Online Consumer Research – Online vs. Offline Research

At ThinkNow Research we are proponents of conducting Hispanic consumer research

online among all acculturation levels. There are, however, some caveats that need to be

understood when choosing a research methodology. Gone are the days when one

could use a landline and achieve a representative sample of a target population. As

landline penetration rates have fallen, cell phone and internet penetration have

increased but have complicated the research landscape in the process.

There currently is no one methodology that solves all research needs, especially when

tracking Hispanic trends. When we put together an online sample of Hispanic survey

respondents we strive to replicate the characteristics of the population at-large, not of

online survey takers. This necessitates some careful upfront planning often using

Census population figures as a guide. When care is taken in the sample design the end

results are often very similar for online and phone results. Unfortunately, there can be

some differences that arise from the methodology that need careful attention.

We’ve found that awareness of and purchase rates for high-use, low-cost items are

quite similar for online and offline samples as in this example from a recent mixed-mode

study:

Which of the following brands of bread have you ever heard of? (Hispanic brands)

We have also see very similar results for claimed behaviors or interests among

Hispanics that that are not necessarily tied to socio-economic factors such as in this

question:

How important is it to you that your children and grandchildren are able to speak Spanish?

However, purchase rates for high cost, low purchase frequency items such as

automobiles and high-ticket home appliances/electronics show distinct differences

depending on the methodology used. Fortunately, we have found that the relationship

between responses within scales remains constant as in this example:

Purchase Intent Comparison

In this case, purchase intent measures higher for online respondents but the

relationship between the top 2 boxes remains consistent. This constancy is reassuring

but the overall difference in the responses needs to be addressed. This is where mixed-

mode can help. If for example, we’re doing research in an area that we suspect will yield

different results based on methodology we often will conduct the base survey online and

add phone and/or intercept completes to the sample to help iron out the methodological

bias as well as pull in a more representative sample of respondents.

Fortunately for consumer packaged goods, there are minimal differences in online and

phone responses among Hispanic respondents and an all-online methodology can often

be used. Special attention, however, must be focused on the sample and survey design

to account for differences among Hispanic acculturation groups and how they respond

to survey questions, and ultimately find the most effective Hispanic marketing strategy.