Archive for the ‘Online Research’ Category
Friday, April 9th, 2010
During a week of laryngitis, Eve Lenkowsky reflects on how frustrating it is to lose your voice—and how market research can be a powerful cure for millions of people worldwide.
Wouldn’t you bet my luck that the week the weather turns beautiful and everybody is ready to go outside and shout, that I should lose my voice! Since Saturday, I have been croaking, whispering, and wheezing at anybody who can stand being within earshot of my raspy voice. Luckily, I have people who care for me and who patiently crane an ear to hear what I am saying. But after a while, whether I’m trying to communicate with a loved one or a stranger, I wind up screaming but my words barely come out. Eventually, when you keep on yelling but nobody hears, you give up on trying to get someone to listen. It becomes very frustrating, and sometimes disheartening, when your voice is lost.
I think that it is times like these that make me appreciate being a market researcher the most. That’s because I spend most of my time listening to the voices of other people who might otherwise go unheard. Whether it’s a construction worker or a printer, a doctor or a lawyer, business owner or a scientist—these are the people whose voices really have something to say. They are the end-users, the experts, the consumers and people closest to the products and services that our clients provide. They have a vantage point that our clients can only guess at. Sometimes it’s good feedback, sometimes it’s negative—all of it is important.
I listen to people’s opinions and requests for improvement in many ways. Sometimes I have the pleasure of speaking with respondents on the phone, either asking them a specific list of questions or having an in-depth discussion to focus on subjects with which they have the most experience. Sometimes, we’ll do focus groups with a bunch of people saying what they think and commenting on each others’ views in a conversation. Other times, I’ll read through comments that hundreds of people type into online surveys when we ask them open-ended questions. Market researchers call these people’s comment quotes ‘verbatims,’ because the person literally tells us his or her point of view—verbatim.
Have you ever taken a survey that asks you to answer a question by typing in a comment? Or given some of your time to answer a survey over the phone? Well, rest assured, your voice will be heard! There’s going to be a market researcher out there like me who reads through all of your complaints, compliments, and suggestions, and then communicates your key points directly to the person who has the power to make things better.
Market research creates an open dialog that allows consumers to communicate back to the businesses that sell and advertise to them. Consumers are bombarded every day with messages from companies, and market research is one of the key ways that they can speak out and bring about change. Think of it as activism that is actively sought by companies, that benefits everybody.
So basically, my job lets me be the voice of thousands of people every year, sharing their opinions with our clients so they can make their products and services better. I can’t ask for anything more—and this week, with this sore throat, I mean that literally!
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Eve Lenkowsky, Focus Groups, Market Research, Online Research, Online Surveys, Product Development, Surveys, Thursday Night Insight |
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Monday, March 29th, 2010
The March 2010 issue of Quirk’s Marketing Research Review featured an article contributed by B2B International’s very own Matthew Harrison. In ‘Open for business’, Matt outlines many of the advantages that online focus groups can bring to the world of B2B research.
The article can be viewed on the Quirk’s website (registration required) or the full, original white paper can be accessed by clicking here.
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Articles, Matt Harrison, Online Focus Groups, Online Research, Online Surveys |
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Friday, February 12th, 2010
This week, David Ward explains how a little extra thought could go a long way for some of our prospective clients.
I am colour blind. To be honest, I am so colour blind that my 6-year-old daughter takes great pleasure in telling me I’m getting my reds, greens and browns, my blues, purples, pinks and greys all of a muddle. As we sit down to do some drawing together, more often than not the scene taking shape on the page is eclipsed by the alien-looking purple sky or dry, parched-looking brown grass as though some prolonged drought has been in full swing for several months. I’ve lost count of the number of fouls I’ve given away playing snooker when I’ve inadvertently potted the brown thinking it was a red. I’ve long since given up looking for red tees against the green grass on the golf course. I long ago got used to the strange looks that shop assistants give me when I ask them what colour a particular item of clothing is. In short, it’s a frustrating problem. However, it’s hardly a life threatening one and to my nearest and dearest it’s a source of some entertainment.
Depending on where you look for the figures, between 8% and 12% of the male population are colour blind to some extent and a very small proportion of females are affected. One way of testing for colour blindness is the Ishihara test. Here are a few examples from that test.
What can you see? For the record I can see a 25 in the first circle. In the other three circles I see dots and nothing else. In the other three circles I should be able to see the number 45, the number 8 and the number 6.
I’m no expert on eye-related problems so I tried to find a simple explanation of the reason for colour blindness and http://www.wisegeek.com/what-causes-color-blindness.htm provided a good one, I think.
Colour blindness is a result of certain cones on the retina misinterpreting the wavelengths that correspond to their respective colours. Red, green and blue colours have corresponding wavelengths. Red wavelengths are longest, green colours generate medium wavelengths, and blue colours are made of shorter wavelengths. If the green cones, for example, only respond to slightly longer wavelengths, green will be interpreted by the brain as red.
I don’t need to tell you that the web is an established way of advertising, reaching new customers and selling products, but how much consideration is given to the design of the colour schemes? Being faced with a website that hasn’t used a well-thought-out colour scheme that takes us colour blind folks into consideration could be costing you. For example, according to the last census in 2001 there were 28.6 million males in the UK, and with around 12% of males being colour blind that’s potentially 3.4 million males that may be put off from using a website purely because of its colour design.
The message for my Thursday Night Insight this week is simple. Although it’s often not a serious issue, please don’t forget about people like me that struggle when it comes to the world of colours and making distinctions between them. It’s not a difficult thing to take into consideration and there are 3.4 million in the UK alone that may just thank you for it.
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David Ward, Online Marketing, Online Research, Online Surveys, Thursday Night Insight |
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Monday, December 14th, 2009
With worldwide expenditure on online research predicted to almost treble over the next three years, market research specialist B2B International believes the future is rosy for most online techniques, especially focus groups.
The technological revolution of the past 15 years has led to the rapid development of online data collection methodologies. Of these, the online survey is the most established but, more recently, online focus groups have emerged, making it possible to obtain qualitative information online.
Following similar principles to Internet message boards, the online focus group differs from online surveys in that it allows every participant to see the responses of all of the other respondents and encourages them to respond to these views as well as to the initial question posed by the researcher. In addition, the researcher inserts questions as the discussion develops, in order to probe areas of particular interest, or to gain further information on new topics that participants introduce to the discussion. In this way, online focus groups enable a real-time, dynamic discussion to develop between the researcher and the respondents, just as would be the case with a face-to-face focus group.
Business-to-business market research specialist B2B International has been firmly established in the online research industry since the company’s inception in 1998 and remains one of the forerunners in e-enabled research. B2B International has recently published a comprehensive White Paper – Using Online Focus Groups As A Business-To-Business Research Technique – which gives a balanced assessment of the rationale behind using the online focus group as a research methodology.
The White Paper outlines 13 key reasons to conduct online focus groups:
- Volume of information
- Depth and quality of information
- Reflection time
- Accuracy and granularity
- Inclusiveness
- Honesty of respondents
- Better spread of respondents
- Incorporating different geographies and time zones
- Researching senior respondents
- Participation rates
- Introducing stimulae to the conversation
- Everyone has an equal say
- Client participation
In addition to highlighting the undisputed benefits, B2B International Director Matthew Harrison, author of the White Paper, shares some of the insights that B2B International has learned through the large number of online focus groups it has conducted over the last several years. According to Harrison: “Online focus groups can take place for a defined period of, say, 90 minutes, as with a face-to-face focus group but our experience shows us that online groups are more effective when spread over a period of 2 days, with respondents entering the discussion at different times to suit their convenience. This way, groups generate more considered opinion and a greater volume of information, adding real value to the research.”
However, internet focus groups are not suited to every research project and B2B International is quick to recognise the limitations. These include the fact that certain target audiences – particularly the less web-savvy – are less suited to online groups than others; respondent recruitment can be labour-intensive and expensive; and certain limitations exist with presenting physical stimulae for respondents to touch, feel or smell.
In spite of this, Harrison is optimistic about the future for online focus groups: “There are many reasons why we believe the prominence and effectiveness of online focus groups will increase, but key among them would be convenience and technology. Increasingly busy schedules coupled with the need to speak to respondents all across the world make online focus groups an ever more viable option. Secondly, there will continue to be huge advancements in the capabilities of and familiarity with technology, enabling greater numbers of respondents from all across the world to take part with increasing ease and improved effectiveness.”
To read the white paper in full, please click here.
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Focus Groups, Global Research, Matt Harrison, Online Focus Groups, Online Research, White Papers |
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Monday, September 14th, 2009
ESOMAR, the world organization for enabling better research into markets, consumers and societies, confirmed this week a slowdown in market research revenues worldwide. Although global market research revenues grew by 4.5% in 2008 to reach US$32 billion, this only equates to a net 0.4% increase when inflation is taken into account. According to the latest ESOMAR Global Market Research Report, market research revenues in 10 of the top 25 market research markets showed a decline after inflation.
While the growth rate has undoubted been affected over the past year because of the economic downturn, according to ESOMAR President Gunilla Broadbent, “the sustained growth in some emerging markets, particularly Latin America, is encouraging.”
North America, which is responsible for almost one third of all global marketing research revenue, was affected by the downturn with both the USA and Canada posting small declines (of negative 2.1 and 2.2% respectively) after adjustment for inflation.
While Europe as a whole showed little growth (slowing to 4.7%, or 0.9% after inflation), both the UK and German market research industries bucked the trend by each posting 2.5% net growth.
The strongest performing region was Latin America where market research revenues grew by 5.6% after inflation (13.4% actual). Market research in Argentina, Peru and Panama was particularly strong.
Asia-Pacific, which has boasted strong growth in recent years, slowed a little. However, with 6.3% year-to-year growth (2.1% after inflation), Asia-Pacific still fared better than most other regions.
The annual ESOMAR Global Market Research Report also revealed some interesting statistics about the market research industry in general. In terms of research methodologies, quantitative research methods account for 80% of global research spend. Qualitative research methods account for a further 14%, with desk and secondary research taking the remaining 6%. Online research and online traffic/audience measurement now account for at least 10% of overall research spend in 22 countries (74 countries are covered by ESOMAR’s report), increasing from 18 countries in 2007.
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Asia, Europe, Global Research, Latin America, Market Research, Market Research USA, Online Research, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research |
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