic data emerges as an intriguing alternative pathway. But in an industry built on understanding real human behavior and decision-making, what role might synthetic data play? Let’s examine the

Investigating new ways to understand consumers Currently, household income (HHI) is used almost universally in consumer market research for screening, profiling, and data segmentation. Can you recall ever seeing an online survey, bulletin board, or community recruit where some indication of household income was not asked for? “Which of the following best describes…”, followed by

If you’ve been in the customer insights business for very long, you’ve probably run into a common point of confusion among stakeholders: thinking market research and user research are essentially the same thing. They are not, of course—each is distinct—but it’s easy to see how the misunderstanding persists. They often use the same methods and

How workers think about their careers and the prioritization benefits received from what they do for a living has pivoted since the reality check of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is fairly evident in the North American labor market, which has seen many industries struggle to balance labor demand and supply, creating ripple effects in the

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Considering the impact of technology on every aspect of the research process, the business of customer insights can seem like an entirely different ball game than even 20 years ago. But certain guiding principles still apply including the fundamental role of respondent engagement. Finding and

Original research-on-research by Quest with targeted B2B audiences Quest presented on this topic at the IA The Annual in April 2024 – the findings of a survey we conducted with hundreds of business professionals regarding their B2B survey experience. Finding no concrete answers from previous published research, we built out our investigation! Several results were

In September 2024, Quest travelled to Greece, presenting further information about synthetic data at ESOMAR Congress Synthetic data and its potential to replace actual respondent data is a contentious topic in online research. Can data developed by programs instead of people be trusted? How accurate is it when compared to ‘real’ data? While many in

In May 2024, Quest travelled to London, presenting further information about our recent dive into Creating a Better B2B Survey In this latest investigation, we extended our previous U.S.- only work to survey the same audiences in the U.K., paralleling our U.S sampling plan. We found many similarities, and some distinct differences, between the two

How ChatGPT is being exploited to hijack online surveys   Quest and our sister company iResTech presented at the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago in November 2023.  Our focus was on a subject of concern to researchers of all kinds – AI being used to create survey fraud.  Specifically, we looked at ChatGPT, and how