Blog
Ideas and guides for teams that decide.
Decision intelligence, survey analysis and research methods, from the people who build mTab.
Decision intelligence
Decision intelligence
Competitive intelligence: a practical guide for brand, strategy and insights teams
A practitioner's guide to competitive intelligence: what it is and is not, the main types and sources, the process and a weekly rhythm, a worked example from a brand tracker, and how to keep CI legal, read and used.
Decision intelligence
Market and competitive intelligence tools: how to choose the right type
A buyer's guide to market and competitive intelligence tools: the main software categories, an evaluation checklist, a weighted scoring example with the arithmetic shown, demo questions and a rollout plan.
Decision intelligence
Customer insights: what they are, where they come from and how to act on them
A practical guide to customer insights: how they differ from data and findings, the main sources, a step-by-step method, the core analysis techniques, a worked example and how to get insights acted on.
Decision intelligence
Market intelligence: what it is and how to run it continuously
A practical guide to market intelligence for brand and strategy teams: how it differs from market research and competitive intelligence, its four components, sources, a report outline and a worked quarterly example.
Decision intelligence
Decision intelligence for market research and insights teams
What decision intelligence changes for market research: continuous tracker monitoring, synthesis across studies, stakeholder questions answered from the research, and recurring reporting automated with governance intact.
Decision intelligence
Decision intelligence vs. business intelligence: what is the difference?
How decision intelligence differs from business intelligence and analytics dashboards: who prioritizes, what the output is, how AI is used, and when each is the right tool.
Decision intelligence
Consumer insights: what they are and how brands use them
What consumer insights are, how they differ from customer insights, where they come from, and how CPG and consumer brands turn them into a strategy that drives decisions.
Decision intelligence
Competitive intelligence report: template, formats and a worked example
A practical guide to the competitive intelligence report: the main formats, a template outline, a one-page weekly brief worked example, ranking by impact and urgency, confidence levels and common mistakes.
Decision intelligence
Share of search: what it is, how to calculate it and what it tells you
A practical guide to share of search: the formula, a four-brand worked example across two quarters, how it differs from share of voice and share of market, its limits and how to read it alongside brand tracking.
Decision intelligence
Actionable insights: how to turn research data into decisions
A practical framework for actionable insights: what makes a finding actionable, the insight generation process step by step, a worked tracker example and how to prioritize what you find.
Decision intelligence
Market trend analysis: how to tell a real trend from noise
A practical guide to market trend analysis for brand and insights teams: trend vs fad vs noise, the types and sources of trends, a step-by-step method and a worked example with a moving average and a margin-of-error test.
Decision intelligence
Consumer insights examples: 8 illustrations and how to write your own
Eight hypothetical consumer insights examples across categories, each traced from observation to insight, action and metric, plus a simple test and a template for writing your own.
Decision intelligence
Perceptual map: how to build one from survey data and read it
How to make a perceptual map from survey data: two-attribute and multi-attribute maps, a worked price and quality example, a fill-in template, ideal points, segments and tracking across waves.
Research distribution
How Insights Teams Can Stop Shipping Decks Nobody Reads
Your best research dies in a slide deck viewed once. Here's how insights teams turn findings into governed signals that reach the leaders who actually act on them.
Decision intelligence
Insights team and research operations: structure, roles and ROI
How an enterprise insights team is structured, the roles it needs, what research operations (ResearchOps) covers in market research and how to show the return on research.
Decision intelligence
Share of voice: what it is, how to calculate it and how to use it
A practical guide to share of voice: what it means across advertising, earned media, social and search, the formula with a worked four-brand example, excess share of voice, and how to read it alongside brand tracking.
Decision intelligence
Competitor analysis: a framework, template and worked example
A practical competitor analysis framework for brand and strategy teams: choosing competitors, a fill-in template, customer perception evidence and a weighted scoring example.
Industry briefings
What's changing in automotive, consumer goods, media and food and beverage, from mTab's industry newsletters.
Media & Entertainment
Multiscreen Campaigns Increasingly Key to Driving Advertising Success with Consumers
Comcast Advertising released new findings from its Multiscreen Performance Report, which provides insight into how advertising impacts outcomes throughout the buyer journey.
Automotive
How Decision Intelligence is Elevating Team Performance Across Automotive Enterprises
With shifting demand, tariff pressure and regulatory changes, the automotive market continues to face steep challenges.
Food & Beverage
The Food & Beverage 'Wellness Wave' Swells as Some Brands Learn How to Surf It
The 'wellness wave' continues to grow across the food and beverage industry. The rise of GLP-1 drugs is reshaping consumer snacking habits, as it poses a $73 billion risk to the global food market…
Survey analysis and research methods
Practical guides to the statistics, charts and methods behind good research, organized by topic.
Survey analysis
What is a crosstab?
- Banner tables in market research: the banner, the stub and the tab plan
- Cross tabulation analysis: what it is, how to do it and a worked example
- Crosstab software for survey data: what it does and how to choose
- Crosstab vs. List: Pros, Cons and Best Uses
- How to make a crosstab in Excel (and where it breaks for survey data)
Survey analysis
Customer experience analytics
- Customer churn analysis: how to measure churn and find out why customers leave
- Customer experience metrics: NPS, CSAT, customer effort score and how to choose
- Customer experience ROI: how to calculate and prove CX ROI
- Customer journey analytics: find where customers struggle and what it costs
- VoC program: how to build a customer feedback loop that closes
Survey analysis
Thematic analysis
- AI thematic analysis: what it does well and how to check it
- How to analyze open-ended survey responses: code frames, nets and verbatims
- Qualitative coding: inductive vs deductive coding, with a codebook example
- Research repository: how to build an insights repository teams reuse
Survey analysis
Market research software
- Market research analysis software: what it does and how to choose it
- Market research software RFP: a template, vendor questions and scoring
- Market research technology: how to design your insights tech stack
- Survey analysis software: what it does and how to choose it
Survey analysis
What is Net Promoter Score?
- How to Calculate Net Promoter Score: Formula, Excel and Margin of Error
- Visualizing Survey Data for Net Promoter Score Analysis
Statistics
3 Types of Factor Analysis
- Practical Uses of Factor Analysis in Marketing and Surveys
- What is hierarchical clustering? Methods, linkage and a worked example
- What You Need to Know About Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
Statistics
What is Correlation Analysis?
- Visualizing Correlations in Survey Analysis
- What are residuals? Definition, formula, and worked examples
- What is a correlation matrix?
Statistics
What is statistical significance?
- Chi-Square Test of Homogeneity: A Worked Guide
- P-Values and Statistical Significance: What You Should Know
- What is Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)? A Worked Example
Statistics
Survey data types
- What are dummy variables? Coding, examples, and the dummy variable trap
- What is ordinal data? Definition, examples and how to analyze it
Research methods
Survey data quality
- 4 Pre-Survey Steps to Make the Most of Your Survey Analysis Software
- How Cronbach's Alpha Can Strengthen Your Survey: A Practical Guide
- Margin of error: what it is, the formula and how to calculate it
- Mind Your Measurement Scales in Market Research: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio
- Nonresponse bias: what it is, examples and how to reduce it
Research methods
Customer surveys that produce decisions
- 3 Examples of Companies Doing Customer Surveys Well
- Customer Satisfaction Survey: What It Is and Why It Matters
- Survey Response Rate: What It Is, How to Calculate It and Why It Matters
- The Benefits and Challenges of Open-Ended Survey Questions
- The Psychology of Surveying: Why People Like Providing Their Opinions
Research methods
The market research process
- 4 Main Types of Segmentation in Market Research Analysis
- Approach Market Research with Deductive or Inductive Reasoning
- Market research analysis: methods, steps and a worked example
- MaxDiff Analysis: A Guide to Maximum Difference Scaling
- The First Step in the Marketing Research Process: Define the Problem
Research methods
Concept testing
- Ad testing: how to test creative before and after launch
- Concept testing questions: a ready-to-use questionnaire in order
- Message testing: how to find the messages people believe and act on
- Monadic testing vs sequential monadic: how to choose a design
- Purchase funnel: how to measure each stage with survey data
Research methods
What is brand tracking?
- Brand awareness tracking: how to measure it with surveys
- Brand health tracking: the metrics that matter and how to report them
- Brand tracking survey questions: a ready-to-use questionnaire flow
- Global brand tracking: how to run one across many markets
- How to choose brand tracking software: a buyer's checklist
Research methods
Customer segmentation analysis
- Behavioral segmentation: types, RFM examples and how to find the why
- Cluster analysis: k-means, latent class and how to segment survey data
- Key driver analysis: stated vs derived importance, methods and a worked example
- Psychographic segmentation: how to measure attitudes and build segments
- TURF analysis: how to find the combination that reaches the most people
Research methods
Data harmonization
- Customer data integration: combining survey data with CRM and operational data
- Harmonizing brand trackers: how to combine several trackers into one global view
- Single source of truth: how insights teams get one answer per metric
- Syndicated data: what it is and how to combine it with your own research
Reporting
Charting survey data
- How to Create Infographics with Data: A Survey Walkthrough
- Stacked Bar Charts to Visualize Survey Data
- Using the Likert Scale for Visualizing Survey Data
- What is a Bar Chart? Types, Examples and How to Use One
- What is a Column Chart? Types, Uses and Examples
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