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Reliable market
research method — parallel
studies testing various traditional methodologies side-by-side with
online techniques yield negligible differences and result in
the same directional indications.
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Representative
— online surveys can achieve high representativeness for most market
research projects. U.S. internet penetration is around 80% of
households and higher in most industries. The under-represented
populations, mostly low income and the most senior age cells, are
screened out of many surveys anyway.
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High
response rates — response
rates can be difficult to compare across methodologies, but there are
many reasons online market research often yields good response rates,
even as telephone response rates continue to decline:
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Many people use caller ID, answering machines, and
voicemail to screen calls, resulting in lower telephone
response rates. Also growing in popularity are so-called
"zappers" that can defeat automated dialing systems often used
for telephone interviewing.
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The rise
of "Do Not Call" lists has harmed telephone response
rates — even though such lists apply only to telemarketing and not
to market research, many people blend the two in their minds.
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Telephone
interviewing is further hampered by today's mobile and
fast-paced society, while with online interviewing respondents can
participate any time at their convenience.
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Online research techniques are
still interesting and novel for many people, enhancing
response rates.
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Cost
savings — online techniques are
less labor-intensive for each incremental interview and therefore
cost less for large sample studies than other methods such as telephone
and in-person interviewing.
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Standardized
presentation — every
respondent in an online survey is exposed to each question exactly the
same way, while a telephone or in-person survey is subject to
unintended interviewer influence or bias.
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Multimedia
options — online surveys can display
graphics and can stream audio and video to show a product
demonstration or to test product design, features/attributes, package
design, TV and radio commercials, website designs, etc.
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Instant
feedback available — clients
can log in securely while an online survey is still in the
field to see interim results.
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