Archive for the ‘Online Research’ Category
Thursday, 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
|
2007
|
4.65 billion items
|
|
2006
|
5.02 billion items
|
|
2005
|
5.13 billion items
|
|
2004
|
5.41 billion items
|
|
2003
|
5.43 billion items
|
|
2002
|
5.23 billion items
|
|
2001
|
4.93 billion items
|
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 Visits to the library and the purchase of huge directories, which are out of date before they have even been opened, are almost things of the past since so much - and such up to date - information is available online, if you know where to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.
Posted in
Online Research, Online Focus Groups |
Comments:
None Yet »
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:
- Higher speed and lower cost of information gathering
- Improved data accuracy levels
- Access to respondents across wide geographical spreads and/or time zones
- Volume and depth of information generated
For more information on online research methods or about talking to the Chinese market, see our white papers:
Posted in
Online Research, Online Focus Groups |
Comments:
None Yet »
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
In the coming weeks B2B International will be extending our expertise in medical research yet further, with the opening of our dedicated online medical panel - B2B medical.
Already within the past year, over 4,000 doctors and medical specialists have been interviewed by our specialist medical interviewers. The aim of these interviews has been to find out more about prescribing trends, workloads and messages from marketing campaigns in a number of disease areas ranging from cancer to diabetes.
Now our medical research is expanding yet further with the launch of our online medical research panel B2B Medical.
Bhavika Hira, manager of B2B’s medical unit says that “because our telephone unit has gathered such comprehensive data, we now understand the needs of doctors and are confident that online research is the way forward, enabling busy professionals to fill in questionnaires at their own convenience.�
Our online medical panel can be accessed by medical professionals simply by registering via the dedicated website. All that’s required is a valid GMC number – ensuring the veracity and credibility of panellists. Once registered, doctors and specialists receive questionnaires regularly, each focussing on a specific disease area or speciality.
For more information on our online medical panel, please visit https://www.b2bmedical.co.uk/. Further details of our other medical research services, including pharmaceutical research is available on B2B International’s main website.
Posted in
Medical Research, Online Research, B2B News |
Comments:
None Yet »
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
First of all - A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all our readers!
Although New Year is typically a time to look forward to new events and experiences, we thought we’d break with that convention somewhat in our first post of 2008, by having a quick review of the year just gone on The Market Research Blog. With that in mind, here’s a quick rundown of our most popular posts from 2007, just in case you’re a newcomer to our blog or if you simply missed something we posted in the last year:
- Guerrilla Marketing - When Less Is More
- The Benefits Of Advertising
- Choosing A Logo
- White Paper: China and India -The Growth Debate Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
- Meeting the Needs of the Retail Industry
- Which Brands Have People Been Discussing This Week?
- Online Leadership Portal - Part 1 | Part 2
- Market Research - The Key To Business Success - Part 1 | Part 2 | Top Tips
- Go Figure - Pricing & Segmentation - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
- Professional Services and Valuing the Customer
- The Market Research Industry in India - Part 1 | Part 2
- Will Television Advertising Arrest Starbucks’ Slumber?
- Logo Research - Approach With Caution
- The Benefits Of Online Research
- Are Brands Like Caricatures?
- Market Research Prices - A Global Comparison Part 1 | Part 2
- Marketing and Selling to Chinese Businesses Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
- The Ultimate In Customer-Driven Pricing
- Do You Understand Your Customers?
- Ten Tips On Branding
From our point of view, 2007 was a big year of expansion for B2B International - especially in terms of getting our Asian office in China up and running as well as unprecedented growth at our central operations in the UK. Naturally, we’re hoping for bigger and better things in the year to come - and we wish you much the same.
We’ll get into the swing of things proper in the next few days with some more of our thoughts on market research, the universe and everything else!
Posted in
Qualitative Research, Pricing Strategy, Quantitative Research, Segmentation, Market Research India, SMEs, Online Research, Market Research China, Advertising Research, Market Research, Branding, Customer Satisfaction, Market Assesment, Esurveys, B2B News |
Comments:
None Yet »
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Following on from our initial post last week about the findings of the 2007 ESOMAR Prices Study, in this post we look in more detail at how online research methods, such as e-surveys and e-focus groups, have continued to exert a strong downward pressure upon research prices.
That online research tends to lower costs is amply demonstrated by the fact that while telephone interviewing was found, on average, to be roughly three-quarters of the cost of face-to-face research, online techniques were a further 33% cheaper than telephone-based methods.
The article then concludes by examining the key factors that determine market research price differentials between countries and regions:
How cheap will on line go?
In the current study, 19 countries were able to provide at least three bids for conducting a tracking study using online data collection, up from 10 countries in 2005. Prices fell, in US dollars, in five of the eight countries that were included in both the 2005 and 2007 studies. These falls were despite the fact that exchange rate movements alone should have made most of them more expensive. In Australia, Japan, and UK the absolute price reductions were particularly large. It appears that a major factor in these price cuts is the increased number of suppliers and fierce price competition.
However, there is an indication in the study that prices won’t continue to fall indefinitely. In the USA prices rose between 2005 and 2007, by about 13% per year.
The main drivers
The study suggests the key drivers of price are the cost of labour and the size of the research market where the work is done. The cost of labour, in turn, being driven by a combination of local wage rates and the shortage or abundance of talent (markets that feel the need to hire international talent certainly end up more expensive). Smaller research markets, in economically advanced countries, find it hard to create online access panels. Without a range of online access panels, these countries miss out on the cheapest options for research. This, in part, explains why Ireland was the most expensive country on the Global Index.
The cheapest countries tend to be those with the lowest cost bases, with the cheapest being Pakistan, followed by Bulgaria and Macedonia. Several of the recent EU accession countries, for example Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania, are amongst the cheapest on the Global Index. This position may change markedly over the next few years, as these economies harmonise with the rest of the EU.
The above article orginally appeared in the October 2007 edition of Research World
Posted in
Online Research, Online Focus Groups, Market Research, Articles |
Comments:
None Yet »
|
