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Archive for the ‘Online Focus Groups’ Category« Previous Entries Next Entries »Continued Internationalisation Behind B2B GrowthMonday, March 16th, 2009
Bucking the current environment of economic doom and gloom, leading business-to-business market research agency B2B International (with offices in the UK, US and China) recorded its twelfth consecutive year of growth between 2007 and 2008, to an annual turnover of £3.3m ($4.7m). Business Development and Finance Director Matthew Harrison puts this continued success down to a number of factors: Key to this growth has been our expansion into the huge US and Chinese markets over the past three years. This has brought us nearer both to our customers and to our research respondents, increasing our client service and product quality alike. We have also placed increasing emphasis on specific growth sectors. For example, renewable energy and environmental research now make up around 20% of our revenue and we expect growth in this area to continue. A further growth factor is the emphasis B2B International places on collecting information in ways that suit its target audiences. Telephone interviewing continues to be the most common data collection methodology employed, but the range of online techniques continues to expand, as do the regions across which online research is conducted. This year B2B conducted online surveys across Europe, North America, and 12 Asian countries; it added Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian to its suite of online focus group languages; and most notably, online recruitment and in-depth interviewing was introduced in China, profiting from websites such as QQ and their increasing take-up amongst young people and professionals. So will B2B continue its impressive growth record in 2009’s increasingly challenging economic environment? Managing Director Nick Hague remains cautiously optimistic: It would be unrealistic to think that we would remain completely unaffected by this economic downturn, which is impacting upon many of our competitors and target industries. However, we remain extremely optimistic that, by continuing to listen to the needs of our clients and respondents alike, we will come through the recession and be well placed for impressive growth in the future. Online Advertising Continues To GrowThursday, November 13th, 2008
More figures have been published to show that online advertising is becoming increasingly important in integrated marketing campaigns. In a report released this month by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, U.S. internet advertising revenues for the first six months of 2008 amounted to $11.5 billion, a 15.2% increase over the same period in 2007. The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report showed there to be a marginal decline of 0.3% in the second quarter of 2008 compared with the first quarter, but this was still a 12.8% increase over the same period last year. Search revenues over the six months totaled almost $5.1 billion (an increase of 24% on the first half of 2007). Similarly impressive, display-related advertising (consisting of Display Banner ads, Rich Media, Digital Video, and Sponsorship) reached close to $3.8 billion (a 19% increase). Speed and efficiency, measurability, and cost-effectiveness are some of the key reasons why online advertising is increasing in popularity. The same logic holds from a market research perspective. The online surveys we undertake on behalf of our clients frequently offer cost and time savings, as well as improved data accuracy. We also increasingly use eFocus groups as a means of qualitative data collection. To find out more about the advantages of online focus groups, see our white paper Using Online Focus Groups As A Business-to-Business Research Technique. Online Business NetworkingFriday, August 29th, 2008
In his most recent Thursday Night Insight post, Matthew Harrison ponders how advancements in technology have impacted on – and continue to affect – the way we live our lives and conduct our business. My colleagues may laugh, but I’ve always considered myself relatively in-touch with the latest technological developments. I’ve never been the sort of person to buy Stuff Magazine, prance around the living room with a Nintendo Wii or stay up all night in my anorak cyber-scuffling with a student from Malaysia, but nor am I a technophobe. In fact I like to think that I use technology as and when it enhances my life, but within the realms of social acceptability. Indeed, deep within the bowels of the B2B International website, you may find that I ‘pioneered’ our online focus groups. I was also the first person in our organization to own a Blackberry, much to the derision of my colleagues, many of whom are now putting their marriages at risk by becoming full-time Crackberry addicts themselves. I must admit to a complete inability to attach a projector to a lap-top and make it work first-time, but from what I’ve observed this is true of most market researchers. A technology we all now regard as a basic tool of the workplace and our social lives is, of course, email. How would we market researchers cope if we still had to print and bind reports, and courier them through to our clients? How would we or our clients feel if every update had to be by phone or face-to-face, with fieldwork updates out-of-date as soon as they were produced and questionnaires faxed back and forth until they were finalized? There is no doubt that email has improved not only the speed and ease of communication, but also – as a general rule – the quality of communication. As with my professional life, my social life and personal interactions used to rely heavily on email communications. Weekends away, news on the latest engagements and pregnancies, photographs of friends on exotic holidays – every communication of any substance was performed through email, with short-term arrangements and snippets of information communicated through cell-phone. But some time around last Spring, something strange started to happen. I was living in China at the time, and I noticed the steady stream of social emails start to diminish. This left me perplexed and a little worried. Had someone decided to firewall the endless news of weddings, births and christenings on the grounds that it was too tedious for human consumption? Had I offended somebody? Had everyone forgotten about me? As the weeks passed and the stream of emails became a trickle, I genuinely started to fear that the word had got out – that it was Matthew Harrison who spoiled that wedding in 2003 by insisting the DJ play The Locomotion. But one night, as I lay awake plagued with self-doubt, it struck me. Was it a mistake to ignore all of the invitations? Was I wrong to dismiss this phenomenon as a silly fad indulged in by teenagers in low-slung trousers and nosey twentysomethings who should know better? “THAT’S IT!” I yelled, leaping out of my depressed slumber and cart-wheeling across the bedroom. “IT’S FACEBOOK!! I knew I wasn’t a social pariah! I knew Dave and Liz wouldn’t forget to send me the pictures from their long weekend in Budapest! Where’s my laptop?” That very night I joined the masses and became a Facebook User. Fourteen months later, I have a grand total of 57 friends, ranging from my nearest and dearest through to childhood friends that I haven’t laid eyes on for two decades. There is something about the public dissemination of ‘personal’ information that I feel uncomfortable with, and something not quite right about a 31-year old having what is effectively a homepage. But the truth is that this is how my peer-group (even my parents) – my ‘audience’ – is now communicating, and that, therefore, is how I have to communicate. To reject this means of communication would be social suicide. In the market research industry and more generally across business markets, the latest consumer technologies tend to be watched with a mixture of interest and wariness, before they become adapted for business use and then accepted by the wider business community. Just as B2B International looked at online discussion forums being used mainly by teenagers and turned them into a market research technique, so Facebook and similar social networking tools are now evolving into business applications. I now work at B2B International in the USA and yesterday subscribed to LinkedIn, the business networking tool allowing businesspeople to make contact, recommend and communicate with each other. Four clients within a month had asked me for my LinkedIn details, and I wasn’t going to risk my communication from clients and potential clients drying up. How far this type of application will replace existing means of communication for businesses, or even evolve into a technique that can be used for market research purposes, is unclear. However, doing business depends on communicating with those whose needs we can profitably fulfil, and those who shut out messages that are being transmitted through new and innovative means risk more than a few sleepless nights. Matthew Harrison is a Director of B2B International, based in New York. He can be contacted at matthewh@b2binternational.com, on +1 914-761-1909, or on LinkedIn. Digital LoveThursday, May 15th, 2008
Since the start of the new millennium, direct mail volumes in the UK increased year on year until 2003, but have been in steady – some might say dramatic – decline ever since. Whilst a low of 4.65 billion direct mail items in 2007 is not to be sniffed at, it is nevertheless a drop of some 14% from 2003’s high of 5.43 billion items. Direct mail volumes
Source: Royal Mail By contrast, the growth of digital marketing has been well documented, both in terms of volume and of increased design/technical capabilities. Of course, with digital marketing seemingly taking precedence over more traditional forms of direct mail, it does potentially leave a gap in the market for really eye-catching and attention-grabbing direct mail pieces. Nevertheless, the marketing agencies that are currently thriving are those that have embraced the concept of digital marketing with both hands. Unsurprisingly, this digital growth has touched other areas of marketing, and we in the market research industry have witnessed a huge increase in online market research applications. First of all, quantitative desk research has been transformed over the past decade or so. Visits to the library and the purchase of huge directories, which are out of date before they have even been opened, are almost things of the past since so much – and such up to date – information is available online, if you know where to look. Then we have online focus groups, which are an innovative, cost-effective and increasingly popular way of carrying out qualitative research into the opinions of small groups of respondents. More information on this technique is available in our white paper, Using Online Focus Groups. Web surveys have become the preferred method of data collection for many of our larger-scale customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction surveys, since they have the potential to offer significant cost and time savings, as well as increased data accuracy. The advancement of technology and constant evolution of digital techniques in so many aspects of our business life need not signal the end to traditional ways of working, but there’s no doubt that new and exciting opportunities are presenting themselves all the time. Two faced or too honest?Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
If you’re dissatisfied, do you make your feelings known or do you tend to keep your opinion to yourself for fear of causing offence or creating a scene? Let’s face it, many of us will only give vent to our true feelings behind somebody’s back! The British are, of course, known for their reserve. However, it would appear that we’re not alone. A study by Survey Sampling International has concluded that online surveys allow subjects in some countries to be more honest when answering questions than they would otherwise be. Many respondents in Asian countries avoid being critical, which means that the results of face-to-face interviews can often be skewed since they don’t want to openly offend the interviewer. It would seem that respondents in China, in particular, voiced stronger opinions when questioned online than when quizzed face to face. Of course, B2B International has long been at the forefront of online research – be that web surveys or online focus groups. The anonymity or perceived anonymity of online research increases respondents’ willingness to be open and honest, which is one of the major benefits of this particular research technique. Other advantages include:
For more information on online research methods or about talking to the Chinese market, see our white papers: « Previous Entries Next Entries » |
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