Is the Internet changing marketing research?

Roy Poynter of The Future Place has posted a fascinating, thoughtful note about a session he led at a recent meeting of the World Association of Research Professionals (ESOMAR) in which the topic of discussion was the degree to which marketing research is being changed by the Internet. I won’t rehash the entire post here (it is eloquently written and worth the few minutes it will take to read) but I think it is worth identifying a few highlights.

First point: the fact that surveys are easier to conduct and that people are participating in more surveys doesn’t necessarily mean that the resulting data is less valid. I agree. In my experience, while it is of course necessary to think about the questions you are asking in the context of the respondent base you are using (whether a rented panel or your own in-house list), there is no reason to think that the results you get from an online survey will be any more biased than the results you get from calling those same people on the phone or visiting them at their homes.

Second point: Shorter time lines caused to some degree by the availability of quick data collection capabilities, easy to use tools, and smaller research budgets may be leading to less time spent on thoughtful analysis. While this is certainly possible in some environments, I would argue that this doesn’t always have to be the case and that the same tools that are making things so quick and easy may be eliminating much of the grunt work and leaving more time for analysis. Plus, as we move forward, better analysis tools will do even more of the work leaving more time for thinking.

There is more: such as a discussion about the role of online panels, the growth of outsourcing and what marketing research will look like in the "Web 2.0 era" (Research 2.0).

One last point that I thought was especially thought-provoking:

"A key conclusion of the session was that Research 2.0 will need new skills and a greater understanding of how people are taking over the Internet. It was also clearly understood that any researcher who wishes to be competent at Research 2.0 will need to master conventional research."

Read Ray’s full post and view the slide show.

Read a summary of the event at mrweb.com