My most recent professional challenge, as Director of Merchandising at Swingline, was to ascertain if marketing tools used in a variety of retail environments had been effective with our consumers. When you’re working with data derived from three chain stores in four markets, each with unique merchandising formats, it can be difficult to derive a clear understanding.

Experience with SRA had convinced me that they could handle a project as challenging as this one. In addition, they possessed three critical elements I found to be vital to the success of our research efforts:

Collaborative Planning—
The SRA team proved to be extremely helpful in fine tuning our research objectives by integrating past learning experiences, challenging some of our assumptions, and insuring that we stayed on track with time and budget constraints.

Professional Execution—
To get the best results, we needed consistent execution in four different markets. SRA was able to coordinate and monitor the logistics. When a timing challenge presented itself, SRA was quick to react and help to work out a solution.

Insightful Analysis—
We were pleased with the new insights, and when we had other questions that required a little more digging, SRA was able to find answers on a timely basis.

I was very pleased with the outcome of our efforts and would recommend SRA for future research projects that our company may want to pursue.

Bill Hubbell
Dir. of Merchandising,
Swingline

The Associated Press recently reported the results of a “quick and dirty” survey among officials of 126 national charities. Of those surveyed, more than half said their donations were down in 2002 compared to donations in 2001.

Over the past 40 years, the level of annual donations has almost exactly tracked personal income growth. People are most likely to dig deepest into their pockets when they are feeling prosperous. Conversely, during hard times, many wells run dry, and the challenge of fund-raising becomes even more difficult.

The pre-recruited, self-administered survey is a seldom used, but very effective method of data collection. It works well for any type of industry and allows for a great deal of flexibility. It is a methodology that SRA Research Group has successfully used throughout the U.S.A. and Latin America.

Let’s say you have a lengthy survey that requires more than 20 minutes to complete. Or, you have a complicated survey that requires specific explanations. Or both. In either case, you need statistically valid data. A pre-recruited, self-administered survey is ideal in this situation.
 
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Privacy could be defined as having the ability to control what others know about you. In the days before the World Wide Web, this definition covered most situations. If you didn’t want the intimate details of your life or business available for public access, you kept your papers in a safe place and kept your mouth shut about your secrets.

The old controls don’t work anymore. The public-access landscape has been dramatically altered by advances in technology and national security issues. The details of your life are now open to unprecedented access.

Businesses around the globe are doing all they can to protect themselves. They use firewalls and sophisticated intrusion-detection systems to block intruders and antivirus software to guard information assets.

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SRA was invited to participate in a forum sponsored by the Palm Beach Community College Career Center called “Mathematics: Career Opportunities for Success.

By highlighting career opportunities that stress the field of mathematics, the forum hoped to persuade students to continue their education. Bob Tarburton of SRA joined four other presenters to address an audience of AP high school math students, liberal arts math students, and others interested in learning about career opportunities.

 
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