Online Surveys Prove Their Worth

Want to know what consumers think? Go online. Internet-based questionnaires this year will account for nearly one-third of U.S. spending on market-research surveys, according to the newsletter Inside Research.

Faster, cheaper

"Faster. Cheaper. It boils down to that," said Laurence Gold, the newsletter's editor and publisher. The shift from older methods – phone and mail surveys, for example – isn't surprising given growth on the net. About two-thirds of Americans age 15 and older now use the internet, and rapid adoption of broadband makes it easier for consumers to participate in surveys. U.S. spending on online market research has rocketed to $1.35 billion this year.

Domination in three years

"The migration from mail and face-to-face to phone research as a mainstream data-capture platform took more than 10 years. The move to online from phone is taking half that," said Jonathan Jephcott, exec VP of Synovate ViewsNet. It is inevitable that online panels will be a basis for the majority of ad-hoc quantitative research around the developed world within the next two to three years."

Marketers historically have been able to cut costs 15%-20% by moving from mail surveys to online and about 30% by shifting from phone surveys to online, said Kevin Waters, exec VP of TNS Custom Research, part of market-research powerhouse Taylor Nelson Sofres.

(Excerpted from Article by Bradley Johnson, Ad Age.)