Market researchers tend to explore the realms of consumer and customer perceptions and attitudes. Depending on the topics being investigated, a long history of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies have established norms for obtaining valid and relatively precise data from respondents.
However, caution is required in market research when dealing with consumer and customer behavior.
A recent report by the Economist newspaper on the state of television illustrates this continuing issue. The Economist reports on the findings of Sarah Pearson, a research from England, who has almost 100,000 hours of recording of consumers watching television. As the Economist says, “There turns out to be an enormous gap between how people say they watch television and how they actually do….In surveys they almost always underestimate how much television they watch, and greatly overstate the extent to which they watch video in any other form.”
The accompanying data from Nielsen shows that consumers understate their television consumption by some 40% and overstate their consumption of online video by more than 100%.
Market researchers do well to proceed with caution in assessing the validity of self-reported behavior, such as product and service usage.
Comments welcome.
Dr. Bob
[Note: A subscription to the Economist is required to access this report online. It is available for purchase on their website.]
