Market Research on the Internet

by Gina Woodall

Many market researchers and their clients watch the Internet revolution and wonder how to take advantage of the seemingly limitless possibilities for using the Internet to gain timely information from their customers. While the Internet offers a unique and convenient way to conduct primary market research, researchers have to be flexible and creative to meet its demands and to gain value from it as a medium of data collection.

Issues with Electronic Surveys

Electronic surveys should be considered when there is a practical reason to use them. Most importantly, the entire population to be interviewed needs to be online, otherwise the sample will be biased. Researchers must also have a reliable sample list that includes e-mail addresses to conduct an efficient online survey.

Most researchers believe the biggest benefits of Internet surveys are the lower data collection costs and a shorter field period. However, this assumption is not always realistic. Many think that Internet surveys are cheaper because interviewers do not administer them as in a telephone survey, and no postage is necessary as in a mail survey. However, this may not always be true, because there are still survey design, programming, and data manipulation costs associated with an online survey that are necessary to gain valuable data.

Internet surveys also take about the same amount of field time as a telephone survey. It is logical to think that Internet surveys should only take a few days, or even overnight, to return a decent sample because transmission of the survey is "instantaneous." However, respondents may not check their e-mail or visit Web sites daily, servers on both ends can and probably will go down at some point, and e-mail accounts are not always accurate.

Rockbridge offers a few other insights to keep in mind before venturing onto the Internet with a survey; these include:

• Identify the sponsor — Sending a blind e-mail survey to respondents is rude, and more than likely you won't get a decent response to it. Rockbridge e-mailed a blind survey to customers of an on-line service provider and received a 10% response rate. We also got a number of e-mail responses asking who we were and who the sponsor of the research was. When we e-mailed subscribers of a content Web site and asked them to participate in an on-line survey for the sponsors of the site, we received over a 50% response rate. We feel that identifying the sponsor adds credibility to the survey and shows respondents that their responses are valuable.
• Be polite — Rockbridge has had the most success with Internet surveys when we ask respondents up-front to participate and thank them with an incentive for completing the survey. Remember that people like to be asked to do favors, and respondents should be invited to participate before sending e-mail surveys or Web site addresses for surveys. Additionally, thanking them by offering an incentive (e.g., sweepstakes have worked well for our clients) gives them an additional reason to complete it.
• Convenience versus non-response — Respondents enjoy filling out questionnaires at their leisure and completing and sending them with the push of a button. However, this benefit also proves to be a drawback in that they can just as easily not fill it out and delete it with the push of a button. Steps must be taken to encourage respondents' interest in completing the survey, including identifying the sponsor of the research and offering incentives to participate, as mentioned above.
• Openness of respondents — Due to the nature of the Internet as an open forum to exchange ideas and information, many respondents will offer added information to their surveys to explain their opinions. It is useful to add some open-ended questions to allow respondents to expound on their experiences and offer their insight on the subject. Using similar reasoning, some respondents feel that the Internet is not the place for businesses to ask questions of consumers, because to them, it is commercialization of the Internet. It is important to be aware that respondents will be quite clear about what they think of the survey.

We have found that conducting market research using the Internet proves to be a rewarding experience for both the respondents and those conducting the research. The medium offers an easy way for respondents to participate in research, but should be used wisely to gain the most benefit.