Who We Are

SMART is a custom marketing research and consulting firm that specializes in designing, gathering, synthesizing and disseminating quantitative survey research through . . .

• Understanding client businesses, brands, products/services and competitive landscapes;
  assessing client challenges, needs and priorities.
• Formulating research hypotheses, objectives and strategies.
• Determining optimal approaches, methodologies and analysis plans;
• Designing efficient and effective questionnaires.
• Ensuring data collection and processing quality.
• Applying appropriate statistical models and analyses;
  building research-based decision support systems and simulation tools.
• Mining, analyzing, synthesizing and interpreting data for actionable decision-making insights;
  weaving stories from disparate sources (primary and secondary, qualitative and quantitative).
• Preparing and presenting powerful research stories;
  recommending feasible action plans that positively impact business performance.

SMART brings fresh thinking, alternative approaches, and keen insights to help our clients fulfill their most challenging research needs.

SMART Quality

A judgment on the quality of research depends on who’s doing the judging. What a marketer considers useful research may be incomprehensible — and thus useless — to others in an organization. Therefore, any determination of good research must take into account its end purpose.

• From a scientific perspective, SMART research is valid and reliable. That is, it accurately measures what it sets out to measure — and, significantly, the measurement device will yield a consistent perspective if used repeatedly. Validity and reliability are ‘cost of entry’ criteria for SMART.
• From a marketing perspective, SMART research leads to an action that has a positive impact on sales and brand equity. It provides an insight that can be translated into a marketing action — which, in turn, leads higher volume and profits.
• From a user perspective, SMART research excites and stimulates. It reveals an insight into consumer motivation, attitudes and behaviors. It tells marketers things they didn’t know before, and gives them a definitive direction on what to do next.
• From the organization’s perspective, SMART research generates convergence on a common point of view and confidence in the indicated action. If an organization has faith in the quality of its research, it can trust that the research will support its attempts to grow volume profitability.

Bad research can masquerade as SMART research. Bad research acts like a virus. You don’t know you’re infected with it until it’s too late to do anything about it. SMART makes every effort to design research around ‘what ifs’ and ’mini-hypotheses,’ and believes careful research planning forces the marketing and research team to anticipate different scenarios or outcomes.

In any competitive environment — knowledge and insight are worthless, unless you can develop a plan to put them into action.

SMART research requires discipline, dedication and an awareness of the full opportunities that quality research can present.