LoginRoger A. Straus, Ph.D.
Vice President/Account Manager
Dr. Roger Straus has over 20 years of experience designing, conducting and analyzing hundreds of U.S. and global qualitative and quantitative research programs for a variety of industries. At Blackstone, Dr. Straus is the head of the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology practice group as well as the higher education practice group. He is also a leader of the energy/utilities practice group.
Dr. Straus has a special interest in leading-edge methodologies of all kinds, positioning, branding, buying process research, product and message crafting. A Certified Clinical Sociologist, he co-founded the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology and has been instrumental in bringing sociological insights and methods to marketing research.
From the beginnings of his career in marketing research, Dr. Straus has been a true “hybrid,” equally at home with quantitative and qualitative methods, helping to pioneer a variety of state-of-the-art analytics, including advanced segmentation techniques and discrete choice modeling. Whether working on qualitative or quantitative research, Dr. Straus prides himself on delivering actionable marketing insights to clients.
His passion for qualitative research has translated into hands-on experience designing, conducting and analyzing well over 1,000 qualitative projects covering the full range of techniques and methodologies:
- Online, traditional and telephone focus groups, dyads, triads, and depth interviews
- Asynchronous online qualitative research (e.g., bulletin boards, social media listening )
- Traditional and mobile ethnography
- Brand personality/brand character (qual/quant)
- Grounded theory/naturalistic research and analysis
- Systems analysis
- War games (consultative, focus-group based)
He has published many articles on marketing research and social science, an eBook on focus groups, two textbooks on sociological practice and books for clinicians and the general public, one of which has been a best seller. Dr. Straus is also on the International Editorial Board of the “Journal of Applied Social Science,” a Sage publication.
Dr. Straus has a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Davis. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels at University of California, Humboldt State University, Alfred University, and in the MBA program at Marylhurst University.