Mobile Market Research

Mobile technology is a constant companion for many these days. People have all sorts of information on their phones and tablets such as financial, private moments via the texts and other messaging services, pictures etc. Looking at how market researchers are utilising mobile technology for research I came across some interesting blogs and video opinion pieces.  It is a really useful tool that is being utilised by the research community, although there is still a lot of debate about how it should be used.

One informative webinar I came across discussed the best methods for using this mobile technology in research. It pointed out that the technology can be very good for capturing of the moment interactions, whether it be real-time usage of a particular app, an onsite photo of a hotel room or retail shelf lay out. Another is using it as a mobile journal, so for example using it to note down a reaction every time the respondent sees a certain advert or noting the brands that jump out at them every time they go to the pasta aisle in the supermarket or noting down how many times a day or week a child has a melt-down etc. The speaker didn’t feel it worked as well for collecting lengthy verbatim or long in depth answers or if you want to ask more than 10 questions. Also funnily enough in trying to understand how someone feels about mobile technology, using mobile technology to pose the questions is not necessarily the best way to go.  http://blog.communispace.com/learn/connecting-with-connected-consumers-webinar/

There are many uses that pharma could and is harnessing the technology for. For example by visually recording how patients use products or treatments, companies could use the information to look at usability and ergonomic enhancements, one example provided was in looking at how diabetics manage their treatment on the go.

In the US, Kenesis president Leslie Townsend made some predictions at a recent Merlien Institute Conference on the future of mobile in research, some of which have been highlighted below:

1. Apps will be a mostly transitional phenomena in the industry as browsers become more powerful and replace the need for the majority of apps.
2. Mobile will hasten adoption of online methodologies in developing nations and regions, bringing billions of individuals to the global respondent pool.
3. Mobile technology will further drive down data collection costs.
4. Respondent authentication processes will for the most part remain the same, but engagement measures will be radically different.
5. Geolocation will become the most important new type of metadata.
6. Both traditional and new methodologies will exist side-by-side (as an example, the conjoint is not going away – but traditional methodologies may actually increase in cost).
7. Email will still be the dominant form of survey invitation, but probably not by much, and the industry will be having extensive discussions about invitation mode bias for the foreseeable future.
8. Routers will incorporate mobile traffic, and advanced behavioral sampling frameworks will exist alongside them – and incorporate mobile-centric and mobile-only behavior.
9. The CPG industry finally will be able to track impulse purchases with precision.
10. In-store couponing will be married with surveys as a new incentive mode, as the lines between marketing and market research data collection blur.

There are some great videos from the recent Market Research in the Mobile World Conference in the US in July http://www.merlien.org/906.html you can click through to the different topics that were discussed.