Atlantic Research and Consulting

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RESEARCH DESIGN

DESIGNING ACTIONABLE RESEARCH

Well-designed research always starts with a simple but vital question: What do you want to know? After 18 years in the business, Atlantic understands the pressure you're under to gather accurate, reliable, and actionable information.

That's why we begin by asking a host of questions to identify your specific needs and objectives. This is a crucial step, one we never skip - because we often uncover hidden issues early on that not only affect research design, but also the final outcome.

Because we view the design phase as a judicious amalgam of science and creativity, we work closely with you to develop a questionnaire that's both substantively complete and methodologically precise, and target outcomes to determine how the data can be used to make informed decisions.

Whether you're conducting qualitative research or quantitative research, we will find and pre-qualify a relevant population. With access to broad, national databases from a variety of sources, we know where and how to get the right subjects, and what to say to encourage their participation.

We conduct primary research studies to meet a wide variety of needs, such as:

Customer satisfaction

Customer retention

New product development

Image and awareness among employees, consumers, and distribution channels

Distribution channel effectiveness

Market needs, consumer attitudes assessment

Employee satisfaction

Consortium studies

DATA COLLECTION

At Atlantic, people make the difference. That's why we recruit interviewers from Boston's vast pool of university students and graduates, and train them to standards set by the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and the Marketing Research Organization (MRA).

Our interviewers conduct surveys in English, Spanish and numerous other languages calling across the U.S and internationally. Atlantic's project managers closely monitor all aspects of the survey activity. Clients also have the ability to call in for pretests and remote
monitoring.

We use a variety of data collection methodologies, depending upon your specific research needs. They include:

Telephone interviews

Personal interviews

Intercept interviews

Focus groups

Mail Surveys

USING DATA TO MAKE CRITICAL BUSINESS DECISIONS

So, now that you've gathered the data, how will you apply it to make informed, prudent business decisions? It's a question that keeps people like you awake at night, but with Atlantic, you can rest easy. We have the technical and business expertise to rigorously analyze data - reduced to its essence - and provide insightful, intelligible interpretation.

For quantitative studies, experienced in-house professionals code and process survey data, as well as conduct basic and advanced statistical analyses. Perhaps even more importantly, the Atlantic staff bring insightful, practical interpretation to their findings, which can be applied to crucial management decisions.

With qualitative studies, we provide videotapes and written transcripts to break down discussions into formal qualitative analyses, carefully highlighting the implications of our findings.

A mastery of the methodological nuances and competitive business environment allows us to interpret results and communicate them with clarity and common sense to everyone in your organization, from research professionals and senior management to policy review committees. If you choose, we can supplement written reports with visual presentations to help clarify findings.