Attribute 1 – Service: Find a company where service is a priority and you feel valued as a client.

Attribute 2 – Flexibility: No project is the same and last minute needs can often present themselves, therefore it is imperative to work with a marketing research recruiter and focus group facility that have hired helpful staff who are quick to fulfill those needs.

Attribute 3 – Proven track record: Keep in mind that any company can say that they are the best, however it is really their track record that speaks the loudest. Ask for recommendations and seek out testimonials whenever possible.

Attribute 4 – Location, location, location: Choose a focus group facility to host your qualitative research that is accessible and easy to find for clients and participants. Proximity to the airport and public transit are bonuses. Choose a qualitative research facility that is in an exciting area of the city with a wide range of accommodation, entertainment and food options, which will add convenience for the focus group moderator and the backroom viewers.

Well, you can now deactivate your Plenty of Fish account and take us home to meet your parents because you have found “the one” with SmartPoint Research. Every project at SmartPoint Research is taken care of by knowledgeable and experienced team members. We undertake your project and focus group recruitment seriously and are committed to deliver the highest quality service and participants.

Our Facility Administrator works closely with our project managers throughout the process to coordinate facility arrangements for the focus groups. By working a fluctuating schedule she hosts over 75% of the groups at CoastalViews and has a wealth of knowledge on the project while hosting.

Our team is extremely service oriented and committed to anticipating your needs, meeting them in a timely and flexible manner. We are able to take care of any last minute requests that arise such as requests for supplies and even provision of additional last minute incentives, when necessary.

We come highly recommended and would be excited to have you read some of our testimonials.

Located in the vibrant and exciting Yaletown, our focus group facility CoastalViews is located close to the Canada Line, easily accessible from the airport and the ideal place for marketing research in Vancouver.

Do you have other suggestions for what makes a marketing research recruiter and focus group facility “right” for you? If so, we would like to hear from you! Please Contact SmartPoint Research or email us at: info@smartpointresearch.com.

Pricing is one of the more technical areas of marketing research, and also one of our strengths. We use a combination of sophisticated pricing models, such as: Monadic Price Testing, Price Laddering Testing, The Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter (PSM) Model and Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC) depending on the client’s needs and market dynamics. In pricing research our aim is not to find what the consumers like, but rather to determine what they are willing to pay and to examine the trade-offs they make.  Through this exercise we are able to help you determine the optimum price point for your brand that maximizes both your sales volume and profitability.

As a case in point, a popular beverage company recently approached SmartPoint Research to help them determine if there was elasticity in the market for a price increase among one of their premium brands. Leveraging our experience in this area and by applying some of the techniques mentioned above, we were able to determine that there was indeed room for a price increase and identified for them an optimum price point. The client implemented the recommended pricing and realized a two million dollar increase in revenues!

Whether you are launching a new product or reassessing the pricing of an existing one, we have the necessary tools to help you. Contact us today to see how our pricing studies can maximize your brand potential.

This holiday season, in lieu of sending Christmas cards, the SmartPoint Research team contributed to the Salvation Army’s Adopt-A-Family Program. A happy and memorable holiday season is a dream to some and we helped the dreams of a single mother and her two children come true.

The SmartPoint Research team purchased food and gift items for this low-income family, providing them with groceries for the holiday season and a personalized gift for each family member. We personally assembled and delivered the hamper to our adopted family. This was a very rewarding experience for all of us here at SmartPoint Research and it will help to provide a fulfilling holiday season for our adopted family.

Last year, the Salvation Army was able to help over 600 local families through the Adopt-A-Family Program. We are proud to be serving as a company sponsor and helping a family this season. To find out more about the program, please visit the Salvation Army’s website.

If you are interested in receiving information about our marketing research services please contact us.

SmartPoint Research recently attended the annual BC Hospitality Industry Conference and Expo in Vancouver, BC. The tradeshow featured 192 companies exhibiting in 218 exhibit booths that drew an audience of 3,465 industry personnel. Exhibitors ran the spectrum from wine producers to bed and mattress suppliers. SmartPoint Research took the time to get to know these fellow exhibitors and posed a series of questions to gauge exhibitor satisfaction with the conference. We wanted to know how many had exhibited before, who planned to exhibit again, what they saw as the greatest benefit to being at the show, and what they felt was missing or could be done to improve it. The information we collected is an example on a small scale of the marketing research services SmartPoint Research offers.

We randomly chose ten exhibitors and asked for their thoughts. We found that few were exhibiting for the first time and only half were planning to exhibit next year. Some were “unsure” and one was a definite “no”. For all the exhibitors the missing piece for them was the attendees. Most exhibitors felt the greatest benefit to being there was the exposure and networking it provided. This did not seem great enough to outweigh the fact that they felt attendance was very low. One exhibitor cited the conference portion of the show as conflicting with the show floor hours and drawing attendees away. Another exhibitor suggested that some form of entertainment in the aisles would draw more attendees or a buffet lunch on the show floor.

Contact SmartPoint Research to find our more about our data collection and field services capabilities.

Some of our marketing research panel efforts include:
The old fashioned way: flyer distribution – time tested and true method of finding the “average consumer” and this can be targeted to certain neighborhoods.
Advertising through social medial channels.
Search engine optimization measures and web presence initiatives.

At SmartPoint Research, we go the extra mile for our customers’ marketing research projects and are often recommended by other marketing research agencies for complicated marketing research studies with short timelines because we are industry leaders in providing a fast and reliable marketing research recruitment process. For example, we have recently recruited six focus groups of 9 respondents per group in one week. Did I mention that the screener was 17 pages and contained 34 questions, many of which disqualified a respondent? We’re not saying this was an easy task, but we were committed to getting the job done – and we did!

Our hard work, dedication and creativity allows us to find the right marketing research respondents for your study.

If you are a current customer, please take a moment to rate our services on the following websites:
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Any experienced qualitative researcher knows that there are certain ‘sweet spots’ of ideal number of participants in a focus group discussion and that the ‘sweet spots’ depend on research objectives, the type of product we are discussing, the type of respondent we are dealing with and moderator preference. In some instances, dyads/triads would work best, but a focus group of six to eight participants is preferable most of the time by moderators. “My preference is to have six high quality respondents per focus group because it allows for maximum participation and engagement.” – Daniela Hassman, moderator at SmartPoint Research.

A challenge for recruitment can sometimes be the unknown factor of participant ‘show rates’. Participants are people with regular lives and a number of things can happen in their daily lives that can affect whether they are able to show up to a scheduled focus group. At SmartPoint Research, we have studied participants and their habits since the company’s inception in early 2007. We have formulated a system for recruitment that is unparalleled in the industry. We can make this claim confidently as our ‘show rate’ indicators speak for themselves.

Our recruitment ‘show rates’ over the past year have gone from good to better! In the first quarter of 2010, we had an average ‘show rate’ of 89% and we have climbed up the ladder to a ‘show rate’ of 95.2%, closing out the third quarter on a successful note. These figures convey our recruitment team’s continued strength and meticulous attention to detail, which has resulted in return clientele for our recruitment business.