Options Change Biz Little – And A Lot
by Gabriel Gelb
Online – a.k.a. Web – or Internet-based – surveys have become the dominant mode of quantitative market research in such a short period of time that the ramifications on the industry are only now becoming apparent.
No doubt remains on the proliferation of online research: One of the most recent surveys of market researchers – Research Industry Trends’ 2006 Report, comprising 600 respondents – reported, “More than half of those on the academic or client side now rely on the Internet as their primary data modality.” The newsletter Inside Research has been quoted as saying that online market research spending has increased to an estimated $1.3 billion in 2006 from $253 million in 2000.
The rush to online research has been made possible by the swift acceptance of the Internet. At least two-thirds of Americans now have Internet access. Declining response rates of the former dominant quantitative method – telephone/CATI – is another major contributing factor.
Motives for corporate preference for online research include speed, relatively low cost and client and respondent interactivity. Quality, as always, is a topic of debate, with adherents saying the respondents prefer – and are more thoughtful – in answering online surveys and skeptics observing that opt-in panels do not really represent projectable populations.
