Our research conducted for associations and what we call “membership organizations” is among our most practical and useful work.

Organizations typically tailor their programs and services to meet what they think are the priorities of members or constituents. Often this results in many different directions, an explosion of programs and internal competition for resources. Research findings objectively identify what is important and what needs to be done better. This permits an improved focus that allows faster decision-making, better use of limited resources and improving member satisfaction.

Membership surveys are typically done via a mail survey as response rates can be quite high, normally over 50% and often as high as 70%. For smaller organizations we survey all members, and for larger ones we can randomly select respondents from supplied lists. Market Decisions staff has formal training in survey design to assure our instrument is easy to follow and results in complete and accurate information. Organizations that have complete e-mail lists can use online surveys — saving postage and printing costs.

In some cases, Market Decisions conducts lost or lapsed members surveys to better understand reasons for leaving.

Membership organizations are often known among the general public or the target market — but what is known might not be accurate. What perceptions exist and how an organization compares to other organizations is best determined by a telephone survey. In Maine, we use our quarterly shared subscriber survey, The Maine Survey, as an economical means to understand organizational awareness and public perceptions. Elsewhere we rely on our own proprietary design telephone survey.

Our use of a specially designed survey instrument and a sophisticated analytical tool called perceptual mapping with multidimensional scaling allows clients to visually see the competitive map as consumers see it. In this approach, respondents make comparisons, evaluating similarities and differences in a series of paired questions. The responses are then mapped and the position of competitors are descriptive of perceived differences. For an example of such a map, click here.