Marketing research has always been considered a relatively expensive venture for companies, and the accuracy of data has always been in question. However online marketing research is a new avenue for businesses to explore the world of the consumer that is cost effective and attempts to rid the biases and inaccuracies of data in prior marketing research methods. There are two main types of online marketing research: focus groups and online surveys.
The first of these, online focus groups, are conducted via discussion forums or chat rooms. Online focus groups usually run for about an hour to an hour and a half and are not restricted by geography. They can have up to twenty-five people in the focus group, which is a lot more than the recommended maximum of twelve people in normal focus groups. The advantages of doing focus groups online rather than in an organised group is that the research is quick, less expensive and the respondents feel secure.
One of the biggest problems with focus groups before was that respondents would feel intimidated, shy about embarrassing issues, and uncomfortable in foreign surroundings. The online focus groups do not have these problems. The anonymity of each respondent is ensured, respondents can make comments in the comfort of their own home and it is less likely that any one person will dominate the conversation.
There are, however, disadvantages to using online focus groups. Online focus groups are prone to lacking in interaction between participants and in group synergy, and therefore do not always have the same snowballing effect of ideas that normal focus groups achieve. Another problem is that there is a greater chance for participants to misunderstand the question if the questions are not carefully enough constructed (Zikmund, 2003: 97-98).
The online survey is the other main type of online marketing research tool employed by corporations, and has become very popular since the emergence of the Internet. Online surveys allow corporations to reach a much larger global audience that represent real-time data to assist in quantifying the qualitative data from the focus groups and secondary research. Not only can they reach a massive global audience, but they can also customise questions for each respondent depending on their answers to prior questions.
There are also advantages with being able to contact the respondents again through email, keeping respondent anonymity, and presenting the survey in a more visually appealing and interactive way. Provided the online demographic is or is part of your target market, the only two problems with online surveys are self-selection bias and security concerns (Zikmund, 2003: 167-170).
Corporations aren’t just using the Internet for primary research. Secondary research is also useful, however there are concerns with the validity of secondary data that comes from websites or from online research centres.
Feel free to go
Zikmund, W. (2003) Essentials of Marketing Research, USA: Thompson South-Western.
Daniel Newton 10:22, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)
