MARKETING RESEARCH
ESSENTIALS
WITH DATA ANALYSIS IN EXCEL AND SPAA
McDaniel │ Gates │ Sivaramakrishnan │ Main
Chapter Nine:
Online Marketing Research
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Chapter Nine: Online Marketing Research
• Understand the online world as it applies to marketing
research
• Explain how to use the Internet to gather secondary data
for marketing research.
• Understand the popularity and types of online focus
groups.
• Describe how survey research is conducted on the
Internet.
• Understand the importance of panel management in
maintaining data quality.
• Describe mobile marketing research and outline some of
the advantages and disadvantages of this research
method.
The Online World
• 30% of the world’s population is online
• 80% of North Americans are online
• Popularity of online research continues to grow
da Online Secondary Data Resources as
Google Scholar: A freely PubMed: A database of World Bank Data: Provides
Statista: Offers statistics and
accessible search engine for biomedical literature, access to a comprehensive
studies from over 22,500
scholarly articles, theses, primarily focused on life collection of economic,
sources, covering various
books, and conference sciences and biomedical social, and environmental
industries and topics.
papers. topics. data.
Pew Research Center: A
[Link]: The U.S. Eurostat: The statistical
nonpartisan organization Kaggle: A platform for data
government's open data office of the European
that provides insights and science competitions that
portal, which provides access Union, offering statistical
data on social issues, public also hosts datasets
to a vast array of datasets information to the
opinion, and demographic contributed by users.
across various domains. institutions of the EU.
trends.
ICPSR (Inter-university
Open Data Portal: Various
Consortium for Political and
countries and cities have
Social Research): A data
their own portals that
archive of research in the
provide access to public
social and behavioral
datasets.
sciences.
Online Secondary Data Resources
US Federal Statistics
US Small Business Administration
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
US Census Bureau
Online Secondary Data Resources
Newsgroup:
A website where people can read
and post messages devoted
to a specific topic.
They are a primary means of communicating with other
professionals and special-interest groups on the Internet
is through newsgroups. With an Internet connection and
newsreader software, you can visit any newsgroup
supported by your service provider.
Online Secondary Data Resources
Blog:
A website where companies can
communicate directly with their
customers and other businesses.
Blogs continue to grow as a great tool in the exploratory
research stage of many formal survey projects. Companies
talk to customers and other businesses via their blogs, and
may even receive feedback and interact with customers in
“comments.”
Online Qualitative Research
• Traditional format
• Online bulletin boards
The Popularity of Online Focus Groups
• Advantages:
1. Lack of geographic barriers
2. Lower costs
3. Faster turnaround time
4. Increased openness of the respondents
5. Efficient moderator-client interaction
6. The ‘natural talker’ neutralized
7. Access to the hard-to-reach target population
The Popularity of Online Focus Groups
• Disadvantages:
1. Group Dynamics
2. Nonverbal inputs
3. Client involvement
4. Exposure to external stimuli
5. Role and skill of the moderator
6. The ‘natural talker’ neutralized
7. Access to the hard-to-reach target population
Web Community Research
• Web Community: A carefully selected group of
consumers who agree to participate in an ongoing
dialogue with a corporation.
• Engage customers in a space where they are comfortable.
• Uncover “exciters” and “eureka moments” and drive
customer-derived innovations.
• Establish brand advocates who are emotionally invested in
a company’s success.
• Offer real-time results, enabling your clients to explore
ideas that normal time constraints would prohibit.
• Create a forum in which natural dialogue allows customers
to initiate topics important to them.
Online Survey Research
• Advantages:
• Rapid deployment, real-time reporting – surveys are potentially
broadcasted to thousands and results are viewed instantly by
corporate clients
• Reduced costs – low data collection costs; solicitations can grow
in volume with little added cost
• Ready personalization – results in only pertinent questions being
asked
• High response rates – take less time than other forms of
surveys; surveys are taken at the respondents’ convenience
• Ability to contact the hard-to-reach – allows for busy
professionals to take surveys on their own time
• Simplified and enhanced panel management – are built and
maintained at less cost and time than traditional panels
Online Survey Research
• Disadvantages:
• Misrepresentation – Cannot be used in all countries
• Unrestricted Internet sample – Anyone who wishes to complete
the questionnaire may do so; problems arise if the user can
access the questionnaire over and over
• Too broad – Difficulty may occur in gathering data for
smaller/local companies; this data might not be possible to collect
on the Internet
• Lack of “callback” – there is no way to clarify open-ended
responses
• Programming errors – can cause problems when taking the
questionnaire or processing data collected
• Lack of bandwidth – some respondents cannot download photos
or complete the survey in a timely fashion
Online Surveys Methods
• Web Survey Software
• Gaining Survey Completions
– Be conversational
– Be honest about the time requirement
– Provide open-ended questions
– Do not use “other” as an option often
– Keep the survey less than 20 minutes and provide a progress bar
– Use graphics and interaction
– Share information about a product
– Provide future updates to participants.
• Web Hosting Sites
Commercial Online Panels
• Panel Management Issues:
– Traditional panel recruitment
– Open online panel recruitment
– Closed online panel recruitment
– Respondent cooperation
– Controlling the panel
Mobile Marketing Research:
The Next Step
• Over 75% of all Canadian consumers have Internet
access on their mobile devices, and about one-third of
those use it.
• Mobile technology creates new opportunities for marketing
research such as point-of-sale customer satisfaction
queries, continuous real-time event feedback, brand and
advertising tracking and feedback, and live product
concept testing.
Mobile Marketing Research:
The Next Step
• There are still some disadvantages to this form of
research:
– Profile may not reflect the average consumer
– Questionnaires must be short
– Question types and length of questions are limited
– Higher incentives must be offered to remove the financial burden
of receiving and completing mobile surveys from the respondent
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