Online Web Research Services & Data Research, Data mining

Online research is a great addition to the marketing research toolbox but there are several myths that surround this methodology. It is time to shed some light on this topic and identify the myths. We'll bring some perspective to the strengths and weaknesses of online research to help you make better decisions about using this methodology.

Myth #1: Online is the only methodology you need anymore.
Not true. Online is a great tool, but there are definitely situations when you will need to look at phone, IVR and mail methodologies. For example, are all your respondents online and can they read and enter data? Lack of internet access by some respondents could introduce a significant bias into your results. Do you have permission to email them? Do you have a double-opt-in list available? If not, you may find yourself being accused of unintentionally spamming respondents and blacklisted. We have also found that certain types of surveys, such as lost customer and win-back, are not successful with online surveys. When you need to convince a respondent to participate, you need a personal touch. Finally, some companies contemplating a survey where the sponsor will be known choose not to use online in order to better express their brand relationship with the customer (for example through telephone contact or in-person interviewing).

Myth #2: Online research is cheaper.
Partially true. There are many fixed costs in marketing research, such as questionnaire design, sample prep, data cleaning, analysis and reporting, that do not differ by methodology. Data collection costs are only a small portion of the total cost of marketing research projects. So online surveys are cheaper - when you need a very large sample size (e.g, above 1,000). But for most purposes, when the sample size is in the 300 to 600 range, costs for online research and telephone surveys are very comparable.

Myth #3: Online surveys get a better response rate.
Not true. While this was true once, when online surveying was just introduced and people were eager to try it, online research has fallen victim to the same decreasing response rates as other methodologies. While the specifics differ from study to study (and marketing research company to marketing research company), Polaris's general experience has been that telephone surveys still generate the highest response, followed by online and then by mail and IVR.

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