Importance of market research for any business can never be underestimated. Both users and providers of market research service understand it. The industry has undergone evolutionary change as has been the case with businesses in general.
However, emerging technologies have accelerated the pace of change to such and extent that some of the development seems to be a game changer in short run (as opposed to a largely classical industry that marker research is).
Technology has brought in many changes
- reduced the timespan of product lifecycle - development testing and launch (and why not?! demise);
- the way consumers/customers receive information (media vehicle). See exponential rise in broadband usage and also, revenues of wed based advertising platform.
Therefore, both consumers and producers are in never before state vis-a-vis consumer - producer information flow. Web evolution, promising unimaginable possibilities is trying to provide some possibilities in this areas as well.
Data collection in market research has seen transition from a paper and pencil questionnaire - to telephonic interviews - to computer aided telephonic interview (CATI) - to online data collection. Evolution also marked reduction in cost and more importantly increase in speed of data collection.
Today there are host of companies which provide online data collection services. Many softwares are available in the market which facilitate online data collection. I had opportunity to work on a couple of software like Perseus and Zoomerang. While many features are really user friendly which may come handy for researchers, in some instances I did felt constrained while making a questionnaire online especially in the area of complex branching. At the same time online questionnaires gives excellent option of online calculations, juggling of questions, rotation, masking and if and then type of conditions which we are very used to in a normal paper and pencil questionnaires. Online questionnaire tend to be quicker to answer if a respondent is willing to. Certain programmability is also available with some online data collection tools available which enrich questionnaire.
However, these do require a researcher to understand capabilities and limitations of these tools. I think this is still in the evolutionary stages. This evolution along with the growing usage of internet and broadband have potential to change the cost and revenue model of market research industry. Its better to keep a close eye on the developments.
What I have mentioned here is mainly in context of quantitative research (online survey, online panel etc). Wait for web 2.0!! high broadband speed and increasingly interactive web is going to make a foray into qualitative research also. Increasing usage of online (social networking) communities have started facilitation of discussions on diverse topics among community users. Such discussions do have potential to develop into a platform for group discussion. And don't you have a moderator in such communities.
Beware qualitative researchers! hitherto intense use of individual judgment, insightful observations, reading faces of participants etc may in future transition into a more standard based moderation starting with product classes which do not have too close linkage to touch and feel. And, web is continuously evolving as an marketing/advertising platform striving to provide more and more king of touch and feel feature. Some of the vendors playing in this space are Market Tools, Passenger, Lithium, Communispace among many others coming to play in this area.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment