The research industry has seen more than its share of innovation over the last five years with much of it related to the Internet. The December issue of Research World includes an interesting little piece by Ray Poynter of Virtual Surveys in the UK in which he sizees up eight of these innovations to identify the winners and losers. His winners:
- Online access panels. Now there is a no brainer!
- MaxDiff scaling. Shorthand for Maximum Difference scaling. It’s a technique that tries to solve two thorny research problems: cross-cultural differences in use of scales and highly skewed scales like those in customer sat studies. You can find a better explanation here: http://www.sdr-consulting.com/article19.html.
- Video-based ethnography. This is more about packaging and reporting than it is the actual research.
- WOM research. WOM being short for word-of-mouth. Think of all of those new companies with the word "Buzz" in their name.
And now for the losers:
- SMS or text-based research. Is anyone surprised that not a whole lot of people like doing surveys via text messaging on their cell phones?
- Online focus groups. The advantage–lower costs and less travel–could not overcome the key disadvantage of reduced interaction.
- Virtual shopping. Looks cool but real insights and advantages over traditional surveys have been hard to come by.
- Neuromarketing. We are talking brain scanning here. Expensive and slow.
Ray classified innovations by asking four critical questions:
- Is the solution a significant improvement over current practice?
- Does it meet an unmet need?
- Do buyers perceive additional value?
- Is the service available form a range of providers?