Editor's Note

MR Perspectives is a twice-monthly newsletter that provides perspectives on market research topics of interest, best practices tips, emerging trends, quick case studies, and other useful information.

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March 30, 2004 Atlanta

The Brand-Centered Customer Experience

The American Marketing Association is hosting a program intended to demonstrate how a unique brand experience can create loyal customers. The conference will be held at The Westin Buckhead Atlanta, formerly the Swisshotel.

April 1-2, 2004 

San Francisco

Integrating Marketing & Sales

The American Marketing Association is hosting a workshop on creating and delivering value messaging. The conference will be held at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel April 1-2. It also is scheduled for April 22-23 at the Summit Executive Center in Chicago.

New Hire At Polaris

Deepa Thaker has joined Polaris as a project manager, coming to Atlanta from Buffalo, N.Y. 
Previously, she was a project assistant at M&T Bank in Buffalo where she helped maintain and update the customer database. She also served as a marketing intern for New Buffalo IMPACT Inc., a sales and marketing assistant for UBMicro, a software executive for TATA Interactive Systems in India and a quality assurance officer at FDC Pharmaceuticals Ltd. In India.
Thaker holds an MBA in marketing and management information systems from the University of Buffalo and a bachelor's degree from Bombay University.

Do Internet Surveys Cost Less?

Do Internet survey studies cost less than those conducted by telephone? The quick answer is yes, though much depends on a number of factors.

The big issue with Internet surveys has always been population representation, but with virtually all individuals within businesses and most consumers now having email addresses, that concern is lessening. So, after thinking through your research strategy and weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the various methodologies available, you've accurately identified Internet and telephone methodologies as your best options for a particular survey. Which do you choose?

For a full-service project, most of the costs incurred for telephone studies are also incurred for Internet studies: 

• setup cost: program design, questionnaire development, sample prep, survey system programming, etc.
• interviewing/data collection cost: hosting survey, email invitations, tracking responses, reminders, and so on for Internet surveying compared with the cost of conducting quality controlled telephone interviews.
• data processing: compiling the database, coding and editing open-ended responses, generating crosstabs, error checking, significance testing of data, etc.
• reporting: executive summary or detailed reporting of results.

For a typical 300 respondent Internet-based customer satisfaction project, the costs can generally be broken down into 25 percent setup, 25 percent interviewing, 25 percent data processing and 25 percent reporting. For a similar survey executed on the telephone, the interviewing costs would likely be about twice as much. The total cost for the telephone study therefore would be about 25 percent more than an Internet study in this case.

As the number of survey respondents increases past 300, however, the higher cost of collecting additional telephone surveys will start having a significant impact on total study cost and additional per survey cost. Very large telephone surveys - 750 respondents or more -- can cost as much as twice that of Internet surveys. 

So, which should you choose -- an Internet or telephone methodology? The answer depends on your strategic initiatives, the information you need, who you are surveying, available sample, budget, etc. In the next issue, we'll discuss the decision-making process for selecting a methodology in greater detail as well as how this applies to different types of studies.

Write Reader-Friendly Reports

Your market research investment may unearth business critical knowledge, but its effectiveness can be limited by how it is presented to key decision makers. The most significant market research results are only useful if they readily provide management with understandable and actionable information. 

In writing or editing your market research reports, remember that your graphics should provide the actual data while the narrative interprets it. For a more professional and reader-friendly presentation, make sure the language in your narrative:  

• emphasizes the meaning behind the numbers, by projecting the numbers into the thoughts and actions of the targeted population.
• discusses the statistically significant trends in the preferences of the group being surveyed.
• talks about significantly more or significantly fewer people thinking or acting in unison,  instead of significantly higher percentages.
• describes demographics in terms of real people and not aggregates or percentages.
• tells how people thought or acted about a particular issue, instead of simply describing the question and telling the response.

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