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Nonoy
Niles
President
ACNielsen Asia Pacific
Consumer research over the Internet has come of age. Although pioneered in the US and Scandinavia in the late 90s, it now comprises an ever-growing part of ACNielsen’s business, where it today represents between 10% and 30% of customised research sales in a number of our markets.
There are several reasons for its growth—not all of which are cost driven—but as much focusing on flexibility, speed, coverage, and a more engaging experience for respondents.
As more of the survey process becomes integrated—for example, the nature of self-completion speeds up the interview and removes the need for data input—there is a clear saving in time, and improvement in quality as a stage, and source of potential error, is removed.
In many markets these days, penetration of the Internet is well over 50%, skewed to middle/upper incomes and urban areas, so that many target consumer segments are easily accessible for valid research. And when it comes to special interest groups such as recent luxury car buyers, business travellers and senior business decision makers, the Internet is often a more effective way of accessing them than, say, door-to-door or telephone.
Perhaps the greatest advantage in researching over the Internet is the flexibility afforded by a browser-based interface. Respondents can be shown a variety of visual stimuli, either still or in video format, not technically or financially feasible by other means. And the quality and depth of response improves by making the interview experience interactive and more involving. ACNielsen’s @work suite of products, covering advertising, packaging, design and concept communication, are made more actionable with this kind of flexibility.
Where the different cost structure of online research is perhaps most beneficial is with multi-country projects. The borderless nature of the Internet makes conducting studies simultaneously across several countries in multiple languages less challenging, and assuming good quality sample is available—all other things being equal—more cost effective than traditional approaches.
Internet research is here to stay and its advent has opened up a realm of new possibilities in research methods and applications.
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