University of San Francisco

BACKGROUND

The Master of Science in Marketing Intelligence (MSMI) at the University of San Francisco is a one-year intensive program focused on market research, providing skills that apply to a wide range of marketing and insights disciplines. During the course, students build a professional toolkit that includes marketing analytics, research methods, insights, and communication skills. Each year, the students participate in a practicum where they are divided into teams and paired with real companies to conduct actual, real-world research projects.

CHALLENGE

For these research projects, the MSMI program needed a flexible, cost-effective, and efficient way to find highly targeted respondents across a wide range of sectors for student learning and client benefit. Traditional full-service research platforms generally have high project minimums and higher costs, making it challenging to accommodate the smaller sample sizes and parameters typical of student projects.

In 2024, the students were tasked with completing projects for companies from several categories which necessitated various respondent populations:

• Major CPG company: A nationally representative survey of 800 Gen Z respondents to understand their attitudes, values, and shopping habits related to cleaning products.
• Skincare and beauty company: Research for a company in the Philippines looking to launch products in the U.S., specifically targeting younger women of Filipino descent.
• Music streaming startup: Surveyed hardcore exercisers who listen to music while working out to gauge market size and willingness to pay for a new streaming service.
• Adventure vehicle market: Exploration of buying habits and openness to new purchasing methods among individuals interested in camping vans, Jeeps, and similar vehicles.

These hard-to-find respondent groups required a powerful solution that was cost and time effective in order to meet the university’s relatively limited research budget and tight timeline.

RESULTS

• Cost Savings: Using Research Desk resulted in more than a 60% reduction in sampling costs, significantly less than using the full-service options the program had utilized in the past.
• Time Efficiency: Data collection was completed within a couple of days, allowing students more time to analyze data and develop insights.
• Positive Experience: The team at Rep Data provided excellent support, ensuring smooth operation and effective use of the platform.

The quick data collection and cost-effective approach allowed students to delve deeper into their research, leading to more comprehensive and insightful final presentations. The end-clients benefited from well-researched insights, from the right audience, delivered efficiently.

“I've been in market research for a long time and have used self-service platforms for other steps in the research process, such as survey programming. However, I hadn't experienced a self-service sampling and fielding platform that works well until now. Research Desk allowed us to conduct research faster, more efficiently, and less expensively than we've ever done in the past."

Professor Stephen Kraus, University of San Francisco