News

In this year’s Digital Excellence Survey, an overwhelming 90% of membership professionals who responded told us that a Member Value Proposition (MVP) is important for their organisation. Can you tell there’s a “but” coming? The “but” is that maturity in this area is still fairly low, with four in ten professionals saying that their...

Last Friday, 28th September, we joined many people all over the country by hosting our own Macmillan Coffee Morning here at the Research by Design office. Macmillan Cancer Support is a nationwide charity that supports people suffering with all forms of cancer right from the moment of their diagnosis. They...

The membership team at Research by Design has been commissioned by the IBMS to undertake a research project to understand more about members’ relationship with the Institute. The research will give a clearer understanding of the requirements and views of the IBMS’ members, specifically what members value from their membership,...

Research by Design is proud to be supporting the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) with a new programme of research to assist with its first thematic review on Conflicts of Interest. On behalf of RICS, Research by Design will send correspondence to the Contact Officer of every RICS regulated firm...

Research by Design is thrilled to announce the promotion of Tereza Krtickova to Research Manager, and Lizzie Simkin to Research Executive. Tereza joined Research by Design in spring 2016 and quickly established herself as a pivotal member of the team progressively taking on more responsibilities as a researcher. She has a...

Today, Research by Design’s Managing Director, Heather Forrester, is attending the Digital Excellence 2017 conference in London. Digital Excellence is the leading annual digital focused national conference for membership organisations and associations. Digital Excellence is expecting over 350 representatives of leading membership organisations to attend. The popular annual Harnessing the Web report has...

Research by Design is excited to announce the three newest members to join our team. Elspeth Bradley has taken on the role of Research Director, Lizzie Simkin is our new Research Assistant, and we welcome our second ever placement student, Gagan Sarai. We are delighted to be seeing the RbD...

After our work with the MemberWise Network, working together to deliver the Member Engagement Toolkit, Research by Design has recently featured in a guest blog for Access Group about member types and how to engage with them. Within the blog, Access have focused on the topic of Member Engagement, where Memberwise,...

A year ago, Research by Design took on it's first university work placement student, Sam Jones. From the very beginning, Sam got involved in various activities and tasks at RbD. His role involved assisting the team throughout numerous qualitative and quantitative projects as well as assisting our Commercial Director with...

On 27th April 2017, RbD’s membership team will be attending the Membership Excellence 2017 conference in London. Membership Excellence is the sector’s leading membership best practise focused conference, dedicated to increasing membership value and growth. This year’s theme is Member Engagement. Delegates will hear the latest member engagement focused success stories, establish...

Research by Design recently partnered with Big Cat, a leading marketing and communications agency based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, to assist in the marketing of an exciting and innovative new food product. Our research approach included a range of qualitative techniques with our insight proving invaluable at various stages...

The MemberWise Network, Silverbear and Research by Design are pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new programme of half-day member engagement focused training events (Boot Camps) that will enable you to take a more structured, robust and informed approach to member engagement. Each Member Engagement Boot Camp will...

On Wednesday 22nd February 2017, our MD Heather Forrester and Richard Gott, Chair of the MemberWise Network, will be presenting the key findings from the 2017 Digital Excellence survey. The popular annual Harnessing the Web report has evolved, with the new Digital Excellence report providing deeper, richer and more targeted digital...

Research by Design is a recognised research supplier for the MemberWise network and have been conducting the Harnessing the Web survey on the networks behalf since 2014. The Harnessing the Web survey is a great opportunity for membership and association professionals to explore how they harness the web to drive membership...

Research by Design is delighted to be delivering the Member Engagement Toolkit in partnership with the MemberWise Network. This dedicated, practical resource is set to improve and enhance member engagement amongst membership associations, in response to the key sector goal for 2016. The toolkit will feature focused information, advice and insight...

The Association for Project Managers (APM) is the professional certification body and project management association in the UK; providing membership, qualifications, events and publications for those working in project management. In 2016, Research by Design supported the APM with their second Salary and Market Trends Survey. The survey was designed...

The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) has recently commissioned a report which aims to discover how tech savvy the UK population is. Research by Design is proud to have conducted research towards this project on behalf of the IET. This research involved a mix of qualitative focus groups and a...

RbD are delighted to kick off the new year working with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) again, this time on a comprehensive member insights study, comprised of both qualitative and quantitative research. RCGP is the largest membership organisation solely for GPs in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1952, it...

The Church of England has released new data that highlight the continuing downward trend in weekly church attendance. The statistics show that around 200,000 less people attended services in 2015 compared with the same period in 2014. Church of England The story has been picked up in the national media today...

Yet another report is issued, this time by the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, about the success of Birmingham. This time the focus is on the city being the highest performing in Western Europe for its competitiveness in attracting inward investment. The report suggests that Birmingham’s investment in transport links and modern...

RbD is celebrating its 21st year and has marked this significant anniversary by supporting Birmingham Children’s Hospital as a charity partner. The team wanted to take an active role in the local community and after being inspired through their involvement in ‘Op Teddy bear’ earlier this year, felt that the...

The Social Research team at Research by Design are well underway with a major research project commissioned by the Church of England Education Office. The research will help the Church to better understand the factors that contribute towards children and young people developing long lasting relationships with the Church.  This builds on...

1. Bridget - YakiNori Independent Japanese Noodle & Bento Bar – because I LOVE Asian food and independent restaurants 2. Becky - Joules - because I LOVE their clothes and the nearest store is a concession in Solihull – not ideal for us north Birmingham/Sutton Coldfield types. There is a Joules...

Both business and private clients are increasingly bombarded by communication ‘noise’ - cutting through the daily clutter of emails, unread tweets and unanswered voicemail messages is now a huge challenge for professional services. Firms need to develop smarter ways to talk with both potential and current clients; engaging with them in...