Online market research has exploded in the past 18 months, with a parallel decline in traditional methods such as telephone surveys. Unfortunately, a lot of it is bad research. And frankly, poorly executed research is worse than no research at all.

Do-it-yourself online research is reminiscent of desktop publishing in its early days. Faced with the possibility of so many fonts and sizes, designers did their companies a disservice with their appalling brochures. Armed with the technology but no knowledge of how to apply it, they drove away the very people they wanted to attract. Despite these warnings, some of you will want to conduct your own online research. Here are a few key basics to keep in mind.

The first rule of market research: Don’t ask about something you can’t do anything about. You will just raise expectations and disappoint your customers. Instead of asking what your next great product or service should be, ask people what their current frustrations and problems are. The results will tell you what to offer next.

The second rule: Be sure you are asking the right question. Most people think New Coke failed because of inadequate market research. Actually, it was unsuccessful because the market researchers compared it only to Pepsi – not to original Coke.

Rule three: Have some discipline about what you ask. It’s easy to fall into the trap of biasing questions so that you get the “right”answers. Even subtle differences in how a question is phrased can change results. For example, if you ask, “What do you like about Product X?” you will get a different response than if you ask, “What, if anything, do you like about Product X?” (The latter allows for the possibility that your customer hates it.)

Rule four: Discipline is also the key when it comes to the length of your questionnaire. This is a case where more is not better, and less actually is more. Ask yourself what you will do with the information you gather. What will you do if it’s true, or false? If nothing else, think about how patient you have to be to fill out your own questionnaire.

Rule five: How your questionnaire works is as important as what you ask. Questionnaires need the same sophisticated technology you employ for e-commerce. Just as you need to control the way people move through the purchase process, you need to control how they move through your survey. Otherwise, they’ll answer the questions they are supposed to skip and skip the questions they are supposed to answer. Or they’ll look ahead to see what’s coming and tailor their answers accordingly. The result will be lots of useless data.

So, while technology lets you implement your business ideas, it also provides the illusion of worthwhile information. Technology alone is not going to help you eliminate problems with study design, develop an effective and unbiased questionnaire, or correctly interpret results. Think of it this way: Who do you want to manage your IRA and advise you on volatile investments? A professional stockbroker with 20 years experience or an 18-year-old with an E-Trade account?

The most important reason to use professional market researchers is to maintain the integrity of the results. Sometimes bad news is actually good news, because it provides information on the flaws in your strategy. It’s human nature to want to sweep negative findings under the carpet, but what your company will learn from “negative” results – professionally interpreted – will be your road map to successful online marketing.

In short, online research is not for amateurs. Nonetheless, the Web is not only a viable place to conduct research, it’s a highly desirable one. So if you are a serious company – one that intends to make money on the Web – you need to invest in quality research. After all, the Web is full of companies that failed because they relied on bad data – an ironic outcome in the information age.

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When I hung these words on my wall in college, little did I know that 30 years later this ’60s slogan, directed at any and all authority figures, would turn into the marketing cry of the new millennium.

Blame it on the Internet

In today’s Digital Age, customers are aggressively seeking businesses that can understand their needs and desires and respond to them. No longer content to be talked at, they are insisting on two-way communication, some form of regular ongoing dialogue, some form of making you understand what they need.

The question is, how can your company meet this “revolutionary” demand? The answer will probably surprise you.

Over the years, market research has gotten a bad rap. It’s been seen as stodgy, rigid, error-prone, and expensive. It’s been criticized for creating layers between decision-makers and customers. And maybe in some instances it has. But the real issue is companies’ failure to recognize that its value depends on how it is used.

For market research is about listening to your customers. In fact, successful companies are those that don’t pay lip service, don’t “sort of” pay attention, don’t operate in a vacuum; they really and truly want to know what is on the customer’s mind. Their ultimate goal, not surprisingly, is to ensure that each customer’s purchase is not his or her last. But they know that the way to maintain loyalty is to be flexible and in tune with individual needs.

And there are two types of market research, formal and informal. While formal research provides a periodic mechanism for rigorous, in-depth data collection, informal research is the means for qualitative feedback on a more ongoing basis. A market research study gathers information you need to know about your customers, while informal research is information your customers want you to know.

Disciplined way

Companies should look to formal market research - online focus groups and Web-based surveys - for a disciplined way of learning from customers, in order to make crucial business decisions. These methods constitute rigorous, high-quality research that yields truly actionable data. What can be learned?

• Know your customers: Most companies have no clear idea of who is visiting their Web site and why. They have tracking data but have failed to leverage the Internet to get closer to their customers. An effective Web-based visitor profiling survey gains an understanding of the people who visit and utilize the site; the areas of the site they use, the reasons why, and the frequency of use; the degree to which visitors’ expectations have been met; visitors’ experiences and evaluations; and how the site compares to those of its competitors.
• Understand buying habits: Beyond understanding who visits their sites and why, companies that want to engage in e-commerce have to develop an efficient purchase process. A surprising 80 percent of those who start a Web-based purchase abandon their virtual shopping basket. Few companies know why this happensand most think that it is impossible to get the data they need in order to reverse this trend.

In fact, formal market research can survey both the shopper who bails out and the one who completes a transaction, to yield data that can mean the difference between making sales and losing them. The immediacy of this type of research is unparalleled in its ability to determine rapidly what is working and what is not. And results can be provided in real-time to get instant data on what is happening while your customers shop. Both in the early stages of developing an e-commerce solution and in the actual implementation, the purchase process can be refined to convert customers from shopper to purchaser.

• Meet your customers online: Of course, not all consumers come to a Web site in order to buy something; sometimes they are simply looking for information or activities to do. “Eyeballs” and “stickiness” generate the sources of revenue for many sites, so making sure that the site content meets visitors’ needs is crucial.

To truly evaluate whether a Web site is reaching its target audience, companies can conduct online focus groups to gather a great deal of data. Online groups allow for geographic dispersion, deeper levels of participation than traditional focus groups, and are more cost-effective. Meeting your target audience online can help you test advertising, concepts and new products.

There is a second kind of online market research, which is informal, ongoing and also yields valuable information. Informal research includes always-open chat areas, discussion boards or online events. And while these methods do not yield serious, statistically valid data, they do provide indispensable information straight from the mouths of customers.

Informal research builds two-way communication by letting customers initiate conversation. These activities can be the key to a successful e-business by guiding companies to heed three rules of the Web:

• Always be open, 24/7: We are in a world where people are knocking on your company’s online front door 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you must always be ready to listen. There are many informal ways to give customers a forum where they can provide feedback. Discussion boards and always-open chat areas are two important ways to increase dialogue.
• Give your customers a say: The Internet itself provides a vast network of consultants, who happen to be the taste-makers and opinion leaders of your products. This group that consistently interacts with your offerings is priceless for helping solve difficult design, branding and positioning problems. By inviting them to make their opinions heard, and showing them your new product first, you can learn how things sit with your most passionate customers. For example, an informal forum, such as a virtual auditorium meeting with customers, can establish a two-way communication system to obtain feedback on product design plans.
• Get and stay interactive: The Internet provides not only new technologies, but its interactivity creates a new culture, new ways of doing things and new rules to go with it. Your TV talks at you. So does your radio. The Web does not. It talks with you.

The Web is your best platform for developing two-way communication and building your customer relationship management activities. While you will still want to offer your customers toll-free numbers and snail mail, you can greatly broaden your reach via discussion boards, online events, e-mail and chat areas.

Listen to them

The best way to turn your customers into your consultants is to listen to them - using a combination of formal and informal research. Both will let you reach consumers on a personal level, in unprecedented numbers and at uncommon speed. Both will provide the data you need to identify the best means for evolving your brand, not to mention involving your customers.

Online research is more than gathering data on your customers. It is more than selling them on any specific product or service. The purpose of formal and informal online research is to get to know your customers intimately and to develop lifelong relationships with them. This is how your customers become your very best consultants.

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Do you think they decided they didn’t like this new methodology because they couldn’t see the respondent’s face if the interview was conducted over the phone? Or did they say they tried telephone interviewing once, didn’t like it, and therefore were not going to use it again? Or perhaps they expressed concern that people were not used to talking on the phone for as long as a survey takes. Or maybe they said they were not making the switch because their clients weren’t requesting they do so.

I am asking because these are exactly the objections that I encounter when I recommend conducting online focus groups. Even though online groups have been available for at least seven years, there is still a vehement prejudice against this methodology, and the reasons are the ones noted above: they can’t see the faces of the respondents; they had one bad experience that soured them “forever;” participants can’t adapt to the new technology; and their clients aren’t asking for it anyway.

Seeing the faces

I am sympathetic to the concern about losing facial expressions, although I think their importance is greatly exaggerated. Whenever we observe people in a traditional group, we are interpreting what their facial expressions mean. Anyone who has lived in different parts of the country knows that regional differences alone make such interpretations risky and often wrong.

My favorite example is former President Bill Clinton. He smiled all the time; it didn’t mean a thing. And while one can compensate to some extent by becoming knowledgeable about different regions of the county, people move around so much that it is often hard to know where people are from and how to interpret what their facial expressions mean.

Similarly, skeptics ask: “What about non-verbal cues?” There are ways to compensate for them online. In fact, the very act of having to type their responses forces participants to be more expressive in words to get their points across. Furthermore, the use of emoticons (smiley faces, frowns, etc.), shorthand (e.g., typing “LOL” for “laughing out loud:), capitalization, and punctuation enables participants to get their points across quite well.

Bad experiences

Negative opinions about online focus groups are rooted in misconceptions about how online groups work. There are generally two stereotypes: either they are free-for-all sessions that veer out of control and provide useless information, or they are staid, boring events that are, as one prospective client recently told me, “like watching paint dry.” Of course, most of the people who tell me this have never actually attended an online group, or they fall into the “I tried it once, I didn’t like it, and I am never doing it again” category.

Well-moderated online focus groups are not free-for-all chat fests, and they are not boring. If that’s been your experience, you’ve been working with the wrong vendor. When properly designed and executed, virtual groups are structured discussions much like you have when people are seated around a table, with the added bonus that everyone can “talk” at once.

Participants quickly learn that they can both respond to the moderator and to their fellow participants, which generates some very enlightening dialogue. There is, in fact, a sense of community in online focus groups, which cannot always be achieved in traditional groups. Yet this is not a community with a “herd mentality.” It is one where people are more at ease challenging each other’s points of view because they are anonymous. The dynamics of the online group enable us to accumulate even more data than is often possible in traditional groups. And it’s not just more words being said; the data are rich, in-depth and actionable.

Some people raise the specter of a “powerless moderator” who can’t control the online participants. They characterize the moderator as being helpless and lacking the authority to direct and control the group. The truth is the quality of the moderator is not a function of the methodology but, rather, depends on her experience and expertise. In-person moderators have as much opportunity to lose control of the group as online moderators – no more and no less. In fact, sometimes it is easier to keep control online, especially if the virtual focus facility has a “mute” key and a “boot” key.

Technology vs. participants

Participants don’t need to be Mavis Beacon-level typists to provide good information during a group. Two fingers work quite well and judging from the length of the transcripts we typically get participants are not being held back by their typing skills. There may be some sort of self-selection going on (i.e., the people who agree to participate are the better typists), but it’s rare these days to find people who have Internet access who can’t bang out their ideas in one way or another.

Visual materials display quite well on the Internet, including ads (print and banner), concepts, Web sites, and message statements. What’s more, being able to change exhibits between groups is much easier on the Internet than in-person. More energy can be put toward creating new visuals, rather than figuring out how to get them to the moderator the next day. Security is also less of an issue today because the technology exists for curtailing copying of exhibits.

My clients aren’t asking

In all my years of research I can’t think of another methodology that was ignored because clients didn’t ask for it. Most clients want the best data they can get and, while some might suggest and even fewer dictate the methodology to be used, most are looking to us researchers to recommend the best approach.

After I work with clients on their first set of online groups, I find they loved them! Why? First, many more clients can observe the groups in real-time than is possible in traditional groups because the time and cost of travel are prohibitive. And the more observers, the greater the likelihood that clients will believe and be ready to act on the research results. Second, clients can provide instant and unobtrusive input at any time during the group, by sending private messages to the moderator. Third, clients can “talk” among themselves during the group, even if they are not in the same location. Of course, that means the boss may be more involved than is customary with traditional groups, but it also means she can’t complain about the results!

Nothing is perfect

While I have extolled the virtues of online groups, I cannot claim that they are always appropriate over traditional groups. Most people don’t have the bandwidth for video clips, and three-dimensional exhibits cannot be displayed. It’s not always possible to find the target population online and just as you can have a blizzard in New York in March that prevents people from getting to traditional groups the Internet is not perfectly reliable, which brings me back to my original question.

Ask yourself whether you are judging this methodology fairly or holding it to a higher standard than other methodologies. After all, just like there are good telephone data collection agencies and bad ones, there are good practitioners of this methodology and bad ones. And when we get one of the bad ones we simply don’t use them again. It doesn’t mean we abandon the methodology!

Are online focus groups the answer to all of our qualitative research prayers? Certainly not! But whether you are for or against their use online focus groups are not only here to stay their use is actually increasing, if for no other reason than they save money, time and travel. And, assuming that you are planning on continuing your career in research, adding this methodology to your market research toolbox makes more sense than closing your eyes and wishing it away.

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What is eAttitudes? The eAttitudes program is designed to enable various departments within City Access to systematically elicit input from customers. This data would be used to drive merchandising decisions, evaluate product and store launch strategies, test advertising, and assess proposed Web site changes.

Why is this program needed? Making customer-focused decisions is critical to the ongoing success of City Access.  To do so, City Access needs to solicit feedback from customers and let them know that staff at all levels of the company is responding to customer input when making decisions. Ultimately, the benefit of the eAttitudes Program is to broaden the opportunities for customer input and to enable the data to be collected in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

How does this program work? The platform for this program is online focus groups run by LiveWorld’s staff of professional market researchers and hosted in LiveWorld’s Virtual Focus Facility (VFF). The VFF utilizes a split screen technology, so that concepts, positioning statements, Web site pages, etc., can be shown on the top half of the screen, while participants provide real-time reactions on the bottom of the screen. Exhibits also can be shown in a full size daughter window for participant viewing. The items being displayed can be static or interactive.

What type of information can be evaluated? Use the eAttitudes program any time City Access needs structured feedback, such as to:

• Gather input on desired new products or services
• Test Web site changes
• Trial new concepts for product or services
• Test positioning messages
• Evaluate brand image and loyalty
• Test advertising creative
• Facilitate ideation
• Determine reactions to proposed policy changes

Why use online focus groups for eAttitudes? Online focus groups offer a number of advantages, including timeliness, geographic dispersion, candid and uninhibited discussion, more active participation (respondents do not need to wait their turn to “talk”), and a transcript that is instantly available.

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Excerpt From Inside Cover

When Herman Hollerith invented the punch card and counter sorter back in 1890, he could hardly have imagined where he was leading us.

With his invention, the automation of marketing research data analysis became possible. Thus, Herman begat a future where the customer now ranks above the CEO on many an organizational chart.

At [COMPANY], we think of Herman as the father of our niche.

Like many niches, ours first became discernible when an unmet need emerged in the marketplace. In 1970, the mainframe computer had just begun a revolution in data collection and data processing. Yet, few had the experience necessary to maximize the power of the mainframe for marketing research.

We used our considerable technical and marketing expertise to create RESQUE, a cross tabulation package that operated on an IBM mainframe. We sold them to corporations that had their own computers and we offered data processing services to small- and medium-sized companies that couldn’t yet afford them.

In the early 1980s, mini-computers made high-speed computing affordable so we developed a version of RESQUE for the DEC VAX.

With the advent of personal computers, we saw a marketing research tool that greatly enhanced the speed and cost-effectiveness of data collection. …

Some of our clients look to us for quality market research software, others for complete studies. Consultants use us as their research team, so they can concentrate on design and analysis.  And rather than hire additional additional staff, full-service research companies turn to us in times of peak demand.

In fact, our niche is as broad and varied as the individual needs of our clients. Through a series of adaptations to the business environment, and our strong commitment to provide what our clients needed, we have become [COMPANY] — the total support company for the market researcher.

Thank you, Herman, for getting us started.

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Article

For his activism on behalf of people living with a disability or illness, his advocacy of medical research, and his personal courage, Christopher Reeve received the 2003 Mary Woodard Lasker Public Service Award. This prestigious award is given to individuals whose support of medical research and the health sciences leads to advances in medical care. 

Daniel Koshland, Chairman of the Public Service Selection Committee, praised Reeve for his role as an activist on behalf of others who are paralyzed, as well as those afflicted with a broad range of diseases. He highlighted Reeve’s persuasive testimony in the U.S. Congress on behalf of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the formation, with his wife Dana, of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center; his tireless efforts to bring his message to as many people as possible; and his willingness to take unpopular positions, citing his advocacy for stem cell research. Reeve was selected for this award by a jury of scholars and scientists.

“I am delighted and grateful to be the recipient of this year’s Lasker Public Service Award,” said Reeve. “As an advocate and as Chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, I have had the privilege of working to improve the lives of people with disabilities and to seek better treatments and a potential cure for paralysis. The Lasker Awards recognize world-renowned scientists, physicians and public servants. It is an overwhelming honor for me to be included in such distinguished company.”

For 40 years, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has vigorously supported the expansion of research at NIH into virtually every area of human health; educated the public on the importance of disease-based research; and recognized the research accomplishments of outstanding scientists. Attention and interest in these awards have helped to create ongoing public support for a national research effort. Since 1946, 120 Lasker Awards have been given to working scientists, to public figures in recognition of their efforts on behalf of research, and to journalists for excellence in science reporting. Sixty-six winners later received Nobel Prizes.

According to the Lasker Foundation, Reeve’s “personal commitment, star power, and desire and capacity to fully comprehend the complex political and scientific realities of medical research” make him a forceful advocate for scientific research and most deserving of this award.

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Typically, mall-based data collection agencies conducted surveys on paper and then shipped them back to the research company for data entry after the interviews were completed. But there was a dilemma. The delay between the time the surveys were administered and all the data were shipped back meant that often the supplier would find that quotas had not been filled correctly and/or the surveys were incomplete.

When clients used Play the Field, Analytical shipped the surveys on floppy disks to the mall locations and each night the data files were electronically transmitted to Analytical for processing.  Agencies were notified of any errors so that they could easily interview additional respondents, as needed.

Front Cover Text:

You’re invited to PLAY THE FIELD

THE SERVICE FROM ANALYTICAL COMPUTER THAT LETS YOU BE A PLAYER IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES.

PLAY THE FIELD MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO OFFER YOUR CLIENTS COMPUTER-AIDED INTERVIEWING WITHOUT ANY ADDITIONAL STAFF, SOFTWARE OR EQUIPMENT.

Inside Cover Text:

YOU HAVE THE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

You’re a pro looking or a new game. You’d like to offer your clients CRT interviewing, but now is not the time to hire staff and buy equipment.

LET US BE YOUR QUARTERBACK

We are the developers of ACS-QUERY and ACS-QUERY SOLO, the leading PC-based computer-aided interviewing software systems.

We will:

• Program your questionnaire on ACS-QUERY (for telephone surveys) or ACS-QUERY SOLO (for mall studies);
• Send it to you and your clients for final approval;
• Make field disks and send them to your favorite interviewing sites, to our own Survey Center, or to one of the many users of our software;
• Provide the field with technical support;
• Collect the data and convert it to an ASCII file for you to process, or process it for you.

SO PLAY THE FIELD WITH OUR TEAM THIS YEAR … AND WIN ONE FOR YOUR COMPANY!

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Side 1 text: Conducted any Online Focus Groups lately?

Or do you prefer … 

• Standing in long airport lines?
• Frantically creating a new storyboard for tomorrow
• Defending results to clients who weren’t there
• Eating too much junk food?

Isn’t it time you went Virtual?

Your topics are sensitive; turnaround time is crucial; and budgets are tight. So why not use the platform that yields:

• Rapid feedback onOpen and honest opinions
  • Message statements
  • Marketing concepts
  • Brand image
  • Advertisements
  • Product features
  • Web sites … and more!
• In-depth and actionable results

Let LiveWorld Research Services be your Virtual Guide!

Conducting online focus groups since 1994, we bring you extensive experience and expertise.

• We save you money, turnaround time, and travel.
• Dual staffing ensures the highest quality online focus groups.
• You and your staff can observe and provide and receive feedback in real-time.

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Excerpt

The Process

The process for setting up online focus groups includes programming, screening, recruiting, developing the guide, moderating, and writing a report. At the end of this manual are the following examples for your reference: 

• Invitation to the screener
• List of rooms, usernames, and passwords
• Email invitation to the focus group
• Sample merge files spreadsheet
• Sample approval form
• Invite spreadsheet example
• Reminder call script
• Participant apreadsheet example
• List of phrases (.lop) example
• List of URLs (.lou) example

Read The Bid

Before starting any study, READ THE BID. The bid details the scope of the project. If the client requests something that is not included in the bid, please tell them that you will need to consult your manager. Your manager will consult with the Research Director to determine if additional charges are necessary. (If so, the client will need to sign off on the additional costs before you can proceed.)

Identify The Research Objectives

The first thing you need to do before you can begin to design the screening questionnaire is understand the client’s research objectives, which should be outlined in the bid. Contact the client to confirm and clarify the specifications before you begin. This information also will help you write the first draft of the Discussion Guide.

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iReminder is a healthcare technology company focused on improving medication adherence and persistence. Its products are: Compliance for Life™ for dosing, appointment reminders and refill reminders; Global e-Trials™ for patient recruitment to and retention in clinical trials; and MedTrigger™ a comprehensive ETASU program that reminds patients to comply with all events required by their risk management plan.

Reminders and messages, which are fully customizable. They are delivered by phone, email, SMS text and smartphone, according to the patient’s preferences in the U.S. and internationally, in any language and alphabet. Messages are recorded by native speakers and all written communications (email and SMS text) display in the patient’s preferred language. Patients do not need any special equipment to receive or respond to messages.

iReminder’s sponsors include pharmaceutical companies, retail and specialty pharmacies and managed care organizations.

The site is comprised of several elements:

• There is a quick summary of the products on the home page and highly visible call-to-action.
• Attention is drawn to coverage of iReminder on ABC News.
• Throughout the site, photographs are used to quickly convey the many stakeholders for these products.
• Videos are found on many different pages of the site.
• A series of scenarios enables visitors to understand how their constituencies will benefit from iReminder’s offerings.
• A Research section includes the impact of reminders on a variety of disease states.
• Company press releases are easily accessed in the News tab.

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