Modern Market Research

A few articles to help you strategically focus your business and make clear, confident decisions through customer-driven insights.

Sarah Weise Sarah Weise

A Smarter Way to Prioritize Features, Messages, and Product Roadmaps with Market Research

MaxDiff analysis—short for Maximum Difference Scaling—is a powerful survey method used by the best market research companies to pinpoint exactly what your customers value most (and least). Instead of vague “everything’s important” survey data, MaxDiff delivers clear, ranked priorities you can act on for feature prioritization, product bundling, pricing strategy, and message testing. At Bixa, we help brands use MaxDiff to uncover must-have features, validate ideas with real customer data, and build product roadmaps that win in the market. Learn how this approach works, when to use it, and why leading companies trust Bixa Research for actionable, insight-driven decisions.

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Sarah Weise Sarah Weise

Concept Testing Checklist: How to Pressure-Test Your Big Idea (Before You Build the Wrong Thing)

Before you invest months of work and budget into a new product or service, you need to know: will customers actually want it? Concept testing is the smartest way to find out. By pressure-testing your idea with real buyers before launch, you reduce risk, avoid costly missteps, and ensure you’re building something people will pay for. At Bixa, we help brands validate concepts through a mix of qualitative and quantitative research—like in-depth interviews, surveys, MaxDiff, and Conjoint analysis—to uncover what features matter most, how much customers are willing to pay, and which messages resonate. This guide walks you through our Concept Testing Checklist, with proven steps to clarify your assumptions, choose the right research mix, compare against alternatives, and identify dealbreakers—so you can launch with confidence, backed by real data.

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Sarah Weise Sarah Weise

Candle Controversy: What Went Wrong?

Design matters. Testing matters more.

With over 1,850 stores across North America, Bath & Body Works is pulling this candle from every shelf. Throw in refunds, and my back-of-napkin estimate puts the damage at nearly $1 million down the drain. And that’s before factoring in the long-term loss of trust—as we have no way of telling what percentage of offended customers won't return because of this “oversight."

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