A golden opportunity

Editor’s note: Hugh Davis is executive vice president of Greenfield Online, a Wilton, Conn., research firm.

A decade or two ago - in the Stone Age of market research - there were very few choices for gathering consumer feedback. As the pace of business in general has increased over the years, the market research community has had to respond in kind, developing ways to gather relevant consumer feedback faster. When market research was largely conducted in person, mostly in shopping malls, market researchers would pull customers aside while they were shopping and ask them a few questions - a very slow method of gathering consumer input. At the same time, the even slower mail-based survey research delivered respondent data that was often out-of-date or irrelevant by the time it was received. Finally, in the 1980s, market research moved to the telephone, which was faster still, but unfortunately the methodology and timing associated with the calls served to alienate many of the very respondents market researchers were desperately trying to reach.

Each method improved on the speed of research, but each has drawbacks: they intrude on potential respondents’ lives and take control out of their hands when it comes to choosing the timing for participation.

Enter the Internet - a market researcher’s dream. No longer were researchers relegated to a four- or five-hour window when research could be conducted. Respondents could take surveys on their own terms and in their own time. And market researchers could engage consumers with cool features like video and animations. The Web’s interactivity also meant that researchers and clients alike could often view survey results and make critical business decisions much faster. Comparatively, it was like instant gratification. At last, market research was now doing business on “Internet time” as well.

Not surprisingly, the fertile ground of cyberspace attracted legions of market researchers and it seemed the supply of online respondents and the novelty of completing surveys online would never wear thin. Web surfing respondents who were enthralled by the online research experience could now complete surveys on their own schedule and this introduced a whole new pool of people willing to participate in the market research process.

More selective

But in recent years, the Internet has been transformed from a Web surfer’s paradise to the world’s business district. Today, for much of the world’s working population, the Web is now associated with getting their job done. Checking e-mail has become somewhat of a chore, and due to the e-mail volume most people now receive, it has to be done daily, if not hourly, and it takes a lot of time. Rather than strolling leisurely through cyberspace, happily taking surveys to which they are invited, survey respondents have begun to be more selective and it is even more challenging to attract and retain panel respondents and keep high levels of respondent cooperation.

So, as it becomes harder and harder to stand out as a compelling choice for consumers online, market researchers are scrambling to make surveys more appealing, adding one glitzy feature after another to entice consumers to devote a few minutes of their valuable and limited time to their online surveys. In fact, market researchers rely on people to volunteer their time for little to no compensation, amidst a myriad of other online digital distractions.

The result? We’re entering a new era of market research. Marketing research professionals understand that they need to provide a “value proposition” beyond the traditional survey and the traditional online research panel to cut through the clutter and engage survey respondents. Over the next few years, you’ll notice a dramatic change - a focus on the survey respondent rather than the researcher. The respondent will dictate when, where, how long and how often they are willing to participate in research.

Have to adapt

To continue to dialog with respondents, researchers will have to adapt to the changing lifestyles of today’s connected digital consumer. To remain compelling, market research must fit into the tight spaces that exist between consumers’ busy lives of juggling work and family. Today’s mom might be negotiating a business deal on the phone while carpooling her iPod-listening kids to school, checking her BlackBerry with one eye for the latest e-mail from her boss. All this before 8:00 a.m. Fitting into this lifestyle and gaining a portion of this increasingly typical consumer’s time is a major challenge in the new era of market research.

In this hyperspeed culture, marketers can’t afford to wait weeks or months to find out how consumers feel about their products - by then consumers will have moved on to the next hot product. They can’t even afford to wait days in some instances.

Now that the Web has become such a major element of many individuals’ daily business lives as well as their personal lives, the novelty and attraction of Web-based research has decreased. The bad news is that we need a new medium. The good news is that the perfect new medium already exists, and it’s right in the palms of potential respondents’ hands. Like the Internet 10 years ago, wireless devices like the cell phone, the BlackBerry and other handheld Internet-ready devices have become ubiquitous. They have helped consumers adopt new means of surfing the Web, checking e-mail, and, most importantly, interacting.

Imagine what you would have thought if someone had told you in 1990 that in about 15 years or so you would own a small electronic device upon which you would receive electronic mail messages, photographs, telephone calls, instant messages, even entire documents, and use it to surf the Web and carry thousands of your favorite songs? Further what if they also said it would fit in the palm of your hand, that you would carry it everywhere with you - that you would be almost obsessive about it, never leaving home without it? That you would even wear it attached to your belt, or in your pocket or carry it in your handbag? Most importantly, that this device could be used for market research?

New best friend

At Greenfield Online, we believe that mobile phones and other handheld wireless devices are about to become every market researcher’s new best friend. Here’s why: The world is literally blanketed with cell phones and wireless devices. The number of mobile phone subscribers is expected to reach 2.6 billion globally in 2006 and 4 billion by 2010, according to market researcher iSuppli. Sales of mobile phone devices continue to grow and were forecasted to reach 986 million units worldwide in 2006 by Gartner Dataquest, as users upgrade their equipment and mobile phone usage spreads to new geographic markets. The growth in both device sales and subscribers shows the expansion of the market researcher’s potential pool of mobile respondents.

Cell phones and handheld devices are generally with users at all times, not left behind at the office or packed in a briefcase. Wireless devices become such an integral part of most people’s lives that anyone who owns one cannot even imagine what they did without it. If lost, they are immediately and unquestionably replaced.

Wireless surveys can be designed to fit into the brief cracks in people’s lives: while waiting for a plane or commuting to work on the train. A busy executive who can’t take time out of his or her day for an online survey just might respond to a few questions on his or her cell phone while riding the rails to work. A harried stay-at-home mom might be inclined to take a survey while she is waiting in the long checkout line at the supermarket or while waiting for a teller at the bank. Once again, people can take surveys on their own terms and on their own time.

Teens are a unique audience that is difficult to reach via traditional market research methodologies. In fact, they are even difficult to reach via Internet panels. Research shows that today’s teens “text more than they talk.” According to The Mobile Life Youth Report from The Carphone Warehouse, the “talk ratio” is falling, as 74 percent of teens use their mobile phones predominantly for text messaging, averaging approximately nine text messages per day. It is a natural evolution for teens to participate in the marketing research process via their phones.

Mobile devices, with their customized ring tones and styles to match every taste, are uniquely personal. So users view wireless activities as personalized and fun.

Wireless devices and personal computers are becoming interchangeable devices in many respects. For your e-mail, your contacts, your appointments, etc., the files are identical on both systems.

The programs that enable survey programming for wireless devices today are as powerful as the programs that enabled survey programming for PCs five years ago. With the speed at which technology advances, one can only imagine how things will progress in the future.

Gets even better

The news gets even better. New tracking technology - which improves every day - offers the promise of being able to capture data from respondents at exactly the right time and place. Imagine being able to question a fast-food restaurant customer about her fast-food eating experience as soon as she leaves the restaurant! And what if, during the Super Bowl’s halftime show, you could survey football fans via their mobile device about the effectiveness of a television commercial that ran during the first half of the game? The ability to recruit that person in aisle six of Wal-Mart for a product awareness test is right around the corner, and could change the way we approach marketing research. While we’re certainly not there yet, it’s exciting to think about the possibilities for this medium as it continues to evolve.

The rules have changed

The new wireless world offers almost unlimited potential for expanding the current pool of survey-takers. But, if market researchers are going to thrive in the new landscape, it is important to understand that the rules have changed. In this new environment, it is imperative that we think not simply about our business needs but the needs and the expectations of the respondent. We will only succeed if we are able to maintain the convenience and “newness” that once buoyed online research by investigating new means of survey completion.

Clearly, it is impractical to expect that anyone will take a 30-40-minute survey on a mobile phone or handheld device. While this has unfortunately become commonplace for online surveys, it is imperative that we understand the value and the limitations of the wireless platform - while respecting respondents. We must accept that the respondent experience is paramount and look to provide wireless survey takers with a few well-timed and concise questions to maximize the potential for this exciting platform.

Researchers looking to capitalize on the wireless wave will have to become experts in minimalism; they will need to create dramatically slimmed-down surveys with four to eight focused questions designed to give them just the information they’re seeking. Obviously the standard question grid is not appropriate for a wireless survey, neither is a lengthy open-ended text question. Marketing researchers need to look beyond the traditional survey and ask the most essential questions, quickly and in the most concise form possible. When thinking about the mobile respondent, don’t forget: concision is best - they are likely typing with their thumbs.

In control of their world

In an environment in which the 2006 Time magazine Person of the Year was You, where blogging, social networking and online communities dominate Internet usage, the individual is clearly in control of their digital world. They can reach out to the entire Internet community if they choose or they can selectively block people from contacting them. Of course, they can control the messages they receive on their mobile devices as well.

With the power the mobile device brings the market research industry, we have a responsibility to respect and maintain the privacy of the respondent. We must remember to honor the respondent and use their time responsibly. It is a privilege to be allowed to contact respondents on their personal mobile devices for the purpose of market research. If that privilege is abused, make no mistake, the respondents will simply block us from contacting them again. It is their right and the power is in their hands. Such is the way of the digital world.