Comments on: Market Research 2.0?–Part 2 http://marketresearchoptimized.com/market-research/market-research-2-0-part-2 optimizing market research inside your company Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:51:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dr. Bob http://marketresearchoptimized.com/market-research/market-research-2-0-part-2/comment-page-1#comment-148 Dr. Bob Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:53:27 +0000 http://marketresearchoptimized.com/?p=263#comment-148 A most salient and astute question, Amna! I do hope I was clear in the post that my comments apply to businesses with significant offline consumer business (which are most all consumer businesses still, with only about 3% of retail sales taking place on the web). That said, I'm observing a rush to focus on online customers to the exclusion of customers who are either not online or are interacting with companies through offline channels. What I see playing out in the push to view online feedback channels as the main or sole means of assessing customer sentiment is one of two scenarios: companies will continue to focus more and more exclusively on online customers until attrition rates among other customers reach alarming levels, in which case a re-balancing will occur. That is, companies will re-awake to the need to include all customers in their analysis. Alternatively, market researchers and other astute marketers will exercise their roles as analysts and interpreters (and to some extent, representatives) of all customers to maintain a balance between online and offline customer attention. I certainly understand the drive to an online focus only--online customers can be vocal, prominent, and insistent. And certainly companies must pay attention to customer feedback. It's a balancing act and my sense is that market researchers need to be the guardians and interpreters of feedback from customers across all channels. Great discussion topic! Thank you. I'll write more on the topic in the near future. Regards, Dr. Bob A most salient and astute question, Amna! I do hope I was clear in the post that my comments apply to businesses with significant offline consumer business (which are most all consumer businesses still, with only about 3% of retail sales taking place on the web). That said, I’m observing a rush to focus on online customers to the exclusion of customers who are either not online or are interacting with companies through offline channels. What I see playing out in the push to view online feedback channels as the main or sole means of assessing customer sentiment is one of two scenarios: companies will continue to focus more and more exclusively on online customers until attrition rates among other customers reach alarming levels, in which case a re-balancing will occur. That is, companies will re-awake to the need to include all customers in their analysis. Alternatively, market researchers and other astute marketers will exercise their roles as analysts and interpreters (and to some extent, representatives) of all customers to maintain a balance between online and offline customer attention. I certainly understand the drive to an online focus only–online customers can be vocal, prominent, and insistent. And certainly companies must pay attention to customer feedback. It’s a balancing act and my sense is that market researchers need to be the guardians and interpreters of feedback from customers across all channels.

Great discussion topic! Thank you. I’ll write more on the topic in the near future.

Regards, Dr. Bob

]]> By: Amna Bakhtiar http://marketresearchoptimized.com/market-research/market-research-2-0-part-2/comment-page-1#comment-146 Amna Bakhtiar Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:17:36 +0000 http://marketresearchoptimized.com/?p=263#comment-146 Thanks for the interesting article. I'm gathering any information I can find on conducting market research with web 2.0. and from what I understand it can be only qualitative in nature (for now, unless someone comes up with a quantitative technique for this). But considering social media/web 2.0 are the rage these days, will companies even care about quantitative research and probability sampling anymore? Thanks for the interesting article. I’m gathering any information I can find on conducting market research with web 2.0. and from what I understand it can be only qualitative in nature (for now, unless someone comes up with a quantitative technique for this). But considering social media/web 2.0 are the rage these days, will companies even care about quantitative research and probability sampling anymore?

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