Market researchers around the globe are expecting use of online data providers and online access panels to increase in the next 12 months, according to “The Online Research Barometer,” a survey by Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys.
Use Of Online Data Providers To Increase
The survey found that 82 percent of market researchers in North America and 87 percent in Europe are predicting their use of online respondent providers will increase in the next 12 months. This compares with 76% and 85%, respectively, when Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys completed its last Online Research Barometer in November 2005.
“The good news is that market researchers plan to continue to increase their use of online studies to fulfill their research requirements,” stated Albert Angrisani, President and Chief Executive Officer.
“In addition, it is gratifying to see the healthy overall percentage market researchers are devoting to B2B work as Greenfield Online-Ciao Surveys has made it a priority to expand our global B2B product offering to meet the demand we see in the marketplace today. With B2B research commanding 34% and 25% of market research efforts in North America and Europe, respectively, this confirms that our strategy to focus on growing our B2B practice is right on target.”
The top two reasons for conducting market research online were time, cited by 81 percent of the North American market researchers and 78 percent of Europeans, followed by competitive pricing (76% and 76%, respectively). North Americans were interested in access to complex target sample groups (62%). Europeans were interested in the ability to access respondents internationally. For both North America and Europe, being able to recruit large sample groups, and the ability to use multi-media elements in questionnaires were also cited as important considerations for the use of online research.
“The Barometer data reveals that in the future, European market researchers expect to use less of other methodologies such as telephone (30%) and face-to-face interviews (27%) in favor of online as a preferred research methodology,” stated Nicolas Metzke, Managing Director Ciao Surveys.
“This bodes well for further conversion from offline to online research in the future.”
